Léargas

Tony Benn was buried on Thursday morning. Martin McGuinness, Michelle Gildernew and I attended the funeral at St. Margaret’s, a small church which lies across the road from the British Parliament and in the shadow of Westminster Abbey. In the life of the British Parliament it is known as the MPs chapel. Tony died two weeks ago. In over 60 years of political activism he was a tireless and articulate campaigner for democracy, social justice and equality in Britain. He was an internationalist, as well as a stalwart friend and advocate for peace in Ireland and for Irish unity. All of this was reflected in the breadth of political opinion that packed into the small chapel or stood outside. His three sons and daughter and his sole surviving brother David all spoke of him and of the events in his life that shaped him. David explained that Tony ‘hated’ attending Westminster School. It brought home to him the inequity of the class system. His brother Michael was killed in World W...

The latest twist in the Boston Oral History project occurred last week when former republican activist Ivor Bell, who has opposed the Sinn Féin leadership for over two decades, was arrested and subsequently charged in relation to the killing of Jean McConville. The PSNI claim that Bell was one of those who gave interviews to the Boston College Oral History project in which it is alleged that he talked of his part as an IRA activist. According to the media this is the basis for the charges levelled against him. Bell, through his lawyer denies any involvement in the death of Jean McConville.   Media reports following this said that the PSNI are interested in speaking to me. There has been a persistent campaign by some elements of the media and by political opponents to try to link me to Jean McConville’s killing and secret burial by the IRA. I have said before and do so again that what happened to Jean McConville was a terrible injustice. I was not involved in any part of it....

Shane MacThomais was just 46 when he died suddenly last Thursday. He took his own life and was found in Glasnevin Cemetery where he had worked off and on since he was a teenager and where he was employed for the last 14 years as the resident historian. He played a major part in its very successful refurbishment and the transformation of that historic place. Shane was hugely popular and his walking tours of Dublin and Glasnevin were renowned. He did regular interviews on tv and radio and was the author of several books and scores of pamphlets. His last book which was published in 2012 ‘ Dead Interesting – Stories from the Graveyards of Dublin’ also told the story of other Dublin cemeteries including the Huguenot graveyard. The refurbishment of the Daniel O Connell tower, and the construction of a new staircase, was Shane’s most recent project but he was also responsible for an exhibition about to open on the 100 th centenary of the Cumann na mBán. In recent years he had org...

    Sometimes on my travels to the USA I have had the opportunity to step outside of the politics and meet new people and make new friends. On my first travels coast to coast in 1994 some friends in the New York Police Department took a group of us to Ellis Island in an NYPD police launch. It was a poignant visit as we looked at the glass cases containing thousands of artefacts belonging to the millions who passed through its halls. A blackthorn walking stick. A piece of delft shaped as Ireland. Cups and saucers and ornaments. A little piece of linen with the four provinces stitched to it. The small pieces of memorabilia of home carried by immigrants braving a dangerous crossing of the wide Atlantic on their way to a strange land where they hoped for a new and better future. Annie Moore, a 15 year old from Cork was the first immigrant to be processed there. Many of the millions more who were to land at Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954 were Irish. Years later I...

International Women’s Day is an important opportunity to celebrate women who are active in society; in their communities, trade unions, voluntary organisations and the political institutions of Ireland. However, it is also a time for reflecting on the serious inequalities that still exist and the fact that in many ways women continue to be second class citizens. A study by the EU agency Fundamental Rights (FRA) on violence against women across the European Union, which was published last Wednesday, found that one third of the women surveyed were victims of sexual of physical violence. A shocking and harrowing fact. A director FRA said: ‘The enormity of the problem is proof that violence against women does not impact a few women only – it impacts on society every day.’ Significantly the research found that 70% of women in the Irish state who experience sexual and physical violence suffer in silence. The research also found that austerity measures have a devastating effect o...