Léargas

I don't know a lot about Scotland. I like the accent and the music and Robin Hall and Jimmy McGregor, Kenneth McKeller and an occasional wee dram. I was only there twice. The first time I had to be escorted to the plane by a Police unit after the Orange Order laid siege to a public meeting I attended in Glasgow.

The other time was in Saint Andrews where we succeeded in getting the DUP to cross the line and where the two Governments made promises they have yet to keep. The scenery is stupendous. Not unlike our own place. I know lots of people who have big Scottish connections. Pat Doherty, the West Tyrone MP, originated in the Gorbals of Glascow, though he is Irish through and through. Pearse Doherty TD, no relation of Pats, has a similar family history. They are not on their own.

Donegal, their county, is like that. Especially the west of the county. Families have deep roots in both places. In times gone by young Donegal folk, and also many from the West of Ireland, some little more than boys or girls left their poor small holdings to hoke potatoes in Scotland. Tatie hoking was seasonal work. The tatie hokers lived in terrible conditions. Many of them in rough huts or Bothies. The Donegal writer and poet Patrick McGill has written very memorable novels about the plight of these fine people. Their conditions became a matter of public scandal in 1937 when a fire in their accommodation killed 10 young men and boys between the ages of 13 and 23 from Achill Island. This happened in the town of Kirkintilloch just outside of Glasgow. Peadar O Donnell wrote a riveting pamphlet which helped rouse public consciousness about this injustice.

Like lots of exiles some of the Donegal exiles never returned to Ireland. Many of them stayed or moved on to England or North America. Those who stayed drifted into the cities. Here they suffered discrimination on account of their Catholicism. Glasgow Celtic was famously founded by a Catholic priest to cater for the Donegal Irish who lived in great poverty in the slums of Glasgow. James Connolly one of our foremost political thinkers and activists was born into similar conditions in Edinburgh.

Billy Connolly, the Scottish comedian's stories of growing up in Glasgow are hilarious. They will also find an echo of life on the Falls Road or the Shankill, for that matter, for people of my generation or older. Billy's family hail from Galway.

The west coast, especially the fishing communities in the North West have historic connections into the coastal regions of the north of Scotland. The island communities in particular. Our Rathlin Island, a magical place in its own right, has dreamlike views of its neighbours in Islay. It was to here that Robert the Bruce fled from Scotland and where famously his sojourn with a spider who never gave up spinning his web, motivated Robert to keep going.

The native song tradition in North Antrim is heavily influenced by Scots Gallic. So too is our folk tradition. Ewen McColl in particular, was a huge influence on Luke Kelly, Christy Moore, the Fureys. The Black Family.

The plantation of Ulster had a much less positive effect on our own history. Dispossessed native people naturally resisted and resented those, many from Scotland, who were settled by force of arms on their land. But over the centuries they too were absorbed and are now part of the sum total of who and what we are as an island people. Unfortunately partition locked many of them and some of us into a sectarian and mean little sectarian statelet. The out workings of this reality effect in a malign way our politics and our social divisions to this day. Some remain willing or compliant prisoners of these old divisive ways. They hold themselves apart from the rest of us. Our challenge is not only to liberate ourselves. Our liberation will be found only when they too are free.

All of these disjointed thoughts and other musings of Dalriada (and even the banishment of Gráinne and Diarmuid) nipped at the outer reaches of my mind and its thought processes as the Scottish Referandum campaign reached its conclusion. Pat Doherty told me weeks ago that it would be lost because the older Scots Irish would vote No.

'They remember the discrimination. They don't trust the future. They are afraid of being locked into an Orange state.'

I haven't studied the figures or the demographic of the vote beyond the assertion that the majority of young people voted Yes. The older folks voted No. Or so I understand. So I cannot say if Pat was right or not. But when I woke last Friday morning to listen to the early news I must confess to a feeling of disappointment even though I was anticipating a No vote.

Maybe it was Brave Heart!

Maybe my own political faith, rewarded by the positivity of the million and a half Scots who voted for citizenship over subjection. For their own system over an archaic, elite and monarchy centred London based power structure.

There are lots of lessons for us to learn from the Scottish Referendum campaign. Like our work here in Ireland it has changed the nature of the Union. But the Union remains. And the elites in London want it to. Including, most famously Gordon Brown.

So do the majority of Scots. For the time being.

Maybe the disappointment of many Irish people at this is bedded in the knowledge that Ireland would have voted Yes if we had been give such a choice before partition. But maybe before we get too comfortable on that particular moral high ground maybe we should consider Pat Doc's suggestion about how the Scots Irish voted.

Our challenge is to get a Yes vote when we have our own Referendum. The Scottish campaign will help us to learn how we can do that. Including the necessary work of understanding and assuaging fears of the future. If Scots Irish Catholics feared the future and voted accordingly why should Ulster Protestants be any different?

The answer to that question is one only we can answer.

Two weeks ago I was pleased to visit New York and the 10^th Annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative held in the Sheraton hotel, in mid-town Manhattan.

The event, organised by the Bill, Hilary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation is a gathering of international leaders dedicated to developing innovative solutions to some of the world’s pressing challenges. And it brings together current and former Heads of State, Government representatives, Nobel Peace Prize winners, hundreds of leaders in the business and non profit sectors, and civic society.

Each year that I have attended, I have felt enriched, energised and uplifted by the collegial sense of addressing global problems, and this year was no different.

The thinking behind the CGI is that members make a ‘Commitment to Action’ which amounts to a new, specific and measurable plan that addresses a shared concern. The focus is on actions rather than words.

And at this Annual meeting 100 new ‘Commitments to Action’ were made.

When fully funded and implemented the Clinton Global Initiative estimate that these commitments will create or fill more than 40,000 jobs, provide nearly $3.6 million in new capital for green initiatives; and mobilise more than $215 million of new capital to be invested or loaned to small or medium sized businesses.

I was especially struck by contributions from many of the participants. Not least the Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt. She spoke of her country’s commitments towards developing green economies and how a small country like Denmark has been transformed into a world leader in this field. Her motto is ‘Confronting climate change is good economics’.

Graca Machel, a Mozambican politician, humanitarian and widow of Nelson Mandela and Samora Machel, former Mozambican President was awarded a special Citizen award and spoke very eloquently on the importance of equality for girls and women worldwide. She spoke on crucial issues facing Africa and its future and specifically on the implications of taking action against child marriage, and of valuing girls in the same way as we value boys.

Also worth mentioning was the live video call the conference made with the International Space Station and the NASA astronauts based there. President Bill Clinton and Astronaut Cady Coleman, from the conference spoke to the NASA astronauts – an American, a German and a Russian, based in outer space. The imagery and banter was exciting and fascinating. They spoke about how astronauts from different countries work together to undertake the pioneering research and went on to predict that earthlings would leave the solar system at some point! RG would like to be on that trip. Hard to fathom alright, but I suppose never say never!

Some of the other stories from this planet were harrowing but the commitment of activists, particularly from the developing world was inspirational and moving. Women organising women against poverty. Humanitarians providing clean water. A child under 5 years of age dies every twenty one seconds from contaminated water. Mohammad Yunus on building social businesses. Great work.

It also puts some of our own difficulties in context.

On this visit I also took the opportunity to meet with many friends of Ireland and others to discuss the political process here. Some of these included President Clinton, Congressman Richie Neale and Tony Blair, as well as some friends from Irish America.

I stressed the need for the two governments to fulfil their obligations and for the Irish Government especially, as a co-equal guarantor of the Good Friday and other agreements, to assert itself to promote progress and for the White House to encourage this.

One thing is for sure our friends in Irish America are very focussed on this. So is Sinn Féin.

There was a time when the Holiday Camp at Mosney was host to Joe Dolan and Dickie Rock. Thousands danced the night away to 'Oh Me Oh My' and 'The Church with the White Washed Gable'. Sadly Joe is no longer with us. Dickie is still going strong. So too is Mosney. I was there only once. Years ago. Maggie McArdle, God rest her, my favourite Mother in Law, was on a Senior Citizens Weekend Away and we called to visit her. Back in the day. The place was buzzing. Maggie really enjoyed her vacation. So did many others over the decades. When he heard I was to visit there last week Dessie Ellis TD regaled me with tales of his amorous adventures and countless more innocent Dublin family breaks at Mosney.

These days Mosney is an Asylum Accommodation Centre. Me and Seanadoir Trevor Ó Clochartaigh and Councillor Eimear Ferguson visited it on Friday last.

A letter to Trevor from The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) set out the conditions for our visit. They included a prohibition on media accompanying the delegation, any advance announcement of the visit and a prohibition on 'live tweeting' during the visit.

I don't know the legal basis for these conditions but, with what is probably a former prisoners instinct, I tweeted anyway. Just out of contrariness.

Interestingly I notice that a visit by President Michael D Higgins to an accommodation centre for asylum seekers was cancelled recently after the Department of Justice allegedly refused permission for the event on the grounds of "logistics and safety".

The camp at Mosney is massive. It is well maintained. Clean. Lots of trees and green spaces. The management team who accompanied us were hospitable, friendly and courteous. Some of the residents said Mosney is one of the better centres not least because they have privacy. Some hostels are cramped. They have communal toilets.

There are 602 people in Mosney. Those we met are focussed on getting out off there. Some of them are waiting ten years. It is an indictment of the Government and its predecessor that this is the case. Direct Provision is an inhumane system. No matter how 'attractive' the accommodation may be the system institutionalises people, damages their mental health and forces idleness on them.

Direct Provision is meant to provide for the welfare needs of asylum seekers and their families. It does not. It provides a measly €9.60 a week for each child. What child can be cared for on €9.60 a week? At the end of last year there were 4300 people including 1,666 children were living in this system. Many of the children were born here. Many are denied citizenship. Most have spent their entire childhoods in the system.

The Minister of State for Equality Aodhán Ó Riordáin says a new inspection regime for conditions in Direct Provision Centres is urgently needed. Fair enough. All our systems need regulated. But the direct provision system needs abolished. It has no legislative basis whatsoever. It was a rushed job by Fianna Fáil back in 1999 without proper accountability and poor institutional oversight. Since 2000 private contractors who run the centres have been paid €900 million of taxpayers money.

There is no need to wait for Immigration, Residence and Protection legislation to be passed in order to put a stop to Direct Provision. Other states deal with Immigrants in a much more humane, efficient and less costly way. There is no reason why this cannot happen here. The people in direct provision have rights. Our delegation met a group, mostly of women, during our visit. All of them want to contribute to Irish society. Instead they are denied the right to work. They are segregated, unable to participate in any meaningful way. We also met local people who work on a voluntary basis to ease the and to assist these 'new Irish' especially the children.

There is no excuse for the wasted creative human potential that is currently unused in direct provision centres. There is no excuse for treating human beings like this. Some of us campaign on behalf of Irish Immigrants in the USA and other countries. If our citizens were being treated the way we treat our immigrants Irish politicians would, rightly be raising a row about it.

All thinking people were horrified at the horrors inflicted on children and women in Industrial Schools, Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries. Politicians from all parties and none expressed outrage. These scandals happened because that's the way the system worked. So too today with direct provision

All of the residents we met at Mosney were dark skinned. Most were from Africa. Could this be why our system treats them in a way which denies their humanity, their rights and the great contribution they and their children could make to our island community?

The Centenary anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising is now less than two years away.

This hugely significant date in the history of the Irish nation should be marked in an appropriate, sensitive and inclusive manner.

Any commemoration should be a fitting popular acknowledgement of the past but also, and just as importantly, an opportunity for all of us - political representatives and citizens alike - North and South, to engage in a serious discussion about what kind of an Ireland we want to build for the future.

But as yet, no plan, no proposal and no programme of events, outlining how, where or what the Government intends to organise to mark this event has been published. This should be a cause for concern.

Indeed, the only idea mooted by senior members of the Cabinet so far has been to invite members of the English royal family to whatever ceremony eventually takes place.

Compounding the Government's bungling approach has been the shabby treatment of the relatives of those who fought on Easter Week 1916.

The Government was forced to retract earlier media briefings that relatives would not be accommodated at the official ceremonies.

Meanwhile the prospect of the buildings, streets and laneways of history around Moore Street and the last headquarters of the leaders of the a Rising, being demolished to facilitate the building of a shopping centre, has understandably shocked and deeply angered many citizens

This Government's extremely tardy attitude to marking the most important single event in modern Irish history, stands in stark and shameful contrast to the way other states acclaim those who fought for their freedom and independence.

Any state-organised commemoration should be inclusive and involve much more than a mere military parade in Dublin.

There is huge scope for associated cultural events in all 32 Counties of Ireland which would bring home the ideals and history of 1916 to the whole population of the island, young and old.

There is an unprecedented opportunity also to involve the Irish diaspora in the public life of the nation by ensuring the involvement of the Irish in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and elsewhere.

The 1916 Rising and its aftermath had ramifications far beyond the shores of Ireland. It had major international significance and the subsequent guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland became a template for those struggling against imperialism and colonial rule elsewhere.
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It is important therefore that any commemorative events have an international dimension and flavour.

No one party or group has a monopoly on the memory of 1916 or indeed of republicanism. It must also be remembered that the Rising was the result of a coming together of many groups in Irish society, including the nationalist, the socialist, the women’s movement, the trade unions, cultural and Irish language activists. All these strands must be represented in any future commemorations.

The significance of this anniversary and the fact that no plan has emerged is an indictment of the Fine Gael/Labour Government's approach.

The Government's amnesia about this country's revolutionary period betrays a lack of confidence in the Government's own political position regarding these events and how the ideals of 1916 remain unfulfilled.

At the core of this, I believe, is the manner in which the policies they have pursued fail to measure up to the promise of the 1916 Proclamation.

In my view, the democratic and republican principles of freedom and equality contained in the 1916 Proclamation are as relevant to the Ireland of 2014 as they were in 1916.

The Southern state is not the republic envisaged by those who wrote the Proclamation. They had a vision for a real republic – a republic of justice, equality and fairness – a republic for all the people of this island. That is in direct contradiction to the policies being pursued by Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil.

The Government's and the Taoiseach's attitude to 1916 is very far removed from that of most Irish citizens who are very proud of the men and women of Easter Week, who proclaimed an independent Irish Republic and asserted in arms Ireland's right to unity and independence.

One thing is sure however. The 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising will be marked, and in a big way, by ordinary people across this island with the support and leadership of Irish republicans, whether or not the Irish Government is involved.

The recent allegations made by Maíria Cahill are of serious concern to myself and Sinn Féin. While I refute completely Maíria’s allegations against myself and Sinn Féin it does raise the significant issue of how allegations of abuse had been handled in the past by republicans.

Abuse respects no political boundaries. It affects all classes, creeds and social groups. Women and children in the main suffers as a result. It is now accepted that one in four citizens have experienced abuse.

Our society has been extremely bad, until relatively recently, in facing up to this matter and developing the necessary responses and supports. This has been the case in both states but in the North these failures were further exacerbated by conflict.

In conflicts civilians suffer the most, particularly women and children. This is especially the case when communities are under military occupation. During the conflict in the north many nationalist and particularly republican communities suffered grievously under British military rule. In the main since partition, these communities had never accepted unionist one party rule. They were resentful of, and oppressed in, the Orange state which rejected all attempts at reform over the decades.

After the pogroms of 1969, Internment in 1971 and Bloody Sunday in 1972 the vast majority of nationalists withdrew any consent to be governed from the Northern state, it's institutions and agencies.

The conflict itself caused widespread hurt and suffering, but so too did the absence of the structures and institutions which are the norm in peaceful, democratic societies. These citizens never had a policing service. Policing and the Legal process were subverted to the primary objective of defeating republicanism at all costs. The RUC was a quasi-military arm of the state which acted against nationalists and republicans as if we were the enemy.

In many cases the absence of a civic police service also disconnected alienated communities from the support of social services. These communities policed themselves. The vast majority of people were law abiding and decent. Strong and empowered and progressive communities emerged. New and innovative restorative justice systems were developed as part of this collective experience. But there was also, particularly in the first two decades of the conflict a more brutal form of rough justice.

Some journalists and political opponents of Sinn Féin continue to perpetuate a particular myth about life in nationalist areas of the North during the conflict. They portray republicans as having oppressed republican/nationalist communities through political control and vigilantism. This was never the case. The IRA could never have sustained itself without popular support and Sinn Féin would not have developed as we have unless we had the support of the people.

The reality of course is that a professional, accountable and impartial policing service was absent and unattainable in a society that was manifestly unjust. In many republican areas the community put pressure on the IRA - which sprang from and was sustained by the community - to fill this policing vacuum.

The IRA itself often viewed this role as a major distraction from its central function. It suspected that the RUC indulged criminals in order to tie down IRA resources and demoralise the nationalist community.

IRA 'policing' was most evident in those areas where it had strongest support. The bulk of this activity involved mediation between those in dispute, and went unreported.

However, the IRA often punished petty criminals, car thieves, burglars and drug dealers. The IRA, inevitably also made mistakes.

Despite the high standards and decency of the vast majority of IRA volunteers, IRA personnel were singularly ill-equipped to deal with these matters. This included very sensitive areas such as responding to demands to take action against rapists and child abusers. The IRA on occasion shot alleged sex offenders or expelled them.

While this may have been expedient at the time it was not appropriate. Victims were left without the necessary social service support and abusers without supervision. It ultimately failed victims and the community alike. That is a matter of profound regret for me, and many other republicans.

But these actions were of their time and reflected not only a community at war but also an attitude within Ireland which did not then understand or know as we now do, how deeply embedded abuse is in our society.

For decades the institutions of both states including successive governments, the RUC, An Garda Siochana, the courts, social services, churches and others did not deal with these matters properly.

Many senior republicans, including me, had major issues with the IRA acting as a policing agency. Martin McGuinness and I are on the public record speaking out against punishment shootings since the 1980s.

This facet of IRA activity was gradually discontinued over a long period as republican activism evolved despite sizeable and understandable opposition in some communities, which were contending with a Loyalist murder campaign alongside British military aggression and ingrained disadvantage and discrimination. They had little patience for anti-social behaviour, drug pushers, death drivers or sexual abusers.

Despite the alienation from the RUC it was the accepted de facto practice that they dealt with traffic accidents, car insurance and such matters. Incidents of rape were also reported to them in some cases and no thinking person would have made a case against that. But many victims or families of victims were reluctant to bring cases of child abuse forward. This was part of the larger problem all society and particularly victims faced at that time. But where a case emerged there was the added problem for some about reporting this to the RUC. They wanted the community or the IRA to take actions.

As society became better informed as to the issue and handling of abuse, republicans began to develop victim centred approaches, ensuring that victims received the necessary supports, counselling and advice.

As Sinn Féin developed our constituency services we also developed our policies in relation to abuse.

I advocated that we direct victims to the Social Services if they did not want to go to the RUC, in the knowledge that the Social Services could go to the RUC. In other words Republicans including the IRA, could not deal with these issues. Sinn Féin would direct people to counselling services and advise victims of legacy issues but we also told everyone that we would report all cases in which children could be at risk to the Social Services or the HSE.

Following the IRA cessation in 1994 and the developing peace process legacy cases of abuse emerged. Many of these are in the public domain. Some involved republicans. My father was an abuser. Some also may have involved IRA volunteers. Those who wish to have these cases dealt with have that right.

The recent publicity surrounding the case of Maíria Cahill has brought this particular issue to the fore in public consciousness. Maíria alleges she was raped, and that the IRA conducted an investigation into this. The IRA has long since left the scene so there is no corporate way of verifying this but it must be pointed out that this allegation was subject to a police investigation, charges were brought against some republicans who strenuously denied Maíria's allegations. They insist they tried to help her. They were all acquitted by the court.

Maíria has also accused Sinn Féin and me of engaging in a cover up. That is untrue. When I learned of the allegation that Maíria was the victim of rape I asked her grand-uncle Joe Cahill, a senior and widely respected republican, to advise her to go to the RUC. He did this but Maíria did not want to do so at that time.

When Maíria subsequently did go to the police, I co-operated with the police investigation.

Any of the other Sinn Féin representatives named by Maíria have assured me that they at all times sought to support and help her. They advised on counselling, on speaking to her own family or approaching social services or the police. The people she spoke to are decent, thoughtful citizens and compassionate people. There was absolutely no cover up by Sinn Féin at any level.

Sinn Féin has robust party guidelines and processes on the issues of child protection, allegations of sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment, which were adopted by An Ard Chomhairle in 2006 in line with changes to the law.

Sinn Féin adopted New Child Protection Guidelines in 2010, which were produced in consultation with the HSE and Social Services and the PSNI.

Maíria has said that there are other victims who are living in fear, and perpetrators at large who are a danger to children at this time, as a result of how republicans dealt with these issues in the past.

No one should be living in fear and no child should be at risk.

Anyone who has any information whatsoever about any child abuse should come forward to the authorities North or South and they will have the full support of Sinn Féin in so doing.

That includes Maíria Cahill, who says that there are perpetrators at large who are a danger to children at this time. Whatever information she has on this she should give to the appropriate authority.

Healing and rebuilding a society still emerging from conflict demands that many difficult issues will need to be faced up to and dealt with as a necessary part of putting the past behind us.

That will require a huge amount of courage, compassion and humility across our society.

How Republicans dealt with the issue of child abuse should be one of these issues, if that is what victims want. Sinn Féin will accept our responsibility in contributing to the resolution of these wrongs. We are committed to creating a society which is no longer bedevilled or haunted by the legacy of any harm or injustices. Sexual abuse is a challenge which still challenges all sections of modern Irish society.

Looking after all victims and their families is a significant and important part of building a peaceful and just society. And victims include a wider category than those killed or injured as a result of armed actions by any of the protagonists.

It includes those who were brutalised or had their lives limited or adversely affected by growing up in a society scarred by war and the absence of agreed, stable, democratic structures and institutions.

It also includes those badly served or mistreated by the forces of the State and those badly served or mistreated by non-State actors and armed groups, including the IRA.

The allegations of Maíria Cahill have been at the centre of the media and political system North and South, in recent times.

Nobody doubts that Maíria has been through great distress. I have never doubted that she suffered abuse. And like every citizen she is fully entitled to truth and justice.

Over the course of the past week Maíria Cahill has made serious allegations against myself and named Sinn Féin members.

While I am very mindful of the trauma she has suffered I and the others she has named reject those allegations.

The allegations made by Maíria Cahill have been seized upon in the most cynical, calculated and opportunistic way by our political opponents.

Their aim has little to do with helping victims of abuse, but everything to do with furthering their own narrow political agendas.

The serious and sensitive issues of abuse should be dealt with in a victim-centred way by the appropriate authorities. Instead they have been politicised in the Dáil, the Assembly chamber and in the media.

I am very conscious that a young woman is at the centre of this controversy.

So, let me be very, very clear. Abuse is wrong. It cannot and must not be tolerated.

Let me be equally clear. Sinn Féin has not engaged in any cover-up of abuse at any level of this party.

This accusation is a vile slur on thousands of decent, upstanding republican people right across this island.

Those Sinn Féin members to whom Maíria Cahill spoke, have said that they believed that she had been a victim of abuse, and that she had suffered trauma.

They assure me that they did all that they could to support her.

That is what I did also.

The Taoiseach, the Fianna Fail Leader and some media commentators have also tried to draw comparisons between the actions of Sinn Féin representatives in this case and that of the Catholic Church in dealing with abuse allegations.

A cursory examination of the facts gives the lie to that ridiculous assertion.

The Church hierarchy and the State presided over institutional abuse for decades.

It was a systemic and deliberate practice.

In stark contrast Sinn Féin has encouraged victims to speak out.

All the Sinn Féin memebers who spoke to Mairia Cahill acted in good faith to support her.

They advised her to speak to her family, to seek counselling or to approach social services.

Her uncle Joe Cahill at my request asked her to go to the RUC.

Now even Joe is shamefully depicted as a sex abuser by some of the media. This has been deeply hurtful to his wife Annie, their children and grandchildren.

Whose agenda is served by this despicable rubbish?

Some sections of the media and in particular the Independent Group, have taken these allegations against Sinn Féin, added to them, and reported them as fact.

They speculate with ill-concealed glee about how much damage this controversy will do to me and Sinn Féin.

While rightfully criticising the idea of 'kangaroo courts', they have set themselves up as judge and jury on this issue.

This is not journalism in the normal sense but a campaign with a clear political agenda.

This society is still emerging from decades of conflict.

That conflict caused widespread hurt and suffering, as did the absence of the structures and institutions which are the norm in peaceful democratic societies.

There are many legacy issues arising from the conflict. Sinn Féin accepts our responsibility to help bring about the resolution of these issues. That is not our responsibility alone. The Governments and others must deal with the past also.

Victims include a wider category than those killed or injured.

They include those badly served or mistreated by the forces of the state, or by armed groups including the IRA.

How the various protagonists dealt with the issue of sexual abuse is clearly one of the legacy issues which needs to be resolved as part of the necessary business of dealing with the past.

However there is an onus on us all to meet the needs of victims of abuse and the concerns of the community in the here and now. To do what we can today.

To the maximum extent that this can be dealt with now, it should be dealt with.

I have already set out the circumstances in which the IRA sought to deal with some cases of abuse when asked to do so by families and victims.

I have acknowledged that while IRA volunteers were acting in good faith, the IRA was not equipped to deal with these difficult matters.

But the clock cannot be turned back. Sinn Féin cannot change what happened in the past. But we can acknowledge failure.

That is what I have done.

Everyone, including us, has a duty to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. That is not the responsibility only of Sinn Fein.

IRA actions failed victims of abuse. As Uacharáin Shinn Féin I have acknowledged that. I am sorry for that. And I apologise for that.

This week in the Dáil, the Taoiseach disgracefully twisted and sought to misrepresent what I have said on this issue.

He and the Fianna Fáil leader have shown a callous disregard for the facts as they turned the Dáil chamber into an episode of reality television.

Neither the Taoiseach nor the Fianna Fáil leader has ever sought to meet with me to address the false allegations that they have levelled against me and others in Sinn Féin.

Instead they have rushed into media with their vindictive claims.

Mr Kenny and Mr Martin have done the very thing they accuse Republicans of. They have set aside the judicial process and the rights of citizens before the law. They have ignored the acquittal of those they have accused.

The Taoiseach has claimed that sexual abusers were ‘moved’ – his words, not mine - to“Dublin, Donegal, Louth”.

The Taoiseach has repeatedly claimed that he has knowledge of alleged child abusers from the North but living in the South.

He says that others have given him information identifying these alleged child abusers. He has raised alarm and concern on this issue.

Has the Taoiseach gone to the Gardaí with this information? Has he insisted that those who gave him this information go to the Gardaí?

If not why not?

It is up to the Gardaí or the PSNI to investigate and to prosecute anyone they suspect of child abuse, irrespective of who they are, where they come from or what organisation they may belong to.

I have no knowledge of the claims that the Taoiseach is making.

I have already called on anyone who has any information whatsoever about any case of sexual abuse to come forward to the authorities North or South.

They will have the full support of Sinn Féin in so doing.

No one should be living in fear and no child should be at risk.

I am calling on any former IRA Volunteers, who may have any information about any allegations of sexual abuse to pass this on to the appropriate authorities.

That is, the PSNI, An Garda Siochána, Social Services, the HSE or any of the advocacy groups or helplines which deal with sexual abuse cases.

This could also be done through any of the statutory and voluntary organisations which offer confidential 24 hour helplines.

These agencies are properly equipped to pursue these matters.

Secrecy has surrounded abuse in Ireland.

It was taboo to discuss, and some victims were very fearful to disclose.

The only way to face this problem is to support victims, and to empower them to speak out.

Republicans are reflective of wider Irish society. Abusers can be found in all walks of life. Any abuser within republicanism, has done grievous wrongs to their victims and sullied our cause.

But they are not in any way representative of the thousands, or tens of thousands of republican activists who served the republican cause in the ranks of the IRA, and Sinn Féin.

They are not representative of the tens of thousands of republican prisoners who served hard time for the republican cause.

Or of our Patriot dead.

There are republican families in every parish in Ireland.

Good men and women who have kept in faith in hard times.

There are ten thousand citizens in the ranks of Sinn Féin today representing hundreds of thousands of republican voters the length and breadth of this island.

The politicisation of this issue by An Taoiseach and the Fiánna Fail Leader comes at a time when we present a real alternative to the conservative parties that have failed citizens since Partition.

When challenged by me in the Dáil, Mr Kenny conceded that there are many decent people in Sinn Féin.

Let me tell you Taoiseach, we don’t need you to tell us that.

We know that.

We also know that we are not part of any conspiracy to protect child abusers or to cover up abuse.

So the difficult issues raised by Mairia Cahill must be addressed.

But there are processes for doing this. They should be applied and respected.

Let us be clear this is not achievable by exploiting her story in a blatant effort to demonise Sinn Féin.

Last Monday night this column was in Dundalk at a Right2Water public meeting. There was a good turnout and a lively discussion. Local Councillors and former Executive Minster Conor Murphy joined us. On Thursday night we repeated the process in Drogheda.

A few Saturdays before this a huge crowd of citizens poured on to the streets of Dublin to protest at the Governments introduction of additional water charges. Everyone, including the organisers were surprised at the turnout which was estimated to be at least fifty thousand strong.

Six years of austerity and the Governments arrogance in setting up Uisce Eireann - a semi state company operating like a private company which claimed over fifty million euros of taxpayers money for consultants and huge bonuses for its management - was the trigger for widespread public opposition.

Water is clearly a precious resource that must be protected and maintained to the highest standards. Clean water should be a right. In some counties the water is undrinkable.

Many rural dwellers pay for their water anyway through group water schemes or the digging and maintenance of their own wells.

Successive governments have never provided services for these folk. In fact this government and its Fianna Fáil predecessor are stripping services from rural areas. Post offices, schools, Gardai, public transport, A&E units, public transport. All have been cut. In total contradiction of election promises. Charges for septic tanks, the family home have been imposed on top of a range of other stealth charges.

These new water charges came from Fianna Fáil in government. Now in Opposition they are agin them.

The charges being implemented by the government are in essence just a cover for a new tax. It is clear from the latest Exchequer figures that there is enough additional money available to offset the cost of water services.

Sinn Féin’s Alternative Budget proposals identified how this could be done. Yet the government continues to press ahead with water charges while lowering tax on the higher earners.

Sinn Féin, and many others, is campaigning against the water charges. We have committed if we get into government that we will reverse the charges. Just as we did in the Executive under Conor Murphy's leadership.

But those families who cannot pay cannot wait until then. This is a charge too far. Many many citizens cannot afford it. So this government must be turned on this issue.

The Fine Gael/Labour government is not immune to public pressure.

They clearly reacted with some water charge concessions in the recent budget. These were in the wake of the by-election results where anti-Austerity candidates trounced Government candidates, and to the scale of the protests in Dublin.

They are also rattled at the ongoing debacles emerging at Irish Water.

Water charges can be beaten on the streets, in our communities and through the ballot box.

Sinn Féin fully supports the Right2Water campaign and believe that this should be built in every community throughout the State.

It is important that all groups opposed to water charges work together to defeat them. United we must stand.

In the North, Sinn Féin Minister Conor Murphy was responsible for stopping the introduction of domestic Water Charges and the privatisation of water services .

We will end them in the South too.

Sinn Féin will deliver on our commitments.

We will not enter into a government that maintains water charges or the local property tax.

The Fine Gael/Labour Government need also to stop the roll-out of water metering and redirect the €539m loan finance from the National Pension Reserve Fund towards fixing the massive leakage problems and interruptions to supply.

The Government also needs to recognise that Uisce Eireann is not fit for purpose. It is not accountable to the Oireachtas and the citizens of this State.

Uisce Eireann has become synonymous with everything that is wrong with the Fine Gael Labour Government - cronyism, political manipulation of State boards, threats to citizens and ever mounting taxes on struggling families.

From the outset, Uisce Eireann has been mired in scandal. The manner in which this company was established, how it has been managed, and the unfair imposition of water charges has been chaotic and farcical.

Earlier this week, it emerged that Irish Water planned to hit struggling families with a hugely expensive call-out charge of €180 to repair leaking pipes. I raised this directly with the Taoiseach but he said he knows nothing about the figure. Such a yarn!

Senior management at Irish Water are paid hugely exorbitant salaries. And last weekend we learned that these same executives are in line for bonus payments despite the very obvious management failings.

The Taoiseach told me in the Dáil on 7th October that no bonuses would be paid. Such a yarn!

The latest noises from government appear designed to scapegoat the board and senior management team at Uisce Eireann. But this fiasco was the creation of the government. The Minister who introduced has condemned the way it is operating. That was after he was sacked by Mr Kenny.

Uisce Eireann as an entity is toxic. It cannot be left with responsibility for the delivery of water services. It must be fundamentally and radically reformed so that it acts in the interests of citizens.

Citizens and communities are organising and mobilising in protest and opposition to these water charges through the Right2Water public campaign.

Next Saturday, November 1st, there will be demonstrations in towns across all twenty six counties. The Taoiseach should listen to what citizens are saying. He is already out of his depth. His governments disastrous handling of the water issue may just be the issue that sinks him.

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Certain media commentators have recently made an issue of the fact that some time ago, I tweeted Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise.

They seem not to have the slightest appreciation of the nature of social media, the role of literature in society or indeed the character of the author who has incited their censorial righteousness.

In an incredible leap of imagination they have deemed my tweet insensitive.

This, because in their own fevered minds they have contrived a link between my tweet and other unrelated issues.

In this case it is the fact that some political opponents of Sinn Féin have made spurious allegations of a ‘republican cover-up’ of rape.

But in their zeal to propagate a vile smear against me and against Sinn Fein, these modern-day McCarthyites in the media have merely exposed their own ignorance and frightening intolerance.

Maya Angelou, who died last May, was an award-winning feminist author and poet, best known for her acclaimed memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first non-fiction best-seller by an African-American woman.

Another of Angelou’s most famous works, On the Pulse of Morning, wasrecited at US President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.

Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend of Angelou's, was assassinated on her birthday in 1968. Angelou stopped celebrating her birthday for years afterwards, and sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, for more than 30 years, until Coretta's death in 2006.

US President Barack Obama called Maya Angelou "a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman” adding that she "had the ability to remind us that we are all God's children; that we all have something to offer”.

Maya Angelou experienced much hardship and suffering in her life.

Growing up as an African American woman in Arkansas, she experienced racial discrimination.

She was also the victim of rape at a very young age.

Deeply traumatised by this and the subsequent killing of the man responsible, Maya Angelou stopped talking and spent years as a virtual mute.

Still I Rise shares its title with a 1976 play by Maya Angelou, and refers to the indomitable spirit of Black people, despite the catalogue of injustices inflicted on them.

It is about hope and a belief that people can overcome injustice.

It was at the centre of an advertising campaign for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), a US philanthropic organisation that funds scholarships for black students.

As well as being a proud statement on behalf of Black people, Still I Rise, is a strong and positive representation of women.

Those who, in their ignorance, have criticised my tweeting of the poem have objected in particular to certain lines which are a defiant assertion by Maya Angelou of female sexuality.

That this powerful assertion comes from a woman whose feminism was born of her own experiences at the hands of a racist, patriarchal society is entirely lost on these witless commentators.

In recent years we have seen almost all of the major institutions of Irish life – the Church, politics, the banking system, the Gardai, subjected to intense re-evaluation.

This has generally followed scandals that exposed the previous overbearing power of these institutions.

The Irish media has yet to be subjected to any serious public scrutiny.

With a few honourable exceptions they failed to seriously investigate or report on what was happening in the North during the years of conflict. In fact the Independent Group campaigned against the Peace Process and vilified John Hume for his role in it.

In relation to the economic crash, sections of the media at best failed to question the political and economic status quo which led to it.

At worst it was complicit in the problems which caused it, particularly in relation to inflating the property bubble.

Indeed, in light of the collapse of other institutions, the media’s role and influence has arguably increased.

The arrogance of certain media commentators certainly has.

They now dispense absolute bias disguised as moral truths and a deep intolerance of anyone who incurs their displeasure. Much like the Bishops of old.

For some time that has meant Sinn Féin and myself in particular.

However, like all authoritarians, their arrogance eventually gets the better of them.

Recent weeks have witnessed some journalists come as close as it is possible to be, to saying that when it comes to republicans, due process and the rule of law do not matter.

Journalists now trawling through my twitter account and seeking to dictate what poems I should or should not tweet brings us ever closer to the territory of book burnings.

I can guess what Maya Angelou would have said.

Here is her poem:

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don’t you take it awful hard

‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise.

Last Saturday was the anniversary of the execution by the British of 18 year old Kevin Barry. He was hanged on November 1st 1920. Kevin Barry was one of the ‘Forgotten Ten’ – IRA volunteers who were all executed in Mountjoy prison and buried there by the British Government. . He and nine other freedom fighters were afforded a State Funeral a few years ago when their remains were moved from Mountjoy to Glasnevin.

I was there that day and more important than all the pomp and ceremony of the fitting state occasion was the huge turn out of citizens who lined the pavements and joined the funeral ceremony. Kevin Barry was a victim and a hero of the Tan War – a conflict that lasted two years and was followed by a bloody civil war which saw atrocities committed by both sides.

His life and death and role as an IRA Volunteer was immortalised in song shortly after his death. ‘Kevin Barry’ became one of the most popular rebel songs of that and subsequent generations.

I remind you of this anniversary because one aspect of the current controversy around how the IRA handled sex abusers during the recent war years is the manner in which Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour have rushed to condemn the IRA of that period, while commending the actions of those who fought in 1916 and in the subsequent Tan War.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan speaking at Beal na mBlath in August 1984 said: “Our generation of the Irish owes more to (Michael) Collins than any other Irish hero.” Noonan quoted with approval the words of Arthur Griffith: “Collins was the man whose matchless and indomitable will carried Ireland through the terrible crisis. He was the man who fought the Black and Tan terror until England was forced to offer terms.”

In July last year in Cork Taoiseach Enda Kenny praised the actions of the “Flying Columns of Rebel Cork and its most famous son Michael Collins”. A year earlier addressing the annual Michael Collins commemoration at Beal na mBlath he described Collins as a “reformer. A thinker. A modernizer” and he praised “Collins’s ambition, mental force and high idea.”

The Labour Party rushed to commemorate the founding the Irish Citizen Army – a private, armed body of men and women established by James Connolly who fought in the Rising and many of whom joined the IRA.

Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin speaking at Arbour Hill, where the 1916 leaders are buried, called the Rising “one of the most noble and courageous events in Irish history. The leaders of the Rising were patriots of honour and integrity who were prepared to sacrifice everything so that the Irish people could be free.” And the leaders were “heroes.”

But those, like Bobby Sands and Mairead Farrell and Máire Drumm and countless others who stood strong against injustice and courageously fought the British government and its military machine to a standstill in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s were part of a “terrorist campaign”. That was “not a clean fight. It was dirty and nasty. And no amount of new historical revisionism, willful amnesia or media indifference can alter that fact.”

It is right that we remember those from previous generations who fought and died or were imprisoned or exiled for their efforts to liberate Ireland of British rule. But if there is a wilful amnesia it is within the Dublin establishment parties. It has its roots in partition and the abandonment by the Dublin establishment of nationalists and unionists in the North and the ideal of an independent 32 county Irish republic. Little wonder that the Government in Dublin has still to bring forward plans to commemorate the 1916 Rising, now only eighteen months away. There is no sense of the Proclamation in modern offical Ireland. Or of its promise of equality for all. Except in the hearts and minds of freedom loving Irish people.

Noonan and Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin hypocritically ignore the brutality and the violence the men and women of that generation of the IRA, led by Collins and others, used to prosecute the war against a numerically stronger, better equipped and professional British Army supported by the RIC, the Black and Tans and the Special Branch. They say it was the good old IRA. Different, they claim, from the IRA of the 70s, 80's and 90's.

The fact is that the Rising in 1916 and the Tan War and Civil War were not ‘clean’ fights. They were dirty and nasty and thousands of Irish citizens and British soldiers died, in the two years of the Tan War, along two and a half thousand, including some 700 civilians died.

During that period the IRA operated what would today be called kangaroo courts to meet out summary justice in a climate in which the Royal Irish Constabulary was regarded as little different from the RUC of later years.

The IRA of that time, like its successors of our time, executed scores of people as informers and agents for the British, often leaving their bodies in public places with placards declaring “Spies and informers beware.” Most were shot but one was taken by boat into the middle of the River Barrow and executed by drowning.

The IRA of that period disappeared scores of alleged informers – men and women. It is claimed that this number may be as high as 200. Following the conflict there was no attempt to recover the remains unlike republicans of this generation who have helped secure the return of 10 of the 15 who were secretly buried in the 1970s.

And under that same Michael Collins, who Noonan and Kenny lionise, and the same IRA lauded by Martin, the IRA imported weapons from America, robbed banks and post offices, and levied ‘taxes’. Failure to pay this tax was met with stern measures including beatings.

Collins ordered attacks on RIC members many of whom were shot from ambush, in the back, in the dark, when they were unarmed, in front of their families, in their beds, and without mercy. The IRA killed civilians, including by accident, children. In one five month period 46 civilians were killed by the IRA and 163 wounded.

And when the Irish Independent condemned his actions as ‘murder most foul’ what did Michael Collins do? He dispatched his men to the office of the Independent and held the editor at gun point as they dismantled the entire printing machinery and destroyed it.

And if Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and Labour speak of a mandate to wage that war? They should be reminded that no one voted for war in the 1918 election. As in the 70's republicans of that time didn't go to war. The war came to us.

Last week Mary Lou McDonald took Tánaiste Joan Burton to task during Leaders questions in the Dáil over the government’s failure to resolve the crisis in Irish Water; the continuing debacle around water charges, and the need for a constitutional referendum to protect the state’s water utility from privatisation.

Predictably, the Labour leader when faced with a difficult question always opts to create a distraction. In this case she raised my visit that day to New York for three days of meetings with Irish America, including the annual Friends of Sinn Féin fundraiser.

There was something pitiable and pathetic in Ms Burton’s remarks which smacked of begrudgery and envy.

There was a time when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael travelled the world in search of funding for their respective parties among the Irish diaspora. It was never about ending division or partition or Irish independence. Both parties wrapped the green flag around them as they posed as united Ireland parties, seeking reunification. The Labour Party tried to emulate this but with little success. The Dublin parties’ connection with the Irish diaspora was primarily about self-interest.

In the recent years of conflict a new dynamic was created as Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour used their personal and political and governmental connections internationally to attack anything remotely republican or linked with Sinn Féin. It wasn’t about what was right or in the Irish national interest; it was all about political expediency. And if that meant bolstering British repression in the north then they were happy to co-operate.

Remember the briefings by Irish government officials in the USA and Britain against the Birmingham Six and other victims of British miscarriages of justice?

Remember the strident anti-MacBride Principles campaign run by successive Irish governments in the USA, often in collusion with the British Northern Ireland Office, and in support of Britain’s discriminatory employment practices in the north?

And throughout all of this Irish government Ministers, from all of the parties, railed against dialogue with Sinn Féin; attacked those in Irish America who criticised British policy; supported the visa ban against Sinn Féin leaders travelling to the United States; and implemented political censorship.

Sinn Féin comes to all of this differently. Irish republicans have always had close connections with the diaspora, especially Irish America, going back centuries. Fundraising is a part of that. We make no apologies for that. Irish America helped fund the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and the 1916 Rising, and the Tan War against the British. In the conflict in the north their efforts supported political prisoners, their families and children. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King set fundraising in its proper context in 1956 when he said:

‘There is nothing in all of the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth losing a job; it is worth going to jail for’.

But for Sinn Féin the key strategic objective in our engagement with Irish America and the world-wide Irish diaspora was and is to mobilise its political strength and influence in support of the peace process and of Irish unity. This is a significant undertaking.

For decades British governments declared the conflict in the north as an internal matter and rejected any outside interest other than that which supported their repression. This was especially true of the USA. Famously senior Tory politician and government Minister Lord Hailsham was once asked by Irish Times journalist Conor O Clery about the attitude of Irish Americans. Hailsham’s face reddened and he slapped an open palm of his polished desk and declared; ‘Those bawstards, those Roman Catholic bawstards! How dare they interfere!’

The success of Sinn Féin’s approach is to be found in the positive engagement of President Bill Clinton, and of successive US Presidents and congressional leaders from both the Democratic and the Republican parties, with the Irish peace process.

It is to be found also in the contribution that international figures like George Mitchell, John de Chastelain, Richard Haass, Harri Holkeri, Martii Ahtisaari, and others, including Madiba (Nelson Mandela), Cyril Ramaphosa, Bill Flynn and many others have made.

It is evident too in the recent appointment by the Obama administration of former US Senator Gary Hart as its special envoy for the north. The work done by Richard Haass and Meghan O Sullivan, senior north American diplomats, on the past and legacy issues, contentious parades and flags is proof of the continuing commitment and interest of progressive opinion in the USA.

While their proposals, which reflected their engagement with civic society and all the political parties, were rejected by the unionists and not supported by the British government, nonetheless their work can be viewed as part of the successful engagements and investment of the diaspora.

The success of the diaspora can also be found in the jobs and community supports that the north and the border counties have benefitted from as a result of increased international funding following the Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Féin works hard to maintain those connections. We understand their importance. Our party leadership regularly travel overseas to visit the diaspora. My visit to the USA last week, accompanied by Pearse Doherty TD and Rita O Hare, was an important part of that. Pearse went on to visit Toronto, another city with a very active diaspora.

When I was speaking in New York I was pleased to announce the appointment of Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh from Galway as Sinn Féin spokesperson for the diaspora. I thanked Sean Crowe TD for the sterling work that he has done, especially on behalf of the Irish undocumented in the USA. Trevor will build on Sean’s work.

I was also pleased to tell our audience that I had published a Bill in the Dáil to give votes in Presidential elections to Irish citizens in the north and to Irish passport holders globally. Sinn Féin will continue to press the Irish government to hold a referendum on this as soon as possible. Incidentally the constitutional convention has also recommended this move.

Sinn Féin is committed to working with the Irish diaspora in support of the peace process. It is a fact that the success of the peace process would not have been possible without the support of those I met last week and of Sinn Féin’s efforts.

Mary Lou rightly dismissed Joan Burton’s remarks in the Dáil as ‘comedic’. But they do reflect an increasing paranoia within Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour about the potential for growth for Sinn Féin in the next Dáil election.

As Sinn Féin rises in the polls so too does the level of abuse from our political enemies and in sections of the media. No opportunity is wasted to criticise and demonise Sinn Féin and to their shame they cynically manipulate desperately difficult and traumatic emotional issues, including personal family tragedies, to score political points. This has been part and parcel of the political landscape, north and south, for 40 years.

Despite this Sinn Féin will not be deflected. We will continue to challenge bad policy by the Irish and British governments. We will defend the peace process and the gains it has made. And we will engage constructively with the Irish diaspora worldwide.

Hysteria is defined as an extreme emotion which cannot be controlled. A person so afflicted is described as hysterical. And we often describe things as hysterically funny.

The latest round in the long-running anti-Sinn Féin crusade by Independent newspapers is hysterical in both senses.

The editorial staff of the Sunday Independent, in particular, seem to have lost their reason with their weekly frenzied attacks on me personally and on Sinn Féin and republicans in general.

And the attempt to portray part of my response to all this as an implied threat to journalists is laughable. It is ludicrous.

I simply pointed out that the IRA under Michael Collins, whose political legacy is claimed by many of Sinn Féin’s worst detractors, attacked the office of the Irish Independent and destroyed the printing presses.

I was pointing to the hypocrisy and inconsistency of a view that portrays the IRA of 1919 as freedom fighters but labels the IRA of 1979 as terrorists.

Some have questioned the accuracy of what I wrote. For the record, the IRA attack took place on 21 December 1919.

Two days previously the IRA had attempted to ambush and execute the British Lord Lieutenant French at the Phoenix Park. The attempt failed and a young Volunteer, Martin Savage, was killed.

The Irish Independent called the ambush “a dreadful plan of assassination” and described Martin Savage as “an assassin”.

Led by Peadar Clancy, a group of IRA men entered the Independent offices, told the editor the paper was being suppressed for having “endeavoured to misrepresent the sympathies and opinions of the Irish people”, and smashed up the printing press, for which the paper later received £15,000 in damages. (See Ian Kenneally ‘The Paper Wall: Newspapers and Propaganda in Ireland 1919-1921’, the Collins Press, 2008).

But this was an isolated incident. The most serious attacks on freedom of the press then and since have come from Governments.

Newspaper censorship was widespread under British rule. At the start of the Civil War the new Free State government censored newspaper reports and the Cabinet even criticized the Irish Independent for having an “unsatisfactory attitude toward the Government” and decided that if it persisted “drastic action would be necessary”. (See Maryann Gialanela Valulis ‘General Richard Mulcahy and the Founding of the Irish Free State’, Irish Academic Press 1992.)

Successive Governments were responsible for widespread censorship of books and films, as well as political censorship.

This narrow minded attitude resulted in the most famous and talented Irish authors being banned in their own country, including Joyce, Beckett, Sean O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Sean O'Faolain, John B. Keane, John McGahern, and Edna O'Brien.

Younger people today find it hard to believe that from 1972 to 1993 Sinn Féin voices were banned from the airwaves under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act.

It seems that the editorial team of Independent newspapers today can dish out the strongest abuse they can think of, in article after article, but they cannot take a sentence of criticism. Instead they resort to describing such criticism as threats to them personally.

People are no longer fooled by this nonsense. They now have a wide variety of sources for news, thanks to the internet and social media in all its forms.

The genie is out of the bottle and all the hysteria in the Indo won’t get it back again.

Some unionists have seized upon my remarks in Fermanagh when I described bigots as b****rds. My use of that word was inappropriate. Some of have said that I was speaking about unionists. I wasn’t. Although, some bigots are unionists. But they have no monopoly on bigotry. The Impartial Reporter, journalist Rodney Edwards has released the full transcript of my remarks. I thank him for that. Those who wish to can now make a balanced judgement on my remarks.

Apart from the use of the B word I stand over the thrust of what I was articulating. As I told the audience in Enniskillen republicanism is essentially about citizenship; about the rights of people and their entitlements in a citizen centred rights-based society. Essentially this means that regardless of peoples abilities or disabilities; regardless of their gender or sexual orientation; regardless of their creed or colour; regardless of whether they live in rural Ireland or in urban centres; their rights must be upheld and society must be shaped to promote guarantee and protect these rights.

The Proclamation of 1916 is the mission statement of modern republicanism. Of course, this is not 1916, so we need to interpret that wonderful declaration of rights in today’s terms. It means civil and religious rights for everyone. At an individual level it also means the right to a home; a job; access to education; access to health care on the basis of need; a clean environment and the ability to pursue human happiness.

It also means respect and tolerance for others. We should treat other people the way we want to be treated ourselves. There is a lot of bigotry in Irish society. The northern state was founded on a sectarian headcount. There are those who hark back to the old days. They don’t believe in equality or tolerance or power sharing. They have a very narrow fundamentalist view of the world. They’re not just against Catholics. They are against Presbyterians and Methodists and Church of Ireland and Muslims and anyone else who doesn’t subscribe to their narrow right wing conservative view of the world.

This is not a uniquely Irish phenomenon. There are racists and homophobes and misogynists and bigots in most societies. But in most other societies it is illegal to promote any of these views publicly. So society gets on with its business with appropriate protections. Politics in Ireland is in flux, including in the north. It is very telling that a large number of unionist voters no longer vote. That’s because there is no one within unionism who is giving the positive, consistent leadership that would motivate them. And they’re not yet at the point of voting for Sinn Féin or any other party outside of unionism.

The answer to all of this is equality. I don’t believe that republicans fully understand unionism. Unionism is no longer a monolith. There are different strands. I spend a lot of my time out of the north but at different points when unionist leaders are being particularly offensive; when I’m about Belfast or other places in the north, I am frequently asked ‘what’s the point?’ – ‘no matter what we do these people aren’t up for change’.

I don’t believe that. Of course that is true of a cohort who have formed an anti-agreement axis and who want the trappings of Ministerial office, or a career as an MLA, without the obligations or responsibilities of these offices.

I remember being at one meeting in Belfast when we were negotiating with David Trimble and many republicans voiced justifiable anger at David’s carry-on. I remember saying to that meeting. ‘Why are you getting angry at David Trimble? I’m the one who has to work with him every day – you don’t’.

So we need to be patient. But not complacent or compliant. Unionism is sleep walking into a crisis which could well bring the political institutions down. I don’t believe they have a plan to do that but because the no-men are setting the pace that could happen. We have to prevent that. So do the two governments. They are co-equal guarantors of the Good Friday and other Agreements. Both governments have failed to honour their obligations. That is why for example, there is no Bill of Rights, or all- Ireland Charter of Rights or no Acht na Gaeilge.

Our responsibility is two-fold. It is to ensure that the Assembly doesn’t collapse. But it’s also to make sure that the Assembly delivers for the people.

So our watch word is equality, equality, equality. How could anyone be afraid of equality -if they have a genuine interest in people and people’s rights. Equality is an end in its own right. It’s also a means to an end. I want to see a united Ireland and a real republic on this island. Others might not subscribe to that objective but who would be against treating someone the way you want to be treated yourself.

As you read this I will be in the Middle East. The purpose of the visit is to meet key players in the region, and to receive first hand information about the current conditions there. I have an invitation from UNWRA, the United Nations agency which provides aid to the Palestinian people, to visit Gaza but as yet have no word on whether that the Israeli government will permit this.

On Thursday I will be meeting with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and with Israeli Labour leader Issac Herzog in Tel Aviv. I will write more on this next week.

The enormity of the violence and of the resulting humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq, and the impact of the growth of Islamic State, have all dominated the news agenda of recent time. They have also grabbed the attention of the international community.

For a brief period in the summer the decades long conflict involving the Palestinians and the Israelis replaced those headlines with images of huge explosions in Gaza, Israeli attacks on hospitals and U.N. safe havens and the twisted bodies of scores of Palestinian children.

Much of Gaza was reduced to rubble. It services and public utilities, including water and sewage, which have all been stretched to breaking point by years of the Israeli siege, are now grossly inadequate. For those who live in this huge open air prison the Israeli assault devastated their lives and traumatised millions.

Three weeks ago Amnesty International accused Israel of war crimes during its assault on Gaza. It also acknowledged that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes firing thousands of rocks that killed 6 civilians. However the bulk of its criticism was aimed at Israel. During the 52 day conflict 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed and 18,000 homes destroyed.

My constituency of Louth is roughly the same size as Gaza but Gaza has fifteen times the population. Almost two million people are packed into that small area. Imagine the impact that so many deaths, the loss of so many homes, and the destruction of much of the public infrastructure would have on Ireland’s smallest county and the people who live there, if it was subject to such overwhelming ruin and destruction?

Amnesty documents eight specific incidents in which Israeli forces killed 104 civilians, including 62 children, when they targeted eight homes. According to Philip Luther Amnesty’s Director for the Middle East the report ‘exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.’

We have seen it all before. Cyclical war – international condemnation – and nothing really changes. Every couple of years the underlying tensions between an Israeli state occupying and stealing Palestinian land and resources, and a Palestinian people denied their right to sovereignty and independence erupts into a major conflagration.

And then for a brief period the international community will call for peace talks. An initiative might be taken. But ultimately nothing much will change for the people who live in that region.

In recent weeks there have been more announcements of new Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. Israel plans to build 4,000 housing units. Violence on the streets over Israeli plans and actions has led to a series of attacks on Israeli citizens, including one in which four rabbis and a policeman in a synagogue were killed. Palestinians have died also.

To add to the tensions the Israeli Cabinet last week voted in favour of the ‘Jewish State’. At its core the debate around this Bill is about declaring the state of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. Prime Minister Netanyahu claims that this new law will ‘strengthen the State of Israel as Jewish and democratic’ while ensuring ‘full equality, before the law, of every citizen without reference to religion, race or gender.’

But the fear of those Palestinians who live in Israel and those occupied by Israeli forces, is that all of this will reinforce the apartheid nature of the current arrangement and reinforce the ghettoisation of the Palestinian people.

Even within the Israeli Parliament there is strong opposition to the Bill. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Labour) described the "Jewish State bill" as provocative, irresponsible and unnecessary.

Too often in between the different phases of conflict the world looks away from what is happening in Israel or the west Bank or Jerusalem or Gaza. Despite all the talk of a peace process and of US and European Union support for meaningful negotiations they lose interest or acquiesce to an Israeli government strategy which seeks to keep the Palestinian people physically divided, economically impoverished and politically weak.

It is a recipe for continuing and escalating conflict.

The tragedy is that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians and Israelis want peace. They know that this requires mutual respect and good neighbourliness. They know too the likely shape of the outcome – a two state solution.

Exasperated by the lack of progress in the peace process the Palestinian Authority has been pushing for greater international recognition of Palestinian statehood. In 2012 it was granted non-member observer status in the U.N.

Recently the Swedish government officially recognised the state of Palestine. This followed a non binding vote in the British Parliament and in the Irish Seanad, in Spain and in France and yesterday in Belgium. The European Union’s newly appointed foreign policy chief, Frederica Mogherini, publicly said at the beginning of November that, ‘We need a Palestinian state ... that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union.’

The Dáil should now move to debate this issue and the Irish government should recognise the state of Palestine and upgrade the Palestinian Mission in Dublin to that of a full embassy.

Last night the Dáil concluded a two day debate on a Sinn Féin motion calling for recognition of a Palestinian state.

This means that both houses of the Oireachtas now support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; recognise a Palestinian state, and endorse the right of the Palestinian people to independence and sovereignty.

This is a substantial and positive development which means that Ireland is now a significant part of the consensus for peace and progress in the Middle East.

It also means that Irish people are standing with progressive Israeli opinion which wants a lasting peace arrangement and supports the recognition of a Palestinian state.

The passing of this motion, in conjunction with the passing of similar motions in Parliaments across the EU, is an important act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The dangers and the tensions in that tragic situation were underlined with the sad news yesterday of the death, during a protest on the west Bank, of Ziad Abu Ein a Cabinet Minister in the Palestinian government.

Minister Abu Ein died taking part in a non-violent demonstration to mark International Human Rights day. He and others were planning to plant olive trees – symbols of peace – on land owned by a Palestinian but which because of a nearby illegal Israeli settlement is mostly off limits to Palestinians.

So now was exactly the right time for this motion.

I returned from the Middle East on Sunday having spent three days there. It was my fourth visit to the region in 8 years. In 2009 I spent two days in Gaza. At that time the Israeli government wanted me to agree that I would not meet Hamas. If I refused they would deny me entry through the Erez crossing. I refused. I believe in dialogue. Israel relented and I spent 48 hours seeing for myself the devastating impact the Israeli war of 2008-09 had on the people and infrastructure of Gaza.

On this occasion the Israeli government said no. It gave no explanation. An anonymous spokesperson later tried to claim it was because I wanted to ‘hang out with Hamas’ and because I wouldn’t speak to the Israeli government. Neither claim is true.

Making presentation to President Abbas

I travelled into the west Bank. I spoke to President Abbas and others in the Palestinian Authority, to NGOs and representatives of Palestinian organisations, including Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative. And in Jerusalem I met brave Israeli citizens deeply concerned for the future.

Mise agus Dr. Mustafa Barghouti

Among them were Alon Liel and Ilan Baruch. Both are former professional diplomats in the Israeli government and both were Ambassadors for Israel. They have been hugely critical of Israel’s policy toward the Palestinian people. And both support the campaign to secure official government recognition by EU states and others of a Palestinian State.

They share the belief of the Palestinian leadership that such a move will place the Palestinians and Israelis on an equal footing in any negotiation and create a new dynamic in the peace process. They also believe it is a right, a principle that for too long has been conditional on the agreement of Israel.

Why should the right of the Palestinian people to sovereignty and statehood be dependent on Israel?

Israel is a state. It has an embassy in Dublin and others scattered around the world.

The Palestinians have a ‘Mission’. This is wrong. The people of Palestine have the right to freedom and independence and statehood. It should not be conditional on Israel or subject to any veto by it or any other state.

Alon Liel and his colleagues initiated a campaign in support of a Palestinian state. A letter now signed by over 900 prominent Israeli citizens, including Nobel laureates, writers, academics, business people, and broadcasters, was sent to Parliamentarians in Sweden, in Britain, in France, in Spain, in Belgium and in the Dáil, seeking support for a Palestinian state. All of these Parliaments, now including the Oireachtas, passed positive motions of support.

The letter is evidence of a deep desire and hope by some Israelis to adopt an approach which they believe is in the interests of Palestinians but crucially is also in the interests of Israel. Those I met are proud patriotic Israelis. They believe the recognition of a Palestinian state is a key step on the road to ending the decades long conflict. The letter reads:

"We, citizens of Israel who wish it to be a safe and thriving country are worried by the continued political stalemate and by the occupation and settlements activities which lead to further confrontations with the Palestinians and torpedo the chances for a compromise. It is clear that the prospects for Israel's security and existence depend on the existence of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel. Israel should recognize the state of Palestine and Palestine should recognize the state of Israel, based on the June 4 1967 borders. Your initiative for recognizing the state of Palestine will advance the prospects of peace and will encourage Israelis and Palestinians to bring an end to their conflict".

It is clear from my conversations that many Israeli citizens understand the deeply corrosive affect the occupation of Palestinian land, the apartheid system Israel has created and the brutality and dehumanising impact of IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) actions are having on Israel.

One of those I spoke with – Yehuda Shaul – is a former Sergeant and Commander in the Israeli Army. He is co-director of ‘Breaking the Silence’ an organisation made up of former Israeli soldiers who speak out against the actions of the IDF.

He is deeply concerned at the moral price Israel and its citizens are paying to maintain the occupation. He is also an Israel patriot who believes that speaking out against injustice is necessary to defend Israel, as well as advance the rights of Palestinians.

Shaul dismisses Israeli government claims that its military operations are defensive and to oppose terrorism. He believes that that is only a small part of the strategy. ‘It’s all about offensive,’ he said, ‘and maintaining Israeli military control over Palestinians’.

He told me that the current Israeli policy of occupation and settlements is not designed as a temporary measure but is intended to be permanent. ‘Occupation takes place every day; it is an offensive act every day.’

It is he said a‘national security concept dependent on absolute control – a status quo that is not a frozen reality and is being entrenched every day.’

He was clear in his conclusion also. He told me; ‘The International community is failing Israelis and Palestinians. There is a lot of talk but no action. Nowhere in history,’ he said, ‘did people wake up one morning and give up their privileges... the international community has to raise the price for Israel of the current status quo.’

Shaul concluded with: ‘No one will live in dignity or freedom here. Neither the Palestinians or Israelis until there is a sovereign Palestinian state. This is the right patriotic position.’

The Separation Wall

As I travelled last week across Israel and Palestine the landscape was full of walls. Mostly small dry stone walls to separate neighbours, or between farm land, or built to terrace fields on the side of rocky hills. But the separation wall is different. It is a scar on the land and conscience of Israel and of the international community. It stretches for 700 hundred kilometres. It is a multi-layered, often 60 metre wide exclusion zone with a concrete wall eight metres high.

It snakes up and down hills, alongside motorways, down the middle of streets and through Palestinian communities. It prevents Palestinian farmers from getting to their farmland. It captures within its boundary Palestinian land that is then annexed by the Israeli government. The separation wall, and the sterile roads that Palestinians are banned from, are symptomatic of an institutionalised, deliberately structured system of economic, cultural and social apartheid that brings shame to Israel and to the international community that has failed to take a stand against it.

The Wall

The motion passed by the Dáil provides a route map for progress for the Irish government and for the international community. Last night Palestinian representatives who attended the Dáil debate were very uplifted by the outcome. So too where those Israeli activists whom I have kept in touch with in recent days. But they and we, and all of those who support peace between Israelis and Palestinians, know that there is a lot of hard work ahead before we achieve that historic conclusion.

DÁIL ÉIREANN

Fógra Tairisceana : Notice of Motion

GNÓ COMHALTAÍ PRÍOBHÁIDEACHA

PRIVATE MEMBERS’ BUSINESS

“That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

—

in 2011, the Irish Government upgraded the status, titles, and functional privileges of the Palestinian Mission to Ireland to close to that of an embassy;

—

in November 2012, Ireland voted in favour of the United Nations General Assembly motion granting ‘non-member observer state’ status to Palestine;

—

the long-standing commitment Irish Governments have given to the development of a viable, sovereign Palestinian state, and their support for the achievement of a sovereign State of Palestine existing in peace with its neighbours including the State of Israel;

—

as of 8th December, 2014, 135 countries have formally recognised the State of Palestine, including eight EU Member States - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Cyprus and Sweden;

—

Seanad Éireann, on 22nd October, 2014, unanimously accepted a motion calling ‘on the Government to formally recognise the State of Palestine and do everything it can at the international level to help secure a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’; and

—

on 30th October, 2014, Sweden became the first EU Member State to formally recognise the State of Palestine while a Member State of the EU;

recognises that:

—

finding a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Arabs and Israelis in a broader context, is a key element of Irish foreign policy;

—

the right of Palestinians to self-determination and to have their own state as well as the right of the State of Israel to exist within secure borders are unquestionable; and

—

continued Israeli settlement construction and extension activities in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, as well as the continued expropriation of Palestinian land and demolition of Palestinian property by Israel, is illegal and severely threatening the establishment of a viable Palestinian State based on the 1967 borders;

concludes that:

—

the international law criteria for recognition of a Palestinian State have been fulfilled; and

—

the achievement of a fully independent sovereign State of Palestine is an essential element to the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict; and

calls on the Government to:

—

officially recognise the State of Palestine, on the basis of the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, as established in UN resolutions, as a further positive contribution to securing a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;

—

do all it can to assist in the development of the democratic and state institutions of the Palestinian State; and

—

do everything it can, at the international level, to help secure an inclusive and viable peace process, and two-state solution, in order to bring about the positive conditions to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Niall Vallely died on Sunday. His funeral took place in Newry this morning and I was asked to give a eulogy during the mass which I was honoured to do.

Below are my remarks:

Niall Vallely – an idealist, an activist, a family man, a musician

Bhí idir iontas agus bhrón mór orm nuair a tháinig scéala chugam fá bhás Niall.

Ba mhaith liom mo chomhbhrón a dhéanamh le teaglach Vallely ag an uair millteanach brónach i saol bhur gclann.

Is mór an ónór domhsa a bheith ag caint faoi Niall inniu.

Coming so quickly after the death of his beloved wife Úna Niall’s death has been a very difficult time for the entire family.

Úna’s death was a huge blow to Niall.

Úna was his soul mate. His one true love.

I never got to Úna’s funeral but I phoned Niall. He appreciated that very much.

We met a short time after her death.

It was at a Sinn Féin conference. I went over to commiserate with him and we sat talking amidst the hustle and bustle of that gathering.

I remember very well what he said to me and how all the people all around us talking and bantering and shouting were probably oblivious to our presence.

Don’t believe what they tell you about Irishmen not being able to express their emotions.

Niall was very upfront. “Úna was my life. She was my everything.”

So what do you say to that?

He went on to talk about Eimear and Niall and Ruairíwho were all he said doing well; though he noted that Ruairíwasn’t paid very well by Sinn Féin for his job of modernizing the party’s approach to elections.

Later he sent me a framed print of one of his brother Brian’s paintings which my son liberated.

Niall would have appreciated that.

I want to tell that it is a great honour to speak here today.

Your father and brother, your Daideo was a great man and although he might blush if he heard me saying that he might also agree with a laugh.

To you Eimear, Niall and Ruairí, to Nico; to Niall’s grandchildren Saoirse, Maebh and Roisin, and to his siblings Brian, Dara, Mairé and Lorainne I want to extend my own personal condolences and those of Sinn Féin at your loss.

Niall loved all of you deeply. You know that.

He had a special place in his heart for his ‘three girls,’ Saoirse, Maebh and Roisin.

It is a great blessing to know your grandchildren.

And I am sure you will all miss him enormously.

Niall was full of craic and fun and life.

He had a boundless energy; an openness and warmth that made him instantly likeable.

And he loved politics.

From his time in People’s Democracy, almost half a century ago, through the civil rights movement, to Sinn Féin.

In many ways it’s easy to be a young radical but there is something compelling about older radicals - about those who keep the faith, but who also move with the times and who are relevant in the modern world - that was Niall – an anti-imperialist who lived in the real world.

But Niall was not just a talker.

Niall was an activist.

He lived his politics every day.

He read it every day.

It was in his blood.

In so many campaigns over the years he handed out leaflets, talked to people on the doorstep or outside the shopping centre, wrote letters to the newspapers, articles for local news sheets, and speeches for candidates and for himself.

He was a regular contributor at the Ard Fheis.

His contribution in the debate on policing at the Special Ard Fheis in 2007 is fondly remembered.

The chair had great difficulty in trying to get Niall to stop talking!

He knew the importance of that debate.

And the historic nature of that Ard Fheis.

He had things to say and say them he did, despite running over time.

Like many of you I knew Niall for a very long time.

I knew him both personally and politically.

We were both active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

At that time people from across the political spectrum came together to demand basic human and civil rights for nationalists.

This included many republicans, socialists, communists, liberals, trade unionists, community activists, students and others, including initially some unionists.

Niall was a member of People’s Democracy.

The Civil Rights campaign shaped both of our lives and the lives of many of our contemporaries.

The Armagh branch of People’s Democracy was generally regarded as its most militant.

Niall was its spokesperson.

In May 1969 a small group of pensioners and PD members held a silent picket outside Armagh Rural Council monthly meeting.

Niall addressed the Council demanding the immediate rehousing of the residents of Mill Row and Lislea.

Angry at the Council’s failure to respond positively Niall and his colleagues returned two weeks later.

This time they were refused permission to speak.

Might as well tell a bird not to sing.

Niall and four others were arrested on charges of disorderly behaviour and the Council imposed a ban on public attendance at its meetings.

A few months later August 69 was a particular tipping point for the civil rights movement and for the north.

One event had a particularly deep impact on Niall.

He and others had organised a civil rights meeting in Armagh in solidarity with people in the Bogside under siege from the RUC and B Specials.

After the Armagh meeting the B Specials opened fire killing John Gallagher, a father of three, and wounded two others.

The B Specials all claimed not to have fired but this was dismissed by the Scarman Tribunal which concluded that the B Specials had ‘no justification for firing into the crowd.’

Through all of what was to come in his life afterwards the deep sense of injustice, pain and anger Niall felt from the murder of John Gallagher never left him.

Niall also told about an incident in Armagh in the early 70’s when he was beaten unconscious by a loyalist mob and his heart stopped and for a few minutes he was dead!

As he told it he was the only man who fought for Ireland – died for Ireland – and came alive again for Ireland!.

Humour was very important to Niall.

He was enormously likeable and entertaining and insightful about Irish culture, language and republicanism.

It is in the nature of things that we often wait until a person is dead before we pay tribute to them.

Let me place firmly on the record the hugely important role that the Vallely family have played in shaping the life of our nation; of their contribution to the creative life of our society; and the revival of our music, particularly the tradition of uillean piping, or in Niall’s case the bodhran.

Bhí grá mór ag Niall don teanga, don cheol agus don slí maireach tála 's againne.

Bhí tuiscint dhoimhin aige ar áit agus ar an pháirt a bhí aige I rud éigin níos mó ná a ré féin.

Is minic finnscéalta, scéaltagaisce seanchas agus uaireanta an fhírinne fite fuaite le chéile chun mórscéal níos leithne a chruthú

Niall was also deeply passionate about history.

For him history wasn’t something dry and dusty.

It was an important part of who he was.

He wanted all of us to share in and celebrate our history.

Niall was a generous, decent, human being.

He was wise. He didn’t take himself seriously.

He believed in equality and inclusiveness in all things.

Bhí léargas aige ar chumhacht na teanga, go háirithe nuair a chuireadh sé gáire ar dhaoine.

He was passionate and enthusiastic in all that he did, but especially about his politics.

He travelled the length and breadth of Ireland helping to get Shinners elected, including this Shinner a few miles down the road in Louth.

He believed in a real republic where citizens would have rights and where ordinary people, the citizens would come first.

He believed in a united Ireland and in a real republic, based on social justice.

He was a proud Armagh man.

Niall was born on August 13^th.

According to his brother Brian, his birth came during the annual stream of meteors known as the Perseid meteor shower.

He died on December 14^th when the annual Geminids meteor shower, created by another comet, can be seen.

As a mathamatician Niall would have appreciated that.

Niall’s death leaves a great void.

For Sinn Féin in Newry/Armagh; but especially for his family.

He leaves a space that can’t be filled; particularly for Eimear, Niall and Ruairí, for Nico and for Saoirse, Maebh and Roisin, and for his siblings Brian, Dara, Mairé and Lore – Ann.

Saoirse, Maebh and Rosin be proud of your Daideo. And your Maimeo.

Your lives are better because of them.

He was an idealist and a pragmatist whose political views were shaped in but never trapped in the 1960’s.

Born and raised at the zenith of the orange state he knew that the Ireland he has left is a different place – a better place – and that he contributed to this.

Chuir Niall misneach ar dhaoine.

Bhí nasc aige le daoine.

Bhí saol dea-chaite aige.

Ba cheart dúinn uilig é sin a cheiliúradh.

He also contributed to the growth of Irish republicanism and Sinn Féin.

His old friend Cyril Toman sent an email, from Australia, when he heard of Niall’s death.

He summed up our sense of Niall perfectly.

Cyril wrote: ‘Niall was a great man; he had vision, he had courage, he had determination, and he had a sense of humour that enabled him to cut through all the pretence and nonsense he encountered… It may not seem important now, but your brother has had a significant influence on the way Irish people - especially those in the north - imagine themselves. And there are not many men or women you can say that about.

I want to finish with a little poem by Brendan Kennelly. I want to dedicate it to Niall’s family.

Begin

Begin to the loneliness that cannot end

since it perhaps is what makes us begin,

begin to wonder at unknown faces

at crying birds in the sudden rain

at branches stark in the willing sunlight

at seagulls foraging for bread

at couples sharing a sunny secret

alone together while making good.

Though we live in a world that dreams of ending

that always seems about to give in

something that will not acknowledge conclusion

insists that forever begin.

That’s what Niall would expect you to do. That’s what he would expect us to do. To begin all over again.

Thank you Niall for your life, for your love, for your work.

Invariably the British government likes to spin that its role is that of a facilitator – a neutral chair trying to persuade the obstinate northern parties to see sense and agree a deal. There is a pattern to all of the negotiations that have taken place since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. It’s almost like a complicated dance with some of the participants desperate to demonstrate how good they are at fancy footwork. But David Cameron is no Bruce Forsythe.

Au Contraire. His government is a key participant and has the greater role to play. It claims jurisdiction over this part of the island of Ireland. Its political strategies and self-interest over the centuries created the conditions for conflict and division. Its armed forces were one of the combatant groups. Its Parliament passed a succession of repressive laws over three decades – often in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights – to protect its forces from legal challenge and to control and contain the conflict. Its economic and political policies reinforced the institutional religious and political discrimination that was the hallmark of the unionist era.

Mindful of all of this, and of Britain’s colonial legacy, the Good Friday Agreement set out in clear terms the role of Britain while it still claims jurisdiction; “the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction there shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions and shall be founded on the principles of full respect for, and equality of, civil, political, social and cultural rights, of freedom from discrimination for all citizens, and of parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos, and aspirations of both communities…”

A fine sentiment which this British government has broken in both the spirit and the letter. The refusal by the British Government to honour its St. Andrews Agreement commitment on an Irish Language Act and the DUP’s refusal to implement the COMEX recommendations in compliance with the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages are indicative of that. Unsurprisingly this provides the licence for the utterances about Gaeilge heard in recent times.

Other outstanding commitments in the Good Friday Agreement yet to be implemented include:

A Civic Forum in the north

An All-Ireland Civic Forum

A Bill of Rights

A Joint north/south committee of the two Human Rights Commissions

An All-Ireland Charter of Rights

Obligations in compliance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

The British government has also failed to implement commitments it gave during other negotiations including an Inquiry into the murder of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane and an anti-poverty strategy which were both part of the Weston Park talks. An Acht na Gaeilge, a review of the number of Executive Departments and the number of MLAs, and agreed legislation on Parades are all matters yet to be dealt with.

It is a long list. The British government’s obvious failure to honour its obligations is the single most important reason why the process is in such a mess at this time. It also partly explains why political unionism remains disconnected from and hostile to the power sharing institutions. Without a British government giving clear and unambiguous leadership and implementing commitments there is little incentive for political unionism to move in a consistent and progressive way.

So, understanding why there is a crisis doesn’t require a lot of deep political analysis. It’s pretty obvious.

This most recent endeavour to bridge the gaps began eight weeks ago. Papers were written and presented by the political parties and largely ignored by the British and Irish governments. Notwithstanding this Sinn Féin presented the governments with our own draft of their paper. It also was ignored.

On this occasion the political crisis is exacerbated by the impact of British government’s austerity policies which have taken on a greater significance than heretofore. Since 2011 £1.5 billion has been stripped out of the block grant which funds the north’s executive. In addition Mr. Cameron seeks significant change to the welfare system that will hurt the most vulnerable citizens.

The ability of the five Executive parties to defend front-line public services, including health and education, defend the poor, the disabled, the elderly and disadvantaged, and create jobs, has been significantly undermined as a result.

The impact of this is so grave that all of the parties, at the urging of Martin McGuinness, reached unanimity on the fiscal demands they would put to the British and Irish governments, including the size of the financial package that is required to enable the institutions to fulfil their mandate, defend citizens and allow for the political crisis in the political process to be dealt with.

Last Thursday David Cameron and Enda Kenny arrived amid the usual media fanfare to commence a negotiation which amounted to little more than a charade. They left within 24 hours.

I wasn’t surprised. This was not a serious effort. I told Cameron and Kenny this during the negotiations. I described it as the ‘most amateurish ham fisted episode I have ever been involved in’. I wasn’t joking. The approach of the British and Irish government was little short of disgraceful. It wasn’t a real engagement by them to reach a reasonable consensus or agreement. It was an exercise in bluster and political grandstanding, especially by the Brits.

The Irish government’s preparedness to sign up for a joint government paper that failed to mention Acht na Gaeilge or a Bill of Rights and which acquiesced to the British government’s use of ‘national security’ to deny information for victims was deeply disappointing. Enda Kenny failed to defend the Good Friday and subsequent agreements or to press the British government on legacy issues, like the Dublin/Monaghan bombs and the Pat Finucane Inquiry.

Claims that over one billion pounds was available from the British government to the Executive quickly evaporated under scrutiny. As one BBC journalist put it the British cheque book as ‘all stubs and no cheques. The £1 billion in spending power offer by the prime minister is largely a borrowing facility which the executive can already dip into.’

The British Government also offered to provide £10m per year for the proposed Historical Investigations Unit. But this new legacy unit will cost between £30m and 40m per year. This is only one of the institutions proposed to deal with legacy issues. Over five years the Executive will be £100m worse off.

In addition, families, including the Ballymurphy families, who have campaigned for decades for the right to Article 2 compliance inquests are being frustrated by the British government. Under last year’s Haass proposals outstanding inquests were protected. Under the proposal from the two governments the Ballymurphy Massacre and other similar disputed cases would be moved to the ‘Civil Inquisitorial’ section of the Historical Investigations Unit if their inquests have still not been completed. Given the delays in disclosure by the PSNI and British Ministry of Defence it is unlikely that many of these inquests will have concluded.

The powers and remit of the ‘Civil Inquisitorial’ process are unclear and will be dependent on ‘national security’ concerns.

The British Government also proposed that the Executive borrow £100m per year for the next five years to pay for public sector redundancies. This is money the Executive would normally use to invest in health, education and other infrastructure projects, which would then not be available.

And rather than establish a realistic peace investment fund, as proposed by all the political parties, the British Government suggested that the Executive establish this fund through the sale of its own assets with no contribution from the British Government.

The net effect of these proposals would be that the Executive would be up to £100m worse off, public services would be decimated, and we would owe the British Government £500m over five years.

The fact is that we require a different economic and fiscal model to run the north which reflects the difficult circumstances that exist there, including the fact that we are a society emerging from generations of conflict and political instability. Without that the political process will not work.

David Cameron returned to London and Enda Kenny to Dublin leaving the process in a worse state than when they came. Both leaders, despite being the architects of the talks debacle, have since tried to wash their hands of any responsibility for what occurred. With talks continuing this week the British Secretary of State Theresa Villiers has stuck to the script which blames the north’s parties for the crisis. This is not helpful.

There has also been much talk in the media about the institutions collapsing. I don’t believe that any of the Executive parties want this.

Martin McGuinness and our team of negotiators will work hard this week to find solutions. But achieving an agreement to make the institutions work and secure sufficient funding to protect citizens, public services and jobs has been made more difficult by the inappropriate actions last week of David Cameron and Enda Kenny.

No political party in the north has a mandate to implement austerity policies. If that’s what Fine Gael, Labour or the Tories want to do then they should come north and fight the next election on that basis. In the meantime the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister should fulfil their obligations and honour their commitments.

It is unusual for this column to deal with the same issue three weeks in a row. But the Israeli assault on Gaza makes this a very special case. The scenes of desolation and destruction, of whole streets reduced to piles of broken rubble, and the images of torn bodies, especially of young children and babies, demand that the international community do all that we can to end this slaughter.

Just before noon on Tuesday morning I spoke to Saeb Erekat in Ramallah on the west Bank. The Palestinian Unity Government was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation.

Saeb is an Executive Committee Member of the PLO and is the Chief Negotiator for the Palestinian government. He took a few minutes to brief me on the current situation in Gaza and the behind the scenes efforts to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire.

He explained that the Palestinian government, including Hamas, had accepted a United States proposal for a 24 hour humanitarian ceasefire. The Israeli government rejected this. The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon then proposed a 72 hour humanitarian ceasefire. The Palestinian government accepted this but again the Israeli government said no.

Saeb thanked the people of Ireland for their support and asked that they and the international community endorse and support the United Nations call for a ceasefire. He told me that there is no oil, no water, and no electricity in Gaza. Saeb described this current Israeli assault as seeking the total destruction of Gaza.

The proof of this can be found in the statistics of death and destruction coming out of Gaza. In the 24 hours before I spoke to Saeb another 100 Palestinians – mostly civilians – had been killed in attacks by the Israel military.

Since July 8 when the current violence erupted around 1300 Palestinians – according to the UN 80% of them civilians – have been killed. Almost 7,000 have been injured. Israel has lost 53 soldiers and three civilians.

An explanation for the disproportionate number of civilian deaths between Palestinians and Israel can be found in the words of Major General Gadi Eizenkot, now a deputy chief of staff in the Israeli Army. Six years ago he admitted that any village or city from which rockets are fired would be regarded as a ‘missile base.’

The Israel Army and its defenders claim that it is the most moral army in the world. The evidence of the last three weeks disproves that claim. On the contrary the Israeli army, air force and navy have demonstrated again and again their capacity to deliberately and systematically and accurately target the civilian population.

They are engaging in collective punishment of a civilian population – a practice which is supposedly outlawed under international law. But the truth is that the end game is about the theft of Palestinian land and water and control of the occupied territories through terror.

When Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005 it wasn’t about peace or acknowledging the rights of the Palestinian people. Arial Sharon the former Prime Minister of Israel said that their disengagement ‘will strengthen its control over those same areas in the ‘Land of Israel’ which will constitute an inseparable part of the State of Israel.’

Israel’s assault on Gaza, including the blockade that was imposed in 2007, is about defending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, denying the Palestinian people their national rights, undermining Palestinian political institutions and its economy and to weaken Palestinian resistance.

Israeli government aggression has to be challenged. The rights of the Palestinian people must be defended. The violence against the civilian population of Gaza must be ended. The Irish government can play an important role in this. Ireland is generally viewed as progressive on international matters around the world. The UN has called for a three day ceasefire. The Irish government and the Dáil should be united in supporting this.

Last week I wrote to An Taoiseach requesting that he recall the Dáil to discuss the situation in Gaza. The Taoiseach has not answered my letter but in briefings to the media he has indicated that he is not willing to accede to Sinn Féin's request for the Dáil to be reconvened.

Thus far Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, 14 independent deputies, one Fine Gael TD and one Labour TD and six Seanadóirí have endorsed our request for the recall of the Dáil.

I believe the Taoiseach’s position is a mistake, particularly now that the Seanad will be reconvened to discuss this urgent issue, but also in light of the Palestinian support for the UN ceasefire call. The Irish government and the Dáil can provide leadership at this critical juncture as efforts are made to end the violence.

Given our own history as a people, our experience of conflict and our peace process, a recalled Dáil uniting in support of an end to violence and in support of the United Nations appeal for a 72 hour humanitarian ceasefire, would send a powerful message of solidarity to the people of that region and encourage an intensification of pressure on the Israeli government to accept the United Nations ceasefire proposal.

In the meantime I want to commend all of those who are organising and participating in public protests against Israeli actions and in support of the Palestinian people. Nelson Mandela once remarked that; ‘We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.’ He was right.

The Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle today met to discuss the agreement reached at Stormont on Tuesday December 23^rd.

There was an informed discussion. The Ard Chomhairle recognised that progress has been made in defending the most vulnerable against the Tory welfare and budget cuts. It also recognised that progress has been made with regard to the issues of flags, the past and parading.

When Agreement was finally reached I acknowledged at the time that there was more to do at a community, political and national level to resolve these matters. Sinn Féin representatives have consistently recorded our concern that the governments have failed to deliver on their outstanding commitments including a Bill of Rights, Acht na Gaeilge, and an inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane and other outstanding matters. The British government specifically refused to implement a number of outstanding commitments and the Irish Government representatives accepted this.

However, the recent talks also demonstrated that with the five main parties acting together, significant progress can be made to safeguard the most vulnerable and to rebuild the reputation of the political institutions.

The day before the talks concluded I penned a column for the Andersonstown News which I enclose for your interest below.

Agreement is possible

This column comes to you from the Castle at Stormont. Could it be a fifth column? Its Monday, it’s late and the talks are continuing. By the time you read this you will know if they have concluded and if an agreement has been achieved.

Sinn Féin’s objectives over the last three months of discussions have been to reach a deal that protects the most vulnerable in society, safeguards the rights and entitlements of citizens, delivers on outstanding agreements, grows the economy and enhances the working of the institutions.

It hasn’t been easy not least because the British government’s welfare reform agenda represents an attack on the welfare state and on the most vulnerable and the least able to pay in our society. Sinn Féin has been steadfast in our opposition to this agenda.

The contribution of the two governments has at times been very unhelpful. The British government in particular, far from seeking to engage constructively with parties, tried to present itself as some sort of independent broker. It then tried to impose its own view and predetermine the outcome of the discussions. It was not willing to engage in meaningful negotiations.

At the same time elements of the media were engaged in talking down the possibility of agreement. It’s almost as if some of our journalistic friends want the process to collapse. And some quickly got involved in the blame game – unsurprisingly targeting Sinn Féin.

They were joined in this by some of the political leaders in the Dáil who have very deliberately used the negotiations process as a platform to attack Sinn Féin. The leaders of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour have been especially vocal. To their shame they have put their own narrow electoral self-interest over the needs of the peace process. When Mr Cameron bluntly told me, in the Taoiseach’s presence, that he would not honour the Weston Park Agreement and hold an Enquiry into the killing of Human Rights lawyer Pat Finucane, the Taoiseach said nothing. Not a word.

Despite these shenanigans and the media fuelled pessimism Martin McGuinness and the Sinn Féin negotiating team were undaunted. We remained focussed, positively engaged and are working hard to secure a comprehensive agreement.

Toward the end of last week a concrete change in the dynamic within the negotiations saw progress made. Very specifically the five Executive parties agreed a set of proposals regarding the public finances that would enable the Executive to advance a reconciliation process and to invest in the economy. These proposals will require additional financial support and are now with the British Government.

The parties also agreed a range of welfare protections designed to safeguard the most vulnerable in our society, particularly those with disabilities. These protections are unique to the north of Ireland and would be paid for by the Executive. This ensures there would be no reductions in entitlement to benefits under the control of the Assembly.

The Executive will create a supplementary payment fund alongside a range of other measures, involving top-ups and the retention of a number of anti-poverty measures.

It has been estimated that the cost of this to the Executive would average £94 million per year – ranging from £54 million in the first year to £134 million in year four.

The outworking of these measures would mean that there would be no increase in the rate of people being disallowed disability benefits; that those receiving the Severe Disability Premium would remain protected; child additional rates for those with disabilities would also be protected.

Over the weekend Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson drove home the message to David Cameron that the British government is a participant in these negotiations and must contribute to a comprehensive agreement, not just in terms of the financial issues facing the Executive but also on the past and truth and justice for victims of the conflict.

Substantial work has also gone into discussions on the other key issues, including the implementation of outstanding issues from previous agreements including the Past, Parades and Flags, and reconciliation, including a stronger role for civic society.

The parties are continuing their work tonight to narrow down the issues and to move in the direction of a comprehensive agreement, which all the parties and the two governments can sign up to.

Progress has been made. Is it enough? At this point I can’t say. But I remain optimistic that an agreement can be reached. It may not resolve all of the outstanding issues but it can mark a step change in the peace process and would allow the political institutions to begin the New Year in a positive atmosphere and protect the most disadvantaged in our society from the worst excesses of the British Tory welfare agenda.

I am very mindful that this business of change- making is a process. It is painfully slow, incremental and at times frustrating. It is always challenging. But that should not daunt us. Whatever comes out of these talks the struggle for equality continues.

The need to be change-makers, to win Irish language rights alongside a Bill of Rights and other modest entitlements in a rights based, citizen centred society will make 2015 an interesting year.

Bliain Úr Faoi Mhaise Daoibhse.

With President Abbas

For those who doubt the imperative of dialogue in advancing negotiations the two historic international decisions in respect of Cuba and Palestine just before Christmas are clear evidence of its importance.

At the beginning of December I met President Abbas of the Palestinian government in Ramallah. He and others in the Palestinian leadership explained the importance of their strategy to achieve international recognition of Palestinian statehood and its potential to stimulate renewed momentum into the stalled peace process in that region.

Some of their key negotiators and senior Ambassadors have been travelling in recent months to European capitals and lobbying European political parties and Parliaments to pass motions of support and solidarity in favour of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian focus has been on securing two key votes. The first was in the European Parliament – which they achieved on December 17^th.

The second was in the United Nations security council. Jordan brought forward a motion to the United Nations on behalf of the Palestinians which would set a one year timeline for concluding peace negotiations, and a late 2017 deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian lands.

The Jordanian draft sought a resolution based on the 1967 borders and "Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two States which fulfils the legitimate aspirations of both parties and protects freedom of worship."

The draft also "calls upon both parties to abstain from any unilateral and illegal actions, including settlement activities that could undermine the viability of a two-state solution."

The vote on this took place at the end of December. Although the Palestinian motion was backed by a majority of eight in the 15 strong Council it did not secure the necessary ninth vote for it to pass. Speaking later President Abbas said: “We didn't fail, the UN Security Council failed us. We will go again to the Security Council, why not? Perhaps after a week ...We are studying it, and we will study this with our allies and especially Jordan ... to submit the resolution again, a third time or even a fourth time."

At the same time President Abbas signed onto 20 international conventions, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which gives the court jurisdiction over crimes committed on Palestinian lands. It opens up the potential for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes against the Palestinian people.

Israel retaliated within days by withholding taxes from the Palestinian Authority that it collects on its behalf.

As part of Sinn Féin’s contribution to the Palestinian strategy we introduced a motion into the Dáil before Christmas which was passed unopposed.

This vote and the unprecedented motion passed at the European Parliament wasn’t the only success for the Palestinians. At their request, and on the same day as the EU Parliament vote, 126 of the signatories to the Geneva conventions met in Switzerland for a one day conference. Israel had sought to have the conference cancelled.

These conventions are supposed to govern the rules of war and military occupation. A declaration adopted by consensus among the participating nations concluded that “all serious violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated and that all those responsible should be brought to justice.”

The Israeli government rejected the conclusion arguing that it doesn’t apply to the West Bank and Gaza. It claims that Jordan and Egypt no longer claim sovereignty over the occupied territories and, according to the Israeli government, as the Palestinians don’t have a state the declaration can’t apply to it.

This highlights the importance of the need for a Palestinian state and for Palestinian sovereignty to be recognised and it should be remembered that the UN General Assembly upgraded Palestine to a “non-member observer state” of the United Nations in 2012.

The Geneva Declaration also makes clear that Israel should “fully and effectively”respect the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is intended to protect civilians during times of war including in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem.

So clearly there is a lot of dialogue going on – much of it driven by the Palestinian leadership – to secure progress toward full recognition of the Palestinian state. The UN security council vote shows how much work still has to be done. The Palestinian people need our continuing support and solidarity in their endeavours.

Dialogue too was the driver for progress in improving relations between the United States and Cuba.

On the same day as the Palestinian vote in the European Parliament the United States and Cuba unexpectedly announced that they are commencing a new relationship between the two countries after more than 50 years of hostility. This included the release of prisoners by both governments.

President Obama and President Raul Castro, and all of those who have worked to achieve this historic agreement, are to be congratulated.

Sinn Féin played a small part in this rapprochement between the two nations.

In September two years ago Roelf Meyer, who was the senior negotiator for the Apartheid South African government in the negotiations with the African National Congress, organised a conference in Miami. The conference brought together leading conservative Cuban American citizens to discuss the need for reconciliation and dialogue between Washington and the Cuban government. Others included senior figures in the Catholic Church.

Among those who participated in the conference was Sinn Féin’s senior negotiator Pat Doherty MP who stressed the importance of dialogue and the need for a dialogue between the two governments.

I visited Cuba in 2001. On that occasion President Fidel Castro, and senior government representatives, discussed issues of human rights, civil and religious liberties, democratic values, social justice, equality and other matters of concern to people wherever they live. It was also very obvious that the Cuban government was closely watching developments in Washington.

To mark 20 years since the 1981 hunger strike the Sinn Féin delegation also led wreaths at the memorial in Havana to the ten Republican hunger strikers. The memorial event was a full state occasion, with full honours being accorded to the memory of Bobby Sands and his comrades. Whatever one thinks about Cuba, it is true that people there, like people worldwide, were moved and remember the sacrifice of the Irish republican prisoners.

The people of Ireland have a long record of solidarity with Cuba. Despite the enormous problems faced by the Cuban people over the last five decades, Cuba has remained steadfast to the goals of eradicating poverty, ending privilege and corruption and of promoting social justice.

As evidence of this commitment Cuban doctors and teachers have travelled widely to help those in need around the world. This is a great act of generosity that deserves our thanks and our praise

We also visited medical centres and saw for ourselves the amazing work Cuban doctors do around the world. But it was also very obvious that the United States embargo has caused long term difficulties for the Cuban economy and people.

I hope the new and more positive relationship between both countries can lead to the speedy lifting of the blockade.

As regular readers of this column will know I have been known to ‘tweet’ – occasionally. It’s an enjoyable and relaxing process made all the more pleasurable because I can escape the Sinn Féin thought police – those esteemed colleagues who want to scrutinise every word, mull over every nuance and ensure that anything written falls within party policy.

I understand and appreciate their concerns. My tweets have been the subject of hilarious and occasionally bizarre reflection by newspaper and broadcasting columnists, commentators and serious political analysts. Some believe my tweets are the work of a special committee; others are less kind.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs in Dublin was on the receiving end of this type of scrutiny on New Year’s Day when he seemed to suggest that he favoured the use of the ‘c’ word in describing Sinn Féin politics. He felt it necessary to issue a public apology and to express regret if he had caused offence. As someone who recently apologised for the inappropriate use of language in criticising bigots I can empathise with Charlie.

However, the episode was much more revealing and significant than the implied use of a swear word. The Minister was consciously attempting to use his twitter remarks as part of the government’s strategy of demonising Sinn Féin. Along with other conservative elements of southern society – most especially the Sindo and Indo and their coterie of columnists and hacks - Sinn Féin has been regularly accused of being a ‘cult,’ not a democratic party.

Hence the deliberate use of the word in the Minister’s tweet – “2015 offers Ireland the choice of Constitutional politics or Cult politics.”

My very observant and quick thinking colleague Donegal TD Pádraig MacLochlainn responded with; “Hopefully cult politics doesn’t make a comeback.” And he attached a 1930s photograph of the Blueshirts – a Fine Gael dominated organisation - giving a fascist salute.

One twitter commented that; “think that was a spelling mistake”.

To which the Minister replied with; “yep left out the ‘n’”.

Minister Flanagan’s implied use of the 4 letter ‘c’ word sparked controversy and he issued his apology.

But in the short lived furore around his use of language no one should lose sight of the bigger picture.

The opinion polls suggest that the next general election to the Oireachtas could be the most significant in generations. With Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail trailing Sinn Féin and the Independents in most of the polls there is a very real concern among conservative elements that the two and a half party system that has dominated Irish politics could be about to radically change.

Sinn Féin in particular has become the bête noireof the conservative class. They believe the independents are too fractured to pose a real concern to the governmental ambitions of Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil, but Sinn Féin is a radical, growing, visionary political party with cogent alternative policies. Sinn Féin is the real threat to the cozy consensus of the established parties. Consequently there is a concerted effort underway to demonise the party, blunt our potential to grow, and force us to spend valuable time responding to a negative agenda set by our opponents rather than promoting our own sensible alternative policies.

Political scientists have written volumes on the use of negative politics in election campaigns. It is a fixture of U.S. Presidential elections and a regular feature of the Irish electoral cycle. Labour used it effectively against Fine Gael in the 2011 campaign with their now infamous Tesco ad which warned of cuts to essential services and benefits if Fine Gael was elected. (It got them a place in a coalition government implementing the very policies they were warning of). Michael McDowell used it in 2002 to scare voters into backing the Progressive Democrats when he raised the possibility of a majority Fianna Fáil government.

As Sinn Féin’s poll numbers stay high the established parties and their conservative allies will increasingly use negative politics to attack the party, our policies and to scare their own voters – many of whom are politically apathetic at this time – back to the fold.

At the end of November Enda Kenny asserted that the choice at the next election would be between a government led by Fine Gael or one led by Sinn Féin. His Minister for Finance jumped in on the same day and told RTE that the choice facing the electorate was either a Sinn Féin-led left-wing government or the present coalition.

Afraid of being left out of the debate Micheál Martin joined in just before Christmas with his absurd claim that the IRA still runs Sinn Féin. As a senior government Minister in past Fianna Fáil governments he knows this to be untrue. He was also part of the government which accepted reports from the Independent Monitoring Commission and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning that the IRA had effectively left the stage after its momentous and courageous decision in July 2005 to end the armed struggle.

Now, as he tries to rebuild his shattered party and improve its consistently poor poll results he sets aside the needs of the peace process and indulges in negative politics against republicans.

The Labour leadership whether under Eamonn Gilmore or Joan Burton has also made increasingly hysterical criticisms of Sinn Féin as the polls predict a meltdown in that party’s support.

We can expect more of the same vitriol in the year ahead. As the tenor and tempo of the political discourse increases so too will the snide, offensive, malicious and provocative attacks on Sinn Féin.

I have no idea when the general election to the Oireachtas will be held. Charlie Flanagan obviously thinks it will be this year. Some political pundits speculate that Enda will go to the polls after a give-away budget in October. Maybe – maybe not.

We do know there will be a British general election in May. It is shaping up to be particularly significant given unionist efforts to agree unity candidates and try to take seats currently held by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance parties.

All of this means for republicans that there is an imperative on us to organise and strategise and prepare as never before. We have to think long term. We have to work locally while thinking nationally.

The next 18 months will be a defining point in politics on this island. As well as celebrating the centenary of the 1916 Rising there will be two general elections and an Assembly election. The potential to advance Sinn Féin politics, to defend the interests of working people, to achieve a realignment of Irish politics, and to win new supporters to Irish republicanism has never been greater.

There is a hunger, a desire for real change among citizens across the island. They don’t want the tired, old, recycled politics of the conservative parties north and south. The rhetoric of change but the delivery of the same-old, same-old.

Citizens want a new start, a fresh start; a positive and a real alternative to the negative and corrupt politics of the conservative parties.

Our goal as Irish republicans is to achieve maximum change; to advance Irish unity, to build a fair economy, and a just and equitable society in which equality and citizen’s rights are the foundation stones. The next year and a half are crucial to building the republic that those who wrote the 1916 Proclamation dreamed of. A republic in which there is no place for partition, or sectarianism or elitism or inequality, or poverty. It’s a big ask but one I am confident 2015 will see Sinn Féin make significant strides toward creating.

PS Thanks to Hugh O Connell from Journal whose recollection of election campaigns is excellent.

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