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The Music of Protest Beannachtaí na Nollag agus Bliain Úr faoi mhaise daoibh. Let me wish readers and bloggers and facebookers everywhere a peaceful and happy Christmas and a great New Year. I like music. And a lot will be played over the Christmas break. I play it all the time. In the car. In the office. At home. I have music on my IPad and my phone. And I like all kinds of music from classical to Irish traditional to folk to rock. Two weeks ago several of us took time out of a mad schedule in the Dáil to walk round to the Olympia for a Kris Kristofferson concert. It was almost two hours of really good music. Just him and his guitar. With a few sets in harmony with his daughter Kelly and a young man who may have been his son. Many of the songs brought back memories of earlier times and were warmly welcomed by an appreciative audience. He sang all the standards from ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ – which Bobby Sands sang for us in Cage 11 - through ‘Help me make it through the night’ to ‘...

The de Silva Report   On Tuesday I raised the de Silva report into Pat Finucane’s killing in the Dáil with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny. I asked that time be made available for a debate on the report. I also wrote to him last week and I asked that the Irish government carry out a trawl of the documents available to it about the threat to human rights lawyer PJ McGrory, as well as to Pat Finucane and Oliver Kelly. I have decided to publish my letter to the Taoiseach in this column. The Pat Finucane case goes to the heart of British state collusion. The detail of what occurred is important if bereaved families and the communities in which they live are to have the fullest understanding of the events of that time. December 13 th 2012 Taoiseach a chara, As you are aware the British government has not co-operated with the efforts to find justice for families bereaved or for those injured in actions involving their forces or believed to have resulted from collu...

Telling their Story One of the great pleasures in my work is that I get the opportunity to meet ordinary men and women, usually working in the community and voluntary sector, whose commitment to a cause or a project saves lives. Last Thursday morning I was in the Civic Centre at Coolock in north Dublin. I had been invited to speak at the launch of a new website and CD – ‘Voices’ – by the Laneway Learning Centre Community Drugs Rehabilitation Programme (RASP) which are about raising awareness of drug addiction. But what makes this project innovative and special is its use of drama and music as a means of encouraging recovering addicts to examine their lives and to look to the future with optimism. Conal Kearney, whose grandfather Peadar Kearney   wrote   Amhrán na bhFiann, as well as Down by the Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men) ; The Tri-coloured Ribbon, and Down by the Liffey Side, uses drama therapy and it is evident from the enthusiasm of the ten methadone m...

  Geraldine Finucane     Clara Reilly of Relatives for Justice   On Wednesday the de Silva review into the papers linked to the killing in 1989 of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane will be published. Today a mural to Pat Finucane was unveiled in west Belfast by Pat's wife Geraldine. Pat was killed by a unionist death squad in collusion with British state forces. I was asked to speak.   "I wa nt to thank Geraldine, John, Michael and Katherine and the entire Finucane family for the invitation to speak today at the unveiling of this plaque to a very remarkable and courageous Irishman. Some people measure heroes and bravery by their ability to be warriors in the physical conflict of war. But there are also those whose courage is of a different kind, of an extraordinary kind. Pat was such a person. He believed in the law. More so than the elites in the parliament in London and elsewhere who make and be...

  Martin McGuinness, Mary Lou McDonald, Tom Arnold, Chairperson of the Constitutional Convention and mise   Saturday saw the inaugural meeting of the Constitutional Convention. 100 delegates from political parties and randomly selected citizens have come together for the next year to discuss and make recommendations on changing the constitution on 8 specific areas, including reducing the Presidential term of office to five years; reducing the voting age to 17; giving citizens resident outside the State the right to vote in Presidential elections at Irish embassies, or otherwise; provision for same-sex marriage, and following completion of the above reports, to make other relevant constitutional amendments th ey may feel appropriate. Unionist parties who were invited to participate have declined the invitation. However, the SDLP, the Alliance and the Green Party from the north are taking part. Martin McGuinness and Mary Lou McDonald and I are the three repre...