THIS week significant developments that can shape the future direction of constitutional politics on this island are taking place in Leinster House. On Tuesday Sinn Féin’s Bill setting out a practical plan to achieve a united Ireland is up for discussion. Fine Gael is moving ahead with its plan for a blueprint for Irish unity for November. And other parties, including the Social Democrats and Labour, have expressed their support for unity and, notwithstanding Micheál Martin’s opposition, it is obvious that there are many within Fianna Fáil who understand that planning for unity makes sense.
So although the process is slow, very important pieces of the jigsaw are being put in place this week. Getting political agreement about how to build the New Ireland is gathering pace. In this evolving situation the future place of the unionist section of our people comes more clearly into focus. Thus far the leaderships of political unionism are refusing to put their pieces of the jigsaw on the table. That’s a matter for them. But it is a matter for the unity movement also.
All of us who seek a New Ireland, based on self-determination and unity, do so as friends and neighbours of those who are currently against it or who are uncertain of what it means. The New Ireland is best achieved – can only be achieved – democratically and peacefully and in the clear understanding that the rights and liberties, and sense of Britishness, of our unionist neighbours will be fully protected and defended.
In this July 2026 as some within the North participate in the marching season, that is our commitment to all those who are unionist and to all those who have begun to think beyond the confines of the union with Britain.
The New Ireland cannot be a repeat of the past. It must be a shared place for all of the people who live on our island. Our new governance arrangements have to be inclusive and based on equality. Other voices, who may have supported the union in the past, are now with the rest of us, looking towards a different future. Let’s encourage them to bring forward their pieces of the jigsaw. Our future will be incomplete without them.
Mayo set to pay tribute to hunger strikers
WEDNESDAY, July 8 was the 45th anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Joe McDonnell. Joe was the fifth of the ten hunger strikers who were to die in 1981. Last week the 45th Anniversary National Hunger Strike Commemoration was officially launched in Mayo. The march and rally to honour those ten hunger strikers – and the three Mayo hunger strikers, Michael Gaughan (1974), Frank Stagg (1976), and Jack McNeela (1940) – will take place in Ballina Co Mayo on Sunday, August 30.
The launch was chaired by Cllr Gerry Murray and included Frank Stagg’s brother George, Rose Conway-Walsh TD and former hunger striker Pat Sheehan MLA.
Pat spoke of the enduring significance of the 1981 hunger strike. It was a defining moment in modern Irish history and transformed the political landscape. It continues to inspire people committed to justice, equality and national self-determination.
Pat said: “Forty-five years on, the courage, dignity and sacrifice of the hunger strikers continue to inspire people across Ireland and throughout the world. We remember them not simply for the manner of their deaths, but for the values they lived and died to uphold – the right of the Irish people to determine our own future and the ideals of freedom, equality and national independence.”
Marwan remains unbowed
MARWAN Barghouti is a Palestinian leader who has spent almost a quarter of a century in Israeli prisons. He is widely recognised as the single most important Palestinian leader, capable of uniting the various Palestinian groups, and for that reason Israel holds him in appalling conditions and refuses to release him. For much of that time he has been held in solitary confinement, frequently beaten, denied medical care and contact with his family.
His ill-treatment reflects in many aspects that of the H-Block and Armagh prisoners in the 1970s and that of republican political prisoners held in prisons in England. Like the escalating actions of the British state during the prison protests in the 1970s and 1980s, so too Israel is constantly seeking new weeks to break Marwan and the almost 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, currently held by them.
MESSAGE: The new Marwan Barghouti shirt is now available 
Recent reports indicate a further tightening of the conditions under which Marwan Barghouti is held in solitary confinement in Ganot Prison. He has also been subject to the policy of ghosting – a tactic employed by the British against republican prisoners in England. This involves the sudden transfer from one solitary confinement system in a prison to another. This is intended to further disrupt any family or legal connections and minimise access to medical care.
Marwan was convicted in a show trial in 2002 following a trial that international legal experts described as flawed and illegal. In recent weeks those campaigning on his behalf have produced soccer shirts to reflect Marwan’s passion for soccer. I was very pleased to receive one from them. In a note with the shirt they say: “This year, Marwan will miss the chance to watch another World Cup with his children, the seventh since his arrest. In his honour, we have designed a new ‘Free Marwan’ football shirt inspired by the 2002 Palestine national team jersey, the same year he was taken prisoner. More than a shirt, it is a reminder of what football truly stands for: unity, fairness, freedom, integrity, resilience, and the refusal to give up.”
If you would like a shirt follow the link: freemarwan.org/store
All proceeds from sales will go towards the Free Marwan campaign.
Free Marwan. Free Palestine.
Free Palestine. Free Marwan Barghouti.
An important reminder
AS the news cycle is constantly shifting from one headline story to another, the genocide of the Palestinian people no longer catches the headlines in the way that it once did. The devastating earthquake in Venezuela; the US war against Iran; the war in Ukraine; oil prices; the internal machinations of the British Labour Party; and much else have all pushed Israel’s genocidal policy down the news agenda.
However, as desperate as some of these other stories are, we have a responsibility to constantly remind people that Israel’s torture of the people of Gaza and of the West Bank has been unrelenting for over 1000 days.
In the West Bank over 1000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military and settlers. Among them are over 250 children and 121 women. In addition, under cover of the wider international situation Israel is seizing land in Area A which is supposedly under the control of the Palestinian Authority. At the same time Israeli forces have been waging a constant series of attacks on the Palestinian refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, displacing 45,000 people.
At the weekend I watched a distressing report on Al Jazeera about a young mother Alaa Al Madhoun trapped in Gaza who has undergone a partial mastectomy and is currently battling breast cancer. Israel’s war has killed 1700 medical workers and wholly or partly destroyed 38 hospitals. Dr Ahmed Shatat, director general of International Cooperation and Planning in Gaza, revealed: “Previously, we were holding seven MRI machines. Now we have not even one MRI machine – zero – in the Gaza Strip.” Alaa needs radiation treatment but that is not available and Israel deliberately allows only a small number of patients to travel outside of Gaza for medical treatment. She is not alone in needing urgent medical treatment for breast cancer.
In the midst of this humanitarian catastrophe most of the European Union has remained silent. The USA, Britain, Germany and others have been complicit in Israel’s genocide. The Irish government has stalled for eight years on passing the Occupied Territories Bill. As a consequence, Israel and its right wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu believe themselves immune from being held accountable for their actions.
This has to change and that requires moral and political leadership. The Irish government now holds the Presidency of the EU. It is in a unique position to challenge Israel’s genocide. Will it? Have Micheál Martin and Simon Harris the courage to stand against genocide and for the Palestinian people?
