Léargas

Harry Thompson Richard; wee Harry and Gerry at the separation Wall in Bethlehem Congress member Richie Neal; Billy Tranghese and wee Harry at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in the Waterfront last September Harry Thompson died yesterday at home surrounded by his family and friends. I have known wee Harry for over 40 years. We were always close. Harry was a republican activist for most of his adult life. He was a very proud son of Ballymacarrett in East Belfast. He was born in Bryson Street in 1944, the youngest of eight sons and two daughters to Elizabeth and Arthur Thompson. At 15 he left school and went to work as an apprentice in the heating and plumbing trade. He claims that during this time he worked in every hospital in Belfast. In 1962, as the 50’s campaign was coming to an end, Harry joined the republican struggle. He was recruited into the IRA by Liam Mulholland, who was himself a well known and long standing republican activist. Liam had been involved in the Tan War and in every s...

This weekend I was in Derry. Sinn Féin held the latest of our very successful Uniting Ireland conferences which drew a capacity crowd in the Millennium Forum. Derry is a beautiful city, full of history and culture and art. And the people are great. But for many people, particularly in the USA, the name Derry is synonymous with the terrible events that occurred there on January 30th 1972. On that day – exactly 40 years ago – British Paratroopers shot dead 14 civil rights marchers and wounded others in what has passed into history as Bloody Sunday. For the 39 years following that atrocity the families and the people of Derry campaigned for truth and justice for those who died and were injured. At great personal cost they organised and marched and lobbied. In this they received invaluable support from Irish America. Noraid, the AoH, Clann na nGael and many others enthusiastically and relentlessly lobbied US politicians. Irish people throughout the globe and Irish America in particular in ...

There are many issues exercising the minds of citizens in this part of the island at this time. Today, Wednesday, the government will hand €1.25 billion of taxpayers money over what are called unsecured, unguaranteed bondholders. These are people who bought bonds in Anglo-Irish bank when the boom times were booming on the basis if it all went belly up there was no moral or legal obligation for them to be paid back. They are financial gamblers on the world economic market. The Fine Gael and Labour government are insisting that they must be paid. The deference being shown attached to these bondholders by the government contrasts sharply with its attitude to citizens. It is also at odds with what it said was its attitude before last year’s general election. One year ago, in January of last year, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore criticising the then Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Brian Cowen, said: ‘If the Taoiseach’s government knew Anglo Irish Bank was insolvent and he asked the Irish taxpayers to...

March and Rally in Drogheda Yesterday afternoon (Saturday) this blog and several thousand people from the Drogheda and Ardee area attended a march and rally in Drogheda to protest at the threatened closure of the Cottage Hospital in the town. Under plans by the Fine Gael and Labour government it and St. Joseph’s nursing home in Ardee are likely to close. Both buildings are home to 33 long stay residents and a similar number of respite patients. In the course of a year the number of patients who receive respite is around 300. The buildings are old. But the staff are professional, dedicated and caring and over the years both have developed a warm family closeness. One resident in the Cottage Home is 97 years old and another has been there for over 30 years and many of the rest for a decade or more. The threat to their home means that the residents are frightened by the prospect of a major move and the disintegration of their nursing home family. I met many of residents and staff from bo...

Last week it was DEIS schools. The Labour Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn had turned Labour party policy on its head and imposed major cuts to schools situated in disadvantaged area. And while Sinn Féin TDs like Sean Crowe and Peadar Toibin lashed government education strategy in the Dáil it was the mounting public anger and pressure on Labour backbenchers that forced Quinn to do a volte face. But that wasn’t the Labour Minister’s only bad decision. In the education system in the 26 counties schools employ guidance counsellors, who are normally qualified teachers, to advise students and young people. They cover three separate but interlinked areas including personal and social, education, and vocational guidance and counselling. As part of his cost cutting programme Quinn decided that guidance counsellors will no longer be provided on an ex quota basis in secondary schools. The goal is to save €32 million annually. In practice this means that many school principals will have to tra...

It seems like every time you turn on the news or open a newspaper there is a new crisis in the Eurozone. Last Friday’ decision by the credit rating agency Standard and Poor (an ironic name for such a body in the current context) downgraded France’s AAA credit rating. It also lowered that of 8 other European nations. The immediate consequence of this was for stock markets and the value of the Euro to drop. This blog and other comrades will be meeting the Troika representatives, who are currently in Dublin, on Monday afternoon. It will be our second meeting with the Troika. For those readers unfamiliar with the term the Troika is the title given to the International Monetary Fund/European Central Bank and European Union bodies that have provided the bailout fund to the Irish government. They are in Dublin to check the government’s books and to make sure that it is keeping to the austerity programme that the previous Fianna Fáil led government entered into. The purpose of our meeting with...

Children and Parents protesting outside the Dáil at DEIS cutbacks Wednesday was the first day of the new Dáil term for 2012. As they returned from their Christmas break TDs and Seanadoirí were met by a large and vocal demonstration of parents, children and staff from DEIS schools across the state. 'Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools' (DEIS) is an initiative which provides essential support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with Special Educational Needs so that they are able to leave school with the skills necessary to fully participate in the social and economic activities of society and to live independent and fulfilled lives. There are over 300 such schools and according to the Department of Education they should “receive a greater level of support in terms of pupil-teacher ratios, special grants and extra support for pupils”. However, in its December budget the government introduced a number of measures which are about saving money by cutting...

The recent publication of British government papers from 1981 have reminded many people of the negative role played by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at that time. The papers were published coinicdnetly at the same as a Hollywood movie about Thatcher. I haven’t seen the film but I do remember the Thatcher years and the great hurt she did to the British people and also to the people of this island. Thatcher’s right wing conservative social and economic politics – often labelled Thatcherism - were a source of considerable division in Britain. Along with US President Ronald Reagan she championed the deregulation of the financial institutions, cuts in public services and was vehemently anti-trade union. The current crisis in the banking institutions and the economic recession owe much to these policies. She also went to war in the Malvinas pursuing Britain’s age old colonial interests; opposed sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and supported the Khmer Rouge and the Chilea...