Léargas

Briege Brownlee, Myself and Marie Our friend Marie Moore: We buried our friend Belfast City Councillor Marie Moore last Tuesday. I gave the funeral oration. I post it below in tribute to her. ‘When I heard the very sad news of Marie’s death I said to our leadership in Belfast that Marie’s funeral should be arranged by women. A few hours later I got word back that Marie had arranged the funeral herself, and that I was to give the oration. I think it was Sinead who said to her that “he mightn’t be here”. And Marie said “he’ll be here for me.” And so I am. I am very sad and proud and honoured to be here speaking to you today about our friend and our comrade Marie Moore. I want to extend on all of our behalf’s our solidarity to her children, Brian and Kieran and Eileen and to all of the grandchildren and great grand children. Marie Moore’s life is like a political calendar of the last 40 years. Further to that, when Maire was a small child of six, she was in her granny’s house when there w...

THE FIGHTING IRISH 23 Marta 2009 0h me, oh my, what a weekend! GRANDSLAM. GRAND BLOODY MAGNIFICENT GRAND SLAM. And then Bernard Dunne. SLAM. SLAM !!! What a weekend for Irish sport. I only got interested in rugby this last ten years or so and even now I don’t entirely understand all the rules. But I don’t understand Tiddley Winks either and if Ireland was in the Tiddley Wink Final I would be out there, my country right or wrong, supporting our team. So it was with that I settled down before the TV on Saturday last to cheer on the lads. Of course rugby isn’t Tiddley Winks. At the risk of offending Tiddleywinkers, it’s much more exciting that that. I’m a Gaelic sports fan myself, though I believe all sports are good. Soccer, with the honourable exception of Geordie Best, and Ireland under Jack Charlton’s leadership, is a bit pedestrian for my taste. Hurling or Camogie is your only man; with football a close second, and handball bringing up the rear. But rugby? Well rugby gets my vote ...

March 20th 2009 MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Daffodils greeted us at Shannon as our plane dipped in along the estuary on this beautiful sunny Spring morning. Our five day skip through New York, Washington and Boston is over and Ireland awaits below green and welcoming. I’m always glad to get home. We had a frenetic but very worthwhile schedule from the Big Apple to the White House to Harvard. But, mar a deirtear, there is no place like home. In Washington the Speaker’s lunch, hosted for the first time this year by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had both President Obama and Vice President Biden in attendance. I was delighted to present the President with Saint Gerard’s school project. He told me that it was a wonderful gift. I agree. I was also relieved to complete my mission. Imagine if I had mislaid it or if security on Capitol Hill had seized the wonderful piece of artwork compiled by the pupils at Saint Gerard’s? No amount of explanation by Richard McAuley would have satisfied our friends at Saint G...

March 15th 2009 Pictured in Washington DC on an earleir visit, President Barack Obama, myself and Rita O Hare BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH BUT … This blog is on the train from New York to Washington DC. As has been remarked in this space before, the train is a very good way to travel, particularly here in the USA. Here they have a quiet car. Use of mobile phones is banned. So is talking. “Absolutely no conversation,” declares the conductor in a tone which has a sense of authority that will not brook any deviation from her orders. This blog is used to women bossing it about so, as a stranger in a strange land, I am quietly reassured by her presence. I started the day with Mass in Saint Francis of Assisi Church. I went there because Father Mychal Judge used to minister from that church. Mychal was killed in the Twin Towers collapse after the terrorist attack on September 11. He was a chaplain to the New York fire fighters and if you ever watched the film taken inside one of the towers af...

March 13th 09 BITS AND PIECES In the middle of the recent madness I was summoned to Saint Gerard’s Resource Centre here in the heart of West Belfast. Saint Gerard’s is a wonderful school for children with special educational needs. I was there before and the atmosphere was electric. Not because of me. No, it was the accordion music slipping between jigs and reels and salsa which greeted our party and the general air of merriment and good fun which infected both teachers and pupils. They need a new school building and will have it as soon as possible if this blog and the Minister of Education can have our way. But that’s not why my presence was requested this time. This time the pupils wanted me to bring a message from them to President Barack Obama. So I dashed from a meeting with the First and Deputy First Ministers and the other party leaders to Saint Gerard’s at the foot of the Black Mountain. And there to my surprise was the merry accordion player, this time on a fiddle with anoth...

March 9th 09 The only way to go is forward On Saturday night I was in County Clare. The local government elections in the south are in 12 weeks time. That’s on June 5th. The elections to the European Parliament in both parts of Ireland are on the 4th and 5th. 12 weeks isn’t a long time and I travelled to Clare from Dublin after a hectic two days, including an Ard Chomhairle meeting, in the Capital. The Ard Chomhairle was meeting for the first time since the recent Ard Fheis and it was a positive and forward looking gathering which set out a programme of work for the next 12 months. We also discussed PSNI Chief Hugh Orde’s decision to deploy undercover British Army operatives against so-called dissident elements. Understandably Republicans and democrats, including myself, have protested against and are strongly opposed to that decision. Apart from anything else it is a harking back to the old days when such units created havoc in our society by perpetuating conflict and destabilising co...

WORTH WATCHING. I have been watching a Sunday night programme on TG4 for the last while. Its called Ceol ón gCroí. The programme follows a songwriter or musican as he or she composes music or a song to commemorate a phase in Irish history. So far we have looked at the 1798 rebellion, James Connolly, emigration and An Gorta Mór - the great hunger. All the programmes have been excellent, wonderfully well shot and with extraordinary music and song. Next Sunday methinks the subject is hungerstrikes. It will be interesting to see how the programme makers deal with this. The trailer has the Bobby Sands mural as it centre piece so I am sure many of us who remember that period, as well as the Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg protests, will tune in. TG4 is a brilliant channel but don't be concerned if you dont have Irish. There are subtitles. Ceol ón gCroí is at 10 o clock on Sunday night. MNÁ NA hÉIREANN ABÚ. Saturday is International Women's Day . Sexism and gender inequality are...

March 3rd 2009 This is National Tree Week. I meant to draw this to your attention some time ago. But things are so busy it’s hard to keep up with all the issues I want to blog about. I’m writing now in the back of the car. Again. This time hurtling from Laois and Offaly towards the M50, the Mad Cow Roundabout and the road to Béal Feirste. I love trees very much. I grow quite a lot of them. Well that’s an exaggeration. Every Autumn I gather up seeds and pot them up. When they get to a decent height I plant them out or give them away. Trees are a lovely way to mark the death of a friend, or a birthday or as a little token of friendship. I also collect my seeds in some of the places I get to visit. So I have Rowans from seeds gathered at Chequers. Holly from Hillsborough. I have a solitary little Redwood from the big Redwood forest outside San Francisco. Seeds from the White House didn’t take, though the ones from 10 Downing Street are struggling on. My most successful trees are Ches...