Ireland

The Easter Rising and Irish history

The Easter Rising and Irish history: The two souls of Irish nationalism? An attempt at a Marxist account. An inspiration across the world? Or an eclipse of working-class socialism by narrow nationalism? Both were in the Easter Rising.

Worker solidarity against apartheid

In 1984 the Irish Adminstrative and Distributive Trade Union (IDATU) passed policy for a boycott of South African goods. They instructed their members not to handle goods produced in the state, which from 1948 to 1994 mandated white-black segregation (apartheid). A young shop assistant Mary Manning, refused to serve a customer a grapefruit in Dunnes stores in Dublin. Result: an almost three-year strike, first against her suspension and then for the Irish government to boycott South African goods. Strike! , at Southwark Playhouse until 6 May tells the story of the young women and one man who...

The Morning Star, Ireland and Brexit

According to the front page of the Morning Star (8-9 April): “Unions are warning that stability in Ireland could be threatened if workers’ rights are ‘ripped up’ under the Retained EU Law Bill.” The piece continues: “The TUC and NIC-ICTU (Northern Ireland Committee in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions) issued a statement ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement ... warn(ing) that under the Bill workplace rights such as holiday pay, rest breaks, health and safety rules and protections from discrimination will disappear”. TUC general secretary Paul Nowak was quoted, saying...

DUP further in impasse over "Windsor Framework"

The Windsor Framework, negotiated between the UK and the EU to manage post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, was debated by MPs on Wednesday 22 March 2023. The Framework patches up the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was designed to ensure the UK left the EU but without the creation of a "hard border" within the island of Ireland. Instead, a regulatory and customs border was drawn between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, leading to increased checks and the prospect of "east-west" regulatory divergence. The Framework does not alter the fundamentals, in that EU law continues to apply...

Carnival of reaction at the Morning Star

The Communist Party of Britain’s international secretary Kevan Nelson gave a report to the party’s political committee last month, published in the Morning Star of 25-26 February. Headed “Signs of Labour collusion with ruling-class attempts to sabotage Britain’s exit from the EU”, it was terrible, even by CPB- Morning Star standards. The statement opens by quoting James Connolly’s famous prediction that the partition of Ireland would mean a “carnival of reaction” and sought to apply it to Sunak’s attempt to ease friction on the British border in Ireland and to Ukraine’s military resistance to...

Protocol patch-up

On 27 February, Rishi Sunak announced that the EU had agreed a wide range of easings to “overlay” the Northern Ireland Protocol attached to the 2019-20 UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement. The Protocol allows Northern Ireland both to be in the EU Single Market (and thus have no “hard” border with the South) and to be in the UK. Since the Tories plan to depart widely from EU regulations — Sunak still seems intent on that — the Protocol requires some border checks between Britain and Northern Ireland. The new agreement minimises those. The ultra-Brexiter Tories have backed Sunak’s deal. The DUP, the main...

Behind the Omagh shooting

A typed statement appeared on 26 February on a wall in Derry, claiming the 22 February attempted murder of police officer John Caldwell in Omagh on behalf of the “New IRA”. Caldwell, who has led high-profile investigations into republican groups, was shot several times in front of his son and other children while teaching an under-15s football class at a leisure centre. Six arrests have now been made in County Tyrone. The “New IRA” was formed in 2012 from a merger of the Real IRA (a 1997 split from the Provisionals), Republican Action Against Drugs, and smaller groups in east Tyrone and...

Tories seek way out of Brexit snarl-up

The Tories are in turmoil, as rumours emerge that a “deal” on the Northern Ireland Protocol is close to being agreed between the UK Government and the EU. The main lines of any deal have been known for weeks. They are likely to involve a system of “red lanes” and “green lanes” at Northern Ireland ports, which would reduce checks on cargo bound only for Northern Ireland, with risks of non-compliance mitigated by the sharing of data and by penalties for breaches of the rules. One Brexiteer and DUP bugbear, however, is the continuing jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over Northern...

Ireland's war of independence

The centre of Cork after being burnt by British Black and Tans paramilitaries, 1920 On 21 January 1919, Irish Volunteers from the 3rd Tipperary Brigade lay in wait for a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) patrol, guarding explosives on the move from a nearby quarry. As the horse-drawn cart, carrying 160lb of gelignite, approached the position of the ambush party, the Volunteers, led by Sean Treacy and Dan Breen, called for the RIC men to surrender and then opened fire. Both RIC officers, James McDonnell and Patrick O’Connell, were killed. The Soloheadbeg ambush was the first engagement in what...

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