Obituary: Sinéad O’Connor, 1966-2023

On July 27, 2023July 27, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Catholic Church, Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Health Service, Ireland, Obituary Memoriam, Political Analysis, Song3 Comments

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

26 July 2023 (First published in Socialist Democracy, reprinted by kind permission of author)

Sinéad O’Connor has died. Her death at the age of 56 was announced on RTÉ.

The evening news programmes went into overdrive to pay tribute to an incredibly talented musician. As with all such tributes, the great and good were asked for their opinions or they offered them in any case and they were carried uncritically.

*Sinéad O’Conner and daughter Roisín on anti-racist demonstration, Dublin, 2000.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

You are not supposed to speak ill of the dead in Ireland, but more than that, you shouldn’t speak ill of those who seek to praise the dead, no matter how hypocritical they are.

There were many milestones in her musical career, not least her rendition of Nothing Compares 2 U. The media highlighted her musical talent, her voice, sometimes describing her as controversial and outspoken and much loved by the public.

Yes, she was loved by the public, to a point, and also by other musicians around the world. However, she was also despised by many, written off and derided by commentators. As with many artists when they die, there is a tendency to rewrite history.

Her politics were sometimes erratic and lurched from one thing to another, though she was always honest and forthright when she did so, unlike many a coward. As erratic as some of her opinions could be, there were no smug self-serving platitudes to fall from her lips. She was no Bono.

She was honest, frequently angry and went after the powerful at times.

The famous incident where she tore up a photo of then Polish Pope, Wojtla in protest at his covering up and enabling of child sexual abuse, a topic she was painfully personally aware of in her own personal life did not go down well with some of those now praising and lamenting her passing.

Bono doesn’t do tearing up photos of popes, he sups with George Bush, the late senator McCain, toured Africa with the head of the World Bank, to name just a few of the scumbags he was not only too happy to rub shoulders with but positively revelled in.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders have expressed their sorrow at her death.

They weren’t expressing any support when she denounced child sexual abuse, the entire Irish political establishment were busy helping the Catholic Church cover it up, and later facilitated the institution to evade its legal, financial and moral responsibility.

Their attitude is best summarised in a typical hypocritical Irish attitude when dealing with those who make us uncomfortable that goes through phases of saying, “She’s mad, isn’t she great gas altogether, she may have a point but…, fair play to her, didn’t she speak up at the time”.

All of this without ever examining their own role in it all. The fact that, as we speak, reports of the sexual trafficking of children in care are being ignored by the government, says all you really need to know about their attitude.

If a new musician of her talent and courage were to speak out now, she would be cancelled and silenced by many of those now praising her, including some of those on the left, who have grown quite fond of not breaking ranks and clamping down on those who did.

She always spoke about mental health issues, though she became much more public about her own issues as she got older. She even broke down on a video about it, locked away in a hotel, crying. The video led to many expressing their concern, but also a bit of “there goes that one again”.

We will no doubt get many commentaries on air and in print about her struggles with her mental health, many expressing concern and sympathy with her plight. Many of them will be hypocritical.

It is true that Irish society is more open now about people who have mental health problems, though there is still a stigma attached to it.

*Sinéad O’Connor* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Ironically RTE followed up the news of her death with another story on the shambolic, criminal (my word, not the words of the media cowards) state of the child mental health services in Ireland (CAMHS).

Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar may even refer to her troubles in their tributes, but they never cared about them then, they don’t care now and the proof is not only the state of CAMHS, but mental health facilities in general, with long waiting lists, a rush to medication and forgetting about the patient model of care.

Her politics were erratic in many ways, though in fairness they weren’t much more erratic than others who are not judged as quickly. She flirted with republicanism, then broke with them, even applied to join the more recent incarnation of Sinn Féin in 2014, before withdrawing it.

It may be hard to take that seriously, but it was no less ridiculous than Bono condemning the IRA and then spluttering out nonsense about how he admired Bobby Sands. He didn’t, never, ever, when it mattered.

Sineád for all her failings took positions that were unpopular unlike some of the vomit inducing smug types that populate the modern music industry.

For my own part, her politics on racism were without fault. Her song Black Boys on Mopeds is excellent. It points out the hypocrisy of Thatcher criticising China whilst British Police like James Bond had a licence to kill.

“Margaret Thatcher on TV
Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing
It seems strange that she should be offended
The same orders are given by her”

The song goes on to say something truer today than before.

“These are dangerous days
To say what you feel is to dig your own grave”

And then a description of England, that the great and good would run a mile from.

“England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses
It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds.”

Now she will be lionised in death, praised, described as troubled, talented, controversial and much loved. We should ignore the sanitised version we will be given and remember the Sineád O Connor who was treated with contempt and disdain at times.

Aside from her incredible musical talent, that is the version that is worth remembering and celebrating, the version they weren’t too happy to celebrate when she was alive.

In Ireland we like to celebrate talented uncomfortable artists and writers in death in a manner we don’t do when alive. She deserves some coherence from us on this.

End.

LEARNING FROM AND CORRECTING OUR MISTAKES

On July 25, 2023July 25, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Capitalism, Guerrilla Action, History, Ireland, irish history, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Political Analysis1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

In all areas of endeavour and no less in revolutionary work it is essential to review our actions (and those of others) periodically in order that we may draw lessons to improve the success of future activity.

Irish history provides an abundance of material to revise.

The most recent period worthy of intensive review in my opinion is the three-decade war, mostly in the Six Counties but also having repercussions within the territory of the Irish State, in Britain and even further abroad.

An article in the July issue of An Phoblacht Abú¹, monthly hard-copy newspaper of the Anti-Imperialist Action organisation, discusses the psychological and organisational problems arising from the way that three-decade struggle came to an end and its effects on the resistance movement.

That period in Ireland commenced with a struggle for democratic civil rights, not one of the demands of which were for more than was already well established in the rest of the ‘UK’. But it soon changed into a guerrilla war with huge numbers of political prisoners and jail struggles.

The movement experienced a number of splits and changes of leadership but for most of of the time it was led by the Provisional organisation’s leadership although changes took place inside its own leadership too.

*Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President Provisional Sinn Féin 1970-1983*, *speaking at GPO rally 197*6. He led an unwinnable war. (Photo cred: *Pat Langan/ Irish Times*)

*Some of the Provisional IRA leadership following the 1970s split: Martin McGuinness, Dáithí Ó Conaill, Sean Mac Stiofáin, IRA press conference 1972, Derry.* (Photo cred: *Larry* *Doherty*)

The period ended with that leadership not only abandoning armed struggle but being coopted with its structures into joint management of the colonial occupation and preparing for joint management of the neo-colonial Irish state, a number of smaller splits in the movement a much disillusion.

The An Phoblacht Abú article concentrates on building or rebuilding trust in leadership through measures such as clear communication, discussion, organisational restructuring, collective solidarity, open discussion, transparent communication and education.

The article does not say this but in my opinion one of the basic educational needs is to acknowledge that in the circumstances, what happened was inevitable (and to consider how different circumstances might be constructed in future).

UNWINNABLE

It is essential in my view to acknowledge that the struggle, as it was waged, was bound to lose. Yes, unwinnable: an unassisted armed struggle against a world imperialist power fought primarily in one-fifth of our territory where the population is deeply divided – how could we think otherwise?

Clearly, the Provisional leadership did think otherwise. Assuming they were not insane or very stupid, on what could their belief have been based?

I can see only two rational possibilities:

1) They believed the British had no essential need to retain the 6-Co. Colony and would abandon it if put under enough pressure, or

2) that the Irish ruling class, through its government, would step in and join the struggle.

If they believed the first, their analysis was not historically-based. Since its invasion and occupation of Ireland in the mid-12th Century, the British ruling class has repeatedly gone to enormous efforts to suppress Irish self-determination.

When they had the opportunity to leave in 1921 they had cultivated a client bourgeoisie, then instigated a civil war and partitioned the land, leaving themselves a firm foothold in the country.

Their initial response to a call for simple civil rights in the late 1960s was violent suppression on the streets, abolition of habeas corpus and introduction of internment without trial – and army massacres.

If the previous lessons of history were not clear to the movement’s leadership, then those events up to 1972 should have made them crystal clear.

If the Republican leadership believed the Irish ruling class would step up, they failed to draw the lessons of history since at least 1921 and to understand the neo-colonial nature of the Gombeen class, amply illustrated in the preceding 50 years of the Irish State.

As embarked upon and fought, the war could not be won but a struggle was potentially winnable.

However, to have a chance of winning, the struggle would have to be over the whole 32 Counties. And to engage the maximum number of people, it would have to take up the social, cultural, economic and political deficits across the Irish state and across the colony.

The social rights of women and LBG² people were widely-acknowledged deficit areas, yet the Republican movement did not seriously address them. Of course, doing so would have put the Movement in direct opposition to the Catholic Church hierarchy and its followers.

Why should that be a problem? Hadn’t the Hierarchy been pro-British occupation since the late 1800s³ and anti-Republican since the 1790s? Wasn’t it one of the cornerstones of the neo-colonial Irish State, its social prop and social control mechanism?

Yes but the problem was that some of the leadership themselves were in that ideological ambit and were in any case afraid to disaffect many of their followers. A natural fear, of course. Yet only in that way could the struggle go forward across the Irish state’s territory.

It was left to campaigners mostly outside the Republican Movement, including social democrats and liberals, to fight for the rights to contraception, divorce, equality for women, LGB rights. And later, to take on the huge institutional abuses of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Those issues affected directly well over half the population of the Irish state and the the leadership lacked the interest or the courage⁴ to take part in their struggles, never mind lead them, which it left to mostly non-revolutionary leaderships.

There were many other issues that affected people in the 32 Counties which a revolutionary leadership could take up and, I would argue, should have taken up.

The latter includes emigration, rights of the Irish diaspora (particularly in Britain), foreign penetration of the Irish economy, foreign land ownership, housing shortage, industrial struggles, academic freedom, Irish language rights, Church control of education and the health service …

Some of those issues were taken up for a while by the movement in parts of the 26 Cos. prior to the split in the Republican Movement but were progressively dropped as the armed struggle in the 6 Cos. took off.

When years later the Provisional leadership got interested in social democratic reformism, they found they could hardly make any headway in the unions against the Labour Party and the remains of the Workers’ Party – because of the Provos’ earlier overwhelming neglect of that area of struggle.

SUMMARY

The struggle in the Six Counties could not be won precisely because it was primarily confined to that area and also one in which a powerful enemy had seduced a huge section of the population.

When the leadership acknowledged the unwinnability of the struggle as being waged, instead of changing their methods and aims of struggle to take in the whole 32 Cos, they decided on capitulation and getting the most possible out of it for themselves.

*A change in the top leadership of Sinn Féin and the IRA: Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness photographed in 1987*. *They recognised they could not win and set about managing abandoning it while getting something out of the system for the leadership.* (Photo: PA)

The leadership of the Republican movement was unwilling to widen the struggle because they believed that it was unnecessary to do so and/ or they were unwilling to overcome their own ideological indoctrination and/or lacked the courage to confront prejudices among their following.

Some of the social struggles have now been won or hugely progressed but without the leadership of the Republican Movement, in fact by leaderships of mostly reformist trends.

Due to leaving the industrial struggle to social democrats, the trade union movement has degenerated hugely and is in a poor state to take on any substantial economic or rights struggle, to say nothing of a revolutionary one.

The surviving Republican movement seems unwilling to acknowledge those historical facts and its failure thus far in leadership. Admission of the facts is necessary in order to commence to repair the movement and to prepare for a struggle with a prospect of success.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1Page 9, entitled COMRADESHIP – GUARD AGAINST BETRAYAL; I intend to review the July issue of the newspaper separately some time soon.

2I have omitted the T from LGB because it is only comparatively recently that the transexual issue has gained wide acknowledgement, whereas the Gay, Lesbian and even Bi-Sexual issue were widely known about at the time under discussion.

3The Irish (settler) Parliament passed an act giving middle-class and higher Catholics the right to vote in 1793.

4Though no-one could fault their physical courage

Getting mileage out of parliamentary representatives

On July 25, 2023July 25, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Ireland, SatireLeave a comment

News & Views 5 Diarmuid Breatnach (Reading time: 2 mins.)

‘What about that Niall Collins fella?’

‘Wha’ – the Junior Minister for Education and his travel distance claims?’

‘Yeah. I mean, according to The Ditch he would’a hav’ta driven more than twice as much as the average taxi driver in Ireland, which averages at 30,352 kilometres a year. Collins claimed 73,807 kilometres.’

‘With a head for figures like that, he should be Minister for Finance!’

‘Heh, heh. But maybe he was moonlighting as a taxi super-driver on top of his parliamentary travelling.’

‘Could be. Those poor TDs only get €107,376 a year to live on.’

‘Apart from expenses. Like tax-deductible driving expenses.’

‘Exactly!’

‘Well, it does certainly look like he’s been taking the country for a ride.’

‘Ha, ha, ha. And ye can’t fault his drive!’

‘I think they’ll soon be calling him ‘Miles’ Collins.’

(Maybe we’ve got enough mileage out of that now).

https://www.ontheditch.com/high-mileage-club-niall-collins/

HELICOPTER AND MASSIVE GARDAÍ NUMBERS – FOR WHAT?

On July 14, 2023July 17, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Housing Struggle, Human Rights, Ireland, Political Analysis3 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Late Tuesday night and early hours of Wednesday morning an operation with large numbers of Gardaí and their helicopter circling overhead disturbed residents in the north Dublin city centre area of Berkeley Road and surroundings.

It looked like drug bust, hostage rescue situation or siege, but it was none of those things, instead being an eviction of four housing activists.¹

*Supporters of the occupation by the RHL gathered at short notice by Berkeley Road during the Garda operation but were roughly pushed far back by Gardaí from the building under attack* (Photo: *RHL*)

The building had been “acquisitioned” by the Revolutionary Housing League which for a couple of years has been occupying buildings lying empty around Dublin in order to house homeless people and to inspire people to take over empty buildings to end the homeless crisis.

One of those buildings was the red-brick building on Eden Quay and corner of Marlborough Street; it had been operated by the Salvation Army as a night shelter for homeless young people but left empty for years after losing funding.

*Supporters in front of James Connolly House occupation over a year ago.* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

On 1^st May 2022, RHL² activists ‘acquisitioned’ the building, renamed it James Connolly House and repaired a leak in the roof. In the early morning of 9^th June 2022, an estimated 100 Gardaí (some reportedly armed) stormed the building with a Garda helicopter circling overhead.

Two RHL activists performing overnight security on the building were arrested and brought to court, where they declined to be bound over or to give an undertaking that they would not return to the building.

The Salvation Army said that they were renovating the building in order to house Ukrainian refugees. Not only was there no evidence of that in the building when it was occupied but it is empty still, over a year after that eviction³.

Garda evictions have taken place around other acquisitions of empty properties and RHL activists have on each occasion refused to commit to an undertaking not to occupy other properties.

Rather, the RHL has called for empty buildings to be occupied around the country.

The eviction this week

*The massive Garda operation this week, including road-blocks, to evict RHL occupants of the Berkeley Road house*. (Photo: *RHL*)

After the eviction in Berkeley Road, four RHL activists were taken to Court where they followed the previous pattern of refusing to be bound over or to promise not to occupy other buildings. Nevertheless they were released with a threat of jail-time if they re-occupied.

The lessee of the building, advertising as Cabhrú and formerly Catholic Housing Aid Society (Chas), has faced allegations of improper use of that building and another, Fr. Scully House on nearby Gardiner Street, some of which were borne out in an investigation by Charities Regulator.⁴

*Supporters of the RHL occupiers outside the High Court* (Photo: *RHL*)

The housing crisis

The numbers of homeless people in the the Irish state passed 12,000 for the first time in May this year and over 4,000 of those are children,⁵ nor do those figures include people defaulting on their mortgage loans, sleeping on the street or ‘sofa-surfing’ with friends and relations.

According to figures published in April this year, there are over 100,000 empty homes within the Irish state, not counting holiday homes (the Berkeley Road one was empty for three years).

Housing the homeless on the face of it can be accomplished without the revolutionary overthrow of the State and its Gombeen⁶ ruling class. All that is necessary is a public housing program financed by the State, which it could easily accomplish.

However, the stubborn clinging of the Gombeens to keeping a wide high-return market for property speculators, bank funders and big landlords, year after year as the housing crisis worsens, seems to indicate that a revolutionary remedy is necessary.

This week the Taoiseach,⁷ Varadkar, inferred that a contributory cause of the housing crisis was that homeless people had turned down alternative accommodation, a nonsensical claim since one person’s declined accommodation could just be offered to the next.

Addressing him in the Leinster House parliament, Sinn Féin TD⁸ Pearse Doherty⁹ took him to task for inferring that the homeless were to blame for their situation, in response to which Varadkar denied accusing the homeless and ungraciously amended his statement to “some homeless people”.

He went on to say that homelessness has a number of causes but neglected to name the principal one, viz. that the State does not supply funds to municipal authorities to provide public housing, leaving property speculators, banks and big landlords free to exploit the housing ‘scarcity’.

According to media reports, Doherty neglected to take this opportunity to point out the real cause of the problem and the solution, which confirms the doubts of those who say that his party is “Fianna Fáil Mark II”,¹⁰ with no intention to fundamentally alter the economic system in the state.¹¹

*Revolutionary Housing League flag on top of the occupied building during the massive Garda operation* (Photo: *RHL*)

In conclusion

The housing crisis shows no sign of being resolved and the ruling class have ridden high-profile ‘shaming’ token occupations such as that of Apollo House in January 2017 without changing anything. RHL occupations do seem to show a way forward if they are widely emulated.

Heavy Garda operations on the one hand and comparatively light treatment by the courts on the other seems to indicate a determination not to tolerate this kind of direct action on homelessness while at the same time moderated by a fear of creating housing action martyrs.

Meanwhile the numbers of homeless grows by the month without any other credible solution in sight.

End.

FOOTNOTES

1This is the police force that has been described by its chief, Commissioner Drew Harris (formerly Asst. Commissioner of the colonial gendarmerie PSNI and therefore also MI5), as his “gang” but which seems unable to prevent serious assaults in the city centre, even in its main street.

2Originally Revolutionary Housing Union, later became RHL.

3And over 30 months after it first became empty.

4Some of those included a friend of the charity’s Chief Exeutive being accommodated in the building allegedly providing only for the elderly, rooms being let to short-stay students without proper guarantees or rights and one of the houses being used as a business address.

5 https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/homelessness-figures-april-2023-12000-30085446

6From the Irish “gaimbín”, describing opportunist middlemen, now applied to the foreign-dependent native Irish capitalist class.

7Prime Minister of the Irish state.

8Teachta Dála, member of the Irish Parliament, equivalent to “MP”.

9Deputy leader of the party in the Irish parliament. Holly Cairns, leader of the Social Democrats also attacked Varadkar on the statement.

10Fianna Fáil is one of the two main government parties; originally a split from Sinn Féin led by De Valera, it has been in government more than any other party in the Irish state.

11A number of SF party leaders including its current president have publicly stated that big business has nothing to fear from their party.

SOURCES

Charities Regulator report: https://www.charitiesregulator.ie/en/information-for-the-public/our-news/2021/july/charities-regulator-publishes-inspectors-report-into-the-affairs-of-cabhru-housing-association-services

Irish Times articles regarding concerns over the years: https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/cabhru-housing-association/

Video about the RHL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSL453gVHAg

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/politics/homelessness-figures-april-2023-12000-30085446

Taoiseach Varadkar and his controversial remark about the homeless: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/taoiseach-refuses-to-apologise-for-saying-plenty-of-people-on-housing-list-refuse-offers-of-accommodation/a1546284704.html

Cluster Bombs for Ukraine

On July 13, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-War, Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Imperialism, US ImperialismLeave a comment

(This article is reprinted from Socialist Democracy by kind permission of the author Gearóid Ó Loingsigh)

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

The USA has announced that it will supply cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of its support for the war against Russia.

On one level the move is not surprising, on another it reveals some fundamental truths about the course of the war and US intentions.

They are banned by international treaty, one which has not been signed by Russia or Ukraine, and of course, neither has it been signed by the US. The US has always dragged its feet on the question of the banning of certain types of weapons.

Cluster bombs, are simply put bombs that break up into smaller components leaving small explosive devices scattered over a large area of land. They are a

…conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions each weighing less than 20 kilograms, and includes those explosive submunitions…

These weapons are designed for use against massed formations of troops and armour or broad targets, such as airfields. Cluster submunitions, however, sometimes fail to explode on impact and can kill or maim civilians who later come into contact with them. These unexploded submunitions may remain dangerous for decades.(1)

They have all the potential to leave Ukraine like the US left Cambodia and Laos in the 1970s.

According to Cluster Munition Monitor 23,082 casualties were confirmed by the year 2021, with around 18,426 resulting from unexploded munitions.

Biden has a long and chequered history on the use of the weapons.

His ambassador to the UN had condemned their use by Russia, stating they had no legitimate place on the battlefield, though two days later the State Department censored the official transcript of her intervention to remove the phrase.

Biden had criticised the use of and access to such weapons in the past. (2)

Whilst it is all very interesting and even of humanitarian concern that the US would wish to turn Ukraine in another Laos and Cambodia, though unlike Kissinger they will be telling no lies about their bombs, it is of greater interest what it says about the war.

Biden’s official reason is that Ukraine is running out of munitions and they need the cluster bombs. We have been told from the word go that this war is winnable, i.e. that Ukraine can win it.

This of course ignores that Ukraine is not the only warring party fighting Russia; NATO is part of the war, although it is not putting many boots on the ground, though it clearly has had a hand in some operations.

Every week we hear announcements that the counter offensive will smash Russia, almost there, one more push, the Russians have run out of weapons, their army is demoralised and deserting etc. Now it turns out that Ukraine needs these weapons or else.

These weapons are very useful in halting advances by your enemy, they are not as necessary in situations where your enemy is routed, unless you think it may regroup and retake the initiative.

Ireland has wholeheartedly supported the war in Ukraine, confirming to those who wish to see that it is not a neutral country. It has had little to say on the issue of these banned weapons.

They will make parts of Ukraine uninhabitable and make agriculture a dangerous profession as sowing and reaping become potentially life-threatening activities. If Biden will go to these lengths, what else will he do?

*Children view unexploded cluster bomb sub-munition near their village, Laos, 2019* (Photo cred: *Sarah Bronstein*)

Despite the media talking about Putin’s willingness to use nuclear weapons, it really has to be asked whether the US is willing to go that far as well.

What then of the former leftists running round chanting victory for NATO, or as they would put it for Ukraine? None of them have said much either on Biden’s choice of weaponry. Is there no length to which the US will go that marks a turning point for them? The answer is no.

Should Biden propose facilitating large scale rocket attacks on Moscow they are as likely to cheer them on as to remain silent. What they will not do, ever, is oppose the escalation of the war. Modern day Kautskys.

Notes

(1) See https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/clusterataglance

(2) See https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/07/bidens-complicated-history-cluster-munitions/

SOCIALIST REPUBLICANS HONOUR “THE FATHER OF IRISH REPUBLICANISM”

On July 11, 2023July 11, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Current Event Report, Folk Custom, History commemoration, Imperialism, irish history, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 5 mins)

A broad group of socialist Republicans gathered at the grave of Theobald Wolfe Tone on Sunday 2^nd July to honour his memory and to reiterate their commitment to an independent and socialist Ireland outside of imperialist military alliances.

Wolfe Tone’s grave in the Bodenstown Church graveyard has been a place of pilgrimage for Irish Republicans at least since the days of Thomas Davis¹ of the Young Irelanders of the 1840s, who wrote of his own visit to the grave and composed the song “In Bodenstown’s Churchyard”.

The late 1960s saw huge numbers of people in attendance at annual commemorations there near the village of Sallins, Co. Kildare, including not only Sinn Féin², who led them, but many political and social organisations, GAA clubs, along with many non-aligned people.

Over the years, the voluntary and unfunded National Graves Association has improved the site comprehensively and sensitively, leaving the ruins of the Protestant church as they are but building a stage attached to one side, fronted with plaques and commemorative flag stones.

Commemorations currently are usually organised around a Sunday near the date of the patriot leader’s birthday on 20^th June but have to be managed between different groups wishing to hold their own commemorations.

Speeches, songs and Garda harassment

The Annual Wolfe Tone commemoration organised by the Wolfe Tone Commemoration Committee took place over the weekend with members of a number of groups and Independent Republicans in attendance.

A Socialist Republican Colour party led the march up from the bottom of the road, turning in to the graveyard through a side gate and taking up positions in front and to one side of the monument, at ordú scíthe (parade rest) position but with flags held high.

*Colour party in front of Wolfe Tone monument, Bodenstown Churchyard (*Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

Behind the colour party followed a crowd carrying banners bearing the legends “Irish Republicans against NATO”, “We serve Neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland” and an assortment of flags including green-and-gold Starry Ploughs, Irish Tricolour, Palestinian and Basque national flags.

The event was chaired by a young Socialist Republican who spoke about the importance of the event before introducing a representative of a midland Republican commemoration group who read a short message of solidarity.

This was followed by a socialist republican accompanying himself on guitar singing The Three Flowers.³

The main oration was delivered by veteran Independent East Tyrone Republican Margaret McKearney who linked the past with the present, including the current housing crisis, the British occupation and the Irish State’s push to join PESCO and NATO military alliances.

*Musician performing The Three Flowers* *at the Wolfe Tone monument* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

*Veteran Republican from Tyrone delivering the oration at the commemoration event* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

There was a clear message at the event that the push towards NATO will be energetically resisted at every turn by the people of Ireland.

Wreaths were laid and a minute’s silence was observed, while the colour party lowered the flags in memory of all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the ongoing struggle for Irish Freedom. The event was brought to a close with the musician playing and singing Amhrán na bhFiann.

A handful of Gardaí⁴ in uniform and in plainclothes (Special Branch, the political police) were parked outside the graveyard watching people arriving and leaving but at that point having no direct interaction with those attending the event.

*Part of long tail-back cause by Garda checkpoint very near to Bodenstown Churchyard after the commemoration event* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

*Gardaí in uniform and Special Branch in plain clothes harassing and attempting to intimidate people who had attended the commemoration event* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

However, once the event concluded, the Gardaí set up a checkpoint at the bottom of the road and began to harass and attempt to intimidate drivers of vehicles, stopping them, asking for identification, where they were from etc, causing a long tailback.

This is part of the regular harassment of Irish Republicans by police on both sides of the British Border.

“The Father of Irish Republicanism”

Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-1798) was formally a member of the Church of Ireland⁵ congregation (Anglican), in his time the dominant religious group in England-occupied Ireland but also one of the smallest.

No-one could be elected to the Irish Parliament unless of that congregation.

In the early 19^th Century a section of the Irish bourgeoisie, nearly all Anglican or of the other Protestant churches, “dissenters”, wished to develop the Irish economy free of interference, control, patronage and bribery associated with being an English colony.

Many of them understood the need for a strong base in the population, for which they recognised the need to include representation for the majority population in the country, the Catholics, along with the most populous of the Protestants, the Presbyterians.⁶

When the liberal but pro-English Crown Henry Grattan brought the issue to a vote in the Westminster Parliament, his motion failed due to many MPs’ sectarianism or vested interests, a situation which continued for decades afterwards.⁷

That seemed to point to revolution as the only logical way forward.

Theobald Wolfe Tone was one of the founders of the Society of United Irishmen in October 1971, the first broad Republican organisation in Ireland, which soon developed a comprehensive revolutionary agenda, for Irish independence and a Republic based on universal male suffrage.⁸

In order to accomplish a successful uprising, they invited assistance from Republican France and planned a simultaneous uprising across Ireland, with particular concentration on Antrim (largely Presbyterian and Anglican), Wexford and Wicklow, Midlands and Mayo (largely Catholic).

*Colour party leading a march towards the Wolfe Tone monument* (Photo: *Rebel Breeze*)

Spies and informers working for the English occupation betrayed some of their plans and most of the Leinster Directorate of the United Irishmen, including Wolfe Tone, were arrested, a disaster for uprising plans in Dublin but also for overall leadership in Leinster.

The 1798 Rising had initial great success in the south-east, particularly in Wexford but was quickly and bloodily suppressed in the Midlands and in Antrim. Mayo rose when a too-small detachment of French soldiers arrived under Humbert in Kilalla but they were outnumbered and beaten.

Tone was was unapologetic at his trial, was sentenced to death by hanging but appears to have attempted to take his own life while awaiting execution, surviving for a few days in great pain before dying on 19^th November 1798 as British and Orange loyalist repression swept the country⁹.

*Wolfe Tone Monument by Edward Delaney (d.2009) at S.E entrance to Stephen’s Green, Dublin city centre* (image sourced: *Internet*)

Many leaders of the United Irishmen are honoured in song, writing and in commemorative events to this day but Theobald Wolfe Tone is still the most widely remembered of them all.

End.

*The Colour Party and some of the participants line up for a group photo by the monument* (Photo: *AIA*)

FOOTNOTES

1Thomas Davis (1814-1845), journalist, author of the song A Nation Once Again and other works, also co-founder of The Nation newspaper.

2Prior to its split resulting in Provisional Sinn Féin and the later split resulting in the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

3Composed by Norman G. Reddin, a Republican ballad honouring the memory of three United Irish leaders, Robert Emmet, Michael Dwyer and Wolfe Tone. Both Tone and Emmet were sentenced to execution, the latter carried out in 1803 on Thomas Street in Dublin. Dwyer was transported to exile in Australia where he was later accused of planning an uprising in New South Wales for which he was twice imprisoned and tried but exonerated, became Police Chief in Liverpool, Sydney in 1813 but was imprisoned again in 1825 for alleged non-payment of a £100 debt, contracted dysentery, was released again and died very soon afterwards.

4Police force of the Irish State.

5A branch of the Church of England, the state religion of the UK of which their Monarch is the titular head (in addition to being the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces).

6“Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter”, as Wolfe Tone famously called the alliance.

7In May 1808 Grattan proposed emancipation in the House of Commons, with certain qualifications, but his motion was defeated by 281 votes to 128. In June 1812 the Commons accepted, by 225 votes to 106, a motion in favour of considering Catholic claims. An emancipation Bill, introduced in February 1813, received a second reading but was lost in committee by a narrow margin. Frustration at this lack of progress led to the formation of the Catholic Association in 1823 (of which Wolfe Tone was an active member). Parliament passed an Act to restrict the Association’s activities two years later.

8Very few radical or revolutionary individuals, not to mention movements of the 18^th (or even much of the 19^th or early 20^th) Centuries proposed universal female suffrage, one reason why the 1916 Proclamation of Irish Independence is such a remarkable document, beginning its address with the words “Irishmen and Irish women”.

9Which many, in particular Protestants, fled the country to escape, some settling in the United States and in Canada. The great Catholic emigration from Ireland did not occur until the Great Hunger of the mid-19th Century and later.

USEFUL LINKS

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliamentandireland/overview/catholic-emancipation/

ANOTHER FAILURE OF THE IRISH TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

On July 9, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Swimming against the current

Swimming against the current

On July 9, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

ANOTHER FAILURE OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT
“Today in Ireland, migrant workers earn 22% less per hour than their Irish counterparts (ESRI, 2023), while migrant women earn 11% less than their male counterparts and 30% less than Irish men (ESRI, 2023). Here is another fact. According to the latest Discrimination Report in Ireland, the workplace is the second place where discrimination and racist incidents occur, as also documented in the previous reports (INAR, 2023).”

invisible borders

The paid work migrants do is a coin of two sides, one bright and the other dark.

On the bright side, we know that, in Ireland, the employment rate among the migrant population is higher than that of the national population (71.6 and 76.4, respectively). But, simultaneously, the unemployment rate is lower among migrants (4.6 and 5.9, respectively). In other words, compared to the national population, the migrant population has more working and fewer unemployed migrants.

This is good news and bad news. Because on the one hand, we can all see that migrants are making a necessary and important contribution to local economies through their work (often taking essential positions in the food and agri industry and other low-paid jobs that do not attract the national population). Still, on the less visible side of the coin, we can also see that it is in the work environment where most…

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IDENTIFICAR EL TREBOL IRLANDÉS

On July 7, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

¿Sabrías decir cuál de los tréboles silvestres que crecen en Irlanda es el trébol ‘genuino’ (Seamair óg)?

*Acercamiento del trébol en flor, Glasnevin, Dublín*. (foto: *D.Breatnach*)

Ahora, mientras todavía está en flor, es un buen momento para ver la planta, las hojas más pequeñas y la flor amarilla (buí) en ella es lo que realmente la distingue de sus primos los tréboles, con sus hojas más grandes y flores en blanco (S . Bhán, T. repens) o rosa-rojo-púrpura (S. Dhearg, T. Pratense).

¿Cómo sabemos que el Seamair Bhuí (Trébol menor, Trifolium dubium) es el auténtico “trébol”? Bueno, tal vez no podamos estar seguros, pero en la década de 1890, a partir de una encuesta de opinión en una sociedad irlandesa todavía bastante tradicional, T. Dubium surgió como la primera opción.

Foto: El trébol, Seamair Bhuí/ Trifolium dubium/ Lesser trefoil, de tamaño real, fotografiado en la ciudad de Dublín con hierba creciendo a través de él. (Foto: D. Breatnach)

El botánico y zoólogo aficionado Nathaniel Colgan (1851-1919) pidió a personas por toda Irlanda que le enviaran especímenes de lo que creían ser un trébol irlandés, de los cuales los dos más comunes eran el trébol amarillo seguido por el blanco.1

Cien años después, el Dr. Charles Nelson repitió el experimento en 1988 y descubrió que el trébol de flor amarilla seguía siendo el más elegido.2 Según Wikipedia, el trébol amarillo es la especie nominada por el Departamento de Agricultura de Irlanda como el trébol “oficial” de Irlanda.

Si deseas elegir tu propio trébol para el Día de San Patricio, deberás aprender a identificarlo por sus hojas, ya que en Irlanda no florecerá en marzo. Sin embargo, puedes reconocerlo actualmente por sus flores y crear una imagen mental del tamaño de sus hojas para retenerla en tu memoria.

LOS IRLANDESES Y EL TRÉBOL

¿Qué pasa con el trébol y los irlandeses de todos modos? La historia infantil sobre el misionero cristiano Patricio usando la hoja para explicar la Santísima Trinidad cristiana es solo eso, una historia ficticia, aunque mencionada en una de las entradas de Wikipedia para “trébol”.

Ni los celtas en general ni los gaélicos en particular necesitaban que nadie les explicara una deidad tres en uno, ya que tenían sus propias trinidades paganas (Éiriu, Fódlha, Banba; las de la Mór-Righean/ Morrigu). Los investigadores no han encontrado ninguna referencia a la importancia del trébol antes de 1681.3

El propio Patrick, en lo que se considera su genuina Confessio autobiográfica, nunca mencionó el trébol ni una sola vez. Mi sospecha es que la fábula del trébol-cristiano-trinidad fue creada fantasiosamente por colonos británicos como el botánico Caleb Threkeld o por cristianos irlandeses nativos alrededor de 1726.4

Aunque algunas fuentes en por el Internet han afirmado propiedades medicinales o uso druídico para el trébol, nunca citan las fuentes originales reales, lo que puede indicar que las referencias no son confiables u oscuras, si es que verdaderamente existen.

Curiosamente, en el periodo previo a la Rebelión de 1798, un vecino de Drogheda llamado John Sheil, que era presbiteriano y miembro de los United Irishmen, utilizó el trébol como una metáfora para representar una trinidad diferente: la de los católicos, los protestantes (anglicanos) y los disidentes (todas las denominaciones protestantes no anglicanas).

“….. la planta de tres hojas….

son tres en uno

Para probar su unidad

en esta comunidad

Que aguanta con impunidad

A los Derechos del la Humanidad.”5

Sin embargo, el verde era el color de los Irlandeses Unidos y, en momentos de represión por parte de las fuerzas de ocupación y por la Orden Leal de la Naranja, una ramita de trébol en el Día de San Patricio podría ser una forma útil de indicar resistencia y al mismo tiempo afirmar que era un reverencia inofensiva a un santo cristiano.

Sin embargo, incluso usarlo el día de San Patricio podría haber sido peligroso en algunos sectores, como cuando The Wearing of the Green informó, en referencia al trébol, que

“… Es el país más angustioso que jamás hayas visto

Porque están ahorcando a hombres y mujeres por llevar el verde.”

fin.

NOTAS AL PIE

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Colgan

2 Ibíd.

3 “Thomas Dinely, un inglés que viajó por Irlanda en 1681 notó que personas de todas las distinciones usaban cruces para conmemorar al santo en este día, pero notó que solo los vulgares, como él los llamaba, usaban tréboles”. https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/News/From-shamrock-and-rosettes-to-Patricks-Pot

4 https://www.dib.ie/biography/threlkeld-caleb-a8548

5 Los Derechos del Hombre, por John Sheils. El aire con el que se canta más comúnmente es el de la canción en lengua irlandesa Eanach Cuain/ Anach Cuan, pero he compuesto un aire original para él y lo canto un poco más rápido que la canción sobre la tragedia del hundimiento del barco.

FUENTES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolium_dubium

https://www.dib.ie/biography/threlkeld-caleb-a8548

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Colgan

https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/News/From-shamrock-and-rosettes-to-Patricks-Pot

https://droghedalife.com/news/weaver-and-song-writer-john-sheil-the-topic-of-next-walking-tour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wearing_of_the_Green

DRIPPING WITH PROPAGANDA – BUT ALSO REVEALING

On July 6, 2023July 7, 2023 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-War, Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Mass Media Criticism, NATO, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

NEWS & VIEWS NO 4. – Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

A recent article appearing briefly on breakingnews.ie was packed with some of the typical anti-Russian propaganda of the current western mass media but also, unintentionally, revealed the purpose of the US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine.

Whether one is pro-NATO, pro-Russia or of some other position, it can be instructive to dissect this mass media propaganda to which we are subjected daily in western states.

Let’s take the headline first, which serves not just as an ‘attractor’ or ‘hook’ to draw the reader but also as a statement in itself and, in this case, very definitely as propaganda.

“NATO prepares military plans to defend against bruised but unbowed Russia” is the headline. So straightaway we are being told that NATO needs to defend itself against Russia, which is turning truth completely on its head.

Firstly, where in the world is the Russian Federation attacking NATO? In Ukraine? But then the Ukrainian state is not actually in NATO, is it? Unless what is meant is US/NATO’s plans to get the Ukrainian state into NATO, of course, which they’re generally vague about.

But if not there, where? Nowhere, of course.

Who threatens whom?

As to reversing reality, one look at a map of Europe with NATO states indicated makes it clear that it is not NATO that needs to defend itself but Russia — and bears out the Russian line that one of the reasons they went to war was to stop their encirclement by NATO.

*Map of European states currently in NATO* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

Then, we need to consider that NATO is not a country or one region in the world that could need defence. No, it is a military alliance of European states with the United States. And if it ever was a defensive alliance, that ‘reason’ for its existence disappeared with the fall of the USSR in 1991.

Far from scrapping NATO or even freezing its expansion then, US/NATO started collecting former USSR states into its alliance until nearly every state on Russia’s eastern borders had joined the alliance or was friendly towards it and hostile towards Russia.

The former Ukrainian regime was friendly towards Russia until the coup in 2014 by pro-NATO elements, which are the regime now in power and responsible for a decade of cultural attacks on – and artillery bombardment of – the ethnic Russian population of the Donbas area.

*Moldovan troops in joint NATO military exercise in Ukraine, 2017.* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

Only a propaganda-blinded fool or a liar could deny that Russia has been and is under threat from US/ NATO, rather than the reverse.

We could do with looking at the record of states in invasion of – and interference in – other countries.

The USA is the founder and leader of NATO; since the end of WWII, the USA has been involved in 34 armed actions against smaller nations, not including coups and proxy wars. This includes initiating 81% of all global armed conflicts from 1945 to 2001.

The United Kingdom is a major NATO member and, with direct involvement in 35 armed conflicts since WWI, has exceeded the USA’s tally by one and France’s tally of 33, also an important NATO member, by two.

How many Russian Federation armed conflicts since it came into existence? Thirteen, mostly on or around its own state’s territory, whereas the armed conflicts of the USA, UK and France were mostly outside their own territories and far from their borders.

So who has more reason to fear attack from whom?

“What we see in general is that the Russians are careful around NATO. They are not seeking a conflict with NATO. I think that is a sign that they are very, very busy,” the article quotes NATO Chairman, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer saying. “Busy” with what, is he inferring?

Nuclear weapons

“NATO, as an organisation, does not provide weapons or ammunition to Ukraine and has sought to avoid being dragged into a wider war with nuclear-armed Russia,” states the article.

True, as far as that goes but how many NATO states are supplying the Ukrainian state with military equipment? It would be quicker to list how many are not supplying it!

In that quoted sentence, there is almost an admission that were it not for Russia’s nuclear weapons, the US/ NATO forces would be willing to intervene directly to attack and invade Russia.

Indeed, they may still do so. NATO Chairman, Admiral Rob Bauer, in briefing the press, “laid out the biggest revamp to the organisation’s military plans since the Cold War” (of course for purely defensive reasons!).

“US President Joe Biden and his Nato counterparts are set to endorse a major shake-up of the alliance’s planning system at a summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, next week,” we are told.

“About 100 aircraft take to the skies in that territory each day, and a total of 27 warships are operating in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, with those numbers set to rise. In new plans, NATO aims to have up to 300,000 troops ready to move to its eastern flank within 30 days.”

Of course, weapons and military transport require funding (a big source of profits for the arms industries). “In 2014, NATO committed to move towards spending 2% of GDP on their military budgets by 2024” (2014 was the year of the US/NATO-inspired coup, 8 years before the invasion).

“At their July 11-12 summit, the leaders will set the 2% figure as a spending floor, rather than a ceiling to aim for.”

“Russia bruised but unbowed”

When wishing to force the enemy to surrender, it may be sufficient to bombard it from the air and sea. But in order to extract its riches, the situation requires either invading troops on the ground or a compliant regime.

In this context it is significant that Admiral Baur commented that of Russia’s ground forces, around “94% is now engaged in the war in Ukraine”, meaning that the state’s principal ground defence forces are already engaged in war and presumably taking casualties.

But Russia’s armed forces are “bruised but by no means bowed” in the war in Ukraine, commented Admiral Bauer, which looks very much like an admission that pushing Russian forces into a proxy war in the Ukraine was intended to sap Russia’s military strength.

So that Russia can be invaded, carved up into US/NATO dependencies, its rich natural resources plundered for the benefit of western imperialist states? No, surely not, the USA, UK and France would never go to war for imperialist plunder, would they?

End.

SOURCES:

https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/nato-prepares-military-plans-to-defend-against-bruised-but-unbowed-russia-1496880.html

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2345663/us-initiated-81-global-armed-conflicts-from-1945-to-2001

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_Kingdom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_France

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Russia