Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Buggins’s turn” is a disparaging term meaning appointment to positions by rotation rather than by merit. No Brownie points for identifying Leo “the-classified-file-sharer” Varadkar as the Dáil’s current Mr Buggins. Even the chronically right-wing Fine Gael-supporting Sunday Independent was unable to get excited about him swapping chairs with Micheál Martin. […]
The health of any nation can be measured in many ways. Life expectancy, infant mortality and mental health statistics are just some of the main measures. All those statistics are in turn linked to the levels of inequality and exploitation in any society. The level of poverty, as a consequence, […]
Getting off the bus in O’Connell Street, considered the main street in Dublin, can be a shock for tourists and people new to the city alike. In between the new hotels and shopping centres, the decay in the older buildings is clearly visible, which is sad for such an otherwise […]
As we approach the middle of winter the number of homeless people in Ireland climbs above 10,000, more than 3,000 of whom are children. The number of homeless people has grown by 2,593 since august 2021 and by 237 since July this year. In whose interest is it to […]
In November 2022 it was fifty years since the wrongful imprisonment of Noel Jenkinson, an Irish communist sentenced to life imprisonment, with little or no evidence against him other than his left-wing political beliefs. The charge against him was the Official IRA bomb explosion at the headquarters of the […]
■ This article is by a family farmer actively trying to bring people together in the Westmeath-Roscommon region. Socialist Voice welcomes contributions to this important and necessary debate. The true issue in farming today is the lack of awareness of the crisis they are now in. The Dutch farmers, alongside […]
The continuing stalemate in northern Irish politics is not simply due to the Brexit protocol or tendentious rumours of joint Dublin–London authority: the underlying cause of chronic political deadlock is the result of unionist anxiety. There is a growing realisation throughout the region that the future of the Six-County […]