Revolutionary socialist & anti-imperialist; Rebel Breeze publishes material within this spectrum and may or may not agree with all or part of any particular contribution. Writing English, Irish and Spanish, about politics, culture, nature.
Many people endured heavy rain on Friday morning to support two Palestine solidarity activists in court as a result of the now-infamous Garda pepper-spray and baton attack on a peaceful march to Dublin docks on 18th October.
Small section of the crowd of supporters outside the Court on 31 October 2025 for the two pepper-sprayed and chargedPalestine solidarity activists (Photo: D. Breatnach)
The Port march was a breakaway from a periodic Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign national march to Leinster House, the home of the State’s parliament; some IPSC stewards denouncing it as it diverged at O’Connell Bridge and called on others to march on Dublin Port instead.
From video and eyewitness reports it is clear that the Public Order Unit of the Garda determined not only to stop them but to ‘teach the protesters a lesson’. No sooner had the linked-arms marchers reached the police line than some of them sprayed pepper-spray on the Palestine solidarity activists.
So heavy was the spraying that it affected a number of the Gardaí themselves. Many also drew their batons and attacked the demonstrators reeling from the effects of the spraying. The POU unit had their ID numbers concealed and Gardaí pursued activists moving away, spraying them again.
The Gardaí later claimed they had given a warning before spraying as they are required so to do by their own regulations but both Irish Council for Civil Liberties observers and video evidence show this to be untrue.
Solidarity activists were arrested at the scene of the Garda attack and one other outside a special sitting of the court on Saturday evening. The charges were of the usual kind with police repression of demonstrations: offences against Public Order, resisting arrest and obstruction of traffic.
The Irish State is the 2nd-largest single importer of Israeli products, second only to the USA and clearly has no intention of moving from that situation.
Nor of demilitarising Shannon Airport nor of banning Irish airspace to overflights ferrying military supplies to Israel. Two years of giant solidarity marches and smaller ones up and down the country have not moved the Irish ruling class to any degree beyond making statements.
As people move to take actions that have the potential to force the Government to end their collusion it seems inevitable that the State will increase its repression, which will work towards intimidation but also to increased resistance.
Small section of the crowd of supporters for the two pepper-sprayed and charged outside the Court on 31 October 2025. (Photo: D. Breatnach)
Those gathering at the court today were for the most part independent activists and activists of very small political organisations but many also of broad Palestine solidarity groups.
The two facing charges today had their cases postponed to January 2026, with talk of the Gardaí possibly returning shortly to court to press more serious charges, with the potential of heavier punishment — but conversely also of greater political statements made before a jury.
Solidarity with people fighting in struggles in other parts of the world often has a price of repression where the solidarity is originating, which makes solidarity to the targeted activists essential too. In that context, the numbers attending the court on Friday morning were very encouraging.
End.
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A wave of “recognitions of the State of Israel” have occurred around much of the world. Though at first glance these appear politically progressive, in fact they are all tied to supporting the colonial alleged “Two States Solution.”
This is quite apart from the fact that not one practical step is being taken by any of those states in order to prevent the ongoing genocide and massive displacement of Palestinians which many of the states are actually aiding.
The fourth image is what is available for the Palestinians in the imperialist two-state plan. (Image sourced: Internet)
Soon all but 30 member states of the UN will have recognised the Palestinian state (yet to exist) and they include western imperialist states such as Australia, Canada, France, Spain, the UK, supported by political parties both in government and opposition,1 all proposing a ‘two-state solution’ (sic).
This proposal involves accepting the ‘right’ of a European colonial settler regime to invade and occupy a land,2 subjugate most of the indigenous people, racially discriminate against them, set up an ethno-state, then carry out ethnic cleansing, genocide and further expansion.
This while simultaneously proposing 20% of the land with least water as a reservation for the indigenous people, under the guns and surveillance of the genocidal Occupier, with its borders, water and electricity supply all under the Occupiers’ control.
Many liberals and social-democrats will support the imperialist ‘solution’ being foisted upon the Palestinian people of the occupation of Gaza by a client regime and the creation of a formal Bantustan3 colony – the “Palestinian State” (sic).
This ‘solution’ was insisted upon at the three-day UN Conference in July, mandated by the UN General Assembly through resolutions ES-10/24 and 79/81 and sponsored by France and Saudi Arabiab, backed by the General Assembly President, Philémon Yang.
Also by Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, stating that the “… only just and sustainable path forward is the establishment of two independent, democratic States – Israel and Palestine – living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital4…” 5
Firstly, we’d have to say that there is nothing “just” about that path and secondly ask why is that the ‘”only sustainable solution?” Why cannot a democratic state of the entirety of Palestine, as pre-1948, be sustainable? Is it because the Zionists and their imperialist won’t let it be?
Then we’d be entitled to ask whether Guterres and Yang speak for the world or instead for the imperialist states and their clients and allies. In fact, since there can be no peace without justice, a democratic state of Palestine on pre-1948 territory is the only just and sustainable solution.
This scrambling to recognise the ‘Palestinian State’ within a “two-state” framework was also reflected in the recent United Nations vote for a ceasefire, which was tied to the acceptance of the two-state solution, emphasising that it has nothing to do with justice but is all about management.
The imperialist states and their allies, with the particular exception of the US and Israel, are very worried that the legacy of the current genocide will threaten their interests in Western Asia in the near future, including the regimes they depend upon to control the Arab people.
To some extent the western states are also concerned at the exposure of their regimes to their own populations in terms of collusion with genocide, financial implications , suppression of information and, in many cases, repression of democratic rights to protest.
The western states want to save West Asia for imperialism and they think that the USA and current behaviour of Israel are endangering it.
The two-state plan is not at this point supported by the Zionist state and the chief imperialist, the USA, though the plan seeks to impose what they also want: stability within the imperialist system.
Recently another international conference was held to discuss the way to resolve the situation of Western Asia and crisis in Palestine, this conference organised by Qatar following Israel’s bombing of their capital Doha in an assassination attempt against the Hezbollah negotiating team.6
The Iranian representative pointed out at the conclusion that although they supported some of the resolution adopted they could not agree to recognition of a Palestinian state within or adjacent to Israel, since that meant de facto recognition of the right of the genocidal Zionist state to exist.7
Recognition of the Palestinian State as is being done now is also recognition and acceptance of the totally unrepresentative and undemocratic Palestinian Authority and in fact, Palestinian Embassies (such as the one in Dublin) and Consulates are run through the Authority.
Leaflet issued by an Irish solidarity organisation for a picket of the Palestinian Authority Embassy last year – subsequently there was a broad protest held outside. (Image sourced: from my archives)
Although Palestine has been officially occupied by a Zionist colonial settler regime since 1948, it has had an imperialist and Zionist client Palestinian regime since the conclusion of the Oslo process (overseen for US imperialism by Bill Clinton): the Palestine Authority.
What would one expect from such a client regime? Collusion, spying, pacification? Certainly, the PA came to represent all those things. But in addition: bullying and brutal suppression, along with widespread corruption. It was managed by the Fatah leadership through the PLO.8
Whatever we may think of the Fatah leadership, they were by far the majority choice of the Palestinian people in the legislative elections of 1996. But by the time of the next elections in 2006, most of Palestine society had become sick of Fatah and elected Hamas instead.
A 2007 decree by President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas disqualified from election any party that did not recognise the leading role of the Fatah-dominated PLO, thereby disqualifying Hamas which denounced the decree as undemocratic and illegal.
There is a long history of imperialism choosing tame representation for occupied peoples, including British colonialism doing the same thing in Palestine.9
Fatah, unprepared to accept the loss of their power and corruption opportunities, refused to leave their governing positions until they were helped to leave by Hamas in a short, sharp struggle in 2007.10 Whereupon the Zionists blockaded Gaza and imperialists paid their grants instead to the PA.
However Hamas did not force the issue of their election in the West Bank, which continued under the rule, not to say dictatorship of the Palestinian Authority.
The corruption of and repression by the PA is not an opinion of the Palestinian resistance organisations alone but is widely acknowledged by all kinds of western observers, including enemies of the Resistance,11 which is one reason the imperialist are calling for its ‘revamping’.
Meanwhile Abbas, ‘President’ of the PA since its inception in 2003 (and ensuring no elections since) is already laying out how democratic the rule of the PA in Gaza would be. Unlike two decades ensuring no elections in the West Bank, Abbas has been enthusiastically preparing for them in Gaza.
He seems to feel quite confident in the outcome of elections which is perhaps not surprising since he has stated that only those in agreement with the imperialist positions and the traitorous one of the PA will be allowed to stand or field candidates.
Regarding weapons, Abbas’ statements have seemed a bit contradictory. On the one hand he said that the Palestinian State alone should hold weapons while on the other he declared that the Palestine State will be unarmed.
However we can understand this to mean that Abbas and his types will ensure they are armed so as to control the Palestinians but will never use weapons against the Zionist Occupation. Even had we not the record of the Palestinian Authority to draw upon, this is clearly not a deal to support.
But it will be supported – in the first place by most of the imperialists and their client states and perhaps later by the Zionists who fear even a mention of a Palestinian State and also by those ‘friends of the Palestinians’ among the liberals and social democrats because it will bring ‘peace’.
And for them, hopefully eliminate or reduce the influence of Muslims (in particular those who are sworn to resist colonisation and imperialism). And isn’t it after all better than genocide by starvation and bombing? And so on.
We in Ireland know – or should know – that such patch solutions don’t work for the people. Our nation’s similar makeover in 1921 resulted in civil war and, within the colonial statelet, pogroms, greater poverty than anywhere in the UK, civil rights marches and sectarian assassinations.12
And of course, internment and an ultimately unsuccessful national resistance war of three decades. On the other side of the British Border, it meant years of underdevelopment, emigration, clerical domination and imperialist appropriation of natural resources, labour and infrastructures.
The alternative being offered to the Palestinians was summed up by a patriot at his trial, where he was convicted and sentenced to hang:
“If we are to be indicted as criminals, to be shot as murderers, to be imprisoned as convicts, because our offence is that we love our land more than we value our lives, then I do not know what virtue resides in any offer of self-government held out to brave men on such terms.
Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth, a thing no more to be doled out to us, or withheld from us, by another people than the right to life itself, than the right to feel the sun, or smell the flowers, or to love our kind.
It is only from the convict these things are withheld, for crime committed and proven, and my land, that has wronged no man, has injured no land, that has sought no dominion over others, my land is being treated today among the nations of the world as if she were a convicted criminal.
If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel, and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with the last drop of my blood.
If there be no right of rebellion against this state of things that no savage tribe would endure without resistance, then I am sure that it is better for men to fight and die without right than to live in such a state as this.
Where all your rights have become only an accumulated wrong, where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to gather the fruits of their own labours …
and, even while they beg, to see things inexorably withdrawn from them then, surely, it is a braver, a saner and truer thing to be a rebel, in act and in deed, against such circumstances as these, than to tamely accept it, as the natural lot of men.”13
It seems to me that throughout history there have been people that it was crucial for the dominant system to defeat but of which their resistance was difficult for the system to overcome.
The culture of these people resisted domination and, like grass flattened by passing footsteps, sprang up again. And again and again.
Perhaps it was the strength of these peoples’ cultures, the way their stories of themselves could not be supplanted by the stories of the invader, of the occupier, or perhaps it was some special quality of their leaders.
Perhaps it was their ability, as leaders and as people, to draw others in under the banner of resistance.
These people fought their occupiers, occasionally winning, often defeated in battle but rising again and again. Where leaders compliant to the Occupation arose, they were overthrown or sidelined, the people again taking the road of resistance. As a people, they rejected ‘peace’ in bribes or chains.
The examples of such people that march and flock into my mind as this thought occurs to me include in ancient times perhaps the Gauls, certainly the Irish and in modern times the Irish again, the Indigenous American Cheyenne, Sioux, Apache – and the Palestinians.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach
It is something to see now, all the European imperialists and the imperialist client regimes of the Arab world in a united front to try to pacify the Palestinians, to occupy Gaza and to force the resisting Palestinians under their client manager of the ‘Palestine’ Authority.
It is doubtful that they will succeed and we should hope that they don’t, not only for the sake of the Palestinians and other people of West Asia (the ‘Middle East’) but for our own sakes, fighting the oppression of imperialism and colonialism and the exploitation of our labour by capitalism.
For as observed earlier, the struggle of the Palestinians has destabilised the imperialist system, exposed the fraud of an international humanitarian legal system and in its member states exposed the frauds of capitalist democracy, free press and government representing the will of the people.
Solidarity with the Palestinians and outrage at Zionist genocide and imperialist collusion has brought millions of previously uninvolved people into street action which bodes well for the future and ill for the imperialist system. It’s been an education we need to continue.
End.
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Footnotes
1Within the Irish state this is also the position of Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Social Democrats and Labour.
2Commenting on this and in particular on the Australian Prime Minister’s statement on the question, Ali Albunimah of the Electronic Intifada podcast on 25/09/2025 pointed out that the question of ‘right’ was only mentioned once, and that was in reference to Israel’s alleged ‘right to self-defence’, never with regard to the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (a right recognised in the UN Charter, unlike the ‘right of a state to self-defence’ which does not exist).
3AI summary: A bantustan was a politically created territory for black Africans in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) during the apartheid era, officially termed “homelands” or “black states”. The policy aimed to segregate and control the black population by granting them limited self-governance within these ethnically defined areas, which were never recognized internationally and were reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. The term “bantustan” was a critical term coined from “Bantu” and the Persian suffix “-stan” (meaning “land”).
4 “… based on pre-1967 lines and in line with international law and UN resolutions.”
8The Palestine Liberation Organisation, in its time comprising the secular liberation organisations of Fatah, PFLP and DFLP. The PA has repressed alternative resistance organisations and suppressed freedom of speech, even to arresting people for criticising it or posting other material on social media. Its forces have killed a civilian critic and a Resistance fighter.
10Mass media sources usually represent this as the “Hamas takeover” which conceals the fact that they were elected to replace the previously-elected Fatah administration, whose officials refused to concede the popular will.
12In case of misinterpretation, innocently or otherwise, let me state that by ‘sectarian assassinations’ I mean those carried out by British colonial proxies, i.e. Loyalist murder gangs.
13This was part of the speech of Roger Casement at his trial; my only change was to substitute the words “my land” for his own: “Ireland.” Casement’s was the 16th execution arising out of the 1916 Rising in Ireland though he received a criminal trial instead of military court and was hanged instead of being shot by firing squad, as were the earlier 15.
It’s a legitimate question in view of the Zionist state’s actions preventing aid entry and killing Palestinians every day since it signed a ceasefire agreement — but also from historical,1 cultural and perhaps even psychological standpoints.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach
Since 11 October the Israeli Occupation Force has killed 46 Palestinians Palestinians, including 11-year-old Mohammed Bajhat Al-Hallaql and injured 132 others since the ceasefire took effect. Half of the victims were children, women, and elderly people.2
Among the dead was the Abu Shaban family, completely wiped out, seven children and two women.3
As winter looms, tents and construction materials are blocked. And as sowing time for next year’s crops is here, Israel has blocked agricultural materials, including seeds, fertilizers, and solar panels from entering4 to replace the IOF-destroyed crops and greenhouses.
The IOF has also greatly restricted the number of aid trucks it allows entry, from 700 to 450 daily, which is another kind of ceasefire violation and banned key food items like meat, poultry, and livestock. And allowed just 7% of the agreed quota of 50 gas and oil trucks daily in nine days.
The latest large scale violation, as I was writing this, was its killing of more than 30 Palestinians after one of the IOF’s bulldozers ran over Israeli unexploded ordinance in Rafah, which they decided to frame on the Resistance and use as an excuse for more murder and Rafah gate closure.5
Reports have now emerged of IOF recently burning and otherwise destroying urgently-needed food aid. Which of the ceasefire negotiators or guarantors has called the IOF or the Zionist State’s leadership out over this? None, of course.
And of course too, that’s one important reason why it keeps doing it – because it can. And because none of its allies will call it to account. But perhaps also there is some kind of deep Zionist bias against sticking to agreements made.
Last Autumn, in the midst of its unsuccessful attack on South Lebanon, the IOF asked its allies to seek a ceasefire and truce with Hezbollah. Weakened by exploding pagers6 and assassination of their renowned leader Nasrallah, Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach
That was on 27 November 2024. Of course, true to form, the IOF violated the ceasefire daily, though Hezbollah kept to the terms. Not dozens or scores of violations, not hundreds … No, the IOF has committed approaching 3,000 separate violations by April this year.7
The brass neck of the Zionists sometimes exceeds belief. In the midst of their daily ceasefire violations, they are now threatening to again prevent food and medical aid entering until the Resistance complies with the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas has not delivered all the prisoner bodies, it says. But Hamas replies that it delivered all those it could access, others lying under tons of rubble, remains of buildings collapsed by IOF bombing, which is what killed the Israeli prisoners of the Resistance (probably along with their guards).
But somehow this is a reason to abandon the ceasefire! Locating the dead prisoners requires rubble-moving machinery and expert forensic help. The IOF long ago bombed all such Palestinian machinery to scrap and are not permitting its entry from any others at the moment either.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach
At the same time, the Zionists rejected two of their own forces’ bodies. One was a non-Israeli who worked for them and another a Palestinian in Israeli uniform, possibly a human shield employed or coerced by the IOF, sent into a tunnel and killed by the Resistance.8
Meanwhile, what of the estimated 2,000 Palestinian bodies held by the Zionists? As a Hamas statement said, their return is a question of human rights and law, not for negotiation. But when the few have been delivered as part of this ceasefire agreement, some have shocked their receivers.
Bodies showing hands tied behind backs and with bullet wounds … or a rope around the neck … signs of blindfolding over eyes, signs of torture … Some with tank-tread marks; all without identification, leaving a grotesque task for the Gaza administration and possible relatives.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach
And still … and still … the Zionists scream about the Resistance not fulfilling the terms of the ceasefire. I would think them to be totally beyond shame, were it not for the lies and excuses for their behaviour that they spew out into the world, which indicates a certain feeling of guilt.
Well, that is the Enemy. Not just of the Palestinians, or the Lebanese, or Syrians, or Yemenis, Iranians, Iraqis … No, they are the enemies of humanity, just as the Nazis were enemies of more than their victims and the countries they attacked.
And this Enemy is ready to resume the genocide at any time.
End.
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(Another one from the Rebel Breeze archives, this one from 2015)
I write to express my admiration for your work and my sympathies with regard to the criticisms with which you are currently being bombarded.
I hope you will forgive my ignorance of much of the work you have been doing in the area of Heritage, which is not really where my strengths lie. But I love the way you talk, the way you shoot down those critics, especially those TDs who ask those nasty questions.
And I’m sure you had something to do with removing Westport House from the NAMA sell-off, even if it is in Enda’s constituency. Such a fine example of our colonial architectural heritage!
Heather Humhpreys, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
But as we know, Minister, that wouldn’t be the kind of thing that would be appreciated by your critics. They’d rather you devoted your talents to a shabby row of Dublin houses of dubious architectural importance in a grubby street market.
A street which they say is “pre-Famine” — as if that were something to boast about! Laid down earlier than Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) they say ….
Sure why would we want to keep a street that old …. or remember that embarrassing episode in our history either, when we lost a third of our population to over-reliance on one crop! We learned from that, though, didn’t we? Sure we grow hardly any crops at all now and get them all in from abroad.
And we live in cities now — who wants to be getting up at 6 a.m. in all kinds of weather and plodding through muck? If people like growing things that much, get a house with a garden, I say. And a gardener to do the donkey work.
Supporters at the symbolic Arms Around Moore Street event organised by the Save Moore Street From Demolition campaign in June 2016. This is the corner of Moore Lane and Henry Place, across which Volunteers had to run under machine-gun and rifle fire from Parnell Street (at the end of Moore Lane, to the right of the photo) and at least one Volunteer died here.
But I’m digressing, Minister, my apologies. Apparently the reason they want to save that shabby terrace, that “pre-Famine street” — and the backyards and surrounding lane-ways, if you please! — is for HISTORICAL reasons. Historical!
Sure have we not had enough of history – Brehon Laws, Golden Age, Clontarf, Normans, 800 years of British occupation, blah, blah, blah! Weren’t we sick of it at school?
I’ve never liked Labour too much (somehow even the word sounds sweaty) but I have to admire their Education Ministry’s efforts to remove history as a subject from the compulsory school curriculum.
I’m sure they’re doing it for their own reasons – after all, wasn’t their party founded by that communist James Connolly? Sorry, revealing my own knowledge of history there, ha, ha! But whatever their reasons, they are on the right track.
Who wants to know where we are coming from? It’s where we ARE and where we are GOING TO, that matters!
But some people just can’t let it go, can they? They trail history around like something unpleasant stuck to a shoe. So what if 300 of the GPO garrison occupied that terrace in 1916?
The Rising, if you ask me, was a big mistake and I know plenty of people agree with me, even if most don’t have the courage to say so. Wouldn’t we be much better off if we’d stayed in the UK? And kept the Sterling currency? And as for the War of Independence …. don’t get me started!
Aerial view Moore Street, looking northwards, 1960s, before the building of the ILAC and the running down of the street market.
And then there’s all that communist-sounding stuff about treating “all the children of the nation equally” — what kind of rubbish is that? Some are born to big houses with swimming pools and some are born to flats, or even rooms. That’s just the way of life.
And some will claw their way up to get to own big houses and if they are a bit uncouth, well that can’t be helped, they still deserve where they get to. And their children at least will be taught how to fit into their new station. That’s democracy! But everyone equal? Please!
Sorry, back to the Moore Street controversy. OK, after the mob pressured the Government, four houses in the street were made a national monument. But was that enough for the mob? Oh, no, not at all — eight years later the State had to buy the four houses to satisfy them.
Thankfully the specul ….. sorry, the developer, got back a good return on his investment – four million, wasn’t it? That’s the kind of thing that makes one proud to be Irish – buying run-down buildings and letting them run down more, then selling them for a million each.
That’s your entrepreneur! If only we had more like that, to lift this country up!
I must say I really liked that developer’s plan to build a big shopping centre from O’Connell Street into the ILAC, knocking those old houses in Moore Street down (although I know he had to leave those “national monument” four houses still standing in the plans).
I do hope whoever has bought the debt off NAMA and now owns those houses will carry on with that plan. Actually, I’d like the whole of O’Connell Street under glass if it were possible.
Wouldn’t it be great to do your shopping from the north end of the street to the south and from left to right, without ever having to come out into the weather? Of course, not much shopping there now, with Clery’s closed …. still ….
And then they’re going on about the market ….. traditional street market …. blah, blah. What’s wrong with getting your veg and fruit from the supermarket? Or getting them to deliver it your house, come to that? “Traditional street market” my ar….. excuse me, I got carried away there.
Those street markets are all very well for your Continentals, your Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and so on. Or for us to go wandering around in when we’re abroad on holiday, maybe. But back home? It’s the nice clean supermarkets for me any day.
Well now, if the mob insists on saving the street market, here’s an idea: why not provide a showcase stall or barrow, stacked with clean vegetables and polished fruit, right in the middle of the new shopping centre. After all, that’s heritage, isn’t it? And aren’t yourself the Minister for Heritage?
Most sincerely,
Phillis Tine-Fumblytil
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Dutch and German warships docked in Dublin’s Liffey Port were met by anti-NATO protesters late Saturday afternoon with banners, an Irish Tricolour and Starry Plough flags and shouts through a loudhailer with passing traffic beeping in solidarity.
The huge Dutch naval landing platform Johann De Witt was immediately visible on the north Liffey quay just on the seaward side of the Tom Clarke Bridge and the protesters took their stand there in front of the security gates, visible to airport and south and northbound Dublin traffic.
German NATO frigate FGS Hamburg entering Dublin Bay, bound for the Port security gate. (Photo cred: Afloat)
The Dutch ship was flying Holland and NATO flags. Among the slogans the protesters periodically chanted were: No NATO troops in Ireland! NATO, NATO, NATO: Out, out, out! From Belfast to Killarney – We don’t want your NATO Army! NATO imperialism – Out of Ireland!
Anti-Nato stickers being affixed to the Dublin Port security gate. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The chants grew louder as military personnel (in street clothes) approached or emerged from the security gates behind the protesters but there was no physical confrontation from either side. No Gardaí attended either, unlike the protest at Ireland’s NATO HQ in April this year.
On that occasion Gardaí pepper-sprayed the peaceful protesters and broke the ankle of one of their number, in addition to arresting them. Some of the arrested were bailed and are due to appear in court in Dublin on 23rd February 2026.
Anti-Nato protesters, the Dutch NATO naval ship clearly visible in background. (Photo: R.Breeze)
NATO was originally claimed to be a western European military defensive force against the Soviet Bloc. However, after the Bloc’s collapse, NATO continued to expand until it has now an additional 17 member states (and the threat of Ukraine joining led to the current war with Russia).
The individual western member states, for example the US, UK, France have been waging imperialist wars for decades. But the NATO military alliance’s forces also fought imperialist wars in a number of countries: Bosnia, Kossovo, Afghanistan and Libya.
Anti-Nato protesters. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The protest on Saturday was organised at very short notice by Action for Palestine Ireland and Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland. Many passing vehicles, both private, company and taxi sounded their horns in support and also gave a thumbs-up or clenched fist salute.
Clearly the protest context was not only a lack of welcome for a member of the western imperialist military alliance but also fears that the Irish ruling class wants to join that alliance too and is currently trying to remove the ‘Triple Lock’ impeding its move in that direction.
End.
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Anti-Nato protesters on Saturday, the Dutch NATO naval ship clearly visible in background. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Spanish Fascists, Basque Anti-fascists and Basque Police clashed on the ‘National Day’ of the Spanish State in the Basque city of Gastheiz/ Vittoria. There were a number of injuries and police stated they made 17 arrests.
October 12th is the ‘National Day’ of ‘Spain’ (although of course the Spanish State is comprised of a number of historic nations with a number of different languages). The 12th October event celebrates the Spanish arrival in and conquests of the Americas.
Through the imposition of Spanish colonial culture on the conquered peoples, Castilian Spanish in a number of forms is spoken throughout Mexico, Central America and all of South America, with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil.
The ‘National Day’ promotes that history and linguistic connections, calling it also “Día de la Hispanidad.” As if that were not enough reactionary baggage for the date, it is also designated Armed Forces Day, with not a little underlying logic.
Over the years this ‘National Day’ has become a focus of struggle throughout the State, from the Basque Country and Asturias to Madrid and down to Andalucia in the South. “Nada que celebrar!” (Nothing to celebrate!”) has become a popular slogan in reference.
For the Spanish Right, including outright fascists, it is a day of pride of imperial and colonial conquest. And of the memory of Generalissimo Franco, the fascist Falange, their war against the Popular Front Government1 and four decades of fascist Dictatorship.2
On the ‘National Day’ the Spanish far-Right in general will not confine their parading to their strongholds but will fill coaches and set off for precisely those areas where they are not wanted, such as Catalunya, the Basque Country and antifascist areas of Madrid.
And of course, will celebrate openly, with flags of the Falange and fascist salutes and banners. The Falange is a legal party in the Spanish State but fascist salutes and symbols on flags are not. However arrests for such displays are rare.
Not so for militant antifascist actions. The police – or at very least their senior officers – understand these questions and who are their real enemies. Accordingly, in Gastheiz, the Basque police (Ertzaintza) deployed against the antifascists and in support of the Spanish fascists.
A determined assault by the latter soon had the cops retreating, leaving the route to confrontation with the fascists open, which the Basques, though outnumbered, without hesitation took to attack the fascists.
But a different detachment of Basque police joined the Spanish fascists and numbers began to tell, forcing a retreat by the antifascists.
Unfortunately, the earlier retreated Ertzaintza had regrouped and the antifascists found their own retreat blocked, seeming to most that to charge the police lines was their best option … they broke through but left behind at least two captured by the police.
At the end of the day, the Falangists got a police safety escort to their coaches and set off home to various parts of the Spanish state. The ‘Zipayos’,3 the Ertzaintza stated they had arrested seventeen, the general expectation being that all those were antifascists.
The cost in arrests and injuries was high for the Basque antifascists, who had to fight on two fronts but they will also be glad that the Spanish fascists did not have their day without facing militant opposition and collecting some Basque bruises as souvenirs of their visit.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1The Spanish State contains the greatest number of mass graves of the 20th Century outside of Cambodia, mostly of victims of the Spanish military-fascists and mostly outside of military confl
2The dictatorship also reinstalled the Monarchy which had been abolished after the flight of the then King of Spain and the establishment of the Second Republic.
3‘Sepoys’, native troops recruited by the invaders.
(The author is known as a traveller to many exotic places, including expeditions in search of mythical lands, most famously “The United Kingdom”, the “Republic”, “Norn Ireland” and “The Mainland.” Here he writes about the land of Dyslexia).
Dyslexia is, as the suffix “-ia” suggests, a country …. think of India, Mongolia, Russia, California [now relegated to a vassal state], Hibernia [also something of a vassal state], Narnia [er .. no, that is an imaginary land in a series of children’s tales].
Strangely the existence of Dyslexia was not even suspected until 1881, when Oslawd Khanber1 claimed to have visited the land. His discovery was widely doubted until confirmed by Ludorf Linber2 in 1887.
The people of this newly-discovered land were distinguished by all having a difficulty to varying degrees in spelling and/or in remembering sequences of numbers.
Khanber and Linber both named this land (and the rest of the world agreed) “Dyslexia”, from the Greek root “dys” meaning “bad/ abnormal/ difficult” and “lex” meaning “word” (although in Latin it means “law”, understood as “written word”).
Dyslexia was, like many other lands and people, not named by the natives themselves, but by people from elsewhere. Such examples abound, for example “Australia”, “America”, “Scotland”, “Eskimo”, “Teddy Boys”, “Pagans”, “Celts”, “Saxons”, “Teagues”, “Gypsies”, “E.T.s” etc.
Attempts to identify what the Dyslexics themselves called their land have so far collapsed in confusion, with different spellings and even pronunciations hotly argued for against others.
In fact, there have been accusations of racism aimed at those who named the land “Dyslexia” and the people “Dyslexics” — it seems particularly cruel to create a word itself so difficult to spell to name a people with a known disability in spelling.
Previously, Dyslexics just called themselves “people” and the land “the land”, while those who came across migrants from there before Dyslexia was actually discovered called them other names: such as “stupid”, “slow”, “thick” or “people with ADD or ADHD”.3
However, most “Dyslexics” today have not only adopted the name and learned to spell it but are wont to proudly declare “I’m Dyslexic” (but rarely “I am a Dyslexic”).
When Dyslexia came to the attention of the rest of the World no-one seemed astonished that it should be discovered long after the North and South Poles, the Mariana Trench, the Matto Grosso Plateau and indeed a great number of planets.
What did astonish the World was that Dyslexia had apparently independently within its borders invented television, radio, Ipads, microwave ovens, central heating and hot showers and of course the internal combustion engine and nuclear power.
This proliferation of technology would have been normally amazing (if anything normal can be said to be amazing, or vice versa) in a previously undiscovered country.
But what was really, really amazing was that everyone in Dyslexia had overcome a disability to climb to such industrial heights. The obstacles must have been tremendous.
Imagine confusing, for example, sodium chloride, a common table salt, with sodium chlorate, which is used as a weedkiller.
Also by the way, as an ingredient in making home-made bombs, a curious fact since nitrogenous fertiliser, with a directly opposite effect to sodium chlorate when spread on weeds, is also sometimes used in making home-made bombs).
Anyway, shake sodium chloride in small quantities on your weeds and they probably won’t like it but most will survive – especially those that actually like a little of it, like relatives of the cabbages and such. Shake a little sodium chlorate on your food, however and ….
well …. no, don’t try it – without urgent and skilled medical attention you will die quickly and painfully.
For another example, imagine confusing “defuse” with “diffuse”: one goes to de-escalate a conflict and ends up spreading it around. Other confusions are possible between the noun or verb “ware”, the (usually) adverb “where” and the past tense verb “were”. And so on.
For physics, knowledge of and accuracy in mathematics is essential – algebra, logarithms, binary codes, sines and co-sines, square roots (these last are mathematical constructs, not mythical regulated-shape carrots as propagated by anti-EU campaigners).
In calculating distances, heights and depths, spaces and circumferences, ability in geometry, trigonometry and ordinary mathematics is required. Somehow, the Dyslexics, the inhabitants of Dyslexia, had overcome their disability or compensated for it in some way.
They had developed as flourishing and environment-poisoning an industrial society as the most developed parts of the world, such as the United States of America (most developed industrially, that is).
Dyslexics are said, despite this disability with letters and numbers, to be of above-average intelligence. They had to be, to develop all those complicated benefits of industrial society despite their handicap.
Strangely, one may think, many Dyslexics have become literary figures famous throughout the world, Hans Christian Andersen, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald and WB Yeats among them. Contrary to popular belief among non-natives, James Joyce was not from Dyslexia.
This prevalence of Dyslexics among so many giants of literature and indeed of virtually every other field of human endeavour has given rise to a group of Dyslexians who call their disability “the gift of Dyslexia”.
The Dyslexics are often garrulous and sociable and this is especially true when in Dyslexia itself. The difficulty in remembering telephone numbers for example makes every telephone call an adventure.
Say a native wished to phone another native called Cathy (also known as Cthy, or Ktay, Thyca etc), and the phone number was 731 1062 (pleasenote, this is an imaginary telephone number by which neither Cathy nor anyone else can be reached).
The Dyslexic might phone 371 1026 – all the correct digits but in a different order (note, this also is an imaginary telephone number by which no-one may be reached).
The conversation, somewhat simplified, might go like this:
“Yes, hello?” (female voice, breathless with anticipation of another adventure).
Our caller: “Hi, is that Cathy?”
Recipient (giggling): “No, it’s not. There isn’t any Cathy here. I’m Wanda.”
Our caller: “Oh, hi Wanda, you sound very nice. How about going on a wanda with me?”
Wanda (with a little giggle but playing cautious): “Maybe …. What’s your name?”
Our caller: “Terry.”
Wanda: “Where were you thinking of wandering with me?” (A moment’s pause while both mentally translate the last part of that into “wandering on me”).
Terry (clearing his throat which has suddenly gone dry): “Well, there’s a nice new Indian restaurant opened up in town. Do you like Indian food, Wanda?”
“Ohhh, Terry, I love it. So spicy!” (Very slight pause as both translate “spicy” as a description for food flavouring into a metaphor instead). “When were you thinking of?”
“Er … tonight too soon?”
“No, I happen to be free tonight.”
“Shall I come and pick you up? Say …. seven pm?”
“That would be lovely, Terry. I live off the Trans City Road, tenth left, first right, eighth left, in Hopeful Street, the seventh house on the left-hand side if you’re coming from town, with a brown and white door and a hydrangea bush in the garden.”
“Got it – off the Trans City Road, tenth left, first right, eighth left, Hopeful Street, seventh house on the left-hand side, brown and white door and a hydrangea bush in the garden. At seven pm. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”
Most Dyslexics are always open to adventure, ‘going with the flow’. One never knows what a simple telephone call may bring or to what an appointment or written address may lead.
But as a result, Dyslexics are also philosophic about missed appointments, forgotten birthdays and so on; they waste little time mourning something lost and instead look forward to something gained.
Terry might or might not make it to Wanda’s but they both know the world is full of other possibilities.
Cathy, for example, who failed to receive a call from Terry to congratulate her on her gaining a dystinction in her dyploma, received later that evening what non-natives would term “a wrong number” call from a Sofia who had meant to call a Geraldine.
Sofia had intended trying to patch up a long-running difficult relationship with Geraldine and instead found herself making the acquaintance of Cathy, who seemed much nicer and more understanding than was Geraldine.
Putting her problems with Geraldine aside, Sofia agreed to Cathy’s suggestion to meet for a late coffee (which they both knew could lead to an early drink and who-knows-what from there). Cathy had by now forgotten that she was hoping Terry would call.
Dyslexia is not just another land, nor even just a strange one – it’s an entirely different way to live.
End.
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3A supposed disability the existence of which is hotly debated but has exonerated many teachers accused of bad teaching methods and states accused of having too large classes in their schools and which has been profitable for some educational psychologists and extremely so for some chemical companies.
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MARCHERS PEPPER-SPRAYED AND BATONED WITHOUT WARNING.
An action on Saturday in an attempt to stop the genocide of Palestinians was brutally repressed by Gardaí pepper-spraying the marchers without warning before beating many with truncheons and threatening others, then issuing a lying statement.
On Saturday (4th October) the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign had organised another of their monthly National marches from the Garden of Remembrance through Dublin city centre to Leinster House1 but a much smaller section departed for Dublin Port.
View of a section of the Palestine solidarity march on Saturday proceeding along O’Connell Street. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
In the context of port protest shut-downs in various parts of the world, Italy in particular, the intention seemingly was to blockade traffic into and out of Dublin Port; also in the context of the Irish state being a huge importer of Israeli products, second only to the USA.
The shut-down marchers left the main march at O’Connell Bridge and proceeded along the Liffey quays heading for the Port as IPSC stewards tried to discourage anyone from joining them, stooping as low as to accuse them over a loudspeaker of splitting the march and of betraying Gaza.
There had been a number of Port traffic blockade actions recently, all of which had ended without violence. No doubt the Irish ruling class were worried that they might escalate and spread and gave orders to the Gardaí to attack the marchers and to terrorise any others from emulating them.
As the marchers reached the Public Order Unit police line and stopped, some of the police began to push marchers, almost immediately some Gardai standing in a second row starting to pepper-spray marchers over the heads of their colleagues but the wind pushed some of it back in their faces.
POU Gardaí to the right of the crowd then drew their truncheons and started to strike viciously at the marchers, who were now pushing into the Garda line. Eventually the marchers broke, people staggering off to the side, eyes streaming, unsteady on their feet. Even then, they were pursued.2
At least two marchers were arrested at the event and another in a solidarity demonstration outside the Criminal Court building that evening. The charges include Public Order charges and resisting arrest. Once again, marchers complained they were forcibly strip-searched in the police cells.3
CAPITALIST MEDIA
RTÉ online’s report was clearly totally based on a Garda statement without any attempt to investigate, although video footage was soon circulating on social media. Try to contact participants for their side of the story? See whether there were photos or video clips available? Don’t be silly!
The Garda account is totally at variance with what can be seen on the video, as has often been the case. One recalls the assault with a length of wood by a fascist on an LGBT campaigner who was observing a National Party rally outside Leinster House and a Garda told her to leave the area.
The Garda statement to the media on that occasion was that there had been no incidents but unfortunately for them there was ample video recording of the event, the assault, the victim’s head streaming with blood, the senior Garda ordering her away … and they had to change their story.
A few weeks prior to that, unarmed antifascists counter-protesting an anti-masking protest organised by fascists on Custom House Quay were attacked by fascists wielding clubs and metal bars. As the antifascists fought back, the POU charged in and attacked the antifascists!
On that occasion too their statement to the press completely omitted that event.
The media is doing a good job of exposing themselves as not only keeping to the imperialist pro-Zionist discourse about events in Gaza and the rest of West Asia, but keeping also to the home front discourse that big business and cops are good and protesters a problem.
We appear in the Irish state to be entering a period of Garda repression backed up by media acquiescence, similar to what was passed through in the 1980s, with Garda repression on the street but also operations by the ‘Heavy Gang’, raiding and beating up detainees to obtain a ‘confession’.
The liberal civil rights sector was quite active then calling out Garda violence, framing of innocent people and judicial collusion. There is much less of that liberal resistance to be seen these days.
A rare enough sight – an Irish-language placard on Saturday’s march in Dublin. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
THE IPSC MARCH
The IPSC went ahead on Saturday with many thousands on their march, demonstrating once again, as over the past two years, that the Irish public is overwhelmingly in support of the Palestinians and totally against the genocide and ethnic cleansing by the Zionist state.
Over the years, the IPSC’s activities have contributed to that awareness and sympathy in Irish society but so too have the actions of the Israeli governments and their armed forces, captured in photos and videos by journalists and ordinary Palestinians and posted on social media.
But Israel has not ceased its genocide; not one Palestinian life has been saved by the marches. The Irish Government has not ceased any of its concrete collusive actions with Israel. The imports continue, the armaments fly through Irish airspace, Shannon airport continues militarised.4
The IPSC’s Chairperson admitted as much, speaking at their rally near Leinster House: “Simon Harris has called Israel’s actions ‘genocide’, ‘unconscionable’ and ‘unacceptable’ — yet the Irish Government is barely lifting a finger to end Ireland’s deep complicity in this genocide.”
A section of the Palestine solidarity main march in Dawson Street, while thousands more are already in Molesworth Street (out of sight to the right of photo). (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Had the IPSC mobilised the thousands to march down to the docks, it would have been a very different story on Saturday. Something to make the Government really reconsider its collusion. The IPSC could still do that. But will it? We can hope but current practice tells us otherwise.
Then others will have to do the deed. Others like Mothers Against Genocide, Action for Palestine Ireland and Saoirse Don Phalaistín, for example. And they will continue to be assaulted and arrested, facing fines, restrictions on freedom of movement and … ultimately, no doubt … jail.
Apart from the baton and pepper-spraying injuries, one of the marchers is reported to have a broken arm. Two were arrested at the Port and one at the court solidarity protest Saturday evening. Today others attended court in solidarity with one of the arrested (who had abrasions on her cheek).
We should be part of these disruptive actions and if we are not, for whatever reason, the least we can do is to call out those who denounce them and to organise support for those who are, in and out of the courts.
End.
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Gathering outside the Dublin Court in solidarity with one of the assaulted and arrested Port marchers. Her case was postponed. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
2All of that is evident from the video footage shot from that side of the event. Violent shoving by Gardaí sent some people to the ground, including a disabled woman.
3There was outrage expressed when Gardaí compelled detainees at a Mothers Against Genocide protest outside Leinster House to strip in the police cells. The Minister for Justice claimed that Garda CCTV footage refuted those claims but strangely, it appears that no CCTV footage was available when lawyers asked to view it. https://www.instagram.com/mothersagainstgenocide/p/DJ_nOewxQAp/
4And the Irish Central Bank intends, after a pause, to offer Israeli war bonds once more.
This is a partial dossier, documenting only some of the crimes of the Zionist entity. The dossier is largely in the form of cartoons some of which are as recent as the last few days and others a year old or more but sadly, are still valid comment today.
(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
A great many crimes have been committed here: Ethnic cleansing, theft, murder, racial discrimination, apartheid, repression, bombing of civilians, shooting of civilians, destruction of water wells, tanks and desalination plants, power cutoffs, mass kidnappings, torture.
Bombing of residential blocks, bombing hospitals, bombing schools, bombing universities, bombing mosques and churches, starvation blockade, water cutoffs, assassinations, public humiliation of prisoners, using human shields, rape and other torture of prisoners, detention without trial.
The Israeli Zionists, a European colonial settler project, have had many criminal accomplices, both at the level of states, educational institutions public and private, and of private companies and corporations. The Irish State has permitted the transport of military cargo to Israel through Irish airspace.
(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
Despite the clearly-expressed desires of the vast majority of the Irish people, the ‘neutral’ Irish State has permitted arms material destined for the Israeli occupier of Palestine to fly through Irish airspace, in addition to permitting the militarisation of Shannon Airport.
As part of the genocide, the Zionist authorities turned off the water supply to Gaza, using water deprivation as a weapon, a war crime of collective punishment.
Shutting off water to the civilians in Gaza is a war crime, even if none of the other genocidal acts of the IOF had been carried out. (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
But Palestinians have dug wells. And collected seawater in desalination plants. And stored water in rooftop tanks and barrels. So the IOF destroyed the wells, bombed the desalination plants and shot up the water tanks and barrels. Clearly acts of genocide.
(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
In addition to shutting off the water supply and destroying Palestinian alternative sources, the Zionist authorities have sealed off Gaza from humanitarian aid of food, baby supplements, medicines, etc. The intention, declared in act and words, is to starve the Palestinian people into surrender and leaving.
The Rafah Gate, access Gaza-Egypt, by law operational only by those two agencies and main access of international humanitarian supplies to Gaza, closed by Israeli Occupation Forces tanks. (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)Israeli Occupation Forces threaten anyone trying to enter. (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
A major party colluding with the genocider Israeli authorities has been the Mainstream Western Media. They have adopted a mantra that posits the start of everything at the Resistance action on October 7, treat Resistance claims as dubious but those of Israeli, despite its record, as credible.
The western media corporations have taken no action to protect their journalists in Palestine, where 243, mostly Palestinian or from Arab nations, have been assassinated by the IOF. They circulated Zionist atrocity propaganda without proof and, when debunked, did not publish retractions.
(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
Reading the published 20 points of the recent Trump plan, what is clear is that Trump is demanding that the Palestinian Resistance surrender.
Not because they have been beaten and in fact there is an admission in there that they have not. The reality is that it’s the IOF and the Zionnazi administration that has failed in its declared objectives: to defeat the Resistance and release its captives by force.
NO. What is unspoken but clearly implied here is: ‘Surrender, give up your weapons or we will murder and starve thousands more Palestinian civilians.’
Trump for the USA making another threatening ‘offer’ in true gangster style. (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
Those who advise the Resistance to agree should ponder what that means, not for Palestine alone but for the world: ‘If you can’t beat a popular resistance, just carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide until they give up. It’s perfectly acceptable and the world powers agree.’
We know about imperialist ‘peace’ plans. They only thing they deliver on is fragmentation of the resistance movement and more years of life for imperialist and colonial power. And elevation for some traitors and opportunists.
Based on history, whatever they decide, the Resistance should neither surrender their weapons or the tunnels. At the worst, there will be another day. The US and western empire is dying and with it will go this dependent zionazi European settler colony
Despite all the crimes of the Zionist entity inflicted upon the Palestinian people and despite the backing of the western powers for ethnic cleansing and genocide, the Palestinian people continue to resist.
Despite all,Gaza resists and resists. (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
And despite the crimes of the Zionist entity in Western Asia/ Middle East, despite the crimes of its chief backer, US Imperialism – and the rest of western imperialism – their days around the world and at home are numbered. In effect these days they are digging their graves deeper, week by week.
War is the solution that the leaders of the US and Israel seek but that will not save them either.
(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)
Focal Scoir/ Postscript
After a long, long gap, I returned to drawing commentary cartoons a few years ago, increasing production with the current phase of the Zionist and imperialist genocide of Palestinians that began on 8th October 2023, though even so, the output has not been great.
Drawing a cartoon requires first having the idea, then time and head-space to concentrate on its execution. Often I find the latter stage disappointing, though sometimes I am pleased with the result. I’ve also undertaken a little study and practice to improve technique.
Most of the cartoons are published quite close to their actual size, instead of drawn large and then reduced for photographing which I understand to be the professional way. But that would require my carrying a large drawing pad around or putting in a lot more time on drawing at home.
It is a fact that anything in which we invest time and concentration will reduce the availability of those same ingredients for other things. Each of us makes choices and we must manage the options available as best we can. Meanwhile, a genocide is being committed daily by the Zionist entity.
End.
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For a few days it has seemed a little like an invasion around Dublin city centre by Vikings and Steelers. Not Scandinavians as of old with some others1 but fans of two competing teams of the American National Football League.
One of the banners at the Drumcondra/ Clonliffe junction around 2.45pm.(Photo: D.Breatnach)
There is little social following for the game called ‘American Football’ in Ireland, where we have a massive following for Gaelic football and soccer through their respective associations, the Gaelic Athletic Association and the League of Ireland (the latter in particular much underfunded).
Years ago, in his capacity as Minister of Arts at the time, Michael D. Higgins, presiding at an event, criticised what he called “US imperialist cultural penetration” of Europe. This has been ongoing for decades mainly through cultural products of films and soap operas, cartoon films and comics.
Prior to that, we were subjected mainly to British cultural products in magazines, comics, films and soap operas. And of course the Irish state only set up its own TV broadcaster in the 1960s.
For years these products have been impacting on our consciousness and subconsciousness, including on some of our speech patterns in English. But attempts to promote NFL have failed; however, never before has such a big effort been made and with such financial backing.
The small group at the Drumcondra/ Dorset St junction and Canal/ Railway bridge as I approached it just after 1pm. (Photo:D.Breatnach)
For this one game, the Irish Government has awarded just short of 10 million euro in funding – i.e.one third of their funding for the entire sports sector in Ireland last year. While of course this is being promoted as a revenue opportunity for business, there are stronger reasons.
The NFL is a strong supporter of the imperialist US military and the US itself shows signs of gearing up for another war – against whom is unclear but Venezuela, Iran or China are likely targets. In addition, the US is the main supplier of arms and political backing to Israel.
One of the banners at the Drumcondra/ Clonliffe junction around 2.45pm. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
And where does the Irish ruling class want us? Why, with the USA of course! No more of this skulking around! Make Shannon officially a US military airport, have the RAF and UK Navy officially patrolling our seas and airspace, where arms for Israel can also fly through officially!
The often discussed ‘Triple Lock’ is all that appears to be holding back the Irish ruling class from dumping the state’s tattered neutrality2 — and they are working on that. But meanwhile, they seek to orientate us towards the leader of the western imperialist pack – through US sport.
The NFL will be doing their part, apparently going to make sure every child in the Irish school system will receive an NFL pack. Hey! USA! Leave our kids alone!
This weekend, the Irish Gombeen3 ruling class, through their State, supplied extra police to keep the US visitors safe around the city and on Saturday around Croke Park, while police helicopters kept eyes in the skies. And there was extra Garda tolerance also for UStater illegal street-drinking.4
At the Clonliffe/ Drumcondra Road junction at 1.00pm, announced rallying time. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
THE PROTESTERS
Many – including I – only learned on Saturday of the protest called by the IPSC5-allied Sports for Palestine campaign group against the NFL game programmed for Croke Park on Sunday between the Vikings and Steelers teams. A call-out to attend with flags and placards.
That seems a bit unfriendly towards visitors, sports enthusiasts, right? Fans just happy to support their teams and visit lovely Ireland at the same time, right?
Apart from the considerations of imperialism and war-orientation listed earlier, the USA is openly backing politically and supplying militarily a daily genocide against Palestinians. NFL is a significant cultural representation of the US and as such must be prepared to suffer for it.
Small group of protesters further down Clonliffe Road at junction of road leading up to Croke Park entrance, approached by an NFL fan (Steelers?) who wants his photograph taken with them. (Photo source: Participant)
While most of the Palestine solidarity protesters, maybe 60 at its highest point congregated at the junction of Clonliffe and Drumcondra roads, a small group of four took up position at the road leading to the Croke Park Stadium entrance and stood there with Palestine flags.
I headed for the railway and canal bridge at the Dorset Street junction, where I could see a Palestinian national flag and a placard calling to “Free America from AIPAC control.”6 On the way I passed NFL merchandise sales and young women handing out free canned energy drinks.
Greeting the other two at the Bridge, I extended my flagpole bearing the Starry Plough flag and took up station with them. Some passing traffic beeped our flags in solidarity.7 My standard litany to the passing NFL fans was: “Shame on the USA, supporting genocide! Shame, shame, shame!”
A comrade near me denounced “The United States of Israel”, alternating with attacking US responsibility for and complicity with genocide, while the other shouted about how wrong it is to be killing children. After awhile another comrade joined us but we never had more than four there.
Two of the Special Branch of the Gardaí, ‘spotting’ for the State. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
REACTIONS OF NFL FANS
The reactions of the passing fans to what we were saying varied considerably.
By far the majority of them attempted to ignore us while some looked at us with seeming curiosity but no other reaction. Some seemed embarrassed, covering the feeling with a smile. A small minority said they agreed with us, some even saying they were ashamed of the USA.
A tinier minority still exhibited hostility and outrage towards us, as in waving us away or giving the hand gesture for “blah, blah” (which a few verbalised also). A few laughed but that was their mistake, as I then shouted “Laughing about genocide? LAUGHING about GENOCIDE!”
One big man insulted us in an Irish accent but received as good from us, while an NFL fan who spoke in support of ‘Israel’ wilted under a barrage of “Genocider!” shouts. Another who mentioned “the hostages” was asked whether he was referring to “the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners?”8
Yet another accused us of generalising but received a response about arming Israel, to which he responded that we (Ireland, presumably) are feeding Israel. Another still wanted to avoid responsibility by saying that he’s “a Democrat” but was asked what that had to do with anything.
One other said he was from Belfast and yet another from England but the latter in particular got nowhere with that, considering Starmer’s support for the Zionazis. An older US man supported by two women claimed that we were being fooled by Hamas propaganda – there is no genocide!!!
It seems likely that those UStaters who encountered protesters and who are already opposed to what the US leadership is doing will return home at least a little strengthened in their position but also with some stories to tell people there about how the US is being viewed in a part of Europe.
Those who are unsure about what they think will probably doubt the leaders of the USA and dominant rhetoric even more. Some will be mostly unaffected and some may even harden their hostility to all critics of the USA. On the whole, I think the effects will be of a positive nature.
But even if so, of course nothing we did will be stopping the genocide for even one minute. Only states have the power to do that and were the Irish Government to ban all imports from ‘Israel’ outright, that would have a huge and immediate impact on the genocider’s economy.9
Another of the banners at theDrumcondra/ Clonliffe junction around 2.45pm. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Sunday’s was a useful but minor action in the propaganda part of the liberation war – Palestinian national liberation, of course but also part of our own. However it could have had much greater visual impact. Drumcondra Road is on a much-travelled road including for Airport traffic.
The road also carries bus public transport routes from and to various Dublin destinations. There are three possible routes off it for access to Croke Park. We only covered two, one with a minimum presence. The size of the concentration at Clonliffe junction was understandable but unnecessary.
The source of much of this weakness appears to be the very late call-out to the protest – only the day prior for many, possibly most. Yet the NFL game must have been planned for many months.
end.
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1Ireland was raided by Vikings from Scandinavia from 795 CE, they later establishing settlements in Dublin and along the south-east coast, also along the Shannon river and in Cork. Viking power in Ireland was broken by the 1040 CE victory of Brian Boru’s coalition (which included some Vikings, probably Norse) over the Leinster-Dublin coalition of mostly Dublin Danes, Leinster Irish and Viking mercenaries from Manx and Orkneys. The battle lasted 12 hours not far from the Croke Park stadium and part of the Viking mercenaries were caught and killed on their retreat to their ships nearby.
2Three requirements to be met before the Irish Government can send a military mission consisting of more than 12 personnel from Ireland to any part of the world.
3A pejorative term from the Irish language Gaimbín equivalent in meaning to ‘carpet-bagger’, huckster, etc. applied to the Irish neo-colonial (and neo-liberal) capitalist ruling class.
4City regulations forbid drinking of alcohol in any public place.
6The mostly Christian Zionist alliance that plays a heavy financial role in promotion of candidates for election in the USA.
7Yet in one hour outside the US Embassy or standing at Annesley Bridge the normal count of solidarity car-horn sounds would be in the fifties – among the tide of NFL fans, we just weren’t that visible to approaching traffic.
8There may be more but of those, around a third are now held under ‘administrative detention’ orders, without even the farce of an Israeli military court trial.
rebelbreeze 