The purpose of the event was to press for the passing of the Occupied Territories Bill which the Dublin government has dragged its feet on, in addition to the parallel tardiness the government has been culpable for in relation to substantial domestic matters of housing and health.
The two main speakers were Senator Frances Black, who who was the first Irish parliamentarian to press for legislation that would bring into law the Occupied Territories Bill, and Faten Alsourani, a Palestinian Lawyer who grew up in Gaza and lost family members to Israeli violence.
The government at least is consistent in both its domestic and foreign policy in that it simply fails to act or does so at such a snail's pace that the benefits trickle down very slowly.
The government go-slow approach to the Occupied Territories Bill is characterised by delaying and deferring to such an extent that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that derailment of the Bill is the real purpose. Since Frances Black first launched her bid to have legislation enacted, the government has behaved more like a committee as characterised by Fred Allen:
a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done.
In addition to the two speakers Drogheda Stands With Palestine featured centrally. While Bobby McCormack chaired the event wearing his Development Perspectives hat, his keffiyeh, metaphorically, was also very much on display through his association with Drogheda Stands With Palestine. Additionally, the hall was electrified by the contributions of our very own Alan Kelly and Siobhan Newman who were both invited onto the stage to address the audience. Like Bobby, they have given both selflessly and tirelessly of their time in pursuit of a Free Palestine. The night's proceedings were concluded when yet another DSWP activist, Margaret McConnon played guitar and sang alongside Siobhan Newman.
Disappointingly, there was only one of the Louth TDs in attendance - Ged Nash of the Labour Party who has never stopped shot of typifying Israeli policy for what it is - genocide. While the Sinn Fein TD, Joanna Byrne, was not present she received huge praise for the positions she has taken up - and at cost to herself when she was ousted as co-chair of Drogheda United Football Club for calling on the Irish soccer team to boycott the upcoming match against Israel - and no one in the audience was left uncertain as to what side of the fence she is on when it comes to Palestine's Israeli problem.
At one point during the Q&A I took the opportunity to raise my concerns about the policy of the Irish Writers Union which lamentably failed at its recent AGM to support the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel,. That seemed to me to be the wholesale abdication of responsibility on the part of writers to their besieged and brutalised colleagues in the Occupied Territories. I made the point that despite very persuasive arguments presented by Kevin Doyle and Sally Rooney, the governing committee opted to side with Alan Shatter and abandon the Palestinians. It was a theme Frances Black took up when she again addressed the audience. She was aghast at how a writers union could fail so abysmally, and was wholly supportive of the efforts of those within the union to have the matter revisited.
Since the Barbican even, Helen McEntee has announced that the government intends to make progress on the Bill within the next fortnight. While this has been given a guarded welcome by Frances Black, she made it very clear at the Barbican that government promises are plentiful, actions much less so. The one message Helen McEntee and her government colleagues needs to hear is stop waffling and just do it.
Since the Barbican even, Helen McEntee has announced that the government intends to make progress on the Bill within the next fortnight. While this has been given a guarded welcome by Frances Black, she made it very clear at the Barbican that government promises are plentiful, actions much less so. The one message Helen McEntee and her government colleagues needs to hear is stop waffling and just do it.
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