Léargas

UP THE FALLS!!! Since the Westminster election this blog and my good friend Fra McCann have spent some time meeting with many of the local community groups in the Lower Falls. The amount of work that is carried out in this area by a wide range of organisations and agencies is quite extraordinary. Some of it is aimed at helping the elderly, some at lone parents, and some at providing facilities and resources for young people. The Falls Youth Providers represents 10 different groups who have come together to co-ordinate their efforts and to ensure that scare resources are spread more evenly across the community. They do a remarkable job under difficult circumstances and you cannot but be impressed by their dedication and commitment to young people. They want to create a safe and secure environment for all the people of the Falls, but especially the young people. The challenges and difficulties facing young people today are enormous. Poverty, drugs, alcohol, physical and mental abuse, bul...

Raising the Flag for the environment Tuesday was a beautiful day. Clear blue skies and a warm sun. I arrived at St. Luke’s Primary school in Twinbrook at 10 am as arranged and the teachers had already arranged for scores of children to be sitting on the grass. There were also some of the school teachers and representatives from local community groups. I was there to raise a flag – or hoist - as I was told by the Deputy Principal Mr. Shannon. In this case a flag demonstrating the schools commitment to a positive environmental agenda, and its success in winning the Eco- Bronze award. St. Luke’s has taken up environmental issues in a big way. The teachers and children are committed to improving their school and local environment. And as part of this St. Luke’s became involved in an innovative and unique project called the Eco Schools Award scheme. This was created after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit on the environment. At that time issues like climate change and pollution were really beginnin...

Bluebells on the Mountain ‘The good weather puts everybody in good form’ your man remarked. We were sitting in the Hatchet Field. Belfast sprawled below us. Its narrow terraced - peace wall bisected ¬- streets, new apartment blocks, church spires, old mills stretched before us, until yellow cranes dominating, it dipped its feet into the Lough. In the distance the coast of Scotland shimmered in the clear warmth of a fine June day. Your man was master of all he surveyed. ‘Thon’s our house’ he said pointing down at the Murph. I ignored him. The mountain slope was loud with bird song. All around us a carpet of late bluebells almost on their last legs, gave way to verdant green young bracken and other ground cover which had replaced the scorched stubble of recent gorse fires. The mountain had healed itself from the hurt inflicted on it by morons. ‘When I was a wee lad we used to pick blue bells and bring them home to my Ma,’ your man continued. ‘So did I. She used to put them in a milk b...

It was like a script out of Monty Python. Fine Gael and Labour propose a vote of no confidence in Brian Cowan and then Fine Gael decides to embark on an internal civil war over its own leader Enda Kenny. The government was laughing all the way to the bank! Or in this case two banking reports into the south’s banking crisis which last week confirmed the key role that Irish government policy played in creating the conditions for the meltdown of the banking system and the catastrophic impact that the global economic crisis has had on the 26 county’s economy. So, instead of the Taoiseach under pressure and being forced to seriously consider an election which would allow the public to finally have a say in the government’s mismanagement of the economy, Cowan was off the hook courtesy of an internal attempt to heave Enda Kenny out. And while Enda has survived this round the questions and concerns over his leadership will not have gone away – you know. Meanwhile the Dublin government has larg...

Martina Anderson, Mise and Pearse Doherty at start of Commemorative March in Derry By 2.30pm the crowd at Free Derry corner had swollen and spread towards the Bloody Sunday memorial. The Bogside nestled below the city walls basking in warm summer sunshine. Stewards shepherded members of the Bloody Sunday families and other victims of state killings, like the Ballymurphy families, to the front of the mass of people. Eleven people - ten men, including a local priest and a mother of eight children - were killed in Ballymurphy in west Belfast by the parachute regiment in the 36 hours following the introduction of internment in August 1971, six months before Bloody Sunday in Derry. There was a good natured sense of expectation as thousands of people fell in behind the families. The names of the 14 victims were read aloud. There was a minute’s silence. Then we set off for the Guild Hall, the destination of the original civil rights march thirty eight years ago. As we passed Pilots Row Commun...

This morning before I travel to Derry for the publication of the Saville report into the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972 I will attend the funeral of my good friend Seando Moore. I have known Seando for a very long time. He was a deeply committed republican activist who joined the struggle in the early 1970s when he was 17. Seando, who was known as 'The Child' by his comrades, was interned on the prison ship Maidstone before being moved to Long Kesh where he spent five years. After his release he returned to the struggle and was subsequently captured in 1977. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and went on the blanket protest. He was a courageous and remarkable man with a great sense of humour which helped get him, and those around him, through the worst of times. This was clearly evident during the many years he battled cancer. After his release from prison he became an indispensable part of Sinn Féin. He worked hard on community issues in the Beechmount area where he live...

It is the eve of the publication of the Saville report into Bloody Sunday. For the families it must be a hugely stressful time. Almost 40 years of campaigning, including 12 years of the Saville Inquiry and waiting for its deliberations, would have taxed the energy and patience and emotions of any group of families. But throughout all of those years the families of the 14 men killed by the British parachute regiment, and the others wounded, have been an inspiration and example of fortitude and courage to us all. Tomorrow I will travel to Derry to avail of the opportunity to read the report before its publication at 3.30pm. It is by all accounts 5,000 pages long with a 60 page executive summary. There has been speculation in some sections of the media about what it will contain and a range of comments by unionist and conservative politicians expressing horror at the length of time it has taken to produce the report; at the cost of Saville, and stating that there should be no more inquiri...

London was warm and clammy. Michelle Gildernew and this blog flew there early on Wednesday morning. After the usual torturous journey through its crowded streets we joined Martin McGuinness for a meeting with the new British Secretary of State Owen Patterson in W2, one of the meeting rooms just off Westminster Hall in Westminster. Martin was there from the previous day when he and Peter Robinson had taken part in a meeting with David Cameron and Nick Clegg, as well as the First Minister of Scotland and Wales. The focus of their meeting was the expected budget cuts. They didn’t get the clarity from the British government that had been predicted. Apparently the new coalition government is still working out the details of its imminent budget. Before the meeting Martin’s exasperation was clear when he said; “Cutting frontline services is not a necessity – it is a political decision being taken by a British cabinet full of millionaires.” In the meeting Martin made clear our determination to...

Last Friday I attended the launch of this years Aisling Bursary initiative in the Culturlann in west Belfast. The Bursaries are a collaboration between the west Belfast Partnership Board, the Belfast Media Group, and local businesses. Money is raised and is then distributed to local people who want to participate in education programmes or who need help in meeting the costs of training and upskilling. It is an amazing initiative which at its core recognizes the importance of education and of personal empowerment, and acknowledges talent and effort. The amounts of money are not huge. £1000 for a full bursary £500 for a part time course but in difficult financial times it can make a difference. The bursaries are especially about helping those who face significant barriers, including family circumstances – they may be a carer for example – or have a disability or just not have the money to undertake a course they want to do. This is the 11th year the Bursaries. Since they were first launc...

In the early hours of Saturday morning the Rachel Corrie was hijacked by Israeli forces. Its detention by the Israeli government brings to an end this particular phase in the international effort to break the illegal siege of Gaza. The Flotilla was an heroic effort to highlight the imprisonment of one and a half million people by the Israeli state and the humanitarian crisis that the siege has created. All of those involved in planning, assisting, procuring supplies, raising funding and taking part in the Flotilla are to be commended for their courageous actions. The Irish contribution to the Freedom Flotilla was significant. People and organisations responded very positively and provided the aid that filled the holds of the Rachel Corrie. And Irish public opinion, with the exception of some unionists, was clearly in support of the humanitarian aid workers and appalled by the violent response of the Israeli government. But the campaign to end the illegal siege of Gaza, to en...

Outside Government Buildings Last Thursday a Sinn Féin Delegation led by this blog and including Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Party Vice President Mary Lou McDonald, Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew and Dáil Group Leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD met the Taoiseach Brian Cowen at Government Buildings. The focus of our conversation was the recent Westminster election and its implications; the imminent publication of the Bloody Sunday report; the need to ensure that the new British Coalition Government honours its obligations under the Good Friday and St Andrew’s Agreements; and the opportunity to develop the all-Ireland economy as part of the fightback against the current economic recession, and the Israeli attack on the aid convoy to the Gaza strip and the events surrounding the MV Rachel Corrie. The Sinn Fein delegation made very clear our view that summoning the Israeli Ambassador to talks is not enough. A clear message must be sent to the Israeli government that it...

At Belfast City Hall Rally Monday night Regular readers will recall this blog’s meeting with Caoimhe Butterly of Free Gaza Movement. On May 17th I dedicated that blog to the story of the MV Rachel Corrie and the Flotilla to the Gaza Strip. I’m glad I did. But I never imagined what would happen to it. I was on my way to an early morning event in Tir Éoghan when the car radio broadcast the awful news of the death and destruction visited upon the mercy mission by the Israeli government. There is no justification for the military actions of the Israeli government against the humanitarian flotilla. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla is a humanitarian mission carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. For four years the Israeli government has illegally imprisoned over one and a half million men, women, and children in the most horrendous of conditions. These people have been denied many of the basic necessities of life, including the essential construction equipment and materials tha...