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Irish Times
11-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Taoiseach condemns effigy of refugees on loyalist bonfire and expresses concern about health risks
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has echoed condemnation by church leaders of the burning of effigies of migrants in a boat atop a loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland, but he has also expressed concern over the health risks of large bonfires in urban areas. Mr Martin said that he shared the sentiments expressed by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, John McDowell, over the installation of a boat with effigies of refugees on top of a huge bonfire in Moygashel near Dungannon in Co Tyrone. 'I was dismayed when I saw images of that bonfire with the boat carrying migrants – Archbishop McDowell made a strong comment on it and he's right – it's racist, threatening, and offensive and it's unchristian and lacking in any appreciation of human dignity. [ 'Isn't it brilliant' a mother says, photographing her children at the bonfire topped with an effigy of a migrant boat Opens in new window ] 'My most fundamental observation in terms of these bonfires is the public health and safety – from a public health perspective, bonfires do terrible damage. 'I find it incredible [that people are burning asbestos] because burning material like that would cause lung cancer. There was a casualness about that, as a former minister for health has quite shocked me because let's be honest, bonfires are bad for your health.' Mr Martin recalled how when he was growing up in Turner's Cross in Cork in the 1960s and 1970s, he and his friends used to search for tyres to throw on bonfires, but looking back with the benefit of health research, such an approach to bonfires was quite dangerous. 'I know it was a different era, and we were young but now, I just think lighting these bonfires with the scale and size of them in densely populated urban areas with a risk to people too if they fall, I just think it's all so unhealthy.' The Moygashel bonfire with the effigies of eight migrants in life jackets in a boat and signs reading 'Stop the boats' and 'Veterans before refugees' as well as an Irish Tricolour was set alight on Thursday night before a crowd of several hundred onlookers. The PSNI said earlier that they were investigating a hate incident in reference to the 50 pallet high pyre at Moygashel which was described by SDLP leader Claire Hanna as 'disgusting' and by local Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew as 'an incitement to hatred'. Amnesty International's Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said: 'It is just weeks since migrant families were forced to flee for their lives when their homes were attacked and set on fire – a chilling pattern of escalating hostility. 'The authorities must treat this as a hate crime, conduct a full investigation and ensure those responsible are held to account.' The Moygashel bonfire has become well known in recent years for contentious displays. Last year, a mock police car was burnt on the top of the bonfire and in 2023 a boat designed to represent the post-Brexit Irish Sea economic border was torched. Earlier this week, prominent loyalist activist Jamie Bryson said the bonfire was a form of 'artistic protest'. Northern Ireland's Minister for the Environment, Andrew Muir, has said that a separate bonfire in south Belfast should not be set alight. Fresh safety concerns have been raised over asbestos at the site of the fire, which is due to be lit on Friday night. Mr Muir pleaded with anyone who is set to attend the fire to 'exercise caution'. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) said late on Thursday that suspected asbestos had been found at five locations on the bonfire site and 20kg of material was removed. Controversy has surrounded the Belfast bonfire at Meridi Street off the Donegall Road which is also close to an electricity substation which powers two hospitals. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said on Thursday that the force would not agree to a request from Belfast City Council to remove the pyre. – Additional reporting PA
Irish Times
10-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
‘I'm not going to do anything that isn't possible to do together': peacemaker Lord Eames celebrates 50 years since consecration
Fifty years on from his arrival in Derry as the city's Church of Irelan d bishop, Robin Eames , has vivid memories of two things: the suffering of the city on Bloody Sunday and its aftermath, and being reunited with the man who would go on to become a lifelong friend, his Catholic counterpart, Bishop Edward Daly. 'I broke with tradition and made history because, without realising it was the first and only time it had happened, I invited him to my consecration and he walked beside me,' Lord Eames said. 'That friendship and that hope image of what we wanted to do together took me through all the years of my service here, and Edward and I became very close friends and we did lots of things which were never publicised, but I hope were for the good of the people of this place. 'We treated each other as men, as people, forgot about the fabric of office ... We acted together.' READ MORE Speaking following a service in St Columb's Cathedral in Derry to mark the 50th anniversary of his consecration as Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Lord Eames recalled going, at Bishop Daly's suggestion, 'into the Bogside all by myself and going from door to door simply saying look, 'I'm Robin Eames, the new Church of Ireland bishop, I just called to say hello, I'm glad to meet you.' 'It was there in one of those houses, when the door opened, and a hush fell over the conversation, and somebody walked through the door straight over to me with a hand outreached. 'He said simply, 'Welcome to Derry. I'm John Hume', and that was the meeting of two people who were to work together in the years to come.' In 1986, Lord Eames became Archbishop of Armagh and the head of the Church of Ireland; serving in this role from 1986 to 2006, he known for his work in peacebuilding and reconciliation, often, as in Derry, working in conjunction with his Catholic counterpart. He had been due to preach the sermon for Remembrance Day sermon in Enniskillen in 1987, a service that never took place. Eleven people died when an IRA bomb exploded at the town's cenotaph; Lord Eames spent the day in the hospital, and later wrote that the experiences of that day 'will never leave me.' As Church of Ireland primate he had a direct role in trying to resolve the Drumcree dispute of the mid-1990s, and in 1998 was an advocate for a 'yes' vote in the referendum on the Belfast Agreement . Throughout, his approach was inspired by his belief in human connections. 'It's what's always made sense to me in my ministry ... I have emphasised over and over again that I'm not going to do anything that isn't possible to do together. 'That's been the way of it, and I hope that's what people will remember when they bury me,' Lord Eames said. Following his retirement in 2006, Lord Eames became co-chair, along with Denis Bradley, of the Consultative Group on the Past, an independent group set up to examine how to deal with the legacy of the North's Troubles. Its recommendations included an independent commission to examine legacy cases over a five-year period, but it became embroiled in controversy after a plan for a £12,000 payment to victims' families was leaked, and its proposals were never adopted. 'That report, quite honestly, turned out to be before its time,' Lord Eames said. 'If there had been time before we published it, I think it might have had more effect. So much that has happened since could have been avoided ... But I don't regret one word of it.' To move forward, Ireland must 'look back on its past with humility' and acknowledge 'hurts have been inflicted on both sides'. 'If we can only have the humility to say yes, these things happened, but they've no part and place in our future,' he said. 'Let's learn from the past, let's learn from the mistakes. 'In Ireland we've so much going for us, so many opportunities, and if only we can be a generation that takes these opportunities, I believe the future is bright for us all.'
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
‘Humanity has lost its heart': Ireland's churches react forcefully to `abandoned' Gaza
Ireland's two main churches have reacted forcefully to the continuing suffering of the people of Gaza and have demanded action to end it. 'It appears that humanity has lost its heart,' the Catholic bishops have said. 'From all over Ireland, parishioners are reporting their horror and helplessness on seeing images of death and communal destruction in Gaza,' they said. In a joint statement, the two Church of Ireland archbishops said: 'It is with outrage that we watch the desperation, dislocation, and defenceless resident population of Gaza who feel they have been abandoned by the world.' Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell and Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough Michael Jackson said 'the international community must grasp reality and respond as never before. They can no longer stand by and watch the cruel starvation of innocent people.' READ MORE The Catholic bishops' statement noted how in Gaza, 'exhausted mothers can no longer nourish their young, children are dying of malnutrition, while aid lorries full of supplies are being refused entry into the territory, or are not safely arriving at their destination'. They said that 'to see the relentless bombardment of civilian areas, the deliberate withholding of food from the starving, as well as the callous holding of hostages, it appears that humanity has lost its heart'. The Church of Ireland archbishops said the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, owned and run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, has reopened after being bombed on Palm Sunday. Its 'resilient' and 'courageous staff' are now 'operating in a tent' and 'treating the injured and sick as best they can, in what is by anyone's reckoning a living wasteland'. They pledged 'our continuing support' for them. [ Destruction of Gaza hospital supported by Dublin diocese 'an outrage', says senior Irish cleric Opens in new window ] The Catholic bishops called 'on all Catholics' to make the first Friday, June 6th, a day of prayer and fasting in solidarity with people in the Holy Land. They invited everyone to pray throughout June 'for the renewal of heart that our world so desperately needs'. Archbishops McDowell and Jackson called for an 'immediate ceasefire' in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and the 'influx of every kind of appropriate aid to alleviate starvation, injury and lack of shelter'. They acknowledged many 'feel hopeless and powerless to change what is happening in Gaza'. 'We pray that all those in positions of power globally will stand up and demand an end to this cruelty and seek the reinstitution of international law.'
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Swift Blaze of Fire by Lin Rose Clark: Engaging account of Irish Olympian killed fighting for republican Spain
Olympian, Cleric, Brigadista: the Enigmatic Life of Robert Hilliard Author : Lin Rose Clark ISBN-13 : 9781843519218 Publisher : Lilliput Press Guideline Price : €18.95 'Bob Hilliard was a Church of Ireland pastor, from Killarney across the Pyrenees he came…" Most people who have heard of Robert Hilliard know him from Christy Moore's song lauding the Irish who fought for republican Spain . Thirty-two years of age when he was fatally wounded at Jarama in February 1937, Hilliard had been a journalist, an Anglican cleric, an Olympic boxer and was the father of four young children. Lin Rose Clark is Hilliard's granddaughter. In this wonderful, engaging narrative she rebuilds a fascinating and complex life which spanned several diverse worlds. Christy Moore called the Irish Brigadistas a 'comradeship of heroes', but if Hilliard's deeds in Spain were heroic, he was also a flawed human being. The 'crushing betrayal' of leaving his wife Rosemary and four children haunted the family. While remembered by his comrades in Spain for his 'sense of humour and consistently cheerful attitude', Hilliard was not always an attractive personality. He was a heavy drinker for a period, a gambler and capable of cruelty towards his wife. READ MORE Clark tries to disentangle family lore from fact and to rebuild the lost worlds of his life. From a comfortable middle-class Protestant background in Kerry, Hilliard was a student at a still-unionist Trinity in the 1920s. But there he played hurling, boxed (he represented Ireland at the 1924 Olympics) and experimented with new ideas. [ The Last Ditch by Eamonn Sweeney: Brave admissions about mental health struggles hit hard in follow-up Opens in new window ] [ Ghost Wedding by David Park: Compelling novel bleeds past and present in tale of secrets and division Opens in new window ] He dropped out and an unsuccessful period as a journalist in London, which coincided with his marriage, left him on the brink of alcoholism. Redemption came through immersion in religion, his becoming an adherent of the Christian Oxford Group (involving a 'complete personal surrender' to God) and then studying to become an Anglican priest. Hilliard's path to communism and Spain was not straightforward, then. Clark shows how living in Belfast and London, the impact of the Depression and the rise of Nazism all profoundly affected him. She conveys this story without romanticism, mindful of the human cost to Hilliard's family of his political choices. In her epilogue, the author tells of her mother, Deirdre, finding a postcard to Rosemary that implored her to 'teach the kids to stand for democracy. Unless fascism is beaten… it means hell and war for our kids". Amen to that.
