Posted by Jim on November 16, 2014
The Dublin government has been accused of attempting to erase the 1916
Easter Rising from the history books following a disastrous and deeply
conflicted launch of commemorative events for the anniversary.
A group representing relatives of those who took part in the Rising
boycotted the launch. The 1916 Relatives Association dismissed an event
this week at the GPO, the headquarters of the Easter Rising, as “stunt
politics”.
The 850-strong group said they have no confidence in Arts Minister
Heather Humphreys after the events outlined this week differed sharply
from what a senior official from Humphrey’s department had told them.
Una McNulty, a spokesperson for the association, said that its members
felt like they had only been invited to the event “merely to act as
pawns in a political stunt that wants us there simply as a photo
opportunity”.
Other key relatives were not even invited to the launch, and plan to
announce an alternative set of events centred around the GPO and the
last surviving buildings used by the rebels in Moore Street.
As part of the government’s plans, seven projects will be funded by
next Easter to create “permanent reminders” of the 100-year
anniversary.
James Connolly Heron, great-grandson of rebel leader James Connolly,
said the preservation of Moore Street, the second major site of the
Rising, should be a flagship project.
“There’s nothing concrete. It’s not honouring the lives of the men and
women. It’s not portraying them as the cultural figures they were as
part of a renaissance,” he said.
As part of alternative commemorations, relatives of the rebel leaders
and volunteers plan to put up a plaque, develop a historical cultural
quarter, create signage for important landmarks, hold a series of
education and cultural events but with the focus around the importance
of the near-derelict Moore Street site at the rear of the GPO.
A spokesperson for Minister Humphreys, however, claimed that some
relatives were at the official launch event, and that they were “very
supportive” of the government’s plans.
Speaking at the launch of ‘Ireland 2016’, the state’s official
programme for the anniversary, Humphreys herself said that the series
of events were designed to “remember, honour, inspire and motivate”.
“Inclusivity is at the heart of my approach to the Commemorations,” she
said. “I want to encourage everyone to get involved in their own way so
we can make 2016 a year of imagination and inspiration.”
At the launch, Taoiseach Enda Kenny stated that 2016 “presents us with
a once-in-a-century opportunity to create events of celebration and
remembrance that are of value in themselves but that also contribute to
a greater sense of who we are, what we want to be as a people, what
achievements we aspire to for ourselves and for our children”.
His speech was interrupted by an anti-austerity protester. “What did
you sacrifice”, she demanded repeatedly of the Taoiseach, before being
bundled away.
RISING REMOVED
An official video for ‘Ireland 2016’ embarrassingly fails to refer to
the 1916 Rising at all.
The 80 second promotional video – titled Ireland Inspires 2016 – was
published to coincide with the launch of the centenary programme. The
controversial video ignores 1916 and instead features images the queen
of England, multinational corporations and the tourism industry.
Set to an upbeat musical track and accompanied by the motto ‘Ireland
Inspires’, it highlights figures such as Ian Paisley, Queen Elizabeth,
Bono, David Cameron and Bob Geldof but at no point are Padraig Mac
Piarais, James Connolly or indeed any of the other executed 1916
leaders mentioned in the piece.
Publication of the video last night with a hugely negative reaction.
Fianna Fail senator Thomas Byrne slated the video, which he said “gives
equal coverage to Fine Gael and the Tories.” Dublin South West Anti
Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy said: “Turns out 1916 was actually
about the Queen, Cameron, Facebook, Google, Twitter. An insight into
establishment minds.”
No information has been released so far on the potential involvement in
the commemorative events of the English queen or other members of her
family, which had been signalled earlier in the year.
Political commentators have pointed out that Fine Gael, the most
conservative and pro-British party in the 26 Counties, has always been
deeply uncomfortable with the radical and revolutionary nature of the
Easter Rising. The coalition government is also fearful that any
emphasis on national historical events could boost support for rival
candidates, such as Sinn Fein, ahead of the next general election, due
in 2016.
GARBLED IRISH
Meanwhile, Dublin officials confirmed that Google Translate was used to
translate English into Irish on the new government website promoting
the commemorations, including an excerpt from the 1916 Proclamation.
Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language support organisation, said the
result was nonsensical gibberish. It condemned the humiliation, as
well as the lack of Irish on the website throughout the 1916 programme.
“The Irish language movement was central to the thinking of several of
the 1916 leaders, Mr de Spainn said. “Its not that we are seeking
anything unusual or out of the ordinary. We aren’t trying to push the
language on anyone – all we want is fairness and it is clear from what
happened today that it was absent.”
Sinn Fein spokesperson for Arts and Heritage, Sandra McLellan TD, has
urged the public to tell the government how they wish to commemorate
and celebrate the 100th anniversary.
“What the Government have announced this week at the GPO is a
lightweight commemorative programme which fails to reflect the
importance of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising in a fitting or
meaningful way politically, culturally or socially,” she said.
“The Government have paid lip service to the All-Party Oireachtas
Committee on Commemorations since its inception and basically ignored
the relatives of both the 1916 leaders and those many rank and file
volunteers who gave their service, and in many cases their lives for a
Republic, yet to be realised.
“Any state programme must be inclusive of the entire island and the
Irish nation as a whole, including the diaspora. It must aim to
educate, motivate and celebrate around the very ideals and vision as
espoused in the proclamation rather than become a military and
ceremonial event without substance.
“Organisations that were centrally involved in the 1916 Rising such as
Conradh na Gaeilge, the GAA and Trade Unions must be included in any
official state commemorative programme.
“The government has not committed to a major sculpture or piece of art
to commemorate the 100 year anniversary. For an event of such
historical significance this must be rectified.
“Citizens and communities must be actively encouraged and facilitated
in an open way by the Government to generate and put forward their
views and ideas on how we commemorate this critical period in our
country’s history.
“Sinn Fein fully supports the 1916 relatives association and the
ongoing battle to save Moore Street led by the descendants of the
signatories of the 1916 proclamation.
“Again we call on the Government to listen and act upon the wishes of
the vast amount of Irish citizens who want to preserve the battlefield
site and cherish rather than destroy our cultural and political
heritage.”
Posted by Jim on
By Cahir O’Doherty
Ireland is on the cusp of enormous political change. Our homegrown
political establishment, who have defended their interests against all
comers since the foundation of the state, suddenly find themselves
wrong-footed and floundering.
Nothing seems to be working like it used to. Voters are not mollified by
lower taxes on pints or cigarettes. Instead angry water charges protests
fill the nation’s streets, and the sense of crisis is accelerating, not
slowing down.
When your political instincts have been shaped by a familiar system,
it’s disconcerting when your old responses fail to work. But that’s
where we are now, in the weirdly calm moment between large numbers of
Irish citizens deciding the old ways have stopped working – and the
moment when they finally do something radical in response to it.
Irish political parties are instinctively conservative; they hate change
because it’s unpredictable. But suddenly they are being confronted with
an electorate so furious that they are contemplating the unthinkable:
change.
It’s such a little word. And it has rarely been a distinguishing feature
of Irish political life. Through each endless recession, each biting
budget, and each wave of widespread emigration our political class kept
their heads and their positions.
Shockingly, all that complacency has evaporated since 2010, affording us
a good look at where we are. Now, thanks to the banking collapse and the
punishing austerity that followed, the traditional Irish social compact
has been bent to the point of snapping.
Bone deep cuts have been made to social welfare as high-flying
multinationals enjoy two percent tax rates, but the issue that
galvanized the Republic as rarely before in its history is anger over
water charges.
Almost 100 protests were held nationwide last week over the latest
austerity measure in the government’s plan to pay back the international
financial bailout the state had to seek in 2010.
The current Fine Gael and Labour government is clearly taken aback by
the sheer scale of the protests, which they know could destabilize their
leadership. Trying to get ahead of the iceberg they offered to negotiate
some unspecified relief packages.
It’s unlikely to be enough to save them however, because there’s an
unmistakable sense of a national awakening driving the latest protests.
That’s a development that our traditional parties are completely
unnerved by. Change is unpredictable.
It explains why there’s been more than a hint of panic and hysteria
behind the anti-Sinn Fein media coverage that’s clearly intended to see
off the threat to the Republic’s longstanding political system. Story
after story intended to harpoon the party and its leader Gerry Adams has
simply not stuck. Indeed 6,000 Irish people have voted with their feet
joining Sinn Fein in the recent past.
The Sinn Fein opponents may have failed because the intention of
dismantling or neutralizing the rise of Sinn Fein has become so obvious.
Irish people do not like to be told what to think, but in their
increasing panic and desperation our political parties have decided that
now is not the time for subtlety.
The Irish political model worked for decades. Private schools run by the
clergy educated our high flying leaders, trained them in the traditional
sports, and then opened the doors to business and industry.
Young men found themselves inheriting longstanding political dynasties.
They grew to maturity in the warm embrace of a community and culture.
They learned what to say and how to say it at social gatherings.
The complacency was so complete it was insuperable. It could withstand
any challenge because there appeared to be no alternative. Irish
politics was not national it was parochial. Your crowd and community
would return you to power, regardless of your performance, and often in
spite of it.
Meanwhile far away in the North, beyond anyone’s notice, a left wing
political model was being developed that no one in the Republic’s
political circles saw as a threat.
For decades that left wing model existed in the political wilderness, to
be dismissed when it was not being scoffed at.
But no one in Dublin is scoffing at it now.
Sinn Fein has always played a long game, but cannier still it has played
a national one. It has always looked beyond the townlands and parishes
to the fate of all thirty-two counties. No party in the Republic has
seriously done likewise since the 1920’s.
Now Irish voters are in the mood to hit the national reset button on
what more and more people see as a failed state.
The banking crisis shattered the Irish social fabric and in Ireland the
social fabric is the most important thing of all.
Change is coming.
Posted by Jim on November 11, 2014
IRISH IN THE US MILITARY
Jim Otto, President AOH Division One
Presented at a Division Meeting under the topic
of “For the Good of the Order,” in November 2001
I took up the idea of this project, and thanks to surfing and digging deep on the Internet, I have found so much information. To begin with, IF I really wanted to do justice to this subject, it would take me several years, and could wind up doing a college course on this subject, which is NOT such a bad idea. It should be brought to the attention to the American citizen just how much the Irish have contributed to building this country from the ground up.
The United States of America, I can state with total accuracy, would NOT be a country, or at least the country, as we know it today, without the involvement of the Irish-American. From the very beginning, we were there. In 1770’s, when the revolution began to spread its wings, actual records show that about 50% of the entire US Continental Army was Irish-Americans, including some 1,492 officers and 26 Generals. John Barry, father of the American navy, and Jeremiah O’Brien (whose father was from County Cork) captured a British schooner in the first naval engagement of the revolution. In 1776, the First Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, and eight of those signers were Irish-Americans, with one Charles Carroll III, even being a Catholic. He was born in Maryland in 1737, and with laws prohibiting Catholics from voting, holding office, worshipping openly or even educating their children as Catholic. Yet despite these rampart open prejudices, he took an active part in the revolution using his business expertise and perception to help the colonies against the British. He later served as a Senator in the 1st Continental Congress at the age of 30, and when he died in 1832, he was reputed to be the richest man in America. One further fact on the signers of the Declaration of Independence, everyone of the signers were declared by the Crown as traitors, and a standing order was issued that these men be found, tried for treason and were to be hung.
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was born in the Carolina hills into an immigrant Irish farming family. He fought in the Revolutionary war at the age of 11 and all but one of his immediate families was killed in that war. In the war of 1812, his troops crushed the Creek Indians and then totally routed the great British Army, at the battle of New Orleans, on January 8, 1815, just after the British command in America had surrendered and signed the treaty of Ghent. He went on to be elected to congress, at the age of 30, and then became the seventh President of the United States.
David (Davy) Crockett was from Tennessee and served under Jackson in Florida and eventually was elected for several terms to congress and a Democrat, and one term as a Whig. He moved to east Texas in 1835, and was hanged after the fall of the Alamo in 1836, which took Santa Ana 13 days to overwhelm with the final battle lasting only 90 minutes.
We also need to mention the name of Daniel Boone, who although NOT officially military, worked for a scout for the military and who did open the Kentucky wilderness to settlements. He eventually moved into Missouri, and built a home in this area out at Defiance, and another in the area what is now Booneville.
This brings us up to the time period of the 1860’s and the American Civil War/War between the States where the Irish-American in great numbers, stepped forward once again, on both sides. I could do more than eight hours on this period alone. The Irish rolls presented more than 150,000 men for the Union Army alone with some 7 generals who were Irish-American, along with some 39 regiments who had identified components, while the Confederate States of America fielded some 80,000 Irish-Americans with some 6 generals. Some 70 Irish-Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in this war. Some of the most notable Irish-Americans were, for instance: Matthew Brady (1823-1896) whose famous Civil War combat photographs still keep us in awe even today, OR U.S. Grant-General of the Union Army, and 18th President of the U.S. and of course the most famous groups of that war was the “Irish Brigade”. The Irish Brigade was organized just after the First battle of Manassas (Bull Run). The brigade’s nucleus was the New York Sixty Second, Sixty Ninth, and Eighty Eighth Infantry. In the fall of 1862, the 28th Massachusetts, and the 116th Pennsylvania were added, and the 29th Massachusetts also served for a short time. The Brigade saw action in Peninsula campaign, at Antietan, 2nd battle of Manassas, Fredericksburg (where, thanks to incompetent blunders of General Bumside, the brigade suffered some 41% casualties (killed/wounded/missing) also at Chancellorsville, at Gettysburg, where they once again suffered heavily in the cornfield battle. Cedar Run, the Wilderness, Spotslvinia Courthouse, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. Five men commanded the Brigade; Colonel Richard Byrne-killed at Cold Harbor, Colonel Patrick Kelly-killed at Petersburg, Major General Thomas Smyth-died at Farmville, with Brigadier Generals Robert Nugent and Thomas Meagher being wounded. The brigades battle flag was of bright green cloth with a golden Irish harp and in Gaelic, their motto, “Never retreat from the clash of spears “. Confederate General Robert E. Lee told US Grant at his surrender’ You know the reason you have won? You had most of the Irish with you ” Lee states after the war, ” Never men so brave. The brigade suffered some 4,000 casualties-killed, wounded, or missing. This is more overall than was on its rolls at any one given time. The “Fighting 69′ ” served proudly in World War I and even today is serving as a New York National Guard unit where it still draws heavily on the Irish-Americans.
In the “Indian or Plains War ” and the westward expansion of this nation’s frontiers (1868-1895) over 69% of the US Army troops stationed west of the Mississippi were Irish Americans, with many less than two years in this country. Bat Masterson as was William “Buffalo Bill” Cody were Indian fighters or scouts along the frontier All along the western frontier, at the army outpost and forts the Irish Americans, many of whom were NOT even US citizens, hut they were there, answering the call. Possibly the most famous-good, bad indifferent- was Civil War General now Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh US Cavalry. While out walking one day. Colonel Custer heard some of his Irish troopers playing this one tune. It stuck in his mind and the more and more he heard the tune, the more he fell in love with it. He commanded that IT would become the official regimental song, and it became known us the “GARY OWEN”. On May 17, 1875. The Seventh US Cavalry rode out of Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territories on a mission that would lead them to the valley of the Little Big Horn, and as they rode out the regimental band played two tunes— “The Girl I Left Behind” and this tune which is still played today, and this tune which you will now briefly hear, “THE GARY OWEN” ………………….PLAY THE TAPE-———
The Irish were once again in the forward ranks in the Spanish-American war . and were in great numbers in Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders “, as well as the border incursions in the 1915-17 episodes chasing the Mexican Poncho Villa, with General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing.
In the year 1900, John Phillip Holland convinced the US Navy to begin using the submarine. Then in 1917, the United States was drawn into World War 1, so once again it became time to roll up the sleeves and really go to work. Although too old to serve in the military, being born on July 3,1878, George M. Cohan, writer, playwright, producer, director and actor/dance man, and the man who is known as the “Father off-Broadway. Went to work to support the troops by playing at different camps for US servicemen, and at the same time writing patriotic songs to booster the sprits of both the fighting men AND the people left on the home front. Songs like “You ‘re a grand old flag ” and Over there “. Then there is the legendary US “Fighting 69’ “, one of the more famous units of World War I.
World War I, the war “to end all wars “-so they said, ended on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, and Americans came home and “got on with their lives, that was until Sunday December 7, 1941 when the United States was once again thrust hack into war, and the Irish Americans raced to the forefront. We have a job to do, so let’s get it on. The very 1st Congressional Medal of Honor of World War II went to Col in Kelly of the US Army Air Forces. Looking at the Congressional Medal of Honor records, you find that many, many of the recipients were Irish born (born in Ireland and came to this country) Irish-American, and IF you really scrutinize the records, the number of Americans of Irish decent are added, the number REALLY goes way up. People like Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan who, while serving with the US “Fighting 69″‘”, in World War I, won the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart with 2 oak leaf clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre, and now that we ‘re involved in World War II, Donovan sets up and heads the OSS- Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. Other Irish-Americans include people like John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, and of course Audie Murphy who was the most decorated soldier of World War II. Let me expound on this Irish-American Texas farm boy’s decorations; they include; The Congressional Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star with First Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star with “V” (for Valor) device with First Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart with Second Oak Leaf Cluster (that’s wounded THREE times) Good conduct medal .and over 25 other awards, both US and foreign. In August 1945 aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo bay the second world war came to a close, and the Irish Americans came home once again, and got on with their lives.
That was until 1950, and the start of the Korean “police Action”, conflict, or no matter what you call it, it was a WAR. And as in the past Irish and Irish Americans came forward in great numbers, many who were not even US citizens yet. In those days, immigrants could be drafter to serve and then they were eligible for citizenship 90 days after their discharge—IF THEY SURVIVED THE WAR. In this ear, there are 23 cases where Irish born soldiers were killed and never received their citizenship. Some of them were returned to Ireland for burial.
In late 1957 the US started really getting involved in Vietnam. As the years rolled by, and the war grew and expanded and more and more troops were committed, once again the Irish and Irish-Americans pushed to the forefront to serve. During the Vietnam War, it is “unofficially estimated that over 2,000 of those soldiers who served “in country” were men and women who were born in the Republic of Ireland, and many of those who served were not even US citizens. But the U.S. was their adopted country, and they saw it as their duty to serve. There are countless thousands of Irish-Americans on “THE WALL”(that’s the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.) and joining their brothers AND sisters are some 20 Irish immigrants-19 men and 1 woman. The breakdown is as follows; 13 army/ six marines/ and one nurse- 2nd Lt. Pamela D. Donovan, from Dublin Ireland. These people came to America with the intent of serving in the US military and they ALL volunteered for service in Vietnam. Many of these Irish servicemen’s families were totally unaware of their American military service or even of their deaths. They simply left “the ole sod” and never looked back!! And to this date in 2003, they are still NOT officially citizens of the United States. 1 can not close out this chapter of our history without telling of Father Aloysius P. McGonigal, an AOH member and a military chaplain. He served “in country” where the residue always hits the fan, and where there is great carnage, and men—boys really- die terrible deaths every day and where Father McGonigal was known all over I Corps area and indeed South Vietnam. It was 12968, and this Jesuit Chaplain was assigned to the US advisory compound in Hue, and the Tet offensive was in full bloom. He was only 5′ 6″ and would almost disappear inside a flack jacket. But his men, the “grunts” or infantrymen were dying before the battlements of Hue’s Imperial Citadel. He was with a unit that was not his own, in a battle he could have missed, and he practically had to fight his way to the battlefield, BUT this is where he wanted to be—he was needed here. On Sunday, February 4, 1968, HIMSELF said,” Aloysius, enough is enough. It’s time to come home” He died with a bullet in his forehead while serving with the First Battalion Fifth Marines. He had said, ” Hey, there was no Catholic Chaplain with the unit, so 1 had to go! What more can we say!
There is a book now out that list all of the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor from 1863 thru 1994. There are some 3,401 recipients. One of the categories of information in the book is “birthplace”, listing the state & town for US recipients, and the country for those born outside the US. Foreign born list 33 countries with Ireland having a listing of 258. Nineteen fighting men have been awarded the medal a second time. Five of the nineteen were born in Ireland.
Throughout our entire history, before there was even a UNITED STATES country, there was the Irish-American there in the front of the line to answer the call to arms for freedom. As I near the end of this presentation, I sincerely hop you have gained some knowledge and made your chest expand, even just 2-3 inches with pride. Close your eyes and just look over your shoulder, and you’ll see the ghosts of your brothers and sisters who served in places like Concord and Lexington at bloody Chancellorsville and little round top at Gettysburg or charging up San Juan hill in Cuba or the forest of Verdun. Take a real close loon -there there on bloody Omaha beach or that top slit trench on “Pork Chop” Hill to the severe cold of the Chosin Reservoir to the hell that was in the Ashau Valley, or Hamburger Hill, or In Granada, Panama, Somalia, Kuwait City, and even today on the streets of Baghdad. As long as there is a need, a threat to our freedoms. The Irish-Americans has been, is and always will be ready, if needed to lay his life on the line to defend the freedoms he totally believes in and the ones we so richly enjoy today. Gentlemen there is not now, nor has there ever been an ethnic group or race that has stood up, shoulder to shoulder in greater numbers than the Irish. We have over 700 years of hardships at the hands of the British, and we know damn well what freedom is, and what it takes to preserve it.
Walter Winchell, in his radio broadcast in March 1945 said it best, “You can’t strike the American Flag without expecting to get hit back by some Irishman. The nation will be standing at attention when the Irish wear green in their lapels for old Ireland on the 17th of March, because so many, many thousands of Irishmen are wearing the green, on their graves, for America”.
And so to each and every one of you, my Irish brethren, when we walk out of this meeting tonight, let us all walk a little taller, a little straighter and be damn proud of your Irish heritage, for well over one million Irishmen have paved the way for you, and then tonight get on your knees and pray to “HIMSELF” to wrap his cloak around our service personnel and protect them and bring them home soon.
May HIMSELF bless you all, and May HE bless both Ireland and America.
An addition to this history report: Originally produced in November 2001, I “updated” the report in 2003 to include the Vietnam era. Now in December, 2005, I most joyfully update the report once again with the following news; In the “American Revolution” portion of this report, I spoke of John Barry, as the “father of the American Navy” Now I can add to this report The Commodore John Barry Resolution was signed by President Bush on Thursday, December 22, 2005 officially recognizing Commodore Barry as the first flag officer of the United States Navy — 202 years and three months after the Wexford-born Barry passed into the history books. In other words he was named to the rank of “Admiral” (ALL Generals/Admirals are “flag officers”) and thusly, the 1st “Flag Officer” of the United States Navy Many thanks to Congressman Peter King (NY) and Senator Arlen Specter (PA) and their staff and all the cosponsors for making it all happen.
Posted by Jim on November 10, 2014
The DUP’s Gregory Campbell has been called upon to apologise for an
attempt to mock the Irish language community in the Six-County Assembly
at Stormont.
Campbell has been accused of “pure ignorance” after replying to the
assembly speaker during a debate on the Irish language and Ulster Scots
with “curry my yoghurt”.
Sinn Fein culture minister Caral Ni Chuilin said Mr Campbell’s behaviour
was “not befitting a member of the assembly”.
The comments came Mr Campbell was invited to speak by principal deputy
speaker, Sinn Fein’s Mitchel McLaughlin.
In response, Mr Campbell appeared to mock the Irish language replying:
“Curry my yoghurt can coca coalyer”.
The phrase was an apparent reference to “go raibh maith agat, Ceann
Comhairle”, which means “thank you, speaker” in Irish.
When Mr Campbell then asked Ms Ni Chuilin about a minority languages’
strategy, the Sinn Fein minister refused to answer the question, saying
that Mr Campbell’s behaviour was not “befitting a member of the
assembly”.
“If it’s anything to go by what you just did, we don’t need a strategy
for pure ignorance,” she said.
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness said the comments were “unacceptable and,
in my view, racist”.
He called on the DUP to “show leadership” and apologise immediately to
the Irish language community.
“There is an onus on all of us in positions of political leadership to
represent everyone in our society.
“That involves promoting equality, mutual respect and tolerance and
standing up for all communities. Those are the core principles we are
all signed up to.”
Mr Campbell refused to apologise for the remark. He received a one day
ban from the Speaker’s Office, although the ruling had no impact as he
was due at Westminster in any event.
It is not the first time Mr Campbell or his DUP colleagues have made
bigoted comments about the Irish language.
In 1987, fellow DUP MP Sammy Wilson, a former Belfast city councillor,
labelled Irish “a leprechaun language” after it was spoken during a
council debate by Sinn Fein councillors.
Sinn Fein MLA Rosie McCorley referred the latest bigoted outburst to the
North’s human rights and equality commissions.
“Gregory Campbell’s utterly disrespectful comments in the Assembly
chamber in relation to the Irish language have quite rightly sparked
anger from the Irish community and others,” said Ms McCorley.
She added, “Everyone has the right to speak Irish and thousands of
people do on a daily basis, regardless of whether Gregory likes it or
not. No amount of politically motivated posturing will deter Sinn Fein
from promoting the Irish language and continuing to lobby for the rights
of Irish speakers.”
She said it was “nothing new” from the DUP who, she said, had blocked
the development on an Irish language act for the North. Legislation had
been due to be introduced following the signing of the Good Friday
Agreement in 1998.
Ms McCorley said the DUP had a long history of insults to the Irish
speaking community.
“While this might be funny in Gregory’s little closed world, it is
hugely insulting to all of those who promote the huge benefits of
endorsing and enhancing bilingualism in our society especially in our
children.”
Posted by Jim on November 8, 2014
By Gerry Adams (for Leargas)
Last Saturday was the anniversary of the execution by the British of 18
year old Kevin Barry. He was hanged on November 1st 1920. Kevin Barry
was one of the ‘Forgotten Ten’ – IRA volunteers who were all executed in
Mountjoy prison and buried there by the British Government. He and
nine other freedom fighters were afforded a State Funeral a few years
ago when their remains were moved from Mountjoy to Glasnevin.
I was there that day and more important than all the pomp and ceremony
of the fitting state occasion was the huge turn out of citizens who
lined the pavements and joined the funeral ceremony. Kevin Barry was a
victim and a hero of the Tan War – a conflict that lasted two years and
was followed by a bloody civil war which saw atrocities committed by
both sides.
His life and death and role as an IRA Volunteer was immortalised in song
shortly after his death. ‘Kevin Barry’ became one of the most popular
rebel songs of that and subsequent generations.
I remind you of this anniversary because one aspect of the current
controversy around how the IRA handled sex abusers during the recent war
years is the manner in which Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour have
rushed to condemn the IRA of that period, while commending the actions
of those who fought in 1916 and in the subsequent Tan War.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan speaking at Beal na mBlath in August
1984 said: “Our generation of the Irish owes more to (Michael) Collins
than any other Irish hero.” Noonan quoted with approval the words of
Arthur Griffith: “Collins was the man whose matchless and indomitable
will carried Ireland through the terrible crisis. He was the man who
fought the Black and Tan terror until England was forced to offer
terms.”
In July last year in Cork Taoiseach Enda Kenny praised the actions of
the “Flying Columns of Rebel Cork and its most famous son Michael
Collins”. A year earlier addressing the annual Michael Collins
commemoration at Beal na mBlath he described Collins as a “reformer. A
thinker. A modernizer” and he praised “Collins’s ambition, mental force
and high idea.”
The Labour Party rushed to commemorate the founding the Irish Citizen
Army – a private, armed body of men and women established by James
Connolly who fought in the Rising and many of whom joined the IRA.
Fianna Fail Leader Micheal Martin speaking at Arbour Hill, where the
1916 leaders are buried, called the Rising “one of the most noble and
courageous events in Irish history. The leaders of the Rising were
patriots of honour and integrity who were prepared to sacrifice
everything so that the Irish people could be free.” And the leaders were
“heroes.”
But those, like Bobby Sands and Mairead Farrell and Maire Drumm and
countless others who stood strong against injustice and courageously
fought the British government and its military machine to a standstill
in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s were part of a “terrorist campaign”. That
was “not a clean fight. It was dirty and nasty. And no amount of new
historical revisionism, willful amnesia or media indifference can alter
that fact.”
It is right that we remember those from previous generations who fought
and died or were imprisoned or exiled for their efforts to liberate
Ireland of British rule. But if there is a wilful amnesia it is within
the Dublin establishment parties. It has its roots in partition and the
abandonment by the Dublin establishment of nationalists and unionists in
the North and the ideal of an independent 32 county Irish republic.
Little wonder that the Government in Dublin has still to bring forward
plans to commemorate the 1916 Rising, now only eighteen months away.
There is no sense of the Proclamation in modern offical Ireland. Or of
its promise of equality for all. Except in the hearts and minds of
freedom loving Irish people.
Noonan and Enda Kenny and Micheal Martin hypocritically ignore the
brutality and the violence the men and women of that generation of the
IRA, led by Collins and others, used to prosecute the war against a
numerically stronger, better equipped and professional British Army
supported by the RIC, the Black and Tans and the Special Branch. They
say it was the good old IRA. Different, they claim, from the IRA of the
70s, 80’s and 90’s.
The fact is that the Rising in 1916 and the Tan War and Civil War were
not ‘clean’ fights. They were dirty and nasty and thousands of Irish
citizens and British soldiers died, in the two years of the Tan War,
along two and a half thousand, including some 700 civilians died.
During that period the IRA operated what would today be called kangaroo
courts to meet out summary justice in a climate in which the Royal Irish
Constabulary was regarded as little different from the RUC of later
years.
The IRA of that time, like its successors of our time, executed scores
of people as informers and agents for the British, often leaving their
bodies in public places with placards declaring “Spies and informers
beware.” Most were shot but one was taken by boat into the middle of the
River Barrow and executed by drowning.
The IRA of that period disappeared scores of alleged informers – men and
women. It is claimed that this number may be as high as 200. Following
the conflict there was no attempt to recover the remains unlike
republicans of this generation who have helped secure the return of 10
of the 15 who were secretly buried in the 1970s.
And under that same Michael Collins, who Noonan and Kenny lionise, and
the same IRA lauded by Martin, the IRA imported weapons from America,
robbed banks and post offices, and levied ‘taxes’. Failure to pay this
tax was met with stern measures including beatings.
Collins ordered attacks on RIC members many of whom were shot from
ambush, in the back, in the dark, when they were unarmed, in front of
their families, in their beds, and without mercy. The IRA killed
civilians, including by accident, children. In one five month period 46
civilians were killed by the IRA and 163 wounded.
And when the Irish Independent condemned his actions as ‘murder most
foul’ what did Michael Collins do? He dispatched his men to the office
of the Independent and held the editor at gun point as they dismantled
the entire printing machinery and destroyed it.
And if Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and Labour speak of a mandate to wage
that war? They should be reminded that no one voted for war in the 1918
election. As in the 70’s republicans of that time didn’t go to war. The
war came to us.