cúisle mo chroí

A message from the Bloody Sunday Families and wounded:
To our supporters everywhere
On 30th January 1972, a dark cloud descended upon this beautiful city. It stayed until last Tuesday, 15th June 2010 – over 38 years of a journey. It has now been lifted.
It has been a long journey from the beginning of the Bloody Sunday [...]

I came across a reference to the following prose poem in a book I read about lessons from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is called “Unchopping a Tree” and was written by M.S. Merwin; the book described it as a metaphor for the healing of a nation. I like to think [...]

This is heartbreaking:
Police ‘forced’ man to identify mutilated body of murdered nephew, court told
Police effectively forced the uncle of a teenage murder victim to identify the badly mutilated body against his will, the High Court has heard.
Alan Steele also claimed officers did not care because they wrongly believed his dead nephew, David McIlwaine, was a [...]

The (fantastic) organization Reprieve today announced the release of a UN report (click that link to download the full report) into secret detention that exposes UK collusion in secret detention and torture. The investigation found, among other things, that the UK knew of the US’ rendition practices in 2002 but continued to hand them [...]

I had the pleasure of attending a discussion with graphic journalist Joe Sacco last night at the Brooklyn Public Library. It was both my first visit to the library and the first time I’ve heard Sacco talk about his work.
Footnotes in Gaza chronicles Sacco’s quest to uncover the truth about what happened [...]

A must-read article from the Guardian about the potential findings of the Nelson Inquiry by journalist Beatrix Campbell:
The public inquiry into the assassination a decade ago of the human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson was about to open its doors in a blank Belfast office block to witnesses last year when a new and eccentric story [...]

Now that I can finally say I own a computer, I am finally getting around to writing a post about my participation in and my thoughts about the recent United Ireland forums hosted by Sinn Féin in New York and San Francisco. That’s a picture of me at the mic taken by my [...]

January 28th is the date set for the Eames/Bradley Consultative Group on the Past to release their highly anticipated recommendations on how best the north of Ireland might deal with the legacy of the conflict.  In today’s Belfast Telegraph, Brian Rowan shares the news that the CGP will be announcing a “Legacy Commission”–titled as such [...]

Here’s an article from last week’s Irish Voice (15 October) by Cahir O’Doherty.  The quotes from me are a combination of a phone interview and a press release.  You can really tell which ones are more put together–but I really think there were some phrases that were struck from some of the comments that I [...]

The Boston Public Library at Copley Square is host to Relatives for Justice’s Remembering Quilt during the month of July.  I’ve seen sections of the quilt at their office in West Belfast, but have not yet had the opportunity to see the whole thing. I’m sure it is incredibly powerful.
For the quilt, relatives of victims [...]