BORN AGAIN WHORES OF REVOLUTION

When Gerry Kelly and Martin McGuinness, encourage their foolowers to inform British Occupation forces in Ireland to become Informers or Touts on Irish revolutionary elements in Ireland, they have crossed the rubicon as far as I am concerned and there can be no turning back. That is not to say that everything they have done in their lives is wrong, I am in no position to be the judge of that but they have surrendered any leadership role in Ireland's future, it is time for them to go quietly into the night, as gracefully as they can. I did my own surrender personally, almost 30 years ago, with regard to alcohol and the many things in life, I simply could not manage on my own, on a daily basis. It took a while for me to try to get a handle, on any sort of alternative solution that worked, as I first had to learn what the phrase, "Above all else to thine own self be true." means, in the absence of any religion or ideology and learn to trust something. Trust is critically important, because without it, there is fear in one form or another with all it's other illusionary substitutes, like drug addiction, control addictions, rigid ideologies or craving for the extremes of money and power. I am writing this from own experience, so it is not simply an opinion. I am trying to learn from it, to correct the numerous mistakes I have personally made and continue to make.


Henry David Thoreau once wrote that, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” From what I have observed this seems to be true and in our comtemporary world there are plenty of distractions from being true to ourselves or worse, simply losing our Spirit in cynical and reactionary cycles. Each day I awake, this would be my instinctual, habit formed mental programming before I switch through my new habit, of starting my day by chatting and listening to the Stardust in the heavens and in my own gut, to make a connection with Life, to enable me, to step out of the extremes of Self, to embrace Life with trust. I am far too extreme in many areas for it to ever disapppear, either totally or permanently, so all I can do is my own personal surrender daily to the Startdust and I simply ask is for the extremes to be relieved. An approximate explanation of Stardust for me is the remnants of the Big Bang theory, which in my case is beyond cerebral comprehension, which in my case is probably a good idea.

I have an aversion for formal religion, because it hands too much our hard earned empowerment, to other human control, which from personal experience, is another form of betrayal in the concept of being true to myself, thats not to say I find widom in all the beliefs that I have investigated. Now when this route of personal surrender, was first suggested to me, I frankly thought it a load of bollix, but fortunately for me it was suggested, that I simply try and see if it works, before I totally condemned it. So the following, is approximately my own daily mantra of surrender. "Stardust, I offer myself to you, to do with me as you will, please relieve me of the prison of myself, my extreme self-centredness, my extreme selfishness, my extreme self will, and my extreme self-centred fear. Please give me the emotional power that I need today, the material power that I need today, the physical power that I need today, the mental power that I need today, the social power that I need today, the spiritual power that I need today and the sexual power that I need today, to do your will, your unconditional Love and your way of Life, Thanks. " Now a lot of you may think. I am completely off my head and there is a lot of evidence out there to confirm you suspicions, but frankly my dear, I couldn't give a fuck what you think. All I know, is that it has worked very well for me, for 27 years now and for that I am very grateful, especially when I remember the state I was in, to begin with. From experience I now have proof that my trust is grounded in the reality test of daily life experience.

Anyway, enough about my own narcissistic self, it's boring but a necessry daily reality check, that I cannot afford to ignore. Ireland is my Spiritual home for better or for worse. As they say, the savage loves his native shore, so do birds and fish apparently and in my case sometimes I hate it because it mirrors my own dysfunctionality, particularly related to my past. Currently I believe the island is at a crossroads, with some very importand choices to make. It is in a state of chassis, indeed the whole world appears to be in astae of chassis right now, as Sean O'Casey wrote in Juno and the Paycock, "Th' whole worl's in a terrible state o' chassis." I believe Capitalism is on it's last legs and for those who learn from the lessons of experience, so are the ideologies of Corporate Fascism and Stalinism. 

According to rough guesstimates, the human casualty figures of various ideologies are as follows, in Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1939-1945) 12,000,000 (concentration camps and civilians deliberately killed in WWII plus 3 million Russian POWs left to die), Leopold II of Belgium (Congo, 1886-1908) 8,000,000

Jozef Stalin (USSR, 1932-39) 7,000,000 (the gulags plus the purges plus Ukraine's famine), Hideki Tojo (Japan, 1941-44) 5,000,000 (civilians in WWII),Ismail Enver (Ottoman Turkey, 1915-20) 1,200,000 Armenians (1915) + 350,000. What is obviously missing from this list, are the many millions of Irish liquidated by the British in Ireland, and the mounting huge numbers worldwide by the UK/US axis. This blog is already slowed by intranets for distribution and would probably be totally censored in the Western world, if I give all of the correct numbers, which can be easly researched. So the conclusion is obvious, ideologies are particularly dangerous, especially in the hands of power craven dictators and manipulators, who will exploit them. This is also, I believe the principal lesson from the current long war in Ireland and its equvalent in both Fascist and Stalinist Europe.

The principal tools of dictators and manipulators within ideologies, under the guise of the, "Dictatorship of the Proletariat " is secrecy and censorship. In Catholic conservative southern Ireland and it's equivalent in Presbytarian northern Ireland, this has a particularly ignomious history. The island culture is steeped in secrecy, censorship and fascism with a current emerging Stalinist cabal of Secret Societies in the wake of the Provos. To understand the threat of Stalinism in Ireland and the censorship that accompanies it, I believe the following letter to the revolutionary Leon Trotsky in Mexico, before a Stalinists hitman murdered him, with an ice pick in his head, describes it best;

To Leon Trotsky 11 December 1938 New York City Leon Trotsky Coyoacan Mexico DF My Dear Leon Trotsky: We were both very pleased to receive your note. Hortense, jokingly, says that it must all be a Stalinist plot. While she is not disinterested in politics, she is, in no sense, a political person. However, she is no bitter foe. And in her own profession, the theatre, she must pay a price for her attitudes and the stand that she has taken. Stalinist influence is permeating the American theatre, and Hortense is automatically excluded from even being considered for roles in plays by certain managements because of this fact. Concerning ‘the mysteries of my style', you may be amused to know that one Communist Party functionary described it, once in The Daily Worker, as ‘Trotskyite.’ And one of the most current criticisms of my writing in Stalinist sources is that ‘the rationale of Trotskyism’ has given a basis for his ‘despair,’ and through that means he is degenerating. This summer I was in Ireland, and I saw Jim Larkin. All men have weaknesses, but all men are not the victims of their weaknesses. Jim Larkin is a victim of his own weaknesses, and his own temperament. Now, he is embittered and envenomed. He feels that the Irish working class has sold him out. He was not returned in the last elections for the Dáil, and he ran in a working class district. He defended the trials, but thought that Bukharin could not be interested. But Larkin's formal attitudes do not have much meaning. He is untheoretical and unstable intellectually. He is always a direct actionist, and his direct actionism takes whatever turn that his impulses lead him toward, In the midst, for instance, of a severe fight, he might be walking down the street and see a sparrow trapped in some electric wires where it might die. He will become incensed, and will telephone important members of the government and demand that they have men sent down to release the sparrow immediately, and then this will loom more important than the fight in which he is engaged. He is very garrulous, human and humane, witty, vindictive, vituperative, and he is Irish. At times, he is almost like an embittered version of the stage Irishman. In Ireland, there has never been much theory, and in consequence, never been many men with a rounded view of the reasons why Ireland was struggling. Before the war, the Irish labor movement was very militant and well toward the forefront of the European labor movement. It was defeated in the great Dublin transport strike of 1913, and out of this crushing defeat, the Irish Citizen Army was formed. Larkin left for America, and Larkin says that one of the last things that he said to Connolly was not to go into the National movement, not to join the Irish Volunteers, which was the armed force of the nationalist movement. Connolly did go into the Easter Rebellion, and there is the disputed question as to whether or not he made a mistake. Sean O'Casey, the Irish playwright, in a pamphlet he wrote on the Irish Citizen Army, declares baldly that James Connolly died not for Irish socialism but for Irish nationalism. Others maintain that Connolly could not have remained out of the rising. At all events, the Irish Citizen Army was decimated, and crushed by the Easter Rebellion. There were no leaders left to carry on the social side of Connolly's doctrines. The entire movement was swept along in a frenzied rise of Irish patriotism and Irish nationalism. Sinn Féin was in complete control of the movement. The leaders of Sinn Féin had only the most vague notions of what they wanted – an Irish Ireland speaking Gaelic, developing its own Irish culture, free of the British crown, and some were not even fighting them for freedom from the crown. In 1921, when the treaty was negotiated in England, there was this same unclarity. Following the treaty, there was the split in the Irish ranks. The record of that split is most saddening to read. It was not a split on real issues. There were two or three documents with different wordings, and they all meant much the same thing. Instead of discussing social programs, they discussed Ireland, and they insulted one another. Out of this split the bitter civil war developed, and the comrades in arms of yesterday assassinated one another. The treatment which the Free State government meted out to its former comrades matches almost that which Stalin has meted out. The bravest fighters of the Irish Republican Army were taken out and placed up against a wall and butchered without any formality. And now, after all the trouble, the Irish people have changed masters, and a new Irish bourgeoisie is developing and coagulating, and the politicians of Sinn Féin are aligned with them and the Church, with reaction rampant, poverty to match even that of Mexico, progressive ideas almost completely shut out, a wall of silence keeping out the best Irish tradition – that of Fintan Lalor, Davitt, and Connolly, and poor Ireland is in a hell of a state. Larkin returned in the early twenties. After defeat, the Irish labor movement needed someone to lead it who could remould a defeated class. Larkin was a great and courageous agitator, but not a leader of a defeated army, and he could not work with any one. Gradually, he lost influence, and now he is old and embittered. Of course, Catholicism plays a strong role in Ireland, and Larkin is a Catholic and talks of the virtues of the Christian home. And suddenly out of his garrulous talk, a flash of his old fire comes through. Perhaps you are riding through the Dublin slums with him, and suddenly, seeing the poor in their filth, standing in front of the filthy buildings in which they are forced to live like animals, and a strong denunciation comes, and there is something of the Jim Larkin who defied the British Army, and at whose words the poor of Dublin came out into the streets in thou-sands, and flung themselves against the might of Britain and that of the Irish bourgeoisie. Human beings are social products, and Larkin is a product of the Irish movement. The principal instrument of the Irish revolutionaries was always terrorism and direct action, and when Larkin was unable to function with these methods on the wave of a rising and militant movement, he was lost, and the labor bureaucrats outmaneuvered and outsmarted him. When he returned to Ireland from an American jail, he got his following together, and marched on the quarters of the union he had formerly led. He took the building, but later lost it in the law courts, and he is no longer the leader of the transport workers. He has union following, and among his strongest support is that of the butchers and hospital workers. He showed me something in Ireland that few people in Dublin know about. In the Parnell days, a terrorist organization, composed almost exclusively of Dublin workingmen was formed and named the Invincibles. The Invincibles committed the famous Phoenix Park murders in front of the vice-regal lodge, and were denounced by the Church, by Parnell, and by almost the entire Irish nation. There are no monuments in Ireland to the Invincibles. They died in isolation, some of them defiant to the end in their utter isolation. At the spot across from the vice-regal lodge in Phoenix Park, where the murders were committed, there is a patch of earth alongside of the park walk. No matter how often grass is planted over this spot the grass is torn up by the roots, and this spot of earth is left, and always, there is a cross marked into the dirt in commemoration of the Invincibles. Every week, someone – principally, I believe, one of Larkin's boys – goes there and marks that cross. This has been going on for a long time. In Larkin, there is something of that characteristic of defiant defeat that runs through so much of Irish history, and with it, never any real investigation of causes. But even up to today, he remains the only figure of commanding proportions in the Irish labor movement. The rest is pretty nearly all bureaucracy, tied to the tail of nationalism, enfolded in the cassock robes of the priestcraft, seeing the problems of Irish labor as an Irish question. Ireland is having something of an industrial boom. Certain sections of the Irish working class, the most advanced trade unions – which have been in existence some time – these are better paid than corresponding trade unions in England. But the country is partitioned between an industrial north and an agricultural south. In the south, de Valera is engaged in a program of industrialization. The Irish market is small, and that means that monopolies must be parcelled out to various groups or persons. When these monopolies get going, there will be resultant crises, because they will be able to supply the Irish market with a few months work and production. Also, the new factories are being spread over the country – a program of decentralization – and in many instances, factories are being set up in agricultural areas where there is no trade union strength. It is necessary to further industrialization in Ireland to have, as a consequence, sweat shop conditions. There is a small labor aristocracy and even this lives badly. And below it, poverty that reduces thousands upon thousands to live like animals in the most dire, miserable, and inhuman poverty. I saw some of this poverty. One family of eleven living in one room. The family has lived in this same room for twenty-four years. The building is crumbling, walls falling, ceiling caving in, roof decaying. The oldest in the family is nineteen, the youngest is an undernourished infant of eight months. Six sleep in one bed, three in another, two on the floor. The infant was born last Christmas eve in the bed where six sleep. The role of the Church is important. The Church tells the Irish that they are going to live for ever and be happier in heaven, and this engenders patience. There is a mystic fascination with death in Ireland. In all the homes of the poor, the walls are lined with holy pictures, those of the Sacred Heart predominating. The poor live in utter patience. They have lived in this patience ever since the heyday of Jim Larkin. In those days, at his word, they thronged the streets and threatened the power of England, and of the Irish and Anglo-Irish bourgeoisie. But no more. How-ever, with the industrialization program, there is likely to be some enlargement of the Irish working class, and the economic factors of proletarianization, plus the resulting effects of factory work and familiarity with machines is likely to cause some changes in the conscious-ness of Irishmen. Familiarity with machines is likely to rub off some of the superstition, and the economic conditions will pose their problems to the Irish workers. There is possibly going to be a change in Ireland because of these factors, and some of the eternal sleep and mud-crusted ignorance is likely to go. But being an agricultural country, a poor country, a country ridden by superstition, it now sleeps, and there is a lot of talk about Ireland, and little is done about Ireland, and a characteristic attitude is sure and what is the bother. Ireland is no longer merely a victim of England, but of world economy now. Irish nationalism correspondingly has altered from being a progressive movement to a reactionary movement. Fascism could easily triumph in Ireland were fascism vitally necessary to the new rulers of Holy Ireland. The Irish Republican Army is split into factions, some demanding emphasis on a social program, others on a national program. Stalinists are in the former group, but Stalinism is very weak in Ireland, practically inconsequential. It amounts to a few pensionaries. Ireland does not need Stalinism. It has Rome. Rome handles these problems with the necessary efficiency. Rome confuses the struggles, poses the false questions, sidetracks protests as Stalinism now does in advanced countries. As a kind of compensation, Ireland a defeated nation has developed a fine modern literature, just as Germany, defeated and still un-unified at an earlier period, developed German philosophy. But the moral terrorism in the name of the Church and the Nation, and the parochial character of the life and of intellect in Ireland might choke the literature now. So backward is Ireland that even the American motion pictures have a progressive influence in the sense that they make the youth restless, that they produce freer and less strained relationships between the sexes, and that they give a sense of a social life of more advanced countries that is not permitted because of the state of economy in Ireland. Ireland impresses me as being somewhat parallel to Mexico, except that in Mexico there are progressive strains in the country, and in Ireland these are weak and morally terrorized. In part, this is undoubtedly because of Ireland's lack of mineral resources and wealth, the backwardness and sleep of its labor movement, and the role of the Church. In Ireland, the Church was not the feudal landholder. Behind the scenes, the Church always fought against the Irish people, and spoke for law and order. But at one time, the Church itself was oppressed. The Church and the people became entangled in the consciousness of the Irish, and the religion question befogged the social and economic one. In Mexico, Spain, France, and Russia, the Church was more openly a part of a feudal or pseudo-feudal system. The peasants became anti-clerical because they wanted land. This did not happen in Ireland. In consequence, anti-clericalism did not take the same form. Anti-clericalism amounts to jokes at the priesthood, dislike of the arch-bishops, and so forth. In earlier days, it was stronger, particularly among the Fenians. But it never took the real form it took in France, Spain, etc. And so the Church has great power in Ireland today. In the most real, vivid, and immediate sense it gives opium to the people. Poor Ireland! She is one of the costs demanded by history in the growth of what we familiarly call our civilization. There is an old poem with the lines – They went forth to battle And they always fell. And today, after having fallen so many times, Ireland is a poor island on the outpost of European civilization, with all its heroic struggles leaving it, after partial victory, poverty-stricken, backward, wallowing in superstition and ignorance. My favorite Irish anecdote is the following. The last castle in Ireland to fall to Cromwell's army was Castleross on the lakes of Killarney. At that time, the castle was held by the O'Donoghue. For several months, the British could not take the castle. The Irish infantry was more lightly clad than the British, and would always lead the better armored and more heavily clad British down into the bogs where their armed superiority became a handicap, and then the Irish would cut them to pieces. There was an old Gaelic prophecy that Castleross would never fall to a foreign foe until it was attacked by water. There was a proviso in this prophecy. For the lakes of Killarney empty into Dingle Bay, where the water is so shallow that foreign men of war from the sea cannot enter it. The British general heard of this prophecy. He went to Dingle Bay and built flat-bottomed boats and floated them up the lakes of Killarney. He fired one cannon shot at Castleross. And the O'Donoghue, thinking that the prophecy had been fulfilled, surrendered without firing a shot in return. I took the liberty of writing in such detail about Ireland because I thought you might be interested in modern Ireland. They call it the ‘new Ireland’ these days. Hortense joins me in sending our warmest greetings to you and Natalia. Yours, Farrell This summer I saw Alfred and Marguerite Rosmer a number of times, and they were very well. Madame Rosmer talked very often of you and Mrs Trotsky. Currently in Ireland the "Dialectic of Materialism" is being stifled by the censorship of former 'Provos' and 'Stickies' who are Stalinist. On the the other side it is being censored by the Blueshirt and Orange Order Fascists in their Corporate mainstream media. Without a transparent, informative open dialogue of these apparently opposing views, Ireland is again doomed to make incorrect choices, at it's current critical crossroads. The Banksters and Corporations will always find a 'useful idiot' demagogue to distract and expoit them, such as Hitler. They abound in every revolutionary organizations and thrive in secrecy and are exploited by the British, in an environment of humility by genuine comrades, who make the big sacrifices often with their lives. This is why CENSORSHIP is such a deadly enemy of progress and critically important in keeping Ireland ignorant, where simply reactionary politics can thrive. People of change, need to be aware of it's destructive power and fight it. We are as sick as our secrets within organizations or without, this is a critcally important lesson from our Irish experience. It is not the way to go forward, it's baggage far outweighs it's short term benefits. Recent revelations about this culture within the Provos, make that clear, for anyone open to learning the lessons of our history. On the other extreme, there is nothing so pure, as a born again whore, particulary of the fascist variety. Hitler was vegetarian you know? I do hope the 'Sunlight of the Spirit' saves Ireland from such a horrific calamity.

AMERICAN PIE & GERRY ADAMS SURRENDER ANNIVERSARY

Last week, the leading enforcer of the Bad Friday Agreement, called on his foolowers, to inform British Occupation forces in Ireland, of any Irish revolutionary activity in British Occupied Ireland. It's an echo of previous Blueshirt calls after the the Treaty, in the early part of the last century. The activity ordered by Gerry Kelly to his stormtroopers, formerly carried the death penalty, for his numerous comrades, who engaged in such activity, prior to his army, the Provisional IRA surrendering to the British 20 years ago, next week.

Below is an article by Gerry Adams, the leading spin doctor of the surrender process, that was sold to the International Corporate Media and Irish people, dressed up as a Peace Process. The actual Process has little, if any resemblance to actual peace processes, that have actually worked elsewhere. British and Irish political prisons, are as full as ever of politcal prsioners, while these informers or touts as they are locally known, are pre-empting many operations, that gives the illusion of some sort of peace. The core issues of the problem, such as Occupation and the resulting sectarian bittereness, remain stronger than ever. 

The British counterinsurgency activitiy, comes primarily in the form of mushrooming, astroturfing, secret societies, that sell an illusionary Stalinist ideology, that is a distraction, which serves the same purpose, as the Catholic Chuch formerly served, in muffling censorship, of a genuine revolutionary dialectic, for real change in conservative Ireland. Censorship of the dialectic, is the order of the day in the north, while a certain liberation is taking hold in the south. It remains to be seen if the Fascists and fellow Stalinists, two sides of the same coin, will snuff it out, as they formerly did, with their reactionary oppressive censorship and dictatorial jackboot, costing many innnocent Irish lives.




Times Article of Gerry Adams

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 1994 IRA cessation. The Ireland of the early 1990s was a very different place. Political censorship and exclusion was the norm. Successive Irish governments worked with British governments in pursuing a negative agenda which merely fed the cycle of discrimination, resistance and conflict.

Unionist leaders, supported by elements of the British and Irish establishments, opposed any dialogue between the British and Irish governments and republicans. However, by early August 1994, despite continued conflict, there was a feeling among republican leaders that we were driving forward a historic process of change. This had been years in the making. Indeed if we go back to when Fathers Alec Reid, Des Wilson and I started our discussions, over a decade had passed.

Progress on developing the peace process had been made behind the scenes in meetings with John Hume. These later emerged as the Hume/Adams initiative. There was also progress with the Irish government. Martin McGuinness and I had given the IRA our assessment that there was a convergence of views between Sinn Féin, John Hume and the Irish government on a range of issues.

We had achieved agreement on a number of important points. There was an acceptance that partition had failed; there could be no internal settlement within the six counties; the Irish people as a whole had a right to national self-determination; there could be no unionist veto over discussions or their outcome and any negotiated settlement required fundamental constitutional and political change.

We also agreed that there were practical matters of immediate concern to nationalists in the North including parity of esteem, equality of opportunity and equality for Irish culture and identity.
IRA cessation

The Irish government had given written assurances that in the event of an IRA cessation, it would end its marginalisation of the Sinn Féin electorate and that there would be an early public meeting between taoiseach Albert Reynolds, John Hume and myself. To show that change was imminent, we worked to develop public manifestations of support for an alternative approach which might convince republicans to back a cessation.



Irish America was key to this. The peace process was also now on the agenda of the Clinton administration. A powerful group of Irish Americans had committed to campaign in the US for an end to visa restrictions for republicans; establishment of a Washington office to inform the US media and public on the peace process; to lobby for investment in the North and for the US to act as guarantors of any agreements. The fledgling Clinton administration had indicated positivity.

Events were now moving quickly. We had asked for a visa for Joe Cahill to travel to the US to brief Irish Americans on developments. This would test the Clinton administration’s commitment to the peace process in the face of what would prove to be strident British opposition. Fr Alec, US ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, her brother senator Ted Kennedy and taoiseach Albert Reynolds spent long hours lobbying for a visa for Joe Cahill.

On Sunday, August 28th, John Hume and I issued another joint statement making clear that agreement threatened no one. It was followed that evening by a statement from Albert Reynolds who said a historic opportunity was opening up and the British had a responsibility to respond on demilitarisation and inclusive all-party talks.

On August 29th, in the face of strident British opposition, visas were granted to Joe Cahill and Pat Treanor to travel to the US. This demonstrated there would be a strong international focus in support of the Irish side in negotiations with the British. I reported to the Sinn Féin ard chomhairle that the final pieces of the jigsaw were coming together but we understood the ultimate decision on a cessation rested with the IRA. Martin McGuinness and I went to meet the IRA leadership again. Martin said the Hume/Adams initiative had given people hope, that more nationalists saw republicans making a real effort to build peace, that Irish nationalism was reasserting itself and that Sinn Féin was growing in strength.

We made it clear that the struggle wasn’t ending and given that the political commitments made were multilateral and public that there was a better chance of delivery than with previous cessations. We argued that it was an opportunity to test the British government’s desire for peace and to reach out to unionists, who we had been meeting at civic, community and religious level for some time.

I made clear that it was a high-risk strategy but that we had commitments from John Hume, the Irish government and Irish America was willing to play its part. We could set in place a process which created the conditions for a just and lasting peace and from there build a pathway to a new all-Ireland republic of equals. A formal proposal was put to the meeting and the IRA’s army council voted to give the process a chance. At 11am on August 31st, the IRA announced “a complete cessation of military operations”. As hundreds of people arrived for an impromptu rally at Sinn Féin’s offices in Belfast cheering their approval, I was struck by the awesome responsibility of it, with the hopes and aspirations of so many pinned on us delivering.

The IRA cessation opened up the space for the development of the peace process. Enormous changes have come as a result of that decision by the IRA leadership. It was quickly followed by the loyalist ceasefire. It has had profound effects on politics in Ireland and in the relationship between Ireland and Britain.

People rightly remember the great political highs of the past two decades, be it the achievement of the Good Friday agreement, the St Andrews and Hillsborough agreements, the decision of Ian Paisley to share power or the decision by the IRA to leave the stage.
Risk-laden work

However, none of these or the other fundamental, political, social and constitutional changes which have been effected would have been possible without the difficult and risk-laden work undertaken by Albert Reynolds, Fathers Alec Reid and Des Wilson, John Hume, the Sinn Féin leadership and others such as Martin Mansergh, Seán Ó hUigínn, Niall O’Dowd, Ken Newell and Harold Good in the years before the 1994 cessation.



Twenty years on there is an urgent need for the British and Irish governments to tackle outstanding issues bedevilling the political process in the North and which threaten the progress that has been made. The Taoiseach would do well to emulate the approach adopted by the late Albert Reynolds. Gerry Adams is president of Sinn Féin and TD for Louth Tomorrow in Weekend Review: Northern Ireland, then and now, by Gerry Moriarty, Billy Hutchinson, Anna Lo, Eamonn Mallie, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, Richard English and more

EnDa CENSORshite

December 2, 2014 By Men's Human Rights Ireland 27 Comments

One of our Men’s Human Rights Ireland (MHRI) members was scheduled to deliver an address at Belfast City Hall this past International Men’s Day (IMD) but was abruptly informed at the 11th hour that his speech had been cancelled.

The reason for this cancellation was apparently due to several complaints made against the group that had invited MHRI to speak, Men’s Rights Northern Ireland (MRNI), by the “Belfast Feminist Network” (BFN) under the leadership of one Kellie Turtle, who in her private, closed discussion group expressed outrage that there was even a men’s day in the first place:

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  Kellie Turtle
  November 11 at 11:05am
  “I know it’s galling to most that this event is even happening as it totally ignores the nature of gender inequality in society and the fact that it is women who are disadvantaged due to our gender, not men.”
  
  
  
  I’m not sure how that sits with—and this is a direct quote from their letter, referencing the duty of the government not to support groups that cause division—the “BCC [Belfast City Council] as a public body with good relations duties under Section 75,” but I suspect not very well. Having revved up the troops with this stirring address, the BFN proceeded to email as many councillors with off-colour complaints as they could find, all the while snickering among themselves about IMD also being “World Toilet Day.”
  
  
  The complaints they made against MRNI were wide-ranging and often contradictory, if not flat-out wrong: in one part of the letter, much is made of concerns about workplace safety while in the next part they seem to think that the very idea of men being worried about women in dangerous jobs is sexist, rounding all of this off with a triumphant, quivering finger pointed at MRNI’s lack of support for the HeForShe campaign, wherein men are called to support women in what looks very like a traditional protective, chivalric role.
  
  
  They even complained about MRNI highlighting the fact that the gender pay gap is spurious nonsense—the bottom line is that when men and women of equal experience and with equal qualifications are compared, there is no pay gap. In fact, even in bizarre feminist terms, there is no pay gap in Northern Ireland.
  
  
  Over and over the letter repeats this peculiar notion that being opposed to feminism is being opposed to women. It’s really not hard to understand why this is wrong: one is an ideology, the other is a gender.
  
  
  Perhaps this is why the overwhelming majority of women don’t identify as feminists—which according to feminist dogma would make them misogynists who hate equality—and enormous movements like Women Against Feminism exist. Neither, needless to say, does feminism have much to do with equality. That would be egalitarianism
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  About Men's Human Rights Ireland Men's Human Rights Ireland is a group of Irish activists and writers who seek equal rights, responsibility, and compassion for men (and the women who love them).Sort by Newest
  
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  MGTOW-man • a day ago
  
  
  
  
  Realizing that Men's Rights Ireland was notified in the last minutes that a speech from them would not be allowed, thus couldn't prepare for a separate venue, they should learn from this. Next time, be expecting this and have an alternative plan.
  
  
  Also, perhaps obscuring their intentions so that feminists can't undermine them would be a great way to "sneak" in, then once on the podium, let loose with their original speech. Will the police actually remove them? If so, great PR for our side. We must get creative if there is any hope of fighting the truth haters.
  
  
  Finally, I would like to know how Belfast council became involved as overseer? IMD is not a government thing, so next time, circumvent them and have the celebration without their "management".
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If I am missing some important understanding here, please clue me in, with compassion and cohesion in mind of course.
  
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  Tom Golden • a day ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Women have a downhill battle asking for what they want and in getting helpful responses. Complaining about those who might impede their objectives is cheered. The culture waves them on and responds to their concerns no matter how nutty. Men have an uphill battle to even get their perspective into the conversation much less in getting a helpful response. This is exactly why FTSU is so critical and needed. The cultural deafness to the pain of men and boys is staggering.
  
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  Jack Strawb • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  One of our Men’s Human Rights Ireland (MHRI) members was scheduled to
  
  deliver an address at Belfast City Hall this past International Men’s
  
  Day (IMD) but was abruptly informed at the 11th hour that his speech had
  
  been cancelled.
  
  
  
  
  Glad to see there's a recording of the speech making the rounds.
  
  
  
  
  Does anyone know whether the MHRI simply went ahead, notified the press and attendees, and gave the speech on the steps of city hall or the sidewalk in front of it?
  
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  axia777 • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Damn, I didn't known the collective balls of Irish men had been removed so much. :( Fight the good fight guys, but from here it looks like an uphill battle
  
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  Steve Lee axia777 • a day ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Thing is its an uphill battle for us everywhere and on all fronts. Give all men who are trying to right the wrongs encouragement by all means but there is no need to put other men down for their efforts.
  
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  Sean axia777 • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Speak for yourself.
  
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  Stu • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  So there you go. Feminists can ban a man from speaking on IMD. Of course. IMD is for feminists to tell us what a bunch of violent, raping, child molesting assholes men are. Just like Fathers day is for feminists to tell us Fathers are all of those things. Both days are also for men to speak of course, but only if they get up and do their best impersonation of the Conscious Men. I suppose it's ok to talk about male suicides and homelessness and poverty and suffering and death too, but only if you do it with a smile on your face to the laughter of the crowds, and wear one of the compulsory t-shirts which say either "This is what a feminist looks like" or " I bathe in male tears" Available in pink only, with complimentary white ribbon, and pink arm bands.
  
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  thatdogguy Stu • 7 hours ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I wish we could create a global conscientious to wake men up to this. To see feminism for what is truly is: A hate cult against men. If men would stand together and refused to be shamed into silence, this shit would stop.
  
  
  
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  Sean Stu • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Feminist will do what feminists want. We know their game very well. This is a generational struggle. A significant strand of Western society has become something similar to a pyramid scheme. Marraige is a particular symptom of that pyramid scheme.
  
  
  
  
  Some of us are working quietly to affect change. Change that will bring all of society forward together. Men in particular have been left behind, especially in school, and third level. The pursuit of material gain for women has pushed many men below the floor, dropping out of education, work and ultimately society.
  
  
  
  
  This is a gamble by foolish politicians empowered by consensus created by powerful lobby groups.
  
  
  
  
  A Global Strike might soon have all vested interests sucking in air. I consider that in the short term, it is the only way this situation can be highlighted effectively.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Steve Lee Sean • a day ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Well, men are half the world's population. We have to ask the question where are all the rest of the men, apart from us here?
  
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  Eubie Stu • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I remember a couple of years ago, the local rag in my hometown ran its annual two- or three-page listing of deadbeat dads in the week running up to Father's Day. Classy!
  
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  axia777 Eubie • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  How about dead beat mom's? Oh wait those are mythical like a fucking unicorn.
  
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  Jack Strawb axia777 • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  And who would know from the news that a higher percentage of mothers than fathers get behind in child support? Of course, men are imprisoned at far higher rates for the inability to pay. In Massachusetts, for the same amount of arrears, a man is EIGHT times as likely as a woman to go to prison.
  
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  Jack Barnes • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  She wonders why we call some women crazy!?!
  
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  axia777 Jack Barnes • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To women in general nothing they ever do is crazy.
  
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  Graham Strouse • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Call me crazy but I'm pretty sure that crazy can also be used as an adjective...
  
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  Partridge • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This article should be printed and sent to every Belfast City Councillor together with all the evidence and sources to support the points made and a letter of complaint asking the councillors to take action. And if possible, take legal action against Belfast City Council.
  
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  Keddy43 • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I find it so funny that one of the complaints was the use of the word crazy, but I suppose it is from the same stable of intellectual thought that brought us the "Ban Bossy" campaign. Hush now everybody, Orwell's thought police are here, make sure you think only female gendered thoughts! The blatant hypocrisy of it!!!!! The degrading, insulting, offensive and lets face it, slanderous things that both the men and women of the MHRM get subjected to is ok? Daily attacks on who you are as a human because you refuse to ascribe to a totalitarian ideology pales into insignificance when compared to a woman being called crazy!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The same reactionary drivel repeated over and over again, IF YOU'RE AGAINST FEMINISM, YOU'RE AGAINST WOMEN.Utter tosh, just drivel and nonsense and the sad thing is this drivel forced the suppression of free speech, there's a quote from Game of Thrones doing the rounds that I think sums the situation up, When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say, news flash for you BFN, equality means free speech for everyone, it matters not one jot that you're feelings are hurt by this or that you have an ideological agenda which gets sullied by the truth, MHRI had the right to free speech, you do not have the right to censor opinion or views.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It seems as if these people are hell bent on bringing in some sort of puritanical dystopian nightmare that not even Orwell himself could've ever dreamed possible. The concept of the thought police was scary enough when expressed by Orwell, but the apparent version of that for the 21st century is what we have in modern feminism. Don't like a word, well hell, lets just censor it, dare to put the word feminism in a survey of words society should ban for the upcoming year, well hell, we'll scream and yell and force the words removal from the list.
  
  
  
  
  Double standards everywhere you look in modern feminism, women can't be told by any other person how they should be dressed, but feminism has the right to say when a man's attire is not appropriate? Refusal to accept proven FACTS is a certified "debating" strategy, yet use of said facts is harassment? Women's movement!!!!! pah!!!! bloody religion more like, can't question it's creation, can't question it's doctrine, can't question the authority of the "clergy", any dissent is squashed ruthlessly and any initiate who "wakes up" and sees the lies is excommunicated and driven out. It's meaningless if it's 1984 or 2014 we seem to be living in, seems to me like it's fucking 1384 and the church is back in charge!!
  
  
  
  
  peace be with you.see more
  
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  TheManWithNoHat Keddy43 • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Reminds me of that Norwegian woman (not Swedish, Canadian [both have a nasty case of the RadFems] or American [an entitlement complex, poor education, and total lack of control can do very bad things]; I'm just as surprised as you are) who wanted to ban criticism of Feminism under "hate speech". Feminism's greatest weakness is its blunt contradiction of everyday reality. Despite all the wild claims made by DPRK officials about their leaders, the common man starving to death in an un-electrified factory sees nothing that goes against his daily living. Feminism on the other hand pulls phony statics and theories with less weight than an anorexic piece of paper out of its putrid anus, screams them at the top of its lungs, and goes against what you and I see walking down the streets; its either blind, stupid, knowingly lying, or a combination of the above. When somebody doesn't keep their heads down and corrects them they go ape____ and cry for the secret police.
  
  
  
  
  TL;DR Feminism fears us because they fear the truth.
  
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  Lucian Vâlsan Mod TheManWithNoHat • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Who is that Norwegian woman you're talking about? I'm following Scandinavian politics quite close and I know of no such woman.
  
  
  
  
  The only Norwegian nutcase female that I know of is Eva Lundgren - who indeed wanted to ban criticism of feminism, but within the Swedish Uppsala University campus, not in a whole country.
  
  
  
  
  The only Scandinavian endeavour to ban criticism of feminism under "hate speech" provisions that I know of was the Norwegian group Reform, who is a feminist "men's rights" group.
  
  
  
  
  Their report, here: http://www.nrk.no/contentfile/...
  
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  TheManWithNoHat Lucian Vâlsan • a day ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Oh, must of got an edited/out-of-context image then. But I suppose Feminists have gotten so ballistic that it's really hard to tell a parodist from a genuine believer. But I do stand by what I said about how they fear us.
  
  
  
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  Magnus Lucian Vâlsan • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Well we have a decent portion of feminist minded women in Norway. But I am not aware of specific people trying to ban criticism.
  
  
  
  
  Remember I found reform some time ago, didn't take me long to realize they were a bunch of idiots.
  
  
  
  
  Also I love how that report is called "How to work against antifeminism and extreamism? a report by experts in the nordic"
  
  Glad to see we are tossed in there with terrorists :P
  
  
  
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  Aryan Jesuite • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  "He for He" & "Warn a Brother"... Men helping each other... hey what great idea! It's going to become a cultural meme or "an idea who's time has come" if western civilization is to survive. I for one am 'down' with He for He and am doing all I can to let my brothers what time it is and where they stand in regards to women, law enforcement and big daddy gov't.
  
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  Jesse James • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To the BFN...Thank you.
  
  
  
  
  Your actions here, are like president Obama to gun promoters! You see, unwittingly, Obama has turned himself into one of the greatest gun salesman of all time.
  
  
  
  
  Now, I am not for guns, nor against.
  
  
  
  
  But I find the similarities between your actions at city hall Belfast, and his pandering to international gun control activists as the same. Because of his actions, gun makers have had historic record sales.
  
  
  
  
  So keep going tricks!
  
  
  
  
  We thank you.
  
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  crydiego Jesse James • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It is true the more you try to surpress something the more interesting it becomes.
  
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  Steve Lee • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I see this type of oppression being foistered on men, it makes my blood boil. The sad thing is that turkeys listen to them and act on their lies.
  
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  Jesse James Steve Lee • 2 days ago
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Not for long. By 2024's election cycle, we may be able to get some one as high as Joe Biden a new career choice, involuntarily.
  
  If not that high, we may be within a decade of doing so. Politicians,, and the public, will take notice.