Des O'Hagan, Workers' Party veteran

(A slightly edited version of this obituary was published in the Irish Times May 16th 2015)

Des O’Hagan – born March 29^th 2015, died May 5^th 2015

Des O’Hagan, who has died, was a link to the Northern upheavals in the early 1970s. He was Director of Education of Official Sinn Féin, then the Workers Party. His education gave a political formation to a significant generation in politics, the trade unions and the media. His intellectual analysis was central to the Workers Party’s  move away from nationalism.

In 1971-2 he was interned. The 21 ‘Letters from Long Kesh’ he smuggled out for publication in the Irish Times played an important role in highlighting the injustice of internment.

O’Hagan was also a link to the Republicanism of the 1950s. He had been imprisoned as a member of Saor Uladh, a Northern split from the IRA.

Desmond Patrick O’Hagan was born in Belfast’s Lower Falls in March 1934, youngest of three children and second son to Peter O’Hagan, a watchmaker, and his wife Susan (née McKeown). Her father, Michael McKeown, had been a leader of the dockers’ union in Belfast and contemporary of Larkin and Connolly. O’Hagan received his primary education at St Comgall’s Primary School, then at St Malachy’s College, Belfast. While at St Malachy’s he joined the IRA.

After school he joined the North’s Civil Service, working in a planning office. At the time, Northern civil servants had to swear allegiance to the monarch. For this, O’Hagan was expelled from the IRA. He joined Saor Uladh, finding its heterodox atmosphere more comfortable.

The civil service was not to his taste. He joined an Irish-speaking unit of the Irish Army, then emigrated to work in England.

Back in Belfast he was imprisoned for four years after an unsuccessful attempt to rescue a Saor Uladh prisoner from hospital. In Crumlin Road prison he worked with another prisoner at pioneering academic education among Republican prisoners. The orthodox IRA initially disapproved, but joined in.

On release he moved to study in the London School of Economics. There he was influenced by Marxist lecturers, including Ralph Miliband, father of Ed Miliband. His reading list as Education Officer would include material from their courses.

Returning to Belfast he became a lecturer in Stranmillis teacher training college. There he gave students his philosophical opinions, but allowed them to develop their own. He re-engaged politically, becoming a founder of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

Internment ended his academic career. Stranmillis was an overwhelmingly Protestant institution. Some colleagues and students backed him. He resigned because he didn’t want to split the college, and also felt the lure of full-time political activism.

O’Hagan was always a fierce polemicist, strongly opposed to the (Provisional) IRA, with his Marxism being broadly pro-Soviet. For some he was inspirational, for others a bête noire. He survived at least two attempts on his life during Republican feuds. He was also interested in culture: in the 1980s he developed the ‘Poets and Pints’ initiative, where poets read their work in clubs and pubs in working class areas of Belfast.

In later life he moved to Downpatrick. He stood for the Workers Party in various elections, keeping faith in its vision despite low votes.

Des O’Hagan is survived by his sons Donal and Aedan, his sister Angela, brother Raymond, and former wife Liz (McShane). He was predeceased by his wife Marie and son Ciaran.

Scotland goes nationalist

(An edited version of this piece was published in An tUltach, April 2015)

Tá Joyce MacMillan ar dhuine de na tráchtáirí is aitheanta in Albain. Scríobhann sí go rialta don’Scotsman’.

Dar léi gur léir go bhfuil athrú oll-mhór ag tarlú leis an toghchan seo. “Tá daoine sásta vótáil do Phàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba do Westminster” arsa Joyce. “Cúig bliain ó shoin, bhí Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba mar Riaghaltas na h-Alba, iad ag déanamh go maith. Ach chaith pobal na hAlban vóta do Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre.”

Dúradh riamh in Albain gur gá vótáil don Lucht Oibre leis na Tóraithe a choinneáil amach. Le leathchéad bliain anuas, tá Albain ag vótáil don Lucht Oibre – agus rialtas coiméadach mar sin féin i Westminster.

Tá deireadh ag teacht le sin. “Tá siad den bharúil nach leoir an difear idir an Lucht Oibre agus na Tóraithe ar cheisteanna tábhachtacha,” arsa Joyce. Neartaíodh an bharúil sin go mór nuair a chonaic siad an Lucht Oibre taobh leis na Tóraithe sa Reifreann ar an neamhspléachas. Chonaic siad, leis, an Lucht Oibre ag vótáil don déine – taobh leis na Tóraithe.

Is ceist na déine a shocraigh, dar léi. “Tá sé sa mhiotaseolaíocht ag Phàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba gur ceist an diuracháin admhaigh ‘Trident’ a d’athraigh daoine,” ar sise. “Níl an bharúil anseo chomh difriúil sin agus atá sa chuid eile den Ríocht Aontaithe. Theip ar an Lucht Oibre polásaí éagsúil eacnamaíochta a chur ar fáil.”

Ní amháin go bhfuil an déine dá chur i bhfeidhm, tá achan saghas scannaill i Westminster. “Níl Páirtí an Lucht Oibre ag déanamh critice ar seo,” ar sí. “Cibé locht atá ar Phàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba, tá siad ag déanamh sin.”

Ní féiniúlacht náisiúnach atá ag spreagadh na tacaíochta, ach fís de shaol níos cothroime. “Níl siad in éadán an rialtais mar gur rialtas Sasanach é, ach mar go bhfuil sé ag cur déine i bhfeidhm,” ar sise. Tá go leoir den phobal ag amharc ar leithéidí Syriza sa Ghréig.

Sa toghchan, tá an t-ádh le Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba. Ní páirtí imeallach iad. Ní bhaineann an toghchan le Riaghaltas na h-Alba, mar sin níl siad dá gcáineadh as a ndearna sin. Tá táithí ag an pháirtí – gan bheith ciontach as an rud atá ag tarlú i Westminster.

Dar le Joyce gur idir 25 suíochán, ar a laghad, agus 35, ar a mhéid, a bheidh ag Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba.

“Má bheidh Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ar an pháirtí is mó (in Albain), beidh athrú stairiúil ann,” ar sise. “Níor tharla a leithéidí seo ó bhí na náisiúnaithe Éireannacha ann sa naoú céad déag.”

Fágfaidh sin go mbeidh athrú dochúlaithe ann, dar léi.

Is griangrafadóir agus ceardchumannaí é Nick McGowan Lowe, go bhfuil cónaí air i nDùn Bhlàthain i Siorrachd Pheairt. Rugadh agus tógadh i Sasana é, agus tugann sé tacaíocht don neamshpléachas.

Tá mmeas aige ar Phàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba. “Ó toghadh iad, tá siad thar a bheith maith,” ar seisean. “Ní raibh tromlach acu agus iad sa rialtas ar dtús. Bunaíodh Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ar dóigh le nach mbeadh duine ar bith ábalta tromlach a fháil ann.” B’shin, ar ndóigh, a rinne an Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta.

Dar leis nach dtuigeann meáin Shasana Albain. “Tá an t-íomhá a thugann preas Londain difriúil ón dearcadh atá ag daoine ar an sráid,” ar seisean. “Níl Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba chomh fada sin ar an eite chlé, nó chomh náisiúnach sin.”

Dar leis, chomh maith, go bhfuil na pobalbreitheanna ag insint na fírínne fán líon suíochan a bheidh ag an Phàrtaidh Nàiseanta, nó tá siad comhsheasmhach.

Beart tábhachtach ná go bhfuil meas ag an phobal ar Nicola Sturgeon, an Prìomh Mhinistear. “Níl sí cosúil le ‘marmite’ mar a bhí Alex Salmond,” arsa McGowan Lowe. “Ach tá an-táithí aici, bhí sí thart le blianta. Tá meas ag daoine i bPàrlamaid na h-Alba uirthi.”

Chas an pholaitíocht leis an reifreann ar an neamhspléachas, dar le McGowan Lowe. “Cé gur chaill siad, chreid 45% i rud éigean,” ar seisean. “Chuaigh na daoine sin chuig Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba.” Tá anois tairseach criticiúil ag an pháirtí.

Beart a spreag sin ná iompar an Chomhrialtais i Londain i ndiaidh don vóta diúltach buachaint. Go fiú an mhuintir a chaith vóta diúltach, chuir iompar na bpáirtithe sa Chomhrialtas, roimh an Reifrinn agus ina dhiaidh, olc orthu.

Tá, cinnte, athrú mór polaitiúil ar na bacáin. Bé Páirtí an Lucht Oibre an páirtí ba mhó in Albain le blianta. Dar le McGowan Lowe go bhfuil sin anois ar seachrán – agus go bhfulaingeoidh sé. “Má tá Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ag dul an lámh in uachtar a fháil ar pháirtí ar bith, ís iad an Lucht Oibre agus na Daonlaithe Liobrálacha a chaillfidh,” ar seisean. “Níl ach an t-aon suíochán amháin ag na Coiméadaithe in Albain.”

Chonaic sé féin an taoide ag casadh. Tá sé gníomhach in Aontas Náiseanta na nIriseoirí – agus ní eol dó ach ach duine amháin i gcraobh s’aige a chaith vóta in éadán an neamshpléachais.

Is iriseoir í Janice Ross, go bhfuil cónaí uirthi i gCamas Lang, ar imeall thoir-theas Ghlaschú. Is ceantar traidisiúnta ag Páirtí an Lucht Oibre sin. Bhíodh idir mianaigh guail, monarchain móra innealtóireachta agus oibreacha cruach ann.

Is de bhunadh na hÉireann tromlach an phobail Chaitlicigh ann. Tá siadsan, chomh maith, ag tacú le Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba.

“Is athrú seismeach atá ag tarlú, agus tá sé ag dul i dtreo Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba,” arsa Janice.

Níl Páirtí an Lucht Oibre uile-cumhachtach níos mó. “Chuir an vóta mór ar son an neamhspléachais eagla ar an Lucht Oibre,” ar sise. “Thuig siad amach go raibh an sean-vóta traidisiúnta  a bhíodh ann, nach raibh sin ar fáil. Is léir anois óna n-iompar go bhfuil eagla orthu – agus an cheart acu. Tá lucht tacaíochta an Lucht Oibre ag rá ‘Beidh mé ag vótáil do Phàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba’.”

Tá tacaíocht súntasach ag an Ord Buí sa cheantar, go leoir acu a thugann tacaíocht do Rangers. Níl h-eol go beacht do Janice cad a dhéanfaidh siad. Mar sin féin, dar léi go gcaithfidh siad vóta ar an dóigh traidisiúnta. “Rachaidh an vóta buí don Lucht Oibre,” ar sise.

Vótáil 50% ar son an neamhspléachais sa cheantar sa Reifreann anuraidh. Go dtí seo, ní fhaca sí oiread agus billeog amháin sa cheantar ón Lucht Oibre, ó na Tóraithe, nó ó na Daonlathaithe Liobrálacha.

Dar léi go bhfuil daoine ag dul i dtreo Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba mar go bhfuil clár forásach aige. “Is rudaí indéanta iad, leithéidí deireadh leis na táillí ar oidis,” ar sise. “Níl an Lucht Oibre ach ag gealladh tuilleadh ciorruithe.”

Tá fhios aici féin an t-athrú. Is de bhunadh Caitliceach, Éireannach í, a vótáileadh don Lucht Oibre – í anois ina comhalta de Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba

UK General Election in the North - only four constituencies noteworthy

(An edited version of this was published in Village April 2015)

In the UK General Election of May 7^th, there is only a possibility of three of the North’s 18 seats changing hands. They are East Belfast, South Belfast, and Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

The Election also looks like being another stage in the weakening of the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP. The DUP and Ulster Unionists have made a pact in four constituencies. The DUP already holds one of the two seats where it got a free run, North Belfast: it is favourite to take the other, East Belfast. In return, the Ulster Unionists were given a free run in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, which will be an uphill struggle: and in Newry and Armagh, which is unwinnable by a Unionist.

East Belfast was the story of the last General Election in the North. Naomi Long of the Alliance Party won a stunning victory. She was voted for by the spectrum of those who disliked DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson. That stretched from Loyalist paramilitaries to Sinn Féin supporters. There is no evidence that Long personally made any deal with the Loyalist paramilitaries. However, some UVF figures mobilised votes for her.

Long benefited from a perfect storm that hit the DUP in 2010. Like many strong characters, Robinson has enemies. Five months before the election, one of Ireland’s juiciest ever scandals burst on him. Robinson’s 59 year old wife, Iris, had procured loans for her teenage lover to open a restaurant. She had failed to declare her interest while a councillor on Castlereagh Council that granted his restaurant permission. 

Long is more muscular in her approach than the general run of the Alliance Party. She has also show herself more sensitive to the issues affecting working-class people than most of her party. At Westminster, she voted against the Welfare Reform Bill, which Alliance wants in enacted in the North.

Long is not having the same good fortune as in 2010. The scandal round the Robinsons has died away. Next month, she is facing Gavin Robinson (no relation of the First Minister), without the baggage of the ‘Swish Family Robinson’ and seen as on the modernising wing of the DUP.

The wide alliance that backed her has sundered. Three years ago Alliance members on Belfast City Council voted to fly the Union Jack over Belfast City Hall on designated days, rather than every day as previously. That stirred up a wave of working-class Loyalist protest – including from some who had backed Long.

However, many of these working-class Loyalists are so alienated from the political process they are unlikely to vote. The DUP is playing the social conservative card to attract the more middle-class end of her vote. Many of these were older and religiously conservative middle-class Presbyterians. Flying the Union Jack over Belfast City Hall is not a make-or-break issue for them. They are concerned, however, at her support for gay rights and same-sex marriage.

The numbers spell out Long’s difficulty. She had a majority of 1,500 over Peter Robinson last time: the Ulster Unionists stood and gained just over 7,300 votes. This time, they are backing the DUP. While some Ulster Unionist voters will find the DUP too hard to stomach, more will vote Gavin Robinson than Long. 

South Belfast is also in real contention. SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell has won twice due to a split – even shredded – Unionist vote. The constituency was then majority Protestant, though it is now fairly evenly balanced.

South Belfast is different to most of the rest of the North: it has a large population born outside the North, and sizeable enclaves of middle-class trendiness. McDonnell has not made his task easier by imploding publicly in recent months. His most spectacular gaffe was to say: “Nobody can predict that a foetus is not viable and that's the problem, and as a GP, I’m fully aware” while speaking about abortion. At time of writing, his most recent gaffe was to refuse to say whether David Cameron or Ed Miliband would make the best UK Prime Minister – despite the SDLP being British Labour’s sister party. McDonnell is also victim of a very nasty online campaign.

Figures indicate McDonnell will have some difficulty. According to local election tallies, five parties are within 2,000 votes. The DUP is ahead, then Alliance, followed by SDLP, Sinn Féin and Ulster Unionists. Sinn Féin is running former Belfast Lord Mayor and businessman Máirtín Ó Muileoir, who can encroach on the SDLP vote.

However, McDonnell is slight favourite. The agreement between the DUP and Ulster Unionists does not extend to the constituency, meaning both are standing. UKIP is also running, with its candidate having a certain base in some of the working-class Loyalist parts. For all this, it would be foolish to rule out the DUP’s Jonathan Bell coming through a crowded field. Bell is, however, at a certain disadvantage in this middle-class constituency. He once criticised golf clubs for harbouring sectarian attitudes.

The other constituency which may change hands is Fermanagh and South Tyrone. This is not the same constituency as that which elected hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981. In the 1995 shake-up of Northern seats, large mostly nationalist parts were hived off to West Tyrone and Mid Ulster.

The election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone will take place in a parallel universe. It will be a naked sectarian headcount. This is despite The Fermanagh end of the constituency having seen a major campaign against fracking, and an anti-fracking activist standing as a Green candidate.

In the sectarian headcount, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew is favourite against the Ulster Unionist Tom Elliott, who is also supported by the DUP. There is an estimated nationalist majority of almost 4,000 on the register. Elliott also suffers from mixed messages from the DUP. In November last year DUP Enterprise, Trade and Investment Arlene Foster told the DUP Conference he couldn’t win the seat: she supports him. The SDLP is running a councillor from west Fermanagh, but his vote will be squeezed: possibly further damaging the SDLP’s viability in the constituency.

Gildernew specialises in shading tight finishes. She first won the seat in 2001 with a majority of 53. She retained it in 2010 with a majority of four – against a single Unionist candidate. She will probably win, but with a majority at most of a few hundred.

There is little evidence on the surface that the election takes place less than two months after a strike across most of the North’s public sector, except local councils. It was political, in being directed against the budgetary measures of the Stormont House Agreement. The trade unions made it clear they were striking against the Executive.

Beneath the surface, there is evidence of a shifting in the political process. Sinn Féin withdrew support from proposed welfare cuts because it found its supporters wouldn’t accept them.

A certain indication of the strike’s effect will be the vote for People Before Profit candidate Gerry Carroll in West Belfast: Carroll was elected to the City Council last year with the second-highest vote in his area. Broadly, whereas in the Republic, the water charges issue had a visible political impact, such is not the case to date with public sector cuts in the North.

Des Boal - greatest defence lawyer of his generation 

(A slightly edited version of this was published in the Irish Times May 2nd 2015)

Desmond Boal – born 6^th August 1928, died April 23^rd 2015

Des Boal was the greatest criminal defence barrister in of his generation in the North. He was a devastating cross-examiner who rarely took a note, being gifted with total recall. At one stage the North’s criminal court system almost ground to a halt because every defence team wanted Boal.

He was a significant figure in Northern politics. From the 1960s he had been an advisor to the young Ian Paisley. He had the ability to analyse a complex piece of legislation in minutes. He was one of the founders of the DUP, and one of its first group of MPs. Even after leaving active politics he continued to advise Paisley. He also had no problem in publicly dressing down Paisley, being capable of silencing the ‘Big Man’.

Boal was complex, well explained by his reason for breaking with Paisley. “I could never accept what he did going into government with so many of those guys I defended in court,” he said. However, in the 1970s he was involved in secret talks with Republicans. At one stage, he came out in support of a Federal Ireland.

As a politician, he was perceived as a right-wing Unionist. As a barrister, he effectively defended Republicans, including during some of the North’s biggest-ever trials. His defence strategy played a big part in discrediting the ‘supergrass’ system in the early 1980s.

Criminal law was not his only legal expertise: he was also expert in planning law.

Boal was a member of the old Stormont parliament. In 1960 he was elected as MP for the Shankill, holding the seat until Stormont was prorogued in 1972.

In the 1960s he was the most effective Unionist critic of Terence O’Neill, whom he saw as representating ‘Big House’ Unionism. While to the right of Unionism, he always showed independence. The Unionist Party suspended him for voting for a Labour motion of censure on the Unionist government for its social and economic policies. He gathered signatures of MPs calling for the elderly Lord Brookeborough to resign as Prime Minister. He opposed the decision in the mid-60s to site a new university in Coleraine rather than Derry, and spoke strongly for Derry in Stormont. He was against the death penalty, and opposed internment in 1971. He wanted the DUP to have radical social and economic policies to appeal to Catholics.

His personality too was complex. He was fiercely opposed to alcohol and tobacco. However, he was an enthusiastic gambler, running legendary poker schools in his house. He had a box at Fairyhouse Racecourse. Refusing to use it on Sundays, he often lent it to less Sabbitarian colleagues.

Boal revelled in flouting convention. During a dispute about legal aid payments, he went on a deputation of Northern lawyers to the British Lord Chancellor - wearing a large pair of rough brown boots for the occasion.

Desmond Norman Orr Boal was born beside St Columb’s Cathedral within the walled city of Derry, third of five children and only son to James Boal, a cashier, and his wife Kathleen (née Walker). He was educated at First Derry Primary School, the Cathedral Primary School, and Foyle College (all in Derry); Portora Royal School in Enniskillen: then proceeding to Trinity College Dublin and London’s Inner Temple for his law studies.

As a student and young man, he travelled widely in Africa and Asia, visiting Afghanistan at one stage. For many years he took an interest in Buddhism, and used visit Nepal to practise meditation. An anecdote illustrates Boal’s complexity. A fellow-barrister was dining with his daughter in restaurant, where Boal was at another table. Boal spoke to his colleague, and left before them. When the colleague went to pay, he found Boal had paid for the meal, but not the bottle of wine.

Desmond Boal is survived by wife Annette and sisters Maureen, Kathleen, Una and Deirdre