Category: Political Prisoners

MASS RESISTANCE PREVENTS SECTARIAN DOMINATION MARCH IN BRITISH COLONY

On By rebelbreezeIn Anti-Fascism, British imperialism, Current Event Report, Ireland, Political Prisoners, Popular Resistance, Religious Sectarianism, Spanish Civil WarLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Thousands answered the call to prevent a resumption of an annual Orange Order march through the Garvaghy Road, which runs through a nationalist area of West Belfast, scheduled for 27 September and authorised by the Parades Commission.


The Orange Order takes its colour and sectarianism from the anti-republican Dutch royalty of William of Orange; the Order was founded in 1795 in order to disrupt and break the new patriotic unity between the descendants of the settlers and indigenous Irish forged by the Society of United Irishmen.

For many years this march of colonial settler domination by the sectarian Orange Order was escorted through the Garvaghy Road by the colonial and sectarian police force, formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary, more latterly renamed as the Police Service of Northern Ireland (sic).

Garvaghy Road resistance to Orange Order march through their area October 2026 (Photo sourced: Internet)

It also led to the 2001 six month siege by Loyalists of the Holy Cross Catholic primary school with children and their accompanying parents jeered, threatened and shouted at while also being bombarded with bottles of urine and even packets containing excreta.

All with the Loyalists protected by the colonial police force. The sectarian atmosphere also led to 21 Loyalist murders including the death by firebombing of three Quinn children. All of that history was recounted as reasons why the Orange march should not go ahead.

But Brendán Mac Cionnaith, chairperson of Garvaghy Residents’ Association, recollected another historical connection. On 4th October 1936, he stated, another unwelcome march of bigots through an area was being planned and resisted, but on that occasion, in the East End of London, then an area of high Jewish occupancy, the target of the fascist anti-Jewish Blackshirts.

That was the nickname of the British Union of Fascists, led by Sir Oswald Moseley. Local socialist, communists, anarchists and the Jewish community mobilised to prevent the march and a detachment of Irish from nearby Wapping arrived to support them.

Seven hundred police, including all those mounted of London spearheaded the fascist march and attacked the resistance, eventually forcing their way through the first barricade but failing to overcome the second. The Battle of Cable Street was a historic victory for the antifascists.

One of the cries taken up that day was No Pasarán (They Shall Not Pass), echoing that of the then ongoing defence of Madrid, where antifascists from European states, including Ireland and the UK, prevented the initial fascist military coup and assault on Madrid.

The call was repeated in words and fact on the Garvaghy Road. As people mobilised to block the road, others mobilised to provide the resistance with shelter from the weather and with hot drinks and live music, while shops remained open past their normal hours to serve customers.

An early view of the protest outside the British Embassy 26 September. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

A broad protest in solidarity with Garvaghy Road resistance took place outside the British Embassy in Dublin’s Ballsbridge. Although called by the Éirigí socialist republican party, the picket was supported by a number of Republican and socialist organisations and individuals.

A legal application to overturn the decision of the Parades Commission was made to the High Court in Belfast but it rejected the application. However, its decision was moot since by that time Secretary of State Chris Bryant had banned the Orange Order march.

WHY NOW?

Why now, after an absence of 28 years, did the sectarian Orange Order wish to march through the Garvaghy Road? That was a question asked by many. Some have pointed to unionist apprehension as their population figures decline and a perception that they are losing their dominance.

That may be the Orange Order’s motivation but does not explain the authorisation by the Parades Commission. It is inconceivable that the latter’s approval came without previous discussion with His Majesty’s governor of the colony,, Secretary of State for Northern (sic) Ireland.


An later view from inside the protest outside the British Embassy 26 September. (Photo: D.Breatnach)

And yet it was ‘Sir’ Bryant himself who eventually banned the sectarian and provocative march. It seems likely that the British colonial rulers either suggested the march or decided on permitting the Loyalist provocation in order to test the mettle of the nationalist community’s resistance.

The colonial repression will now return to its normality with stop-and-search harassment of Republican activists and their families and recruitment of informers and agents, from which to proceed to arrests and jail through judicial decisions of the no-jury Diplock Courts.

However, nationalist communal resistance in Belfast and across the colony has been strengthened by the successful mobilisation, stand and victory and its lesson in message is percolating through the rest of Ireland.

End.

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ABOUT THE 1981 IRISH HUNGER STRIKES

On By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Cultural Comment, History, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Republicanism, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: mins.)

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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IRISH STATE REPRESENTATIVES DECLINE TO CONDEMN SLAVERY

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, History, Human Rights, Imperialism, Ireland, Political PrisonersLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

On 25th March 2026 the Irish State’s UN representative declined to vote in favour of the UN Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity.1

The voting patterns reveal much about the world and the position within it that is occupied by the Irish state. The total voting membership present was 193, out of which 123 voted YES, i.e. in favour of the resolution. But where was the Irish State? It abstained, along with 51 other states.2

The Western Powers, its chief the United States and including Australia, Canada and all western Europe, including of course all EU states, abstained.

But most of the eastern European states also abstained: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Voting YES in Eastern Europe were Azerbaijan, Belarus and the Russian Federation,

In Africa, including North Africa, all states voted YES for the motion.

In East Asia, China, Mongolia, North Korea and South Korea voted YES but Japan followed the Western Powers in abstaining (Taiwan is not a UN member state).

In S.E. Asia only Cambodia abstained, the rest of the states in the region voting YES.

In Central Asia, all UN member states voted YES.

In Western Asia (previously termed ‘the Middle East’), only Oman abstained, all other states in the region voting YES, i.e. in favour of the resolution.

In the Western Pacific only Palau and in the Southern Pacific, only Fiji abstained (along with Australia and New Zealand, as noted earlier, as medium powers within the Western Bloc).

In Latin America, only Paraguay abstained and as we’ll see, Argentina voted No to the motion. All other Latin American countries vote in favour.

Yes, Argentina actually voted against the motion, one of only three states voting NO, the other two being the United States and Israel.

The Irish state’s excuse for their abstention included3 “ … concerns regarding certain legal references and assertions that are either inaccurate or inconsistent with international law.”

While the Minister’s response seems to indicate concern over terminology and legality, the Irish representative’s abstention coincided with the whole of the EU, as the Minister indicated but also with most European states and with the Western Powers.

Or in line with the ‘Global North’, in other words. And against the votes of the overwhelming majority of the states of the ‘Global South’. Ireland is geographically located in Western Europe but as a neo-colony (and direct colony in the Six Counties), Ireland belongs much more to the Global South.

In declining to join the vote for the Declaration, the representatives of the Irish State not only aligned themselves with the Western Powers and took a shameful stand in modern times but also went against the history of the Irish people and even of the Irish bourgeoisie itself.

In one of the two recorded writings of 5C St. Patrick, he wrote fiercely denouncing Coroticus, the British Celtic leader who was raiding Ireland and taking slaves.4

Cromwell in 1649 after his sack of Drogheda had Irish men and women sent as slaves to English colonies in Virginia and Barbados.

Yes, I say SLAVES. Although later Irish people were transported to the British colonies as contracted indentured servants, bound to their master for up to 10 years, the notion that Cromwell managed some kind of servant recruiting service among surviving captives in 1649 is ludicrous.5

Irish patriotic songs are full of hostile references to symbolic slavery, for example The Soldiers’ Song: No more our ancient sire land/ Shall shelter the despot or the slave and Who Fears to Speak of ‘98: He’s all a knave or half a slave/ Who slights his country thus …

Many Irish Republicans of the late 18th Century including the United Irishmen abhorred slavery and boycotted sugar because it was harvested by slave labour from sugar cane on colonial plantations.

Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), better known for campaigning for an end to the anti-Catholic laws of the English occupation, was nevertheless a tireless campaigner against chattel slavery. Escaped slave and campaigner Frederick Douglass recorded hearing him mentioned by Irish labourers in the US.

Douglas came to Ireland to escape slave-catchers, staying from 31 August 1845 to January 1846, being welcomed into upper class private houses across Ireland and to address meetings and congregations. In Dublin, Douglass attended a Repeal Association meeting to hear O’Connell speak.

Frederick Douglass (Photo sourced: Internet)

At the meeting at Conciliation Hall on September 29, 1845, learning that the famous abolitionist was in the crowd, O’Connell invited Douglass to join him on stage and to address the audience, which experience made a deep impression upon Douglass’ life.

Although Irish migrants enlisted in the US Army and fought in wars of conquest, in the US-Mexican War (1846-1848) a significant number had deserted to form the St. Patrick’s Battalion and fought on the Mexican side against the USA.

Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829 while many states in the US still upheld it, including Texas which the US had conquered earlier from Mexico.

The Young Irelanders received the Irish Tricolour from women activists of the 1848 French revolution in Paris. They supported the Second French Republic and its Abolition of slavery.

Although John Mitchell, one of the Young Irelanders’ leaders, espoused the Confederacy other Young Ireland leaders supported the Union in the American Civil War (1861-1865), including Thomas Meagher as Captain in the 69th New York Militia, later as Brigadier-General in the Union Army.

Thomas Francis Meagher as Union Army officer and Governor of Montana.
(Photo sourced: Internet)

The vast majority of Irish young males who survived emigration to the US from 1845 to 1866 fought in the Union Army in the American Civil War, which is to say on the anti-slavery side. The Fenians in the USA too, as an organisation, mostly fought on the Union side.

The Irish capitalist bourgeoisie, now the neo-colonial Gombeen class, has degraded so much, sunk so far that it cannot even stand by its own weakly progressive strands, never mind by the principles of the earlier Irish Republican bourgeoisie or those of the democratic populace today.

end.

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APPENDIX

First modern abolition of slavery

Vermont Republic (later a State in the USA) 1777

Second

Republic of France 1794 but reinstated briefly by Napoleon 1802

Third

Haiti Revolution and Independence (1791), 1804.

Fourth

Mexican Republic, 1810-1829

Fifth

UK 1833/ 34 (but the UK undermined the US Union during the American Civil War by building warships for the Confederacy, contraband smuggling and raids from Canada. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Affair)

Sixth

USA 1865 at end of American Civil War

FOOTNOTES

1https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4106660

2Ibid.

3https://www.oireachtas.ie/ga/debates/question/2026-04-14/284/ Written response by Minister for Foreign Affairs to Eoin Ó Broin TD.

4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOsHlDbKC2s

5Unlike the case of the imported black slaves, their slave status continuing on to their children if occurred at all, would have been rare unless of course the children were visibly part-African.

SOURCES

2026-03-25 UN General Assembly Resolution on the Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4106660

Oireachtas question following Ireland’s abstention: https://www.oireachtas.ie/ga/debates/question/2026-04-14/284/

DUBLIN GERMAN EMBASSY PICKETED IN SOLIDARITY WITH ULM FIVE

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Irish Language, Irish Left, Israeli Zionism, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Song, Song in StruggleLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

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

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/27/pro-palestine-activists-face-trial-attack-israel-arms-factory-germany

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.

THE DICEMAN CAMETH

On By rebelbreezeIn Civil Rights, Cultural Comment, History, Human Rights, irish history, Irish Left, Irish Republicanism, Police Violence, Political Prisoners, Public HealthLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Alerted by a sibling to a short exhibition on the life of the Spice Man (Thom McGinty), a remarkable performance artist and character of Dublin streets particularly associated with Grafton Street, I was fortunate to view it on its final day.

The exhibition was part of the annual Phizzfest’s annual program and was staged in the Bohemians FC room above the Phibsborough shopping centre. The space was a moderately-sized room with a few installations, a film projector, panels of images and text displayed on the walls.

One of the panels at the exhibition.

Sadly the chatter of a number of people made it difficult – for me at least – to understand all the audio accompanying the film footage but some of the images were very interesting, in particular the reaction of Dublin adults and children to the Spice Man’s street performances.

When he spoke it was with a Scottish accent, having been born to a father from Donegal and mother from Wicklow and reared in a village outside Glasgow from where he recalled journeying on holidays to Baltinglass for family reunions.

He came to economically-depressed Ireland in 1976, trying his hand at a number of occupations before he found the one that both gave him success and defined him publicly.

Typically, his performance was silent, his movement stilled or gradual, slow but moving to avoid arrest.1 But his costume and makeup were something else. Though McGinty later initiated performances in social and political protest, his initial ones in Dublin were commercial promotions.

A gaming shop called The Dice Man was the first of these and the one that gave him the nickname by which he became known and found fame. It was one of the commercial promotions, ironically not a political one, that ended with his arrest.

The promoters of a run of The Rocky Horror show in Dublin hired Thom to promote their show which he did, walking the street in ‘horror’ facial makeup, a cerise basque, fishnet stockings and a thong. He was arrested.

McGinty was charged with acts contrary to public decency under Section 5 of the Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Amendment Act, 1871, and with breach of the peace. Thom protested that these were his working clothes and he had been contracted to wear them.

According to the arresting gardaí, complaints had been made that Thom’s buttocks were clearly visible, “and the only thing covering his genitals was a G-string.” He was bailed from Store Street Garda Station pending the trial but could not be released until he was given a raincoat to wear.

The Act, which is still on the statute books (according to the exhibition text) had sexual connotations and could be used against gay people. McGinty’s lawyer raised the ramifications of a conviction under this Act and the judge sentenced him to probation without recorded conviction.

The 1991 production of the Rocky Horror Show at the Bord Gáis Theatre could not have asked for better publicity and McGinty personally got exposure (!) internationally and offers of work abroad as a result, from which he always returned to Ireland.

Among social causes which Thom protested with performance was the financial penalty on the Union of Students in Ireland for breach of injunctions by publishing anti-pregnancy choice information in a case pursued by SPUC.2 Another was against restrictions on the sale of condoms.3

Thom’s performances and the causes espoused would have been of interest to me had I been living in Ireland at the time but they touched on my family in Dublin a number of times. Foremost was his support for the wrongly accused, framed and brutalised of the Sallins Mail Train robbery.

One of the panels at the exhibition.

It is nearly 50 years since three socialist Republicans were wrongly convicted and sentenced to nine and twelve years imprisonment. As a result of much campaigning, two of the accused, one of whom is a sibling of mine, were released with convictions revoked after 18 months in Portlaoise jail.

The third accused, who had absconded the day prior to the sentence, returned to Ireland and was immediately jailed, campaigners then switching to obtain his freedom, gained only ‘on humanitarian grounds’ after four years in jail and a hunger strike of 38 days.

Satirising the ‘sleeping judge’ in one of the Sallins trials (he was clearly seen sleeping but his co-judges and State denied it and then to embarrassment of State, he died days later). In suits, two of the framed, (l-r) Nicky Kelly and Osgur Breatnach. One of the panels at the exhibition.

A recent concert, packed both by audience and performers in the Vicar Street Dublin venue was organised by yet another sibling to promote a campaign for an inquiry into how that travesty of justice could be carried out by state police, Government and judiciary right up to the High Court.4

Thom was a strong supporter of liberal social rights such as the right to prevent pregnancy or birth and for gay and lesbian rights. His defence of framed Irish Socialist Republicans centred on their right to a fair trial and not to be brutalised, as did his support for the Birmingham Six.

One of the panels at the exhibition.

But he was far from being an Irish Republican. Dressed as the Grim Reaper with scythe, Thom also led a delegation of ‘Peace Train’5 people in protest to the offices of Provisional Sinn Féin where, in a twist of fate, it was another sibling of mine who had to receive him and to face the cameras there.

At the time, SF was the political party leading a struggle for Irish reunification and independence from British occupation and, though its leadership and much of the party’ base support was socially conservative, it was not that which focussed the attacks of two states and a statelet6 upon it.

And those armed and judicial attacks were backed by the imperialist and neocolonial-dominated liberal and social-democratic sector of society, the likes of the ‘Peace (sic) Train’ and ‘Peace Women’.7 I would have argued strongly with Thom I’m sure but regret very much his passing.

Thom McGinty (1952-20/21 February 1995)

Thom McGinty’s funeral, from one of the panels at the exhibition.

end.

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FOOTNOTES

SOURCES

Biography Thom McGinty: https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/the-dice-man-5007353-Feb2020/

The Sallins Mail Train frame-up and campaign: https://sallinsinquirynow.ie/

The ‘Peace People’ etc, Mairéad Corrigan/ Maguire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_Maguire

1On ‘loitering’ charges.

2Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child. After a long struggle ending pregnancy became legal within the Irish state but regulated under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, allowing for termination on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Following a 2018 referendum, abortion services began on 1 January 2019, providing free access for residents.

3Following campaigning and public defiance of the law, restrictions on the sale of condoms were only finally removed in 1993 in the Irish state.

4https://sallinsinquirynow.ie/

5https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Train_Organisation The issue is not whether bombing the railway line was a useful activity or not but rather that its condemnation took the place of condemning and drawing attention to the British occupation of a colony in Ireland and the brutal repression of resistance to that occupation.

6Although it has the trappings of a state, the Northern Ireland (sic) Assembly is a UK colonial administration.

7

TWO RECENT EVENTS CONNECTED DECADES EARLIER

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, France, History, Housing Struggle, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, National Liberation, Police Violence, Political Analysis, Political PrisonersLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3mins.)

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).

2https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/17/france-arrests-suspect-over-1982-attack-on-jewish-restaurant

3https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41819201.html

4See report on his funeral https://rebelbreeze.com/2022/05/04/death-of-a-retired-warrior/

5https://sallinsinquirynow.ie/heavy-gang-named/

6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_of_Vincennes

Sources & Further reading

Home

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/false-arrest-victims-call-on-judge-to-act-against-french-police/26257140.html

Irishman Among Activists Against Genocide Jailed by the German State

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, NATO, Police Violence, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

An Irishman, Daniel Tatlow-Devally is one of five people who allegedly damaged equipment in the Israeli arms company Elbit in Germany last year. They are charged under anti-terror legislation and kept in solitary confinement in separate jails.

Daniel’s mother complained that for a month friends and relatives were prevented from making any communication with the detained: “They thought we’d disowned them.” By the time the trials are expected to conclude, the five will have spent around around 11 months in custody.1

Two weeks ago Daniel’s father addressed the weekly Dubs for Palestine rally outside Leinster House in Dublin to raise awareness of his son’s situation and to ask for support. A protest at the German Embassy has been organised for Monday 27 April at 1pm.2

In recent years the German state has earned a reputation for repression of freedom of expression of pro-Palestine sentiments or criticism of the Israeli Zionist state, including banning demonstrations, classifying anti-Zionism as ‘anti-Semitism’ and arresting people for wearing the kiffiyeh.

A 2025 report “documents how German authorities systematically curtail freedoms of assembly, expression, academia, and art when it comes to anti-genocide protests and advocacy for Palestinian rights …

… from legal repression, criminalisation, and surveillance to delegitimizing dissent within the educational sector, arts, and media. Such measures …. form a pattern of political persecution that undermines democratic principles and international human rights obligations.

European legal expert Alice Garcia of the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) cautioned that current practices in Germany are “unequivocally comparable to practices of authoritarian regimes.”

The Civic Space Report 2025 by the European Civic Forum identifies Germany as one of the most repressive EU states in relation to Palestine advocacy, highlighting the systematic misuse of public order laws and excessive use of executive and police power (European Civic Forum, 2025, p. 20).3

Their police have been widely accused of violence towards peaceful demonstrators and a video circulated widely on 28 August 2025 showing a Berlin police officer punching Kitty O’Brien twice in the face, causing her to bleed and the same officer snapped the humerus bone in their arm.4

O’Brien was charged with assault but the circulation of video of the incident caused the police to change the charge to ‘insulting the police’ by calling them “genocide supporters”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One on 5 August, Kitty described their injuries after arriving home from hospital the previous day: “I have a broken nose, a broken humerus bone (with 11 screws holding the bone together), and potentially long-standing radial nerve damage.”5

Last year an independent protest took place outside the Dublin German Embassy about the treatment of Kitty O’Brien, other Palestine solidarity protesters and the German state’s collusion with the genocide of Palestinians by the ‘Israeli’ state, its biggest supplier of arms after the USA.

HISTORICAL GENOCIDE ‘GUILT’ USED TO JUSTIFY GENOCIDE TODAY

Ironically, Germany’s ruling class uses the Nazi history of its state’s genocide of Jews (also Roma, Disabled, Gays & Lesbians, Communists etc) as justification for its support for the Zionist state’s genocide of Palestinians today. But that ‘guilt’ also infected the Left resistance movement.

For many years large sections of the German Left would counter calls for solidarity with struggles of national liberation abroad with their support for anti-nationalismus (anti-nationalism), erroneously identifying that as the source of fascism, rather than just a factor exploited by fascists.

In the mid-19th Century and up until the 1930s, most observers expected Germany to be the first socialist state, so powerful were its communist and social-democratic movements. Even after the Communist Party had been banned by Hitler, it received around 4.8 million votes.

After the defeat of Nazism in the Anti-Fascist War (WWII) the USA recruited not only Nazi scientists but also Nazi intelligence agents for its anti-Soviet campaigns and built NATO as an imperialist military alliance and a specifically anti-communist alliance, with Germany at its heart.

The USA built military bases across Germany and, after the fall of the USSR, began to spread NATO membership in states eastward to encircle Russia.

The German state has hard economic motivation for supporting the Israeli state in addition to any ideological reasons; after the USA, Germany is the biggest arms supplier to the Zionist State6 and approved $7.8 million in arms exports to Israel during the USA and Israel’s strikes on Iran.7

Daniel can be written to:
Daniel Tatlow-Devally,
JVA Ulm,
Frauengraben 4,
89072 Ulm,
An Ghearmáin.

End.

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Footnotes

1https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/germany-five-activists-held-alleged-elbit-systems-break-in-isolation-families-say

2The German Embassy’s address is 31 Trimleston Road, Booterstown in the south-eastern Dublin suburbs, about 10 minute’s walk from Booterstown train Station on the DART system. By BUS: Rock Road, Bellevue Avenue – Routes serving this stop: 4, 7, 7A, 8. CAR: No parking available on site – on-street parking (Pay & Display, max. 3Hrs).

3https://elsc.support/resource_ext/repression-of-palestine-solidarity-in-germany/

4https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/0905/1532044-irish-activist-berlin/

5Ibid.

6https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/11/germany-arms-transfers-to-israel-reckless-unlawful-and-risks-complicity-in-israels-international-crimes/

7The approvals ran from 28 February to 27 March and were disclosed in responses from the Economy Ministry to queries by The Left party.

Links

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/germany-five-activists-held-alleged-elbit-systems-break-in-isolation-families-say

NEW YEAR’S WISHES 2026 … AND REALITY

On By rebelbreezeIn Anti-War, Cultural Comment, Current Affairs Comment, Genocide, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Journalism, Mass Media Criticism, NATO, Police Violence, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Popular ResistanceLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 2 mins.)

As the northern hemisphere turned eastwards and the majority western calendar turned to a new year, it has been customary for people to wish one another a ‘Happy New Year’, not just for the first day of January but for the twelve months to come.

Although the Celtic New Year will not begin until the first of February, and the new year begins with “teacht an Earraigh … tar éis na Féile Brighde”, I have done likewise but with deep feelings of ambivalence.

Because facing us as 2026 progresses is genocide in some parts of the world, growing fascism in some other parts, tighter squeezes on working people, smaller proxy wars and, almost certainly, a larger war, with desperate migrations of people, if surviving death to find racism and exploitation.

Faced with armed occupation and genocide, armed resistance is justified and arguably necessary, even were it not established as a right within the Geneva Convention. But even unarmed and peaceful resistance is being penalised and repressed, including in the ‘Western democracies.’

Support and solidarity organisations are being outlawed, people expressing legitimate opinions against genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing and armed occupation supported by those ‘democracies’ are being hounded in their jobs and private lives, beaten and arrested by police and even shot dead.

But where there is oppression there is also resistance. The struggles against the racist and genocidal entity, though supported in arms, finance and politically by the Western ‘democracies’ have awoken people in those countries to solidarity action in the face of their governments’ opposition.

(Cartoon by D.Breatnach)

Hugely important lessons have been learned: about the nature of the Zionist state, about the collusion of the ‘democracies’ in colonial occupation and genocide, about ‘the independence of the judiciary’ and the ‘free press’, along with the partiality and ineffectiveness of ‘international law’.

And also about the ineffectiveness of liberal opinion and organisations, even in their heartlands of the ‘democracies’, to achieve meaningful change or even stop the repression. And about how the State knows this and reacts most violently against direct solidarity action.

Organic links have become clear between war in Yemen and Somalia, the spread of Islamist jihadism and imperialism, between prison struggles in Palestine, Britain and Ireland, between the troubles of the world and much of their origins among the colonial and imperial powers.

Yes, where there is repression, there is also resistance and our duty lies in feeding that resistance in all the ways that we can, including being visible in protests at their trials and supporting them in jail. And impeding our ruling class’ attempts to tie us to NATO or other military alliance.

So what I wish for is an increase in the militant resistance of the masses and greater unity in struggle, simultaneously with greater disunity among the imperialist states and ruling classes, bringing us closer to the kind of world we need.

I wish that for us all throughout 2026.

End.

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THOUSANDS OF ISIS FIGHTERS FREED IN SYRIAN FORCES ASSAULT ON AL-SHADADDI PRISON

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Indigenous or Original People, Kurdistan, NATO, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Religious Sectarianism, Syria, US ImperialismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 8 mins.)

Thousands of ex-ISIL (ISIS) fighters and their families have been freed during the Syrian government forces assault on the SDF-guarded Al-Shaddadi jail. Both sides blame the other for the release although the Government forces admit their assault.

The SDF, mainly Kurdish forces supported by the US/ NATO coalition to oust the former Assad regime, have been guarding an estimated 10,000 prisoners in the jail since the collapse of the ISIS offensive in the region.1

Observers have feared the release of the ISIS fighters and their ‘radicalised’ families since the December 2024 collapse of the Assad regime in a Turkey-supported offensive.

That attack was led by Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, former Al Qaeda fighter and second-in-command of the ISIS-supported al-Nusra forces in Syria, a coalition of fundamental Islamist jihadists fighting under ISIS leadership though their leader claims to have fundamentally changed.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa changed his name to al-Jolani and claims to have renounced ISIS, proclaimed himself President of Syria and filled his cabinet with ‘former’ ISIS commanders, since which Western imperialist leaders have accepted him and Trump praised him greatly.

Cartoon by Carlos Latuf depicting the Western imperialist makeover of the ISIS Ahmed al-Sharaa to al-Jolani, self-appointed President of Syria (Sourced: Internet)

The western powers cancelled his designation of ‘terrorist’, presented their compliments at his throne, some, including French and German envoys, travelling to meet him2 (even before the $10m bounty on his head3 had been removed). Or invited him to call, as Macron did for France.4

Al-Jolani offered friendship to ‘Israel’ even as the IOF occupied additional parts of Syria and bombed any remaining military installations of the Assad regime.5

THE KURDISH-LED SDF, TURKEY AND AL-JOLANI

The objective of the SDF had been to overthrow Assad so as to form a Kurdish state within Syria in order to link up with other Kurdish regions to create a federal Kurdish state. Turkey feared this project, having fought decades of bloody war against the PKK in its own Kurdish region.

Apologies for use of CIA map but difficult to get publishable image showing Kurdish-controlled areas within Syria. (Image sourced: Internet)

Consequently Turkey was at odds with US/NATO forces and the participation of the SDF within it, although Trump, as his previous Presidency drew to an end, publicly withdrew support for the Kurdish coalition. Turkey has welcomed the Damascus forces defeat of the SDF.

Since al-Jolani and his own coalition came to power, he attempted to integrate the SDF fighters within his own forces. The Kurds reluctantly agreed but insisted they be incorporated as a unit and not dispersed among al-Jolani’s forces, a proposal declined by the new President.

Since then there have been numerous clashes between the different forces, with the SDF holding their own, until the recent few days when they lost a number of strongholds, including that guarding the Al-Shaddadi prison, leading to thousands of former ISIS fighters being freed.

This prison breach, welcomed by Turkey,6 must be viewed with horror by many Syrians, in particular by the Yazidi, Alawite, Druze and Christian communities who have been subjected to home invasions, humiliation and massacres, along with rape and kidnapping of women.7

Neighbouring Iraq, Lebanon and even Jordan have cause to worry too.

Again, difficulty in getting publishable map showing Syria with its neighbours but also Iran. (Image sourced: Internet)

In sifting through the disputing claims, it is worth noting that the SDF claimed that the International Coalition base, only two kilometres away from the jail in Syria’s Hasakah province, did not respond to calls for assistance8 and the SDF denounced the failure of the USA’s forces to support them.9

It is relevant too that the SDF are not Islamist Jihadists and fought them many times in Syria, although it is true that the Western powers, while supporting the SDF, also supported and instigated ISIS to overthrow Assad, although bombing them too in periodic control operations.10

Events from the coming to power of Al-Jolani to the freeing of the Al-Shaddadi Prison may hold lessons of importance too for some strains of the Western Left and Liberals who supported the insurgent opposition to Assad in favour of ‘democracy’ while parroting mass media propaganda.11

It may also add a cautionary example to the dictum that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, often quoted by otherwise anti-imperialists who supported the IDF’s alliance with the US/NATO to overthrow the Assad regime.12

CUI BONO? WHO GAINS?

What now? (Cartoon by D.Breatnach)

One might think that the Western Powers, who have been in coalitions fighting ISIS and have suffered some attacks on themselves, including the Al Qaeda attack on New York’s Twin Towers, would be strongly opposed to this liberation of thousands of experienced Islamist jihadist fighters.

But if so, how are we to understand the refusal of the Coalition forces to intervene during the attack on the SDF forces guarding the jail? Or the Western Powers legitimising of the Al-Jolani regime running Syria, despite the al-Nusra background and religious sectarian massacres since?

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the imperialist powers wish to see those Islamic fundamentalist ex-fighters freed — but what could be their purpose? To instigate an internal conflict in Lebanon, perhaps, occupying Hezbollah away from ‘Israel’ and excusing foreign intervention?

Or keeping the Iraqi Government busy and deepening its reliance on US forces just as it seems to be asserting some independence. Or to sent north-eastwards against Iran. One thing is clear, the Western Powers allowed it and the reason nothing to do with concern about jail conditions.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1At the end of 2020, the U.S.-backed militia in northeast Syria held at least 10,000 ISIS prisoners, one of the largest populations of detained Islamists in the Middle East. Thousands of ISIS fighters were captured as the Islamic State collapsed in early 2019. The fighters were held in approximately 14 detention centers operated by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the U.S.-trained Kurdish and Arab militia that fought ISIS in Syria. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/islamists-imprisoned-across-middle-east

2https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/03/middleeast/eu-ministers-syria-visit-intl

3US scraps $10m bounty for arrest of Syria’s new leader Sharaa: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07gv3j818ko

4https://thecradle.co/articles/julani-in-a-suit-how-france-turned-a-pariah-into-a-partner

5https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250416-syria-leader-jolani-privately-promised-to-normalise-ties-with-israel-by-2026-ex-uk-diplomat-says/

6From The Cradle, on Telegram: Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, said that recent gains by Syrian government forces had “thwarted” attempts by Kurdish groups to obstruct Turkiye’s peace process. Feti Yildiz, deputy leader of the government-aligned Turkish nationalist MHP party, described Sunday’s agreement in Syria as having “a favorable impact.” “Things will become easier,” Yildiz told reporters in the Turkish parliament when asked how the Syrian deal affects the PKK process. “It had been standing like an obstacle, and for now it looks as though that obstacle has been removed.” Turkish security sources, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, called the deal a historic turning point.

7https://www.reuters.com/investigations/syrian-forces-massacred-1500-alawites-chain-command-led-damascus-2025-06-30/ and https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/03/21/the-situation-in-syria-is-worse-now-than-under-isis/

8Quoted in https://shafaq.com/en/Middle-East/Syria-s-SDF-loses-control-of-Al-Shaddadi-prison-holding-ISIS-detainees and many other sources.

9https://thecradle.co/articles/syrian-forces-overrun-isis-prison-as-sdf-condemns-us-inaction

10The SDF contains female Kurdish and Yazidi fighters too which would be anathema to Islamist fundamentalists.

11It should not be understood from this that I was a supporter of the Assad regime; I attended demonstrations against imperialist invasion and regime change while also refusing to support the regime itself. I had arranged with Eva Bartlett, a much-publicised critic of the regime-change operations of the US/NATO forces, to organise a Dublin public meeting for her to address and had her stay at my home. After learning that I was also going to criticise the regime position against the Kurds she left without explanation and I had to cancel the meeting venue booking.

12In discussions with Anarchists of the WSM (organisation no longer in existence) and Irish Republicans of (Éirigí organisation much diminished since and now in coalition with another group) I refuted the correctness of application of this principle to the major imperialist power in the world, the USA. At a conference of the Éirigí group I spoke from the floor in criticism of that and some other aspects of the SDF and was heavily criticised from the floor also while the Chairperson reiterated support for the SDF. Though no-one spoke in my support, at least three Irish Republican activists approached me afterwards to express their support for my statements.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

https://thecradle.co/articles/syrian-forces-overrun-isis-prison-as-sdf-condemns-us-inaction

Battle over the jail with different outcome in 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_al-Hasakah_(2022)

See Syria section in https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/islamists-imprisoned-across-middle-east

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/03/21/the-situation-in-syria-is-worse-now-than-under-isis/

Syria leader Jolani privately promised to normalise ties with Israel by 2026, ex-UK diplomat says

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_al-Sharaa

NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM DUBLIN: SAOIRSE DON PHALAISTÍN agus FREE THE HUNGER-STRIKERS!

On By rebelbreezeIn Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Palestine, Political Prisoners, Uncategorized, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

Through three events on Saturday, New Year’s Eve in the city centre, Dublin sent a solidarity message to the Palestinian people and also to the solidarity activists on hunger strike in British jails, referencing also those of the Irish Resistance in 1981.

The Millennium Bridge on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: IPSC)

Chronologically first was a protest in the Starbucks café1 in Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre obliging the management to close for hours and a balcony walkway banner drop calling for solidarity with the Elbit accused on hunger strike, referencing also the Irish hunger-strikes of 1981.2

I had not read the poster carefully and arrived at the Starbucks at the north end of Grafton Street, where there were a few other confused people also. By the time I made my way up to the southern end of Grafton Street, the protest there was about to leave and I was about to head elsewhere.

Two main banners present at protest outside the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve, after closing down the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: Bas)

The solidarity crowd continued to demonstrate in the shopping centre’s main doorway before marching away, then went into the Zara3 big shop and demonstrated there awhile before heading on to MacDonald’s in Grafton Street where the Gardaí began to let their nasty side show a little.

Palestine solidarity protesters leaving the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve, heading down to Zara to protest there (Photo: D.Breatnach)

Then another Starbucks, this one on Dame Street got a Palestine solidarity visit before the demonstrators went on to the iconic pedestrian Ha’penny Bridge, where the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign holds a Palestine solidarity protest every New Year’s Eve.

Closeup of banner-drop inside the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve, during protest after closing down the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: G.O.L)

There the demonstrators thronged the Ha’penny and Millennium Bridges and spilled out along the quays. I was elsewherefor the first time in years as it was a Wednesday and therefore Jimi Cullen’s weekly protest with songs at the US Embassy in Ballsbridge, this one to be his 97th straight.

As usual there were police on guard there and one in uniform approached myself and Jimi as we were talking and asked Jimi how long the event would be, how many attending etc. Then she suggested I removed my bike which was leaning against a bollard.

Conducting the protest inside the Stephen’s Green Centre on New Year’s Eve which obliged management to close down for some hours the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: G.O.L)

I told her I was happy with where it was, thank you. Then she said that it might fall on someone (but not, of course, if across the road!), then that someone might steal it, all of which was nonsense of course then said: ‘I am asking you to remove it’ to which I replied ‘And I am declining.’

She was getting quite angry but decided to walk it off. I have attended supporting Jimi’s protest perhaps a score of times and in the early days had a similar approach from a Special Branch4 officer who accused me of causing ‘a security risk’ to the Embassy’s ‘curtilage’ (on a public footpath)!

The Ha’penny Bridge on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: IPSC)

Some police just like to throw their weight around even with regard to things that have nothing to do with the law or causing harm to anyone and over which they have no legal power.

Anyway we unfurled the flags, Jimi had a placard displayed, got out his guitar and we sang through week 97 to frequent waves, clapping, thumbs up, clenched fists, shouts and horn blowing of appreciation and solidarity from passing motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.

Section of northern quays/ Boardwalk on New Year’s Eve, during protest after closing down the Starbucks café inside. (Photo: IPSC)

Jimi began this weekly protest outside the Israeli Embassy but when they left Ireland he moved up the road to the nearby US Embassy, representative of the world leader in terrorism and biggest supporter, politically, financially and militarily of the world’s leading genocider entity.

Usually there are more supporters present. Jimi has a fine stock of protest and solidarity songs, some of which he composed himself and performs them well. Today we did mostly Irish songs of struggle but also one from the black civil rights struggle and Jimi’s own about Palestine.

Jimi Cullen and myself at Jimi’s weekly event outside the US Embassy on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: J.Cullen)

We had a number of Palestinian flags there but also two Starry Plough flags and there were some Irish Tricolours to be seen on the other protests among the many Palestinian ones. It is from our own struggle that we stand in solidarity with Palestine.

End.

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FOOTNOTES

1https://www.cjpme.org/fs_241

2Ten Irish Republican prisoners, seven IRA and three INLA died on hunger-strike in a British jail in 1981 in a struggle against criminalisation and for political status

3https://bdsmovement.net/news/boycott-zara-dressing-apartheid-and-genocide

4Political branch of the Irish State police, inherited from Scotland Yard of the British police force.