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Getting a better deal for our community in Britain
By PAUL DONOVAN
 MP John McDonnell is battling for greater recognition for the Irish community in Britain. He tells PAUL DONOVAN why the issue is now more important than ever.
Labour MP John McDonnell believes the failure of the Irish Government to honour its pledges on Dion funding increases the need for a representative body for the Irish in Britain.
Mr McDonnell called for such a body to be formed earlier in the year — but last week the process really got under way with a conference now planned for next March.
He said: “We had a meeting with representatives from the All Party Parliamentary Group, the Federation of Irish Societies, the Irish in Britain Representation Group, Action Group For Irish Youth and the Counties Association to discuss a one day a year conference.
“On that day all the representatives of Irish organisations across the country come together to talk about an agenda for the Irish in Britain.”
Following the meeting each representative will go back to get formal approval from their organisation for the conference which is planned for the end of March in Birmingham.
“Once the approval is obtained we will meet again to agree the structure for the day and get working groups for individual sessions of the conference itself. The idea will be to look at generic issues like health, housing and economy,” said Mr McDonnell.
The only proviso of the initial meeting was that the event and process should not just amount to a talking shop.
“The idea is to come together, share what we are all doing, network and develop a strategy for developing the priorities over a 12-month period.
“It is not setting up a new organisation, but simply adding value to what we are all doing by working together through a shared sense of priorities.”
It is envisaged that from this process will develop a united voice for the Irish in Britain — consolidating the national organisations.
In 12 months time all the organisations will gather again to revisit the strategy and see how far things have progressed.
And the Hayes and Harlington MP emphasised that the behaviour of the Irish Government over Dion funding made the process that much more urgent.
He said: “It seemed that for the first time ever the Irish Government was listening to the Irish community.
“But having raised those expectations many felt the reaction was a real snub. The level of funding provided was so trivial compared to the needs.
“The Irish economy remained very strong and it was felt the government had reneged on the commitments.
“The feelings among the Irish community here vary from disagreement to downright anger. We’ve been led up the garden path a number of times.
“The Irish Ambassador has sent me the speeches he has made over the past 12 months in which he acknowledged the role of the Irish in Britain, the contribution it has made over the decades to the Irish economy and the well-being of Irish people.
“Although there has been some improvement, we need an agreed and planned approach to meeting the needs of the Irish community in this country.”
Mr McDonnell sees the way forward as being to agree a common agenda with the Irish community in Britain to put pressure on the Irish Government and to agree a planned approach to investment for social and cultural support for the Irish Diaspora.
On the Irish scene Mr McDonnell is pleased about the progress made in the area of Travellers over the past 12 months.
“We’ve got the focus of central and local government for the first time,” he said. “What we have to do now is to mobilise it into a programme of reform.
“That will include legislative reform and an investment programme to meet the needs of Travellers.
“Finally, we need to see how we can work across the Irish community with central and local government on the issues around discrimination and prejudice.
“The development in this area over the last 12 months has given a lot of people a lot of hope.”
But the MP has been aghast at how the British Government has built on the foundation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to the detriment of people’s civil liberties.
First introduced in 1974, the PTA was renewed each year.
“The way things have moved on is that the expertise developed by the security services in the implementation of the PTA has been refined in a number of ways,” he said.
“For example, there is no annual renewal now. This legislation is permanent.
“Second, the lessons learnt over how to repress people under the PTA have been increased in the new legislation.
“Detention without trial now goes beyond anything we experienced with internment. At least with internment people were held in an area where they could associate with people who were being held for the same reason.
“We’ve now got people being held in isolation suffering mental health problems.”
He also points to how restrictions on the media have gone further now than anything in the Irish situation where Sinn Fein were gagged.
“Every lesson learned in Ireland has been developed on and multiplied,” he said.
“Police inspectors have the ability to close off whole areas of cities because they believe there is a terrorist risk and search anywhere in those areas.
“These are powers we would never have believed possible under the PTA, but they are now enshrined permanently in British legislation.”
Mr McDonnell is also dismayed by the reaction of MPs. “The frightening thing about it is that so few MPs in Parliament actually get up and protest,” he said.
“It is frightening what the government can do now without any democratic accountability.”
Mr McDonnell has also been active in the campaigns to free alleged miscarriage of justice victims Christy McGrath and Susan May.
“Christy has held up well in prison, but I do fear for his well-being as this case drags on,” he said.
“There is no doubt that people become institutionalised in prison and after a few years give up hope.
“Susan May has been determined right through the campaign and stood up remarkably well. She is innocent and continuing to keep her in prison amounts to torture. It is not just torture of her but also her family. But we will get them out. It is just a matter of time.”
Mr McDonnell sees a problem in the system at present with the under-resourcing of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and the intransigent attitude of the Court of Appeal.
“The problem is that the CCRC is not working. There is not a lack of will on the part of the CCRC to investigate cases or to bring cases forward.
“The problem is that the CCRC is significantly under-resourced therefore isn’t able to take on the number of cases that are referred to it. It is not able to work as fast as it would want.
“In addition, even though the CCRC has done some superb work in raising the issues, the Appeal Court has rejected the cases.
“Something needs to be done now to tackle the Appeal Court and the prejudices that lie there. Maybe the powers of the CCRC need to be strengthened.”
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