Léargas

Following last year’s hugely successful Féile an Phobail, ‘Poc ar an Cnoc’ – Puck on the Hill - on the Stormont estate, this year’s event will take place on Saturday 6th August 2011, as part of a series of GAA focused events during the Festival programme. The Poc Fada has been a part of Féile an Phobail for many years and was held either in the Falls park or on the Black mountain. However, in November 2009 a tree was planted in the grounds of Parliament Buildings at Stormont to mark 125 years of An Cumann Luthchleas Gael. The tree was planted in the shadow of the statue to Unionist leader Edward Carson. Subsequently, this blog offered to host the Poc Fada at Stormont and proposed that we name a competition after Edward Carson, who as a student at Trinity College in Dublin was a member of their hurley team. Last year, the Captain of Trinity Martin Phelan and four team colleagues came up from Dublin to participate in the first ever Poc Fada at Stormont. The concept of the Poc Fada (long...

Imagine walking from Belfast to Dublin or from Derry to Cork! Imagine doing it in your bare feet. Imagine walking in the scorching heat and with no water and food. Imagine carrying your children and being forced to leave some of them lying dead at the side of the road because you haven’t the strength to dig a hole to bury them. Imagine a landscape blasted by heat, with sparse vegetation and the rotting remains of cattle and other animals dead of thirst. A harsh and unforgiving countryside. Imagine that those around you are empty eyed and gaunt, with swollen and extended stomachs. This is the reality of life and death for hundreds of thousands of men, woman and children. It is the immediate future for millions more. It is Somalia. Famine is a terrible word. It conjures up frightening images and for many in Ireland a folk memory of the Great Hunger of the 1840’s. The Horn of Africa today, like much of Africa, is still conflicted by the brutal legacy of colonisation. It is also caught up ...

Tomorrow state leaders from across the Eurozone will be meeting in Brussels to try and fix the crisis in the Eurozone economies. It’s a big ask! The agenda is already clear. Much of the focus will be on Greece. The leaders need to agree measures to ensure the sustainability of Greek public finances; the role of private sector involvement; whether it is possible to put more flexibility into the European Financial Stability Facility; to take measures to mend the outstanding faults in the banking sector; and to agree measures to ensure there is liquidity – money - within the banking systems. The Irish government has set as its priority a reduction in the interest rate being paid on the loans it has taken out as a result of the EU/IMF/ECB (European Union – International Monetary Fund – European Central Bank) bailout. The stated goal by Fine Gael at the time of the election earlier this year was to reduce the interest on the total bailout of the loan by 1%. This, it was claimed, would save...

It’s difficult to know where to begin. Last week’s Cloyne report makes grim reading. It provides a horrendous and detailed account of clerical abuse and Catholic hierarchy failure and cover-up in the Diocese of Cloyne in County Cork. It is the fourth major report in the last decade in the south of Ireland into child abuse by clerics. The Murphy report investigated the handling of allegations of clerical sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese and was published in November 2009. It concluded that four successive archbishops had handled the allegations with ‘denial, arrogance and cover-up’ and that they did not report what they knew of these allegations to the Gardaí. The structures and rules of the Church allowed for the cover-up of abuse. Murphy also concluded that many auxiliary bishops in the Dublin Diocese were also aware of the accusations yet priests were assigned to parishes without any examination of sex abuse issues. It detailed cases involving over 300 children. The Ryan report wa...

Féile na Laoch, /Festival of heroes, Cúl Aodha Sunday July 31st Seán Ó Riada was born almost 80 years ago on August 1st 1931. He is one of the great pioneers of traditional Irish music. In 1959 he scored the music for the film Mise Éire and succeeded in producing one of the most iconic pieces of Irish music of modern times. In 1961 he formed Ceoltóirí Chualann and for the remainder of the decade, and with the support of some mighty musicians, he singlehandedly took Irish traditional music into a new era. Ó Riada is equally famed for his choral music and, as part of the féile, Cór Chúil Aodha, the choir he formed in the village, will perform one of his masses. He did great work for Ireland, for our language and for our people. Sean died at the age of 40, too soon and too young. I have listened to his music all my adult life so I was greatly honoured to be asked to launch Féile na Laoch when I was down west Cork recently. The festival will be held over the August bank holiday, beginning...

OUTCOMERS This blog gets to go to all sorts of places for all kinds of events. On Friday it was Dundalk for a series of engagements and a few events. The town was busy. Traders have a hard time with the big out of town multiples eating into the retail business. Escalating rates and other charges make life difficult for small local shop keepers. Recession! Recession! Recession is the order of the day. But on Friday Dundalk was bustling. Especially in Eno’s opposite the Cathedral. I was there as a guest of Dundalk Outcomers. They, and this blog and other public representatives, were celebrating Dundalk Pride. The event at Eno’s is part of a celebration of the towns gay citizens. Other events include a table quiz, a film and panel discussion. Today, Saturday, is Pride Day. Pride Day is a fun day out for everyone with an outdoor café, funfair stalls, a travelling circus troupe and magic show, free workshops, music and holistic therapy treatments. The venue is Dundalk Outcomers Centre...

Sunday was the last day of the News of the World. It was the biggest selling Sunday newspaper in Britain. It thought it made the rules. And for much of its 168 years it did. It was a paper which specialised in sex, politics, drugs and celebrity scandals. And it didn’t care who it hurt in seeking to sell papers. As part of the Murdoch media empire it was ruthless and merciless in pursuit of the exposé. But last week it became of the latest victim of that same exposé culture it had dominated for generations. The accusations being levelled against it are straightforward. It hacked phones for stories - to sell more papers - to make more money. But the British public’s appetite for sensational stories of political corruption, the sexual indiscretions of celebrities and the exposure of sporting cheats, drew the line at listening in on the traumatic personal calls of bereaved British military families and terror and murder victims. There are also allegations that tens of thousands of pounds w...

This year sees the second of Sinn Féin’s summer schools. For those who don’t know there are many of these across the state during the summer months. They are organised by a wide range of groups and cover topics as diverse as literature, music, culture, politics, writing and much more. Most last a weekend. This blog has spoken at several over the years. But last year Sinn Fein held its first such school in west Cork and this year we have returned for a second time. 'Scoil Shamhraidh na Saoirse’ is taking place in Baile Bhuirne in West Cork. The summer school has a wide range of speakers on politics, the economy, sports, language and arts. The partys website www.sinnfein.ie is carrying regular updates throughout the weekend. Among the topics being covered is the 1981 hunger strike which took place 30 years ago this year. Danny Morrison, Leo Green and Sean Kelleher are addressing that issue. This morning there was a informed and very discussion on the ‘need for a new Revival’. The m...

There is a similarity in problems faced by communities north and south. The constituency of Louth and East Meath shares many of the same characteristics of west Belfast – high unemployment; poor housing provision; poverty; lack of investment by government; community safety issues and much more. There are differences also. The most obvious being the fact that Louth and East Meath has an electorate of over 100,000 – some 40,000 more than west Belfast and big parts of it are rural. Among the community safety issues are those caused by drug and alcohol misuse. A few weeks ago this blog and local Sinn Féin Councillor Paddy McQuillan visited the Louth Community Drug and Alcohol Team in Drogheda. We met the staff, members of the North East Regional Drug Task Force, and a group of addicts who are on methadone to control their heroin addiction. I was very impressed by the commitment and professionalism of the staff who provide a first class service with inadequate resources, and who are strugg...

The war of words around the humanitarian aid flotilla trying to bring much needed supplies to Gaza took on a more sinister turn when two of the ships, one in a Greek port and the second, the Irish MV Saoirse, were the target last week of what appears to have been sabotage. Israeli spokespersons have been ratcheting up the threatening language against the flotilla. Despite having no evidence to support their accusations Israeli newspapers have claimed that the aid convoy is carrying a cargo of chemicals and is planning to use violence. The Israeli Maariv newspaper used a photo of one of the flotilla and beside it the headline, “Coming to kill.” One Israeli blogger wrote: “The objective of the ‘Ships of Fools’ has nothing to do with helping the people of Gaza, or promoting peace. Its purpose is to delegitimize Israel and kill Jews.” And a government Minister claimed that the Israeli Army had information that “participants in the flotilla to Gaza plan on attacking IDF soldiers with lethal...