Skip to main content

Best International Documentary | Defend the GPO and Save Moore St. | A Week in the Life and Death of GAZA

Image
By

 

Best International Documentary

I spent the weekend in Galway and Mayo. The weather was amazing. The countryside with its miles of stone walls separating plots of land and the lush colours of green and rocky inclines was a joy to travel through.

I was in Galway on Saturday to attend the Galway Film Festival/Fleadh where Trisha Ziff’s film – A Ballymurphy Man - was receiving its world premiere. The cinema in the old Town Hall where the Festival is centred was packed to capacity for the screening. The audience was hugely attentive and very welcoming when Trisha and I went on the stage at the end of the screening to talk about the making of the documentary.

The next day I was in Mayo when Trisha text me to say that ‘A Ballymurphy Man’ had taken the Festival award for Best International Documentary. So well done Trisha and her team who worked hard over five years, with very limited funding to produce this film.

In Mayo I met Martin Neary, who has bequeathed his 40-acre homestead to the local community. Martin, who is in his 80s, has spent years planting native indigenous trees so that a woodland now stands where there was once a farm and bog land. His book – Madogue Memories – tells in his own words Martin’s love of land, his community and culture, his county and our country and his republican and socialist ideals. It was an honour to meet such an inspiring leader and a great privilege to plant an oak tree - a Crann na Saoirse - in the Martin Neary Woodland Park.

 

Defend the GPO and Save Moore St.

There is widespread anger at the decision by the Irish government to convert the historic GPO in Dublin into shops and offices. Last Saturday hundreds gathered in O’Connell St. to protest at the government’s plans for the GPO and for the Moore St. Battlefield site. Their demand is for the protection of the cultural and revolutionary heritage of this part of Dublin.

Every nation that fought for its freedom from colonial rule - often from the British - has hallowed ground, the place where patriots made a stand against injustice and occupation. For the people of Ireland, the GPO is one such place.  It is the place where the revolutionary generation of the early 1900s declared for a Republic and where the Pearse read the Proclamation of that republic.

Instead of imposing an ill-thought out plan that will ruin the iconic nature of this site the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael government should hold a public conversation to agree an imaginative and visionary plan which will reflect the importance of the GPO and Moore St. Properly managed this area can play a vital part in the regeneration and revitalisation of Dublin City Centre.

Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald described Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s plan as ‘shameful.’ 

She told the Government: “The regeneration of Dublin must be driven by the things that really matter to us.  Our history. Our heritage. Pride in those gallant patriots who came before us. This historic area must be redeveloped as a Cultural and Historical Quarter and in line with the Masterplan by the Moore Street Preservation Trust.”

Earlier last week a newly formed Moore St. Oireachtas Group made up of elected representatives from North Inner City Dublin, including from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, the Social Democrats and the Labour Party, visited the Moore St. 1916 terrace. This is where the revolutionary leaders of 1916 met together for the last time before their executions.

The cross-party group recognises the responsibility of elected representatives to safeguard and preserve, and to act as guardians of the National Monument at 14-17 Moore Street, and the streets and laneways around it. The group’s aims are in keeping with the recommendations of the Ministerial Advisory Group and the findings of the Dublin Inner City Task Force Report.

The visit was facilitated by the Office of Public Works, and it gave representatives an opportunity to inspect the historic terrace.  Afterward Mary Lou McDonald TD said she was “pleased to be joined by my constituency colleagues. We will work together on this issue. I am concerned at the state of the buildings and there is an urgent need for remedial work to be carried out.”

 

A Week in the Life and Death of GAZA

I first met Mustafa Barghouti in the west Bank in 2014. The General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative is a physician, an activist, and is head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. He is also a member of the PLO and of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He advocates the use of non-violence and civil disobedience.

In a few weeks’ time, I hope to have the opportunity to interview Mustafa for a special podcast on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

Each day Mustafa sends out a WhatsApp update on news from the region. The following is an edited daily diary for the week beginning Sunday 6 July to Sunday 13 July.

Sunday 6 July

The Israeli bombardment on Gaza killed 80 Palestinians, including many children, and injured 304 others in the past 24 hours. Among the victims were 8 civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid. Since October 7, 2023, the total number of casualties has risen to 57,418 killed and 136,261 injured.

Monday 7 July

According to Israeli tv channel 12: The Israeli prime minister Netanyahu is proceeding with his plan to evict the whole population of Gaza Strip from their districts and to concentrate them in a narrow concentration camp between Moraj and Philadelphi/ Rafah corridors to facilitate their ethnic cleansing.

The Israeli bombardment on Gaza killed 105 Palestinians and injured 356 others in the past 24 hours. Among the victims were 7 civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid.

Tuesday 8 July

The Israeli bombardment on Gaza killed 52 Palestinian civilians and injured 262 others. Among the victims were 8 civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid.

Wednesday 9 July

The Israeli army destroyed 5 Palestinian houses in Shuqba village in Ramallah in the West bank. In Gaza the Israeli bombardment killed 105 Palestinian civilians, including many children. Among the victims were 7 civilians who were targeted while trying to receive humanitarian aid.

Thursday 10 July

A horrible Israeli massacre of Palestinian children and women in Deir Albalah in Gaza who were bombarded today while they were trying to receive baby supplements. 16 civilians were killed including 10 children. According to sources in the Palestinian village Rumaneh in Jenin the Israeli soldiers shot Ahmad Umor injuring him and then ran their car over his body killing him. The Jadallah family in khan Younes mourns 5 of its members including 4 children who were killed today by the Israeli bombardment.

Friday 11 July

Israeli terrorist settlers conducted several attacks with live ammunition and stones on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. They injured 10 Palestinians in Sinjel town in Ramallah and burned several cars. They also killed by beating and shooting two Palestinians in Sinjel.

Saturday 12 July

The Israeli army committed huge massacres today in Gaza. It conducted 250 air strikes on the civilian population killing 120 civilian Palestinians and injuring hundreds. According to the UNICEF representative Israel kills 27 Palestinian children every day.

Update: The number of Palestinian civilians killed today by Israel in Gaza is up to 145.

Sunday 13 July

The Israeli army bombarded this morning a group of civilian Palestinians in Nussairat while they were trying to get drinking water killing 10 including 6 children and injuring 20 others. The Israeli army bombarded during the last period 122 sources of water in Gaza killing 700 innocent Palestinians seeking water. The Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed the Surgical consultant at the Baptist Hospital Dr. Ahmad Qandil. More than 1588 medical doctors, nurses and other health professionals were killed in Gaza by the Israeli bombardment since October 7th 3023.

It is worth noting that since Israel ended the ceasefire in March twice as many Palestinians have been killed in the five months since then than in 30 years of conflict in the North.

Finally, according to the UN Human Rights Office 800 Palestinians have been killed since the end of May attempting to receive aid at points controlled by the Israeli/US backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund. Having stripped UNWRA and others of this responsibility Israel is now using aid as a further weapon in its genocidal slaughter of the Palestinian people of Gaza.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Turf Lodge – A Proud Community

By
This blog attended a very special celebration earlier this week. It was Turf Lodge: 2010 Anois is Arís 50th Anniversary. For those of you who don’t know Turf Lodge is a proud Belfast working class community. Through many difficult years the people of Turf Lodge demonstrated time and time again a commitment to their families and to each other. Like Ballymurphy and Andersonstown, Turf Lodge was one of many estates that were built on the then outskirts of Belfast in the years after the end of World War 2. They were part of a programme of work by Belfast City Corporation known as the ‘Slum clearance and houses redevelopment programme.’ The land on which Turf Lodge was built was eventually bought by the Corporation in June 1956. The name of the estate, it is said, came from a farm on which the estate was built. But it was four years later, in October 1960, and after many disputes and delays between builders and the Corporation, that the first completed houses were handed over for allocation...
2 comments
Read more

Slán Peter John

By
Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, Fergal Caraher’s parents, Mary and Peter John, and Sinn Féin Councillors Brendan Curran and Colman Burns at the memorial in South Armagh dedicated to Fergal Caraher It was a fine autumn morning. The South Armagh hilltops, free of British Army forts, were beautiful in the bright morning light as we drove north from Dublin to Cullyhanna to attend the funeral of Peter John Caraher. This blog has known Peter John and the Caraher family for many years. A few weeks ago his son Miceál contacted me to let me know that Peter John was terminally ill. I told him I would call. It was just before the Ard Fheis. Miceál explained to me that Peter John had been told he only had a few weeks left but had forgotten this and I needed to be mindful of that in my conversation. I was therefore a wee bit apprehensive about the visit but I called and I came away uplifted and very happy. Peter John was in great form. We spent a couple of hours craicing away, telling yarns and in his c...
2 comments
Read more

The Myth Of “Shadowy Figures”

By
Mise agus Martin and Ted in Stormont Castle 2018 The demonising of republicans has long been an integral part of politics on this island, and especially in the lead into and during electoral campaigns. Through the decades of conflict Unionist leaders and British governments regularly posed as democrats while supporting anti-democratic laws, censorship and the denial of the rights of citizens who voted for Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin Councillors, party activists and family members were killed by unionist death squads, o ften in collusion with British state forces. Successive Irish governments embraced this demonization strategy through Section 31 and state censorship. Sinn Féin was portrayed as undemocratic and dangerous. We were denied municipal or other public buildings to hold events including Ard Fheiseanna. In the years since the Good Friday Agreement these same elements have sought to sustain this narrative. The leaderships of Fianna Fáil, the Irish Labour Party, the SDLP and...
Post a Comment
Read more