Archive for the ‘Britain’ Category
Violent Legacy of Irish Troubles, British Double-Standards – Boston College Row Revisited
Ed Moloney’s Irish Echo Editorial (an Irish-American Newspaper) on the Boston tapes controversy is required reading for all people genuinely interested in dealing with the violent legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles (1969-1998, signing of the Good Friday Agreement).
Two key quotes :
Number 1 :But the war has now ended, peace reigns and there is a desperate need for dealing with the past in a way that solidifies that peace and ensures an untroubled future.
The British have chosen a way that does the opposite. The Boston College subpoenas symbolize an approach to this issue based on revenge and the view that alleged combatants in that war should be dragged before the courts, convicted and jailed.
Number 2 :
There will be those, of course, who will say that if Gerry Adams did order Jean McConville’s “disappearance” then he deserves to be prosecuted. In a normal society, one ruled by a normal government, that would be a difficult argument to answer. But Northern Ireland is not, even with the peace process, a normal society and nowhere is this more evident than in the administration of justice.
The plain, undeniable fact is that there are double standards in the way justice is doled out in Northern Ireland.
Read, Circulate, and Act.
Slowly, but inexorably, the penny is dropping, both here in the United States as well as back in Ireland.
The Boston College subpoenas seeking access to oral history interviews with former IRA activists on behalf of the police in Northern Ireland are about the dumbest things that have ever happened in the long relationship between the United States, Britain and Ireland.
The difficulty is not how to describe why they are so dumb, but in counting the ways in which they are so dumb.
First of all, this is not the way in which to heal a conflict like that in the North of Ireland.
Over 3,000 people died and tens of thousands were scarred, physically and mentally, by a war that was undoubtedly one of the longest and most violent, if not the most violent in Irish history.
But the…
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Belfast to Boston Via Afghanistan
Eamonn McCann has written a fascinating account of former Royal Ulster Constabulary Officers who urged a legal assault on the Boston Archive in order to settle old scores :
Norman Baxter’s Long Crusade
Well worth reading :
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/13/norman-baxters-long-crusade/
Mr Baxter was part of the police team that unsuccessfully investigated the 1998 Omagh Bombing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8356020.stm
Enda Kenny Grins For The Gintry – But Can He Stop A Referendum on the new EU Fiscal Treaty?
Enda Kenny was one of the courtly mummers in the presence of her britannic majesty in 2011 – good practice for 2012!
See Also :
Old Kenny Apologises For Ireland to the Gintry
http://www.irishleftreview.org/2012/01/27/kenny-apologises-ireland-gintry/
UPDATE :
Enda told Nicolas he would stop an Irish Referendum on the new European Union fiscal treaty – has the Taoiseach broken another promise?
The ruling class discreetly applauds the Fine Gael leader’s broken promises to the little people – such as when he went back on a pre-election pledge to stop the closure of Roscommon Hospital.
http://www.endakenny.com/?p=213
But Enda won’t get any ear-grabs for letting down the big people – a much more serious mistake!
Article 27 and the Independent TDs
A group of Independent TDs who want Europe’s new fiscal treaty put to a referendum will seek to use a little known constitutional provision to petition the President to do so, it has emerged.
Under Article 27 of the Constitution, a Bill can be referred to a referendum if requested by at least one third of the Dáil, and a majority of the Seanad.
Donegal South West TD Thomas Pringle said he was “hopeful of achieving that requirement.”
http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/article-27-and-the-independent-tds/
“Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey” – An exploration of Mass Action Politics
Mass action in Ireland in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s comes across vividly in Lelia Doolan’s Documentary “Bernadette – Notes on a Political Journey” which is screened on the Irish Language Channel TG 4 on Monday January 30
http://www.tg4.ie/tv-listings/tv-listings.html?date=2012-01-30
Here are some reviews :
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/theticket/2011/1118/1224307739334.html
http://www.irishexaminer.com/features/dealing-with-devlin-179994.html
http://spooool.com/2011/11/bernadette-notes-on-a-political-journey/
If you have not already seen this documentary – don’t miss the TG4 Broadcast.
If you have seen it – watch it again!
Bernadette Devlin, A Fearless Socialist
John Meehan January 28 2012
“BLOODY SUNDAY…..unleashed a wave of nationalism that engulfed the Republic; biggest general strike in Europe since the second World War ” – Éamonn McCann Irish Times Article
Éamonn McCann discusses the impact of Bloody Sunday South of the Irish Border – a general strike developed rapidly and a huge Dublin Demonstration from Parnell Square to Merrion Square finished with the burning of the British Embassy.
I was on that march, and stood in the middle of the crowd outside the British Embassy as preparations unfolded rapidly for the burning of the building. I discovered later that a near-neighbour, Séamus Costello, was widely believed to be the person who gave the final order to torch the building.
Update :
Listen to a riveting RTÉ Radio 1 History Show – broadcast on Sunday January 29 2012, where Eamonn McCann discusses Bloody Sunday with panellists Brian Hanley (author of The Lost Revolution) and Queens’ University Historian Margaret O’Callaghan – the presenter is Myles Dungan.
http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2012/pc/pod-v-thehistoryshow290112-pid0-3023400.mp3
Boston College Betrays Interviewees
The legal dispute between Boston College and the British State over the “Belfast Project”, a series of confidential interviews with participants in Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, has taken a dramatic turn in a foul direction :
Some background: Boston College sponsored the Belfast Project, an effort to secure interviews with former members of paramilitary organizations on both sides of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Because such a project would require people to speak frankly about their participation in acts of unlawful violence, the project’s researchers promised participants that their interviews would be embargoed until their deaths. Each tape and transcript of an interview with a former member of the Provisional IRA, for example, or the Ulster Volunteer Force, would be closely held in BC’s Burns Library, securely locked away from historians and journalists until the contents of the material could no longer cause legal harm or political retribution to the interviewee.
http://chrisbrayblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/boston-college-time-for-resignations.html
More news will follow.
Tariq Ali – One on One – Al Jazeera English – “History Always Surprises Us”
Tariq Ali – One on One – Al Jazeera English.
This is a 25 Minute interview – biographical and political – the father’s advice was to always “speak the truth”.
Tariq Ali - Still Fighting After All Those Years
Tariq Ali’s writing and public commentary on global affairs, particularly the international left, over the past four decades has made him an influential figure worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 