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The Road To Cork. In 1986 I gave a talk at a Sinn Féin
conference which became known by activists of my vintage as The Road to Cork or
The Bus to Cork. More of that at another time. Suffice for now to say that
I made the journey to Cork a metaphor for the
journey to the new republic. I am minded of that now as our car speeds south
and I sit in the back penning these words. The road to Cork is indeed a very
long road. So too the road to the new republic. But barring accidents we will
get there.
I like Cork. It is a good walking city.
Full of lovely hurlers and handsome heroes and heroines,
melodic singers and wonderful writers. I love the sing song Cork accent. It is
also the homeplace of Terence MacSwiney. RG and I are going to Cork to attend the National Hunger Strike Commemoration on
Sunday. It’s the first time that this annual event will be held in Cork in honour of the ten 1981 hunger strikers and Michael Gaughan and Frank
Stagg who both died in English prisons and those Cork republicans - Terence
MacSwiney, Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph Murphy, Denis Barry and Andy O’Sullivan -
who also died on hunger strike during the Tan War and the Civil War, and others
who died on hunger strike in the intervening years.
We got into Cork late on Saturday afternoon
for a session with Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and mé féin about the hungerstrikes
and books and writing and struggle and life.Go raibh maith agat
Donnchadh. On Sunday morning Chris and I visited the Blarney Stone.
Chris came away talking like RG. Then off to meet families of the
hungerstrikers before making our way to join the walk from Kennedy Quay to
Grand Parade and the National Monument.
Thousands of us marched together and the
mizzley rain gave way to bright warm sunshine as we made our way through Cork city
centre for an inspiring session of speeches, poetry and songs.The main speaker
Michelle O Neill told us; “We will achieve the sovereignty and independence of
our people….those twenty two who died on hungerstrike have left us a
huge legacy …. the Good Friday Agreement provides the means by which we can
achieve unity. We need to prepare and plan and be ready for that….”
Bobby Sands and his comrades would
agree.
Cork did the hungerstrikers proud. Well
done to all involved. Míle buiochas.
The Power Of X.
Before X there was Twitter.
Apart from the ill mannered, ill informed and abusive, nasty and
vulgar tirades that are the mark of some contributors I like these forms
of communication.
I joined Twitter in January 2011
on the direction of Shaun Tracy who was then one of our leading shadowy figures
in Leinster House. He continues to lead but in other shadowy sites of struggle.
It is Shaun who is to blame for my twitterings over the years. He made the
mistake of letting me put up whatever came into my head. Once I even
published My Little Book Of Tweets. In part of course I was having the craic.
But I was also countering the demonizing propaganda of the establishment
media, particularly the Dublin media. But that’s another story.
I recall one time getting a
real sense of how useful and educational and democratic Twitter could be.
Someone had put up a query about Luke Kelly’s rendition of Patrick
Kavanagh’s beautiful verse Raglan Road. I posted a video of Luke singing what
is undoubtedly the finest love song out. Best sung by him. Or me. Within
minutes someone else posted old black and white footage of Patrick Kavanagh
himself singing Raglan Road. The ability to bring these two wonderfully
creative people and the story of Kavanagh’s poem to a new audience was for me a
brilliant demonstration of the power of Twitter.
Ditto, as Ted would say, with X.
Last week I watched as BelfastStreetNames asked how McDonnell Street got
its name. McDonnell Street is in Belfast’s Falls area. Within
minutes @jjconeill@mastodon.ie told us that the street
was named after a Francis McDonnell – a pawnbroker - who applied to The Town
Improvement Committee to name the street after himself. John supplied a cutting
from the Northern Whig of 2 November 1866 to amplify his answer. He then went
on to tell us - complete with another appropriate Northern Whig cutting - how a
large number of weapons believed to belong to the Fenians was seized in one of
McDonnell’s properties in Rosemary Street. According to the Northern Whig some
of the weapons were new. Mr. McDonnell obviously escaped
punishment and went on to develop McDonnell Street. Presumably he proved that
some needy Fenian pawned the weapons. Fascinating.
I remember Paddy Lavery’s Pawn
Shop on the Falls Road. My mother sent me and our Margaret there regularly.
Pawning stuff on a Monday to be redeemed on a Friday. But not a weapon among
them.
Seamus Heaney.
August 30 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of
Seamus Heaney. I knew of Seamus before I knew him. He was a teacher in Saint
Thomas’ School on the Whiterock Road along with another fine scribe Michael
McLaverty. Some of my brothers were pupils there. I know Seamus’s poetry since
Death of A Naturalist. His poems, and Patrick Kavanagh’s verses, have always
moved me. My thoughts are with Seamus’s wife and family and with his friends at
this anniversary time.
BBC Radio 4 have a series on Seamus at 4.30 on Sundays - Four
Sides of Seamus Heaney. John Kelly’s Poet of Place is special. So is Catherine
Heaney on her father’s poetry of love. RTE Radio’s John Bowman has also done a
special slot on his Sunday morning archival programme for the last
few weeks featuring interviews and readings by Seamus. All worth listening
to.
A life of change
Bernadette O’Hagan from Lurgan died last week. She was a
strong republican woman. An activist. She was 95. For 52 years she was married
to Joe B who was himself a hugely respected activist. Joe B is
especially remembered for his part in the helicopter escape from Mountjoy
prison in October 1973.
Bernadette was born in Lurgan just over six years after
partition and the establishment of the Orange State. She was the youngest of 9
children. From an early age Bernadette always had a grá mór for all things
Irish – Music, dance, An Cumann Lúthchleas Gael,
and the Irish language. Little wonder that this wee gael, this young active
Irish girl stuck in Lurgan in the apartheid core of the Orange State became an
Irish republican.
In 1945 she met Joe B O’Hagan
shortly after his release from internment. They were married in 1949. Joe B was an activist in every decade from the 1940s until his
death in 2001. The family also have deep connections with Monaghan. In the late
1960s Bernadette was a founding member of the civil rights campaign
in Lurgan. Later in 1974 she was imprisoned in Armagh Gaol.
She was a strong advocate for the political prisoners,
especially during the H Block/Armagh campaigns. Bernadette was active in the
Relatives Action Committee. Two of her sons were on the blanket.
In May 1997 she was the Sinn Féin Upper Bann candidate in the
Westminster election. The Sinn Féin vote increased across the North. In Upper
Bann Bernadette almost doubled our vote. Joe B and Bernadette supported the
peace process.
After Joe B’s death Bernadette continued her
work particularly with Naíscoil Cois Locha. Hundreds of pupils
have benefited from her vision and commitment and the efforts of other
gaeilgeoirí in Lurgan, most especially around Bunscoil Naomh Proinsias.
Today Sinn Féin is the largest party in the Assembly and on this
island. It’s a far cry from the days of Bernadette’s youth. We also have now a
means to end the union with England. This is in no small measure won to the
activism of comrades like Bernadette.
Bernadette was a woman of huge integrity, very genuine and
sincere. Today we need more activism, more activists, not least so that we can
secure and win the referendum on unity which is part of the Good Friday
Agreement. That is Bernadette’s generation’s gift to us. Let’s not waste it.
Bernadette led by example. Let’s follow her example.
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