SURPRISING NEWS

Today, it was reported that a British Army regiment, the Irish Guards, had applied to London GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association, governing body for the the sports of hurling, Gaelic football, camogie and handball) to enter a team in competition in England.  The Irish Guards is a regiment that has been traditionally recruited from among Irish people living in England.  Until now, there has been an absolute ban on  British Army or police being members of the GAA.  The ban was put in place after the massacre of Bloody Sunday 1920, when British Army officers opened fire on spectators at Croke Park, killing 14 civilians.  Later that same day, the constabulary beat three Republican prisoners-of-war to death in Dublin Castle.

There is a long history of GAA members being targeted by the British Army and their Loyalist allies, even before the Belfast Treaty of 1998 brought a measure of closure to the 1966-1998 civil war in the Six Counties. Many members of the GAA were killed during the War of Independence and many more were interned and tortured during the 1966-1998 civil unrest period.

But all wars come to an end eventually and some form of reconciliation process must begin.  Elizabeth Windsor's historic visit to Croke Park is believed by many to have been the first step in this process.  Her visit to the site of one of the British Government's worst atrocities in Ireland was seen as a welcome gesture of sympathy for the many victims of that government.  Along with David Cameron's public apology in the Commons for the massacres of another Bloody Sunday (Derry, 1972), it seemed that the British were ready to acknowledge the great suffering they had caused in Ireland, a necessary step in the process of reconciliation and healing.

The GAA's gesture in allowing members of the British Army to be active members in the organization seems on the face of it a generous response to the British initiatives.  The Irish Guards regiment played no significant role in the occupation and suppression of the Nationalist people.  As an "Irish" regiment, the army of occupation was careful to keep them far away from the war zones in Belfast, Derry and South Armagh, where they most certainly would have been targets for the Resistance.  The GAA, in allowing British Army personnel to be members, seems like it has put the past behind it, and is ready to close this bloody chapter of its own history.

Unfortunately,  this chapter cannot be closed just yet.  While the British have made demands for the victims of state terror to document their responses to that terror for the historical record, they have not conceded that there is far more they need to reveal about their own engagement in the war.  Until the British agree to a process of historical inquiry, supervised by the international community, there will be no true reconciliation in Ireland.  The GAA should not dishonour the memory of the Fallen by cooperating with the Propaganda Office of the British Ministry of War.

Playlist:
Tunnel Tigers
The Johnsons with Paul Brady

TUNNEL TIGERS
©1967 Ewan McColl

Hares run free on the Wicklow mountains,
Wild geese fly and the foxes play;
Sporting Wicklow boys are working,
Driving a tunnel through the London clay.

Up with the shields and jack it! Ram it!
Drive a tunnel through the London clay.

Lough Derg trout grow fat and lazy,
Salmon sport in Cushla bay;
And fishermen from Connemara
Drive a tunnel through the London clay.

Below Armagh the wild ducks breeding,
Wild fowl gather on Loch Rea,
The sporting boys of Longford County
Are digging a tunnel through the London clay.

The curragh rots on the Achill Island,
Tourists walk on the Newport quay;
The Mayo boys have all gone roving,
Digging a tunnel through the London clay.

The Carlow girls are fine and handsome,
All decked out so neat and gay;
The Carlow boys don't come to court 'em
They're driving a tunnel through the London clay.

Down in the dark are the tunnel tigers
Far from the sun and the light of day;
Down in the land that the sea once buried,
Driving a tunnel through the London clay.



The Town I Loved So Well

Phil Coulter

THE TOWN I LOVED SO WELL
©Phil Coulter

In my memories, I will always see
The town that I have loved so well
Where our school played ball by the old gas yard wall
And we laughed through the smoke and the smell
Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane
Past the jail, and down behind the Fountain
Those were happy days in so many, many ways
In the town I loved so well

In the early morning the shirt factory horn
Called women from Creggan, the moor, and the bog
Whilst the men on the dole played a mother's role
Fed the children and then walked the dog
And when times got tough, there was just about enough
And they saw it through without complaining
For deep inside was a burning pride
For the town I loved so well

There was music there in that Derry air
Like a language that we, we all could understand
I remember the day that I earned my first pay
When I played in a small pick-up band
There I spent my youth, and to tell you the truth
I was sad to leave it all behind me
For I learned about life, and I found a wife
In the town I loved so well

But when I returned, how my eyes have burned
To see how a town could be brought to it's knees
By the armoured cars and the bombed-out bars
And the gas that hangs on to every breeze
Now the army's installed by that old gas yard wall
And the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and their guns, oh my god, what have they done
To the town I loved so well

Now the music's gone but they still carry on
For their spirits been bruised, never broken
They will not forget that their hearts are set
On tomorrow and peace once again
For what's done is done and what's won is won
And what's lost is lost and gone for ever
I can only pray for a bright, brand new day
In the town I love so well