Léargas

Kathleen from County Leitrim was delighted to welcome us again to Rosie O Grady’s on 7th Avenue. Michael behind the bar said: ‘Céad míle failte arís.’ He always greets us in Gaelge. Sheila from Mayo brought us our lunch. In Rosie O Grady’s the staff are well used to comings and going. The last time I was there George Bush senior was eating spuds, cabbage and bacon. No one paid him much need. They take it all in their stride. Mayo and Leitrim men and women are like that. They give you their space. Rosie O Grady’s is across the road from the Sheraton Hotel and Towers. Among other events the Sheraton hosts the annual Friends of Sinn Féin dinner each year – this year on November 4th. Last week the Clinton Global Initiative was in town and for four days the CGI took over the lobby and several floors, including the huge Metropolitan ballroom for its series of events. This is the sixth year of the CGI. It held its first session in 2005. The idea is simplicity itself. To provide a location whe...

This blog was at two entirely different gatherings this week. The first one, down in County Kildare is the biggest event of its kind in Europe. I refer of course to the National Ploughing Championship – this year The European Championship. It’s like the All Ireland crowd multiplied a few times and moved from Croker into the countryside. Every thing associated with rural living is on display in a huge temporary city of tents and marquees. Tractors, ancient and futuristic, low loaders and high loaders. Quads, JCBs, spades and hurling sticks, wood burning stoves, power tools. All of the latest gadgets. Wet gear, dry gear, harvesters, sowers. Cattle, sheep, henhouses. Banks, eating places, drinking places. Acres of plants, billions of bulbs. Trees, shrubs, walking sticks, cattle prods, chicken feed. Dog boxes, horse boxes, boots, wooden sheds. Handicrafts, organic cheese. Dodgems. Big wheels. Hundreds of stalls and thousands and thousands of people from all parts of Ireland and abroad....

This blog loves All Ireland Sunday. The Camogie Final was great. Being at the Hurling Final earlier this month was an other world experience. And a great privilege. Hurling as an art form delivered by wizards and warriors on the hallowed turf of Croke Park. I first came to Croke Park for the football. In 1960 when the great history making Down team brought Sam across the border for the first time ever. I was twelve. Now fifty years later here I am in the back of the car rattling away on the laptop on my way to another Down bid for the All Ireland. My uncle Paddy, a good and decent man brought me to that epic game five decades ago in a hired car. Going to Dublin in those days was a great event, an exciting excursion. It is now a more mundane occupational hazard for this blog. But the thrill of Croke Park has remained. We were on Hill 16 that day. Me, a gasson, Uncle Paddy and two of his friends. Once a high ball dropped in our direction and all of us and most of the terraces leapt sky...

This blog spent Tuesday evening at the Aisling Bursary awards. The Aisling Bursaries have been around for 11 years. The idea behind them is very simple. To seek sponsorship from businesses and individuals in west Belfast to provide some financial support for third level students. These include mature students coming back into the education system. Women, lone parents. The amount involved is usually £1000 – not a lot but important when trying to make ends meet on limited resources or when you are part of a family with a limited budget. One young recipient Amanda McAteer, a former pupil of St. Rose’s and St. Mary’s, spoke eloquently at the event of the importance of the sponsorship in helping to make her goal of becoming a teacher possible. Since they began the Aisling Bursaries have raised over £400,000 and over 400 people have benefited from them. That is a considerable achievement and great praise is due to the Belfast Media Group and the West Belfast Partnership Board who make ...

Your woman looked me with a smile in her eyes. I knew I was in trouble. Her smile didn’t go as far as her lips. ‘How come I didn’t feature in your blog about all the good cooks?’ she asked. ‘Ah?’ I stuttered. ‘Do my tuna sandwiches not count?’ ‘Tuna sandwiches aren’t exactly cooking’ Your man interjected with his usual diplomatic skill. Your woman didn’t take him under her notice. She didn’t even ignore him. ‘Whenever you phone in here lukin someone to get you your lunch, who is it that does it?’ ‘You’ I said like a man who knows his place in the scheme of things. ‘Well, why don’t I get a mention in your blog. Do you have to go up to Stormont before anyone takes any notice of you?’ By now her smile had stretched to her lips. I relaxed a wee bit as I ushered your man out of the room. We were in the Sevastapol Street office. ‘Your tuna sandwiches are the best I’ve ever eaten’ I said. And at the risk of upsetting anyone else who ever gave me a tuna sandwich let me make clear that they ...

Belfast city centre was shrouded in darkness as the silent procession of families and friends from West Belfast who lost loved ones through suicide, their faces illuminated by candles and torches, made its way to the City Hall. The crowd seemed larger than last year. It was just after six when we reached Donegall Square. Ahead of us another procession from other parts of the city made its way out of Royal Avenue. It certainly was bigger. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. We were walking from darkness into light in an act of solidarity with all those bereaved through suicide and in an effort to raise awareness about suicide and self-harming. In recent years suicide has taken a heavy toll across this island. Last year West and North Belfast recorded the highest numbers with 22 in the west of the City and 20 in the north. More people die each year in Ireland as a result of suicide than die in road accidents. The human cost of this on families and communities is devastating. The real...

Attending a press conference in 2006 with Arnaldo Otegi, leader of Batasuna, who is currently in prison The announcement of a ceasefire by ETA on Sunday came after a long process of dialogue and internal discussion among Basque activists. This dialogue also involved this blog and other Sinn Féin representatives. Sometimes the discussions were held in the Basque country, sometimes in Belfast and on a number of occasions in recent years senior Sinn Féin representatives travelled to Geneva for meetings with Basque representatives. Given the experience of the 2006 cessation – which ended in mutual recrimination in December 06 after 9 months - there will be those on the Basque and Spanish sides who will be sceptical and cautious about Sunday’s statement and this is understandable. But caution should not be allowed to encourage preconditions to dialogue. Caution should not be allowed to block progress. In the Irish peace process we saw how games of scrabble were played around the use and int...

The Old City of Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock The Middle East peace talks, which formally opened in Washington on Thursday, have been given one year. It’s a tall order. In 2006 when I visited the region I spent a brief time in the Kalandia refugee camp. It was opened in 1949 and is under Israeli control. That refugee camp is home to ten thousand Palestinian refugees who for 60 years have been dependent on emergency food aid and the provision of services. Generations have grown up under occupation while living in appalling conditions of poverty and deprivation. Kalandia was opened the year after I was born. And in every decade since that part of the world has been convulsed by one major war after another leaving thousands dead and millions more, almost all of them Palestinians, as refugees. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimates that there are some 5 million Palestinian refugees in the region and this excludes those who have moved further away to Europe, the U...

‘And now the end is near. And so I face the final curtain ………..’ Your man is always the one for the dramatic outbursts. ‘It’s only the end of the holidays’. I cut into his Sinatra impersonation. ‘I did what I had to do …. ‘What was the best part of this sos, this r and r, this vacation ?’ I asked. ‘for you?’ ‘What was your best bit?’ he responded. ‘There were lots of best bits. Being away. Not reading newspapers for a while…. ‘I saw you reading newspapers!’ he butted in. ‘You saw me reading the Andytown News once. Cos I cud only get it once. But when I am on holidays I don’t listen to radio news or television news and I don’t get the newspapers except for Andytown News which is very hard to get in these parts and on a Saturday I get the Irish Times but that’s more for the review section and the magazine. So from Saturday to Saturday I don’t know what is happening in the world.’ ‘But you can’t say you don’t get newspapers!! You may not get as many newspapers as you do at home but you do...