The story told of the racist riots in Ballymena is that they were fuelled by accusations of sexual violence against a young woman by Romanian youths. Yet sexual violence perpetuated by loyalist paramilitaries is nothing new. The ongoing trial of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson in relation to allegations of serious sexual crimes passes without comment. (read more)
When Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly,
Education minister Paul Given and First Minister Michelle O’Neill cut sods at
the site of the new Strule six-school Shared Education Campus in Omagh in mid-May,
the local reaction was of a sort of amused despair, a common response to many
of Stormont’s schemes. (read more)
On Wednesday 28th of May Sinn Féin proposed
a motion in the Dáil to stop Ireland’s involvement in the sale of Israeli war
bonds. This Irish involvement is not
peripheral. Bonds from non-EU countries must have their bond prospectus
approved by the Central Bank of an EU member state. Israel used to work through
the UK, but turned to the Central Bank here for authorisations after Brexit. It
is admitted that the bonds support Israeli genocide in Gaza. (read more)
A famous Dublin pub, Peadar Brown’s, found
itself under threat recently, with online calls from the far right to mobilise at
a demonstration on Saturday May 24th and “close down the kip!” Peadar Brown’s has a long history of support
for leftism and republicanism and is bedecked in Palestinian flags. The right-wing
protest, fronted by fascist member of Dublin City Council Gavin Pepper, arose because
a customer made a racist comment at the bar and was immediately ejected. (read more)
The EU will review its political and economic agreement with
Israel. This follows a joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom,
France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
The statement promises concrete action if the Israelis do
not respond, but the pausing and review of agreements is all that is proposed. (read more)
The long running
court proceedings related to weapons charges brought against prominent loyalist
Winston Irvine reached a conclusion last week with the sentencing of him and
his co-accused. He managed to avoid the
statutory five-year sentence after judge Gordon Kerr KC ruled that Irvine’s
“work for peace and his charity work in the community” constituted “exceptional
circumstances” that allowed for a reduction in his sentence to thirty months. (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
