Category: Ireland
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Catholic Church: scandals, abuses and cover-ups
Yet another abuse scandal involving the Catholic Church has come to light, this time uncovered by the RTÉ documentary “Blackrock Boys”, which tells of a Spiritan priest who abused his position as an ‘educator’ to prey on young children and eventually rape two brothers at Blackrock College during the 1970s.
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Housing crisis: a government of landlords for landlords
The housing crisis in Ireland continues to deepen. The situation moves from bad to worse, month by month, year by year. Homelessness figures continue to soar, having reached a new record high of almost 11,000 people in emergency accommodation.
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Sinn Féin victory a historic blow to the union!
Sinn Féin has emerged as the first party in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections. With a remarkable 29% of the first preference votes to the DUP’s 21.3%, the gap was even wider than predicted. Within hours of the polls closing, #UnitedIreland was trending on Twitter. This is another devastating blow to the prestige of British…
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Bloody Sunday: fifty years on
50 years ago today, soldiers of the British paratroop regiment opened fire on a peaceful civil rights march in the North of Ireland. 13 people were killed immediately, and a 14th victim died later as a result of his injuries. For half a century, the British state has covered up this atrocity, a crime for…
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Stop scandalous state repression of young climate activists!
As the world toboggans towards an environmental catastrophe created by the capitalist system, how is Ireland – one of Europe’s most polluting nations – responding to the crisis? By using state repression against young environmental activists. We say: protest is not a crime! Drop the charges against climate activists!
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40 years since the Irish hunger strikes: the struggle for a Socialist United Ireland continues
On this day 40 years ago, in the face of Tory intransigence, the hunger strike by Republican political prisoners in Ireland came to an end. Decades on, only revolutionary class struggle can provide a future free from oppression and sectarianism. On 3 October 1981, the remaining Irish Republicans on hunger strike in the North of…
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The implosion of the DUP and the dead end of Unionism
In the course of scarcely a month, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has begun imploding in spectacular fashion. Arlene Foster – the DUP leader and First Minister at Stormont who survived the RHI scandal, the collapse of Stormont in 2017, and the introduction of Northern Ireland Protocol earlier this year – has finally and unceremoniously…
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Sectarian riots: a bad end to a bad peace
Over the past week, the North of Ireland has seen its worst rioting in years, ostensibly over the Northern Ireland Protocol signed by the Westminster government with the EU. The threat of loyalist violence has been in the air for months as tensions have ratcheted up since the Protocol came into effect in January.
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Ireland under Brexit: crushed between the millstones of imperialism
Brexit is only a month old. But already, Ireland has been caught in the crossfire as the UK and EU clash. The menace of Protestant sectarianism is rising once again. Only united class struggle can offer a way forward.
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Stormont stabs workers in the back over lockdown
COVID restrictions are set to loosen up in the North of Ireland – part of a cynical attempt by politicians to use the pandemic for sectarian ends. Workers in both communities need a united socialist struggle to end this chaos and crisis.