The 2024 Irish general election saw a fall in the number of leftists elected to the Dail. Despite achieving the same vote share (3%) as in the previous general election People Before Profit saw its parliamentary team reduced from five TDs to just three. Richard Boyd-Barrett was easily returned in Dún Laoghaire; Paul Murphy was returned in the last count in Dublin South-West; while Ruth Coppinger was elected in Dublin West. (read more)
The general view in the aftermath of the Irish general election was that the ruling coalition had dodged a bullet. There was no mass outburst of rage against their policies and no emergence of a far-right party to destabilise society. Of course, the big fear was that Ireland would follow much of Europe in experiencing a mass right-wing revolt by a new anti-migrant movement. That didn't happen. (read more)
The recent elections in the
Southern state have revealed a new state of play, which with some changes shows
a strengthening of the two main bourgeois parties in terms of seats. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have 86 seats
between them, just two shy of an overall majority. They have little need for the Green Party
which was slaughtered and reduced to just one TD. Though both parties overall vote is down
slightly in percentage terms compared to 2020. (read more)
Does anyone remember COP21? The 2015 climate change
conference in Paris was hailed as a masterpiece of diplomacy when it set a
limit of 1.5⁰C on global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions were to peak before
2025 at the latest and decline by 43% by 2030. Unfortunately, the brilliance of the French diplomacy
lay in getting everyone to agree to a text rather than getting any real action. (read more)
Shooting Crows by Trevor Birney is a work of extraordinary importance and inestimable value. While focusing on his mistreatment by the state as a result of him investigating the Loughinisland killings, at the same time this book reveals the ruthless machinations deployed by Britain in the North of Ireland. (read more)
At the start of the war in Ukraine various leftists in the
West said that we should listen to the voices of Ukrainian socialists, which
might have made some sense were these people socialist. Except they are
not. Two recent statements by them
confirm their reactionary character and have value only to illuminate their
political bankruptcy and, by extension, those in the West who follow them and
have called for others to do so. (read more)
The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April 2023 was met with jubilation and celebration in Belfast. Past and present taoisigh (Irish government leaders), British prime ministers, US presidents and a raft of academics were brought together by the local universities and media in an extended celebration.Yet all is not well. If the decay of the agreement is of concern, the universal failure of academia, of the press, the trade unions and political parties to acknowledge such decay is astounding. John McAnulty provides that missing critique and suggests how Ireland will move beyond this historic inflection to fulfill the revolutionary implications of its initial struggle for freedom.
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10 April 2023
25 Years On: in the debris of the Good Friday Agreement
The 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement is being
marked by assemblies of the great and the good. Joe Biden rushes through the
North, avoiding attention to the barren political landscape. On RTE television
the ghost of Bertie Ahern dominates, while the high point will be the upcoming visit
of Bill and Hilary Clinton and Tony Blair to a celebration at Queens
University.
No-one will remark on the unsavoury character of
these saints of peace. Even less will anyone notice that the fine mansion that
they built is now in ruins. (read more)
Defend a woman’s right to tell
the truth - 20/10/21
People before Profit student
society calls for ‘no-platforming’ of feminists and LGB rights activists -
25/03/21
Puberty Blockers: An
unregulated live experiment on children - 17/04/21
Vulnerable children being seen
at Gender Clinics - 06/03/21
On the Reactionary Roots of
Queer Theory - 28/02/21
A new front in human
liberation, or a medical scandal in the making? - 09/01/21
Amnesty International Ireland opposes the right to free speech -
06/11/20
Gender Identity Ideology, the Trans Rights
Movement, and
homophobia - 27/09/20
Socialism, Feminism and transgender politics -
07/09/20
All COVERAGE
Socialist Democracy Statement on Coronavirus pandemic - 28/03/20
The promise and reality of vaccination -28/03/21
Herd immunity - myth and reality - 30/11/20
Coronavirus pandemic - a deepening health and economic crisis - 28/07/20
Protest, class conflict and Covid 19 - 06/05/20
Unionism’s silent shift on the pandemic
- 16/05/20
Ideology and Science - 05/05/20
Big Pharma in Ireland - 24/04/20
Europe and the pandemic - 09/04/20
All COVERAGE
Rayner O’Connor Lysaght Presente!
Tributes from
International
Viewpoint
Irish
Labour History Society
Socialist
Voice
Sráid
Marx
Emancipation,
Liberation & Self-determination
Workers
Liberty
Irish
Republican Marxist History Project
The
Pensive Quill
Irish
Left Archive
Obituray from the Irish Independent
A selection of writings by Rayner can be found online at:
Socialist Democracy
Arguments for a Workers' Republic
The Encyclopedia of Trotskyism
Red Mole Rising
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