Interview in the Mail with Gerry Adams… February 19, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, The Left.24 comments
…Interesting interview with Adams in today’s Mail conducted by Jason O’Toole.
Some aspects of his personal life expanded upon, including the miscarriage his wife and he suffered in the early 1970s, and the cancer she has had to deal with over the last few years. And while he’s doesn’t go into details about his brother Liam and the abuse of his niece he does engage to some degree with the topic:
On the subject of his brother Liam, who is fighting an extradition case to block the courts here from sending him back to Belfast to face charges of sexually abusing his own daughter, all Adams will understandably say is: ‘I’ve been advised by the police not to make any public comment on this because it is subject to proceedings. So, I’m content to leave it there.’
However, when I ask how his family are now handing this difficult ‘per¬sonal issue’, over one year on from when it was first revealed, he says: ‘Everybody has to find their own path to recovery through all of this, but I think it is very important to say that – one, there is life beyond abuse. People can survive it. And two – the victim is never to blame. Anybody out there who has been subjected to abuse should comfort themselves by the fact that they are not to blame and they can come out of this with proper help and support and love.’
He also seems to have been prepared for the media firestorm that has attempted to engulf him:
He’s clearly annoyed that the media focus is on his past rather than allowing him to focus on getting across Sinn Féin policy.
‘There are people who write things about me which are totally untrue. There’s a madness out there. You have to just accept it and try not to take it personally and get on with your business. Crazy stuff. The wonderful thing about it is that the voters are the people who make the decisions, not the journalists who write these pieces. I think that’s why you have to be rooted. I actually feel sorry for people who end up being so-called celebrities and they nearly be¬come media junkies with all this nonsense that’s written about them. I don’t read a lot of the papers that engage in that sort of thing.’
He continues to reject the allegations about Jean McConville:
‘The charges are untrue; they are very, very serious to make against any person. I reject all of that. I haven’t read the book. I’ve read the media extracts of it. I deny absolutely the various allegations that are made in the book. And poor Brendan was a very, very good friend of mine for a long time. It’s a bit difficult to deal with accusations made from a person who is now dead, so I don’t bother, I go on.’
But he ‘absolutely’ agrees that her death was a shameful episode in the IRA’s dark history.
‘This was an injustice done by republicans. So, there have been lots of injustices in the course of the conflict. But when inflicted by republicans, it has to be a matter of regret for other republicans. We’re the people who would try to stand up for people against British injustice and you can’t do that, in fairness, unless you’re prepared to have the same position on unjust things when they’re committed by the IRA.
‘So, I do regret that it happened. But, at the same time, I’ve met many of Jean McConville’s family, her sons and Helen particularly. And what happened to them shouldn’t have happened to them. It’s as simple and straightforward as that.’
And he steps away from the issue of membership of the Army Council:
Though he has, once again, denied the accusation that he was on the Army Council, he says he ‘accepts responsibility’ for playing a ‘leader¬ship’ role in the Northern conflict.
‘For better or worse, I’m in a leader¬ship position, okay? So, I accept responsibility. I think during the con¬flict in the North, we did the right thing in standing up to the British. We did the right thing in standing up for our communities. Dublin didn’t help us. There was nobody there to intervene. And, in the course of that, dreadful things happened. I’m sorry those dreadful things happened. Very brave things happened as well.
‘But the important thing is that I wouldn’t distance myself from any of that. If somebody says to me, “Were you responsible in terms of that conflict?” Yes, of course I was – against all the other people who, either by taking other sides or by engaging in censorship or all that went with it, or by standing idly by. Of course, we are all responsible.
‘I’ve never distanced myself from the IRA. At the height of the conflict, I was one of those who did interviews and defended actions if I thought it was the right thing and, on other occasions, condemned actions when I thought they were wrong, or at least I was very critical of some actions
Some of which are overtly political attacks:
And what about the accusations that, as someone who until recently hadn’t lived in the Republic, Adams is nothing more than a ‘blow in’, parachuted into the constituency to win Sinn Féin a seat?
‘I don’t see it like that. I know who I am and where I’m from and my record’s there for people to make their own judgments. Obviously, I’m not from that constituency but everybody knows that; I’m not pretending to be from the constituency.
‘I bring a lot of experience to the particular needs of Louth and east Meath. The local issues are the national issues – it’s unemployment; it’s health, the stripping away of hospital services; it’s the failure to properly develop the tourism potential – it’s a coastal area.’
There’s a little about his past:
Adams admits that he is surprised he managed to stay alive throughout the Troubles. In 1984, he almost died when he was shot in the neck, shoulder and arm – his car was hit with 20 bullets by gunmen, who followed him from a court case.
‘It was a set-up. I have a very acute sixth sense, so I knew there was something wrong when I was in the courthouse and I asked my solicitor could he arrange for us to stay in the courthouse. I felt we were very exposed. There was something. My antenna was up. And this has happened to me a dozen times in my life, where I just knew that there was something not right. Just your instinct. We eventually then phoned up our office and said, “Is there anybody about to give us a lift?”
After the shooting happened, I remember saying to the driver, “Drive! Go through the lights. Drive”. The guy behind me was hit in the face and was in pain. And I bent over and said an act of contrition in his ear.
For those who don’t align with his politics one suspects that nothing will satisfy them and for those who do one suspects that little will shake their trust in him.
This Weekend I’ll mostly be Listening to…Sonic Youth, Goo February 19, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to....13 comments
So, just what is it about this album that makes me pick it over, say, Daydream Nation? It’s hard to say. Perhaps its the more straight ahead song structures, or perhaps the snippet of Chuck D on Kool Thing, and how appropriate to have two bands in a row on This Weekend I’ll mostly be Listening to… that have collaborated with him, that seems, for a trembling moment or two, to chart a way forward for both rap/hip hop and guitar based indie [That this was apparently born of a clash between Gordon and LL Cool J is sort of telling], or perhaps most importantly it’s just Kim Gordon’s vocals that rip along as both an intensely expressive instrument in the mix and as a fundamental medium of communication throughout the album that makes it her own. Or some combination of all these.
But whatever it is from Kool Thing through to hardcore fuelled Mildred Peirce to the entertainingly odd, but hardly any odder than anything else on the album, tribute of sorts to Karen Carpenter this is an album that is cohesive – unlike the still fine Dirty, which was dealt with in passing here, some years later – and uncompromising.
That it coexisted on the guitar spectrum with mid to late period Pixies and perhaps the first elements of grunge somehow, in retrospect, makes a certain sort of sense. In a way one almost has the sense that this is the point where Sonic Youth matured from experimentalists to if not quite mature then more settled music makers. Even, or more accurately particularly, if that original fire was still there. And perhaps that pivot moment is best exemplified by the sense that on the songs here they were still writing about themselves and the immediate whereas with the audacious Swimsuit Issue from Dirty they were somehow, for all the genuine rage, slightly detached and looking in, almost commenting.
I’ve liked a lot of their output subsequently, but of all their albums this is the one I return to most frequently.
Kool Thing [feat Chuck D]
Mildred Pierce
Dirty Boots
Tunic (Song for Karen) video Imagined by Robert Celli Jr
My Friend Goo [self produced video with a bit of a story to it...]
Mote
Green Party PPB: The Honesty Remix February 18, 2011
Posted by Tomboktu in Uncategorized.10 comments
From DublinDilettante
The Socialist Party’s Party Political Broadcast for General Election 2011 February 18, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.Tags: 2011 election, Irish Politics
15 comments
The Socialist Party’s Party Political Broadcast for General Election 2011
Independent left candidate, Cieran Perry, to mount legal challenge to RTE’s election coverage February 18, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, The Left.8 comments
The following is a press release on behalf of left Independent, Cieran Perry, who is contesting Dublin Central. You’ll find his website here.
Dublin City Councillor and General Election candidate for Dublin Central, Cieran Perry has put RTE on notice of his intention to launch a legal challenge to the station’s policy on election coverage. In a letter* sent to the national broadcaster, Mr. Perry accuses RTE of breaching the principle of fairness established by the Irish Courts.
Mr. Perry said, “RTE’s policy and practice of presenting some candidates, as ‘also-rans’ is in breach of the spirit of both the High Court and Supreme Court judgments in relation to fair treatment. If , as is the case with RTE, some candidates are presented in a manner that portrays them as having no chance of success then it automatically follows that many voters will opt for another candidate instead in order to maximize their voting influence. In other words, it is a self-fulfilling prophesy and as such an interference in the democratic process. It denies voters the right to a free and fair choice and the right to make up their own minds without undue influence by organs of the state.”
Mr Perry said, “These principles are well established in Irish law. In McKenna v An Taoiseach and Coughlan v RTE the courts held that equality and fairness were essential requirements of our “constitutional right to a democratic process.”
The Dublin City Councillor said that in order to ensure free, fair and democratic elections it is vital that this issue be addressed. “Considering the importance of this matter for this and future elections and unsatisfactory response to date from RTE, I have decided to take legal advice and intend to challenge RTE’s position on this matter in the courts.”
Mr. Perry said, “It is regrettable that once again RTE, which is supposed to be there to serve the people, appears unwilling to admit that it may be wrong and it is left up to ordinary citizens to prove this wrongdoing in the courts.” He added, “This would not be the first time RTE has been found to have acted unfairly and he referred to the successful challenge to RTE’s policy on party political broadcast during referenda campaigns Coughlan v RTE [1998]. When the High Court ruled that RTE was wrong in that case the station appealed unsuccessfully, at taxpayers expense, to the Supreme Court.
“During this campaign, successive opinion polls have shown Independents to be a popular choice of the electorate and it is grossly unfair that any media outlet would try and undermine that support. As a sitting Councillor elected with over 14% of the first preference vote in the 2009 Local Elections my omission from media coverage on RTE could be classified as unfair.” Concluded Mr. Perry.
This Week at The Irish Election Literature Blog -2011 Election Special February 18, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Irish Election Literature Blog.Tags: 2011 election, Irish Politics
1 comment so far
I gather Hooperman will be doing a pre election Press Conference Today….
Continuing with the football theme .. a message of support from Paul McGrath
Then on to a flyer and Leaflet from Cieran Perry who wants “Asset seizure from Financial Criminals”
Then a Leaflet from Andrew Keegan- People Before Profit /United Left Alliance running in Dublin North West
On then to an Ad for Seamus Healy “Do not be misled by other candidates that ‘Healy Will Fly In’”
From Shell to Sea we get a €540 Billion Euro Bank Note
A Mick Wallace Poster that didn’t make the cut
A strange choice of quote from Dan Boyle “Judge of the Nations, spare us yet – Lest we forget, lest we forget”.
I wonder does Christy Burke realise, that in his leaflet, he is using a similar line to Maurice Ahern
KPSWA candidate Mary Fitzgibbon running in Kerry North West Limerick.
And finally why you should vote for Dick Roche and then not vote for Michael F Dolan
Fine Gael: Themselves Alone… maybe, perhaps… never know… and what then of Labour? February 18, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics, The Left.6 comments
That Daily Star poll seems well within the bounds of the predictable and the possible – though with the caveat that it was conducted by a company named OI. They’re knew so perhaps the findings should be considered as being margin of error stuff.
Fianna Fail 17%, Fine Gael 39%, Labour 18%, Green Party 2%, Sinn Fein 10%, Others 14%
Fine Gael slightly up. Tipping towards 40. Hmmm… Labour on 18 and now sliding under 20 per cent. Fianna Fáil on 17 per cent. Interesting, is this the evidence so many have been waiting of if not a revival then at the evidence of a consolidation of its vote. If so remarkably SF remain at 10 per cent where they’ve been locked for the past week and tellingly the Independents also remain at 14 per cent.
Or are we reading this wrong. Adrian Kavanagh makes the point that when FF does better that suppresses the FG seat return marginally. And marginally when the projections are of 77-78 seats is no small thing [Kavanagh projects the following: Fianna Fail 31, Fine Gael 77, Labour 31, Green Party 0, Sinn Fein 8, Others 18].
Though consider that at the last election Fianna Fáil won… that’s right, 77 seats!
Of course the exchanges between Labour and Fine Gael are getting more heated. FG sees an opportunity to pull away entirely from the LP. The LP sees that prospect happening.
If Fine Gael does go it alone or in tandem with small numbers of Independents, not merely will this be the first non FF party to govern alone or as the overwhelmingly largest constituent element of a coalition, but it will also, and more importantly, mark for the Labour Party 14 years out of power, and potentially 19 years out of power. That’s a very long time, even for a party that might have 40 plus seats in the next Dáil.
Whether that’s enough time, or too much, for Labour to consolidate as the primary opposition party – a not unlikely outcome given the polling figures we’re currently seeing that suggest FF on sub 15 per cent – is another matter.
One thing that must be taken into account is this. The blow of a bad election can be very difficult for a party to sustain. One need only look at the problems SF faced post 2007 when rather than bringing in the 8 or 10 or in some instances 15 TDs they were predicted they fell back to 4 TDs. It wasn’t so much that this was disastrous – it wasn’t, even though it wasn’t great – but rather the sense that so much more had been promised.
For them the local elections were in a way worse. Despite retaining their local representation the fact that they hadn’t increased it was in part responsible for the departure of councillors to points various.
And of course, while we’re talking about SF, if they don’t get 7 or more TDs they will naturally be disappointed and there will be much talk in the media about how they have ‘failed’. But that is to underestimate just how difficult it is to build parties and how – relatively – successful they have been, not least in seeing Pearse Doherty through to victory, certainly the decision to see him to the Seanad was strategically brilliant. For them it is crucial to build numbers, but anything including or over 7 will be a good days work one way or another [though it will be interesting to see if the new government, whatever its colour, will rework Dáil procedures in a manner to marginalise them].
For Labour though it’s a little different. They could potentially get their largest number of TDs ever and be left sitting on the opposition benches yet again. For many of them that will be a bitter pill to swallow since this is quite literally their last chance at government.
So don’t expect any great shift to the left, or appetite to eschew coalition. That is most unlikely to happen, one way or another. Quite the opposite. Instead I suspect we’ll see an enormous enthusiasm to join the government on the part of the LP.
Indeed Gilmore’s thoughts in an interview on Raidió na Gaeltachta are instructive.
“I don’t think the people of this country are prepared to give complete power to any particular party, and that people want a coalition.
“Certainly, people are looking for a coalition that would be strong and lasting, and would tackle the major problems of the country.
“In a way, Labour and Fine Gael are agreed on a good deal of issues, eg reforms in the health service and some of the political and public sector reforms. “There are differences over the budget and how to put the economy back on its feet.”
And even if he sounded cautious, well…he’s also trotting out the one-party FG line, much like the Green Party, who I’ll look at in closer detail over the next while:
He added: “In my opinion, the choice at present is between a single-party Fine Gael government or a coalition in which Labour would be a strong or even majority partner.”
Does that work in quite the way that one-party FF did for the PDs? I don’t know that it does.
More pertinent is the question as to whether there will be a place for them?
Ed Moloney has a blog… February 18, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in European Politics, Irish Politics, Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, US Politics.add a comment
Ed Moloney has a very interesting and thoughtful blog here that many of us will enjoy.
Most interesting posts so far? Perhaps his overview of the Gifford shooting and the significance of language as a factor both in the US and closer to home in generating violent outcomes and a rather fine piece on the Sunday Tribune [and if I say he was one of the main reasons, some might say only reason, to read it back in the day I don't think I'd be far wrong].
Having recently re-read the most recent edition of A Secret History of the IRA while some will demur as regards certain conclusions made in it few would dispute that it is one of the key texts about the conflict and central to an understanding of the dynamics of the Peace Process.
It’s great to see him engaging in other areas apart from the news media [and hat tip to him for linking to the CLR - which is reciprocated on the right hand column].
Launch of ‘Committment to Communities: Sinn Féin committment to the community and voluntary sector’. February 17, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, The Left.1 comment so far
To take place on Friday 18th February at 2pm in the F2 Centre (Reuben Plaza, Rialto, Dublin 8).
Workers’ Party Election 2011 February 17, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics, The Left.15 comments
The website is here and the manifesto is here.
And here is the WP 10 point plan.
The Workers Party has set out its proposals in a 10 point programme
1: completely change the political system which has allowed corruption, cronyism and economic ruin to flourish.
2: oppose the IMF/EU deal which has no democratic mandate.
3: bring back into the public purse the billions which bankers and developers have immorally accumulated.
4: hold a referendum on the banks.
5: a new tax system to make billionaire tax exiles pay up and make those who can afford the most, pay the most.
6: introduce a stimulus package to grow the economy, creates jobs and generate tax revenues.
7: develop our vast oil and gas resources in the national interest – not private profit.
8: revamp our state and semi state companies, under democratic control and accountability, as the engine of economic growth and recovery.
9: reverse the cuts in Budget 2011 to protect those on social welfare, the minimum wage, the working poor and those on pensions.
10: introduce a wealth tax and use the National Pension Reserve Fund to kick start a National Economic Recovery Programme.
