REVOLUTION 1916: Molly O'Reilly and the Rising

We are on the eve of a momentous year. This time a hundred years ago republican men and women were planning the overthrow of the British Empire in Ireland.

REVOLUTION 1916: Molly O Reilly and the Rising

For those of you who have never heard her name Molly O’Reilly was a young teenage girl who marched with the Citizen Army to the GPO on Easter Monday April 24^th 1916. Molly was born around 1900 in Gardner Street in Dublin. At the age of 11 she joined Clann na nGaedheal the republican girl scouts movement. Two years later she was so appalled by the living conditions in the Dublin tenements that she volunteered to support the workers and their families during the Lock-out. At the age of 13 Molly helped organise a soup kitchen in Liberty Hall.

And it was there one week before the Easter Rising she raised the Irish flag (the gold harp on green) for James Connolly.

Molly was hugely influenced by Connolly and was an active member of the Citizen Army. In July 1914, after hundreds of rifles were landed by the Asgard at Howth, she brought dozens of the rifles to her home in Gardner Street where they stayed until they could be distributed throughout Dublin.

During Easter week and in the midst of heavy rifle and machine gun fire and the artillery shelling of Dublin City centre she fearlessly carried dispatches for the leaders out of and into the GPO.

Later during the Tan War she was a member of the Cumann na mBan and as a worker in the United Services Club in St. Stephens Green – a club for British soldiers – she gathered intelligence for Michael Collins.

Molly opposed the Treaty. During the Civil War she was held in prison by the Treaty side and went on hunger strike. As a result she and 50 other women were released in November 1923. Molly remained a stalwart of the republican struggle until her death in October 1950.

Molly O’Reilly was an exceptional woman; a courageous woman; a strong woman.





I give you this short account of her exceptional life experience because the Sinn Féin exhibition to celebrate the Easter Rising – REVOLUTION 1916 – which will open on Saturday February 27^th 2016 - is largely centred around Molly’s story. The visitor will experience the Rising through Molly’s eyes.

The exhibition promises to be one of the highlights of the centenary celebrations. It will be held in the historic Ambassador Theatre on O Connell Street. It is part of the Rotunda complex which saw the founding of Sinn Féin in 1905 and the Irish Volunteers in 1913. Over seven thousand joined the Volunteers at that inaugural meeting and on the same night a special section set aside for women was also full.

The organisers of the exhibition are going to extraordinary lengths to make REVOLUTION 1916 an event not to be missed or forgotten.

It will host the Irish Volunteers Commemorative Organisation (I.V.C.O.) collection of artefacts covering 1916 and afterwards. It will also include an original 1916 Proclamation - one of only 50 known to exist. This week another of the original Proclamations sold in London for £300,000.

The exhibition will also have on display three Single Shot Mausers which were part of the consignment of 900 brought in as part of the Howth gunrunning episode. These were used during the Rising. One of the single shot Mausers is a "Black" one - a one off rifle - that was said to have been given to the veteran Fenian and 1916 signatory Tom Clarke. It was only recently identified and the brass trigger guard has 20 notches carved on it. It also has a British sappers serrated bayonet attached. Only 12 of these Mausers are known to still exist.

Other artefacts include Luger and C96 Mauser machine pistols, original uniforms of Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and na Fianna Éireann.

There will be over 500 artefacts on display, many of which have never been seen before. Also included are other items from after 1916 including Michael Collin's revolver, the first I.R.A. Thompson machine guns brought to Ireland, and the Tricolour that flew over the G.P.O. in 1966 on the 50^th anniversary of the Rising.

A significant part of the exhibition will involve lifting part of the floor of the Ambassador so that visitors can look down into the network of tunnels underneath. These were used by Michael Collins’s, ‘The Squad’ to carry out attacks on the British military. It is also believed by some that the leaders who abandoned the GPO as it burned on the evening of 28 April 1916 were trying to make their way to these tunnels.

Also on display are a wide range of artistic pieces from framed portraits to stylised garrisons, large charcoal prints to life size sculptures. Artist Robert Ballagh has created a set of iconic images of the 1981 Hunger Strikers which will be on exhibition for the first time to mark the 35th anniversary in 2016. And master mural artist Danny Devenny is completing two 1916 murals in the lobby of the Ambassador.

Each day at midday a uniformed P.H.Pearse will read aloud the Proclamation outside the Ambassador.

The exhibition is scheduled to run for at least 33 weeks.

International Women’s Day on March 6^th will see the ‘Women of the Revolution’ honoured by an event at the GPO.

Other events will include a parade of the Irish Citizen Army that will take place from Liberty Hall to St. Stephen’s Green on March 26^th.

Dawn Vigils will be held outside Kilmainham Gaol on the dates the leaders were executed and in Cork on 9th May and Pentonville on August 3rd 2016.

And on Sunday April 24th 2016 the Citizens’ Initiative will be holding a national march and rally to ‘Reclaim the Vision of 2016’.

So, a lot of hard work and planning is going into REVOLUTION 1916. Whatever else you are thinking of doing next year as your contribution to the centenary celebrations take the time to come to Dublin for a once in a life time opportunity to see a unique exhibition of artefacts of that period. See you there.

Planning corruption rears its ugly head again

I sat through the RTE Prime Time programme last Monday night amazed at how far greed will drive individuals to engage in corrupt practices. The southern state has a long history of political corruption. Some Councillors, TDs, government Ministers and Taoisigh have exploited their political positions for self-gain.

Planning processes have been particularly favoured by them. Politicians received kick-backs for the ‘right’ decisions in planning processes that advantaged some developers. Land that was bought cheap suddenly skyrocketed in value when it was zoned for housing and business use. The ‘brown envelope’ culture was endemic in political life in the south for decades. It has been a key feature of a long-running and toxic political culture that also gave us the abuses of power that we have seen in the banks, in the health service, in charities and in church and State-run institutions.

It is part and parcel of a culture of golden circles and insiders which has so tarnished the political system in the 26 counties and so badly served our citizens. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which between them have wielded power in this State for the past 90 years, created, maintained and are completely mired in this corrupt political culture.

In my view, it is a consequence of the counter-revolutionary period which followed the 1916 Rising and the Tan War. This is the same political culture which ultimately resulted in the total collapse of the economy seven years ago.

But Monday nights RTE investigative programme lifted the lid again on corrupt planning practices. The investigative team undertook the considerable task of analysing the declarations of interest of every elected representative in the Irish state - 1,186 in total, including 949 Councillors, 60 Senators, 166 TDs and 11 MEPs.

It found that dozens of politicians had failed to include important details and financial interests in their declarations. Consequently the RTEs investigative unit specifically targeted three Councillors with what is a classic TV sting. The unit set up a fictitious company. It claimed to be developing a wind farm and a reporter contacted the three seeking assistance through the planning process.

The end result was a television documentary using hidden cameras and bugged phones that exposed the inappropriate behaviour of the three men. Unethical behaviour that most citizens thought had been consigned to history was aggain evident on our tv screens. At times the three Councillors acted out their roles with nods and winks, and gestures and laughter that had the blood boiling.

On Monday night after the programme was broadcast Fianna Fáil Sligo Councillor Joe Queenan announced his resignation from the party. Former Fine Gael Councillor Hugh McElvaney resigned several weeks ago shortly after he was challenged by RTE. Independent Donegal Councillor John O’Donnell told the RTE reporter that any money should be routed through a third party. "Politically there would be a backlash," he said, "you know the way people are … so many begrudgers out there."

The public response was predictable. Citizens were outraged and incensed. It was a reminder of other bad days. Eighteen years ago the Mahon Tribunal was established to examine allegations of corruption in planning processes and land rezoning issues in Dublin County Council area in the 1990’s.

After 18 years of investigation and millions of euro Mahon reported in 2012. The Tribunal made ten recommendations relating to planning. However, three years after its final report and five years after Fine Gael and Labour assumed office the Irish government has still not implemented the Tribunal’s recommendations.

Instead, the former Fine Gael Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, infamously frustrated proper scrutiny of the planning process. In one of his first acts as Minister, Hogan, since promoted by the Taoiseach to the prestigious position of European Commissioner, shut down an inquiry initiated by his ministerial predecessor John Gormley.

This was an inquiry into alleged planning irregularities in several local authority areas, namely Dublin city, Cork city and counties Cork, Carlow, Meath, Galway and Donegal. Phil Hogan has never given a satisfactory explanation for doing this. There remain serious and unanswered questions around this decision. He actually said at one point that the allegations were spurious. How does he know they were spurious when they have not been investigated?

This action highlights the arrogance of the Government and its indifference to pursuing any genuine reform of the planning system. There is a deep suspicion that Phil Hogan was motivated by a desire not to rock the boat in local government because, at the time, Fine Gael and the Labour Party controlled many councils across the State, including some in which these irregularities allegedly occurred.

Subsequently, an internal review by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, which was presented as an alternative to the Gormley review, claimed there was no evidence of wrongdoing in planning.

However, Gerard Convie, a senior planner in Donegal County Council, provided evidence of planning irregularities and he went to the High Court. The court quashed the review's section on Donegal. The Department was forced to apologise to Gerard Convie. The internal review was discredited and had to be set aside.

Did the Government go back to the Mahon tribunal recommendations? No. Instead, it set up another review into six local authorities, this time to be carried out by a group of consultants. We have yet to see what that will come up with.

Central to the Mahon tribunal recommendations was the establishment of an independent planning regulator. When the report was published in March 2012, the then Minister for State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, promised the Government would make such an appointment. But what we have ended up with is a bland, ineffective Office of Planning Regulator that is not what Mahon proposed and is entirely subservient to the Minister.

If the Irish Government genuinely seeks to break with the corrupt political legacy of the past it must move to reform the planning process. The Government's amendment shows it has no intention of doing this.

 

Delivering an effective Housing plan

 

Last Friday Sinn Féin unveiled a policy document to address the housing crisis that has been created by successive Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour governments. The policy will deliver 100,000 new social and affordable homes, and security and certainty for tenants, and also support homeowners and buyers.

Increasing homelessness, soaring rents, never-ending housing waiting lists, and poor quality houses and apartments, are the legacy of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and the Labour party.

Housing across the 26 counties is in crisis as successive governments have handed responsibility for housing to landlords, developers and bankers. Profit has been put before the needs of citizens and we are all paying the price.

Days before the launch of the Sinn Féin plan Fine Gael and Labour voted down a Sinn Féin Bill in the Dáil - "Rent Certainty and Prevention of Homelessness Bill".

The proposals contained in the Bill were all called for by those in the front line dealing with the housing and homeless crisis, including the Simon Community, Focus Ireland and Peter McVerry. The Bill would have provided for definitive action on the current rental and homelessness crisis by linking rents to the rate of inflation and by limiting rent increases over a period of time.

It would also have updated the definition of homelessness and put an onus on local authorities to act in support of people who are facing homelessness.

The government’s decision to vote down the Bill was in the week that saw the one year anniversary of the tragic death of Jonathan Corrie.

Jonathan died from the cold last December, huddled in a doorway, just a few yards from the Dáil. That any citizen would die from the cold is an indictment of government policy. Sadly despite his death and the promises of action in its wake by the government, the housing and homeless crisis has become worse.

Since then two more homeless men have died on Dublin’s streets. The government’s response has been grossly inadequate.

Following Jonathan Corrie’s death the government sought to tackle the most visible evidence of its failure – the increasing numbers of rough sleepers. Over the Christmas period last year extra emergency beds were provided which saw an immediate decrease in the numbers sleeping rough on our streets. However the causes of the rise in homelessness which led to the rough sleeper epidemic have not been tackled.

This year the government claim is that there is a bed for everyone. But the provision of emergency accommodation is no solution. It is a sticking plaster approach to a much more deep rooted problem.

The government’s strategy has been to put the problem out of sight without any real meaningful solutions. According to Focus Ireland some 100 people are sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin each night and this trend is increasing in other cities, including Cork, Limerick and Galway.

The causes of homelessness in this state all spring from the fact that we have far too few local authority homes in which to house people and we have built only a few hundred each year since the economic crisis began.

This has led to massive pressure on the private rental market which in turn has driven up rents and pushed down conditions for these renters. Last December approximately 40 families each month were losing their homes.

Focus Ireland states that the figure has now doubled to between 70 and 80 families. A year ago more than 300 families (726 children) were homeless in Dublin. In May this figure had risen to 900 children and 1,488 adults. Two weeks ago the Dublin Region Homeless Executive reported that 1,425 children in 677 families are in emergency accommodation in Dublin.

This is a 109 per cent increase in the number of homeless children since October 2014.

Crucially on this government’s watch the number of children in homeless accommodation has gone up almost every month since October 2014. Government statistics show that in September there were 4,999 people in emergency accommodation across the State. This was made up of 1,571 children, 980 parents and 2,448 adults without children.

There are now almost 90,000 households on local authority waiting lists – some put the real figure at 130,000 - and some have been there for a decade.

Three weeks ago a major European report – the European Index of Exclusion 2015 - found that the Irish state has the second highest rate of rent and mortgage arrears within the EU. One in five citizens are affected by this. Of the 28 EU states, 16 see poor tenants pay out more for accommodation than those taking home above the average income.

This state is the second worst with almost half of poor households paying out more. At the end of June almost 100,000 mortgage accounts were in arrears. Just over seventy thousand households were in arrears for more than 90 days.

These statistics are an indictment of Fine Gael and Labour, and of Fianna Fáil and Green Party government before them. These bad policies contribute to this state having a higher percentage of children at risk of poverty – 34% - compared to the EU average of 28%.

Most recently the government’s failure to speedily introduce measures to tackle spiralling rents contributed to some landlords exploiting the government’s prevarication to push rents up. The data from Daft.ie shows that since September rents have risen across the state by 3.2%. With Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick seeing increases of between 8.9 and 13.5% on last year.

My own constituency of Louth is among the regions with the highest rates of inflation in rents outside of Dublin. According to Daft.ie Louth saw an increase of 13.3% in rents since last year. This compares with 12.2% in Galway and 11.4% in Limerick. Rents also rose by an average of 3.2% in Leinster – outside of Dublin – between June and September – with the biggest increases in Louth and Meath.

The government was warned that its refusal to take firm action to introduce rent certainty measures would encourage landlords to increase rents before any legislation was introduced. The Daft.ie report confirms this.

The government’s approach has been inadequate to meet the needs of families desperate for a home. In its five years in office it has built fewer homes than was built in any single year for the previous decade.

The solution to the housing crisis is to build social housing and it is clearly government policy not to do this.

What is needed is a holistic approach which tackles social housing need, private market provision, and rent inequality.

Critically, as we approach the centenary of the Proclamation with its emphasis on social justice and equality we need a commitment to providing every citizen with adequate and appropriate housing.

Sinn Féin believes that every person, whatever their background or ethnicity, has the right to housing of a standard that provides privacy, space, security, comfort and basic facilities needed for the 21^st century.

To achieve this Sinn Féin is committing to building 100,000 new social and affordable homes by Local Authorities and approved Housing Bodies over the next 15 years.

Between 2016 – 2021 Sinn Féin will build and deliver almost 36,500 social and affordable homes and will spend an additional €2.2 billion over and above the government’s current capital commitments.

This comprehensive housing document, which is available on the Sinn Féin website, is a fully costed housing document which can effectively tackle the housing and homeless crisis.

It will be a major plank of our election campaign in the new year when the Taoiseach finally calls the general election.

 

 

The murder of Seamus Ludlow

During the recent negotiations to secure the future of the political institutions the British government successfully thwarted efforts to put in place the legacy elements of last December’s Stormont House Agreement. This was deeply disappointing for victims and their families.

The British government’s refusal to honour last year’s agreement on full disclosure and to employ the pretext of ‘national security’ to deny victims access to state information, follows a familiar pattern. For four decades successive British government’s and their security, intelligence and policing agencies have worked to cover-up the systematic use of collusion, shoot-to-kill actions, and torture.

The determination and commitment of families and of a small number of dedicated victim’s support organisations and human rights lawyers have frustrated their efforts. The Bloody Sunday families; the family of Pat Finucane and the Pat Finucane Centre; Relatives for Justice; Justice for the Forgotten; the Ballymurphy Massacre families; the Springhill massacre families and the McGurk families and many more families and groups have tirelessly campaigned for justice even in the face of British obstruction. They have used a range of legal devices and publicity strategies to keep their cases on the public and political agenda.

Regrettably, it hasn’t just been the British government that has opposed the efforts of families. The Irish government has also played a depressingly negative role.

One case in point is that of Seamus Ludlow. I met the extended Ludlow family last week in Dundalk along with their legal representatives from KRWLAW – Human Rights Lawyers, who also represent the Hooded Men. Along with Kevin Winters and Gavin Booth from the law firm there were 19 of Seamus Ludlow’s family present, including his sister Kathleen.

Like many other families campaigning for truth for loved ones killed during the conflict the Ludlow campaign now embraces several generations. Brothers and sisters of Seamus Ludlow have died since he was murdered in May 1976. But last Friday those members of the family who have campaigned for 40 years were joined by nephews and nieces and grand nephews and grand nieces who have now taken up the challenge.

Seamus was 47 years old when he was murdered by a UVF/Red Hand Commando gang. Among the four men involved in the murder were two serving officers in the Ulster Defence Regiment. Seamus was shot and thrown into a ditch near his Thistle Cross, Dundalk home.

In the months after his death the family was the target of a sustained smear campaign by the Gardaí who claimed that Seamus was killed by the IRA allegedly because he was an informer. They also subsequently claimed that a member of the family was involved. None of this was true.

The investigation into the murder was suspended quickly by the Gardaí. Four months after Seamus was shot dead an inquest was held. The Gardaí failed to inform the family in time. As a result no family members were present.

Subsequently it also emerged that the Gardaí knew that unionist paramilitaries were responsible from shortly after the murder. In a letter to the Gardaí in January 1979 the RUC identified the four suspects it believed were responsible for the killing. Two confessed during interrogation by the RUC although later the DPP in the north declined to take them to court.

The Gardaí never interviewed the four men and never told the family. The family first heard of the four in an investigative report by the Sunday Tribune in 1998 uncovered the names of those allegedly involved in the murder.

As a result of the steadfastness and courage of the Ludlow family the murder was investigated by the Barron Commission, which also investigated the Dublin-Monaghan Bombings, as well as bomb attacks in Castleblaney, Dundalk, the Miami Showband murders and the deaths of 18 other citizens.

It reported that files and much of the forensic evidence, including fingerprint evidence and ballistics was missing from Garda files.

The Final Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry from the Irish Parliamentary Joint Committee on Justice was published in March 2006. It expressed its “disappointment at the lack of cop-operation from the British authorities … the role collusion played in the murder of Seamus Ludlow.” It was also hugely critical of the behaviour of the Gardaí toward the family. It accused the Gardaí of having treated the family in “an appalling manner.”

Crucially the report also recommended the establishment of two Commissions of Investigation by the Irish government. “One commission was to examine the conduct of the Garda investigation and the co-operation with the police in the North and the other was to examine the issues relating to the absence of relevant documentation. To date we note that these recommendations have not been furthered since.”

Last year I wrote to the Minister for Justice asking if he would implement the outstanding recommendations of the Final report. He said: “There are, however, no plans at present to establish a Commission of Investigation into the case.”

Along with their legal team the Ludlow family has now mapped out a legal route to highlight the case and secure additional information from the Irish and British governments. Specifically in the north the family will issue civil proceedings against the PSNI (who inherited the responsibilities of the RUC), the British Ministry of Defence and the Secretary of State in an action for damages including collusion and negligence. This they believe will help assist the discovery of evidence. The family also intend writing to the office of the Public Prosecution Service asking why it's predecessor the DPP refused to prosecute the four men identified as the unionist paramilitary gang responsible.

The family also intend writing to the Irish govt over its refusal to act on the Barron recommendations.

Almost 40 years after his murder and nearly ten years after the ‘Final Report on the Report of the Barron Commission’ it is the Irish government – not the British government – that continues to obstruct the Ludlow family’s efforts to get to the truth. It is the Irish government which is refusing to establish the Commissions of Investigation.

Meeting the challenge of climate change

 

Climate change is one of the defining challenges facing our society today. Consequently next Monday’s climate change conference in Paris, which will see representatives from almost 200 states across the globe participate, is of huge importance. The conference will run from November 30^th to December 11^th.

Far from focussing only on environmental issues around stabilising the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - it is in reality a critical political and security negotiation about the future – including the island of Ireland. I believe that the Paris conference has to be about citizen’s fundamental human rights over the vested interests of big business or individual States. 

Climate change has often seemed for many, a scientific debate and phenomena far removed from most ordinary people's everyday reality – until now.

Several weeks ago representatives from the Pacific islands met in Fiji. They warned of the danger of large parts of their landmass disappearing in the coming decades.

They have also warned of the re-emergence of diseases which create significant health challenges, malaria, typhoid, dengue fever, and a range of diarrhoea linked illnesses. The World Health Organisation expects around 250,000 deaths globally as a consequences of this and climate change.

The Fiji foreign Minister put it bluntly: “Unless the world acts decisively in the coming weeks to begin addressing the greatest challenge of our age, then the Pacific, as we know it is doomed”.

The reason for this concern is justified. NASA recently revealed that the world’s sea level has already risen nearly 8 cms since 1992. The United Nations has estimated that a metre or more is now expected by the end of the century.

According to a recent analysis by the research group Climate Central a two Celsius increase in the world’s temperature will see 130 million people around the world lose their homes. If the temperature increase reaches four degrees Celsius that number could reach 600 million. Belfast and Dublin would effectively disappear.

For low lying areas of the world, around the coasts of countless states, including this island, the impact of rising temperatures is enormous. It is not just about flooding. It is also about coastal erosion and saltwater getting into the water table. It’s about hurricanes and cyclones and storms in greater ferocity than ever witnessed before.

While I was in Cuba recently every government Minister I spoke to expressed their concern at climate change, including the problems of drought which is affecting part of the Caribbean island.

Under the EU Commission’s ‘Energy and Climate Package’ of 2008 the 26 counties is required to deliver a 20% reduction in non-Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. This was not an ambitious target. But it was crucially important.

The European Environment Agency has reported in recent weeks that while the EU is expected to exceed its 2020 reduction targets the south will not and will be lucky to achieve half of this. In the Irish state more than 30% of Greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, the single biggest contributor to overall emissions, followed by energy and transport at around 21% each. 

The challenge is to decarbonise the economy in the short to medium term and phase out the use of fossil fuels. 

The island of Ireland is already experiencing significant climate change. Six of the warmest years we have experienced have occurred in the last 25 years. There has been a reduction in the number of frost days and a shortening of the frost season.

We have witnessed an increase in the annual rainfall in northern and western areas with decreases or small increases in the south and east. These changes will impact on our natural environment and on agriculture. The increasing acidification of the ocean will also impact on our marine economy.

Scientists are predicting that Ireland faces not just a rise in sea level but water shortages, adverse impacts on water quality and changes in the distribution of plant and animal species.

An ambitious deal in Paris is therefore very much in all our interests.

Rising temperatures are changing our global weather systems undermining the ecosystems on which life itself depends. While the threat posed by climate change to our food security or public health here at home compared to those countries ravaged by drought, hurricane storms, extreme flooding and disease is hugely different, we too are becoming more alert to the effects of climate change and what action we must take for the future.

Many Irish citizens are doing so for instance by generating their own renewable energy sources to heat and light their homes, or even the use of new electric cars as their mode of transport. Solar panels on the roofs of houses would once have been the exception. Now they are an integral part of planning.

In the two small economies on this island we have an opportunity to develop new business models and technologies which will be increasingly required to drive decarbonisation across the globe. This also offers us the opportunity to create new jobs as well as driving competitiveness and exports, innovation, energy security and reducing expenditure on imported fossil fuels.

How to power Ireland with clean renewable energy and transition our transport systems to electricity and gas, how to continue to improve our agriculture, protect our fisheries, expand our forests and natural resources are all critical to how we now adapt to a changing global environment and maximise new economic opportunities across our island. 

This requires a plan from the Executive and from the Irish government.

Negotiators at next week’s Paris conference must connect with a wider audience and get a deal which is ambitious but which can also be the basis for meaningful delivery of the long term goal of keeping global warming under 2ºC. 

It is our moral duty to find solutions to climate change now as our first choice, rather than last resort. US President Barack Obama tweeted recently, "We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it."

You can make your voice heard, and more importantly count this Sunday, 29th November by joining the People’s Climate marches which are taking place in over 70 countries as part of a global day of action. 

You can join marches in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway and be part of the change.

Free Arnaldo Otegi – Bring them home

 

 

 

 

Thursday saw the launch of the Free Arnaldo Otegi and Bring Basque Political Prisoners Home campaign in Ireland.

The event took place in Leinster House and was jointly sponsored by myself; Maureen O’Sullivan TD; Finian McGrath TD and involved speakers including Robert Ballagh, Artist and social justice campaigner; Urko Airtza, Basque Senator and human rights lawyer; Pablo Vicente, and Fermin Muguruza, famous Basque musician.

On my own behalf and on behalf of Sinn Féin, I extended solidarity greetings from the event to Arnaldo. I also warmly welcomed today's initiative and pledged Sinn Féin's full support.

Sinn Féin and the Basque people have a long history of solidarity in struggle. I and other Sinn Féin leaders have been active in travelling to the Basque country in support of efforts to achieve a peace process and agreement.

Regrettably the dialogue for peace has been largely one-sided. The people of the Basque country, represented by a range of political parties and civic organisations, have been involved in recent years in a substantial dialogue around building a peace process. Their objective has been to bring an end to violence while creating the conditions for democratic and peaceful political change, including independence.

They took as their model the Irish peace process and the South African model. The strategy that has emerged, based largely on language and principles agreed here, commits Basque activists to using ‘exclusively political and democratic means’ to advance their political objectives. It seeks to advance political change ‘in a complete absence of violence and without interference’ and ‘conducted in accordance with the Mitchell Principles.’ And its political goal is to achieve a ‘stable and lasting peace in the Basque country’.

The key to making any progress is dialogue. The Spanish government needs to talk. Thus far it has refused. This runs entirely counter to Nelson Mandela’s oft quoted mantra that to make peace we have to make friends with our enemy. That cannot be done in the absence of a dialogue. It cannot be done in the absence of respect for the rights of citizens to vote for elected representatives of their choice.

In this context the continued imprisonment of Arnaldo Otegi (Secretary General of SORTU) makes no sense and is deeply unhelpful. In the course of recent years I have met Arnaldo here and in the Basque country. I support his efforts and  those of the Basque independence parties to construct a peaceful and democratic resolution to the conflict in the Basque Country.

Arnaldo is a courageous and visionary leader who has taken real risks for peace and despite speaking many years in prison on spurious charges he has never faltered from promoting the path of peace.

The policy of dispersal of Basque prisoners from prisons close to their families is not helpful to the peace process. It mirrors the policy of ‘ghosting’ that was regularly used against Irish republican prisoners held in Britain. Families would make the difficult journey to the north of England for a visit with a loved one only to be told that they were moved the previous day to a prison in London. This policy, which has no security dimension to it, was simply about hurting the families and demoralizing the prisoners. So too with Basque prisoners.

It is also a truism of every peace process I know of that the release of prisoners was an indispensable part of building confidence. Invariably the prisoners themselves played a crucial role in assisting the peace.

The refusal of the Spanish government to engage in dialogue, the continued imprisonment of Arnaldo Otegi and its punitive regime against Basque prisoners, are evidence of a government reluctant to embrace the potential for peace.

The Spanish Prime Minister has an opportunity to take a step change in advance of elections in December by releasing Arnaldo Otegi, and ending its reprehensible dispersal policy and allow Basque political prisoners to go home to the Basque Country.

 

 

A new opportunity for progress

The agreement reached at Stormont on Tuesday is far from perfect. But it is the best that was possible at this time. It is the culmination of over three months of intense and difficult negotiations that arose following a series of crisis in the political process.

Last year’s Stormont House Agreement was a genuine effort to secure a deal that would protect the most vulnerable in society, to safeguard the rights and entitlements of citizens, to grow the economy and to enhance the working of the institutions.

But resistance to change, which is particularly strong within elements of unreconstructed unionism and the British security system, and the ideological commitment of the British Tory party to austerity saw the agreement come under immediate pressure.

The contrived political crisis by the Ulster Unionist Party following the murders of Jock Davison and Kevin McGuigan in Belfast led to the virtual collapse of the institutions.

Martin McGuinness and others in our negotiating team have worked hard to find solutions to all of the core issues. Our focus was on defending public services, while dealing with outstanding issues. These include the Bill of Rights and Achta na Gaeilge, contentious parades and identity. Securing the full implementation of the legacy proposals from last year’s Stormont House Agreement was also critical.

On Tuesday, following progress in the talks, a new agreement was achieved. Not all issues were resolved but this is an important development which seeks to stabalise the political institutions, tackle some of the outstanding matters, and allow for progress. Sinn Féin has successfully negotiated a package of measures, including in excess of half a billion in new money; and additional flexibilities to invest in public services and the economy. We have also negotiated a fund of £585 million over four years to support the vulnerable and working families.

A panel headed by the renowned advocate Dr. Eileen Evason is to report on how best to use the £500 million fund to meet the needs of the most vulnerable. These measures will mitigate some aspects of Britain’s austerity policies but will not cover in their entirety the cuts being imposed by the Tories on working families, claimants and the block grant. The British approach is unfair, fundamentally undemocratic and economically counter-productive. Sinn Féin will continue to oppose this policy.

The agreement reached also seeks to deal with the issue of criminality and the continued existence of armed and active groups.

Of particular concern is the British government’s refusal to honor last year’s Stormont House Agreement on full disclosure to meet the needs of victims arising out of the conflict. Several weeks ago the British government introduced legislation, in direct contravention of the Stormont House Agreement, which seeks to prevent the victims of British state terrorism from getting the truth.

Using the pretext of ‘national security’ a British secretary of state can close down an investigation and push aside the genuine needs of victims. These proposals are unacceptable. As a result no agreement has been possible on dealing with the legacy of the past.

The British objective has been to prevent full disclosure to the families of victims of the conflict. The British government and its security and military apparatus continue to cover up the action of their agents, informers, army, police and political establishment by using a ‘national security’ veto. This is unacceptable.

What conceivable ‘national security’ concerns can exist for events, many of which occurred 30 and 40 years ago? What ‘national security’ interests are now served over 40 years later by a British government refusing to unlock the files to the Dublin Monaghan bombings or the actions of the Force Reconnaissance Unit or the role of Brian Nelson and others?

 Will the efforts of the hooded men to get to the truth of who in the British cabinet sanctioned their torture come up against the excuse of national security?

Will the Ballymurphy families or those who believe the British agent Stakeknife played a part in the murder of their loved ones, or the hundreds of other victims and their families of British counter-insurgency strategies find their efforts thwarted by the overriding demands of British ‘national security’?

Will the truth about the apartheid south African arms shipment, involving MI5, which saw the capacity of the UVF and UDA and Ulster Resistance to kill Catholics in the late 1980s and 90s significantly increase, be hidden from the families of the two hundred people who were killed as a consequence?

The refusal of Theresa Villiers to implement the agreement she made last year is about covering up the extent to which the British state created and organised and provided information to unionist paramilitary gangs in the killing of citizens.

It is not acceptable to those victims who survived gun and bomb attacks or the families of those who died. Nor is it compatible with the Stormont House Agreement.

Finally, the Irish government has not asserted its role as co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday and other agreements. It has played the part of junior partner and has acquiesced to British demands, especially around the issue of legacy. Their role should have been to hold the British government to account. They failed to do this.

We should not be surprised by this. In economic terms, Fine Gael and the Irish Labour Party have consistently made common cause with the British Conservative Party in their relentless pursuit of austerity.

In the time ahead Sinn Féin will continue to stand up for the rights of the vulnerable, working families, our economy and our public services.

We believe the new agreement offers the best hope for a new start – a new opportunity to build a better future.

It is also an opportunity for Republicans to show that the union with Britain is not in the interests of citizens in the north. The price of the union is that a London government, unelected by citizens here, is imposing policies that will attack the vulnerable, the elderly and the young, while denying the Executive the resources to invest effectively in our economy. That doesn’t make sense. Uniting Ireland and building an all-island economy, rooted in equality makes perfect sense.