AS I write this column the future of Keir Starmer as British Prime Minister is a topic of conversation because of his mishandling of the Peter Mandelson affair. I know nothing about the ongoing scandal around Jeffrey Epstein other than what I read or see in the media. But the evidence of his serial abuse of young women going back many years is plain to see. My heart goes out to the victims and survivors of this despicable cabal.
ON July 1 the Irish government will assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This will be its eighth time holding this key administrative and political role within the EU and the first time since Brexit.
THE story of Christmas and the birth of Jesus in a stable, as Mary and Joseph sought shelter, is known by billions around the world – even by those of other faiths and none. Christmas will be celebrated, presents given, and many will go to their respective places of worship to remember the child born in poverty, surrounded by a loving family and animals.
BA mhaith liom mo chomhghairdeas a ghabháil le Catherine Connolly agus a foireann. Maith sibh as feachtas Uachtaránachta dearfach, forásach agus trócaireach a chur chun cinn.
WELL done to all of those who planned, organised, participated in, or generally contributed to this year's hugely successful Féile an Phobail. It was a colourful, imaginative, informative, entertaining, empowering and exhausting couple of weeks.
IN a recent interview Christy Moore remarked that the death of Bobby Sands robbed us of a great writing talent. Christy was praising the quality of the work Bobby created in the harsh conditions he endured. He was making the point that you can only imagine what Bobby might have gone on to produce in different circumstances where his creative imagination could have been nurtured and not repressed. But of course this was not to be. Bobby led the second hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and he was the first of the ten men who fasted to death in that awful summer of 1981.
The campaign to save the 1916 Moore Street Battlefield site and those iconic buildings and streetscape that are forever linked to the most important historic event in modern Irish history has reached another potentially decisive moment.
THIS summer the momentum behind the demand for constitutional change and for the Good Friday Agreement commitment to a unity referendum has dramatically increased.
Fifteen years ago this month, I led a Sinn Féin delegation on a visit to the occupied Palestinian territories. Our visit took place seven weeks after Israel’s assault on Gaza between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009. In that attack Israeli forces killed 1400 Palestinians, including more than 400 children and injured thousands more. Schools and hospitals and infrastructure were also targeted.
IN the 1970s the IRA shot dead and secretly buried a number of people. This is a terrible legacy of that period of our history. The families of those killed have suffered a grievous injustice. Republicans, including the IRA, recognise and have acknowledged this fact. What happened was wrong and unjustifiable.
LAST week I attended an event in Parliament Buildings at Stormont, hosted by US Special Economic Envoy Joe Kennedy. There was a panel discussion on the impact of the Good Friday Agreement which involved myself, former DUP leader Peter Robinson; former Alliance Assembly Speaker Eileen Bell; Lady Daphne Trimble, President of the Ulster Unionist Party; and former SDLP leader Mark Durkan.
THE Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin recently visited Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. It was an opportunity for the Irish Government to take a firm stand against Israeli aggression and its apartheid system of governance. Instead Mr Martin became little more than a commentator on the ongoing and worsening crisis in that region.
IN 1986 I gave a talk at a Sinn Féin conference which became known by activists of my vintage as The Road to Cork or The Bus to Cork (or by Pádraig Ó Maolchraoibhe as An Bóthar go Corcaigh - Ed.). More of that at another time. Suffice for now to say that I made the journey to Cork a metaphor for the journey to the new republic. I am minded of that now as our car speeds south and I sit in the back penning these words.
