An Open Letter to Drew Nelson

Orange Order coming through Gates onto nationalist part of Springfield Road

July 31st 09

An Open letter to Drew Nelson

Regular Readers will remember that this blog wrote recently about Orangeism and the need for dialogue to resolve contentious orange marches.

At the 12th July celebrations Drew Nelson the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order rejected any talks with Sinn Féin.

But this blog is not for giving up on our orange brothers and sisters. I penned an open letter to him which the Belfast Telegraph carried this morning - Friday.

I addressed the issue of ‘respect’ which Drew raised and pointed out that ‘respect, if it is to be meaningful, must be mutual. If the Orange Order seeks ‘respect’ from others, then it in turn must respect the views of those who differ from them, and address their concerns in a peaceful and dignified way.’

Nowhere is this more necessary than in respect of those ‘parades through or fringing sensitive areas, where little or no respect has been shown to local residents. The annual insistence on contracting Loyalist paramilitary or ‘kick the pope’ bands, the appearance of UDA, UVF and YCF flags and bannerettes and the refusal to countenance alternative non-contentious routes, is hardly indicative of a manifestation of respect or Christian forbearance.

Mutual respect could also be demonstrated if the Orange Order and indeed all the Loyal Orders could agree to a process of meaningful dialogue with the political representatives of the Nationalist community. This should not present a difficulty for the leadership of the Orange Order whose members have over the years held discussions in Belfast and beyond with myself and other Republicans.’

I reminded Drew that the Orange Order declares itself to be ‘Christ-centred, Bible-based and Church grounded’ and in 1998 it agreed with the heads of the main Protestant Churches that you ‘cannot refuse to talk to anyone made in the image of God’. How do these declarations reconcile with your continued refusal to meet with Sinn Féin?

Drew Nelson accused me of glorifying IRA killings and demanded an apology, in particular for those 273 orange members killed by the IRA.
In my open letter I tell him that I have never glorified IRA killings and I again ‘expressed my sincere regrets for the deaths and injuries caused by republicans. This includes members of loyal institutions.’
But I posed a number of questions to him. The 12th resolutions state that 335 members of the order were killed. Who killed the remaining 62? ‘Was it a direct or indirect result of membership of Loyalist paramilitaries? Were some brethren killed by members of the British Crown Forces, the same Crown who you reaffirm your devotion and loyalty to every 12th? How many nationalists were slain by Orangemen in Loyalist paramilitary groups? Or in the British Crown Forces?

I draw his attention to some examples of paramilitarism with the Order, for example, one Belfast lodge, that is renowned for its UVF connections, is the ‘Old Boyne Island Heroes’ LOL 633. Their bannerette listed 6 UVF lodge members who were killed in the recent conflict.

Six years ago this same Lodge took part in the contentious Whiterock parade along the Springfield Road. One of those taking part was Eddie McIlwaine, adorned with Orange sash who was sentenced to 8 years for his part in the Shankill Butcher’s campaign of terror.

There is a reference in the Bible which seems very appropriate at this point which says: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote of thy brother’s eye”. Matthew 7:3-5 (King James Version)

I said all of this not to make dialogue more difficult but to emphasis the need for all of us to set aside our differences in the interests of finding solutions.

The reality is the political and social and financial costs and risks presented by parades disputes are too great to ignore. ‘The Orange Order and Orangeism is a part of who we are as a nation. Irish republicans want a dialogue with the Orange in order that we can each understand and appreciate the position of the other.’

This blog and Irish republicans accept the right of the Order to parade and to promote its sense of orangeism. ‘But this has to be on the basis of equality and mutual respect and tolerance. The overwhelming majority of orange parades take place without rancour or dispute. But there are a small number which each year give cause for concern.’

And in my letter I again ask Drew Nelson and his colleagues to engage in dialogue with ‘local residents and with Sinn Féin and let us together seek to resolve these in a common sense and respectful manner. Our door is open.’

Note:

For those who are interested the six names on the Orange banner belonging to ‘Old Boyne Island Heroes’ LOL 633 are:

• Aubrey Reid was killed in a premature explosion while on ‘active service’ for the UVF;

• Noel Shaw was killed in an internal UVF feud;

• John Bingham, a UVF commander was shot dead in 1986; He received an Orange funeral with members of his lodge flanking his coffin wearing traditional regalia.

• Brian Robinson a UVF and lodge member was shot dead on 2/9/1989 by a British Army undercover team, just after he shot dead a catholic resident of Ardoyne, Patrick McKenna. He also received an Orange funeral.

• Bobby ‘Basher’ Bates, also a UVF and lodge member, who was part of the Shankill Butchers gang which savagely killed many Catholics. He was shot dead by a fellow Loyalist in a revenge attack.

• And finally, Colin Craig, another UVF and lodge member, was shot dead by the INLA in 1994. He initially featured on the bannerette but was removed when it was alleged that he was an informer.



Ardoyne March

NOW IS THE TIME FOR REPUBLICAN POLITICS

July 27th 09

Now is the time for Republican politics.

Sinn Féin’s campaign to progress Irish reunification has struck a few nerves. Not since the early days of the peace process has such an alliance of disparate political elements found common cause to attack the party, republicans in general and me féin in particular.

The SDLP and DUP and UUP and Fianna Fáil and some so-called dissidents and others in the media have condemned Sinn Féin for daring to raise the right of the people of Ireland to re-unification and independence.

So, Sinn Féin is wrong to engage with the Irish diaspora and to win their support for a new phase of activism.

The fact that Irish America and the diaspora have played such a positive role in the past seems lost on the detractors.

The need to engage with British public opinion is dismissed. Our intention to build a campaign in Ireland, including local conferences, is also rubbished.

And why raise this issue now we are asked?

We are rebuked by some who say that this issue should not be raised in the midst of an economic crisis – we are told it’s not the right time.

But then when would be the right time?

The reality is that partition created two conservative states on the island of Ireland. Look at the history of discrimination and inequality and repression and poverty in the northern state! Look at the recent Ryan report and the manner in which successive Irish governments abdicated any responsibility for the welfare of children and young people to abusive systems in the southern state!

The social, political and economic impact of partition has been profound and despite the progress of recent times partition continues to cast a shadow over our affairs.

So now is exactly the right time to have the debate about Irish reunification.

Now is exactly the right time to move the effort to achieve Irish unity up a gear, to move it up the political agenda, and to persuade others, especially unionists, that Irish reunification is in the interests of all of the people of this island, including them.

So this blog is pleased that the old guard of revisionism has re-emerged. They could always be relied upon to overstate their case. So too with their predictions that Sinn Féin is in decline. Or that the party is heading into a split. Wishful thinking!

Sinn Féin certainly faces challenges. But that is what struggle is about and the party is debating the issues involved in an open and thorough way. I am absolutely confident that we will conclude that debate over the summer and face into what will be a winter of discontent in the wider political systems on this island, in a united and intelligent way.

The resignations of a small number of Sinn Féin councillors has also been seized upon by our detractors in a futile attempt to promote their flawed analysis. Sure these resignations are disappointing. But that’s politics. Those involved have their own reasons for resigning, mainly sited in local issues. That is their choice – the wrong choice in my view but that’s the way it goes and it’s hardly the end of Sinn Féin.

This activist has no intention of resigning. There is much to be done. As citizens face greater economic punishment at the hands of an incompetent Dublin government and as rejectionists in the north gear up for more negativity our duty is face the future with confidence and to stand up for decent politics, fairness and equality. And a reunited Ireland. That is what leadership is about. The time for republican politics is now.

MY COUNTY - RIGHT OR WRONG !!

22 Iuil 2009.

MY COUNTY – RIGHT OR WRONG!!

This blog agrees with the Antrim manager Liam Bradley.The selection by the powers-that-be of Tullamore as a venue for the football play-off against Kerry on Sunday is a disgrace. Parnell Park on Saturday makes better sense particularly as the senior and minor hurlers are there. My guess is that the wily insiders from the Kingdom would not have been satisfied with the potential velocity of that occasion. Antrims Gaels from both codes would relish it.

But Parnell Park it is, for the hurlers one day and Tullamore it is, for the footballers the next day. We will just have to make the most of that.

I thoroughly enjoyed Clones last Sunday. I know the players are disappointed but this blog thinks they were brilliant. It would have been better if we had won but our team gave 100 percent. Once you do that then no one can have any legitimate cause for complaint.

It was always going to be a huge challenge to beat Tír Eoghain. They didn’t get to be All Ireland Champions for nothing. But this is the first summer in a very long time that this blog can recall the footballers still in the running at the end of July. And for that we thank them all.

The hurlers have usually longer summers. Given the defeat by Laois the next game is crucial. So we need to beat Offaly. And that won’t be easy. I’ve nothing against Offaly. Not in the least. But my first love always has been hurling. It’s a magical and skilfully awesome sport. Nearly as good as Camogie.

Footballing success is great. But every silver lining has a cloud as Richard has remarked when he is grumpy. Which isn’t too often, to be fair to him. But he thinks this years footballing success could be to the detriment of hurling. That would be a pity. Especially because it does not have to be so.

Aontroim can successfully promote both hurling and football and we can have teams to bring Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy to the north east. The talent and tradition is there. Resources and structures will develop in a more accelerated and broader way now that the support has kicked in.

And by the way this blog always believed that the support was there. And in Clones the Aontroim supporters were mighty. They also did our county proud.

So good luck to the minors against Gallaimh. And to the seniors. A win against Offaly on Saturday will steady the hurlers. And a win against Kerry on Sunday will be aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh dream come true for the footballers. And for the rest of us.

Come on the Saffrons!! Aontroim Abú!

OUT OF THE ASHES

21 Iuil 2009.

OUT OF THE ASHES.

Forty years ago the sectarian pogroms in August 1969 in Belfast triggered of the biggest forced mass movement of people since the 2nd World War. A man called Gerry Collins was witness to the immediate aftermath of these events.

He went to Bombay Street where his aunt lived, the morning after it was burned out. Gerry was a founding member of the Christian Brothers Camera Club. He grabbed his camera and three rolls of film and took thirty photographs. Later that week he went into other areas in the Falls and took more snaps.

Frankie Quinn (pictured above at the exhibition) is a well known and acclaimed photographer from Belfast. He saw Gerry Collins photos which had never been published. Frankie realised the significance of Gerry’s work and he has worked closely with him to have the photographs exhibited. They will now also be published in a book.

Frankie sent me a copy of Gerry’s work and asked me to write a short foreword for the book which will be entitled ‘Bombay Street – Taken from the Ashes’.

The photographs graphically capture the devastation and trauma of that hard time in our history.

For those who watched the news reports of the events forty years ago as they unfolded on their television screens, or especially those who lived in the areas affected, these photos will spark very painful memories.

For those too young to remember, Gerry Collins’s pictures give a real sense of the chaos and confusion and shock that the community endured that terrible summer.

The northern state was born out of the partition of Ireland. It was one of two conservative states carved out by the British government in 1920. In the north the unionists reigned supreme. They imposed a system of structured political and economic apartheid against nationalists.

Unionism was determined to hold what it had at any cost and was implacably opposed to change and to equality. Unionists controlled the local parliament; controlled the cabinet; the state police force; the justice system; they dominated business and jobs and controlled local government and dictated housing policy and allocation.

The Civil Rights struggle sought to achieve peaceful change, to undo the sectarianism of the Orange State; and secure the right to vote, the right to a decent home, to a job, and an end to institutionalised discrimination and the Special Powers Act

The old Stormont regime resisted all demands for serious reform.

August 1969 was a turning point.

The attacks by loyalist mobs, the paramilitary B Specials and the RUC on nationalist areas of west and north and east Belfast were a replay of similar pogroms that had been a feature of life in Belfast for over 100 years. Over a dozen citizens were killed in the first weeks, hundreds of homes were destroyed, tens of thousands became refugees and the social geography of Belfast changed forever with new emerging ghettoes and separation walls.

The pogroms sparked an unprecedented mass community uprising as nationalists asserted our humanity and demanded our rights. The British government cracked down on us. They militarised the situation. Out of that came a renewed and reinvigorated IRA and decades of conflict.

There are other television and photographic images of this defining period but Gerry Collins pictures reveal in a very graphic way the devastation of families who have lost their homes and whose few belongings litter the footpaths and roads before gutted houses.

The British soldiers on the streets, the barricades, ‘Free Belfast’, the burnt out mills which once dominated the Falls landscape, are all there in Gerry Collins stark black and white images.

This collection of photographs is an extraordinary record of an extraordinary time in our history.

Gerry Collins has done an enormous public service by taking the photographs and now allowing them to be seen. This blog commends him.

This blog thanks him and Frankie Quinn for publishing this book and for asking me to do the foreword.

I also want to pay tribute to the men and women who rebuilt Bombay Street which was destroyed in the pogrom. It also arose out of the ashes, a very powerful symbol of the resilience and resourcefulness of a risen people.

Forty years on we remain indebted to you all.
=================================
An exhibition of Gerry Collins photographs, which is part of Féile an Phobail will run in St. Mary’s University College, on the Falls Road between July 31st and August 8th.

Unplanned Outcomes?

18 Iuil 2009.

Unplanned Outcomes?

Its always interesting to start writing when the mind is blanked out and without a notion of what may flow, sluggishly or in a continous stream of consciousness, from the pen. Interesting for the writer that is. The reader may have a different view. Blogging isn’t much different. Most times this blogger has a plan of sorts about what I want to pontificate about. Some times. Other times I go where my fancy takes me.

Today is like that. It’s a Saturday. I considered doing another piece on tomorrows big game between Aontroim and Tír Éoghan or yesterdays refusal by the leadership of the Orange Order to talk to Sinn Féin. I also intend doing a wee blog or two some day on some books I am taken by. I usually blog on Friday as well as Monday or Tuesday. I try to make the Friday blog a little less serious than the other one. But yesterday was given over entirely to meetings. One after the other. With a few interviews thrown in for good measure. That’s Richard for you. So it was late before we finished and no space for blogging at all, at all.

On the way back to Belfast we got caught in heavy traffic gridlock after a ghastly road accident on the Newry Road in which a man and a woman were killed. Go ndeanfaidh Dia trocaire orthu.

We passed the scene of their deaths slowly and in shocked and silent disbelief at the way their car was squashed in under a container lorry, with the car roof peeled back like the lid of a sardine tin. The lorry was parked at the time of the accident. We couldn’t help but reflect on the awfulness of the scene. A split second of concentration lost, or a tyre blowing out, a moment of madness. Followed by devastation and death.

Emergency workers were busy at the scene as we passed. I felt very grateful to them. And sorry for the families of the dead couple getting word of what had happened. And yet even as the traffic inched its way away from the scene of the crash through a chicane of traffic cones a lunatic came speeding along, longside us all, clearly in breach of speed limit and other rules of the road.

He, for it was a he, was clearly indifferent to the death scene or oblivious to it and to the danger he was creating for himself and everyone else on his journey. He didn’t care. I figure maybe that otherwise he is probably a caring person. Maybe with a spouse and children? Maybe in his own house he is a quiet and loving father and husband? Or an attentive son and brother? So what is he doing driving so recklessly and ignorantly? Viciously. Like a bully and a thug.

What is it that seizes many of us when we get in behind a steering wheel?

The roads in Ireland are scary places. Hardly a day goes by without a fatal accident and the weekends regularly bring grim news of multiple road deaths. There are many reasons for car accidents. They include a lack of motoring skills, road rage, mechanical failure or poor road conditions.

But my own theory is that many accidents are caused by drivers who don’t really appreciate how fast they are travelling. And there are so many cars on the road these days. Even a small error can have deadly and unplanned outcomes. Speed kills. That’s the way of it.

In these modern times many of us seem hell bent on living life at high speed. Some day somebody could die as a consequence. That somebody could be you.

IN THE VICINITY OF BIRDS.

IN THE VICINITY OF BIRDS.

An old neighbour of mine, wee Billy, was a great man for birds. He could identify them by the sounds they made. Tuneful warbles, piercing whistles, melodious piping. Clucking, cackling and other less pleasant noises. Billy knew them all. And not in a show-offy way. No! Billy was a modest man. If you were in his company, and in the vicinity of birds and birdsong, he would merely nod gently as if in remembrance of another place or time and say softly, almost to himself, with a little smile.

‘A chaffinch’.

Or.

‘That blackbird is in fine tune this evening.’

Some friends of mine who live in the middle of big cities never see or hear birds near their abodes except for the occasional lost sea gull or wayward pigeon. I see and hear birds all the time where I live.

And I actively encourage them. Pea nuts and seed. Bits of fat. Bread crumbs even though some people tell you not to give birds bread. The dog’s food dish is also the scene of much excitement at dinner time. The hedge between me and Billy is a multi storey high rise nesting complex for an epidemic of sparrows. They and all their cousins and distant relations congregate and gorge themselves regularly on Superdog Veggie Meal and other canine delicacies.

Snowie is very tolerant. For example he tolerates magpies. Not a word out of him even when his feathered amigos take to skinny dipping in his water dish. Except when our dove arrives. Snowie can’t stand doves. I don’t know why. Maybe Snowie is a closet hawk?

By the way magpies were brought to Ireland by Cromwell’s stormtroopers as pets. When the poor Paddies and Patricas saw magpies about the place they knew they were in deep danger. The bad guys weren’t far behind the magpies. Hence the ‘one for sorrow’ rhyme. That’s my story anyway.

Billy had tons of birdlore.

‘Crows never build their nests before Saint Patricks Day. Unless we are going to have a bad summer’.

Swallows flying low? A sure sign that rain is on its way.

‘Give a Housemartin a place to live and they will come back year after year’.

Unless the cats intrude. Frances, who came to Belfast as a young child in 1927, from a small hill village outside Rome, used to feed stray cats. She lived opposite us. At one time as many as sixteen feral cats would gather in her garden, lounging delinquently on window stills and provocatively peeing on the roses. Frances had very few birds on her side of the street. Eventually she was persuaded to get rid of the cats on account of them being carriers of parvo which is deadly for dogs.

Now our local non-feral cats have bells around their necks which drives them mad when they go into bird hunting mode. The birds for their part make fun of them. Especially if they have had a few feeds of Snowie’s Superdog Veggie Meal. Did you ever hear a robin snarling?

Billy would have approved. He liked small things. He was small himself. Even the children ‘round here called him wee Billy.

He loved Feile an Phobal. Especially the street party. Occasionally, when younger less resilient party goers had collapsed under the pressures of Feile fever, he and I would usher in the morning together. Us and our feathered friends. Out in his back garden. The light filtering through the gnarled limbs of his apple tree.

‘We shud finish this,’ he would say lifting a bottle of whatever was left and peering at the contents.

‘We cudn’t let it go off’

I would agree.

‘That’s a thrush’ he would say softly, almost to himself, with a little smile as the sweet bird song lightened our day and welcomed in the dawn.

‘What a great Feile this has been! We are better off than decent-er people.’

And so we are. And its almost Feile time again.

‘Slainte Billy’.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Feile an Pobal. From 31 July to August 9. www.feilebelfast.com

THE TWELFTH.

The Twelfth.


This blog recalls the days and nights when a scóraiocht – an evening of song and stories - would not have been complete without some republican in the company singing an Orange ballad or two. In the those days a bus run to Bodenstown or Edentubber would not have been completed without a lusty rendition of Dollys Brae or The Boul’ Orange Heroes of Comber from the uppity Fenians en route.

This blog has the proud distinction of knowing its way through The Sash. I once used to know it in Irish. So did the late Eddie Keenan. And he was a better singer than me.

My interest in Orange ballads was a natural outworking of a love for folk or roots music. Browsing in Smithfield Market and its second hand bookstores put me in touch with the writings of Richard Hayward. His evocative musings through Ulster and Irish countryside lore unearthed a volume of Orange ballads.

I swallowed it all in a volatile musical mix which included The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, The Dubliners, Lonnie Donnegan, Seán O Riada, Maeve Mulvenna, Johnny McAvoy, Mary Black, Kathleen Thompson, Eamon Largey, The Beatles, The Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, Dylan, Planxy, Woody Guthrie, the Spinners, Joe Heaney, Burl Ives, Prionsais McAirt, Pete Seeger, Gene Autry and so on and so on.

By the way the first LP I ever bought was one by Gene Autry. I remember my mothers delight when I placed it on the turntable and music issued forth from the gramophone player she had rented on hire purchase from Bannon’s, the furniture people. My mother loved singing. But I digress. Time to reroute back to Orange ballads.

Within recent days, as happens round these parts at this time of the year, huge Orange bonfires are being built on main thorough fares. These are part of the ‘celebration’ of the Twelfth.

Interestingly enough if this blog went out now and gathered tyres and wooden pallets and set them afire in the street or even in a vacant lot somewhere in the neighbourhood, some one would alert the police and I quite rightly would be entitled to be arrested. Even on environmental grounds. But not on the Twelfth.

Attacks on Catholic owned property, schools, churches and so on also increase coming up to July. The awful sectarian killing of Kevin McDaid in Coleraine recently is proof of how deadly this can. For the record this blog opposes sectarianism wherever it comes from. Likewise attacks on Orange halls and other property.



Kevin McDaid

Sectarianism is a direct symptom of colonialism. It is a device to keep people in their place and to divide people who should have a lot in common with each other and little in common with elites, Orange and otherwise.

So what is the Twelfth about? It has little to do with religion though many Orange men are both religious and decent. Others are not. They know the Twelfth is about power or what passes for power in these parts.

What most of Orange men do not know is that the Pope supported King Billy. It was King Billy and the Pope against King James and the King of France. The Pope paid part of King Billy’s expenses and when news of his victory at the Boyne reached Rome a Te Deum was sung in the Vatican in celebration.

The Pope, Innocent supported the Dutchman, King William after the English parliament sacked James and invited William to take his job. James teamed up with the King of France to get his throne back and he and William chose Ireland as the battlefield. So there you are. Now you have a context for my knowledge of Orange ballads.

Orangeism has a lot to do to get the rest of us to accept why it wants to march where it is not welcome. Part of that is Orange men coming to understand why they want to do this.

Or why Orangeism is sectarian?

It's about power stoopid.

Or it used to be but is no longer except in last ditchland where bigotry still gets traction.

DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE

Before - After

7th Iuil 09


DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE.


This blog gets to be part of good things all the time and gets to go to special events, to be witness to amazing feats and great achievements. Take Tuesday. One minute I was in the chamber of the Assembly in Parliament Buildings. The next minute I was in the beautiful Colin Glen Forest Park. I was there to launch a new heritage trail.

The afternoon was balmy. The sky was blue. Poets, writers, artists, botanists, and just plain ordinary decent citizens were gathered. A piper was playing jigs and reels. Someone was pouring wine. And tea. Others were drinking it. What more could a blog want?

I eased myself into a corner. The conversation flowed all around me. In Irish and in English. This is a bi-lingual community you see. And at events like this it shows.

The Colin Glen Heritage Trail tells a unique and inspiring story which in many ways is a micro history of the Belfast Hills and the Lagan Valley. The signage is bi-lingual.

I know Colin Glen since I was a wee lad. I came here first in the company of Gerard Begley and Paddy Elliott. I rarely admit this in public but Gerard and Paddy are sort of cousins of mine. They taught me how to tickle trout. In those days I thought the Glen – the lower Glen – was called the Kansas Glen. It was actually called the McCance Glen or Cance Glen after the family who managed it in the 19th century.

John McCance was the first elected MP for Belfast. He stood against the nepotism of the Donegall Family who controlled the greater Belfast region since the plantation of Ulster.

The Heritage Trail offers visitors a unique walk through this history via a stunning wood that takes us from neolithic and early Christian archaeology and mass rocks to linen mills. Along the way we will see signs of fairies and wood nymphs as well as the ghosts of high way men, United Irishmen – and women including the formidable Belle Steele.

During the last world war the forest was denuded of its trees. Parts of the desecrated terrain were used as a dumping ground by local industry for thousands of tonnes of rubbish. Parts of the Glen were accessible only to the most determined wanderer. In the 1980’s local people organised themselves to combat all of this. The clean up and the reconquest began. The Heritage Trial is the latest phase of this.



The Colin Glen Trust deserves our heartfelt thanks for the wonderful work they have done. My special thanks to them all. And to those who did the research, the writing, the art work, the singing and music for Tuesdays event. All of you have contributed hugely to the living heritage of this unique place.

For me this is best illustrated by the number of trees they have planted. Not 100. Not 1000. But 100,000 trees planted. In many cases by children from all over Belfast.

The ancient Glen, once a dumping ground and landfill site has been reclaimed by school kids from all over our city. What a huge investment this is! Not just in trees or in the environment but in wealth of our children.

Why do I tell you all of this? Because this blog wants everyone to share in the Colin Glen experience. You wont regret it. Go there as soon as you get the chance.

Have a cup of coffee or a light meal at the foot of the Glen and then meander your way along the Heritage Trails. The walking is easy. And the forest is very very beautiful. So too is its teeming wild life, including a thriving community of birds.

If you are really energetic, keep going up to the upper glen and from there into the Belfast Hills and across Divis and the Black Mountain for the best view ever of the Cave Hill, Belfast Lough, the Mournes and, on a good day, the far off shores of Scotland.

And by the way the river has been restocked. I hope Paddy Elliott and Gerard Begley don’t find out. Tickling trout could be a tickle too far for the two of them at this stage in their dotage.

For more information contact Colin Glen Forest Park centre at 02890614115 or log on to www.colinglentrust.org or E: heritage@colinglentrust.org

San Francisco United Ireland Conference – A Good Beginning

From Left to Right: Ruan O Donnell; Rita O Hare; Fionnuala Flannagan; Gerry Adams and Robert Ballagh

July 3rd 09

San Francisco United Ireland Conference – A Good Beginning

Last Saturday as regular readers of this blog will know I sat in a pub in San Francisco and watched Antrim beat Cavan in the Ulster senior football semi final. Of course that wasn’t the reason I was in that US west coast city. My primary purpose was to host the second of Sinn Fein’s two US Forums on the theme of a United Ireland - and the role of Irish America in helping to achieve it.

The Forum was held in St. Anne’s Hall. Around 600 people from Washington State 800 hundred miles to the north, to San Diego hundreds more to the south, gathered from all along the US’s west coast to participate.

Two weeks earlier New York had been the setting of the first of the two Irish American conferences. It was widely acknowledged in the Irish American media as hugely successful.

As in New York a distinguished panel of speakers had been brought together to talk on the United Ireland theme. Among those participating were Professor Ruan O Donnell, Head of the History Department at Limerick University; internationally acclaimed actress Fionnuala Flannagan; renowned Irish artist Robert Ballagh; and John L Burton, Chairman of the California Democratic Party.

Pat Uniacke, of the GAA opened the first part of the proceedings saying that ‘the Irish diaspora and Irish America have a critical role to play in the quest for a United Ireland.’

I was the first main speaker and was followed by the panel. I reminded my audience that these conferences are only the beginning of the journey – a new phase in the struggle to achieve Irish reunification. I told them that a united Ireland can only be achieved by the people who live on the island of Ireland. However, as the peace process has shown the Irish diaspora, and particularly Irish America, has the ability and the political influence to significantly advance the goal of Irish reunification.

The purpose of the conferences in the USA I explained is so that the Irish diaspora can share with us and each other its ideas for strategies and initiatives which can help promote Irish reunification.

Professor Ruan O Donnell spoke of the many connections between Irish America and Ireland over the centuries. Ruan asserted that the Irish people are entitled to self-determination. Partition, he told the hall was never intended to be permanent. There is a logic to Irish unity and he spoke confidently of this being the final phase in achieving it.

Robert Ballagh gave a scathing analysis of the impact of partition on both parts of Ireland and linked the scandal of child abuse in southern institutions directly to the conservative nature of the southern state as it emerged after partition. He spoke of the need to look beyond the failed political structures and to encourage the widest possible dialogue.

Fionnuala Flannagan talked about the importance of achieving a United Ireland and of being a dissenter in Irish politics. She spoke movingly about the disastrous impact alcohol and drug abuse have had in Ireland and the importance of an all-Ireland approach to tackling these and other major social and political issues.

John Burton, who is the Chair of the Democratic Party in California is a former US Congressman and State Senator. He played a pivotal role in ensuring that the California state endorsed the MacBride Principles against discrimination in employment in the north of Ireland.

John endorsed the importance of beginning the conversation now about the role of Irish America in achieving Irish unity and he gave as a practical proposition a resolution to go to the Democratic Party in California which will endorse this position.



John Burton, Chair of the California State Democratic Party

And then it was over to the audience. Over two dozen speakers from a wide range of Irish American organisations gave their views. There was an wholehearted welcome for the conference and an enthusiasm on the part of all of the speakers to begin this new phase in the struggle.

The ideas mirrored in many ways those which had made in New York; lobbying state and national legislators and legislative bodies; proposing resolutions for city and municipal and community organisations; securing the support of other Irish American organisations; emailing campaigns; letter writing; holding other similar type conferences and much more. Making maximum use of social networking sites like u tube and face book was a constant theme.

One speaker was applauded when he suggested that an effort should be made to co-ordinate all of the St. Patrick’s Day events in the USA and to ensure that they adopt the United Ireland theme. Another spoke of the support which the Irish struggle had won over the years from other ethnic groups and that a real effort should be made to win support for a United Ireland from them.

At the end of the three hours all of those who were there left St. Anne’s excited by the conversations and uplifted by the possibilities that are now there. Of course, it is only the beginning but it was a good beginning.