Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
The Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Green Party government has been characterised by an increasing shift towards NATO, an intensification of moves that occurred under previous governments, introducing new levels of entanglement with PESCO and other “common defence” initiatives. This is happening in tandem with the increased militarisation of the EU the ever-greater sabre-rattling of […]
After the discovery of natural gas in Kinsale by Marathon Oil in 1971, the Resources Protection Campaign was founded by several groups, including the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI). Under public pressure for Irish natural resources to be used for the benefit of the Irish people, the Irish National Petroleum […]
Aiséirí / Resurrection is an anti-war poem, in Irish and English, in response to a painting of the same title by Hermann Stenner who was only 23 when he was killed during the First World War. Translated by Gabriel Rosenstock Resurrection Will they rise from the dead the casualties of […]
“Crumbling to the point of crisis”: so reads the headline from the Irish News of 16th April 2024, referring to the dire state of our GP medical services and the NHS in general. What should have been added to the headline were the words “by design”. Those of us who […]
On Tuesday 24th September, the latest novel by Sally Rooney, Intermezzo, hit the shelves in bookshops nationwide. The launch day saw queues in front of bookshops before they opened, and Rooney was in the media spotlight for her reiterated, unequivocal support for Palestine in a recent public appearance. Now used […]
If the political entity known as Northern Ireland were a hospital patient, above its bed would hang a notice reading “do not resuscitate”. So dire is that area’s performance across a range of issues, from the political to the economic, that only those blinded by outdated prejudice can argue for […]
On 7th October 2024, we will see a year pass since Israel ramped up its genocide on the Palestinian people. As of the 26th of September, the death toll in Gaza has reached 42,252, according to Al Jazeera. While the Irish people have shown their support through the thousands taking […]
US economist and diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith coined the phrase and concept of a “contented majority”. This “majority” he sees as being those in the western world who benefit from the current state of affairs, even if unevenly, and dominate politically producing a “culture of contentment”, showing disdain for those […]
It is the afternoon of Tuesday the 17th September 2024 and I am at my desk, taking a break from work and scrolling on my X.com feed. I stop on a video from Beirut, Lebanon, which appears to be security camera footage from a fruit and vegetable market. It is […]
The first part of this article appeared in the September issue of Socialist Voice1. After his handover to the Germans on 15th July 1940, Frank Ryan was sent to Berlin, where he met Chief of Staff of the IRA, Sean Russell. Ryan and Russell were sent by U-boat to Ireland […]
Seán O’Casey was the first English-speaking dramatist of international significance to emerge from the proletariat. One of the recurring themes in his work is that of revolution. While in his early Dublin plays he controversially considered the Irish working class not yet ready for revolutionary change, his later works explore […]
After a seven-month wait for a Programme of (Mis)Government, the Executive produced vague promises on health and housing, with no specific targets. While easy to criticize the administrative class for incompetence, they are constrained by limited autonomy over fiscal matters, while facing challenges that demand significant investment. A key issue, […]
As the debate around Irish reunification gathers pace in Socialist Voice and elsewhere, we must not leave unity as an open goal to the British and Irish governments. We must build a left case for unity: the people’s unity of Ireland with the priority being the needs, wants and desires […]
This year saw a minor rise in electoral support in Ireland for the far right and poorly disguised criminal elements at the last local elections. These forces inserted themselves into community opposition and concerns about the establishing of various centres being set up by the state to house both those […]
On September 18th the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution by large majority on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences of Israel’s Gaza offensive and the ongoing occupation. The UNGA affirmed the ICJ ruling in July which triggered the legal obligation […]
Morality is meant to dictate that personal interests are not in conflict with social interests. Ethics form the framework within which people should act in a society. How does Marxism view moral principles? Marx and Engels placed every moral principle in a historical context, not as an eternal principle […]