Léargas

Martin McGuinness is a trail blazer. That much must be clear. Even to his detractors. A life devoted to struggle has seen many examples of this. Martin, in good times and bad, has had many opportunities and occasions to draw on these pioneering qualities. The net outcome has generally benefitted the people he struggled alongside. It has also, particularly in this time of peace, assisted those, in time of war, who would have been or seen themselves as his enemies or opponents. Rarely has this been acknowledged by the great and the good. But no matter. None of this is done to win favour with them. They know that. They have their values. We have ours. The Presidential election brought all this to the surface. Martin is the first Sinn Féin person ever to contest a presidential election. He fought a six week campaign. And as a result of this, despite the short time involved, many of the issues he argued for are now firmly on the public agenda. These include voting rights for Irish citize

In June this blog commented on the worsening state of the health service in the south. It made grim reading. The critique arose mainly as a result of several visits I had made to the Emergency Department of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. This blog witnessed many patients, some of them very elderly, lying on hospital trolleys, or sitting on chairs or the floor waiting to be treated by an overstretched and overworked medical staff. This blog had also visited Louth County Hospital which was and is being slowly strangled by the withdrawal of key health services, including the closure of its emergency department. And these two hospitals are the rule not the exception. Last Saturday I joined local Sinn Féin representative Paul Donnelly in Dublin West along with scores of local people who were protesting at the 20% cuts in funding for James Connolly hospital and the adverse impact this is having on services in that hospital. But it was the news out of Drogheda that caused greatest

The International Group left to right: Jonathan Powell, mise, Bertie, Kofi Annan, Gro Harland Bruntland, Pierre Joxe. Monday was a busy day and hopefully a significant one for the people of the Basque country and Spain. It started with a plane flight to Bilbao from Dublin. This blog and a Sinn Féin delegation met up with Bertie Ahern and his colleagues in Dublin Airport, and joined Jonathan Powell, former Chief of Staff to Tony Blair, on board a small plane bound for the Basque country. We were on our way to a conference in San Sebastian in Euskadi entitled; ‘International conference to promote the resolution of the conflict in the Basque County’. The event had been organised by a range of groups, including the Basque Citizen Network for Agreement and Consultation, Lokarri, the International Contact Group (GIC) led by South African lawyer Brian Currin, and four other international foundations. We were due to join up with former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan; Pierre Joxe, former Fren

Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, Fergal Caraher’s parents, Mary and Peter John, and Sinn Féin Councillors Brendan Curran and Colman Burns at the memorial in South Armagh dedicated to Fergal Caraher It was a fine autumn morning. The South Armagh hilltops, free of British Army forts, were beautiful in the bright morning light as we drove north from Dublin to Cullyhanna to attend the funeral of Peter John Caraher. This blog has known Peter John and the Caraher family for many years. A few weeks ago his son Miceál contacted me to let me know that Peter John was terminally ill. I told him I would call. It was just before the Ard Fheis. Miceál explained to me that Peter John had been told he only had a few weeks left but had forgotten this and I needed to be mindful of that in my conversation. I was therefore a wee bit apprehensive about the visit but I called and I came away uplifted and very happy. Peter John was in great form. We spent a couple of hours craicing away, telling yarns and in his c

Mark Guilfoyle, mise agus Rev Fred Shuttlesworth This blog has had the good fortune to meet many inspirational people over the years, in all parts of Ireland, in the Irish diaspora and beyond. Often they are very ordinary men and women who despite very real dangers have been prepared to make a stand against injustice and to defend the rights of others. Some walked the roads and streets and lanes of the north in pursuit of civil rights. Some confronted and challenged the riot clad brutality of the RUC and British Army and the death squads of loyalism and the British state. And some refused to accept the status of criminal in prisons in Ireland and England. In all sorts of little and big ways they and others stood tall for what is right. Most are anonymous citizens. Quietly and with dignity and courage, getting on with playing their part. Some, like Bobby Sands, Mairead Farrell and Maire Drumm, and many others took up leadership positions. They are remembered and are role models. So i