.jpg)
Planning for the Future
It was Charles Stewart Parnell who said: “No man has the right to say to his country. Thus far shalt thou go and no further.” This was in the 19th century. He also declared; “Let no one set a boundary to the march of a nation.”
Parnell was clearly setting out the right of the people of Ireland to self-determination. Interestingly he chose Cork to make this declaration. That was the 21st January 1885. One of the current Cork TDs and the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin has a contrary view. Our right to self-determination is contained in the Good Friday Agreement so that right has been won. We now need to exercise it. There is an irony that An Taoiseach has set his face against this and that he refuses to plan for the certain day when the Good Friday Agreement referendums will be held.
Micheál Martin is out of step with nationalist opinion in the North as expressed by the SDLP and Sinn Féin. He is in contravention of Fianna Fáil’s policy and the policy of all other political parties in the South and with the Irish constitution, as well as the Good Friday Agreement. He is also at odds with many in the South who are for Irish Unity and see the merits of preparing for it.
Earlier this year, the Amárach Research poll for the European Movement Ireland, found that a majority of people in both parts of Ireland – 67% in the North and 62% in the South – now support a United Ireland within the EU. And we already know that with reunification the entire island of Ireland would automatically re-enter the European Union.
At the beginning of July a report published by Professor John Doyle, on behalf of the Ulster University and Dublin City University, confirmed that there are no economic barriers to Irish Unity.
Micheál Martin has no right to tell us not to talk about unity or plan for it. The Taoiseach should establish a Citizens’ Assembly or Assemblies on Irish Unity and to begin in earnest the detailed and painstaking planning that needs to happen to realise reunification. Constitutional change is the biggest challenge facing the people of Ireland at this time. That means we have to plan. It’s common sense.
A Global Alliance for Palestine
Saturday witnessed the launch of a new and unique international initiative in support of the Palestinian people and aimed at challenging Israel and its genocidal policies in Gaza. Over 70 solidarity organizations from 25 countries attended, including Sinn Féin Chief Whip Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD. The ‘Global Alliance for Palestine’ is based on a clear principle: "Solidarity with Palestine must be organized, unified, and effective."
Its focus is on creating a global network to coordinate Palestinian solidarity movements, while building a broad-based alliance that unites civil society, unions, student groups, cultural figures, and political actors across continents in defence of Palestinian self-determination. It will seek to achieve this by building an international organisation capable of confronting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, refuting misleading media narratives, and defending the right to solidarity.
Regrettably I was unable to attend but I contributed by video. I will also be a member of the advisory board of the initiative, alongside Jeremy Corbyn, Mustafa Barghouti, Yanis Varoufakis, South African activist Ronnie Kasrils and other international political leaders.
This initiative comes at a critical point in the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza. The spectre of starvation, imposed as a deliberate policy by Israel, haunts the devastated landscape of the Gaza Strip. Hundreds, mostly children, their emaciated bodies clinging to crying mothers, have died from a starvation policy ruthlessly pursued by the Israeli state and supported by the USA and other governments. Tens of thousands more are slowly dying from lack of food and water. Day after day the reports from Gaza paint a horrendous picture of communities destroyed by bombings and robbed of basic medical provisions. And food. And water.
Palestinians face constant bombardment and death every day and night. A report in Middle East Eye this week described how hunger/ starvation is “no longer merely a sensation of deprivation; it manifests in the sight of people collapsing in the streets from sheer exhaustion. Children, women, the elderly - no one is spared. We have witnessed, with our own eyes, bodies slumping on the pavement and lives lost outside the ruins of bakeries or at aid distribution points that never deliver.”
Today, Zionism is attempting the total annihilation of the Palestinian people. UNICEF has accredited Gaza as “a graveyard for children”.
While Israel commits violation after violation, without any consequence, the international community watches from afar. The hypocrisy, double standards and complicity of the West has been laid bare. Its actions have left the future of international law at a tipping point.
In Ireland, we have lived and died under colonialism and occupation. We too have been starved. Our Great hunger – an Gorta Mór – means that we will not stay silent when the same is inflicted upon others. For that reason, Sinn Féin is pressing the Irish Government to enact the Occupied Territories Bill, and separately for Ireland to join The Hague Group.
It is time that more states across Europe also recognise the state of Palestine, and impose economic, political sanctions and arms embargos against Israel.
None of us should doubt the important role of coordinated international solidarity. That is why the creation of the ‘Global Alliance for Palestine’ is so crucial.
In the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the global anti-apartheid campaign played a decisive role in ending that cruel regime. So, we must develop an organised, global movement to dismantle Israel’s systems of oppression, occupation and apartheid in Palestine. A global movement that challenges Israel’s manifest lies and denial of its actions against the Palestinians.
Our Martin
Last week, in the Guildhall in Derry, several hundred friends, comrades and family of Martin McGuinness came together for the launch of Jim McVeigh’s authoritative and compelling new book on Martin. Jim is a gifted writer.
‘Our Martin’ is a very personal, insightful account of Martin’s life in Derry and his love for his wife Bernie, and she for him, and for their children, Fionnuala, Emmet, Fiachra and Grainne.
Martin said: “What politicised me was the civil rights protest. It wasn’t anything I heard in the house, or even in my grandmother’s house in Donegal. There was no republicanism whatsoever in my background.”
Bernie sets the context for the book. She writes: “Over the years, I have read many things about Martin. Few of them bore any resemblance to the man that I knew, to my Martin, the family man, the loving husband who always tried to make it home to me no matter where he was or how late it might have been, the kind, patient, loving father and doting grandfather.
I loved the life I had with Martin, even through the struggles that came with it. We faced those challenges together and I would not change a single thing. The journey we shared was filled with love, and from it came our four beautiful children and grandchildren.
When Martin made friends, he made friends for life. He loved the community, the Bogside that he came from, and that is where his heart lay, with us his family and the community that he had fought for all his adult life.”
In the Guildhall, myself, Martina Anderson and Mitchel McLaughlin talked about the Martin we knew. I had the honour of presenting a copy of Martin’s book to Francie Molloy.
I want to thank the Martin McGuinness Peace Foundation and Beyond the Pale for an outstanding publication. Any money raised from the sale of the book will go to the Foundation.
‘Our Martin’ by James McVeigh will be launched in Belfast at 1pm on 2 August in St. Mary’s University College Belfast, as part of Féile an Phobail. It is available from An Fhuiseog, 55 Falls Road and from www.beyondthepalebooks.com
Comments