Letter to a Young Dissident

Following a conversation with a young republican, a member of the Group responded thus.

Response to Murphy Report (Irish Times)

The exposure, in the Ryan report and the Murphy report, has had a number of effects, not all of them detrimental. Society will be encouraged to be more openly critical of its institutions and, as a result, may oblige institutional officers to become more accountable to those over whom they hold power or influence. In turn, the citizens may feel more able to criticise directly those in responsibility if it is felt they are abusing their power and influence.

Also, the suffering inflicted over many years on so many of our abused citizens, and the residue of guilt, regret, remorse, anxiety, depression, may at last have been alleviated.

Nevertheless, the pathology has been so endemic that investigation should not stop with the Dublin diocese nor be confined by any quasi-geographical border or sectarian boundary. Alan Shatter, TD, called on the Government to “engage directly in discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State and the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown . . . to seek the creation of structures to address allegations of clerical and institutional abuse in Northern Ireland”.

By no stretch of imagination is it likely that the Roman Catholic Church clergy have been the only guilty offenders in these respects. Yet again, Kincora comes to mind.

Any further investigation should seek to unearth paedophilia, from the slightest degree to the most revoltingly violent. No school, church or other social institution or organisation should any longer be immune from suspicion until all those who have suffered this scourge have been given the opportunity to let go of its effects.

Without compromising the laws of the state regarding such hateful and destructive acts, admission may also have some redemptive effect on the perpetrators, similar to that obtained by the process of restorative justice. All schools throughout Britain and Ireland, especially those which still house or which have housed boarders, should now be thoroughly investigated to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the desire to have this vile practice eliminated. 

JOHN ROBB

Peter Robinson’s statement on voting

Peter Robinson’s statement on voting procedures in the Assembly is both thought provoking and contradictory. His criticism of the designations is positive; his statement – “dup Ministers would insist that all decisions will only be taken by consensus and we will not use our votes to override their opposition” – is most welcome; and his quotation – We will not find answers in old dogmas – is equally positive. But then he contradicts himself and suggests weighted majority voting. This ancient methodology – first advocated, by the way, in the 13th century for the election of the Pope – is similar to simple majority voting for it is also adversarial. It still reduces the question, no matter how complex, to a two-option, for-or-against vote, that or a series of such votes.

Click to read more ...

Welcome to our revamped site

The site has now been re-designed, and will be up-dated in the New Year.

The New Ireland Group seeks an island, not only at peace with itself, but at peace both with our immediate neighbours and the rest of the world, as well as with our future generations. We long for a society which is based on a consensual democracy: 

• a society which thrives to live by international human rights, an ethical trade policy, and a sustainable economy;
• a society which welcomes refugees from lands afflicted by wars and/or natural disasters;
• a society which plays no part in foreign wars such as that which is currently raging in Iraq;
• a society where peoples of both genders and all backgrounds share political power;
• a society which treasures the natural resources for which it is the guardian;
• a society which understands that the world is one, that everything is connected, and that our species will survive only if we, along with all other peoples, learn to live within sustainable parameters.

Redmondism Revisited?

Over the past twenty years, since I first ventured into print with my book ‘The Road to the Somme’, it has been my privilege to encounter hundreds of people who possess a deep interest in the subject of Ireland’s role in the Great War, usually stimulated by the fact that a grandfather, great-uncle or other male relative served - and perhaps lost their life - in that far-off cataclysm. During the past two decades I have witnessed one truly significant change in the situation. The fact is that whereas twenty years ago the greatest interest by far was shown by northern protestants, who identified the pro-unionist 36th Division’s exploits at the battle of the Somme as their key area of concern, the greatest growth in Irish Great war history within recent years has been among Irish catholics, especially in the Irish Republic where, for many years, the slaughter of over 30,000 Irishmen in the trenches was removed from public memory.

Click to read more ...