The CPI expressed its solidarity with all those affected and who will be affected by this growing health crisis, and to the health staff and emergency services in the front line. The health services across the country from Belfast to Cork are wholly inadequate, having experienced over a decade of harsh austerity cuts, bed closures, lack of investment, staff shortages and the prioritisation of private corporate medicine over a decent well-funded public health system.
Tag: Ireland
What type of united Ireland do they want?
We are rarely forced to agree with Leo Varadkar, but it is difficult to find fault with his observation that the political tectonic plates in Northern Ireland are shifting. In the light of recent general election results, it is safe to say that not only is unionism’s majority eroding but […]
Voting shenanigans are only a symptom
NOT THAT IT should come as a surprise, but the political establishment, north and south, is offering us still further evidence of its mendacious venality. A few recent examples will illustrate the point. Let’s begin with shady behaviour being practised by the folk in Leinster House.
Ireland is not an island!
SINCE THE 1970s the mainstream media, led by the Irish Times, have been using the term “island of Ireland,” and such variations as “this island,” when they need to refer to the whole of Ireland.
Ireland: No. 1 tax haven for American corporations
The results of recent research on the amounts of profit declared in the Republic, and the tax subsequently paid on those profits, should surprise no-one. It has exposed the fact that American transnational corporations made profits of $83 billion (€74 billion) here. A third of these corporations have their head […]
Seize the time
The Brexit storm-clouds are gathering, and the political class in Dublin is in a tizzy. Having placed almost all its emphasis on the mantra of the “hard, militarised border and return to violence,” they will be deprived of any coherent argument when this fails to materialise. The problem for the […]
OPINION How I became a republican
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 […]
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
Towards a united Ireland
The recent formation of Trade Unionists for a New and United Ireland should be considered a positive development, providing an opportunity for a debate among those committed to ending the imperialist domination of our people and on what that new Ireland should be like. We must reclaim the vision for […]
Irish unity: When, not if
Irish unity is now a question of when, not if. The British-EU border debacle illustrates the imperialist domination of the 32 counties. Regardless of how the inter-imperialist rivalry plays out, the needs and interests of the Irish working class will not be the main topic of discussion, whether it be […]
National reunification: Entering new and uncharted waters
After listening to Olivia O’Leary speaking about a united Ireland on “Drivetime” (RTE) last month, a Dublin republican remarked that something significant must be happening when this subject was being aired on the national broadcaster by one of its more cautious commentators. Curious, I downloaded the podcast. It was indeed […]
Two failed states – A new and very different republic must emerge
Addressing his partners at the Fianna Fáil ard-fheis last month, the leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood, drew inspiration from the president of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, and told the audience that “there will be a special place reserved in Hell for those who call for a border poll […]
All will change, change utterly—and for the better
“Oh, words are lightly spoken, said Pearse to Connolly.” This is a line from W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Rose Tree.” It is not, though, something always practised by the establishment in our 26-county republic. Their words are carefully chosen to deliver a message. Moreover, what they say and how […]
Organising to halt our descent into misery
Theresa May once told a Tory party conference that people viewed Conservatives as “the nasty party.” She claimed this was an unfortunate misunderstanding, to be rectified by improving the party’s public-relations campaign. While few readers of Socialist Voice would fall for that type of self-serving nonsense, too many others accept […]
The Irish left and the European Union
Summary of the talk given by the general secretary of the CPI, Eugene McCartan, at the Desmond Greaves Summer School in September 2018