Léargas

Nora McCabe was murdered almost 29 years ago on July 9th 1981. She was shot in the back of the head at close range by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC armoured landrover. She died the next day in hospital from her injuries. It was the same morning Joe McDonnell died on hunger strike. Nora was aged 33 and the mother of three young children, the youngest three months old. Over the years I have met her husband Jim many times. He is a quiet but very determined man who never gave up on getting the truth. Jim knew what happened, but as in so many other similar incidents, the RUC and the Director of Public Prosecutions office embarked on a cover up of the circumstances in order to protect the RUC personnel responsible for Nora’s murder. At the inquest in November 1982 several RUC people gave evidence, including James Critchley who was the senior RUC officer in west Belfast at the time. He was in one of the armoured vehicles. The RUC claimed that there were barricades on the Falls Road, tha...

On Monday the Ulster Unionist and Conservative parties published their election manifesto for the north. The launch was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding comments by David Cameron, the Conservative Party leader in London, which have been interpreted as meaning that he is intent on cutting public services in the six counties. His efforts to retreat from this position have only added to the debate. Sensing a blunder the DUP went on the attack. However, the fact is that there is no real difference between the approach of the Unionist/Conservatives and the DUP when it comes to the economy and politics generally. They are both cut from the same cloth. Look at working class unionist areas and you will see the same issues of deprivation and poverty that exist in deprived nationalist estates. Poor health indices, low education attainment levels, inadequate community facilities and much more. Poverty is rampant in many of these areas. Working class unionist neighbourhoods have long be...

The look of shock, sadness and disbelief on the faces of hundreds of people told their own story last night. The Lenadoon community was in mourning for a good neighbour and friend Seamus Fox. Seamus was a well known and respected Lenadoon resident. In the early hours of Thursday morning he was returning home from the Donegal Celtic Club, on the Suffolk Road, following a darts match. He was brutally assaulted and murdered close his home in Horn Drive. Yesterday I visited his wife Phyllis and family, and offered my personal condolences and those of the people of west Belfast. Later the community came together in a vigil to demonstrate our solidarity with the family and our abhorrence of the murder. It was a quiet but emotional event. It was chaired by local Councillor Gerard O Neill. The family had asked Sue Ramsay to read a statement on their behalf which spoke of their devastation at the ‘loss of a wonderful husband, father and grandfather. This has come as an enormous shock for all of...

Conor, mise agus Bronagh I met Bronagh Wilson and her family last Saturday night. She is an ordinary young woman from west Belfast with two small children. But she is also one of the bravest people I have had the honour to meet during my life. Her story is one of great love and compassion. Bronagh was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year. Although she was already presenting with symptoms beforehand, and had sought medical attention, the cancerous tumour was only detected in medical check-ups during Bronagh’s 2nd pregnancy. After her son Daniel was born, Bronagh was diagnosed and was then subject to surgery and post-operative treatment. Her medical condition is deemed as terminal. The Bronagh Wilson Trust was set up in September 2009 with the objective of raising funds for private medical treatment when the NHS treatment ends. That treatment stopped a few weeks ago. So the money raised during the funding campaign will be used to provide her with further private treatment. On Saturday...

Omagh on Friday night Last Monday I wrote to Margaret Ritchie inviting her to meet with me to discuss co-operation between our parties in the upcoming British General Election. I proposed that the agenda should include the need to co-operate in specific constituencies to ensure as far as possible that unionism does not increase its share of Westminster seats. Having consulted with our Belfast leadership It was my intention to propose that Sinn Féin would stand aside in South Belfast in return for the SDLP standing aside in Fermanagh South Tyrone. I had included on the letter a telephone contact number where I could be reached. Not having heard anything I wandered down before lunchtime on the Tuesday to her private office to find out what was happening. Her most senior PA told me she was out and when I asked for a telephone number to contact her I was told that she had recently changed her phone and he didn’t have the number. A senior SDLP party MLA who told me he was just a party flunk...

Derry Townhall meeting This blog has often thought he would make a good scheduler. Most of this is based on my experience at the hands of bad schedulers. Your man is the worse scheduler in the business. Regular readers will recall that this blog took an initiative to host a civic reception in Belfast City Hall for the all-Ireland Club champions St. Galls. It took place on Thursday night. This blog wasn’t there. It’s entirely your man’s fault. He had me in Upper Bann at one of Sinn Féin’s Townhall meetings. The Upper Bann meeting was really good. This blog met local activists and then separately the families of our patriot dead. And then we held a larger meeting which over a hundred or so turned out to. The conversation covered everything from the SDLP rejection of the proposed arrangement for Fermanagh South Tyrone and South Belfast to local issues, policing and justice and the impact on the peace process if the Tories were to win in Britain. The audience in Derry The Upper Bann meetin...

Monday was another beautiful day. Clear blue skies, warm and uplifting. It was also another good day in the peace process. It was a day we were told would never happen. It just goes to show; you should never say never or never, never, or never! Policing and justice was one of those hugely difficult issues that couldn’t be sorted during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations. The governments and the parties established the Patten Commission to deal with policing and the Criminal Justice Review to deal with criminal justice. We all then spent the intervening 12 years trying to chart a course through the party politics, the objections and the machinations of the vested British security and intelligence interests in the political system, to get to today. It was a torturous process. The unionist parties vehemently objected. At one level this was strange given that it was the removal of these powers by the Heath government which led unionism to collapse the Stormont regime in 1972. But at an...

‘Isn’t it wonderful weather?’ ‘Go hiontach’ I agreed. Your man has a habit of stating the obvious. But he was right. For once. The weather is gorgeous. Big blue sky stretched over us. The sun beaming down. ‘I wud love a beer.’ He continued. ‘An ice cold lager. From Belgium or Germany or the Nordic countries. A natural ice cold lager. Without chemicals’. I looked closely at him. ‘In a big glass.’ We were nearly home after a quick skite up the Black Mountain. His drought started at the Hatchet Field. ‘I have some lager in the shed since Christmas’ I volunteered. ‘Ah’ he said ‘ I thought I saw them when I borrowed your spade’. ‘When did you borrow my spade?’ I asked. ‘Last week’ he replied. ‘What for?’ ‘To dig holes for the fence poles for my chicken run’. ‘Ah…..when are you getting chickens?’ ‘I’m working on it. I have to pick my moment very carefully. Otherwise I’m snookered. I can’t ask until I know I will get a yes’. ‘So did you touch the beer?’ ‘Nope. I didn’t touch a thing. Except t...

The British Prime Minister has finally called the Westminster election. It will be on Thursday May 6 th . The date comes as no great surprise. It has been widely expected for months now. This blog likes elections. Except for canvassing in shopping centres, which I hate, they are great craic. You get out of the office; you meet people on their doorsteps and on the streets. You get a chance to connect directly with punters for a short but very intense period of weeks. It’s an opportunity to listen. To engage with citizens directly about our hopes, fears and plans for the future. But equally importantly it’s a chance to talk. This year the election and the annual series of Townhall Meetings held by Sinn Féin dovetail together. We first started these in January 2007 in the weeks leading up to the Sinn Fein special Ard Fheis on policing and justice. That was an intense time! And we have done it each year since because it’s a democratic exercise. The party has been preparing for this electio...

A beautiful Easter Sunday morning here in Belfast. Bright brittle spring sunshine. Mass first and a good decent priest doing his best to make sense of Church scandals. A time for reflection. Then a quick visit to old friends, Seando and Patricia. Seando, who is battling illness, wears his Easter Lily with pride and poses for photographs with his clan. Other clans were assembled also. The families of our patriot dead gathered for a short ceremony hosted by the National Graves Association. It was a moving and poignant event. The Graves do great work. I don’t often get to be in Belfast at Easter so this was a special event for me. Then a bigger than usual Easter parade up the Falls Road to the Republican Plot at Milltown. This blog was this years’ speaker. I am posting my remarks below mar eolas daoibhse. Have a good Easter wherever you are. Peace; Equality; Jobs and Unity A chairde, Tá mé lán sásta seasamh anseo libh inniu ar Domhnach na Cásca seo le smaoineadh ar ár gcomrádaithe a chuai...

Visteon workers in Parliament Buildings along with myself, Sue Ramsay MLA, Jennifer McCann MLA, Paul Maskey MLA, Paul Butler MLA and Basil McCrea MLA Two matters to blog about this Good Friday. The death of an old friend and the celebration of a workers protest. A year ago workers in the Visteon plant in west Belfast occupied the factory after the management announced its closure. The shutting of the factory was a devastating blow. It was compounded by the shenanigans of Visteon and Ford in trying to strip away pension rights from workers. The community of west Belfast rallied to the workers side and their courageous action emboldened their colleagues in two other plants in Britain. Six weeks after they began their occupation the workers marched out of the plant united and proud. They had secured from the Visteon Corporation a compensation package, which while not as fair as it should have been was much, much better than Visteon intended it to be. This Wednesday Visteon workers held a...