Léargas

Mise agus Pat McGivern I had the pleasure at the recent Belfast Sinn Féin Cairde event to make presentations to Marguerite Gallagher and Pat McGivern – two strong, indomitable and committed republican activists. Two tireless, hard-working stalwarts of Green Cross who have been working on behalf of republican prisoners and their families for decades. Unfortunately, Marguerite was unable to be present on the night. She was ill. But I visited her several days later. Pat McGivern was there. Both women, like many other women of their generation, have been working away diligently and sometimes invisibly for over half a century and longer to advance the objective of Irish unity and in support of prisoners and their families. If our movement was a building these women, and other women like them, are the foundation, corner stones and the scaffolding which holds our structures together in good times and in bad. Mise agus Marguerite As well as collecting Green Cross, fighting ...

Mise agus John Hume   Seamus Mallon was never a big fan of the Hume-Adams talks. In 1985 Fr. Alex Reid – the Sagart - tried on at least three occasions to organise a meeting between me and Mr Mallon. He delayed and delayed. Despite further efforts by Fr. Reid after the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed in November 1985, Mr. Mallon finally said no to a meeting in March 1986. On May 19th 1986 Fr. Alec wrote to John Hume. John phoned Clonard Monastery the next day and the following day he met the Sagart. John and I met shortly afterwards. The Hume Adams initiative was a product of those talks. While there were other element and many more contributors the Peace Process grew out of them. So did the Good Friday Agreement. Mise agus Albert Reynolds and John at Government Buildings, Dublin In my opinion Seamus Mallon is not a big fan of the Good Friday Agreement. He wrongly blames it and the two governments on the decline of the SDLP and ignores other factors including...

  Over the decades many official and unofficial reports, pamphlets and books have been published examining the evidence for British state collusion with unionist paramilitaries in the murder of citizens. These include, reports by Amnesty International, the Barron report into the Dublin Monaghan bombings, reports by the North’s Police Ombudsman, the Pat Finucane Centre, by Canadian Judge Peter Cory; the de Silva report; and books like Ian Cobain’s ‘The History Thieves’; Unfinished Business: State Killings and the Quest for Truth by Bill Rolston: A Very British Jihad by Paul Larkin: and Lethal Allies by Anne Cadallader. Among many others. Last week Mark McGovern’s ‘Counterinsurgency and Collusion in Northern Ireland.’ was published. It significantly adds to the body of evidence already available about Britain’s dirty war in Ireland and its use of unionist death squads and shoot-to-kill actions. McGovern’s book is hugely detailed and provides countless sources for the evidenc...

I have watched with awe and huge admiration the courage and steadfastness of the families of those killed in Ballymurphy in August 1971 throughout their long campaign to get to the truth of what happened on our streets 48 years ago. The current inquest has been a difficult experience for them. They have had to listen to the lies and spin from former British soldiers seeking to justify their killing of Fr. Hugh Mullan, Francis Quinn, Daniel Teggart, Joan Connolly – a mother of eight - Joseph Murphy, Noel Phillips, Edward Doherty, John Laverty, Joseph Corr and John McKerr. An 11th man, local community worker Paddy McCarthy, died from a heart attack after a British army patrol subjected him to a mock execution. Eleven families lost loved ones and 57 children were bereaved. The year before internment Sinn Féin organised a petition in Ballymurphy for British soldiers to leave the area. About 97% of the community voted ‘Yes’. Ballymurphy was not what one would call a Republican com...

In February 2018, Sinn Féin and the DUP negotiating teams and leaders closed on a draft agreement to be considered by our leaderships. The DUP leader Arlene Foster failed to get the support of her Officer Board. The talks collapsed in recriminations. At that time I wrote:  “It is not the end. The shutter has been pulled down on this phase of talks but ultimately all of the parties, Sinn Féin, Alliance, SDLP and the UUP and DUP, along with the two governments, will at some point in the time ahead be back around the same table, negotiating.”  And that’s where the parties and two governments will be when a new round of talks commence next week. The murder of Lyra McKee, and public revulsion at the actions of those responsible, has been the main catalyst for this at this time. The British Government seized the moment and announced a ‘new’ talks process. The Irish Government has bought into this. The shock, outrage and sadness at Lyra’s death has highlighted the widespread ...