Léargas

An emerging narrative in recent weeks as the 20 th  anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was celebrated is the spurious notion that the SDLP’s electoral decline is because it set aside its own political self-interest in the interests of the peace process. This has long been the refrain from some southern commentators. The truth is much simpler. Apart from John Hume the SDLP leadership has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to think strategically or to plan for the long term. It thinks in the here and now, in the short term. In the beginning the SDLP was an amalgamation of a number of political personalities led by Gerry Fitt. They included Eddie McGrady, Austin Curry, Paddy Devlin, Ivan Cooper, Seamus Mallon, John Hume and Bríd Rodgers. They replaced the old Nationalist Party. The strongest of these personalities ran independent fiefdoms with little effort outside of their own constituencies to build a political party. So there was very little political or ideological cohesion

The event on Tuesday last week, at Queens University, to celebrate the 20 th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, was an opportunity to reminisce about the difficulties we all faced at that time, and the lessons for today. An earlier event organised by Féile an Phobail at St. Mary’s College on the Falls Road put the spotlight on the positive and constructive role of the community and voluntary sector in the peace process. This aspect of the Good Friday Agreement and of the peace process has never been properly examined or appreciated. It was also particularly appropriate that Féile organised the event given that this year Féile celebrates its 30 th birthday. For those of you too young to remember west Belfast in 1988 was a m ilitarised war zone. Heavily armed British troops and RUC officers occupied our streets. British Army and RUC forts like Jericho, Henry Taggart, Silver City, Pegasus, dominated the streetscape and main roads. As part of their efforts at control the

Last week, when I was writing about Martin Luther King I came across a line which as I watch the desperate events unfolding in the Gaza Strip struck me as particularly appropriate. In a speech in December 1956 King said: “There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth losing a job; it is worth going to jail for.” And for Martin Luther King it was worth dying for. According to some media reports it was King and Ghandi’s example of non-violence which spurred some Palestinian academics and students to organise a mass, non-violent series of protests - ‘The Great March of Return’- in the Gaza Strip along its heavily defended border with Israel. Their intention was to draw attention to the 70 th anniversary of ‘The Nakba’ (catastrophe) which witnessed the forced expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian refugees from their homes in 1948 and that led to the creation of the state of Israel. The protests commenced on March 30 th and are due to

We’re on the road to freedom Ten years ago Bruce Springsteen came to Belfast as part of the Seegar Sessions – named after Pete Seegar the great American singer songwriter - and played to a packed Odyssey Arena. I was there. It was an unforgettable night. Springsteen and his band were on fire. The music, and the energy had the thousands packed into the arena singing loudly too. On that night Springsteen sang one of Pete Seegar’s most enduring songs. It is a song which has a strong historical and emotional connection with the civil rights movements in the USA and the civil rights campaign here in the north of Ireland. Pete Seeger tells how he got the original tune from an old Negro gospel hymn and rewrote it.   We shall overcome We shall overcome We shall overcome, someday Oh, deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome, someday We'll walk hand in hand We'll walk hand in hand We'll walk hand in hand, some day Oh, deep in my heart I do believe We