IRISH SPIRIT OF 2016 LIBERATION

Many International Socialists regard the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Ireland, as a betrayal of the Cause of Labour, in that they regard it, as a Nationalist rebellion, led by leaders like Pearse of the Gaelic tradition and Connolly of Labour, rather than being a matter of self-determination and liberation. Some, particularly the revisionists, have even gone so far, as to accuse Padraic Pearse of neo-fascism, while Labour MPs in the House of Commoners in London, stood up and applauded the news, of the execution of Labour stalwart and working-class hero, James Connoly in a wheelchair. I have no doubt, that the Provos of the Stormont Junta today, would do the same if it did not cost them votes. You only have to look at their 2016 video promo and see how they have denigrated the Connolly contribution or examine their collaboration in the torture of Irish POWs today, which replicates the brutality, meted out to the ten hunger strikers. Their treatment and censorship of nationalist youth, has caused  considerable death, suicide and wholesale incarceration, within their constituencies and is well on the way to being as vicious, as the Blueshirts. They are morphing into American Republican Darwinism, at an alarming rate, in their pursuit of political power at all costs, paying only lip service to traditional Irish republican values. Of course their manipulative skills learned in surviving paedophile homes, are a great asset, in the orifice licking environment of political Ireland.

To return to the 1916 legacy, I see the Pearse tradition, as more an expression of Motherland, rather than Fatherland, found in writings and in his poem, The Mother, which foretells his own martyrdom and that of his brother William.

The Mother

I do not grudge them: Lord, I do not grudge
My two strong sons that I have seen go out
To break their strength and die, they and a few,
In bloody protest for a glorious thing,
They shall be spoken of among their people,
The generations shall remember them,
And call them blessed;
But I will speak their names to my own heart
In the long nights;
The little names that were familiar once
Round my dead hearth.
Lord, thou art hard on mothers:
We suffer in their coming and their going;
And tho' I grudge them not, I weary, weary
Of the long sorrow-And yet I have my joy:
My sons were faithful, and they fought.

Both Pearse and Connolly for me are very complex characters but then so is the truth, in political matters. Connolly, born in Scotland of Irish stock, by participating in the Easter rebellion, remained true to his class and his DNA. It appears to be a DNA, that only the colonially, oppressed understand. It requires EQ rather than IQ to comprehend, best expressed by Pearse at the grave of O'Donovan Rossa, when he stated," the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace." 

Connolly was a politically desperate man, when he engaged the Pearse and Clarke tradition. he had already experienced the betrayals of Labour and it's careerists, over and over again, while experiencing daily, the misery of his class in the slum tenements of Dublin, along with Larkin. Once he took his first step with the Irish Citizen Army, Connoly would have known full well, his approaching fate. He was sufficiently acquainted with the Britsh Army, to know that there was no turning back. Anyone who tries to re-write history on this fact, fools themselves. 

On the other hand, it is not clear, whether Pearse and Clarke were entirely aware, of the international nature of the tradition, they were engaging with, in Connolly and the ICA. It also appears, that many, assuming their legacy today, are not remotely aware, either. The basis of Connolly ideology, was expressed by him, when he stated, "The Cause of Ireland is the Cause of Labour and the Cause of Labour is the Cause of Labour". The Cause of Labour is International and primarily material, while the Cause of Ireland is primarily of Spirit and Self- Determination. The Legacy of 1916 is both. The realization and fulfilment of both traditions are equally important elements, for any successful Liberation Movement to sustain itself and succeed.

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BRITIRA

Ireland has a particularly bloody history, that involves eight centuries of British invasion and occupation, which includes, genocide, holocaust, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. In the interest of fairness, every story has at least two sides, and so it is with Irish history. The problem for the native Irish, is that few are aware of their side, because, to a large extent Britain dominates the English narrative of world media, and usually the victor, gets to write history. The other difficulty with outing the truth, is that the ruling class in both parts of the currently divided island, have a vested interest, in preserving the status quo, which is based on mentored privilege, dishonesty, covert censorship and oppression.

This writer believes, that the truth of Ireland's Cause, taken to a sufficient number of people worldwide, and to the International Criminal Court, can achieve national freedom, without recourse to violence, reserving all armaments, for strictly defensive purposes. However, this will require the same organization, commitment and concerted effort, that traditionally was used in Ireland's armed struggles. Reactionary violence has proven to be self-defeating, time after time in Ireland's history, and the events of limited success, hves been followed, by sell-out, self-serving, native leadership. Irish Republicanism has traditionally been the Cause of the People of No Property, or as James Connolly, one of the principal leaders of the 1916 Rising, who was taken for execution in a wheelchair, said, the Cause of Ireland, is the Cause of Labour, and the Cause of Labour, is the Cause of Ireland. Irish hearts are passionate and discipline, to refrain from reactionary, violence, difficult, but as one of our more intelligent martyrs, Mairead Farrell recently said, before her execution, our head is our best weapon. I believe enlightened leadership in Ireland, needs to release all political prisoners, with an undertaking, to this course of action, rather than violence. Genuine traditional Irish Republicans, are both fair-minded and people of honour, who keep their promises, unlike their political British counterparts, as history has proven. You can come to your own conclusion, if this is the case, in the McGuinness story below. The Truth will set Ireland Free, but we need your help, to get it out there, as it is mostly, censored. Below is a reliable article, borrowed from the Broken Elbow, a blog I recommend, to help you come to your own conclusions.

Martin McGuinness & Frank Hegarty

The story of how Martin McGuinness allegedly lured Derry IRA informer Frank Hegarty back from England, promising his mother – on bended knee according to accounts – that he would not be harmed, only for Hegarty to end up on a lonely country road with a bullet in his head has been told here, here, here and here.


Doubtless it will figure again in the course of the Presidential campaign and will be used by his opponents and enemies as evidence of the man’s flawed character and unfitness to represent the people of Ireland in the Phoenix Park.


I am not going to rehearse the story here but I thought it might be useful to place the McGuinness-Hegarty tale in the context of the time it happened, 1986, and the politics of the then IRA leadership. That way it might be possible to understand why it happened.


The story begins in February 1978 when Gerry Adams was arrested and charged with IRA membership just a few days after the awful La Mon tragedy when a botched firebombing of the hotel on the outskirts of east Belfast killed twelve people, all Protestants, who were incinerated to death, and injured thirty more, some horribly.


The move against Adams was done to placate angry Unionist public opinion, understandably, but the charge of IRA membership was impossible to sustain – short of self-incrimination membership charges were never successful. But it did keep Adams off the streets for the best part of a year. He had been released from Long Kesh a year or so earlier and had set about implementing the re-organisation he, Ivor Bell, Brendan Hughes and others had plotted in jail. So placing him in the remand wing of Crumlin Road jail removed a key player at an important moment.


Changes in security policy introduced after the lengthy but ineffective ceasefire of 1974/75, especially the use of Castlereagh interrogation centre, had brought the IRA to its knees and close to defeat. Adams’ re-organisation, principally the introduction of a new Northern Command, was beginning to revive the IRA when La Mon happened.


With his arrest Adams automatically lost the post of Chief of Staff, which he had just taken from Seamus Twomey, and so Martin McGuinness, then Northern Commander, replaced him. The subsequent three or four years were to provide dramatic evidence that the IRA was indeed back in business and while not the force it had been in 1972, it was nonetheless strong enough to sustain the ‘long war’ crafted in Long Kesh. It was during these years that the rank and file trust in the Adams-McGuinness leadership was created, a trust that would prove so valuable when the peace process began.


By the summer of 1982 however the IRA was set on a different path. The hunger strikes of 1981 had created an opportunity for Sinn Fein to enter electoral politics. Owen Carron had replaced Bobby Sands as MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, a council seat had been won in Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone but the big test, Sinn Fein standing in a Northern Ireland-wide election, was yet to come. That October it did when the British held elections to a new putative power-sharing Assembly, a body doomed to failure by the result which saw Sinn Fein win ten per cent of the vote and stun the Irish political and media establishment.


Martin McGuinness badly wanted to stand in that poll. He knew he was popular enough in Derry to win a seat and such was the level of post-hunger strike Nationalist anger in the city that he might even give John Hume a scare. The problem was that he was Chief of Staff and others on the Army Council bridled at the thought of their commander holding a seat at Stormont, even on an abstentionist basis.


So McGuinness was obliged to give up the post, handing it to Ivor Bell, one of Gerry Adams’ closest colleagues in the Belfast IRA. Less than a year later however Bell was also arrested and briefly held on charges based on evidence given by Belfast Brigade supergrass Robert ‘Beano’ Lean. Although Lean later retracted, Bell lost the Chief of Staff job which went to Aughnacloy man, Kevin McKenna. (A few years later Bell was forced out of the IRA altogether when his unease at Sinn Fein’s political direction and anger and suspicion at the deprioritisation of the IRA combined to persuade him to launch a tilt at Adams which failed). It is around this time that the Frank Hegarty story really begins.


During his tenure as Chief of Staff, Ivor Bell had dismissed Frank Hegarty from the IRA. A member of the organisation since the early 1970’s, Hegarty had risen to the post of Northern Command Quartermaster (QM) by 1982, a significantly important job. But he was also having an affair with the wife of a soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment, the mostly Protestant militia created in 1970 to replace the B Specials. Someone in the IRA found out about Hegarty’s dalliance and reported him. Clearly his liaison made him vulnerable to blackmail and since he was now regarded as a potential informer Hegarty had to go.


Some time after that Hegarty was approached by the Force Research Unit (FRU), a British Army agent-running unit with headquarters at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn and persuaded to rejoin the IRA which he did. How no red flag was raised in the IRA at Hegarty’s return would become one of the divisive issues in the affair, especially as he also managed to inveigle his way back into the Northern Command quartermaster’s department.


The Force Research Unit had ambitious plans for Hegarty telling him, as the IRA learned when they eventually interrogated him, that they wanted him to rise as high as he could, even as high as Quartermaster General (QMG). The FRU would remove his bosses, one by one, to facilitate his ascent.


By the end of 1985 Hegarty had been seconded to work on attachment to the QMG’s department to help shift weapons which were beginning to arrive from Libya. A year or so earlier Libyan Intelligence and the IRA had struck an audacious and ambitious deal. The Libyans would supply hundreds of tons of weaponry and millions of pounds if the IRA pledged to make life for Mrs Thatcher’s government uncomfortable, something the IRA had no difficulty agreeing. It was Libya’s revenge for the expulsion of their diplomats after the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher while the IRA then laid plans for a major military offensive, based on the Vietnamese ‘Tet’ offensive, designed to sicken British public opinion with Northern Ireland and perhaps force the British to take counterproductive security measures such as internment.


Hegarty was part of a squad that moving some 80 AK-47’s smuggled in from Libya in August 1985 to dumps in the north-west. The weapons were stored in two temporary dumps in Roscommon and Sligo when they were discovered. The Garda Special Branch were ultimately responsible for everything that happened afterwards. Eager for a coup against the IRA the Garda insisted on raiding the dumps, ignoring British advice to ‘jark’ the weapons instead, that is bug them so they could be followed to their destination.


Hegarty had been told that the weapons had come from Europe and the presence of some Belgian rifles in the dumps seemed to authenticate that. Nonetheless British & Irish intelligence had come very close to discovering the Libyan arms smuggling venture at a very early point.


Realising that his past expulsion from the IRA would surface when the IRA investigated the arms seizure and that he would then be the prime suspect for betraying the weapons, Hegarty fled to England where MI5 housed him at a secure location. Homesick and missing his family Hegarty contacted them by phone, the Provos found out and at this point Martin McGuinness entered the story. He was enticed back home, naively believing McGuinness’ assurances about his wellbeing, interrogated by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit and then killed.


So why did Martin McGuinness go out of his way to cajole Hegarty back to Derry? It was, after all, a high-risk enterprise. He must have known that Hegarty had no chance of surviving and that he would be killed. He also knew that Hegarty’s family would be angry with him for so blatantly misleading them and that in all likelihood they would make their feelings known publicly and blame him for the killing. His name and reputation would be sullied for ever. He could have sent someone else to lie to the Hegarty family but he knew that Hegarty would accept assurances from no-one with less clout and authority in the IRA than himself. It was, we can then conclude, enormously important for McGuinness not just that Hegarty be brought back to Derry but that McGuinness be known as the man who brought him back. Again the question, why?


The answer might well lie in the intense rivalry and mutual dislike between Martin McGuinness and Kevin McKenna and the vying between them for the Chief of Staff job. According to IRA sources who knew the two men well and observed them in action, a deep loathing characterised the relationship.


For his part McKenna, a very private, publicity-shy figure, deeply resented constant media reports that McGuinness was the real Chief of Staff and more so that, as someone who was one of the more media-friendly Provo leaders, he had done very little to discourage that impression. McGuinness on the other hand, according to former colleagues, harboured ambitions to get his old Chief of Staff job back, especially so when the Libyan deal was struck. If there was an IRA ‘Tet’ offensive, Martin McGuinness wanted to be known as the man who led it. And McKenna stood in his way.


By late 1985, Kevin McKenna had been Chief of Staff for just two years but already there had been some bitter clashes between them at leadership meetings. At one Army Council meeting McGuinness launched such a powerful assault on McKenna’s stewardship of the IRA that it seemed as if the Chief of Staff might be forced to offer his resignation. Only the intervention of ‘Slab’ Murphy to show support for McKenna stopped that happening.


The Garda swoop on the Libyan arms dumps and Hegarty’s flight to England brought a new and deadly intensity to the rivalry. The first question was how on earth Frank Hegarty had got back into the IRA? Since both McGuinness and Hegarty were Derry men who had been in the city’s IRA units together in the 1970’s & knew each other, and since McGuinness was now Northern Commander and Hegarty was attached to Northern Command then surely, McKenna and others asked, McGuinness must have known that he had got back into the IRA?


The question was full of unspoken menace and danger for McGuinness. The IRA knew full well that when British intelligence wanted to infiltrate and advance agents inside their ranks they would sometimes use other agents to smooth their path. If McGuinness had allowed Hegarty back into the IRA knowing his past, then this made McGuinness a suspected British agent. McGuinness denied, according to these IRA sources, knowing anything about Hegarty’s re-instatement and initially said the informer must have been someone else (during his interrogation by the IRA Hegarty claimed that McGuinness had in fact known and approved his return to the ranks. This sparked another blazing row between McGuinness and McKenna but Hegarty’s assertion was unprovable).


One way of clearing his name, or at least going some way to doing so, would be if McGuinness were to play a leading part in luring Hegarty back to Derry and to his death. It wouldn’t settle the matter since the IRA was well aware that British intelligence would have little compunction in sacrificing one, now useless informer to protect another active and more valuable one but it would suffice until some more compelling evidence against McGuinness emerged, if it ever did.


None of this means that McGuinness was an informer. But it does suggest that he was frightened of being labeled one and that if he didn’t act to clear his name, his arch-rival Kevin McKenna would triumph and his IRA career might be so clouded with doubt and suspicion that it would be effectively over. As it was the Frank Hegarty affair killed off any chances that McGuinness would oust McKenna and replace him as Chief of Staff. McKenna would serve as Chief of Staff for another eleven years until he was replaced in 1997 by ‘Slab’ Murphy. He was the Provisional IRA’s longest serving commander. McGuinness survived and has prospered so well that he is now a contender for the Aras.


Postscript: Frank Hegarty’s FRU handler was Ian Hirst, better known as Martin Ingram and the man who outed Freddie Scappaticci, the notorious British agent in the IRA’s Internal Security Unit whose codename was Steaknife. Handlers often get very attached to their agents and there’s no doubt that Ian/Martin was deeply affected by Hegarty’s death. I have often wondered if his understandable anger at McGuinness for coaxing Hegarty to his death led him to make his own, later allegations that McGuinness worked as a double agent for MI6.Intriguing stuff, but will we ever get definitive answers to all these questions?

CORPORATE BLUESHIRT FASCISM IRELAND Right2Water

The Nazi's first concentration camp was filled with social democrats, socialists, trade unionists while smashing democratic discourse among the people. It is also true that Fascism, in all its forms, attacks science and intellectual life, espousing ignorance and superstition, to obfuscate its political reactionary nature. Fascist Censorship in all it's guises, still governs the superficial public, discourse, of the Irish people of no property, to the point that it is accepted as the norm, even among their own.

The early twentieth century Italians, invented the word fascism. They also had a more descriptive term for the it ;estato corporativo or the corporatist state. As a result of its history in Germany and Spain, we have come to equate fascism with its symptoms, not with it's structure. The structure of fascism is corporatism, or the corporate state. The structure of fascism is the union, marriage, merger or fusion of corporate economic power with governmental power. Failing to understand fascism properly, as the consolidation of corporate economic and governmental power in the hands of a few, is to completely misunderstand what fascism is. The consolidation of this power, produces the demagogues and regimes we understand to be fascist.

The suppression and corruption of genuine organized Labour, is critical for corporations, who are the most important check on corporate power, other than authentic government, with a legal system, that prioritizes a nation's citizens, ahead of corporate lobbyists. This is not the case in any part of Ireland.
In both Orange and Green states In Ireland, the supremacy of the military state, is underpinned with extra judicial powers, military style courts, without juries are necessary, not to protect people but to protect corporate profits, with threats from abroad.

Cronyism and governmental corruption is the norm in Ireland, with ex-corporate employees running state agencies and creating legislation that are the norm in Ireland, which replace legislation, that is supposed to regulate or check corporate power. Controlling the media for Corporate propaganda, is also standard in both parts of Ireland.All of these characteristics have an obvious corporate component and produce obvious corporate benefit, which is on full display in Ireland currently, in the water protests.

People in Ireland, are starting to resist the Blueshirt State of Fine Gael, with their peaceful protests of waving signs and chanting slogans, but the overreaction of the Blueshirt state, to the oppressed plain people of Ireland, is leading to even more resistance. Eventually Irish commerce will shut down from the extreme Blueshirt measures. The money still being blown by Leinster House, will speed the bankruptcy of Ireland again. Older Irish people may disagree but the young people of Ireland,will have to live through the consequence of this horror for generations to come, if the Blueshirts remain in power, creating further revolt and suffering, as they did previously in Ireland's horrific history.

Fascism Anyone? Fascism’s principles are alive in all parts of Ireland today, masquerading as something else, preventing real democracy and the self determination of Ireland's communities. The article below by Laurence W. Britt, is placed in a an Irish context Ireland continues to fail to learn from history, or draws the wrong conclusions. Sadly, historical amnesia is the norm in Ireland and elsewhere. We are three generations removed from the horrors of Nazi Germany, although constant reminders jog the consciousness. German and Italian fascism form the historical models that define this twisted political worldview. Although they no longer exist, this worldview and the characteristics of these models have been imitated by protofascist1 regimes at various times in the twentieth century. Both the original German and Italian models and the later protofascist regimes show remarkably similar characteristics. Although many scholars question any direct connection among these regimes, few can dispute their visual similarities. Beyond the visual, even a cursory study of these fascist and protofascist regimes reveals the absolutely striking convergence of their modus operandi. This, of course, is not a revelation to the informed political observer, but it is sometimes useful in the interests of perspective to restate obvious facts and in so doing shed needed light on current circumstances. For the purpose of an Irish perspective, we will consider the following regimes: Fine Gael (Blueshirts) Ireland, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. To be sure, they constitute a mixed bag of national identities, cultures, developmental levels, and history. But they all followed the fascist or protofascist model in obtaining, expanding, and maintaining power. Further, all these regimes have been overthrown, so a more or less complete picture of their basic characteristics and abuses is possible. Analysis of these seven regimes reveals fourteen common threads that link them in recognizable patterns of national behavior and abuse of power. These basic characteristics are more prevalent and intense in some regimes than in others, but they all share at least some level of similarity. 1. Merger of Corporate Power and State Power. Although the personal life of ordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of large corporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised. The ruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensure military production (in developed states), but also as an additional means of social control. Members of the economic elite were often pampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality of interests, especially in the repression of “have-not” citizens. 2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation. 3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and“terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly. 4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism. Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite. 5. Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses. 6. A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses. 7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous. 8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion. 9. Powerful and continuing expressions of Nationalism as opposed to Self Determination of the island of Ireland. From the prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins, the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia. 10. Power of labour suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was seen as the one power center that could challenge the political hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass, viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being poor was considered akin to a vice. 11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and academic freedom were considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal. Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliable faculty harassed or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or expressions of dissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed. To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national interest or they had no right to exist. 12. Obsession with crime and punishment. Most of these regimes maintained Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prison populations. The police were often glorified and had almost unchecked power, leading to rampant abuse. “Normal” and political crime were often merged into trumped-up criminal charges and sometimes used against political opponents of the regime. Fear, and hatred, of criminals or “traitors” was often promoted among the population as an excuse for more police power. 13. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Those in business circles and close to the power elite often used their position to enrich themselves. This corruption worked both ways; the power elite would receive financial gifts and property from the economic elite, who in turn would gain the benefit of government favoritism. Members of the power elite were in a position to obtain vast wealth from other sources as well: for example, by stealing national resources. With the national security apparatus under control and the media muzzled, this corruption was largely unconstrained and not well understood by the general population. 14. Fraudulent elections. Elections in the form of plebiscites or public opinion polls were usually bogus. When actual elections with candidates were held, they would usually be perverted by the power elite to get the desired result. Common methods included maintaining control of the election machinery, intimidating an disenfranchising opposition voters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and, as a last resort, turning to a judiciary beholden to the power elite.

SOULLESS WASTELAND OF CORPORATE IRELAND

“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam. A country without a language is a country without a soul.”
― Pádraig Pearse

James Joyce like Samuel Beckett fled to Paris and famously said: 'Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages', that "No self-respecting person wants to stay in Ireland. Instead he will run from it, as if from a country that has been subjected to a visitation by an angry Jove." 

"Your music should be abou' where you're from an' the sort o' people yeh come from.—Say it once, say it loud, I'm black an' I'm proud ...—The Irish are the niggers of Europe, lads." —Roddy Doyle, The Commitments. There are also claims that Malcolm X said, "The Irish are the blacks of Europe !" but he was talking about the Irish genetic connection to the Moors, by way of Spain. However the analogy is valid. The last large numbers of white people to be sold into slavery, were the Irish with 150,000 sold back in the 1600s, when English pirates sold Irish slaves, regarding them as another species.

Events around the global banking crisis of 2008 and more particularly how it was mishandled in Ireland, have again clarified, that the Irish working class are being treated like the blacks of Europe. Currently Ireland is fourth globally in suicide rates for males age 18-24, according to a 2014 report, with unemployment rates comparable to black ghettos in the States. With the fall-out from the Irish bailout of the banking bondholders, resulting austerity and recession, bringing the Irish economy and living conditions below dozens of 'third world countries, it is another shock to the system. Ireland's current sense of gloom permeates the Irish air and patterns of current behaviour.

The Irish working class 'nigger' status is not just a fact abroad but it is still a reality on their own Island. It is crystal clear for centuries in the north of the island, with their sectarian treatment by the Orange Order culture, as crystallized in exchanges in the last few days, between the racist Gregory Campbell and Gerry Adams, it also true in the south, where the "West Brit Elite" still control society. Allied to a native gombeen class of neo-fascists in Fine Gael, along with colluding Labour careerists. The mafianomics of the corporate bankers and their sponsored native politicians, are denuding Ireland of it's native resources and people, with a ruthlessness, comparable to deforestation. Their instruction manual is the "The Art of War," as they adopt a scorched earth policy, leaving an Irish wasteland that is soulless.  


National Debt of Ireland


Ireland Debt Clock
204,643,296,961 €



Source: Irish Government Data

The Figures



Interest per year:


9,787,870,202€




Population:


4,591,087




GDP:


179,692,529,688€





Interest per second:


310€




Citizen's Share:


44,574€




Debt as % of GDP:


113.89%

Interesting Facts


You could wrap $1 bills around the Earth 990 times with the debt amount!


If you lay $1 bills on top of each other they would make a pile 27,767 km, or 17,253 miles high!


That's equivalent to 0.07 trips to the Moon!
Household Share


Household Share: 44,574€

Pope urges a “lonely” “self-absorbed” Europe to recover its soul

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2014-11-26 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis called on a “haggard” and “lonely” Europe to recover its role as a world protagonist, its identity as a defender of the transcendent dignity of man, the poor, the migrant, the persecuted, the old and the young, to recover its soul: Christianity.

Emer McCarthy reports: 

In a lengthy address– the first of two on his one day visit to the heart of Europe –  he told members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg that a two-thousand-year-old history links Europe and Christianity, “not free of conflicts or errors, but driven by the desire to work for the good of all”. This “is our present and our future.  It is our identity”, he said

The Pope also urged Europe’s 500 million citizens to see the Union’s problems – economic stagnation, unemployment, immigration, rising poverty levels and a growing polarization -  as a “force for unity” to overcome fears and mutual mistrust.

“Dignity” he said was the pivotal concept in the process of rebuilding which followed the Second World War and led to the European project. Today it remains central to the commitment of the European Union. But Pope Francis warned, often the concept of human rights is misunderstood and misused. 

He pointed to tendency to uphold the rights of the individual, “without regard for the fact that each human being is part of a social context wherein his or her rights and duties are bound up with those of others and with the common good of society itself”.         

Transcendent human dignity – the Pope continued - means regarding human beings not as absolutes, but as beings in relation.  He spoke of a Europe rampant with the disease of loneliness a direct result of the trend towards individualism. He said the economic crisis has worsened this pervasive loneliness and nourished a growing mistrust in people towards institutions considered aloof and bureaucratic. 

The Pope spoke of the unsustainable opulence of selfish lifestyles amid indifference to the poorest of the poor, where technical and economic questions dominate political debate, to the detriment of genuine concern for human beings.

This – the Pope noted –reduces human life to being a “cog in a machine” which, if no longer useful, can be “discarded with few qualms, as in the case of the terminally ill, the elderly who are abandoned and uncared for, and children who are killed in the womb”. This – Pope Francis said quoting Benedict XVI - is the great mistake made “when technology is allowed to take over”; the result is a confusion between ends and means”.

The future of Europe – added Pope Francis - depends on the recovery of the vital connection between openness to God and the practical and concrete ability to confront situations and problems.

The Pope said Christianity is not a threat to secular Europe but rather an enrichment. He said religions can help Europe counter “many forms of extremism” spreading today that are often “a result of the great vacuum of ideals which we are currently witnessing in the West”.

Here he decried the “shameful and complicit silence” of many while religious minorities are being “evicted from their homes and native lands, sold as slaves, killed, beheaded, crucified or burned alive”.

Pope Francis went on to observe that the motto of the European Union isUnited in Diversity, but unity, does not mean uniformity. Keeping democracy alive in Europe means avoiding the many globalizing tendencies to dilute reality.

Keeping democracies alive is a challenge in the present historic moment, he continued, but  it must not be allowed to collapse under the pressure of multinational interests which are not universal. It means nurturing the gifts of each man and woman; investing in families, the fundamental cell and most precious element of any society; in educational institutes;  in young people today who are asking for a suitable and complete education to help them to look to the future with hope instead of disenchantment. 

In areas such as the ecology Europe has always been in the vanguard, the Pope said, while noting that today “millions of people around the world are dying of hunger while tons of food are discarded each day from our tables”. 

He also spoke of the need to promote policies that create employment, but above all “restore dignity to labour by ensuring proper working conditions” while avoiding the exploitation of workers and ensuring “their ability to create a family and educate their children”.

On the issue of migration Pope Francis called for a united response decrying the lack of a coordinated EU wide effort to adopt policies that assist migrants in their countries of origin and that promote a just and realistic integration: “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery!” he decried to lengthy applause.

Pope Francis concluded: “The time has come for us to abandon the idea of a Europe which is fearful and self-absorbed, in order to revive and encourage a Europe of leadership, a repository of science, art, music, human values and faith as well.  A Europe which contemplates the heavens and pursues lofty ideals.  A Europe which cares for, defends and protects man, every man and woman.  A Europe which bestrides the earth surely and securely, a precious point of reference for all humanity!

BLUESHIRTS IN GLASSHOUSES SHOULD NOT THROW STONES

Anyone who reads this Irish Blog regularly, would be aware that I have perhaps been Gerry Adams fiercest critic, and that I was raging on the child abuse issue in Ireland and within the Provisionals, long before it went mainstream. My motivation was the enormity of this particular crime and the enabling denial within Irish society for so long about this issue. What heaped further rage on the matter for me, is that this horrendous crime is still used by the British, to manipulate Irish society, through blackmail at every level of society both North and South on the Island. This for me is the ultimate crime against humanity, and all human rights activists need to consider it, as one of their primary, targets, with campaigns for transparency. It is also proof if anymore were needed, of the malign nature and effect of British interference in Ireland.

The Irish writer Oscar Wilde, wrote, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." From personal experience of  Irish politics, I would have to reluctantly agree. What is currently, particularly galling for me, is to witness establishment political parties of Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail, along with their colleagues in the British secret services, using the most vulnerable part of our society, i.e. sexually abused children, as a stick to beat the emerging challenge of an alternative party, slightly more to the left and perhaps more independent of British influence, particularly, with the possibilities of large numbers of independents, being returned at the nest election. All of these three parties, were the principal participants in the 'SYSTEMIC' sexual abuse of Irish children, since the foundation of the 'Irish Free State' as the highly expensive, official inquires reported. They were fully aware of the extent of it and had the power to end it, of that, there can be no doubt. That is the now the transparent record of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour in power in the corrupt, illusionary 'Free State of Ireland'.

When it comes to Gerry Adams and Provisional Sinn Fein, we are moving into Oscar Wilde territory, that is not simply my opinion, that is my own experience. When I worked voluntarily in the Provisional's Centre in Newry, while a very intense war by the British, was raging in the background, a few reports came to my desk there, of senior IRA persons in Dundalk being involved in child abuse. I can categorically state, that I did everything humanly possible to deal with it, other than take the 'law' into my own hands and eliminate the person personally without sufficient proof, that the reports were authentic. I also firmly believe, that every person is entitled to a jury of 12 of their peers, for any serious crime, which is not the case in British Occupied Ireland. Anything less than 12 jurors, permits all sorts of contrived abuse, in my humble opinion. This simply is still not possible in that part of Ireland, because there is still a low intensity war being fought there.

As someone who has lambasted Gerry Adams and his colleagues for years, I have to admit there are some positive aspects to Adams personally. Yes, it was the correct time to end the long war for numerous reasons, too complex to deal with here. However I disagree vehemently, with the secret contrived manner of how that was made to happen. Adams has tried to engage in proactive politics, rather than the abyss of reactionary politics, i.e. allow the British and their puppets continually set the agenda, while Irish republicans and the Left, are left to simply flounder in reactionary activity. I will give him credit for that but to return to the subject at hand, I believe people like Adams, would not be alive today, if he confronted the monster of child abuse within the Provisionals thoroughly. 

During the course of the long war, a regular feature of life for any Irish Republican, was to be taken regularly to interrogation centres like Gough Barracks or Castlereagh and be interrogated for up to a week, which now has been extended to 28 days. As a result of this activity, over the course of the years of the long war, they were able to infiltrate and manipulate their agents into the most senior positions, within the organization and engineer consent, to some British policies in Ireland and I believe they continue with this, in subsequent secret societies. That for me, was a justifiable reason to change direction and stop wasting precious life.

Interrogation in Gough Barracks was also a regular feature of my own life in Newry. One of the first things that became obvious to me, was that their primary focus, was profiling, e.g. was I dove or a hawk? Over time, it became clear, that they were well versed on most of the activity on the ground in Newry. All serious operations carried out there, were conducted from elsewhere. In my case they were more interested in profiling me and trying to cultivate a working relationship, which never happened. They seemed desperate for information about the rural area of South Armagh, which had  stronger family and community bonds, that they appeared unable to break. I wish I could say the same about the more urban, deprived area of Newry, which produced some of the finest volunteers, who were forced to operate from elsewhere. Family ties and loyalty, are a critical part of this matter but it also carries it's negatives, as in the case of child abuse, which the British exploit to the maximum.

In the period leading up to the Irish Holocaust and since, in deprived areas of desperate poverty with large Catholic families, there was often, more than 20 persons sleeping in a single small room, whether it be tenements of Dublin, rural hovels of poverty in the countryside or in the gerrymandered neighbourhoods of the sectarian north, where inevitably all sorts of deviancy evolved. The victims often commit suicide, engage in self-destructive behaviour, such as alcoholism or drug addiction in modern Ireland. Those who survive it, often identify British Imperialism and their Irish gombeen agents, as the source of their rage. I personally grew up in a very violent home, where I blamed my blueshirt father to the point of hatred, as the source of that violence but as I grew older I realized it was bit more complex than that. Ultimately though I blamed British Imperialism. As I have traveled around the World, I can see it is far from confined to the British. When I caught myself over-chastising two of my sons, while I had a hangover, I realized from own childhood experience, that the best thing I could do for my children, was walk away. This is by no means for any human being, an easy choice.

Anyway to get back to Gerry Adams and Provisional Sinn Fein, there are many careerist there, that I have no time for them at all but there are some, for whom I would have a grudging respect. To cut a long story short, I firmly believe that Adams, no more than any other member of his party, with the exception of Martin McGuinness and a few of his cronies, had the power to stop child abuse within the ranks of the IRA. I am convinced that had they tried to do so, they would have been eliminated, ruthlessly, immediately by both the British and their gombeen agents, such as the fascist blueshirts in Ireland.They know who they are, enlightened Irish people know who they are and unless there is a proper transparent, truth and reconciliation process set up in Ireland, there is a day of reckoning coming on the island with a fury, that will make Rwanda look like a twelfth of July bonfire. Personally, I will reluctantly give Adams, because of family, community and war extenuating circumstance, along with a few of his colleagues, the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Mairia Cahill, featured in the article below from the Irish Times, obviously has the same courage as her grandfather, in her backbone, to speak out about all of this. So have all of the the other victims, both female and male, who have spoken out, but from raging all of my life at my own father and his many images in Ireland, the jury is still out with me, on numerous Irish women who were aware of the endemic child rape but for various reasons, have mostly stayed silent or indeed attacked, people like Sinead O'Connor who has protested about it. I'm also aware that I am writing this from a male perspective, albeit with a strong feminine side. Only an Irish mother with strong maternal instincts, can write about this. I'm still waiting and I believe women, particularly in Irish public life, have a responsibility to do so. I was told a long time ago in the Netherlands, who themselves also have a huge problem with this, that we are as sick as our secrets. Secrecy seems to be an endemic part of contemporary Irish culture. I was also told that the truth will make me free and to a large extent it has. I am writing this on a tropical island thousands of miles away from Ireland, whether I could safely write it and stay alive in Ireland is rather doubtful. There are thousands of men and women like me, walking around Ireland, who will take their dark secrets to their graves, many of them prematurely, unless elected representatives of the people, have the courage to take responsibility and do the right thing, as opposed to their own thing. 

As I have repeated often in this blog, I am not a religious person but this dark chapter of Irish life has consumed my soul for most of my life. One person has witnessed me rant and rave about it for more than 20 years, paradoxically he is an Englishman, whom I first told when I met him, that I should shoot. His political beliefs are quite different to mine but I can say, he is my best friend.  I am glad this very long dark chapter of Irish life, has at long last seen the light of day in Ireland, but I still rage, that it is still exploited by the political parties of the Irish and British establishment, for personal and party gain. This is nothing short of criminal, bearing in mind, that they and their parties have never been brought to account by the Irish media or its injustice system, for their critical, enabling part in this most horrendous of crimes. There will be no one happier, when this meets closure but there can be no shortcuts, only the truth can make us all free. It no longer keeps me personally, away from the Sunlight of the Spirit, except on the odd bad day. It was enabled by people who understood and who stayed with me patiently through it, only because, they understood it from their own experience. I also learned that it is better to keep counsel, than speak with someone who does not understand or have a similar experience. This can be critical for those who are suicidal. I can safely say, that I have made far more mistakes in my lifetime, than the average person, and the only reason I am still around, is the quality of mercy I have been shown.

Last month, someone, whom I knew quite well from Newry and for whom I would probably have taken a bullet, was interned for political reasons and by the course of the abnormal injustice system there, may well spend the rest of his life interned. I would not take a bullet for him today, not because of anything he has done since but simply because I value life in general, including my own, far more now. Sadly, that is selfish but without it, I would not be alive to write this. I value what I write, principally because some of  these facts, are something that any young potential volunteer needs to consider, very carefully, before they commit. Like a carpenter, you can measure often but you only commit once. That is not say, that my dreams for Ireland have changed, but I believe they can be achieved intelligently, with persistence and remembering again what Mairead Farrell said. "that our head is our best weapon", with the minimum of violence. 

Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much To mitigate the justice of thy plea; Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.

Up to 30 names of alleged IRA sex offenders have now been given to gardaí, Ms Cahill claims


A file photo of Maíria Cahill arriving at the Dáil earlier this month for a debate on allegations of sexual abuse by members of the republican movement. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

Tim O'Brien


Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 16:21


First published:Sun, Nov 23, 2014, 15:15


Maíria Cahill has said more than 30 names of alleged IRA sex offenders have now been given to gardaí.

Ms Cahill, who claims the IRA covered up and failed to report her alleged rape and sexual assault by a leading republican, said over the last five weeks many more people had contacted her with relevant information about alleged sexual abuse by members of the IRA.

In relation to the number of alleged abusers who details have been given to police, Ms Cahill said: “This week I spent quite a number of hours with the gardaí passing on information which I had received, for the second time in a month.

‘Trial by media’ has followed Maíria Cahill’s ‘Spotlight’ allegations
Maíria Cahill case forms backdrop to debate about abuse in North
FG TD seeks laws for IRA abuse case whistleblowers

“We are looking at probably around four times the number of names now, that Regina Doherty said in the Dáil, that she had passed on eight names to the gardaí”.

Ms Cahill said she had been contacted by other victims immediately after the BBC spotlight programme broadcast her allegations. She said it was “horrendous” people had been only confident enough to contact her on social media such as Twitterand Facebook, “but also very good that those victims did come forward” and she had “signposted them on” to both the PSNI and the gardaí and agencies could help them.

She said these were people who had similar experiences to her own “through IRA internal investigations into their sexual abuse”.

She also said some people who were not victims had come forward with information in relation to the alleged abusers.

Asked on RTE’s Saturday Night Show if she believed the abuse was “endemic”, Ms Cahill replied a lot of new information had come out about alleged IRA abuse in the last five weeks.

She compared this to the allegations of clerical sex abuse in theCatholic Church, where it “was ten years before the full extent was realised.”

Speaking about her experience Ms Cahill said the abuse and the difficulty in being brought before the IRA inquiry affected her entrance to university.

“Something had to give. Unfortunately for me the thing that gave was university. She said she began taking sleeping pills and when one woman who had been part of the IRA inquiry apologised to her for what had happened, it had been “beyond traumatic”.

She said being an abuse victim was like being somebody’s rag doll and the IRA investigation was a similar lack of control.

Ms Cahill said she went into psychiatric care for week, and was released but ultimately attempted an overdose in 2007, which she said was “rock bottom” and had to do something particularly because she was “haunted” that other children might be at risk.

“I didn’t want other people to have to go through that”. She said she didn’t regret for a second speaking out about what had happened.

LABOUR FATBARSTURDS

Labour Part of the Problem Not Solution

Its rhetoric may be softer than the Tories', but the Labour puts profit before people.

By Ken Loach

March 28, 2014 "Information Clearing House - Every day the Guardian publishes accounts of desperate poverty and attacks on welfare provision. We know of the food banks, the plight of disabled people and the housing crisis that affects so many. We know of the propaganda to make the poorest people scapegoats for economic failure. We recognise the hypocrisy of Cameron's "moral mission".

We know that housing support goes to rich landlords, that benefits for the working poor subsidise employers who pay poverty wages. We read that benefit fraud is a tiny fraction of the overall welfare budget, far less than unclaimed benefits, and is nothing compared to the amount lost through tax dodging. But as we rail against the injustice and hypocrisy, we fail to ask one big question. Where is our political fightback? It should be led by the Labour party but therein lies the problem.

The coalition parties proclaim the importance of the market economy. So does Labour. The coalition cuts back on public enterprise and prioritises the interests of big corporations and private companies. So did the last Labour government. Whenever workers organise to defend jobs, wages or conditions, who supports them? Not Ed Miliband or other Labour leaders. An open letter to Miliband from Labourite "intellectuals" published in the Guardian this week is as peripheral is it is self-important.

The demands of the competitive market are remorseless: reduce the cost of labour; privatise everything; remove protection from working people, and maintain a pool of unemployed to discipline those lucky enough to have a job. Trade unions are to be obstructed while the wealthy are courted in the hope that they will find a pliant, flexible workforce that is easy to exploit.

We see the consequences not only in the workplace but in our health service, in education, in all aspects of social care that mark a civilised society. We see it in the disregard for the environment, as in the current push to start fracking for shale gas, regardless of its impact. We have seen it in the illegal wars and imperialist invasions of recent governments. None of this is new. But where is our political representation?

Labour's rhetoric may be softer than the Tories', but its fundamental stance is limited by the same imperative: profit comes before all else. Can the Labour party be reclaimed? Or, rather, made anew into one that will represent the interests of the people?

History suggests it cannot. The high-water mark of 1945 is long gone. The many great achievements of that government have largely been dismantled, either with the collusion of Labour or directly by the party when it has been in power. The Labour left has all but disappeared, and even Tony Benn's voice is now sadly silent. A Miliband government will not reverse any of the privatisations in the health service or elsewhere. It will not take the railways back into public ownership – despite the popularity of such a move – or even reclaim Royal Mail.

The Labour party is part of the problem, not the solution. The Greens have many admirable policies, but we look in vain for a thoroughgoing analysis for fundamental change. We need a new voice, a new movement – a new party.

There are many thousands of campaigns for worthy causes – against hospital closures, to support the homeless, against environmental destruction, to protect the disabled, for human rights and civil liberties, to help those in need – the list is endless. Trade unions still represent millions of working people. There is a unity of interest among all these groups. Imagine what could be achieved if we all acted together.

Left Unity was formed a few months ago to work towards such co-operation. The task is considerable. We are used to working and campaigning within our own small organisations. The proliferation of radical newspapers is witness to that. But the need is urgent. If we don't act together, the poverty, exploitation and alienation will get worse. Where is the rage, asks David Hare. It's there, alright. People are certainly angry enough. But they need political leadership to give them hope.

Labour has taken as its slogan "one nation" – coined by a 19th-century Tory, Benjamin Disraeli. Disraeli had no intention of bringing about the changes to make that a reality. Neither does today's Labour leadership, wedded to a capitalist economy that creates class division. The Labour manifesto of 1945 would be a better inspiration. It promised "a socialist party and proud of it. Its ultimate purpose … is the establishment of the socialist commonwealth, free, democratic, efficient, progressive, public-spirited, its material resources organised in the service of the … people".

The Labour government of '45 chose not to be that party or realise that ambition. Its reforms were to provide an infrastructure for a capitalist economy, not to change society. The task is now to turn the words of the manifesto into a reality. Assert the public good against private greed. Do we have the ability to make it happen?

A new party must be democratic, principled and properly organised. It needs an analysis of contemporary politics with a set of immediate demands: an industrial strategy to create green jobs, a statutory living wage, a public housing programme and a cap on private rents, an end to all privatisation in the health service.

It is a list many can compile; but without political representation it is a futile exercise. Who will put it into effect?

Building a democratic party with volunteer activists is a daunting task. But if we leave the sidelines and, finally, work together, it might just be possible.




• Left Unity has a conference in Manchester on Saturday (29 March). Visit www.leftunity.org



Irish Labour Fucked



Support for the Labour Party in Ireland is at a historic low, as they continue a leading role in the implementation of austerity measures with right-wing Fine Gael.Their collapse has led to several high-profile resignations and growing concern that Labour will be wiped out in 2015.




European Parliament (MEP) Nessa Childers resigned from the party, being the seventh member to have left the parliamentary Labour Party since the coalition of February 2011.Phil Prendergast, warned that Labour was in danger of “writing its own obituary.”




On April 20, at a charity event in Dublin, Labour’s social affairs minister, Joan Burton, noted in a speech that she felt the population had reached the “limit” of tolerance of austerity measures. She added that such policies could only be continued for so long without generating opposition.Labour has taken the lead in wielding the axe to public spending. The austerity measures initiated by the Fianna Fáil-Green Party coalition were vastly expanded under Labour and Fine Gael.

Labour have led some of the most brutal attacks on working people. Labour’s Brendan Howlin made harsh cuts to social services and workers’ wages. Labour has used its links to the unions to ensure austerity measures are implemented. The unions continue to enforce cuts leading to billions of euros reduction in public sector employment of 10 percent. Labour have led demands for even deeper cuts to pay for the bailout of the banks. None of those raising concerns about Labour’s declining support have in any way repudiated the party’s role in imposing these policies and when confronted with mounting public opposition the unions are increasingly unable to control.

Gilmore has warned against any attempt to slacken the pace of austerity, noting the deep crisis still facing Ireland. “What kind of conditions do people think would be attached? What kind of money do people think would be available? Do people want this period of austerity to continue for another 10 years, another 20?” he commented to the Irish Times .

In reality, Gilmore knows full well that the deals struck by the current government will ensure the continuation of austerity for decades to come with repayments stretching over the next 40 years. The extension of the timetable for the rest of the €85 billion bailout for an extra seven years will secure the full repayment of these funds with interest to the financial elite.

Gilmore is typical of Labour Party leadership whose roots are in the pseudo-left of Irish politics. He began his career in the Workers Party in the 1980s, which sought to exploit Marxist phraseology to promote his fake brand of Irish republicanism. He played a leading role in the right-wing split in 1992 to form Democratic Left with Howlin facilitating the merger with Labour, creating the conditions for the integration of a number of formerly “left” radical figures into the highest echelons of Irish politics.




The task before Irish workers, is to break from these politically corrupt organisations, the pseudo-left groups and mafia Unions that give them support.

TIME TO GET ANGRY AT IRISH LABOUR LIAR FATBARSTEWARDS

.

The Liars of Labour have hit Irish mothers four times since 2008 over children’s allowance. Each cut for each child, to help feed them, shoe & clothe them, pay for school costs, pay for the heating by gas and electric, one of the highest priced in Europe, pay for everything needed to make sure they are healthy and clean has been cut another €58 a month. Add it all up on top of the increased bills from Labour in government seeing to it that €696 a year has been additionally taken from the mothers of Ireland on top of three other cuts beforehand.

After taking away hundreds again last year, they have also slapped on additional bills and taxes, charges, levies,and still Labour TD’s expect ordinary people to come up with more and more money as more people are pushed deeper into debt and some eventually homelessness? 300,000 Irish people are officially in debt over their electric bills alone. A modest home will in the coming year pay a household tax, a water-charge tax, a “media charge”.Pay more for drugs, pay for a bin services charge, pay more in PRSI, pay. pay... pay...

For everyone the following is what kicked in automatically as regards cuts and charges since Labour came into Government.:
PRSI changes
The reduced rate of Universal Social Charge for those over 70 with an income in excess of €60,000 will be discontinued;
Child benefit payments will be cut by €10 per child for the first and second child, and by €18 for the third child;
The rates of both VRT and Motor Tax across all categories will increase;
Capital acquisitions tax increase and threshold reduction;
Capital gains tax changes for farm land;
The increase in the Prescription levy from 50c to €1.50;
Excise duty on the purchase of vehicles;
The 19 per cent reduction in respite carer grants;
Reduced payment periods for jobseeker benefit claimants.

 All the Labour Liars operate under the fraudulent title of PR, highly paid by Irish Labour government politicians, while Irish voters are hit in their in the pocket and in their bank accounts paying individually hit again and again and again, picking up the bill. Meanwhile they hear on the TV & radio new words daily of state propaganda from Labour TD’s while every time they go to try pay a bill and are immediately reminded that the same TD’s are liars in reality have been chopping and chopping, bit by bit at the money that is supposed to help them get through life.


Rather than have it have it against their name that Labour was responsible for the stopping of the children’s allowance, they have cleverly decided to chop and chop and chop away at it instead with excuse after excuse while at the same time upping their own salaries, pensions and expenses again .

If it was just the childrens allowance, some mothers might accept with reluctance, the cuts. However Labour – yes, the party that is supposed to represent the average person, employed officially or not has seen to it that a lot of very ‘red-line’ core items they swore to protect for the vulnerable, to put it bluntly, Labour has lied about doing so and gone very back on the very basic, clear words they spoke prior for years and during election, but according to a top Labour Minster ‘Isn’t that what they do at election time?’



The reality is that Labour have lied on just about everything. from paying off bond-holders. The graph below will give a very quick glimpse as to what they have lied on, exposing them as bare faced liars on their very words said previously:

Labour members, ministers and TDs can now go back to their constituencies, hang their head with shame and face their own personal families, for their have shamed themselves and stained their family name for ever more as blatant liars. They have joined the Irish disgusting double standard lies that is now a part of Irish political history.Each of their families now has to face the rest of the people in their local area knowing that they, the rest of the public know that there is a disgusting, blatant, u-turning liar in their family and sadly know of the shame that bring down upon the rest of the family name.

Labour TDs now qualify for their lifetime pensions. Thats right, when you serve in office for just two years as an elected TD, you then get another massive pension for life, on top of your already standard state pension that you qualify for upon reaching old age. The difference this time is that once a TD leaves office no matter what age, their TD pension kicks in! If they chose, they no longer have to work for the rest of their lives. Multiple pensions are already stacked up by Gilmore and his cronies on top of their still current huge wages, expenses and perks.





Each Labour party member amid other reasons, has sold their soul away for the sake of getting over the two year elected point after which they are ‘on the pigs back’ for life!, a period in time that then qualifies them for a lifetime pension off the state of Ireland. In the meantime they have gone back on the VERY BASIC red line principles which they did previously stand for since the founding of the Labour party under Jim Larkin – who today is rolling in his grave possibly with disgust! The now traitors in his once great party – not any longer – will keep him rolling for some time. Labour CANNOT be trusted. They cannot be trusted in any way, shape or form. By their own words, anything they say at election time counts for NOTHING, they will lie to get your vote!

We have Labour TD’s now that are virtually gone into hiding, not confirming to their very local people that they have been elected to represent, where or when they might be in at their constituency offices. They are ducking and diving away from been seen on public streets, some from their very own family and only emerge in groups together en-mass as to provide protection and a support boost for one another. Cowardice for labour TD’s has become the mainstream street tactic.

Lets be honest though – who can blame them! They have lied to their local people, they have lied to the nation and they have lied to their very inner Labour ground supporters – the people who got them to where they are, sop to reap the pensions, perks and increasing expenses. Labour is doomed for the long foreseeable future because quite simply now, no matter what they say, they simply CANNOT BE TRUSTED!

Besides the much seen cowardice ranging from facing the public on the streets and avoiding cameras, besides the cowardice of caving continuously to Fine Gael who continue to equally look after themselves and their mates, besides the cowardice in trying to hide behind others and other pitiful excuses for the stuff that has come about – what’s the read reason that labour is doomed at the next election?

Every time a person goes to stick their hands in their pockets, to check their savings to see if their is enough money to pay a bill or even pay for a pint that now has become a definite luxury, they are reminded that Labour cannot be trusted – and Joe Soap is paying the price for it!

That is why Labour is doomed. They have taken HUGE amounts of money from an already struggling people, they have additionally put HUGE bills on their heads and at the next TV sound-bite, speech or election – they just CANNOT BE TRUSTED. They have shown themselves to be complete u-turn artists but even worse – complete liars.

Every time a mother, a dad, a worker, an unemployed person, a saver, a taxpayer daily has to pay a bill, it’s a reminder of what the Labour Party has done and how far they have sunk in credibility - thus the party is doomed for years, if not decades to come. Labour have become the new most hated party in the state including a lot of once staunch Labour voters – the comments centre around the same sentiment now “Good riddance to bad rubbish“. Indeed, I have to agree! Its going to be fun when they try speaking at the next election for nothing now a Labour TD or candidate says, can be trusted at all.