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John Joe McGirl - An unrepentant Fenian
The rain wasn’t waiting to fall. It was bucketing, pelting, lashing and generally hammering down on the road to Ballinamore in County Leitrim on Saturday night. When we finally arrived, and despite the...
View ArticleNo place for partitionism
Re-enactments can be a powerful way of telling a story and reminding an audience of the role individuals, organisations or political movements have played in the history of a nation. Sometimes such...
View ArticleNollag Shona Daoibhse agus Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise
Nollag Shona Daoibhse agus Athbhliain Faoi MhaiseI like Christmas. I always have. To be clear I don’t like the mad stressed out state that some people are driven to as the commercial Gods pursue profit...
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Building a shared Ireland from the Vision of the First Dáil
Mention the Sinn Féin office on the Falls Road, at its junction with Sevastopol Street, and most people will immediately associate it with the iconic gable wall mural of Bobby Sands that has been there...
View ArticleA challenging year ahead
2019 is already promising to be one of those year’s historians and pundits love to label ‘seminal’ or ‘watershed’. There are big issues and big challenges coming down the tracks which will potentially...
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Jer O’Leary – A Voice of the People
Jer as Big Jim LarkinI have been at too many funerals since Christmas. Ted says it’s because we are people of a certain age. Former Dundalk Sinn Féin Councillor Harry Todd, Arthur Mullen, Armagh City...
View ArticleWe don’t want no border at all
The chaos surrounding Brexit reached new depths of confusion this week. Theresa May’s Plan B announced on Monday turned out to be no plan at all. She ruled out an extension of Article 50 and a second...
View Article48 hours in New York
Today marks 25 years since I was first given a visa by President Clinton to visit the USA. The visa was for 48 hours and restricted to New York. The London Telegraph described the President’s decision...
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Then they came for …You
Gaza CityTwo weeks ago a Bill banning the import of goods made on illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land was overwhelming passed in its second reading by the Dáil – 78 votes to 45 votes. It...
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The Chieftain’s Walk.
Back in the day I would be in Derry quite often for meetings, or unfortunately for funerals, and occasionally for social events. A wedding or a christening. Derry was a place apart. It generally didn’t...
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No return to the status quo
Two weeks ago the British Secretary of State Karen Bradley emerged from the NIO Office in the Stormont Estate to tell us that the conditions for a referendum on unity, as set out in the Good Friday...
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The Springhill Massacre
The Springhill estate in the 1980sThe Upper Springfield area of west Belfast suffered many traumatic events during the years of conflict. The area was the target of British military invasion and...
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Eamonn McCaughley: a courageous, thoughtful republican and comrade
Big Eamonn, Mise agus Cleaky ClarkeThese are my remarks at the funeral of Eamonn McCaughley - Big Eamonn - in Twinbrook on Wednesday:This is our families second funeral in the last few days.Last Friday...
View ArticleBritain waives the rules. Arís
As this column goes to print the British Prime Minister has lost two key votes this week in the British Parliament on the Brexit issue. It is pointless speculating at this time on the outcome of these...
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Raidió Fálte takes up a new home
D’oscail suíomh nua Raidió Fáilte ar an Aoine seo caite. Seo m’cuid foclaí ón imeacht. "Molaim achan duine a chuidigh le Líonra Uladh – Raidió Fáilte a bhunú.Ach tá moladh ag dul do Fergus Í hÍr go...
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No Planet B???? - 12 years to save the planet
Protesting outside Leinster HouseLast week tens of thousands of school pupils in Ireland, and in over 100 countries across the world, took part in an unprecedented demonstration highlighting the threat...
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James Connolly Heron: Remarks to the City Hall Launch of Áras ÚI Chonghaile
James Connolly Heron:Remarks to the City Hall Launch of Áras ÚI Chonghaile on Wednesday 20 March 2019:Chairperson, Thanks to the Committee for the invitation to this launch of a most important visitor...
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Áras Uí Chonghaile – A world class centre for Belfast
Jim McVeigh opening the event “Comrades, Brothers and Sisters,I have wonderful news! Our comrade James Connolly, the General Secretary of our great union, the ITGWU, is returning to Belfast on the...
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A Referendum on Unity is coming
Last November, a few days after the Withdrawal Treaty was published, and on the eve of British Prime Minister Theresa May travelling to Brussels to sign it, Boris Johnson arrived in the North. He was...
View ArticleInstitutional Racism
Four years ago a horrific fire at a so-called ‘temporary halting site’ at Carrickmines in Dublin claimed the lives of ten people – five adults and five children. Thomas and Sylvia O’Connor and their...
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