Tag Archives: Diarmaid Ferriter

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People on the Right2Water rally against water charges in Dublin last Saturday

Diarmaid Ferriter misses the point about the movement against water charges. The key to understanding why hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets since 2014 lies not in a discussion about the abolition of rates during the 1970s but in the impact of austerity in this State since 2008.

The communities from which the water protests emerged were those who had suffered most from cutbacks under both Fianna Fáil and coalition governments. They were consistently told that there was no alternative to these policies. But the implementation of water charges was, for many, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The fact that, despite derision from commentators, the movement not only sustained itself but grew, makes it more likely that people will feel that protest over housing, child poverty and numerous other issues may also be successful.

Anyone who wants to see a “civic-minded Irish Republic” should therefore be applauding those who took part in the largest social movement in this country for decades.

Dr Brian Hanley,
Cabra,
Dublin 7.

Water charges and social protest (Irish Times letters page)

Previously: Torrential

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

bc

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Diarmaid Ferriter (above) and Boston College (top)

Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin. sat down with Hot Press magazine this week.

A gentle enough encounter until the subject of The ‘Belfast Project‘ was raised.

After the Good Friday Agreement former loyalist and republican paramilitaries gave a series of candid interviews that chronicled their involvement in the Troubles with the recordings held in a library at Boston College. Until things went horribly wrong.

Hot Press: “You lectured in Boston College for a year. Were you there when the ill-fated Belfast Project archive was being put together?”

Diarmaid Ferriter: Interestingly, it was going on in the background. There was great secrecy around it. We were told a few times, (whispers) “Boston College has a very important project going on with former paramilitaries, and they’re being taped for posterity.” And I thought that it was actually a very good idea. It was done in this country, which people forget, after the War of Independence, but they did it in the 1940s and ‘50s. They collected statements from the survivors. It was called the Bureau of Military History, and do you know when they were released? 2003! Now what those gobshites did was they didn’t get proper legal advice. They went and did these interviews, and do you know what the agreement was? “We won’t release these tapes until you’re dead.” If I made an agreement with you that I’ll talk to you as long as you don’t release this until I die, on the understanding that that will be well into the distant future, so that it would be history and not current affairs, what happens if I walk out and get hit by a bus and die?. That’s the fundamental mistake they made. They didn’t get proper advice, they kept it secret.

Hot Press: “Why?”

Ferriter: “There were people who were pushing their own agendas because they wanted this material either for journalistic reasons or for political reasons… and the whole thing was a mess. It could have been a very valuable project. So they got the worst of all worlds then because it became an issue for practices and procedures in relation to oral history, which were embarrassing for those involved. Remember, the history department in Boston College wasn’t even consulted about this. There were particular individuals within Boston College who were trying to control this for themselves and, again, they got high on their own sense of importance. They thought they were players in the peace process, and they made fools out of themselves.”

Gulp.

The full interview is in the latest issue of Hot Press, on sale now.

Thanks Olaf

Screen Shot 2013-02-26 at 11.21.00Don’t let the hoodie and the smile fool you.

“Seminars in UCD with third-year students on the meaning of a republic in the early 1920s. A latecomer, who said she couldn’t get parking, temporarily interrupts spirited contributions. She lives in Milltown, a 10-minute walk away. The mind boggles.”

Historian Diarmaid Ferriter, there.

Fair point though, in fairness.

Or puritan, de Valera-ian petulance.

YOU decide.

Diarmaid Ferriter (My Education Week, Irish Times)

UPDATE:

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Walking route. Estimated time: 28 minutes.
Screen Shot 2013-02-26 at 11.56.07Driving route: Estimated time: 10 minutes.

(Google Maps)