ZIONIST DUBLIN EMBASSY CLOSES TO REGRETS AND CELEBRATIONS

On December 19, 2024December 23, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn British imperialism, Current Affairs Comment, Imperialism, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Prisoners, US Imperialism, Zionism1 Comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

The Zionist state announced the closure of its embassy in Dublin, accusing the Irish Government of being anti-Israel.¹ The broad Palestine solidarity movement celebrated the announcement while Harris for the Irish Government expressed regret.

The Zionist Embassy at 28 Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin has been without an Ambassador since she left Ireland last May in protest after the Irish Government, along with the Spanish and Norwegian governments, officially recognised the state of Palestine.²

D.B cartoon drawing of celebrations outside the block in which the Zionist Embassy was located (and under 24-hour Garda protection). Many of the other users of the building will be relieved at the departure also.

However the Irish State’s recent decision to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice³ seems to have prompted the closure of the Embassy and led once again to allegations of “anti-semitism” in Ireland which the President called a “gross slander”.⁴

Simon Harris, Taoiseach (prime minister equivalent) of the outgoing Irish Government⁵ expressed his regret at the ‘Israeli’ decision while at the same time rejecting vigorously the allegation that the Government is anti-Israel. He is absolutely correct in doing so.

Irish Governments have consistently been pro-Israel and colluding with Zionism, in contradiction to Irish popular opinion. The outgoing government⁶ has allowed military supplies for ‘Israel’ to fly through Irish airspace and the US military to land and depart from Shannon Airport.

*One of the participants outside the Israeli Embassy yesterday celebrating its imminent departure.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

The Irish Government has also held up for years the relatively mild UN-compliant Occupied Territories Bill. These points were well made in an Al Jazeera Inside Story⁷ program by Mícheál Mac Donncha, Sinn Féin Dublin City Councillor and by Zoe Lawlor, IPSC⁸ Chairperson.

Both did well outlining the general attitude of the Irish people to which the government was – to an extent – responding and in refuting the slur of anti-semitism on the Irish people. Lawlor pointed to the Irish history of resistance as a motivator but appears unaware that we once supported Israel.

This is important (and I have written about it⁹) because it shows that we are capable of changing our position to a better one when presented with the evidence of the need to do so, which task the Zionist themselves carried out for us.

However both speakers failed to answer the interviewer’s question of why the Irish government did not go further.

This is an essential question for us and the answer makes sense of the current political landscape with crucial import beyond the issues of Palestine and Zionism. Mac Donncha seemed to avoid the question entirely and chose instead to talk about actions that the Government should take.

The interviewer however put it bluntly to Lawlor that the reason was a reluctance to offend the USA, though presenting it as a fear of putting off US corporations’ investments. Lawlor correctly replied that corporations make decisions based on profit but avoided giving the political answer.

The Irish ruling class is a neo-colonial one and responds to requirements of its masters. These have been firstly the UK, followed by the US and more recently the EU. All of these are imperialist states and bound up with the interests of the colonial fort in the Middle East which is the Zionist State.

I am sure that Mac Donncha is aware of those facts and pretty sure that Lawlor is too but both declined to provide the explanation being asked for. One must suspect in Mac Donncha’s case the reason is that his party, Sinn Féin, is busily making itself acceptable to that very ruling class.

And Lawlor probably wants to keep the clean image for the ruling class which the IPSC leadership has been at pains to develop, particularly during this current genocidal offensive.

While the IPSC leadership has played an important role in mobilising national demonstrations much of the activism has been and continues to be by organisations on the ground. The Embassy itself was invaded some time back by such groups and has seen militant blockades.

Jimi Cullen yesterday performing his composition “We Are All Palestinians” during a modest celebration outside the Zionist Embassy. Cullen has been performing outside there for an hour every Wednesday afternoon for 41 weeks. (Photo D.Breatnach)

Axa Insurance has been picketed frequently and occupied at least once and the Foreign Affairs Department was splattered with red paint while the Department of Transport was occupied. The US Embassy was picketed for three days in a row by organisations from Galway without IPSC support.

Only one IPSC march since October last year had the US Embassy as destination and on that occasion the march was led up quiet suburban streets to the stage set up next to police barricades blocking access to the Embassy gates and the main road into Dublin.

Section of the crowd yesterday afternoon celebrating its imminent departure outside the Zionist Embassy. (*Photo D.Breatnach*)

The general Irish public and in particular of course the activists in solidarity with Palestine can justly celebrate the departure of the Zionist Embassy. It is their symbolic victory.

However, there is no doubt that the Irish ruling class needs to be put under much heavier pressure than has heretofore been the case, if we are to shut down the collusion of the Irish Gombeen state with the Zionist genocide of Palestinians.

*Outside the Zionist Embassy yesterday, an Irish healthworker calls for more effective solidarity with the Palestinians, in particular with the healthworkers being targeted by the IOF in Gaza.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

End.

FOOTNOTES

1 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/15/israel-to-close-dublin-embassy-after-ireland-supports-icj-genocide-petition

2 https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/71936-ireland-recognises-the-state-of-palestine. While the decision of those states has enraged the Zionist state, it is not as progressive as may seem at first glance. The ‘state’ that is being recognised is a) in addition to the state of Israel, i.e “the two-state solution” (sic); b) grants the Palestinians around 20% of Palestine which would be under the constant eyes and guns of the Zionists and c) is widely considered not realisable due to the proliferation of Zionist settlements and their special roads connecting them. Currently the only ‘government’ of such a state is the undemocratic, repressive and corrupt Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority.

3Again this decision too has its deeply negative side since the Attorney General of the Irish State in his submission to the Preliminary Hearings on Genocide at the ICJ repeated the many times debunked Zionist propaganda of “mass rape by Hamas” during its breakout attack on October 7^th.

4See Sources for link to the report,

5The elections of 29 November did not return any party with an absolute majority and discussions on forming a coalition government have been ongoing since the election results were confirmed.

6And many previous Irish governments too.

7See Sources for link to the program.

8Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

9 https://villagemagazine.ie/opinion-ireland-and-palestine-a-late-love-affair/

SOURCES

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/15/israel-to-close-dublin-embassy-after-ireland-supports-icj-genocide-petition

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-story/2024/12/16/why-is-israel-shutting-its-embassy-in-ireland

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41538359.html

WHAT OUR TRADE UNIONS COULD DO FOR PALESTINE

On December 16, 2024December 18, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Human Rights, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Mass Media Criticism, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Trade unions, ZionismLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Irish trade unions could play a significant role in Palestine solidarity but they are not doing it. They are well-placed to do so by virtue of the crucial role of their members in production and distribution.

Union members are also members of families, neighbourhood communities, sports fans, social groups, clubs ……………

Every trade union or joint unions in a workplace could form committees to plan and organise Palestine solidarity activity both within their workplaces but also more generally, forming links with community solidarity groups where these exist or helping to create them where they do not.

Every workplace trade union notice board – which employees are entitled to have installed – should carry updated information on the genocide and on solidarity actions such as boycotts, marches, pickets etc.

Every union could mobilise its members to support Palestine solidarity actions and in the case of demonstrations, marches etc., to organise strong contingents to attend, marked out by banners, flags and in some cases by clothing (hi-viz vests, surgical scrubs for health service workers, etc.)

INFORMATION, PROPAGANDA, MEDIA

The trade unions in the media could help the campaign against genocide by countering the dominant western propaganda narrative, e.g. that “Israel has a right to self-defence”, that the Palestinian resistance are “terrorists”, that the “Hamas rampage” (sic) on 7^th October 2024 started the genocide.

Those unions could take protest industrial action, pay for advertisements in the media, produce their own database and news detailing media misrepresentation and censorship and update their members on the reality of the situation in Palestine through a newsletter or social media group.

Their members could hold pickets protesting against disinformation, Zionist propaganda and censorship and in solidarity with the almost two hundred of their counterparts murdered by the Zionist military in Palestine in a little over a year.

SUPPLIES, DISTRIBUTION, BOYCOTTS

Unions involved in transportation and deliveries could refuse to transport goods from or to the State of Israel, as well as maintaining a database of products and companies identified as boycott targets.

Pickets could be placed on centres of sale of boycotted goods, such as supermarkets and chain stores, also of distribution centres at haulage firms, docks and airports. Pickets on chain stores in local areas would attract local people to support and widen the net of active solidarity.

*Irish healthcare workers in solidarity with healthcare workers and people in Palestine, marching in an IPSC national march on 31 August 2024. But where is their trade union?* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

MOBILISATION

Every union national HQ or regional HQ, or Palestine solidarity committee could mobilise its union members to support Palestine solidarity actions and in the case of demonstrations, marches etc, to organise strong contingents to attend, marked out by banners, flags or hi-viz vests,

Health workers could march in solidarity with Palestinian health workers who are threatened and prevented from reaching victims of IOF bombing or shooting, other health workers shot or bombed, ambulances targeted, health workers kidnapped to the terrible ‘Israeli’ jails and possibly tortured.

Education workers could march in solidarity with their counterparts in the bombed universities and schools of Gaza, of the teachers and students bombed and shot. Athletes and sport workers might identify their solidarity with Palestinian athletes bombed, shot or maimed for life.

Construction workers might be organised to express their solidarity with Palestinians’ destroyed homes, roads and facilities, while civil defence and municipal workers march in support of their counterparts in Palestine, deliberately targeted by the IOF.

The destruction of Palestinian olive groves, fruit trees, farms and grow-tunnels could be protested by union members in agriculture and food processing. Workers in fishing and fish-processing might protest the blockading, harassment and even shooting of Palestinian fishermen.

Sanitation and water supply workers could increase public awareness of the deliberate destruction of those types of infrastructure in Gaza, while workers in telecommunication might protest regular cutting of access to the Internet and also the weaponisation of handheld communicators.

Banners of two main Irish trade union contingents marching in solidarity with people in Palestine, in an IPSC national march on 20 July 2024. But FÓRSA has a membership of “88,000” and SIPTU of “around 200,000” — it does not appear as though these unions made any attempt to mobilise their members to support the march. (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

OBJECTIONS

There might be some – and not only among the paid officials of the trade unions — who would say that internationalist solidarity is all very well but that it’s a distraction of from domestic bread-and-butter issues, or fighting closures of workplaces, casualisation of work contracts etc.

Others might object to anything that might smack of illegality, such as industrial action of a solidarity nature or ‘political’ actions by a trade union. They might also point out trade unions in Ireland are much reduced in membership and strength.

Indeed. Unions did not come into being without facing anti-union laws, or indeed police batons, courts and jail. Collusion with the system exemplified by twenty years of Social Partnership has weakened the unions to the degree that many workers do not even understand their relevance.

History teaches us that solidarity work does not weaken organisations, least of all militant ones. It makes them stronger. And visibly active and fighting trade unions will surely attract the interest and appreciation of lapsed or as yet non-unionised workers.

The Irish trade unions on the whole, with some exceptions such as primary school teachers, are not doing this Palestine solidarity work. But are people of Palestinian solidarity minds organising in their trade unions to bring any of that work forward? If they are not to do it, then who?

The founding of workplace Palestine solidarity action committees is probably the place to start, the first small step with many and bigger steps to follow.

End.

Cartoon by D.Breatnach depicting the general inactivity in Palestinian solidarity by most Irish trade unions, despite traditions of internationalist solidarity and the daily genocide by the Israeli Zionists.

WHAT KIND OF ‘IRISH NATIONALISM’ IS THIS?

On December 11, 2024January 25, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Anti-Fascism, Civil Rights, Current Affairs Comment, Fascism, Human Rights, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

Claiming to be ‘Irish nationalists’, denouncing refugee accommodation, calling LGBT people “paedophiles”, promoting “Christian values” and attacking Muslims, calling people “traitors” for expressing solidarity with Palestinians.

What kind of ‘Irish nationalism’ is this?

In recent years far-Right elements in Irish society have been pushing an ideology composed of the elements listed above, while claiming to represent the Irish people and the Irish nation. In their justifications they sometimes refer to struggles in Irish history and to Irish culture.

They do this not only in words but also in debasing flags of the Irish struggle, such as the Tricolour and the ‘Irish Republic’ flag, by waving them at their public events and even, on occasion by playing Irish Republican ballads on their PA machines.

*Plenty of Irish Tricolour flags brandished on this anti-immigration march in Dublin in May (2024).* *Flags of the fascist National Party can also be seen.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

Yet with a tiny unrepresentative exception, these elements have not been involved in the promotion or creation of Irish music or dance. They have not struggled for the promotion of the Irish language nor do they themselves speak the Irish language.

As to the history of Irish struggle, again with the exception of a miniscule minority, the far-Right elements have not fought against the British occupation, not picketed British Occupation buildings, not confronted the colonial police nor agitated in solidarity with Republican prisoners.

Again, I ask, what kind of ‘Irish nationalism’ is this?

Palestine solidarity ‘treason’?!

As Ireland experienced a wave of solidarity with the Palestinian people facing a campaign of genocide by the Zionist regime and its Western powers allies, these far-Right elements not only disdained that solidarity but harassed and labelled those who expressed it as “traitors”.

Again, I ask, what kind of ‘Irish nationalism’ is this?

How is opposition to genocide or solidarity with another colonised and oppressed people the activity of ‘traitors’? Surely it is the natural reaction of people with our history? Doesn’t the term ‘traitors’ mean that the accused have aligned themselves with enemies of the Irish people?

In fact, that is precisely what these far-Right elements are doing themselves. They are aligning themselves with a number of Western imperialist powers but in particular, in the case of Ireland, aligning themselves with the rulers of the UK, invader and occupiers of the Irish nation.

That connection was amply demonstrated when the colonial police savagely attacked people attempting to set up a Palestine solidarity camp in the grounds of Queen’s, the colonial university in Belfast. As it is also by burning Palestinian flags alongside the Tricolour on Loyalist bonfires.

*A sectarian July bonfire with the Irish Tricolour, ‘Irish Republic’ and Palestinian national flags on top awaiting burning.* (Photo sourced: Internet)

Or by English fascist and Loyalist flags accompanying Zionist flags on demonstrations in England. And by far-Right posters and activists who called for friendship with English fascist Tommy many-names Robinson, notorious for supporting the Paratroopers’ 1972 massacre of protesters in Derry.

Love Irish history?

Recently a far-Right person posting on social media, while claiming to “love Irish historical sites”, denounced efforts to save the Moore Street market and 1916 Battleground because “it’s not Irish any more” and called for it to be torn down “to get them¹ out”.

She called for the destruction of the oldest street market in Ireland and the site of the last stand of the GPO Garrison, the 1916 Battleground where at least four Volunteers were killed and the last place of freedom for hundreds, including five of the Seven Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation.

Again, I ask, what kind of ‘Irish nationalism’ is this? It is in fact aiding the property speculator who wants to demolish and obliterate Irish history and heritage, a speculator currently based in Britain, though actively assisted by Dublin City Managers and successive Irish governments.

Another poster on social media calling itself “Christian Wisdom” asked people to vote for “Irish nationalist candidates” in the forthcoming elections within the Irish state, the sub-text being against migrants or Left-wing candidates and presumably for religious sectarianism.

What kind of ‘Irish nationalism’ is this?

It aligns itself with the western imperialist powers, including the invader that has been in occupation of some part of our country for 800 years and still is.

It denies people the democratic rights to express their sexuality.

In promoting Christianity as ‘Irish’ and in opposition to free expression of sexuality, it seeks to put us back under religious social control and also opposes the 1916 Proclamation, which guaranteed “religious and civil liberty and equal opportunities… for all.”

In blaming migrants and refugees for homelessness, it is covering up for the actual people who cause that crisis: the bankers, property speculators and big landlords who keep making huge profits out of people’s needs and misery.

Who are they really? They are certainly not ‘Irish nationalists’ in the sense of the many who fought and sacrificed all in the struggle to free the Irish nation through 800 years of Irish history.

*Fascists and racists based in Coolock, North Dublin city photographed in joint rally with loyalists in Belfast in 2024.* (Photo sourced: *Internet*)

What it really is and what they really are

What they are disseminating is not at all Irish nationalism.

On rational examination of the evidence, I must conclude that these people are not Irish nationalists at all. But since they claim very stridently that’s what they are indeed, I must conclude that they are using that label to cover their real identity.

What they are really is simply nothing more nor less than Irish fascists, serving property speculators, corporate landlords, bankers, the native Gombeens and foreign imperialists. Or the ignorant manipulated tools of those fascists.

In total, enemies of the Irish nation, of working people and of all democratic freedoms.

End.

1Presumably meaning people born abroad (as were James Connolly, Tom Clarke, Constance Markievicz, Eamonn De Valera, Eamon Bulfin, the father of the Pearses and mother of Thomas Mac Donagh, father of Thomas Davis … and hundreds of other Irish patriots).

Ho, Ho, Ho – Father Christmas

On December 9, 2024December 9, 2025 By rebelbreezeIn Cultural Comment, Ireland, Satire, social commentary, Song, Traditions & Folk CustomLeave a comment

(Reading time: 6 mins.)

Republishing this now as we approach again the festival called Christmas. A Christian festival, apparently, celebrating the birth of Christ, the baby Jesus. But are there darker aspects in its references?

Away in a manger
No crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus
Lay down His sweet head

The stars in the sky
Look down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay

Such a sweet, holy image.

But actually, when we look around us, it seems more like a festival of the pagan gods: of Bacchus, the god of alcohol and of Mammon, the god of wealth. Bacchus, because in non-Moslem countries, drinking of alcohol will be for most a big component of the festival.

Whiskey, brandy, wine and beer will be bought to stock up the house. Alcohol will be drunk at Christmas parties (including office parties, where for months afterwards some people will regret what they did or said – or even what they didn’t do or say).

Alcohol will be not just drunk but also put into some of the traditional food and even poured over it.

Then Mammon. Well, you can see the retail businesses stocking up for weeks or even months ahead of the festival which, after all, was only supposed to be a one or at most a two-day event.

Giving and receiving gifts has now become part of the festival and in most cases, gifts have to be bought. Which is a really big gift to the retail businesses and thence, really a sacrifice to Mammon.

In the Christian gospels of both Matthew and Luke, it is written that one “cannot serve both Mammon and God” — which goes to show how little they understood capitalism, where Mammon IS God.

A theologian of the Fourth Century saw Mammon as a personification of Beelzebub, which in his time was another name for Satan or the Devil.

Interestingly, Protestant Christianity, which some credit as having invented capitalism, at the same time regarded Mammon, or said they did, as “one of the Seven Princes of Hell”.

*Cartoon depiction of Mammon, God of Wealth* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

*Sculpture representation of Bacchus, God of Alcohol, in California winery, USA* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

SANTA

Now, Santa Claus is also a big part of the Christmas festival, especially in western countries, a much more acceptable face than that of greedy Mammon and alcoholic Bacchus, right?

But originally, the Christians saw him as a representation of St. Nicholas, 4^th Century Bishop of the Greek city of Myra, a location now in Turkey. He was the patron saint of archers, repentant thieves, sailors and prostitutes. The prostitutes probably had to be repentant ones too, of course!

The sailors, who probably had at least as much recourse to prostitutes as had any other calling, were apparently not required to be repentant – to be in danger on the sea was deemed enough.

But St. Nicholas was also the patron saint of children, pawnbrokers and brewers, so we can see how close he was getting there to the modern spirit of Christmas.

GERMAN TRAPPINGS

Now, the Christmas Tree, der tannenbaum, so much a part of the symbolism of modern western Christmas, came to us from Germany, as did the sled and the reindeer.

The reindeer are not autochthonous or endemic in historic times to Germany, so they must have been brought in their myths from Scandinavia from where originally, the Germanic tribes came.

In turn, the Christmas Tree, Yule Log, reindeer and sled were exported from Germany to England in the reign of Queen Victoria, by her consort Prince Albert, who was German.

And since the English ruled all of us in Victoria and Albert’s time, the Christmas Tree came to us too, to the cities first and then slowly spreading through the rural areas.

*A representation of St. Nicholas (before he got the red suit makeover) looking more like a pagan god of the woods.* (Image sourced: *Internet*)

***

When you think about it, this German-English worship of the tree was a bit ironic, since the English had wiped out most of our forests already and were still cutting down our remaining trees in Queen Victoria’s time.

***

And Victoria, through Albert, gave us the Santa Clause we know and love today. A jolly man, well fed, white beard, twinkly eyes, dressed all in red with white trim ….

IN RED?

Now, wait a minute! It turns out he wasn’t always dressed in red. Originally, he was dressed in a brown, or green cloak. He was, originally among the Germanic people, a god of the forests – hence the evergreen Christmas tree.

And like any sensible woodsman, he dressed in appropriate colours, brown or green. Neither Albert nor Victoria ever represented him as dressed in red. So how did it become so that we are incapable of seeing him today in any other colour than red?

Well, it turns out that Coca Cola is the responsible party.

Yes, although it was the cartoonist Thomas Nast in 1870s United States who first portrayed Santa in a red suit with a belt but it was Coca Cola, in their advertising campaign of 1931 and onwards who made his clothes red world-wide.

Coca Cola is a drink served cold and almost undrinkable when warm but who needs a cold drink in cold weather? I guess Coca Cola needed a warm image to make it still attractive in winter. So therefore the warm, jolly man dressed in red, with a bottle of Coca Cola in his hand.

1931, Santa Clause first appears in red, in Coca Cola advertisement, USA. (Image source: *Internet*)

Coca Cola brand is worth about $106.1 billion dollars today,¹ far ahead of any other cold drinks product. Which I guess brings us back to …. yes, Mammon.

You can mix the drink with a number of alcoholic beverages too, so tipping a nod – and a glass – to Bacchus.

Now, the German Santa Claus, this originally woodland god, is also thought to have been something like Thor, a god of fire and lightning. So can it be any coincidence that two of his reindeer are called Donner und Blitzen, i.e “Thunder” and “Lightning”? Nein – of course not!

*A starry night over desert hills, like the Nativity scene but without the Guiding Star.* (Photo source: *Internet*)

INVISIBLE

Although we see the image of Santa Claus everywhere and even pretend Santa Clauses all over our city streets, everyone knows that nobody sees the real Santa Claus. Children have to be asleep when he arrives to distribute his presents and somehow adults don’t see him either.

Which I suppose is a good thing ….

I mean if you found an adult intruder in your house at night, not to mention near your children, you’d be liable to whack him with a hurley (that’s an Irish cultural reference) …. or a baseball bat (that’s a U S cultural reference) …. or stab him with a sharp kitchen knife (that’s an international cultural reference).

It was bad enough when somehow that portly – not to say fat – man could somehow come down your chimney and go up again, without waking anyone … but now he can get in your house or flat even when you don’t have a chimney.

Which is at least creepy, if not downright scary …

Oh, let’s lighten the mood and sing together:

You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why

Santa Claus is comin’ to town
Santa Claus is comin’ to town

He’s making a list
He’s checking it twice
He’s gonna find out
Who’s naughty or nice

Santa Claus is comin’ to town
Santa Claus is comin’ to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake

Yes, lovely but wait …

“You better watch out, you better not cry …” — Is it just me, or is that not downright threatening? And he knows when we’re sleeping or awake? He has our children under surveillance? In some kind of list?

HO! HO! HO! IN MORALITY PLAYS

Morality Plays were a genre of theatrical performances of the medieval and Tudor eras in which a character was tempted by a personification of Vice.

Now Vice (not unlike a lot of police Vice Squads), was often seen as the epitome of evil, corruption and greed – in other words, the Devil. The playwrights tended to portray the Devil as somewhat of a comical character, perhaps to keep their audiences entertained (or to disarm them).

So the character who played the Devil would announce his arrival with a stage laugh: “Ho, Ho, Ho!”

You can probably see where I’m going with this.

Nowadays, we tend to see the Devil portrayed in black but in earlier times, he was more often seen as coloured in red. The colour in which Coca Cola just happens to have dressed Santa too.

The German or Nordic Santa was originally a god of fire also, while even the modern Santa drives a magical chariot pulled by horned beasts and he is portrayed all in red. Traditionally, the Devil is seen as horned and residing in Hell, a supposed place of eternal flames below ground.

What does Santa Claus give to children who have not been good? A lump of coal! In other words, a mineral from underground that can burn to make fire.

NICHOLAS

Santa Claus is supposed to be modelled on St. Nicholas …. and what is the popular abbreviated version of Nicholas, i.e the nickname? Yes, Nick.

And the common name for the Devil, Mammon, Beelzebub, Satan is ….. Old Nick!

We need to wake up! Guard our children!

HO, HO, HO!

End.

Footnotes

1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/326065/coca-cola-brand-value/

BARMBRACK, HALLOWEEN PARTY – AND NO ‘TRICK OR TREAT’!

On November 4, 2024November 18, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Folk Custom, Indigenous or Original People, Ireland, Irish Diaspora, Traditions & Folk Custom, USALeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

Years ago we did not have the USA import of ‘trick or treat’ – but we did have Halloween. In fact, the UStaters got their Halloween originally from – us. Yes, us.

And it was based on the ancient Gaelic feast of Samhain (which is also the name of the month in Irish).

“Happy Halloween” as a wish would seem an oxymoron since it is a feast of the dead or at least for the dead and to propitiate pagan gods. It is recorded in Ireland as far back as the 9^th Century, one of the four great feast days of the Gaelic year.

While the festival is often described as Celtic, a number of neolithic passage graves in Ireland and in Britain, predating the arrival of the Celts, are aligned to face sunrise at the time of Samhain.

In the Celtic world it seems to have been a particularly Gaelic festival, being also our name for November, with strong survivals in Ireland, parts of Scotland and Manx, though there are also some echoes of customs in Wales and Brittany.

However, some researchers believe that the word Samhain is related to the month of Samon, in an ancient calendar of the Gauls, the main body of Continental Celts.

No ancient feast of Samhain could have involved pumpkins, unless it was something thought up by a deviant among St. Brendan’s followers when they got to America in the mid-6th Century. Of which there are a number of sound reasons for believing they did.

But no plant we know of came back from that voyage.

*Some varieties of pumpkin squash* (Photo cred: *The Garden Museum*)

Pumpkins of course and many other squashes come from Turtle Island/ America, where they were cultivated by the indigenous people as an important source of food or dried to make containers, utensils and even musical instruments — and they taught the settlers how to cultivate them.

Pumpkin pie is a traditional USA settler culture dish, particularly in the annual Thanksgiving feast, where the arrival of the original English settlers is celebrated along with their survival (thanks to help from the Indigenous, against whom they later committed genocide in gratitude).

Although most people in the US will not be conscious of this aspect of the Thanksgiving celebration there is a pushback against it gathering in the US of late, as there is also in many parts of the world against the celebration of the ‘discovery’ of America for European colonisation by Columbus.

IN DUBLIN, IRELAND

The traditional Irish Halloween cake is the báirín (boyreen) breac, the báirín being Irish for a cake, according to Dineen’s Dictionary and breac meaning piebald or speckled (i.e. from the dried fruit), becoming mispronounced as ‘barmbrack’.

Quite when it became traditional Halloween fare I’m not sure but the basic ingredients would have been available centuries ago – except for the tea, which came from China originally and only became widespread in Ireland through our colonisers in the early 1800s.

Now of course, we’re marbh le tae agus marbh gan é (‘killed by tea but dead without it’) and still pronounce our name for the beverage in Irish as apparently they did in English in Shakespeare’s time. Many cultures call it ‘chai’ from which the English soldiers in India brought back ‘char’.

*This one was apparently made with whiskey which is not the original. The one produced by a number of baker companies was round and more yellow inside.*

Anyway, to get back to the báirín breac, it was soaking the dried fruits in tea that gave a yellow tint to the dough when it was baked. We children all looked forward to eating the báirín when we got back home after going from door to door collecting donations of apples or nuts or sweets.

Taste apart, it had a ring hidden in it and, though we had no interest in the prospect of marriage symbolism, we each wanted to be the lucky one to get the slice with the ring. Our Da cut up the slices carefully so we couldn’t tell which had the ring and we had to eat them in sequence.

Earlier on the Halloween evening we had been out in costumes knocking from door to door and of course, other children had knocked on our door too. Many of those would have been known to us but it was surprisingly difficult to identify them, even if only face-painted and without a mask.

It was for us a kind of thrill to knock at a neighbour’s door in costume and be unrecognised. All the houses except a very few welcomed callers at Halloween and kept a supply of fresh fruit, nuts and sweets on hand for the callers.

“Any apples or nuts?” we called as they opened the door or, later “Help the Halloween party?” None of that imported “trick or treat” nonsense!

Three types of nuts that were available and traditionally eaten in Ireland on Halloween at least from the 1950s: hazel nuts, walnuts and Brazil nuts (this one not so commonly seen more recently, apparently due to bad harvests attributed to El Nino). Also available would have been almonds, peanuts, and pieces of broken coconut.

In an amusing piece about that contrast between earlier days and now, a social mores commentator in song at the monthly 1916 Performing Arts Club commented on how pleased he was to see children at his door in costumes made from ‘traditional’ black bin-liners.

Until they spoiled it all by chanting “trick or treat”. “Get outa the garden!” was his response.

You can listen to the song on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k-JmfVZ2lw

Kids still go out (usually escorted by adults now) from door to door at Halloween in Ireland, often with elaborate costumes and chanting the UStater-borrowed “trick or treat”.

*A gaggle of kids in what was for many in areas of Dublin a ‘traditional’ Halloween costume but some of course were more elaborate.* (Photo sourced: *Hill Sixteen FB page*)

In clubs or pubs the festival seems to have been taken over by late teens and young (and not-so-young) adults in costumes depicting horror and death and, for mostly women it must be said, also sexual allure.

And strange though it might seem, the festival was originally primarily for adults and was an occasion of blessing of kine, divination and at least in recorded history, of “mummers” and “guising” going door to door, performing and begging for donations.

‘BARMBRACK’ IN LONDON

In SE London, I was for some years involved in organising an annual Irish Children’s Halloween Party as part of the annual activities of the Lewisham branch of the Irish in Britain Representation Group.

The event was primarily for the benefit of children of the Irish diaspora but children of any other background were welcome to attend.

A local shop selling fresh fruit and vegetables was approached for a donation of fruit and nuts to which they agreed and of course were thanked publicly by word and in print. The local print media were invited to take photos.

The program for the day included street games (but indoors), Halloween activities including apple-bobbing, face-painting and food that would have been traditional for Irish Halloween parties.

Funds raised by the branch through the year bought Irish brand biscuits, Cidona and red lemonade from a shop supplying Irish food items in South London and of course included the ‘barmbrack’.

The children on the day were largely from Irish, Caribbean or mixed background.

As I doled out slices of ‘barmbrack’ to children sitting at the long table, recommending it as traditionally Irish, one Caribbean-seeming child turned to the other and began: “It’s like …” “bun-and-cheese!” finished the other.

This turned out to be a traditional Jamaican food at the other end of the year, at Easter, two slices of a spiced moist ‘brack’ (the “bun”) with a slice of cheese between. They are not as fond of butter in the Caribbean as are the Irish (not many people are) and so that is absent.

One day I decided to try a slice of buttered (of course) ‘barmbrack’ with a slice of cheese on top. The sweetness and slightly spicy taste of the ‘brack’ contrasted with the tart taste of the cheese. And do you know? It’s not at all bad.

End.

DUBLIN RALLY HONOURS THE MARTYRED PALESTINE RESISTANCE LEADER

On October 21, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Event Report, Indigenous or Original People, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, US Imperialism, ZionismLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

People with Palestinian flags including one containing a slogan in Irish, flags of Palestinian resistance factions and holding portraits of Ismail Haniyeh and Nasrallah rallied on Sunday evening outside Dublin’s General Post Office.

The Action for Palestine organisation had advertised the solidarity and honouring event at short notice. Originally planned to take place on O’Connell Bridge, the storm conditions¹ made that venue unsuitable and the GPO² was chosen as an appropriate alternative.

Calling and replying to solidarity chants, the crowd of Irish people and others from the Middle East also listened to four speakers, two Irish and two Palestinian, while two plain-clothes Special Branch Gardaí photographed them from east side of the street.

One passing Zionist sympathiser insulted the gathering, giving rise to a wave of chants in solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance. On the other hand, many pedestrian passers-by congratulated demonstrators and some stopped to join or pressed horns on their vehicles.

The speakers referred to the horrors of the genocide being inflicted upon the Palestinian people in particular in North Gaza³ at this time by the IOF, the armed forces of the Zionist state, backed up and supplied by the USA and a number of European states.

They spoke also to praise the resistance of all kinds of the Palestinian people, including armed resistance and at all levels up to leadership, who are assassinated and replaced, always under threat of death.

One speaker also spoke about the need to also support the resistance struggles and the prisoners as a result of resistance too. “It is not required of us that we agree with everything they say or do but it is required of us that we support the resistance”, he said.

Among the slogans chanted were Long live the Intifada! There is only one solution – intifada revolution! From the River to the Sea – Palestine will be free! Resistance is an obligation – in the face of occupation! Saoirse – don Phalaistín!

From Ireland to Palestine – Occupation is a crime! From the Sea to the River – Palestine will live forever! In our thousands, in our millions – we are all Palestinians! Free, free Palestine! Netanyahu you can’t hide – you’re committing genocide! (Repeated also for Joe Biden).

A speaker also reminded the crowd of the long resistance to occupation of the Irish people, against Vikings and English occupation and the need to support the resistance of people around the world. “Resistance is everything”, he said and referred to the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.

To conclude an organiser thanked all for their attendance at short notice and promised other actions in future, then encouraged those who wished to gather for a photo in front of the statue to “our hero in Irish myth, Cú Chullainn”,⁴ which stands in the central front window of the GPO building.⁵

*Some gathered for a photo in front of the representation of the Irish mythological hero Cú Chulainn statue in the display window of the GPO.* (Photo sourced: *Action For Palestine*)

While they were doing so, another reminded them that in the epic legend, Cú Chulainn’s enemies dared not approach him while he was alive and only finally did so when they saw a carrion crow or raven alight on his shoulder to reassure them that he was dead.

“Yahya Sinwar’s enemies did not face him while he was alive either. They fired a tank shell into the building where they believed the fighters were, retreating when grenades were tossed at them, firing another shell into the building and even then only dared send a spy drone in.

“When they saw on their monitor the badly-injured Sinwar throw a stick at the drone, they fired yet another shell into the building, finally killing him.”

End.

*View of the Cú Chullainn statue in the GPO window on a working day* (Photo cred: *Cambridge University*)

Far distant from any kind of heroism or solidarity, two plainclothes members of the political police, the Special Branch of the Gardaí, surveilling the participants. (Photo cred: *Rebel Breeze*)

Footnotes

1Storm Yellow level https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41499104.html

2Also a central location, i.e on Dublin’s main city centre street but also the HQ of the 1916 Rising against British rule.

3Some Palestinian commentators have called this phase the worst of all in the intensified genocide since October last year. Constant aerial strikes on buildings and tent encampments, shooting at people, besieging hospitals and blocking food or fuel from entering and constantly insisting that the people move out in ethnically cleansing.

4The hero is a central figure in the epic of the Táin Bó Cuailgne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), along with back and after-stories, in the Ulster Cycle of Irish myths and legends. The sculpture, cast in bronze, is by Oliver Sheppard.

5The sculpture by Oliver Sheppard was later dedicated to the martyrs of the 1916 Rising.

ECHOES FROM SHANNON: “SOVEREIGNTY FOR IRELAND NOW!”

On October 15, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Genocide, Human Rights, Imperialism, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political AnalysisLeave a comment

Róisín Nic Ghiolla Ír

(Reading time: 4 mins.)

On Saturday 12th October, thousands of people descended on Shannon Airport^¹ in an organic action to protest our land and airspace being used in the transport of U.S. munitions bound for Zionist Israel.

Demonstrators arriving in buses and cars were immediately met with Garda pushback at checkpoints about 2 kilometres from the entrance of Shannon Airport.

The diverted protestors were led down side roads and cul-de-sacs away from the mini roundabout area where regular anti-war protests occur. Such diversions epitomise government strategy perfectly: Divert. Distract. Divide.

The protestors were met with a hostile environment of steel barriers erected to separate and divide them upon entering the airport from all directions.

The weather was not so unkind, as the sun emerged around noon in time for the beat of the drums striking up an atmosphere of resistance and bold defiance.

*Drums, placards, flags and chants at Shannon Airport Saturday* (Photo source: *Participant*)

As the crowd descended, the silence was broken by Social Rights Ireland with a number of speeches given addressing Ireland’s connection with Palestine’s struggle for liberation, whilst our banners, “Break the Chains of Zionism” and “Sovereignty for Ireland NOW!” acted as a backdrop.

Various chants ensued, such as, “From Ireland to Palestine, occupation is a crime!”, “Resistance is an obligation in the face of occupation!” and “Saoirse don Phalastín!” Overall, the protest was peaceful and lasted several hours.

Two arrests were made under Section 6 of the Public Order Act following some pushing at barriers where protestors were gathered.

As we know, genocide has been ripping through Palestine, devastating an entire population. Reports of the most brutal and dehumanising acts have forced people of conscience from all corners of the earth to confront the questions: how can this happen?

Why is no government or institution able to stop this Zionist terrorism?

For the first time in human history, a government has openly declared and is conducting a live-streamed genocide. This government also claims it is civilised, democratic and an upholder of human rights.

What started as a war of displacement has turned into a war of total obliteration. Meanwhile, the Irish people look on aghast, lost for words and running out of ideas as to how to make it stop.

The Free State^² watches too, unwilling to act but feigning concern and placating the masses with saccharine-coated words and vacuous gestures.

On the 9th October 2024, Fine Gael blueshirt,^³ Simon Harris^⁴ declared, “I think the world in general has failed the children of Gaza,” speaking in abstraction as if he is indeed not “part of the world”.

Not only is this an expression of abdication of responsibility, this admission to the people of Ireland confirms that he knows he is indeed powerless, a mere subject of his U.S. imperialist masters. Whether most Irish voters realise this, is debatable.

Allowing U.S. weapons to pass through our civilian airport, while claiming to be a neutral country and letting on to be concerned about the children of Gaza, is not simply an example of Fine Gael’s hypocrisy or gaslighting.

It is also blatant testimony to Harris’s and the state’s complete unwillingness to cut any ties with the U.S. Today the Free State is a tool of the Zionist ruler, it cannot fathom a future that is not connected to U.S. imperialism.

It is important for the Palestinian solidarity movement to not confuse solidarity and sovereignty.

How can Irish voters fully and genuinely express solidarity with the oppressed and work hand in hand with the oppressor? How can Irish voters call for an end to genocide whilst continuing business as usual?

How can politicians feast with genociders and sympathise with the starving?

Those who understand how oppression works know instinctively that hypocrisy is inbuilt to the psyche of politicians and the ruling class. The idea that politicians or the ruling class can be appealed to is pointless.

The façade of Western democracy has completely unravelled. European values have been dismantled and replaced by E.U. interests best illustrated in the rise of Zionist leaders such as Ursula von der Liar and fascist governments across the E.U.

Anti-genocide protestors must stop trusting, appealing to, working with or appeasing the oppressor, be that Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Green fascist Party, or indeed, so-called opposition parties on the neo-liberal Left.

While those who descended on Shannon had a common, collective demand for the government to STOP THE PLANES! STOP THE BOMBS! what is still missing from our collective conversation is the topic of Ireland’s sovereignty.

To question WHY the U.S. or indeed the British forces can use our land, sea and air ports is of vital importance. Socialist Republicans understand that only a 32-county socialist workers’ republic can be truly sovereign, free from the chains of imperialism, free from Zionism.

We know Ireland’s long history of oppression. We know occupation, dispossession and genocide. We know what displacement means and being stripped of our land, our resources, our mother tongue.

However, the slow erosion of our identity as a people through persecution, plantation, genocide, occupation and pacification is not always grasped by the Irish population following the successful assimilation process which still has a tight grip on our people.

This process is mediated through a pervasive neo-colonial mindset which continues to infect many in our places of work, education and society more generally.

Yes, since October 2023, the Irish people have turned their outrage in action, mobilising in local communities and workplaces to take a stand against genocide.

Yes, many have applied pressure to the government via petitions, rallies and calls to support bills in government that they believe will effect change.

In response, the Irish government agreed to recognise the state of Palestine, but of course, this action means nothing for the people in Palestine who continue to be bombed, brutalised and slaughtered. But nothing tangible has happened.

If anything, the situation grows worse as the threat of nuclear confrontation becomes imminent.

Trying to quell the rising anger on the streets, the Free State government has attempted to placate Irish voters by deceiving them in the run up to election time.

Real action begins with expelling the Zionist Ambassador from Ireland. Real action begins with stopping U.S. war planes from using our airports. The Free State’s social control mechanism via its fake support for Palestine may fool some voters and placate neo-liberals, just in time for the general election.

In the words of Connolly,^⁵ “Yes, ruling by fooling is a great British art – with great Irish fools to practice on.”

*Section of the protest at Shannon Airport on Saturday* (Photo cred: *Mostafa DarwishAnadolu via Getty Images*).

End.

Footnotes

1Located in Co. Clare in the west of Ireland, one of two international airports in the Irish state and has been the target of protests over the years due to documented cases of US military planes landing and taking off from there and Irish Government refusal to inspect alleged non-military US planes for military personnel, materials or indeed prisoners subject to ‘extraordinary rendition’ to CIA dark sites in client states.

2This was the name the neo-colonial state adopted when it was formed in 1921 and the name stuck particularly among the abandoned nationalist population of the occupied Six Counties colony.

3A pejorative term for Fine Gael, recalling its founding from a coalition of three parties, one of which was the fascist Army Comrades Association, commonly known as the ‘Blueshirts’ which described a part of their uniform.

4Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of the current 3-party coalition government of the Irish state: Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

5James Connolly, revolutionary socialist worker intellectual, historian, journalist, song-writer and trade union organiser, born and raised in Edinburgh, one of the Seven Signatories of the 1916 Proclamation of Irish Independence and Dublin Commandant of the Rising, executed along with the other signatories after the surrender of the Rising in Moore Street.

Further information

Take a look at Social Rights Ireland 🇮🇪 🇵🇸 (@SocialRightsIRL): https://x.com/SocialRightsIRL?t=kHRYLef3m64BX-x2MfPwBw&s=08

ORGANISERS CLAIM 25,000 ON PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MARCH IN DUBLIN

On September 10, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Israeli Zionism, Massacres, Middle East, National Liberation, Palestine, Political Analysis, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

The national demonstration called by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign for 31^st August began at the Garden of Remembrance and, traversing the city’s main boulevard, crossed the river to rally across from Leinster House, the Irish Parliament.

Having a weekly Saturday commitment until 1.30 and the IPSC march start advertised for 1pm, I had to run to catch it up as it marched away up O’Connell Street. I hurried alongside it to try to reach the front but failed to do so before I had to stop and fly the flag with comrades.

*Having to run to catch up with the demonstration after an earlier weekly commitment.* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Looking back southward from O’Connell Bridge I could see the march stretching back along part of O’Connell Street while ahead I could see the front of the march winding along the outside of the Trinity College entrance.

Since early October last year, the IPSC and others have organised Palestine solidarity marches at least every second week through different parts of the city, mostly to Government offices and the Parliament. Similar events have also taken place across the land.

There have also been pickets of Zionist-friendly businesses and motorway bridge flag and banner drops, weekly roadside pickets in addition to building occupations and university protest/solidarity encampments.

*This community solidarity banner may be seen every Thursday evening in four different areas of North Dublin (but for some reason the IPSC does not include it in its weekly list of events).* (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

Meanwhile, in Palestine the Zionist genocide grinds on unabated through bombing, ground attack, starvation and disease, along with torture of prisoners, destruction of infrastructure, including buildings, while the Resistance fights back with their missile launchers, guns and explosives.

While the fluid tactics of the Resistance are appropriate to the genocidal and well-armoured enemy, we must ask ourselves whether ours are too. Marches are important in showing numbers and in increasing the feeling of wider participation among individuals and small groups of friends.

However the demonstrations are not moving the Government, much less the State, not even to bring forward the agreed Occupied Territories Bill, much less keeping Irish state airspace free of genocidal collusion.

Targeted direct action seems more likely to exert the necessary pressure, as was the case with Axa Insurance, where regular pickets and some occupations resulted in its divestment from ‘Israeli’ banks. University protest encampments also scored some successes.

But where are their trade unions? (Photo: *D.Breatnach*)

There are other possibly suitable targets of protest in terms of assistance to the Resistance. Is the Irish Red Cross fulfilling its duty in seeking access to Palestinian prisoners being tortured and starved? Are ‘Israeli’ imports being blocked?

Quite possibly other kinds of organisation are necessary to discuss, plan and lead these kinds of processes and indeed it was such sprung-up organisations that led those direct action events. Perhaps it is wrong to expect and organisation like the IPSC to lead them.

But is it wrong to think that the IPSC should advertise or at the very least tolerate such actions and not discourage them? Or even more, not warn people off from supporting such groups?

Watching IPSC stewards shepherding people to clear the Molesworth Street from Dawson Street to the junction, even when they are packed solid from there to the rally across the road from Leinster House sometimes looks as though they see themselves as policing the march — and the movement.

Those who want that road cleared are the police but a) that is their concern and b) the demonstration is on the road which it has a right to be and traffic will just have to avoid it.

We don’t have to work against one another. If the IPSC doesn’t want to lead some kinds of actions, they don’t have to. And if others want to do things the IPSC doesn’t, then they can. But no-one has the right to be the police within the movement, much less restrict development.

End.

*Aerial view of the march crossing O’Connell Bridge and the numbers all the way back to the Garden of Remembrance.* (Photo sourced: *IPSC Facebook*)

PICKETING THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IN DUBLIN

On August 23, 2024August 25, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Current Affairs Comment, Current Event Report, Internationalist Solidarity, Ireland, Middle East, National Liberation, Political Analysis, Political Prisoners, Popular ResistanceLeave a comment

Clive Sulish

(Reading time: 3 mins.)

The Palestinian Authority had a small protest against it in Dublin on the afternoon of Friday 23rd August 2024. This seems to be the first protest that has taken place outside the Palestinian Embassy at 66 Lower Leeson Street.

It would perhaps have been the first protest against the PA in Ireland, were it not for the Palestinian solidarity activists who attempted to convey the Palestinian reality in contrast to the Ambassador’s speech at a public meeting in Belfast in February, before being evicted by Sinn Féin supporters.

Palestinian solidarity activists protesting the Palestinian Authority and Embassy?

At first sight that seems bizarre but as some solidarity activists and most people of Middle Eastern origin know, the PA is not only widely considered unrepresentative and corrupt – and in fact has not held elections since 2006 – but also represses protests in the West Bank against ‘Israel’.

However, the Ireland Anti-Internment Campaign says that its main purpose in calling the protest was to raise awareness of the harm the PA is doing to the Palestinian Resistance, in arresting Resistance fighters and disrupting resistance defence against ‘Israeli’ army incursions.

*Photo of placard being displayed outside the Palestine Embassy today.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

The IAIC’s leaflet handed out at the event points out that the PA’s security force shot and wounded and even killed Resistance fighters, also attempting to enter hospital in force to arrest fighters on two occasions recently, their attempts being frustrated by large mobilisations.

Could a picket on the Palestinian Authority and its Embassy be considered divisive? “Not with justification,” replied an IAIC spokesperson. “It’s the actions of the PA that are divisive. We are supporting the broad resistance there, not one faction or another.”

He points out – as did their leaflet – that 14 Resistance factions including Fatah met in Beijing recently and agreed that the Palestinians have a right to resist, including with weapons and called for unity of all the resistance organisations. “The PA is acting against that unity”, he said.

But why is it that the IAIC called this protest and not one of the Palestinian solidarity organisations? “You’d need to ask them that,” says the spokesperson. “We regularly fly a Palestinian flag on our anti-internment in Ireland pickets; the PA was overdue to be done but nobody else was doing it.”

The IAIC was founded a decade ago to raise awareness about ongoing internment of Irish Republican activists by revoking ex-prisoners’ licence and through refusal of bail by special no-jury courts. In those cases it can take two years for a case to come to trial.

However the IAIC has organised or participated in other events also, such as those around framed prisoners like the Craigavon Two in the Six Counties and the Munir family in England. It has also called two of its pickets since October 2024 to specifically highlight Palestinian prisoners.

Will the group be regularly picketing the Palestinian Authority now? “Probably not. It’s not what we were set up for but we felt the ice needed breaking on this. Others need to step forward now,” replied their spokesperson, though signalling that they would support others in doing it.

*Photo of copy of the leaflet being distributed outside the Palestine Embassy today.* (Photo: *R.Breeze*)

It is probable that a representative of the PA will be welcomed soon by the Irish Government as part of its recognition of the ‘Palestinian State’. One wonders how this reception of a corrupt and Occupation-collusive organisation will be mediated in the Palestinian solidarity sector in Ireland.

The Governments of the EU, including Ireland’s, formally recognise the PA but not only that – so does Sinn Féin in Ireland, EH Bildu in the Basque Country and Esquerra Republicana in Catalonia. This corresponds across the board also to support for ‘the Two-State Solution’ (sic).

What that entails is allocating the Palestinians less than 20% of their homeland weaving around illegal zionist settlements, with least water and some of the worst land, under the permanent watchtowers and guns of their genocidal neighbour.

Organisations and individuals within the broad Palestinian solidarity movement will need to decide exactly what their solidarity with Palestine actually means, especially for the Palestinians themselves.

End.

Reference

Ireland Anti-Internment Campaign: https://www.facebook.com/p/Ireland-Anti-Internment-Campaign-100063166633467/

ELECTORAL DYSFUNCTION ANXIETY

On June 17, 2024June 18, 2024 By rebelbreezeIn Cartoon, Cartoon comment, Current Affairs Comment, Ireland, Socialist RevolutionLeave a comment

Diarmuid Breatnach

(Reading time: 5 mins.)

Like that similar-sounding ailment affecting some males, most of us are not rising, at least not to the expectations of the electoral commission. Furthermore the problem appears to be no respecter of gender.

The issue, according to the Independent Electoral Commission, is that not enough of us are voting in elections. Only 49% turned out to vote in the Irish local (municipal) and European Parliament elections which means that more than half of registered voting age didn’t bother.

Well, so what? Why is that is troubling the IEC? It seems that generally, the authorities like to see a good turnout because it appears to signify that people believe that they really have a democratic choice through the electoral system and are actually exercising it.

If they don’t believe that they have a choice – or if the appearance of choice is not matched by the reality they perceive, the people might turn to other methods of deciding how the country should be run. And that might result in an outcome unwelcome to the ruling elite.

THE TWEEDLES

The Tweedledum and Tweedledee parties appear to give the electorate alternatives and though whichever party wins the capitalist system remains, it appears to give a choice – but a bet choosing between two horses of the same owner in a two-horse race.

Like both Tweedles in the folk nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass (1871), Tweedledum and Tweedledee are brothers and though they appear to be preparing for war with one another, they don’t actually fight, not in Western ‘democracies’.

*Tweedledum and Tweedledee (or is it the other way around?).* (Image sourced: Internet)

There are, after all, plenty of spoils to share between their masters. The creators of that wealth need to be controlled, fooled and, if necessary from time to time, repressed. “Red” social democrats and “Blue” conservatives have alternated to share power in the Western world for over a century.

In Ireland, the only European state which is a neo-colony and part of its land a direct colony, its national liberation unfinished, the Tweedles have been blue or green.

But for decades now the illusion of choice has been crumbling. There has not been a majority party government in Ireland since 1981, when Irish Republicans were elected during the hunger-strike campaign. All Irish governments since have been a coalition of one kind or another.

The Irish Labour Party, founded by Connolly and Larkin and far from their thinking for many a long year, has been in government a number of times but always in coalition – usually with the conservative Fine Gael, itself the product of a coalition that included the fascist Blueshirts.

Those years of government participation for Labour have thoroughly rubbed off the red paint of socialist opposition from the party. The Green Party, mixing a brand of concerns for the environment with those for society, has met a similar fate in coalitions.

Since 2020 the Irish state has had what is essentially a ‘national government’, a coalition of opposing parties normally only seen in times of war or under a fascist regime. The alleged political poles have joined in order to run the system for the Gombeen ruling class.

Though this gives stability for the Gombeen’s system their problem is that it has removed the illusion of choice. They might restore that illusion through the promotion of a third major party in opposition and the formerly revolutionary Sinn Féin has worked hard to fill that space.

In the 2019 General Election SF got the most representatives elected but insufficient to form a majority government, after which the Tweedles united, along with the Greens to make up the numbers to manage the State. But the Gombeens will hold SF in reserve, I’m thinking.

Harris of Fine Gael and Taoiseach (equivalent of Prime Minister) of the Coalition Government, commented on the closeness of his party and former Opposition party Fianna Fáil in votes, predicting “a Government of equals”¹– but it’s not just in votes that they resemble one another.

*Yes, I know I misspelled Government but I want to get this article out of the way. I’ll redo the cartoon sometime later and replace it.*

RESULTS

I don’t think there is a great deal to be said about the actual results of the recent local and EU Parliamentary elections in Ireland but no doubt some commentators will be saying it anyway.

Of unwelcome interest is that five fascists of different groups got elected, three of them to Dublin City Council. The electoral Left lost some and gained some without big changes.

Independent socialists (and couple) Clare Daly and Mick Wallace both lost their EU seats but perhaps they and in particular Daly in Ireland would be more of an asset to the Left. Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan in Midlands North West, another left Independent, kept his EU seat comparatively easily.

Sinn Féin had what was for them a disappointing run but had some new people elected to local councils and two seats in the EU Parliament, losing an existing one. Many of their enemies in the Republican ambit, often former comrades, rejoiced in their misfortunes.

Understandable though that may be one wonders how those who have some faith in the party at the moment are to be disabused of their illusions without having seen them in government. On the other hand their twists and turns on the road there may have disenchanted many already.

IT’S NOT A CHANGE OF PARTIES IN GOVERNMENT WE NEED

For most of my life I have been aware that it is not a change between political parties but between socio-political systems that is the issue. But I do vote sometimes in order to help keep a useful and decent voice in a parliament or a local authority.

An Irish community activist pensioner years ago in London, Co. Galway Teresa Burke, was a member of the British Labour Party. After a General Election, she asked me had I voted. I replied that I hadn’t; I’d not seen a candidate that stood anywhere close to that in which I believed.

“Well then, you must take responsibility for everything the Tories do if they get in!” Teresa remarked angrily.

“I’ll do that, Teresa,” I replied, “if you’ll take responsibility for everything Labour does in Ireland if they get in!”

Teresa’s lips twitched slightly. She knew as well as did I that the British Labour Party had sent the troops into the Irish colony to quell the struggle for civil rights in 1969 and supported the Tories in introducing internment in 1971 and massacres that year and in 1972.

In 1974 police under a Labour Government had killed the first anti-fascist on a demonstration,² framed a score of Irish people in four separate cases for heavy jail sentences³ and had passed the fascist Prevention of Terrorism (sic) Act.

Whichever party is in government, the social-political-economic system is run by the capitalist class which it benefits and they will fight tooth and nail to maintain that system.

The alternative-party-within-the-system idea, so dear to social democrats, has failed time and time again. It betrayed its supporters by becoming like what it opposed, or consistently failed to get elected or was undermined, betrayed and destroyed, like Syriza in Greece, for example.

But in the unlikely event that route should ever show signs of being successful, for the ruling class there remains the military coup.⁴

end.

FOOTNOTES

1 https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/election-results-raise-prospect-of-another-coalition-of-equals-varadkar-1638692.html

2Kevin Gately, son of Irish immigrants, a student at Leeds University, died from injuries received from a mounted police baton during an antifascist demonstration in Red Lion Square, London on 15^th June 1974.

3The Guildford Four, Birmingham Six, Maguire Seven, Judith Ward.

4The serialised for TV A Very British Coup (1988) with Irish actor Ray McAnally from the Chris Mullins novel (1982) is well worth watching for this scenario.

SOURCES

https://www.thejournal.ie/irelands-voter-turnout-is-below-eu-averages-6299507-Feb2024/

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/election-turnout-6409113-Jun2024/

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

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/election-results-raise-prospect-of-another-coalition-of-equals-varadkar-1638692.html