Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Powerful SisterAuthor(s): Francine CunninghamSource: Fortnight, No. 258 (Jan., 1988), p. 4Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25551394 .

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BRIEFING

British witch threatens European good fairy NEVER mind the local anniversary celebrations in

1990?what about 1992? The European Community is committed to eliminate all internal barriers to trade

by that date, and all barriers too the free movement of

capital, goods, services and people. This completed internal market will give an enormous boost to the

European economy. But it may also create problems for the weaker

peripheral regions, such as Northern Ireland. The

European Commission has recognised this and the

province is specifically included in its plans for dou

bling the so-called structural funds?the regional and social funds essentially?and concentrating them on

the most needy regions. In fact Northern Ireland is not poor enough, in

terms of gross domestic product per head, to qualify as one of the areas of concentration, but the commis sion added it in "because of the special situation

there". The commission also has plans for special meas

ures to compensate those regions which will be af fected by the now inevitable reform of the common

agricultural policy. So much for the good news. But the prime minister

has sought to block the structural funds initiative until the CAP is reined in?German farmers have other

ideas. In any case she believes, like her social security minister at home, that the funds should be 'targetted' at the poorest?in this case Spain and Portugal? rather than distributing largesse more widely. Hence

the stalemate at the European leaders' crisis meeting in Copenhagen.

According to John Hume, the SDLP leader and

Euro-MP, ?100 million for the province is in the

balance. But even if the hurdle of Mrs Thatcher's

prone body is jumped when another attempt is made

to break the logjam in the coming weeks, there re

mains the problem of the Treasury's public expendi ture rules?which could lead to the extra money for

Northern Ireland not actually being extra.

Over the years European Community directives on

equal opportunities have been a major force for

change in UK law?one of many themes to emerge from a conference organised by the Equal Opportuni ties Commission and the Belfast EC office at the end

of November.

Chris Docksey of the EC's equal opportunities office outlined the Action Programme for Equal

Opportunities 1986-90 and discussed how best to

lobby for progress?whether on the impending EC

directive on sexual harassment, or the British

government's refusal to comply with the directive on

parental leave.

Bev Jones of the EOC reminded the conference of

the importance of European law in remedying the

defects of domestic legislation. But the British Euro

MP and vice-president of the women's rights com

mittee in Strasbourg, Christine Crawley, warned of

the possibility of a backlash against women's inde

pendence across a Europe with a rapidly ageing

population. Of the conference workshops, the session on

funding was understandably popular. Money is avail

able from the European Commission for women's

projects?but how many know where or how to

apply? The conference concluded that an organised Eu

ropean women's lobby was needed?Ms Crawley cited the clout of the farmers' lobby. Inez McCor

mack of NUPE called on the women attending?

ranging from trade unionists to members of

townswomen's guilds?to "network" and unite: to

set the agenda for change as well as simply reacting to

it.

Robin Wilson,

_Sheila Hamilton 1

Cutting corners

TOM KING'S announcement on public expenditure for the next financial year has realised the worst fears of everyone involved in housing, from the Housing

Executive right through the political parties to pressure groups like Shelter. The executive's budget plan is to be cut

by ?24 million, while rents are to rise by a record ? 1.50 a week, or 9.2 per cent? about twice the rate of inflation.

Worse than that, the executive calcu lates that the succeeding two financial

years, 1989/90 and 1990/91, will see

further shortfalls of ?46 million and ?48 million respectively from the revised

programme it sent to the environment

minister, Richard Needham, at the end of October (Fortnight 257).

This already embraced a ?50 million

drop from the executive's preferred three-year strategy, which had re

quested government support of ?1,121 million. The announcement would seem

to mean that over the three years there will be a further reduction of ?118 mil

lion in all. The ?24 million cut would have been

?31 million if the executive's board had not accepted the 9.2 per cent rent in crease. A 4 per cent rise had been ex

pected. The Department of the Environment

has queried the executive's figures, ar

guing that the real comparison should be with what it received this year and what

it wanted for next year. On this basis the

department argues that the reductions are ?8 million, ?27 million and ?34

million respectively for the three years. Both are right. But these cuts may

represent the cold winds of change. In 198 3 the executive completed just

over 4,000 homes. Next year it had

hoped to start 1,650. Whether this will now be possible will not be known until it reworks its programme.

Whatever happens executive tenants

will face higher rents. Who else suffers should become clear early in the new

year.

Laurence Moffat

Powerful

sister NELL McCafferty's recent endorsement of the

'armed struggle* has led to her being banned

from RTE's airwaves. Ironically this act of

censorship came shortly after the publication of a new collection by the self-styled journal ist and activist, Goodnight Sisters.

This inimitable Derry woman first left the

Bogside to go to Queen's?an experience which she says left her "academically un

touched". With the self-deprecation that is a

feature of the off-stage McCafferty, she says: "I wish I knew more than I do."

Despite her success as a columnist, Nell

McCafferty longs to be a writer in the style of

Edna O'Brien?but claims she lacks the

imagination. Moreover, this larger-than-life public figure finds writing a "lonely and

arduous" business. Once she struggled to

finish a novel, only to lose it. The novel has

just turned up but we won't be seeing it. "It's

not good enough," she says. Nell McCafferty sees all journalism as

advocacy, dismissing objectivity as impos sible. While resenting being told what to

think, she has no qualms telling others

exactly what she thinks. "If they were all like

me it would be a pain in the ass!" she says. This self-made woman, who exercises great

popular appeal in her adopted home of

Dublin, can never be accused of sitting on the

fence: "South of the border I'm a feminist, north of the border [she lowers her voice] I

just want the British to go." An open supporter of the IRA, she is

nevertheless dismayed by some of their

activities: "Once you give them a licence to

shoot, you take responsibility for everything

they do wrong?even though I cringe some

times ... when they shoot people wrongly." Asked if violence is not a very male way of

conducting a dispute, she acknowledges a

clash between her feminist philosophy and

endorsement of the IRA. Moreover, she feels

she would be incapable of killing, though she

has thrown petrol bombs in the past. On one point, however, her ideas converge.

She draws a striking comparison between

what she sees as imminent unionist "loss of

privilege" in the wake of the Anglo-Irish

Agreement, and male concession of privileges

^^^j^^^^^^^^i^^ f^^^^^^Hfip LLJ

Nell McCafferty in profile in an ideal post-feminist world.

This alignment of republicanism and

feminism in Ireland is problematic?an

entirely Catholic state being antagonistic to

the aims of many feminists. Despite her

assertion that "the holy men" are still very influential down south, she still doesn't

accept she would be better off?as a woman?

in Britain's "slightly more secular" society. Nell McCafferty has long launched attacks

against the clergy, known to culminate in

head-to-heads with bishops on television. She

claims that before too long the very idea of

having celibate men dictate morality, espe

cially sexual morality, will seem laughable. If

there was no sex in Ireland before The Late

Late Show, then there was no contraception in Ireland before Nell McCafferty.

She remains deeply committed to a leftist

ideal. "You can't have feminism without

socialism," she says, while acknowledging that the reverse is not always true. Her talk

of politics is couched in personal terms: "It

was socialism that turned me on, and femi

nism that made me happy." She admits to having felt initially "unwel

come in the south, because I'm a strange northerner". She feels "slightly ashamed"

when she visits the north, "almost like an

exile". But she maintains that "eventually

Derry wouldn't have been big enough for me".

Her unique blend of humour and aggres sion has won her a huge following in the

south. As she says herself, "I'm so bloody

popular I wonder what I've done wrong!"

Francine Cunningham 4 January Fortnight

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