Léargas

Sunday marked 24 years from the historic referendum in May 1998 that saw almost three quarters of people in the North vote in support of the Good Friday Agreement.  Despite the twists and turns in the years since then the Agreement has proved resilient in maintaining peace and in plotting a course for constitutional, political and economic change in the North and across these islands. Now the Good Friday Agreement is under threat. Arguably that has always been the case as far as elements of unionism are concerned. But for their part successive British governments have refused to implement parts of the Agreement. The Tories in particular have been guilty of this. Especially the current crowd. The Agreement was a defining moment in our recent history.  It underpinned the peace process. However the Good Friday Agreement was not a settlement. It provided the space in which our different political and constitutional perspectives, that are part of o...

  Lá Mór Dearg This column was written before the huge weekend march in Belfast in support of Lá Dearg - more on that next week.  However, a few words on the Irish language. Every day I learn a little bit more Irish. An extra word or two. For me there is a great joy in being able to speak and to read Irish. And to write a wee bit. I especially take great pleasure in speaking in Irish to the growing number of young people I meet every day. They use Gaeilge fluently and naturally. And they correct me when necessary.  Two weeks ago scores of children, parents and staff from Gaelscoil an Lonnáin on the Falls Road held a noisy and joyful protest outside their school in support of Lá Mór Dearg and an Acht na Gaeilge. We heard them from the office. Full of craic and fun. And Gaeilge.  On Saturday – 21 May – thousands more joined with An Dream Dearg for a march and rally in Belfast in support of Acht na Gaeilge and for the rights of Irish language speakers. More on tha...

It was never supposed to be like this. I watched with interest as one BBC presenter, reporting on the Assembly election results, told his largely British audience that the northern state was deliberately created to ensure that nationalists and republicans would be a permanent minority and that no nationalist/republican leader could ever take up the mantle of Prime Minister or First Minister. No way. It was to be a unionist state ruled in perpetuity by a permanent unionist majority. Special laws; gerrymandered electoral boundaries; the Special Powers Act; the repression of the state police (the RUC) and the B Specials; and a deep rooted sectarian system of political and religious discrimination all combined to create an apartheid-like state. The civil rights campaign, the decades of conflict and eventually the peace process and Good Friday Agreement in 1998 changed this by gradually transforming the political landscape. Regrettably not everyone has embraced the new dispensation. There r...

  Candidatitis I first published this article in 2005 and then, slightly amended in 2016. It is dedicated to all candidates from all parties and none and their families as well as all the valiant souls who work hard on their behalf.  By the time you get to read or hear these insightful comments the outcome of the Assembly election should be clear.  So I thought this would be a good time to republish it again, slightly amended once more, with a special thought for the majority of candidates who won’t get elected. In West Belfast there are seventeen candidates battling for five seats. Seventeen into five won’t go.  Think of them as you digest all the outcomes.   Good luck to them all. Good luck especially to all Sinn Féin’s candidates. It is a great honour to represent Sinn Féin in any capacity and a huge privilege to seek a mandate from your peers for our historic republican mission. I hope we have a great result.  That’s all in the ...

  May 5 th  - The Peoples Day One day to polling day and the pundits and pollsters have been filling the airways and column inches with their take on who will be the big winners and who will be the losers.  Who will emerge with more or fewer Assembly seats? Will the Protocol galvanise a so far lack lustre unionist campaign? Will the DUP/TUV and their loyalist allies succeed in frightening unionist voters into toeing the line?  Or will Sinn Féin up-end a century of partition and the northern state by taking enough seats for Michelle O’Neill to become First Minister? Most of the parties have now published their election manifestos. Where they stand on the constitutional issue; the cost of living crisis; Brexit and a host of other matters that are of varying importance to the electorate are pretty well understood by the public.  I folded my first election leaflets in 1964. A long time ago. The actions of the RUC, at the behest of Ian Paisley, in smashing the w...