Léargas

Today I had an opportunity to speak in the Dáil on the outcome of last weeks European Council meeting. Much of the debate was around the EU/IMF/ECB bailout of €45 billion to the Irish government, its social consequences and the debt repayments that must be met by the state. But it was also an opportunity to raise the issue of the flotilla of ships which are planning to bring much needed aid to the besieged people of Gaza. One of the ships is the MV Saoirse, an Irish boat. Among its crew of Irish activists are a number of shinners from west Belfast, Waterford and Derry. If you want some idea of what they are up against then read the words of the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Israeli radio on Tuesday morning. He accused those taking part in the flotilla of being ‘terror activists, seeking to create provocation and looking for blood.’ Minister Lieberman then sought to dismiss the flotilla as irrelevant and to claim that a number of those planning to join it had declined...

The Life and Times Survey last week, which claimed that 16% of the population of the north and 33% of Catholic favour a united Ireland, caused jubilation in some unionist circles and among those in the media who support this position. Given our experience with inexact, and occasionally totally wrong opinion polls over many years, most nationalists and republicans took a much more relaxed attitude. This blog wasn’t surprised by the unionist political reaction. Unionist politicians are continually seeking reassurance on the union. Usually it has to come from British Prime Ministers who must constantly declare at every opportunity their support for the union. Sometimes it’s a visit by some member of the British royal family; occasionally it’s from election results or opinion polls. But the demand by unionist politicians for regular reminders of British support for the union is a constant. It is a measure of the insecurity of the unionist political elite, and the impact of a partitionist a...

Uniting Ireland Conference Dublin Mapping out the Road to Irish Unity On Saturday Sinn Féin held the first of a series of conferences this year on the theme of uniting Ireland. Several hundred people attended the conference in Dublin’s Rotunda Pillar Room Complex in Parnell Square. A major focus of the conference was the economics of Irish unity. Speakers included, Dr. John Bradley, an economic consultant, who was formerly a Research Professor at the ESRI and regularly advises the European Commission, the World Bank and other international organisations and governments; Dr. Pádraic White, Former IDA Managing Director, Entrepreneur & Chairman Employers Services Board West Belfast and Greater Shankhill; and Michael D'Arcy, a Dublin-based economic and business consultant. Other speakers included Norah Gibbon of Barnardos, Director of Advocacy, and Geoffrey Shannon, Child Law expert; and Rev Gary Mason. Next week there will be a conference in Cork and later in the year in October a...

This blog has had occasion to visit the Accident and Emergency unit in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Each visit was as depressing as the previous. Patients, many of them elderly, were lying on hospital trolleys, others were sitting on chairs, and in one instance a patient was lying on the floor. Most had been there for two days or more. The staff were doing their best but were simply overwhelmed by the numbers of patients and the inadequate resources available to them. The collapse and subsequent death of Peter Sherlock several weeks ago in Drogheda, and the failure of the ambulance service to respond promptly to emergency calls, is additional evidence of the cracks in local health provision and in the state health system. And then there is the slow destruction of Louth County Hospital through the withdrawal of key health services, including the children’s ward, the maternity ward and then the gynaecological unit. And last year the HSE closed the A&E and Acute Medical ...

The legacy of the past is one of the big issues which remains to be resolved in the outworking of the peace process. This includes the truth about formal and informal collusion and the wider desire of many victims and families for an effective truth recovery process. Ten years ago, in 2001, the British and Irish Governments committed, at peace process talks at Weston Park, to adopt the recommendations of an International Judge in relation to a number of specific cases of collusion. Canadian Judge Peter Cory was asked to look at the killing of Pat Finucane; Robert Hamill; Rosemary Nelson; Billy Wright; Judge Gibson and his wife; and RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and RUC Superintendent Robert Buchanan. Cory worked diligently and in 2003 he handed his reports over to the two governments. The Canadian Judge concluded that there was no basis for an inquiry into the deaths of the Gibsons. He proposed that one should be held into the killing of the two RUC officers. The Irish governmen...

The announcement by Vodafone that it plans to cut over 130 jobs from its workforce in the 26 counties and ‘outsource’ them to India and Egypt has outraged the Communications Workers Union and led to condemnation from Sinn Féin and others. Meeting Vodafone workers in Dundalk Most of the jobs are expected to go in Louth. The impact on those affected will be traumatic. The affect on the local economy, which is already reeling from the imposition of the Universal Social Charge and austerity cuts to government programmes and public services, will be incalculable. Last week I met the Deputy General Secretary of the CWU Terry Delaney and on Friday four local workers from the call centre in Dundalk met me to explain their concerns and to express their determination to fight this decision by Vodafone. The decision to axe these jobs is typical of the approach multi-national companies take toward local investments. Multinationals primarily take decisions based on costs and profits. If they can pr...

It used to be all about ‘spin’. That is getting the message out and influencing, to the point of controlling, how the media covered a particular story. Alaistair Campbell was credited with being the master of spin for the former Labour government in Britain. ‘Spin’ was the new word used in the 90’s to describe a very old aspect of politics and business – sell the message to the public in a believable and attractive manner; hammer the opposition, and win support for your position. And if you make mistakes? Limit the damage through briefings and more ‘spin’, which if necessary means dumping on whoever is responsible for the problem. Governments have been spinning their way in and out of trouble for millennia. The British never claimed they were invading Ireland to steal the land and impoverish and exploit its people – in their own words they came to civilise the barbarians! The west claimed that it invaded Iraq to save us from Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. They didn’t exist but ...