A Process of Perpetual Change This weekend I will be in Dublin for the 36th Desmond Greaves Weekend Summer School. It begins in the UNITE Trade Union Hall, in Middle Abbey St, on Friday evening the 11 September and runs over Saturday and Sunday. The discussions range from the state of the European Union, to the place of the nation state, migration and asylum policy, to China and the Good Friday Agreement. My contribution on the Sunday, along with former Irish Ambassador to Canada, Ray Bassett, will be to discuss the Good Friday Agreement. The summer school has been taking place annually and seeks to reflect the legacy of historian and activist C Desmond Greaves. His books and writings have been a significant influence on my own politics. His two biographies on Liam Mellows and James Connolly are as important and influential today as they were when first published almost 60 years ago. His ‘The Irish Crisis’ is equally important. Greaves believed in the core principle of equality. In his...
Andy Burnham is a Unionist Should we have been surprised by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s crass assertion last week that the issue of the unity referendum promised in the Good Friday Agreement, “is one issue that will be off the table.”? Two months ago as I watched Burnham address the media outside10 Downing St, on the day he replaced Keir Starmer, I wrote that he; “like every British Prime Minister governs in the interests of the English establishment. He like his predecessors is a Unionist.” For as far back as England’s involvement in Ireland its policies have always been determined by British national interests. Not the interests of the Irish people. In the 28 years since the Good Friday Agreement successive British governments have prevaricated and stalled and refused to accept the imperative of its commitments. Regrettably, they have been aided in this by Irish governments and in particular by the current Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who has refused to countenance...