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Nollaig na mBan
Monday 6 January is traditionally the date on which the Christmas decorations are taken down. In the Christian calendar it marks the end of the Christmas season and the visit of the Magi – the three wise men – to Jesus.
In Ireland the 6 January is also Nollaig na mBan - Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas. It’s a day set aside to celebrate the role of women who did all the work catering for and making Christmas a success for everyone else. On 6 January the women rested, although in many rural parts of Ireland it was also an occasion for women to come together and socialise.
There are many traditions and superstitions associated with Nollaig na mBan including the belief, still shared by many, that to take the decorations down before that date is unlucky. The lighting of 12 candles in the window on the eve of Nollaig na mBan was also once very popular with different family members lighting each candle. It was claimed that the first candle to go out would belong to the first person to die!
Until recently the celebration of Nollaig na mBan was declining. However, thankfully it is now enjoying a revival. This year fundraising events in aid of charities or community project supporting women will have been held.
Today for many women Nollaig na mBan has a much broader meaning. It is a celebration of the strength of women. Of their right to equality and parity of esteem. Long may this continue.
Ted Howell – Republican
Ted Howell was 77 when he died last Friday. On Tuesday we buried him in Milltown Cemetery in the grave of the love of his life Eileen Duffy. The two of them were devoted to each other. They were married on the 9 October 1972. That night Ted was arrested. Fortunately, his false ID held up and he was released the following morning.
Eileen was a formidable republican also. She was a hard worker and a champion of west Belfast. Ted and she had two fine sons Eamonn and Proinsias. Sadly, Eileen died in June 2004. Ted visited her grave, sometimes on a daily basis, in the twenty years since her death.
Ted was a child of the 50s and 60s. He loved music, an enduring passion. He was a voracious reader with an abiding interest in politics and international affairs. The anti-colonial wars of that period in Algeria, Cuba, Vietnam and the struggle in South Africa were huge influences in his life but it was the apartheid regime of unionism, its system of structured political and sectarian discrimination, the pogroms of 1969 in Belfast and unionism’s resistance to equality and human rights that shaped his republican politics.
So, he became an activist. Firstly, within his own community in Iveagh and Beechmount in Belfast and then through the trauma of the hungerstrikes into national positions. Ted was a committed united Irelander - a republican activist for all of his adult life. He was twice interned in the 1970s on the Maidstone Prison Ship and in Long Kesh. Think of any of the major republican political, organisational shifts or initiatives taken over recent decades. Ted was at the heart of all of them.
He was one of the so-called kitchen cabinet which managed Sinn Féin’s initial private/secret engagements the SDLP, with the Irish and British governments, and our efforts to build support in the USA with our peace strategy.
And then there was the public process of negotiations with the two governments and the USA. In all of this Ted was indispensable. We established a negotiations structure to deal with all this and Ted brought cohesion to our efforts, good practice, accountability and oversight.
He was very shrewd with great politics. He could also smell bullshit and bullshitters from a mile away.
Ted was a progressive in the mould of Connolly and Tone and an internationalist. He was avowedly anti-sectarian. He gave short shrift to anyone he heard making comments that could be construed as sectarian. His brother Jim had been murdered by a loyalist death squad along with his business partner Gerald McCrea on 2 July 1972.
Ted believed in the right of the people of Ireland to self-determination and to the democratic right of Irish citizens to shape our own future. He understood strategy and the need for the national question to be at the centre of Sinn Féin strategy. Although his illness was making it more difficult for Ted to get about he remained active. He was a valuable member of the party’s Uniting Ireland Committee and just before the Christmas break he took part in a meeting that discussed how we can engage more positively with those from the unionist/Protestant section of our people.
Ted has now gone. His loss to our struggle is immense. His contribution to modern republicanism is enormous. He was a decent human being. Funny, and modest and loyal. He was very sociable and good company. He was a quiet, unassuming, humble, and generous person. Ted was a giver. A legendary cook and a knowledgeable gardener.
His loss at a personal level is immeasurable for his friends and comrades. It is even greater for his sons Eamonn and his wife Nora, and Proinnsias and his wife Karen; his grandchildren Miceál, Caoimhe and Amelia and their wider family and friends, including his sisters Anne and Margaret and nieces and nephews.
On behalf of republicans everywhere I want to extend our solidarity and condolences. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.”
Francesca Albanese – a champion for truth
2025 begins in the Gaza Strip as it ended in 2024 with the continuation of Israel’s savage assault on a civilian population. One result of Israel’s genocidal war is that 258 United Nations staffers have been killed.
PassBlue is an independent, women-led non-profit multimedia news company. It covers stories and events relating to the United Nations, to women’s issues, human rights, peacekeeping and other urgent global matters. It reports from the UN press corps in the New York City and is widely read for its informative insights into UN operations and activities world-wide.
A fortnight ago Pass Blue published the results of its annual reader’s survey to identify the most influential voices of the previous year. Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories (an unpaid position), was voted the Overall UN Person of the Year. First runner up was
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the second runner up was António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General
Francesca Albanese has been a consistent voice for truth challenging Israel’s lies about the actions of its forces in Gaza and the west Bank. She has courageously spoken out against Israel and has challenged the political leaders of the USA, Britain, Germany, the EU and other governments that provide political support and the weapons of war to Israel. Her award is richly deserved.
Note the Gaza photo was taken in April 2009
The Sinn Féin delegation was Ted, Harry Thompson, Gerry Adams and Richard McAuley
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