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by Sean Mc Aughey
Sean Mc Aughey is a former University of Ulster Student's union President and has worked in public relations.
He is now a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to the Blanket, which describes itself as “a journal of protest and dissent”.
His material is published unedited on this page.
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At Least 32% of U.S. Mass Shooters Trained to Shoot by U.S. Military
10 May 2023; posted by the editor - General, Features, International, United States

By David Swanson
It’s been two years since I wrote on this topic. At that time, at least 36% of U.S. mass shooters had been trained by the U.S. military. Since then, a grand total of nobody at all has written on the topic.

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Tags: mass shootings, David Swanson, United States

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Does the European Union deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? printable version

30 Oct 2012: posted by the editor - Features, International

By Ben Hayes
It’s easy, with the benefit of hindsight, to ridicule the awarding of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barrack ‘Drone Wars’ Obama. But let’s give the Nobel Committee the benefit of the doubt and accept that they were simply rewarding Obama’s inspiring oratory—ridding the world of nuclear weapons, repairing US relations with the Middle East etc.—with deserved political support.

Like many of us, they clearly did not envisage the new Commander-in-Chief presiding over a weekly ‘kill list’ or continuing almost all of his predecessor’s foreign policies. History has already passed judgement on their folly. But if Obama’s award was hopelessly premature, the EU’s is ridiculously late. Not in the sense of being long overdue, but in the sense of no longer deserving it.

Many people stopped taking the Nobel Peace Prize seriously long ago. Awards for the likes of Henry Kissinger (who actively supported coups against democratically elected leftist governments) saw to that. But among those who do still acknowledge who wins, the simple premise that thanks to the EU there have been no wars between its members appears to provide solid ground for rewarding “six decades” of “peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”. Those who share my own exasperation, I suspect, are in the minority. Many are clearly perplexed, even downright angry, at the timing of the award, which comes as the EU’s commitment to democracy and human rights has never looked so shaky: the straight-jackets of austerity and technocratic government, and the routine repression of protests on Europe’s streets. Yet it is precisely these “grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest” that inspired the Nobel Committee to select the EU for the prize in the first place. The rationale is that the EU’s future has never looked so uncertain, so let’s remind everyone what a great idea it was, and what a disaster it will be if the wheels start coming off the project.

We should not be fooled into blindly supporting an entity whose flagship policies and founding principles have long since parted company, and we should demand better from those entrusted with Alfred Nobel’s legacy.

Credit where it’s due?
This year’s Nobel Prize consolidates the popular myth, perpetuated by many a ‘European Studies’ textbook, that European integration ‘began’ with the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. Tied to this myth is the widely held belief that this economic union alone prevented further Franco-German wars in Europe—as if their people would have simply forgotten the deaths of 60 million people and defaulted to rearmament and war. But let’s accept that early economic integration certainly helped, while recognising that there were other factors besides.

Two years before France, Italy, West Germany and the Benelux countries put pen to paper to agree a common market for coal and steel, for example, larger clubs of nations were also thinking about how to prevent a repeat of the horrors of WWII. Ten states formed the Council of Europe in 1949 and a year later adopted the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) with the explicit aim of giving legal force to the Universal Declaration that had just been adopted by the United Nations, a text itself designed specifically to prevent another Holocaust. If the Nobel Committee wanted to acknowledge the enduring contribution to human rights of early European integration, the prize should go to the Council of Europe (which remains an entirely separate entity to the EU).

The Nobel Committee also credited the democratic transition of the countries in Western Europe that experienced fascism after World War II to the “condition for their membership”. It may be splitting hairs to point out that the EU did not yet exist (it was still just an economic community) but it is airbrushing of the highest order to overlook people’s heroic resistance to Franco, Salazar and the Colonels in Spain, Portugal and Greece, never mind their own democratic will. Nor, of course, did the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe escape the shackles of the USSR just so they could join the EU—it was simply the only show in town. Any misty-eyed vision of the EU as a bastion of anti-fascism also conveniently overlooks the preferential trade deal the then European Economic Community signed with Franco’s Spain in 1970, as well as the tacit support given to the Colonels by the UK and West Germany at the behest of the USA.

But let’s not dwell on the substantial contribution made to ‘European integration’ by the often dirty politics of US-led anti-communism either, and instead examine the EU’s contribution to human rights, peace and democracy since the Maastricht Treaty entered into force in November 1993. This created the three ‘pillars’ of the EU that we recognised until the Lisbon Treaty integrated them into the superstructure we are left with today: that is economics, defence and security, and justice and home affairs.

Little needs to be said here about the current state of the EU’s ‘first pillar’ and the consequences of rampant neoliberalism underpinned by a single currency. As to the EU’s ‘second pillar’, security and defence, there has been one ‘conventional’ war in Europe since WWII: the bloodbath in the Balkans. In terms of peace and reconciliation, however, the EU’s role has been minimal. It was the UN who deployed peacekeepers to a disintegrating Yugoslavia in 1991, NATO’s bombs which ‘liberated’ Kosovo in 1999 (levelling much of Serbia in the process), and the UN which ‘administered’ its territory in the aftermath. The EU was conspicuous only by its absence. When it was finally in a position to take over some responsibilities from the UN, all that changed were the soldiers’ insignia and the bureaucrats’ letterheads. The peace has prevailed, but ‘reconciliation’ and the imposition of tens of thousands of EU rules and regulations on the Balkan states are not the same thing—far from it.

Militarisation and appeasement
The EU’s perceived failures in respect to Kosovo galvanised the Union into meaningful militarisation for the first time; should there be ‘another Kosovo’, we were told repeatedly, the EU would be ready. Unfortunately, the subsequent design of the EU’s ‘conflict management’ apparatus owed more to the architects of ‘liberal intervention’ in Tony Blair’s inner circle than the blue-helmeted traditions of the UN. And so it was that grand plans were conceived for EU ‘Rapid Reaction Forces’ comprised of ‘Battle Groups’ who would be followed-in by ‘crisis managers’, wedded to the belief that democracy could be distilled through ‘roadmaps’ drafted in Brussels or New York, rather than peace-making predicated on the genuine engagement of all parties to a conflict.

The wheels came off this particular bandwagon, if only temporarily, as the consequences of invading Afghanistan and Iraq without a plan beyond ‘shock-and-awe’ unfolded. The EU’s ‘headline goals’ for military capacity were also missed, not least because Turkey withdrew the support it had earlier pledged after the Islamophobic governments of several EU member states made it clear that a Muslim country would never be allowed to join the EU. Turkish officials have publicly complained of being “treated like a third class country by the EU”; how very sad that the Nobel Committee chose to praise the EU for this relationship.

Strange too that they overlooked the EU’s unreserved support for Israel, described by Javier Solana (the EU's foreign policy chief for a decade) in 2009 as “a member of the European Union without being a member of the institutions”. EU-Israel relations are currently being upgraded yet again. Try telling the Palestinians that the EU is still committed to peace and reconciliation in their corner of the EU’s ‘neighbourhood’.

The legacy of the EU’s dalliance with ‘liberal intervention’ is a Union that remains subservient to NATO’s vision of global policing. The USA continues to call the shots while calling out the European’s for being too soft; emasculated as a peacemaker, the EU is still expected to pick up the pieces. Worse still, the concept of R2P has been fatally undermined by the US and its European allies before being given the chance to prove itself anything more than a fig-leaf for neo-imperialism. Instead of striving for a United Nations worthy of the name, the EU opted for ‘neo-con’-lite, and flunked. This deserves derision, not Nobel Prizes.

We should reserve some contempt, however, for the current Nobel Laureate’s relations with dictatorial regimes in Central Asia, where the EU’s ‘founding principles’ are disregarded for military favours and energy deals. For example in Uzbekistan, widely regarded as having one of the most brutal dictatorships on the planet, where the sanctions imposed by the EU following the Andijan massacre were effectively lifted (or not renewed) in return for logistical support to ISAF forces in Afghanistan, where a million children are forced to pick cotton for 12 hours a day in appalling conditions during the annual harvest, and where the EU says it is unable to act because there’s no ‘official’ evidence of the practice.

It’s the same story in relations with Turkmenistan—the Uzbeks’ only slightly less brutal neighbour—where the EU has decided that widespread human rights concerns cannot stand in the way of a deal to ship their gas to Europe via the planned Caspian pipeline. Some of the EU’s member states are cementing this neighbourly “fraternity” with good old-fashioned arms deals, playing their part in a “peace congress” that collectively accounts for around a third of the world’s arms trade. The rest of us are apparently supposed to wait passively for a Central Asian ‘Spring’, at which point the EU will presumably pretend it was on the side of democracy and human rights all along.

Having had these arguments with representatives of the EU, it is at this point they interrupt to point out that such criticism is grossly unfair: i.e. the EU doesn’t sell any weapons, it’s the member states. These are the same member states, of course, that are the first to blame their counterparts for the EU’s collective failures, or the EU institutions themselves for unpopular policies, but equally happy to take the plaudits when the opportunity arises. A Union when it suits, a community of nation-states when it does not; a two-faced Europe as much as a ‘two-speed’ one. This is categorically not an argument for more integration or debates among constitutional lawyers, it’s an appeal for rational appraisal of the collective actions of the EU and its members that lends itself to various conclusions, some of them profoundly at odds with the convictions of the current incumbents.

War on terror: no justice, no peace
The Nobel Committee obviously didn’t give much thought to the EU’s embrace of the ‘War on Terror’ either. Like many Europeans, they may have fallen into trap of thinking that the mere existence of their human rights convention—as contrasted by the USA’s perpetration of rendition, torture and indefinite detention without trial etc.—puts clear blue water between them and their belligerent cousins. Of course, had the Committee considered the complicity of many EU member states in these barbaric practices, and the abject failure of the EU institutions to hold them or the USA to account, it might have come to a different conclusion. On this issue too it is only the Council of Europe—not the EU—that can lay any meaningful claim to the defence of human rights.

The Nobel prize-givers obviously discounted the EU’s ceaseless promotion of counter-terrorism, surveillance policies and security technology too, and with it the wholesale targeting of Muslims and other minorities in Europe. Mandatory fingerprinting, comprehensive telecommunications surveillance, unfettered access to financial records, the surveillance of movement: in these areas the EU has actually gone further than its Transatlantic partner (while tearing-up the rule book when it comes to sharing this data with the USA). The “successful struggle” for human rights in Europe lauded by the Nobel Committee appears to have peaked 20 years ago. As Tony Bunyan has observed (pdf): with the need to guarantee meaningful freedoms in opposition to the Soviet Union gone, the EU was soon neglecting its founding principles. In terms of surveillance at least, the EU is now beginning to acquire some of the features of its former nemesis.

The EU has also all but ditched its once admirable peace-making traditions. It followed unquestioningly as George Bush’s post 9/11 mantra of “with us or with the terrorists” was effectively enshrined into international law under UN Security Council Resolution 1373. This obliges all UN states to criminalise all “terrorist organisations” while leaving them free to decide unilaterally who the “terrorists” are in the absence of a commonly agreed definition of what “terrorism” actually is. The EU’s first “terrorist list”, adopted on the 27th December 2001, was simply faxed around the foreign ministries during the Christmas recess and adopted under “written procedure” without debate. Ever since, as Mark Muller QC so accurately observed, we’ve seen terrorist designations traded like carbon credits.

The EU’s record here is particularly poor. It proscribed the Kurdish PKK when on they were on ceasefire in exchange for Turkey’s quid pro quo over military assistance. The now de-listed People’s Mujahadeen of Iran was proscribed as part of the negotiations over access to its nuclear facilities for the Quartet’s inspectors. The FARC was designated “terrorist” by the EU during its free trade negotiations with Colombia, despite the fact that the French and Spanish governments were still trying to restart negotiations between the FARC and the Colombian government, negotiations that ceased immediately.

It was the same story for the ‘Tamil Tigers’, also proscribed while still at the negotiating table. They henceforth shunned all further dialogue, paving the way for Sri Lanka’s brutal “military solution” to the conflict; they are still counting their dead. Norway’s Nobel Committee should understand better than most why we shouldn’t play politics with terrorist designation: their government immediately withdrew its alignment to the EU terrorist list because its long-standing role as a peace-broker in that conflict had been wholly undermined at a stroke.

Note also that it is Norway, which is not an EU member state, that is facilitating the newly restarted negotiations between the FARC and the government of Columbia—arrange a meeting with a banned terrorist organisation in the UK, for example, and you can be imprisoned for up to ten years. The point—and one that would surely have Alfred Nobel spinning in his grave—is that the international counter-terrorism framework hasn’t just paralysed conflict resolution by the ‘international community’, it has left the civil society organisations, the professional mediators and the ‘quiet diplomats’ that have attempted to fill this void at risk of criminalisation for a host of ‘material support’ style charges that provide far too much prosecutorial discretion.

Rewarding brutality and indifference
The economic policies of the EU’s ‘first pillar’ have made a substantial contribution the mess Europe now finds itself in. The security and defence policies of the ‘second pillar’ have steadily eschewed Europe’s peacemaking traditions. So what of the ‘third pillar’: justice and home affairs? When Romano Prodi, then President of the European Commission, so crassly remarked that Osama Bin Laden had done “more for justice and home affairs cooperation than Jean Monet”, he was obscuring the ties that had long since bound the member states in this area: border control and ‘migration management’ policies.

Ever since France, Germany and the Benelux countries signed the Schengen Agreement on the abolition of internal borders and the Schengen Convention on compensatory security measures at the external borders, the member states have been engaged in a ‘race to the bottom’ to enact tighter and tighter controls to prevent migration from outside the EU, ever more restrictive conditions for asylum-seekers, tougher and tougher penalties for ‘illegal’ migration, and all of the racist scapegoating that comes with it. And let’s not forget yet more deals with dictators and human rights abusers—facilitated in some instances by the EU—to create migration ‘buffer states’ in North Africa and other parts of the world.

Unable to agree on how they might use their vast military capability as a force for good, the EU has been busy militarising its borders while presiding over the wholesale dehumanisation of migrants and refugees. To paraphrase Zygmunt Bauman: travelling the world in search of profit is a cornerstone of EU policy, travelling to the EU in search of sanctuary is condemned. Meanwhile, most Europeans have become all but completely inured to the daily suffering and often barbaric treatment meted out to unwanted migrants and refugees that the ECHR was supposed to confine to history. President Obama is rightly vilified for sending the USA’s drones to hunt down ‘militants’ and ‘high value targets’, Europe is silent as the EU prepares to send its drones to hunt down migrants and refugees. Our Nobel Peace Laureates are nothing if not consistent.

Like the Nobel Committee, none of us should wish for the demise of the EU at a cost of the re-emergence of rabid nationalism. Unlike the Nobel Committee, we should retain our critical faculties and recognise the danger that EU imposed austerity is helping take us there. As Steve McGiffen observed more than a decade ago: “Simply because we need an international approach to the problems facing humanity in the twenty-first century does not mean that this international approach, this European Union, a single currency based on discredited and extreme monetarist principles, a political system which seems almost designed to maximise corruption and the hegemony of wealthy elites, is the only or best form of international cooperation on offer. If we are to develop genuinely international institutions which enable cooperation to take place whilst preserving the democratic rights of the peoples of different nations, then we must set about a root-and-branch re-examination and reconstruction of global governance. What cannot be reformed should be discarded, and what can be put to the service of the people should be”. This task has never been more necessary or daunting. Loathe as I am to use the phrase, the last thing we need is yet more “lipstick on the pig”.

Source

* Ben Hayes is a TNI fellow who has worked for the civil liberties organisation Statewatch since 1996, specialising in EU Justice and Home Affairs law, police cooperation, border controls, surveillance technologies and counter-terrorism policies.

Ben also works with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR, Berlin), and has been retained as a consultant to a number of international human rights, social justice and development organisations. He has a PhD from Magee College (Derry/Londonderry) awarded by the University of Ulster in 2008.

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Friday, January 14, 2005
Leading Human Rights Solicitor "Shut Down” by Law Society
Society claims ‘substantial history of complaints going back ... years’
Exclusive report by Sean Mc Aughey
Sources and friends close to lawyer Padraigin Drinan are saying the official reasons behind an enforced closure by the Law Society of the offices of Ireland’s foremost human rights defender and solicitor remains wide open for damaging speculation.

Former clients who contacted the Law Society say they were immediately re-directed to a voice mail inbox belonging to the Deputy Secretary; Suzanne Bryson who was unavailable.

On Wednesday a Law Society spokesman was asked if Ms Drinan’s certificate to practice been fully revoked. The spokesman described the measures against Ms Drinan as a “removal of her provision to practice.” and added that a full Law Society press statement on the matter would be available.

In a statement released on Friday, January 14, 2005, the Law Society said: “Ms Drinan has a substantial history of complaints going back a number of years. These have led to a series of decisions by the Law Society to bring proceedings against Ms Drinan before the Disciplinary Tribunal, established for this purpose by the Solicitors (NI) Order 1976, as amended. The Disciplinary Tribunal operates independently of the Law Society.”

However, no clarrification of the substance or nature of the ‘complaint’ was given. The statement continues: “Complaints against Ms Drinan came before the Disciplinary Tribunal in May 2004. On considering the evidence presented by the Law Society, the Tribunal found that the complaints had been duly substantiated. It may be helpful to explain that in addition to imposing certain fines and costs penalties, the Tribunal Order records as follows; ‘The Tribunal noted with regret the Respondent’s (Ms Drinan) previous history of proven complaints before the Tribunal which were all similar to the complaints today. They formed the view that the Respondent was not functioning at any acceptable level as a single practitioner and that in the interest of the public and the Respondent herself, they are ordering that she is restricted from practising on her own account or in partnership. She may accept employment from another solicitor provided they have at least seven years post qualification experience. The Tribunal also orders that she shall not work in any practice using her name on the title or as one of the principals.’ The Tribunal were prepared to defer the implemantation of the Order for a reasonable period to allow Ms Drinan to make alternative arrangements. This deferment initially applied until September 2004 with a subsequent deferral to a date than fixed by the Tribunal at 6 January 2005.

“As and from that date, Ms Drinan is not entitled as a matter of law to practise on her own account. If she continues to do so, she will not only be in breach of the Order of the Tribunal, but will also be committing a criminal offence. In these circumstances the Law Society is under an obligation to see that the terms of the Tribunal Order are complied with.

“Ms Drinan is not inhibited from practice as an employed solicitor.

“The inability of Ms Drinan to continue in practice on her own account is not an action taken by the Law Society but is a function of an Order made by the Disciplanary Tribunal. Ms Drinan has not to our knowedge at any time sought to contest or appeal the Orders made by the Disciplinary Tribunal.” The statement was signed by Don Anderson, for the Law Society.

An informed source close to Ms Drinan said it was believed that as a result of her civil rights involvement she was seen by the establishment as an embarrassing and troublesome ‘thorn in the side’ who had done nothing wrong other than to try to provide legal advice to those who could not otherwise afford it.

IRSP spokesperson, Terry Harkin described Ms Drinan as “someone who was on par with James Connolly especially in terms of helping the poor and the voiceless all over Ireland” and he asked “where will the most vulnerable in our society get legal help now ”?

“Padraigin Drinan,” he continued, “is a once in a lifetime heroine who ought to be recognized and elevated for her tireless work and not punished, bullied and intimidated by some of her colleagues, who have left her open to a humiliating whisper campaign. ”

A Spokesperson for the Anti Racism Network described The Law Society’s actions as “questionable” and she asked where was the Law Society’s energy when legal immigrants were imprisoned with their children, being bombed from their home or loosing their legs due to frostbite. The immigrants she said are only a small example of the many communities throughout Ireland who are indebted to Padraigin Drinan. ”

Padraigin Drinan speaking from her Belfast office said: “At this stage it appears that I am accused of being a poor business manager but not guilty of any financial impropriety. I have been instructed also that I must amalgamate with other solicitors. ”

But she added: ”I am heartened by the hundreds of calls from well wishers and supporters from all over the world including a call from among others, Gareth Pierce.”
background items

Thursday, 28 October 2004
Féile an Phobail, West Belfast
By Sean Mc Aughey
The West Belfast community was demonised for many years by both the establishment and the media and this reached fever pitch in March 1988 as a result of the tragic events which followed the SAS killings of three unarmed IRA volunteers in Gibraltar. In reaction to this unparalleled negative and damaging portrayal of the West Belfast community, local groups and their MP, Gerry Adams, decided to organise a festival. Its purpose was to celebrate the positive side of the community, its creativity, its energy, its passion for the arts, and for sport. And it aimed at providing events and entertainment at a price that the majority of the community could afford.

*1 The West Belfast Féile which is entering its 17th year is the largest community (people) powered festival in Europe. It is internationally regarded as a ten day long festival "on par" with the best community festivals in England and Ireland. The Féile includes, a colourful carnival parade, discussions, debates, concerts, exhibitions, children's events, i.e street parties, bouncy castles etc, sports, literary and drama events, Féile radio, widespread community events on a street to street, pub to pub basis and various political, cultural or historical tours and walks.

The Festival aims to provide events of interest for everyone at a price that the majority of the community could afford while simultaneously serving also to elevate a positive West Belfast self image contolled by its people despite the forces acting against the people and the official resources denied them. The Féile continues to grow into a major tourist attraction. The August Féile continues also to easily attract "top of the range" participation from local and International entertainers, artists and commentators. This year's Féile line up included, Arthur Scargill leader in 1984 of the National Union of Mineworkers presenting The 10th Annual Frank Cahill Memorial Lecture and The P.J. McGrory Memorial Lecture - Long Road to the Truth delivered by Mrs Geraldine Finucane who was shot and wounded at the time of her husband Pat's, assassination 15 years ago. Top British band Big Brovaz, Irish Traditionalist singer/songwriter, Donal Luney and Andy Irvine, Christy Moore and Declan Sinnott, novelist Roddy Doyle, comedian Rich Hall and Bob Marley`s band, the Wailers demonstrating that the Feile is going from strength to strength and most definitely growing in popularity not only among the audience but the artists, as well. The choice of August for the Féile by the West Belfast Community and many other Republican communities like Ardoyne and New Lodge is pertinent. Because, August 9th 1971, brought a re-introduction to nationalist areas of widespread house raids, arrests and imprisonment without trial or a release date. The yearly anniversary of Interment was previously marked in the community by a display of bonfires of defiance. But, the bonfires provided the RUC and British Army with the ideal opportunity for provaction and delivered in British terms "a fool proof" excuse for the entire "Mechanism of the State" to "justify" any injury or death perpetrated by State violence and especially the use of plastic bullets, when framed within the same context of a nationalist bonfire.

Teenager shot dead returning home from Internment night bonfire.
The DPP refused to initiate proceedings on the grounds that it was impossible to establish which RUC officer fired the fatal shot. The jury found that at the time of Seamus' killing that he was not engaged in any rioting and that there was no rioting at the time of his killing.

*2 "The fatal shot" that killed 15 year-old Seamus Duffy from the Oldpark area was fired from a passing RUC patrol on August 9th 1989. The plastic bullet crushed his heart and tore a four-inch laceration in his left lung.

*3 Seamus Duffy was returning home from an internment night bonfire and there was no rioting in the area. The initial RUC response indicates according to The Relatives for Justice group, the RUC believed Seamus Duffy did not die as a result of being hit by a plastic bullet and that they would appoint a 'top policeman' to investigate the exact circumstances of the death.

*4 Secretary of State, Peter Brooke said: 'There are no grounds for suggesting their use (Plastic Baton Rounds fired by RUC officers) last night was other than in accordance with the law'.

*5 Darkness
Over a very short period of time, bonfire culture in most Republican communities has been easily transformed to the community-orientated ethos that permeates participative festivals. Bonfires were already long since stigmatised as negative and destructive by the collective wisdom and experience of the community and most especially by those members of the community who vividly recall how life once was before the bright lights and colour of the Féile. A time, when, West Belfast was in darkness because the various combatants shut down the streetlights and fear was a way of life. The local dogs barking were for those of us making our way home hoping to avoid a beating from the British Army patrols, a most welcomed concert of sorts, alerting with pin point accuracy the exact location of the four, eight, 16 or 32 blackened faces of the British Army foot patrols in the area.

“Riddles' Field" - Daddy Makes A Dream Comes True (Thanks to the Féile)
When I reflect on the quality of life my teenage children are currently enjoying and compare this to my teenage days, I owe a lot to the efforts of the many people behind the West Belfast Féile who are continually raising the esteem of our people and enhancing our quality of life. There is clearly a massive gulf between my teenage days and that of my teenage children today in terms of confidence, opportunities and simply attending a concert by their favourite "pop stars" in West Belfast. This in itself remains a source of immense joy and pride. Especially, when I think about what used to be -"Riddles' Field", (Beechmount Leisure Centre) and look at the here and now concert venue, where teenage dreams are fulfilled. My daughters were in seventh heaven a few years ago at the Féile in "Riddles' Field" during a Westlife concert and then the Atomic Kitten concert. My teenagers' expectations are obviously higher today and undoubtedly more realistically obtainable thanks to the Féile. My children's confidence is part of the vibrancy that makes West Belfast Féile buzz. This buzz has been harnessed, channelled and most importantly of all, encouraged by the various F éile projects and events.

A Teenage Nightmare I hold by comparison to my children, a teenage tale of woe. One of my favourite Rock n' Roll bands in 1975, Showaddywaddy had agreed to play in Belfast at the ABC. I was all set for my face to face with my teenage "Top of the Pops" idols and unfortunately this was as near as I got. Showaddywaddy pulled the plug on the Belfast tour when news surrounding the murder of the Miami Showband reached their agents. I was shattered. The people responsible for killing the Miami Showband musicians were pro-British and some were also members of a British Army Regiment. Showaddywaddy were a Sheffield Band.

On the 31st July 1975, a Loyalist gang murdered three members of the Miami Showband. Tony Geraghty (23), Fran O'Toole (29), Brian McCoy (33). Two of the UVF gang were also killed, Harris Boyle, described as a UVF Major from Portadown, and Wesley Somerville, described as a UVF Lieutenant from Caledon, Co Tyrone. Two men from the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were jailed for 35 years in connection with the murders of members of the Miami Showband. The Miami Massacre, a part of our past, had also a lasting impact for many engaged in the Arts and for one Belfast man the Miami murders would bring about his film debut.

Angel - Galway Film Fleadh Michael Dwyer: The thing that triggered Angel was the murder of the Miami Showband musicians...
Neil Jordan: Kind of. I was playing in a band and we used to travel up and down to Belfast and Derry and places like that and we'd be driving back late at night. It was in the 1980's when all those sectarian killings were happening. It was very black; you always presumed it wouldn't happen to you - that you were safe - and when the Miami were shot it seemed quite shocking. They were innocent and I felt totally numb I suppose and that put images in my mind. I like to write things with people in mind and I had written Angel with Stephen Rea in mind

*6 How are ye Jeffrey? - West Belfast Féile Talks Back
During the Féile Talks Back debate, a former IRA POW, Seanna Walsh—who was sentenced to twenty-two years when he was caught making explosives and mortar bombs— courteously welcomed The DUP's Jeffery Donaldson to the Féile debate. Mr Walsh then asked: “Jeffrey, when you talk about the IRA's capacity to make war, I can go out of here tonight with a couple of hundred pounds in my pocket and purchase the equipment to make Baltic Exchange/Canary Wharf type bombs. How are you going to remove that capacity? "

*7 The DUP man addressed the question in repetitive mantra. Seanna Walsh also said: "The point I was making was that I can produce homemade explosives and mortars. You cannot decommission that knowledge. What is more important is our commitment to peace and to politics. But all of the initiatives taken by the IRA to date have had absolutely no effect on the unionist community. Trust is a two-way street. We suspect that at the root of it unionists cannot deal with equality and sharing power and that the idea of republicans being in government was a bridge too far for them. Everything else is an excuse not to go there. ”

*8 The IRA and its weapons is being used as an excuse
About 24 hours after the Festival debate, Mr Gerry Adams, The West Belfast MP and President of Sinn Fein told PA News:
“ While I would not like to minimise what may be genuine fears and concerns within unionism, I do think the issue of the IRA and its weapons is being used an excuse.” The Sinn Fein president commended Mr Donaldson on his appearance at the festival and paid tribute to his colleagues on the committee, which organised the event. Mr Adams also said he would like to take part in a similar event in a loyalist area.

*9 Community Empowerment
Mr Adams sums up the spirit of the Féile in a sentence by saying he = would like to take part in a similar event in a loyalist area. Community festivals bring as in this case politicians face to face with the voter in the voter's home territory. The Shankill Road and East Belfast "Think Tanks" did likewise to enpower the community and expose the politicians. The voice of the community can be best heard at festival time.

References and sources used in this article:
*1 http://www.feilebelfast.com/ourhistory/
*2 http://www.relativesforjustice.com/victims/seamus_duffy.htm
*3 http://www.relativesforjustice.com/victims/seamus_duffy.htm
*4 http://www.relativesforjustice.com/victims/seamus_duffy.htm
*5 http://www.relativesforjustice.com/victims/seamus_duffy.htm
*6 http://www.iol.ie/~galfilm/filmwest/fleadhjordan.htm
*7 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3543518.stm
*8 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3543518.stm
*9 http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3D3300413

by Sean Mc Aughey