Clik here to view.
Remembering Bobby Sands.
In 1973 just before midnight on Christmas Eve, I was caught along with three other comrades attempting to escape from Long Kesh. We were among a large group of men and women interned without charge or...
View ArticleThe Choctaws- A Debt Repaid.
The Irish proverb: “Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.” translates as: “We all live in each other’s shadow.” In other words we are all interlinked.In our own lifetime probably no greater...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BREAKING THEIR OWN LAWS.
The British named it Operation Demetrius. For those of us who lived through the 9 August 1971 it was internment day. Like many others I was awakened early that morning by the sound of binlids rattling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
You only die once. You live everyday.
Mise agus Martin on a tiny planeheading to another round of negotiations in 2003I remember Martin McGuinness, in response to a question, telling a journalist that he expected to be dead before he was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
You don’t get to be Racist and Irish
The George Floyd mural on the Falls Road You don’t get to be racist and IrishYou don’t get to be proud of your heritage,plights and fights for freedomwhile kneeling on the neck of another!These are the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bodenstown and the realignment of Irish Politics
Wolfe ToneLike the Easter commemorations earlier this year this Sunday’s Bodenstown ceremony will take place online. Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD, who has previously spoken at Bodenstown on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No to Israeli annexation
The Monstrous Separation Wall that stretches for hundreds of kilometres across stolen Palestinian land, cutting Palestinians off from their farms and water sourcesFive times in recent years I have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Leading the Opposition
Last Tuesday republicans buried our friend and comrade Bobby Storey. His death, after a long battle with illness, has left a void in all our lives. Big Bob was a larger than life character. For almost...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Falls Curfew.
The Falls Curfew 50 years ago last weekend was a tipping point in modern Irish history.. The previous August (1969) unionist mobs had burned out hundreds of nationalist homes in west and north Belfast,...
View ArticlePartition has to go
There is unanimity of approach among the establishment parties in the Oireachtas when it comes to a referendum on Irish Unity – they are against it. Last week the Taoiseach Micheál Martin ruled out a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Roger Casement Versus The Empire: Statues for Irish Heroes
Roger CasementBelfast has a long and proud tradition of opposition to slavery and colonialism. On 8 July we celebrated the birth in 1770 of Mary Ann McCracken a fierce opponent of slavery. She and her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Lean ar aghaidh’ – ‘Go Ahead’.
This Sunday, August 2nd, the 2020 National Hunger Strike Commemoration will take place online. Sunday will also be the anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Andersonstown man Kieran Doherty....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering John Hume
The death of John Hume is a huge loss for the Irish people but especially for his wife, his life partner and confidant, Pat and their family. My thoughts and prayers are with them. During the years of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WITNESS TREES.
I used to have an old hard backed copy of Nora Connolly O’Brien’s; ‘Portrait Of A Rebel Father’. This wonderful account of James Connolly’s life, as recalled by his daughter, is a must read for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Support The Chieftains Walk.
Martin McGuinness was our leader, comrade and friend. His death shocked us all. His life of activism also motivated many people to become active in struggle and today. Countless citizens have empowered...
View ArticlePartition sucks. It doesn’t merit celebration
A century ago a new line appeared on the map of Ireland. It carved its way for 300 miles across the landscape from Derry in the North West to Dundalk in the East. Partition separated farmers from their...
View ArticleAn Taoiseach Is Not A United Irelander.
Partition is almost 100 years old. But for democrats across this island, and in the Irish diaspora, for all of that time it has always been the great wrong that has to be righted. But it is not only a...
View ArticlePerfidious Albion.
A Little Englander is someone who thinks that England and the English are superior to all other countries and people. Many people think their country is better than other countries. And some are. At...
View ArticleBrexit and the disunited Kingdom: The Centenary of Kevin Barry; and Frederick...
Brexit and the disunited KingdomThe Brexit crisis has at times been surreal and bizarre. The Unionist parties embraced Brexit claiming, as many Tories do, that leaving the EU would make Britain great...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Another part of our history demolished: Like characters from the Gulag
Another part of our history demolishedLast week 40 Herbert Park, the home of the only leader of the 1916 Rising to be killed in action, was demolished in a shameful act of political and corporate...
View Article