The weather is certainly shaping up nicely and augurs well for the long weekend. I intend to get busy blogging again now I’ll have a little more free time in the evenings and have something of a backlog of drafts written but never competed during my long winter solstice of sorts which I might have to dust down.

Musing quickly over recent events, the Queen’s visit certainly went off well and won over many including me, the ceremony at Islandbridge was particularly historic, especially coming on the heels of the garden of remembrance. Whatever our political or historical beliefs we absolutely must respect those on all sides who made sacrifices and it is quite shameful really to think how many of those ex-veterans had to hide their military record or become pariahs in post-independence period. I read recently an account of life through the transition from a former nationalist but also of ascendancy stock, Barrister Maurice Healy who practiced on the Munster circuit but basically had to flee to the UK when the atmosphere became too hostile for him here.

A memorable passage in the book talks about an exiled ageing magistrate withering in the equatorial sun passing justice amongst the burghers of malay kay or some far flung colonial outpost all the time pining for his days skipping from Cork to Tralee with empty pockets but a head fit to burst from the excitement of the day ahead .. or something along those lines. Interesting stuff indeed. Our history is truly a complex one.

Obama’s pint in Offaly went down well and even if Enda nicked a few lines from one of his speeches well so what, I’ve done it myself (see if you can spot a line here : ) )

The government have had a mixed bag, good publicity though little real action, it seems they are coming to terms with the enormity of the problem in a somewhat tempestuous fashion as we have seen with various Ministers doing “solo runs” or “speaking out of turn”, one wonders whether Enda Kenny’s ‘Chairman not Chief’ approach to managing his team of the talents will prove effective as the coalition comes under strain.

Anyway all will be revealed I expect in due course.. Expect much more commentary from this direction in any case over the next few months. I hope you stay tuned!

Notwithstanding all that, it remains my earnest belief that ‘unfinished business’ remains in the North of Ireland. In an ideal world constitutional arrangements to bring about unity and address the situation would be on the agenda for a visit of this kind. I accept of course the realpolitik is that these matters are more for Downing Street than Buckingham Palace at this point. A welcome for the Queen is the mature and right approach. Apart from even the politics of the event, the huge interest and goodwill towards the recent Royal Wedding recently highlighted the positivity that now exists between and across institutions on these islands.

In many ways I respect, even admire the British Empire. Ironically not so much now as when it was at the height of its colonial power. The expansion of its reach across the world. Its engineering and military accomplishments. The system of administration and governance it left in many corners. The system of the common law that is still in place today in most quarters of the English speaking world. Its characters/creations. No friends of Ireland of course, but still characters in their own right. Lord Denning. Lloyd George. Winston Churchill. Montgomery. Sherlock Holmes!

All this being so, it is my belief that there remains a fundamental difficulty with the continuance of partition on this island. This is not about the past but about the future.  As constitutional nationalists, it is fundamental that we accept consent and democratic will to be essential provisos to any progression. However we must continue to view the current constitutional position as merely a stepping stone on the road to eventual full unity in name, jurisdiction, territory and peoples. (A nation once again?) In such a scenario we may even all join with our (then) unionist fellow citizens in hanging out our bunting ..

Some highs:

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• Budget 2010. Whilst I accept this was difficult to swallow for many and my own household (being 50% public sector) was not spared, I rank this as a high as it was an example of the government displaying leadership, decisiveness and a conviction that this would and could be solved and not put indefinitely on the long finger for any politically expedient reasons. Standing up to the unions was also a plus for me as was the fact that the FF backbenchers found voice on something other than drink driving. It also confirmed the upwards trajectory of our Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan TD as the ace in the pack and a bulwark against further government descent. A good day for party and for the country.
• Going North. A little trumpeted but steadily progressing initiative of 2009. Buoyed in no inconsiderable part by the efforts and encouragement of the Ógra movement (who allowed northern voting delegates at youth conference in 09) , the senior Fianna Fáil party organised, held recruitment events and public fori in three Northern counties in the latter half of 2009. Progress was not rapid but steady rather than slow. It is happening and for many of us it is a most welcome development. I always believed in a thirty two county republican party and am delighted to be reassured many others in the movement think likewise. Lets push on for the assembly elections next year and take the opportunity to get a foothold both sides of the border. Towards 2016 indeed.
• Yes to Lisbon. Perhaps not very sexy, but yet very important for the advancement of the greater European project.  A raft of organisational and procedural changes and some important common ground enablers to compete with the big blocs internationally and Continentally on climate change, security, defence etc.  A long slog, longer than anyone expected when it started in 2004 but welcome closure nonetheless…

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Some lows:

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• Oireachtas Expenses Scandal The whole thing was an ignominious stain on the body politic. Whilst our former Ceann Comhairle friend, JOD seems to have been the worst, or at least the most prolific, the exorbitance seems to have been shared by many, including opposition parties when on their various junkets. And of course all expenses were signed off by cross party committee.  Which helps explain the reticence by any the Leinster house club members on any side the house to really tackle this until things came to a head via the media and public reaction.  Also whilst only the excesses were highlighted, the many legitimate expenses claimed are subsumed into the mix with the result that even legitimate expenses become  regarded as carpet bagging. The Minister has twice asked for a review of the system and it is needed for all purposes, to expose abuses but also to safeguard the legitimate uses of the system.
• Banking Crisis The whole problem here is that wrong doing or at least a highly cavalier attitudes appear to have incurred no subsequent penalty, be it financial, legal or career wise. Sure some the big guns shuffled off the deck but not without some nice linings to their pockets as a result. The ‘moral hazard’ argument appeared to go out the window particularly with regard to the banks when it became clear some were ‘too big to fail’ but not in fact ‘too big to bail’. This is the ultimate quandary for a mixed economy, do the rules of extreme capitalism apply (where darwinism prevades and the bigger they come the harder they fall) or does the state pick up the tab to avoid massive job losses and potentially crippling wider economic and social affects. Obama had to do it with the automotive industry and we had to do it with the banks. While the government may have had no other choice,  it does leave a sour taste and we must still see heads roll in 2010 if this sector is to restore confidence.
• Local Elections This was a real black spot. For me personally it was a very gruelling outcome, having campaigned officially for almost a year, and been involved in local activism for a lot longer it was and is frustrating to accept that, for the next few years at least, I can play no formal role in local affairs. The many things I wanted to do must all take a back seat as I have no formal platform with which to address them.  Whilst I accept the feedback from many people that it was a political not a personal issue, it doesn’t change the result. Also had it been locally political, I think the case stacked up very well, unfortunately we were condemned by the economic tsunami and the wider political malaise. A party colleague in another district, who has contested both general and local elections, recalled ruefully afterwards, how when he ran in the generals (when things were good nationally) he was cursed on local issues, and when he ran locally (when as a sitting Cllr he had a solid record on local issues) he was cursed on the basis of national politics! Looking at the wider political situation, one of the difficulties for the Fianna Fáil party is that so few of the ‘next generation’  young bloods were elected in this election, as where survivors did emerge it was generally the old dog for the long road, based usually on decades of graft and local relationship building. Full credit to them, but the imbalance will make it harder for the party to renew or regenerate internally, or to introduce any new blood/ideas, which ironically is what the electorate said was what was most needed. Well unfortunately it is on hold now for another five years at least.

I will likely add a few more items here over the next day or so but am publishing this now to get started.

The case is that of the Celebrated/Notorious Captain Nairac, the original incidents enshrining the classic elements of Greek theatre as tragi-comic farce.

In brief, during a particularly heightened period of the Northern troubles (1977), this young buck with a string of Oxford ‘blues’ and a spell in the Queen’s Grenadier Guards, fancied a crack at infilitration of the ‘subversives’ and sought to woo the locals with a daring undercover incursion. In an act of equal audacity and innocence he made his way to the Three Steps pub in Drumintee, alone and with only a ballad song or two for cover. It wasn’t his first foray and his intuition, or more obviously, his cut glass accent ought to have given the game away immediately but undeterred he foolishly or bravely (take your pick) persisted to the end drinking with newfound bar buddies becoming increasingly more inquisitive as to the activities of lez resistance locale..

Long story short his Narcissic persona proved his undoing and the foolhardy mission met with fatal but predictable results when he was dispatched to oblivion by the local IRA unit.

Death is unpleasant, war is not a nice thing but as Pearse said, “there are some things worse than war and slavery is one of them”. Perhaps Nairac thought that too and hence he took up arms for his own country. Bottom line an armed and willing combatant was shot dead during a deliberate intelligence gathering incursion into enemy territory.

Now what purpose can it possibly serve for his assailant to be arrested and tried today? Will the SAS soldiers that shot dead an entire IRA unit at Loughall be tried and tested? What about those at Gibraltar who took down three IRA members in cold blood?

Those at Bloody Sunday may some day be tried and maybe found guilty and rightly so as an act in violation of any international standard, the murder of civilians, but in the other cases, I don’t think so. War is war, it is rough it is bloody it is unforgiving and can taketh away but it is entered into eyes wide open and should not nor cannot be subject to civil recrimination. Soldiers are trained to kill and Captain Nairac was no different.

Doubtless some petty political consideration belies this current arrest but I suggest for these and similar episodes, the past, unlike Northern Ireland, should indeed be a foreign country..

I missed out on school extensions twice, firstly I was in sixth class when the funding came through for my primary school to be upgraded, and secondly I spent but only the last of my secondary school days in a gleaming new community school, having been housed in CBS prefabs hitherto.

And yet I would say I had an excellent education.

Aside from the 3 Rs there was another firm fixture on the CBS schedule and it never varied. I am reminded of it now in these days of glorious sunshine, of returning to the classroom to see the glint in teachers eye. Each day the lesson after lunch was the same, glorious and unchanging. Easter 1916.

We listened in wonder as we heard how a band of gallant men had held out against the might of empire. How by Pearses side they bravely died as cruel Britannia sent the cannon into Dublin. The mythical power of blood sacrifice. The symbolism of Easter rebirth. And the eternal epilogoue of four green fields with one still in bondage. It was a wistful class, as a school boy listening transfixed, the telling brought all the more to life by the pure drop allegedly enjoyed by the master during the break hour.

A noble man and a passionate republican that teacher inspired many. I stayed friendly with him long after and even used visit his house near the train station ocasionaly when returning from college, where we would swap books and discuss the civil war. In fact his Eoin Neeson account is in a box in my attic still.

My grandfather who passed away when I was younger still also left an indelible impact ; I remember well those evenings listening to how the yellow press did for Parnell. But that classroom was a further and significant chapter in my political awakening.

One classmate from that time later joined the IRA and is no longer with us. I retained the Republican beliefs and eventually joined Fianna Fáil when at university. Others may have been influenced to greater or lesser degrees. But those Summer afternoons spellbound by epic Easter deeds will always be with me.

“I take issue with your letter writer of Thurs 10th, who states that in voting for the Good Friday agreement (GFA) we accepted permanent British rule in Northern Ireland (NI) and that we should now move on from the whole process. The GFA was a complex, multi-faceted arrangement which finally enshrined civil liberties in NI, provided a legislative basis for Irish citizens living in the six counties whilst recognising the desire of unionists to remain allied to the UK. As well as removing articles 2 & 3 from the Irish constitution, the British Government of Ireland act 1920 and the act of Union 1800 were also repealed. Unionists remain within the UK until a majority vote to change. This was an astounding piece of legislation and marked a huge step forward on the ‘national question’. Whilst including many concrete and solid provisions, to enable things to move on the agreement also featured much use of ‘constructive ambiguity’ ie there were a lot of aspirational passages which left enough room for all sides to secure support for the deal. However I think most of us, then and now saw the realpolitik, regarding the GFA as a stepping stone, paving the way towards eventual unity and in the interim providing a middle ground where nationalists and unionists could come to know one another in a supportive and safe environment.

It is now ten years since the agreement was signed. The DUP who alone opposed the talks now work the executive in style. The incredible working and personal relationship between Dr. Paisley and Martin McGuinness continues to astound. Co-operation on all-Ireland issues grows daily across more and more streams of industry and government. Unionists look winsomely at our euro currency and celtic tiger economy. Sinn Fein have abandoned the guns and have representatives in parliament both sides of the island. Fianna Fáil are about to become an all-Ireland party.

The British queen is welcome to visit Ireland, as an independent nation standing along on an equal footing, we owe a respect to our neighbouring nation, no longer our opressor but our peer, friend even.

But let us not consider Northern Ireland as ‘finished busines’. Rather, we are only getting started…”