Léargas

 241022 Fra McCann with the family of Fr. Des below a mural of Fr. Des and Frank Cahill Conway Mill – 40 th  birthday Conway Mill has been at the heart of west Belfast for over almost 200 years. First as a hard place of work for generations of local people, mainly women, and then as a community hub providing education and employment opportunities. Last week the Mill celebrated its 40 th  birthday promoting, supporting and facilitating small indigenous economic enterprises, and providing adult education facilities Conway Mill was built in 1842, in the decade of An Gorta Mór when thousands fled hunger across Ulster and the West, and came to Belfast seeking work and shelter. Conway Street Mill was one of many flax mills across Belfast. Living and working conditions were dreadful. Hours were long and child labour was prevalent. Workers had no rights. They were hired and fired at the whim of employers. Following partition many of these hardships as well as the u...

  Creeslough: Coming to terms will be so difficult I know Creeslough well. I have friends who live there. Outside the village. At both ends. My heart goes out to the families of the ten people who were killed last Friday. The brave, generous and determined efforts of neighbours and the emergency services to rescue victims has been exemplary.  It is difficult for anyone to come to terms with the random awfulness of this disaster, even from a distance. How much more harrowing and life changing is it for friends and family members? Our thoughts and prayers are with them all. Go deanfaidh Dia trocaire oraibh.    Face it Jeffrey: the old days are not returning Last Saturday’s DUP party conference saw it behave as unionist parties have usually behaved. Within their own little bubble.    It’s the same old story. The DUP was established 50 years ago to oppose civil rights. It was openly sectarian. It pledged to Smash Sinn Féin – and failed - founde...

101022 Belfast Peoples Assembly. Tomorrow evening - Wednesday 12 October - Belfast Sinn Féin will be holding the inaugural meeting of the Peoples' Assemblies organised by the party's Commission on the Future of Ireland. The series of meetings are about expanding on the conversation on Irish Unity and constitutional change, that is gathering pace. Registration for the meeting, which is in the Waterfront Studio, is now closed but If  you want to continue the discussion on future constitutional change why not make a submission to the Commission. These can be made  online at  www.sinnfein.ie/futureofireland   See you in the Waterfront Hall on 12 October.     Together we Can Ireland’s Future is well named. Its landmark event last  Saturday  in Dublin was all about the future.  Saturday’s conference was an ambitious project. Over thirty participants addressed 5,000 citizens. Ten political parties with five party leaders  along with...

 16 September 2022 Unravelling the northern state Last week’s census figures have generated acres of newsprint and headlines on its detail and implications. It is remarkable that a century after partition, and the creation of this sectarian gerrymandered little statelet, that the population demographics have shifted so dramatically. While many people today are reluctant to equate religion with political affiliation and national identity it is nonetheless a fact that the northern state was constructed on that basis. Two thirds of the population was Protestant and unionist. One third was Catholic and nationalist. In the years following partition the Unionist regime at Stormont set about entrenching its domination by creating an apartheid state in which Catholics/nationalists were discriminated against in employment and housing and tens of thousands were denied the vote in local government elections. When the census figures where published ten years ago in December 2012 the unra...