Léargas

With Arthur Morgan in Ardee 29 Bealtaine 2009 THE END IS NIGH. The election trail now has an end in sight, thanks be to God. This time next week it will be all over in the north, except for the counting. And all over in the south except for the voting. This blog, now suffering from a heavy man flu, has travelled to all arts and parts of the country and will do so again in the next seven days. This week saw me mostly in Dublin where the anger against the government is palpable. It cuts across all sections of citizenry. The big danger is that some voters are so browned off they may not bother voting. That’s what Fianna Fail are banking on, pardon the pun. The core Fianna Fáil vote, unless it collapses completely, is still bigger than the votes of most of the other parties. So nothing can be taken for granted. Every vote counts. Not least because Sinn Féin is contesting EU seats across the island as well as local government elections in the south and two Dáil bi-elections in Dublin. The

24 Bealtaine 2009. SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN. This blog has had the sad experience of working with victims of abuse. It is very difficult to describe the suffering of people, now in their adult years, who have been subjected to the evils of sexual, physical or emotional abuse while children. Most of this occurs in the home. The perpetrators of abuse, particularly sexual abuse of children, in the home are usually fathers, grandfathers or uncles or other older family members. One can only imagine the effect this abuse has on a child. Or on other family members, if they get to know about the abuse. Even if they have not been direct victims themselves. In many cases the truth of childhood abuse only emerges when the victims are grown up, sometimes triggered by flashback or some other remembrance. The effect of all this can be devastating and the victims need support, care, understanding and love. Most of all they need to be believed. Especially when, as is often the case, the abuser de

20 Bealtaine CR gas - Chemical Warfare in Ireland This blog comes to you from Cork City. Earlier today Big Marshall got a fine send off from all of his friends and comrades in the Upper Springfield/Ballymurphy area and the many others who attended the funeral from across Belfast and farther afield. I was very honoured to deliver the funeral oration. Among those in the cortege was Jim McCann, a former Long Kesh prisoner who, as I mentioned before, has for years has been campaigning to get the truth behind the British Army’s use of CR gas – a highly toxic chemical agent - in the aftermath of the burning of Long Kesh in 1974. Jim and the Ceartas group, he and other former prisoners established several years ago, believes that the British government cleared the use of CR Gas against prisoners. According to Ceartas over 50 former prisoners, have died as a result of cancer. Jim believes that this high incidence of cancer is linked directly to the use of CR gas in Long Kesh in 1974 and has

18 Bealtaine 2009. Big Marshall This blog believes that every day brings its own challenges and possibilities and opportunities. That’s what makes life so interesting. The trick is to live every day as if it was your last day. And to live every day as a beginning. In other words to begin again. Every day. I didn’t intend to write all that. It just flowed into the computer. I suppose its big Marshall’s fault. Marshall has just died. He is a friend of mine. We were internees in Long Kesh together. He died of cancer in the early hours of Sunday morning. The problem is that a lot of my friends are dying. Big Duice fell to cancer a month ago. Cormac before that. And Siobhán. And Cleaky. Seando is battling away like a good un. And Moke. And Jeff. Most of these comrades have two things in common. They are all relatively young. Mid fifties to sixty-ish. Except for Siobhán, all of them are former Long Kesh prisoners. Siobhan was in Armagh Women’s Prison. Marshall is about the same age as me. Ma

FLOATING VOTERS. Sometimes the Deputy First Minster will not take no for an answer. I suppose that is one of the reasons we picked him for that job. Working with the DUP means if you did take no for an answer then very little work would be done. So ignoring nos and getting on with the work becomes a habit. I saw this at close quarters when we were doing a bit of canvassing in the European election with outgoing MEP Bairbre de Brun. We were in North Belfast along with Gerry Kelly and Caral Ni Cuilin. 'Lets go to the Waterworks' Gerry suggested. So we did. It was a bright sunny day. People were strolling in the park. Then the Deputy First Minister saw the water. He made a beeline towards it. I tried to stop him. 'No' I hissed so the hovering media would not hear me. The Deputy First Minister ignored me. I knew how Gregory Campbell, a particularly negative DUP minister must feel. 'No' I repeated. 'Cad miceart? Whats wrong?' Bairbre asked me. I rushed on to

11 Bealtaine 2009 Me and Osgur went to the vet last Saturday. Neither of us was too upbeat about that. As regular readers of this space will know Osgur is a very old canine. So a visit to the vets is a much more traumatic experience for her than for any other mutt, particularly a young one. The vets was crowded. A very large wannabe German shepherd, by name of Lucy, sidled up to us in the waiting room. We knew her name was Lucy because that’s what the very nice man she was with called out. ‘Here Lucy’ he commanded ‘Sit’. And Lucy sat. She really was very docile. The man she was with explained to me that he was told she was full bred when he bought her as a pup, but that’s not the way she turned out. I told him she was in good order. And she was. He said she was only in to get a booster. I told him Osgur was sick. ‘Aye’ he agreed ‘She luks poorly’. And she did. I explained to the two wee girls who were with the man who was with Lucy that Osgur was very old and between us we counted up

9 Bealtaine 2009 ITS GOOD TO LISTEN. This blog was out late last night. Not late by the standards set by our James and some of his carousing friends. But fairly late by my own mundane get-to-bed early, up early–in-the-morning habits. Anyway on this very wet Belfast Saturday morning let me wish you all well. I am pleased with myself this soft day because last night saw the last of the Town Hall Meetings. And a very good meeting it was also. The Town Hall Meetings are annual events conducted by Sinn Féin throughout the North. We are also doing other public meetings in the South but they are more tied into the elections than the ones in the North. There is a lot of anger in the South at this time. A wee bit of all-politicans-are-tarred-with-the-one-brush but mostly a really aggressive and very widespread annoyance at Fianna Fail. The mood in the Town Hall Meetings is different. Generally speaking most of the discussions have been low key, thoughtful and wide ranging. Issues discussed incl

5 Bealtaine 2009. BOBBY SANDS. Bobby Sands is one of my friends. I am using the present tense very deliberately when I write Bobby is one of my friends. Sometimes, without really thinking about it, when we talk about friends who have gone before us, we use the past tense. But friends don’t cease to be friends just because they are dead. That’s why I say Bobby Sands is one of my friends. I have a lot of friends. I feel a real sense of privilege about being able to say that. Friendship is one of the great blessings of life. The strength of this blessing should not be judged by the number of friends it involved. Some of us go through life with only one or two friends. I suppose it depends on how you define friendship. When it comes down to it maybe none of us have any more than one or two friends who we would trust completely or who we would do anything for. Or who feel the same way about us. But being involved in struggle for a protracted period, being in hard places, in difficult c

HOME JAMES AND DON’T SPARE THE HORSES. So off to the west this week. A charge down from Beal Feirste and Bairbre De Brun’s nomination as Sinn Féin’s European Union candidate for the six counties, to Galway. From there to Maigh Eó and on to Sligo. And then back to the east coast again, to Dublin and the launch of Mary Lou’s campaign to retain the Dublin EU seat despite the constituency being cut from a four to a three seater. The local government elections are on across the south as well as two bi-elections in the capital. Being an all Ireland party is hard work but at least those of us who are part of all this get to see places that ordinary decent citizens can’t reach. And there is always a bit of craic along the way. Take Ballinasloe for example. I happen to remark to James, our noble driver, debater extraordinaire and occasional wit that Ballinasloe hosted the oldest horse fair on the continent. He disputed this. James is like that. Argumentive. As befits my station, I try to