UNPROVOKED, UNJUSTIFIED IMPERIALIST-ZIONIST ATTACK

On June 16, 2025June 19, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-War, Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Mass Media Criticism, Middle East, Political Analysis, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

On Friday the ‘Israeli’ state launched an unprovoked and unjustified attack on Iran. Apart from any any liking or disliking of either attacker or attacked, this is a fact. And if this be acceptable, then it can happen to any country.

Of course, in this century and in the last it has already happened to many countries – and in general, it is imperialist states or their proxies who have been responsible. Also in the case of ‘Israel’ in Lebanon and Syria while practising genocide in Gaza.

The western mass media could not deny that Iran’s attack is retaliation to an attack by ‘Israel’, nor could they just omit that context in their reports. So instead, they called the Israeli attack a ‘pre-emptive’ strike,¹ which usually means that one had to act first as was just about to be attacked.

But no, that is completely misleading; any time Iran has attacked ‘Israel’ it’s been in retaliation to an ‘Israel’ attack on them first. And in fact the Zionist regime was overdue a retaliation due to their attack on Iran in October last year.

There are many regimes around the world of which I do not approve and some which I detest but that does not give me or others justification for attacking their countries. Stopping genocide does provide justification and, according to international law, actual obligation but only Yemen acted.

*Iranian retaliatory missiles striking Haifa (‘Tel Aviv’) 14th or 15th June 2025.* (Image sourced: *Online*)

The ‘Israeli’ ‘justification’ for their attack is that Iran posed a threat to their state. This was based on the often-stated belief of the Iranian authorities that the Zionist settler colony is a threat to the whole Middle East and should be eliminated. But is an expression of an opinion a real threat?

It is not, unless followed by action (such as for example the genocidal and racist statements of Israeli Government ministers as the IOF carries out their wishes in practice).

And in fact the Zionists have themselves verified the correctness of the opinions of the Iranian authorities by their history since 1948 (and for some time before that too). But how was this alleged threat to be carried out? By Iran developing nuclear weapons, claimed the Zionists.

Netanyahu has been claiming over ten years, against all the evidence, that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, despite numerous Iranian denials and official inspections. The Western powers are apparently also very concerned about the possible development of nuclear weapons by Iran.

Wait a minute! France, UK and the USA are concerned about Iran possibly having nuclear weapons some day? All of those are nuclear weapon-holding states! What gives them the right to decide who should and who should not have nuclear weapons?

We could ask too what gives the Israeli State, which has secret nuclear weapons, such a right?

Yes, the Zionist State has had nuclear weapons since the 1960s, although it keeps it secret and its nuclear weaponry is not open to any inspection. Israeli peace activist whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear scientist, confirmed this to the British press in 1986.²

Vanunu was lured to Italy by Mossad, drugged, kidnapped and flown to the Zionist state where he was tried in secret. He has spent 18 years in jail, 11 of them in solitary confinement (despite there not being any such sentence in the ‘Israeli’ penal code) and is not permitted to leave the country.

Leaders of the USA have expressed the fear that Iran may one day develop nuclear weapons and attack Israel with them. This worry is being expressed by the only state that has used nuclear weapons to attack another state – and did it not once, but twice!

In August 1944 US bombers exploded atomic bombs over two cities of Japan, with which the US was at war. One study estimates the number of dead, mostly civilians at 199,000³ but many continued to die from radiation poisoning in following years.

ALTHOUGH IRAN HAS THE RIGHT TO DEVELOP NUCLEAR WEAPONS – THEY WEREN’T DOING SO

Not only was there no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, and that they repeated many times that they were not and a number of observers and investigators had confirmed their statements – but the Supreme Leader of Iran had issued a fatwa⁴ against such development!

Trump in his many statements seemed to confuse the terms enrichment with nuclear weapon, using them alternately. Now we can see that it was never about nuclear weapons: it was the enrichment that the western allies wished to stop, in order to cripple Iran’s nuclear energy development.

What we are seeing in this conflict is international bullying in which threats, economic sanctions, assassinations, bombing and war (not to mention genocide) are fine with the western powers as long as they (or their proxies) are committing them.

This is the alliance that the Irish gombeen ruling class wants us to join, either through an imperialist EU ‘defence’ (sic) force or through NATO. And the supreme irony is that they will use the very wars they start as ‘evidence’ of the need for us to join them!

As I write, Iran is hitting back, completely justifiably. A number of waves of missiles so far, striking Zionist regime buildings and military establishments. Of course, it is not a sneak attack and most of leaders and ‘Tel Aviv’ residents are in bomb shelters.

The Zionists cannot be paid back in their own preferred coin of leadership assassination. At the moment, it’s not certain where war criminal and child-murderer Netanyahu is but he did visit one of the sites hit by Iran from where he poured out further threats.

So far, Iran has not attacked US bases in West Asia although the US is clearly complicit in the attack on Iran, for which no further evidence is required than that the missiles came through Iraq’s totally USA-controlled air space. And Trump has been boasting about US involvement too.

Recent news is that the Genocidal State has asked for help from its allies in its defence against just retribution and that the UK responded positively. The western imperialist bloc is about to reveal its collusion with the genocidal state even more openly than recently.

What will happen next? How will the rest of the world act over the coming months? It is hard to predict but we can definitely say that the world is in a different place from now on.

WHERE DO WE STAND?

So far the population of most of Ireland has managed not to be recruited into the western imperialist bloc but the government of the Irish state continues to be complicit and the six-county colony is under UK occupation — and therefore officially part of US/ NATO.

Simon Harris, Tánaiste, Irish Government Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and for Defence was reported today saying that “Iran has consistently been a danger to the world.”⁵

Er … Iran? Not the aggressor (and genocider) Israel, which attacked Iran first, also attacking Syria and Lebanon and in the past Jordan, Libya and Egypt?

Not the USA (201 military actions in 153 countries after WW2)? Not the UK or France, colonial masters and currently major imperialist states?

I suspect that some socialists will find it difficult to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran; they found it impossible to do so with the people in the secular regimes of Libya and Syria – and Iran is a theocracy with many social regulations to which they would be strongly opposed.

On the other hand, Iran is being attacked by imperialist-backed Zionism because of its insistence on sovereignty and support for anti-imperialist struggles in West Asia. Apart from the Ansarallah regime of Yemen, Iran is the only state to stand up to Zionism in the region.

For genuine anti-imperialists and anti-Zionists then, for all democratic people, our stance and demand is clear: HANDS OFF IRAN!

End.

Footnotes

1Even this ‘background explanatory’ piece, which starts off recounting a decades-long list of ‘Israeli’ sabotage and assassination operations against Iran, later turns to defend ‘Israel’ by referring to the Hamas-led 7^th October breakout and tenuously connecting Iran to that operation through their solidarity with Hamas. For context of that solidarity the journal would need to go back to all the attacks on the Palestinians by ‘Israel’ but of course it does not do. https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/timeline-of-tensions-and-hostilities-between-israel-and-iran-1773045.html

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

3 https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/documents/med/med_chp10.html

4A religious and legal injunction according to Muslim law.

5 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/harris-says-world-on-brink-of-extraordinary-destabilisation-1773627.html

WE FOUGHT THEM FOR 800 YEARS BUT WE ARE STILL NOT FREE

On June 9, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Capitalism, Current Affairs Comment, History, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis2 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time main text: 4mins.)

I was jarred recently hearing the Irish actor and Palestine solidarity activist Liam Cunningham mention “700 years of British occupation”.¹ And I have heard others not from Ireland speak admiringly of the “Irish freedom struggle of 700 years.”

Quite a few of those from other countries who quoted the “freedom” after “700 years” did so admiringly and may not be well acquainted with our nation’s history.

*Liam Cunningham in Italy with two of the humanitarian activists about to sail on the Mayleen’s expedition to Gaza.*

The foreign occupation of Ireland is normally dated from the Norman invasion of 1169 (although we could add to it the foreign occupation of Dublin by the Vikings from roughly 853 AD to 1170 AD).

I’m aware that I can be somewhat challenged in mathematics but after checking and re-checking I find that 856 years have elapsed since 1169, which means that the British-based occupation of Ireland has continued for well in excess of the 700 years quoted by Cunningham and others.

The Pale or walled city of Dublin under British Norman/ English occupation (Source image: https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/dublin/short_history/map_1.html)

So where did the “700” years figure come from? It occurred to me that in some people’s heads this might be based on the creation of the Irish State and an assumption that was the point at which we threw off the British colonial yoke. Well, even then it would be 752 years but o.k, that might be it.

So, all of Ireland was occupied for centuries, then after numerous uprisings, in 1921 the British ceded 26 counties to Irish State control. But Ireland has 32 counties – what happened to the missing six counties? Well, we know, they remained occupied.

The Irish State in 1921 abandoned the people of the Six Counties, in particular the 34%+ who were of Catholic background; abandoned them to institutional sectarian religious discrimination in housing, employment and representation — and to repression.²

And in fact, the fairly recent 30 Years War was precisely about that occupation. Inevitably, the people rose up against their repression and oppression. The Irish State formally claimed those Six Counties but took no steps to regain them and cooperated with the colonial forces.³

Clearly we can’t change history but we can choose not to collude with injustice. We can refuse to conceive of Ireland as missing six counties, as only four-fifths of its actual landmass. We used to have a word for the thinking that had a Six-County blind spot – we called it ‘partitionist’.

In other words, an attitude that agreed with, colluded with or merely accepted the partition of the Irish Nation.

The Irish State that was born in 1921 was dominated by a capitalist ruling class which was pro-British and socially conservative, even beyond the social conservatism of Britain. And the social conservatism of the colonial Six County regime was even more extreme.

The agreement to abandon the Six Counties was a good indication of the servile nature of the ruling class of the Irish State which became even more evident as the State developed — and even under a later government of former opponents of the State, the Sinn Féin split of Fianna Fáil.

The Irish economy was neither developed nor diversified. Emigration continued unchecked as it had for centuries under British rule and. Irish State obeisance in turn switched to the USA and then to the EU. Currently the Irish ruling class is trying to eliminate any Irish State neutrality.

In 1845 Ireland was able to feed over 8 million but today in 2025 cannot even feed a little over 7 million in (over 5.3 million in the Irish state, nearly 2 million in the Six Counties). Yes, we must import food in order to eat.

Most large companies and banks within the state are foreign-owned, including such national brands and flagships as Aer Lingus, Guinness (including Harp and Hop House lagers and Smithwicks ale), Jameson and Paddy’s whiskeys,⁴Erin Foods, our telecommunication system⁵.

Most financial institutions within the state such as insurance companies in health, life, accident, motors, travel are also foreign-owned, including the now ironically-named Irish Life. The health, transport and mail systems and infrastructures are increasingly penetrated by foreign companies.

Foreign-owned hotels, housing apartment and office blocks are the rule and growing while vulture companies gobble up the properties of people who already paid the construction costs of their homes.

In economic policies and in foreign political policy it is clear that the Irish State remains close to the major Western Powers. Responding to popular feeling over the genocide in Gaza, its political leaders may posture a little away from the pack but in effect?

The Irish State imports productsfrom the Israeli State (US$4.15 Billion in 2024),⁶ allows genocidal state munitions through the State’s ‘neutral’ air space, US munitions and personnel through Shannon International Airport while maintaining all normal links with the Zionist state.

What we believe and say is important

In his interview with The Group Chat Cunningham, with the agreement of the panel, stated that no state was fulfilling its legal duty to practically oppose genocide. This was an unjustified slur on Yemen, which has shut down Israeli inward or outward Red Sea traffic and hit the state itself.⁷

It is very interesting that even among the many condemnations of Israel by media commentators and politicians we rarely hear acknowledgement, never mind commendation of the anti-genocidal action and sacrifice of the Ansarallah state and the Yemeni people.

Perhaps the contrast is too painful.

However, in an interview during a Palestine solidarity march in Dublin⁸ Cunningham referred to 800 years. Was that a slip of the tongue, or were the references to 700 centuries instead the slips? Interestingly he also referred to foreign vulture funds and landlords in the same interview.

*Liam Cunningham speaking about the seizure by the ‘Israeli’ navy of the humanitarian mission ship Mayleen.* (Source photo: *The Irish Star*)

It is important that an actor in a popular drama series speaks up for Palestine and also for the Irish people and Cunningham has been doing so for years.

What we say and how we recall history is also important because they have an impact on the present and on the future. On what we aspire to. On how we act and think, on how those around us act and think.

Ireland is partitioned between a colonial ruling class and an Irish foreign-dependent ruling class. We fought the Viking occupation for 300 years and the British occupation for well over 800 years – and we are still fighting it. Without sovereignty we cannot develop our economy.

Without sovereignty we will be dragged into imperial and colonial conflicts but never to our historical and traditional place – on the side of the Resistance.

End.

NOTES

1A number of times but in particular in interview on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znTKPzXLfrI and on 21.17 minutes in the Empire Files interview

2It also abandoned the Protestant majority, including many descendants of the United Irishmen particularly in Antrim, to a sectarian, bigoted, racist and colonial ideology that helped maintain them for decades with the worst housing and lowest wages in the UK of which they were part.

3In 1998 it abandoned even the formality of that claim https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65184915

4And Bushmills in the colonial statelet.

5 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/03/16/french-billionaire-niel-inches-closer-to-full-ownership-of-eir/#:~:text=NJJ%20Boru%2C%20a%20company%20controlled,private%20equity%20firm%20Anchorage%20Capital

6 https://tradingeconomics.com/ireland/imports/israel and https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2025/06/08/despite-the-politics-ireland-is-israels-second-biggest-export-market-for-goods/

7Also in the Empire Files interview.

8On 24^th April https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/game-of-thrones-liam-cunningham-gaza-b2534126.html

SOURCES

The Group Chat interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znTKPzXLfrI

The Empire Files interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojQGOD3vywU

PERFORMATIVE ANTI-ISRAEL MEASURES FROM PETRO

On June 9, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Colombia, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, Internationalist Solidarity, Massacres, Middle East, PalestineLeave a comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (reformatted entire for Rebel Breeze from article in his substack: Petro Announces Another “New” Measure Against Israel

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Petro’s government announced another measure against Israel, or to be more precise the Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia, who despite all the criticisms we made of her seems more trustworthy than the erratic Petro, made the announcement.

Colombia will require an entry visa for Israeli citizens.

Before celebrating another blow to Zionism and a gesture of solidarity with the suffering people of Palestine, we have to read the reasons behind it. It is not a response to the genocide, but rather because Israel unilaterally imposed a visa on Colombians from May 14th of this year.[1]

*Laura Sarabia, Foreign Affairs Minister in the Petro government, at work.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

When Colombia broke off diplomatic relations with Israel last year, at the very least it should have required a visa from Israelis travelling to the country. But Petro learnt very well the lesson of the nuns in the schools that it more important to appear to be than to be.

And he and his government appears to be the most progressive on the planet and an adversary of the Zionist state. But it is not true. It is not the case in migratory issues nor on economic issues and despite Colombia announcing it would no longer export coal to Israel, it continues to do so.

What is the point of requiring a visa from Israelis when many have double nationality and can enter with another passport? We have to be more radical.

Firstly, Colombia should state that those who have Israeli nationality automatically lose their Colombian citizenship. There are many countries in the world that do this, amongst them Nepal and India.

There are others that do not accept double nationality, you can only have one passport, though the loss of citizenship is not automatic. And further still there are countries, such as Ireland, that accept triple nationality.

Colombia should not recognise double nationality when the second nationality is Israeli. It could go even further.

Some countries, especially the USA, restrict visitors who have travelled to countries such as Iran or Cuba. Colombia could deny entry to anyone who has an Israeli passport, regardless of whether they enter with that document.

There are certain difficulties when it comes to implementing this, but there are legal implications for the person that uses another passport to enter Colombia if they are an Israeli citizen. With that alone they would close the brothels in Taganga and the sex tourism of Israeli soldiers in Colombia.

But neither Petro, nor Sarabia, when she stands in for the drunkard, aim to do anything like that. What they are about is appearances and this is to be seen in the economic measures taken against the genocidal state of Israel.

*Gustavo Petro in handshake with Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, the repressive Israeli and US proxy regime in the Palestine West Bank.* (Photo source: *WAFA*)

With great showmanship they announced the end of coal exports to Israel.

But a recent communiqué from a group of trade unions and social organisations, amongst them the oil workers union, USO and the coal workers union, Sintracarbon, show that they continue to export coal to Israel.

According to the communiqué, based on data from Colombian Customs and Tax Office (DIAN) they exported 905.666 tonnes of coal to the tune of US $90 million since August 2025 when Petro issued his decree.

It is worth pointing out that Petro’s statement gained him fans in many parts, the Progressive International that includes personalities such as Walden Bello and Jeremy Corbyn reproduced an article from the US social democratic magazine Jacobin.

The article pointed to Colombia as a model to copy and that 60% of Israeli coal came from Colombia and that

…the Israeli power grid depends on coal for 22 percent of its output. The same grid supplies electricity to Israel’s illegal settlements and arms factories as well as the infrastructure used by the Israeli military in perpetrating genocide…

…this decision is not only a victory in symbolic terms but shows the enormous impact that a wider energy embargo could have in ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza.[2]

In fact, according to data from the DIAN, between January and April 2024, i.e. before Petro’s decree US $101,658.000 worth of products were exported to Israel and in 2025 for the same period US $ 75,247,000 was exported.

This represents a reduction but it is clear that Colombia not only continues to export coal but many other products to the Zionist genocidaires.

So, what does it matter if Israelis are required to have a visa? What the government says is that it is going to impose a visa on Israelis because they did it first.

But the Zionist soldiers can come on other passports or even on an Israeli passport, providing they have a visa, i.e. the response to the genocidaires is a bureaucratic inconvenience when what we really need is to ban the entry of all Israelis to Colombian territory.

And to close all the brothels in Taganga and other places that function as places for the “rest and recreation” of the murderers after their “exploits” in Gaza.

End.

NB: For more articles by Gearóid see https://gearoidloingsigh.substack.com

NOTES

The Palestine Struggle in Cartoons – April/ May

On June 2, 2025June 3, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Cartoon, Current Affairs Comment, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Massacres, NATO, Palestine, Political Analysis, USA, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

Like many others through much of the genocidal attack on Gaza since October last 2022, I’ve been attending pickets, demonstrations and vigils organised by others. I’ve also written some reports on those events and analyses of the solidarity movement.

But in addition, I’ve been drawing cartoon comments in a sketch book, most unpublished and I thought I would publish a selection here.

One of the poorest states in the world, Ansarallah is the only one to uphold its duty to prevent genocide, which it does by putting heavy pressure on the Zionist state’s economy through maritime blockade. For this, the UK and USA rain missiles and bombs down upon it. But it does not yield.

*This one is at least as much placard as it is cartoon but I never got around to making the placard.*

*Ansarallah escalates to attack the ‘Israeli’ state directly, then again in response to Zionist airforce bombing of Yemen.*

The USA Navy sends two aircraft carriers to assist the genocidal state by attacking Yemen. Ansarallah attacks the US Navy, forcing the retreat first of one aircraft carrier followed by capitulation of the US which offers Ansarallah to end attacks on Yemen if they end attacks on US Navy. The deal makes no provision for defence of the Zionist state and is accepted by Ansarallah.

*Facing some of the most heavily armed forces in the world but somehow, it’s always the national liberation forces that must disarm. For the sake of peace, of course.*

The physical war against the Palestinians by the Zionist State was armed by a number of western imperialist states but also ideologically by the whole western media. In the face of real and ongoing genocide the WMM reported propaganda, repeated lies and framed its reports in the Zionists’ terms of reference – while courageous journalists reporting from the actual killing grounds were picked off by the IOF.

*The western imperialists promote the two-states solution (*sic) and a Palestine colony of Israel as a ‘Palestinian State’. This would be run by Zionist proxies such as the Palestinian Authority with its Fatah boss, Mahmoud Abbas, who recently publicly insulted the national resistance fighters of Hamas, calling them ‘sons of dogs’.

NO SHOW OF FAR-RIGHT AND FASCIST RALLY TO CLOSE DOWN DUBLIN SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN PUB

On May 26, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-Fascism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish RepublicanismLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Far from the declared aim to “close down this kip” in an online call for a rally against Peadar Brown’s pub in Dublin, not a single far-Right supporter of the call made even a token appearance at the appointed hour Saturday afternoon.

This was no huge surprise; these elements tend mostly to attack small groups of people or torch empty building and surely quickly came to the conclusion that neither of those things would they be facing in the case of Peadar Browne’s. No indeed. A full building of many people.

The on-line event poster for the far-Right rally was followed by a number of posts and comments vilifying the pub’s management for allegedly banning a customer over his racist remarks but went further to attack the pub’s history and general political ambience too.

Recently-elected fascist member of Dublin City Council Gavin Pepper had himself videoed outside the pub on Friday night after it was closed, issuing veiled threats.

*Closer view of section of the crowd last Saturday outside the front of the pub.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

Peadar Browne’s pub has built up a reputation over years as one of socialist Irish Republican outlook, with both external appearance in flags and mural along with the interior decorations unashamedly declaring the broad sympathies of both owners and clientele.

The venue has seen a number of events in keeping with that perspective held there, ranging from concerts to fund-raising events of various kinds, in addition to public and private meetings. The large mural of a Palestinian flag on the pub’s side also declares their internationalist sympathies.

*Section of last Saturday’s crowd outside Peadar Brown’s, this one at the side of the pub.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

For some time Saturday before the 3pm appointed for the rally, defenders were arriving, including Irish Republicans and Irish socialists of various organisations and none, Palestine supporters Irish and other, along with activists more specifically antifascist.

Soon both the inside and external areas of the pub were full, with extra banners and flags lining the external area facing the road. Occasionally the driver of a passing vehicle tooted its horn in solidarity, sometimes with extended clenched fist and encouraging roar from the passenger’s side.

*Section of last Saturday’s crowd outside Peadar Brown’s, viewed from the middle of the road outside.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

Near to the rally’s appointed hour it began to rain and continued for a while but the pub’s external area had been canopied over so few had to move – unless it were to use the toilet or refresh their glasses.

Conversations slowed on occasion as people checked their timepieces, looked outwards, shrugged and resumed talking. By 4pm most of those who hadn’t left decided they’d be staying, already in their evening weekend socialising venue, or at least for the first stage of the evening.

*Section of last Saturday’s crowd outside Peadar Brown’s, this one at the top side of the pub.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

In fairness, the absence of any uniformed Gardaí on the ground to protect the far-Right had been an indication that they were not expected to appear.

In Conclusion, drawing up The Balance:

The pub had one of its fullest Saturday afternoons and boosted its reputation among many who knew of it only vaguely, while online calls for a boycott were taken by many as recommendations for “a pub with no racists”. Fascists and racists in turn suffered a hit to their morale.

*Some of the defenders on Saturday at the lower side with the mural behind them.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

Socialists, communists, Irish Republicans and independent antifascists stood together in defence of a pub with an Irish Republican socialist ambience and strong pro-Palestine presence against a threat from far-Right and fascist elements.

Liberals, social democrats and former Republicans, usually prominent on anti-racist marches? Not so much.

End.

TO BE LIKE BONO OR KNEECAP?

On May 14, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Censorship & Witch-hunting, Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Song, ZionismLeave a comment

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh

NB: Edited by Rebel Breeze for formatting purposes

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

Kneecap, the Belfast Irish language rap group, have found themselves at the centre of what is an artificially contrived furore dreamt up by people with little sense of real moral outrage.

The basics of the story are well known. They finished off their act at the Coachella event projecting pro-Palestinian statements. Given the band’s history and well-known politics, it could hardly have come as a surprise. Perhaps it was more that the fans welcomed it that upset some.

They were denounced by the non-entity known as Sharon Osbourne, a reality star famous for being the wife of Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne and also the mother of another reality star, her daughter Kelly Osbourne.

Kelly to her credit did carve out a brief musical career on the back of her reality tv exposure.

Sharon as part of the wider Zionist attempt to silence all those who criticise the genocide called for their visas to be cancelled, which in effect happened following the decision by their promoter and sponsor to drop them.

She also called for them to be more like Bono. Kneecap responded with a humorously devastating comeback that they would rather be Rangers fans than emulate Bono.

Bono still has some credibility in certain parts, mainly where they haven’t a clue about the man’s actual politics and obviously amongst the clueless, witless, gutless glitterati like Sharon Osbourne. But what would it mean to be like Bono?

Is he actually some sort of reasonable counterweight to Kneecap?

Well, first of all, in relation to Palestine, Bono is a Zionist, so even before the genocide began, he, unlike them, was already on the wrong side of history. Not for the first time, mind you. Bono has a habit of cropping up where he is not wanted like an ugly cold sore (my apologies to the virus).

He has, as Harry Browne, the author of The Frontman: Bono in the name of power, pointed out dedicated a lifetime to the service of imperialism and was rewarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Genocide Joe.[1]

I am sure it will go well on his mantle piece alongside his KBE (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), for which he was fulsome in his praise of Her Majesty’s Ambassador, as he put it, and grinned like a cheshire cat during the ceremony.[2]

The claims made by Blair and others about Bono’s achievements were exaggerated, of course. But he is, if nothing, an equal opportunities imperialist and will get around to doing his bit for the others.

The idea that Kneecap would prostrate themselves before the British king is laughable and they wouldn’t be the first artists to reject one, were the Brits ever to mistakenly consider them for it.

The late black poet Benjamin Zephaniah was offered the lesser award of OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the same Tony Blair. He turned it down stating:

I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised…

Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire…

If they want to give me one of these empire things, why can’t they give me one for my work in animal rights? Why can’t they give me one for my struggle against racism? What about giving me one for all the letters I write to innocent people in prisons who have been framed? I may just consider accepting some kind of award for my services on behalf of the millions of people who have stood up against the war in Iraq. It’s such hard work – much harder than writing poems.[3]

He also referred to his brother’s death in police custody and to Lizzie II as Mrs Queen, not Her Majesty. A display of dignity.

He pointed out that those who accept such awards, the Queen’s Shilling, though he didn’t use that archaic military expression for those who enlist in the British armed forces to put down uppity types in the colonies, always sell out.

However, calling Bono a sell-out, presumes he was ever anything other than a fan of empire. He tied his mast to the pro-British politics of the Irish chattering classes in the 1980s.

His song Sunday Bloody Sunday was always introduced with the line This is not a rebel song, lest someone think Bono actually had something interesting to say.

The song is quite vacuous though clear in saying he “won’t join the battle cry,” i.e. denounce those who had massacred 14 people on the streets of Derry. The British army is not mentioned once in the song.

You wouldn’t know who had done what, but you know not to point the finger “Cause tonight we can be as one”. John Lennon on the other hand, shortly after the massacre did not hold back.

Is there any one among you
Dare to blame it on the kids?
Not a soldier boy was bleeding
When they nailed the coffin lids![4]

Bono couldn’t bring himself to condemn the British army for a televised massacre, so it comes as no surprise that he has little to say about a live-streamed genocide.

He hobknobbed with neoliberals such as Jeffrey Sachs, various presidents of the World Bank, promoted pharmaceutical companies in Africa and of course was on the side of Bush in the Iraq War, at least in practice and helped whitewash the reputations of many of those involved.

He hedged his bets a bit on Iraq, not wanting to seem too hawkish, saying the war was justified but the US should get UN backing for it. He then went on to endorse Clinton and Blair time and again. Jim Kerr from the Scottish band Simple Minds put it succinctly at the time.

How can Bono, having graced concert stages for over two decades, draped in the white flag of peace and screaming ‘No More War’ [sic] at the top of his lungs contemplate praising and back slapping Tony Blair? … I can’t believe that anyone could fail to identify that no matter what gesture Blair may make towards African debt relief, his slippery hands are currently dripping in the fresh warm blood of Iraqi men, women and children.[5]

Bono of course, could and did, and wined and dined with such hawks as Senator McCain. There were no depths to which he would not plummet, which brings us to Palestine.

Shortly after October 7th he endorsed the Zionist genocide by changing the lyrics of his song about Martin Luther King, Pride (In the name of love)[6]to “Early morning, Oct 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky… Stars of David, they took your life but they could not take your pride.”[7]

As part of the introduction to the reworked song he state “our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence… But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed.” Not at the Zionist occupiers was the answer. Roger Waters lambasted him for it.[8]

Not only that, he was criticised by Irish singer Mary Coughlan for his links to Israeli companies.[9] He did not fly out to Gaza as he had done in Ukraine, nor did he have much to say.

When he eventually did mention Gaza, he was always careful to lay the blame on Hamas for starting it all, ignoring history since the Nakba in 1948.

A good example of that is his piece in The Atlantic after receiving his Medal of Freedom from Genocide Joe.[10] An exercise in saying nothing, whilst attempting to sound profound, something Ireland’s most famous poisonous dwarf never pulls off.

Kneecap on the other hand have been clear from the word go about their support for the Palestinian cause. It didn’t take a genocide for them to take note. They have consistently been on the side of the oppressed, in this case the Palestinians, against the oppressor the Zionists.

So, Sharon Osbourne should probably stick to what she knows best, which is precious little.

As for Bono, as Harry Browne points out, perhaps nothing sums him up quite so succinctly as a piece of graffiti in Dublin that appeared following the scandal when they moved one of their companies to the Netherlands for tax purposes, “Bono is a poxbottle”.

We need more like Kneecap who stand with the oppressed, and a lot less of Bono and the likes who can’t condemn the powerful ever.

At best you can expect some “We are all guilty type” of fudge, which was the preferred slogan of the Irish trade union bureaucracy when the British or their proxies in the UVF or UDA ever did anything, coming as no surprise that they have also done next to nothing on Palestine other than issue the occasional banal statements.

I fully expect them to turn up with Bono somewhere to chastise Kneecap.

End.

NB: For more articles by Gearóid see https://gearoidloingsigh.substack.com

NOTES

[1] Rebel News (07/01/2025) This Song is not a Rebel Song. Harry Browne. https://rebelnews.ie/2025/01/07/bono-this-song-is-not-a-rebel-song/

[2] U2 (29/03/2007) A Knighthood for Bono. https://www.u2.com/news/title/a_knighthood_for_bono_2110/

[3] The Guardian (27/11/2023) ‘Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought’. Benjamin Zephaniah. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/27/poetry.monarchy

[4] See https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/de82dedc-5090-458f-9212-e894fa53ed21

[5] Browne, H. (2013) Bono The Frontman: In the name of power. London. Verso. Para 8.116

[6] See https://link.sbstck.com/redirect/9b7d1452-8d25-4992-8f18-9e29589b6ce4

[8] The Independent (21/02/2024) Roger Waters brands Bono ‘disgusting’ over Israel speech. Kevin E G Perry. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/roger-waters-bono-israel-gaza-b2498979.html

[9] The Sunday World (13/05/2024) Mary Coughlan ‘lost all respect’ for Bono over alleged links to Israeli companies. Eugene Masterson. https://www.sundayworld.com/showbiz/irish-showbiz/mary-coughlan-lost-all-respect-for-bono-over-alleged-links-to-israeli-companies/a2101784646.html

[10] The Atlantic (04/01/2025) The Gorgeous Unglamorous Work of Freedom. Bono. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/the-gorgeous-unglamorous-work-of-freedom/681212/

[7] See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6sD5Lnh4YY

[8] The Independent (21/02/2024) Roger Waters brands Bono ‘disgusting’ over Israel speech. Kevin E G Perry. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/roger-waters-bono-israel-gaza-b2498979.html

[9] The Sunday World (13/05/2024) Mary Coughlan ‘lost all respect’ for Bono over alleged links to Israeli companies. Eugene Masterson. https://www.sundayworld.com/showbiz/irish-showbiz/mary-coughlan-lost-all-respect-for-bono-over-alleged-links-to-israeli-companies/a2101784646.html

[10] The Atlantic (04/01/2025) The Gorgeous Unglamorous Work of Freedom. Bono. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/the-gorgeous-unglamorous-work-of-freedom/681212/

PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS’ DAY IN DUBLIN

On April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, History, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Palestine, peace processes, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

April 17^th is the annual Palestinian political Prisoners’ Day and it was marked in O’Connell Street, the main street of Dublin’s city centre, by an event with speeches, banners and chants organised by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Palestine national flags fluttered about the crowd being addressed by a number of speakers with occasional toots of solidarity from passing traffic – a common occurrence at Palestine solidarity events in most of Ireland.

*View of eastward of section of the crowd at the event* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

Dáithí Doolan was one of the speakers and though saying some progressive things about solidarity with Palestine and the terrible situation in which the occupiers have them, soon revealed the political poverty and lack of solidarity with resistance of his Sinn Féin party.

Doolan reminded his audience of when there were political prisoners in Ireland, as though this was no longer the case, presumably because the prisoners now are not of his party. Nor did he mention the current attempts to extradite Irish Republicans to British administrations.

The SF speaker went on to extol the South African process, perhaps not caring about the betrayal of the struggle and sacrifice of the masses there, the deepening grip of imperialism on the rich natural resources, the corruption and repression of the ANC regime and the massacre at Marikana.¹

If Doolan thought about it he must have hoped that his audience did not remember that the South African process had a twin, the Palestinian one at Oslo which sabotaged the Palestinian struggle and brought into being the corrupt Palestinian Authority², the Israeli proxy in the West Bank.

Sinn Féin has achieved a somewhat similar position in the Six Counties colony and has been working hard to reach a corresponding role in the Irish state. And why not, when it endorses the “Two State solution” giving the Palestinians 20% of their land under Zionist eyes and guns.

The very least, Doolan said, that the Irish Government could do to help the Palestinians, would be to enact the Occupied Territories Bill but he proposed nothing further, not even the ban on US military flights through Shannon Airport or on Israeli arms flights through Irish airspace.

Darragh Adelaide from the People Before Profit party spoke too about Palestine and solidarity but also about the Palestine refugees that have had to sleep in tents on Irish streets and the attacks on them both by the authorities and by fascists and other racists.

Palestinian prisoner conditions

A woman gave a detailed list of statistics relating to Palestinian political prisoners but also went through the tortures and terrible conditions in which they are kept. She concluded reminding her audience that each prisoner is a human being, a parent, a child, a sibling and not a number.

*View of the crowd southward from behind a speaker* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

In a year and a half, more than 15,800 Palestinians have been arrested, including 500 women, 1200 children, and thousands of detainees who were placed under arbitrary administrative detention. 64 Palestinians have died in prison since October 2024, including a child.³

The prison administration’s special units have carried out violent raids on prisoners’ cells, administering severe beatings, torture, and ill-treatment.⁴

Prisoners have suffered power and water cuts, and all of their belongings—including clothes, electrical appliances, and hygiene items—have been confiscated.⁵

They have been placed under complete isolation, family visits have been completely banned, and the International Committee of the Red Cross has been prevented from visiting them inside prisons.

Additionally, a policy of starvation has been implemented against thousands of prisoners, who are being provided with only two extremely poor-quality and quantity meals a day.⁶

The MC of the event led chants in which he called out Palestinian political prisoners! and the audience responded with Free them all! Similarly with Free the children prisoners — Free them all! and Free the women prisoners! — Free them all!

*Symbolising the Palestinian political prisoners* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

He also referred to the woman arrested outside the Irish Embassy in Berlin for speaking in Irish and, in defiance, led the audience in a chant in Irish expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people: Saoirse don Phalaistín! (Freedom for Palestine!)⁷

What was notable in its total absence from all the speeches was any call to step beyond the marches and similar measures which have been supported by thousands in Ireland over more than 18 months but which have not succeeded in moving the Government even to enforcing its formal neutrality.

This is replicated in most solidarity events across the state, leaving those few who take action to increase greater pressure on the ruling class to face the repression of the Irish State, as with 23 men and women in three different events over a four-day period in Dublin recently.⁸

Political prisoners from the armed resistance

The Joe McDonnell Ballad⁹ would have been most appropriately performed at this event, in particular the chorus line: You dare to call me a terrorist, while you look down your guns … But the IPSC would hardly endorse the singing of that song nor wish to be associated with it in public.

There were two large prisoners’ solidarity banners of the IPSC at this event but it is remarkable how rarely one sees them on the IPSC’s national marches. The problem with the prisoners for liberal organisations is that some of them, at least, have been armed fighters of the Resistance.

This, combined with ignorance perhaps, accounts for the comparatively low numbers at this event. However, it has to be said that known revolutionary organisations were also visibly absent.

*View south-westwards with the iconic GPO (General Post Office) building in the background.* (Photo sourced: *IPSC*)

Doolan’s party was a problem for liberals when many of the political prisoners here had been armed Irish Republican resistance fighters; it’s still a problem for them today — but also for Doolan and his party now that the current Irish political prisoners are no longer associated with them.

If solidarity does not embrace resistance then it’s charity, not solidarity. And if resistance is to be embraced then it should be so for all its expressions, artistic, cultural, mass mobilisations, strikes, boycotts … and armed. Including solidarity with those who, because of resistance, end up in jails.

Free them all!

End.

NOTES

1Culminating on 16^th August 2012 (while Mandela still lived) the police of the ANC Government carried out a massacre of over 40 striking miners over a period of three days. The massacre was to suppress a strike in a platinum mine of the Canadian Lonmin company, repressing also a breakaway union from theANC-allied National Union of Mineworkers. The massacre is widely believed to have been organised by Cyril Ramaphosa, then a millionaire and vice-President of the ANC Government and recent leader of the NUM, now President of South Africa.

2Which also beats and incarcerates Palestinians resisting the Occupation (exact figures are difficult to obtain) and has murdered some.

3 https://www.addameer.org/news/5549

4Ibid.

5Ibid.

6Ibid.

7This slogan has now become well known in Ireland in voice but also in writing, appearing on flags, banners and placards. It represents a partial success for those of us who have tried to insert a measure of the Irish language into Palestine solidarity, in the belief that it is important for the Irish language to be present in progressive movements.

8See https://rebelbreeze.com/2025/04/06/irish-state-ramps-up-repression/

9By Brian Warfield of the Wolfe Tones band in honour of Volunteer Joe McDonnell of the Provisional IRA who died on hunger strike in 1981; the song also names other hunger strike martyrs of the Provisionals Vols. Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, McCreesh but adds Vol. Patsy O’Hara of the Irish National Liberation Army. In total, seven of the Provisionals and three of INLA died on hunger strike in 1981.

USEFUL LINKS

IPSC:https://www.ipsc.ie

Adameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Organisation: https://www.addameer.org/

Adameer Statement on Prisoners’ Day: https://www.addameer.org/news/5549

RALLY AND MARCH AGAINST GARDA REPRESSION IN DUBLIN

On April 10, 2025April 11, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, NATO, Palestine, Police Violence, Political Analysis, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

Hundreds gathered Wednesday night near the rear entrance of Leinster House, home of the parliament of the Irish state, in a demonstration organised by Mothers Against Genocide to protest the police attacks on demonstrators of the previous week.

Background

Over four days the previous week the Gardaí, police force of the Irish State, had attacked demonstrators in a number of different locations in Dublin. On Monday the MAGS group at the front entrance of Leinster House was attacked as they neared the end of their overnight vigil there.

The women were calling for Government action to match the will of the Irish population by preventing military supplies sent to Israel through Irish airspace and airports, to end processing Israeli bonds through Irish banks and to institute sanctions against the Zionist Occupation.

*MAGS banner in Grafton Street later in the evening.* (Source: *Participant*)

Eleven women and three men were arrested and taken to different Garda stations where a number of women were strip-searched, including one in an apparent cavity search; three men were charged under the Public Order Act and women pressured to accept an official caution.

Two days later, at a protest organised by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Society of the Dublin City University against the official opening visit of the Taoiseach (‘Prime Minister’) to a University building, Gardaí arrested a student for knocking on the window of the building.

On Friday, Gardaí attacked six protesters engaged in a protest at the front entrance to the Belgian Embassy in Dublin, where NATO is represented. The Anti-Imperialist Action protest was against the Irish elite’s attempt to slide the State into membership of the military alliance.

Those protesters were pepper-sprayed into their eyes, forced to the ground, handcuffed and treated so violently that the ankle of one man was broken; the breast of one woman was also grabbed. Two more picketing outside were also arrested, all again distributed around different police stations.

On public order charges, six also on trespass, all eight were brought to a special late court sitting that early evening where a crowd of supporters gathered.

All were bailed on a range of bizarre bail conditions including banned from protesting at Government buildings and a requirement to give 12 hours notice to the Gardaí with details before attending an embassy protest.

Wednesday night’s Leinster House protest

The mood of the crowd of over 500 last night in Merrion Street was militant, being addressed by a woman on behalf of the Mothers group. The crowd was joined by a group flying Starry Plough¹ and Palestinian flags, bearing a banner of the AIA and a hand-painted one against NATO.

*View of the rally in Merrion Street before the march.* (Source: *AIA*)

The speaker introduced Aileen Malone, mother of Dara Quigley, a well-known blogger some years ago who appeared naked in public while suffering a mental ill health episode. One of the Gardaí dealing with the incident took a video of her and circulated it widely on social media.

Following that public shaming, Dara had taken her own life. Her mother pointed out that the offending Garda, instead of being dismissed, had been allowed to resign and keep his pension. She also condemned the Garda treatment of the women while extolling their courage in resistance.

Another speaker, introduced as representing Jews for Palestine Ireland spoke against the Irish State adopting the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, the function of which, he stated is to protect the state of Israel against any criticism including regarding its genocide against Palestinians.²

He regretted the diversion from Palestine solidarity entailed in this focus, pointing out that genuine anti-Semitism is to be found among the far-Right while anti-racists and anti-fascists in Palestine solidarity, far from being anti-Semitic are on the contrary active against that variant of racism.

*One of the banners at the rally in Merrion Street*. (Source: *Participant*)

A woman from Mothers Against Genocide in Belfast spoke about the history of Irish resistance to colonialism and solidarity with Palestine which had no relation to the Irish Government, vehemently insisting also that being anti-genocide and for human rights is far from anti-Semitism.

Ruth Coppinger, Socialist Party TD, had signalled she wished to speak and was invited to so. She commented on Wednesday’s session in Leinster House when the Garda attack was defended by Mícheál Martin in respect of the right of access to Leinster House.³

A member of the Mothers in Dublin read a solidarity poem she had written and introduced the Resistance Choir, who sang Gonna Let No-one Turn Me Around, a lively song from the US Civil Rights⁴ movement of the 1960s, followed by slower lament about the Zionist slaughter in Gaza.

The energy in the crowd was dissipating by this point, almost an hour having elapsed and at last the direction to march was given. But where to? It was unclear. Earlier indications had been that one of the Garda stations would be the destination but now the Dept. of Justice was being mentioned.

The slogans shouted were those usually heard at Palestine solidarity events, with calls supporting the Intifada increasingly popular, and even one to Globalise the Intifada! US Warplanes out of Shannon! was another and NATO out of Ireland! was also heard.

Very appropriately also: One, we are the people! Two, We won’t be silenced! Three, Stop the bombing now, now, now, now!

*Some banners during the march, seen here on the east side of Stephens Green.* (Source: *AIA*)

The march proceeded, chanting, up Merrion Street, then into Merrion Row, turning left at the Huguenot Cemetery, then along the east side of Stephen’s Green, stopping briefly at the Dept. of Foreign Affairs building, then along the south side to the Dept. of Justice building.

But soon it was on the march again, perhaps heading for the Kevin Street Garda station … But no, along the west side of the Green now, past the Unitarian church where Edward Fitzgerald was married to his French revolutionary wife and then on again down through Grafton Street.

A meeting here was addressed mainly by one speaker, for some reason the crowd repeating his sentences. Not one speaker had yet referred to the attack on the anti-NATO protesters on Friday, much less their bizarre and repressive bail conditions. But perhaps we were heading for the GPO?

No, left and into Dawson Street, up to the Green again, then down Kildare Street to the front of Leinster House. There at last the crowd was addressed on behalf of the Anti-Imperialist Action group regarding the Garda attack on the anti-NATO protesters at the Belgian Embassy.

His talk was interrupted by cries of ‘Shame’ directed at the Gardaí and State. The speaker continued, referencing the resistance history of Irish Republicans and concluded by calling for unity of the Left against repression of any aspect of the Resistance, a call vigorously applauded.

To conclude the evening’s events a display concerning victims of Garda violence was presented, this including the case of Terence Wheelock, a working-class youth who died in Store Street Garda Station as a result of their violence, a crime then covered up by the State.

In Retrospect

It was important and a good act of resistance to organise an emergency protest⁵ this week and the eventual attendance of around 700 at such short notice was excellent. It is essential to meet repression of resistance with more resistance.

It was noticeable how low the numbers of Gardaí were and although uniformed and a number of plainclothes Special Detective Unit members followed the marchers, at no point did they attempt to stop the marchers or even to line up in numbers to protect the Government offices.

Most of the speakers at the commencing, intermediate and final rallies were clear that the Irish State had made a conscious decision to crack down on solidarity actions the previous week, using physical and sexual violence against activists, and of the need to continue solidarity and resistance.

The commencing rally was however too long and dissipated some of the energy. The lament as the last song just before that march, though no doubt appropriate in some contexts, continued that dissipation.

Coppinger, as a leading member of the Socialist Party was inappropriate as a speaker at the event. The party in the past has opposed boycotts against Israel and South Africa on the spurious grounds that it harms the oppressed people and works against solidarity between progressive settlers.

The Socialist Party also supports the Two-State proposal which would concede 80% of Palestine to the Zionist settlers. Coppinger personally and her party have also publicly condemned the Palestinian Resistance breakout operation of 7^th October 2023.

The marching seemingly for ever, at times to symbolic but empty Government buildings was not helpful and most of the people already detest the Government. A good destination would have been at least one of the Garda stations where activists had been held the previous week.

Marching from and to an essentially closed Leinster House and Government buildings runs the risk of replicating the routine marches every month or so of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The value of the Mothers has been their departure from that increasingly sterile practice and continuing in that vein would be a useful contribution to the solidarity movement and resistance in general.

Unity against repression is a historically-proven necessity and, as called for at the final rally last night, increasing unity between newer and longer-lived elements of the Resistance is also needed.

End.

*An excellent riposte in the poster slogan/ meeting title. The design is based on the poster against strip-searching Republican women in the 1970s, design by Oisín Breatnach.* (Source: *Mid-Ulster IPSC*)

Footnotes

Sources and further information

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/02/05/ireland-is-signing-up-to-a-definition-of-anti-semitism-that-has-been-used-against-irish-politicians/

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wexford/wexford-district/demonstration-at-wexford-garda-station-over-alleged-strip-searching-of-mothers-against-genocide-protestors-in-dublin/

1Flag of the Irish Citizen Army, first produced in 1914, the design is based on the Ursa Mayor constellation, including a plough in gold colour, with a sword instead of the ploughshare, all on a green background. A later version of the Republican Congress represents only the stars of the constellation in white on a blue background. The green and gold version was the one flown by the AIA.

2 https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025/02/05/ireland-is-signing-up-to-a-definition-of-anti-semitism-that-has-been-used-against-irish-politicians/

3This was a spurious defence by the Taoiseach: a) It was before 7am and the Mothers were leaving at 7.30am; b) the pedestrian entrance was not blocked; c) the gates at the rear of the building were not blocked.

4But, like many of those songs, based on an earlier Christian song.

5There had also been an emergency protest outside Leinster House on last week’s Wednesday morning, Kildare Street being blocked for an hour without Garda action.

IRISH STATE RAMPS UP REPRESSION

On April 6, 2025April 7, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, NATO, Palestine, Police Violence, Political Analysis2 Comments

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

In the space of four days, Dublin has seen 23 activists in peaceful protests arrested and assaulted by Gardaí as the activists protested the slide of the Irish Gombeen¹ ruling class towards NATO and their complicity in the Genocide in Palestine.

Mothers’ Day protest against genocide – 14 arrests

The Mothers Against Genocide group organised a vigil for Sunday night of Mothers’ Day outside Leinster House, seat of the Irish parliament and Government. The intention was to hold the event that evening but for some to remain there overnight, leaving at 7.30am.

*At the gates of Leinster House, Kildare Street entrance.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Plasticised printed photos of murdered Palestinian children were laid out on the ground with children’s shoes, toys etc spread around symbolically against the main gates with battery-powered ‘candles’ lit among them. Nearby a refreshment stall was set up.

By the advertised starting time of 7pm many had arrived and more kept coming, a very large crowd by nearly 8pm when there were some speeches, a few songs and a poem performed by different people, then a projection was being arranged after 9pm at which point I left.

*Crowd at the event as dusk falls, approximately 8pm.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The event was dignified, without even chanting. Policing was very sparse and low-key.

Despite the organisers’ commitment to leave at 7.30am and apparent agreement from the Gardaí present not to interfere with that arrangement, at around 6.00am more Gardaí² arrived and demanded the clearing of the gates by removal of the icons to the murdered children.

In protest, some of the participants lined themselves up in front of the gates. The Gardaí approached the women, trampling over the photos and symbolic children’s items and began to remove the women, some of them quite violently, resulting in their arrests and those of three men also.

*Banner of the organisers at Leinster House wall, Kildare Street.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The 14 arrested were taken to different Garda stations where some women were strip-searched, an invasive psychological weapon used extensively by the British Occupation against Irish Republican women during the 30 Years War and still used by them against male Irish Republican prisoners.

All the women were obliged to choose right there and then between accepting a caution under the Public Order Act or to be charged and, under pressure, the women all seem to have been cautioned.

The three men were charged under the Public Order Act and will be obliged to attend the court to be processed. On Tuesday in Leinster House a number of TDs (elected parliamentary representatives) protested the treatment of the arrested. The Gardaí denied having carried out strip-searching.³

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties issued a brief statement to their network in response to the events, outlining the right to protest according to the Irish State’s Constitution:

We’ve heard from a lot of people who are worried by the Garda response this week to a peaceful vigil by Mothers Against Genocide. The fallout from this response along with potential new policing and public order laws and with the prospect of increased surveillance through facial recognition technology, risk undermining this fundamental democratic freedom. Today, as threats grow to restrict protest rights, defending this fundamental democratic freedom is crucial.

Protest isn’t the problem – it’s the solution:

You can protest – The Irish Constitution and European law protect peaceful assembly
You can film – Documenting interactions with Gardaí is allowed
You can’t be moved on without reason – Gardaí must give you a reason when asking you to move

The Irish Constitution guarantees your right to freedom of assembly, subject to public order. However, recent commitments in the Programme for Government have raised alarm.We continue to highlight how measures – including the expansion of police powers, banning face coverings at protest and the introduction of facial recognition technology into Irish policing – endanger our rights and freedoms.

*The display outside the gates of Leinster House, Kildare Street entrance.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

On Wednesday morning a protest, composed mostly but not completely of women, at the treatment of people on Monday morning blocked the street outside Leinster House for a period of at least an hour⁴ without action by the Gardaí.

Protest at complicity of Irish Government in Dublin City University – another arrest

On Thursday evening Tánaiste (equiv. ‘Prime Minister’) Mícheál Martin’s visit to publicly open a building at the Dublin University Campus, accompanied by a heavy Garda presence was met with a protest organised by the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign branch of the University.

One of the students in the protest was arrested apparently for knocking on the window to convey the anger outside to those inside, Gardaí claiming at the time that he was damaging the window. The activist was released on bail amidst a crowd gathering in his support at the Garda station.⁵

Protest against NATO in the Irish State – 8 arrests

On Friday, a protest against attempts to push Ireland into joining the NATO military alliance was held at the latter’s representative facility in Dublin, the Belgian Embassy. Gardaí were very quick to respond and indeed had accosted and assaulted two of the participants a little earlier.

*Protesters and Gardai in doorway of Belgian Embassy just before the attack of the latter on the former.* (Photo source: *Anti-Imperialist Action*)

Six protesters lined up against the Embassy entrance at the Anti-Imperialist Action event were pepper-sprayed into their eyes and brutally assaulted, as were another two outside. As with those arrested on Monday morning, they were held in three different police stations in the city.

One of protesters, face down on the ground with his arms handcuffed behind his back, had his legs forced up behind, breaking his ankle.

(Photo source: *Anti-Imperialist Action*)

Supporters arrived to picket the police stations. After a few hours the arrested were taken to court, where supporters congregated also as the detained were processed for a late sitting of a judge. The charges were of criminal trespass or Public Order Act violation, both together for some.

In court they had legal representation and all were bailed in their own recognisance of 500 euro, which seemed fairly routine but the bail conditions were anything but. They were required to give 12 or 24 hours’ notice to the Gardaí of attending an embassy protest, supplying the details of the event!

The conditions for some included a ban on attending any state’s embassy in Dublin or demonstrating at any Irish Government building, while another is required to give notice – also of 12 hours — if crossing into the State from the Six Counties.

Facing a prospect of being locked up for the weekend otherwise, they did not decline the conditions for the moment and were released to meet a crowd of supporters outside the court in the early evening. As they lined up for a photo, all sang part of the Irish language Gráinne Mhaol song by Patrick Pearse.

*The arrested and supporters outside the court after the former were released on bail.* (Photo: *D. Breatnach*)

Repression of Palestine solidarity throughout the Western World

Throughout the Western world the response to the genocide being carried out in Gaza has had similar features: The complicity of the ruling classes, solidarity with the Palestinians of sections of the masses and the consequent repression by the ruling elites.

Within the territory of the Irish State the response of the masses has been marked in active solidarity with and public sympathy for the Palestinians, with little repressive action by the Irish State despite the proven collusion of the Irish ruling class.

The indications from this week are that the latter situation is changing and repression is being ramped up. This in turn indicates that the neo-colonial Irish ruling class feels threatened by action in Palestinian solidarity, other than routine marches through Dublin every month or so.

It is removing the liberal gloves and revealing the underlying sharp claws of a class that gained a state created in collusion with the British occupation to divide the country and to repress and control the insurrectionary forces upon the backs of which that neo-colonial class rode to power.

During the Civil War,⁶ the Irish state executed many more revolutionary fighters than had the British during the War of Independence⁷ and has executed a number since. Huge numbers have been imprisoned over years and it has colluded in covering for the bombers of its own capital city.

Where there is oppression, history teaches us, there will also arise resistance but that in turn usually results in more repression. Resistance rises to meet that repression and the movement must organise to educate, organise and unite that resistance, going forward until the masses achieve victory.

End.

FOOTNOTES

SOURCES & FURTHER INFORMATION

Press: https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2025/04/01/women-protesting-outside-leinster-house-strip-searched-one-subjected-to-cavity-search/

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gardai-deny-woman-was-cavity-searched-after-leinster-house-gaza-protest/a711142261.html

DCU University Times: https://universitytimes.ie/2025/04/dcu-student-arrested-during-campus-protest-against-taoiseach-micheal-martin/

Mothers Against Genocide: https://www.instagram.com/mothersagainstgenocide

AIA https://anti-imperialist-action-ireland.com/blog/2025/04/06/republican-anti-nato-protest-violently-attacked-by-free-state-in-dublin/

1A term somewhat equivalent to ‘carpetbagger’ describing opportunists amassing wealth through taking advantage of people’s misfortunes. Its origins are in the Irish language Gaimbín, applied to such Irish capitalist financiers during and in the wake of the Great Hunger of the mid-19th Century, now used to describe the neo-colonial capitalist Irish bourgeoisie.

2 The (mostly) unarmed police force of the Gombeen Irish ruling class.

3 https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2025/04/01/women-protesting-outside-leinster-house-strip-searched-one-subjected-to-cavity-search/

4Though underplayed in the report by the Irish Independent, which also sought to bolster Gardaí denial of strip-searching: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gardai-deny-woman-was-cavity-searched-after-leinster-house-gaza-protest/a711142261.html

5 https://universitytimes.ie/2025/04/dcu-student-arrested-during-campus-protest-against-taoiseach-micheal-martin/

61922-1923

71919-1921

PACKED PICKET PROTESTS IRISH GOVERNMENT MILITARY ALLIANCE AGENDA

On March 27, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Mass Media Criticism, Song, Song in Struggle, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 7 mins.)

A packed picket yesterday evening protested plans of the Irish Government to sidestep the “Triple Lock” in the Irish State’s Constitutionin order to proceed to committing the State’s armed forces to a western imperialist military alliance.

Contrary to the belief of many, the Irish State is not constitutionally bound to neutrality but there is a constitutional defence against a Government making an executive decision to send its armed forces into a foreign conflict and it is this that is known as the “Triple Lock”.¹

As things stand at present, in order to send more than 12 Irish armed forces on a military mission abroad (e.g. as peacekeepers), the conflict response would need to be approved

not only by the Irish Government but
also by the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament)
and by the United Nations.

However legislation of the Cabinet is being drafted to change the number from 12 to 50 which many see as the thin edge of a wedge to gradually widen the gap through which the Armed Forces can be employed in conflicts abroad alongside imperialist forces of NATO or the EU.

I joined the protest yesterday evening for a little over an hour. Most of the participants were packed behind banners on the southern side of the main gates of Leinster House so that photos don’t perhaps give a true impression of the numbers.

The main and very long banner bore the slogan We serve neither King nor Kaiser, recalling the words on a banner displayed on the Irish Transport and General Workers’ HQ, Liberty Hall, in 1914². More problematic were the United Nation flags waved by a few, some also wearing blue berets.³

In addition there were a number of Palestinian flags and, indeed, the politicisation and drive to activity of the Palestine solidarity movement does seem to be having a spill over into other issues in Ireland. Surprising perhaps was the number of flags of the Social Democrats party.

Another banner called for “Peace keepers, not military groups”. “Peace-keeping” in UN deployment can often mean stabilising the imperialist status quo in regions and the inaction of the UN leadership in response to the genocide in Palestine by some of its members has been shocking.

On the northern side of the gates there were two protesters in hospital scrubs, displaying a Palestine national flag and a large placard bearing the image of Dr. Abu Safiya, Director of Kamala Adwan Hospital in Gaza who was taken from there on 27 and January and disappeared for a time.

Dr. Abu Safiya was later traced to the notorious Sde Teiman Detention Centre in Israeli custody, then Ofer Prison where his lawyer finally gained access to him and reported recently that the Doctor has a number of broken ribs and was being refused treatment for his heart condition.⁴

On 25^th March Dr. Abu Safiya’s sentence of six months administrative detention, effectively internment without trial, was confirmed by an Israeli Court on the basis of alleged documentation that, as is the rule in such cases, neither Dr. Abu Safiy nor his lawyer were permitted to see.⁵

On 25^th October Dr. Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son Ibrahim was killed by an Israeli drone strike on the hospital’s entrance.

One can only imagine the furore to which such a case would give rise if the detaining authority were one of which the Western Powers did not approve: A Doctor? Head of a Hospital arrested? Broke his ribs? Sent him to jail without a trial or allowed to see the evidence? Murdered his son?!

*Vigil in hospital scrubs presumably for Dr. Abu Safiya’s safety and release. Also numbers of Gardaí in response to the main demonstration.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

No doubt many who would have joined the health workers in solidarity protest were in the other group protesting an attempt to have the Irish state join imperialist war ventures.

JOINING NATO

The crowd were kept lively with songs, speeches and a series of caller-and-response chants of which I can only recall the following:

Caller: From Letterkenny to Killarney —
Crowd: We don’t want your EU army!
Caller: From Dublin, Cork or Donegal —
Crowd: No to NATO, No to War!

Caller: You can’t fool us with your lies —
Crowd: We won’t send our kids to die!

TD⁶ Paul Murphy of the People Before Profit – Solidarity party addressed the crowd at one point. Among the songs performed by Jimi Cullen were You Fascists Bound to Lose and his own We Are All Palestinians and I sang Pearse’s verses of Gráinne Mhaol, the crowd joining the chorus.

*Jimi Cullen performing his We Are All Palestinians; in the background Fae Clarke who also sang.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The Government, some other politicians and the media have for some time been building up a propaganda picture depicting Ireland as vulnerable to invasion by the Russian Federation and this has intensified with the USA’s Trump Administration’s comments about its contribution to NATO.

Even the blowing up of the Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany⁷ – clearly an action that most benefited the USA, which also had the most opportunity and means to achieve — was used by the media to whip up fears of Russian (!) attacks on subsea cables to and from Ireland.

The war in the Ukraine was also used not only to drum up support for the US/NATO proxy Kyiv regime but to whip up fear of the Russian Federation and to suggest that rather than defending itself against US/NATO encirclement, the aim was to gradually invade all of western Europe.

The presence of a Russian Trawler in the Irish sea was also used in this regard with the assumption that it was spying on Ireland. If indeed spying, why could it not have been on the UK? Anyway, we are being intensely spied upon daily by at least the UK and USA as it is.

The irony of seeking to join the Irish State with NATO, of which the UK is a prominent member, seems to have escaped the intelligence of the Irish elite: a state which has been at war with the Irish people for 800 years and is currently in armed occupation of one-sixth of its territory.

The only Starry Plough flag I observed, here held by myself. ((Photo taken by a participant)

Indeed it may occasionally occur to some that Ireland could easily be thought of as Ironyland as on-line Irish-based media The Ditch not long ago revealed that the Irish Government secretly agreed to have the UK’s Royal Air Force patrol Irish skies for the State’s protection.

The Government refused to confirm or deny this even to an FOI request by a Senator Craughwell, who sought and was granted leave on 18 March to challenge that refusal in the High Court, despite an Irish Government defence that boiled down to: We don’t have to tell if we don’t want to.

More will come to light on this as time goes on and perhaps also about another Ditch revelation, i.e about arms for the genocidal Zionist state being flown through Irish airspace. And of course there is the open secret scandal of US military flights being refuelled at Shannon International Airport.

*Another view of a section of the protest showing how closely they were packed.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

EU INSTEAD OF NATO?

The softer option to NATO might seem to join some European joint military organisation but the EU is dominated by imperialist states such as Germany — which is second supplier in quantity of arms to ‘Israeli’ Zionism’s genocide in Palestine — and France has colonies in parts of the world.

In addition, France, Spain, Italy and the UK contain other conquered nations which have at various times agitated for greater or total independence and it is standard practice since Imperial Roman times to send troops from different areas to quell unrest in regions.

Irish troops in an EU joint force could be sent to put down uprisings in Catalonia, the Basque Country or Sardinia, while Spanish, French or Italian troops might be deployed on our streets in protests upon which Irish soldiers might be reluctant to fire.

Or all could be happily deployed together against the oppressed people of the Middle East, Africa or Asia, in all of which most EU states, if not all, have economic, political and strategic stakes.

This struggle against the incorporation of the Irish State into western imperialist armed forces has been going on for years, alternating between greater and lesser periods of intensity but it may that for reasons in the international arena it is once again entering an intense phase.

At last week’s Wednesday evening’s protest there were less than 20 participating throughout; last night there were a couple of hundred present, some at quite short notice. The organisers announced tthat they intend these protests to take place daily for the near future.

End.

*View northward close along the protest.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

FOOTNOTES

FURTHER INFORMATION

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2025/0305/1500465-triple-lock/

https://www.thejournal.ie/state-loses-bid-to-block-senators-case-over-secret-air-policing-deal-with-royal-air-force-6652574-Mar2025/

1Article 29, section 4, subsection 9° of the Irish constitution:

The State shall not adopt a decision taken by the European Council to establish a common defence pursuant to Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union where that common defence would include the State.

While Article 29.4.9° does not explicitly mention a referendum, the constitutional framework as a whole ensures that the government cannot join a common defence system without the consent of the Irish people, as expressed through a referendum.

This was originally inserted by the 2002 amendment ratifying the Treaty of Nice, updated by the 2009 amendment ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon. An earlier bill intended to ratify the Treaty of Nice did not include a common defence opt-out, and was rejected in the first Nice referendum, in 2001. (Wikipedia)

2The Irish Citizen Army was photographed in 1914 drawn up in front of Liberty Hall beneath the banner reading: We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland.

3The United Nations is a profoundly undemocratic and imperialist-dominated institution. Its only enforceable decisions are those made by five Permanent Members of the Security Council: the UK, France, United States, Russian Federation and China, each of which can nullify a decision by use of its veto. Its failure to act to prevent the genocide in Palestine, in which two of its members, the UK and USA are directly assisting, has been a disappointment to many.

4On 11 February 2025, Abu Safiya was allowed to meet his lawyer in Ofer Prison, located in the occupied West Bank. During their meeting, he reported being subjected to various forms of torture and abuse, including being forcibly stripped, tightly shackled, and forced to sit on sharp gravel for hours. He also endured violent physical assaults, such as beatings with batons and electric shock sticks. Abu Safiya described being held in solitary confinement for 25 days, during which he was subjected to nearly constant interrogation for 10 days. Despite multiple requests for medical care, Israeli authorities denied him treatment for his heart condition.[12][13]

5 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250326-israeli-court-upholds-6-month-detention-of-dr-abu-safiya/

6Teachta Dála, elected public representative to the Irish Parliament.

726 September 2022.