Legends of the Fall

Poetry in the Aras

It’s official. Michael D Higgins, poet and human rights activist, is the 9th President of Ireland. Being small in stature did not prevent him standing head and shoulders above the rest of the field. In terms of how the public appear to understand the office of President it is a role that would seem to fit Higgins like a glove. He knew the ropes better than the rest of them, what was feasible and what was off limits.

There were really only two candidates in it as the final vote tally demonstrated. The remaining five were also rans who trailed far behind the top two. One serious issue for society to reflect upon is that the two women candidates polled lower than their male rivals, placing both in the bottom two. After 21 years of a female presidency it is as if the men have returned with a vengeance taking 94 per cent of the vote between them. Not a propitious outcome.

From The Cradle

Tonight The Pensive Quill carries a piece by Guest Writer Sean Doyle, Wicklow Branch Independent Workers Union.                                      

From the day we are born our experiences begin. If you want something you protest. You use everything in your arsenal. You cry out and hope someone will hear you and those who care will attend to your needs. But what if there is a disconnect with those who care and the society you are born in to? They see you and those who care as expendable or surplus to requirement. As you grow, that is when right and wrong become clear, it hits you face on. Your conscience and your values comes from the cradle. Before you can express who you are you will spend your lifetime finding and defining but it is as you began.

The system that you were born in to has abysmally failed. Have faith in yourself, listen to your inner, that sense of wrong. You feel and have felt and suppressed it believing that someone else would someday represent and defend your sense of justice that is now drowning in despair. That sense of apathy, powerlessness, inadequacy that is eating away your self esteem, your confidence and your dignity to the extent that you even try to convince yourself for peace sake that you are just a bit depressed, pissed off and tomorrow things will be better. But you know deep down reality will dawn again.

The Devil You Know

Cartoon by Brian Mór
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Democracy’s Reward

Just back home having made my contribution to the presidential outcome. I cast the top vote for Michael D Higgins. Ireland is going to have a President come what may so opting for the candidate least likely to cause problems for society seemed the appropriate way to go. Michael D, while setting nothing alight throughout the campaign, deciding to play it safe and presidential, had the advantage of sounding honest in a bear pit of prevarication and dissembling.  What we saw was basically what we will get if he makes the Aras. He is most likely to be a voice for social justice even if his radicalism falls far short of what his namesake Joe Higgins would prefer.  Whatever the ideological parameters constraining his social vision, social justice is something we would be unlikely to get from the Derry Catholics or Fianna Fail.

Almost Done

After a five week a campaign which was in fact longer given the hype and activity in the run up to the official launch, tomorrow the people that ultimately matter, the voters, shall determine what they made of it all. They were lied to right to the very end. The lies were so outlandish that the voters must have seen through all of it.  They now must decide who they trust most to perform the job as President.

Clearly those that lie most are those who least merit the vote. But ought does not is make. Maybe people don’t care, feeling that honesty in public life is something for the fairies. How on that basis the public will ever be able to make a judgement leading to the betterment of society rather than to its detriment is not explained. The means used to gain power will certainly be deployed to maintain it. It will be lied to by those in office every bit as much as they were lied to by them when seeking office. 

All Go At Gallagher

Initially when Sean Gallagher’s ‘independent’ hat appeared in the ring for the presidential election it hardly looked tailor made to fit the head of the Irish President. But with the electorate poised to go to the polls later this week it is clear that the Aras is in some danger of falling into his hands.

Whatever the alarmist connotations ‘danger’ is the appropriate term. Doubtless,  Gallagher is part of the Fianna Fail machine even if the tracks of his party membership have been covered with a floor mat upon the face of which ‘independent’ is brightly stencilled. Fianna Fail in government effectively destroyed the economy and sacrificed society’s future for the sake of instant gratification. In the words of Fintan O’Toole the Soldiers of Destiny at the head of government:

blew it. They allowed an unreconstructed culture of cronyism, self indulgence, and, at its extremes, of outright corruption to remain in place ... they fostered ... a false economy of facades and fictions. The practiced the economics of utter idiocy ... they amused themselves with fantasy projects and pet projects while the opportunity to break cycles of deprivation and end child poverty was frittered away. They turned self-confidence into arrogance, optimism into swagger, aspiration into self delusion.

No better advertisement for a re-launch of the same old same old than to allow Fianna Fail’s man near the Aras.

Moratorium?

It has been a tough presidential campaign for Martin McGuinness. He entered with a bang and despite giving it his best shot now seems destined to exit with a whimper. The decibels from the early days of his campaign could no longer drown out the questions that were being asked of him about an IRA past he suggested was mischievously manufactured.  The war in the North was probably less damaging to his prospects than its overspill into the South. A public prepared to waive its misgivings about the use of arms against British troops and cops in the North tended to frown when those targeted were Irish soldiers or guards. The confrontation with David Kelly in Athlone seemed to change the public mood. Since then McGuinness has found the going uphill and bogged down. 

Not for the first time has Sinn Fein found itself accused of trying to bunk into some political institution without coughing up the entrance fee. In the currency of any democratic society part of the coinage is scrutiny. In this country’s presidential election Sinn Fein through its irritable objections gives the impression of not wanting to pay.  Much of its response to critical questioning rings evasive, a diversion sign aimed at redirecting public attention toward some contrived fracas and away from the dispute at the toll booth. When the dust settled and the eyes returned the party was still seen as insisting on not wanting to pay for its ticket.

Off to Dublin

The Provisional Irish Republican Army And The Morality Of Terrorism

This review featured in Democracy And Security. Volume 7 No 3 July-September 2011.

The status of most violent Liberal Democracy in the world is not one that any country or region, unless perversely enamoured to dysfuntionalism, would seek to covet. Yet, somewhere has to get it and for its troubles tiny Northern Ireland, with its population of approximately 1.5 million, has scooped the unwanted award. There, on the northwest fringe of Europe, between 1969 and 1990 the number of people killed as a result of political violence was ‘greater than that in all other European Community countries combined.’ (1).

Despite having accounted for the majority of conflict related deaths, the Provisional IRA ultimately ‘capitulated’ (2) with little to show for its efforts as measured against its stated objectives. In The Provisional Irish Republican Army And The Morality Of Terrorism Timothy Shanahan has set out to evaluate the morality of an IRA campaign that produced little and inflicted much. Employing a number of analytical strands from the methodology of moral philosophy this study locks horns with what the Provisional IRA narrative would state are the facts on the ground of the violent Northern Irish political conflict.

Top Ten List

Cartoon by Brian Mór
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Miriam & Martin

The past week has not been a good one for Martin McGuinness in his bid to become President of Ireland. Dropping points in the latest Red C poll while two of his rivals made gains was hardly the news he wanted to wake up to on Sunday morning.  At the beginning of the week he had been challenged in Athlone by the son of an Irish soldier killed during an IRA operation in 1983. His frosty response risked polluting the public mood. Then during a televised presidential candidates debate on Prime Time, which pulled 700, 000 viewers at its peak, he seemed to wince as Miriam O’Callaghan held his feet to the fire. The deficiency in his performance was only slightly masked by a bizarre intervention towards the end by his fellow Derry citizen, Dana. To boot, the seriousness to be attached to his bid for the Aras was called into question by none other than his party colleague, Martin Ferris, who informed the Dail that McGuinness was ‘only journeying down for a number of weeks.’ This added ballast to the suspicions of those already predisposed to the notion that seizing the Aras was not after all the strategic logic behind Sinn Fein’s decision to run McGuinness; it was more about colonising the Fianna Fail vote.

Martin McGuinness and the Hunger Strike

Tonight The Pensive Quill reprints this article by guest writer Rusty Nail of Slugger O'Toole, which examines Irish Presidential Candidate Martin McGuinness' role in the controversy over the handling of the 1981 Hunger Strike. 

Monday, September 28, 2009

1981 Hunger Strike: Deconstructing McGuinness

Rusty Nail at Slugger O’Toole

A couple of analogies to start. And then an extended deconstruction of McGuinness’ article from the Irish News.

Picture Gerry Adams as manager of the team, Danny Morrison as Captain. Bik McFarlane is a star player. Gibney is a coach. Imagine the Irish News special as the Cup final. The manager, who never gave public interviews all season, has disappeared. The Captain has absented himself from the field, and taken his star player with him (probably after consulting with Coach Gibney). Reserve player Laurence McKeown, who has performed well in the past, and heretofore unseen on the field McGuinness are the main defence. And that is where they spend the game – stuck in their own box, not even able to contemplate scoring a goal of their own, and barely able to keep the other team from repeatedly netting the ball. Now, knowing they were going into a losing game, it may have been sound strategy to absent the key players from the field at the crucial moment, in order have a ready-made excuse for the coming disaster, but it will do nothing to mitigate what is bound to be a resounding defeat. At the start of the season they were the favourites – but anyone who still has money on them now has woefully misread the underdog.

Where are Morrison and McFarlane? At this point, if we were to believe what they have been saying all along, they should be easily sinking it into the net now, shouldn’t they? Instead, their absence hands a victory to their opposition. “Your silence will not protect you,” the saying goes. Speaking of silence, President-For-Life Adams is still staying schtum on the whole thing. A mixed blessing, given his increasing predilection for inappropriate flights of fancy – but an indictment of the worst aspects of his leadership. The buck stops with him, yet he is quite content to pass it until some loyal dimwit falls on his sword for him. (Any takers on who it will be first?)

Dealing With Occupation

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer David McSweeney writing about the the occupation of Ireland.

Ernst and Young, the accountancy firm which audited the Anglo Irish bank accounts in the lead up to its implosion, announced 300 new jobs for Ireland last week. Half of them, the announcement statement told us will be for “experienced operatives” moving within the organisation. So some of those responsible for enabling the biggest disaster in world banking history, will be looking at higher salaries and new grandiose titles.

Media reports of the last week have also informed us that seventeen Anglo Irish bank executives from the Fitzpatrick era are still employed by that organisation, each on salaries of at least one hundred and sixty five thousand euros per annum.

Led Zeppelin

It is a long time since I read a book on Led Zeppelin, Hammer of the Gods which I raced through while imprisoned. This output, part of the Virgin Modern Icon series, is a much shorter one and considerably less detailed. It is also controversy deficient. Apart from revealing that the group had a reputation as hell raisers prone to throwing the odd television set out a hotel window, there were no revelations. Richard Cole, the group’s one time road manager, might have cornered the market there.

By 1970 the Peter Grant managed band had displaced the Beatles as the World’s leading group. There is a rare televised interview with Robert Plant and John Bonham on the day that particular announcement was made, wisely retained for posterity, which is still worth watching. Over the following decade this band would literally ‘strut, swagger and preen’ the world stage, producing the finest rock music of the last century. It ended quicker than it started with the untimely death of drummer John Bonham after a heavy drinking session.

It Ain’t Necessarily So

The things that you're liable
To read in the Bible
It ain't necessarily so
-    Bronski Beat

In a piece that has caused a stir in some republican circles as of late, the former republican prisoner and hunger striker Laurence McKeown explained his discomfort at attending an event to protest the killing of the young British police officer, Ronan Kerr:

I attended because I felt it was the right thing to do. But it felt uncomfortable. I was standing alongside people who had often been condemnatory of the IRA. I wondered if they now felt vindicated, or morally righteous, that republicans now joined them to condemn the actions of other republicans.

A Wee Black Booke of Belfast Anarchism (1867-1973)

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Sean Matthews who reviews a book on the history of Belfast anarchism.

Irish anarchism is a movement only coming into existence. We do not yet enjoy the popular understanding of and respect for anarchist ideas that can be found among thousands of militants and the wider working class in countries like Sweden, Spain, Italy, South America or Korea. But that is not to say that we have no history at all. We are beginning to uncover forgotten events and this excellent pamphlet provides a small glimpse and snapshot in history of Belfast anarchism, a movement and tendency which still continues to grow spreading the gospel of radical working class direct action on the streets of Belfast.

David And Goliath

An intellectually daunting task it definitely is not to work out why Martin McGuinness wants discussion of his past to be ruled off limits during the current presidential election campaign. Yesterday’s confrontation, caught on camera, between him and David Kelly made for powerful television. It required no extra ingredients to merit the description ‘dramatic.’ The dramatis personae were pitched against each other in a real life drama played out in full public view; one determined to make his own personal case for justice, the other, while professing to agree with him, determined to cheat him out of it.

Looking at the incident from where I sat the presidential candidate was caught unawares by what he thought was a member of the public seeking an autograph only to be confronted by a son bearing a photo of a father killed in the course of an IRA operation in 1983. McGuinness if he faltered did so only fleetingly. He did not lose his composure, but he would have been better served by losing his arrogance.

On the Rocky Road

Cartoon by Brian Mór
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Bigoted Brethren

Some elements of unionism seem not to have even the limited brains Dawson Bailey was born with. Had grey matter been present even in small quantities post-Holy Cross, the debacle of seriously silly own goals might have taken a backseat. It was not to be. If there is any group more than capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory it is the Orange Order.

Attending a funeral would appear to be a civilised course of action. Not long back Martin McGuinness turned up for the funeral of Iris Robinson’s father and was made welcome by Free Presbyterian officials on the day. Doubtless, in some church hall in the bowels of Sandy Row, a few enraged bigots cursed the event and shook their fists at their devil hijacked television screens amidst undertakings that they would gouge their own eyes out if they took another peek at proceedings.

Take Him To Your Bosom

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Sean Doyle of the Independent Workers Union, Wicklow Branch, commenting on Martin McGuinness’s bid for the Presidency.

To the 26 counties Nationalists I say stop procrastinating about the coat your presidential candidate should wear. He and his party are following in the footsteps of Irish Nationalist tradition. 

Marty Down Under

A feature of the current Irish Presidential campaign has been the emergence of a body of opinion that has homed in on what it regards as a brand of hypocrisy in the South of the country. The latter it is said manifests, even prides itself in a willingness to have Martin McGuinness occupy a position of political authority in the North while simultaneously holding its nose at the prospect of something similar in the South. While certainly not alone in subscribing to this critical perspective the writer Jude Collins tersely caught its main theme:

There is no rational line that can be argued which says that McGuinness is fine 'up there' but a deadly danger 'down here'. Except, of course, you're a southern partitionist who is scared witless at the way the North has begun to play an increasing part in the public life of the south.

Setting aside the expansionist overtone in such commentary, it is plausible to contend that in the South, not vastly different from the North in this regard, hypocrisy is moved in skips rather than brown envelopes, it being so bulky and voluminous. But it is far from certain that the attitude towards McGuinness is informed by hypocrisy alone.

Gerry McGeough: Autumn Briefing

Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Helen McClafferty providing recent updates on the imprisonment of Gerry McGeough.

16 September 2011

Gerry calls on Owen Paterson and David Cameron to "release him immediately".

Gerry McGeough has called for his immediate release and said the British Army’s apology for the murder of an innocent man by a British soldier is “political hypocrisy” since the soldier is not being prosecuted for the murder.    “Is there justice or not?” asks Gerry.   Gerry wants to know how the British government can justify his incarceration for membership in the IRA in 1975 and yet allow this soldier to go unprosecuted for committing murder in 1971?   As the article below reads: “RUC chief superintendent in the city, Frank Lagan, said the soldier responsible should have been charged with murder”.

'Army apologise for shooting man - www.bbc.co.uk - The Chief of the General Staff of the British Army sends an official apology to the family of a man shot dead by a soldier in Londonderry in 1971.

Gerry asks that everyone write to Owen Paterson and David Cameron demanding his immediate release. Please reference this story/incident when contacting them. 

Belfast Calling

I believe that society owes it to those it failed to protect in the past, to expose the wrong done to those children and ensure that every step is taken to pursue the perpetrators and those who failed or purposely refused to carry out their duties to protect children and to investigate and prosecute criminals - Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Sinn Fein TD.

A Dublin court has ordered the extradition of Liam Adams to Belfast so that he may answer charges of child rape. He is a former chairman of Sinn Fein’s Louth Comhairle Ceantair, a position he held despite the party president being both aware of and believing child rape allegations against him. If the accused man waives his right to appeal he could be sent North to face trial in the coming days.

The Bangers Bulletin: Scoop of the Year!

Cartoon by Brian Mór
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To be a War Criminal Presupposes a War

We've committed many war crimes in Vietnam - but I'll tell you something interesting about that. We were committing war crimes in World War II, before the Nuremberg trials were held and the principle of war crimes was stated - George Wald

In the wake of the decision by Martin McGuinness to enter the race for the Irish Presidency it is interesting to note a change of inflexion in some areas of media discourse. The Irish Mail on Sunday perhaps provided the best example last week in its definition of the decades-long armed Irish conflict as ‘our own most recent war.’ It was not committed to print in an unguarded moment; the term ‘war’ dosed the entire editorial.  This seems to be a purpose built innovation, constructed solely for the ease with which it will permit allegations of war criminality to be levelled against the Sinn Fein presidential candidate.

On the Stump

Cartoon by Brian Mór
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Scoops Not Filed

A few days ago an article appeared in the Irish Times by Peter Murtagh. It related to the 1986 IRA killing of Frank Hegarty, one of its senior volunteers who had gone ‘over to the other side’ as Martin McGuinness put it. The other side ironically, given where Sinn Fein is today, was then the British state. There is little room for doubting that Hegarty was a British agent or that he was unaware that the sanction for going over to the other side was, as Martin McGuinness said, ‘death certainly.’ But that was less the point of Murtagh’s article than the role he alleges was played by McGuinness in the immediate aftermath of the killing.

Murtagh wrote that he visited the Hegarty home to interview the dead man’s loved ones and while there he was first confronted and then compelled to leave by two republican goondas.

There was a knock on the door. Two men came in. One stood directly in front of me, cutting me off from the women. The other engaged the woman who had been talking to me. I was ushered out, out to a waiting car. Inside the car sat Martin McGuinness. The family is very upset, he said. It wasn’t good to talk to them right now; in fact, they really couldn’t talk right now. It wasn’t a negotiation. The interview was over. Ended by McGuinness and his two heavies.

McGuinness, accused recently in many newspapers of having lured Hegarty to his death, was a Sinn Fein elected representative at the time. This context would have given legs to Murtagh’s account had he filed it immediately. Yet it was never published in the Guardian for whom he was covering the Stalker controversy when the Hegarty killing occured.