You are currently browsing the daily archive for 21 April 2006.
There’s more to integrated schools than putting Catholics and Protestants together, says Bob Osborne
Thursday April 20, 2006
The Guardian
Like many simple descriptions, Polly Toynbee’s statement that Northern Ireland’s schools are religiously segregated and remain that way against parental wishes captures some of the reality, but also masks shifting circumstances (This is a clash of civilisations – between reason and superstition, April 14).
About 6% of the NI school population is in integrated schools, but some complex patterns are emerging. Hence, while the overwhelming majority of those attending and teaching in Catholic schools (owned by the Catholic authorities but fully funded by the state) are Catholic, a large proportion of non-Catholic schools are in fact state-owned and funded, with only a residual involvement of the Protestant churches.
True these are de facto Protestant schools, with the majority of teachers and pupils being Protestant – however, many of the large Protestant grammar schools, especially in the greater Belfast area, record rising proportions of Catholic students. Approximately 15% of Catholics are now educated outside Catholic schools. Moreover, state nursery schools record 31% of their pupils being Catholic, whereas Catholic nursery schools are 97% Catholic.
But Northern Ireland doesn’t just divide by religion. Over 30% of pupils are educated in single-sex schools, including primary schools. These divisions – together with the creation of Irish-language schools, the retention of academic selection, and the growing integrated sector – mean that Northern Ireland probably has at least 40% more post-primary schools compared with comparable areas, in terms of pupil numbers, in England, Scotland or Wales.
However, the tectonic plates are shifting. Demographic decline in pupil numbers means that there will be a huge drop in the number of schools through closure and amalgamation. Creating new, integrated schools in these circumstances is a costly option. Far better to create the sharing of facilities and shared campuses between existing schools as part of rationalisation, as has happened in parts of Scotland.
Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission has called for the restriction and ultimate abolition of the anomalous exemption from fair employment law which permits religious discrimination in the recruitment of teachers. A single equality bill promised over five years ago offers that opportunity.
Calling for more integrated schools might seem obvious to external commentators, but ignoring the economic and demographic context also raises the issue: what is an integrated school? Is it one which fosters a conscious debate about the sectarian and political divisions in Northern Ireland, or one where “the war” and all its consequences are deliberately never mentioned?
Recent research shows that both types of school exist in the integrated sector. No teachers are trained to teach in integrated schools. Surely it is appropriate to think about what we would expect an integrated school to do -beyond merely having Catholics and Protestants under the same roof?
· Bob Osborne is director of the Social and Policy Research Institute, University of Ulster.
rd.osborne@ulster.ac.uk
21 April 2006 18:12
The Independent Monitoring Commission has presented its latest assessment of paramilitary action in Northern Ireland to the British and Irish governments.
The report will be discussed at a cabinet meeting in Dublin on Tuesday and then presented in Westminster next Wednesday and published that day.
It deals with paramilitary activities up to the start of February and does not cover the murder of Denis Donaldson in Donegal.
Both the Dublin and London governments believe the IMC’s assessment of IRA activities will be the most positive to date.
The timing of the report is significant, with the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont set to re-open on 15 May, with parties obliged to agree on a power-sharing administration by 24 November.
In its last report, the IMC raised concerns about continuing republican involvement in criminality and intelligence gathering.
**See ÉIRE NUA
“The Easter Rising of 1916 brought about the birth of the world-wide anti-colonial movement, caused the renaissance of idealism in Ireland and broke the imperial myth that the Irish people could not resist English occupation in arms,” said Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President of Republican Sinn Féin.”
He was speaking at a 90th anniversary rally outside Dublin’s GPO to mark the actual calendar date of the Rising on April 22.
“On this weekend 90 years ago the alternative of the historic Irish nation ‘taking her place among the nations of the earth’ as a sovereign, independent Republic, as opposed to a partitioned Home Rule partnership in managing the British Empire was asserted defiantly before the world.
Every Easter since 1916, faithful Republicans have commemorated and celebrated this historic action, have distributed the Easter Lily, brought out in its present form by Cumann na mBan in 1925, and have worn it proudly in memory of the men and women of Easter Week and all, in every generation, who have died for Irish freedom.
They have done this in good times and in bad, have had their commemorations banned and attacked by British and 26-County forces, have had the carrying publicly of the national flag prohibited and have suffered imprisonment for insisting in honouring 1916.
On the other hand, the 26-County State has ignored and neglected any public homage to 1916 for more than a generation – for 35 years. Some would hold that in withdrawing such recognition for a long period of that nature it has forfeited all right to be associated with the deeds of the men and women of that period.
Those in charge in the 26 Counties have gone on record as saying that they neglected 1916 in order to deny any support to those resisting British rule in the 26 Counties. In that way, they have admitted the direct connection between 1916 and continuing efforts to end British occupation in Ireland.
The Proclamation of the All-Ireland Republic first read in this historic spot, and signed and sealed by the leaders of the Rising in their own blood, declared ‘the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland’ to be sovereign and indefeasible’. That right could not ‘ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people’.
This Irish charter of liberty guaranteed ‘civil and religious liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all citizens’, yet one in seven children in the State were in consistent poverty according to the Central Statistics Office (2003). More than one fifth of the population were functionally illiterate.
The English government still rules the Six Occupied Counties and two-thirds of the laws in the other 26 Counties are enacted by the EU in Brussels. All this is very far from the situation visualised in the Proclamation.
The Ireland of today did not flow from the Rising of 1916, but from the denial of the Proclamation and of the First (All-Ireland) Dáil by an Act of the British Parliament, the Government of Ireland Act 1920.
The public auctioning of items associated with the Rising and its leaders is in keeping with the failure to fulfil the ideals of that time.
History teaches us that the active struggle to end English rule here will continue. It will end in due course, but the work of liberation will go on.
The alternative to the failed Stormont Agreement of eight years ago lies in the ÉIRE NUA programme for a new federation of the four historic provinces. This will provide for the distribution of power and decision-making naturally, according to local majorities, among nationalists and unionists alike.
‘Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter’ can be united on the basis of such a programme, with mutual respect and full access to self-government by all communities. Such a situation would be in keeping with the ideals and guarantees of the 1916 Proclamation.”
ENDS
There’s more to integrated schools than putting Catholics and Protestants together, says Bob Osborne
Thursday April 20, 2006
The Guardian
Like many simple descriptions, Polly Toynbee’s statement that Northern Ireland’s schools are religiously segregated and remain that way against parental wishes captures some of the reality, but also masks shifting circumstances (This is a clash of civilisations – between reason and superstition, April 14).
About 6% of the NI school population is in integrated schools, but some complex patterns are emerging. Hence, while the overwhelming majority of those attending and teaching in Catholic schools (owned by the Catholic authorities but fully funded by the state) are Catholic, a large proportion of non-Catholic schools are in fact state-owned and funded, with only a residual involvement of the Protestant churches.
True these are de facto Protestant schools, with the majority of teachers and pupils being Protestant – however, many of the large Protestant grammar schools, especially in the greater Belfast area, record rising proportions of Catholic students. Approximately 15% of Catholics are now educated outside Catholic schools. Moreover, state nursery schools record 31% of their pupils being Catholic, whereas Catholic nursery schools are 97% Catholic.
But Northern Ireland doesn’t just divide by religion. Over 30% of pupils are educated in single-sex schools, including primary schools. These divisions – together with the creation of Irish-language schools, the retention of academic selection, and the growing integrated sector – mean that Northern Ireland probably has at least 40% more post-primary schools compared with comparable areas, in terms of pupil numbers, in England, Scotland or Wales.
However, the tectonic plates are shifting. Demographic decline in pupil numbers means that there will be a huge drop in the number of schools through closure and amalgamation. Creating new, integrated schools in these circumstances is a costly option. Far better to create the sharing of facilities and shared campuses between existing schools as part of rationalisation, as has happened in parts of Scotland.
Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission has called for the restriction and ultimate abolition of the anomalous exemption from fair employment law which permits religious discrimination in the recruitment of teachers. A single equality bill promised over five years ago offers that opportunity.
Calling for more integrated schools might seem obvious to external commentators, but ignoring the economic and demographic context also raises the issue: what is an integrated school? Is it one which fosters a conscious debate about the sectarian and political divisions in Northern Ireland, or one where “the war” and all its consequences are deliberately never mentioned?
Recent research shows that both types of school exist in the integrated sector. No teachers are trained to teach in integrated schools. Surely it is appropriate to think about what we would expect an integrated school to do -beyond merely having Catholics and Protestants under the same roof?
· Bob Osborne is director of the Social and Policy Research Institute, University of Ulster.
rd.osborne@ulster.ac.uk
21 April 2006 18:12
The Independent Monitoring Commission has presented its latest assessment of paramilitary action in Northern Ireland to the British and Irish governments.
The report will be discussed at a cabinet meeting in Dublin on Tuesday and then presented in Westminster next Wednesday and published that day.
It deals with paramilitary activities up to the start of February and does not cover the murder of Denis Donaldson in Donegal.
Both the Dublin and London governments believe the IMC’s assessment of IRA activities will be the most positive to date.
The timing of the report is significant, with the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont set to re-open on 15 May, with parties obliged to agree on a power-sharing administration by 24 November.
In its last report, the IMC raised concerns about continuing republican involvement in criminality and intelligence gathering.
**See ÉIRE NUA
“The Easter Rising of 1916 brought about the birth of the world-wide anti-colonial movement, caused the renaissance of idealism in Ireland and broke the imperial myth that the Irish people could not resist English occupation in arms,” said Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President of Republican Sinn Féin.”
He was speaking at a 90th anniversary rally outside Dublin’s GPO to mark the actual calendar date of the Rising on April 22.
“On this weekend 90 years ago the alternative of the historic Irish nation ‘taking her place among the nations of the earth’ as a sovereign, independent Republic, as opposed to a partitioned Home Rule partnership in managing the British Empire was asserted defiantly before the world.
Every Easter since 1916, faithful Republicans have commemorated and celebrated this historic action, have distributed the Easter Lily, brought out in its present form by Cumann na mBan in 1925, and have worn it proudly in memory of the men and women of Easter Week and all, in every generation, who have died for Irish freedom.
They have done this in good times and in bad, have had their commemorations banned and attacked by British and 26-County forces, have had the carrying publicly of the national flag prohibited and have suffered imprisonment for insisting in honouring 1916.
On the other hand, the 26-County State has ignored and neglected any public homage to 1916 for more than a generation – for 35 years. Some would hold that in withdrawing such recognition for a long period of that nature it has forfeited all right to be associated with the deeds of the men and women of that period.
Those in charge in the 26 Counties have gone on record as saying that they neglected 1916 in order to deny any support to those resisting British rule in the 26 Counties. In that way, they have admitted the direct connection between 1916 and continuing efforts to end British occupation in Ireland.
The Proclamation of the All-Ireland Republic first read in this historic spot, and signed and sealed by the leaders of the Rising in their own blood, declared ‘the right of the Irish people to the ownership of Ireland’ to be sovereign and indefeasible’. That right could not ‘ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people’.
This Irish charter of liberty guaranteed ‘civil and religious liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all citizens’, yet one in seven children in the State were in consistent poverty according to the Central Statistics Office (2003). More than one fifth of the population were functionally illiterate.
The English government still rules the Six Occupied Counties and two-thirds of the laws in the other 26 Counties are enacted by the EU in Brussels. All this is very far from the situation visualised in the Proclamation.
The Ireland of today did not flow from the Rising of 1916, but from the denial of the Proclamation and of the First (All-Ireland) Dáil by an Act of the British Parliament, the Government of Ireland Act 1920.
The public auctioning of items associated with the Rising and its leaders is in keeping with the failure to fulfil the ideals of that time.
History teaches us that the active struggle to end English rule here will continue. It will end in due course, but the work of liberation will go on.
The alternative to the failed Stormont Agreement of eight years ago lies in the ÉIRE NUA programme for a new federation of the four historic provinces. This will provide for the distribution of power and decision-making naturally, according to local majorities, among nationalists and unionists alike.
‘Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter’ can be united on the basis of such a programme, with mutual respect and full access to self-government by all communities. Such a situation would be in keeping with the ideals and guarantees of the 1916 Proclamation.”
ENDS
A 34-year-old man has been in court charged with having an Uzi sub-machinegun in east Belfast on Wednesday.
Ronald Alexander Hoy, from Ganton Park, Tullycarnet, Dundonald, was charged with having the weapon and 21 bullets with intent to endanger life.
A detective constable told Belfast Magistrates Court believed he could connect the defendant with the charges.
Mr Hoy was remanded in custody to appear again by videolink on 19 May.
By Ed Carty
20/04/2006
Campaigners battling to re-route the M3 motorway away from the Hill of Tara yesterday served environment minister Dick Roche with notice of a Supreme Court challenge.
Lawyer Vincent Salafia said he was appealing a High Court ruling clearing the way for the road, which would snake its way through the ancient capital of Ireland’s kings.
He said he was hopeful the government would try to appease voters ahead of next year’s election by doing a U-turn.
“While the case is proceeding logically to the Supreme Court, and Europe if necessary, we are still hoping for a political decision by the authorities to review the situation and consider rerouting the Tara section of motorway,” he said.
“With an election coming up, the government is acutely aware that 70 per cent of people surveyed nationally in 2005 said they wanted the motorway rerouted away from Tara.”
Formal written notice of the Supreme Court action was handed yesterday to Mr Roche, Attorney General Rory Brady, Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority.
Mr Salafia lost his High Court challenge to the M3 last May. He claimed that the National Monuments Act 2004 was unconstitutional because it did not pass the test laid out by the judge Mary Laffoy in the M50/Carrickmines Castle case.
She recognised the constitutional imperative on the state to protect the national heritage.
The act, introduced by then minister Martin Cullen, gave the minister sole discretion in deciding whether any archaeological site was a national monument and whether it could be demolished.
Mr Salafia has described as unconstitutional the directions given by the minister for the excavation of 38 archaeological sites along the route chosen by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority.
High Court judge Thomas Smyth rejected Mr Salafia’s claims.
The campaigner is now taking his battle to have the M3 re-routed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that he has standing, as a citizen of Ireland, to take the case.
He will assert that he did not delay in taking legal action, initiating his judicial review of the minister’s directions within eight weeks of them being given last May.
No date has been fixed for the hearing but it will be several months away, possibly in the autumn.
By Connla Young
21/04/2006
A County Antrim man has spoken of the moment he thought he was going to die after being seriously injured in a vicious sectarian knife attack last weekend.
Kirk McCaughern says he was terrified that he would lose his life after being stabbed in the back by a knife-wielding loyalist in a Ballymena shopping centre last Saturday.
The 20-year-old and his older brother Leslie were set upon by up to 20 loyalist youths after an altercation in the town’s flagship shopping centre. Last night the unemployed Ballymena man said he believed his attackers were trying to kill him and warned Catholic youths to avoid entering Ballymena town centre.
During the attack, Mr McCaughern was stabbed in the right side of the back which resulted in a punctured lung and damaged liver.
Mr McCaughern says he was stabbed during an altercation with a group of loyalists youths in the town’s busy Tower shopping centre just after lunchtime on Saturday.
During the assault the number of attackers rose to around 20 people. It was only after the attack was ended that Mr McCaughern realised he had been stabbed.
Speaking from his Ballymena home last night, the shaken stab victim recounted the assault which he says almost claimed his life.
“I though that I was going to die. People kept telling me I would be alright and that it wasn’t that bad but there were times I thought it might be over. I could feel pain and when they put tubes into my chest. I did panic a bit. They could have killed me and I think they were trying to kill me. As soon as we walked in they shouted ‘there’s the fenians’. This is the second time I have been attacked like this in the past four years.
In recent weeks sectarian tensions in Ballymena have been rising. A number of loyalist and nationalists flags erected across the town in recent weeks have raised simmering tensions.
Last year the PSNI was forced to mount a major operation to protect Catholic churches and schools in the Ballymena district after several were fire bombed. A number of Catholic families were also forced to flee their homes in nearby Ahoghill after they were targeted in loyalist arson attacks.
Mr McCaughern’s mother Anne Marie says parents in the area are worried by the knife attack on her son.
“I would ask the question as to why it took the police 20 minutes to turn up to help my son in the middle of Ballymena in broad daylight? I would also ask has CCTV footage been seized from the shopping centre, the individual shops and the street? Can someone walk in there, stab someone else and it’s a case of see no evil, hear no evil?”
A spokesperson for the PSNI confirmed that “CCTV footage has been studied”.
Aspokeswoman for the Tower Centre in Ballymena refused to comment on reports that managers were ordered not to co-operate with a PSNI investigation into the knife attack by an anonymous telephone caller.
A 34-year-old man has been in court charged with having an Uzi sub-machinegun in east Belfast on Wednesday.
Ronald Alexander Hoy, from Ganton Park, Tullycarnet, Dundonald, was charged with having the weapon and 21 bullets with intent to endanger life.
A detective constable told Belfast Magistrates Court believed he could connect the defendant with the charges.
Mr Hoy was remanded in custody to appear again by videolink on 19 May.
By Ed Carty
20/04/2006
Campaigners battling to re-route the M3 motorway away from the Hill of Tara yesterday served environment minister Dick Roche with notice of a Supreme Court challenge.
Lawyer Vincent Salafia said he was appealing a High Court ruling clearing the way for the road, which would snake its way through the ancient capital of Ireland’s kings.
He said he was hopeful the government would try to appease voters ahead of next year’s election by doing a U-turn.
“While the case is proceeding logically to the Supreme Court, and Europe if necessary, we are still hoping for a political decision by the authorities to review the situation and consider rerouting the Tara section of motorway,” he said.
“With an election coming up, the government is acutely aware that 70 per cent of people surveyed nationally in 2005 said they wanted the motorway rerouted away from Tara.”
Formal written notice of the Supreme Court action was handed yesterday to Mr Roche, Attorney General Rory Brady, Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority.
Mr Salafia lost his High Court challenge to the M3 last May. He claimed that the National Monuments Act 2004 was unconstitutional because it did not pass the test laid out by the judge Mary Laffoy in the M50/Carrickmines Castle case.
She recognised the constitutional imperative on the state to protect the national heritage.
The act, introduced by then minister Martin Cullen, gave the minister sole discretion in deciding whether any archaeological site was a national monument and whether it could be demolished.
Mr Salafia has described as unconstitutional the directions given by the minister for the excavation of 38 archaeological sites along the route chosen by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority.
High Court judge Thomas Smyth rejected Mr Salafia’s claims.
The campaigner is now taking his battle to have the M3 re-routed to the Supreme Court on the grounds that he has standing, as a citizen of Ireland, to take the case.
He will assert that he did not delay in taking legal action, initiating his judicial review of the minister’s directions within eight weeks of them being given last May.
No date has been fixed for the hearing but it will be several months away, possibly in the autumn.
By Connla Young
21/04/2006
A County Antrim man has spoken of the moment he thought he was going to die after being seriously injured in a vicious sectarian knife attack last weekend.
Kirk McCaughern says he was terrified that he would lose his life after being stabbed in the back by a knife-wielding loyalist in a Ballymena shopping centre last Saturday.
The 20-year-old and his older brother Leslie were set upon by up to 20 loyalist youths after an altercation in the town’s flagship shopping centre. Last night the unemployed Ballymena man said he believed his attackers were trying to kill him and warned Catholic youths to avoid entering Ballymena town centre.
During the attack, Mr McCaughern was stabbed in the right side of the back which resulted in a punctured lung and damaged liver.
Mr McCaughern says he was stabbed during an altercation with a group of loyalists youths in the town’s busy Tower shopping centre just after lunchtime on Saturday.
During the assault the number of attackers rose to around 20 people. It was only after the attack was ended that Mr McCaughern realised he had been stabbed.
Speaking from his Ballymena home last night, the shaken stab victim recounted the assault which he says almost claimed his life.
“I though that I was going to die. People kept telling me I would be alright and that it wasn’t that bad but there were times I thought it might be over. I could feel pain and when they put tubes into my chest. I did panic a bit. They could have killed me and I think they were trying to kill me. As soon as we walked in they shouted ‘there’s the fenians’. This is the second time I have been attacked like this in the past four years.
In recent weeks sectarian tensions in Ballymena have been rising. A number of loyalist and nationalists flags erected across the town in recent weeks have raised simmering tensions.
Last year the PSNI was forced to mount a major operation to protect Catholic churches and schools in the Ballymena district after several were fire bombed. A number of Catholic families were also forced to flee their homes in nearby Ahoghill after they were targeted in loyalist arson attacks.
Mr McCaughern’s mother Anne Marie says parents in the area are worried by the knife attack on her son.
“I would ask the question as to why it took the police 20 minutes to turn up to help my son in the middle of Ballymena in broad daylight? I would also ask has CCTV footage been seized from the shopping centre, the individual shops and the street? Can someone walk in there, stab someone else and it’s a case of see no evil, hear no evil?”
A spokesperson for the PSNI confirmed that “CCTV footage has been studied”.
Aspokeswoman for the Tower Centre in Ballymena refused to comment on reports that managers were ordered not to co-operate with a PSNI investigation into the knife attack by an anonymous telephone caller.
A man accused of a loyalist feud murder has been granted bail to attend the funeral of his brother-in-law, who died in a road accident.
William “Mo” Courtney, 42, of Glencairn Pass, Belfast, will be allowed out of Maghaberry prison for eight hours on compassionate reasons on Monday.
Mr Courtney has denied murdering Alan McCullough, 21, in May 2003. High Court judge Mr Justice Gillen said he felt Mr Courtney’s wife needed “proper support at this time”.
He said compassionate bail was normally granted only where there was a very close family connection, but would make an exception in this case.
A man accused of a loyalist feud murder has been granted bail to attend the funeral of his brother-in-law, who died in a road accident.
William “Mo” Courtney, 42, of Glencairn Pass, Belfast, will be allowed out of Maghaberry prison for eight hours on compassionate reasons on Monday.
Mr Courtney has denied murdering Alan McCullough, 21, in May 2003. High Court judge Mr Justice Gillen said he felt Mr Courtney’s wife needed “proper support at this time”.
He said compassionate bail was normally granted only where there was a very close family connection, but would make an exception in this case.
West recalls memories of hunger strikes in run-up to Sands’ anniversary
by Francesca Ryan
Sunday past saw republicans across the world pay homage to the leaders of the 1916 Rising on the 90th anniversary of the rebellion.
The sacrifice of the hunger strikers was also remembered in public orations given on Sunday including the lengthy speech given by Gerry Adams at the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery where the three Belfast hunger strikers are buried.
During his speech, the West Belfast MP slammed the British government for “cruelly and cynically allowing ten of our comrades to die” and accused the Irish government of letting the hunger strikers and their families down.
Mr Adams then called on republicans to “tell a new generation of Irish republicans the story of 1981 alongside the history of 1916.”
As 25th anniversary commemorations to remember the hunger strikers continue, the Andersonstown News took to the Kennedy Centre to ask locals to share their memories of the dark days of 1981.
“I vividly remember the rioting that took place throughout the hunger strike,” said Andersonstown’s Brian McCullagh.
“You could feel the tension in the air, you could really feel it hanging over the whole of West Belfast.
“I was living in Twinbrook at the time and the whole estate was united in outrage and grief when Bobby Sands and the rest of the boys died.
“By the time he died, it wasn’t a surprise but it was very sad.
“We all knew Thatcher was going to let them die but it was still a shock when it actually happened.
“It was sad that we had to go that far to get the five demands.”
Brian’s wife, Liz McCullagh, said the deaths were unnecessary and laid the blame solely at the door of Thatcher and the British government.
“The rest of the world recognised the boys as prisoners of war as did a lot of the British people, but it was the British government that wouldn’t recognise their POW status and it was the British government that let them die.”
Andersonstown’s Pauline O’Neill was busy rearing her family at the time but recalls her memories of that sad era in Irish history.
“I remember the rioting, it was a constant thing, every day there was something going on and people were getting hurt.
“I was bringing up a young family then and was constantly worrying about them. I would never let them out in case anything would happen to them, it was a depressing time.”
Falls Road man Pat Clarke was a friend of Joe McDonnell’s family, he says his sympathy lies with the families of the hunger strikers just as much today as it did in 1981.
“Joe’s mother was born in the same street as me and his brother worked with me for years.
“I knew Joe quite well and knew of Bobby, they were extremely dedicated lads.
“I remember being at the funerals of all three Belfast hunger strikers and there was a really tense atmosphere.
“I remember as clear as day the guard of honour waiting to fire a volley of shots over the coffins, the place was silent, they were well organised funerals.”
Pat said that looking back, it was hard to believe that the hunger strikes happened and he hopes that nothing similar ever happens again.
“It was a tough time and I dread to think it could happen again.
“I still feel sad for the families, everyone gets on with their lives but the relatives are the ones that have to live with the tragic loss forever.”
Frank Maginn remembers the whole place being in disarray and he’s not convinced that we have advanced too far politically since 1981.
“Utter disruption, that’s how I would describe it,” said the Ladybrook man.
“People were sad, angry and frustrated and showed their outrage by rioting on the streets.
“I was living in Lenadoon at the time and I remember there was no transport, if you wanted to get to work, you had to walk.
“When you think about it, here we are 30 years on and there isn’t any real change.
“I admit there have been some achievements but, despite the efforts, we haven’t moved on that much, there certainly hasn’t been any change in my circumstances.”
Joesphine O’Neill from Turf Lodge made a point to get to the funerals of the hunger strikers, those in Belfast and beyond.
“It was a terribly sad time for people living in estates across West Belfast.
“There was non-stop rioting almost every other day and an overwhelming sense of sadness.
“I was busy rearing my kids but I made sure I got to the funerals of the three Belfast hunger strikers and some of those in the country.”
Josephine is one of the many who still harbour resentment and anger at Margaret Thatcher for letting the young men die.
“People were so angry with Thatcher, they still are.
“I’ll tell you one thing, she’ll never die in her bed for the way she let those young fellas die.”
Journalist:: Francesca Ryan
BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS
Photo: Seán McNeela and Tony D’Arcy
When Seán Russell was appointed IRA Chief of Staff in 1938 he immediately appointed Seán McNeela OC England and Tony D’Arcy OC Western Command.
After a few months of intense activity preparing for a bombing campaign in England, McNeela was arrested and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. He returned to Ireland in 1939 and was appointed IRA Director of Publicity and produced a weekly paper entitled War News.
McNeela was arrested three weeks later with members of the Radio Broadcast Staff and imprisoned in Mountjoy jail. He was Officer Commanding of the prisoners from February 1940, sharing a cell with Tony D’Arcy who had been arrested at a GHQ meeting in 40 Parnell Square in Dublin. D’Arcy was serving a three month sentence for refusing to account for his movements or give his name and address when he was arrested.
A crisis developed in the prison when Nicky Doherty, of Julianstown, County Meath was sentenced to five years penal servitude. Instead of being transferred to Arbour Hill, where other republican prisoners had political status, Doherty was lodged in the criminal section of Mountjoy.
McNeela, as OC of the republican prisoners requested Doherty’s transfer to Arbour Hill. The request was ignored. McNeela and his prison council decided to launch a hunger strike until the demand was accepted.
Four men joined McNeela and D’Arcy on huinger strike. They were Tomás Mac Curtáin, of Cork, the only son of the martyred Lord Mayor. Jack Plunkett of Dublin, son of Count Plunkett and brother of Joseph Mary Plunkett, Tommy Grogan of Drogheda and Michael Traynor of Belfast, later Ard-Rúnaí of Sinn Féin.
Seven days into the hunger strike Special Branch detectives came to take McNeela for trial before the Special Criminal Court. McNeela refused to go and barricades were erected in D-Wing.
In the riot that ensued the Special Branch and Dublin Metrpolitian Police were deployed in force against the prisoners.
D’Arcy was rendered unconcious by blows from a baton and McNeela was pummeled by blow after blow. The wounds received by McNeela and D’Arcy never healed.
McNeela was taken away that evening and tried and sentenced by the Special Court. He was charged with ‘conspiracy to usurp a function of Government’ and sentenced to two years. He was running a pirate radio station when arrested.
On the eve of St Patrick’s Day all six hunger strikers were removed to St Bricin’s military hospital.
On the 54th night of the hunger strike, Tony D’Arcy cried out “Seán I’m dying”. Seán replied: “I’m coming Tony”. The other prisoners appealed to McNeela not to get out of bed as he was very weak and they felt it would kill him but D’Arcy’s cry concerned him and he staggered across the room to his comrade. Later that night D’Arcy was taken out to a private ward.
Tony D’Arcy, IRA Volunteer from Headford, County Galway died the following night.
The day following D’Arcy’s removal from the ward, Seán McNeela’s uncle, Mick Kilroy, the Fianna Fáil TD, came to see him. He attacked Seán for “daring to embarrass de Valera” the “heaven-sent leader” by such action and demanded that Mcneela give up his hunger strike at once. McNeela ordered him out of the room.
The next day April 19 Seán McNeela, the IRA Volunteer from Ballycroy, County Mayo, died.
An IRA order to end the hunger strike was sent to the prison on the day before by GHQ but word had not got in in time to save McNeela.
In the third week of April 1940, 66 years ago, Irish republicans Seán McNeela and Tony D’Arcy died on hunger strike.
West recalls memories of hunger strikes in run-up to Sands’ anniversary
by Francesca Ryan
Sunday past saw republicans across the world pay homage to the leaders of the 1916 Rising on the 90th anniversary of the rebellion.
The sacrifice of the hunger strikers was also remembered in public orations given on Sunday including the lengthy speech given by Gerry Adams at the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery where the three Belfast hunger strikers are buried.
During his speech, the West Belfast MP slammed the British government for “cruelly and cynically allowing ten of our comrades to die” and accused the Irish government of letting the hunger strikers and their families down.
Mr Adams then called on republicans to “tell a new generation of Irish republicans the story of 1981 alongside the history of 1916.”
As 25th anniversary commemorations to remember the hunger strikers continue, the Andersonstown News took to the Kennedy Centre to ask locals to share their memories of the dark days of 1981.
“I vividly remember the rioting that took place throughout the hunger strike,” said Andersonstown’s Brian McCullagh.
“You could feel the tension in the air, you could really feel it hanging over the whole of West Belfast.
“I was living in Twinbrook at the time and the whole estate was united in outrage and grief when Bobby Sands and the rest of the boys died.
“By the time he died, it wasn’t a surprise but it was very sad.
“We all knew Thatcher was going to let them die but it was still a shock when it actually happened.
“It was sad that we had to go that far to get the five demands.”
Brian’s wife, Liz McCullagh, said the deaths were unnecessary and laid the blame solely at the door of Thatcher and the British government.
“The rest of the world recognised the boys as prisoners of war as did a lot of the British people, but it was the British government that wouldn’t recognise their POW status and it was the British government that let them die.”
Andersonstown’s Pauline O’Neill was busy rearing her family at the time but recalls her memories of that sad era in Irish history.
“I remember the rioting, it was a constant thing, every day there was something going on and people were getting hurt.
“I was bringing up a young family then and was constantly worrying about them. I would never let them out in case anything would happen to them, it was a depressing time.”
Falls Road man Pat Clarke was a friend of Joe McDonnell’s family, he says his sympathy lies with the families of the hunger strikers just as much today as it did in 1981.
“Joe’s mother was born in the same street as me and his brother worked with me for years.
“I knew Joe quite well and knew of Bobby, they were extremely dedicated lads.
“I remember being at the funerals of all three Belfast hunger strikers and there was a really tense atmosphere.
“I remember as clear as day the guard of honour waiting to fire a volley of shots over the coffins, the place was silent, they were well organised funerals.”
Pat said that looking back, it was hard to believe that the hunger strikes happened and he hopes that nothing similar ever happens again.
“It was a tough time and I dread to think it could happen again.
“I still feel sad for the families, everyone gets on with their lives but the relatives are the ones that have to live with the tragic loss forever.”
Frank Maginn remembers the whole place being in disarray and he’s not convinced that we have advanced too far politically since 1981.
“Utter disruption, that’s how I would describe it,” said the Ladybrook man.
“People were sad, angry and frustrated and showed their outrage by rioting on the streets.
“I was living in Lenadoon at the time and I remember there was no transport, if you wanted to get to work, you had to walk.
“When you think about it, here we are 30 years on and there isn’t any real change.
“I admit there have been some achievements but, despite the efforts, we haven’t moved on that much, there certainly hasn’t been any change in my circumstances.”
Joesphine O’Neill from Turf Lodge made a point to get to the funerals of the hunger strikers, those in Belfast and beyond.
“It was a terribly sad time for people living in estates across West Belfast.
“There was non-stop rioting almost every other day and an overwhelming sense of sadness.
“I was busy rearing my kids but I made sure I got to the funerals of the three Belfast hunger strikers and some of those in the country.”
Josephine is one of the many who still harbour resentment and anger at Margaret Thatcher for letting the young men die.
“People were so angry with Thatcher, they still are.
“I’ll tell you one thing, she’ll never die in her bed for the way she let those young fellas die.”
Journalist:: Francesca Ryan
BY SHANE Mac THOMÁIS
Photo: Seán McNeela and Tony D’Arcy
When Seán Russell was appointed IRA Chief of Staff in 1938 he immediately appointed Seán McNeela OC England and Tony D’Arcy OC Western Command.
After a few months of intense activity preparing for a bombing campaign in England, McNeela was arrested and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. He returned to Ireland in 1939 and was appointed IRA Director of Publicity and produced a weekly paper entitled War News.
McNeela was arrested three weeks later with members of the Radio Broadcast Staff and imprisoned in Mountjoy jail. He was Officer Commanding of the prisoners from February 1940, sharing a cell with Tony D’Arcy who had been arrested at a GHQ meeting in 40 Parnell Square in Dublin. D’Arcy was serving a three month sentence for refusing to account for his movements or give his name and address when he was arrested.
A crisis developed in the prison when Nicky Doherty, of Julianstown, County Meath was sentenced to five years penal servitude. Instead of being transferred to Arbour Hill, where other republican prisoners had political status, Doherty was lodged in the criminal section of Mountjoy.
McNeela, as OC of the republican prisoners requested Doherty’s transfer to Arbour Hill. The request was ignored. McNeela and his prison council decided to launch a hunger strike until the demand was accepted.
Four men joined McNeela and D’Arcy on huinger strike. They were Tomás Mac Curtáin, of Cork, the only son of the martyred Lord Mayor. Jack Plunkett of Dublin, son of Count Plunkett and brother of Joseph Mary Plunkett, Tommy Grogan of Drogheda and Michael Traynor of Belfast, later Ard-Rúnaí of Sinn Féin.
Seven days into the hunger strike Special Branch detectives came to take McNeela for trial before the Special Criminal Court. McNeela refused to go and barricades were erected in D-Wing.
In the riot that ensued the Special Branch and Dublin Metrpolitian Police were deployed in force against the prisoners.
D’Arcy was rendered unconcious by blows from a baton and McNeela was pummeled by blow after blow. The wounds received by McNeela and D’Arcy never healed.
McNeela was taken away that evening and tried and sentenced by the Special Court. He was charged with ‘conspiracy to usurp a function of Government’ and sentenced to two years. He was running a pirate radio station when arrested.
On the eve of St Patrick’s Day all six hunger strikers were removed to St Bricin’s military hospital.
On the 54th night of the hunger strike, Tony D’Arcy cried out “Seán I’m dying”. Seán replied: “I’m coming Tony”. The other prisoners appealed to McNeela not to get out of bed as he was very weak and they felt it would kill him but D’Arcy’s cry concerned him and he staggered across the room to his comrade. Later that night D’Arcy was taken out to a private ward.
Tony D’Arcy, IRA Volunteer from Headford, County Galway died the following night.
The day following D’Arcy’s removal from the ward, Seán McNeela’s uncle, Mick Kilroy, the Fianna Fáil TD, came to see him. He attacked Seán for “daring to embarrass de Valera” the “heaven-sent leader” by such action and demanded that Mcneela give up his hunger strike at once. McNeela ordered him out of the room.
The next day April 19 Seán McNeela, the IRA Volunteer from Ballycroy, County Mayo, died.
An IRA order to end the hunger strike was sent to the prison on the day before by GHQ but word had not got in in time to save McNeela.
In the third week of April 1940, 66 years ago, Irish republicans Seán McNeela and Tony D’Arcy died on hunger strike.
Ben & Jerry’s decision to give their latest flavour of ice-cream the same name as Churchill’s notorious army has provoked howls of protest. David McKittrick describes the force’s reign of terror against Irish nationalists
21 April 2006 03:39
To practically the whole world it may seem like a harmless, cheerfully cutesie name for a new American ice-cream flavour, just adopted by the popular manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s.
But some Irish-Americans have given the “Black and Tan” flavour a reception that is cold to the point of frigidity, complaining of its associations with one of the most notorious forces ever seen in Ireland.
The Vermont-based company, unaware of origins of the name, based the new flavour on a drink that uses stout. The ice-cream launched in the US this month but it is now debatable whether Ireland will get a taste.
It is difficult to know whether the arrival of Black and Tan flavour ice-cream could cause controversy and outcry in Ireland, but it would certainly generate a great deal of conversation and debate.
Although the Black and Tans force was deployed for only a couple of years, from 1920 to 1922, nationalist Ireland still associates it with murder, brutality, massacre and indiscipline in the years leading to southern Ireland’s independence.
In this instance, its reputation is not based on any republican propaganda and exaggeration, since there is no dispute that “the Tans” killed and destroyed on a large scale. Nor did they make any secret of their ferocious reprisals. When a Tan was killed in Cork, they burnt down more than 300 buildings in the city centre and afterwards proudly pinned pieces of burnt cork to their caps.
A British Labour Party commission reported that it felt feelings of shame at witnessing the “insolent swagger” of the Tans, whom they described as “rough, brutal, abusive and distinctly the worse for liquor”.
Another observer reported: “They had neither religion nor morals, they used foul language, they had the old soldier’s talent for dodging and scrounging, called the Irish ‘natives’, associated with low company, stole from each other, sneered at the customs of the country and drank to excess.”
The Catholic cardinal of the day called them “a horde of savages, some of them simply brigands, burglars and thieves”. Similar denunciations came from within the armed forces, their commander, General Frank Crozier resigned in 1921 because they had been “used to murder, rob, loot, and burn up the innocent because they could not catch the few guilty on the run”.
None of this, clearly, conveys anything of the light-hearted images of fun and enjoyment which ice-cream manufacturers would wish to convey to their customers.
The Black and Tans were created after the First World War by Winston Churchill and other ministers who were faced with a increasing tide of violence from the IRA, which had launched a campaign to drive Britain out of Ireland.
This is known as the War of Independence, though republicans took to calling it the “Tan War”. With the IRA inflicting heavy casualties on the Royal Irish Constabulary, killing more than 50 of its officers, London created new forces to cope with republican insurrection. They were part of a hurriedly constructed counter-insurgency apparatus which included the existing police force, the regular army, secret service detachments and two completely new forces, the Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans.
In the years that followed, all these groups were deployed against republican rebels, but the particularly violent behaviour of the Tans, together with their striking nickname, has meant that the blame for most of the misbehaviour has stuck to them.
The nickname arose entirely accidentally, and is usually traced back to a well-known pack of Limerick foxhounds which had that title. As members of the new force poured into Ireland there were not enough uniforms to go round, so they were originally dressed in a motley mixture of army khaki and police tunics.
Irish women, it is said, jeered at them as Black and Tans. Their irregular ensembles served to emphasise that, although they were technically part of the Irish police, they disregarded all normal policing procedures, and committed almost casual murders. Most of them were Great War veterans who answered an advertising campaign in Britain for men willing to face “a rough and dangerous task”. With unemployment high, there were many ready to join for pay of 10 shillings a day plus board and lodging. Pay for a British Army private soldier was little more than a shilling a day.
The recruits, many hardened by trench warfare, were given only a few months’ training before being despatched to Ireland, supposedly to act as policemen but in fact to provide military steel. In Ireland, they faced a very different type of war. The IRA waged guerrilla warfare, with hit-and-run tactics, attacks on isolated police barracks and deadly ambushes in territory which was unfamiliar to the Tans. All the security forces found this an extremely frustrating type of conflict but the Tans in particular quickly abandoned the normal rules and conduct of war.
They were in any case explicitly instructed to step outside the law, one police divisional commander instructing his men in a speech: “If a police barracks is burnt then the best house in the locality is to be commandeered, the occupants thrown into the gutter. Let them die there; the more the merrier.”
He instructed them to shout “Hands up” at civilians, and to shoot anyone who did not immediately obey. He added: “Innocent persons may be shot, but that cannot be helped, and you are bound to get the right parties some time. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man.”
The old-style policemen did not care for the Tans, one saying years later: “The Black and Tans were all English and Scotch people; very rough, effing and blinding and boozing and all.” A British Army officer complained to a general: “We are importing crowds of undisciplined men who are just terrorising the country.”
Not all of the almost 10,000 Tans scattered around Ireland were guilty of atrocities; some were actually liked. But many felt free, as individuals or as units, to go far beyond the substantial degree of licence they had been officially granted.
Tans were reportedly among those who took part in “Bloody Sunday”, an incident which followed the assassinations of a large number of suspected members of the British secret service in Dublin. Hours after these killings, security forces opened fire at a Gaelic football match in the city, causing 12 deaths and wounding scores.
In other cases, homes and businesses, particularly creameries, were burnt by the Tans. In the town of Balbriggan near Dublin, the IRA killing of a police officer led to severe reprisals: two republican suspects were shot dead, and 19 houses and various buildings were torched.
There were hundreds of reports of misbehaviour on a smaller scale. The late Lord Longford wrote of Tans torturing captured republicans, “cutting out the tongue of one, the nose of another, the heart of another and battering in the skull of a fourth”.
The government at first turned a blind eye to such incidents. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson described a conversation with Churchill: “I warned him again that those Black and Tans who are committing very indiscriminate reprisals will play the devil in Ireland, but he won’t listen or agree.”
The security forces, the Field Marshal said, “marked down certain Sinn Feiners as in their opinion actual murderers or instigators and then coolly went and shot them without question or trial. Winston saw very little harm in this but it horrifies me”.
Pressure on the government to end the activities mounted steadily, the Archbishop of Canterbury warning Lloyd George: “You do not cast out Beelzebub by Beelzebub.”
Churchill’s wife Clementine joined in the chorus of protest, asking him to end the reprisals and adding: “It always makes me unhappy and disappointed when I see you inclined to take for granted the rough, iron-fisted ‘Hunnish’ way will prevail.”
Later, Churchill openly acknowledged the excesses of the Black and Tans, admitting in the House of Commons: “It was quite impossible to prevent the police and military making reprisals on their own account.”
Ministers pondered on whether they should officially endorse reprisals, and persisted in believing that the oppressive tactics of the Tans and other forces were on the point of delivering victory. Lloyd George famously boasted that he “had murder by the throat”.
But on top of everything, the harsh methods of the Tans did not even work, and certainly did not defeat the IRA.
Professor Roy Foster wrote of the Tans: “They behaved more like independent mercenaries; their brutal regime followed the IRA’s policy of killing policemen, and was taken by many to vindicate it.”
The historian, Peter Hart, agreed. “It was astoundingly counter-productive. The militarised police formed their own death squads and regularly engaged in reprisals against civilians. IRA violence only increased.”
Despite the battering which all this inflicted on the image of Britain at home and abroad, the continuing IRA campaign eventually led Lloyd George to seek talks with the republicans, which led to British withdrawal.
In a little-known historical footnote, some of the Black and Tans were transferred to Palestine where, under much stricter discipline, their performance was judged a success.
But in Ireland older folk still relate with a shiver what the Tans did in their little village or town, the name and reputation of the force continuing to resound throughout history.
The name of the Black and Tans thus lives on to the present day, and can still be heard from the lips of republican orators driving home their ancient messages of British iniquity and Irish victimhood.
The phrase can in other words still generate much heat, so much heat, perhaps, that an ice-cream company may think twice about associating its cool product with a topic that can still raise the temperature in Ireland.
Come Out Ye Black and Tans
I was born on a Dublin street where the Royal drums do beat
And the loving English feet they tramped all over us,
And each and every night when me father’d come home tight
He’d invite the neighbors outside with this chorus:
Chorus:
Oh, come out you Black and Tans,
Come out and fight me like a man
Show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA
Made you run like hell away,
From the green and lovely lanes in Killashandra.
Come let me hear you tell
How you slammed the great Pernell,
When you fought them well and truly persecuted,
Where are the smears and jeers
That you bravely let us hear
When our heroes of ’16 were executed.
Come tell us how you slew
Those brave Arabs two by two
Like the Zulus, they had spears and bows and arrows,
How you bravely slew each one
With your 16-pounder gun
And you frightened them poor natives to their marrow.
The day is coming fast
And the time is here at last,
When each yeoman will be cast aside before us,
And if there be a need
Sure my kids will sing, “Godspeed!”
With a verse or two of Steven Beehan’s chorus.
–Come Out Ye Black and Tans. By Dominic Behan (1929-89)–
SAOIRSE32 
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