Take A Bow Fianna Fáil/Green & Fine Gael/Labour Governments

Irish Times
14/11/2013

There are children in Dublin schools so hungry they cannot learn while some university students “don’t have decent nourishment” either, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.

It was “not exaggeration to say... the demand of people for simple wholesome food for themselves and their children is not being met” in Dublin, he said. He was “talking about large numbers of people”.

“Despite our current economic situation Ireland is still a very wealthy country and one of the temptations of the wealthy is not to see the extent of the poverty that’s there. It’s not bad will, it’s a sort of a natural mechanism that’s in people,” he said.

Archbishop Martin was speaking in Dublin’s Pro Catherdal at a Mass marking the feast of St Laurence O’Toole, where he launched his first appeal for food since becoming Archbishop of Dublin in 2004.

He appealed for non-perishable foods such as pasta, rice, fruit juice, tea,coffee, soup, sugar, powdered milk, tinned meat or fish, tinned vegetables or fruit, packaged desserts, biscuits, and hygiene products to be donated to collection points in each of the archdiocese’s 199 parishes over coming weeks. These will be collected and distributed by Crosscare every Monday and Tuesday

He also appealed to businesses “which have disposable food to join in this”.

Later a Crosscare spokeswoman told The Irish Times it received food fromTesco and Lidl, while Supervalu was “coming on board”. However they received “nothing” from Dunnes Stores, who had told them food donation “was not their policy”, she said.

This Diocesan-Crosscare Food Appeal will continue through Advent until Christmas at least. Crosscare is the social care agency of the Dublin archdiocese and supplies food directly to people in the greater Dublin area who need it, as well as through 10 charities including the Vincent de Paul.

At the Mass this morning Archbishop Martin said for the past number of months the Crosscare Food Bank “has not been able to keep up with demand for food from people in need all over Dublin. Last year, they gave out 500 tonnes of food. So far this year they have needed 750 tonnes.”

Speaking to media afterwards about children going to school hungry he said “I hear this all over the place, children up to university students. Some people would say that the level of nutrition of some children is so low that it’s effecting their ability to learn.”

He continued “we hope as we exit this period that things will change but it’s very harsh and it won’t change overnight. New burdens are on people with children. I know from the area of sick children as well. Let’s hope that this time next year it’s different but we have to respond today to this.”

About students he said “the university chaplains tell me that they have young people coming from fairly wealthy background (who) just don’t have a decent nourishment.”

Involved were “families that this time last year would not have been in this position. There’s a great precariousness there and nobody would expect to drop into that situation. That is a reality.”

On a visit to Crosscare this morning he was told “they could open two or three new centres tomorrow” and “not necessarily in expected parts of the city” but that “they just can’t do it because the food isn’t there”.

“Down there this morning the shelves are empty. There’s a large freezer room which would normally be stocked up and that’s not happening… it’s so sad when we waste so much food.”

“One of the things that is very, very dear to Pope Francis, he detests waste. I’m told for example that if he were at a table with a group and there was food left over, he’d get up and bring it to another table because he knew otherwise it would be thrown out.”

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Clúid Housing Association And Longford County Council Show What Can Be Done

TheJournal.ie

14/11/2013

‘Irredeemable neighbourhood’ now an example of regeneration

Thirty-seven new homes on St Michael’s Road in Longford Town were opened today.

A MAJOR REGENERATION project in Longford has been hailed as a shining example of how housing authorities should work with not-for-profit organisations.

Housing and Planning Minister Jan O’Sullivan visited St Michael’s Road in the town this afternoon to officially open 37 new homes in the recently revamped area.

Before Longford County Council and Clúid Housing Association stepped in, 70 per cent of the properties on the road were boarded up or derelict and many older residents lived in tiny, damp houses.

Others told of sleeping in their living rooms because of dangerous stairs.

During the renovations, some units were amalgamated, turning 58 very small two-bedroom houses into 37 refurbished dwellings.

Houses are now heated using gas-fired condenser boilers and solid fuel stoves. High levels of insulation were also introduced, giving the units good energy ratings.

Illegal dumping became a major issue as litter piled up to the second floor windows outside a number of properties.

The surrounding lanes also brought problems as they became breeding grounds for anti-social behaviour and drug-dealing. Residents also became detached from surrounding communities because the only access points to neighbouring estates were these dark, unsafe alleyways.

During the works, the laneways were cleared and minimised and a new connection road was built in the heart of the area.

A neigbourhood once described as “irredeemable” has been transformed and the public-nonprofit partnership responsible praised as “an exemplar to many other housing associations and local authorities across the country”.

O’Sullivan noted that the not-for-profit Clúid Housing Association had created a sustainable community thanks to its understanding of marginalised communities and the need for a social element of regeneration.

According to the Labour TD, the community is now socially, environmentally, physically and financially secure.

The organisation is keen to work with other local authorities to “bring the irredeemable back to life”, says manager Fiona Cormican, who believes there are about 22 estates in dire need of regeneration across the country.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community

Where England Goes Might Ireland Follow??

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Kids too annoying? UK bill seeks to criminalize children’s ‘nuisance’

RT News

Published time: November 12, 2013 17:42

The UK government is moving towards passing legislation which could criminalize behavior deemed capable of causing a “nuisance or annoyance.” The bill has already passed through its second hearing in the House of Lords and looks set to become law.

The Anti-Social Behavior, Crime and Policing Bill will grant powers to police, local authorities, and even private security firms to restrict any activity deemed to have a “detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality.”

“Essentially what they’re attempting to do is give police the authority to make any lawful protest immediately illegal, simply because it “may, has, or is likely to cause nuisance or annoyance,” Kerry-Anne Mendoza, a campaigner against the Anti-Social Behavior Bill told RT. 

The bill purports to “streamline” the governmental “toolkit” against disorderly conduct, by replacing nineteen of the powers with six new ones, such as enabling the arrest of intentional and persistent beggars and the “police dispersal power to direct people away from an area in order to prevent anti-social behavior.”

One of the schemes the bill encompasses is the IPNA (Injunction to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) - a replacement for the Anti-Social Behavior Orders (ASBOs) which have fallen under repeated criticism since their introduction in 1998. One man from Loch Ness named Stuart Hunt has faced court proceedings 2,100 times since 2007 for breaching an ASBO placed upon him for slow-hand clapping, laughing, and staring.

A 13 year old has been banned from using the word ‘grass’ in England or Wales, and an 87 year old was allocated an ASBO, threatening him with a prison sentence if he was sarcastic to his neighbors.

The IPNA, on the other hand, means that people charged could be subject to up to two years imprisonment or an unlimited fine for people over the age of 18. Council would as well no longer seek Criminal Behaviour Orders at local Magistrates’ Courts. Instead the High Court, County Court and Youth Court would handle the IPNAs.

While the ASBO was targeted at cracking down on behavior considered as causing “harassment, alarm or distress,” the IPNA replacement will target conduct “capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person.”

The potential measures have already been condemned for their ambiguity and broad-reach, while having minimal checks and balances to protect civilians.

“It allows police to bar people from what they call a ‘locality’ and ‘locality’ hasn’t been defined, it could be a city, a county, a country….nobody really knows,” said Mendoza.

Jacqui Cheer, the chief constable of Cleveland Police has also criticized the potential new law, stating on Tuesday that “What’s antisocial to one person is just what I did and what many young people do.” Cheer made the comments while speaking to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children.

“We are here to protect everybody. But we need to be careful where the line is,” she added.

The bill underwent its second hearing in the House of Lords last week and is expected to be enshrined in law by Christmas.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick - Serving The Community

Léargas By Gerry Adams

Sunday, November 10, 2013

The past cannot be an obstacle to the future

Friday - November 8^th was the anniversary of the 1987 Enniskillen bomb attack in which 11 people were killed in an IRA bomb attack. Just before I left Belfast to travel to the USA I was interviewed for a documentary on the Ballymurphy Massacre in August 1971 in which 11 people were killed by the British Parachute Regiment.

Last week also saw the broadcasting of the Disappeared and details emerged of British Army tapes which may have filmed the sectarian killing by the UVF of 76 year old Roseanne Mallon in county Tyrone in May 1994. The inquest into Roseanne Mallon’s death is one of 29 which have been deliberately delayed for decades.

There were also the anniversaries of the Shankill Bomb and the Greysteel Massacre and other killings. The Pat Finucane Centre’s case worker Anne Cadwallader published her book, ‘Lethal Allies: British State Collusion in Ireland’ which details the involvement of British state forces operating in collusion in the murder of approximately 120 citizens in the 1970s. And there are many more families who have lost loved ones in other violent actions seeking truth.

The pain, the suffering and the tragedies from decades of conflict are, for many, as real today as they were, when they first occurred.   Each occasion of anniversary evokes painful memories. And each such occasion is a reminder of the need to address the past as part of the work of building a peaceful future.

Almost 4000 people died and countless others were injured in a war that was vicious and brutal.

Over the years I have attended many wakes and funerals of family members, friends and neighbours. I have met many victims, including victims of the IRA, and among them the families of those secretly buried by that organisation. Their story is one of the great tragedies of the conflict. What happened was wrong and unjustifiable. The IRA acknowledged this and apologised.

The grief of all of the victims of the conflict must be respected and acknowledged and all of us in political leadership have a responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that no future generation suffers the pain of war.

Regrettably, there are some in the political system and in sections of the media who see the issue of the past as an opportunity to attack Sinn Féin or more particularly me. An example of this occurred in the Dáil last Tuesday. A Fianna Fail TD Brendan Smith, speaking on the issue of those secretly buried by the IRA, that: “The IRA still refuse to accept responsibility for the murders and legitimate questions are not answered by Gerry Adams and others.”

None of this is true. The Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin knows this. He was a senior member of the government which established the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains at my request.

As a republican leader I have never shirked my responsibility on this issue. It was following representations by me that the IRA established a special unit in the autumn of 1997 to ascertain the whereabouts of the graves of a number of people executed and buried by it in the 1970’s. I have met the families of those affected by this. I have worked with the Commission and I will continue to do so. It has done tremendous work.

I participated in the programme to raise awareness and assist the search for the remaining bodies. That has been my focus for many years and I intend to honour the commitment I gave to the families to continue with my efforts.

The special forensics team, working to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, was established as a result of a proposal from Father Alec Reid and myself.

The forensic science consultant Geoff Knupfer, who leads the forensic team for the Commission, acknowledged several years ago the co-operation they received from the IRA. He said: "In a spirit of co-operation and reconciliation they [the IRA] are trying to help in every way they can. I am absolutely convinced that they are doing everything they can to assist. The support we have had from them has been absolutely 100 per cent from day one."

As a result of the work of the last 12 years nine bodies have been recovered and the sites of four of the six remaining bodies have been identified. The failure thus far to find the remaining bodies is not due to any lack of resolve or cooperation by me or other republicans.

Ranting about me is easy for those who rely on gossip, smear, their own imagination and the accusations of political enemies, but it will not help the families. Nor will resolving this injustice and recovering the bodies be assisted by political point scoring, felon setting or snide ill-informed newspaper articles. What is needed is information.  

I therefore appeal again for anyone with any information, including anyone who was previously in touch with the Commission to contact them again on the basis of absolute confidentiality, in order to assist the Commission in reassessing the information available to it.

Any information passed to the Commission cannot be used in a court of law or transmitted to any other agency and those passing on this information have absolute immunity in relation to this information.

Unfortunately the issue of the past, and of truth and reconciliation has not made the progress it should have since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved.

Sinn Féin has proposed an independent international based process to deal with the past including all these issues. The fact is that none of the participants to the conflict can be responsible for creating such a process. However, thus far the British government refuses to agree on any mechanism that can deal with this issue and the Irish government and others have made no real effort to establish a viable truth recovery process. This is not acceptable.

The past cannot be an obstacle to dealing with the present or a pretext for refusing to build a new future of equality, fairness and prosperity for everyone. And while republicans recognise the complexity and difficulties which confront us all in dealing with this issue we are in no way daunted by it.  Nor should anyone be.

It is necessary that in coming to the issue of truth and reconciliation that we all recognise that there are many different narratives to this story. We live in a divided and largely segregated society with different, and, in some instances, contradictory and opposite political allegiances. Little wonder that there are different perspectives on the causes of the  conflict, what happened and who was responsible.

The role and actions of all combatant organisations must be fully considered, including government, state agencies and the legal and judicial system.

And paramount in all of this must be the views of the victims and survivors. Their voices must be heard and respected, not simply the loudest voices, not simply those on any particular side or those on no side. All victims must be treated on an equal basis. The views of the many thousand victims and survivors who have remained silent must also be heard.   

So despite the personalised attacks  on me Sinn Fein  will not be deflected from campaigning for  a truth and reconciliation process that can bring closure for families bereaved by the cruelty of war.

Sinn Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community