"Bandit Country"- South Armagh

On Tuesday we left Dublin by train and arrived in Dundalk just before the Republic of Ireland/ Northern Ireland border. We were met by former Sinn Fein MLA Jim McAlister who would be our tour guide for the day. Jim was an enthusiastic local of the border area and told us a little bit about himself while we took the short bus ride over the border to South Armagh, an area known for smuggling, and steeped in ancient mythology. It is here that the warrior Cuchulain was said to have defended Ulster from rival tribes, and notorious bandits like Redmond O'Hanlon made life hell for their British colonizers.

Armagh is also a very interesting place to study the political conflict in NI. It is a heavily Republican area, especially in the southern part, and the British Army used to prefer to travel anywhere in South Armagh by helicopter during the Troubles. The reason for this is because of the strength of the South Armagh IRA cell, and anytime they would travel somewhere on the ground, their vehicle would be bombed. This being said it is also the founding place of the Orange Order, a Protestant all-boys club that celebrates dominance over the Catholics of Ireland. So the population in this county is quite diverse and rich in history.

Crossmaglen is a city in S Armagh where the British Army had its headquarters during the troubles. Jim told us there would be fire fights here weekly between Republicans and the British, and sometimes the sight of the "barracks buster" bomb being hurled over the barracks wall. The Army has withdrawn troops from NI, and now a Republican monument of a warrior and pheonix stands facing the sight of the old military base, with clenched fists.

Jim told us the other day he had a substitute teacher for a class he is taking, and he recognized the man. The reason was because he used to be a British Paratrooper in Crossmaglen, and I'm assuming the two men had had a few run ins with each other. The former paratrooper said he came to Crossmaglen a paratrooper in Her Majesty's Army, and left a Republican. I don't exactly know why he had this change of heart, but I suspect it was the way they arrested (without charge) and abused the citizens of this largely Catholic population. Jim recalled being arrested one time and helicoptered away to the Army base just a day after the IRA shot down a helicopter. He recited a poem that he wrote about the experience which basically said that if they shot at the helicopter he was in, not knowing he was in it, at least he would die in the place he called home and the British soldiers around him would die in a foreign land that was simply a coordinate on a map. It is hard to imagine how the people of South Armagh could ever have a normal life after their experience during the Troubles, but somehow they have pulled through and maintain a warm community.

We also met the Quinn family. Their son, Paul, was murdered by Republicans for speaking out against their activities in the area. We were told about how Paul would not allow himself to be bullied by the South Armagh IRA, and this was what lead to his brutal death. Sinn Fein claims that Paul was a part of a criminal fuel smuggling ring, and the IRA beat him up to show him a lesson (even though Republicans themselves in this area are notorious for smuggling activities). Jim McAlister, our tour guide for the day, and former Sinn Fein MLA, is now the spokesperson for the Paul Quinn Support Group. The group puts pressure on the government to find out who murdered Paul, in order for the Quinn family to find closure.

This issue seemed to be one reason why Jim is no longer tied to SF, and he seemed quite disillusioned by their behavior over Paul's murder. When our program director asked him to talk about being SF's chief orator a while back, he responded, "More like nonsense talker and bullshitter." He also spoke a lot about how it wouldn't be right if you didn't change your mind as you grew older, and the most important thing to learn is the phrase, "I was wrong". I think a lot of the issues I have with the Republican movement in NI have to do with some of their hypocrisy in community vigilance. They say they killed Paul Quinn because he was a smuggler, but Jim said that most of the wealth in this community comes from smuggling. Therefore I'd assume there would be a higher level smuggler to "teach a lesson to" than a 21 year old kid. It was clearly a politically motivated murder. This was demonstrated further when the day after we left Armagh, a billboard advocating justice for the Quinn family was burned to the ground. Also a dissident Republican group that refuses to recognize the peace process recently murdered a drug dealer outside Derry city. This sounds like a way to cleanse their community from drugs and other poisons, however if you look closely at the Republican movement, you'd realize that selling drugs is one way they raised money. So one has to ask did this group murder this father of one to rid their community of drugs, or just drugs that they don't see a profit from?

Next it was on to Armagh City, where we saw the Church of Ireland's St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Catholic Church's cathedral in Armagh, and guess what it's named? St. Patrick's. Both the Protestant and Catholic faiths lay a claim to Patrick, and rightfully so. He came to Ireland hundreds of years before the reformation and spread Christianity, not Catholicism.

We also went to the founding place of the Orange Order (named after William of Orange). I hate to even waste time writing about this group because I see them as nothing more than ethnic supremacists who celebrate the victory of Protestant King William over Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne every Summer. They march through Nationalist neighborhoods on their way to Church, and don't understand why the Catholics that live there are offended by the celebration of just another event in the long history of discrimination and defeat against Catholics in Ireland. The representative we met with told me that the marches celebrate how William separated church and state in Great Britain, and guaranteed freedom of religion, and they are not about victory over Catholics. That's an absolute lie. The marches take place on the date of the Battle of the Boyne, marchers carry banners of William defeating the Jacobite Armies, songs are sung commemorating the Boyne, and the freedom of religion part would make sense; but King WIlliam also supported the Penal Laws outlawing Catholicism in Ireland, and of course Catholics are not even allowed to join the order. So I guess their really just celebrating Protestant freedom of religion... which is nice.

We are currently in Belfast now and I am going to have plenty to write about at the end of our stay here. Tomorrow we are taking a tour of the Falls Road, the epicenter of the Republican movement by a former prisoner and IRA man, and tour of Shankill Road, the center of Loyalism by a former Loyalist paramilitary and prisoner. It will definitely be an interesting day.




St. Brigids well




memorial to the hunger strikers


Republican memorial in Crossmaglen


tricolor flying in Crossmaglen, protesting British rule

Tour Guide for the Weekend

This past weekend Jen came to visit along with her room mate Amanda. We had a great weekend and I got to see some parts of Dublin I had been meaning to see for a while. First we went to the International Bar and Comedy Club owned by comedian Des Bishop. We had a great time there, and everyone else had a great time at our expense, because the mc that night seemed like he was awfully fond of jokes concerning the Americans in the crowd. The next day we went to Howth, a small fishing village on the North side of Dublin that is really a great place to go on the odd chance that there is good weather. Luckily there was no rain and we enjoyed the nice views, curious seals, and good seafood. Sunday was spent walking around the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Garden of Remembrance, Grafton Street, and St. Stephen's Green. I had a great time and I'm glad Jen was able to come visit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bna-tn_dY
This is a link to one of Des Bishops stand up routines about a little bit of culture shock he encountered when he moved to Ireland as a teenager.

Heading North

So tomorrow we leave for Northern Ireland, and we won't be back until late March. We will be stopping briefly in Armagh which is on the border, to study issues surrounding this heavily Republican area of NI. After Armagh it's on to Belfast for a week and then to Derry for 2 weeks.

There have been a lot of things in the news recently concerning the North and I'm excited to be going there at this particular time. First there was the Hillsborough Agreement, dealing with changing the police force around and establishing a new justice ministry, and also dealing with contentious Orange Order parades. Recently there has been isolated incidents of "dissident Republicans" committing violent acts. These are people who have refused to move into the future and accept the peace process and instead prefer to bang their heads off a wall. Sinn Fein (a party who, a decade ago would be encouraging the armed struggle) has condemned these attacks and all the political parties remain fixated on peace and a shared future.

What I found to be telling about one of the recent events was that 4 men were arrested in connection with a planned bombing near the border; these men were all age 40-60. I say this is telling because looking at their ages, these men are probably all ex Provisional IRA members who split with the group after the Good Friday Agreement because they felt that the Provisional leadership sold out. The view of these men is most likely that without the gain of a united Republic on the entire island of Ireland there commrades will have died in vain, but they fail to realize that at this time the only way towards this goal is through the political arena rather than violence.

Since I think it is mostly my family who reads this blog I think it is important to say that this is not something to be the least bit worried about. The recent incidents are extremely isolated and SIT has brought groups to NI when the situation has been far more dangerous, without incident. I'm excited to have this opportunity to learn from both sides of the community in NI, and I'm very thankful I'm here.

"The meak shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights"

We just arrived back in Dublin today from an exciting week in northwest Co. Mayo. We traveled to Mayo to learn firsthand about the environmental conflict going on regarding the Corrib Gas field off the Western shore of Ireland. What I learned in Mayo was that Shell, as well as its partner companies, Statoil and Marathon, have behaved in a way that is hard to believe is possible in a democratic country. And the Irish government is also implicated in this behavior because of their friendliness to multi nationals at the expense of the Irish people.

Soon after the gas was discovered in the Corrib sub-sea field it was sold to Shell. Now the people of Ireland have no sovereignty over a natural resource belonging to them. It is a good thing that this gas will be brought in to Mayo, plugging them in to the National gas grid, and providing clean(er) fossil fuels to heat homes and the like. No one in the community would say that harvesting this gas is bad, however the fact that Ireland has no control over the resource means that this gas might as well be coming from Saudi Arabia or another oil rich country. The Irish people will still pay full international price for a resource that lies within their border, and rightfully is theirs. It is issues like this that have caused professor and former spokesperson for the Rossport 5, Mark Garavan, to describe Mayo as having the potential to become Ireland’s Chiapas..



The issue of safety is also brought up regarding the Corrib project. The proposed pipeline is a first of its kind project and runs straight through a residential area. It also will destroy aquatic as well as land based ecosystems in a specially protected area. The waste from this project, if completed, will be pumped into a bay that has circular tides, creating a poisonous environment for man and animal.

While staying at Killcommon Holiday Hostel, our host, Betty (described by community members as the mother of the community) introduced us to many members of the community who are fighting for their safety and the integrity of the place they call home. She set up meetings with many people involved with campaigns to keep the pipeline out of Erris, a special protected area under European law. One of these people was a member of the Rossport 5, Willie Corduff, and his wife, Mary. The Rossport 5 are men from the Parish of Rossport who were put in jail when Shell obtained a CAO (compulsory acquisition order) of their land. Up until this, no private company ever had the authority to take private property from citizens, and for good reason. If there was one thing I have learned from studying Irish politics and history it is that it is never a good idea to try and steal away land from poor, rural farmers in a place like Mayo, a former Land League stronghold, and one of the poorest counties in Ireland. This is especially a bad decision if the head of your European operation speaks with a British accent, Shell’s failure to recognize the collective memories they were stirring up of the land acquisitions of long ago by British imperialists proved damaging to the Corrib project. The Rossport 5, in typical Irish defiance did not allow Shell to use their land, and were imprisoned. The majority of Ireland rallied around the men and Shell eventually had the men let out of prison.

When you picture people like the Rossport 5, who stand up to corporations and fight against environmental degradation, an image of an eco-warrior/activist/dreadlocked angry young person may come into mind. I’m sure Shell would have been much more successful if this were true. However when Willie and Mary Corduff allowed us into their house for tea and a friendly chat, it was obvious these were everyday normal people. They were not political at all; in fact, this conflict is much more than politics for them. The thought of having a first of its kind, dangerous, high pressure (much more pressure that the pipeline that recently exploded in Connecticut), environmentally damaging pipeline, sitting, like a ticking time bomb in their backyard cuts much deeper than politics. The thought of the ecosystem that has supported them, their grandparents, and their great grandparents being decimated is something that crosses far into their personal feelings, far away from any left or right wing movement.

The Corduffs were an inspiring family. Willie showed us the farm animals and you could see a sense of pride when he showed us a newborn calf he had delivered a day before our visit. Mary told us it was their 30th anniversary that day and I thought, what a shame, even on their anniversary they spend it fighting Shell and raising awareness to save their very way of life; because if Shell were to be successful, Willie says they would have to leave. I think the reason the Corduffs are inspiring is that they are just an everyday family. They didn’t ask for their role as leaders of a campaign against one of the most powerful forces in the world, the oil industry it was put on them, but they also did not crumble in the face of decaying democracy when a government thinks development automatically equals prosperity for all. It would have been easy for them to give up, take the small sum of money Shell offered and start over somewhere new, but it took great conviction to stand up and speak the truth. The Corduffs have always spoken the truth even in the face of Shell’s privatized security force, the Gardai, and men in balaclavas who almost killed Willie one night when he took a walk.

The community’s goals are simple, safety, and the human right to control of a natural resource that they have a right to control. Shell also has a simple goal, profit. It is interesting then that during a tour of the gas processing plant, I saw a sign that read, “Safety is not expensive, it’s priceless”. It would truly be something if Shell followed that mantra and built the plant off shore, or in a non-populated area like Glinsk, so that the pipeline would not be going through a residential area with many fragile ecosystems; but after our meeting with Shell public relations representatives it was clear that those two options aren’t and were never really considered. My classmates and I asked them many questions, and remained admirably diplomatic and calm after a week of hearing the slow torture Shell has imposed on the local community.

When one of the reps went on and on about Shell’s safety record (which when looked at, is laughable) I asked if he was aware that their office in London which contained 2,500 employees, (some of which were Shell’s highest ranking European employees) had two separate fires last summer, and was hit with the biggest fire safety fine in England’s history (one count 45,000 pounds alone, 300,000 pounds combined). He of course was not aware of this, but was welcome to me giving him my research showing it. I think that if he has a pulse, and is employed by Shell, he should probably already be aware of this. Maybe he was aware of these fines, maybe he was doing his job as a PR man and deflecting a question. Or maybe as it turns out, people like the Corduffs aren’t the ignorant small minded rural people Shell makes them out to be. Maybe the real small minded people are people like this PR man who is a self proclaimed “Mayo Man” (even though he was born in London?) who has been duped into believing that Shell has anything on its mind other than coming through for the shareholders. The issues of Shell's saftey records make you wonder; if Shell will not keep its head of European operations safe, what corners will it cut in search of profit that could lead to the death of people like Willie and Mary Corduff?

"We're going on a tour where no tourist goes."

So this past week has been very busy for everyone in the program. Between our traditional history and politics lectures we also have guest speakers come and tell us about their experiences in whatever field they are involved in. This past week we had Fr. Peter McVerry, a Jesuit priest lacoated just down the street from our classroom, Terry Fagan a local historian and community organizer, and Michael McCaughan a journalist who has spent a lot of time in Latin America and is heavily involved in the Corrib Gas controversy in Co. Mayo.

Fr. McVerry is quite an unassuming older man who has done some truly amazing things for the city of Dublin. I had read about him in the book, Killing Rage, an autobiography of a former IRA man, Eamon Collins, and I remembered Eamon writing about what a positive impact McVerry had on the young homeless boys he worked to help and also Eamon himslef. Fr. McVerry said that his life was changed from an academic who was on course to become an educator in the feild of Chemistry to a man driven to help the most marginalized of society. This change occured when Peter began living in a flat with a few other Jesuits in the Summerhill neighborhood of Dublin. He refers to this area as being synonomous with everything that is wrong with Ireland. Fr. McVerry began his work with the homeless and addicted youth of Dublin's innercity by opening up a hostel for homeless boys under the age of 16. His work gradually expanded and eventually he also housed over 16's and opened a stabilization center for pre-detox treatment, a detox center, and a drug free after-care center. Fr. McVerry demonstrated the need for these facilities by telling us about the shortcomings of Irelands drug treatment programs, for example there are 28 beds available at detox centers around the country, but there are 15,000 heroin users. This shows that even when people want to get better, help is usually not available. Fr. McVerry also talked about how the most important thing he can do for society's most marginalized people is make them feel like there is someone who cares about them, and that they have worth and meaning. Fr. McVerry is truly what a Catholic priest should strive to be, acting as a father figure to his community and providing a helping hand to those most in need.

The next person we met was Terry Fagan who gave us a walking tour of the Monto area of Dublin. He started the tour out by saying, "We're going on a tour where no tourist ever goes." He wasn't kidding. Monto appeared like any innercity neighborhood in America, shabby looking public housing, memorial graffit drenching the walls, and a particularly telling example of public sentiment with one patch of graffiti exclaiming "F--- the Garda". I say this displays public sentiment because I'm assuming that if the community found this particularly shocking or offensive, they would have gotten rid of it, instead it stayed on the wall looking weathered and no attempt to cover it up was visible. Monto used to be Europe's largest red light district, and Terry told us stories of vicious madam's and famous patrons such as the Prince of Wales. Terry also pointed out that this was an area where the Legion of Mary was founded in order to empower girls caught up in the world of prostitution. We also heard stories of Michael Collins holding secret meetings with IRA members here during the War of Independence in the 1920's. I think the most powerful part of this tour was when Terry spoke of personal experience in fighting against the drug epidemic in Ireland. When dockworkers in Monto began to lose their jobs to machinery; poverty, hash, and heroin became prevalent in Monto, and claimed the lives of many of its residents. Terry told us how the parents in the community began to fight back against high level drug dealers living among them. They began to drive them out of Monto and onto O'Connell Street in the city center, but the cops drove them back into Monto so as to not make the city look bad. Terry spoke of family members being burried because of overdoses and the deep seeded hatred he felt for the dealers who made this possible. On many occasions there were physical altercations and even shots fired between the dealers and the group of parents fighting against them. He told one story of a march they led to the front of a dealer's house. He said the men led the march with all the women following them, but this soon changed. When they arrived at the house they chanted "out dealer out!" and he did come out; weilding a sword. He ran down his front steps at the demonstrators and the men in the group scurried away. The mothers however stood there, still, daring the man to do something. Terry laughed as he told this story saying how when you bring a child into the world like these mothers had, there was no one who was going to intimidate them from keeping their children safe. He told us how the government was unprepared and not help much in solving the growing drug problem, but he did say that Sinn Fein were the only party who consistently stood by them.
He showed us a memorial that he unveiled a few years ago alongside the President of Ireland that is dedicated to the people who lost their lives from drugs. He said it represents the failure of successive governments to deal with a growing problem, and "It won't be long untill there is one on every corner of every village in Ireland. This is what happenes when a government ignores its working class, this is the result." Terry is a fiery man who has great enthusiasm for his old neighborhood. One can not help but be inspired by people like him.


What's left of a Magdeline Laundry in Monto. These are what the movie The Magdeline Sisters are based on.

Our next guest lecturer was Michael McCaughan who gave us some insight into the controversy we will be studying over the next week in Co. Mayo. He is a journalist and has written a book about the Corrib Gas dispute. I'm going to save this topic for the next entry when we return from Mayo as I will have a better understanding of the situation.

Haiti Relief Concert

The people at Glencree held a concert to raise money for the communities they work with in Haiti. These are some pictures of Tom Kitt, (a TD equivalent of a Congressman) and his son and nephew, also well known folk artist Tommy Sands, and the master of ceremonies Ian White.

Settling In

I've begun to get a little more settled in here as we have just finished our first week of class. The commute is a little different to Stonehill where I can role out of my bed and walk over to class in about 5 minutes. I take the LUAS (tram, luas is the Irish word for speed) everyday and get out at St. Stephens Green and begin my walk to class/tour of Irish history. I walk down to O'Connell Street which is lined with statues of famous patriots and freedom fighters throughout Ireland's history. I pass the General Post Office, where in 1916 fighting broke out between Republican forces and the British military and is now seen as a catalyst to Irish independence. The GPO actually still has bullet holes in the front of the building that are a constant reminder of the price paid for independence. Then it's on to Parnell Sq. on the North Side of Dublin.

Charles Stuart Parnell was a Protestant who argued for Catholic emancipation and is often included in Nationalist story telling, but his religion is often times left out. The other day in our History lecture we talked about how people like Parnell, Wolfe Tone and other founding members of Irish Republicanism were actually Protestant, and it is a shame that the conflict between Republican and Loyalist forces devolved into something that often times is tribal at best, and merely tit for tat sectarian murders have been the result of what was once a struggle for unity and freedom among the Irish population.

Our classroom is an old Georgian mansion on the North side which looks a bit out of place. It is across from housing projects, and South siders will often have a few jokes to tell about the neighborhood if you bring up Lower Dominick Street. There seems to be a friendly rivalry between the South and North siders in Dublin, and everyday my commute from the suburban area of Dundrum on the South side to the gritty area around Parnell Sq. on the North reminds me there is certainly more than one Dublin experience.

Today I took some time to read up on the recent agreement that just took place, between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party about the devolution of police in NI and the parades commission. If you are interested it is worth taking a look at.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0205/breaking2.html

The picture that goes along with this article is remarkable to see Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness standing next to First Minister Peter Robinson of the DUP. I say it is remarkable because McGuiness is the former Commander in Chief of the IRA and this picture demonstrates how a man can go, in just a few years, from plotting to take the lives of the opposition, to sitting down and engaging in political dialogue, and more importantly, getting results.