TO be honest, I find it difficult to comprehend that next March it will be ten years since the death of my friend and comrade Martin McGuinness. For more years than I care to remember we were comrades in struggle seeking to advance our republican objective of national self-determination, build Sinn Féin as a radical, activist-based, republican party, and at the same time contributing to the creation of a peace process to end decades of conflict.
This Sunday the ninth Chieftain’s Walk will take place in Derry in Martin’s memory and to raise money for charity.
The first year the walk went to the Stone Fort of Grianán of Aileach on the Inishowen peninsula. It was one of Martin’s favourite places in the world. He would walk there, no matter the weather, and whenever the opportunity presented itself. I walked there with him on many occasions. It is a place of quiet beauty with amazing panoramic views. On one side you can see Derry City in the distance. Grianán also overlooks Inishowen and Inch Island and there is a dramatic view of Lough Foyle and especially Lough Swilly. But it is a taxing walk – long and very challenging for many.
Since then the organisers have taken pity on the participants and kept the walk within the confines of Derry.
Since that first occasion the Chieftain’s Walk has raised over one hundred thousand pounds for charity. Initially the money went to Altnagelvin Hospital but in later years it has gone to the Martin McGuinness Peace Foundation, where it has been used for bursaries and for a Gaelic Blitz – both of these have been about supporting people to be able to fulfil their personal potential and support and promote Gaelic culture.
The walk also helps to highlight and raise awareness of amyloidosis – the genetic disease from which Martin died.
The Chieftain’s Walk will commence at 1pm on Sunday at Da Vinci’s Hotel, Bay Road, Derry. The walk is a chance to come together as family, friends and community to celebrate Martin’s life and continue the work he dedicated himself to. Even if you can’t make it, you can still sign up to support the work.
Register at enthuse.com/ps/event/ChieftainsWalk
Desmond Greaves’ influence remains substantial
THIS weekend I will be in Dublin for the 36th Desmond Greaves Weekend Summer School. It begins in the UNITE Trade Union Hall, in Middle Abbey Street, on Friday evening, September 11, and runs over Saturday and Sunday. The discussions range from the state of the European Union to the place of the nation state, migration and asylum policy, to China and the Good Friday Agreement. My contribution on the Sunday, along with former Irish Ambassador to Canada Ray Bassett, will be to discuss the Good Friday Agreement.
The annual summer school seeks to reflect the legacy of historian and activist C. Desmond Greaves. His books and writings have been a significant influence on my own politics. His two biographies on Liam Mellows and James Connolly are as important and influential today as they were when first published almost 60 years ago. His book ‘The Irish Crisis’ is equally important.
INFLUENTIAL: The history books of Desmond Greave have influenced generations of republicans
Greaves believed in the core principle of equality. In his work with the Connolly Association in London, and as editor from 1948 to 1988 of its monthly newspaper, The Irish Democrat, he argued in the 1960s for a civil rights campaign against the North’s unionist regime and he understood that Irish sovereignty required the ending of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 which partitioned Ireland. Greaves also believed that Ireland had to win allies internationally if we are to successfully end partition.
During the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Féin argued strongly for the scrapping of the Government of Ireland Act. Its significance was not appreciated by others during those discussions, but Martin McGuinness and I persisted. We were determined to secure maximum change to British constitutional legislation and include a mechanism to democratically and peacefully advance the aim of Irish reunification. We spoke at length to Tony Blair on this issue and persuaded him to repeal the Government of Ireland Act. The unity referenda provide the means by which the people of the island of Ireland can exercise our self-determination.
Contrary to the opinions of some the Good Friday Agreement is not a settlement. It is an agreement on a journey without agreement on the destination. That will be determined democratically by the people of the island of Ireland. It is a process of change.
As a result of that work the union with Britain is now contingent solely on winning a majority in unity referendums North and South. In the meantime, the Orange State with its dominant unionist ethos and sectarian political institutions is gone. The North is not the place I was born into and grew up in. Societal, electoral and political demographic change is daily reshaping the Northern state while encouraging the growth in the conversation on the merits of Irish unity.
Andy Burnham contributed to this with his recent crass comments on a ‘border poll’ which then opened up a range of contributions from politicians, like Gordon Brown, Mary Lou McDonald, Leo Varadkar, Helen McEntee, Michelle O’Neill, Billy Kelleher and others. They all acknowledge the logic of unity and the need to plan for it.
The recent High Court decision in respect of the Parades Commission decision on the Drumcree Orange March has emboldened those elements of political unionism who still desire the supremacism that dominated the North for generations. But this is not 1912 or 1920. The politics of ‘no surrender’ and ‘not an inch’ are the past, not the future.
Democrats will not tolerate a return to the days of one-party rule. We are looking for a different future based on equality, accommodation, respect and parity of esteem.
Next May there will be Assembly and local government elections. The DUP, UUP and TUV and their fellow travellers in the loyalist paramilitary ranks believe that the rírá about an Orange parade on the Garvaghy Road is an opportunity to make gains. Our task is to make sure that they don’t succeed. On balance I don’t believe they will. Too many citizens in the North and across this island have now bought into the process of perpetual change. A process that is positively reshaping our island. Whatever challenges we face as a society will only be met by moving forward, never backward.
Protect the past
THE Moore Street Preservation Trust held an informative night in the Pearse Institute in Dublin last week to discuss the future of Moore Street and the ongoing efforts to save the iconic 1916 battlefield site that is threatened by bad government policy and developers.
Dublin Councillor Janice Boylan chaired the event, which included Cllr Mícheál Mac Donncha, who is Secretary of the Trust, and Ray Bateson, author of ‘Battle of Moore Street/Cath Shráid Uí Mhórdha’, a bilingual history of the final battle of the Easter Rising.
Moore Street is unique. It is a place of enormous historical importance, and the campaign to protect it is about ensuring that this unique part of our revolutionary history is preserved for generations to come. It is also about creating a historic cultural quarter around the GPO on a par with that of other states internationally. In the USA, in South Africa, and in countless other states across the globe governments have invested in preserving their past to remind current and future generations of the heroism and of the principles of struggle that previous generations fought for and which continue to help shape their future.
If you would like to support campaign to save Moore Stree by bringing it into public ownership and by developing a historic 1916 Cultural Quarter then sign the petition at c.org/4nfjJMtzjv
And finally...
COMHGHAIRDEAS to Katie Taylor. Her determination and individual strength of character are an example to everyone. It was her last night boxing, in front of a packed 80,000 Croke Park. She did it in style. She won it convincingly. Well done, Katie.
