Respect | Window on the Past | Ceasefire Now

RespectOn 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.A Window on the PastAsk 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.Ceasefire NowThe 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.”