Skip to main content

LONG JOURNEY HOME.

Image
By
 
US Secretary of State John Kerry

 
This blog was written as I returned from the USA two weeks ago following a few hectic days marking St. Patrick's feast day. I get to travel a lot even when I don't feel like it. From the Meath East by-election to Washington DC is a tidy number of miles but there is a rhythm to stress free travelling which I follow now for years. The key is not to get stressed, to be on time and to be mindful that there is an end to every journey. It is also a good thing not to be overwhelmed by schedules  - especially Sinn Féin schedules. Go with the flow. And get a walk when you can as often as you can.

So from Belfast to Newark across the Atlantic in my sleep before solid ground welcomes my feet and the rest of me to the USA. A few train switches and then the almost three hours railway trek to DC. Nineteen hours later and collapse into bed in a downtown hotel room. Weather? Cold, wet and windy. Sinuses on a Tet offensive. Not enough duvets on bed. RG snoring. No way to spend Saint Patricks Day.

But next morning Friends of Sinn Féin and Joseph Smiths wonderful hospitality cheers us all. Here they have a Saint Patricks Week. And a jolly old week it is too. Busy. Our delegation is joined by Mary Lou. We are led by Rita O Hare.

We are early for our morning meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry so RG and I take a walk down to the corner. Set among holly and elm trees in the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences there sits a 12 foot bronze likeness of Albert Einstein. It’s a remarkable piece of sculpture of Einstein holding in his left hand a paper with the equations that marked his three most important scientific discoveries.

It’s then back to the State department for our meeting with Secretary Kerry. We talk about the peace process, the threats to it, the future, a border poll and the middle east. From there I’ts over to a series of briefings with our friends on Capitol Hill, to a fundraising lunch replete with some of the most powerful labour union leaders led by the fiery Terry O Sullivan, to a walk around the block and dinner in Bobby Vans, it is all go.

Ditto the next day. More briefings on the Hill. Met up with senior Congress members Richie Neal and Peter King and other stalwarts in Congress and the Senate. Then the Speakers Lunch where the Taoiseach and the President say their cupla focal and we dine on lamb and praties on a bed of green white and orange vegetables. Good straight words from the Taoiseach about the north. Delivery essential when he gets back. Martin Mc Guinness is there too. Alongside Peter Robinson. On the last leg of their long journey home from Latin America and the west coast of USA.

RG and I get a walk. The weather has changed for the better. Saint Patrick turned the stone. Big blue sky. lovely sunshine. almost summery. Visit Macey’s but buy nought. Can't find a book shop. Back to Capitol Hill to meet Senator Patrick Leahy and from there to the White House.
Almost missed speeches. Was settled in White House library browsing. But a nice woman in a uniform alerted me in a soft prairie drawl to Presidents remarks starting. He was very positive on immigration issues. Met lots of old friends from Ireland and USA. Delighted to see Matt Molloy from The Chieftans. Great ceoltoir and a sound man.

And so mission almost completed, we retire to Bobby Vans again for what is now our traditional Saint Patricks dinner courtesy of Joseph. Met some disabled Vietnam veterans. There are 31 million combat vets here. Made me think of Pete Seegers ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’? And so to bed.

And then we headed back to whence we came. Was it a good trip? Yes. We got to brief powerful and influential people on current state of the process of change back home. From Marian Price, Pat Finucane., Ballymurphy families, Border poll, to Undocumented Irish and the need for an end to sectarianism and segregation. And all the bits in between like the Bill of Rights and Acht na Gaeilge.

What was main message?

It's not over yet. Our journey continues. Lots to be done. And we need our friends in the USA to complete the journey with us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best International Documentary | Defend the GPO and Save Moore St. | A Week in the Life and Death of GAZA

By
  Best International Documentary I spent the weekend in Galway and Mayo. The weather was amazing. The countryside with its miles of stone walls separating plots of land and the lush colours of green and rocky inclines was a joy to travel through. I was in Galway on Saturday to attend the Galway Film Festival/Fleadh where Trisha Ziff’s film – A Ballymurphy Man - was receiving its world premiere. The cinema in the old Town Hall where the Festival is centred was packed to capacity for the screening. The audience was hugely attentive and very welcoming when Trisha and I went on the stage at the end of the screening to talk about the making of the documentary. The next day I was in Mayo when Trisha text me to say that ‘A Ballymurphy Man’ had taken the Festival award for Best International Documentary. So well done Trisha and her team who worked hard over five years, with very limited funding to produce this film. In Mayo I met Martin Neary, who has bequeathed his 40-acre homeste...
Post a Comment
Read more

Turf Lodge – A Proud Community

By
This blog attended a very special celebration earlier this week. It was Turf Lodge: 2010 Anois is Arís 50th Anniversary. For those of you who don’t know Turf Lodge is a proud Belfast working class community. Through many difficult years the people of Turf Lodge demonstrated time and time again a commitment to their families and to each other. Like Ballymurphy and Andersonstown, Turf Lodge was one of many estates that were built on the then outskirts of Belfast in the years after the end of World War 2. They were part of a programme of work by Belfast City Corporation known as the ‘Slum clearance and houses redevelopment programme.’ The land on which Turf Lodge was built was eventually bought by the Corporation in June 1956. The name of the estate, it is said, came from a farm on which the estate was built. But it was four years later, in October 1960, and after many disputes and delays between builders and the Corporation, that the first completed houses were handed over for allocation...
2 comments
Read more

The murder of Nora McCabe

By
Nora McCabe was murdered almost 29 years ago on July 9th 1981. She was shot in the back of the head at close range by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC armoured landrover. She died the next day in hospital from her injuries. It was the same morning Joe McDonnell died on hunger strike. Nora was aged 33 and the mother of three young children, the youngest three months old. Over the years I have met her husband Jim many times. He is a quiet but very determined man who never gave up on getting the truth. Jim knew what happened, but as in so many other similar incidents, the RUC and the Director of Public Prosecutions office embarked on a cover up of the circumstances in order to protect the RUC personnel responsible for Nora’s murder. At the inquest in November 1982 several RUC people gave evidence, including James Critchley who was the senior RUC officer in west Belfast at the time. He was in one of the armoured vehicles. The RUC claimed that there were barricades on the Falls Road, tha...
3 comments
Read more