Ar Slí An Fhirinne: Delivering Change: In solidarity with LGBTQ+ citizens: Poems for Hard Times - Child’s Play.
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It’s the age we’re at I
tell myself and my declining peer group as we attend funeral after funeral this
last wee while. The great wheel of life is now turning for our
generation. This phase started with Colette’s sister Martha. Martha was eighty
five. The matriarch of the Ma
Then out of the blue our
friend and comrade Damien Gibney died quietly and unexpectedly dozing in his
chair. Damien, one of the two first Sinn Féin Councillors elected to Lisburn,
along with Pat Rice, in dangerous times will be deeply missed by May and Sineád
and the entire Gibney clann. Andrea Murphy’s tribute last week speaks to the history,
kindness and compassion of that family.
On Sunday on the road back
from an event in Dungannon we got the news that Rab Kerr had died suddenly.
Laurence McKeown who was 73 days on Hunger Strike in 1981 remembered Rab
and Jennifer McCann.
“33 years ago today, the
17th May 1990 I was best man at the wedding of Rab Kerr and Jennifer McCann.
The wedding took place in the chapel of the H-Blocks, Long Kesh where Rab and I
were both life-sentence prisoners. Jennifer too was a prisoner at the time in
Maghaberry Prison (and before that Armagh Women's Prison) where she was serving
a 20-year sentence. Her bridesmaid was Mary McArdle, also a life-sentence
prisoner. They were both brought from Maghaberry to the H-Blocks for the
wedding and then returned to Maghaberry that afternoon.
Jennifer, aged 21 at the
time of her arrest, was sentenced on the 6th March 1981. She was a close friend
of Bobby Sands and Bobby wrote in his prison diary while on hunger strike that
day, "My friend Jennifer got twenty years. I am greatly
distressed."
After the wedding ceremony
Jennifer and Mary were held in the prison hospital over lunchtime before
getting visits with Rab and me. They both often talk about how strange and
emotional it was to be in the place where Bobby and the other 9 died.
Last Sunday afternoon I got
the tragic news that Rab had died suddenly. Rab, a volunteer, a blanketman, an
escapee (1983) but most of all a gentleman, loving husband of Jennifer, and
devoted father to Meadhbh, Sáerlaith and Fionntan.
Slán a chara”.
Laurence speaks for all of
us who knew Rab. Go raibh maith agat chara.
Pat Donaghy from Tyrone, a
friend of mine and a long time Sinn Féin supporter in the USA and a champion of
the search for peace in his homeland lost his brother Gerald around the same
time. Gerald, like all the Donaghy clann, was a good Irish patriot. He hosted a
number of Friends of Sinn Féin events for me to speak at. The family organised
for him to be buried in Carrickmore. He was to be waked in the family home in
Tromogue. His older brother Jim made all the arrangements. Then Jim died
suddenly. We buried the two brothers together on a beautiful May morning last
week in their beloved Tyrone.
Kieran Monaghan
On the way back to Belfast
I got the news of the death of Kieran Monaghan, Máire’s husband, Daddy of Harry
and Gabrielle and son of Ciaran and Gabrielle. Kieran had been valiantly
battling cancer.
For months he defied death
and astonished family, friends and his medical team by his calm, stoical
refusal to give up. Eventually Kieran left on his own terms on his Divis
Mountain utopia surrounded by his clann and close to nature and his dogs.
Too many funerals in too
short a time. Yet this is life. In these times of loss and grief the blessings
of an Irish wake are clear. So too is the kindness and generosity of local
communities. That was a character of all the funerals I attended. Its what we
do well. There is comfort too in religious rituals, in music and
story-telling.
No one, even people of
great faith, knows what happens to us after we die. That’s one of life’s great
mysteries. In the Irish language we describe the dead as being on the way of
truth - ar slí an fhirinne. They now know what comes next. The ancient
Irish believed that the spirits of the dead linger in places that they loved. I
like the sense of that. So Kieran's spirit will forever roam the
mountain.
We also know that
friends and family members continue to be our friends and family members
after they die. Death does not change that.
Death does not
stop brothers being brothers. And mammies and grannies are mammies and grannies
forever. Granda's too. And daddies. They all live on in our
memories. The Donaghy's and Damien, big Rab and Martha and the others will
continue to mind their families. Forever.
Cleaky told me decades ago
that immortality is to be remembered and spoken of, by friends and family. So
let us speak of all them. With love and affection.
Paul Maskey MP with five SF Councillors elected for the Colin area
Delivering Change
Last week’s northern local
government election was an outstanding success for Sinn Féin. Well done to
everyone involved, especially the voters.
The Sinn Féin leadership,
its local election directorates and activists, including many from the South
presented the electorate with sound policies and a powerful team of experienced
and first time candidates to vote for. The party stood on its commitment to
Irish Unity, our record of work in the Councils, our defence of the Good Friday
Agreement and on the imperative of getting the power sharing institutions back
up and running. Michelle O’Neill demonstrated her commitment to be a First
Minister for all.
As a result there are now
144 Sinn Féin Councillors.
Sinn Féin is the largest
party in the Assembly; the biggest party in local government by seats held and
vote share; has the greater number of MPs at Westminster and is the largest
party in the South. In addition the number of voters who backed parties that
favour a United Ireland is greater than those who backed the union with
Britain.
But we still have to secure
the unity referendum promised in the GFA and to win it. That means increasing
our efforts to persuade the Irish government to establish a Citizen’s Assembly
and to begin the process of planning for Irish Unity.
Citizens want us to deliver
on commitments. They want the promise of change and the hope for a new future
to be more than rhetorical. We need to keep building greater political
strength. The momentum is with those who want change but the big
challenge facing Irish republicans is how we use our growing strength, not
least to secure and win the Good Friday Agreements unity referendum.
In solidarity with LGBTQ+
citizens
Last week a video was
posted on social media of a vicious attack on a young person in Navan in Co.
Meath. It shows a 14-year-old boy being violently assaulted by a group of other
young people. The boy is punched to the face and forced to the ground where he
is kicked and punched again as he tries to crawl away. The assault only ends
when other young people step in to stop it.
The 14-year-old
suffered concussion, broken teeth, and extensive bruising, including the mark
of a shoe imprinted on his forehead.
According to the young
person’s family he was targeted because he is gay. He is the victim of a
homophobic hate crime. In the aftermath five young people were arrested and
there is an ongoing Garda investigation. At the weekend people marched through
Navan in solidarity with the young person.
I want to extend my
solidarity to the victim. There can be no place for such hatred in any society.
Bullying and hate crime whether against the LGBTQ+ community or whether it is
gender based or sectarian or motivated by race or colour must be confronted
wherever it rears its ugly head.
Poems for Hard Times
Child’s Play.
A little girl
A wee boy
Brother and sister
Wind in their hair
Rain on their faces.
Unbridled energy
Unfettered exuberance
Excitement released
Like an escaping captive
Intoxicated by fresh air.
Darting, jumping
Leaping yelling
Running falling
Squealing screaming
Laughing crying.
Uplifted by nature
And their own hyperness
At one with the elements
And with themselves
Dancing in the nowness.
And the sheer and simple
Joy of being.
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