A Conversation with John Connors – Episode 15

Picture of John Connors in a flatcap.This week we sat down with Love/Hate actor John Connors to discuss Travelers rights, John’s show “Irelands Call“, the Irish Language Act, an hilarious story about his Grandmother on her deathbed, Tyson Fury, Conor McGregor, and what it will take for him to run for politics.

You can check out and follow John on Twitter here.

You can listen tot the bonus podcast here.

buy disulfiram online usa buy modafinil japan John Connors (born 1990) is an Irish actor, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, playwright and human rights activist best known for his role as Patrick Ward in the Irish crime drama series Love/Hate and for Cardboard Gangsters in which he won best actor at the 2018 Irish film and television awards

Connors was born in 1990 in Kings Cross, London, United Kingdom to an Irish traveller family, but moved to Ireland with his family when he was 11 months old. His father suffered from depression and schizophrenia, and took his own life when Connors was eight years old. Connors took up acting when he was 20 years old after being persuaded by his younger brother Joseph in a bid to help him with his own battle with depression. Connors began boxing at a young age because he was experiencing bullying. He is a former three-time Irish boxing champion and a four nations boxing gold medalist.

Connors has spoken out about Travellers rights and against racism, abortion and depression, appearing a number of times on The Late Late Show(RTÉ). He appeared on an episode of the series Living with Lucy(Virgin Media) with Lucy Kennedy, in 2019.

Quotes from the podcast:

A generational impact of trauma that is in the island of Ireland. There’s this thing of trauma that we deal with through substances and alcohol, its why we glorify alcohol.

Our alcohol addiction goes back to colonialism, it’s how we were painted, we started to believe the propaganda.

11% of travellers die by suicide. It’s something that needs to be addressed.

We hold the keys to Gaelic Ireland. A lot of our traditions of family, our community spirit, the way we live and die for each other, this is the ancient tuath that the Brits tried to break up.

Two-thirds of Gaelic Ireland was nomadic. The Brits tried to settle the population for tax purposes. Make them individual based as opposed to community based which was Gaelic.

Stop cutting mental health budgets, which they are doing every year.

We need a cultural revolution around mental health.

Funding needs to be put in place. We need more community centers. Community centers needs to be a hub of creativity.

There’s huge studies shows creativity is a huge component to battle mental health.

Most of these Unionists who block Irish language come from Scotland. They are Gaelic speakers. Let’s all embrace this language.

We’re Gaels, not Anglo Saxons. There’s more Anglo-Saxons in Dublin than up north.

Protestants down south are prosperous and are included more than anybody. We are as inclusive as ever.

The butchers apron is a flag that flew across the world. 150 million people were killed by the British Empire, more than any empire. They raped robbed pillaged slaved and murdered.

The biggest myth is women get oppressed by men and get beat up. Women are actually the leaders in the community. They look after children and financials. They are smarter. 90% of our activists are women.

My grandmother Chrissie Ward, formerly Donoghue, and her sister Nan Joyce were two of the greatest activist we ever had.

If it wasn’t for the women, we would have been obliterated already.

My brothers are with settled women, my two female cousins are with settled men. Is it frowned upon in some communities? Yes, but not all. There is so much diversity within travellers.

Travelers originate in Ireland, that’s our origin, culturally Irish. Tyson Furey mother is an Irish gypsy from Belfast, and his father is an Irish traveler from Galway so he’s a mix of both of them.

There is a lot of fear between both communities. We each have a lot of natural biases against each other. The problem is people look to confirm their own biases.

 

 

 

 

 

A conversation with Clare Bailey – Episode 9

A smiling Claire Bailey with red hair.Green Party leader Clare Bailey joins us to discuss being homeless, The Green Party approach to a border poll, factory farming, LGTBQ rights, support for Irish Language Act, and how do we achieve a Shared Ireland. You can follow Claire on Twitter here.

buy prednisolone eye drops Cherëmushki Clare Bailey (born 18 June 1970) is a Northern Irish politician who has been the Leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland since November 2018.

Bailey attended Lagan College and later Queen’s University.

Bailey identifies as pro-choice and a feminist.

In 2011 she stood unsuccessfully for the Laganbank ward on Belfast City Council.

She served as the GPNI deputy leader until 2017, when she stood down to focus on her work as an MLA.

She has been an MLA for Belfast South since the 2016 election, and was re-elected in 2017.

In November 2018, Bailey became leader of the Northern Irish Green Party.

 

Quotes from the podcast:

We’ve had more people die by suicide since the peace process than were ever killed during the conflict.

We have a level of inter-generational trauma, serious systemic poverty and deprivation in exactly the same places as they would have been before.

We have a drugs problem that we cannot even begin to speak about, never mind tackle.

Our new Ireland is on her way, it’s called climate chaos.

New Ireland forum

I would attend anywhere and talk to anybody about anything.

We have fantastic agriculture here and to start moving into factory farming away from family farming is not to feed ourselves, it’s to trade with other countries while damaging our own environment.

Catholic and protestant children will never be taught together – Catholic Bishop

I was denounced from the pulpit for going to an integrated school by the bishop at my confirmation. I was only ten.

Benefits of integrated education – If you want to overcome our barriers, breaking down differences, starting to learn and grow and friendship together,  the easiest way is through integrated education.

Border poll is a very valid thing to call.

We haven’t had a peace process yet. We have had a political process but not a peace process.

Our communities are so fractured and divided we can’t even do learning and sharing together.

 

 

 

A Conversation with Stephen Travers & Eugene Reavey – Episode 3

Image of Eugene Reavey and Stephen Travers.This weeks Shared Ireland podcasts welcomes Stephen Travers and Eugene Reavey. We discuss The Miami Showband massacre, as well as the Netflix special. A riveting account of a horrific event in Irish history. Two ordinary gentlemen tell extraordinary, vivid, harrowing accounts of personal horror, murder and British State collusion in a dystopian timeline.

You can follow Stephen here and Eugene here.

The buy Lyrica 150 mg online Reavey and O’Dowd killings were two co-ordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 in County Armagh. Six Irish Catholic civilians died after members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group, broke into their homes and shot them. Three members of the Reavey family were shot at their home in Whitecross and four members of the O’Dowd family were shot at their home in Ballydougan. Two of the Reaveys and three of the O’Dowds were killed outright, with the third Reavey victim dying of brain hemorrhage almost a month later.

The shootings were part of a string of attacks on Catholics and Irish nationalists by the “Glenanne gang”; an alliance of loyalist militants, British soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers. Billy McCaughey, a police officer from the RUC Special Patrol Group, admitted taking part and accused another officer of being involved. His colleague John Weir said that those involved included a British soldier, two police officers and an alleged police agent: Robin ‘the Jackal’ Jackson.

The next day, gunmen shot dead ten Ulster Protestant civilians in the Kingsmill massacre. This was claimed as retaliation for the Reavey and O’Dowd shootings. Kingsmill was the climax of a string of tit-for-tat killings in the area during the mid-1970s.

The Miami Showband killings (also called the Miami Showband Massacre) was an attack on 31 July 1975 by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group. It took place on the A1 road at Buskhill in County Down, Northern Ireland. Five people were killed, including three members of The Miami Showband, who were one of Ireland’s most popular cabaret bands. Stephen Travers was a member of this band.

The band was travelling home to Dublin late at night after a performance in Banbridge. Halfway to Newry, their minibus was stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint where gunmen in British Army uniforms ordered them to line up by the roadside. At least four of the gunmen were soldiers from the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), and all were members of the UVF. Two of the gunmen, both soldiers, died when the time bomb they were hiding on the minibus exploded. The other gunmen then opened fire on the dazed band members, killing three and wounding two. It is believed that the bomb was meant to explode en route, so that the victim band members would appear to be IRA bomb-smugglers and stricter security measures would be established at the border.

Two serving UDR soldiers and one former UDR soldier were found guilty of the murders and received life sentences; they were released in 1998. Those responsible for the attack belonged to the Glenanne gang, a secret alliance of loyalist militants, rogue police officers, and UDR soldiers. There are also allegations that British military intelligence agents were involved. According to former Intelligence Corps agent Captain Fred Holroyd, the killings were organised by British intelligence officer Robert Nairac, together with the UVF’s Mid-Ulster Brigade and its commander Robin “The Jackal” Jackson. The Historical Enquiries Team investigated the killings and released their report to the victims’ families in December 2011. It confirmed that Jackson was linked to the attack by fingerprints. Documentary evidence, published in 2015, clears Robert Nairac of complicity as it determines he was not in Northern Ireland when the ambush took place. Stephen Travers discusses these findings on this podcast.

 

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