Léargas

On her first visit this week to the North as British Prime Minister Theresa May met the First and Deputy First Ministers. Martin McGuinness told her that the British have to respect the democratically expressed wishes of the people of the North who see their future in Europe and voted to remain in Europe.  One of Mrs May’s first jobs on becoming Prime Minister was to appoint a new Secretary of State. Jude Collins likes to refer to them as our ‘pro-consul’ to give them their full imperial Roman title. Believe it or not the new occupant of Hillsborough Castle – James Brokenshire – is the nineteenth British politician to hold that position. The first was William Whitelaw in 1972. He was appointed after the Conservative government of Ted Heath had decided to consign the unionist regime at Stormont to the dustbin of history. He was also the first that I met as republicans attempted to negotiate with the British government in the summer of that year. That’s a story for another time....

In  1992 Sinn Féin held our Ard Fheis in the Ballyfermot Community Centre. The previous year Dublin City Council had barred us from the Mansion House and the political establishment was united in blocking us from all municipal buildings. It was a historic Ard Fheis. We launched our Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland policy document which was the cornerstone of our peace strategy and which within three years saw the successful opening up of the peace process. At that time the community centre was a ramshackle and deprived public utility. It was so small that we had to erect and attach a marquee. The community association, led by Vincent Jackson, were told their funding would be cut if they let us across the door. The government and Dublin City Council were told where to go. Last weekend Sinn Féin was back in Ballyfermot in the Civic and Community Centre. It is a modern, open and airy, three story building and a fitting testimony to the hard work of the local community. Sinn...

It has not been a good couple of weeks for British politics. The Chilcot report into the War in Iraq and the Brexit referendum result, which will see the British state exit from the EU over the next few years, coupled with the internal divisions in both of the main political parties, has created a significant political crisis. All of this, but especially Brexit, will have a considerable impact on the island of Ireland, and especially the north. The loss of funding from the various EU sources, including the Peace Programmes and the Interreg Cross border programmes, as well as for farming families and the community sector, is expected to be considerable. Last week I met delegates from the East Border Region programme which covers six local councils – three on each side of the border. Our focus was on how funding from the EU can be protected following the Brexit vote. The delegates are worried that Brexit puts at risk 19 projects it is currently developing worth 132 millio...

The fallout from the Brexit vote rumbles on amid predictions of recession in the British economy, and in the north. The last week has seen millions sign an online petition and at the weekend thousands marched in London against Brexit. And to add to the political turmoil in Britain Boris Johnson is ‘betrayed’ by his erstwhile colleague Michael Gove, who has decided he will make the next best leader for the Conservatives, and Nigel Farage has stood down as leader of UKIP. There is also the obvious rowing back by the leave campaign of claims and commitments they made during the referendum campaign. As you travel along northern roads there are still posters on lampposts proclaiming:  “ We send the EU £350 million a week – let’s fund our NHS instead.”  The trouble is that all of the leave spokespersons have spent the last week denying that commitment. In Europe the leaders of the EU have made it clear that for Britain there is no going back. The British referendum result i...

Last week, for only the second time since the foundation of the northern state there was a significant cross community vote on an issue of political importance. The first time was in 1998 when the people of the north - Unionists, republicans, and nationalists voted for the Good Friday Agreement. Unionists, republicans and nationalists repeated that extraordinary vote in the Brexit referendum with an equally definitive vote to remain within the EU. The crisis that the Brexit vote in Britain has caused is reverberating across these islands, within the European Union and beyond. The divorce proceedings that Brexit has initiated will not be straightforward. There is a huge entanglement of EU law with British law, and this includes the north, which has to be separated out. The EU is inextricably connected with every sector of life in the north, including the economy, farming, tourism, the health service, climate change, infrastructure, community supports and investment, equality and ...

Last week 21 years ago I made my first visit to South Africa and had my first meeting with Madiba Nelson Mandela. I was invited by the ANC – with whom Irish republicans have long enjoyed fraternal relations.  The Sinn Féin delegation – which included Chrissie McAuley; Rita O Hare; and RG stayed for a packed week of meetings and travel across a beautiful country that was still trying to come to terms with the enormous change that was then taking place. The previous year Madiba had been elected President of a free south Africa. Our purpose in going, apart from the solidarity links that connect our two struggles, was to speak to a wide range of ANC negotiators who had succeeded in bringing an end to the apartheid regime. It was an emotional experience for all of us. There wasn’t a dry eye at our first engagement as we listened to the late Walter Sisulu, the grand old man of African resistance, who had made a special point of coming to meet us. He spoke of his own time in p...

The Middle East peace process has been on a life support system for years. The use of words like ‘stalled’ or ‘impasse’ don’t describe the reality – especially after years of failure. Over the years and on my occasional visits to the region I have met many Palestinians, some Israelis and others who support Palestinian sovereignty and the two state solution, who believe that the peace process is dead. Saeb Erekat, who is the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation sounded a warning at the beginning of June. He wrote; “ With the 50th anniversary of Israel’s military and colonial occupation of Palestine coming to a head, we have reached a critical juncture within the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. For over 20 years, bilateral negotiations between Israel and Palestine failed on account of Israeli intransigence over its refusal to recognize Palestinian national rights and the continuation and expansion of its settlement enterprise.” The French Foreign Minist...