Léargas

  Slán Irish Voice Two weeks ago Niall O’Dowd, founder of the Irish American newspaper The Irish Voice announced that it was to close after 36 years. The New York based Irish Voice and the Irish Echo were the principle sources of news for decades of Irish Americans and new Irish immigrants moving to the USA. Now the Irish Voice is gone. But a far sighted Niall O’Dowd realised some years ago the direction of travel for newspapers competing against the huge growth in online media services and founded the online Irish Central. Today IrishCentral.com gets over two million visitors monthly. I first met Niall in Belfast in 1983. He was interviewing me for an Irish newspaper in San Francisco which he then edited. I had been elected as the MP for west Belfast and Niall was interested in the political developments taking place in the aftermath of the 1981 hunger strike. Sinn Féin had won five seats to the Assembly in 1982 and received over 100,000 votes in the June 1983 Westminster gene...

  Cage 11 and The Twelfth This is an article I wrote in February 1977 while I was Cage Eleven in Long Kesh. Here it is again for the season that’s in it. It’s also contained  in Cage Eleven, published by Brandon Books.               How it started - Long Kesh 1971 The Twelfth We were seated in our usual spot beside the shower hut. Cedric had successfully killed another conversation: all afternoon he had been spewing forth useless pieces of information, contradicting and taking issue with everything anyone said. When he gets contrary like that we usually keep quiet and wait for him to go away. He refused to leave, so we sat together in silence. Outside on the Blaris Cemetery Road an Orangeman was beating his brains out on a Lambeg drum. Egbert was moved to break up our dummies’ meeting. “Did youse ever hear Seamus Heaney’s poem about Orange drums?” Faced with the eloquence of our silence he cleared his throat. “Listen to t...

  Debate on Irish Unity steps up Two successful events on the future of Ireland were held in Belfast and Dublin last week. The atmosphere and enthusiasm at both events was mighty. The two events were part of the work of Sinn Fein’s Commission on the Future of Ireland which was established two years ago by the party to encourage dialogue. It’s about people having their say about the kind of Ireland we want.  The Belfast event was a Women’s Assembly and was held in the Europa Hotel.  It was opened by west Belfast MLA Aisling Reilly and was independently chaired by academic Eilish Rooney. Over 140 women from across the greater Belfast area participated. There were women from diverse political and community backgrounds. Some of the main topics raised by participants included future all-Ireland health care, governance arrangements, social and economic issues and the importance of people feeling welcome in a new Ireland, specifically those with a British identity. Seana...