Partisan • Patriotic • Internationalist
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 […]
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 Cuban Revolution did not begin as a socialist revolution; in fact the original Cuban communist party, the PSP (People’s Socialist Party), denounced the attack on the Moncado Barracks in 1953 as a “putsch,” and, while engaging with the rebels during the guerilla campaign, it did not fully align with […]
Last November a very impressive peace conference was held in Dublin: the First International Conference against US and NATO Bases. The main impetus for this conference came from the peace movement in the United States. Many of the participants showed their seriousness and determination in organising the Embassy Protection Collective […]
At the end of May 2019 a study published by the Stern Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University drew attention to the demeaning conditions in the global clothing industry. The report shows how monopoly capitalism (imperialism) exploits countries, both large and small, that try to develop […]
Earlier this year there were attacks on Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery in London. Around Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union there have been attempts to destroy or remove any statues or other monuments commemorating those who fought fascism during the Second World War, or previously in […]
Leonardo da Vinci, the oldest of the Italian High Renaissance artists, died five hundred years ago, on 2 May 1519. Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452 near the village of Vinci, from which he takes his name. His mother, Caterina, the daughter of a poor farmer, worked as a […]
Dear editor, The “Stop the Bray War Show” campaign is very concerned about the Bray Air Display, due to take place on 27 and 28 July 2019. The campaign has no objection to an air show that does not include military aircraft. However, the Bray Air Display, as it is […]
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 […]
The recently launched campaign by three of our largest trade unions—SIPTU, Fórsa, and Connect—is to be welcomed. Under the slogan “More Power to You,” it is asking voters to take the local power pledge: “I believe in local government.” This is a pledge to use your vote in the coming […]
he death of Lyra McKee was a needless tragedy inflicted on a young woman by thoughtless stooges. It was an act that devastated her life partner, her family, and her friends and colleagues in the world of journalism. There is no room for equivocation when commenting on this event. Yet […]
Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland20 April 2019 The Communist Party of Ireland strongly condemns the killing of Lyra McKee, a young journalist working and living in Derry, on Thursday 18 April. Once again a family has lost a loved one in a needless and senseless act committed by […]
Our planet is on the verge of an environmental catastrophe. Billions live in abject poverty; millions more go hungry for want of food or clean drinking water. The gap between rich and poor grows and grows. The wealthiest 1 per cent of people on our planet could fit in a […]
There is no truly universal experience of the world. It is deeply influenced by how we have been taught to orient ourselves in that world, which then predicts how we interact with it. Language is one such example. Monoglot English-speakers break their day down into time slots and scheduled intervals; […]
There I am sitting among my three or four neighbours, and the talk turns to property. Their property. This topic has bothered me for some time, as it brings out the nastiest prejudices in my neighbours: condemning suspected “welfare cheats,” bothersome tenants, and everything else. Now one of these neighbours, […]
There are few people more famous in the political song movement than Pete Seeger. Along with his contemporaries Paul Robeson and Woody Guthrie, Seeger represented the might of song in highlighting the common cause, strengthening courage, and inspiring resistance. Song was their weapon in this struggle for a fair, equal […]