Léargas

  I am against Monarchies Currently, the British state is convulsed around allegations surrounding a member of its Royal family. Norway too is in the midst of a crisis around its monarchy. The law of both states will take their course, as is right. However, these controversies raise for me the very existence of monarchies. A family elite which through past colonial conquest and patronage, and in alliance with business and societal elites, continues to enjoy a place of wealth and privilege and influence. Given that the British state includes a part of Ireland, at least for the time being, this is more than an academic issue for those of us who are captives of this undemocratic system of privilege.  I am instinctively against monarchies. Of any kind. Constitutional or otherwise. Monarchies are bad. The late Tony Benn put it well when he said that  “ the existence of a hereditary monarchy helps to prop up all the privilege and patronage that corrupts our society; that is why...

  Remembering Frank Stagg Last week marked 50 years of the death of Frank Stagg on hunger strike in Wakefield Prison, in England.  Events, including a black flag vigil and a march and rally were organised to remember the Mayo man. Gerry Kelly who was on hunger strike in England in the 1970s for over 206 days, during which he was force fed 167 times, gave the main oration in Ballina and spoke of Frank’s great courage and commitment. I was in Long Kesh when Frank died on 12 February 1976 after 62 days on hunger strike. Britain’s intransigence and in particular the obduracy of the then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, ensured that Frank’s fourth hunger strike would result in his death. As we walked around the Cage or sat in our cells the talk from when Frank embarked on his fast, was about his resolve and strength of character as on his own he faced the brutality of a British system determined to break him. Two years earlier we had watched as Frank’s friend and comrade ...

  Mandelson was Unimpressive As I write this column the future of Keir Starmer, as British Prime Minister, is a topic of conversation because of his mishandling of the Peter Mandelson affair. I know nothing about the ongoing scandal around Jeffrey Epstein other than what I read or see in the media. But the evidence of his serial abuse of young women going back many years is plain to see. My heart goes out to the victims and survivors of this despicable cabal.  However, I was surprised by Starmer’s appointment last year of Mandelson to the job of British Ambassador to the USA. He had already resigned twice from a Labour government. Once in December 1998 over the securing of a loan that he had not declared in the Register of Members’ Interests and a second time in January 2001 over allegations of impropriety in a passport scandal. His track record as Secretary of State for the North was equally unimpressive. Less than a year after his first resignation, in December 1998, he was ...