15 April 1999 Edition
Television: Concrete Coffins
Hillsborough - The Legacy (BBC1)
Prime Time - Kosovo (RTE1)
Let's Talk (BBC1)
US Masters Golf (Network2 and BBC)
The Sun's reaction was typical of its distain for the working class - ``Fans picked pockets of victims'', ``urinated on police'' etc., and insult was added to injury by police questioning of relatives, inquiring if victims had alcohol consumed.
Back in old times, when the Ard Chomhairle had one tweed jacket between them, republicans didn't mention Golf, but now that we've ``moved on'' I feel compelled to pen a few lines on the men with little balls and yellow diamond sweaters - except there's not much to comment on, despite the wall to wall coverage, bar the fact that all the fuss was over the right to wear a green blazer which was a First Communion replica complete with goldy buttons.
`Twas far from golden buttons were reared the men (and odd woman) who have filled Hill 16 and other terraces throughout Ireland over the last century. The tenth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, which resulted in the suffocation of 96 Liverpudlians in the Sheffield pig pens, featured on BBC's ``Hillsborough - The Legacy''. We still haven't learned - Hill 16 and the Canal End remain death traps, surrounded by 20-foot wire mesh and spikes, retained by self-important officialdom.
Considering crowds of up to 90,000 have attended Irish sporting events, and some soccer grounds retain wooden stands, it is but a miracle that has prevented our own Hillsborough.
Despite crowd congestion troubles at Hillsborough on previous occasions, the FA and police deemed it suitable to hold 54,000 fans for an FA Cup Semi-Final in 1989. A number of survivors and relatives of those who perished discussed their battle to cope with the pain of bereavement, anger and frustration at the incompetence of the football authorities and subsequent state injustices.
Trevor Hicks described himself as ``not lucky - if you knew what has been through my head since'' and talked of fans who were penned in ``like animals'' in seven seperate enclosures (remember the tabloids' infamous post-Heysel cry ``Cage These Animals'') on the Leppings Lane Terrace. ``We were going into killing fields.''
Despite obvious problems, the police opened extra gates, leading to the fatal crush, later described by Chief Justice Taylor as ``a blunder of the first magnitude''. As Eddie Spearrit recalled in this stirring documentary: ``I tried to lift my young son up, but the spikes were too high, so I just grabbed hold of him and watched his life being squeezed out of him - he was my responsibility and I failed in that.''
Fans described the ``cops' total indifference, pushing fans back'' and the ``totally inadequate response'' - i.e. one ambulance and bodies carried on advertising hoardings.
The Sun's reaction was typical of its distain for the working class - ``Fans picked pockets of victims'', ``urinated on police'' etc., and insult was added to injury by police questioning of relatives, inquiring if victims had alcohol consumed.
The subsequent and continued reaction of the state and establishment has mirrored similar treatment meted out to Bloody Sunday victims - ``a white-wash inquiry'', ``fundamentally us versus the state and we're the little people'', a failure to prosecute those responsible and the relatives' continued struggle: ``At least they deserve justice - it is our duty to fight''.
The power of TV was felt following Jimmy McGovern's powerful drama-documentary in 1997, which was partially responsible for a subsequent inquiry, but as yet ``the full jigsaw of evidence and accountability has not been assembled''. The few positive outcomes have included improved safety measures and a forging of the Merseyside community, which contains a considerable Irish population.
Incredibly, a number of survivors still attend Anfield, until such time as they are priced out by ticket hikes and commercial TV, but then again ``it's just about money''
Ireland's most eloquent ``revolutionary on the ditch'', Eamon McCann, starring on BBC's ``Let's Talk'' with Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew, highlighted the concurrent plight of 200,000 Angolan refugees, whose country is currently plagued by maybe next year's ``most evil dictatorship'', currently existing solely because of Western arms.
Then there was Mike Milotte's excellent report, titled the Liberation of Kosovo, on RTE's Prime Time. His report focused on the West's continued refusal to support genuine Serbian opposition campaigns, while boosting Milosevic including the U.S.-sponsored Dayton Accord of 1995, which granted Serbia power over half of Bosnia and all of Kosovo!
Now that he is not perceived as beneficial to Western interests and the arms industry needs to flex its muscles, Milosevic, who garnered 20% of the vote in recent elections, has been thrown a Thatcher-Falkland-like lifeline as Serbs unite to fight the common enemy and ``those who hold the real keys to a democratic solution have now been silenced for a long time''. The Russian bear has been baited, ethnic cleansing has been dramatically accelerated and Tony Blair assures that ``we're a peaceful people''.
Over on David Dunseith's ditch, Eamon was advising ``the people on the hill of Drumcree to get a life and go home'' and desist from portraying ``Protestant culture'', including Georgie Best and Van the Man, as sash-wearing maniacs.
The Right Very Reverend Foster was castigating the violent antics of Orange thugs, while on the other hand advising fenians to ``accept this decent responsible and respectable parade'' lest there be ``mayhem and disruption of the province'' - surely a collared man's way of saying ``croppy lie down''.
No chance big lad!
By Sean O'Donaile
Prime Time - Kosovo (RTE1)
Let's Talk (BBC1)
US Masters Golf (Network2 and BBC)
The Sun's reaction was typical of its distain for the working class - ``Fans picked pockets of victims'', ``urinated on police'' etc., and insult was added to injury by police questioning of relatives, inquiring if victims had alcohol consumed.
Back in old times, when the Ard Chomhairle had one tweed jacket between them, republicans didn't mention Golf, but now that we've ``moved on'' I feel compelled to pen a few lines on the men with little balls and yellow diamond sweaters - except there's not much to comment on, despite the wall to wall coverage, bar the fact that all the fuss was over the right to wear a green blazer which was a First Communion replica complete with goldy buttons.
`Twas far from golden buttons were reared the men (and odd woman) who have filled Hill 16 and other terraces throughout Ireland over the last century. The tenth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, which resulted in the suffocation of 96 Liverpudlians in the Sheffield pig pens, featured on BBC's ``Hillsborough - The Legacy''. We still haven't learned - Hill 16 and the Canal End remain death traps, surrounded by 20-foot wire mesh and spikes, retained by self-important officialdom.
Considering crowds of up to 90,000 have attended Irish sporting events, and some soccer grounds retain wooden stands, it is but a miracle that has prevented our own Hillsborough.
Despite crowd congestion troubles at Hillsborough on previous occasions, the FA and police deemed it suitable to hold 54,000 fans for an FA Cup Semi-Final in 1989. A number of survivors and relatives of those who perished discussed their battle to cope with the pain of bereavement, anger and frustration at the incompetence of the football authorities and subsequent state injustices.
Trevor Hicks described himself as ``not lucky - if you knew what has been through my head since'' and talked of fans who were penned in ``like animals'' in seven seperate enclosures (remember the tabloids' infamous post-Heysel cry ``Cage These Animals'') on the Leppings Lane Terrace. ``We were going into killing fields.''
Despite obvious problems, the police opened extra gates, leading to the fatal crush, later described by Chief Justice Taylor as ``a blunder of the first magnitude''. As Eddie Spearrit recalled in this stirring documentary: ``I tried to lift my young son up, but the spikes were too high, so I just grabbed hold of him and watched his life being squeezed out of him - he was my responsibility and I failed in that.''
Fans described the ``cops' total indifference, pushing fans back'' and the ``totally inadequate response'' - i.e. one ambulance and bodies carried on advertising hoardings.
The Sun's reaction was typical of its distain for the working class - ``Fans picked pockets of victims'', ``urinated on police'' etc., and insult was added to injury by police questioning of relatives, inquiring if victims had alcohol consumed.
The subsequent and continued reaction of the state and establishment has mirrored similar treatment meted out to Bloody Sunday victims - ``a white-wash inquiry'', ``fundamentally us versus the state and we're the little people'', a failure to prosecute those responsible and the relatives' continued struggle: ``At least they deserve justice - it is our duty to fight''.
The power of TV was felt following Jimmy McGovern's powerful drama-documentary in 1997, which was partially responsible for a subsequent inquiry, but as yet ``the full jigsaw of evidence and accountability has not been assembled''. The few positive outcomes have included improved safety measures and a forging of the Merseyside community, which contains a considerable Irish population.
Incredibly, a number of survivors still attend Anfield, until such time as they are priced out by ticket hikes and commercial TV, but then again ``it's just about money''
Ireland's most eloquent ``revolutionary on the ditch'', Eamon McCann, starring on BBC's ``Let's Talk'' with Sinn Féin's Michelle Gildernew, highlighted the concurrent plight of 200,000 Angolan refugees, whose country is currently plagued by maybe next year's ``most evil dictatorship'', currently existing solely because of Western arms.
Then there was Mike Milotte's excellent report, titled the Liberation of Kosovo, on RTE's Prime Time. His report focused on the West's continued refusal to support genuine Serbian opposition campaigns, while boosting Milosevic including the U.S.-sponsored Dayton Accord of 1995, which granted Serbia power over half of Bosnia and all of Kosovo!
Now that he is not perceived as beneficial to Western interests and the arms industry needs to flex its muscles, Milosevic, who garnered 20% of the vote in recent elections, has been thrown a Thatcher-Falkland-like lifeline as Serbs unite to fight the common enemy and ``those who hold the real keys to a democratic solution have now been silenced for a long time''. The Russian bear has been baited, ethnic cleansing has been dramatically accelerated and Tony Blair assures that ``we're a peaceful people''.
Over on David Dunseith's ditch, Eamon was advising ``the people on the hill of Drumcree to get a life and go home'' and desist from portraying ``Protestant culture'', including Georgie Best and Van the Man, as sash-wearing maniacs.
The Right Very Reverend Foster was castigating the violent antics of Orange thugs, while on the other hand advising fenians to ``accept this decent responsible and respectable parade'' lest there be ``mayhem and disruption of the province'' - surely a collared man's way of saying ``croppy lie down''.
No chance big lad!
By Sean O'Donaile