Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the attempt at further privatisation by putting out to public tender another 10 per cent of Bus Éireann routes. We are not fooled by the standard neo-liberal dual strategy of starving and running down their target, in this case Bus Éireann, through lack of […]
On a wet night in February 1912, Winston Churchill, first lord of the admiralty, addressed a cheering crowd of more than seven thousand nationalists gathered in the old Celtic Park football ground in Belfast. He was there to promote the third Government of Ireland Bill (often called the Home Rule […]
With demographic change, Brexit, and a deadlocked Northern Ireland Assembly, the call for a border poll has been raised more and more often. Under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, a border poll is the only way partition can be ended. It can be allowed to happen only if the […]
What for long appeared unimaginable has seemingly now become inevitable. The Northern state, created with a built-in unionist majority and uncompromising regime, once seemed as permanent a fixture as its grandiose parliament building at Stormont. Not any longer, though. Britain’s Tory prime minister has voiced her doubts about its future […]
Once again problems relating to women’s health and the treatment of women within the health system were exposed with the the discovery that 209 women are affected by the Cervical Check scandal that emerged in the last few weeks. Once again people’s lives, and in particular those of women, have […]
Capitalism exploits the working class, and in particular women. This is done through the devaluation of women’s labour in the home—that is, the necessary work of reproducing and maintaining workers for the capitalist machine—and the devaluation of work done by women outside the home: the pay gap.* Neither of these […]
The sleek intercity train connecting Amsterdam to Rotterdam zips between the two cities in a mere forty minutes and, with a fare of only €15.40 (£13.50), puts our fares to shame. The Dutch railways are still nationally owned, operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the route between the two cities claims […]
Some years ago an American friend had a nasty accident while visiting Belfast. Looking to his left, he stepped into the roadway, was struck by a car, and suffered a broken leg. This man was a responsible adult, but his lived experience in New York had caused him to look […]
It was said of the Bourbons after the Restoration in 1814 that they had forgotten nothing and learnt nothing. Something similar may well be said about the DUP in particular and unionism in general. Having seen its regional parliament collapse yet again in early 2017, and largely as a result […]
Most of the campaigning on zero-hour contracts and precarious work has dealt (rightly) with the retail industry, with Mandate leading the way. The education sector, however, has increasingly been hit by very similar conditions, which is an example of the growing impact of the state’s neo-liberalism. Part of the neo-liberal […]
At the time of the last general election in the South it was in vogue to remark that the only thing Sinn Féin were unsure of was whether they wanted to become the next Labour or the next Fianna Fáil. Now, in the light of the events of recent years, […]
The Department of Education and the media have for years hyped up the idea of schools “ditching the textbooks and going digital.” In particular, Microsoft Showcase Schools are “innovative,” where “digital books” and “tablets” replace “old-fashioned” books This apparently is the great leap forward—but is it? For Microsoft it will […]
The search for Frank Conroy’s birthplace and family On 13 December 1936 Frank Conroy, a member of the Republican Congress and the Communist Party of Ireland, sailed on the Holyhead ferry, alongside Frank Ryan, determined to defend the Spanish Republic against the fascist rebellion. This Spanish Civil War hero died […]
The announcement of his retirement by Sinn Féin’s long-serving president, Gerry Adams, was deemed by the media to be the most noteworthy happening at the party’s recent ard-fheis. After thirty-four often turbulent years at the helm of a movement ridiculed and lauded in almost equal parts, it could hardly have […]
For a politician who spends so much taxpayers’ money on a “Strategic Communications Unit,” Leo Varadkar managed to deliver an extraordinarily ill-considered and dangerous message on his trip to the North last month. In an interview with the BBC he said: “I wouldn’t like us to get to the point […]
Sometimes things that don’t appear in the budget are more important than those that do. One of these was the retention of the VAT rate of 9 per cent for hotels and catering. This policy, introduced in 2011 to help the catering and hotel industries, costs about €500 million a […]