Spelade
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The big spin from last week and the formation of the new government in Dublin is that civil war politics is dead and gone.
But the truth is that for most career politicians they have been dead for decades. What we now have from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is the same old, same old – with the Green party propping it up. But there is one new significant historical difference.
As Micheál Martin takes his place as Taoiseach, and Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party occupy the government benches, they will be faced by an opposition led by Sinn Fein. Mary Lou McDonald TD is now the Leader of the Opposition.
This is the first time that position will be held by a woman. It is also the first time since 1927 that the main opposition party is not from Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. And of course it is the first time that Sinn Féin have held that position. -
You only die once.You live everyday.
I first met Martin McGuinness shortly before he & I travelled to London in 1972 as part of a delegation to negotiate with the British govt. Martin would have been seventy on the 23 of May. He lived a very full life & he lived it well. There was a wonderful online celebration organised by The Martin McGuinness Peace Foundation (its available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc1L_ajK3UA )
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Last week the British Supreme Court quashed two convictions I had received in 1975 for attempting to escape from Long Kesh internment camp. It was a long ten year battle. The case also revealed the fact that the British government at the highest level knew that I was unlawfully interned before the two trials. They also knew that up to 200 other internees were also likely to have been unlawfully detained. In typical fashion the British government chose to allow my trials to take place and never informed any of the internees that they too were wrongfully imprisoned.
Escapes and escape attempts from British and Irish prisons have long been part of the Irish experience.In the most recent period of conflict it is estimated that at least 100 republican POWs escaped from British prisons. Republican political prisoners see it as their duty to try and escape and return to the struggle.In this podcast I thought I would tell you of my first escape attempt on Christmas Eve 1973.
