Léargas

Last week RTE broadcast a special investigative programme about events in Omeath on 11 October 2015 which left a Garda Officer, Tony Golden dead, Siobhán Phillips, a young mother of two fighting for her life in hospital and the gunman Crevan Mackin also dead after taking his own life. Like everyone else I was shocked when the news broke. Omeath is a quiet, tranquil village on Carlingford Lough. It is a beautiful part of the Cooley Mountains. In the aftermath of the shootings the news reports appeared to suggest it was an open and shut case. No one else was involved in the incident and the perpetrator, Crevan Mackin, was dead. However, four days after the shooting I received anonymously to my office in the Dáil a copy of the Statement of Charges relating to the arrest in January of that year of Mackin. The detail contained within the document raised serious and fundamental questions about the role of elements of An Garda Síochána in the circumstances surrounding Mackin’s arrest ...

In the midst of the ceremonies last week to complete the process of putting the weapons and explosives of ETA beyond use, the figure of former Methodist Minister Harold Good was centre stage. In 2005, along with my very good friend the late Fr. Alec Reid, the two men played a key role as independent witnesses, in the process by which the IRA put its weapons beyond use. Last weekend Rev. Harold Good was in Bayonne, a city in south west France. It is part of the extended Basque country. He was there to take part in the final act by ETA of putting its weapons beyond use. It was a simple ceremony held in the City Hall. It involved a list of arms dumps being handed over to the international witnesses providing the location of these dumps. The French police then took possession of them. Outside tens of thousands of Basques celebrated this momentous decision and held aloft white cards containing the symbol of a dove of peace. The decision by ETA to take this historic step has the potenti...

The Ballyfermot Civic and Community Centre is an impressive, three storey, modern facility which provides many local services to the Ballyfermot community. 25 years ago it was a dilapidated, poorly equipped, inadequate community centre. But in 1992, despite threats from the government and Dublin council that their funding would be cut, Ballyfermot opened its doors to our Ard Fheis. It was a time when the establishment parties in Dublin were blocking our use of public buildings. The local community took us to their hearts and provided billets for scores of activists, Last July we were back again for a special national strategy meeting. It was tasked with beginning a process of mapping out Sinn Féin’s organisational and political goals for the next ten years. That conversation has been taking place since then at all levels of the party. On Sunday  we returned to Ballyfermot to take that discussion to the next level. This time however our friend and comrade Martin McGuinness was ...