It is with deep sadness that I have been told that the journal of protest and dissent, The Blanket, is going out of publication on Sunday 18th May 2008.
As someone who dissents from the establishment politics of sectarianism and partition on the island in the concept of Federal Unionism – Early Sinn Fein, I see the curtain being lowered on dissent in Ireland and the establishment’s sectarianism and the dogma of partition now hold sway everywhere throughout the land. Dissent is fading into silence.
In The Blanket I found an outlet for my own brand of political dissent and outlets for dissent are nowadays few and far between. But even so it remains my conviction that the Irish Problem is a constitutional problem and if the Island is ever to be united in genuine peace it can only be done so in The National Government of Ireland Act. The Government of Ireland Act partitioned the island only the National Government of Ireland Act can unite the Island.
But even with the dismal demise of The Blanket, personally speaking all is not lost. I have expressed my political ideas in the novel, THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE, that came out in late 2007 and can be obtained through bookshops in Ireland and from book agencies on the Internet. Authorhouse publishes it. I am at present working on a second novel titled THE RAPE OF VIRGIN MUNCHINDUN, which hopefully should come out in 2009, and again deals with the constitutional problem in Ireland. I am also contemplating a third novel titled Size Matters, which I hope will deal not only with the constitution but also with sectarian bigotry.
However journals of dissent and protest are essential to an invigorating and stimulating political landscape and in the death of The Blanket, Ireland is diminished. I am deeply grateful to the editor of The Blanket for bringing the dissenting views of Federal –Unionism to the readership.