Léargas

In December 2012 Banksy – the renowned graffiti artist – produced a Christmas Card of Mary and Joseph unable to enter Bethlehem because of Israel’s apartheid wall which now surrounds that Palestinian town. It was a powerful and evocative image. It caught the sense of occupation and oppression faced daily by the Palestinian people and was a reminder of the plight of the five million Palestinian refugees scattered in camps around the Middle East. Five years later that card is now a potent symbol of those millions more refugees who have been displaced by war and violence across the globe. When I came across it again today it reminded me of a meeting I had in September with one of the international human rights agencies that is doing amazing work providing health care and support for refugees. Médicins Sans Frontiéres MSF – Doctors without Borders – came into the Dáil to discuss their work, in particular their efforts in Libya. While MSF are involved in many projects in many trouble...

As I get older I find myself getting more disenchanted with the Catholic Church. That’s the church I was baptised into when I was a baby. Holy Communion followed when I was a pupil at Saint Finian’s on the Falls Road. I can still vaguely remember that day. Especially my First Confession. I took that very seriously. Then Confirmation. My sponsor wound me up with his stories about the bishop going to slap me on the cheek. When that point in the ceremony arrived the Bishop, a mild mannered man, barely touched the side of my face with his hand. But he smiled when I winced. In between these high lights of my life in the church the De La Salle Brothers taught us our Catechism. It was all very straight forward. Mortal sins and venial sins and plenary indulgences and the Our Father in Irish. Impure thoughts and fast days. I was living in Abercorn Street North for most of this time. With my Granny Adams. My other granny, Granny Hannaway, lived a few streets away. When I was a child she wor...

It was to be the breakthrough moment on Brexit that the British government and the European Commission had been working toward for over a year. After months of apparently endless stalemate the weekend saw more positive reports emerging from the intense negotiations between EU and the British government officials. By Monday morning the impression being given– out of Government Buildings in Dublin and the Commission in Brussels – was that a deal was imminent. The new Tánaiste Simon Coveney was on RTE’s Morning Ireland saying that he expected an announcement on an agreement later in the day. The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called a special Cabinet meeting for 9am to sign off on the communique. At mid-morning Coveney was told by European Commission president Jean Claude Junker that the British had agreed the final draft. At midday Mary Lou McDonald was among a group of Oireachtas opposition representatives who were briefed by the Taoiseach on the paragraphs relating to the island of Irel...

Oráid Uachtarán Shinn Féin Gerry Adams TD chuig Léacht Cothaigh 2017 - 2ú Nollaig 2017 Dia dhaoibh go léir a chairde, Ar dtús ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuil mé thar a bheith sásta bheith libh chun Léacht Cothaigh a thabhairt i mbliana Is ónóir mhór dom labhairt libh agus sibh ag seoladh ‘Glas le Fás’, an straitéis do thodhchaí na Ceathrú Gaeltachta. Buíochas mór do Jake Mac Seacais agus Forbairt Feirste as an chuireadh agus buíochas mór oraibhse as teacht. Tá sé iontach scaifte chomh spreagúil fuinniúil a fheiceáil agus tá sé soiléir go bhfuil an fuinneamh seo le feiceáil i muintir na Gaeilge ar fud na cathrach. Bhí go leor agaibh sa seomra páirteach sa phróiséas seo, mar sin maith sibh uilig! Mar is eol daoibh, d’inis mé le déanaí do Ard Fheis Shinn Féin i mBaile Átha Cliath go mbeidh mé ag éirí as mar Uachtarán Shinn Féin agus nach mbeidh mé ag dul ar aghaidh chun an chéad toghchán Dála eile. B’fhéidir go gceapann sibh go mbeidh mé ag éirí as achan rud. Ní bheid...

When I wrote this column all of the indications suggested that a general election in the south was very possible. There was enormous political and media fall-out from the discovery of emails appearing to show that the former Minister of Justice in the Irish government knew more than she had admitted about the efforts by an ex-Garda Commissioner to smear whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe. On Tuesday Tánaiste and Minister Frances Fitzgerald resigned. With both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil desperate to avoid a general election she had little other choice in the face of mounting political and public anger around the release of additional emails from the Dept. of Justice. However, the resignation of Frances Fitzgerald is not the end of the issue. The Charleton Inquiry into protected disclosures will examine all of this after the New Year and serious questions remain about the actions of the current Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and the handling of the whole debacle by An Taoiseac...