Category: Ireland
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Crisis of Unionism: Reckoning with the betrayal of Britain
The world bore witness to historic defeats for Unionism in the latest Assembly and Council elections which propelled Sinn Féin to the biggest party on both occasions. This situation is hurling the DUP and Unionism into an ever deepening quagmire. Many Unionist workers and youth feel abandoned by the DUP due to the ever increasing…
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The waning sham ‘neutrality’ of the Irish ruling class
The right-wing coalition government of Varadkar and Martin has decided that now is the time to test the water on ditching so-called Irish ‘neutrality’. No doubt they would love to bounce Ireland into NATO, finally ending decades of sham neutrality in favour of open recognition of the 26-county state’s actual position: that of a pawn…
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The Good Friday Agreement: a quarter century of dashed hopes
This week, 25 years ago, the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) was signed in Belfast. Heralding it as nothing less than the beginning of a new epoch for the North of Ireland, the British and Irish government signatories – along with its American architects – were inebriated with their own ‘success’. ‘History’ had been made!
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The Windsor Framework and the DUP – the crisis of Unionism continues
The British establishment is heralding the adoption of the Windsor Framework, the latest UK-EU trading arrangement. But this deal will do nothing to resolve the tensions in the North of Ireland. Only united class struggle can offer a way forward.
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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…