Category Archives: Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland striding forward

Northern Ireland has made great strides since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and institution of the Northern Ireland Executive in 2007. But the six counties of northeast Ireland still have much work to do when it comes to cross-community relations, economic development and tourism.

That was the view of three panelists at Irish Network DC‘s 18 Feb. forum: “Northern Ireland: 7 years since the re-introduction of devolution; triumphs and challenges.” Here are some highlights from each panalist:

Left to right:

Left to right: Metcalfe, Houston, Haughian. Image from Irish Network DC Tweet.

Norman Houston, Washington, D.C.-based Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau:

  • Northern Ireland “has changed dramatically” since devolved government began in 2007. It is “safe and productive,” Houston said, “but we are not out of the woods.” The contentious issues of flags, parades and the past remain unresolved. Efforts by Dr. Richard Haass to agree a path forward to resolve these problems fell short at the end of December.
  • First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness were critical in landing the fantasy series “Game of Thrones” for Northern Ireland. The power-sharing politicians met with HBO executives in Los Angeles shortly after new outbreaks of violence back home. “They swung the thing,” Houston said.
  • A “Yes” vote in Scotland’s referendum on independence could accelerate talk of such a vote in Northern Ireland. But Houston, working for elected officials with disparate views on such a step, diplomatically declined further comment.
  • “Significant portions” of the population have not benefited in the post-Good Friday Northern Ireland, especially those who lack education. Mistrust lingers between the Catholic and Protestant communities, but glimmers of hope. In the last six months there have been experiments with daytime openings in the gates of the so-called “peace walls” that divided sectarian neighborhoods. “These are small changes in a difficult situation,” Houston said.
  • “There are very few coalition governments that work like a well-oiled engine,” he said. Stormont does better than most. He slyly noted the dysfunction here in Washington.
  • It’s crucial to “keep Northern Ireland on the radar” of the U.S. government. “We’ve been lucky for the support we’ve had in the past. We’ve gotten a lot of good PR, maybe more than we deserve.”

Alison Metcalfe, New York-based head of Tourism Ireland/North America:

  • About 20 percent of the 1 million U.S. travelers to the island of Ireland visit Northern Ireland. The goal of the tourism group is to make Northern Ireland a “must see” part of their itinerary. “We want Americans to spend three or four of their 10 days [on the island] in Northern Ireland.”
  • The organization is trying to coax more airlines to fly direct to Belfast. (Only United offers such service from Newark.) Flights to Dublin “are still a great opportunity,” Metcalfe said, adding visitors should “turn left (north) on their arrival in the Republic’s capital city.
  • Tourism Ireland has to create “compelling reasons” to visit like last year’s Gathering in the Republic. Travelers age 25 to 35 are being targeted exclusively through social media.

Andrea Haughian, New York-based Vice President of Business Development at Invest Northern Ireland:

  • Northern Ireland offers a well-educated and young workforce. Sixty percent of the population are under 40.
  • The G-8 Summit in Fermanagh last June and investment conference in October helped raise the profile of Northern Ireland. “But very few people automatically think of Northern Ireland for their offshore needs,” Haughian said.
  • She said Northern Ireland wants to “harmonize” more with the Republic on economic development issues such as corporate tax rates. But the referendum in Scotland could have a big impact because of how it effects the U.K. economy and grants to N.I.

All Irish towns within five miles of rail in 1890?

UPDATE: As mentioned below, I emailed Cathal Ó hÓisín so he could reply to this post. I got a response in less than 24 hours. He wrote:

I do accept that there were areas that may have been further than my assertion but the accusation that I had said that anything ‘was better under the British’ is at the core of my gripe with the IT (Irish Times) piece. It was also factually incorrect on a number of other issues, but thanks for your interest. GRMA (Go raibh maith agat, or Thank you) Cathal

ORIGINAL POST

A statement by Derry MLA Cathal Ó hÓisín at Sinn Féin‘s recent ardfheis caught my attention. He suggested that Ireland’s rail transport system had been better under the British, then added:

“…in 1890 no town or village in Ireland was more than five miles from a rail track. Many counties now, such as Tyrone, Fermanagh and Donegal have not heard or seen a train for over 60 years.”

In the spirit of PolitiFact.com, the U.S. politics fact-checking website edited by my wife, I decided to take a closer look at the two statements.

Surely the first statement couldn’t be true, I thought. The date is close to the 1888 opening of the Lartigue monorail in north Kerry. The unusual train linked the mainline railroad at the market town of Listowel to the seacoast village of Ballybunion.

The nearby village of Ballylongford, my maternal grandmother’s home, never got such a connection. It is seven miles from Listowel and almost nine miles from Ballybunion. Hardly within five miles of any “iron road.”

This map shows a robust Irish railways system in 1906. Yet many parts of the country were more than five miles from a rail line. I haven’t found any evidence of significant track loss in the 16 years from the 1890 date suggested by  Ó hÓisín.  (Click on the map for a larger version.)

Map_Rail_Ireland_Viceregal_Commission_1906

So what about the second part of the statement, that Tyrone, Fermanagh and Donegal lost train service more than 60 years ago? That’s 1954.

This linked list shows the opening and closing dates for dozens of Irish railway stations. Carrickmore in Tyrone closed 15 February 1965; Enniskillen in Fermanagh shuttered 1 October 1957; the first of January, 1960 was the end of the line for the station at Donegal.

(As for north Kerry, the Lartigue line closed 14 October 1924, and the last mainline train of the Great Southern Railway chugged away from the Listowel station on 6 November 1983.)

Ó hÓisín’s larger point was that “huge swathes of the west and particularly the northwest [of the island of Ireland] are devoid of any meaningful transport system on the road or any rail network,” which he further described as another “insidious form of partition.”

That could and should be argued at greater length by Irish politicians and their constituents. As for Ó hÓisín’s comments about no Irish town being more than five miles from rail in 1890, and the three northwest counties being without rail for more than 60 years, this fact-checker rates both statements as false.

(In the interest of fair comment I am emailing a copy of this published blog to  Ó hÓisín for any reply he cares to make. MH)

 

No agreement, but Haass proposal published

Northern Ireland political parties failed to adopt a proposed agreement on flags, parades and the legacy of the Troubles in the final hours of 2013. But the proposal by Dr. Richard Haass has been published by the government.

It begins,

We in Northern Ireland have come a long way. … Despite [many] positive steps, we have further distance to travel. Many continue to await the end of sectarianism and the peace dividend that should be all citizens’ due.

Here’s a quick keyword highlight from the text: flag/s, 36; past, 42; union, 5; republican, 1; Catholic, 0; Protestant, 0; parade/s, 37; (political) parties, 27; Good Friday Agreement, 4; vote, 2; violence, 15; peace, 13.

Best of the Blog, 2013

This is my first annual “Best of the Blog,” a look at some of the most important news stories, historical anniversaries and personal favorite posts of the past year. I am not numbering the list to avoid the appearance of rank. Most links are to my original posts.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year:

  • The most significant personal milestone of the year was the centennial of my grandfather’s May 1913 emigration from County Kerry. I detailed Willie Diggin’s trip in a series of posts and recently published book, “His Last Trip: An Irish-American Story.”
  • The year 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Irish Brigades fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg and Irish-Catholic anti-conscription riots in New York City. It was the 100th anniversary of the Dublin labor lockout and the formation of the Irish Volunteers.
  • Ireland also noted the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s return to his ancestral homeland in June 1963. November marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of America’s first Irish-Catholic president.
  • Ireland liberalized its abortion laws in 2013 after a contentious debate with the Catholic Church, including a controversial appearance at the Boston College commencement by Irish PM Enda Kenny. Kenny won the abortion battle, but his effort to abolish the Seanad Éireann was defeated in a nationwide referendum.
  • The Irish community in Boston was in the news with the trial and conviction of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and the election of new mayor Martin J. Walsh.
  • The Irish Independent obtained recorded telephone conversations between former Anglo Irish Bank executives that revealed the depth of deception leading up to a government bailout of the failed financial institution. The Irish banking scandal and property bust reached all the way to Tampa, where I have covered problems with a retail and entertainment complex called Channelside Bay Plaza.
  • The Gathering Ireland 2013 focused on increasing visitors to their ancestral homeland. Project officials said it delivered more than a quarter million overseas tourists as of Dec. 23.
  • RIP: The passing of Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013, was probably the most significant death in Ireland during the year. Watch New York Times video tribute. The death of Margaret Thatcher also caused quite a stir on the island, though hardly as affectionate.
  • U.S. President Barack Obama and other global leaders attended the G8 Summit at County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Nevertheless, as the year ended, U.S. envoy Dr. Richard Haass and Northern Ireland political leaders were still trying to finalize on agreement to solve ongoing problems with flags, parades and the past.
  • The past year was the 125th anniversary of the murder of Kerry farmer John Foran, a victim of the agrarian violence so widespread across Ireland in general and Kerry in particular during the last quarter of the 19th century. I look forward to doing more research and writing about this episode and the period in the new year.
This image of Kerry was used to illustrate a New York Times story headlined "Lost In Ireland. I've had it posted at my desk since it was published in October 2010. In 2014, I'll be moving to Washington, D.C. and look forward to seeing what's beyond the hill.

This image of rural road in Kerry illustrated a New York Times story headlined “Lost In Ireland. It was published in October 2010. I’ve kept the picture posted at my work desk ever sense. In 2014 I’ll be moving to Washington, D.C. and look forward to seeing what’s beyond the hill.

Northern Ireland talks near year-end deadline

UPDATE:

RTE reports that Haass will return to Northern Ireland on Saturday.

ORIGINAL POST:

Dr Richard Haass has left Northern Ireland without an agreement on flags, parades and the past. He is considering whether to return to try to complete a deal by the New Year’s deadline, the Irish-American Information Service reports.

Dr Haass and his American talks team including Harvard professor Meghan OSullivan flew home to the United States out of Dublin this morning after late night/early morning talks with the five main Northern parties failed to produce an agreement.

Negotiations concluded this morning at about 4.30am after almost eight hours of talks with progress made but with no final meeting of minds by the five parties of the Northern Executive – the DUP, Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionist Party and Alliance.

Dr Haass said he was prepared to return at the weekend if he felt an agreement could yet be achieved.

Irish tributes, north and south, pour in for Mandela

UPDATE: The Irish Story website has posted a detailed article, “Ireland and South African Politics: A Tangled History.” It concludes:

Irish republicans at the start of the 20th century had little to say, by and large, about the oppression of black South Africans, identifying instead with the most racist European faction, the Afrikaner republicans. By contrast at the end of that century the Irish Republicans of that era identified totally with the anti-apartheid struggle. One of the things this illustrates is the discrediting of racialist ideology in the western world since the late 20th century, an ideology which was so dominant at the start of the century that even anti-imperial nationalists were not totally free from it.

ORIGINAL POST:

The global outpouring of tributes following the death of Nelson Mandela, who was so much more than the former South African president, includes reaction from both sides of the border on the island of Ireland.

“Why are we so bereft? Because he was the best of us, the best of our values,” said former Irish president Mary Robinson in this roundup of leaders in the Republic by The Irish Times.

The BBC offers a similar collection of comments from Northern Ireland politicians; plus a separate story about Mandela’s impact on the Ulster peace process:

The closest Nelson Mandela came to visiting Belfast was the mural depicting his image on a gable wall along the Falls Road. But his presence was felt in many ways as Northern Ireland moved from conflict to peace. His long walk to freedom, from prison in 1990, inspired others to follow in his footsteps out of conflict.

This mural on the Falls Road was unveiled in August 2013.

This mural on the Falls Road was unveiled in August 2013.

Report: Garda-IRA collusion in murder of two RUC officers

Most daily news stories in Ireland don’t make headlines in the U.S., so it’s usually a blockbuster or controversy when it does, such as the abortion debate over the summer.

News broke Dec. 3 that the Republic of Ireland government apologized to the families of two Northern Ireland policemen ambushed and gunned down by the IRA in 1989.

The story is still developing and needs more context. Here are links to U.S. and Irish coverage.

Garda collusion found in IRA murders of RUC officers, The Irish Times

Judge: Irish police colluded in IRA murder, Associated Press via The Washington Post

Smithwick inquiry finds Irish police may have colluded in two IRA murders, Irish Central

Read the full report here via the Irish Government News Service.

Guest post: Visit to Ireland, Part 1

I’ve written earlier of Tim McDonnell’s efforts to start a food collection to help feed the hungry in Tampa through the Salvation Army in the spirit of St. Patrick. It’s been quite an accomplishment for the former executive director of Chicago’s Irish American Heritage Center since he arrived in Tampa about two years ago.

Tim just got back from his third trip to Ireland/Northern Ireland at the beginning of October. (His mom is from Brownstown, Co Kildare; his paternal grandparents from Westport, Co. Mayo and Bruree, Co. Limerick.) Below is Part 1 of Tim’s guest post:

The Spirit of St. Patrick

Absolutely worth visiting is the St. Patrick’s Trail and all of the St. Patrick sites on the northern half of the island (where St. Patrick spent his time). The top 3 ‘must do’ sites, though, are: 1) the St. Patrick Centre exhibition and his grave in Downpatrick (he is buried alongside St. Brigid, St. Columcille, and Arthur Guinness’ grandfather – truly ‘holy ground’! – next to Down Cathedral); 2) St. Patrick’s first church at Saul – one of the more spiritually engaging sites on earth, comparable to the experience we had at St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sisteen Chapel in Vatican City (as my friend Tim Campbell says “Saul is very ‘thin’…..the distance between heaven and earth there is very slight”); 3) Croagh Patrick – we lucked out with clear skies and were able to climb Ireland’s holy mountain, where St. Patrick fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and by legend ‘drove the snakes out of Ireland.’ It will take a bit of faith and endurance to get all the way up, particularly at the top with the loose rocks and vertical climb – but it is the most spiritually rewarding thing that I have ever done, and it also blesses all climbers with the best views on the island.

The view from the summit.

The view from the summit.

 The Scoti

Also worth visiting is Ulster Scots country up in the northeast. People of this heritage informed us that they believe that Northern Ireland is a Scottish province on the island of Ireland and that calling the Ulster Scots Irish is like calling Canadians Americans. They also told us that the inhabitants of Ireland were referred to by the Romans as the “Scoti” in the 4th and 5th centuries and were known to be part of the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Riata, which spanned the west coast of Scotland and the eastern part of Ulster in what is today’s Northern Ireland. They characterized the creation of the Ulster Plantation of the 17th century, which helped lay the foundation for a few hundred years of conflict, as ‘just the Scots returning home.’ Interesting stuff and worth a bit of homework. Although the history, cultural dynamics, and politics are a bit complicated, the north is breathtakingly beautiful, and the people are as welcoming as anywhere else on the island.

Check back within the week for Tim’s thoughts on food in Ireland and a story of the country’s most famous jockey. MH

Haass optimistic with progress of NI talks

Special U.S. envoy Dr. Richard Haass has indicated he is pleased with the progress of talks to resolve still-contentious issues in Northern Ireland.

Richard Haass from Belfast Telegraph

Richard Haass from Belfast Telegraph

“I believe there is a real chance to succeed,” Haass was quoted in a story by the Irish Independent. “But, that is just that – a real chance is not a guarantee. Obviously it depends upon the willingness of some people to make some tough decisions and then defend them.”

The talks, which are to conclude by Christmas, are focused on outstanding issues not dealt with by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement: flags and emblems; parades; and dealing with the legacy of the past.

According to the Belfast Telegraph: Haass is best known as the former US Envoy to Northern Ireland from 2001-03. He has been president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think-tank, since 2003. He previously worked for the US State Department and received its Distinguished Honor Award for his work in Northern Ireland.

Moore Street, partition demographics and abortion updates

Last October I wrote about efforts to block the redevelopment of Dublin’s historic Moore Street, scene of the rebels last stand in the 1916 Rising.

Happy to report that not only are the buildings being saved, but they will be repaired and conserved, the Irish Independent reports.

*** 

In May I wrote about the “People’s Referendum” that showed support for ending partition and noted a Facebook page for “Protestants for a United Ireland.”

Gerry Moriarty of The Irish Times filed this very interesting piece about “The Catholic unionists.”

Many nationalists – and quite a number of unionists – dismiss the notion of Catholic unionists. “They are like unicorns,” is an often-repeated line. “They don’t exist.” But though they are small in number, they are not mythical creatures, and they could have a role in determining the constitutional future of Northern Ireland.

***

I’ve written about Ireland’s abortion bill several times over the summer, most recently this July 11 post that compared and contrasted legislative debates in Ireland and Texas.

Nine days after I posted the blog, columnist Roth Douthat filed this column in The New York Times. I am not accusing him of copying me, only pointing out that somebody else was drawn by the coincidence.