Léargas

Bairbre de Brún, Mise, Lucilita Breathnach and Martin at the centenary celebrations in Dublin 2016 I like hats. And caps. I have quite a nice collection of headwear, worn and aged, like myself, dispersed between Dublin and Belfast, Donegal, the car boot and all the places in between. It used to be customary for men to wear headware. Look at any old photos. Dunchers and flatcaps galore. Peaky blinders in multitudes outside factories, mills, shipyards, farmyards, public houses, marts, markets, country fairs. Hats were also popular. Paddy hats, trilbys, bowlers. Though bowlers were more for Orangemen on parade or English civil servants on The Mall. Country men were hat and cap people. Christy Ring even played hurling in a cap. So my grá for head gear used to be widespread. And now its coming back into vogue. Especially the omnipresent baseball cap. It is the preferred head covering for rappers, golfers, other sports people, urban youth. Mise agus Cleaky I have a couple o...

Mise agus Martin and Ted in Stormont Castle 2018 The demonising of republicans has long been an integral part of politics on this island, and especially in the lead into and during electoral campaigns. Through the decades of conflict Unionist leaders and British governments regularly posed as democrats while supporting anti-democratic laws, censorship and the denial of the rights of citizens who voted for Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin Councillors, party activists and family members were killed by unionist death squads, o ften in collusion with British state forces. Successive Irish governments embraced this demonization strategy through Section 31 and state censorship. Sinn Féin was portrayed as undemocratic and dangerous. We were denied municipal or other public buildings to hold events including Ard Fheiseanna. In the years since the Good Friday Agreement these same elements have sought to sustain this narrative. The leaderships of Fianna Fáil, the Irish Labour Party, the SDLP and...

The Sinn Fein team going into City Hall. Lily Fitzsimons is flanked by Alex Maskey, Tish Holland, Sean McKight, ,  Fra McCann is hiding behind Alex; Paddy McManus, Joe O'Donnell, Sean Keenan, Mick Conlon and Joe Austin   Former west Belfast MP and Party President Gerry Adams has expressed his deep sorrow at the death of Lily Fitzsimons. He said: “ I want to extend my deepest condolences and solidarity to the family of my friend and comrade Lily Fitzsimons. Like many other residents of Turf Lodge Lily was originally from North Belfast where she was born in 1937. After she married she moved to Turf Lodge. Lily’s politics were shaped by her family, her community, her class, her gender and her life experience. She was inspired by Máire Drumm and Marie Moore and the hundreds of women who daily challenged the actions of the RUC and British Army. In July 1970 she was one of thousands of women, led by Máire and Marie, who broke the British Army’s curfew of the Falls...

The votes have been cast and counted. Sinn Féin has emerged as the largest party by votes in the southern state. Over half a million (535,595) citizens gave their first preference to Sinn Fein. We have 37 seats in the Dáil. It was a remarkable election and an equally remarkable result. There had been a sense in the lead into the campaign that something was stirring within the electorate. The early opinion polls and the first canvas had indicated a greater than usual frustration at the Tweedledee – Tweedledum politics of the two larger parties of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. For four years Fianna Fáil worked in partnership with Fine Gael. Propping it up in government. Empowering its disastrous policies on health and housing. Echoing its lines against a Unity Referendum as set out in the Good Friday Agreement and outdoing its vitriol against Sinn Féin. And then, as if the electorate are fools, Fianna Fáil tried to tell citizens that it was different from Fine Gael. That it was the alte...

The general election in the South is drawing to a close. Polling day is Saturday – the first time an election has taken place on a Saturday since the historic 1918 election which saw Sinn Féin win a landslide victory.  It has been a relatively short but very intense campaign. Many in the media tried to reduce it to a beauty contest between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. RTE went so far as to exclude Mary Lou McDonald from the Leader’s Debate. Then on the eve of the debate they reneged in the face of intense public outrage and Mary Lou, as she was entitled, debated with the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders. As in all of the other interviews and debates Mary Lou emerged head and shoulders above the other leaders.    Meanwhile, notwithstanding my broken foot I have hobbled my way from door to door primarily in Louth where the republican effort is to re-elect Imelda Munster and elect Ruairí Ó Murchú – our Sinn Féin team in the wee county. There have been excursions into ...