Children Should Grow up Without Fear of Bombs
According to former IRA member Pat Sheehan, the situation in Northern Ireland has changed fundamentally. With Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Féin party recently became the head of government in Northern Ireland for the first time. In the following interview, Sinn Féin MP Pat Sheehan explains the situation in his home country.
You were in prison for 18 years. When was that?
Pat Sheehan: I was imprisoned in 1979 and released in 1987. I was arrested again in 1989 and released in 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement; if this agreement had not been reached, I would have had to stay in prison for another 10 years.
What were you accused of?
Sheehan: The first time I was charged with causing an explosion in the centre of Belfast in which nobody was injured. That was at a time when the IRA was running a bombing campaign against shops. The second time I was arrested for murdering members of the security forces and the British Army, resulting in deaths. I was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Were you on hunger strike at the time Bobby Sands died; were you in his group?
Sheehan: Yes, we were together, Bobby Sands and others who had decided to go on hunger strike. I had been on strike for 45 days when they decided to call off the strike. I would probably have been the next to die, but it was decided to end the strike. I had nothing to do with this decision, but thanks to it I survived. My condition was critical and I would probably have had 48 to 72 hours to live. I was very lucky.
What was the reason for the hunger strike?
Sheehan: The British wanted to criminalise us, it started in 1918 when the first Irish Republican prisoners decided to go on hunger strike. Terence MacSwiney, the mayor of Cork, died in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike, bringing the Irish question to an international level. Many others followed him.
How many people died as a result of the hunger strike during your time?
Sheehan: During our time, 10 prisoners died. The hunger strike was a reaction to the injustice that was done to us. We used the hunger strike as a weapon to embarrass political opponents and force them to recognise us as political prisoners. We were prisoners, we were involved in a political conflict because of the political conditions here. There was discrimination in all areas of life, in employment, housing, education and so on.
Why did you choose violence?
Sheehan: We believed it was the only way to achieve radical change. We had tried non-violently before, with peaceful protests. At that time, it wasn't about a united Ireland, not even about the withdrawal of the British. We were demanding state reform, an end to discrimination and similar measures. The state responded to these demands with violence. People - myself included - then believed that political change could only be achieved with arms. There had been many armed uprisings against the British presence in the past, going back centuries. The most famous was the Easter Rising of 1916 and the War of Independence that followed. We grew up in a historical context and believed we had the right to fight against the British. But instead of finding solutions, they formed a one-party unionist state. There was no end to the discrimination and there was no end to the violence of the unionists (those in favour of the union of Northern Ireland with Great Britain; editor's note).
What has changed with the Good Friday Agreement?
Sheehan: Many important things. The agreement gave Irish republicans the opportunity to achieve their goals by democratic, peaceful and therefore non-violent means. The Agreement includes a provision for a referendum on Irish unity. We are confident that this will happen in the foreseeable future.
Do you really believe that?
Sheehan: Absolutely!
In the near future?
Sheehan: I think there will be a referendum before the end of this decade.
Where will the referendum take place? Just in Northern Ireland or also in the Republic of Ireland?
Sheehan: The agreement states that it will cover the whole of Ireland and that a majority on both sides is required.
Will the London government accept this?
Sheehan: The British government will have to hold the referendum: they themselves guaranteed when they signed the Good Friday Agreement that they would accept it if the majority were in favour. But we need to prepare. We need to know what will happen to the health system, what will happen to the education system, we also need to protect the rights and cultural activities of Unionists in Northern Ireland, we need to decide what our flag will look like, what anthem we will choose, in short, all these issues need to be resolved.
What will happen to the Irish language? What role does it play in education?
Sheehan: The Irish language education system is quite small, but it is also the fastest growing system. The Unionists are still opposed to Irish language education and have hindered it but have not been able to stop it. West Belfast has the largest Irish language secondary school. When we started it there were about 500 pupils, now there are over a thousand and we are already thinking about opening another secondary school.
Are there Irish as a second language courses in English schools?
Sheehan: When I was at school, there was no opportunity to learn Irish. We had to travel to Irish classes in the Republic. Unfortunately, foreign language teaching - not just in Irish - is becoming less and less in schools. My partner is Basque and the children attend a Basque school where Spanish and English are also taught. Foreign languages are already taught there in kindergarten. In our country, on the other hand, there are no native language lessons and foreign language teaching in general is in sharp decline.
What about the language in the Legislative Assembly? Can you use Irish?
Sheehan: Yes, that was planned from the beginning, now we have simultaneous translation. We can also use Irish in court.
Do you still feel like a second-class citizen?
Sheehan: My father's generation lived in fear, we were aware of the injustices we faced. But today's young generation doesn't feel like second-class citizens, they live for the future. We live in a society that has completely changed.
Does the hatred of the Irish language and everything associated with it still exist and how can it be overcome?
Sheehan: There is no rational reason to be against a language, there is no rational reason to be against equality. We talk about equality, but the unionists are convinced that they lose something with equality. They fear that if Ireland is united we will do to them what they have done to us.
Is there a danger of that?
Sheehan: No. In a united Ireland, Irish republicans, myself included, will be the greatest defenders of unionism because the unionist community and its culture must not only be protected but enhanced. That's what I keep telling people. We don't want the North to be dependent on the South, we have great opportunities here to build a country based on equality, honesty and justice and we should all be proud of that. The children should grow up in this environment, without fear of bombs. I believe that will happen.
About the Interviewee
Pat Sheehan is a member of parliament for the Sinn Féin party, which won the elections in Northern Ireland two years ago. Sheehan is 66 years old and has had a long political career. He was a member of the IRA and spent a long time in the well known Maze prison. He almost died in 1981 during a hunger strike called by the IRA. Following the Good Friday Agreement between the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and the parties in Northern Ireland, which ended the violent phase of the Northern Ireland conflict in 1998, and the subsequent amnesty, Sheehan returned to politics. He has a 24-year-old son with his first wife and two children with his current partner, who is Basque and lives in the Basque Country; he is proud that his children attend a Basque school.
Factbox
‘Primorski Dnevnik’ is published in Trst/Trieste and is the successor to the Slovenian ‘Partizanski Dnevnik’, the only printed partisan daily newspaper in fascist-occupied Europe. Bojan Brezigar (pictured) was its editor-in-chief from 1992 to 2007.
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