How I got a different view of Croker
Last week I spent a day in Croke Park. I have
been there many times before. Usually for GAA fixtures or the occasional
concert. But last week was different. Some of the courts service in Dublin,
including defamation cases, are currently being heard there. The Covid
restrictions meant shifting some cases out of the Four Courts. Croke Park is an
unusual setting for court business. Looking out of the window on level five at
the green pitch down below while lawyers, potential jurists, court officials
and others were busily rushing about their business.
My case had to do with an article in the Sunday
World in September 2015. In May that year Jock Davison was killed as he walked
to work. Several months later on 13 August Kevin McGuigan was shot dead outside
his home. As a result there was a huge political storm as some politicians
tried to link republicans to these events. The DUP wanted Sinn Féin expelled
from the institutions and threatened to leave the Executive. On 10 September Peter
Robinson announced that he was standing aside as First Minister along with
other DUP Ministers and leaving Arlene Foster as their sole Ministerial
representative in the Executive. He said that he had “stepped aside but
technically not resigned.”
Three days later the Sunday World published a
story under the heading – “Gerry’s Secret McGuigan Meeting – Adams met
murdered Provo over hit-threat fears’ which claimed that I had met
Kevin McGuigan in July and assured him that he was not “under any
threat from Sinn Féin members.”
The story was untrue. I had not met Kevin
McGuigan. I said so publicly and immediately contacted my solicitor and
commenced proceedings against the Sunday World. That was six years ago.
Last Tuesday the Sunday World’s legal
representative read out an apology in the court. It said: “Although the
Sunday World reported the existence of such a meeting in good faith, we now
accept Mr. Adams’s position that no such meeting or conversation ever took
place and have agreed to publish this apology for the record.”
Outside Croke Park my solicitor Paul Tweed
described the front page story and the two prominent pages inside the paper as
sensationalised and “making totally false and spurious claims”. Paul Tweed
said: “Not only had this allegation been totally untrue but the
defendant (Sunday World) failed to come up with any evidence or basis for the
unfounded story. The publishers of the Sunday World have finally and belatedly
acknowledged what they have done and retracted the allegations and unreservedly
apologised to Mr. Adams before the court this afternoon.”
I took the opportunity to thank Paul Tweed and
Johnsons and the senior counsel.
I told the waiting media: “For a long
time now some elements of the media have reported or published or made very false
and vicious and offensive claims about me and about other republicans. I am
satisfied in this case that the Sunday World has apologised for this deeply
offensive and false article. I am also very conscious that at the very centre
of it a man, Kevin McGuigan murdered and another man Gerard Davison was
murdered also. Their families like many others are grieving.”
For me this was always about asserting my own
integrity and I think the case succeeded in that. It is my intention to donate
the proceeds of the settlement to good causes. These will include the Irish
language sector, Green Cross, The Bobby Sands Trust, The Moore Street Preservation
Trust, the homeless and other projects that I have a grá for. .
First World problems need fixed
Most readers of this column, like this columnist, live in
the developed world. So, some of our problems are first world problems. Many of
us have benefitted from the advances of recent decades.
I am from that generation who spent my childhood in an
overcrowded house without basic amenities like a bathroom, inside toilet or hot
water. Most of the menfolk in my clann were building labourers, hod carriers,
manual workers. Their work was precarious, casual and underpaid. The womenfolk
worked in the mills while rearing usually large broods of children. The work
was hard, conditions tough and the wages were miserly.
The women were the homemakers, dependent on weekly visits
to the pawnshop - Paddy Lavery’s in our case - the support of Grannies and the
sharing of food with neighbours to supplement meagre incomes.
None of our adult family members were educated beyond
primary school level. Yet they were intelligent socially aware human beings.
Yet all of us were poor. Why? I came to question this as I got older and
more aware.
There have been many improvements since then.
Nowadays many of us have decent homes, a good quality of life and many of our
children and grandchildren are university educated. These basic rights were won
because people took a stand.
But not all of us are so lucky. Poverty is still
widespread. Some citizens are still treated unfairly. Some children do not have
the chance to reach their full potential. So we have to be always mindful that
they are in the place we used to be in. We have to rise up with our class not
out off it. Poverty is not an accident. It is a consequence of public policy or
the lack of it. If we cannot eradicate poverty in this part of the developed
world how can we hope to do so in the developing world where poverty is
widespread and deeply embedded?
In my view we will not eradicate poverty in
Ireland while we are governed by Tories in Dublin and London. Of course we need
to keep trying to alleviate hardship and we need to support measures to give
people economic rights even though our country is partitioned. But when we end
partition and have our own national democracy and the opportunity for a real
republic then the struggle enters another phase. A poverty free Ireland has to
be the objective of all public policy. That is the best contribution we can make
to a poverty free world. The proposition is straight forward. It is called
equality. Anything else is unacceptable. Here in the so called developed world
or in the developing world. James Connolly put it well: “For our
demands most moderate are. We only want the earth.”
Lá breithe TG4.
I don’t watch television that often but when I do
TG4 is usually my first choice. It has everything. Its an Irish language
channel. The Irish language channel. Great music. Sport. It’s GAA coverage is
first class. News. History. Culture. Documentaries, drama, programmes for
children and much more. Its series of films telling the stories of the 1916
leaders are among the best ever produced. Its coverage of the centenary of 1916
was excellent. Dramas like An Klondike have attracted world-wide audiences and
many awards. Ros na Rún has been running for 26 seasons. The travelogue
documentaries which have examined the journeys of the diaspora and their impact
on life in the USA and elsewhere have been hugely informative. TG4 has been a
creative force in Irish society encouraging local talent and producing
programmes to the best international standards.
25 years ago on Halloween evening 1996 Teilifís
na Gaeilge was born in Baile na hAbhann, in Connemara. It was a long time
coming. Like all efforts to promote the Irish language there was fierce
resistance within the political establishment to investing in a television
station that in their view would only ever service a minority community.
Gaeilgeorí had fought long and hard over many years to get it established and
its arrival was applauded by Irish speakers as a positive development here and
overseas. However, the battle to defend, protect and expand the use of Gaeilge
was not ended by the establishment of Teilifís na Gaeilge. That battle
continues today.
Since 1996 Teilifís na Gaeilge, which was
rebranded as TG4 in October 1999, has gone from strength to strength. Recently,
as part of the celebration of its 25th birthday a new
advertising campaign to promote TG4 has commenced. As part of this one of the
many advertising hoardings on the Andersonstown Road carried a large message
announcing ‘Súil Eile’.
So, well done to everyone involved in TG4 – past,
present and in the future. And whether you have Irish, or just a cúpla focal or
none at all tune in. You won’t be disappointed.
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