⏩Geordie Morrow is a Belfast artist.
Attempts to stop people including writer Sally Rooney from expressing support for Palestinians facing genocide have been likened by Mary Robinson to the demonisation of opponents of South African apartheid.
Speaking before an event on international law held at the Museum of Literature on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green, the former president said that over her long career “this is the most difficult time [and] the challenges are more serious than they’ve ever been”.
She said the decision by British publisher Faber not to sell Rooney’s books in the UK over concerns the author’s support for Palestine Action could expose her to legal jeopardy was “a very worrying constraint and repression”.
Robinson, a former UN commissioner for human rights, said the current conflict had been “so complicated by the need to address and combat anti-Semitism, and that is important, but it’s also now constraining genuinely legitimate protest on the Palestinian side”.
Before the event examining the pressures on international law and global accountability, she said “you have to allow people to protest when they see that a genocide is unfolding, that horrible things are happening in the West Bank”.
Continue @ Irish Times.
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I have sent the letter to the following newspapers.
The Irish News, the Derry Journal, Belfast Media, the Strabane Chronicle, the Mid Ulster Mail and the Newry Reporter.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.
The Criminalising of INLA Hunger Striker Patsy O'Hara.
We, the undersigned Blanketmen and Women, are appalled that a young Republican, Christopher 'Crippy' Dillon from Derry has been charged for wearing a commemorative T-shirt bearing the name of INLA Volunteer Patsy O'Hara who died on hunger strike Forty-five years ago in 1981.
Christopher was then jailed for breaking his bail conditions because he had been stopped by the PSNI while on his way to support the residents of Garvaghy Road.
Patsy and his nine comrades, Bobby, Francis, Raymond, Joe, Martin, Kevin, Kieran, Thomas and Michael, paid the ultimate sacrifice when they died on hunger strike resisting the attempted criminalisation of the Republican Struggle by the British government - led for the most part by Margaret Thatcher.
Charging anyone for wearing a commemorative T-shirt bearing the image of any of these ten brave men has to be seen as an attempt at criminalising them again forty-five years after their deaths.
This must be resisted, as failure to do so is failing all ten hunger strikers. It will eventually lead to criminal charges being brought against anyone who wears a T-shirt bearing the image of any of these brave men.
Antoin O’Hara H5 - Thomas Dixie Elliott H3 - Gerard Hodgins H5
Seamus Meenan H5 - Gary McNally H3 - Phillie O'Neill H5
Sam Millar H5 - Hugh McCann H4 - John Nixon H5
Seán Fay H5 - Peter McGowan H5 - Gina McElroy A3 Armagh jail
Alex McCrory H4 - Sean Fitzsimons H4 - Johnny Gilmore H4
Frankie Doherty (RIP) H5 (added by his son Orann who said his late father would have wanted it included)
Patrick Stumpy McCourt H5 - Ned Kelly H3 - Niall Kerr H4
Gerry Donnelly H4 - John Hunter H5 - Antoin de Brún H4
Seán Boyle H4 - Nuke Toal H4 - Dan Daly H5
Tony Campbell H5 - Maurice McGibbon H4 - Anthony McIntyre H4
Tommy Crosgrove H5 - Geraldo McDade H3 - Sean Laverty H5
Tommy McKearney H3 - Thomas Starrs H4 РS̩amus Kearney H4
Éamonn Mac Con Midhe H5 - Teddy Crane H5 - T Fitzsimmons H4
Damien Fields H4 - Tony Duncan H4 - Richard O'Rawe H3
Gary McCool H4 - Don Mulholland H3 - Ultan Mc Nulty H4
Gerald McDade (Geraldo) H3 – Willie ‘Deek’ Johnston (RIP) H3 (signed on his behalf by his brother Patsy) – Tommy Gorman H6 (added by his wife Anne as he is ill)
Pádraic Mac Coitir H5 – Albert Allen H4 – Colm Scullion H3
Colm O’Neill H3 – Joe Bonner H4
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| Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman. Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie |
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Un Exploded Minds
The walking wounded wander,
Every day they ponder
On the life they have squandered
A war rages in their minds
♞♜♝
Each day their minds replay itThey struggle to stay away from it
Like a movie, their mind keeps playing it
A war rages in their minds
♞♜♝
The steel cell door slams hardThe walk around the yard
They thinking very hard
A war rages in their minds
♞♜♝
They can’t get help to fix it
If they speak, they’ll get convicted
The spiral just gets deeper
A war rages in their minds
If they speak, they’ll get convicted
The spiral just gets deeper
A war rages in their minds
♞♜♝
Horror they have seen
Plays out on their minds' screen
It haunts them everywhere
A war rages in their minds
Plays out on their minds' screen
It haunts them everywhere
A war rages in their minds
♞♜♝
If they visit an NHS physician
And tell them their position
The police service take them away
A war rages in their minds
And tell them their position
The police service take them away
A war rages in their minds
♞♜♝
They said there was a ceasefire
The war was really over
But the memories are never over
A war rages in their minds
The war was really over
But the memories are never over
A war rages in their minds
⏩ Brendan Curran, Irish conflict poems 
2020
2020
There is nothing republican about intimidating the vulnerable or putting a landlord’s property interests before human dignity. Those who claim a connection to the Republican cause while associating themselves with such disgraceful actions have shamed the very principles they profess to uphold.
As Wolfe Tone reminded us, “Our strength shall come from that great and respectable class, the men of no property.”
Our tradition should stand with the dispossessed, not the powerful; with those offering shelter, not those using violence to remove them and line their pockets with the scum landlords blood money.
In a country gripped by a housing and homelessness crisis, and amid the devastation inflicted upon the Palestinian people in Gaza, solidarity must mean more than slogans. Irish republicanism without social justice and international solidarity is republicanism stripped of its soul.
⏩Pádraig Drummond is an anti-racism activist.
Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.
Before We Conform, Or Condemn, Let Us At Least Be Curious
♜One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it - Albert Camus♞
The recent vote i Teach Laighean is not a technical adjustment; it is a fundamental betrayal of what remains of Irish neutrality.
By voting to remove the triple lock, the UN requirement for deploying our soldiers to foreign wars, the political establishment has signalled its intent. But we must ask: why now, and for whom?
Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher and Charlie McConalogue voted for this ending of the UN requirement, effectively allowing Irish soldiers to be sent to wars not of our making.
Are they being honest and open with their electorate?
The rhetoric of "protecting Ireland" is a dangerous falsehood. By aligning them and therefore the people of Ireland, with EU militarism and NATO-adjacent structures, Ireland does not become safer; it becomes a target. We are being dragged into the warmongering nations, aligned with NATO and PESCO ambitions; supporting a 'weapons of death and destruction industry' based on manufactured Russian aggression.
This is not neutrality; this is submission to the imperatives of EU, Yankee, and English imperialism.
The hypocrisy is staggering. As our young people face a housing crisis, a health service crisis and the people ó Dún na nGall and elsewhere, living in collapsing dwellings, why is the money for wars and death not being spent on the living? There is no money for social justice and the material needs of the population of Ireland, but there is always money for militarism. Billions of pounds can be found for Wars. Wars that will mean death and destruction, along with food and fuel shortages; burdens that always fall heaviest on the working class people. Is this the future we want for our children and grandchildren; to fight foreign imperialist wars in foreign lands? And to main and kill the poor and working poor of those countries? Just look at Palestine, Lebanon, Yemin, Iran and the wider West Asia. That's what we are lining our youth up to do.
Furthermore, the two TDs are masters of 'clientelism' and 'slights of hand' . . . the old 'three card trick'; doing favours like getting people their passports, two minutes before they would have arrived anyway. All this to maintain a veneer of caring, while ensuring the welfare of the rich and powerful comes first. They are a full and willing part of that capitalist system.
But their pretend words cannot hide the truth. If they truly believe in the ending of our neutrality, will they hold public meetings right across the country, to ask the people's opinions on our neutrality and sovereignty? Or will they hide behind the party whip?
And what of the English occupation of the 6 counties? What do the two TDs, Charlie and Pat the Cope say about that? Is that somehow different? If so, why is it different? If they are so concerned with "defending" Ireland, why is the English imperialist presence in the North not their primary focus? Why is it acceptable to join a Western military NATO/PESCO bloc, to defend others but not to address the root cause of division on this island? Namely partition and colonial occupation?
We are witnessing the dilution of Irish sovereignty. The people ó Dún na nGall deserve answers. We demand public meetings on this. We demand that our TDs explain why they are choosing the interests of imperialist powers over the welfare of their own constituents.
Neutrality is not weakness; it is a shield for the the majority i Éireann , especially the working class. We must defend it with every sinew in our bodies.
#PattheCopeGallagher
#CharlieMcConalogue
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| Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig is an independent councillor on Donegal County Council. |
Anthony McIntyre ⚽Without Jay's input, I don't think we made a prediction for the clash with Derry.
His presence at the games is determined by whether his mates are going. I was much the same at his age. Once my da had taken me to see Glentoran host Derry in a 2-2 draw at the Oval some time in the 1960s, I would go to future games with my buds. Better craic out of range of the parental eye.
It is possible that either I or Paddy did forecast a result but not being of mythical judicial sobriety, if we did it escapes my memory. Before Paddy arrived, I decided to finish off what was left in the brandy bottle, probably a glass. Just as he was pulling up at the house I started to fill the hip flask with what remained in the Bacardi bottle. As it wasn't enough to fill the tank, I reached for the poteen which is in a 'The Chita' bottle, a superb Japanese whiskey given to me by Philip Smith but long since drained. Although Philip is in the legal profession he seems to have little interest in keeping me as sober as a judge. The poteen came from the late Patrick Callaghan, a renowned republican activist from South Armagh. He had given eight bottles to a friend, and fortunately one made its way to me.
On the way to the bar, we called in for my pre-match drink in the Windmill, a double whiskey, which went down quicker than usual given that the match was right upon us. Still, kudos to Paddy for having the patience while I imbibe the uisce beatha. As he drives, he can't do what I do but will make up for it in two weeks time when we head off to the FAI Cup Final, a pub tour on our way to the match and the same on our way back. I no longer do the all day sessions with the relish of old but cup final day has become a tradition.
As for the Drogs, they needed the points, while Derry didn't. The Candystripes can't win the league and neither will they be relegated. With the cup final on Candystripe minds, it was our hope that unlike myself the Drogs would put in a sober performance. Which is exactly what they did.
Seven minutes in saw Brandon Kavanagh score direct from a corner kick. Not often do we get to see that at a live game. If Derry were unnerved by that they soon recovered their composure and began to squeeze the Drogs. From our vantage point in the stand, it looked like Derry were the dominant side and could easily have drawn level but for some stout Drogheda defending. I grumbled to Paddy about the determination the Candystripes were showing. I couldn't figure it out, why their players would risk an injury going full throttle when the game, from their point of view, was pretty much a dead rubber, the result not much mattering, win or lose.
Fortunately, the Drogs finished pretty much as they started. Having taken the lead seven minutes after the start they doubled it seven minutes before the end. Mark Doyle seized on a defensive blunder and guided the ball home: an opportunist goal seized with gusto and finished with aplomb. The flares across the park came out and for once I didn't complain despite feeling they are a most unwanted and potentially maiming intrusion.
That is the seventh visit on the trot to the home of the Drogs in which Derry have failed to overcome the opposition. The Drogs victory coupled with Waterford losing to Bohemians allowed the Claret and Blue to haul themselves out of the drop zone. I hauled myself out of my seat at the end, hip flask drained and dry.
Both sets of fans left Sullivan and Lambe with everything still to play for. Relegation battles might make for a nervy run in at the end of the season but they are hardly the stuff of tedium. Had Derry not been in the cup decider their end of season final furlong would have been a mundane affair. It all adds up to this evening's away match between the Drogs and Waterford being crucial. It is a game Drogheda simply cannot afford to lose. Win it and then take all three points from next Friday's final game home clash with Galway, and Premier League soccer next season will be secured. Without it, a season in the lower division offers a dull prospect - no matches against the big Dublin sides. Getting a season ticket for that as a Xmas gift would have the feel of a booby prize. I will know soon enough what I want from Santa.
Written by Kate Innes, the above gets to the heart about what it is people seem to love about Edward Hopper. Although he would downplay it later in life, so many seem to see his art as an expression of loneliness and solitude (which, it’s important to note, aren’t necessarily the same thing). Like his contemporary Norman Rockwell, Hopper depicts an America that no longer exists, but the memory of the dream lives in the art.
With that thought, it’s no wonder Sergio Rossi and Giovanni Scarduelli made it their mission to create this graphic novel, described in the press release as an attempt to dive:
. . . into the life of the acclaimed artist Edward Hooper, whose iconic works depict quintessentially American scenes and experiences. While many of Hopper's most acclaimed works have been embraced by American culture, the artist himself rejected much of the lyricism and romance that his audience imposed on his paintings. This unique overview of Hopper's life and career offers a fascinating and unflinching portrait of an artist trying to establish himself and define his own style.
Certainly a lot of ambition is at play here, because Hopper lived a fairly quiet life so how has the end product turned out?
Rather well, naturally.
Much like Will Eisner: A Comics Biography, it’s not the most piercing insight into Hopper’s psyche but it is a great tribute to him thanks to the combination of Scarduelli mimicking Hopper’s style and Rossi’s plain dialogue which never expresses more than it needs to, adding a crisp veneer to proceedings.
The narration is a back-and-forth conversation between Hopper and his wife/muse Josephine Verstille Hopper (an artist in her own right). Sadly there’s only one indication that the two them used to beat each other up but there is an element of tension in places where she complains about having to give up her own dreams in order to be his admin assistant and she tries to tease out relationships he may have had in Paris.
Simple, direct and successful.
Sergio Rossi (Author), Giovanni Scarduelli (Artist), 2021, Edward Hopper: The Story of His Life. Prestel. ISBN: 978-3791387352
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.
Before We Conform, Or Condemn, Let Us At Least Be Curious
♜One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it - Albert Camus♞
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