Léargas

The decision by the government to appoint Judge Yvonne Murphy who will assist in finding closure for women who have been left traumatised, and physically and mentally scarred by the barbaric practice of symphysiotomy, is long overdue.   The decision to provide a relatively short time frame of eight weeks for Judge Murphy to submit her report to the Minister for Health is useful provided the government doesn’t then delay in announcing what it intends to do.   I am concerned that the terms of reference are not clear and as we know in these situations the devil is in the detail.    The decision of the government to oppose the lifting of the Statue of Limitations to allow victims to take their cases to court – if that is their wish – is unacceptable. The victims of symphysiotomy should have the opportunity to choose which course of action is right for them and it is unfair of the government to prevent this.   I am also troubled by the Minister’s con...

  Clonard is a p lace of pilgrimage. They came in their thousands this week to say a final goodbye to a good priest, a close friend, a gentle and kind hearted man, and as courageous and humble a human being as you could ever hope to meet. Fr. Alec Reid died in his sleep in the early hours of last Friday morning. I had been with him the previous Thursday and he was in good form. Talkative, funny and enjoying his hospital tea in St. Vincent’s in Dublin. But his condition deteriorated. I was phoned on Thursday night and told that he only had days. I arranged to travel down on Friday to visit him but shortly after 9am on Friday morning we got word that he had quietly passed in his sleep.    I was deeply shocked and saddened at his death. For forty years I have known him as a good friend to me and my family, and a selfless and unstinting worker in the search for justice and peace. In the midst of hard times Fr. Reid was always there offering comfort and solidarit...

The BBC Panorama programme on the Military Reaction Force shines a light on the one aspect of Britain’s dirty war in Ireland. The existence of the MRF has been known for over 30 years but John Ware’s documentary usefully provides new information on a secret British Army unit that operated with impunity in the early 70s. The use of counter-gangs, like the MRF and the Force Reconnaissance Unit (FRU) and others; of agents and informers; and of specialist military units is as old as war itself. The British military establishment has long made use of these tactical tools. I am quite confident it is passing that experience on to its current crop of young officers in Sandhurst. As used by successive British governments in Ireland this involved reshaping the judiciary, the law, the police and the media to suit the political and military objectives of the generals and the politicians. According to Frank Kitson the British Army’s foremost proponent of counter-insurgency tactics: ‘Everythin...

US diplomats Richard Haass and Meghan O Sullivan are currently conducting intensive and inclusive negotiations to deal with outstanding aspects of the Good Friday and other Agreements. These include the legacy issues arising from the conflict. Everyone who has an interest in building the peace knows that the past cannot be allowed to be an obstacle to building the future. So, there needs to be a measured and inclusive debate on all of the issues involved. Today the north’s Attorney General John Larkin has put forward his ideas on dealing with one aspect the legacy of the past - the issue of prosecutions. He has expressed a view that there should be no prosecutions, inquests or inquiries for incidents before the Good Friday Agreement. Mr. Larkin has also said that the current position favours non-state forces. That is not the case. The British government is in breach of international agreements and commitments in respect of the Pat Finucane Inquiry and the Dublin and Monaghan bom...

Yesterday the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the Finance Committee in the Dáil that the issue of a decision on whether or not the state needed a precautionary credit line following its exit from the bailout was not on the agenda of today’s meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels. This morning an emergency Cabinet meeting was called and the Dáil was given less than an hour to respond to an unspecified statement from the government. Was it going for ‘backstop’, a post-bailout credit line, or was it not? The media was well briefed. The government spin doctors had done their work and had the line before the Taoiseach stood up in the Dáil and told members. It was all good political theatre. The government constructed a dramatic announcement for its decision to set aside the option of a post bailout credit line. Its PR spin is obvious. It’s all about the government patting itself on the back and claiming that it has regained economic sovereignty and brought an ...

Last Friday I attended an event in New York to celebrate the hard work, diligence and activism of 100 Irish American trade union activists. It was a very special occasion. It was held in the Sheraton Hotel on seventh avenue where the night before almost 800 people took part in the annual Friends of Sinn Féin annual fundraising dinner.   The Labour event was also a celebration of the centenary of the Dublin Lockout of 1913 which many trade union leaders in the USA acknowledge was a pivotal moment in the development of the world-wide trade union movement.   The Dublin Lockout involved about 20,000 workers who went on strike for recognition; better conditions and pay. It was a long and bitter battle against tyrannical bosses. One result of the Lockout was the founding 100 years ago this month of the Irish Citizen Army to defend workers and promote workers rights. Three years later in seeking to advance those goals the Citizen Army played a key role in the Easter Rising aga...

Friday - November 8 th was the anniversary of the 1987 Enniskillen bomb attack in which 11 people were killed in an IRA bomb attack. Just before I left Belfast to travel to the USA I was interviewed for a documentary on the Ballymurphy Massacre in August 1971 in which 11 people were killed by the British Parachute Regiment. Last week also saw the broadcasting of the Disappeared and details emerged of British Army tapes which may have filmed the sectarian killing by the UVF of 76 year old Roseanne Mallon in county Tyrone in May 1994. The inquest into Roseanne Mallon’s death is one of 29 which have been deliberately delayed for decades. There were also the anniversaries of the Shankill Bomb and the Greysteel Massacre and other killings. The Pat Finucane Centre’s case worker Anne Cadwallader published her book, ‘Lethal Allies: British State Collusion in Ireland’ which details the involvement of British state forces operating in collusion in the murder of approximately 120 citizen...