This weeks Blog: Stay Safe; Brexit Border; Irish govt & UN Security Council; & Solidarity with Catalonia
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Stay Safe.
As the pandemic surges out of control the under
investment in health services north and south on this island is obvious for
everyone to see. The good news of the vaccine must be tempered with a
resolve by all of us to follow the health advice and to minimise contact with
others until the vaccine is administered. When we eventually put this horrible
pandemic behind us we must also be resolved to ensure that a fully resourced
and accessible public health service becomes a reality.
The Brexit Border
An hour before midnight on New Year’s Eve the
Brexit deal was finally done – sort of. Four and a half years after the Brexit
referendum the little Englanders and the DUP party who campaigned for Brexit
got their way. The British state left the EU, including the people of the North
and of Scotland who voted to remain.
Of course, it didn’t quite work out the way the DUP
wanted. Instead of a ‘United Kingdom’ waving goodbye to Europe
they now have a deeply disunited kingdom with Scotland battering at the gates
of independence; Welsh nationalism on the rise; and the demand for a referendum
on Irish Unity a growing demand across Ireland.
In addition the North remains in the EU’s single
market for goods and will apply EU customs rules at its ports under the
watchful eye of EU officials. There are now export checks and regulatory
differences between the North and Britain. Full responsibility for this rests
squarely with the DUP.
It will take a while for the dust to settle on the
mess that has been created by Brexit but a mess it is. Ireland’s interests
north or south were never a consideration in the English, or the DUP support
for, the decision to leave the EU. Indeed, Ireland only became an issue in the
Brexit negotiations when Sinn Fein ensured that the issue of the Good Friday
Agreement, and avoiding a hard border, would be a central objective of the EU
negotiators. However, there is a way out of the chaos that will unfold in 2021.
It is rooted in the Good Friday Agreement – the people of the north have the
right to choose which union we want to be a part of: a new union between all
the people of the island of Ireland or the old failed unacceptable and imposed
union with England.
One thing is certain. There will
be a referendum on Irish unity. There are no ifs about it, though resistance
from the usual suspects, to a referendum will continue. It is now a matter of
when that referendum will be held. So those of us who want self government need
to increase our efforts, and intensify the sensible call for the Irish government
to initiate ways to plan how we will agree our future. Better still we need to
start planning that future now.
The Irish government and the UN Security Council
As 2020 came to a close most of the public and media focus was understandably
on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and the increase in the number of
people across the island of Ireland testing positive for the Coronavirus.
However one other event also deserves attention. As of 1st January
the Irish government holds one of 15 seats on the UN Security Council. In June
of last year a secret ballot among the almost 200 member states saw the
Norwegian and Irish governments win two non-permanent seats on the Council.
They will hold these influential seats for the next two years.
The Irish government campaigned for the seats on
the basis that it will defend and promote human rights and peace. Its success
in winning the Security Council seat provides a unique opportunity to make a
positive impact in world affairs, international relations and in peoples’
lives. There are a significant number of armed conflicts and international
disputes which urgently need a positive engagement by the UN, including in the
Middle East. The plight of the people of Palestine is crying out for justice.
The government also has a responsibility to use
this unique opportunity to defend the Good Friday Agreement – which is an
international Treaty lodged with the UN – to defend the peace process and to
use this crucial international forum to insist that the British government
honour its GFA commitments on human rights, legacy matters, and the role of
civic society which it has so far refused to implement.
Most importantly, in a forum which places great
emphasis on self-determination and self-government (the UN has grown from to 51
states in 1945 to 193 today) there is an onus on the Irish government to use
this forum to articulate the desire for a United Ireland. As the debate for the
referendum on Unity continues to grow the government now has within its grasp
at the United Nations an unparalleled opportunity to further that objective,
democratically, peacefully, and inclusively.
Solidarity with Catalonia
Like many other republicans I have spent several
Christmas’s in prison. It’s not a nice place to be at any time but especially
over Christmas. I was reminded of this a few days before Christmas when I had
the opportunity to hold a video conference with two of the imprisoned leaders
of 'Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya' (ERC) - the main pro-independence party
in Catalan.
Oriol Junqueras is President of the ERC and Raul
Romeva is the former Foreign Minister of the Catalan government. Both are
currently serving prison sentences of 13 years and 12 years respectively in
Lledoners prison, Catalonia. Declan Kearney MLA joined me in the
conversation and also in attendance was Marta Rovira, the ERC’s General
Secretary, who is currently exiled in Switzerland, and Jordi Solé, the ERC's
Secretary for International Affairs.
The imprisonment of the two comrades arose from the
peaceful and democratic independence referendum that was held by the government
of Catalan in October 2017. The Spanish state reacted violently.
Our television screens were filled with images of Spanish Civil Guards
firing plastic bullets at Catalan citizens trying to vote, and violent scenes
of heavily armoured police batoning defenceless and peaceful citizens – some of
them lying on the ground, many of them women, some elderly.
The 2017 referendum was the
culmination of almost two decades of Catalan efforts to achieve greater
autonomy within Spain. Catalan leaders tried to engage successive Spanish
governments in a dialogue but their efforts were rebuffed. They were frustrated
at every turn by an intransigent central government and the courts.
Rather than engage in a
process of dialogue to resolve this constitutional crisis the Spanish
government choose to arrest and imprison senior Catalan politicians. Oriol
Junqueras and Raul Romeva are among those who received lengthy prison
sentences. Despite their unjust treatment and imprisonment both men were in
good spirits when we spoke to them and clearly determined to continue their
struggle for freedom and independence.
Our conversation lasted an hour. Declan and I
expressed Sinn Féin's ongoing solidarity with all of the political prisoners,
those leadership figures still in exile, and the right of the Catalan people to
independence. We also expressed our support for the Amnesty Bill currently
being proposed by Catalan Independent representatives.
The connections between the people of Ireland and
of Catalonia go back a long way. In 1920 Máire Ní Bhrian, a member of
Cumann na mBan, travelled to Catalonia as part of the republican outreach
seeking support for the Irish cause in Europe. Writing after the death on
hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney the Lord Mayor of Cork, Ní Bhrian recalled;
‘In Barcelona and in Catalonia generally there was the deepest sympathy
for Ireland and when Terence died the papers there were full of articles about
him and masses were offered for him in many churches which were crowded to the
doo… The Catalans always cherish the desire for separation from Spain and their
aspiration for independence is the bond between them and us.’
A doll dressed in traditional Catalan clothing was sent from the people
of Catalonia to MacSwiney’s young daughter Máire. Last year the doll was
refurbished as part of an exhibition on MacSwiney by Cork public museum.
The Spanish government needs to return to the
negotiating table. The international community, especially the European
Union, has an obligation to ensure that Catalonia can pursue the course of
self-determination without fear of suppression.
In the meantime find below the names and addresses
of imprisoned Catalan leaders and political prisoners. Take a few minutes and
send them a solidarity card – a letter – a book. Show them they are not alone
and not forgotten.
Dolors Bassa Coll
Centre penitenciari Puig de les Basses
Mòdul de dones
Raval disseminat, 53
17600 Figueres
(Girona)
Jordi Cuixart i Navarro
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
Carme Forcadell Lluís
Carme Forcadell i Lluís
Centre Penitenciari Wad Ras
Doctor Trueta, 76
08005 Barcelona
Joaquim Forn i Chiarello
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
Oriol Junqueras i Vies
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
Raül Romeva Rueda
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
Josep Rull i Andreu
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
Jordi Turull Negre
Centre Penitenciari de Lledoners
Mòdul 2
Carretera C-55, km 37
08250 St Joan de Vilatorrada
(Barcelona)
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