Léargas

John Montgomery Standing up for rights Among those who attended the Easter Sunday commemoration in Belfast two weeks ago was John Montgomery. I haven’t seen John in many years and it was a delight to meet him again. John is originally from St. James’ in west Belfast. Thirty years ago John was the Chairperson of the Ballyfermot Community Association. Those were different times. Political censorship and the demonisation of Republicans was entrenched in government policy North and South. Collusion between British state agencies and their unionist paramilitary surrogates was widespread.  The Irish and British governments were locked into a strategy aimed at defeating the IRA and smashing Sinn Féin. There was no thought of peace with justice or of conflict resolution; of inclusive talks; or of the centrality of dialogue to resolve differences. The establishment was against that. The Irish political system and sections of the media were in the forefront of this campaign. ...

  Back in the USA The 25 th  anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement has attracted considerable national and international interest in recent weeks. Part of this involved me travelling last week once again to the USA. It must be four years since I was last there. While a lot has changed politically in that time both here and in the U.S. some things never change – among them the multiple stamping in red capitals of  SSSS ( Secondary Security Screening Selection ) on our boarding passes and suitcase labels. It is explained as a random process whereby travellers are selected for ‘enhanced’ searches. I have been getting the  SSSS stamp on every visit to and from the USA for over 20 years. Randomly routine.  But apart from that the visit was an opportunity to catch up with many old friends and thank them for the crucial role they played in 1998 and continue to play today. If Irish America ever had any doubt about its political strength it was evident last week i...

  A Warm House for Everyone I am writing this column in New York. Richard and I are here for the weekend working on my remarks for Monday night when President Bill Clinton and I will share reflections on the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and developments since then. I will return to this in next week’s column. President Clinton played a critical role in the build up to the Agreement, encouraged and supported by Irish America. He was at the end of the phone as agreement was reached and has been an enabler of our process ever since. So too has Hilary Clinton. Our Monday night event is in Cooper Union Great Hall. I’ve spoken there once before. So has Abraham Lincoln, Barak Obama, Bill Clinton and a range of other renowned speakers from the Arts, Science, politics and activist sectors. Just saying.  ‘If you can make it here you can make it anywhere’ says Richard. Our last event before leaving Ireland for New York was a Peoples’ Assembly in the Carrickdale ...