Léargas

  Partitionism Rules.  Simon Harris has said that Irish unity is not a priority for him.  That is self-evident. But for him to say so is at odds with the stated position of most senior Irish politicians including An Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Their position is one of verbalised adherence to the constitutional objective of unity. In other words, they are verbalised republicans. Rhetorical United Irelanders. Mr Harris doesn't even pay lip service to this. Some may think this clarity from him is good for the unity debate. And they have a point. Simon Harris words reflect the reality of the position of successive governments. Thus far no Irish government has a strategy or a plan for unity. So unity is not only not a priority for Simon Harris. It is clearly not a government priority either.     The truth is he reflects a deep-rooted view within the southern establishment which sees partition as acceptable. For 100 years Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have run ...

  Starmer Waiving The Rules.   According to the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer his government is looking at "every conceivable way" to prevent me and at least 300 other people from receiving compensation for wrongful arrest and imprisonment in the 1970s. This issue of compensation arises from the decision by the British Supreme Court in May 2020 that the Interim Custody Order (ICO) or internment order issued against me was unlawful.  Internment was demanded by the Unionist government in 1971 and imposed by the British on 9 August that year. It had been used in every decade since partition in 1920. Internment saw thousands of armed troops smash their way into nationalist homes to arrest 342 men and boys. They were dragged from their beds and many were beaten. Fourteen – the Hooded Men - were subjected to days of sustained torture. 25 people were killed in the following four days. In Ballymurphy in west Belfast eleven local citizens, including a priest and mo...

Dublin Lacks Ambition Last week Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, supported by the regional independents, published their Programme for Government 2025. This contains the objectives set by the government parties for the next five years. In my ten years in the Oireachtas as the TD for Louth and East Meath I worked through two such Programmes. First in 2011 and then again in 2016. Neither Programme for Government matched the rhetoric or the commitments contained within them. The Programme for Government 2025 is no different. It is as Pearse Doherty aptly described it  “a copy and paste job from five years ago … a tired and stale document that is completely devoid of the ambition and big ideas our people need and deserve.” Nowhere is this more evident than in its abject failure to address the major issue of constitutional change and a united Ireland. The Programme claims that the “ Government of Ireland is committed to the unity of the Irish people and believes that this...

  A Good Start To 2025.    On Saturday last leading trade union activists from across the island of Ireland came together in Newry for a packed Ireland’s Future event in the Thomas Davis Hub. It was a wet winter morning and i was pleasantly uplifted by the turn out.  The panel included ICTU assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy, Unison regional general secretary Patricia McKeown, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, general secretary of the Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Katie Morgan of FORSA, Greg Ennis of SIPTU and Gerry McCormack of the ICTU. It was a lively and informative debate which pointed to a much better future for workers in a united Ireland. Ireland’s Future is for holding the referendums by 2030 and Saturday’s public sectoral meeting is part of a consultation for what it believes is the ‘crucial five-year period’ ahead of us. Niall Murphy, who is the secretary of Ireland’s Future explained that it seeks “to continue to inform, educate and stimulate the con...

Nollaig na mBan Monday 6 January is traditionally the date on which the Christmas decorations are taken down. In the Christian calendar it marks the end of the Christmas season and the visit of the Magi – the three wise men – to Jesus. In Ireland the 6 January is also Nollaig na mBan - Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas. It’s a day set aside to celebrate the role of women who did all the work catering for and making Christmas a success for everyone else.  On 6 January the women rested, although in many rural parts of Ireland it was also an occasion for women to come together and socialise. There are many traditions and superstitions associated with Nollaig na mBan including the belief, still shared by many, that to take the decorations down before that date is unlucky. The lighting of 12 candles in the window on the eve of Nollaig na mBan was also once very popular with different family members lighting each candle. It was claimed that the first candle to go out would ...

ONE FLU OVER? I have the flu. It’s a sign of my loyalty to you dear reader, that I write this column in my sick bed. Bathed in sweat. I’ve changed my T shirt four times since Saint Stephen’s Day. I ran out of paper hankies and turned to kitchen roll for nose cleaning duties. The snatters are tripping me. I’ve changed my sheets as well. Three times. Everyone else is away so I phoned Richard.  ‘I’ve got the flu’ I told him. ‘This could be my last call to you’. ‘I would be so lucky,’ he retorted. ‘Try a hot whisky’.  ‘I still haven’t done my weekly column.’ I told him.  ‘You have until Saturday,’ he consoled me. ‘By the way, be careful you don’t have Covid’.  ‘I got my Covid injection,’ I replied.  ‘And your flu one also,’ he countered.  That was true. Richard is usually the most helpful person I know but he has had a few days off. He seems to have forgotten that we are friends. A friend in need is a friend indeed and all that. Or maybe he was just being ...