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Brexit and the disunited Kingdom
The Brexit crisis has at times been
surreal and bizarre. The Unionist parties embraced Brexit claiming, as
many Tories do, that leaving the EU would make Britain great again! On the back
of the unsuccessful referendum on Scottish independence they asserted that
Brexit would solidify the ‘United Kingdom’. This has not happened.
Consequently, the referendum campaign in 2016 and the debate since then relied
on lies, misrepresentation, and a peculiar form of English jingoism.
This column has no desire to live in
a ‘Kingdom’. Even if the High Kings of Ireland came back and if Ted became Ard
Rí, as was his ambition once upon a time, I would remain unimpressed. So when
the King is actually foisted upon us by dint of colonialism and an accident of
birth, hers and mine, my dissenter instincts come to the fore. I want to live
in harmonious accord with the people of our nearest offshore island - closer
even than Tóraigh - and if they want a Kingdom that’s their own business. Ditto
with Brexit. But count me out. I’m also not persuaded that Mr Johnson is
serious about any of these matters. His fix is political power. Even though
that is a transient matter. Just like Kingdoms.
Instead of cementing the Union as Mr
Johnson and his cohorts claimed, Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, have created
significant cracks in the British body politic. More people than ever before
are recognising that Westminster prioritises and protects English interests and
not those of Scotland or Wales or the island of Ireland. No suprises there.
Consequently, all recent polling indicates that Scotland is now closer to
independence than it was in 2014. The debate around independence for Wales has
also seen a step change. In recent days an independence Commission published
its report in support of independence. Last May a YouGov poll suggested that
25% of Welsh voters now backed independence. And two weeks ago a hysterical
front page headline in the Express Newspaper screamed: “Forget about
Scotland! It's Wales that could tear UK apart as independence campaign erupts”.
In 2017 the EU acknowledged that the
North, which voted to remain in the European Union during the 2016 referendum,
could, in the event of Irish Unity, rejoin the EU without negotiation or
complication. Allied to the political and demographic changes already taking
place and despite the shortcomings of the EU this intensified the conversation
that was already taking place for the setting of a date for the referendum on
Unity provided for within the Good Friday Agreement.
Last year’s Withdrawal Agreement and
Irish Protocol angered unionists and elements of the British Conservative party
because it guaranteed no hard border on the island of Ireland while providing
for checks at ports and airports for goods travelling into the North from
Britain. The result of this was the publication of the Internal Market Bill.
Incidentally it was reported in
recent days that hauliers who want to access Dover to travel to Calais in
France will now need special permits to enter the English county of Kent. Where
stands the DUP on this important issue?
In addition opposition to the British
government’s unilateral decision to break international law by introducing its
Internal Market Bill is growing. Unless there is a significant shift in policy
by the Johnson government it’s difficult to see how a full-blown economic and
political crisis between Britain and the EU, with the island of Ireland
suffering substantial collateral damage, can be avoided in the next three
months – the deadline for a trade deal.
Last week the Assembly and the Seanad
both voted in support of the Withdrawal Agreement and Irish Protocol and
rejected the Internal Market Bill being proposed by the Conservatives. The Tory
government has admitted that this Bill will breach international law by
breaking the Irish Protocol – an agreement it signed less than a year ago with
the EU. The Bill is a serious threat to the Good Friday Agreement. The
Committee on the Administration of Justice, the Equality Coalition and Unison ,
as well as Ireland’s Future, have all criticised it. Last Thursday the four
anti-Brexit parties in the Assembly – Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and Green
Party - travelled to Dublin to meet the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon
Coveney. There was agreement on the need for the Withdrawal Agreement and Irish
Protocol to be implemented in full.
All of this simply points up the
importance of planning for our future. This includes advancing the debate on
Irish Unity; securing the referendum on Unity and winning that referendum.
English self-interests are not Irish national interests. It’s time for the
Irish government and parties committed to the reversing of Brexit, insofar as
it effects the people of this island, to include the need to plan for Irish Unity
in their deliberations.
The
centenary of Kevin Barry
There are few songs of Ireland’s long
struggle for freedom that are as well known as ‘Kevin Barry’. In times past it
has been sung by almost every Irish folk group, including the Clancy Brothers
and The Wolfe Tones. International singers have also recorded it. Leonard Cohen
and Paul Robeson, the African American singer, actor and civil rights activist,
each sang a version of it. Robeson’s can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSjO9rIwn5M .
Its popularity was such that during
the recent years of conflict RTE – to its shame - banned it along with many
other republican songs of struggle.
In
Mountjoy jail one Monday morning
High
upon the gallows tree,
Kevin
Barry gave his young life
For
the cause of liberty.
But
a lad of eighteen summers,
Still
there's no one can deny,
As
he walked to death that morning,
He
proudly held his head on high.
100 years ago last week, on 20
September 1920 Kevin Barry was captured following an attack on a British Army
lorry. Three British soldiers were killed in the ambush.
Barry was aged 18 and a medical
student at University College Dublin. He was assaulted by British soldiers
after his arrest and was subsequently tried by court martial on the 20
October. He refused to recongise the court. That evening the sentence of
the court martial was read out to him in his cell. He was to be executed on
1 November.
A massive political and publicity
campaign commenced to save his live. The British government ignored this
and on 1st November Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Prison.
For
the cause he proudly cherished
This
sad parting had to be
Then
to death walked softly smiling
That
old Ireland might be free.
Another
martyr for old Ireland;
Another
murder for the crown,
Whose
brutal laws to crush the Irish,
Could
not keep their spirit down.
Lads
like Barry are no cowards.
From
the foe they will not fly.
Lads
like Barry will free Ireland,
For
her sake they'll live and die.
To mark 100 years since his death
members of his family and the local community in Tombeagh, Hacketstown County
Carlow established the Kevin Barry Commemoration Committee. It intends that
the “centrepiece of the centenary event will be the unveiling of a
lifesize status of Kevin on the Rathvilly village green in County Carlow.”
The Committee have established a go
fund me page at:
gofundme.com/f/kevin-barry-commemoration-2020
They also have a back account: Kevin
Barry Commemoration Committee (Rathvilly), BIC: AIBKIE2D and
IBAN:IE09AIBK93332516242182
Further details are available at;
Website: Kevin Barry 2020
webpage
Committee email address: kevinbarry2020comm@gmail.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Kevinbarrycommemoration2020/
Twitter page: https://twitter.com/KevinBarry20201
Instagram page: Kevin Barry
Committee Instagram page
Frederick
Douglass; An escaped slave in Ireland
The killing of African American
citizens amidst the tension of a Presidential election in the USA has brought
the issue of racism centre stage in that country. The Black Lives Matters
campaign has contributed to a growing awareness of the depth to which racism
exists not just in the USA but also in Britain with its colonial past, and
elsewhere in the world, including here in Ireland.
Among those I have long admired for
his courage in opposing slavery and who has strong connections to Ireland, is
Frederick Douglass
175 years ago in September 1845
Frederick Douglass arrived in Ireland. Douglass had been born into slavery in
Maryland and escaped. That year he wrote an autobiography of his life: ‘The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave’. It
was a best seller but as an escaped slave Douglass was now at risk of being
kidnapped and returned to his slave owner. So, like so many of my generation,
he went on the run.
He toured Ireland extensively and
lectured on the evils of slavery. He visited Belfast four times.
Douglass’s close association with
Belfast should be a matter of great public pride. It is a part of our history
that needs to be told and retold. It is also a reminder that the evil of
slavery still has to be ended. There is currently an effort under way to have a
statue erected to Douglass. I wish those involved well in their endeavour.
Speed the day.
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