The Badger: The Blanket

Peace Rather Than Pipedreams

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 11:36:39 GMT

Sean Smyth

For the last thirty plus years the local and international press has been full of articles and letters about sectarianism in Ireland. Many of them have been written by members of the various socialist parties (for those socialists who are paranoid about anything which is written the 'capitalist press' I mean all socialist party's) who have been very keen to tell us the only way to tackle sectarianism is their way and that the trade unions are letting down the working class. [Full Article]

Lower Than The Lowest of the Low

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 11:34:38 GMT

Liam O Ruairc

Sinn Fein has reached a new low by claiming that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is failing to clamp down on the `Real IRA' in south Down. The Sunday Business Post reported Sinn Fein MLA Mick Murphy as saying that "There is a lot of dissident activity in the area, but the PSNI has done nothing about it." [Full Article]

Top Cat?

Sat, 21 Sep 2002 21:15:47 GMT

Anthony McIntyre

David Trimble faces yet another challenge this weekend from his opponents, not all of whom can so easily be slotted into Paul Bew's 'stupid unionism' pigeon hole. Some harbour leadership ambitions within their heads rather than vast amounts of nothingness. And with an election only months away the antagonisms will be sharpened and fashioned into stilettos. It is the ninth such 'crisis' for Trimble. For Jeffrey Donaldson it is the ninth turning point at which he will have failed to turn for the ninth time, if he keeps faith with past performances. That would leave Trimble out-doing those legendary cats in terms of lives, acquiring a record tenth. [Full Article]

Belfast's "Poor White Trash" and the Dead Dogmas of the Past

Fri, 20 Sep 2002 11:27:59 GMT

Brian Kelly

Billy Mitchell has drawn the parallel recently in the Blanket between the so-called 'poor white trash' of the American South and the Protestant working class here in the north. And in many ways it is an analogy that fits: callously abandoned in social and economic terms by the rulers of a society to which they have so enthusiastically proclaimed their loyalty over many, many years; sneered at, manipulated by, and regarded with a mixture of pity and contempt by "respectable" elements in their "own community"; and diverted from pursuing joint struggle alongside their fellow workers from the Falls or the Short Strand by their entanglement in a deep-rooted, reactionary historical tradition, like the Southern white working class during the civil rights era they are too easily held up as "the culprits" in the recent upsurge of sectarian barbarism. [Full Article]

Chief Constable Orde

Wed, 18 Sep 2002 11:33:50 GMT

Terry O'Neill

I live in Albany, New York, something of a hotbed of Irish-American culture and the place where the first man sworn in as a member of the Garda Siochana in 1922 lies buried. It is also the place where, in December 1986, I met the man who then-Governor Mario M. Cuomo had just nominated as top man for our respected New York State Police -- Tom Constantine. You have heard of him, no doubt. I took a liking to the man on the spot and have followed his subsequent career since as an admirer, critic and even, some would say, symbiote. [full article]

Suppression of dissent: what it is and what to do about it

Tue, 17 Sep 2002 12:27:56 GMT

Brian Martin
From The Blanket

Direct suppression occurs when:

A person makes a public statement or does something that is seen as a threat to the powerful interest group. The group most commonly is a government, industry or profession, but could be, for example, a trade union, church or environmental organisation.

Controlling the Streets

Fri, 13 Sep 2002 23:26:18 GMT

Anthony McIntyre
From The Blanket

'The instruments of liberation tend to become means of manipulation.' - Rolando Gaete

Walking through Armagh city with an hour or two on my hands, having just missed my bus, a driver tooted his horn at me as I crossed at lights. When I approached the car and spoke to him, he - having recognised me from somewhere else - asked if I would highlight some problems he was experiencing at the hands of the local Provisionals. It was not the first time that such an appeal had come my way simply in the course of travelling. On one occasion disembarking from a bus in Belfast, having just arrived from Cookstown, the driver asked if I could help his family circle acquire more information from the Provisional IRA about the circumstances of his nephew[OE]s death. Easier getting blood from a stone.

The Interface

Thu, 12 Sep 2002 11:50:09 GMT

Davy Carlin
From The Blanket

As David Trimble took the 'impartial' decision as the leading elected representative of the peoples of N. Ireland to do his walk-about in Cluan Place I and several other trade union activists co-incidentally took up the invite to visit Clandeboye Drive on the same day. We spent approximately two and a half hours there on which I shall give an objective account of those hours 4.30pm-7pm. The last time I was in the Short Strand was in answer to the call for an anti-sectarianism rally in which we witnessed both a person being shot and the rally attacked. Yet on that evening's televised news coverage I watched media revisionism in full flow in which the portrayal of the ' two warring tribes' were at it again. Yet my perception is that there was a deliberate attempt by some to portray a non-reality that evening. Yet again the media scrum accompanying Trimble's visit into Cluan Place and his unrepresentative approach on that day said nothing for the reality on the ground.

Republicanism in the Age of Empire

Wed, 11 Sep 2002 11:22:04 GMT

Michael Youlton
From The Blanket

The germs of the thinking behind the article that follows were first planted after a careful study of a lecture Bernadette Devlin McAliskey gave in Rocky Sullivan's Pub, USA, on May 3, 2000. The title of her lecture was "The British Peace Process".

Out Of The Ashes Of Armed Struggle Arose The Stormontistas And They Fought Ö Ardoyne Youth

Tue, 10 Sep 2002 11:55:22 GMT

Anthony McIntyre
From The Blanket

One of the certainties in politics is the certainty of egg on your face if you believe in too many of them. What certainty could be built on the founds of a politician's word? It is a safer bet to find wisdom in the old joke that you can always tell a politician is lying when you see his or her lips move. Yet in spite of this there are some trends which have such consistency that they resemble the gravitational pull applied to Newton's apple. And nothing is more certain than that the pull of the RUC structure will prove irresistible to Sinn Fein which will fall like an apple right into the rotten barrel it for so long railed against. The choice for the party merely lies in which model to opt for - Peter Mandleson's RUC or Chris Patten's RUC. Hardly a life or death choice that will cause party leaders serious hand wringing or deep soul searching into the small hours.

The BNP, Anti-Fascism And The Libertarian Dilemma

Mon, 09 Sep 2002 22:45:09 GMT

Mark Hayes
From The Blanket

Despite the defeat of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the French Presidential elections the issue of Fascism is still very much on the agenda. In countries like France and Austria the extreme right has entered the mainstream political arena, whilst in Britain the BNP is beginning to make an electoral impact. Certainly the recent local election results in Burnley and elsewhere have provided a degree of impetus for the BNP, and this has precipitated renewed concern about the (re)emergence of the Fascist right. Indeed, according to Dr. David Baker (University of Warwick), the election results constituted a "credibility breakthrough" for the British National Party.

The Oldest Profession

Sat, 07 Sep 2002 13:10:27 GMT

Eoghan O'Suilleabhain
From The Blanket

During The Middle Ages, tens of thousands of people all across Europe were wiped out by the bubonic plague. Included in The Black Death toll were thousands of craftsmen whose decrease in population increased the labour value of the surviving craftsmen engendering powerful Medieval Guilds capable of negotiating far better monetary arrangements for their living members thus serving as a precursor of sorts for today's Labour Unions.

Understanding Culture

Fri, 06 Sep 2002 12:02:11 GMT

Billy Mitchell
From The Blanket

Sean Smyth's article "Rose Tinted Culture" brought to mind the following lines of Rabbie Burns - "O wad some power the giftie gie us, tae see ourselves as ithers see us".

All too often we see ourselves and our experience of culture through rose tinted glasses and it does no harm for us to look at how others view us and our cultural experiences. As we grow older we tend to look back on what we feel were the halcyon days of wine and roses, forgetting that at times the wine was bitter and the roses had thorns.

Why Doesn't Britain Leave?

Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:04:38 GMT

Sandy Boyer
From The Blanket

Why doesn't the British government pull out of Northern Ireland? The disadvantages of continuing British rule are obvious. Among other things, it costs the British treasury approximately 1,500 million pounds a year in direct subvention. As well, bombs have periodically exploded in British cities and Britain has often had the embarrassment of being condemned by international human rights organizations.

Rose Tinted Culture

Wed, 04 Sep 2002 12:07:32 GMT

Sean Smyth
from The Blanket

In Billy Mitchell[base ']s reply to my article on praising Feile an Phobail, he paints an image of peace and harmony through our wee province, where we share and enjoy each other's culture.

I, like Billy, was lucky enough to have been raised in an environment which enabled me to spend many a long summer in Greenisland and to share in many cross community activities and still do.

I See Dead People

Wed, 04 Sep 2002 00:30:43 GMT

Anthony McIntyre

Every Saturday myself and my baby daughter Fírinne 'do the buses'. We go out, she in a pram or in harness, and walk down to the Falls Road to catch a bus into town. From there we head off to wherever our fancy takes us. She loves being on buses, and while public transport in Belfast compares poorly against a metropolis like Amsterdam, the city is small enough to make the journeys involved relatively short. That is until some group, as on Friday, decide otherwise and ensure through bomb scares that we should sit on buses for hours as part of their liberation struggle against the imperialist commuters of Belfast.

A State In A Sectarian Society

Sat, 31 Aug 2002 13:11:24 GMT

Anthony McIntyre

One of the more attractive features of this year's West Belfast festival was the debate on sectarianism sponsored by Fourthwrite magazine. Unlike some of the other debates or discussions the chances for micromanagement of each word uttered were thankfully non-existent. Those who went along could anticipate a vibrant rather than a 'tutored' discussion.

Four Women Political Prisoners Die On Hunger Strike

Fri, 30 Aug 2002 11:42:03 GMT

Mags Glennon

The past three weeks have seen the deaths of four young women prisoners in the ongoing hunger strike against the F-type isolation prisons in Turkey. 55 hunger strikers have now died on the Death Fast, which began in October 2000. A total of 95 people have died overall in the protest against the isolation prisons.

An Agenda Less Hidden

Wed, 28 Aug 2002 11:44:59 GMT

Davy Carlin

The still on going concentrated and organized attacks by the UDA on the nationalist communities raises a number of important issues. Firstly though it needs to be said that all those attacks on Catholic and Protestant homes and communities needs both to be challenged and condemned. My reasoning for referring to the UDA though is that increasingly many people see a concentrated escalation of their violence without much actually being done about it.

Culture of Hate?

Wed, 28 Aug 2002 00:36:02 GMT

Billy Mitchell

Sean Smyth, in his article praising Feile an Phobail, urges Unionists like myself to follow the example of West Belfast "instead of ramming their hate driven culture down the throats of Nationalists, making it something they can share with all the communities in the North of Ireland". This rather sweeping statement bears no resemblance whatever to my own personal knowledge and experience of the culture in which I grew up and the cultural activities that my family have enjoyed, and still enjoy.

Compassionate Parole

Mon, 26 Aug 2002 12:08:41 GMT

Marian Price

Following the media furore over Ciaran Mc Laughlin[base ']s parole protest this week I feel compelled to raise some questions that they have ignored, whether by accident or design. Perhaps the most pertinent one is why Ciaran was forced into the situation where he felt such action necessary. Why did the NIO and the prison authorities single him out for such harsh treatment? It is the norm for prisoners to be granted 72hrs parole in the case of a close family bereavement.

Merger Mania

Sat, 24 Aug 2002 12:44:07 GMT

Ciarán Irvine

In the immediate aftermath of the Republic's General Election there was a brief flurry of speculation on possible re-alignments and mergers in the Irish political scene. One of the possibilities was a link-up and formal merger between the northern SDLP and one of the southern parties. Recent articles in the Derry Journal and other Derry-based newspapers have brought this issue to the fore once more - only this time with the finger pointed firmly at Fianna Fáil as the prospective partner. According to these reports, some preliminary discussions have already taken place.

Listen Rather Than Punish

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 12:32:35 GMT

Anthony McIntyre

That republican prisoner Ciaran McLaughlin returned to prison after being released on compassionate parole is as expected as it is welcome. Freed for a twelve hour period to attend the funeral of his grandchild, Kyle McMonaghle, the leader of the republican prisoners in Maghaberry initially did not report back to prison authorities once his leave had expired. The same authorities placed the parolee's details on its website and sent out an alert. However, the republican prisoner eventually presented himself at property owned by clergy stating that he had stayed out in order to take 'the extra time I had requested.' He had initially asked for seventy two hours which the prison authorities refused.

A Tawny Sinew

Thu, 22 Aug 2002 11:31:54 GMT

Anthony McIntyre

On Saturday the 10th of August the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association staged a white line picket in West Belfast. Between 50 and 70 people took part as the moving picket snaked its way between traffic from a mural on the Whiterock Road to another one close to Albert Street. It was colourful, loud and good humoured and received a hearty response from passing motorists who sounded their horns.

North Belfast: A Resident's View

Wed, 21 Aug 2002 12:02:40 GMT

Joan Totten

The unionist residents of North Belfast now, more than at any time since the early 70's, strongly believe that there is a nationalist strategy, engineered by Sinn Fein, to drive them out of North Belfast. This has been reinforced by organised street violence in areas such as Tigers Bay, Glenbryn, White City and Westland during the summer months. When we look at coloured "before and after" maps of North Belfast whole areas of land have changed their political colour from being predominantly unionist to being mixed and then to being predominantly nationalist.