Yesterday morning I travelled over the invisible border to Derry.
Perhaps in the near future, the line on the map will have a much greater physical presence than it does at present.
Of course, I hope not, but like the rest of the folk here I’m powerless to prevent what will happen.
Quite often history is what happens to wee people when the powerful need something done.
They have a name for it when those roles are reversed:
Revolution.
I tried to have happy thoughts as I arrived next to the Guildhall although my final destination was up in the Creggan.
As a rule, I’m fond of book launches.
I know what it takes to get a title out there and people should acknowledge that.
However, this one was a bit special, both in terms of subject matter and the person whose name was on the cover.
I’ve always been drawn to anthologies for the simple reason is that you get a lot of different voices in one book.
In time I will do a full review of this book.
I’ve dipped into it and I already know that it deserves to be widely read.
It is edited by Danny Morrison who is in a unique position to have an overview of those events and their long term significance.
Full disclosure, I first bumped into Dan a long long time ago and I’m proud to call him a friend.
If you haven’t already then I cannot recommend his novels West Belfast and The Wrong Man highly enough.
Moreover, he travelled from Béal Feirste to Baile Áth Cliath last year to be at the launch of The Squad.
So I owed him one.
Because I was waiting for Lorenzo to give sean Dún na nGall a slap I took the bus to Derry instead of driving.
Taking public transport out of the county usually means I’m either heading to Dublin or Glasgow.
I put the earphones in and mind my own business.
This time I had the observations of American writer Bonnie Greer bouncing around my head as the bus entered Brandywell.
The previous night she had stated some basic truths for the folks in Britain about this island and how the USA and Ireland are connected.
Her contribution went viral and this surprised the American.
She had laid out her thesis in this piece back in February.
You can read it here.
None of this is new or contentious here in Ireland.
However, in Britain, it appears to be bizarre and unsettling.
As I thought about the reaction to her contribution there seemed to be synchronicity at work.
The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) took much from the events across the Pond in the 1960s.
It has often been said that NICRA owed more to Doctor King and Rosa Parks than to Pearse and Tone.
Sadly, the good ol boys in the RUC thought, just like their Scots Irish kith and kin in Alabama, that they could batter the Taigs back into their ghettoes.
Passive resistance in the Six Counties naturally morphed into armed struggle.
At the launch, Danny stated that the state that he was born into no longer existed.
He also pointed out that the British thought that they could win the war in the prisons.
Their reasoning was Kitsonian:
Breaking the prisoners in the jails would lead to the defeat of the IRA on the outside.
When Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone the criminalisation policy of the British securocrats was in tatters.
However, Thatcher’s intransigence meant that tragedy was not averted.
Danny was introduced to the audience at the book launch by Raymond McCartney.
Raymond took part in the 1980 Hunger strike in Long Kesh to secure political status.
Danny mentioned the curveball of Brexit during his talk and I thought we might all be in the back of a modified Belfast built DeLorean.
No one in the room wanted to be extras in Back To The Troubles.
However, that isn’t in the gift of ordinary people of Ireland.
The sublime ignorance of the British political elite to the realities on the ground in this island is a story that is centuries old.
Another strand in the same narrative is major events in Britain and continental Europe having unforeseen and long-lasting consequences here in Ireland.
Brexit feels like that.
Today I’m back in my corner of this border county wondering whether or not I will have to navigate Checkpoint Boris in the future.
Therefore, Bonnie Greer’s historically grounded observations on Question Time was indeed timely.
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The only surprise to the statements made by Ms Greer on question time is the continued belief within the audience, that there is something called a “special relationship” between the UK and USA. What is needed to explode this myth is an ending of the brainwashing of the chattering class Brits, by the conservative elites on both sides of the pond, that such a thing exists. The only “special relationship” that exists is the one that further lines the pockets of those that peddle the myth.
It is absolutely no surprise to hear Ms Greer state that “America is Irish”. Not strictly true, but the majority of American people will always side with a country/people struggling to free themselves from historic colonial control, much as their history teaches them they did in 1776. After all it is the “land of the free”
I don’t know what the solution is to the border issue. I did hear another commentator reflect, earlier last week, that the UK politico’s are trying to engineer a Frankenstein solution that will never work, because in NI, you are either Orange or Green. And these 2 can never be reconciled. A solution can only be achieved when the hard core from one of these groups is eventually thrown under the bus. And that is not going to happen peacefully. Unfortunately.
I smiled when I saw how stunned and taken aback the audience were after Greer’s remarks on Thursday night. ”The truth hurts” might be the correct adage here. HH
Ask Bonnie about the 1919 race riots in Chicago, then the rivers ran red not green.
Chicago riots and Mayor Daly 1919.
Mad Boris and his lap dogs in the cabinet (Nikki Morgan) especially are so far down the line it’s impossible for them to change their minds now . They would look weak to backtrack now . And so now it’s a one way ticket to chaos no turning back . Had they not committed themselves to full on withdrawal from the EU by 31st October they would have compromised by . Now as for Nikki Morgan she was quoted on camera in an interview a few months back that she could not serve in a Boris Johnson cabinet it would be impossible. Roll on a few months later she is offered the chance to double her salary with a cabinet post from Boris and she grand it with both hands and is now telling us Boris is the best thing since sliced bread oh dear . Doubled standards goes nowhere near it . She sold her sole to the devil after denying she would how could you possibly trust this woman. And the exact same thing comes to mind when I hear and see that witch Arlene Foster what an eyesore that so called woman is .
I read the book sometime ago Phil. Is it new reflections on 1981 or a relaunch?
It is a new edition. New chapters included.
I liked that invisible border last time I was heading to Donegal, first stop for cheap fuel for the diesel monster.
Thank you for this. Powerful comment on the madness, and badness, of Brexit. And always good to have pointers towards further reading on subjects of interest – today you give several. May I suggest to yourself The Lewis Land Struggle by Joni Buchanan.
Looking forward to your next novel, having thoroughly enjoyed The Squad. Moran taing
Phil, is this the book where Tony Benn gets a chapter to himself. What right does someone like him-whose party removed political status from the POWs in the first place-get to reflect on the 1981 H/S. Hail Hail.