Happy New Year one and all - 2026 - Bliain Úr faoi Mhaise Daoibhse | Eyes On The Prize. | ‘I’m so scared, please come’

2026 - Bliain Úr faoi Mhaise Daoibhse

A very happy New Year to all readers of this column, to the staff of the Belfast Media Group and The Irish Echo. And to you good readers who have stayed with me over the years.

None of us know what 2026 will bring but we can be sure it will be interesting. May it also be good to you all and to your families. Beirigí bua. 

Eyes On The Prize. 

2025 was a good year for Irish Unity. All of those advocating for a new Ireland, including Sinn Féin’s Commission on the Future of Ireland, worked hard and effectively promoting the message that Irish Unity will be good for the people of the island of Ireland. Crucially, both houses of the Oireachtas, the Dáil and the Seanad, passed motions calling on the Irish government to begin the process of planning and preparing for Unity referendums. These include The Oireachtas Good Friday Agreement Committee. This is the only all-Ireland committee in Leinster House. It is unique in that Members of Parliament from the north join TDs and Senators to work on issues relating to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Good Friday Agreement remains the basis for relations on the island of Ireland and between the islands of Ireland and Britain. However, its implementation has been challenged, principally by indifference from London and a lack of consistent and positive leadership from Dublin.

‘I’m so scared, please come’

For as long as I have been a republican activist I have been reading and writing about the impact of British colonialism on peoples around the world. As the largest empire in human history Britain’s conquests and exploitation of other places resulted in untold misery, death and hardship for those living under British rule - not least here in Ireland. To maintain its domination, the British Empire used violence and dehumanised the peoples it sought to exploit. Behind its claim of being a guardian of the ‘rule of law’ Britain stole land and property, exploited mineral resources and reduced native peoples to little more than slaves.

Among those many locations was Palestine. British policy is largely responsible for the decades of war that have plighted that land for a hundred years. Current British government policy is facilitating the genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli apartheid regime.

I have visited Palestine and Israel on at least four occasions, including the Gaza Strip in 2009. I walked along the ‘separation wall’ – a monstrous perversion designed to imprison Palestinians into smaller and smaller ghettoes.