ROSELEEN Walsh is one of 36 women who were interned in the early 1970s. Her latest book – My Internment – tells the very personal story of her life as a young woman in West Belfast in the late 60s and early 70s. Of the constant pressure and danger of living under British occupation and of her time as an internee in Armagh Women’s Prison.
Roseleen has been writing for many years, including during her time in Armagh Prison. She is a writer of great skill, including of poetry, plays and books. She is also a very determined individual, as her account of her first days in Armagh makes clear. When her cell door was opened for the first time she remembers that “there before me was, not a mess, but a blank canvas. Immediately I knew white walls would suit me best for I intended making those walls a work of art! I would surround myself within the comfort of my own words. Since I was young, I had found it hard to express myself to others until I discovered that poetry was a wonderful way to articulate what I meant... The walls were to become like pages of a diary.”
Of course this was Armagh Prison and writing on the walls was not acceptable to the prison authorities who told her that this was “considered a form of vandalism and I would be obliged to remove everything I had written on them, presumably with another coat of paint.”
Later, a senior prison officer arrived to read the poems. “After studying some of the poems, she sighed deeply then walked out without speaking... After that there was no mention of vandalism or having to remove my poetry from the walls! I was to enjoy and develop the creative freedom I had in my cell.”
My Internment also tells of the hard times. Of the disputes with the prison system. Of coping with the news of a comrade’s death in the conflict outside the prison walls. Of facing her accusers in one of the corrupt so-called courts set up to determine whether an internee could be released. It also explores the comradeship that has always played a hugely important part of the prison experience for republican political prisoners and political prisoners in other struggles around the world.
Roseleen’s website reflects her remarkable creative output. Take the time to visit. You will enjoy the experience. https://roseleenwalsh.org/
Lessons of history are being ignored
IN the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq by American and British forces and others in March 2003, Martin McGuinness and I warned Tony Blair and President George Bush not to invade. We pointed out that it would be a breach of international law. At one particular meeting in Mr Blair’s office in Downing Street, Martin and I urged the British PM to learn the lessons of British involvement in Ireland and in other conflicts. We told him and his officials they were living in cloud cuckoo land: “if you go into Iraq it will be another Vietnam and it will be a huge mistake.”
One British official told us that it would all be over in a matter of months. Martin told him “...given the previous history of successive British military expeditions to Ireland, that certainly would not be my view of how the situation in Iraq is going to move in the next short while."
We raised our concerns regularly with Tony Blair in the run into the Anglo-American attacks on the people of Iraq. It became obvious to me that Mr Blair was not listening to what we and countless others had to say. He was set on joining George Bush in his ill-considered offensive. If anything, Mr Blair was more hawkish than Mr Bush.
LIE OF THE LAND: US troops with Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2003
Martin and I were right. They were wrong. The consequences for the people of Iraq were enormous. The estimates of those killed vary from several hundred thousand to over one million. The political and environmental infrastructure of the country was devastated. The political ramifications in terms of global instability are still playing out today.
The Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and the pogroms against Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank strike a similar note today and are a lesson for the international community. The support of the British government and the White House for the Zionist assaults on the Palestinian people is shameful. It is also, like the war in Iraq, short sighted and counter-productive.
Over 60,000 Gazans have been killed – mostly women and children – and 80 per cent of the infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed; a thousand are dead in the west Bank; south Lebanon is ablaze; Israeli forces have moved deeper into Syria; the US President is seeking to expel the Palestinian people of Gaza from their homeland. The world stands at a tipping point amid the real risk of a possible wider conflagration.
The western states who were part of the Iraqi War have failed to learn the lessons of those events. Instead of upholding international law and supporting the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, they have grievously damaged and undermined these legal institutions. As a result, almost two million people – the population of the six counties – have been forcibly displaced in Gaza and most have lost everything.
The history of the past forty years or so reflects a litany of these militaristic adventures by the larger Western powers. Who has benefited from this? Not the people of the countries or regions on the receiving end of this aggression. Thankfully, saner voices have been raised in support of peace, human rights and international law. Unfortunately, the Irish government has not always been as principled as it should be. Uachtarán Micheál D. Ó hUigínn has been much more consistent.
The Irish government is currently watering down the Occupied Territories Bill which would block the import of goods and services into the Irish state from Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. The government should be honouring the aims and objectives of the Bill and the finding by the International Court of Justice that all states must abstain from economic dealings with Israel concerning the occupied Palestinian territory.
They must also support the right of the people of Gaza to remain in their homeland and for international law to be defended. Interference in the affairs of other countries rarely work out well for the people of these countries. Ask the people of Iraq. Or Afganistan. Or Libya. Or Lebanon. If 77 years of Israeli occupation and apartheid have taught us anything it is that the Palestinian people will defend their right to national self-determination, whatever the cost.
Copernicus tells us the clock is ticking faster
JANUARY was a month of climate opposites. Storm Éowyn is now believed to have been one of the worst to ever hit the island of Ireland. It broke wind-speed records, forced the cancellation of flights and ferries and within hours had cut power supplies to over one million households and businesses north and south. Tens of thousands were also left without water as treatment plants lost power.
Although last month Ireland was colder than usual here, January was still the hottest month ever recorded across the world. More worrying, it is the 18th month out of the last 19 when the average global temperature was greater than that set by the world’s governments.
EMERGENCY: Severe weather events are becoming more common in Ireland and across the world
In the last decade governments have pledged to keep any increase in the world temperature to 1.5C above the average conditions that prevailed before the industrial revolution. However, Copernicus– which is the EU programme that monitors our planet’s changing environment and climate – has just reported that 2024 was the warmest year on record. It was also the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature.
To add to this growing crisis President Trump has pulled the USA out of the Paris Accords on climate and most world governments who were due to submit new plans this month for a major conference later this year (COP30) will fail to meet this deadline.
The result of climate warming is more extreme weather events, heatwaves, storms, droughts, melting glaciers and changing rainfall patterns. For humanity it means millions facing serious water and food shortages and significant political instability.
All governments must play their part in tackling the climate crisis. The COP30 conference in November is an opportunity to prioritise a fairer approach to funding global climate change efforts, particularly those of low-income countries. They need financial support from the wealthier states to decarbonise. Greater investment is required in renewable energy and the transition away from fossil fuels. There is not a lot of time left.
