Jim Fitzpatrick signed Limited Print of Elizabeth O’Farrell. | Health and Care in a New Ireland | An Act of International Piracy
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Jim
Fitzpatrick signed Limited Print of Elizabeth O’Farrell.
Regular
readers of this column will know that I wholeheartedly support the efforts of
the Moore St. Preservation Trust to preserve the 1916 Moore St. Battlefield
site in Dublin that is under threat from the developers wrecking ball. This
week the Trust - a not for profit organisation led by Relatives of
the Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation – will launch a new limited edition
signed print of Elizabeth O’Farrell by the renowned Irish artist Jim
Fitzpatrick. One hundred prints will be available from Thursday evening at €150
as part of the fundraising efforts of the Trust to raise much needed funds in
support of its alternative plan for a cultural and historical quarter in the
Moore Street battlefield site. Link
Elizabeth O’Farrell, a member of the Cumann na mBan, was one
of three women who were present in the GPO throughout Easter week 1916 and who
were evacuated to Number 16 Moore St. as the GPO was in flames. She, her
life-long partner Julia Grennan, and Winifred Carney were in the room
in Number 16 when the decision to surrender was taken by Seán MacDiarmada,
Pádraig Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly and Tom Clarke.
At 12.45pm on Saturday 29 April O’Farrell was tasked by the
leaders with the hazardous responsibility of going to the British lines.
Carrying a white handkerchief tied to a pole and wearing a red cross armband
Elizabeth O’Farrell courageously walked down Moore Street to the British
barricade. She was brought from there to Tom Clarke’s shop in Parnell Street
where the British General Lowe told her that he would only accept an
unconditional surrender.
A short time later Pádraig Pearse, accompanied by O’Farrell,
and wearing his military overcoat and hat, met General Lowe. In the original
photograph taken of that meeting only Nurse O’Farrell’s feet can be seen and in
many of the reproductions later they were airbrushed out. O’Farrell delivered
the surrender note to the outposts which were still fighting.
She and her partner Julia Grennan remained life-long
republicans. Elizabeth died in 1957 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Her tombstone carries a verse:
When duty called on the field of battle,
She went, under orders, the foe to meet,
Bearing sadly, unfearingly, proudly,
The flag of surrender but not defeat.
Jim Fitzpatrick has produced a remarkable portrait of this
remarkable and indomitable woman. Support the Moore St. Preservation Trust and
buy this historic portrait and unique work of art by one of Ireland’s foremost
artists. If you want to buy a print you can connect to the link on Thursday
evening: The print is 40cm x 56cm. Is signed by the artist, numbered and
on high quality paper.
Siopa
| Shop – Moore Street Preservation Trust
Health and
Care in a New Ireland
Last month the
European Movement in Ireland –Amárach Research – reported that a majority of
people in both parts of the island were in favour of a united Ireland within
the EU. The figures were 67% in favour in the North and 62% in favour in the
South.
Last week the
Life and Times Survey, which is conducted by Queens University, reported that
the gap between those who support the union with Britain and those who favour
Irish Unity, has halved in the last year. In 2021 the gap was 23 points. In
2023 that had halved to 12 points. This year it has halved again to 5 points.
In all of the
polls a key issue of public concern that emerges again and again is the
question of health provision. People want to know what an all-island health
service will look like. Sinn Féin favours an Irish National Health and Care
Service – centrally funded, universal, free at the point of delivery and based
on clinical need.
Currently health
care provision across the island is in crisis and the health needs of citizens
are not being met. A united Ireland provides an opportunity for the
transformation of the health and social care services. In addition to greater
cross border healthcare planning and delivery, and increased collaboration on
joint projects, citizens would be much better served by a healthcare system
that is planned, managed and delivered based on the needs of the national
population.
An Irish National Health and Care Service is a common sense
and achievable proposition. There are already many areas of cooperation
across the two health systems. These need to be supported by the full
integration of health provision across the island of Ireland and a national
health strategy.
As part of the
discussion on this very important issue last Friday over 100 health
professionals met in St Comgall’s - Ionad Eileen Howell for a conference
on Health and Care in the New Ireland. The event was organised by Sinn Féin’s
Commission on the Future of Ireland. The conference was opened by the party’s
Health spokesperson in the Oireachtas David Cullinane TD and the main address
was delivered by Pat Cullen MP. Philip McGuigan MLA the Sinn Féin spokesperson
in the North was also in attendance.
The independent
panel was chaired by Tom Murray, President of the Irish Pharmacy Union and
included Majella Beattie of Care Champions Ireland: Dr. Eddie Rooney, former
Chief Executive of the Public Health Agency and Sara Boyce, of the New Script
for Mental Health Campaign.
The panelists
spoke of their experience in health and care provision and the gaps that
currently exist. The importance of investing in mental health provision, new
infrastructure, disability care, and improved provision for our elderly
citizens were all discussed by the panel and audience. The panelists spoke of
the health challenges in the promotion and prioritisation of health care, their
concerns at the diagnostic waiting times, particularly in respect of cancer,
and the underfunding of counselling services.
The vital role
played by the voluntary and community sector, and charities, in improving
capacity North and South was praised.
Pat Cullen MP
told the conference: “Successive Irish and British Governments have not
prioritised our public health services. They have failed to plan services
according to need, to train and retain enough health and social care
professionals, or to modernise health and care provision for the 21st century.
The gap between public and private health care is growing in the South’s
two-tier health service, despite the all-party commitment to Sláintecare.
Little progress has been made towards realising that vision.”
Waiting times
have also grown unacceptably long in the North, where the crisis is exacerbated
by the financial control of Westminster and the impact of partition on our
ability to make decisions that maximise the all-island potential.
The reality is
that all island cooperation and planning makes sense. On an island of
under seven million people – less than the population of most of the world’s
great cities – it makes no sense having two separate health services. A united
Ireland provides an opportunity for the transformation of the health and social
care services.
An Act of
International Piracy
In an act of
international piracy Israeli forces hijacked the humanitarian aid vessel the
Madleen in international waters as it was making its way to the Gaza Strip with
much needed humanitarian aid for the beleaguered community. The Madleen is part
of the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition and it had a crew of 12
including environmental activist activist Greta Thunberg and Rima
Hassan MEP. The Israel action is part of its strategy to control the public
narrative around events in the Palestinian occupied territories, particularly
Gaza, where millions face starvation.
In the Gaza Strip and the west Bank the daily slaughter of
innocents by the Israeli regime’s murder squads continues unimpeded. So too
does the deliberate targeting of the health service which has been all but
obliterated by Israel’s genocidal military campaign. The objective is clearly
to remove sll Palestinians from Gaza.
Finally, I want to commend the thousands who participated in
and/or supported the 25 mile March for Gaza last Saturday from Lurgan to Omeath
in Co. Louth. The length of the march represented the length of the Gaza Strip.
The refusal of most western governments and the European
Union to take effective measures against the Israeli state for these war crimes
makes them complicit. We must keep up the pressure for a permanent ceasefire,
humanitarian aid and freedom for the Palestinian people.
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