Interview with Dixie Elliott

Peace Processing the Memory of the Conflict

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Barajas

Having used Barajas Airport in Madrid on a number of occasions, on top of having flown to and from Spain in a Spanair McDonnell-Douglas carrier, there was much sympathy on my part along with not a little anguish at the fate of those 154 air travellers, mostly holiday makers, who perished on Wednesday shortly after their plane had taken off from the Spanish capital. A month ago we had travelled as a family from Dublin to Palma Airport on the Spanish island of Mallorca. About to embark on a holiday is a time of relaxation for parents and exuberant...

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Showing The Man

Because Martin Meehan was such a solid republican figure, the acrimonious dispute which followed Joe Graham’s publication of a biography of the late Ardoyne man was a cause for sorrow rather than anger. A review that might try to blame one party or the other would succeed only in taking attention away from the person who deserves it most, Martin Meehan.Show Me The Man is a folksy biography which seeks to show the man Martin Meehan in a very favourable light. Those of us who knew and liked ‘Mick’ will hardly complain about that. But I suspect if...

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Every now and then it happens. The state or the system encounters an individual who, bafflingly, maddeningly, absurdly, cannot be broken – Christopher HitchensMy mother first prompted me into reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn. She loved Russian literature. It was through her that I also came while imprisoned to read Dostoyevsky, of whom it is said Solzhenitsyn, conservative and traditionalist, was a modern reincarnation. It was her view that Russian novelists brought characters to life like no other. She felt the beings created by great Russian writers...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

No Minute Silence

The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence - Sylvia PlathI am deeply honoured that Ausubo Press felt strongly enough about my writings to want to put them out as a book. It is not just an acknowledgement of the effort I put in to writing them against a background of stress, ostracism and intimidation but is also recognition of those republicans who spoke to me and allowed me to bring to public attention their views and concerns. At those times none of us...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Left Unity - you must be joking

Sitting on board a flight to Spain, I was somewhat amused to read an article in the Irish Times under the headline ‘Talks in progress on forming new Irish left party, says activist.’ My first reaction was 'here we go again'. I read the piece in question to allow myself time for reflection and any second thoughts that might come. Which they duly did - and amounted to 'here we go again, again'. Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance was the man behind the proposal. When not fronting the campaign against the profiteers Boyd Barrett...

Good Friday Reviews: What people are saying

Joe Graham, Davy Carlin, Malachi O Doherty, Ruth Dudley Edwards and Richard English weigh in on Good Friday. "A fascinating insight into politics in the six north eastern counties of Ireland, some times referred to as "Northern Ireland". There is perhaps no better person to write about the death of republicanism through the post "Good Friday" agreement than Anthony McIntyre, a man who courageously voiced his opinion throughout, and in the face of, many threats directed against him and his family....

Monday, August 11, 2008

Writing Good Friday

All great truths started out as blasphemies - George Bernard ShawAll thanks to Aoife Rivera Serrano and her indefatigable colleagues at Ausubo Press in New York for publishing in book form a collection of my articles and interviews in the years following the Good Friday Agreement. There is much satisfaction to be derived from the work being published as a book. Up until now much of it has been restricted to the internet. With the publication of Good Friday: The Death of Irish Republicanism, more people will have access to writings which sought...

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Viva España

Back home a week now, gazing out the living room window at the driving Irish rain I forlornly ponder that different worlds are separated by nothing other than 2 hours flight time. Last Sunday morning as I viewed the mizzle enveloping the street in front of me I was still trying to take it in that less than 48 hours earlier I had been swimming in the Mediterranean with my wife and two children. At such moments I recall Tommy Gorman’s summation of the Irish weather – summer is on a Thursday this year....

Good Friday Review: "Why the IRA lost its long and futile battle"

The reviews are coming in. Here is Liam Clarke, writing in today's Sunday Times. Good Friday, The Death of Irish Republicanism From The Sunday TimesAugust 10, 2008Liam Clarke: Why the IRA lost its long and futile battleThey weren’t a response to the British being in Ireland, but to how the British behaved there.Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney must be closet astrologers, as their timing defies explanation. Moloney brought out his updated biography of Ian Paisley just a few days before the big man...

Saturday, August 9, 2008

New Book: Good Friday: The Death of Irish Republicanism

Good Friday, The Death of Irish Republicanism is released this week. It will be available at the Queen's University bookshop, as well as online via the publisher, Ausubo Press, and other online outlets: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes and Noble, Borders.com. In the coming days The Pensive Quill will feature reviews of the book. Today we feature Tommy McKearney's review. Tommy McKearney, journalist, editor and organizer comments on Good Friday and its author.Over the past decade, Anthony McIntyre...

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