Film Review: I Dolours
We asked former H-Block prisoner and blanketman Dixie Elliott for a review of this movie. Dixie suggested we use something he had written that appeared on The Pensive Quill; so this is it with some slight editing to fit this site.
I Dolours, 2018, directed by Maurice Sweeney; produced by Ed Moloney; 82 mins.
by Dixie Elliott
I Dolours is a film about a committed and brave IRA Volunteer telling her own harrowing story. What struck me was the haunted eyes of someone who, like her sister Marian, carried out orders without question and who did terrible things in the belief that what they were doing was right. Who remained seated when asked to go and bomb England while others got up and walked out of the room, unable to do it. Dolours couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to go as she wanted to take the war to the Brits’ door.
The Brits were waiting on them, she told us, and when asked if she believed there was an informer, she said “yes” without hesitation – in Belfast.
The actor who portrayed Dolours as a young IRA Volunteer is so like the older woman it’s uncanny, especially the eyes.
Dolours spoke about her staunchly Republican parents, her father who had bombed England in his youth, her aunt who lived with them and who had lost both hands and eyes in Read the rest of this entry
Éirígí launches election campaign for Brian Leeson, Saturday, 17 November, 7pm, Mill Theatre, Dundrum
The official launch for Brian’s election campaign for the Local Elections which will take place in May 2019. The launch is on from 7.00pm to 8.30pm in The Mill Theatre in Dundrum on Sat, Nov 17th.
Clare Daly TD and MIck Wallace TD will be in attendance as special guests. Food, music and drinks in The Eagle after the launch for those that want them.
A political activist since 1989, this is Brian’s first time running for public office. Probably no other candidate in the Dundrum Local Electoral Area has been involved in so many progressive political campaigns over such a long period of time.
From supporting the then-isolated nationalist community in the Six Counties in the early 1990s to fighting for housing justice today, Brian has Read the rest of this entry
Revisiting People’s Democracy and the ‘Burntollet’ march
The January 1969 Belfast to Derry march, organised by People’s Democracy, modelled on the US civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965
Last week I watched a video of a public meeting at the CP’s Dublin headquarters marking the 50th anniversary of the explosion of the civil rights movement onto the streets of Derry and the wider six counties. One of the speakers was Tommy McKearney, someone whom I respect a great deal. To my unpleasant surprise, however, Tommy wheeled out the old Stickies and CP attacks on “ultralefts” going destructively ahead with activities which unnecessarily provoked violent clashes instead of listening to the advice of more seasoned folk like Betty Sinclair.
Wow!
It’s hard to know where to start in responding to this, so I’m linking to two articles on the People’s Democracy organisation, the civil rights movement and Burntollet. One is by Matt Collins, from SWN/People Before Profit looking back on the events as a Marxist today and the other is by John McAnulty, a veteran of PD and the movement back then and an active Marxist still. John agrees with much in the Matt Collins article, which defends PD, while also noting a few things Matt got wrong.
Before linking to these, I just want to say something about Betty Sinclair and the question of ‘experience’. Tommy is dead wrong to say Bernadette Devlin, Michael Farrell, John McAnulty and the “ultralefts” should have Read the rest of this entry
Fintan Lalor on Repeal, land ownership, insurrection and saving the Irish masses in the Famine
Lalor argued that only a social revolution could save Ireland from the destruction wrought by the landlords and British state through the Famine
The following article appeared in The Irish Felon, July 1848. It was titled “To the Irish Confederate and Repeal Clubs”. The sentences in brackets were Lalor’s introduction to the piece. In this lengthy feature Lalor criticises the Young Ireland movement for the partial nature of its break with Daniel O’Connell and his Repeal Association; argues that the goal of the struggle has to be a social revolution and not simply repeal of the 1801 Act of Union; outlines different forms of insurrection; identifies the landlord class as a garrison class; notes the socio-economic impact of Famine on Irish society; and how a plan of action is needed to fight immediately to save the country from ruin.
I must admit I was sorely tempted to break up the more massive paragraphs! However, I decided to resist the temptation.
by James Fintan Lalor
[The paper that follows was written in the last week of January, 1847-just one year and five months ago and was forwarded to one of the leading members of the Confederation for private circulation among the council of that body. I now address it to you just as it was written.]
I see no reason to prevent me mentioning that, in about a month from the date and delivery of my paper, I received a letter from John Mitchel stating that, on perusal and consideration of its contents, he had fully adopted my views, and that he meant to act on them so soon as occasion should fit and serve. – January 25, 1847
My sole wish or attention is to suggest. Any attempt to convert or convince would be useless. Individuals are never converted; they must convert themselves. Men are moved only in masses; and it is easier to convert a million of men than a single man. But neither is the attempt necessary. To you, or any of those whom this paper is intended, the end of the clue-line is enough. You will be able, if you choose, to follow it out yourself. To lead you on, link by link, would be needless and absurd.
To anyone who considers their speeches, resolutions, and proceedings, it will, I think, appear manifest and marked, as it does to me, that the “seceders” have gone into organized action upon mere vague impulse and general feeling; with their objects undefined, their principles unsettled, their course unmarked; without any determinate plan, or, consequently, any fixed purpose – for no purpose can long remain fixed, but must be ever veering and wavering, without a plan to guide, control, and sustain it; and a purpose without a plan to confine and confirm it, is no purpose at all. Such a plan, too, is wanting as a warrant and guarantee to yourselves and to others that your object is feasible and your means adequate ; that you have gauged your enterprise and measured your means; and that the work you call on us to do will not be wasted. There are few worse things, even in the ethics or economy of private life, than labour misdirected; but what should be said of those who would, for want of a full and exact survey and calculation, mislead and exhaust the labour and means and strength of a people? It is not Read the rest of this entry
Roe 4 prisoners on “upsurge in harassment against our visitors”
Statement from Republican Prisoners, Roe 4, Maghaberry gaol (issued by Saoradh POW Dept):
“Over the past number of weeks Republican prisoners have witnessed an upsurge in harassment against our visitors. These escalations in provocative behaviour have now become a routine occurrence, with family, friends and loved ones enduring intimidation from bigoted screws.
“In the past week alone there have been several incidents. In the first one man was dragged from the visits, forcibly strip searched and held in isolation for 48 hours. This was highlighted at the time, but the gaol administration remained undaunted. Subsequently the so-called ‘drug dog’ reacting to visitors has been used to prevent visits from taking place.
“These dogs are notoriously unreliable and, in any case, Read the rest of this entry
Some reflections on Monday’s presidential election and blasphemy referendum
On the surface it’s a landslide for that puffed up little fake-socialist gobshite Michael D. Higgins. But, in reality, the vote is an indication of no-confidence in the political system – or at least in the office of the presidency. Less than 44% of voters actually voted in the presidential contest The post of president – along with the Seanad – should be abolished.
This is unlikely to happen within the context of capitalism however as these two institutions are integral parts of the system of interlocking institutions, and checks and balances, by which the ruling class rules in the southern neo-colonial state.
The two positives I took from the presidential election were that a majority of people didn’t vote and that ‘Poppy’ Ni Riada only got 7%. Not so good that the Trump imitator got 20% of the vote. But keep in mind, given the numbers that didn’t vote, that’s less than 10% of the actual electorate.
Presidential elections have never been hugely popular. The first contest, back in 1945, got the best turnout, but it was still only 63%. The pattern has been downhill since then with occasional slight rises.
It’s interesting to see what has happened with turnout with the little kiss-arse currently occupying the post. In 2011, when he still had some left credentials, the turn out was Read the rest of this entry
Our current top ten
The ten most-viewed pieces on the blog are currently:
Bernard Fox letter on the road to armed struggle
The following letter appeared in the October 26 issue of the Belfast-based Irish News. Bernard Fox spent decades in the Irish Republican Army, including a stint on the Army Council, the IRA’s seven-person central leadership. He came to oppose the direction the Adams-McGuinness cabal took as they decided to become part of the political establishment across the island.
I commend The Irish News coverage of the emergence of the civil rights association and the events surrounding the Duke Street march 50 years ago. Leona O’Neill’s column (October 9) about her brave father’s involvement and decisions made then were made in response to what he experienced on the ground. However, at that time there were no easy decisions to make.
I was a 17-year-old in 1969 living in the St James’s area off the Falls Road. My interests were sport, the Beatles and girls. I was serving an apprenticeship in an engineering firm where I had many Read the rest of this entry
REITS, the rental crisis and how we fight back: Public meeting in Dundrum, Tuesday, October 23
Éirígí Dublin South have a really important public meeting coming up next week. It will shine a bright light on the role that Real Estate Investment Trusts and other institutional landlords are playing in the Rathdown constituency, where half a dozen companies have amassed a portfolio of over 2,000 homes in just five years.
Thousands of citizens in Dundrum, Ballinteer, Sandyford and Leopardstown are now paying some of the highest rents in the country to these Read the rest of this entry
Some more great stuff on the Irish Republican Marxist History Project
D.R. O’Connor Lysaght reviews Seamus Murphy, Having it Away: an Epic Story of Freedom, Friendship and IRA jailbreak, Bray, Co. Wicklow: https://irishrepublicanmarxisthistoryproject.wordpress.com/2018/10/04/triumph-and-tragedy-lessons-of-a-republican-prison-escape-by-d-r-oconnor-lysaght/
Video in which veteran republican Richard Behal talks about the Border Campaign and the Republican Movement in the mid-late 1960s: https://irishrepublicanmarxisthistoryproject.wordpress.com/2018/10/11/operation-harvest-the-republican-movement-in-the-mid-late-1960s/
