I am a Republican, but I haven’t always been. I was born into a Protestant and Unionist family post Good Friday Agreement. Before this I had family in the British Army and the RUC. I believed these people were defending the North from terrorists. I would look around and see […]
Ireland
Hyde and Seek – Not even children are excluded from exploitation
The investigation into the the Hyde and Seek corporate creche chain revealed the appalling conditions experienced by both the children and the staff. The priority of these private corporate bodies is to make a profit, and the needs of children and the staff are only a means to secure that profit
Hyde and Seek – The Jekyll and Hyde of capitalism
The scandalous situation exposed by the RTE programme “Prime Time Investigates” about abuses in the Hyde and Seek creche is just another in a long line of catastrophic failures by private businesses.
Pensions: The attacks continue
Regina Doherty’s latest proposals are designed to further undermine the state retirement system as it now stands. In effect the minister, and the bourgeois commentators, regard anything with the word “state” as being tainted and bad.
Féile na bhFlaitheartach, 2019
Tom O’Flaherty, who helped to organise trade unions in the United States in the 1930s and became an accomplished writer in both English and Irish, will be honoured at Féile na bhFlaitheartach, which takes place on Árainn on the weekend of 24 and 25 August. The festival, now in its seventh year, celebrates the writings and work of Liam and Tom O’Flaherty.
OPINION: Provisional Sinn Féin, republicanism, and socialism: Some comments
By any relevant psephological indices, it is absolutely clear that Sinn Féin did exceedingly poorly—perhaps disastrously—in the recent local and European elections; and the results have clearly precipitated some reflective introspection by various party members.
CPI summer school: An assessment
The recent CPI national school on 21–23 June began with the national chairperson giving a good introduction, which was followed by a brief talk on Irish history, with a different slant on the roles played by the state and its allies the church and its sycophantic followers.
Questions were posed to the audience about how we can change the tide of political discourse and about recent phenomena
Water charges by stealth
In the wake of the local and EU elections it was reported in the Irish Times (10 June) that up to 70,000 households could be charged for wasting water from next year. Charges could be as much as €500 for a household.
Housing for all!
Vulture funds have become passé. The latest fad taking hold in the property market is the cuckoo fund—aptly named, as they push the individual or family buyer out of their potential nest.
Out of the chambers and into the communities!
All elections are but a snapshot of the degree of political or class consciousness of the mass of the people, in particular of working people. It is clear from the turnout in the recent elections, both north and south, that large numbers of people (more than half) decided not to […]
Uaigh na mairtíreach
I gceantar Bhaile na Lochlannach, ar bhruach thuaidh na Life, tá cnoc íseal a raibh coill bheag air tráth agus plásóg nó plásán ina lár. Thug na Sasanaigh “the Arbour” ar an bplásóg agus ansin Arbour Hill ar an gcnoc. Timpeall na bliana 1840 bhunaigh arm Shasana reilig ar an […]
The dead hand of electoralism
With the local election results just in, why is the left seen as a marginal and ignored voice among a majority of people? It seems that politics in Ireland is personality-based, and this has led to the situation where support for such politicians as Paul Murphy, Richard Boyd Barrett, Luke […]
Raise the roof!
Last month we saw the largest housing demonstration in Dublin so far, under the banner of Raise the Roof, as more than 20,000 citizens took to the streets. This campaign, launched by the ICTU, is going from strength to strength as the trade union movement takes the lead, uniting with […]
An unhelpful contribution
Seamus Mallon’s recently published book A Shared Home Place is not merely an unhelpful contribution in a difficult situation but is positively dangerous. Thanks to his profile as a former leading member of the SDLP and former deputy first minister, he is gaining publicity for an ill-conceived and poorly thought-out […]
The robbery of Irish resources continues
On 28 May the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment granted consent for an exploratory oil and gas well off the Kerry coast under the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act (1960). The department received an application last November from CNOOC Petroleum Europe (a subsidiary of the Chinese […]
The next property crash is looming
The last property crash was brought about by a combination of banks lending on the basis of spurious calculations, massaging their own financial data, and inflated property prices that were completely divorced from reality. Following the collapse, property prices adjusted back to more realistic values. The Government bailed out the […]