Human beings can be amazing and none more so than the Palestinians. Dr. Munir Al-Bursh Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza released the following short statement, posted by Resistance News Network on Telegram today. Diarmuid Breatnach.
One thousand days was not just a number on the calendar, but 1,000 days of torment, pages of pain, and stories that were never written.
1,000 days of loss and betrayal, and the worst betrayal is the betrayal of kin. Humanity has stripped itself of its humanity in these days.
Cartoon by D.Breatnach from September 2024 (’04 is an error) and still true today.
Killing children has become fleeting breaking news, bombing hospitals a recurring scene, starving civilians a method of war, and preventing medicine, water, and food a matter discussed without shame.
Since the agreement, more than 1,000 martyrs have been killed, most of them children and women.
We are living through a suffocating medicine crisis; more than 52% of medicines are missing, and more than 59% of medical supplies are missing.
The citizen can no longer find a drink of clean water. The occupation began with killing, and now it kills silently.
Gaza has taught me that victory is only born from the womb of patience, and that peoples who believe in their right cannot be defeated by any power, no matter how intense the siege and how great the sacrifices.
Gaza has taught me that starvation, thirst, bombing, burning, displacement, and forced removal are but tools of helplessness before a people who loved freedom and believed that dignity cannot be bought or sold.
Gaza has taught me that homes may be demolished, hospitals destroyed, and schools bombed, but the will that dwells in hearts cannot be buried under the rubble.
Gaza has taught me that a doctor may treat a wound while bleeding, a paramedic may carry the martyrs while waiting for his turn, and a journalist may write the truth with his blood before his pen.
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director General Gaza Health Ministry. (Photo source: Resistance News Network on Telegram).
Gaza has taught me that all conspiracies break before the unity and steadfastness of the people, and that the most dangerous thing the enemies want is for us to be divided, while the greatest thing we possess is to remain one front.
Gaza has taught me that the world may be silent, the law may fail, and justice may be delayed, but the truth does not die, the rights of peoples do not lapse, and history does not show mercy to those who witnessed the crime and chose silence.
end.
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The operations of Hizbollah in defence of South Lebanon against the IOF, the most powerful military power in the region, have been epic enough. But now the ‘Israeli’ military fear their commanders are being specifically targeted by the Resistance.1
It may be unlucky coincidence that two commanders have been seriously wounded and one killed in a matter of weeks but the High Command of the Zionist army don’t think so, according to media in the Zionist entity, speculating instead ofn high level Hizbollah intelligence to target IOF commanders.
On Saturday/ Sunday night the Deputy Commander of the Commando Brigade’s Maglan unit was among 13 IOF injured by a Resistance drone strike and one killed.2OnFriday Lt. Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Armored Brigade, was killed.3
Three members of Ben Simhon’s crew were killed with him after their tank was struck during operations near Kfar Tebnit in South Lebanon. The 52nd Battalion is the unit implicated in the killing of 6-year-old Hind Rajab while she called for help after the killing of six family members.4
Northern Command’s Major-General Rafi Milo had a very lucky escape when his car was hit by an explosive drone minutes after he had left it in South Lebanon.5
Of course, assassinations are and have been a regular part of the offensive package of the IOF – not only assassination of military leaders but also civilian administrators, technicians, first responders, news reporters, writers, artists and poets. But the IOF are unaccustomed to being paid in kind.
It won’t be in kind from Hizbollah, for the Lebanese Resistance is hitting tanks, armoured troop carriers, military personnel and, when they killed an ‘Israeli’ civilian and injured his son, the man was driving an earth remover for the military, demolishing South Lebanese homes not yet bombed level.6
Hizbollah has been carrying out around 30 operations a day against the invading IOF, employing rockets, guided missiles and drones but also IEDs, RPGs and small arms fire. Hardly a day passed without their drones striking at least one Merkava tank, a Namer troop carrier and an earth-moving machine.7
Despite failing militarily, the IOF have killed at least 4,192 people (mostly civilians) in Lebanon since the current round of hostilities began, and displaced more than 1.2 million people, reports the Lebanese health ministry, as the IOF applies its Gaza destruction plan to South Lebanon.
According to a UN report, the IOF completely destroyed 11,095 buildings, affecting 17,891 housing units, while 2,242 buildings were partially damaged, equivalent to 5,219 housing units. The report also revealed that 9,311 buildings sustained minor damage, equivalent to 18,282 housing units.8
D.Breatnach cartoon drawn prior to the 2026 resurgence of February, during previous IOF invasion of South Lebanon, prior to the ‘exploding pagers’ and assassination of Nasrallah
Career progression from entry to NCO ranks in the IOF is largely based on service length rather than merit and for commanders, also based on meeting the requirements of command training school, so it is not easy for them to replace commanders injured or killed in battle.
The greatest damage perhaps will be to the IOF’s morale, already at far from optimum level.8 Personnel know that they will be required to remain on active service longer than normal and that they are outmatched on a level field, while currently the Haredim9 are exempted from service.10
Typically the IOF retreat quickly from contact with the Resistance and call for shelling or bombing but now Hizbollah’s mortars and rockets can bombard them too and thoughts of small explosive-carrying quadcopters appearing out of nowhere to hunt them down is really scaring them.
In some cases an explosive drone has followed running IOF into buildings, in one case into an IOF operations room. A drone targeting a covered IOF Humvee filmed two leaping out the back without attempting to shoot it down, leaving it to explode against the rest in back and against cab at front.
And what if the Resistance really can track commanders in the battle area, determine where they are and strike them down? IOF soldiers will be uncertain and nervous without leaders, (feelings which might be even worse if they are required to spend time close to possibly targeted commanders!).
D.Breatnach cartoon, June 2026
Zionist fragmentation is breaking out inside the Zionist entity with some arguing that the IOF should bomb Beirut, others claiming that the IOF is being held back from effective action in South Lebanon and a third group claiming that the IOF should retreat from Lebanon completely.
And hostility towards what Vice President Vance called their “only powerful ally” and sole superpower in the world currently sympathetic to the Israeli state, has grown hugely among the Zionists as they perceive the US-Iran agreement under current negotiation as shattering their military and expansion illusions.
End.
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10Fundamentalist Orthodox ‘Israeli’ sect who have been exempt from employment and military conscription, though including 10% of ‘Israel’s’ military age males. Their political representatives are part of Netanyahu’s coalition but are calling now for dissolving the Government and new elections, after other parts of the coalition passed an ordinance removing the Haredim exemption from conscription..
It was an Irish Argentinian who erected the “Irish Republic” flag over Dublin’s General Post Office during the 1916 Easter rising: Eamon Bulfin, born in Buenos Aires on 22 September 1892.
The flag in question was painted by Theobald Wolfe Tone Fitzgerald in the home of Constance Markievicz (1868-1927)1 with the words “Irish Republic” in gold or yellow, edged with white on material of a green curtain or bed-covering.
This was the flag later triumphantly displayed upside down by the British in front of the Parnell Monument (of which photographs may be found by search of the Internet).
Eamon BulfinColourised photo of Constance Markievicz in Irish Citizen Army uniform. The ‘Irish Republic’ flag was painted on material in her house and delivered by her to the GPO. The words declared to the world that the national liberation forces were fighting for an independent Republic. (Photo sourced: Internet)
Eamon was the son of William Bulfin (1864-1910) from Birr, King’s County (now Co. Offaly), who emigrated to Argentina at the age of 20 and was a writer and journalist who became editor and proprietor of ‘The Southern Cross’ newspaper. William also helped finance Pádraig Pearse’s Scoil Éanna (St. Enda’s School) which opened in September, 1908.
Bulfin returned to Ireland in 1909 with his wife, Anne O’Rourke, and their children Eamon and Catalina. William’s death in 1910 was a blow to his friend Arthur Griffith and the efforts to launch a Sinn Féin2 daily newspaper.
Eamon was enrolled in St Thomas Aquinas College, Newbridge, before attending St Enda’s School (Scoil Éanna) in Cullenswood, Rathmines, from September 1908 at the age of 17.
He impressed the headmaster and school founder, Patrick Pearse, who noted his aptitude for Irish, French and English,3 though also that he was weak at mathematics.
Bulfin enthusiastically engaged with the ethos of the school, acting in dramas, contributing short stories to the school review, An Macaomh, and captaining the St Enda’s football team in 1909–10.
He was enrolled as a student at St Enda’s until 1910 but remained as a boarder at its new location in Rathfarnham; he became close to the Pearse family. Eamon enrolled in the National University of Ireland in 1911 to study for a science degree.
While at university Bulfin won both Sigerson and Fitzgibbon cups (in football and hurling respectively) on a number of occasions, captaining the National University of Ireland (NUI) football team that won the Sigerson Cup in 1915.
In his 20th year Eamon joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood, being sworn in by Arthur O’Connor and, a year later, in 1913 joined E Company, Fourth Battalion (Rathfarnham) of the newly-formed Irish Volunteers
By 1915 he was involved in organising the volunteers in Dublin and Co. Meath, and in manufacturing munitions and explosives in St Enda’s, which activities continued up to the Easter rising, just prior to which he helped Kathleen Lynn transport these weapons to Liberty Hall.
Bulfin was promoted to the headquarters staff of the volunteers and, mobilised for the 1916 Rising, was under Pearse’s personal command and stationed at the GPO, where he hoisted the “Irish Republic” flag on the roof at the corner with Princes Street.
1916 Artwork in pastels by Edmond Delrenne, a Belgian refugee who had arrived in Ireland in 1914, he drew and coloured the ‘Irish Republic’ flag on the GPO (centre picture). The painting also shows Nelson’s Column, which was blown up in 1966. (Artwork source: Whyte’s)
After the surrender in Moore Street, Eamon Bulfin, as with nearly 100 insurgents was sentenced to death by British military court martial but most sentences (excepting the 15 shot by firing squads in the following days)4 were commuted to periods of prison incarceration in England and Wales.
On March 21, 1917, Eamon Bulfin was deported from jail under Britain’s Aliens Restriction Act of 1914.
The Argentine Government did not want to anger the British Empire, with whom they were already having problems, not the least with their long-standing argument over the sovereignty of Las Malvinas/Falklands.They therefore arrested Eamon Bulfin when he arrived in Buenos Aires and sentenced him to jail for leaving Argentina for the purpose of ‘deserting from military service’.
As Eamon had been a schoolboy when he and his family left for Ireland, the charge was an excuse for the authorities but suspicion of being a communist, which the British gave for his deportation might have been the real reason.
He was conscripted into the Argentine military and served in the army before transferring to the navy, being released after ten months as his mother was a widow, which qualified him for an exemption from military service.
One of two photos of the ‘Irish Republic’ flag being displayed upside down by British soldiers, symbolising the defeat of those who flew it. The site is the base of Parnell’s Monument in Parnell Street with the Rotunda in the background. (Source: Internet)
When Eamon Bulfin was released in 1919, the General Election in Ireland had resulted in an overwhelming victory for Sinn Féin5 which, in accordance with their manifesto, made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence declaring Ireland a republic and set up a parliament in Dublin.
The President of the Irish Republic, Eamon de Valéra wrote to Bulfin in May appointing him the official representative to Argentina. As Irish Consul, Bulfin was to “inaugurate direct trade between Ireland and the Argentine Republic… to co-ordinate Irish opinion in the Argentine, and to bring it into the Irish demand for a republic.”6
Bulfin began work, establishing close contacts with Argentine government officials, Irish Argentine leaders and he launched an Irish Fund to help the cause.
In 1920, during the county council elections, Eamon Bulfin was nominated in his absence for a seat on King’s County Council. He was not only elected but appointed Chairman of the council.
One of the first things the new Council did was to agree that the county’s name be returned to the region’s ancient Irish form of Co. Uí Fáille (anglicised as Offaly). Meetings were conducted with the Chairman’s seat in the council chamber left empty and with a Tricolour draped across it.
In 1922 Eamon Bulfin was finally allowed to return to Ireland where he set up home in his father’s native Derrinlough, Birr, Co. Offaly. He took the Anti-Treaty side in the Civil War and handed over 600 Stg from fund-raising in Argentina.
However the killing of Michael Collins affected him deeply and he stayed out of the Republican forces, telling them that he had refused an officer’s post in the Free State’s National (sic) Army.
On 16 February 1927 Eamon married Nora Brick (Nóra Ní Bríc) of Tralee, a former member of Cumann na mBan, in an Irish language ceremony in Drumcondra, Dublin (his occupation was recorded as a farmer). They had four children: Edward, Jeanne, Blanaid and Michael.
Eamon Bulfin died of a cerebral haemorrhage in the Meath Hospital, Dublin, on 24 December 1968, and was buried in Eglish Cemetery, Co. Offaly.
Remnant of the ‘Irish Republic’ flag in the National Museum of Ireland (Photo: NMI)
His sister, Catalina, also born in Buenos Aires in 1901, had become secretary to Austin Stack (1880-1929). Stack was elected to the Dáil (32-County Irish Parliament) in 1918 and became Minister for Home Affairs from 1920-22.Stack accompanied de Valéra to London for the initial Truce talks but became a leading opponent of the terms agreed by Collins.
Catalina Bulfin married Seán MacBride (1904-1988), born in Paris and his first language French. Sean was the son of John MacBride, executed by the British in 1916 and of Maude Gonne.
Seán McBride is the only Nobel Peace Laureate to have also won the Lenin Prize; he was former IRA Chief of Staff (1936-1937), Irish Minister for External Affairs (1948–‘52) and Secretary of the International Commission of Jurists.
MacBride was a founder member of Amnesty International and Assistant General Secretary of the United Nations. He survived Catalina MacBride by 12 years after she died in 1976, her remains being buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. Some descendant of Eamon Bulfin live in Offaly to this day.
2The Sinn Féin party at the time was an Irish nationalist one advocating a dual monarchy, Irish and British.
3And no doubt Spanish too, having been reared in Argentina, a language acquisition that probably helped with the acquisition of Irish and French, which have a great number of similarities in structure.
4And the sixteenth execution was of Roger Casement, by hanging in London.
5Then a reformed and much-expanded party with a Republican constitution.
6 Kennedy, Michael and Joseph Morrison Skelly (eds). Irish Foreign Policy: 1919-1966 From Independence to Internationalism. Four Courts Press: England 2000, p.45. (Quoted in the Wikipedia entry on Eamon Bulfin)
A group mainly of relatives of the deceased are seeking an official inquiry into the Chinook helicopter crash at the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland in 1994 killing 25 intelligence experts and four special forces crew on their way to a conference.
The crash wiped out almost all the top officers in command of intelligence gathering and operations in the occupied Six counties of Ireland from MI5, Army, RUC Special Branch and state Security Service.
Photo of the crashed Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre 1994. (Photo: Sky News)
The first crash inquiry failed to confirm pilot error which was then overruled by State reviewers who blamed the pilots on the basis of supposition without any evidence. After campaigning by a number of people including families of the deceased pilots, a 2011 inquiry exonerated the pilots.
The current campaign wants to focus on questions as to the reliability of the aircraft but an alternative and darker interpretation developed at the time, alleging that the different departments of British spooks, MI5 and MI6 had a fatal falling out over territory and policy.1
The remit of MI5 is of domestic ‘UK’ matters while that of MI6 is external. However, the Six Counties, though being under the rule of the UK, was also geographically part of a foreign country, Ireland — and the Irish State, just across the border, a government foreign to the UK.
In addition, the Republican armed resistance groups frequently had contacts abroad and many people with connections to other resistance organisations in the world; both parts of Ireland were visited by representatives along with many media agencies in the pursuit of their reporting work.
Whereas a resort to assassination as a result of rivalry or difference in objectives between different arms of a state’s security service is no doubt extreme, the existence of the rivalry itself is quite likely and the stakes in terms of funding, staffing and operational management can be high.
If the rivals are working towards opposing ends, that will raise the stakes much higher. The secrecy of the State’s reaction to the event did nothing to dispel such theories and the mismanaged attempt to blame the pilots only lent added credence to such suspicions and belief.
The fact of the collusion of British secret service with Loyalist murder squads in the 6-Counties colony is well known and has been documented by a number of investigations. Such collusion from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, especially its Special Branch, is well known too.2
Quite a few familiar with the British colonial security forces in the Six Counties believe that there was an ‘inner force’ inside the RUC with the support of MI5 and British Army Intelligence, all colluding with or even managing assassinations and Loyalist sectarian murder gangs.
The British ruling class had set their sights on achieving the cooperation of the Provisionals in a pacification process and MI6 was in favour of this initiative. It is posited that MI5, the Inner Force inside RUC and Army Intelligence opposed this, believing that they could defeat the IRA.
It was the clash of these radically different approaches (albeit with the same ultimate objective of ending Republican armed resistance) that is believed by some to have culminated in the assassination of the anti-pacification section in the Mull of Kintyre crash.
We may never know for certain and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sealed key files relating to the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash for 100 years, locking them away until 2094
‘HEROES’?
Sorcha Eastwood calls those who died ‘heroes’,3 confirming herself and the Alliance political party she represents as on the side of British colonialism and its violent repression of Irish resistance, repression in the forms of internment, no-jury trials, assassinations and sectarian murders.
Those features are the reality of colonial repression and were very much in evidence in the colonial war of three decades which was approaching an end at the time of the crash.
The leadership of the Provisionals had accepted that although they could not be beaten, nor could they win the war4 and so were ready to participate in a pacification process.
British Intelligence had compromised or recruited elements of that leadership at highest and medium levels and had targeted assassinations of the less malleable individuals.5 The leadership was heading for the process culminating in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
Up to 3,500 people had died violent deaths 1969-1994 as the hands of of British military, colonial police, colonial proxies and Irish Republican resistance.
There were no tears shed for the dead at Mull of Kintyre among the subjected population of the colonial entity nor in many quarters of the Irish community at home or abroad and resistance culture soon produced a dark mocking parody to the air of Paul McCartney’s ‘Mull of Kintyre’ song.6
Confirmed assassination and suspicious deaths by aircraft crash are not unknown, among UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s 1961 plane crash on his way to negotiate peace in the Congo,7 General Zia-ul-Haq8 and commander of Russian mercenary force Yevgeni Prigozhin.9
end.
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1What is more often but inaccurately called ‘the Irish peace process’; inaccurate because it was not designed to address the underlying reasons for the conflict and approaching three decades later has not done so. It resulted in The Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998.
2See for example the Stevens Inquiries, Barron Tribunal, Dirty War by Martin Dillona (1990), also Lethal Allies (2013) by Anne Cadwallader.
4The war against a major imperialist power was concentrated in a territory one-sixth of Ireland and with a population divided along sectarian lines.
5See the cases of Denis Donaldson and Scappaticci (British Intelligence code name Stakeknife) for example and there are well-founded suspicions of a number of others that were never publicly exposed. See also the elimination of Volunteers Jim Lynagh and Padraig McKearney and their unit in the Loughgall Ambush/ Massacre.
6‘Mull of Kintyre, oh Brits falling into the sea’ etc
Two famous people addressed a crowd outside Leinster House, home of the Parliament of the Irish State on 25th May. Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian scholar, had forged a remarkable friendship.
Section of participants in the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Bassam Aramin, now a Palestinian scholar, had been sentenced to a 7-year term of imprisonment for throwing a grenade at Israeli soldiers when he was 17 and had lost his daughter later to a plastic bullet fired at short distance by an IOF soldier.
Rami Elhanan, an Israeli graphic designer, had also lost his daughter Smada but to a suicide bomber in 1997. Both men became advocates of peace and dialogue and friends to one another.
Their audience was the weekly Dubs for Palestine gathering outside Leinster House on Wednesdays 12 noon to about 1.00 pm, with speeches, songs and poetry and David Hickey as MC. This week’s was the 113th such weekly gathering and the duo had been invited to speak.
The broad group has of late been concentrating on parting the Gaelic Athletic Association1 from its sponsor and insurance underwriter, the former Nazi and since Zionist-friendly Allianz company, along with now campaigning for the Irish soccer team not to play the ‘Israeli’ team.
Rami Elhanan (L-R) and Basam Araminaddressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Rami Elhanan referenced his descent from Holocaust survivors and outlined the different living standards of the Palestinian and Israeli Jewish communities, commenting on the sickness in Israeli society, that they did not want to know what is being done in their name to the Palestinians.
Basam Aramin’s contribution was against the Occupation and claimed that without that, Palestinians and Israelis could live in peace (it was not clear whether he was referring to the ‘Two State’ proposal2). David Hickey, the MC of the group presented them with an Arum Lily each.3
After their speeches had been applauded, they were asked to comment on the recent Leinster House debate and the Government’s refusal to endorse a boycott of Israel. Rami Elhanan replied that boycotts entrenched opposing sides and that continuing to talk was the answer.
Singer and activist Emma Browne, invited next to the microphone, sang Keep the Little Flame Alive, among the lyrics of which Faye, Dolores, Bernadine, Table grapes and gasoline, Homemade rifles, kitchen knives, Kept the little flame alive riposted the previous speakers.
Soon afterwards, Paul Lynch read a poem of a Palestinian father mourning the killing of his child. Poet and activist Dorothy Collin declared that in order to have peace there must be justice first and that we must support the oppressed in whatever way they choose to resist.
Áine Ruttley reading her poem while addressing the Dubs for Palestine noontime event outside Leinster House 27 May 2026. (Photo: D.Breatnach)
Áine Rutley also upheld our duty of solidarity and the right of the Resistance movement to choose its own methods, as did Jimi Cullen who then performed his own song composition The Freedom Fighter about a fighter from Gaza.
As I was called to the microphone, I commented that my views had already been well expressed in song and speech and that one of the forms of resistance is song, of which we had more than probably any other people in the world and sang An Dord Féinne,4 which is banned in Germany.
A little later the event came to an end with another song from Emma Browne, Never Again Is Now and with group chanting for Palestine, against Allianz and against playing the ‘Israeli’ team.
IN CONCLUSION
It is a popular proposition in certain circles that all social conflicts can be resolved by discussion, by understanding our opponents’ view. It is an attractive idea but flies in the face of history and of contemporary reality.
The interests of Occupied and Occupier are opposed and cannot be reconciled through understanding. The Occupier understands that the Occupied wish to be rid of them. The Occupied do understand that the Occupier wishes to continue appropriating their land and resources.
In this kind of situation one must win and the other lose. Far from understanding leading to peaceful resolution, the more the oppressed understand the nature of their oppressor, the more resolutely they are likely to resist and this is surely true of the Palestinians resisting the Zionist settlers.
The false proposition of resolving irreconcilable interests through discussion is usually of liberal or social-democratic origin when applied to anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and anti-racist struggles and though appearing even-handed, always ends up disempowering the victimised.
The journeys of both these men is extraordinary and interesting but it should not be presented as representative of the Palestinian struggle against Occupation, Theft and Genocide. Each father lost a child but the Palestinian is losing a lot more on top.
Furthermore, a just resolution can only come about through the total defeat of the Zionist forces and the dismantling of their State, so that if we really want that kind of resolution we are called to support the Palestinian side, unequivocally and resolutely.
Of course, in reality there is no question of real peace without justice, for ultimately the oppressed (unless wiped out) will rise in struggle again and again. The proposition of accommodation of opposites by discussion can only undermine or distract the struggle of the oppressed.
We cannot take the story of Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, however remarkable, as even a metaphor for a just resolution nor allow ourselves to be seduced from resistance nor our struggle undermined by it.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1The management of the Gaelic games, including hurling and Gaelic football. The GAA has teams in every one of the 32 counties of Ireland, crossing the colonial border and is the biggest community sports association not only in Ireland but also in Europe and perhaps in the world.
2This proposal came out of the Oslo Accords, to give the Palestinians 20% of their land for peace with the Zionist settlers who would own the remaining 80%. Apart from its basic injustice the proposal was never realistic since Zionist settlers continued to construct settlements on additional land. Despite this, supporting that proposal is the formal position of most western imperialist states and the Irish State and of most parliamentary political parties.
3In Ireland these are often viewed as symbolic of the 1916 Easter Rising.
4Also known as Gráinne Mhaol and Óró Sé Do Bheatha ‘Bhaile, an Irish traditional song of some antiquity refashioned into an Irish resistance song by Patrick Pearse, a martyred leader of the 1916 Rising.
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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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.
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.
A recent arrest in France and concert in Dublin are connected by events in both countries a half-century earlier.1
The arrest in question by French police was on 16 April of Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, for alleged involvement in the 1982 attack on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant in the Marais district of Paris.2
The report of the arrest came less than a week after the Dublin commemoration by concert of another event, also half a century earlier. And strangely, there was a connection between both events.
On 11 April, a concert was held in Vicar Street to commemorate the arrest, torture, framing of three Irish Socialist Republicans and their jailing in 1986.3
Musicians, poets and journalists came together at the event, organised by musician Cormac Breatnach, brother of one of the accused, to commemorate the event and to press for an inquiry into three activists being tortured into making false confessions incriminating themselves.
And into how, despite their retractions and medical evidence of torture, they were then convicted of an event they had not committed. And how the legal system, from the Court of Appeal to the High Court, had all colluded in the injustice.
The trial in Ireland was for the Sallins Mail Train Robbery of 1976. The convicted three were Osgur Breatnach, Nicky Kelly and Brian McNally: Breatnach and Kelly were sentenced in the no-jury Special Criminal Court to 12 years, McNally to nine.
The day before sentence, Nicky Kelly jumped bail but returned nearly two years later when the convictions of Breatnach and McNally were deemed ‘unsafe’ and that their statements had ‘not been made voluntarily’.
However, the State insisted that the time period for registering an appeal had by then been exceeded and it took much campaigning and his own hunger strike before Kelly was finally released, on a Presidential pardon for a crime he had not committed.
A fourth, Mick Plunkett, had stood trial with the three on the same charges but having succeeded in not making a false confession under torture and threats, was finally acquitted. The French connection with the extradition of Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra, is Plunkett’s.
Mick Plunkett4 had decided that, despite his escaping the framing, that the Garda Heavy Gang5 would be out to get him and that a departure to other climes might he healthy. Plunkett settled in France but did not give up his politics.
Photo: Joel Robine/ AFP
The Jo Goldenberg restaurant was subjected to a grenade and firearms attack on 9 August 1982, killing six and injuring 22.
On 28 August that year, Plunkett, Mary Reid and Stephen King (not the novelist) were arrested by a special anti-terrorist unit of the Gendarmerie (perhaps Le Gang Lourd, the Heavy Gang a la Francaise!).
The police claimed that all three were part of a terrorist organisation and that leaflets confirming that had been found in their apartment. And also firearms. All the allegations were vigorously denied by the three Irish activists.
Eventually the case against all three fell apart and they were released with, in time, the Gendarmerie admitting that the evidence against them had been ‘planted’ and the special unit was disbanded.6
One of the acts which the French police had claimed for the organisation of which they had falsely claimed membership of Plunkett, Reid and King was the attack on the Jo Goldberg Restaurant — the same incident for which the French Police have now charged Mahmoud Khader Abed Adra.
The French state got Khader Abed by extradition from Occupied Palestine. The State of Israel does not extradite its citizens anywhere but the Palestinian Authority was willing to do the job for France, which last year had officially recognised ‘the State of Palestine.’
end.
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Footnotes
1This story was published recently in the Irish language-only weekly An Páipéar (available in newsagents and online).
Composed of Socialist Republican, Communist and Anarchist contingents, along with independent activists of various tendencies, a broad Revolutionary Bloc marched among other groups and individuals in the annual May Day march in Dublin on May 1st.
Eden Quay, as the march turns off O’Connell Street, heading for Beresford Square, by the tall Liberty Hall building in the left background. (Photo: R.Breeze)
At intervals the banners of the Communist Party of Ireland, the Independent Workers’ Union and flags of the Anti-Imperialist Action contingents could be seen and a number of flags denoting specific groups or campaigns were on show but the Bloc was mainly identifiable by its slogans.
Led in call-and-answer almost non-stop from departure point at the Garden of Remembrance to Beresford Place in front of Liberty Hall,1 slogans called on workers to strike work and fight, to oust imperialist states and NATO from Ireland, for resistance unity, revolution and a socialist republic.
Section of the Revolutionary Bloc, centre image. (Photo: R.Breeze)
It was notable that an Irish Tricolour and a number of Starry Plough flags were visible among the Bloc and indeed one of the chants was against the appropriation of the Tricolour by ‘traitors’. They also called for funding for education and not for big corporations and for a hotel-free city centre.
At least one of the flags was of the Revolutionary Housing League and the march passed an empty building appropriated three years earlier by the RHL who were then evicted by a Garda force of 100 with helicopter and armed unit as backup. The building remains empty to this day.
People in Dublin stopped in the early Friday evening to watch and in the northern reach of O’Connell Street an elderly man stepped off the pavement to march along with the Bloc, though in silence while further along, two teenage girls in school uniform joined the Bloc also.
The Priory Market, Tallaght, Dublin prior to opening (Photo: Supplied by supporter)
Led by a long piper, the various contingents marched into Beresford Place, where a stage had been set up in front of the SIPTU2 headquarters building but most of the Revolutionary Bloc marched past to congregate for a group photo around the nearby monument to James Connolly.
Using the Bloc’s megaphone, one of the group then sang the Be Moderate song (also known as We Only Want the Earth) composed by James Connolly3 and, as the singer informed his listeners, published in the Songs of Freedom songbook by Connolly in New York in 1907.
As most of the Bloc dispersed, speeches were being made from the nearby stage and a group of mostly younger people from Turkey were assembling at the Connolly Monument also for a group photo.
The May Day march and rally in Dublin is traditionally organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions. However the participation of union banners was low in numbers and those present mostly of the FÓRSA union.
Section of the march showing FORSA union flags being carried. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Distinct from other European states, the foremost struggle in Ireland for centuries has been on the national question which has entailed less development in the forces devoted to socialism, so that in general May Day does not bring out the numbers one can see in the capitals of the EU and UK.
However, Ireland’s long history of resistance to colonial occupation has entailed a greater history of insurrection than most European states and it has also produced a remarkable number of leaders of labour struggles among the Irish diaspora in Britain, the USA and Australia.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1A highly-visible very tall building on the site of the original Liberty Hall, HQ of the IT&GWU, now of SIPTU.
2One of the largest (possibly the largest) trade unions in Ireland, formed by amalgamation of other unions on the base of the Irish Transport and General Workers union, of which James Connolly had been an officer and for a period, its overall leader.
3James Connolly (5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916), born and raised in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, revolutionary socialist activist-theoretician and Irish Republican, author, journalist, historian, union organiser, executed by the British occupation along with another 15 prominent insurrectionists of the Easter Rising.
A call for unity of Irish Republicans in action to win Irish freedom and independence was made at a 1916 Rising commemoration in Dublin on Sunday, an event organised by the Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland organisation.
Section of the marchers looking back towards Phibsborough as they approach Cross Guns Bridge from Phibsborough. (Photo: R.Breeze)
A relatively large number of people participated, including a number of delegations from organisations of struggle in the Spanish, Turkish, German and Italian states. Young people were particularly well represented.
Participants met outside the Phibsborough shopping area on Dublin’s northside from which they were led by a lone piper, a colour party and a number of banners. Among them flew various flags of national and social struggle in Ireland, the Basque Country, Catalunya, Palestine, Turkey …
The lone piper in Phibsborough exercising his lungs and warming pipes and bag as he prepares to lead the procession towards Glasnevin. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The orders to the colour party, as is traditional, were all given in Irish.1 At Cross Guns Bridge, the march halted and, in what has become a tradition for the AIA, flares were lit in memory of the presence of Irish Volunteers there in 1916 and the murder of a civilian by British soldiers.
Proceeding along Finglas Road to the interest of passers-by and the odd ‘beep’ of solidarity from a passing vehicle, the march turned left outside the gates of the older Glasnevin Cemetery to cross over the railway pedestrian bridge to the St. Paul’s section of the Cemetery.
Section of the marchers approaching Cross Guns Bridge from Phibsborough, halting as flares are lit in memoriam. (Photo: R.Breeze)
Winding their way on a path through the headstones, what was now one thick column approached the monument to six Irish Republican armed uprisings, commissioned by the National Graves Association, where a representative of the AIA greeted them.
From the Monument, the AIA representative introduced the reason for the commemoration and listed in honour the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan and Na Fianna Éireann, different organisations that fought together in the Rising.2
Central: Flags of the colour party, from left to right: Flag of AIA, Irish Citizen Army (mostly concealed), a version of Irish Citizen Army, emblems of the four provinces of Ireland, the Tricolour (mostly concealed), the Gal Gréine (Sunburst). The flag intervening from the left is of some participants in the Anti-Imperialist Front, a different organisation. (Photo: R.Breeze)
He called for delegates of different organisations to meet to decide a basis for unity, following which, going on to note that the AIA has long been prepared to work alongside others for shared objectives, he announced floral wreaths to be laid on behalf of the CPI and IDR.3
After the laying of those wreaths, another man was called to read the text of the 1916 Proclamation.
The keynote speaker, a veteran Irish Republican and former political prisoner, was then introduced. He began by reminding his audience of Irish Republican armed uprisings before 1916 going back to 1798 and forward up to the war in the occupied Six Counties.
The main speaker, veteran Irish Republican and ex-political prisoner, delivering the oration for the commemorative event. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The speaker made a number of points regarding the text of the 1916 Proclamation, the declarations of which remain to be fulfilled, in its address placing women on an equal standing with men, ‘cherishing the children of the nation equally’ and guaranteeing ‘civil and religious freedom to all.’
Drawing on the example of those of varying ideological positions who in the 1916 Rising united to “fight against the largest world empire in history”, the ex-prisoner called on Irish Republicans to find the means to unite in action today against imperialism and colonialism.
The speaker also highlighted that the objective of the Rising had been an independent democratic republic which is still to be achieved and that Republicans need to honestly confront the failures which, despite strong resistance, have weakened the struggle to date.
The piper played a slow air as the flags of the colour party were lowered and a few minutes’ silence observed – a traditional Irish Republican honouring of its martyrs in struggle. Announcing the end of the event the MC then called for the piper to play Amhrán na bhFiann4 to conclude.
A moment in the lowering of the colour party’s flags during the moments’ silence in honour and remembrance of fallen martyrs. (Photo: R.Breeze)
COMMENT
The attendance at this year’s event was numerous and encouraging, even discounting the numbers from abroad. The latter has been a feature of AIA commemorations for some years but has also grown visibly in numbers and in countries of origin.
In previous 1916 commemorations of the AIA, songs had been performed by singers but that feature was missing this year. Another missing feature was a part-address in the Irish language, au contraire to the main speaker’s call for the restoration of Irish as the nation’s spoken language.
In common with a great many commemorations by varied organisations at this spot, there was no mention of the independent National Graves Association, for whose work and the monument itself much thanks are due.
A large section of the participants chose to have their photo taken in a group with the monument behind them, their flags, banners and the portraits of the Seven Signatories of the Proclamation to the fore. (Photo: R.Breeze)
The call for unity in struggle is a common one in the Socialist and Republican movement though less verified in practice across their organisations. That said, on many occasions the AIA has put the desire into practice in joint action with other organisations and independent activists.
It is certain that without general unity in action across the resistance movement in Ireland, neither independence nor revolutionary change in society can be achieved.
In the city centre, at the GPO,5 site of the HQ of the Rising in 1916, the State held its own commemoration, with admittance to the area close to the podium by ticket only. According to reports, the speeches of the Taoiseach6 of the Coalition Government were received in silence.
This was in contrast to the speech of the new Uachtarán or President, a native Irish speaker and of broadly left-nationalist political outlook, which was enthusiastically applauded.
End.
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FOOTNOTES
1However, no other instructions were given in the language, not even ‘dhá líne’ (i.e two lines) when the marchers were being instructed by stewards to separate into two columns.
2Omitted, as it often is, was the participation of the Hibernian Rifles unit, who though not part of the planned Rising joined it and acquitted themselves well in the GPO Garrison and in support of the City Hall Garrison.
3Communist Party of Ireland and Independent Dublin Republicans.
4This air and its lyrics are widely considered the National Anthem of Ireland but for the State, it is only the air of the chorus that is their National Anthem. Composed shortly before the Rising by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney in English, it was sung during the Rising and widely adopted by the Republican movement afterwards. The lyrics were translated to Irish by Liam Ó Rinn in 1923 and, unusually, that version became dominant.
5The General Post Office, an imposing building in Dublin’s main thoroughfare,1 for which recently the Irish Government announced plans to remove the An Post (postal service) to develop in part as a shopping centre.
6Equivalent to Prime Minister. The Government is a coalition of formerly hostile parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, from oppositional sides of the Irish Civil War (1922-1923) and supported by the Green Party and some Independents.
The recognised date known as International Working Women’s Day is March 8th and it was commemorated on that date with a march and revolutionary words and symbolism organised by Irish Socialist Republicans in Dublin.
The marchers gathered outside Wynn’s Hotel in Lower Abbey Street, to mark the founding there of the revolutionary Republican military women’s organisation, Cumann na mBan, on 2 April 1914. The organisation, with its own officers, was possibly the first of its kind for women in the world.1
From there the march set off into O’Connell Street, then marching southward to cross the Liffey into D’Olier Street before turning left into Townsend Street, continuing to the statue of Constance Markievicz where the colour party’s flags were lowered in respect.
The march near the start in O’Connell St (photo credit: An Pobal Abú FB page)
Throughout, chants of “Ní Saoirse go Saoirse na mBan”2 and “Britain out of Ireland” reverberated through the streets of Dublin as banners displayed the slogans “coinníonn na mná suas leath na spéire / women hold up half the sky” and “Queers Against Imperialism”.
Markievicz was an active member of Iníní na hÉireann, the Irish Citizen Army and of Cumann na mBan. She was part of the command of the Stephens Green/ College of Surgeons garrison in 1916 and elected MP on an abstentionist ticket in 1918 and Minister of Labour in the First Dáil in 1919.
Continuing along Townsend Street and ending at Elizabeth O’Farrell park where a commemoration was held outside in honour of the role of women in the struggle for national liberation while the colour party took up position inside the park.
(Photo credit: An Pobal Abú FB page)
A woman read a speech on behalf of the AIA, tracing founding of International Women’s Day from when women in Russia in 1917 had led strikes and marches against the Tsar and WW1, later becoming known as the February Revolution, leading later to the October Socialist Revolution.
The speaker went on to speak of the role of women in the Republican struggle, from Cumann na mBan, the Irish Citizen Army and Armagh Gaol Republican prisoners, followed by a woman reading the 1916 Proclamation of Independence and the burning of two green flares.
(photo credit: An Pobal Abú FB page)
A new plaque of the Socialist Republican Mairéad Farrell was unveiled with the laying also of a commemorative wreath during a minute’s silence observed for all revolutionary women and gender oppressed people who gave their lives for national liberation and anti-imperialist struggle.
The Colour Party in Elizabeth O’Farrell Park (Photo: R.Breeze)
At the same time the colour party lowered their flags in respect, during which the command calls in Irish rang out in the area through the silence.
The area in which the Elizabeth O’Farrell and her life-long friend Julia Grenan3 grew up is a south Dublin docklands still largely working class area. It was in a yard in Lombard Street nearby, actually within sight of the park, that the IRB (Fenians) was founded on March 17th 1858.
Laying of the wreath (photo credit: An Pobal Abú FB page)
Elizabeth O’Farrell and Julia Grenan both participated in the 1916 Rising and, along with Winifred Carney, refused to join the earlier evacuation from the burning GPO building on the Friday, later participating in the final evacuation which ended in the central terrace in Moore Street.
When the leadership took the decision to surrender, O’Farrell went out to negotiate under a white flag even though a man had been killed under such a flag earlier in the very street. In 1922, along with almost the entirety of Cumann na mBan and the ICA, she rejected the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
(Photo: R.Breeze)
Many women were interned by the nascent neo-colonial Irish Government.
After the Elizabeth O’Farrell Park event, people gathered again at a recently-occupied social centre in Dublin, to view an exhibition of images in honour of the day and to watch an English-subtitled French-language film about women and the Omani Resistance, followed by a music session.4
Part of exhibition for International Working Women’s Day in the social centre (Photo: R.Breeze)
End.
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Footnotes
1In its early years the organisation worked mainly as an auxiliary to the Irish Volunteers but asserted greater independence at a later stage. It coincided in time with the women in the Irish Citizen Army who shared equal status with male members and indeed in the case of some of them, such as Markievicz and Lynn, actually commanded men. Wynne’s Hotel was also where the decision to found the Irish Volunteers had been taken in 1913.
2Translated as ‘There can be no freedom until women are free.’
3And life partner, many have speculated – certainly they lived together until the end.
4The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived by Heiny Srour
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