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Swinger
I spent the last week in Dublin in the Four Courts as part
of the outworking of my case against the BBC’s Spotlight programme nine years
ago. But more of that when it’s over which could take another fortnight.
On the morning that the case started our Gearóid phoned me
to say that his father-in-law Paddy ‘Swinger’ McBride was dead. The news was a
great shock. I had spent a half hour or more a few days before chatting with
Paddy in his home. He was just out after a spell in hospital, and although he
was ill his spirit was strong and he was full of craic and talk about the
current politics, his son Patrick’s Man of the Match performance for Antrim
against Armagh, the need to build Casement and how a son of Tony Benn could
behave the way Hillary Benn does.
“Principled politics skips a generation sometimes,” I said.
“Aye’” he remarked in a Ballymurphy sort of way. “A Typical
Brit”. That was Paddy. Or Swinger to all his old friends. A Murph man
through and through.
Husband to Anne Austin. Father to Roísín, Ceara, Marie and
Patrick. Daideo to Drithle, Luisne, Anna and Ruadan. I am their other Daideo.
Connla, Elise and Culann are his other grandchildren. The seven of them are
very lucky to have him. So is our Gearóid. And me and Colette. And his brithers
and sister. And our community.
Swinger was sound. He was hardworking, intelligent beyond
his quiet demeanour, funny, a lover of a good yarn. And as strong as an ox
before illness tripped him up.
He was a committed republican. Gerry Kelly put it well in
his funeral oration.
“When I picture Paddy in my mind the first image has
always been in the early 1970s. Himself and Frankie Cahill,
who always seemed to be together and dressed in skinner jeans with the
bottoms turned up, checked shirts, denim jackets and, of course,
the classic DM boots. Ready to take on the world-or at least an
armed foot patrol of British soldiers with whatever was
available. Paddy witnessed the rise of the Civil
Rights Movement and the Orange State’s attempts to crush it with violence. He
witnessed thousands of Catholics being driven from their
homes.
He saw the thousands of British Troops sent here to crush
our community.
During the first couple of days
of Interment in August 1971, 10 residents were shot
dead by British soldiers in Ballymurphy, including Fr Hugh
Mullan as he was trying to help others. Then again, in July
1972, British soldiers gunned down five innocent people in
Springhill, also including another priest- Fr
Fitzpatrick and 3 children.
He also watched the British
Army on TV, in Derry, shooting down peaceful
Civil-Rights marchers. Closer to home, loyalist death
squads were on a killing rampage against innocent Catholics.”
Gerry went in to describe how Paddy joined Na Fianna Éireann
and then the Army. He outlined his years of activism and time in
prison. He went on to say that Swinger was very aware of the changing
dynamics of struggle. He knew that military action on its own would not achieve
a United Ireland and that Republicans needed to be active in every aspect of
the community life.
He knew that Republicans had to learn from the past but act
in the context of the present and the future. Thankfully, Gerry said, our young
men and women no longer feel that they have to risk their lives and liberty on
active service.
Irish Unity, of course will not just happen. We need to make
it happen.
Paddy did great things in his life, sometimes very difficult
things, brave things, but through it all, he was always a gentleman, in its
truest sense.
Gerry also stressed Paddy’s commitment to Anne and their
family. He was a good provider and he also coached their children through all
their school tests. He was devoted to his family and probably never fully
recovered from the death of his youngest daughter Marie. He and Anne produced a
family of teachers with a special emphasis on Irish language education. Swinger
went on to tutor the grandkids at exam times. He was much smarter than
me.
He will be sadly missed by many, many people, including his
co-workers in Upper Springfield Development Trust and his old comrades but most
of all by his wife and lifelong partner, Anne, their children and partners,
Roisin and Gearóid, Ciara and Maxie, Patrick and Meabh and Marie’s partner
Sean. And his beloved grandchildren Drithle, Luisne, Anna, Ruadan, Conla, Elise
and Culan.
The day after Swinger died I got news of another friend’s
death. Donnacha Rynne down in Clare. But more of Donnacha aris. For now it’s
time to say slán to Swinger. A decent Irish patriot and a great human
being.
Israel’s reign of terror
As this column goes to press the Israeli government is
calling up tens of thousands of army reservists for a full scale military
invasion, subjugation and occupation of the Gaza Strip. After almost 20 months
of genocide against the Palestinian people the Israeli state is now embarking
on its final solution – the displacement of two million people and the mass
murder of more Palestinians.
Last Saturday was World Press Freedom Day – but not in Gaza.
In the year and a half of this current reign of terror by Israel at least 211
journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip while the international press
corps is denied access to report on events in that huge concentration camp.
Britain and most western and European states are silent on this. They are
silent also on the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against two
million people, many of them children, who live in Gaza. According to UNICEF
over three hundred thousand children under the age of five are suffering severe
malnutrition.
If ever press freedom was needed to call out the multiple
breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel and the new terror it
plans for Palestinians it is now. Israel’s slaughter of innocents has to be
called out. Governments must exert the maximum pressure on the Netanyahu regime
to allow food, water, fuel and medicines into the territory.
In recent days the various aid agencies working in Gaza have
run out of supplies. they make their pleas for the world to intervene babies
and children with emaciated bodies lie on the few remaining hospital beds in
Gaza. Israeli war planes and drones fly overhead deliberately killing dozens of
helpless people every day.
The Israeli threat to send tens of thousands of its soldiers
into Gaza cannot go unchallenged. It is long past time that European states
took action against Israel – in the form of sanctions; ending the supply of
weapons; and demanding that Israel allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
I agree fully with Tánaiste Simon Harris who said last
week; “It is unconscionable that the current suffering is continuing…
Ireland calls on Israel to immediately lift the blockade and allow for
unimpeded access of humanitarian aid …” But is equally unconscionable
that the Irish government refuses to go beyond words. To describe the new
threat to conquer Gaza as ‘alarming’ is not enough. The Irish
government must urgently use its economic and political strength to challenge
Israel? If they fail to take meaningful action Israel will proceed with its
plans and thousands more Palestinians will die.
Commission on the Future of Ireland
As momentum in the demand for Irish Unity grows the work of
Sinn Féin’s Commission on the Future of Ireland continues to expand.
In the last two months the Commission has held a Mid Ulster
Peoples Assembly in the Seamus Heaney Homeplace in Bellaghy; a Tionól
Pobail Bhaile Ghib in County Meath; a climate crisis conference - One Island,
One Environment – in Dublin and an EU & Irish Unity- What next?- event in
the European Parliament in Brussels.
In addition, events were also held in Washington and New
York in the United States and in Montreal in Canada.
Future events include ‘Rural Communities in a New Ireland’
at the Balmoral Show in May and Health and Care in a New Ireland in early June
in St Comgall’s Belfast. There are also events in the USA at Nashville -
28th May; Cincinnati - 29th May and Chicago on 31st May.
If you are interested in a united Ireland Save the Date and
come along. The more people who join in the conversation on Irish Unity the
sooner we will secure the unity referendums and move into the future.
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