éirígí condemns further arrests of anti-water charge protesters
Wed, Feb 11:
éirígí condemns the arrest of another four people, including a fourteen year old child, this morning in relation to a legitimate anti-Water Tax protest in Jobstown last year. With twelve arrests over the last three days it is now clear that the state is attempting to criminalise the largest mass movements of recent decades.
Attempts to criminalise legitimate political struggle have a long history in Ireland. For centuries those attempts have failed and they will fail again on this occasion. We extend our solidarity to all of those who have been arrested over recent days and repeat our call for the closure of all criminal investigations into the Joan Burton protest.
éirígí on arrest of Scott Masterson, Paul Murphy and other anti-water charges campaigners
Scott Masterson
Cathaoirleach éirígí Brian Leeson has slammed the arrest of his party colleague, Scott Masterson, and a number of others on charges of ‘false imprisonment’ of Joan Burton.
Detailing the nature of Masterson’s arrest Leeson said, “At around 7am this morning up to a dozen Gardaí in five vehicles arrived at Scott Masterson’s home. Scott was the only adult in the house getting his two young daughters ready for primary school and pre-school. When Scott’s partner returned to the house, having earlier gone to work, there were eight Gardaí in the house along with Scott and the two children. Scott was then arrested and made to stand in handcuffs on a public road for a number of minutes before being transported to Tallaght Garda barracks.”
Slamming the politically-motivated nature of Read the rest of this entry
Blog top 20
Below are the 20 most hit-on pieces on the blog. The top two – on women’s rights and the national struggle 1916-1922 and the aftermath of the 1972 British Army’s Bloody Sunday massacre – both have almost 3,500 hits.
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Women’s rights and the national struggle, 1916-1922
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The burning of the British embassy – 40 years on
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Politics and the rise of historical revisionism
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Saor Eire – Marxist and republican
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Nationalisms and anti-nationalisms in Irish historiography
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A history of the Provisional Republican Movement – part one of three
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The New IRA and socialist-republicanism in the twenty-first century
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The Easter Rising and the ‘blood sacrifice’
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Chapter 4: The Home Rule Crisis
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Republicanism and the national independence struggle, 1916-21
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Interview with veteran socialist-republican Gerry Ruddy
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In review: Joost Augusteijn on Patrick Pearse
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The Rossville Street (Derry) Bloody Sunday murals
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The working class and the national struggle, 1916-1921
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Remembering Máirín Keegan, 1932-1972
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A history of the Provos – part three
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The Re-Imaging Programme in the six counties
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A History of the Provos – part two of three
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Remembering Peter Graham, 1945-1971
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Interview with Jim Lane: veteran socialist-republican
Shinners seize the moment – socialist-republicans need a serious alternative
As the new Bourgeois Sinn Fein tries to wrap 1916 around itself, socialist-republicans urgently need a co-operative strategy
The bould Shinners have certainly stolen a march, a big one, on both Fianna Fail and the government by announcing their 100th anniversary celebrations of the Rising. And that these celebrations are open to all. In other words, they are effectively acting as if they are the government and the state and the inheritors of the mantle of 1916, all rolled into one.
Their programme begins early – it starts this August by marking the 1915 funeral of Fenian O’Donovan Rossa, one of the events that showed the size and power of the Irish Volunteers (the Citizen Army also took part). And, of course, it was at Rossa’s funeral where Pearse gave his famous graveside oration, culminating with the words “Ireland unfree will never be at peace.”
An exhibition on the Rising, Revolution 1916 Eiri Amach, will run for no less than 33 weeks at the Ambassador Hotel at the top of O’Connell Street. International Women’s Day, March 8, will be dedicated to the role of women in the Rising and the dual fight for the rights of Ireland and of women. (Ironic, considering the Shinners tawdry shilly-shallying on the very basic right of women to access abortion.)
A visual spectacular is planned for the GPO, running the actual 100th anniversary of the dates of the Rising – April 24-29. A 3D video will tell the story of the rebellion, with the GPO itself even appearing to come under shell fire and be engulfed with flames, as it was in 1916.
A number of other events, including a reconstruction of the Citizen Army marching from Liberty Hall to St Stephen’s Green, and events marking the Irish diaspora, are also planned.
Another way in which the wily Shinners have stolen a march on both the Soldiers of Destiny and the government is getting descendants of the 1916 leaders on Read the rest of this entry
Censored – the lecture series
The ‘Censored’ public lecture series has returned to the National Print Museum/Músaem Náisiúnta Cló. It actually began on January 15, so I have been somewhat remiss in advertising it.
This part of the series will focus on censorship in Ireland, 1700-2000. The speakers are looking at a range of topics relevant to the history of censorship in Ireland, including the impact of major developments in printing technology. Individual writers like Jonathan Swift and Kate O’Brien, whose works prompted controversies that resulted in works by them being banned, will also receive attention. The lectures are free to attend with each paper lasting an hour, including question time. Admission is free but, because there is a limited number of seats, it’s best to book in advance.
Censorship and deception in the printing of Swift’s works 1690-1758
Prof Andrew Carpenter (UCD)
Thursday 15 January, 18.30
‘Controlling the Message’: Irish newspapers and press censorship 1881-91
Dr Myles Dungan (RTE)
Thursday 5 February, 18.30
Censorship and Irish writing in the twentieth century
Dr Eoghan Smith (Carlow College)
Thursday 2 April, 18.30
‘The Embrace of Love’: the censoring of Kate O’Brien
Dr Eibhear Walshe (UCC)
Thursday 7 May, 18.30
Haddington Road, Dublin 4
Tel: 01 660 3770
Fax: 01 667 3545
Email: info@nationalprintmuseum.ie
Website: www.nationalprintmuseum.ie
A Fianna Fail/Fine Gael coalition? – A socialist-republican response
Mass protests against austerity are forcing the southern ruling elite to rethink politics and unite; our side needs to match them
Turbulent times often bring about new political alignments. This is certainly very true of Ireland.
In the north the turbulent times of the armed conflict brought about a coalition between the Paisleyite DUP and Sinn Fein. In the south, the turbulent times produced by the economic meltdown and the implementation by Fianna Fail and then Fine Gael/Labour of Troika-imposed austerity has shaken up politics too. The result has been the rise of Sinn Fein and, to a more modest extent, the Trotskyist left.
The ruling class in the south are now faced with something of a dilemma. Do they agree to bring Sinn Fein in entirely and make them part of the establishment circle because they’ll need them in government to ensure stability and carrying the austerity programme through to its conclusion? Or do they throw their weight into bringing together Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the two traditional parties of the 26-county ruling elite?
Although political differences between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail narrowed a long time ago – after they came to power in 1932 the Read the rest of this entry
Maire Drumm oration at Liam Mellows commemoration
Below is the text of the oration delivered by Maire Drumm on Saturday, December 13, at the annual éirígi Liam Mellows commemoration. The event took place at Mellows’ grave in County Wexford. Wreaths were laid at the event by the Independent Workers Union and éirígi.
Mellows is one of the giants of Irish left-republicanism. As a teenager he was a member and leader of the first republican military organisation of the twentieth century, the Fianna Eireann movement founded by Constance Markievicz. Later he was a founder-member of the Irish Volunteers and led the 1916 Rising in Galway. Following the defeat of the Rising and imprisonment, he played a vital role in rebuilding the republican movement, in particular the newly-republican Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army. He was part of the Sinn Fein landslide in Ireland in the 1918 British general elections. The republicans won 73 of the 105 Irish seats at Westminster on an absententionist and independence basis, duly establishing a parliament of their own in Dublin (Dail Eireann) and declaring independence.
Liam Mellows
When the British government refused to recognise the will of the Irish people and moved to use violence to suppress their will, Mellows was to the forefront of the resistance. A war for independence took place from 1919-1921 when the more bourgeoisified elements of Dail Eireann supported a treaty with Britain which gave the British state continuing control of six north-eastern counties of Ireland while also creating a 26-county neocolonial state in the south and west (the Free State). Mellows opposed the Treaty and was part of the central leadership of the republican side in the 1922-23 civil war until his execution on December 13 1922 by Free State forces while a prisoner in Mountjoy Jail in Dublin. – Phil
Maire Drumm Oration:
It is an honour to be invited to speak at this commemoration to pay tribute to Liam Mellows and his three young comrades – Joe McKelvey, Richard Barrett and Rory O’Connor – on the ninety second anniversary of their execution by Free State forces. We also remember all those died in the struggle for national freedom.
Liam Mellows and his comrades were executed on December 8th 1922 without any trial and without any charge being laid against them.
In the eyes of the counter-revolutionary Free State government, the only crime was the four men’s adherence to the political objectives which had been succinctly set out in the 1916 Proclamation and expanded upon in the Democratic Programme of the Republic of 1919.
Those documents laid out a political agenda based upon national self-determination, social and economic justice and democracy; of cherishing all the children of the nation equally, of claiming the wealth of Ireland for the people of Ireland; of securing the greatest measures of political, social and economic freedom for the mass of the population.
Those revolutionary objectives were later ditched by an anti-Republican political elite in favour of a Treaty that saw the creation of two partitionist states within the British empire whereby control of the means of production and wealth generation would still remain in the hands of a small, but very wealthy, minority.
The men we honour today recognised that fact. They completely opposed the Treaty with its two state political solution to reinforce an all-Ireland economic status quo.
Those who led resistance against the Treaty and partition were well aware that the forms of government proposed would in no way be Read the rest of this entry
