Léargas

Orange Order coming through Gates onto nationalist part of Springfield Road July 31st 09 An Open letter to Drew Nelson Regular Readers will remember that this blog wrote recently about Orangeism and the need for dialogue to resolve contentious orange marches. At the 12th July celebrations Drew Nelson the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order rejected any talks with Sinn Féin. But this blog is not for giving up on our orange brothers and sisters. I penned an open letter to him which the Belfast Telegraph carried this morning - Friday. I addressed the issue of ‘respect’ which Drew raised and pointed out that ‘respect, if it is to be meaningful, must be mutual. If the Orange Order seeks ‘respect’ from others, then it in turn must respect the views of those who differ from them, and address their concerns in a peaceful and dignified way.’ Nowhere is this more necessary than in respect of those ‘parades through or fringing sensitive areas, where little or no respect has been shown to local ...

July 27th 09 Now is the time for Republican politics. Sinn Féin’s campaign to progress Irish reunification has struck a few nerves. Not since the early days of the peace process has such an alliance of disparate political elements found common cause to attack the party, republicans in general and me féin in particular. The SDLP and DUP and UUP and Fianna Fáil and some so-called dissidents and others in the media have condemned Sinn Féin for daring to raise the right of the people of Ireland to re-unification and independence. So, Sinn Féin is wrong to engage with the Irish diaspora and to win their support for a new phase of activism. The fact that Irish America and the diaspora have played such a positive role in the past seems lost on the detractors. The need to engage with British public opinion is dismissed. Our intention to build a campaign in Ireland, including local conferences, is also rubbished. And why raise this issue now we are asked? We are rebuked by some who say that thi...

22 Iuil 2009. MY COUNTY – RIGHT OR WRONG!! This blog agrees with the Antrim manager Liam Bradley.The selection by the powers-that-be of Tullamore as a venue for the football play-off against Kerry on Sunday is a disgrace. Parnell Park on Saturday makes better sense particularly as the senior and minor hurlers are there. My guess is that the wily insiders from the Kingdom would not have been satisfied with the potential velocity of that occasion. Antrims Gaels from both codes would relish it. But Parnell Park it is, for the hurlers one day and Tullamore it is, for the footballers the next day. We will just have to make the most of that. I thoroughly enjoyed Clones last Sunday. I know the players are disappointed but this blog thinks they were brilliant. It would have been better if we had won but our team gave 100 percent. Once you do that then no one can have any legitimate cause for complaint. It was always going to be a huge challenge to beat Tír Eoghain. They didn’t get to be Al...

21 Iuil 2009. OUT OF THE ASHES. Forty years ago the sectarian pogroms in August 1969 in Belfast triggered of the biggest forced mass movement of people since the 2nd World War. A man called Gerry Collins was witness to the immediate aftermath of these events. He went to Bombay Street where his aunt lived, the morning after it was burned out. Gerry was a founding member of the Christian Brothers Camera Club. He grabbed his camera and three rolls of film and took thirty photographs. Later that week he went into other areas in the Falls and took more snaps. Frankie Quinn (pictured above at the exhibition) is a well known and acclaimed photographer from Belfast. He saw Gerry Collins photos which had never been published. Frankie realised the significance of Gerry’s work and he has worked closely with him to have the photographs exhibited. They will now also be published in a book. Frankie sent me a copy of Gerry’s work and asked me to write a short foreword for the book which will be en...

18 Iuil 2009. Unplanned Outcomes? Its always interesting to start writing when the mind is blanked out and without a notion of what may flow, sluggishly or in a continous stream of consciousness, from the pen. Interesting for the writer that is. The reader may have a different view. Blogging isn’t much different. Most times this blogger has a plan of sorts about what I want to pontificate about. Some times. Other times I go where my fancy takes me. Today is like that. It’s a Saturday. I considered doing another piece on tomorrows big game between Aontroim and Tír Éoghan or yesterdays refusal by the leadership of the Orange Order to talk to Sinn Féin. I also intend doing a wee blog or two some day on some books I am taken by. I usually blog on Friday as well as Monday or Tuesday. I try to make the Friday blog a little less serious than the other one. But yesterday was given over entirely to meetings. One after the other. With a few interviews thrown in for good measure. That’s Richa...

IN THE VICINITY OF BIRDS. An old neighbour of mine, wee Billy, was a great man for birds. He could identify them by the sounds they made. Tuneful warbles, piercing whistles, melodious piping. Clucking, cackling and other less pleasant noises. Billy knew them all. And not in a show-offy way. No! Billy was a modest man. If you were in his company, and in the vicinity of birds and birdsong, he would merely nod gently as if in remembrance of another place or time and say softly, almost to himself, with a little smile. ‘A chaffinch’. Or. ‘That blackbird is in fine tune this evening.’ Some friends of mine who live in the middle of big cities never see or hear birds near their abodes except for the occasional lost sea gull or wayward pigeon. I see and hear birds all the time where I live. And I actively encourage them. Pea nuts and seed. Bits of fat. Bread crumbs even though some people tell you not to give birds bread. The dog’s food dish is also the scene of much excitement at dinner t...

The Twelfth. This blog recalls the days and nights when a scóraiocht – an evening of song and stories - would not have been complete without some republican in the company singing an Orange ballad or two. In the those days a bus run to Bodenstown or Edentubber would not have been completed without a lusty rendition of Dollys Brae or The Boul’ Orange Heroes of Comber from the uppity Fenians en route. This blog has the proud distinction of knowing its way through The Sash. I once used to know it in Irish. So did the late Eddie Keenan. And he was a better singer than me. My interest in Orange ballads was a natural outworking of a love for folk or roots music. Browsing in Smithfield Market and its second hand bookstores put me in touch with the writings of Richard Hayward. His evocative musings through Ulster and Irish countryside lore unearthed a volume of Orange ballads. I swallowed it all in a volatile musical mix which included The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, The Dubliners, Lon...

Before - After 7th Iuil 09 DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE. This blog gets to be part of good things all the time and gets to go to special events, to be witness to amazing feats and great achievements. Take Tuesday. One minute I was in the chamber of the Assembly in Parliament Buildings. The next minute I was in the beautiful Colin Glen Forest Park. I was there to launch a new heritage trail. The afternoon was balmy. The sky was blue. Poets, writers, artists, botanists, and just plain ordinary decent citizens were gathered. A piper was playing jigs and reels. Someone was pouring wine. And tea. Others were drinking it. What more could a blog want? I eased myself into a corner. The conversation flowed all around me. In Irish and in English. This is a bi-lingual community you see. And at events like this it shows. The Colin Glen Heritage Trail tells a unique and inspiring story which in many ways is a micro history of the Belfast Hills and the Lagan Valley. The signage is bi-lingual. I know Colin G...

From Left to Right: Ruan O Donnell; Rita O Hare; Fionnuala Flannagan; Gerry Adams and Robert Ballagh July 3rd 09 San Francisco United Ireland Conference – A Good Beginning Last Saturday as regular readers of this blog will know I sat in a pub in San Francisco and watched Antrim beat Cavan in the Ulster senior football semi final. Of course that wasn’t the reason I was in that US west coast city. My primary purpose was to host the second of Sinn Fein’s two US Forums on the theme of a United Ireland - and the role of Irish America in helping to achieve it. The Forum was held in St. Anne’s Hall. Around 600 people from Washington State 800 hundred miles to the north, to San Diego hundreds more to the south, gathered from all along the US’s west coast to participate. Two weeks earlier New York had been the setting of the first of the two Irish American conferences. It was widely acknowledged in the Irish American media as hugely successful. As in New York a distinguished panel of speakers h...