I SPENT the last week in Dublin in the Four Courts as part of the outworking of my case against the BBC’s Spotlight programme nine years ago. But more of that when it’s over, which could take another fortnight.
On the morning that the case started our Gearóid phoned me to say that his father-in-law Paddy ‘Swinger’ McBride was dead. The news was a great shock. I had spent a half-hour or more a few days before chatting with Paddy in his home. He was just out after a spell in hospital, and although he was ill his spirit was strong and he was full of craic and talk about current politics, his son Patrick’s Man of the Match performance for Antrim against Armagh, the need to build Casement and how a son of Tony Benn could behave the way Hilary Benn does.
“Principled politics skips a generation sometimes,” I said.
“Aye,” he remarked in a Ballymurphy sort of way. “A Typical Brit." That was Paddy. Or Swinger to all his old friends. A Murph man through and through.
Husband to Anne Austin. Father to Roísín, Ceara, Marie and Patrick. Daideo to Drithle, Luisne, Anna and Ruadan. I am their other Daideo. Connla, Elise and Culann are his other grandchildren. The seven of them were very lucky to have him. So was our Gearóid. And me and Colette. And his brothers and sister. And our community.
Swinger was sound. He was hardworking, intelligent beyond his quiet demeanour, funny, a lover of a good yarn. And as strong as an ox before illness tripped him up.
He was a committed republican. Gerry Kelly put it well in his funeral oration: “When I picture Paddy in my mind the first image has always been in the early 1970s. Himself and Frankie Cahill, who always seemed to be together and dressed in skinner jeans with the bottoms turned up, checked shirts, denim jackets and, of course, the classic DM boots. Ready to take on the world – or at least an armed foot patrol of British soldiers with whatever was available. Paddy witnessed the rise of the Civil Rights movement and the Orange State’s attempts to crush it with violence. He witnessed thousands of Catholics being driven from their homes.
"He saw the thousands of British troops sent here to crush our community.
"During the first couple of days of internment in August 1971, 10 residents were shot dead by British soldiers in Ballymurphy, including Father Hugh Mullan as he was trying to help others. Then again, in July 1972, British soldiers gunned down five innocent people in Springhill, also including another priest, Father Noel Fitzpatrick, and three children.
"He also watched on TV as the British army in Derry shot down peaceful Civil Rights marchers. Closer to home, loyalist death squads were on a killing rampage against innocent Catholics."
Gerry went in to describe how Paddy joined Na Fianna Éireann and then the Army. He outlined his years of activism and time in prison. He went on to say that Swinger was very aware of the changing dynamics of struggle. He knew that military action on its own would not achieve a united Ireland and that republicans needed to be active in every aspect of the community life.
He knew that republicans had to learn from the past but act in the context of the present and the future. Thankfully, Gerry said, our young men and women no longer feel that they have to risk their lives and liberty on active service.
Irish unity, of course will not just happen. We need to make it happen.
Paddy did great things in his life, sometimes very difficult things, brave things, but through it all, he was always a gentleman, in its truest sense.
Gerry also stressed Paddy’s commitment to Anne and their family. He was a good provider and he also coached their children through all their school tests. He was devoted to his family and probably never fully recovered from the death of his youngest daughter Marie. He and Anne produced a family of teachers with a special emphasis on Irish language education. Swinger went on to tutor the grandkids at exam times. He was much smarter than me.
He will be sadly missed by many, many people, including his co-workers in Upper Springfield Development Trust and his old comrades but most of all by his wife and lifelong partner, Anne, their children and partners, Roisin and Gearóid, Ciara and Maxie, Patrick and Meabh and Marie’s partner Sean. And his beloved grandchildren Drithle, Luisne, Anna, Ruadan, Conla, Elise and Culan.
The day after Swinger died I got news of another friend’s death. Donnacha Rynne down in Clare. But more of Donnacha arís. For now it’s time to say slán to Swinger. A decent Irish patriot and a great human being.
Israel’s reign of terror
AS this column goes to press the Israeli government is calling up tens of thousands of army reservists for a full scale military invasion, subjugation and occupation of the Gaza Strip. After almost 20 months of genocide against the Palestinian people the Israeli state is now embarking on its final solution – the displacement of two million people and the mass murder of more Palestinians.
Last Saturday was World Press Freedom Day – but not in Gaza. In the year and a half of this current reign of terror by Israel, at least 211 journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip while the international press corps is denied access to report on events in that huge concentration camp. Britain and most western and European states are silent on this. They are silent also on the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against two million people, many of them children, who live in Gaza. According to UNICEF over three hundred thousand children under the age of five are suffering severe malnutrition.
If ever press freedom was needed to call out the multiple breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel and the new terror it plans for Palestinians it is now. Israel’s slaughter of innocents has to be called out. Governments must exert the maximum pressure on the Netanyahu regime to allow food, water, fuel and medicines into the territory.
In recent days the various aid agencies working in Gaza have run out of supplies. They make their pleas for the world to intervene as babies and children with emaciated bodies lie on the few remaining hospital beds in Gaza. Israeli war planes and drones fly overhead deliberately killing dozens of helpless people every day.
The Israeli threat to send tens of thousands of its soldiers into Gaza cannot go unchallenged. It is long past time that European states took action against Israel – in the form of sanctions; ending the supply of weapons; and demanding that Israel allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
I agree fully with Tánaiste Simon Harris who said: “It is unconscionable that the current suffering is continuing... Ireland calls on Israel to immediately lift the blockade and allow for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid”. But it is equally unconscionable that the Irish government refuses to go beyond words. To describe the new threat to conquer Gaza as "alarming" is not enough. The Irish government must urgently use its economic and political strength to challenge Israel. If they fail to take meaningful action Israel will proceed with its plans and thousands more Palestinians will die.
Unity debate continues to tour the world
AS momentum in the demand for Irish unity grows, the work of Sinn Féin’s Commission on the Future of Ireland continues to expand.
In the past two months the Commission has held a Mid-Ulster People's Assembly in the Seamus Heaney Homeplace in Bellaghy; a Tionól Pobail Bhaile Ghib in County Meath; a climate crisis conference – One Island, One Environment – in Dublin; and an 'EU and Irish Unity- What next?' event in the European Parliament in Brussels.
In addition, events were also held in Washington and New York in the United States and in Montreal in Canada.
Future events include ‘Rural Communities in a New Ireland’ at the Balmoral Show in May and 'Health and Care in a New Ireland' in early June in St Comgall’s Belfast. There are also events in the USA in Nashville, May 28; Cincinnati, May 29; and Chicago, May 31.
If you are interested in a united Ireland, save the date and come along. The more people who join in the conversation on Irish unity the sooner we will secure the unity referendums and move into the future.
