Léargas

 It only seems like yesterday when BBC newsrooms would have to scramble to find an actor to pretend to be me when they wanted to carry an interview. I always felt like I was making some small contribution to the Arts by keeping some actors in occasional employment. Some of them also clearly improved my diction.  The broadcasting ban, which barred my voice from being heard on the British media, was one of the more bizarre responses of the British state to the conflict. Of course political censorship by the Irish and British governments went much further than that. It pervaded all aspects of media broadcasting. It went much further than coverage of the war and of the political endeavours to bring it to an end. Sometimes the law was perverted as in the Broadcast Ban introduced by Margaret Thatcher or in Section 31 used by the Irish government, but just as often it was the sly use of political influence or the natural conservative bias of sections of the media, bo...

Today - Wednesday - the Dáil debate an all-party motion in support of the Ballymurphy Massacre Relatives. Their story is one of great tragedy, courage and tenacity. Its also a story of my home place - where I grew up and the people I knew. Below are my remarks from today. Support the Ballymurphy Families! Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Taoiseach as díospóireacht uile-pháirtí an lae. Seo céim thábhachtach chun tosaigh do theaghlaigh Bhaile Uí Mhurchú agus iad sa tóir ar an fhírinne agus cóir. Today's motion is an important step forward in the search for truth and justice for the Ballymurphy families. Ballymurphy is a large housing estate at the foot of Black Mountain in west Belfast. Like other housing estates throughout these islands, it was badly built in the 1950s - jerry-built houses in an area which lacked many of the basic facilities for education, recreation, jobs, and for young people. My mother was allocated a home there in the late 1950s, so the p...

NAMA is once again in the news. This time over the sale of its northern loan portfolio. Regular readers of this blog will know that the Fianna Fáil Government established the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in 2009 as part of its response to the economic crisis. Acting as a ‘bad bank’ NAMA took over all of the loans – “good” and “bad” – of all property borrowers arising from those banks bailed out by the Irish taxpayer. As a consequence of the decisions of successive Irish government’s bad banking debt was then turned into public debt with citizens taking on the financial burden of debts amounting to over €64 billion. NAMA was intended to recoup the losses to the Irish taxpayer. Sinn Féin TDs, particularly my good self, Mary Lou MacDonald, Pearse Doherty and Peadar Toibin have consistently raised concerns about NAMA. At the beginning of June the Irish government was forced into establishing a Commission of Investigation into the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC...

The future of the political structures created by the Good Friday Agreement hangs by a thread. In the 17 years since it was achieved the Agreement has faced many challenges but the determination of the British Tory government, and of the unionist parties, to implement swingeing austerity cuts represents the gravest threat yet to the political institutions. Last week the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle agreed to give conditional support to the Budget nos 2 Bill that Arlene Foster has introduced into the Assembly. It is a technical piece of legislation that gives effect to the budget which Sinn Féin and the other parties agreed during the Stormont House negotiations at Christmas time. Sinn Féin’s support for the Stormont House Agreement was based on full protection for all successful claims for social security benefits under the control of the Executive for the next six years. In February the DUP defaulted on this part of the agreement and provided only for current recipients. The ...