Andrée Murphy

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Commissions are our modern-day colonial outposts

The dehumanising of our community by unionism is not something new. Casting our rights to equality and dignity as in violation of laws which compound inequality and indignity as also as old as occupation and colonialism itself. It is the deliberate trick to privilege the position of the oppressor. To experience it in 2026, following a couple of decades of progress is annoying but nothing we can’t handle.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Micheál Martin out of step with the Garvaghy unity of purpose

Whatever you might think of them, it would be hard to argue against the assertion that Sinn Féin’s MaryLou McDonald and, especially, Michelle O’Neill have not put a toe wrong over the past two weeks. In touch with their constituencies and the national mood, they asserted a new politics into an old argument. At once they defended the people of the Garvaghy Road and managed to keep their obligations to their respective parliaments, and not flinch in the face of unionist and media hostility. If Sinn Féin come out top in next year’s Assembly elections, many will point to this fortnight as a significant factor. And Mícheál Martin appears to be seething.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: We shall overcome – just as we did in the past

There is no such thing as coincidence here, collusion yes, coincidence no. Who told Jamie Bryson that there were irregular Parades Commission procedures in the Drumcree determination, irregularities that made him successfully challenge the determination in court? No other determination was challenged. But with an exceptional stroke of luck for the Orange Order the internal communication process wasn’t 100% regarding the decision, and therefore challengeable. My spidy senses tell me that was not a coincidence.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Irish footballers must not be given a pass as Israel games loom

She was 21 years old and decided that she would not handle oranges from South Africa, and by doing so gave Ireland a moral compass in the face of governmental failure. Dubliner Mary Manning was a member of a trade union, not one of the biggest, and that union had passed motions against goods and services from the Apartheid state. Mary was in a low paid job in Dunnes Stores in Dublin City Centre in the 1980s, when most of those of her age were forced to emigrate to England or America due to the poverty and high unemployment rates. But she still chose to take a stand. From 1984 until 1987 she, and ten other Dunnes Strikers stayed on strike pay until the government was forced to adopt an embargo on South African goods. An ordinary working-class woman on a check out stood up while others found excuses not to. When Nelson Mandela was released and came to Ireland, he insisted on meeting her and her fellow strikers, and thanking them.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: This united front is what's needed to end the union

There is nothing performative, minimal or ordinary about what happened in Cardiff this week as Sinn Féin, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party signed a memorandum of understanding which brought mature 21st century politics into the British colonial denial of self determination to our Celtic nations. A united front from the parties that want to disunite the union.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: An attack on memory and hope

On the 5th February 1992, Christy Doherty (52), Jack Duffin (66), James Kennedy (15), Peter Magee (18) and William McManus (54) were killed in Sean Grahams Bookmakers on the Ormeau Road. Nine were wounded, including Peter Magee’s brother in-law Mark Sykes. Systemic RUC collusion in that attack has been laid bare after the families were forced to engage a Goliath battle seeking to have that truth established, with family members dying young as a result of trauma and injury. One of the weapons used in the attack was placed on public display in the Imperial War Museum, while the investigation was still live. At the 29th anniversary commemoration PSNI officers arrested Mark Sykes in one of the most appalling acts of public authority indecency seen since the ceasefires.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: The source of our many ills remains unchanged, Mr Burnham

I wasn’t sold on the Good Friday Agreement when I read it for the first time.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Mike Nesbitt was never rewarded for his decency

Is being decent and professional in our local politics now a vote loser?

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Chris Bryant's first significant act is one of dismissal

In social media this week there was a concerted effort by some Tory MPs to assert of victimhood of British soldiers who are being asked to account for their actions during the conflict. Portraying them as victims, the slick and well-funded campaign is designed to undermine the rights of those bereaved and injured and asks us to have sympathy for those who wore uniforms and “protected us”. Of course this appeal to jingoism and some sense of patriotism flies in the face of the established facts, where British soldiers took lives, injured and tortured with impunity for the duration of the conflict, who still face soft soap forms of non-accountable conversations with non-human right compliant “investigations” and only in rare and absolutely incontrovertible cases might face the rigour of the law.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: The music's over and now's the time for vital questions

It was a week of surprise, hope and smiles across Belfast last week and a common sense that this was glimpse into what we could be, and what we want “us” to be. The Fleadh, with Féile, brought out the best of our city. And with that we now are asking questions of ourselves, and our potential.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: The current Gaelic Revival will inform and direct the future

“Yeah me brother and his girlfriend were up there at the weekend with a tent, camping on the Ormeau Road. They had to come back on the early train this morning for work, but they are going back up at the weekend. Me and me mates are going up too. None of us have ever been at a Fleadh before.”

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Féile discussion programme puts it all out there – yet again

As we embark on another Féile it is breathtaking to see how women and women’s issues are centre stage, equally, proudly, diversely and complexly. Nine years ago when the Féile programme came out there was a dearth of women speaking at events, or even chairing events. There were manels every day and it was uneven in representation. Those days are firmly in the past.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Chris Bryant unlikely to be a champion for victims

New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s decisions on the Secretaries of State for the regions voting for parties who campaign for independence tell us something important.

ANDRÉE MURPHY: The gods of fair play were AWOL on Sunday in Croker

Dublin Kerry was always the Golden ticket when I was growing up. My father would go out looking dapper in his slacks, sports jacket, shirt and tie and Chelsea boots. The coming home was a different story, with the tie in his pocket, the jacket tied round his tiny waist, and a torn navy- and sky-blue paper hat on the side of his head, and the ends of a Kerry one shaped into an origami-like rude figure (the da always had a creative side).

ANDRÉE MURPHY: It's a dog's life – and we're all the better for it

The memory you reach for when someone asks “what is your first memory” is ever changing. I am not sure what came first. Was it the other memory from my Nana Murphy’s farm when we went to collect eggs and she laughing at the chickens who tried to attack me? Or was it running through the lashing rain with my mother shielding me under her coat, when I am half holding her legs, standing on her feet?

Soccer: Cliftonville boss Magilton hopes his side can take improve ahead of Glens visit this evening

SOCCER: Shevlin strike condemns Reds to fifth straight defeat

Gaelic Games: JHC - Paddies are crowned Junior champions after Belfast derby win over Lamh's

Gaelic Games: 13-man Ardoyne come unstuck by Ballymena in final clash

PLATING UP: Prawn and asparagus parmesan risotto

HEALTHWISE: It’s that colds and flu time of year yet again

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: My return to the Biggest Show in the Country was never going to end well

ANDRÉE MURPHY: Micheál Martin out of step with the Garvaghy unity of purpose

Andrée Murphy

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