Together we Can | Belfast Peoples Assembly | State Murder in the Glens | Lucas

Together we Can Ireland’s Future is well named. Its landmark event last Saturday in Dublin was all about the future. Saturday’s conference was an ambitious project. Over thirty participants addressed 5,000 citizens. Ten political parties with five party leaders along with leaders from civic society and the Arts talking about their desire to achieve a united Ireland.  And music and dance as well. That’s a remarkable achievement.Belfast Peoples Assembly.If you want to continue the discussion on future constitutional change why not come along to Belfast’s  Waterfront Hall at 7pm on 12 October. Sinn Féin’s Commission on the Future of Ireland will launch the first of our Peoples’ Assemblies. The second one is on November 24 in the Mount Errigal Hotel in Letterkenny.State Murder in the GlensIt has long been my view that people need to tell their own stories and the stories of their communities. Historians often concentrate on the big events, the big stories and big leaders. These are important but usually the personal accounts of citizens and their individual experiences are ignored.LucasWe buried Óglach Frank Lucas Quigley last week. A very large funeral on a beautiful warm afternoon. There was tears and music – a fine piper and Bik on the feadóg. And  songs. Fra McCann was fear an tígh and Danny Morrison excelled himself with a wonderful oration which captured the essence, humanity, humour, bravery and history of Frank and his family especially Jimmy, another Óglach, killed  aged eighteen by the British Army  fifty years before on the very date of Frank’s funeral.