Léargas

Last week 21 years ago I made my first visit to South Africa and had my first meeting with Madiba Nelson Mandela. I was invited by the ANC – with whom Irish republicans have long enjoyed fraternal relations.  The Sinn Féin delegation – which included Chrissie McAuley; Rita O Hare; and RG stayed for a packed week of meetings and travel across a beautiful country that was still trying to come to terms with the enormous change that was then taking place. The previous year Madiba had been elected President of a free south Africa. Our purpose in going, apart from the solidarity links that connect our two struggles, was to speak to a wide range of ANC negotiators who had succeeded in bringing an end to the apartheid regime. It was an emotional experience for all of us. There wasn’t a dry eye at our first engagement as we listened to the late Walter Sisulu, the grand old man of African resistance, who had made a special point of coming to meet us. He spoke of his own time in priso

The Middle East peace process has been on a life support system for years. The use of words like ‘stalled’ or ‘impasse’ don’t describe the reality – especially after years of failure. Over the years and on my occasional visits to the region I have met many Palestinians, some Israelis and others who support Palestinian sovereignty and the two state solution, who believe that the peace process is dead. Saeb Erekat, who is the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation sounded a warning at the beginning of June. He wrote; “ With the 50th anniversary of Israel’s military and colonial occupation of Palestine coming to a head, we have reached a critical juncture within the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. For over 20 years, bilateral negotiations between Israel and Palestine failed on account of Israeli intransigence over its refusal to recognize Palestinian national rights and the continuation and expansion of its settlement enterprise.” The French Foreign Minist

Narrow Water Bridge Community Network in the Dáil I love the Cooley peninsula and its two mountain ridges. I have walked Slieve Foye, Maeve’s Gap and the tranquil valley of Glenmore that lies below them, many times over the years. Long before I was elected as a TD for County Louth the Cooley mountains were for me a place of relative peace and welcome. With Dundalk Bay on one side and Carlingford Lough on the other it is a stunning landscape, with seascapes, to take the breath away. Standing on Slieve Foye you can see Slieve Guillon inland to the west along with the ancient volcanic hills of south Armagh. 60 Million years ago Guillon was a volcano and the ring of Guillon is the remnant of a volcanic dike. Across Carlingford lough to the north and north east stretch the Mourne Mountains. It’s also an ancient granite volcanic range with high peaks, including Slieve Donard, Slieve Muck, Slieve Commedagh and many others. Nestled in between is Silent Valley with its huge stretch of