‘The Northern Catholic I’ - John Hume in The Irish Times (May 18 1964)

In May 1964, a 27 year old teacher called John Hume wrote two articles for the Irish Times. (The origin of former SDLP leader John Hume’s "single transferable speech" was traced to his days as a schoolteacher in Derry in a 1985 document released under the 30-year rule.) The pieces were commissioned after Michael Viney, then reporter for the Irish Times who had been sent to Northern Ireland by the editor Douglas Gageby to file a series of reports entitled ‘Journey North’, met Hume, and recommended him to Gageby. Read Hume’s first article in full here, May 18 1964:

"Michael Viney’s “Journey North” has spotlighted among other things the great political frustration that exists among the Catholic community there. It is hardly the great united complaining force that the Northern correspondents of the Dublin newspapers mirror it to be. The crux of the matter for the younger generation is the continued existence particularly among the Catholic community, of great social problems of housing, unemployment and emigration. It is the struggle for priority in their minds between such problems and the ideal of an United Ireland with which they have been bred that has produced the frustration and the large number of political wanderers that Michael Viney met on his tour. It may be that the present generation of younger Catholics in the North are more materialistic than their fathers but there is little doubt that their thinking is principally geared towards the solution of social and economic problems. This has led to a deep questioning of traditional attitudes.

Stop Appeasing Fanatacism, Ctd

I wrote a piece on the Loyalists Against Democracy blog here, saying that we need to stop appeasing fanatics. And it is they, who say the DUP are appeasing terrorists, who have got it fantastically wrong. It is they who are being appeased. As Sinéad O'Shea wrote in The Irish Times here:

"Bryson has been at the forefront of the flag protests and has become a spokesperson for working class Protestants. It is he and his followers that the unionist leadership now feel they have to appease."

Her sentiments were backed by a Belfast taxi driver. She recounted her encounter with the Protestant driver here:

"On my way to Stormont on Monday, I spoke to my taxi driver, a protestant. It’s become a cliché of journalism but it was his words which were to be the most portentous. We laughed at how friendly everybody is in Belfast when you talk to them and how unbelievable it is that so much trouble can have occurred in one small place. My driver said he thought that was the problem, that everybody was too nice, too nice especially to the “nutters.”"

She concluded by saying: "The question of how to undo the evolution of extremist tendencies remains unanswered." The Irish Times article in full here. My previous post on appeasing fanatacism is here.

Conor Cruise O'Brien said the challenge was to move beyond nationalism and unionism

Cartoon of Conor Cruise O'Brien by Martyn Turner

Fintan O'Toole wrote of Connor Cruise O'Brien in a feature for the Irish Times in May 11 1996:

"His [Conor Cruise O'Brien] disavowal of Irish nationalism is based on his belief that it is ultimately inseparable from Catholicism."

Fintan O'Toole explained O'Brien's philosophy for Irish politics: "He does not accept that the really important challenge at the moment is not to move from nationalism to unionism, but to move beyond both." Fintan O'Toole then quoted O'Brien: "The main pressure is coming from the nationalists. It's dangerous not just for the North but also for us. In that context, I'm more useful taking a stand with unionists than I would be on some kind of neutral ground."

The article 'Cruiser's new voyage provokes 'no qualms, no heart-searching'' can be obtained from the Irish Times archive here.

Vincent Browne - Ireland has forever lost its sovereignty

Ireland's exit from the EU-IMF-ECB bailout programme will be sounded as the great restoration of Irish sovereignty and independence. In the words of Vincent Browne, "It will be no such thing. Just more spin." In the article in which those words were written, Vincent Browne further said that repeated claims by Enda Kenny that Ireland would soon regain it's economic sovereignty. He said:

"A year ago, in a televised address to the nation, Enda Kenny told us: “I want to be the Taoiseach that retrieves Ireland’s economic sovereignty”. He told an audience in Chicago in March 2012 that Ireland would regain its economic sovereignty by the end of this year. He told a Fine Gael conference last month that Ireland was on course to “retrieve our economic sovereignty and independence”. 

That promise is an illusion. The Lisbon Treaty, for which Enda Kenny campaigned, copperfastens Ireland’s surrender of sovereignty to the EU forever, a surrender we sleepwalked into in 1992 in ratifying the Maastricht Treaty. 

Ireland is obliged to avoid what is known as “excessive government deficits”, not just now but forever. In that connection the European Commission has indefinite authority to “monitor” our fiscal arrangements and if we get out of line, there may be consequences, including daunting fines (article 126 in what is now known as the “Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union”, a consolidation of several treaties). 

Specifically, in the case of member states that are members of the euro group, there are special requirements. “In order to ensure the proper functioning of economic and momentary union . . . The Council [of Ministers] shall . . . adopt measures . . . to strengthen the coordination and surveillance of their budgetary discipline [and] to set out economic policy guidelines for them, while ensuring that they are compatible with those adopted for the whole of the Union and are kept under surveillance” (article 136)."

Fintan O'Toole calls 2016 an occasion for national embarrassment

EU Kids Online survey suggests Irish kids consume more than createonline content

In the Irish Times Breda O'Brien talks about our new online world and the habits of Irish children:

"Irish kids tend to favour gaming, chat and watching endless YouTube videos, which an EU Kids Online Survey suggests may leave them at a disadvantage in an era where generating, rather than consuming, content will be key."

Breda O'Brien, p. 14, Irish Times, Saturday January 5 2013.