THE IRISH OBSERVER: Murdered by IRA Criminals -

THE IRISH OBSERVER: Murdered by IRA Criminals -: "When I was a child growing up I was surrounded by death and destruction as both Loyalist and Republican terrorists waged a campaign of te..."

From the Republic of Conscience

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

From the Republic of Conscience,  a brilliant and fascinating collection of contributions by a broad selection of today's Irish writers, inspired by The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and now on Facebook where you can  join in the discussion.



It is hard to believe that the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is now over sixty years of age. The wonderfully stark and hopeful message it enounced all those years ago has stood the test of time, - but many counties still chose to ignore it when it comes to practical application of their laws.

• Do you know what it says about you?
• Do you understand why countries agreed to the statement but refused to make it legally binding?

All UN member countries promised in to abide by the Declaration, and to ensure that it would be disseminated, displayed, read and discussed in schools and society generally. What went wrong? After they had congratulated themselves, on their brief seizure of the moral high ground, and they quietly shelved the document to gather dust? Were they frightened by the sparseness and honesty of the statements they produced, - statements that meant that ALL men were worthy of respect and entitled to dignity and that the machinations of statehood rarely seems to deliver.

In his introduction Heaney states:

"It is always there as a means of highlighting abuse if not always as a remedy: it exists instead in the moral imagination as an equivalent of the gold standard in the monetary system. The articulation of its tenets has made them into world currency of a negotiable sort. Even if its Articles are ignored or flouted – in many cases by governments who have signed up to them – it provides a worldwide amplification system for "the still, small voice".

It is a book written and illustrated by the Irish and aptly demonstrates the global view that this small island's people have. Despite our current difficulties, we are still an Island of ideas and aspirations. The list of contributors covers almost every genre of literary output, and it is  illustrated uniquely by such artists as Louis le Brocquy, Alice Maher, Amelia Stein, Jim Fitzpatrick and others.

Don't just buy this book, READ it!