Bernard Moffatt's blog

As the immanence of Brexit focuses concern on the possibility of a hard border in Ireland the inherent danger has become apparent with a sophisticated attack on the PSNI near Wattlebridge in Fermanagh.

Roads in the area were closed yesterday and RTE reports that as police and security forces were dealing with one device another exploded nearby. Apparently the initial device was a hoax.

Link here to a report by RTE:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0819/1069611-explosion-in-fermanagh/

As France gears up for the G7 in Biarritz in a few days time there is a demonstration tomorrow in Nantes over the arrest of an Italian (Vicenzo Vecchi) who took part in G8 demos almost two decades ago. The Breton news site 7seizh reports:

The Irish Times has an article last week on the most mysterious and perhaps notorious of ‘the disappeared’ i.e. those people killed by the IRA during the troubles and buried surreptitiously:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/no-indication-robert-naira...

Whilst anger in communities around the North Irish Sea about pollution of nuclear waste from Sellafield is muted these days in France the parallel problem of the (smaller) reprocessing facility at Cap de la Hague in Normandy is still a focus of protest.

The Breton news site ‘7seizh’ reports (translation):

“Friday, August 16, the flagship Rainbow Warrior and Greenpeace activists left the port of Cherbourg early in the morning towards Cape Hague, one of the most nuclearized areas in the world.

There has been a mass turn out for a pro independence march in Aberdeen Scottish media report. The march is one of a series organised by the AUOB movement:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/…/17843989.least-12-000-joi…/

Bernard Moffatt

Celtic League
Assistant General Secretary

As the Celtic League AGM discusses concerns about the Celtic languages especially Breton under the French Education system (and the failure to implement an Irish Language Act in the six counties of North Ireland) activists were on the march yesterday in Brittany.

Protesters marched through the streets of Guingamp (just 30 miles) from where the CL AGM is being held (Carhaix) caliiing for an end to discrimination against Breton in the education system.

The report from the newspaper Ouest-France:

Here’s a positive message from the Manx National Farmers Union saying we have ‘more hedgerows per square kilometre than any the country in the world’.

I would say that’s a biosphere asset worth protecting!

Bernard Moffatt

The G7 takes place in Biarritz, in the Northern part of the Basque country administered by France, later this month.

There have already been protests by anti capitalist groups targeting multi nationals such as McDonald's, Zara Kids, Decathlon, Stradivarius, Bershka, Nespresso, and Orange etc.

Here’s a link to a report by 7seizh two weeks ago:

http://7seizh.info/…/pays-basque-nouvelles-actions-de-sabo…/

News from the Celtic League:

Sticking with the Celtic music theme and this time Breizh - but not Lorient - actu.fr describes Nolwenn Arzel as ‘the new rising star of the Celtic harp in Brittany’. She gives a performance this evening in a church in Paimpol on the north coast of Brittany.

It’s a long way to go so fortunately I have an excellent Youtube piece of her work at this link...enjoy!

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EoNpYK3A3o

Image: Nolwenn Arzel

The ‘Festival du chant de marin’ (festival of the song of the sea) has been held at Paimpol, Breizh over the past few days and active at it were volunteers collecting funds to support the work of SOS Méditerranée. It's one of a number of charities working to assist migrants attempting the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean from North Africa. Since EU support was withdrawn private bodies such as this are the only source of assistance for migrants in distress at sea.