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A Christmas
Gift
I am recommending this new book - Togáil Croí. Seán Mac Goill - as a great Christmas present for you dear reader and
for someone you love. It is bilingual and very
accessible. Irish and English columns side by side, page by page. It is beautifully
designed, colourful and with many graphics and photos as befits a book
which celebrates the work of the people it is about.
Seán Mac Goill is one of that band of visionaries
and activists which gave us the new Bombay Street after the original Bombay
Street was destroyed in the 1969 pogroms, the urban Gaeltacht on Bóthar
Seoighe, Ballymurphy Enterprises, the Whiterock Industrial Estate, Garáiste an
Phobail and many other projects going back to the mid 1960s. It is also about
the Irish language in West Belfast and the wider cultural revolution
across the city.
While Seán is singled out for special mention this
book is about all those who were involved and their pioneering families. It is
a tribute to the critical role played by these Irish speaking visionaries and do- ers.
This book is about the structures for education,
employment, progress, and self help which they created despite fierce
opposition from an actively hostile unionist and British regime. It also draws
heavily on archival material from An Spás Dín in the wonderful Coláiste Féirste in the Gaeltacht Quarter.
Have no doubts about their
achievements. This is a hugely
successful group of progressive Irish men and women in one of the most ‘economically impoverished yet intellectually and culturally
rich areas in Ireland’. They persisted. And they prevailed. And we all benefitted.
It also gently reminds us of the type of language
activism which is needed for the future. The activism of Na h’abhair é. Dean é. Don’t talk about it. Do it.
I am a huge admirer of all the people celebrated in this very
important book. I am constantly inspired and encouraged by their example. Read
Togáil Croí and you will be inspired also. So will whoever is lucky to
get it from you in their
stocking this Christmas.
Availible from An Ceathrú Póílí, An Culturlann. Bothar na
bhFál, Belfast.
Journalists under attack by
Israel
For as far back as I can remember
the phrase ‘truth is the first casualty of war’ has been used when wars are analysed.
The phrase is very old. The first time we know it was used was by Greek
soldier, poet, and playwright Aeschylus in the fifth century BC who said: ‘In war,
truth is the first casualty.’
We Irish have long experience of
this. During the decades of conflict in
our own place political censorship by the British and Irish governments and the
establishment media was widespread. But media manipulation goes back further. In
her exceptional book ‘Ireland – the Propaganda War’ Liz Curtis reminds us that
the arrival in the North of the BBC in 1926 saw that organisation institutionalise
a unionist ethos within its news coverage.
Quoting from a BBC document in
1930 Liz Curtis wrote: The BBC Regional Service ‘reflects the sentiments of the
people who have always maintained unswerving loyalty to British ideals and to
British culture. Northern Ireland relies on broadcasting to strengthen its
common loyalties with Britain.’ There were of course exceptions within the BBC
and outside of it. There were journalists prepared to lift their heads above
the parapet to tell the truth. Fair play to them but they didn’t face what
today’s journalists in Palestine face on a daily basis.
Israeli forces are systematically
trying to shut down the truth in a ruthless and methodical campaign of
assassination of journalists.
At the weekend Al Jazeera journalist Samer
Abudaqa was killed. His colleague Wael Dahdouh was wounded. Only weeks ago four
members of Wael Dahdouh’s family, including his wife Amna, son aged 15, daughter
aged 7 and grandson aged 1 were killed. They were murdered when Israeli forces
blew up the house they were sheltering in. The house was in a neighbourhood
that the Israeli government said was a safe zone.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported at the
weekend that at least 64 journalists, most Palestinian, and media workers are
among the almost 20,000 killed by Israel forces so far. At least 13 others have
been injured and three journalists are reported missing. In addition, journalists
in the west Bank are routinely and savagely assaulted by Israeli soldiers and
settlers.
The Israeli
government’s objective is to try and control the narrative – to excuse their
genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza but in particular children. They
also seek to keep on board those few governments who shamefully support turning
Gaza it into a graveyard for the innocent.
I
welcome the Irish government’s recent effort at last week’s EU summit, along
with Spain, Malta and Belgium, to persuade the EU
to adopt the demand for a humanitarian ceasefire. According to An Taoiseach Leo
Varadkar, ‘The position of the overwhelming majority of the EU
countries now is that there should be a ceasefire.’ However the summit failed to reach agreement.
This Monday will be
Christmas Day. There is little prospect of the slaughter stopping. But if it is
it will be for a pause. That is not acceptable. The deliberate and callous
shooting dead of two Christian women –Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar as they
walked to a convent of nuns in the compound of the Holy Family Parish - the
shooting dead of three Israeli hostages by Israeli soldiers, and the use of a
bulldozer to crush Palestinians seeking refuge at Kamal Adwan Hospital, adds to
the abundant evidence that Gaza is a killing field for the Israeli government.
This weekend
as we celebrate and reflect on the Christmas story let us applaud those
journalists under threat every second of every day in Gaza and the west Bank
and recommit ourselves to the enormous solidarity campaign for the Palestinian
people that has seen many millions across the world declare – We are all
Palestinians Now.
Defend Irish neutrality
At a time when
significant wars are raging – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s assault
and genocide against the Palestinian people, and in the Sudan and Sahel region
of Africa –and elsewhere, Irish neutrality has never been more important.
International tension and disputes between nations and within nations are not
new. The establishment of the United Nations after the Second World War created
a new paradigm – a new international structure to resolve conflicts.
It has not
been easy. The system is not perfect. The recent use of the veto by the United
States government to block a ceasefire resolution for Gaza at the UN is
evidence of the fragility of the system. But the UN remains the best means for
resolving disputes. And Irish forces in peacekeeping missions make an enormous
and positive contribution to peace.
The announcement by Fianna Fáil leader and Tánaiste
Micheál Martin last month that the Irish government is to scrap the triple lock
system is a retrograde step. The triple lock is a
mechanism which sets out the criteria for the involvement by 12 or more Irish
soldiers in peace missions overseas. For troops to be deployed requires that
the action is mandated by the United Nations; must be approved by the government
and then by the Dáil through a resolution.
This is not the first time that the future of the
triple lock or of neutrality has been raised. Fine Gael supported dumping the
triple lock two years ago but Fianna Fáil in its 2020 manifesto for the general
election said it would ‘fully maintain’ neutrality and the triple lock.
And therein lies the rub. Irish neutrality and the
triple lock are seen as political Siamese twins – inextricably linked. The
scrapping of the triple lock would dangerously undermine neutrality and open
the door for a future Irish government joining NATO – a decision Micheál Martin
has already said does not require a referendum but simply a decision of
government. Following the invasion of Ukraine Martin said: “We need to reflect on
military non-alignment in Ireland and our military neutrality.”
The Irish government is treading a dangerous path. Neutrality
is and should remain the cornerstone of Irish Foreign Policy. It allows an
Irish government to play a positive role in the wider world, especially in
defence of human rights. It shouldn’t be left to government politicians to
decide whether Irish soldiers are sent to fight wars for the big powers.