Wicklow Independent Workers Union activist, Sean Doyle with his words from an Easter Commemoration event in Dublin on the 30th March this year.
Ireland throughout its history has produced many that came to the fore and inspired thousands in their time to courageously challenge foreign occupation holding our nation in bondage. They gallantly laid down their lives against the military might of England to weaken the grip that one day we might break free. Lalor, Tone, Connolly and most recently Costello to name but a few in this chain of command to break the shackles of foreign and native servitude of the Irish people.
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| Sean Doyle delivering his oration in Dublin |
Ireland throughout its history has produced many that came to the fore and inspired thousands in their time to courageously challenge foreign occupation holding our nation in bondage. They gallantly laid down their lives against the military might of England to weaken the grip that one day we might break free. Lalor, Tone, Connolly and most recently Costello to name but a few in this chain of command to break the shackles of foreign and native servitude of the Irish people.
A fundraiser to help aid the hosting of the Brendan Hughes annual lecture will held in the Celtic Bar in Derry this Sunday evening
Boston is not a name that resonates kindly in my psyche. It is a city that is associated with too many problems, leaving me to rue that peace of mind is not a low hanging fruit. Even when I pass a local hairdresser, Boston Barbers, I sort of involuntarily recoil. On Monday the city, or at least its college, preoccupied me due to my awaiting the ruling from the SCOTUS conference on whether the Justices would hear our case in respect of the Boston College subpoena. As it transpired, our luck was out. Apart from delays we haven’t got much change out of the court system.
Yet our misfortune was hardly the worst news to emerge from Boston on Monday where three people lost their lives and many more were seriously injured in a no warning bomb attack as they gathered to watch the city’s annual marathon. Eight year old Martin Richard was among the dead. It is so easy to imagine his parents hugging him last Christmas in sheer appreciation of the fact that he was not a pupil at Sandy Hook. Now this crushing devastation descends upon them.
I emailed a lawyer there that my wife and I are friendly with, expressing sympathy and hoping he and his family were nowhere near the scene of the carnage. He had heard the blast from his office but they are all safe.
It could have been at any location across the globe. Enniskillen in 1987 comes to mind, if only because it has been so indelibly seared into the cultural memory. Examples are legion from around the world of unsuspecting civilians crowded together for a major social event in the civic calendar being targeted for homicide.
Yet as horrendous as they are all such attacks don’t impact on us in the same way. Perhaps, to some degree, because of that mental association with the city, Monday’s blast in Boston grabbed my attention in a way that other bomb attacks tend not to.
Despite being cognisant of its occurrence the horrific death of 11 Afghan children earlier this month in a NATO bomb attack didn’t focus my concentration in the same way that the Boston explosion did. It was a much worse atrocity given the fatalities sustained and yet the mind didn’t linger around the scene of the crime for very long. Perhaps it is just the way we are as humans: culturally out of sight out of mind. Los Angeles, for example, seems that much nearer than Kabul even though in terms of physical proximity Kabul is closer.
But being culturally less close does not make people less real, less sentient, less human. The children slaughtered in Afghanistan are every bit as valuable and as conscious of pain as the eight year old child Martin Richard who was butchered as he stood with his mother and sisters watching his father run the Boston marathon. They all have the same right to life and there is no justification for depriving them of it. The parents who brought them into this world and who are now left to grieve all carry the same burden of loss.
The Boston marathon is over, completely overshadowed by the vicious attack on civilians. Now the more demanding marathon of grief begins. There is no finishing line.
Yet our misfortune was hardly the worst news to emerge from Boston on Monday where three people lost their lives and many more were seriously injured in a no warning bomb attack as they gathered to watch the city’s annual marathon. Eight year old Martin Richard was among the dead. It is so easy to imagine his parents hugging him last Christmas in sheer appreciation of the fact that he was not a pupil at Sandy Hook. Now this crushing devastation descends upon them.
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| Martin Richard appealing for peace |
I emailed a lawyer there that my wife and I are friendly with, expressing sympathy and hoping he and his family were nowhere near the scene of the carnage. He had heard the blast from his office but they are all safe.
It could have been at any location across the globe. Enniskillen in 1987 comes to mind, if only because it has been so indelibly seared into the cultural memory. Examples are legion from around the world of unsuspecting civilians crowded together for a major social event in the civic calendar being targeted for homicide.
Yet as horrendous as they are all such attacks don’t impact on us in the same way. Perhaps, to some degree, because of that mental association with the city, Monday’s blast in Boston grabbed my attention in a way that other bomb attacks tend not to.
Despite being cognisant of its occurrence the horrific death of 11 Afghan children earlier this month in a NATO bomb attack didn’t focus my concentration in the same way that the Boston explosion did. It was a much worse atrocity given the fatalities sustained and yet the mind didn’t linger around the scene of the crime for very long. Perhaps it is just the way we are as humans: culturally out of sight out of mind. Los Angeles, for example, seems that much nearer than Kabul even though in terms of physical proximity Kabul is closer.
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| Afghan child victims of a NATO bomb attack laid out prior to burial |
But being culturally less close does not make people less real, less sentient, less human. The children slaughtered in Afghanistan are every bit as valuable and as conscious of pain as the eight year old child Martin Richard who was butchered as he stood with his mother and sisters watching his father run the Boston marathon. They all have the same right to life and there is no justification for depriving them of it. The parents who brought them into this world and who are now left to grieve all carry the same burden of loss.
The Boston marathon is over, completely overshadowed by the vicious attack on civilians. Now the more demanding marathon of grief begins. There is no finishing line.
Pat McNamee with the oration he delivered yesterday at the graveside of Jim McAllister who died this week.
Tá fáilte romhaibh uilig anseo inniú chuig cuireadh Jim McAllister. SÃlim ghfuil sé oiriúnach cur tús leis mo chuid cáinte as Gaeilge. Ba ghaeilgeoir Jim comh maith le gach rud éile.
Most of you will have known Jim McAllister as an Irish republican and political spokesperson from South Armagh. It is appropriate for me to use a few words of Irish as Jim was a Gaeilgeoir and loved his language and his culture as well as his country.
It is a difficult task for me to speak about such a great man. Jim wasn’t a big man in stature but he was a great man in heart and mind. As well as being a gaeilgeoir and a politician he was a father and a husband, he was a craftsman with many skills. He was self educated in Irish History and politics and he was well read in the folklore and legend of Ulster and Ireland. Indeed Jim might say that it can be hard to distinguish nowadays between the history and the folklore or more recent times. Jim was also a songwriter and a poet. One of the best things of all about Jim was that he could tell a great yarn, he had humour and wit and he was mighty crack to be with. I am proud to speak about Jim today for his family Turlough, AoibhÃnn and Brendan.
Tá fáilte romhaibh uilig anseo inniú chuig cuireadh Jim McAllister. SÃlim ghfuil sé oiriúnach cur tús leis mo chuid cáinte as Gaeilge. Ba ghaeilgeoir Jim comh maith le gach rud éile.
Most of you will have known Jim McAllister as an Irish republican and political spokesperson from South Armagh. It is appropriate for me to use a few words of Irish as Jim was a Gaeilgeoir and loved his language and his culture as well as his country.
Tonight TPQ runs a piece by Dr Aaron Edwards. It initially featured at EamonnMallie.com on 4th April 2013. Dr Aaron Edwards is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield. He has worked closely with progressive loyalists for over a decade on their internal conflict transformation initiatives. A former journalist with The Other View magazine, his articles have appeared in Fortnight Magazine, the Belfast Newsletter and the Sunday Life. He is the author of Defending the Realm? The Politics of Britain’s Small Wars since 1945 (Manchester University Press, 2012) and The Northern Ireland Troubles: Operation Banner, 1969-2007 (Osprey, 2011), co-author (with Cillian McGrattan) of The Northern Ireland Conflict: A Beginner’s Guide (Oneworld, 2010), author of A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party: Democratic Socialism and Sectarianism (Manchester University Press, 2009; 2011) and co-editor (with Stephen Bloomer) of Transforming the Peace Process in Northern Ireland: From Terrorism to Democratic Politics (Irish Academic Press, 2008).
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| Cartoon by Brian Mór |
Radio Free Éireann
WBAI Radio 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio
New York City
Saturday 6 April 2013
John McDonagh (JM) and Martin Galvin (MG) interview via telephone from Belfast Liam Clarke, (LC), Political Editor for The Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
(begins 1:16PM)
The Pensive Quill sends Get well wishes to Sandy Boyer who thankfully is making a good recovery after a recent operation.
Sandy is of course well know to TPQ followers as a contributor. He is also co-presenter with John McDonagh of the weekly Radio Free Eireann program on WBAI in New York, a rich source of discussion and free inquiry. He has been a key activist in justice campaigns including the bid to free Marian Price today and stretching back to the H-Blocks protests of the 1987s and 80s. He was also a contributor to The Blanket and has been involved in the activist scene since there was activism!
Sandy is of course well know to TPQ followers as a contributor. He is also co-presenter with John McDonagh of the weekly Radio Free Eireann program on WBAI in New York, a rich source of discussion and free inquiry. He has been a key activist in justice campaigns including the bid to free Marian Price today and stretching back to the H-Blocks protests of the 1987s and 80s. He was also a contributor to The Blanket and has been involved in the activist scene since there was activism!
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| Radical activist, writer and broadcaster, Sandy Boyer |
GET WELL SOON SANDY FROM ALL YOUR FRIENDS AT THE PENSIVE QUILL
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