Léargas

Last month this blog stood in the Guildhall Square in Derry and watched as the relatives of the 14 innocent victims of the British Parachute Regiment expressed their delight at the Saville report’s conclusion that the 14 were innocent victims. At the time the dead were labelled as terrorists by the British government. The British system and to its shame much of the British media, accused those who had been shot of being ‘gunmen’ and ‘bombers’. Lies were told and a cover-up concocted and the British establishment closed ranks to defend the actions of its Army. That lie persisted for decades. The British Prime Minister David Cameron apologised for what happened. I am sure the words of regret and remorse he made that day were heartfelt and the people of Derry welcomed them. However, Mr. Cameron then sought to expunge the violent record of the British Army in the north by claiming that: “Bloody Sunday is not the defining story of the service the British Army gave in Northern Ireland from 1...

Andersonstown Barracks as a fortified British Army/RUC base A public meeting which is being jointly hosted by the West Belfast Partnership Board and PLACE - the Architecture & Built Environment Centre which examines issues relating to; Planning, Landscape, Architecture, Community, Environment - will be held in the Glenowen Inn on Monday 2nd August at 6pm. The public meeting is to conclude consultation about the future development of the Andersonstown Barracks site. Regular readers will know that this blog supports the call for the Andersonstown Barracks site to be turned over to the local community. Thus far the Department of Social Development has resisted this. DSD’s failure to deal with this issue properly and in partnership with the community, means that almost 5 years and half a million pounds of public money have been wasted. In 2005 the Andersonstown Barracks, after a long campaign, was demolished. Since then the DSD has ignored local representations, including from poli...

Going Past Ardoyne shops The street conflict which racked parts of the north over the 12th was largely a result of a small number of so-called dissident groups exploiting the tensions and fears surrounding Orange marches. Sinn Féin’s opposition to these groups is unequivocal and a matter of public record. However, the fact remains that it is the obstinate insistence by the loyal orders to march through Catholic areas, and their refusal to talk, that is at the heart of the perennial violence that marks the marching season. Orange marches have been the cause of serious sectarian strife in the 19th century, the 20th and now the 21st century. The first serious violence around orange marches occurred in Belfast in 1813 and each subsequent year brought more conflict. Besieged catholic neighbourhoods got some respite when the British banned orange marches between 1832-44 and 1950-72. However, the latter part of the 19th century saw the Unionist business class and landed aristocracy, allied to...

The legend goes that Setanta as a young boy wanted more than anything else to become a warrior and join the Red Branch Knights of Ulster. These were renowned warriors who defended Ireland. Their leader was Conor Mac Nessa the High King. When he was 10 Setanta told his anxious parents that he was going off to Eamhain Macha (near Armagh) to join the Red Branch Knights. They tried to dissuade him but he was determined. And one sunny morning in May he headed off with his sliothar (ball) and his caman (stick). As he made his way across the Cooley mountains he would strike his sliothar with his caman and then chase after it catching it before it hit the ground. Eventually he reached Eamhain Macha. He joined in a game of hurley with the Kings son and others much older than himself and impressed everyone with his skill; slayed the hound of Cullan, the Kings blacksmith, by hitting his sliothar down its throat as it attacked him; and earned himself the name by which he is best remembered - Cuchu...

Mise, Leo and Paul Maskey in Armagh This blog knows Leo Wilson a very long time. But then Leo has been around for a very long time. At 87 years Leo Wilson could be mistaken for someone 15 years younger. He’s a spirited and sprightly soul and an enthusiastic Irish language speaker. Although, in his younger days he was employed part-time in two different pubs, he still wears his Pioneer – total abstinence - pin with pride. Leo quips the small lapel pin is to prevent anyone thinking his occasional loss of balance is alcohol-related. His tentative steps belie his sharp wit and strong resolve. In October 1964 Leo stood in the Westminster election as one of 12 Republican candidates. Sinn Féin was a banned party. Leo stood in South Antrim where he pulled in almost 4,000 votes. Last week, he stepped into the High Court in Belfast. Leo was there to apply for leave to judicially review a decision by the Board of Libraries NI to close Leo’s local public library in Andersonstown. The closure propo...

The Orange marching season always provides its fair share of problems. Some of it is the mundane business of charting a course through the inevitable traffic chaos which on this ‘Twelfth’ will result from 18 major demonstrations across all parts of the north. But most focus will be on the small number of contentious parades. In past years they have resulted in chaos of a different and more violent kind. 41 years ago it was an Orange march in Derry which led to the Battle of the Bogside and the pogroms in Belfast. And the following year, 1970, it was another orange march on the Springfield Road in west Belfast which led to the first serious confrontation between nationalists and the British Army. It marked the beginning of the British Army’s military offensive against the nationalist people. More recently in 2005 the policing of the controversial Orange parade to the Whiterock Loyal Orange Lodge on the Springfield Road in West Belfast and the subsequent rioting cost £3 million sterling....

Memorial to the Hunger Strikers in the grounds of the Roddy McCorley Club Joe McDonnell was great craic. He loved life and had a great sense of fun. He was optimistic, charismatic, a natural leader, and a practical joker. And he was a dedicated and committed IRA Volunteer who 29 years ago on July 8th 1981 died on hunger strike. I first met Joe during internment. We were being held on the Maidstone Prison ship in Belfast Lough. The conditions were punitive and primitive. After protests by us and following the imposition of British Direct Rule it was closed. We were moved to the cages in Long Kesh. Joe was one of hundreds of men and women incarcerated without trial. And although conditions were harsh in the cages he was always cheerful. Later when he commenced his hunger strike, four days after the death of his friend and comrade Bobby Sands, Joe sent me out from the H Blocks a King Edward cigar. Don’t ask me how he got it. Joe was the fifth man to join the hunger-strike. He was 29 yea...

Briege agus mise in Rodney St James is a closely knit west Belfast neighbourhood bordered by the Falls Road, the M1 and the Bog Meadows. James Connolly lived in a house on the Falls Road, along the front of the area for several years. He left there to join the Rising in Dublin in April 1916. Other parts of the district were built later in the 1920’s and perhaps 30’s. Much of the housing is made up of small terraced two or three bedroom homes. Once it boasted Celtic Park in its midst but that is now long gone, replaced by the Park Centre, a huge shopping Mall. Like many other parts of the city St. James has suffered as a result of the conflict. It is disadvantaged with high levels of unemployment. It is an interface area. The loyalist Village is just across the Broadway Roundabout and over the decades the lower end of the district has witnessed sectarian confrontations. Last Friday night a large mob of young loyalists came across from the Village sparking a confrontation. Br...

Where you live affects how you live. I say this because the challenge for any of us, this blog included , who are committed to equality is to ensure that wherever citizens live, they have the same rights and entitlements as everyone else. Over many decades, sectors of the city in which I live have been colour-coded by statutory agencies. They glibly refer to ‘green’ areas and ‘orange’ areas. Maps in the offices of public bodies demonstrate the institutionalised thinking which divides Belfast. This was not merely a symptom of sectarianism. It follows the practice initiated by the British military. Since the British army used colour-codes, especially to define what they regarded as hostile nationalist districts, other public bodies followed suit. It went so far that, the concept of ‘defensive planning’ permeated all facets of public life, from road networks to social housing developments. Counter-insurgency architecture was a facade of British rule. Not surprisingly, the areas worst affe...