Posts made in October 2024

Banner appeared at site of planned Irish medium school at Montgomery Road

By Paul Ainsworth. The Irish News. Thursday, October 31, 2024.

A banner at the site of a planned Irish language primary school in east Belfast calling for it to be relocated to where it is “wanted” has been condemned as “repulsive.”

The banner was placed on a fence at Montgomery Road, where plans have been approved to build a new temporary building for Irish language school, Scoil na Seolta.

The school is set to open later this year but has been opposed by some in the area.

The banner – which has since been removed – stated: “Relocate Irish school to where it is needed; relocate Irish school to where it is wanted.”

Anonymous leaflets were also posted to homes in the area, asking “Do you want an Irish language school in your area?”.

In September it emerged that the Loyalist Communities Council, which represents the views of the UVF and UDA, had advised Stormont DUP education minister Paul Givan that the proposal to build the school should be scrapped during a meeting.

Alliance Party leader and East Belfast MLA Naomi Long condemned the banner’s appearance

“The level of interest in the preschool Naíscoil na Seolta is evidence that it is wanted and welcome and no one has the right to demand they move,” she said.

“It’s hard to imagine how fragile an adult’s sense of identity must be if it is threatened by bilingual toddlers playing in a sand tray or learning to count to ten.”

Alliance Lisnasharragh councilor Michael Long said: “Those behind this are not representative of people in East Belfast, who will rightly find it repulsive and I’d utterly condemn those who put it up.

“Alliance representatives have been in contact with the PSNI and have urged anyone with any information to contact them too. Children have a right to go to school without fear or intimidation.”

SDLP councilor Séamas de Faoite said:“The continued harassment of Scoil na Seolta and those behind the project is absolutely disgraceful. Let’s call this out for what it is – a group of small-minded people, who are in no way representative of the wider community, trying to stop young children from attending school.

“This is not about community concerns, it’s about bitter sectarianism and hatred.”

In a Facebook post, east Belfast loyalist activist Moore Holmes said the banner was a “clear and unambiguous message on behalf of concerned local residents.”

“This site has always been the most bizarre and inappropriate location for an Irish Language School,” he wrote.

“If the local demographic and the political sensitivities around Gaelic language wasn’t enough to sway you, then the mishandling of community engagement, the commercial and industrial nature of the site alongside the disingenuous misrepresentation of community attitudes before Belfast City Council by the organizers would be enough to do it. Relocate.”

*****

 

By Fr. Sean McManus, President, Irish National Caucus. Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. The just-published 420-page book The Barn, by Wright Thompson, is about the barn in which the 14-year-old black boy Emmett Till, visiting from Chicago, was tortured and executed/ lynched in 1955 in Mississippi, and about how so much was covered up, still to this day. Indeed, the barn itself was not generally known as the actual murder site. About 15 years ago, I made a personal pilgrimage to the sacred sites in Mississippi where the civil rights martyrs were murdered: Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, the three activists murdered in Philadelphia (MS), James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, so forth and so on. (And cried silently at each site, just as I do at the graves of Irish patriots who gave their lives for Irish freedom). But I did not know about the barn and only visited the remains of the store in Money in which Emmett had allegedly whistled at the white woman whose husband owned the store. That accusation, true or false, in those days, was enough to guarantee young innocent Emmett’s murder. Thompson says something that is very relevant to the discussion on the Legacy Act of The King-in-Parliament: “The more I looked at the story of the barn… the more I understood that the tragedy of humankind isn’t that sometimes a few depraved individuals do what the rest of us could never do. It’s that the rest of us hide those hateful things from view, never learning the lesson that hate grows stronger and more resistant when it’s pushed underground. There lies the true horror of Emmett Till’s murder… Which is why so many have fought literally and figuratively for so long to keep the reality from view.” (Page 12). ‘Pushing underground…’ That’s the story of the British Empire – the story of The-King (or Queen or Monarch)-in-Parliament… and the story of the Legacy Bill that King Charles III turned into the Legacy Act by his royal assent, which is all about protecting the crown forces and their political bosses (the king being the boss of bosses). Because as George Orwell said: “Who controls the present, controls the past.” For 855 years – and counting – England has controlled Ireland’s present and past. And England is not going to tell the truth about what it did in Ireland or any of the countries it oppressed in its racist, genocidal empire. So, we all have to tell the truth about what England did and is still doing in Ireland. I conclude by referring to another great book (which I made sure to mention in our constant Irish Congressional briefings): Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (2022) by Harvard Professor Caroline Elkins. How perfect is that title in the context of the Legacy Act of The King-in-Parliament. And, the book blurb on the back page, in part, irresistibly declares: “[Professor Elkins] makes clear when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, it retreated from the empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policy and practices.” And, please God, that is perhaps what the deplorable Legacy Act of The King-in-Parliament also heralds: England’s final withdrawal from Northern Ireland – enabling as the Irish National Caucus internet petition calls for: ‘Ireland, too, has the right to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ This magnificent petition now has 31,661 signers, with more than 1,000,000 petition views. To sign the petition, go to this link: www.change.org/IrelandOneNation.

Brexit, backed by the DUP against the wishes of the Northern Ireland electorate, has had a transformational impact on the campaign for Irish unity

Noel Doran. Former Editor. Irish News. Belfast. Monday, October 28, 2024.

IT is always possible to draw different conclusions from separate opinion surveys, allowing for the usual margins of error, so, when questions which do not involve a fixed schedule are involved, it is sensible to examine trends over a prolonged period.

The Good Friday Agreement, for completely valid reasons, took a vague approach in 1998 to the prospect of an Irish unity referendum, and it cannot be disputed that no consequential discussions on the subject followed for many years.

Circumstances have been changing slowly but surely and, while the timing and outcome of a border poll remains uncertain, it is clear that the wider debate is now firmly emerging.

The details of the latest initiative from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Northern Ireland General Election Survey 2024, have been closely studied by those on both sides of the argument since they were first published by this newspaper last week, and while at the most basic level the data indicates that the largest group of voters still favor maintaining the status quo, it is the longer-term patterns which are hard to avoid.

It is striking that, even though some observers believe the methodology employed understates nationalist leanings, the latest ESRC findings show that support for the union has fallen below 50 per cent for the first time, sitting at 48.6 per cent, with this figure dropping by more than 10 percentage points over the last decade, and by almost five points in the last five years alone.

Backing for unity is rising at an almost identical rate, up by five points since 2019 to 33.7 per cent, and a particularly telling statistic is that under 25s who expressed a view are evenly split on the union, with exactly 47.7 per cent on each side.

Unionists who believe that nationalists are trying to extract the maximum benefit from the UK’s marginal vote to withdraw from the European Union in 2016, against the wishes of the Northern Ireland electorate, are probably right, and Brexit can be plainly seen as the biggest boost to the campaign for Irish unity in living memory.

It has had nothing less than a transformational impact, as the ESRC statistics confirm, and the evidence is that the unionist advantage which appeared to be impregnable for generations is being relentlessly eroded.

No serious commentator has suggested that unionists might be ready to switch allegiance in a border poll, even before the latest developments in both Belfast and Dublin which have significantly damaged Sinn Féin’s credibility.

However, it will be remembered that Peter Robinson, justifiably regarded as the leading unionist tactician of his era, confidently told a DUP gathering in 2013 that Catholic votes, from those he described as “culturally Irish”, would secure the union in a referendum, which he insisted would be at least half a century away in any event.

The bigger picture has altered substantially since then, after errors of judgment were made in all sections of our society, and a verdict will ultimately be delivered by nationalists, unionists and the unaligned.

Peter Robinson’s latest successor as DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, acknowledged this reality in a speech last week, and it would be fascinating to learn the specific views of both Mr. Robinsons on recent interventions from unionist figures, including some of their party colleagues, over Irish culture.

Continuing onslaughts against GAA members and Irish language enthusiasts, even those of primary school age, have been well documented, and the Assembly questions from Timothy Gaston of the Traditional Unionist Voice which emerged last week represented a new low.

Mr. Gaston, an MLA in North Antrim, demanded to know if a visit by an All-Ireland-winning GAA player to Armagh fire station, in a different constituency more than 50 miles away, was a breach of employment regulations.

The player brought along the Sam Maguire Cup while offering his gratitude to the emergency staff who attended a road traffic tragedy in which three people – two of his close relatives and a friend – were killed last year.

It was a pathetic complaint in every way, which was firmly rejected by the relevant minister, Mike Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party, but it will have an influence on thinking well beyond North Antrim.

Although we need to closely examine health, education, economic, environmental and other issues before a referendum is confirmed, it is beyond doubt that the attitudes exemplified by Mr. Gaston will also be a factor.

n.doran@irishnews.com

 

Thursday, October 24, 2024.

“GOD REST FR. GUTIERREZ—THE GRANDDADDY OF  LIBERATION THEOLOGY—TO WHOM I OWE SO MUCH IN MY OWEN SPECIAL MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND PEACE.

I highly recommend this excellent tribute from the Jesuit publication,  America Magazine.”—Fr. Sean McManus.

R.I.P. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the prophet who revolutionized Catholic theology for the poor

Michael E. Lee. America Magazine. October 23, 2024.

Michael E. Lee is professor of theology and director of the Francis & Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University.

Though his landmark book, A Theology of Liberation, came from an era of military dictatorships and guerrilla rebels, the real revolution Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., helped usher in was upending how authentic Christian faith could be imagined in the world today. Perhaps more than any other theological figure of the past century, this humble Peruvian priest who died Oct. 22 at the age of 96 wrestled with the question that he identified at the heart of liberation theology: “How do you say to the poor, ‘God loves you’?”

In a world that was coming to understand the structural underpinnings of poverty and violence, and in a church only beginning to confront the challenges of modernity, Father Gutiérrez was a prophet who saw clearly how the Christian proclamation of salvation involved not merely the afterlife but included human liberation in this life as well.

The path to that revolutionary text begins in another era of Catholic theology. Father Gutiérrez, as was typical for many talented Latin American seminarians at the time, went to Europe in 1955 to complete his formation. There he encountered a neo-scholastic theology that emphasized the sharp distinction between natural and supernatural realms.

It was a mindset that worked from abstract principles that could be applied anywhere, anytime—context did not matter. The church was understood as the exclusive vehicle for salvation, a societas perfecta that seemed to have little business with the world except functioning like Noah’s ark to usher souls from the earth’s chaos into the heavenly realm. As a priest, Father Gutiérrez would be expected to minister to his people by turning their eyes from this world’s travails to hope in the eternal rest to come. But he could never accept that separation of the Gospel message from real human experience.

Bedridden between the ages of 12 and 18 with a form of polio, Father Gutiérrez was always sensitive to human suffering and indeed had originally intended to study medicine and psychology. Fortunately, his studies in Belgium, France and Rome (where he was ordained a priest in 1959) also included contact with figures of the “new theology,” like Marie-Dominique Chenu and Yves Congar, whose historical studies of ancient and medieval Christian theology forged a path away from abstract Neo-Scholasticism.

The lesson that Father Gutiérrez would take from these encounters was twofold: First, all theology is contextual and dynamic, and second, behind every theology lies a spirituality. These insights contributed to the dramatic changes associated with the Second Vatican Council.

Yet, for all of its accomplishments, particularly in addressing the “nonbeliever” in the modern world, Vatican II did not sufficiently account for the ones that Father Gutiérrez called the “non-persons.” If the church were going to participate meaningfully in the world, it needed to respond to the reality lived by the majority of earth’s inhabitants—one of poverty and exclusion.

Though he often worked with college students, Father Gutiérrez did not hold a university position until much later in his life. His theology emerged not from the halls of academia but as a response to the questions and concerns he heard from parishioners in the poor Rimac neighborhood of Lima.

Of course, while his theology may have been nourished at this local level, it would quickly make a global impact. In 1968, Father Gutiérrez served on the theological commissions for the seminal Latin American bishops’ conference meeting in Medellín, Colombia. Its documents served as a clarion call for the re-conceiving of the Catholic Church’s role in Latin America and, indeed, the world.

The 1971 publication of A Theology of Liberation (the English translation appeared in 1973) ushered in the dynamic—and controversial—eponymous theological movement and established Father Gutiérrez as its most important voice. Its insights are too numerous to catalog, but it is safe to say that it remains one of the most significant works of 20th-century thought. In it, Father Gutiérrez lays out ideas that he would pursue and refine for the rest of his career.

He describes theology as a “critical reflection on Christian praxis in light of God’s word.” It is a second moment that follows a first moment of mystical encounter with God in and through action in the world. That second moment is crucial because the encounter with poverty and oppression demands not just a one-way Christian response. It calls for a rethinking of Christian ideas themselves in light of those horrible realities, and this dynamic explains the very meaning of the term “liberation theology.”

Father Gutiérrez concluded that in the encounter with violence and poverty, a notion of salvation as an exclusively otherworldly hope was inadequate. Surely the God of the Exodus, the God of the prophets, the God whose reign Jesus preached and the God who took flesh in the world offered more. Father Gutiérrez plumbed the depths of salvation as human beings’ communion with God and with each other. Though its fullness is a future hope, it must begin in the present.

Liberation and salvation, then, are synonymous for the gracious activity of God. Liberation theology is really a theology of salvation, with profound implications for how Christians live, believe, pray and act today. To reflect on Jesus as a liberator, to consider sin in its social and structural dimensions, to ponder the implications of the church’s mission to proclaim truly good news to the poor—these are the fruits of a liberation theology.

Certainly, the new insights generated by liberation theology unsettled traditionalist understandings of the faith and the church. After all, in Latin America, the Catholic Church, with few exceptions, had been a keeper of the status quo since colonial times. It was jarring to many to envision it cutting its alliances with the powerful and proclaiming a salvation that meant integral human development for all peoples. Under liberation theology, peace is not simply the absence of violence but is also the positive presence of justice; it is a personal and structural reality that calls for continual conversion by the church and all of its members.

The signal achievement in Father Gutiérrez’s thinking is his theological treatment of poverty. As a young priest, he wondered how Christianity could speak of it in often beautiful terms, even in the face of poverty’s dehumanizing effects. Clearly, different meanings of the term poverty needed to be distinguished without ignoring its basic, material meaning. But whether it be the lack of material resources to survive or the deprivation of basic human rights, Father Gutiérrez said, poverty in its basic, material meaning is unequivocally evil and must be regarded theologically as sin. This kind of poverty, he would often say, means death, death before one’s time. Any other understanding of poverty comes after this basic one and must address it.

But looking at the Bible and Christian tradition, Father Gutiérrez also identified two “positive” senses to the term poverty. The first is a sense of poverty as humanity’s utter dependence on God. This “spiritual poverty” is one that all people should cultivate, though not by ignoring the reality of material poverty. Rather, Father Gutiérrez linked spiritual poverty to a third sense of poverty as commitment, as solidarity with those who suffer the effects of material poverty.

This solidarity takes on a range of forms, from the merciful care of those who are poor to the prophetic denunciation of the causes of material poverty. Most importantly, the interaction of these three senses of poverty calls for a spirituality, a contemplative-active commitment on the part of the church to make the world more closely resemble the reign of God that Jesus preached.

This spirituality is captured in the often misunderstood phrase “the preferential option for the poor.” By it, Father Gutiérrez gave voice to a disposition, a priority, a way of life that follows the paradoxical Gospel injunction that the “last shall be first.” Christian disciples are called to confront the reality of poverty in all of its complexity. They must prioritize the poor and opt (noting that it is not optional) on behalf of those who are poor.

This principle, which has been adopted and elaborated in modern magisterial texts, has come to be a defining feature of Catholic social teaching. It is more than an ethical injunction, however. In Father Gutiérrez’s work, the preferential option for the poor is a mystical experience; it is God’s own self-revelation. God’s love, expressed time and again in Scripture, is not exclusive but prioritizes those who are weakest. In the words of the 16th-century Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, about whom Father Gutiérrez produced a massive tome, “God has a very fresh and living memory of the smallest and most forgotten.”

For decades, Father Gutiérrez’s theology drew suspicion in Vatican circles and from those privileged sectors of the Latin American church that felt threatened by its challenges. In the face of queries, suspicions and threats, Father Gutiérrez remained serene and responded to critics thoughtfully. His book The Truth Shall Make You Free offers an account of theology’s relationship to the social sciences and a forceful response to those who would caricature him as a Marxist.

In the end, he was vindicated. Father Gutiérrez was never censured, nor his work ever judged to be heterodox. To his critics’ dismay, he co-published books with the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. By the turn of the new millennium, he had entered the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), taught at their prestigious school in Rome (the Angelicum) and was even given the title magister sacrae theologiae, an honorific bestowed upon the great medieval figures St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas.

I recall attending the seminar of a sociologist who claimed to have worked with Father Gutiérrez for a short time in Peru. The speaker lamented that Father Gutiérrez had sadly “left behind the early liberation stuff” when he began writing on spirituality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

From works like We Drink From Our Own Wells or his personal favorite, On Job, Father Gutiérrez demonstrated how profound faith and social commitment are organically intertwined. It is a thoroughly incarnational theology that testifies to God’s presence among human beings and the call of all believers to participate in making the world more closely resemble God’s will for human flourishing.

 

In that sense, when the poor take center stage, they are not merely receivers of the good news (though they are). Rather, their struggles illuminate the reality of the world and reveal the mysterious presence of God that human language and understanding can only reach toward. This is why Father Gutiérrez repeatedly emphasized that the preferential option for the poor is a theocentric option that believers in the church, much like Job, need to witness; they need to hear God’s own option in revelation and adopt that example in their very lives.

Yes, even the poor need to make the option for the poor.

Most readers overlook the double dedication of A Theology of Liberation. Father Gutiérrez devoted the book to the mestizo Peruvian novelist José María Arguedas, who vividly portrayed the circumstances of Indigenous Andean peoples, and to the Black Brazilian priest Henrique Pereira Neto, who was kidnapped and tortured under military dictatorship. This pair was chosen to symbolize the two great marginalized populations of the continent, Indigenous and African.

Hearing those voices on the margins and putting their concerns at the center of theological thought—that is the lasting legacy of Gustavo Gutiérrez. He did not attempt to make Christianity “relevant,” but he showed that when Christian faith responds authentically to human suffering, it fulfills its deepest calling. Gustavo Gutiérrez was both a prophet who denounced the abuse of the marginalized and a mystic who saw God’s presence where it seems most absent.

A video interview with Gustavo Gutiérrez at the beatification of Óscar Romero in El Salvador in 2015.

From 2023: 50 years later, Gustavo Gutiérrez’s ‘A Theology of Liberation’ remains prophetic.

From 2003: An interview with Gustavo Gutiérrez.

 

John Manley. Irish News. Belfast. Tuesday, October  22, 2024. 

A poll tracking voters’ views on constitutional change reveals that support for the union has dropped below 50% for the first time.

The proportion of people who support Northern Ireland remaining in the UK has fallen by more than 10 percentage points over the past decade and by almost five points since 2019, according to the same survey.

The figures published exclusively by The Irish News are contained in the Northern Ireland General Election Survey 2024, which shows support for Irish unity at 33.7%, an increase of more than five points over the past five years.

Poll says support for the union is minority opinion in north

The data also reveals that opinion on the constitutional question is finely balanced among the under 25s who expressed a preference, with the number respondents supporting Irish unity and remaining in the UK equal at 47.7%. Support for the union is greatest among the over 65s (61.8%).

The percentage of people wishing to remain in the UK is 48.6%, a drop of 4.9 percentage points compared to the corresponding survey in 2019 and the first time in this Economic and Social Research Council-funded survey that the figure represents less than half of voters.

The latest figure reveals a 10.5 point drop off in support for the union since 2015, when 59.1% said they believed Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK.

Nine years ago, support for Irish unity stood at 28.5%, dipping by almost one point in 2017 (27.6%) before increasing in 2019 to 28.3%.

The number of ‘Don’t Knows’ has fallen marginally from 15.2% in 2019 to 14% though this cohort continues to closely correspond to the difference between the pro- and anti-Irish unity blocs.

The University of Liverpool’s Prof Jon Tonge said that while the figures demonstrated that the constitutional debate was far from settled, it did not mean a border poll or a united Ireland were imminent.

“Support for Northern Ireland remaining in the UK is now a minority taste – the first time across our five general election studies this has been the case,” he said.

“Backing for the constitutional status quo still exceeds that for a united Ireland by some distance but the gap has shrunk since Brexit, due more to falling support for the union than surging support for Irish unity – although the latter has grown. Moreover, the ‘Don’t Knows’ now almost equal the gap between the two sides.”

In terms of constitutional preference by party voted for in July’s election, 68.1% of Alliance supporters are in favor of remaining in the UK, compared to 31.2% who back Irish unity.

The 2024 Northern Ireland General Election survey was conducted among a representative sample of 2,034 participants, with fieldwork undertaken by Social Market Research Belfast between July 19 and August 27 2024. The margin of error is 3.1+/–.

 

 

 

 

Famed Belfast Protestant Victims Campaigner Raymond McCord on His Meeting with the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

“Cathy McIlvenny from our cross-community victims group, the Truth and Justice Movement, is also from the Protestant-Unionist community in Belfast.

 Cathy’s sister was raped and murdered by the UDA, and her murdered sister’s son was murdered 20 years later by the UVF.

The Lord Mayor gave us his welcomed support for our proposed International Victims Conference and for a Public Inquiry into young Raymond’s murder.

On Friday, October 18, at a meeting with Gavin Robinson, Dup Leader, Gavin gave his welcomed support for our proposed International Victims Conference next year at Ulster University. The SDLP has also given their welcomed support as has the current Lord Mayor of Belfast Mickey Murray from the Alliance party.

This will be an event where victims from different countries throughout the world including Gaza and Israel will be invited to take part in. A historic first-ever event.”

 

October 18, 2024

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING

Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus

Roisin Henderson. The Fermanagh Herald. Ireland. Oct.  16, 2024.

On Wednesday, October 27, 1976, in Pittsburgh, PA, I organized an Irish National Caucus meeting with Presidential Candidate Jimmy Carter—just six days before he was elected President of the United States. He made a magnificent, historic statement: “…it is a mistake for our  country’s Government to stand quiet on the struggle of the Irish for peace, for respect for human rights, and for unifying Ireland.”

It was the first time since The King-in Parliament has perpetrated the racist and anti-Catholic partition of Ireland, December 23, 1920, that a Candidate—just six days after being elected President—ever issued such words.

The British government went crazy, and worst of all, the awful  Garret FitzGerald, Irish Foreign Minister —who was referred to by  MI6 operatives as “dear Garret”— dutifully and cravenly demanded Carter to prove he was not supporting violence. The Boston Globe reported, “Irish Embassy officials protested vehemently to Carter aides.”… How utterly shameful and disgraceful. As I record in my Memoirs, My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland  (2023.U.S.A.RE-PRINT. ON AMAZON),  had FitzGerald welcomed Carter’s statement like Taoiseach Albert Reynolds (God rest him)  welcomed Presidential  Candidate  Clinton’s statement on April 5, 1992, how much earlier the Irish Peace Process could have begun and how many precious lives could have been saved —because I always knew that the only thing that would curb England’s blood-lust, brutality, racism and anti-Catholicism was pressure from America. … And England knew this…So, England activated Fitz-Gerald to do its dirty work, as England always did throughout its racist and evil Empire.”

 

 

Thursday, October 17, 2024.

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING

Distributed to Congress by Irish National Caucus

We all have to tell truth about what England

did and is doing in Ireland

Letters to Editor. Irish News. Belfast. Thursday, October 17, 2024.

By Fr. Sean McManus, President, Irish National Caucus. Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.

The just-published 420-page book The Barn, by Wright Thompson, is about the barn in which the 14-year-old black boy Emmett Till, visiting from Chicago, was tortured and executed/ lynched in 1955 in Mississippi, and about how so much was covered up, still to this day.

Indeed, the barn itself was not generally known as the actual murder site. About 15 years ago, I made a personal pilgrimage to the sacred sites in Mississippi where the civil rights martyrs were murdered: Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, the three activists murdered in Philadelphia (MS), James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, so forth and so on. (And cried silently at each site, just as I do at the graves of Irish patriots who gave their lives for Irish freedom).

But I did not know about the barn and only visited the remains of the store in Money in which Emmett had allegedly whistled at the white woman whose husband owned the store. That accusation, true or false, in those days, was enough to guarantee young innocent Emmett’s murder.

“For 855 years England has controlled Ireland’s present and past. And England is not going to tell the truth about what it did in Ireland or any of the countries it oppressed in its racist, genocidal empire.

Thompson says something that is very relevant to the discussion on the Legacy Act of The King-in-Parliament: “The more I looked at the story of the barn… the more I understood that the tragedy of humankind isn’t that sometimes a few depraved individuals do what the rest of us could never do. It’s that the rest of us hide those hateful things from view, never learning the lesson that hate grows stronger and more resistant when it’s pushed underground. There lies the true horror of Emmett Till’s murder… Which is why so many have fought literally and figuratively for so long to keep the reality from view.” (Page 12).

‘Pushing underground…’ That’s the story of the British Empire – the story of The-King (or Queen or Monarch)-in-Parliament… and the story of the Legacy Bill that King Charles III turned into the Legacy Act by his royal assent, which is all about protecting the crown forces and their political bosses (the king being the boss of bosses).

Because as George Orwell said: “Who controls the present, controls the past.” For 855 years – and counting – England has controlled Ireland’s present and past. And England is not going to tell the truth about what it did in Ireland or any of the countries it oppressed in its racist, genocidal empire. So, we all have to tell the truth about what England did and is still doing in Ireland.

I conclude by referring to another great book (which I made sure to mention in our constant Irish Congressional briefings): Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire (2022) by Harvard Professor Caroline Elkins.

How perfect is that title in the context of the Legacy Act of The King-in-Parliament. And the book blurb on the back page, in part, irresistibly declares: “[Professor Elkins] makes clear when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, it retreated from the empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policy and practices.” And, please God, that is perhaps what the deplorable Legacy Act of The King-in-Parliament also heralds: England’s final withdrawal from Northern Ireland – enabling as the Irish National Caucus internet petition calls for: ‘Ireland, too, has the right to be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ This magnificent petition now has 31,661 signers, with more than 1,000,000 petition views.

To sign the petition, go to this link: www.change.org/IrelandOneNation.

 

 

PRAISE FOR FR. McMANUS AND HIS WORK. McManus and his work

“Thus, McManus became Britain’s nemesis in America, the driving force that would eventually erode Britain’s influence within the U.S. government.”—Joseph E. Thompson. American Policy and Northern Ireland: A Saga of Peacebuilding. 2001.

“The Mac Bride Principles—a corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Northern Ireland—were launched by the Irish National Caucus on November 4, 1984. The Mac Principles both symbolized and effectuated the Caucus’ major campaign to stop U. S. dollars subsidizing anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland. The Principles became law in 18 U.S. states and numerous towns and cities. In October 1998, the MacBride Principles were passed by both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into U.S. law.  Chairman Gilman took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to welcome this singular achievement, saying: “I want to make a special note regarding Father Sean McManus.  No one has fought harder against discrimination in Northern Ireland.  Father Sean single-handedly brought the MacBride fair employment principles to … enactment.”                                                — Chairman Ben Gilman (R-NY), October 1998.

“I know that Father McManus has moved the needle [on justice and human rights], and, Father, for that, I offer you, on behalf of the entire AFL-CIO, a sincere Thank you.”  — President Richard L. Trumka AFL-CIO, February 3, 2016.”

“Advising Congressman [Richard Ottinger, D-NY], and helping him in the talks [in Belfast] was Fr. Sean McManus, the Washington-based Redemptorist priest ordained in England and now a scourge of the British Government. The lime-and-so-da drinking cleric is not liked by British diplomats in the American capital, where he leads the Irish National Caucus, a lobbying group aimed at influencing American foreign policy with the target of Irish unity, freedom, and peace.”—“Americans in Ulster Maelstrom.” Daily Telegraph. London. August 18, 1983.

“The [MacBride] campaign is being run by the Irish National Caucus… The move, inspired by Father Sean McManus, who has been consistently opposed to British policy, is particularly well-timed. For even if the law is never passed, it provides an opportunity to link, however, tenuously, the issues of South Africa and Northern Ireland. The MacBride Principles also call for the same kind of affirmative action programs for Catholics which American companies already use in the employment of women and blacks in the U.S.A”— “New York Threat of Ulster Shares Boycott.” Will Ellsworth-Jones. The Times. London. January 6, 1985.

“Fr. Sean McManus is the man who put Northern Ireland on the map in America. As head of Washington-based lobby group the Irish National Caucus, which he founded in 1974, he continues to fight the fight over sectarianism and justice—British governments have been and gone, Fr. Sean is still here. He famously championed the MacBride Principles which called on US   companies investing in Northern Ireland to operate a fair employment practice. It made him a hate figure for Unionists and a constant prick in the side of the British.”—Richard Sullivan. Sunday World. Belfast. January 4, 2018.

“After being ‘transported’ out of London 1972, [Church and State] sent Fr. McManus to far-flung America. …They thought it was a safe enough place to banish him after he attacked the British Government and its policies in [Northern Ireland] in the early 1970s. But how wrong [they] were. Some political observers in America say he was light years ahead of his time when   he set up the Irish National Caucus to fight for justice and rights for [Catholics] back home in Northern Ireland.”—John Cassidy, Sunday World. Belfast. March 18, 2007.

“No one has done more than Father McManus to keep the U.S. Congress on track regarding justice and peace in Ireland. Indeed, I believe historians will record that no one since John Devoy (1842–1928) has done more to organize American pressure for justice in Ireland.”—Congressman Ben Gilman (R-NY), Chairman, House International Relations Committee. 2003.

“My American Struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland, and this Third Edition, is a hugely important book. It is probably the most significant memoir in the historiography of Irish-American nationalism since Recollections of an Irish Rebel (1929) by John Devoy.” —Washington Irish Committee.

“For the past nearly 50 years Fr. Sean McManus has been championing, almost single-handedly, the struggle for peace with justice for the partitioned six counties of “Northern Ireland.” His has been the constant voice keeping the U.S. Congress, international media, and the entire Irish-American community, informed and constantly up to date with the truth. He withstood attacks of the English Government for his relentless efforts in fighting for the ultimate adoption of the MacBride Principles. Fr. Sean’s ongoing work and efforts on behalf of Mr. Raymond McCord, a Protestant from Belfast, has become another example of his vital role in the search for peace with JUSTICE irrespective of one’s religion.“—Bob Bateman, Past National Historian, Ancient Order of Hibernians. AOH Liaison to the Irish National Caucus and Congressional Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs (1976-1982). (Great-grandnephew of the Fenian Captain Timothy Deasy).

“[Fr. McManus] stood out against powerful forces in a fight for justice and fairness. I didn’t always agree with the causes he supported, but I admired his persistence, his courage, his relentlessness. And admiration that one person, almost alone, could make such impact on public policy in the United States.”—Vincent Browne’s speech at book launch in Dublin. 2011.

“Fr. Sean knows the history of the struggle for justice in Northern Ireland as well as anyone—he lived it. A very important book.”— Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston and U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. 2011.

“Fr. Sean McManus has spent a lifetime leading the fight to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. That so many Americans and, particularly those in American government leadership roles, joined in the effort to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict is a credit to his courageous and inspiring leadership.”—Bill Flynn, Chairman Emeritus, Mutual of America chairman, National Committee on American Foreign Policy. 2011.

“The word I always associate with Fr. Sean McManus is adamantine (unbreakable):
Made of or resembling adamant. Having the hardness or luster of a diamond. I have seen him in action countless times on Capitol Hill, so I can fearlessly proclaim that his book will gleam with the luster of a diamond. Tolle, lege! [Take up and read].”
Tom Halton, Former Professor of Greek and Latin at The Catholic University of America.  January 5, 2011 

“A spiritual and magnanimous man, McManus is undeniably a brilliant tactician. His fine book chronicles a long and vibrant journey of an astute, intelligent, and politically committed mind in action. …Many elected American officials of all ethnic backgrounds were convinced by McManus of the urgency and legitimacy of the issue and became supporters of his unceasing efforts. His crowning achievement came when after a laborious campaign the MacBride Principles were signed into law by President Clinton.”—Joe Martin. Real Change. October 27, 2011.

“So, from Kinawley to the halls of Congress, your story—which    I thank you for—is hard to put down. May this year be one of deepening justice and peace for Ireland.”—Jim Douglass, noted author on nonviolence. January 8, 2012.

“Fr. McManus … has released this must-read tome for anyone interested in the long struggle for full Irish freedom … The book documents the priest’s successful struggle to incorporate the MacBride Principles (business ethics for American companies doing business in the north of Ireland) into U.S. law. This is not a work of fiction, though the herculean task Fr. McManus set for himself and his Irish National Caucus lobbying effort on Capitol Hill would appear to qualify as such.”—Bryan T. McMahon. The Ponchatoula Times. Florida. June 28, 2013.

“As a writer, singer, and performer of Irish ballads, I know the value of voice, words, and thoughts that expose injustice (as this book does). Over the last 40 years Fr. McManus has been the powerful voice that has kept the U.S. Congress involved in the struggle for justice and peace in Ireland.”—Derek Warfield, (Young) Wolfe Tones. 2011.

“The intrepid Fermanagh-born battler for justice, Fr. Sean McManus, has published the definitive book on    Irish-America’s fight for justice in the North of Ireland, including the epic MacBride Principles campaign.”—Máirtín ÓMuilleoir, Belfast Media, President of The Irish Echo. 2011.

No … U.S. initiative … [on Northern Ireland] would have come about had it not been for the activities of the Irish National Caucus. — Sunday News (Belfast), 1979.

“Perhaps the Caucus’ boldest success has been its efforts to create … The Committee for Irish Affairs.”—The New York Times. 1979.

“…The Irish National Caucus … has been influential in getting Congress to see Northern Ireland as a human rights issue.”—The Washington Post. 1981

“The MacBride campaign, directed by the Irish National Caucus won the support of the AFL-CIO and of several religious institutional shareholders including several Catholic orders and several major Protestant denominations.”—The Wall Street Journal.1988.

“It all started with Father McManus. When he came over here, we were all sympathetic to him.”—House Speaker Tip O’Neill (Irish America). 1986

“I support the Irish National Caucus because it represents a compelling voice for fair employment, legal justice, and lasting peace in Northern Ireland.”—Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-MA). 1988.

“Dear Fr. McManus … I would be honored to be a Congressional Friend of the Irish National Caucus. I support your nonviolent work for justice and peace in Northern Ireland with full equality for the Catholic minority.  Additionally, I support continued American involvement in the Irish peace process.”—Rep. Joseph Kennedy, III, December 13, 2012.

“As Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs, I … commend the Irish National Caucus for your steadfast advocacy on behalf of human rights …Fr. McManus is ‘The Apostle of Human Rights for Northern Ireland.’”—Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-NY). 1980.

“Thank-you [Fr. McManus] for your gracious invitation to become a ‘Congressional Friend’ of the Irish National Caucus. The warm welcome that I have received from the Irish people on my visits there has gladdened my heart and made me always hopeful that people throughout Ireland will live in a climate of peace and nonviolence.”—Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). 2003; appointed U.S. secretary of state by President Obama in 2009.

“I am a Protestant (which normally I would not mention). However, I had to turn to a Catholic priest, Father Sean McManus, to seek justice for the murder of my son, Raymond Jr. Father McManus helped me get a powerful Congressional hearing into young Raymond’s murder and expose state collusion in his murder.”— Raymond McCord Sr., Belfast. 2011.

“Fr. McManus, from his Capitol Hill office, has been a prominent and influential figure in the quest for progress and peace with justice in Northern Ireland, blending knowledge of his native land with experience drawn from his years of dealing with the intricacies of the political system in his adopted one. His has been a unique role. Long may it continue.”—Ray O’Hanlon. editor of The Irish Echo. New York. 2011.

“Fr. Sean McManus is a man to be reckoned with when it comes to advocating causes.  His espousal of the  MacBride Principles back in the 1980s caused fits for the British government … McManus has also been a constant watchdog in Washington on Irish  affairs  and  has  been  hugely  successful  in setting the Irish-American agenda over the past 30 years.”—Niall O’Dowd. Editor of The Irish Voice, New York. 1990.

“The master … in publicity terms, is Father Sean McManus, a burly, plausible charmer whose Irish National Caucus has taken center stage …  the good Father has made himself expert in congressional lobbying techniques …  I  spent  a  long  and, to be perfectly frank, rather enjoyable afternoon with Father McManus in his Capitol Hill office … and it became clear that  he  hadn’t  been  raised  as  a  clerical  apologist  for    nothing.”—Christopher Hitchens, public intellectual, author of God Is Not Great, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice. The Spectator. England. October 5, 1985.

“We did not take him [INC President, Fr. Sean McManus] very seriously at first, but the MacBride Principles have caused serious problems and cost millions to try to counteract.”—A Senior British official in Northern Ireland—Sunday Life. Belfast).1992.

“The fanfare of publicity about new and tougher action against job discrimination, for example, is designed, at least in part, to help the British Government to counter the extremely effective campaign on the MacBride Principles which is being waged by the Irish National Caucus in the United States.”—The Irish Times. Dublin. 1987.

“I support the Irish National Caucus in its important work for justice and peace in Northern Ireland and would be proud to be associated with this worthy organization.”—Rep. Peter T. King (R- NY) 1994.

“It makes one want to stand up and cheer.” Author Sharon Chang, 2011.

“Northern Ireland’s most diligent champion in America.”— Sharon Chang. February 6, 2020