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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A Government Starting to Crack? Are we over-optimistic?
Perhaps we are over-optimistic, – and the little voice should always say “optimism of the will, pessimism of the spirit” – we think that was Antonio Gramsci’s advice to activists – but it looks like the Kenny- Gilmore government is on the slide downwards towards a Cowen-Gormley meltdown – let’s hope!
By now most will have read the comments Leo Vardkar made about RTÉ, and I’ll get to them in a moment. But let’s start with his less than opportune timing as regards this remark:
He also said RTÉ was “encouraging people to break the law” by giving access to campaigners urging people not to pay the household tax. He claimed RTÉ would not give access to groups advocating that people refuse to pay the television licence fee.
Well perhaps they would if there was a campaign of mass non-payment on the TV license.
But what if instead of ‘law-breakers’ being the problem, the truth is the law itself is broken?
According to The Journal.ie
THE HIGH COURT has granted leave for a challenge to be made against the household charge because the necessary legislation and the statutory instruments are in the English language only – and have yet to be…
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Phil Hogan gets go-ahead to use bills because of household tax mass boycott
Government admitting non-payment of household tax is supported by a vast majority of the population. Read below biased headline of a right-wing newspaper.
Greece – The urgency of an independent women’s movement against debt and austerity measures
http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2468
Solidarity, Greetings, to all friends – International Women’s Day 2012
Dublin Council of Trade Unions: a campaign against austerity; no to the Fiscal Treaty ; non-payment of the household and water charges.
Motion from UNITE passed at the DCTU delegate meeting on Tuesday 28th on austerity, the fiscal compact and the household and water Charges.
It calls for a united campaign against austerity, for the trade unions and the ICTU to oppose the Treaty and for support for the household and water charges non-payment campaign.
United Left Alliance Galway and X Case – Public Meeting 7th March, 2012
From the ULA/Galway…(via The Cedar Lounge Revolution)
ULA Galway to hold public information meeting to mark 20th anniversary of the X Case and to highlight legislation campaign
The Galway branch of the United Left Alliance will hold a public meeting to mark the twentieth anniversary of the X Case and to publicise the Medical Treatment Bill 2012, which will give legislative effect to the ruling made by the Supreme Court in the case.
The public meeting will take place this Wednesday (7th March) at 7:30pm in the Kirwan Lecture Theatre in NUI Galway.
Wednesday marks the twentieth anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, which held that a woman, whose life was endangered by a pregnancy, could legally avail of an abortion in Ireland. The meeting will also coincide with International Women’s Day.
The ULA TDs and some of the Dáil technical group TDs have brought forward the Medical Treatment (Termination Of Pregnancy In Case Of Risk To Life Of Pregnant Woman) Bill 2012 in order to provide a legislative basis for the legal termination of a pregnancy in the very limited circumstances where such treatment is deemed necessary to prevent a woman’s death, including the threat of suicide. This was the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment in Attorney General v. X in 1992.
The public meeting will hear from three distinguished speakers, and will be chaired by local activist and ULA chairperson Dette McLoughlin.
Dr. Niamh Reilly, who is a senior lecturer at NUI Galway and a co-director of the University’s Global Women’s Studies programme will speak about the political, legal and social contexts that led to the X Case.
Midwife and activist Mary Smith has worked as a nurse with Dublin’s Well Woman Centre and as a research office with the crisis pregnancy agency and will highlight the experiences of women who have affected by the lack of legislation and clarity with regard to lifesaving abortion.
Therese Caherty is co-convenor of the Open Feminist Forum and a member of the Action on X campaign group. She will discuss the Bill and its provisions, as well as the political process that will be required to see it become law.
The meeting will end with a question and answer session,
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Galway ULA chairperson Dette McLoughlin asked “why has this Supreme Court ruling been ignored? The electorate has twice urged the Government through referendums to act on the reality of crisis pregnancy and relate this judgment into law. We have had six successive Governments and yet shamefully we still do not have legislation in place. It appears that the vast majority of elected representatives choose to ignore the will of the people rather than speak out for legislation.”
“The most basic level of reproductive rights is still being denied to women in Ireland. Twenty years on, despite women having the right to an abortion in Ireland in limited circumstances, the State has failed to give legislative effect to the Supreme Court ruling. This means that all women living in Ireland who need to terminate a pregnancy are forced to travel abroad to access this medical procedure.”
“This has gone on long enough.”
The “X” case involved a 14-year old girl who had become pregnant by rape. The girl, known as “X”, was barred from travelling abroad for an abortion. Amidst anger at the court’s injunction and sympathy for the girl’s situation, the case convulsed the citizens of Ireland. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that abortion was legal where there was a “real and substantial risk to the life” of a pregnant woman, including suicide.
Over 60 organisations and individuals – including several TDs, trade unions, and doctors, have called for immediate legislation in line with the ‘X’ case.
“This bill is in line with the constitution, with the 1992 Supreme Court ruling and with the wishes of the people as expressed in two referendums. If passed it would represent an historic step forward for women, and for the country as a whole. There is no excuse for Government or opposition TDs to oppose this Bill. We must put pressure on politicians to support this bill. We cannot allow them to play the coward with this vitally important issue. Come along on Wednesday and add your voice to the campaign.
For more information visit http://www.unitedleftalliance.org or find ULA Galway on Facebook.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 