Léargas

Where to begin? Fr. Des will be 90 on July 8th. It’s hard to believe. He has lived a full life. A good life. And in the course of his years of service Fr. Des   has helped thousands of people. During the dark years of war and violence he lived and worked in Ballymurphy and Springhill and was often in the thick of it standing up for citizens against the British Army and RUC, comforting the bereaved, and helping frightened people. It feels like I have known him all my life. He has been a crucial part of the greater Ballymurphy family from the time he was first moved to St. John’s parish in 1966. Ballymurphy was one of those post second world war estates that was built without thought or planning. No schools, no shops, no play facilities for children, no local employment and no church. Corpus Christie was built to serve the Ballymurphy and Springhill communities but someone neglected to build a priests house. Fr. Des and Fr. Hugh Mullan came up with the radical idea of ge...

The British establishment knows something about hypocrisy and brass-necked politics. Especially when it comes to Ireland. This week was a case in point. The British media extensively covered the celebration of the signing 800 years ago by the English King John in 1215 of the Magna Carta. The long history of colonisation between England and Ireland left no room for celebration on this island. While they were busy taking from the Irish the English Barons – fed up with the abusive behaviour of King John - but more importantly wanting a greater share of the economic spoils and of political power – demanded that John agree to a charter that would limit the power of the King. The Charter was essentially the Barons telling John that he was not above the law and to back off from excessive taxes. However, within a couple of months the English King retracted it all and secured the support of the Pope, in a papal bull, in renouncing this ‘illegal, unjust, harmful to royal rights and sha...

With the good weather in the Mediterranean the numbers of refugees seeking to cross to Europe has dramatically increased. Last weekend an estimated 7000 men, women and children were rescued from the Sea off the coast of Libya. They were among the 100,000 refugees and migrants who have arrived illegally in Europe since the start of the year.   That’s close to the entire population of West Belfast. The Irish Naval Service described the number of migrants being rescued as "biblical" in proportion. In the same period almost 2000 refugees have drowned. In one terrifying event an estimated 900 refugees drowned when a boat capsized. Many of those victims died because the traffickers locked refugees, including women and children, in the ship’s hold. Since then hundreds more have drowned. Almost every day graphic and distressing images emerge of boat loads of refugees. They are fleeing wars and civil wars in Syria and Libya, Somalia and Nigeria and many of the other conflict...

It was once famously said that a week is a long time in politics. Make that a day. For weeks the government parties in Dublin have been rejecting any suggestion that there should be a Commission of Investigation established to look into the activities of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. Yesterday, in the face of an increasing storm of popular and political protest the government did a sharp u-turn and announced the very Commission of Investigation it has been vigorously and vociferously opposing. Then last night an email appeared in my inbox from the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, outlining draft Terms of Reference for the Commission and asking for Sinn Féin’s opinion of them. It’s all a far cry from the government’s Programme for Government four years ago in which the two government parties claimed that a “democratic revolution” had taken place and that they were committed to openness and transparency. The events of the last few days and weeks have exposed th...