Léargas

Mise agus Seanadoir Frances Black Two weeks ago I attended the launch in Kilmainham Prison of the Centenary Exhibition of the life of Nelson Mandela. The exhibition was a testimony to the extraordinary courage of Mandela and to those in South Africa, and in the African National Congress, who struggled for freedom and equality inside and outside of south Africa. It was also a reminder of theobscenity of the National Party’s system of apartheid or so-called ‘ separate development.’ The Apartheid policy was one of the great evils of the 20 th  century. It allowed the white National Party government to exercise control over the people of south Africa. Its roots were in the colonisation of south Africa by European powers, including the British. The policy began to take formal shape in the years aft...

Last Friday night’s explosion at my home in west Belfast is not the first time my family have been targeted in this way. It was a carbon copy of an attack late one night in June 1993. On that occasion a hand grenade was thrown at the front bedroom window where Colette was awake watching a late night film. Gearoid was doing some late night studying for exams. The grenade bounced off the reinforc ed glass, landed on the porch and exploded seconds later in the front garden. The blast smashed windows in the porch and left pockmarks from shrapnel across the wall. I wasn’t there but I heard the blast and was quickly told what had happened. When I arrived at the scene local republicans and neighbours were offering their help and solidarity to Colette. The British Army and RUC were also there in strength. The next morning after they had left and I was clearing up I found the lever of the grenade still lying in full view in the garden. The forensic examination of the scene had not be...

Fr. Des Wilson is a living legend. He has been an integral part of the west Belfast community for six decades. He is hugely respected and loved as a priest, a community activist, an educator, a defender of people’s rights, an author, dramatist and writer. A fear naofa. He is a man of great courage and vision, a good neighbour, and a decent human being. On Sunday he celebrated his 93 rd birthday with a small group of family and friends. In recent times he has been in and out of hospital. When he arrived at the Glór na Mona Centre –   Gael Ionad Mhic Goill - on the Whiterock Road he looked frail as he gently pushed his three-wheel walker ahead of him. But he was in great form. Smiling, laughing, joking and shaking hands and giving out hugs to everyone there. He toasted his birthday with a glass of white wine and he took great delight in blowing out the single candle on his cake. He also joined in the craic and the slagging as Ciaran Cahill played a nine-minute video sho...

The soulful keen of the úilleann pipes echoed across the fields and hills of south Armagh. The tricolour and provincial flags fluttered in the breeze against the backdrop of a clear blue sky and Slieve Gullion in the distance. The large crowd was silent as the piper played a beautiful rendition of the last post in remembrance of the twenty-four local IRA volunteers whose names adorn the wall of the Memorial Garden at Tí Chulainn, in Mullaghbawn. Sunday was the annual Volunteers Day when those Óglaigh who gave their lives in south Armagh are remembered by family, friends, and comrades. This year the local republicans decided to erect a memorial stone for Martin McGuinness who opened the garden in October 2010. Martin’s wife Bernie, Emmett, Fiachra, Grainne and Fionnuala, and their grandchildren were in attendance. Martin loved south Armagh. He knew many of those on the Roll of Honour, including Mickey McVerry, the first Volunteer to be killed from the area and the two Brend...