Monday, March 18, 2024

International Women’s Day: Two formidable Belfast Women: Macalla na mBan


International Women’s Day

Last Friday was International Women’s Day – a day when around the world humankind celebrates the work of women who are active in their communities, in trade unions, voluntary organisations, business, politics, their families and across every facet of our society.

It is also a time to reflect on the long history of struggle by women for equality and fairness. In many aspects of life today women remain second class citizens - in pay and employment rights, conditions of work, in access to education and health and in protection before the law. Hardly a week passes without evidence emerging of the extent to which women continue to face violence in the home, in the workplace and within communities. 

A fortnight ago the northern Assembly endorsed a motion calling on the Executive to urgently implement a strategy and framework to end violence against women and girls. During the debate it was revealed that since 2021 the North has the joint highest rate of femicide in Europe along with Romania. According to statistics from the PSNI between 2017 and 2022, “34 women and girls were killed by men. Many others faced other forms of violence, abuse and intimidation both within their own homes and the wider community.”

Calling for a whole of society approach to tackling this First Minister Michelle O’Neill said: “These women are not statistics, these women are our mothers, our sisters, our aunts, our daughters, our friends, our work colleagues, and they are us who have been speaking in this debate today. We must take action now to stop this violence and we must never forget those that have been killed.”

Last year almost 98% of women surveyed for a report into violence against women - ‘Every Voice Matters!’ Violence Against Women in Northern Ireland’, published by the Ulster University - revealed that that they had experienced at least one form of violence or abuse in their lifetime. 

A second report, published by Queens University - ‘It’s Just What Happens’: Girls’ and Young Women’s Views and Experiences of Violence in Northern Ireland’ found that 73% of girls aged 12-17 reported having experienced at least one form of violence in their lifetime.

 

Irish Republicans have long understood the connection between Irish freedom and equality, and women’s rights. From Ann Devlin to Anna Parnell, from Countess Markievicz to Máire Drumm, from Sheena Campbell to Mairead Farrell, whose anniversary was last week, there is an unbroken line of women who sacrificed all in the quest for freedom and equality and justice. 

 

I had the great privilege of knowing some of this generation of republican women activists. They were ordinary women, many little more than teenagers, who at a time of great crisis and challenge for our people came forward to stand against injustice and to give leadership.

 

At the end of this month Irish republicans will mark the 1916 Easter Rising. The Proclamation of the Republic recognises the rights of women. It opens by addressing Irish men and Irish women and guarantees not just ‘religious and civil liberty”; but also “equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens”. A century later the words of the Proclamation are as relevant as ever in the lives of women in Ireland. 

 

Much of women’s work today is undervalued and underpaid.  Irish women are still disproportionately concentrated in low-skill, low paid and part-time employment. Older women are more likely to live in social isolation. Traveller women face higher poverty, mortality and unemployment levels, and lower levels of educational attainment than their settled counterparts.  Internationally girls and women continue to face additional issues like female genital mutilation and arranged marriages.

 

In Gaza over 8,000 women and girls have been killed in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. Tens of thousands more have no access to health care or personal care because their health service has been destroyed. This is shameful.

 

Women on the island of Ireland and all over the world have won many battles for equality over the past century, but there are further battles ahead. The struggle for justice and equality and equal rights will continue.

 

Winifred Carney

Two formidable Belfast Women

On International Women’s Day history was made when two statues were unveiled at the front of Belfast City Hall to two formidable Irish republican women - Mary Anne McCracken and Winifred Carney. Despite the cold hundreds of people gathered for the ceremony to applaud these two fearless women and this important initiative by Belfast City Council. 

Winifred Carney was born in Bangor but was reared at 5 Falls Road. She qualified as one of the first lady secretaries and short hand typists in Belfast and was a strong advocate for the rights of women and a committed socialist. She worked closely with James Connolly and in 1913 she published Connolly’s, Manifesto of Irish Textile Workers’ Union – To the Linen Slaves of Belfast. 

Carney was also a member of the Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army. In 1916 she was the first women to enter the GPO during the Rising. She worked closely with Connolly in preparing dispatches. When the GPO was evacuated Carney was with the wounded Connolly as he was carried to number 16 Moore Street. There five of the signatories to the Proclamation held their last meeting as the Provisional Government. Julia Grenan, Winifred Carney and Elizabeth O’Farrell were present. 

Following the surrender Winifred Carney was imprisoned in England. In 1922 she was imprisoned in Armagh jail. 

In 1928 she married George McBride. He had fought in the First World War and was from the Shankill Road. They were both committed socialists although differed on the national issue and the Rising. Winifred Carney remained a committed trade unionist throughout her life. She died on 21 November 1943. Belfast Graves erected a headstone on her grave in Milltown Cemetery in 1985.

Mary Ann McCracken was born in Belfast in July 1870 to a wealthy Presbyterian family. She was a radical thinker, social reformer, who was implacably opposed to slavery and poverty, and an advocate for the rights of women. 

Her opposition to slavery was total. When Waddell Cunningham, a merchant, proposed in 1786 that the Belfast Slave Ship Company be established the scheme was vehemently opposed by those who later established the United Irish Society. This and Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and the French and American revolutions hugely influenced Mary Ann her brother Henry Joy and all of those who came to found the United Irish Society in Belfast in October 1791.

In July 1798 her brother Henry Joy McCracken was sentenced to be hanged for his part in the United Irish Rising. She was with him as he died. 

After the failure of the rebellion Mary Ann dedicated her life to many causes. The breadth of her interests and activism is remarkable. She helped provide education and apprenticeships for children through the Poor House Ladies Committee. In 1847 at the age of 77 she was one of those who established the “Ladies Industrial School for the Relief of Destitution” with the aim of helping those suffering as a result of An Gorta Mór. 

Her opposition was such that as a small frail woman she would hand out leaflets opposing slavery to those boarding vessels to sail to the USA. Frail in body she might have been but strong in heart and spirit she remained all of her days. Mary Ann McCracken died on the 26 July 1866 aged 96.

Two great women now immortalised in statues in front of Belfast City Hall. 

 

Macalla na mBan 

On Saturday evening as part of the events to mark International Women’s Day the garden in the Roddy McCorley Club in west Belfast was rededicated after major renovations. The garden was first opened in 2007. Carál Ní Chuilín gave the main address reminding those present of the sacrifice of republican women in the struggle for Irish freedom. I was asked to read my poem which I wrote in 2006 as a tribute to my friend and comrade Siobhan O’Hanlon.

 

Macalla na mBan

 

Streachailt na mbBan

Caoineadh na mBan

Fulaingt na mBan

Neart na mBan

Foighne na mBan

Fearg na mBan

Dóchas na mBan

Craic na mBan

Gáire na mBan

Cairdeas na mBan

Áthas na mBan

Grá na mBan

Todhchaí na mBan

Saoirse na mBan

Sunday, March 3, 2024

 



Roger Casement

I have spent many enjoyable afternoons in Casement Park watching countless football and hurling games and playing in some of them. I have lost count of my man of the match triumphs. Especially for St. Marys or Belfast Schools in hurling. Or on Sports Days. In the past the stand and terraces or raised mounds around the pitch provided a wonderful view of the contests. Some games attracted a few hundred spectators while others were watched by enthralled thousands. 

Casement Park was opened in June 1953 and was named after Roger Casement. He was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 who was hanged in London by the British in August that year. The people of Belfast, but especially the west of the City, raised over one hundred thousand pounds to construct Casement Park. 

For much of its 71 years Casement has been at the heart of the west Belfast community. At one point classes for primary school children were held under the stand. On the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966 a huge and colourful pageant was held in Casement to mark that historic moment in Irish history. For a time after Operation Motorman in 1972 it was occupied for more than a year by the British Army. Rallies in support of the hunger strikers were held there also.

For the last 8 years it has lain empty and silent as a legal battle was fought over planning permission for a new 34,000 seat stadium. That process is now at an end and last week the first steps were taken to allow construction work to begin. The decision by the Irish government to allocate €50 million toward the construction is a very welcome development. The hope is that the new Casement Park will rise phoenix-like within the next three to four years in time to host the Euros in 2028. 

These exciting new developments got me thinking about Roger Casement. Who was this Dublin man who found a home in North Antrim and wanted to be buried at Murlough Bay near Ballycastle? 

Casement was a member of an Ulster Protestant family, a Knight of the British Empire and a British diplomat. He was also a gaeilgeoir who loved the Glens of Antrim. He was proud to be Irish. He was a thinker who took many of the weightiest decisions of his life whilst pacing on Cushendall beach. He was resolute in his opposition to British rule in Ireland and his goal was a free, united and independent Ireland. 

Casement came to North Antrim after his mother died when he was nine. His father decided to bring the family back from England to live near relatives. His father died in Ballymena when Roger was 13. Roger remained in Ballymena, going to what later became Ballymena Academy. He moved to England at the age of 16 and eventually joined the civil service.

In 1903 he was asked by the British government to produce a report on the conditions in a region of the Congo controlled by the King Leopold of Belgium. Rubber and ivory were the main produces. Indigenous workers were being mercilessly exploited. Millions died from exhaustion, hunger and disease. Casement’s expose of the cruelty of Leopold’s activities created an international outcry which led to Leopold being stripped of his control of the Congo.

Later Casement was sent to South America where he investigated the use of slaves and the ill-treatment of local native people by a British rubber company. In 1911, for this work Casement was given a Knighthood by the British. However, his experience had also opened his eyes to colonialism. 

Two years later Casement helped establish the Irish Volunteers. He travelled to the USA to raise money for that organisation and was involved in the smuggling of German weapons into Howth in July 1914. Casement negotiated with the German government during the First World War for more guns and assistance for the planned rebellion. He was arrested by the British at Banna Strand in County Kerry in April 1916 three days before the Rising took place.

He was taken to London where he was initially held in the Tower of London. Casement was viewed by the English establishment as a traitor. He was tried for treason and hanged on August 3rd 1916. In his famous and powerful speech from the Dock Casement lambasted the English establishment. For England, he said … “there is only England; there is no Ireland; there is only the law of England, no right of Ireland; the liberty of Ireland and of an Irishman is to be judged by the power of England.”

Addressing the divisions created by English governments Casement said that Irish Republicans:  … “aimed at uniting all Irishmen in a natural and national bond of cohesion based on mutual self-respect. Our hope was a natural one, and if left to ourselves, not hard to accomplish. If external influences of disintegration would but leave us alone, we were sure that nature itself must bring us together.”

And on the right of the people of Ireland to independence and sovereignty Roger Casement told the court that condemned him to death that: “Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth, a thing no more to be doled out to us, or withheld from us, by another people than the right to life itself — than the right to feel the sun, or smell the flowers, or to love our kind. It is only from the convict these things are withheld, for crime committed and proven, and Ireland, that has wronged no man, has injured no land, that has sought no dominion over others — Ireland is being treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal.”

In a letter to his cousin Elizabeth ‘Eilis’ Bannister dated 25 July 1916 from Pentonville Prison Roger Casement wrote: “Don’t let my body lie here – get me back to the green hill by Murlough – by the McGarry’s house looking down on the Moyle – that’s where I’d like to be now and that’s where I’d like to lie.” In 1965 British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson agreed to the return of Casement but only to Dublin. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. The new Casement Park will be a fine tribute to a great patriot. Let’s get it built.

 

Starvation

There is now overwhelming evidence that the Israeli state has added a new weapon to its arsenal of genocide against the Palestinian people – hunger. The video and photographic images of starving children and desperate parents searching for food and water are heart rending. The UN says some 2.3 million people in Gaza are now on the brink of starvation.

Palestinian people have been filmed eating grass in northern Gaza as emaciated children carry bowls hoping for some food in southern Gaza. There are reports of babies dying from acute malnutrition.

We Irish have our memory of An Gorta Mór - The Great Hunger of 1845-52 - and of starving people eating grass. Some call it the Irish Famine but in a famine there is no food due to some natural catastrophe. In Ireland there was plenty of food. During those years the quaysides of Limerick were lined each day with abundant produce including pork, oats, eggs, sides of ham and beef––all bound for export. 

The reality and irony of this is appalling and was aptly described by George Bernard Shaw in his play “Man and Superman.” The character Malone says: ‘My father died of starvation in Ireland in the Black 47. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

Violet replies, ‘The Famine?’

‘No’, says Malone ‘the starvation. When a country is full of food and exporting it, there can be no famine.’

And so it is in the Gaza Strip. There is plenty of food waiting in food trucks. More will be sent but the Israeli state is deliberately blocking these. Starvation and hunger are now part of its strategy to kill Palestinians and drive them from their land. It cannot be allowed. Ceasefire now. We are all Palestinians.

Monday, February 26, 2024

Respect: A Window on the Past: Ceasefire Now

 






Respect

On Sunday last I spoke at the 40th Anniversary Commemoration of the killing by the SAS of IRA Volunteers Henry Hogan and Declan Martin in Dunloy County Antrim. Declan was 18. Henry was 20.

I was also the speaker at the funerals in February 1984. At that time hundreds of  RUC  and scores of landrovers surrounded Henry Hogans wake house and myself, Martin McGuinness, Danny Morisson and Owen Carron linked arms with other mourners to create a human barrier around the house and the funeral to shield them from the RUC. That is the way many republican funerals were conducted in those days.

It was part of a conspiracy between the NIO, the RUC, British Army and the Catholic Hierarchy to stop patriot dead being buried with the national flag as part of their criminalisation strategy.  It eventually failed as  a strategy not least because of the resolve of the families  involved, their neighbours and friends and local republican communities. 

Sundays event which drew a huge crowd, was part of a weekend of discussions, music and remembrance in Dunloy. It got me to thinking of how this effort to criminalise our patriot dead is still the focus nowadays of some anti-republican elements and some lazy journalists. One  of the questions most asked of newly elected First Minister Michelle O Neill is whether she will attend IRA commemorations. No questions to unionist representatives about their attendance at commemorative events. And neither should there be. 

I have no objection to them or  others commemorating their dead. This includes British soldiers, RUC or UDR officers and unionist paramilitaries. I said this in Dunloy on Sunday. Of course all acts of rememberance should  be conducted in a dignified and sensitive way. They should also be held only in places which are generally receptive tosuch events. No one should engage in provocative language or offensive behaviour. Respect should  be the watchword. 

Incidently there are no IRA commemorations. The IRA is gone. Republican commemorations are organised by groups like The National Graves Association or The National Commemoration Committee which is respnsible for 1916 events  or by local committees drawn from local communities, old comrades, families, Sinn Féin and others.  They are not about - and should not be about - being  provocative. We who have suffered in the conflict are not about glamourising or glorifying the war. We should be mindful always of the feeling of those who lost loved ones due to IRA actions. 

And others who often still describe republicans as terrororists need to ask themselves what is achieved by such offensive language. The war is over. The healing has begun for many people. This is for the good.  Leaders can help this by tempering their language. We will probably never agree on the past. But we can agree to disagree. There is no single narrative. Only by including all the narratives will a complete picture emerge of what happened and why it happened. Understanding that is part of being enabled to prevent it ever happening again. 

Of course it is not only elements of the British or unionist establishment who continue to insult republican communities or the families of republican patriot dead. The Dublin establishment also repeats  the same old story. Again and again. They dont do irony. Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin leads the chorus of ooh aah good old Ra of the 1920s while insulting the families of the bad old Ra of more recent times. 

Will he change his tune? Probably not. But we live in hope. Im not even arguing for him to do so. Lets keep our views of the past if that is all we can do but lets try to  articulate it differently. Im arguing for us to move into a new phase of our process of change. A phase of healing and shaping the future. The past is gone. Lets not repeat it.  Even rhetorically. 

Of course some victims cannot move on. Fair enough. Thats their entitlement. But others have and continue to do so. They are an example to the rest of us. Especially for those in political leadership. 

The leader of the DUP was once a member of the UDR, an organisation which the British Government had to disband. The leader of the UUP is a former British soldier. I have yet to hear a Sinn Féin representative cast up about any of that.

So lets reflect on how we  commemorate our dead. Republicans need to continue to do so in a fitting manner, in tune with current political conditions and with a mind to building an inclusive future. 

Others should join us in this endeavour. 

 

A Window on the Past

Ask almost everyone you know about the date when internment was introduced and the 9 August 1971 will be the popular answer. .

That was the day 342 men and boys were dragged from their homes in the early hours of the morning to be beaten, interrogated and interned. Fourteen were the victims of planned torture – the Hooded Men.

What is less well known is that August 1971 was not the first time internment was introduced in the most recent phase of conflict. I was reminded of this by my good friend and comrade Tom Hartley – noted historian and collector - who presented me with a photocopy of a page from the Irish Press – a Dublin based paper at the time – in which the names of 24 Republicans interned in Crumlin Road Prison was published on 22 August 1969.

Internment was a favoured weapon of the British and of the unionist regime at Stormont. It was also widely employed by Britain’s colonial administrations across  its colonies. It was used by the British after the Easter Rising and by the Free State government during the Civil War. In the North the unionist government used it in 1922-23; 1925; 1935; 1938-45; 1950-51; and 1957-61. 

In August 1969 unionist mobs led by B Specials and the RUC attacked nationalist parts of Belfast. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, thousands of families became refugees and … were killed. The Unionist regime sought to blame Republicans for these events. Even claiming to a disbelieving media that nationalist families had destroyed their own homes.

The Unionist Prime Minister Chichester-Clarke issued a public statement in which he claimed that: “Well-disciplined and ruthless men, working to an evident plan, attacked the police at a number of points in the city.” He described this as a “…a deliberate conspiracy to subvert a democratically-elected Government.” The aim was to blame the IRA not unionism and its street mobs for the instigation of violence. 

As British soldiers were being deployed on our streets the RUC raided homes and arrested two dozen Republicans. They were all interned under the notorious Special Powers Act. They included Prionsias MacAirt; Jimmie Hargey; John McGuigan;  J. McCann; Frank Campbell; Denis Cassidy; Denis Casson; M. Darity; J.J. Davey; Frank Donnelly; P. Duffy; R. Fitzpatrick; L. Johnston; D.J. Loy; H. Mallon;  P.J. McCusker; John McEldowney; F. McGlennon; Malachy McGurran; Liam McIlvenna; Billy McMillan; L. Savage; M. Toal and F. White. 

I sent  Deirdre Hargey MLA the clipping Tom sent me for her mother. In turn Deirdre  sent me an RUC photo of her father taken at his arrest.  So there you have. Another little example of the state we were in. 

Most of the 24 internees were released within weeks. Billy McMillan, Prionsias MacAirt and Malachy McGurran continued to be held. McMillan was eventually released in late September while Prionsias MacAirt and Malachy McGurran were held until the end of the year.

 

Ceasefire Now

The European Union’s Foreign Policy chief Joseph Borrell took issue with US President Joe Biden and his remarks that the Israeli state’s offensive against the Palestinian people had been excessive. “If you believe that too many people are being killed maybe you should provide less arms,” Mr. Borrell said…”If the international community believes  that this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe they have to think about the provision of arms.”

Mr. Borrell is right. The US administration along with Britain and other European powers are complicit in what Israeli state’s violations of international humanitarian law. It’s long since time for a ceasefire. The huge attendance at demonstrations across the world, including Ireland, shows there is popular support for an end to the genocide.  People want peace. The Palestinian people deserve peace. Ceasefire now.


An appeal for Information: Israel’s War Against Children: Moore St Raffle

 

An appeal for Information

In the 1970s the IRA shot dead and secretly buried a number of people. This is a terrible legacy of that period of our history.  The families of those killed have suffered a grievous injustice. Republicans, including the IRA, recognise and have acknowledged this fact. What happened was wrong and unjustifiable.

In the autumn of 1997 as part of the outworking of the peace process and following representations from Fr. Alec Reid and me the IRA established a special investigative unit to ascertain the whereabouts of these graves. Following that investigation the IRA said it  believed that the number of persons involved was nine. In April 1999 it issued a statement acknowledging this and naming those killed and buried by it.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains was established in the same month by the Irish and British governments. This followed representations from myself and Fr. Alec Reid. The hope at that time that the remains would be quickly recovered proved naïve.

One reason for this is that the IRA – as is widely acknowledged - had no institutional memory – no records to examine that would provide accurate information. It was entirely reliant on the memories of those who were involved. After so many years memories proved elusive in some cases, small numbers of people were involved and some had died in the interval. Geography and landscape too had changed making the pinpointing of locations challenging. And of course the IRA no longer exists.

After the first bodies were recovered there was then a significant gap. I discussed this with Fr. Alec Reid and we put a proposal to the governments in 2001 in which he urged them to employ experts in the recovery of remains. We also proposed the use of high-tech equipment and archaeological methods, including archaeological specialists, forensic experts, specialist scanning equipment and body dogs. We also suggested that ‘a recreation of the scene’ approach be adopted.

It took some years for this to materialise. The service of a forensic science investigative consultant was secured. Geoff Knupfer took up his position in 2005 and immediately carried out a review of the work up to that point.

Republicans immediately engaged with Mr. Knupfer and up to his retirement last year met with him on numerous occasions as the efforts to locate remains continued. In 2007 Mr. Knupfer acknowledged the co-operation he and his team received. 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."

Geoff Knupfer’s deputy Jon Hill, who has since taken over as lead investigator, reiterated this.  

The process to date has involved;

·        The use of aerial photographs, from military or commercial sources of the sites at the time of the killings.

·        Ordinance survey maps of this period.

·        Forestry records.

·        X Ray equipment.

·        Archaeological experts.

·        Records, maps, photos, reports of work already carried out on each site.

·        The appointment of a project manager with the power to make things happen.

It success can be seen in its results. According to its most recent account the Commission reported that seventeen people were killed and secretly buried. Seamus Ruddy was victim of the INLA and his remains were recovered in May 2017 and Seamus Maguire is believed to have been the victim of another republican group. The list does not include Lisa Dorrian who is believed to have been killed by the UVF and whose death after the Good Friday Agreement is outside the remit of the Commission. As a result of the work of the Commission and information provided to it by republican sources thirteen bodies have been recovered.

There are still three outstanding cases that were the responsibility of the IRA. These are Columba McVeigh; Robert Nairac and Joseph Lynskey. The failure thus far to find the remaining bodies is not due to any lack of resolve or cooperation by republicans.

All of these families have a fundamental right to bury their loved ones with dignity. I continue to meet with the Commission and I want to appeal again for anyone with information to bring that information forward. They can do so in complete confidence to me, or to the families involved or to the Commission. If they wish to speak to someone else that too is fine. What is important is that anyone with information makes that information available.

Finally, I want to commend all of the families who have campaigned with dignity for many years to locate the remains of their loved ones. I also want to acknowledge once again the grave injustice inflicted upon them and to express my deep regret about this. 
I want to thank everyone who has worked to help the families, including the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, An Garda Síochána and the experts and staff who have been brought in to assist in this work. They deserve our full support.

The killing and secret burial of people – has long been a brutal feature of war. In 2009 a report by a UN Working Group recorded a total of 53,232 cases from 1980 affecting 82 states.

According to historians Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc and Dr Andy Bielenberg in an article, ‘Shallow Graves—documenting and assessing IRA disappearances during the Irish revolution 1919–1923’ the IRA was responsible for killing and secretly burying approximately 110 people during that period.

No effort was made following the end of the civil war to establish any process by which these bodies could be recovered and returned to their families. We must continue our efforts to recover the remains of Columba McVeigh; Robert Nairac and Joseph Lynskey.

I would appeal to anyone with information to bring that forward. They can do so directly to the Commission on the basis of confidentiality. The confidential number for the Commission is 00800 – 55585500.

 

 

Israel’s War Against Children

The accounts of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people have produced many difficult and heart wrenching moments. The destruction of homes and schools and hospitals; the deliberate killing of over 30,000 children, women and men; the mass murder of health workers, journalists and civilians; the destruction of cemeteries; the premeditated shepherding of civilians into killing zones by Israeli forces, and so much more have shocked and appalled millions around the world. The Israeli state’s war on Gaza will be remembered for all this. It will also be forever remembered as Israel’s war against children.

 

Hind Rajab was aged 6. Look at the photo of this beautiful young child. No threat to anyone. She went missing on 29 January in Gaza City along with her Aunt and Uncle and cousins as they tried to flee in their car. She spoke by mobile to the Palestine Red Crescent. An audio recording of her last words were released by it. Her family had been killed by an Israeli Tank and she was alone in the car with the bodies around her.  

 

She was terrified. She pleaded for help. “Come take me. You will come and take me? … I’m so scared, please come. Please call someone to come and take me.” Desperately the Red Crescent sought clearance from the Israeli Army to send an ambulance. But contact was lost with that also.

 

At the weekend her decomposing body and those of her family were found in their bullet riddled car. The Ambulance was found parked nearby. It was destroyed and the two medics killed.

 

This is Israel’s war on children. Almost 12,000 children have been killed and many more lie buried under the rubble.

 

And with Israel marshalling its forces for an attack on Rafah - the largest displaced refugee camp in the world – the scene is being set for a humanitarian catastrophe not witnessed before.

 

Moore St Raffle

The Moore Street Preservation Trust are raffling a framed, limited edition Moore Street Print by renowned Irish Artist Robert Ballagh. 

Tickets are €10/£9 and the draw will take place on Easter Sunday. 

Get your tickets here: http://msptshop.myshopify.com/

Remember our history.  Support our campaign.  Stop the demolition of Moore Street.  Build a 1916 Cultural Quarter.

 

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