A commoner in British Occupied Ireland, can be designated a “terrorist” on the secret, unaccountable dictat of the unelected British Viceroyal Villiers, without notice and without a trial. Under CMPs(Closed Material Procedures) any Irish person may be jailed, simply on vaguely-defined, highly paid “material support,” against any person or group, labeled by the Viceroyal as “terrorist.” Any political dissent, such as wearing green, as in a recent incident, or singing a 'Celtic Song', or holding a piece of paper at an Easter ceremony, can be labeled as “terrorism” or “material support for terrorism,”
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From Justice Minister Alan Shatter's statement on mortgage default and repossessions ,Dec 2012

"All mortgages contain remedies that may be exercised by lending institutions in cases of mortgage default. Repossession in the event of such default is, therefore, an existing contractual right.
In a well-known 2011 case (Start Mortgages), the High Court found that enactment of reforming legislation in 2009 may have had the unintended consequence in certain cases of restricting lending institutions from asserting their repossession rights. ... read full story / add a comment

In the last week or so it was announced by the government that they were seriously considering extending the current free Pre-School year to a second free pre-school year. The government has been giving it a positive spin but also on the table as part of the deal is the suggestion that child benefit would be reduced by €20 per month. A lot of figures have been bandied about but the real question is: are the government trying to pull a fast one yet again and how do the numbers stack up? We attempt to look at the figures here. ... read full story / add a comment

But the key problem is that there exists no revolutionary communist party to provide leadership in the class struggle. The Socialist Party, the SWP and the People Before Profit are merely reformist organisations that seek to provide a more benevolent capitalism. In this sense they are Utopian and seek to inculcate illusions within the working class.
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And so, today, a group of Irish workers stand firm in front of a vicious right wing government’s bullying, harassment from the state media lie machine, the scandalous complicity of some reactionary Trade Union ‘leaders’ whose only vision is to compromise and collaborate.

Forced to defend their class interests from conscious ruling class attacks, they are the first to step forward on their own terms, in their own time, with their class dignity and power.

In 2013, this is not a defeated rabble!

But their strike action is also a thing in itself, which starkly changes the very balance of class forces in this crippled capitalist state. It is, objectively, a political action, because the Austerity Politics and anti-public service Friedmanite ethos which it confronts, is itself, a conscious politically co-ordinated strategy on the part of the ruling class. ... read full story / add a comment

Throughout my time taking an interest in Mr. McKevitt’s case, I uncovered some very distasteful information. The detail included that some of his former comrades had covertly assisted in the slanderous media campaign against him and the entire family including his wife Bernadette. The most prominent of those who gave assistance and misleading information was a former Sinn Fein publicity director, which shocked me greatly. Many creditable journalists will to this day verify my claim. Neither should it be overlooked that the McKevitts were singled out as the most prominent opponents of the Good Friday Agreement and for that very reason, perhaps those individuals felt justified in assisting in the vilification campaign against them

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The above title does not mean I understand her reasons for supporting DynCorp. In fact, it could just as easily be reworded to reflect a question I myself have regarding the strange reluctance of the State Department to act regarding a corporation that has participated in some of the most deplorable acts a corporation could – and we are talking big wealthy corporations here. Except, they do obviously favor the company in question, and support them. As one of the top three US defense contractors receiving money from the US government, DynCorp, has sunk to depths lower than drug dealers, slave traders, rapists or child abusers as they have done them all and more. ... read full story / add a comment

The capitalist system has exploited and abused nature, pushing the planet to its limits, so much so that the system has accelerated dangerous and fundamental changes in the climate.

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Hello All - Here is my review of the controversial TV3 Irish War of Independence documentary "In the Name of the Republic" which was presented by Prof. Eunan O'Halpin of Trinity College which has just been published in the May/June issue of History Ireland Magazine. Enjoy:

IRA leader, Tom Barry, once likened the more unsavory aspects of the War of Independence to being dragged “down into the mire”. The two-part documentary, 'In The Name of The Republic', presented by Professor Eunan O'Halpin, explored that mire by examining the uglier aspects of the period. These included the assassination of RIC men, the killings of unarmed British soldiers and the execution and secret burial of alleged British spies.

The first episode focused on Ashbrook Farm, Laois. The owner of the farm related how a predecessor, Jack Walpole, told him that three bodies were dumped there in the 1920's. Walpole, who was described as “a bit eccentric”, claimed to have buried one of the bodies himself. The supernatural was a strong feature of Walpole's tale and he stated his horse could sense the location of the graves, refusing to draw a plough over them.

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In his Ceasefire review, Dan Glazebrook examines Maximilian Forte's withering indictment of liberal humanitarianism and its collusion in imperialist designs on Africa, as seen in NATO's Libya campaign of 2011. ... read full story / add a comment

Just as we are seeing climate chaos change to climate catastrophe, we may also see job chaos change to job catastrophe. We are entering an era of technological change which has the potential to create havoc in an already seriously undermined world of employment. It has become a well-worn cliché to declare that the robots are coming but it is necessary to consider seriously how the creeping technologisation of production and services is going to affect many areas of employment considered today to be relatively safe from the machines. ... read full story / add a comment

Includes a brief description of neoliberal absolutism and a plan for youth to fight for their individual rights in a globalized world requiring a global ethical human rights approach. ... read full story / add a comment

It's possible to shift the tax burden from labour to consumption without raising prices or widening after-tax wages relativities. ... read full story / add a comment

The current Minister of Agriculture is forever defending the farming community while his government are forever attacking the Irish working class. The farming community must be exposed as a parasitic category. ... read full story / add a comment

Cheap clothes in Pennys = cheap lives in Bangladesh
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As someone who grew up in the culture of child abuse in east Galway, which now seems to be leading the country's policy on abortion or more accurately the lack thereof, I have always wanted to ask two principal questions, primarily to the enablers of systemic child abuse in Ireland.

Currently despite all the publicity about the culture of child rape in Ireland, the priority is the protection of the unborn to the detriment of the already born. I ask any decent person, if there still exists such a specimen on our island, with an ounce of nature left in them, to think about what I have written and have the courage to make a reply, that makes sense without getting personal. ... read full story / add a comment

The time to do something is always now! ... read full story / add a comment

Animal welfare groups and greyhound protection organizations are appalled at the deliberate cruelty to greyhounds in Ireland revealed in the course of a recent court case, where a man admitted getting someone to shot two greyhounds that refused to chase hares (link to item on case below)
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In his book "Born Free and Equal" : Ansel Adams documented life in internment camps, set up during the second world war for the Japanese. Internment of civilian nationals was also carried out in World War Two in Britain, where all Germans, Austrians over the age of 16 and some Italians, were called before special tribunals and divided into one of three groups: ... read full story / add a comment

The human suffering in British Occupied Ireland, by elderly political internees like Marian Price and Martin Corey, is markedly similar to the political internment, introduced forty years ago by the British, which escalated from crisis to disaster, culminating in the deaths of 10 Irish hunger strikers.
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