Ogra back to what they do best

When Sinn Féin signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, their republican critics predicted it'd mean the continuation of British rule in the six counties. Inevitably this required the dismantling of the Republican Army, the decommissioning of its weapons, and acceptance of the state’s monopoly on policing and violence.

But accepting the British police, even a reformed one, is proving to be the most difficult of steps for Northern Republicans. The conflict grew out of the injustice meted out by the state and republican distaste for the police remains great. Contrary to the usual expectation that the Sinn Fein leadership can easily steer through any policy change concerned with the peace process, their youth wing in the article below has joined other republicans in criticising the shift on policing.

Interested Parties: Sinn Féin | Fourthwrite | The Blanket | Republican Sinn Féin | 32 CSM | IRSP | Eirigi | Anarchist articles | Socialist Party Pamphlet | Socialist Workers Party Article

T'was Hallowe'en night...........

Everywhere bonfires, fireworks, superheroes looking for sweets...... when will it all end?

Photo Essay from Dublin | The scariest thing in Derry this Halloween

The appointment by the FAI of Steve Staunton as manager of the Republic of Ireland international football team has once again demonstrated the capability of those who walk the corridors of Merrion Square to professionally handle the responsibilities necessary for an international football team to progress on the international or world stage.

Let us be openly straight and honest about this current situation, the FAI are about as capable of directing the interests of Irish international football as Eamonn Dunphy is of keeping quiet and that is by no means of any disrespect to Eamonn Dunphy. Time and time again the FAI have made one debacle after another, as one crisis runs immediately into another and Irish soccer, be it at a national or international level, is once again placed under the microscope and seen for what it really is.

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" How many of us can put our hands up and say we are not ourselves primarily responsible for the culture of drunkenness that our children are now embracing with such eagerness?"

Nothing can be done collectively without laying on booze

“In the name of greed we are in danger of losing everything that is good about our town”. So said SF town councillor Paul Hayes at a public meeting held in Clonakilty, West Cork on Monday 4th September and it might have been a good thing if every parent, politician, publican and young adult in Ireland had been present. Certain events in Clonakilty in recent years have the familiar ingredients of many a story that could be told up and down the country: petty politics; worries about garda presence, indifferent parents; grasping business interests and so forth. But an analysis of the situation is instructive because, if we are looking to apportion blame, none of us come out of it looking good.

There appears to be general agreement nowadays that the country is rapidly losing its soul, whatever that is or was. We acknowledge the benefits of increased prosperity but are as rabbits frozen in headlights about what to do with its negative consequences, which are increasingly difficult either to ignore or to avoid. Some folk snarl at talk like this, terrified both of its impact on profit – pursuit of which is the new compulsory religion – and that we might all end up back where we were 30 years ago. Well, it is at least arguable that nothing will guarantee that we end up on the scrap heap more than shoving our heads in the sand about what we are making of our country right now. The trouble with the ostrich perspective is that you are left with limited faculties for thinking and communicating, if you see what I mean.

Banner from the Belfast march

Starting with the first Critical Mass of 2006, documented here by Noise Hacker with the usual high quality photography and running until Saturday's Mayday march in Belfast covered here by Ciarán Ó Brolcháin, Mayday in Ireland was spread from weekend to the next. The Dublin trade union march drew the by now standard criticisms on size and promotion and also was criticised for the decision to hold it in April for a change. The Sunday of the bank holiday saw an Anarchist Picnic and Anti-Authoritarian-Assembly in Dublin 's Phoenix park while the Monday saw the unmanageables picnic at the US Embassy.