The ink is barely dry on the report on Micheál Martin’s shambolic consultative forum where a rogues’ gallery of defence industry-funded “experts” decried the backwardness of the Irish public for having an “emotive attachment in some quarters to the concept of neutrality as part of our national identity.”[1] Martin, not […]
Previous Articles
Troubled Waters
Last month, I watched a crowd gather in Amsterdam for a rally in support of climate justice. With 70,000 people in attendance it was the largest of its kind in the country. Although it started peacefully, the pleasant atmosphere turned into one of conflict when Peace Prize winner Sahar Shirzad […]
Dublin Riots
In its recent statement, the Communist Party of Ireland condemned in the strongest possible manner the Dublin riots and extended its deepest sympathies and well wishes to the victims and families of the stabbing and the subsequent violence that erupted on the 23rd of November. However, the CPI also correctly […]
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
On this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the CPI stands in unwavering solidarity with the women and children of Gaza, who courageously endure the harrowing reality of state-orchestrated oppression. Palestinian women find themselves at the forefront of a relentless genocide. They witness the very people they […]
Statement on Dublin Riots
First and foremost, the Communist Party of Ireland extends our deepest sympathies and well wishes to all the victims and their families of the horrendous stabbing and the subsequent violence in Dublin on 23rd November, and in the strongest possible terms, denounces the riots on the city centre’s streets later […]
Statement on Government Plans to Abandon the Triple Lock
The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the plans by the Irish government to abandon the “Triple Lock” on the deployment of Irish troops outside the state. The government does not have a mandate for this policy, it was not put to the public in a General Election and does not […]
Statement in Support of Palestine
The Communist Party of Ireland congratulates the working people of Ireland, from Derry to Kerry and everywhere in between, for their steadfast solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people as they face a barbarous assault by the Israeli Occupation Forces over the last number of weeks. Across our country, in many […]
The North’s political process is fundamentally flawed
Jeffrey Donaldson’s speech to the DUP annual conference last month generated more interest than is normally the case for this event. The mainstream media concentrated not only on his support for a devolved administration but also his tacit acceptance of a Sinn Féin First Minister. Nevertheless, when viewed in its […]
They haven’t gone away, you know
Public outrage at the environmental catastrophe in Lough Neagh has led to calls for the lough to be brought back into public ownership. Lough Neagh is the largest lake in Ireland. It has a surface area of 392 square kilometres and supplies 40 per cent of the North’s drinking water. […]
Lenin on the emancipation of women
Lenin once said that socialism alone would bring the emancipation of women, which Nadezhda Krupskaya, in the preface to The Emancipation of Women by Lenin, said “we see coming true.” However, while socialism and the changes it brings generally to the economic aspects of society are good for oppressed groups, […]
Israeli aggression in Palestine
Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland The Communist Party of Ireland condemns the Israeli state’s murder of hundreds of Palestinian people in the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. Blood is on the hands not just of the Israeli occupying forces and leadership but also on the […]
Ukraine
A bilingual poem inspired by Nie Wieder Krieg (Never Again War) by Karl Wiener Nie Wieder Krieg (c. 1928) UKRAINE wooden crosses over gravesbeginning to look like daggerssunk with a squelch into the earthto quieten the undeadbut undead and quivering they are notthey are truly deadempire masters of the eastempire […]
In the dark times
“In the dark timesWill there also be singing?Yes, there will also be singing.About the dark times”—Bertolt BrechtThe night is darkI see light across the skyIt is not a light of hopeIt is not the sign of dawnThe heat it radiates does not give warmthIt scorches you to ashesThe place I […]
A valuable addition to O’Casey commentary
■ Paul O’Brien, Seán O’Casey: Political Activist and Writer, Cork University Press, 2023, €39. Paul O’Brien has published a political biography of Seán O’Casey, looking at the dramatist from a broadly left-wing viewpoint. The book is accessibly written and sheds light on details of working-class Dublin and international history. O’Brien’s […]
Hans Holbein the Younger
The painter of Renaissance humanism Hans Holbein the Younger, born in Augsburg in the winter of 1497/98, was one of the foremost German painters of Renaissance humanism. Augsburg was the seat of the Fugger family, trading magnates and bankers. Jakob Fugger “the Rich,” elevated to the nobility of the Holy […]
“Socialism Betrayed” revisited
It is nearly twenty years since the publication of Socialism Betrayed by Keeran and Kenny.¹ They offered an interpretation of the USSR’s collapse that was influential within the communist movement and the CPI. The book highlighted the disintegration of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as derived from the […]