Léargas

The energy and enthusiasm which surrounds the demand for an Irish Language Act has not diminished since the Assembly election in March. The sea of red on the Falls Road and in Belfast City centre last Saturday was evidence of that. The singing, the music, the chanting of slogans, the passion and energy of thousands of mainly young people, all echoed back on marchers as we made our way by Divis Tower, and then again between the tall buildings in the City Centre. Like many older activists who participated I was overwhelmed and uplifted by the sheer joy and eagerness of the young people. I have to admit it did the heart good walking along listening to all of those many voices speaking, singing, chanting and enjoying the Irish language. ‘An Lá Dearg’ – the Red Day – the fourth such march - saw Irish language activists coming together in a massive demonstration of support for an Irish Language Act. The dismissive and offensive comments of some DUP leaders and spokespersons has failed...

  Last week, we remembered with pride Bobby Sands and Francis Hughes, who died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in 1981. At the weekend the anniversaries will occur of Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara. And in July and August we will celebrate the lives, sacrifice and courage of other six hunger strikers who died 36 years ago; Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine. I was reminded of all of this as I read the An Phoblacht/Republican News from July 18 th 1981. The paper is a miniature copy that the Sinn Féin POW department and the AP/RN staff produced for smuggling into the H-Blocks and Armagh and to other prisons. The miniatures were four inches by six. They were printed on thin paper to make it easier for them to be concealed for smuggling. The July 18 th edition had the one word ‘Sadness’ over three photos. One was a picture from Martin Hurson’s funeral and the other two were of Martin and of Joe McDonnell. This...

Last week Arlene Foster told an election rally in Derry that a poll on Irish unity should not be allowed because it would destabilise the North. Do you think she was at all conscious of the huge irony in making that comment in a city that suffered more than most under unionism? I suspect not. The leader of political unionism is blind to its faults and to its role in creating and sustaining decades of political instability, injustice, poverty and conflict. Talk to most unionist representatives about the deep rooted religious and political discrimination that prevailed in Unionism’s apartheid state and they dismiss it out of hand as propaganda. No senior unionist leader has ever accepted any culpability on the part of the state for creating the conditions for years of inter-communal conflict. What they do instead is frighten their supporters with dire warnings of what equality for nationalists would mean for them. The loss of privilege. The end of dominance. The boot on the other ...

Michelle O'Neill in the Oireachtas for the visit of Michel Barnier Michelle O'Neill and Mickey Brady travelled down from the North this morning to attend the joint sitting of the Dáil and the Seanad for the address by the EU's Chief Negotiator on Brexit Michel Barnier. As well as meeting political leaders and travelling to the border this morning he addressed a joint sitting of the Dáil and Seanad. Find below my contribution to the debate with bullet points at the outset to highlight some of the more important  points, including Sinn Féin wanting a  referendum on Irish Unity within the next five years.   Sinn Féin wants a different type of European Union. We want a social Europe which promotes peace, demilitarisation, economic and social justice, international solidarity, and greater democratic accountability. ·          Brexit is not just an issue for the north. It will adversely affect our entire island - if we le...

Last week the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, made the bizarre claim that the other 27 member states are ‘lining up to oppose’ Britain over Brexit. It was as if the other EU members are somehow being unfair in agreeing a united position before they enter into the Brexit negotiations with Britain. What did Mrs May expect they would do? Accept her terms quietly, stoically, and meekly acquiesce to British demands? Of course not. This is May very cynically playing to the conservative and jingoistic tendencies within the British electorate. The propaganda spin is simple. It’s Britain – alone - against the rest. The recent talk, in some right-wing media, of war with Spain if the status of Gibraltar changes; the constant harking back to Britain’s Imperial past – as if that is something to be proud of, are just some of the xenophobic elements coming to play in the current debate around Brexit. It is part of a much wider propaganda battle between Britain and the EU. Evidence of this...