The efforts of the Zionist tech company Checkpoint to make inroads into the Irish tech sector1 are being dogged by public protests over its origins and connections to the armed and intelligence forces of the Zionist state.
On 15 October last year the company booked a whole day at the Westbury Hotel in Dublin’s city centre in order to promote itself. The protests in the earlier part of the day’s program were sufficiently fierce to force the abandonment of the evening’s presentation.2
There were complaints about the violent treatment of protesters by Checkpoint’s security team, which demonstrators believed Israeli and one British, from their accents.
Former Irish rugby international Brian O’Driscoll had been engaged to promote the event but the company failed to make touchdown.
Checkpoint company’s HQ in ‘Tel Aviv, Israel’. (Image sourced: Online)
The Your Tech, Their Death organisation has had the Checkpoint company in their sights for some time due to the company’s links with the Zionist armed forces.3 For the Westbury protest they teamed up with Action For Palestine Ireland, a direct action Palestine solidarity organisation.
On 25 August this year both organisations joined in action again, this time however also with Anti-Imperialist Action, a revolutionary socialist Irish Republican organisation. The target was another promotional attempt by Checkpoint at Beckett’s Lock Hotel, in Dublin’s north docklands.
A loud protest outside the building prompted the hotel’s management to close public access to their Reception but they also got their staff that the event was not taking place inside. However, some of the protesters were already inside and in communication with those outside.
In the event, the lies became truth as the organisers cancelled their event.
The Zionist tech company has chosen a macabre but appropriate name for itself. Checkpoints operated by the Zionist army in Palestine are locations of daily humiliation, long delays and threat to Palestinians, exacerbated at times by assault, arrest and even death.
There were very recently nearly a thousand Zionist checkpoints which Palestinians have to negotiate inside the West Bank alone, if they dare. Some are gate barriers, some permanent road checkpoints, some ‘flying checkpoints’, i.e temporary no-warning erections.
A very recent report, as this article was being written, documents the many ways in which these checkpoints fragment Palestine not only geographically but socially too and how they restrict access to friends and family, to land, to work and even to healthcare.4
Zionist checkpoints in the West Bank are now also AI-integrated.
That checkpoints are not merely control-and-repression erections for the Palestinian subject population but an offensive weapon in a war of subjugation is evidenced by their export into South Lebanon and Syria by invading Israeli armed forces.
Zionist tech companies and their intrusive surveillance programs have grown widespread around the world, being adopted not only by commercial companies but also by state service departments with concerns raised far beyond the genocide in Palestine.
At the moment it seems that the penetration of this Zionist company at least is being stopped or checked by Palestinian solidarity resistance. Whether the checks will result in checkmate for Checkpoint remains to be seen.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
SOURCES
1 Its head office is in the USA, according to its website.
3The company claims to be committed to making the world a safer and more secure place, and this commitment applies to our work both on the internet and the physical world alike. We promote a safe, healthy, supportive and diverse work environment, with training and development opportunities for all employees. Except for Palestinians of course, who are actually targetted by Zionist tech while their own access to the Internet is simultaneously monitored by Zionist tech and restricted by Zionist power cuts.
An impromptu demonstration in solidarity with Gavin Bazuno, the Ireland team goalkeeper, attracted many participants on late Sunday afternoon 27 September in Dublin. The call-out had only been posted the previous evening.
Irish language poster calling to stand with Gavin Bazuno and the courage to act according to conscience.
24 year-old goalkeeper Gavin Bazuno declined to play against the team of the genocidal Israel state, against which the Irish team were drawn in the UEFA Nations competition, despite the controversial decision of the team’s management and the Football Association of Ireland to go ahead.
Responding to the overwhelming majority sentiment in Ireland and of the members of the Association, the FAI executive in November had requested UEFA to exclude the Israeli team from the competition, which UEFA executives refused to do.1
Until September, long after FAI members’ fears were realised and in February the Irish team had been drawn to play ‘Israel’, the UEFA board had also refused to exempt Ireland from being drawn against ‘Iosrael’ (which they have the power to do)2 in future games.
Attendance at the Dublin rally drew from a broad pool without any clear political party or indeed solidarity organisation dominance. Placards were not plentiful but some home-made ones could be seen and indeed the banner calling for solidarity with Bazuno was sprayed on white sheets.
A placard appeared showing an IOF sniper, referencing ‘Israeli’ player Said Abu Sarchi taking the ‘sniper position’ after scoring against Austria, for which he was sent off, to his apparent great surprise (after all, it’s normal in ‘Israel’ to actually shoot, not just mime shooting Palestinians).3
In order to comply with Palestinian society’s request for a boycott of ‘Israel’ to include sports competitions, a number of groups have been specifically campaigning against firstly ‘Israel’ being permitted to enter the competition and secondly for the Irish football team to refuse to play them.
The main ones have been League of Ireland fans, Stop the Game and Ireland Sports for Palestine. Over 160 Irish sports people signed a letter asking the Irish team not to play and Jacinta O’Keefe, registered to compete in the Pondevedra Triathlon withdrew due to ‘Israeli’ athlete participation.
The Show Israel the Red Card banner seemed the only printed one present at the rally, whereas a number of sheets had been spray-painted in order to together spell out Stand with Bazuno 4 Gaza.
A home-made placard read: Nice Save, Gavin! The flags flown among the crowd were mostly Palestinian with some Irish Tricolours and one Starry Plough.
Section of the crowd outside the GPO with one of the megaphone speakers, chant leaders etc. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
There was hardly a Garda uniform in evidence, nor was any stewarding organised or required: the main group occupied the GPO side while a smaller group stood on the central pedestrian reservation. A street person danced a bit in the road but generally withdrew as vehicles approached.
The ad-hoc nature of the rally and absence of any organisation’s control was illustrated by the lack of printed placards or banners, by much of the speeches from people with megaphones and in particular by the slogans chanted.
Specific slogans included: Don’t play the Game! We Support Gavin Bazuno! FAI, you can’t hide – You’re supporting genocide! There’s Only One Bazuno!
But there were also other chants relating to Ireland more generally, such as against British Unionists and their attempted Orange Order march on the Garvaghy Road4 and the slogan referring to both occupation of Ireland and of Palestine: Irish people understand: No peace on stolen land!
The more usual slogans of Palestine solidarity were also chanted: Free, Free: Palestine! From the River to the Sea – Palestine will be free! From the Sea to the River – Palestine will live for ever! In our thousands and our millions – We are all Palestinians!
There is only one solution: Intifada revolution! 1, 2, 3, 4 – Occupation no more! 5, 6, 7, 8 – Israel is a terrorist state! Saoirse – Don Phalaistín!
A recording of Martin Leahy’s Don’t Play was amplified with the crowd joining in on the chorus, which repeats the title of the composition.
The air of Don’t Play has been used earlier for many songs and chants, first recorded in 1864 as the air for Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, a song composed by George Frederick Root to give Union troop captives of the Confederacy hope of liberation in the American Civil war.
Not long after its USA composition, the air was used for the God Save Ireland! song by Irish nationalist MP, journalist and poet T.D. Sullivan in honour of the Manchester Martyrs, the three Fenians who were framed, convicted and hanged in front of a baying crowd in Manchester in 1867.
The title is taken from the words shouted by the three as they were sentenced to hang and the song became very popular, particularly in Ireland where, for decades it was the unofficial national anthem until eventually replaced by Amhrán na bhFiann.5
The home-made banner made from sections of spray-painted white cloth, displayed on the pedestrian reservation, seen from the pavement outside the GPO. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Wide fallout followed the decision of the FAI that the Irish team would play the fixtures drawn against ‘Israel’. UEFA scheduled the games to take place in Serbia (without any Irish fans) and Hungary. RTÉ€6 declined to accept advertising or to provide commentary on the games.
In the run up to the game, attempting to project the decision to play in a positive light, the Ireland team manager Heimar Hallgrimsson said that rather than playing with genocide, they were ‘playing against Genocide’.This comment drew a tirade of abuse from the ‘Israeli’ Football Association.7
However at a subsequent press conference, Hallgrimsson withdrew the ‘Genocide’ comment, ascribing his use of it to the popular Irish pressure not to sportswash ‘Israel’ and the demand of ‘Don’t play with genocide.’
According to reports, out of the Irish team of 24, eight voted not to play, at a meeting from which it appears that Bazuno was excluded but the rest voted to play. They were then organised to wear armbands mourning the Palestinians killed and to lower their heads during the Zionist anthem.
On the field, the Irish team captain declined to shake hands with the ‘Israeli’ one. The FAI claimed that they had done well apart from their 3-0 win but many felt that to play at all was to lose something more important.
Many of the Bazuno and declining to play Israel at the rally outside the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin. (Photo by: Participant)
It may well have been a tactical campaign mistake not to include the players from the outset in the call for boycott of the game, giving them time to realise and prepare for the fact that if the FAI and Irish Government failed to call for the boycott, then it would come down to them.
The call not to target the players for action, even in that way, seems to have been mistaken. All those of sound mental state are responsible for their actions or lack of them. More importantly perhaps, young men and women of principle will be required to build the Irish nation that we need.
And nothing could be worse than genocide.
End.
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3https://www.instagram.com/p/DdvXWXBG6Y4/ Even more horrible is that he is of Palestinian Arab background. The discourse that it’s a harmless snooker game stance does not warrant entertaining (unless the apologists can show how snooker shots are taken by players of the game while on their knees).
4A road in the nationalist area of West Belfast upon which the British-loyal Orange Order are demanding to be permitted to march
5Original title, The Soldiers’ Song; but for the State, it is the air of the chorus alone that constitutes the ‘National Anthem’.
6Radio Teilifís Éireann, the national broadcaster for television and radio.
The last person of the 10 Republican prisoners to die in the 1981 Hunger strikes died on August 20th but hunger strikes continued for a while until relatives began instructing the doctors to give the strikers alimentation.
What can be said about those strikes? Clearly, a tremendous sacrifice requiring immense courage and determination in a non-violent protest by national liberation fighters in jail in a struggle against British colonialism.
Certainly we lost individuals of great worth in that struggle. It may be asked whether the gain was worth the sacrifice or whether the prison struggle might have been fought in some other way.
The medieval Irish society practice of fasting as a means of protest may or may not have been original but it was an important part of the people of India’s struggle against English colonial rule. Palestinian prisoners have used mass and individual hunger strikes on a number of occasions.
The effects of the Irish 1981 hunger strikes were many and wide, most probably far beyond the intentions or expectations of the prisoners. The news went around the world, bringing expressions of solidarity from many regions, including actions by parliaments of various states.
The Islamic Republic of Iran sent delegates to Bobby Sands’ funeral and renamed the street in which stood the British Embassy in Teheran ‘Bobby Sands Street’. The British Embassy to Iran had to give that as their address until they moved their main entrance around the corner.
Bobby Sands Street in Teheran, Islamic Republic of Iran (Photo sourced: Internet)
Hunger strikers stood in parliamentary elections in Ireland on both sides of the British Border, winning some seats and coming very close to winning some others. One result was that the British changed their electoral laws so that convicted prisoners could no longer stand in elections.
In the Irish state there has not been an outright majority government since that year – every single Irish government since then has been a coalition of one kind or another.
In Britain, the hunger strikes made a huge difference amongst the Irish community there. The 1974 Birmingham Pub Bombings massacre had been jumped on by the British Labour Government to pass the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1974 (now the Terrorism Act 2000).
Probably already drafted, it was brought before Parliament and passed within days, giving the police power to hold suspects for seven days without charge, wide-scale powers of stop and search and interrogation, usually without legal representation for the victim.
Within the year a score of people from the community had been framed on serious charges, convicted and jailed: Birmingham Six, Guildford Four, Maguire Seven, Judith Ward. Subsequently many Irish people stayed away from Irish solidarity marches and meetings – just in case.
The hunger strikes of 1981 blew away much of that fear and the Irish community came out in their thousands in an attempt to save the lives of the hunger-strikers — and have never been cowed down to the previous degree since.
The Irish in Britain Representation Group was formed in 1981 after the refusal of the Federation of Irish Societies to even pass a motion of sympathy for the family of Bobby Sands, who had died only days earlier; the IBRG provided radical and resolute leadership for the next 20 years.
One of a number of songs arising from the 1981 hunger strikes was the Ballad of Joe McDonnell, by Derek Warfield. It is a good song in general but what is most excellent is its chorus, where it turns the accusation of terrorism away from the Resistance and back to British Imperialism.
And you dare to call me a terrorist, While you look down your guns! When I think of all the things that you have done: You have plundered many nations, Divided many lands, You terrorised their people, Ruled with an iron hand … And you brought the stain of terror to my land.
And it could just as well apply to US Imperialism, EU imperialism and their NATO military alliance.
I have sung the song many times over the years and did so again recently at the weekly Dubs For Palestine gathering outside Leinster House. And more recently still outside the British Embassy. I changed only a couple of words to provide a more optimistic line at the end.
End.
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An Irish Palestine solidarity activist momentarily blocked NATO ‘Supreme European Commander’ Alexus Grynkewich’s armed convoy as he left the Dublin US Embassy on Wednesday, escorted by his bodyguards.
The activist was bashed against a wall by Gardaí, arrested and taken to Irishtown Garda station, released on Garda bail to attend court 2nd September.
The protest action appears to have been unplanned and came at the end of a weekly event, an hour of displaying flags and singing songs of resistance in front of the US Embassy’s main entrance organised by singer-musician Jimi Cullen which moved from the Israeli Embassy over a year ago.
A recent one of the weekly Wednesday musical protests at the US Embassy organised by Jimi Cullen (on extreme left of photo), this one on 5th September 2025 (Wk 158)
The event began as usual with a handful of people gathering at their usual spot at the triangular junction of Pembroke Road and Elgin Road. It appears that an RTÉ (national broadcaster) team were noted entering the Embassy from the Elgin Road side which alerted the activists to some unusual Embassy activity.
The activists moved down to direct shouts at the Embassy staff and military, shouts such as “US military out of Shannon!”, “US military baby-killers!” and “Free Palestine!”. A car collecting a leaving official was momentarily blocked by an activist who was removed by Gardaí.
Some time later the event was coming to an end with the usual group singing of An Dord Féinne with the chorus “Óró sé do bheatha ‘bhaile” etc and some of the group dispersed. Those who had not yet left however noticed a convoy of Garda and unmarked vehicles arrive.
It was at that point that Alexus Grynkewich, the NATO supremo, emerged from the Embassy building, escorted by his bodyguards and entered one of the vehicles. Before the convoy could take off, the activist ran in front of it, waving a Palestine flag and was grabbed by Gardaí.
After the activist’s detention and removal to Irishtown Garda Station and other activists attended the station, the activist was charged and bailed in his own recognisance and another activist arrived to give him a lift back to where his car was parked near the US Embassy.
Cartoon on the incident by D.Breatnach
NATO & IRELAND
Alexus Grynkewich is no stranger to US Imperialism/ NATO’s wars in the Levant and in Ukraine and his role in Ireland is to push for Ireland to join NATO and continue facilitating US military flights through Shannon. As far as the Gombeen class is concerned he’s pushing an open door.
Not so with the general Irish population, however, who have made it clear on a number of occasions that they wish the Irish State not to be a part of any external military alliance. The campaign to retain the ‘Triple Lock’1to prevent the Government abandoning official neutrality is ongoing.
While the occupied colony of the Six Counties is part of NATO, the Irish State is not. However it was revealed not long ago that the State has given permission to the Royal Air Force to patrol Irish skies and for many years, US military plains have been observed refuelling at Shannon Airport.
General Alexis Grynkewich, Supreme European Commander NATO (US/EU imperialist military alliance). (Photo source: Wikipedia)
In addition, the Ditch online media has logged planes being permitted to fly towards ‘Israel’ through Irish airspace while carrying weapons-grade material. NATO warships dock at Irish harbours a number of times a year.
Ireland’s current Presidency of the EU seems to be accelerating the State’s slide towards foreign militarisation and has already seen restrictions on the right to protest, with Gardaí closing a part of Dame Street to protest one day and moving protesters from in front of Trinity on another day.
A number of organisations have stated an intention to increase their protests against NATO and US imperialism while some regular broad pro-Palestine groups have indicated they will move their regular protests to outside the US Embassy in solidarity with the arrested activist.
Resistance is often met with State repression but in turn that too often generates more resistance. Voices of broad support for the activist have called for assembly outside the US Embassy at 2pm Wednesday 19th proceeding thereafter to the British Embassy to at 3pm where Jimi Cullen has temporarily relocated.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1Before more than 12 Irish military may be sent on an external mission, it has to be 1) a formal Government Cabinet decision, 2) with Irish Parliamentary approval and 3) on a UN mission.
As the Irish State marked the start of its six-month Presidency of the European Union, a protest march calling for Irish neutrality and an end to EU collusion with ‘Israeli’ genocide in Palestine headed for the formal event, closing a principal street to traffic.
Section of the crowd at Central Plaza.(Photo: D.Breatnach)
A Call to Action poster had promoted the protest to take place at the Plaza in Dublin’s south side city centre in front of a multi-story building, formerly HQ of the Central Bank of Ireland. Curiously, the name of no party, campaign or collective convening the protest appeared on the poster.
Groups of various Palestine solidarity or of pro-Irish neutrality nature, anti-war and left-wing nature, along with many individual activists congregated at the Plaza while a group from the weekly broad Dubs for Palestine meeting outside Leinster House1 marched to meet them there.
Some banners among the crowd at Central Plaza. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
The ‘Granny Squares for Gaza’ quilt was unrolled, featuring up to 2,900 squares, each one representing 10 Palestinian children killed by the IOF and volunteers, along with its custodians, held it at around waist height.
Soon afterwards, the crowd of several hundred took up the westward traffic side of Dame Street and began to march towards Dublin Castle,2 where the Irish Government was marking the first day of its EU Presidency. However a police line blocked progress at the junction with George St.
After a temporary stand-off, the marchers moved to occupy both sides of Dame street and traffic could no longer proceed westward or eastward along the street. The crowd continued with slogans in solidarity with Palestine, against ‘Israel’, for peace, against war, for warplanes out of Shannon.
Another banner at the Plaza. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
The Irish State is the second-biggest single importer of ‘Israeli’ exports, next only to the USA. Permitted flights over Irish airspace have been identified carrying war material to ‘Israel’ and US warplanes regularly refuel at Shannon Airport, despite the state’s ‘neutral’ status.
Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit, which seemed now to be leading the demonstration addressed the crowd informing them that the police had said earlier that they could proceed to the square immediately before City Hall and hold the protest event there.
They had reneged on that which is the reason why traffic was now blocked in the street, Barrett told the crowd and introduced Jimi Cullen to perform for the crowd. Cullen, who has performed at a US Embassy picket for 122 weeks up till then, sang his We Are All Palestinians composition.
Jimi Cullen in full voice. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
The crowd joined in the chorus, words with which they have become familiar in chants through many demonstrations.
A police officer approached Barrett requesting to speak to him and both went aside as one of the Dubs for Palestine group took up leading the chants. Barrett returned later to inform the crowd that the police had offered a different route down side streets, which had been rejected.
Cullen then performed his song defending the Irish State’s neutrality status with which the Irish ruling class are trying to dispense, after which Barrett invited the crowd, while the megaphones sounded sirens to lie on the ground in evocation of the many Palestinians being killed by the day.
Also another banner at the Plaza before the march. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
COMMENT
It was good that the capital city saw agitation opposing the Irish State joining military ventures of the EU and USA imperialist alliances and also against Irish collusion in the genocide in Palestine.
Those leading the march were unwise to accept the police assurance that they would allow the march to proceed to just before City Hall. A PBP-led march to protest Hillary Clinton’s 2012 visit to Dublin Castle had been told they could proceed there but were stopped just before City Hall.
Wednesday’s march was stopped even further from the Castle, which is a step further in curtailing protest, ensuring those inside the Castle will not even hear a hint of opposition. The police obstruction could have been bypassed by diverging through side streets but it was not attempted.
Though individual members may have been there, no Irish Republican organisation was notably present which probably accounted to an extent for the very scarce presence of Tricolour flags (and only one Starry Plough). PBP and their followers do not generally fly those flags.
However their absence cannot be attributed to any ambivalence: Irish Republicans are in strong antipathy to the Irish Government and to the institution of the European Union.
Only one of the slogans called from the front of the march referred to the colonial occupation of one-sixth of Ireland, viz. ‘From Ireland to Palestine/ Occupation is a crime!’ but it was from the Dubs and as is usual with PBP, in none of the speeches was there a mention of it.
Not one word of Irish language was spoken through the PA, not even the Saoirse don Phalaistín slogan.
The lie down to conclude the protest. The Gardaí may be seen in the distance blocking any advance of the march towards Dublin Castle or even the square beside City Hall. People are in most cases lying on the quilt of which each square represents 10 Palestinian children killed by ‘Israel’. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
MOVING FORWARD
For the defeat of colonialism, imperialism and capitalism in Ireland, a revolutionary mass movement will be essential. For that in turn, construction of an anti-imperialist broad front is an essential task.
That requires those claiming Irish Republicanism to be present on mobilisations alongside those claiming revolutionary socialism or just anti-imperialism.
If use of the Irish language is to be popularised and the civil rights of Irish speakers in Ireland protected, Gaeilge must be heard in particular among the most progressive sections of society.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1This broad group meets every Wednesday from 12 noon to around 1.00 pm. listening to speeches, songs and poems. Two of their major campaigns are seeking to have the genocide-funding Allianz company kicked out of the Gaelic Athletic Association and, more recently, to prevent the Irish soccer team playing the ‘Israeli’ one.
2For centuries centre of administration and repression of Ireland by the English occupation.
Two famous people addressed a crowd outside Leinster House, home of the Parliament of the Irish State on 25th May. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian scholar, had forged a remarkable friendship.
Section of participants in the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Bassam Aramin, now a Palestinian scholar, had been sentenced to a 7-year term of imprisonment for throwing a grenade at Israeli soldiers when he was 17 and had lost his daughter later to a plastic bullet fired at short distance by an IOF soldier.
Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, had also lost his daughter Smada but to a suicide bomber in 1997. Both men became advocates of peace and dialogue and friends to one another.
Their audience was the weekly Dubs for Palestine gathering outside Leinster House on Wednesdays 12 noon to about 1.00 pm, with speeches, songs and poetry and David Hickey as MC. This week’s was the 113th such weekly gathering and the duo had been invited to speak.
The broad group has of late been concentrating on parting the Gaelic Athletic Association1 from its sponsor and insurance underwriter, the former Nazi and since Zionist-friendly Allianz company, along with now campaigning for the Irish soccer team not to play the ‘Israeli’ team.
Rami Elhanan (L-R) and Basam Araminaddressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Rami Elhanan referenced his descent from Holocaust survivors and outlined the different living standards of the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish communities, commenting on the sickness in Israeli society, that they did not want to know what is being done in their name to the Palestinians.
Basam Aramin’s contribution was against the Occupation and claimed that without that, Palestinians and Israelis could live in peace (it was not clear whether he was referring to the ‘Two State’ proposal2). David Hickey, the MC of the group presented them with an Arum Lily each.3
After their speeches had been applauded, they were asked to comment on the recent Leinster House debate and the Government’s refusal to endorse a boycott of Israel. Rami Elhanan replied that boycotts entrenched opposing sides and that continuing to talk was the answer.
Singer and activist Emma Browne, invited next to the microphone, sang Keep the Little Flame Alive, among the lyrics of which Faye, Dolores, Bernadine, Table grapes and gasoline, Homemade rifles, kitchen knives, Kept the little flame alive riposted the previous speakers.
Soon afterwards, Paul Lynch read a poem of a Palestinian father mourning the killing of his child. Poet and activist Dorothy Collin declared that in order to have peace there must be justice first and that we must support the oppressed in whatever way they choose to resist.
Áine Ruttley reading her poem while addressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Áine Rutley also upheld our duty of solidarity and the right of the Resistance movement to choose its own methods, as did Jimi Cullen who then performed his own song composition The Freedom Fighter about a fighter from Gaza.
As I was called to the microphone, I commented that my views had already been well expressed in song and speech and that one of the forms of resistance is song, of which we had more than probably any other people in the world and sang An Dord Féinne,4 which is banned in Germany.
A little later the event came to an end with another song from Emma Browne, Never Again Is Now and with group chanting for Palestine, against Allianz and against playing the ‘Israeli’ team.
IN CONCLUSION
It is a popular proposition in certain circles that all social conflicts can be resolved by discussion, by understanding our opponents’ view. It is an attractive idea but flies in the face of history and of contemporary reality.
The interests of Occupied and Occupier are opposed and cannot be reconciled through understanding. The Occupier understands that the Occupied wish to be rid of them. The Occupied do understand that the Occupier wishes to continue appropriating their land and resources.
In this kind of situation one must win and the other lose. Far from understanding leading to peaceful resolution, the more the oppressed understand the nature of their oppressor, the more resolutely they are likely to resist and this is surely true of the Palestinians resisting the Zionist settlers.
The false proposition of resolving irreconcilable interests through discussion is usually of liberal or social-democratic origin when applied to anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles and though appearing even-handed, always ends up disempowering the victimised.
The journeys of both these men is extraordinary and interesting but it should not be presented as representative of the Palestinian struggle against Occupation, Theft and Genocide. Each father lost a child but the Palestinian is losing a lot more on top.
Furthermore, a just resolution can only come about through the total defeat of the Zionist forces and the dismantling of their State, so that if we really want that kind of resolution we are called to support the Palestinian side, unequivocally and resolutely.
Of course, in reality there is no question of real peace without justice, for ultimately the oppressed (unless wiped out) will rise in struggle again and again. The proposition of accommodation of opposites by discussion can only undermine or distract the struggle of the oppressed.
We cannot take the story of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, however remarkable, as even a metaphor for a just resolution nor allow ourselves to be seduced from resistance nor our struggle undermined by it.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1The management of the Gaelic games, including hurling and Gaelic football. The GAA has teams in every one of the 32 counties of Ireland, crossing the colonial border and is the biggest community sports association not only in Ireland but also in Europe and perhaps in the world.
2This proposal came out of the Oslo Accords, to give the Palestinians 20% of their land for peace with the Zionist settlers who would own the remaining 80%. Apart from its basic injustice the proposal was never realistic since Zionist settlers continued to construct settlements on additional land. Despite this, supporting that proposal is the formal position of most western imperialist states and the Irish State and of most parliamentary political parties.
3In Ireland these are often viewed as symbolic of the 1916 Easter Rising.
4Also known as Gráinne Mhaol and Óró Sé Do Bheatha ‘Bhaile, an Irish traditional song of some antiquity refashioned into an Irish resistance song by Patrick Pearse, a martyred leader of the 1916 Rising.
The Ard-Fheis1 of the Fianna Fáil political party, one of the main two parties in the Coalition Government, on Saturday was visually and aurally disturbed by Palestine solidarity protesters outside the Royal2 Conference Centre in Dublin.
Section of the protesters at the side gate to the Conference Centre. From here the protesters could see and be seen and heard by many of the Ard Fheis attendees. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
At College Green a broad group broke away from the monthly national march of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and headed for the Conference Centre booked by the Fianna Fáil party for its annual conference, to protest Government collusion in ‘Israel’s’ genocide.
The Irish state is the single biggest importer of ‘Israeli’ exports, flights of military-use material are permitted regularly through its airspace and US military flights regularly refuel at Shannon Airport in violation of the formal neutral status of the State.
A placard held by one of the protesters at the side entrance to the Conference Centre. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
To the frustration of Palestine activists, this continues to be the case despite the overwhelming majority public’s feelings about Palestine, ranging from sympathy and horror at the carnage to outright solidarity, accompanied by hostility towards the actions of the ‘Israeli’ Zionists.
Chant leaders using megaphones led the protesters in the usual call-and-answer chants of From the River to the Sea/ Palestine will be free! Enact/ the Occupied Territories Bill! Mícheál Martin, you can’t hide/ You’re supporting genocide! and Your hands are bloody too!
The depth of the genocide collusion of the State is clear from its constant shelving of the Occupied Territories Bill, a very mild measure which passed through both Houses back in 2018 but, despite promises and weakening further, is yet to be brought on to the floor of Leinster House for a vote.
Calls on the Government to Do your job! are mistaken and unfair – theyARE doing their job, their real job as representatives of the neo-colonial, neo-liberal Irish Gombeen class. What we need is for them to be unable to do their job and to be replaced by a people’s socialist government.
Garda violence had erupted earlier in the day when protestors sought to take advantage of an unsecured gate to bring their protest closer to the FF conference, Gardaí hurling people away and pepper-spraying a number.
No headlines such as “Protesters batoned and pepper-sprayed at Fianna Fáil conference” appeared and the fact received no mention in the media. Protesters expressed hostility towards a press photographer wearing a FF conference lanyard but others stepped in to his defence.
Presumably protesters want media coverage? The reporter was seen earlier inside the conference centre grounds attempting to approach the barrier where the protesters gathered but was repeatedly refused by the chief security person. He then came out to take photographs from among them.
Section of the IPSC march passing the main gate of Trinity College (the couple in foreground are probably just crossing the road here). Another section has passed and has reached and possibly passed Dawson Street. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
The IPSC had advertised a protest at the FF ard-fheis for earlier in the day and presumably this was the one where people had tried to gain entry and had been attacked by the Gardaí. But most of those protesters had departed to join the IPSC march at 1pm from the Garden of Remembrance.
Could the main march not have been brought past the Conference Centre, even if continuing to the IPSC’s stage in Molesworth Street? Of course, many might have stayed to protest the FF event. Would that have been so bad? What has been achieved by the monthly ritual march up to now?
Possibly a shawl, carried by one of the women, possibly West Asian, who was happy for me to photograph it, on the IPSC march. (Photo: D.Breatnach).
In any case, the party faithful attendees at the annual conference of a senior member of the neo-liberal, neo-colonial Coalition Government were made unmistakably aware of what a section of the population – representing a great many others – think of them.
However the genocide continues without visible end. As does the Irish Government’s collusion. Wednesday will see a bill proposing sanctions against Israel being debated in the Irish Parliament; despite its broad support, the Government Coalition usually has the necessary numbers to beat it.
end.
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2Strange name for a venue chosen by a party with a Republican past history and which recently enough was claiming to be the ‘REAL Republican party’! The party was formed in a split in 1926 from the abstentionist Sinn Féin party on the issue of its elected representatives taking seats in the parliament of a partitioned Ireland.
2Strange name for a venue chosen by a party with a Republican past history and which recently enough was claiming to be the ‘REAL Republican party’! The party was formed in a split in 1926 from the abstentionist Sinn Féin party on the issue of its elected representatives taking seats in the parliament of a partitioned Ireland.
Outside the German Embassy in Dublin speakers denounced the German State’s repression of Palestine solidarity activists and their treatment as terrorists in solitary confinement in dispersed locations, increasing the visiting difficulties for relatives.
Organised by the broad group Dubs for Palestine, scores of people attended a lunchtime picket of the Embassy on Monday 27th April.1 In addition to the speeches and chants, songs were sung with particular relevance to the occasion and location.
The focus of this rally was in support of a group of five activists that includes a young man formerly of Dún Laoire, Daniel Tatler-Devally and have become known as the Ulm Five. They were alleged to have broken into an Elbit Systems facility in Ulm, Germany and caused damage inside.
Lynn Treacy, of the Devally-Tatler family support grou, speaking outside gates of the German Embassy, Dublin on Ulm Five solidarity rally April 29th. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Their action was in protest at the Israeli military systems company and its part in the genocide of Palestinians supported by the German state. One of the speakers was Daniel’s father, Conor Devally while Lynn Treacy, a friend of Daniel’s mother spoke on her behalf too.
Jimi Cullen, accompanied by Dermot outside gates of German Embassy, Dublin on Ulm Five solidarity rally. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The activists are being treated as terrorists, in seven months of solitary confinement, separated and dispersed throughout different jails long distances apart. Their trial is scheduled for separate days over a period from April to July, also causing relatives and friends great difficulty.
Jimi Cullen singing and playing guitar performed his own We Are All Palestinians, developed from the well-known chant on Palestine solidarity demonstrations, accompanied by Dermot Sheehan on drum.
Two prominent members of People Before Profit spoke, Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, a political and cultural activist and noted singer in the sean-nós style. Raymond Deane, composer and founding member of the IPSC spoke too as did political activist and singer Diarmuid Breatnach.
Richard Boyd Barret speaking at Ulm Five solidarity rally at German Embassy April 29th. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Ó Ceannabháin spent some time demolishing the discourse that Germany has an excuse for its repression of pro-Palestine solidarity because of alleged guilt due to its perpetration of the Hollocaust. He pointed to its genocidal history in Namibia and its leadership of EU imperialism.
The PBP member and election candidate for a councillor vacancy in DCC told the rally of Germany’s banning not only some Palestinian solidarity chants2 but also the song known as ‘Óró Sé do Bheatha Abhaile’3 which he proceeded to sing, the participants joining the chorus with gusto.
Ó Ceannabháin at Ulm Five solidarity rally at German Embassy April 29th. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Diarmuid Breatnach pointed out that the German working class had a strong history of struggle and at one time led the world in socialist and social-democratic representation, even recording a vote of 4.8 million votes for the Communist Party in the midst of Nazi repression.
Hans Beimler, a communist trade union activist, Breatnach said, escaped from a Nazi concentration camp, went to Spain to fight in the Anti-Fascist War there and was killed. In his honour Breatnach sang two verses of The Peat Bog Soldiers4 followed by the ballad about Beimler.
Breatnach was accompanied on drum by Dermot Sheehan, a regular attendee at the weekly Wednesday Dubs for Palestine event outside Leinster House, seat of the parliament of the Irish State. An anti-Zionist Jewish activist spoke against Israeli Zionism and its support by Germany.
Naoise Dolan speaking at Ulm Five solidarity rally at German Embassy April 29th. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Speaking in German, Irish and English, Naoise Dolan, novelist, supporter of Palestine Action who was captured in piracy action by the IOF on the October 2025 Gaza aid flotilla, also spoke to denounce the attitude and actions of the German Government and Berlin police.
Ken Powell of Dubs for Palestine, who had acted as MC throughout, led the rally in chanting slogans of solidarity with Palestine including calling for the freedom of each of the Ulm Five by name before thanking all for their attendance and concluding the event.
end.
Early view of Ulm Five solidarity rally outside German Embassy April 29th as people are still arriving. (Photo: R.Breeze)
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FOOTNOTES
1The day the trial began in Germany but however did not proceed due to the presiding judge refusing to allow the Defence lawyers to sit with their clients and the lawyers’ refusal to proceed under those restrictions
2“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” which they claim is ‘anti-Semitic’; also “Globalise the Intifada.”
3An Dord Féinne is the actual title given by Patrick Pearse in his adaptation of a traditional song in Irish.
4A translation from the German song of the Communists in Nazi concentration camps which was eventually banned by the camp authorities under pain of death.
A recent arrest in France and concert in Dublin are connected by events in both countries a half-century earlier.1
The arrest in question by French police was on 16 April of Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, for alleged involvement in the 1982 attack on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Marais district of Paris.2
The report of the arrest came less than a week after the Dublin commemoration by concert of another event, also half a century earlier. And strangely, there was a connection between both events.
On 11 April, a concert was held in Vicar Street to commemorate the arrest, torture, framing of three Irish Socialist Republicans and their jailing in 1986.3
Musicians, poets and journalists came together at the event, organised by musician Cormac Breatnach, brother of one of the accused, to commemorate the event and to press for an inquiry into three activists being tortured into making false confessions incriminating themselves.
And into how, despite their retractions and medical evidence of torture, they were then convicted of an event they had not committed. And how the legal system, from the Court of Appeal to the High Court, had all colluded in the injustice.
The trial in Ireland was for the Sallins Mail Train Robbery of 1976. The convicted three were Osgur Breatnach, Nicky Kelly and Brian McNally: Breatnach and Kelly were sentenced in the no-jury Special Criminal Court to 12 years, McNally to nine.
The day before sentence, Nicky Kelly jumped bail but returned nearly two years later when the convictions of Breatnach and McNally were deemed ‘unsafe’ and that their statements had ‘not been made voluntarily’.
However, the State insisted that the time period for registering an appeal had by then been exceeded and it took much campaigning and his own hunger strike before Kelly was finally released, on a Presidential pardon for a crime he had not committed.
A fourth, Mick Plunkett, had stood trial with the three on the same charges but having succeeded in not making a false confession under torture and threats, was finally acquitted. The French connection with the extradition of Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, is Plunkett’s.
Mick Plunkett4 had decided that, despite his escaping the framing, that the Garda Heavy Gang5 would be out to get him and that a departure to other climes might he healthy. Plunkett settled in France but did not give up his politics.
Photo: Joel Robine/ AFP
The Jo Goldenberg restaurant was subjected to a grenade and firearms attack on 9 August 1982, killing six and injuring 22.
On 28 August that year, Plunkett, Mary Reid and Stephen King (not the novelist) were arrested by a special anti-terrorist unit of the Gendarmerie (perhaps Le Gang Lourd, the Heavy Gang a la Francaise!).
The police claimed that all three were part of a terrorist organisation and that leaflets confirming that had been found in their apartment. And also firearms. All the allegations were vigorously denied by the three Irish activists.
Eventually the case against all three fell apart and they were released with, in time, the Gendarmerie admitting that the evidence against them had been ‘planted’ and the special unit was disbanded.6
One of the acts which the French police had claimed for the organisation of which they had falsely claimed membership of Plunkett, Reid and King was the attack on the Jo Goldberg Restaurant — the same incident for which the French Police have now charged Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra.
The French state got Khader Abed by extradition from Occupied Palestine. The State of Israel does not extradite its citizens anywhere but the Palestinian Authority was willing to do the job for France, which last year had officially recognised ‘the State of Palestine.’
end.
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Footnotes
1This story was published recently in the Irish language-only weekly An Páipéar (available in newsagents and online).
Composed of Socialist Republican, Communist and Anarchist contingents, along with independent activists of various tendencies, a broad Revolutionary Bloc marched among other groups and individuals in the annual May Day march in Dublin on May 1st.
Eden Quay, as the march turns off O’Connell Street, heading for Beresford Square, by the tall Liberty Hall building in the left background. (Photo: R.Breeze)
At intervals the banners of the Communist Party of Ireland, the Independent Workers’ Union and flags of the Anti-Imperialist Action contingents could be seen and a number of flags denoting specific groups or campaigns were on show but the Bloc was mainly identifiable by its slogans.
Led in call-and-answer almost non-stop from departure point at the Garden of Remembrance to Beresford Place in front of Liberty Hall,1 slogans called on workers to strike work and fight, to oust imperialist states and NATO from Ireland, for resistance unity, revolution and a socialist republic.
Section of the Revolutionary Bloc, centre image. (Photo: R.Breeze)
It was notable that an Irish Tricolour and a number of Starry Plough flags were visible among the Bloc and indeed one of the chants was against the appropriation of the Tricolour by ‘traitors’. They also called for funding for education and not for big corporations and for a hotel-free city centre.
At least one of the flags was of the Revolutionary Housing League and the march passed an empty building appropriated three years earlier by the RHL who were then evicted by a Garda force of 100 with helicopter and armed unit as backup. The building remains empty to this day.
People in Dublin stopped in the early Friday evening to watch and in the northern reach of O’Connell Street an elderly man stepped off the pavement to march along with the Bloc, though in silence while further along, two teenage girls in school uniform joined the Bloc also.
The Priory Market, Tallaght, Dublin prior to opening (Photo: Supplied by supporter)
Led by a long piper, the various contingents marched into Beresford Place, where a stage had been set up in front of the SIPTU2 headquarters building but most of the Revolutionary Bloc marched past to congregate for a group photo around the nearby monument to James Connolly.
Using the Bloc’s megaphone, one of the group then sang the Be Moderate song (also known as We Only Want the Earth) composed by James Connolly3 and, as the singer informed his listeners, published in the Songs of Freedom songbook by Connolly in New York in 1907.
As most of the Bloc dispersed, speeches were being made from the nearby stage and a group of mostly younger people from Turkey were assembling at the Connolly Monument also for a group photo.
The May Day march and rally in Dublin is traditionally organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions. However the participation of union banners was low in numbers and those present mostly of the FÓRSA union.
Section of the march showing FORSA union flags being carried. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Distinct from other European states, the foremost struggle in Ireland for centuries has been on the national question which has entailed less development in the forces devoted to socialism, so that in general May Day does not bring out the numbers one can see in the capitals of the EU and UK.
However, Ireland’s long history of resistance to colonial occupation has entailed a greater history of insurrection than most European states and it has also produced a remarkable number of leaders of labour struggles among the Irish diaspora in Britain, the USA and Australia.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1A highly-visible very tall building on the site of the original Liberty Hall, HQ of the IT&GWU, now of SIPTU.
2One of the largest (possibly the largest) trade unions in Ireland, formed by amalgamation of other unions on the base of the Irish Transport and General Workers union, of which James Connolly had been an officer and for a period, its overall leader.
3James Connolly (5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916), born and raised in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, revolutionary socialist activist-theoretician and Irish Republican, author, journalist, historian, union organiser, executed by the British occupation along with another 15 prominent insurrectionists of the Easter Rising.
