New publication pending on the Guild of Uriel

I have just finished writing a booklet on the Guild of Uriel. It is a fascinating group. They arranged meetings outside the glare of publicity between the different sides of the socio-political-religious divide in Northern Ireland, often getting enemies into the same room at the same time to…dialogue. They invited guest speakers and organizations to meet with them. They didn’t judge anyone. Even when the IRA ceasefire broke down, they kept up their quiet, invaluable work. Some criticized them for talking to the political wing of the IRA – Sinn Fein – but they met them nevertheless, convinced that to resolve conflict you have to talk to everyone. Roy Garland was the inspiration behind the Guild. He is a unionist yet he realized the interconnectedness between everyone in Ireland. He discovered his own roots through an examination of the Anglo-Norman history of his family. The truth is, so often, far more complex than the unionist versus nationalist debate that the conflict was so often conceived as. The booklet is being read now by Roy and by Julitta Clancy, both long-time chairs of the Guild. Julitta is well known for her work in the Meath Peace Group and she was awarded an OBE for her work for peace and reconciliation between the peoples of the two islands that constitute Ireland and Great Britain.

Cowen and Fianna Fail in Denial

We deserve the leaders we get. If Fianna Fail vote confidence in Brian Cowen tonight, its opponents will be delighted and FiannaFail will not deserve to survive. Period. Listening to Cowen, the subtext to his every utterance is ‘denial’. How anyone with an ounce of sense could believe that Cowen is the best man for the job beggars belief. And he tells Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 just now that the way he handled the IMF bailout was grand. Even though his stooges Ministers Dermot Ahern and Noel Dempsey were haplessly televised together shaking their head denying the IMF were about to move in one week before the IMF bailout. Well might Dempsey and Ahern grab their pensions and run. Neither would be re-elected. But if FF vote Cowen back in tonight, voting confidence in their ‘leader’ who has led Ireland to such ignominy and distress (denied by Cowen, of course), then FF deserves to go the way of tyrannosaurus rex. Voting for Cowen tonight is nothing other than lemmings sauntering over cliffs and turkeys voting for Christmas. If they do so, they cannot blame Cowen for their demise but themselves. Will De Valera turn in his grave if Sinn Fein leads the Opposition in the next Dail ahead of the rump of FF?