Léargas

President Obama’s visit was even shorter than anticipated. The President touched down at 9.30 am last Monday morning and by 9.30 pm Airforce One was taking off from Dublin airport enroute to London. A 24 hour visit became half that due to fears that dust and ash from the erupting Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland might ground all aircraft as happened last year, and delay the President’s departure to Britain. After first meeting President McAleese and then Taoiseach Enda Kenny, President Obama and his wife Michelle flew to Moneygall in County Offaly where an estimated 3,000 people lined its one main street. The Obama’s were given a tumultuous welcome. For most of the morning it had rained and as they arrived the sun came out. The President met his distant relatives and spent a considerable amount of time meeting and greeting local people, signing bits of paper, shaking hands, and then into Ollie Hayes pub for a pint of Guinness. Moneygall is like many small towns and villages across Ireland....

Thursday saw a debate in the Dáil, initiated by Sinn Féin, on the 20 year strategy for the Irish language. There are aspects of Fine Gael policy that are totally contrary to the proposals contained in the 20 year strategy. For example they want to make Irish an optional subject for the leaving certificate, they want to end the 'Irish Speaker’s Scheme' and change the rules in relation to the establishment of new Gaelscoileanna which will make it much more difficult for Gaelscoileanna to become established in the future. These proposals fly in the face of everything contained in the 20 Year Strategy. Unless the Government adopts a radically different attitude its policies will have a serious detrimental affect on the Irish language. In my contribution to the debate I said: “Cuirim fáilte roimh an díospóireacht seo. Tá sé tábhachtach go bhfuil sé ag dul ar aghaidh. Tá súil agam go mbeidh i bhfad níos mó plé anseo faoin Ghaeilge agus i bhfad níos mó gnó eile déanta trí Ghaeilge ama...

Rosemary Nelson was a human rights lawyer. She stood up for what she believed in and she sought to use the law – even one as corrupted as that of the north during the years of conflict – as a means of defending citizens from abuse and discrimination and as a way of achieving justice. Rosemary was killed in a car bomb attack by a unionist death squad on March 15th 1999. The family believe, and the nationalist people of Lurgan and Portadown believe, that she was the victim of collusion. They are right. Collusion took many forms in the north. Often it was formal and institutionalised. Sometimes it was informal, sectarian and the response of an individual or group of individuals within one or more of the British state’s security system – the RUC; RUC Special Branch; the Ulster Defence Regiment; British Military Intelligence; the Force Reconnaissance Unit; the Security Services and others. Sometimes it was a British Minister – for example, Tory Minister Douglas Hogg - standing up in the...

On Saturday last Sinn Féin Gaelgeoiri had a conference on the Irish language in Dublin. It was a busy day for republicans in the capital. Former blanket men were involved in a debate at the Irish Film Institute about the legacy of the 1981 hunger strikes, there was a commemoration at Glasnevin for Martin Doco Doherty, an IRA Volunteer who was killed by a unionist death squad when he intervened as they were set to attack oeople at the Widow Scanlon’s pub.And there was the Comhdáil. And a very good Comhdáil it was too. This is what I said: “Ar dtús ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil le Rósaí, le Gearóid is leis na daoine eile a chuir an chomhdháil seo le chéile agus na cainteoirí uilig a ghlac páirt anseo inniu. Tá cúpla ócáid tábhachtach eile ar siúl anseo i mBaile Átha Cliath inniu. Tá comóradh amuigh ag Reilg Glas Naíonn do Martin ‘Doco’ Doherty, óglach a maraíodh agus é ag cosaint cairde is comrádaithe ar 21 Bealtaine 1994. D’éag Raymond agus Patsy 30 bliain ó shin ar an Stailc Ocrai...

The peace process has created the space in which the possibility of a different kind of relationship between the people of this island, and between Ireland and Britain has been made possible. That relationship is still evolving. Nationalists and unionists in the north are engaged in a unique power sharing and partnership mode of governance – and all-Ireland political structures are established and beginning to work well. But our country and our people are still divided. The British still claim jurisdiction over the north, even though this is now in a conditional way, and there remain many legacy and justice issues that are unresolved. For all these reasons Sinn Féin set out our concerns about the visit of the English Queen at this time. Nonetheless, mindful that the people of this island are on a journey out of conflict, and that unionists have a close affinity with the British Monarchy, Irish republicans have sought to be constructive in how we responded to this event. I have also exp...

The unparalleled security arrangements that have been put in place in Dublin to accommodate the visit of the Queen of England, forced the organisers of the An Gorta Mór Commemorative Famine Walk on Sunday, to change their arrangements. Originally the walk was to commence at the Garden of Remembrance. However that’s now closed off as part of the massive security precautions that have put in place around the city. Sundays ‘Famine Walk’ started from the bottom of O'Connell Street and finished at the Famine Memorial on the Quays. An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger) had a profound impact on Irish society. While its cause was the failure of the potato crop it was the political decisions taken by the British colonial authorities which exacerbated the human misery. As food left Ireland for export and thousands were thrown off their land by a landlord class eager to evict families, the human and economic impact was significant. In the five years between 1845 and 1850, approximately 1.5 million ...

The Assembly and Local Council election campaign was generally reported by the media as ‘low key’. Some commentators even got a bit carried away with themselves almost suggesting that the lower than usual turnout somehow devalued the democratic mandate of those who have just been elected! But the Assembly and local government counts and the results they produced, turned out to have some of the excitement which the campaign itself lacked. The outburst by the UUP leader Tom Elliot in Omagh count centre on Saturday caught the headlines. Tom was having a bad day. From a confident pose just a few weeks ago in which he was predicting gains for his party the results emerging from count centres across the north were of the UUP losing votes and seats. It wasn’t meltdown. But his election last year as party leader had been met with jubilation by party activists. After David Trimble and Reg Empey’s leadership terms a lot of the UUP faithful had put their hope and trust in this former UDR soldier ...