Eamonn McCann was a guest on BBC‘s Red Lines radio programme with Mark Carruthers last week and the veteran activist discussed a range of topics, from the horror of Bloody Sunday to the generosity of people in the street as he gets through his days living with apraxia.
Still blessed with that unmistakeable booming voice, the 80-year-old McCann concluded the interview with a fascinating anecdote about how he had recently been intimidated by a group of men when he made an appearance at a picket line in Ballymena to show solidarity with striking workers. The complaint? That one-time MLA McCann and Nobel Peace Price winner John Hume had “wrecked” the north.
“As I was leaving, I was confronted by about half a dozen guys who I saw walking towards me through the crowd and one of them said, ‘You wrecked this country. You and John Hume wrecked this country!'” McCann revealed.
“I was quite bewildered. Me and John Hume? Not even me and Martin McGuinness – me and John Hume wrecked this country! Then I realised what they were talking about. They were talking about the civil rights movement – that’s the only context they would link together John and myself. What they were saying was: you wrecked this country by going onto the streets for ‘one man, one vote’ and so on.
“I found that very interesting that all these years later, in the context of trade unions gathered outside a factory in Ballymena, that there was a group [like that]. I’m not saying they were representative of everybody, but there was more than one of them and they were very serious and determined. Indeed they made me feel nervous when they came over [saying] ‘You and John Hume wrecked this country’. What a thing to believe in 2023.”
I was confronted by about half a dozen guys who I saw walking towards me through the crowd and one of them said, ‘You wrecked this country. You and John Hume wrecked this country!’
Eamonn McCann
Over half a century after the civil rights movement and two decades on from the Good Friday Agreement, it is genuinely startling to think that such warped thinking exists.
As well as tales of being accosted by morons in Antrim, the interview with McCann features discussion about his formative years in Derry, border polls and the time he sang ‘The Internationale’ upon being elected to Stormont in 2016 (you can see that moment here – watch out for Gary Middleton’s ungracious sneer).
Listen to the Eamonn McCann Red Lines episode here.
Popish plots in the 21st century
While politicians of all hues in the north have been fairly unanimous in their response to the recent controversy regarding ‘The Nolan Show’ in seeking greater transparency, some folk would have you believe that there is nothing to see here and that, actually, a great nationalist conspiracy is afoot to “seize control of the public space” in northern society.
A straightforward story about questionable behaviour at a publicly funded broadcast operation has been hysterically spun into a swirling web of obfuscation by some of the usual suspects in loyalist circles, with blatantly weaponised language and baseless accusations of sectarianism thrown in for good measure. Tellingly, in this fantasy, The Nolan Show and its presenter are portrayed as some sort of bulwark against the imagined nationalist conspiracy.
The feverish loyalist claims of a nefarious nationalist conspiracy in the north this past week reminded me of the frequent outbursts of Eoghan Harris and others against what they perceived as a “greening” of the institutions in the south post-Brexit. Nowadays, we are asked to believe that ‘sleeper activists’ are operating in the media, in the civil service and even under the bed.
Such paranoia is not limited to anti-Good Friday Agreement loyalists and crusading partitionist commentators. It has filtered through the minds of Fianna Fáil politicians too. Senators from that party have seriously suggested that the Irish media has been “infiltrated” and that Sinn Féin are gaining “control” of media discourse.
It isn’t just Shinners who are viewed with suspicion. If you are a mildly Catholic northerner whose hero is John Hume and you take pride in Seamus Heaney, well, chances are you might be in on it too.
A Game of Two Hearts
Ever hear of the Ireland youth international who had open heart surgery and played on anyway? That’s the incredible story of Mark O’Brien, the former Ireland youth team captain who played for Derby County in the Championship as a teenager after coming through life-saving heart surgery.
Touted for great things as precocious defender, O’Brien overcame heart issues to forge a very respectable career for himself as a professional footballer in England and Scotland before he was forced to retire prematurely in 2020 at the age of 27.
Now, aged 30, he is bringing out a book about that experience.
“Now looking at the world through different eyes, he explains how he is defeating the demons of depression and anxiety to rebuild his life,” goes the blurb on the Morgan Lawrence website.
“Today he combines working in a pastoral role at Newport with media work and public speaking. Mark’s story is for supporters of life as well as football. His hope is that young people will take heart and hope from his compelling words.”
Nothing is written 