Léargas

Martin McGuinness was our leader, comrade and friend. His death shocked us all. His life of activism also motivated many people to become active in struggle and today. Countless citizens have empowered themselves to do just that as we engage in the politics of change making. One of the events which brought us all together is The Chieftains Walk in Derry. But this year The Chieftain’s Memorial Charity Walk which is held on the anniversary of Martin’s death was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Initially the organisers proposed asking supporters to do their own 5k walk wherever they are next Sunday. Now because of COVID ‘surges’ that also has been cancelled.  Instead on Sunday 6 September at 2pm Martins family, led by the indomitable Bernie and their children will do the walk for us all.  The only thing we have to do is to sponsor them. The proceeds are for The Martin McGuinness Peace Foundation, a not-for-profit charity organised by his...

  I used to have an old hard backed copy of Nora Connolly O’Brien’s; ‘ Portrait Of A Rebel Father’ . This wonderful account of James Connolly’s life, as recalled by his daughter, is a must read for followers of the great man. I foolishly lent my copy to a comrade and that is the last I saw of it. But that’s another story. Áras UÍ Chonghaile has an edition in their wonderful library. If you want to know more about James why not call into Áras Uí Chonghaile – the James Connolly Centre, 374 Falls Road – a few hundred metres from Connolly’s home. It’s an amazing account of Connolly’s life and times and death. In my copy of ‘ Portrait Of A Rebel Father’  - the one that was stolen from me - there is a photo of some of the Connolly children outside their family home at Nos 1 Glenalina Terrace opposite the City Cemetery on the Falls Road. They moved there from Dublin in May 1911. Three of the six Connolly children can be seen standing outside their front door beside a ...

The death of John Hume is a huge loss for the Irish people but especially for his wife, his life partner and confidant, Pat and their family. My thoughts and prayers are with them.  During the years of conflict one of the tactics deployed by the British and Irish governments was that no one should talk to republicans. This British-led strategy was premised on an approach, developed through years of bitter colonial wars, that the objective must always be to defeat the enemy. For successive British governments that meant the use of extensive repressive legislation; a compliant judiciary and media; torture; shoot-to-kill actions; counter-gangs (UDA and UVF); and the demonising of that enemy. The Irish political and media establishment – with a very few honourable exceptions - bought into this Self serving stupidity.  In the late 1970s and early 1980s I publicly and repeatedly said that the politics of condemnation would achieve nothing. What was needed was the creation of an ...

This Sunday, August 2 nd , the 2020 National Hunger Strike Commemoration will take place online. Sunday will also be the anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Andersonstown man Kieran Doherty.   The national commemoration for the ten H-Block hunger strikers, as well as for Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg, who both died in English prisons, takes place each August. However, like so many other events this year Covid-19 has disrupted long established commemorations and organizers have had to go online. I have watched all of the online events and participated in many of them. The organizers are to be commended for their efforts and their ingenuity. They have successfully combined music and song, poetry, news footage of the time, and interviews with friends and relatives to create informative, emotional and uplifting productions. The online events for the hunger strikers have been especially poignant. The memories come flooding back. The Fermanagh South Tyrone by-election and ...

Roger Casement Belfast has a long and proud tradition of opposition to slavery and colonialism. On 8 July we celebrated the birth in 1770 of Mary Ann McCracken a fierce opponent of slavery. She and her brother Henry Joe McCracken, one of the leaders of the 1798 Rebellion, campaigned against slave ships docking in Belfast port. In her late 80s Mary Ann was still a frequent visitor to Belfast docks where she handed out anti-slavery leaflets to those travelling to the USA where slavery still existed. Thomas McCabe, a United Irishman, from the Antrim Road, was another stalwart who opposed slavery and efforts to set up a slave trading company in Belfast. In the 1840s escaped slave Frederick Douglass was warmly received when he toured Ireland speaking about his experience of slavery. He visited Belfast and spoke there. Daniel O Connell was a leading opponent of slavery. This aspect of our history is especially relevant today as more and more people across the world speak out against modern...

There is unanimity of approach among the establishment parties in the Oireachtas when it comes to a referendum on Irish Unity – they are against it. Last week the Taoiseach Micheál Martin ruled out a referendum on a united Ireland because it would be too  ‘divisive’ . In December the Green Party leader Eamon Ryan dismissed calls for a referendum on the same basis. It would be ‘ divisive’ . And not to be outdone the then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar claimed that a referendum would be  ‘divisive’ . Of course, it is partition that is ‘ divisive’ . Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party assert that now is not the right time for a referendum. They also accuse Sinn Féin of seeking an immediate referendum. They are wrong on both counts. In 1998 the people of the island of Ireland voted by 2,119,549 to 360,627 to back the Good Friday Agreement. That overwhelming endorsement included voting for the provision within it to hold a referendum on Irish Unity. How can any Irish government and ...

The Falls Curfew 50 years ago last weekend was a tipping point in modern Irish history.. The previous August (1969) unionist mobs had burned out hundreds of nationalist homes in west and north Belfast, killed and maimed, and forced thousands of families to become refugees living in schools, or with friends and family, strangers who opened their doors for them, or in camps across the border established by the Irish government. The British Army were on the streets. Some nationalists welcomed them as an alternative to the violence of the RUC, B Specials and the unionist gangs. This columnist was not one of those.   Two events changed that perspective. The first was the attack on 27 June 1970 by the UVF and others on the nationalist enclave of the Short Strand in East Belfast. Following the events of August 1969 there had been widespread criticism of the IRAs failure to defend nationalist areas. There was a resulting split in republican ranks over this and political differences about h...