Léargas

Censorship is about closing down dialogue. It’s about influencing and shaping public opinion. It is about persuading citizens to sustain the status quo. Sometimes censorship can be very public and written into law and enforced. Other times it can be more subtle but just as insidious. Ireland north and south has experienced both. Censorship is about denying citizens their right to information and persuading them to embrace or acquiesce silently to injustice. Censorship is about control. In his 1996 song ‘Yellow Triangle’, dedicated to the victims of the holocaust, Christy Moore’s lyrics warn of the dangers of censorship and of apathy. It is based on a poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller who spent 8 years in Nazi concentration camps. “When first they came for the criminals I did not speak Then they began to take the jews When they fetched the people who were members of trades unions I did not speak When they took the bible students Rounded up the homosexuals Then they ga...

Mise agus Toshi agus Pete The great Pete Seeger has died. Seven months after the death of his wife Toshi he passed away on Monday evening at the age of 94 in a New York hospital. Fear maith é. Bro norm an sceal seo a fhail. In November 2009 I visited Pete and Toshi at their home in Beacon, in the Hudson River Valley in Upper New York State . In memory of a marvellous time I am posting extracts from the blog I posted following that visit and then Toshi’s death last July:   “Regular readers will recall that this Blog was in the USA and Canada on one of those mad a-city-a-day schedule at the beginning of November. What you did not know was that in between all the other bits I got to meet with Pete Seeger and his wonderful wife Toshi. A mutual friend got me Pete’s contact details and I am eternally grateful to him for that. When I was a teenager Pete Seeger was one of my heroes. He still is. He was out there singing his songs and making music for workers and fi...

Two weeks ago citizens in the Irish state discovered, courtesy of the Sean O Rourke programme on RTE radio, that it was going to cost €180 million to establish Uisce Éireann – Irish Water. This is a semi-state body whose remit is to take responsibility for water out of the hands of local councils, centralise control, and to introduce water charges for households. Like many others I also believe that the underlying agenda for the Irish government is the eventual privatisation of the water service. Bad as this was the news that consultants were paid €85 million of the total outlay caused outrage. For 18 months Sinn Féin’s Environment spokesperson Brian Stanley and other Dáil TDs had been asking questions of the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan about how much Irish Water was costing the taxpayer, and who was being paid what and how much? The Minister and his Deputy Minister Fergus O Dowd had refused to answer. Within days of the story breaking it was also revealed that...

The refusal of the government parties to support Sinn Fein's Charities (Amendment) Bill in the Dáil this evening was deeply disappointing. The Bill sought to do what the government and its Fianna Fáil predecessor have failed to do and that is to regulate charities. By its action the government is failing charities at a very difficult time. The scandal over top-ups to salaries at the Central Remedial Clinic is evidence of cronyism at its worst. What is striking is that these elites believe that they are entitled to these huge payments. But what is also clear is that there is a toxic culture of bonuses, top-ups, bail-outs and dig-outs where there is always money for the elites and none for services that the charities were established to provide. Most importantly it is evidence of a failure by successive governments to legislate for charities. Below find my contribution to the Dáil debate. “Recent revelations surrounding the Central Remedial Clinic have raised significant pu...

  Mise agus Mustafa Barhgouthi of the PLO   Nelson Mandela – Madiba – was the pre-eminent world citizen and his death in December was a moment of great sadness and loss. It also saw worldwide media coverage of his state funeral and almost daily news reports looking back at the struggle against apartheid and Madiba’s role in leading that struggle from inside and outside of prison. As regular readers know Richard and I attended the funeral. It was an emotional time. But it was also hugely uplifting. ANC/MK veterans of the armed struggle, political leaders of the new South Africa and comrades from other African states and from liberation movements, spoke of the years of oppression and of war; of imprisonment and protests in the townships; of oppression and resistance. And a consistent theme of all of those reflecting on the decades of conflict was the importance and positive role played by the international community. This solidarity took different forms.....

The Good Friday Agreement marked a historic shift in politics on the island of Ireland and put in place a firm foundation from which it is possible to continue building the peace process. For the first time since partition, almost 100 years ago, there is an international agreement involving the Irish and British governments, as well as nationalist, republican and unionist parties on a way forward. This includes power sharing political institutions which have the support of the overwhelming majority of citizens. The GFA tackles constitutional issues, political and institutional matters, policing, weapons, justice and equality, and more. Subsequent agreements at St. Andrews and Hillsborough built on this progress. However, not all aspects of the Good Friday Agreement have been implemented and outstanding issues like flags and emblems; the legacy of the past; parades; equality and the status of the Irish language, as well as culture and identity issues have continued to bedev...

Yesterday I gave the oration at the graveside of Leo Wilson in Milltown Cemetery. Leo died at the weekend at the age of 91.  Hundreds of people attended his funeral.  In my oration I said: “ Dia daoibh is mo buiochas do teaglach Leo mar seans s onoir a thug sibh domhsa inniu. Is mor on onoir domhsa a caint anseo faoi Leo. Tá fhois agam go bfuil bhur caite briste – go hairithe croi a bhean cheile crogan Maureen. Caithfid mé a rá go bhfuil a lan daoine bronachinniu. Caill sibhse dhir fear cheile, bhur dadaí, bhur deideo, bhur daideo mór agus caill muid ar cara. Leo W ilson was a small man with a great heart and a big vision. He was a family man, a community activist, a lover of music, of flowers, language, sport, talking and dancing. He was a proud republican who loved Ireland. But the love of his life was Maureen. Leo met Maureen in the 1940s on a bus to Lurgan to support Antrim in a GAA final. Leo was much older than Maureen – he was born on Dece...