Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
“A rebel is a patriot who failed—a patriot is a rebel who succeeded.”
— John O'Connor Power, Ninety-Eight Celebration, London, 17 July 1898.
Brendan Behan was born after the foundation of the Irish Free State and during the Civil War, on 9 February 1923, into a working-class family of house-painters. Behan’s people sided with the Republicans. One of Behan’s uncles, his mother’s brother Peadar Kearney, wrote “A Soldier’s Song,” and another uncle, P. […]
A chara, Ba chóir do Choillte diúltú don socrú seo le hinfheisteoirí. Tá Éire, lena haeráid bhog mheasartha (téite ag Sruth na Murascaille) an-fheiliúnach do chrainn dhúchasacha. Ach le míle bliain anuas laghdaíodh méid ár gcoillte go dtí 1%. Faoi láthair tá níos lú ná 12% den talamh faoi chrainn, […]
Siblings by the GDR writer Brigitte Reimann has just been published in an English translation by Penguin in its series of classic international literature. In this novella we have an authentic female voice communicating what it felt like to live in the GDR just before the Berlin Wall was sealed […]
The Charlie Donnelly Winter School returns to Dungannon on Saturday 11 March and will again be hosted by the Hill of the O’Neill and Ranfurly House. The centre will play host to a series of presentations and discussions on the ideals and legacy of the Dungannon-born revolutionary socialist poet who […]
On the 8th of March, International Working Women’s Day is celebrated. This celebration has been watered down and stripped of its history by liberal feminists and the ruling class. Marxists understand the important role that women have played throughout the history of socialist movements. Here in Ireland, seeing the importance […]
Democracy is a combination of two Greek words, dēmos (people) and kratos (rule). As societies change, some words wither away, some new words come into existence, and some words change meaning. Democracy has a broader meaning today than in ancient Greece. The democracy of the ancient Greeks had its limitations […]
In April, the 25th anniversary of what was called the “Good Friday Agreement” will be marked. The name “Good Friday” was no doubt the invention of the best media and advertising gurus, who were asked to come up with a catchy title for it, and they did. The agreement has […]
In 2017 the Trade Union Left Forum published an article that speculated about the link between increasing household debt and reduced strike action. The article suggested a relationship between growing debt and inequality and reduced worker militancy. The full article and the statistics used are available at http://www.tuleftforum.com/debt-inequality-industrial-action-chicken-egg/, but a […]
“No ethical consumption under capitalism” is a phrase that is often bandied about with no real connection to its origin. It’s used to provide cover for superfluous hauls and conspicuous consumption (or overconsumption), the line of thinking being that “if no choices are ethical then I can and should be […]
More than a century has passed since the end of the First World War. In that interval Ireland has known some bitter conflicts; but, tragic as these have been, they were confined to this country. With the exception of the Belfast Blitz during the Second World War and the North […]
There is a saying that generals always fight the last war. They plan for future wars based on the tactics of the previous wars. Only when war commences and changes in technology etc. become evident are tactics adjusted to take account of the new situation. That saying came to mind […]
12 January 2019: The US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, writes to companies involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, urging them to stop working on the project and threatening them with sanctions if they continue. 2019: The RAND Corporation (an American think tank), in a report […]
In Ireland the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and more people are falling into poverty every day. The Central Statistics Office is the statistical agency responsible for gathering information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions. It collects and “analyses” this type of information […]
On January 28th 2023 concerned about a rise in anti-refugee protests across the country, long-standing community and political activists in Dublin gathered at Leinster House under the banner of ‘Dublin Communities Against Racism’ to condemn the policies of the present and previous governments that have brought about conflict and division […]
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Dear Editor, I refer to plans to build British Army Memorials in 2023, for example in our area, Killester, on Dublin’s north side. Many well-meaning people in this country see no harm in the numerous British War Memorials, thinking that they are just remembering the past glories of the British […]
Dear friends, Two years ago, we started the campaign to release Alex Saab, a Venezuelan diplomat incarcerated in a United States federal prison in Miami. Venezuela’s Special Envoy to Iran was arrested on June 12, 2020, when his plane was forced to stop in Cape Verde to refuel, local authorities […]
“Gan Teideal” (Untitled) is an Irish-language transcreation of a poem by Marius Mason, who describes himself as a transgender anarchist, environmentalist, and animal-rights prisoner. His activities were reported to the authorities by his husband, and he was sentenced to twenty-two years’ imprisonment. Marius—a father of two—who has worked as a […]
International film awards are by no means a good film guide. And this applies to The Banshees of Inisherin as much as to the rest of them. The story is set in 1923 on an island off the west coast of Ireland (“Inisherin”—Inis Éireann), filmed in fact on Achill island […]
On January 28th 2023 concerned about a rise in anti-refugee protests across the country, long-standing community and political activists in Dublin gathered at Leinster House under the banner of ‘Dublin Communities Against Racism’ to condemn the policies of the present and previous governments that have brought about conflict and division […]
On Saturday 21 January comrades from around Ireland gathered in Dublin to analyse their involvement in trade unions. The day was an enjoyable one, with a well-arranged programme of events and stimulating talks. Some people ask, “What have the unions done for me?” It is important to list briefly what […]
In the first week of January 2023, Mount Jerome crematorium was packed to capacity as activists from around Ireland gathered to pay their respects on the passing of Robert Navan. Our country and progressive causes have lost a principled and committed anti-imperialist activist in Robert. Robert began his political engagement […]
“The CPI . . . has connected the economic struggles of the workers with the national struggle, drawing militant trade unionists into the national struggle and revolutionary national fighters into the economic struggles.”—An Appeal to IRA Volunteers, published in the Irish Communist, 1934 The Communist Party of Ireland managed to […]
A group of working men assembled in a bar in London but for a different reason: they were in a hurry to put together a programme for their organisation, the Communist League, which consisted mostly of German migrant workers. They delegated Marx and Engels to carry out the task. The […]
Travellers, or Mincéirí, are a minority ethnic group indigenous to Ireland who have a shared language and culture. The biggest blight on “modern” Ireland, without question, is the treatment of the Travelling community. It is a continuing shame on the state and on society more generally. Traditional Traveller occupations, such […]
Access for All Ireland is an advocacy group that highlights the difficulties faced by anyone in Ireland with mobility issues. I sat with Brendan Mulvaney, co-founder of the group, to discuss what the organisation’s goals are, how Ireland ranks internationally, and how politics intersects with the issue of accessibility. A: […]
As we begin a new year we remain static in the progress of society, entrapped in the system of capitalism. 2022 ended with many people from the Cost of Living Coalition taking part in a protest outside the Dáil on the 17th of December. The protest was against Leo Varadkar […]
How serious is the far-right threat in Ireland today? The question is being widely discussed because of a series of high-profile protests. At first these were outside asylum-seekers’ accommodation, and more recently they targeted Sinn Féin TDs. Prominent members of fascist organisations have taken part in these demonstrations. It is […]
Comrade Doran in the last Voice made several thoughtful observations. To this reader, his remark that Irish union members are “infected with a petty-bourgeois outlook, one that views trade union membership as an insurance policy or a last resort, not as organs of solidarity and struggle,” stood out most. His […]
As inflation is making essential goods ever more expensive, increasing numbers of people are relying on food banks. Politicians and the ruling class blame covid-19 and the war in Ukraine for the “cost of living crisis.” Working-class people know otherwise.
As we enter 2023, working people are still affected by long-standing problems: shortage of housing, crumbling health service, low wages, precarious work, spiralling rents, and growing inequality. Many of these conditions plague people in the Six Counties, with the added complication caused by British-imposed partition: sectarianism, a built-in unstable political […]
