Yearly Archives: 2017

Ibrahim Halawa

Aaron Rogan, of The Times Ireland edition, reports:

The process of returning Ibrahim Halawa to Ireland after four years in an Egyptian prison will start next week following the conclusion of his trial.

The judge in the case announced yesterday that he would deliver his verdict on Monday. Regardless of the ruling, Mr Halawa’s return home is expected to be secured.

President Sisi of Egypt has promised the Irish government that he will grant Mr Halawa clemency and allow him to leave if he is convicted.

Irish officials in Cairo will seek to have that process started as soon as a verdict is delivered. Mr Halawa, 21, from Firhouse in south Dublin, has been in prison in Cairo since 2013.

Halawa’s return home to be confirmed by Egypt within day (Aaron Rogan, The Times Ireland edition)

Members of the Citizens Assembly vote on the Eighth Amendment in April

Yesterday.

In The Times Ireland edition.

Ellen Coyne wrote about how a woman, referred to as Niamh, wanted an abortion in Ireland 16 years ago but was warned by a counsellor she might go to jail if she did so.

She was told this by a counsellor working for Life pregnancy counselling service in Cork city.

Ms Coyne explained how Life changed its name to Anew in 2015 and how it receives annual funding from the HSE.

From Ms Coyne’s report:

“I sat down and [the counsellor] said, ‘well you do know now, your baby has a heartbeat’. And, ‘you can’t even think about an abortion, that would be murder’. And she said, ‘I understand you’ve talked to loads of people, and one of those people now could go to the gardaí and tell them that you’ve had an abortion. And if they find out, you’ll spend years in prison’,” Niamh said.

She was so scared of being arrested and not being able to get a job that she continued the pregnancy. “I was forced into it. It was horrible.”

Life changed its name to Anew in 2015. Like Cura, it receives annual funding from the HSE crisis pregnancy programme. Niamh said that there was Southern Health Board literature on the tables and walls. Both Anew and Cura are anti-abortion, but do not clearly advertise their ethos. Cura also receives funding from the Catholic Church.

“I remember going to them and thinking they were funded by the HSE so they must be legit,” Niamh said. “Now I can see it clearly, I am so, so angry about it.”

…Niamh’s story was featured as part of the citizens’ assembly review of abortion laws this year. She said she was conscious that there were anti-abortion extremists who argue that if the counsellor had not deceived her, she would not have her eldest son.

“But I’m lucky, because I love my son,” she said. “There are other women out there that do not love their children. Some women look at a child that they didn’t want, and that’s not OK.

“And it’s also not OK for a child to grow up in a relationship where they are not wanted. That harms society. It’s just about indentured servitude at the end of the day, creating this class system of vulnerable people having children early.”

…Niamh’s son is 16 years old and understands what happened to his mother when she was pregnant with him. “He has said that he understands my decisions. He also feels very angry. It makes him panic thinking that that could happen to him and his girlfriend or friend even now,” she said. “And I am very angry. Nothing has changed. It’s the same shit over and over again.”

Crisis pregnancy counsellor told Irish student abortion would lead to years in jail (The Times Ireland edition, Ellen Coyne)

Rollingnews

History is being forgotten.

David Wall writes:

As the Irish education system is revamped and modernised an issue that slipped below the radar was the relegation of History to being an option subject.

Students will no longer have to learn about The Age of Exploration (slavery and empire) The Reformation (religious intolerance) Victorian child labour (the creation of workers’ rights) or World War II (the dangers of a democratically elected demagogue who builds a platform built on intolerance and hate…)

At junior cert we learn about Celts right up to modern-day Europe and Ireland. We are given a grounding, thin as it may be, in how the world has become what it is. We develop a sense of self and begin to question why things are as they are.

The junior cert might not allow for depth of study but it grants us with an understanding of who and what we are. It provides us with opportunities to question and challenge the structures of the world, it allows us to form our own identity and it provides the capacity to realise that marching under the swastika possibly isn’t the best way to present an argument.

Students are armed with the skills of considering fact vs fiction. They focus what propaganda is and how to question sources. They are introduced to the skills necessary to combat lies and hate and develop the capacity to think for themselves.

They no longer have to do this.

The protests and counter-protests in America have served to scratch at the thin skin of social inclusivity within America. If the images from recent weeks of young white men with neatly parted hair illuminated by flaming torches were in black and white we could have safely assumed they were of rallies and marches in 1930s Germany.

They weren’t. This is America; Land of the Brave and Home of the Free, 2017.The anger and hate contorting the faces of these young men beneath the swastika encapsulates a damaged society. That the violence and hate is so closely linked to events in living memory is frightening.

A rudimentary Junior Cert education tells us what dangers to expect.

A combination of historical amnesia, willful ignorance and blatant hate has bloomed within American society in recent weeks. This is not an earth-shattering revelation, accepted, but it is a moment of truth.

The speed with which history repeats itself is terrifying. We are teetering on an abyss as the ground fragments beneath our scrabbling feet. Whether this is overly dramatic or not, the sentiment is clear: the study and understanding of our history is not an option.

David Wall is a freelance writer

Pic: Amazon

 

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