Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 1182

London Book Launch: In The Name Of The Son

Next weekend in London sees Merrion Press launch Richard O'Rawe's new book, In The Name Of The Son: The Gerry Conlon Story. The author has previously published two mould breaking books on the 1981 hunger strike. By providing a new prism these works both ruptured the previous dominant narrative and  transformed the manner in which people view the events of that tumultuous year.

Fuck The DUP Six Ways To Sunday

Anthony McIntyre expresses support for Ellie Evans who is being subject to PSNI bullying as it seeks to protect the DUP from public ridicule.
Thank hells for bestowing us with Ellie Evans and fuck heavens for inflicting Jim Wells upon us. Evans, a twenty four year old woman, is being investigated by the PSNI for the supposedly unprecedented and horrific hate crime of carrying a placard at a Belfast Pride parade which proclaimed "Fuck The DUP."
Source: Pink NewsThis is the PSNI which seems to have given new meaning to the D Notice: it delayed, deferred, denied, derailed, disputed and ultimately disappointed the families of those who were victims of the homicidal joint enterprise perpetrated by RUC Special Branch and the UVF’s Gary Haggarty.

Here it was dallying for almost eight years and ultimately succeeding in protecting its own from prosecution for murder. Yet not the slightest tardiness from its investigators as they hared off in hot pursuit of a young woman whose transgression was not to orchestrate the killing of Catholic civilians but to attend a march in support of equality. 
The provenance for the complaint is to be found in Jim Wells, the former Northern Health minister, booted out of his portfolio in 2015 over his antediluvian views on gay people. He claimed, perhaps honestly, that:

I was approached by people who were watching the parade who were deeply offended by the message contained on the placard.

So what? No one should have the right to opinions that are immune from offence. When they assume such rights those opposed to censorship should upend them. 
Wells goes on: "I believe someone's religious opinion and their political viewpoints have a right to be protected." 
Fuck their religious opinion and their political viewpoint. None of us should be as haughty to expect to have our political ideas or religious opinions protected from offence. Wells and his ilk want the freedom to offend gay or nationalist opinion but scream foul when the serve is returned. 
A while back Jim Wells had the police visit him over views expressed on the hustings about gay people. It was a waste of police time although if the Haggarty case is anything to go by wasting both police and the public's time is something the PSNI is an avid practitioner of. The police visit to Wells was as wrong as it was to Evans.

Ellie Evans felt that the cops were "inappropriately heavy-handed to show up at my house and call me in for questioning ... I think it's a waste of time..."
Even more a waste of police time when it is considered that the Metropolitan Police declined to seek prosecution in respect of a Fuck the DUP message at a London Gay Pride event. 

Source
Evans also accused the PSNI of bullying: "... they did it to intimidate me because there's no reason that it couldn't have been a letter if they had my address."

Wouldn’t be like the PSNI, would it, to engage in a bit of bullying and intimidation in pursuit of silencing opinion it does not want aired.  
The force has now sent a file to the DPP. If there is no agents involved Ellie Evans will not have to wait until she is in her thirties before finding out what awaits her. 
Ultimately, Wells wants the cops to act as language police and it is not only the Irish language his party opposes. Anti-DUP sentiment in the Queen's English must also be banned:

There's absolutely no place for that type of language to be aimed at Northern Ireland's largest political party.

The PSNI obviously agree.

The attitude of the anti-censorship community to all of this should leave the silencers in no doubt.

Fuck The DUP
Fuck Jim Wells
Fuck The Free Presbyterian Church ... just for good measure
Fuck the PSNI

Scientology Cult Not Welcome In Dublin

A statement from Scientology Cult Not Welcome with the details of a protest in Dublin on Saturday against the Scientology cult extending and consolidating its presence to Ireland. Thanks to Rowan Clarke who while not an organizer, flagged it up. 

This Saturday the 14th of October, there will be a protest held outside the building formerly known as Victory Outreach Centre on Firhouse Road, Tymon South, Dublin 24.

The purpose of our protest is:

➽ to oppose in the strongest possible terms, the infamously malignant and dangerous Cult known as the Church of Scientology from establishing a European base here in Ireland.

➽ to send a strong message to this so called Church that they are Not welcome in Dublin in any way shape or form to engage and practice the shamefully exploitative and dangerous activities and practices this cult is internationally renowned for which up to now is well documented and public knowledge.
This protest has been organised between a large plethora of activists from across many different spectrums, from anti-cult activists to autism advocates, some local objectors, sceptics and the families of those devastated by Scientology's disconnection policy. They are from both here in Ireland, with people traveling from Britain to oppose the opening of a Scientology Hub in South Dublin this Saturday.

Scientology is not new to Ireland. It has existed here in some form for well over half a century, but not making any real impact during that time, with only a handful of members active in the cult from a small office above a hair salon on Abbey Street.
But as of recently there has been a very determined effort by the Cult of Scientology to establish a base in Ireland, potentially a hub for its European operations.
Last year the Scientology Cult, purchased a property on Merrion Square directly across from Leinster House, the home of parliament in Ireland. Recently it bought a property in Firhouse, formerly belonging to another exploitation cult known as Victory Outreach.
It has been established that over 250 members of the cult from across the globe have been brought to Ireland to bolster the cult's position in Ireland and recruit more unfortunate souls into its exploitative ranks.
Scientology was formerly bankrupt in Ireland yet now with large sums of money invested in property and such a large influx of high-up cult activists, it is clear Scientology has big plans for Ireland and this is something for everyone to be extremely concerned with.

There are many reasons to list as to why you would be disgusted by the Cult of Scientology and to oppose its intentions and activities, but here are a few core examples as to how they are dangerous and why we most stop them setting up shop on our front door.

Scientology, through instructions passed down from its notoriously deranged Walter Mitty founder L Ron Hubbard, is notoriously anti-medicine and all forms of accredited Psychiatry and Psychology.
Through many front organisations it promotes a vast collection of quack remedies and pseudoscientific nonsense cures for large sums of money, mainly to vulnerable folks.
Front groups like Narcanon which encourages those suffering from drug and/or alcohol addiction to ignore advice from qualified addiction specialists, and buy places on Scientologists rehabilitation clinics subjected to unproven and discredited procedures.
They also claim to be able to cure disorders and conditions such as autism which is deemed a ‘spiritual flaw’, with children subjected to bizarre and highly dangerous quack remedies.
The Scientology Cult is widely condemned internationally for its practice of ‘Disconnection’, a Scientology policy where cult members are instructed to break all links and contact with family members and friends who are not part of the cult. This has led to thousands upon thousands of heartbroken families across the world, decades without speaking or having contact with their sisters, brothers, sons and daughters. We hope on Saturday to be joined by the families of those here in Ireland affected by disconnection.
The Scientology Cult relentlessly attacks and harasses former members who leave the cult, journalists and anyone who offers criticism or exposure of the churches misdeeds, subjecting them to harassment by Private investigators, vexatious litigation and other fascist style terror tactics.
The Cult of Scientology engages in rampant and widespread abuse, exploitation and discrimination against its own membership, forcing them to engage in unpaid and forced labour, bankrupting them with endless bunk courses and generally transforming them into slaves for the organisation.

Get The Picture


It is utterly baffling that there has been virtual silence from public representatives on this matter and no concern shown publicly about the intentions of this sinister cult.
We ask all who support our protest to please contact your local public representatives and lodge with them your opposition to this cult and you oppose the opening of this building in Firhouse which it intends to use to flog its harmful quackery.
It’s also worth noting that as we are enduring a housing crisis, that a powerful cult like Scientology can just swan in and buy up empty properties to engage activities harmful to local communities.

So please join us on Saturday. Let the Scientology cult know they are unwelcome in Dublin or any part of Ireland to promote their bile.
The grand overlord of Scientology himself, David Miscavige, is supposed to be present on Saturday which gives an added incentive to protest.
We will be peacefully assembling at 12pm on Saturday outside the front entrance of the former Victory Outreach Centre Firhouse Road, Tymon South.
Bring your placards, banners, leaflets, bullhorns etc
All Welcome

Stop Political Extradition To British

From Portlaoise Prison, Damian McLaughlin with ...
An Open Letter To The Irish People

My name is Damien McLaughlin. I am a father of four, my three boys are aged two, four and eleven. My daughter is fifteen years old. I am from Ardboe in Co Tyrone and soon I will face the prospect of being tortured in a hell-hole called Maghaberry Gaol. 
I'm writing this letter because I need your support in the fight to stop the extradition of Irish Republican political prisoners from the 26 counties to the six county statelet. For the past seven months I have been held in Portlaoise Gaol far away from my loved ones and friends. 
The reason? I'm fighting my extradition to the six counties to face false charges based on so called hearsay evidence. When I arrive in Maghaberry I will face humiliating forced strip searches administered by deeply sectarian Loyalist screws. I know this because I have experienced dozens of these degrading strip searches having been held there in the past. My personal movement will be completely controlled every moment of every day. Having already been tried in the media by the DUP and TUV politicians who have slandered me repeatedly. I will be produced before a Diplock juryless court which exist for the sole purpose of imprisoning Irish Republicans like myself.
If my extradition proceeds I will be handed over to this brutal sectarian prison regime by my so called fellow Irishmen at the behest of MI5 and the British Government. During the course of my trial I face upwards of 100 brutal forced strip searches over a period of 10-12 weeks. All of my visitors including my family and children who have already been harassed and sometimes refused visits entirely will have to face this whole terrible process again.
Any trivial pretext can be used to refuse a visit such as the type of clothes they are wearing as seen recently in the case of Dee Duffy's young son. My family will have to face sniffer dogs, searches, hatred and sectarian abuse that no children should ever have to endure. This letter is not only for myself it's also for two young men who are facing the same terrible situation: Ciaran Maguire from Finglas and Sean Farrell from Crumlin.
I am a Republican from Tyrone and as difficult as it will be for me to bear the torrent of slurs, violence and provocation, I can only imagine what it will be like for these two Dublin lads being degraded and tortured one hundred miles away from their families.
So I'm calling on everyone - Nationalists, Republicans, and Socialists and those who believe in human rights and justice around the world, let's hear your voice loud and clear. Don't let this happen, don't let Irish Republicans be extradited to a British torture camp. Stop the extradition of all Irish political prisoners now! Support the Anti-Extradition campaign! 
A special thanks to all those who have been to the forefront of the Anti-Extradition campaign from Saoradh and the IRPWA. You know who you are as do I.
Irish Republican political prisoner, DD McLaughlin Portlaoise Gaol

Islamophobia - A Political Term Used To Scaremonger People Into Silence

Maryam Namazie & Sadia Hameed representing the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, call for a celebration of blasphemy.


Also see the world's first group bodypaint captured by both ground and drone in solidarity with ex-Muslims.

Some will ask why we must celebrate blasphemy when it is "hurtful" and "offends".

The answer is simple:
Because people can be killed for blaspheming and human life is more important than hurt sensibilities and offence.

As the Jordanian atheist, Mohammed Al Khadra said at the largest gathering of ex-Muslims in history, "Where are your priorities? While we die, you are all thinking about Islamophobia?"

Islamophobia is a political term used to scaremonger people into silence; it imposes de facto blasphemy and apostasy laws where none exist. Where such laws exist, there are no accusations of "Islamophobia" but rather imprisonment, persecution and execution.

Another speaker at the July conference, Zineb El Rhazoui, who survived the attack on Charlie Hebdo because she was back in Morocco says "the right to blasphemy [marks] the boundary between barbarism and civilisation."

As the new edition of CEMB's publication: "The Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam" shows, it is especially dangerous for ex-Muslims living under Sharia.

CEMB is organising a protest at the Pakistani and Iranian embassies in London on 10 November to highlight a number of cases facing the death penalty such as that of Sina Dehghan, Soheil Arabi and Ayaz Nizami.

We are also campaigning for activists like Iraqi atheist Karrar Al Afsoor who has fled to Greece where he is being detained in awful conditions.

Despite the targeted persecution and slaughter of freethinkers, though, it is we who are still being blamed for the threats we receive and even when we are murdered - like the woman whose rape is blamed on the length of her skirt.We are outrageously even compared to Nazis for marching for LGBT and ex-Muslim rights at Pride in London by "progressives" who prefer to side with Islam and Islamism than with dissenters. [As an aside, Pride in London is still deciding whether to allow CEMB back at Pride next year given complaints(!) by the homophobic East London Mosque. CEMB has called on Pride to do the right thing.]

Spokesperson Maryam Namazie exposed the hypocrisy, double standards and racism of lower expectations at the 40th convention of the Freedom from Religion Foundation when she accepted the Freedom from Religious Fundamentalism award.

Thankfully, there are many who continue to support our work and the right to freedom of conscience and expression. This support has meant a great deal to us and enabled us to continue the important work we do.

Please continue to support us via donations (no matter how small), volunteering your skills (we especially need help with film editing and graphic design), as well as attending our protests and events. Sadia Hameed and Maryam are speaking at a number of events in Belgrade, Cambridge, Koln, Massachusetts, Melbourne, Nottingham, Pennsylvania and Rome.

In London, at our monthly meet-ups, we have everything from an ex-Muslim art workshop to "coming out parties" for ex-Muslims who decide to go public.

We hope you can join us at some of our events, including our 10 December End-Year event with food, drinks, speeches, music and dancing. G et your tickets to join us as soon as you can.

By the way, Deeyah Khan's film, Islam's Nonbelievers, which was about the work of CEMB and the situation of ex-Muslims in Britain and internationally has been shortlisted for the Asi an Media Awards in Investigative Journalism.

Thanks again for your support.

Looking forward to hearing from you or seeing you at some of our events.

Warmest wishes
Maryam Namazie
Sadia Hameed
Spokespersons
CEMB
BM Box 1919
London, WC1N 3XX
United Kingdom
exmuslimcouncil@gmail.com
ex-muslim.org.uk

When Others Forget Duleek Hunger Strike Committee Remembers

Via The Transcripts Martin Galvin speaks to Irish Republican activist and campaigner, Cáit Trainor, via telephone from Armagh about a recent commemoration for Thomas Ashe and about the Duleek Hunger Strike Monument.
Radio Free ÉireannWBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio
New York CityAudio Player
Begins time stamp ~ 39:54.
Martin: And with us on the line we have Cáit Trainor. Cáit, welcome back to Radio Free Éireann.

Cáit: Thanks very much, Martin.

Martin: Okay. Today you’re in Duleek, Co. Meath, and you’re talking about Thomas Ashe, a great Irish patriot who died almost a hundred years ago today after a hunger strike, after being force-fed and it was one of the key moments – his life was one of the key inspirations which helped turn Irish public opinion around to the point where, in 1916, it may have been unpopular in many areas to the country to the point where, by the following year, 1918, people would overwhelmingly vote a mandate to endorse what they stood for. Could you tell us a little about Thomas Ashe and why he’s being commemorated today?
Cáit Trainor: Cáit: Absolutely. Well yes, you’re right, Thomas Ashe’s death was a seminal moment in Irish history. It did certainly did change Irish opinion along with the fifteen executions that happened after the 1916 Rising. So Thomas Ashe was a great Irish patriot. He was a teacher, he was president of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood), he was a great man in the GAA and the language Irish language and culture. He was immersed in Irish culture growing up and took part in the 1916 Rising.
Battle of Ashbourne PlaqueHe was arrested as part of that 1916 Rising, being a Commander in the Fingal Battalion, and they took part in the Battle of Ashbourne and it was a great military victory for them at the time – one of the military victories of 1916. However, along with the rest of the leaders Thomas Ashe was arrested. He was sentenced to death. But because fifteen people had been executed there was a public outcry and Thomas Ashe, luckily enough, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

Thomas Ashe in Kilmainham, 1917
Now the following year – public opinion had swayed that much – that the British forces actually had a general amnesty and the rest of the Republican prisoners were released. Thomas Ashe got straight back on the bandwagon and the business of Irish independence and he made a number of public addresses and he was actually arrested then for seditious speaking. When he was arrested they treated him as a criminal, this was in June 1917. So like prisoners since Thomas Ashe, and I’m sure your listeners will be very aware of this, Republican prisoners are political prisoners of war and they refuse to be criminalised. And Thomas Ashe refused to wear a convict’s uniform, a prisoner’s uniform, and he, along with six comrades, embarked on a hunger strike. As part of that hunger strike the authorities at that time had a policy of force-feeding people on hunger strike and two days into his hunger strike they, after cruelly force-feeding him – and actually they did the force-feeding while they had Thomas Ashe in a strait jacket – they pierced his lung which was a fatal injury to Thomas Ashe and, unfortunately on day three of his hunger strike, he unfortunately died. So the importance of Thomas Ashe, is that firstly, he is the first Republican hunger striker and in Irish history, we’ve had twenty-two of them in total to date. And he was a great Irish patriot and an all round great – just a fantastic man who Irish people still very much hold Thomas Ashe’s memory dear to our hearts.

Martin: And his funeral was also a tremendous turnout, something that showed just changing feelings in Ireland in support of a free, independent republic and what Thomas Ashe stood for and died for…

Cáit: ..Yeah.

Martin: It’s important – you were referring – Dolours Price, Marian Price, for example, Gerry Kelly and Hugh Feeney were on hunger strike in the ’70’s and they were force-fed – brutally treated that way. The hunger strikes of Bobby Sands and the others in 1981 were over the same issue of political status – refusing to be treated as a criminal. You’re in a place, Duleek Hungerstrike Memorial Garden, it’s run by Thomas Lynch. I see very frequently, there are very many commemorations – it’s an independent Republican commemoration. How is that organised – that independent Republican commemoration – and some of the events that they have?


Cáit: So the Duleek Hungerstrike Monument Committee are a local group of people here in Duleek that I’d say maybe ten, maybe a bit longer ago, decided that they wanted to create a hunger strike garden memorial to all of the hunger strikers. And along with a prominent Republican such as Thomas Lynch here in Duleek and with the support of the local people they gathered up the money and they’ve created – and you really have to see this garden to believe it.Duleek Hungerstrike Monument

It’s absolutely beautiful! It’s so well-maintained. The love that goes into cultivating and creating this garden is unbelievable. The passion these people have in Duleek for the hunger strikers is second to none. And as part of that – they’re just a local independent committee, I mean there’s no big organisation backing these people – they are, they constantly are looking at commemorations, commemorating Irish patriots, the hunger strikers – they have a very successful independent Easter commemoration here every year also, but it would be well known the length and breadth of Ireland, they’re a very highly respected group of people and certainly all independents and also organisations would throw their weight in behind the Duleek people who are keeping the flag flying for Irish Republicanism and they will not allow the memories of Irish patriots, and in particular the hunger strikers, to die. And they do a fantastic job of it. I mean, even outside of Duleek they’ve organised convoys for current Irish political prisoners, such as Tony Taylor, the Craigavon Two, where they would actually have convoy of cars coming from Duleek to Dublin and then maybe having an address at the GPO. They’re a very forward-thinking and innovative bunch of people who are constantly trying to move the national agenda forward. So the garden, I have to say, is fantastic and for anybody who would like to look that up they are on Facebook, Duleek Hungerstrike Committee, and even if you want to google them you will see this beautiful garden that they’ve created.

Martin: Alright. One of the things being done today – Paul McGlinchey, who was on this programme just a few weeks back, has a new book out, Truth Will Out , about being a blanketman, about during the time of the hunger strikes in 1980 and 1981. What was done to break prisoners and to force them to wear a criminal costume and allow themselves and their struggle to be criminalised. I know that that book is going to be promoted in conjunction with the event today. Is that correct?
Truth Will Out
To order email: pmcglinchey123@outlook.com

Cait: That’s correct. We’re actually going to the book launch here now just when I’ve gone off this interview. I was speaking to Paul just before I came on here and he said you know, he told me that he was on a number of weeks ago, the book is going to be sold and launched and I think Paul is going to say a few words about it.

Yes absolutely, Paul McGlinchey, ex-blanketman, very much in the tradition of Thomas Ashe, so that’s quite fitting that he’s going to launch that book here today. I haven’t actually got a chance to read the book myself, I’m going to purchase it after this, and I’ll be able to report back if it’s a good read after that but, by all accounts, it’s a very informative book and it’s very important for Paul to do this – Paul was diagnosed with cancer last year and he just felt now was the right time to actually, as the book says, the truth will out – he wants to put the truth on the record of his experiences in jail.

Martin: Okay. Now you were the main speaker at the commemoration, we’ve just got a couple of minutes left, but was there a central theme or message that you wanted to express to the people who were at that commemoration today for Thomas Ashe?
Cáit’s speech from her blog.
Cait: Absolutely. The central theme of my speech was that we need to keep going in the face of adversity. We are facing very dark times in Ireland at the moment. We have a supergrass trial, we have an increase in IRA membership charges. Indeed today the Special Branch of An Garda Síochána, you know, completely immersed our commemoration – they were taking local peoples’ names, they were intimidating the crowd – and my message to the people really was that in the face of all this adversity and in the memory of Thomas Ashe and the rest of the Irish patriots we need to keep going because these men and women gave their lives and we need to pursue their ultimate goal which is Irish independence. They, just to hit on it again, the Gards really were acting very – their behaviour was terrible today in trying to intimidate local people – but, true to form, the Irish Republican people here in Duleek stood up and faced them down and we had a fantastic commemoration which had a great turnout and all credit must go to the Duleek Hunger Strike Committee for organising it.

Martin: You know, it’s sad to think that a hundred years ago during Thomas Ashe’s funeral there would have been members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) writing down names and trying to intimidate people by their presence. And it’s sad to think that a hundred years later, after we have an independent Irish parliament in Dublin, for the Twenty-Six Counties at least, after we have, supposedly, an Irish force that is independent of the British that they would be concerned and trying to intimidate people simply for commemorating an Irish patriot like Thomas Ashe, like all the others of 1916. And I just want to commend everybody – the Duleek Hunger Strike Committee. I’ve seen a number of their events. I always read people who’ve spoken at them – Anthony McIntyre puts some speeches up on The Pensive Quill – I just want to commend you and everybody at that commemoration today for paying a fitting tribute to Thomas Ashe and for everything that he stood for, which Irish patriots have stood for. Alright. Thank you very much.

Cáit: Thank you. Thanks again. Slán. (ends time stamp ~50:18)

➽Follow The Transcripts On Twitter 

The Egg Of Columbus

The Uri Avnery Column discusses the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation concept.



However, I have no doubt that it was invented again and again, with many happy inventors sharing the glory.

The same is true for the Israeli-Palestinian Confederation. From time to time it appears in public as a brand-new idea, with another group of inventors proudly presenting it to the public.

This just shows that you cannot suppress a good idea. It appears again and again. During the last few weeks, it has appeared in several articles, presented by new inventors.

Every time it happens, I would take off my hat, if I had one. As Europeans used to do when they met a lady or an old acquaintance.

Actually, the United Nations Partition Plan adopted by the General Assembly on November 29, 1947 (Resolution 181) already proposed a kind of confederation, though without using the term. It said that the two new states that it created – one Arab, one Jewish, with Jerusalem as a separate unit - would be united in an "economic union".

A few days later, the "war of 1948" broke out. It was a bitter and cruel war, and when it ended in early 1949, nothing of the UN resolution remained. There were still some desultory negotiations, but they petered out.

The war had created "facts on the ground" – Israel controlled vastly more territory than was allotted to it, Jordan and Egypt had taken over what was left. Palestine had ceased to exist, the very name erased from the map, with half the Palestinian people evicted from their homes.

Immediately after the war, I tried to set up a group of young Jews, Muslims and Druze to propagate the setting up of a Palestinian state next to the new State of Israel. This initiative led nowhere. In 1954, when some Palestinians in the West Bank revolted against their Jordanian masters, I published a call for the Israeli government to support the creation of a Palestinian state. It was ignored.

It was three years later that the idea of an Israeli-Palestinian federation first took on a serious form. The 1956 Israeli attack on Egypt, in collusion with France and the UK, aroused the disgust of many Israelis. In the middle of the war, I got a phone call from Nathan Yellin-Mor. He proposed that we do something about it.

Yellin-Mor had been the political leader of Lehi (alias the Stern Gang) the most extreme of the three underground organizations that fought against British rule. I was the owner and editor-in-chief of a popular news magazine.

We set up a group called Semitic Action. As a first step, we decided to compose a document. Not one of those flimsy political programs that are published today and forgotten tomorrow, but a serious plan for the total overhaul of the State of Israel. It took us more than a year.

We were some 20 people, most of them prominent in their field, and met at least once a week for our deliberations. We divided the subjects among us. The subject of peace with the Arabs fell to me.

The Basis of the new creed was that we Israelis are a new nation – not outside the Jewish people but a part of it, much like Australia was a new nation within the Anglo-Saxon community. A new nation created by its geo-political situation, climate, culture and traditions.

(This idea itself was not quite new. In the early 1940s, a handful of poets and writers, nicknamed the Canaanites, had proposed something similar, but denied any connection with the world Jewish people and also denied the existence of the Arab nation or nations.)

In our view, the new "Hebrew" nation was a part of the "Semitic Region" and therefore a natural ally of the Arab nations. (We categorically refused to call it "Middle East", an Eurocentric, imperialist term.)

In a dozen detailed paragraphs we outlined the structure of a federation that would consist of the two sovereign states of Israel and Palestine and be in charge of their joint economic and other interests. Citizens of either of the two states would travel freely in the other one, but not be allowed to settle there.

We foresaw that this federation would in due course become part of a wider confederation of all the countries of the Semitic region in Asia and Africa.

Other chapters dealt with the total separation between state and religion, free immigration, relations with the Jewish communities around the world and a social-democratic economy.

The document, called "The Hebrew Manifesto", was published before the State of Israel was ten years old.

Christopher Columbus, the man who "discovered" America, was asked how to make an egg stand up. He knocked the end of the egg on the table and lo and behold – it stood.

Since then, the "Egg of Columbus" has become proverbial in many languages, including Hebrew. The idea of a federation in Palestine is such an egg. It combines two principles: that there would be one country between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and that both Israelis and Palestinians would live in their own independent state.

The "Whole of Eretz Israel" and the "Whole of Palestine" are right-wing slogans. The "Two-state Solution" belongs to the Left.

In this debate, "federation" and "confederation" are often used interchangeably. And indeed, no one quite knows the difference.

It is generally agreed that in a federation, the central authority has more powers, while in a "confederation" more powers are vested in the component units. But that is a vague distinction.

The American civil war was fought between the Southern "confederacy" which wanted to retain the rights of the component states in many fields, (with the fields tended by slaves), and the federation of the North, which wanted the central government to retain most of the important powers.

The world is full of federations and confederations. The United States, the Russian Federation, the Confederation Suisse, the United Kingdom, the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (official translation: Federal Republic of Germany) and so on.

There are no two among them which resemble each other completely. States are as different from each other as human beings. Each state is the product of its geography, the special character of its peoples, its history, its wars, loves and hatreds.

Members of a federation do not have to love each other. Last week, in a bizarre way, the American civil war was fought again in a Southern city, at the foot of the statue of a Southern general. Bavarians have no great love for the "Prussians" of the north, Many Scots would love to get rid of the bloody English, as would many Quebecois from Canada. But common interests are strong, and very often they prevail.

When it is not a marriage of love, it is at least a marriage of convenience.

Technical advances and the demands of the modern economy drive the world together into larger and larger units. The much-maligned "globalization" is a global necessity. People who today wave the "Bonnie Blue Flag" or the Swastika are ridiculous.

One day in the future people will pity them as people today pity the Luddites, who smashed the machines at the beginning of the industrial era.

Back To us.

The idea of a federation or confederation of Israel/Palestine may sound simple, but it is not. There are many obstacles.

First of all, there is the vast difference in the living standards of the two peoples. It would necessitate massive help from the rich world for the Palestinians.

The historical hate between the two peoples, not since 1967, not since 1948, but right from the beginning in 1882, must be overcome. This is not the job of politicians, but of writers and poets, historians and philosophers, musicians and dancers.

This looks like a daunting mission, but I am deeply convinced that it is easier than it looks. In Israeli hospitals (doctors and nurses), in universities (professors and students), and, naturally, in joint peace demonstrations, bridges between the two peoples are already in place.

The very fact that the federation idea crops up again and again shows its necessity. The groups of activists who are bringing it up now were not yet born when we first proposed the idea – yet their message sounds new and fresh.

May their cause prosper.

RNU No Longer Capable

A collective of former RNU/Cogús activists have issued a statement on their departure from the body.

In mid-August of this year, RNU held a national workshop to explore the long term viability of the movement. Discussed at this was a lack of any political strategy -  and more precisely one to differentiate it from the other republican groupings - poor morale, stunted growth and a growing issue within the unmanageable and ambiguous organisation of Cogús. This, allowing for a lack of accountability and virtually no control as to who could become associated with our movement.

As a result of this the Ard Chomhairle resigned from both their positions and the movement as a whole, as did many activists that agreed with the view that RNU was a party no longer capable of functioning and thriving in the current political climate. It was in our view a mature and honest conclusion. Alongside the Ard Chomhairle, RNU’s Dublin and Derry cumainn as well a significant number of activists in Belfast, Cork, Tyrone and the Fermanagh-Donegal border resigned from the party.

The bloc that made the decision to depart from RNU/Cogús did not do so lightly, many of the activists having spent years in the movement. It was a gradual and obvious eventuality to those involved in the day to day running of the party. And while it was our desire for the movement as a whole to come to an end rather than prolonged regression, we do not seek to undermine those that are now attempting to continue that project. But the feeling of a need for clarity due to rumour and innuendo spurred the construction of this statement.

Irish Republicanism in its current state is fractured while what it requires is unity. It is politically stagnant when it requires fluidity in thought and practice. We who have resigned are not of the opinion that another party is necessary. Another rushed acronym offering nothing new and competing for support from the all too small pool of people that maintain the revolutionary tradition would be a regressive step and a waste of our collective time, money and energy.
Moreover, we wish to reaffirm that our commitment to the republican struggle remains the same as it had while members of our now former movement.

What’s Good For Business? Fake or Fortune

Finnian O Domhnaill  discussed imperialism. Finnian O Domhnaill is a political writer from Donegal, currently living in Derry. He is the creator of the political page No Bones About It.I sit and I catch a glimpse of what’s on the TV that illuminates over my laptop in the evening’s last twilight. A program on BBC called ‘’Fake or Fortune’’. Fiona Bruce goes to grandiose palaces that are lavished in acres of pruned gardens to seek out if a painting of Renoir is a mere copy or the real deal. The theme of the episode doesn’t agitate me nor the ‘’shnobby’’ accents but those palaces, those gardens and it hits me again. Imperialism is alive and kicking today more than it ever was.



When you think of imperialism, empire, colonialist or conquered lands, you may revert back to the old, very old days of when England owned (owed) a quarter the earth. You may go back to day of ‘’let them eat cake’’ and guillotines but somehow you may say that those days are gone now and we all live in a more shared society and a more equal world than those days.

I don’t have to look far or to dig that deep to know full well that imperialism is still around. I cross the border from Donegal to Derry on a regular basis. I watched the news and seen the blatant DUP £1 billion bribe happen while the NHS continues to cripple under the weight of the Tories lip licking hunger for power by any means. I’ve read about Catalonia wanting and demanding a referendum for independence from Spain which may fall on the well opened ears of the Spanish Imperialists.

Tony Benn said:

I don't think people realise how the establishment became established. It simply stole the land and property of the poor surrounded themselves with weak minded sycophants for protection, gave themselves titles and have been wielding power ever since.

What Benn is saying is that Imperialism is now and has always been the establishment, the government, the butcher, the baker, ‘’civilised society’’ maker. When he says people don’t realise this, he means it. Maybe not so much of the readers of this site (TPQ) but those who are asleep but ask themselves why they feel this world is an unfair one and baffled as to why it can't be a little more fair and equal.

Of course, Imperialism doesn’t need us all. It certainly doesn’t need the thinker, the challenger, the ones who see the goalposts being moved. It needs the dumb and the fearful and it needs to keep them that way by manufacturing fear and dumbing down methods which comes in the shape of foreign entities threatening your way of life, cultural erosion, socialism and communism in any way or form, talentless bimbos being paraded through the main stream media as role models for women and young girls, army advertisements that glorify war and death, coincidentally shown in poor working class areas. "I was born in Carlisle but I was brainwashed in the navy’."

Of course imperialism keeps their slaves fighting among themselves through the infamous class system. It worked well with the simple upper, middle and working class but now it has been chopped up again with working class upper working class, lower class, underclass, upper/lower middle class, I cant believe its not class and so on - leaving the powers that be to lap it up. It seems that divide & conquer tactics are working well in today’s master/slave world as much as it did in America, Roman times and for the Greeks "democracy."

There is only one thing that matters to imperialism: power and power alone. Because with power comes wealth and with wealth comes control. It is imperative that power is retained and make no mistake, they still want power today just as much as they wanted it centuries ago. Compromise and only a slight bending of their way of living can be made but never dismantled or diminished. It doesn’t matter to imperialists if the masses are not pleased with them but as long as the circle the elites run around in are pleased, they don’t care about us. Would a slave owner in 1800’s America care what his slaves thought of him?

Imperialists too get scared just like the rest of us (human after all ya know?) and every so often Imperialism is shook. This is evident in the Russian revolution of 1917. The Tsar’s cousin must of been trembling in his royal boots when he heard the news. We seen this with the Cuban revolution when the people rose up against Batista’s American Imperialist sponsored regime in Cuba and we seen it in the present with Bolivia showing the IMF the door. Small blips in the scale of master and slave that has gone on through millennia, you could argue.

We have heard all of this before obviously. We have heard about the ‘’man’’ trying to put us down, workers of the world unite and the cries of Tiocaidh Ar la!! But has anything changed really? Does power still not reside within the realm of imperialism? Yes we have some better days now with a higher standard of living than centuries ago but so too has the elites and the royals. As we grow to think that the scale of justice and humanity is being leveled, just think how much the ‘’haves’’ are getting. There are those who still remain sleeping in a dream that all is well in the world. This dream that is constructed by the very same entity that suppresses them and leaves them blind to the fact that imperialism lives on today. The greatest trick the devil ever performed was to convince people he doesn’t exist.

Perhaps it’s time now to go back to basics. Back to where this mess began and start informing those sleeping masses, those who are sent to kill mercilessly in the name of ‘’freedom’’, the ones who follow the money but lead us in the demise of humanity, those who are oppressed in their communities but wave a little union flag outside Buckingham palace for hours in the rain just to catch a glimpse of Liz. Maybe then we could get some sort of sense of the havoc we are in and get some proper shows on telly too.

No offence, Fiona.

Sinn Fein Bullying: a reminder of the face of fascism

With a new spotlight being shown on the bullying and intimidation practiced by Sinn Fein, we remind our readers that this behaviour is nothing new.

It is always right to expose bullies and thugs.

Sinn Fein, like other bullies and abusers, survives with the complicity of silence, whether it is politically motivated - to "protect the peace process" - or via intimidation.

Abusers survive by isolating the abused. The silence surrounding the experience enables and perpetuates the isolation. "Gas-lighting" is a contemporary term applied to the tactic: the victim is made to be the one with the problem, crazy, exaggerating, nothing to see here...an isolated case of a bitter misfit. Whisper campaigns are a form of abuse and gas-lighting. Those on the outside believe the whispers and contribute to the isolation of the victim.

When individual people now come forward with their experience, we must support them, and help amplify their experience through validation in sharing our own similar experience. They are not alone. It happened to others. It happened to us. It will keep happening. Victims are doing the right thing in speaking out.

We must also keep in mind the larger picture; this is not just an abuse of individuals in the party, or in the movement, in the community, or of those who disagree with the party. This is an abuse of society.

Originally published in 2014, we believe this article by Carrie Twomey is worth revisiting, in light of the ongoing exposure of Sinn Fein bullying within the party .

Republicanism, especially as it hoovers up young people who are only beginning in politics, suffers from goldfish syndrome in its short-term memory of what came before. The lies of the leaders are accepted blindly and forgotten. What was done to others can come as a shock to those who perhaps previously participated in unthinkingly repeating slander unquestioningly.

This is the value of gas-lighting and isolation for the abuser: it is only when that abuse comes to your own door that you really see it for what it is. Until then, it's just the party line. And what is the harm in that?

The Bare Face of Fascism  
This Sunday’s papers made for difficult reading. Much of the news coverage of Máiría Cahill’s case has been both invigorating and hard to bear. It is wonderful to see such plain spoken audacity finally get both heard and due recognition. The requirements of the processing of peace meant that challenging voices have been too long silenced and vilified. Censorship, self or otherwise, and a deliberate averting of the public eye was the rule rather than the exception. This allowed the fascistic monster in our midst to morph and take on a new form rather than disappear. All for the sake of peace, a peace without justice or principle, and increasingly, without meaning.

Other aspects of the Cahill commentary and information relayed is personally challenging, as what is discussed is so similar to my own experience. I understand fully and painfully what it means when Máiría, speaking of the way she has been treated by Sinn Fein, says it has re-traumatised her: it shocks me, because it is forcing me to confront the plain fact of my own trauma.

You get through crisis because you have to. It is what it is. You don’t wallow or think of yourself as a victim; you take responsibility for your life and you do what needs done. So to think of the last few years of my life as traumatic is not easy for me. But reading about Mairia’s fear, tears, and anger, and knowing how intense everything she is going through right now is shakes me and forces me to name my trauma for what it was. Saying that the last few years of my life has been a nightmare is easy – it is a way to both acknowledge and dismiss how much it hurt. To accept that I have been traumatized is something altogether different. To see a mirror of my experience so readily accepted in the media as traumatic, and horrible, and cruel is shocking. Because it means what I have had to deal with is also cruel, and horrible, and traumatic.

At one point it got so bad I went to my GP begging for help. I stopped sleeping out of fear, was up all night every night. A monster had taken over my life. I suffered from severe depression and exhibited all the hallmarks of PTSD except that the TS was never fully P, and still isn’t to this day. I was prescribed Prozac which helped tremendously and availed of counselling which was even more helpful and for which I am extremely grateful.

Because my experience is political it is hard to explain or express emotionally. Traditionally, we are supposed to be unemotional, or at least, hold emotion back from politics; the rules of the game are that it gets dirty and low, and the only way to win on that is to never let them see you cry. You have to take it on the chin and move on.

My experience, however, while rooted in politics is not unemotional nor without consequences. For speaking out against Sinn Fein, I have been traumatized. Vilified, intimidated, and threatened, I have lived in fear and under surveillance. I do not have a private life; my life with my husband is an open book as we have no sense of privacy and know that anything can be used against us at any time.

It first began in earnest in the wake of the IRA’s murder of Joe O’Connor, where I was subjected to a picket of my home, new in a foreign country with no family and few friends, six months pregnant. I had been a union organizer and was no stranger to pickets, although picketing a home in the dark of night was unusual. I faced the mob with my back straight. I named my daughter Truth in honour of our defence of it.

And that is what I, and my husband, had done. We had spoken the truth. And we continued to speak the truth, no matter how difficult or how scary it was. And we highlighted the truths the processors of peace wanted buried: that fear and intimidation was being used to impose an imperfect peace that would never last because its foundation was as false and hollow as the lies being used to uphold it were.

For 8 years we published The Blanket, and were hated, attacked, and smeared for doing so. On the Slugger O'Toole website, I helped expose the terrible lie at heart of the 1981 Hunger Strike because I refused to be silent, and refused to stop asking questions.

Alongside this, the oral history of the Belfast Project was being collected by my husband. Others, too, refused to be silent, and understood the importance of leaving a record of their truth. Given what we faced for what we published in The Blanket, we knew the danger his taking this project on entailed. We thought the institution sponsoring the project appreciated the risk too, but found out to great cost that they only cared about their own financial risk.

When we moved south we thought we were closing a chapter in our lives. We wound down The Blanket and attempted to adjust to a new life. The attack on our neighbour’s home upon the publication of Voices From the Grave reminded us that our new life was still our life. My husband was under threat; Bobby Storey thundered about the IRA code in speeches and the Andersonstown News put it on the front page to reinforce the message.

The arrival of the first subpoena of the Belfast Project truly upended our lives. The sustained intimidation and character assassination that was conducted by Sinn Fein was unrelenting. And it was cruel. They came at us from every angle, including my husband’s own union, seeking every opportunity to undermine and discredit him, all in order to protect their leader, Gerry Adams. They want to break you, to place you under so much pressure and strain that you crack.

Unfortunately for Sinn Fein we had been living, as my husband often described it, at the bottom of the ocean for so long because of the sustained hate campaign Sinn Fein waged against us, we had become so well acclimatised to intense pressure that it was normal.

But what I am faced with today is that what we went through and what we have faced is not normal, and should never be normal. What Máiría Cahill, and the McCartney Sisters, and the Quinns, and the Raffertys, the Donnellys, the Perrys, the Notorantonios and O’Connors, the Kearneys, the Bennetts, and far too many more, have gone through and are going through is not normal.

It is not normal to be afraid to answer the phone or open your door. But I am. Every time a little surge of fear, a small question, is present. I answer it anyway, but the fear never leaves.

Like Máiría Cahill, I have reported online threats to the Gardai. Like Máiría Cahill, I have no faith or trust in the judicial system in the north. Months after I had reported the online death threat made against me to the Gardai, my husband’s judicial review of the subpoenas took place in the north. It was a disappointing and expensive farce. It was supposed to review the impact of the subpoenas on our safety. It was an exercise in the PSNI self-justifying itself. They had no knowledge of any of our contact with the Gardai. Why would they risk their subpoena case in acknowledging the reality of the threat we faced? Of course they were always going to say they had no knowledge of anything. To admit we were at risk because of their actions would mean an end to their fishing expedition. Our lives didn’t matter and mean little to the machinations of the state.

Like Máiría Cahill, I know the fear of going to Belfast in the wake of a Sinn Fein rally. The weekend of Adams’ arrest, when ‘Boston College Informer Republican McIntyre’ went up on the walls and Bobby Storey thundered about not having gone away to remind everyone else to keep their mouths shut, when the cultish mural of abject adoration went up and the online chorus sung that people should ‘direct their anger at the touts’, I was due to be in Belfast for the annual Brendan Hughes Memorial Lecture. I am on the Family and Friends of Brendan Hughes Committee, along with Ivor Bell, Paddy Joe Rice, Danny McBearty, and Gerard Hodgins; Gerry Conlon was also on our committee before he died and was instrumental in organizing this year’s event. Clare Daly and Gareth Peirce were due to speak in West Belfast. I had a responsibility to be there. Bell, who had been charged before Adams’ arrest, was going – I could hardly not show up. But I was terrified. I was more frightened than I had ever been in my life. I swallowed my fear and I got on the train, but I will never forget how scared I was, and when I saw the graffiti on the walls I knew I was right to be afraid.


I have not even scratched the surface of what I have gone through – these few examples are just the first that come to mind, but leave me feeling I have done an inadequate job of explaining what we, and those like Máiría who challenge the protected species that is Sinn Fein, face, and the emotional impact it has on us.

Like Máiría, I deeply understand the need to be believed, to be told, you are right, you are not crazy, you are not paranoid, you are not bitter, or a dissident, or out to get Gerry Adams or undermine the peace process, you are telling the truth, this did happen, and it was wrong. This is the beating heart of the desperate need of a truth process, for the ending of the conflict has meant too many victims have been denied even the basic dignity of acknowledgment and validation of their experience.

My family do not deserve to live through the fear of the threats we face for having dared to document history. No family does.

The bottom line is that the peace process has never been about peace. It has always been about protecting the British state at the expense of the people and it still is. Anything that challenges that or threatens to expose the real cost of what is being peddled is a threat to that state and treated as such. Nevermind if it is a victim of rape, or a child, or the family of someone brutually murdered, or a historian, or a journalist or just someone who has a sense of justice and outrage and dares to express it when wronged. The state's dirty secrets are worth more than all of us put together and they will do anything to protect them.

It is not the Mary Lou McDonalds who are the new face of Sinn Fein. Instead, it is the children who have come of age between peace and conflict. This is what Mairia Cahill symbolizes: those younger people who have grown up in the peace process, who have been gifted the promise of normality, who should remain untainted by the Troubles and have every right to demand to be so.

The Mary Lous of Sinn Fein want to continue with the corrupted legacy of power and control that the conflict gave to their leaders. The true future lay with those who say, “Enough” and speak out because it is the right thing to do. Stop traumatizing us. It is time for true and actual change, and those who face the future with courage and openness will be the ones who achieve it. The others will only deliver more of the same old lies and deceit, and with them the dirty war will continue on, business as usual.


See also: Killing Joe O'Connor