Social Items

TPQ
Showing posts with label Irish elections 2024. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish elections 2024. Show all posts
Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ With all the ado of the 26 county elections over the Dail Circus marches on and on and on. 

With all the posters now slowly coming down the process of forming a government which, in this part of the world is no easy task it seems, gets underway. Fianna Fail won the most seats with 48 followed by Sinn Fein who collected 39 seats and Fine Gael with 38. Micheal Martin, Fianna Fail Leader, is therefore in poll position to form the next administration with a host of parties and independents waiting to court him. People Before Profit have categorically ruled out going into government with either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael much to their credit. The Green Party were all but destroyed claiming just one seat. This was a result of them playing ‘mudguard’ to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in the outgoing government, a lesson others should take on board. 

Both the Irish Labour Party and Social Democrats took 11 seats each and neither, I understand, have ruled out entering coalition with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. If either of them do go in as junior partners they could well face the same fate as the Greens at the next election in 2029. Labour should know better as they have been used as ‘mudguards’ before and were almost wiped out at the following election. They are both trying to court Micheal Martin in the vague hope some of their manifesto would be implemented by a Fianna Fail led administration. My advice to these two parties is; if you think Fianna Fail will bow in any way to either of you and implement any of your, admittedly progressive policies, you’ve more chance of “knitting fog.” Forget it. Stay in opposition and build a left-wing block.

Then came the case of Eoin Hayes of the Social Democrats. He was elected on the 12th count beating the Sinn Fein candidate, Chris Andrews, and the party are privately claiming another election for Dublin Bay South constituency should be held. They have a reasonable argument as Hayes refused to say when he sold his 7,000 shares in Palantir Technologies who supply the Israeli Defence Forces currently involved in bombing the shit out of Palestinian civilians. First, he refused to say when he sold his shares when asked by reporters, changing his story slightly after much pressure to implying his sold the shares “some-time this year”. Hayes answers were “embarrassing”, forcing the Parliamentary Party to suspend the TD. The situation in Gaza is of great concern to people in the 26 County’s and had they been aware Hayes held these shares in a company fuelling the Israeli Army would they have voted for him? A fair question and Sinn Fein have a fair point even though they are not pushing the issue too far. Perhaps a by election for the constituency might be the answer because with Hayes suspended from the Social Democrats means technically the electorate in Dublin Bay South have no TD. Will the electorate in that part of Dublin get a chance to vote again now they know of Hayes involvement with Palantir who are supplying the Israeli killing machine? Don’t hold your breath for another election, supporting the Palestinians verbally is one thing but going to the trouble of another election because the elected TD got there through false pretences is something else!

Perhaps the largest hypocrisy of the circus is Micheal Martin's refusal to talk to Sinn Fein. He has spoken to every other party and even though he has no intentions of forming a government with the party who came second it is only manners to speak to them. He talks a lot about respecting the “mandate” delivered by the people but he then choses through his childish pathetic attitude to speak to the party who represent over 400,000 voters! Clair Kerrane, Sinn Fein TD for Roscommon-Galway, said on The Week in Politics hosted by Aine Lawler; “he’s not respecting our mandate” which is perfectly true, Martin is very choosey about mandates and whose mandate he respects. Not, it appears, Sinn Fein’s! This I’m not talking to Sinn Fein is childish to say the least and says a lot about the man who, in all probability, will be the next Taoiseach.

It is my view Sinn Fein should make no attempt to go into government with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. They should have made this clear prior to the election as should Labour and the Social Democrats. They did not and because of this lack of clarity on the issue may have lost votes? But the Micheal Martin refusal to talk to Sinn Fein may have nothing to do with coalition or no coalition; he appears to be refusing to talk to the Party Leader, Mary Lou McDonald full stop! If this is the case a clear attitude of ignorance surfaces on his part because they are, like it or not, the second largest party and it would be courteous to at least acknowledge this. Sinn Fein will be the largest party in opposition assuming, that is, Fine Gael agree to go back into government with Fianna Fail. In this ‘flying circus’ in what passes for politics take very little for granted! I cannot see what Micheal Martin's gripe with Sinn Fein is? They have dumped most of their once republican policies, as have Fianna Fail, so what is he beefing about? He keeps referring to Sinn Fein's former relationship to the (Provisional) IRA. Well, Micheal, if I were you, I’d keep a bit stum on that issue because one day somebody with a bit of gumption might ask about your own party’s former relationship with what is often termed the “Old IRA”. That is history but so is Sinn Fein’s former relationship with the IRA. It is comparatively recently that “Old IRA” men who sat in the Dail, including former Fianna Fail Taoiseach Sean Lemass, died. Both these once upon a time ‘republican’ parties have historical links to the Irish republican Army. No wonder they were referred to by Gerry Adams as; “first cousins”. Micheal Martins ‘no talking to Sinn Fein’ attitude could sum up a family at war. RTE could make a soap out of it; ‘Micheal and Mary’ referring to the two “first cousins” and party leaders. You could not make it up except, perhaps, on Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a hilarious (I thought) farce of the 1960s and early 70s! Just a point of observation; if Martin continues this ‘not talking to Sinn Fein’ stance how the fuck will he answer Leaders Questions when the Dail finally functions as a seat of government again?

The 26 County electoral system of Proportional Representation using the single transferable vote is probably one of the fairest in the political world of liberal democracy. It is certainly a huge improvement of the ‘first past the post’ system used in British general elections. It is a shame some of those who consider themselves government material do not conduct themselves in an attitude to match the maturity of the electoral system which appoints them! These constitutional politicians should conduct themselves better and in an adult fashion. The ‘I’m not talking to her’ attitude is something to be found in a school playground, or is Dail Eireann exactly that? In true childish fashion there are a host of independent TDs who will all go round to Micheal’s house to ask ‘if Micheal is coming out to play’. It could well be these Independents who may call the shots in the next government. One thing is for certain and that is for the next five years expect exactly what we have had for the previous five. Twenty hour waits in our A+E Departments and that is for the lucky patients, no meaningful improvement in the housing crisis and these are only two fuck ups of the outgoing Fianna Fail/Fine Gael and Green Party, the ‘mudguards,’ administration!!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Dail Eireann 🪶 Or Flying Circus?

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ When I was growing up in England as part of a working-class Labour Party household my dad, a lifelong member of the British Labour Party and a trade unionist, always emphasised the importance of “getting out to vote”. 

Voting to him was of uppermost importance and he always said “if you don’t vote it is a vote to the Tories”. My Mam and me could never work this equation out: how could somebody not voting be a vote to the Conservative and Unionist Party? My Dad would maintain that a “Tory voter would always turn out”, be it rain, hail or shine as they had a “class interest”. They would always want their party in government and that party, from their point of view, the bosses, the Conservative Party, they would vote to ensure this remained the case. 

These were the days of Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, one of the earlier women MPs, and from the Conservatives, Ted Heath and Morning Cloud. Margaret Thatcher was a junior MP, Backbencher, at the time and nobody could have suspected this ‘para-fascist’ woman would ever reach the heights of Prime Minister. Our local candidate was a man called Alex Lyons who my Mam and Dad would go out canvasing for. On the trade union wing of the labour and trade union movement union bosses was Jack Jones of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), then the largest trade union in Britain. Jones was succeeded by Moss Evans in 1978 when the Spanish Civil War veteran stood down. Hugh Scanlon of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) - another big name - along with Jack Jones were once termed; “the Terrible Twins” after their opposition to both Labour and Conservative Party attempts to reform and curb the power of the trade unions. Harold Wilson, then Prime Minister, is on record as saying to Jack Jones; “get your tanks off my lawn” obviously referring to the grassed area of Number Ten!

I remember my dad berating those who did not go out to vote in 1970 when Heath and the hated Conservatives were elected. He blamed Labour Party voters who could not be bothered, as he saw it, to get out and cast their vote. It is your “duty to vote, and vote Labour” was his motto to the “working man”. Working-class people should always vote Labour in his opinion. Was he right? Well, in those days there was clear blue water between the two major parties, and in my view, even though the changes to the benefit of working-class people were minimal they were better than nothing.

The Labour Party of old, that of Clement Attlee after the Second World War, did bring in a new age. They nationalised 20% of British industry, including the mines, something the Miners had campaigned for over the years. Attlee also ushered in a Welfare State including the National Health Service (NHS) with treatment free at the point of need irrespective of ability to pay. Labour was always seen as the party of the working-class, something which continued under Harold Wilson but to a lesser extent. Wilson was unfortunate enough to have been in power when the first cracks of the ‘post war political consensus’ began to appear. 

Capitalism began to claw back some of the post war concessions granted and no liberal democratic government had the power to stop it. The first cuts in the health service began with the closure of some ‘cottage hospitals’ often so important to rural areas of Britain in favour of so called ‘centres of excellence’, or, larger metropolitan hospitals. Also the first major round of ‘pit closures’ during the sixties happened on Harold Wilson’s watch. However, Wilson appeared to ride the storm and enjoyed, or appeared to enjoy, the support of the working-class. 

In 1970 the election of Heath was a shock, some blaming England’s exit from the World Cup of that year at the hands of West Germany for Wilsons demise? Although this may have been a minor factor the main issue may well have been Labour voters not turning out in significantly large numbers under the first past the post system. The British Labour Party were re-elected in 1974 after Wilson ended the Miners' Strike of that year. It is often said the trade unions mobilised behind the Labour Party and that mobilisation was spearheaded by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) resulting in Heath's downfall. He asked; “who governs the country” and got his answer at the ballot box. Joe Gormley was NUM President at the time, having succeeded Sydney Ford in 1971. Wilson paid the Miners around 30% in pay increases, the argument being from the NUM that they had fallen behind other sections of workers. Wilson fixed the problem of power cuts as peace broke out in the coalfields.

When Tony Blair assumed leadership of the British Labour Party, he changed the party for ever, or so it appears. He abolished Clause IV, which committed the party to some form of ‘common ownership’ of industry, something Clement Attlee went some way to fulfilling. Blair ‘modernised’ the party as he saw it making labour indistinguishable from the conservatives. Today we have Kier Starmer as Prime Minister of Great Britian and leader of the Labour Party. It could be argued Starmer is a Blairite in many ways, but recent moves by his government taxing the employers and not the employees might suggest some of traditional labour policies are back. That must be measured against his refusal to give British pensioners their winter fuel allowance, while still finding an extra 2 billion pounds to supply Ukraine with weapons! So, a little of traditional labourite policies coupled with a great dollop of conservatism? Despite all the changes in the British Labour Party my dad, until his dying day, maintained if “you don’t vote it’s a vote to the Tories”. I can see his logic. He remained a ‘Corbynista’, a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.

Recently in the 26 counties we have had a general election. Most people will be aware of this, but for those who are not just a point of information. The two often termed “Civil War Parties” consisting of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael stuck to their pact of keeping Sinn Fein out of government. It seems for the second time these once bitter enemies will succeed in their quest to keep Sinn Fein out, entering government as coalition partners perhaps with one smaller party to act as a mud guard! It is true, Sinn Fein, like the British Labour Party, are not the party of forty years ago, even thirty years back. Sinn Fein like British Labour have sacrificed, some would say betrayed, many of their former ‘red lines’ in pursuit of governmental power. That said, the party have returned more TDs than previous though their popular vote was down, 39 TDs with popular vote down five percent. Sinn Fein promised a nationalised ‘single tiered’ health service for the 26 counties and to tackle housing. So, why were they not elected? It is plain the status quo of coalition consisting of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and one other party, or a gang of Independents, will not deliver. They have had decades to do this and have failed. The turnout for the election was low at around 59% as many young working-class voters, those more likely to vote Sinn Fein, stayed away. 

Just as was the case, according to my dad in 1970 Britain, did the same apply to Sinn Fein in 2024? Did many of their potential vote remain indoors rather than vote? Like the Conservative and Unionist Party in Britain the vote of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will always turn out to ensure their party remains or enters government, can a parallel, a similarity, be drawn? Has apathy crept into the younger elements of the working-class? Could these voters have delivered a Sinn Fein led left-wing coalition or even, which is unlikely, a Sinn Fein government on their own had they turned out? Just like the apathy which crept into Labours vote in Britain all those years back, remember the Conservatives class interests among their electorate will always prevail. Has the same happened in the 26 counties?

There is possibly another reason why Sinn Fein's overall vote was down five percent. Could it be their refusal to rule out beyond doubt entering a coalition with Fianna Fail had an effect, causing this drop in electoral numbers? The fact they would not rule this out indicates some of their policies might not be enacted. Did elements of those who did vote realise this and the single tiered health service might be sacrificed? After all, Fianna Fail had no such commitment and if they became senior coalition partners it would be they, not Sinn Fein, who call the shots. Once described by former Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, as “our first cousins” Fianna Fail ruled out at an early stage any coalition with Sinn Fein. One of the “first cousins” was not prepared to play the parliamentary game. 

For the Irish Labour Party or the Social Democrats entering government as the smaller party would be suicide for them. They would both be better off sitting in opposition and building their working-class base, learn the lessons of the Greens who were unceremoniously hammered by the electorate. The fact remains the middle-classes will always turn out and vote either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael or, in these enlightened times, perhaps both in first and second preference. This would keep a left-wing coalition out that is, unless, more working-class younger voters turn out and vote. 

For the record the only consistently principled party in the Dail are People Before Profit who ruled out unquestionably any truck with either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. Despite these ifs and buts the fact is Sinn Fein's vote is predominantly from the working-class and the younger elements at that. The message is simple, get your idle arses off the couch and cast your vote. A left-wing coalition was a real possibility led by Sinn Fein with the Labour Party, Social Democrats and People Before Profit but Sinn Fein must be more positive regards not entertaining government with their “first cousins”.

When Tony Blair was elected in 1997, he won a ‘landslide’ but his policies were not those of traditional Labour. He called his party ”New Labour” which stole many Tory clothes and with this, many Tory voters. Their class interests were not threatened by a Blair-led labour Government. The voters in Ireland, those who bothered to vote, have returned the status quo which means no ‘single tiered nationalised health service’, no cure to the housing crisis, two issues which matter least to the Irish middle classes and no threat to the middle-class's position in society as the ‘ruling class. They have private health care and live in big houses so a Sinn Fein led Government and higher progressive taxation on them is the last thing they need! Well, to all those who stayed away on polling day thanks a million, it means more and more 20 hour waits in our hospitals A+E (or ED as they are called today), it means for thousands more freezing nights on the streets – please do not blame immigration for the housing crisis, since the formation of the sate a housing crisis has existed – and it’s all the fault of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael policies over the decades.

There is another argument as to why this apathy has apparently crept in among the electorate, particularly the younger end. And that is, to quote former leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) and Labour left-wing and Independent MP Ken Livingstone; “if voting changed anything they’d abolish it”. By this Ken probably meant capitalism as an economic system based on exploitation, irrespective of government, will still prevail. The ruling classes and employers will still be that and the means of production, distribution and exchange will remain mainly in private hands. Harold Wilson's dilemma of the 1960s would support this claim of Livingstone’s. Did similar thoughts enter the heads of young working-class voters in Ireland take hold, the what is the point voting the rich will always be the rich mentality? Whatever the reasons for voting apathy expect another five years of exactly the same. I do not know whether Sinn Fein would have delivered or not. What I do know is the present coalition will definitely not, and that is proved.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Is Voting a Class Issue?

Anthony McIntyre ☠ If we were to believe all the hype about the enemy at the gate, then the enemy is to be kept there for quite some time to come. 

The recent general election in Ireland left Sinn Fein frustrated. Unless the Fine Gael-Fianna Fail relationship implodes and Fianna Fail somersaults, leading it to entertain Sinn Fein as a coalition partner, the theme music for the next ard fheis could be from David Bowie as another Five Years on the opposition benches beckons.

Frustrated, but hardly surprised. The writing had been on the wall for quite some time, and it did not spell Ministerial Merc for Davy Cullinane. The incumbent government was not as unpopular as Rishi Sunak's Tory government had been, and for the past year Sinn Fein had not been hitting the high notes in popularity on the opposition benches as Starmer 's Labour had managed. Whether on its feet in the polling booth or slouched on the settee at home, feeling that moving the deckchairs around the Titanic was not something worth venturing out for on a dark November evening, the electorate decisively turned its nose up at what Sinn Fein was offering.

If first preference voters are a reliable guide, then the electorate was even less impressed by Sinn Fein's sales pitch, preferring what Fine Gael and Fianna Fail said on their respective tins. Even if Sinn Fein chooses to make the legitimate claim that neither of its rivals got a ringing endorsement from the electorate, the party is even more on the backfoot than it was in the 2020 election. Unlike then, this time around, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail voters knew exactly what type of coalition government their preferred party would enter into and voted for it anyway. The Sinn Fein mantra of change simply didn't compute. Even Gerry Hutch took to mocking the party when he too said he was looking for change but refused to describe what change he wanted.  

Sinn Fein took to spinning the setback as some sort of great leap forward, pointing to its increase in seats which underscores its tendency to be “self-congratulatory in unwarranted moments” but overlooking that 'in 2020, it got 23.1% of the seats; this time, it got 22.4% of the seats.' The data is stark. 'It marks the first fall in support for Sinn Féin in 35 years, and the biggest drop in support for any party at this election.'

Paschal Donohoe pulled Mary Lou's pigtail by asking if Sinn Fein was the weakest opposition party in Europe given the success of other oppositions in France, Austria, Belgium and the UK. A bit unfair as Donohoe knows only too well. His government benefited from a considerable cash injection which other governments did not have at their disposal. 

Perhaps Sinn Fein is reaping what it has sown. Tommy McKearney stated many years ago that Sinn Fein's bottom line is that it has no bottom line. It now dresses up its centrist politics in Left discourse. But this leftist posturing was exposed in its splendid emptiness with Sinn Fein's calls on Fianna Fail not to keep Fine Gael in government but no calls on Fine Gael to evict Fianna Fail from government. After years of calling both parties Tweedledum and Tweedledee - nothing to choose between - the electorate might well have thought no point in voting Tweedleduh who after years of not being able to tell the difference between Fianna and Fine Gael suddenly discovered a difference so substantial that it would allow it to go into government with one party but not the other. 

Frank Dane once quipped get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. Gagging for government and willing to shaft anybody to get there seems to have drawn fools to the party but not to the voting booth. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Five Years

Dr John Coulter ✍ With formal counting still in progress in the South’s General Election, the republican movement’s ruling Provisional IRA Army Council must be asking - why does no one in the 26 Counties want to climb into bed politically with our party, Sinn Fein?

Even if the initial results are taken as a benchmark, it seems the next Dail government will be yet another coalition involving the main establishment parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, along with some Independent TDs, with the Shinners again forming the official opposition in Leinster House.

In the last Dail General Election in 2020, Sinn Fein made the mistake of not running enough candidates - plus the fact the so-called ‘Big Two’ set aside their traditional, political and historic Civil War differences to form a unique coalition to keep Sinn Fein out of power.

With boundary changes and an increase in the number of TDs, could the opposite now be the case for the republican movement - that Sinn Fein has run too many candidates in 2024?

However, it is clearly obvious Santa Claus didn’t receive Sinn Fein’s letter asking for the Christmas wish of being in government power in both Irish parliaments - Stormont and the Dail - by 25 December.

No doubt, as they munch on their Christmas Day turkey and Brussels sprouts, the members of the IRA Army Council will also be digesting - how come Northern Sinn Fein can persuade voters to make Sinn Fein the largest party in the Assembly, but Southern Sinn Fein cannot seem to replicate this success in Leinster House?

Perhaps the conclusion as the New Year beckons is that the IRA Army Council needs to move more Northern Sinn Fein activists into the 26 Counties party organisation. Put bluntly, the question for the republican movement is - who really needs to run Sinn Fein?

Several months ago, the opinion polls were suggesting that Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald was on course to become the next Taoiseach, leading a Sinn Fein majority government.

Those polls gave the impression Southern Sinn Fein was equally on course to deliver an election victory on a par with the 1918 Westminster General Election when Sinn Fein won over 70 of the 105 Commons seats on offer when all of geographical Ireland was under British rule.

No doubt, too, on St Stephen’s Day, that ruling IRA Army Council will also be pondering the various reasons for the drop in the opinion polls and why that drop translated into another period in opposition.

Southern Sinn Fein’s key tactic was to concentrate on the first-time voter, as well as the overall youth vote and voters in their 20s and 30s - namely, the voter base for whom the Provisional IRA’s campaign of terrorist atrocities during the Troubles are merely dates in history books.

If I was a Provo Army Council member I’d be asking - how come Northern Sinn Fein can eat into the electorally lucrative Catholic middle class vote normally held by the SDLP, yet Southern Sinn Fein cannot repeat the same tactic with middle class Catholic voters in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil?

Or is it a case that Southern Sinn Fein simply cannot shake off the perception it is merely a Hard Left communist party under a different name along the lines of James Connolly’s old Irish Socialist Republican Party of the pre-1916 era?

Likewise, Southern Sinn Fein also seems to have been unable to take advantage of the considerable slide in political influence of the Catholic Church in the 26 Counties, mainly because of the clerical abuse sex scandals.

Long gone is the Eamon de Valera era in Southern Irish politics when the Catholic bishops wielded considerable influence in Leinster House. Indeed, Southern Ireland once had the reputation of being one of the most devoutly Catholic states outside of the Vatican itself.

Legislation on same-sex marriage, abortion and assisted dying have now converted Southern Ireland into one of the most secular and pluralist states in Europe. Had the Catholic Church maintained its influence on Southern Irish politics, then Aontu - the strongly pro-life party - would have a very strong showing in Leinster House.

The overall election result could also pose a dilemma for Northern Unionists and Loyalists. The fundamentalist Right-wing of Unionism has always adopted the 20th century war cry that ‘Home Rule means Rome Rule’.

Indeed, even within the broad Protestant Unionist Loyalist (PUL) community, the number of secular pro-Union folk not aligned to any Protestant denomination is viewed to be increasing. The falling numbers in the Sunday pews reflect this assumption.

For the outgoing Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition, the giveaway budget a matter of weeks before last Friday’s election seems to have worked with voters and has fuelled the perception Southern Ireland has money to burn for Northern Ireland.

Ironically, the Irish Unity can would have been kicked further down the political road had earlier opinion polls converted into votes and the outcome of the 2024 Dail election was a Southern Sinn Fein majority government in Leinster House.

Given Sinn Fein’s Left-wing agenda, many Unionists are off the opinion that a Sinn Fein-run government would effectively bankrupt the 26 Counties, leaving Southern Ireland in a Celtic Tiger collapse scenario which the state faced a number of years ago when it took British millions to bail out the economy.

While who Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will need to secure a majority coalition government still needs to be confirmed, other questions in the mixing pot over the festive period include:

  • Can Mary Lou survive as Sinn Fein president?
  • Should Unionists begin a campaign of persuasion to get Southern Ireland to follow the UK out of the European Union and into the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association?
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Northern Shinners Need To Take Over Southern Sinn Fein

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 25-November-2024.



Sinn Féin has said that it would ask for a review of the national broadcaster RTE’s biased coverage of Palestine and other international conflicts. They were criticised by almost all and sundry for doing so. They were accused of censorship and their own use of lawsuits to silence critics was raised once again.[1] The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) came out with guns blazing, claiming it would be in breach:

of the principles of the European Media Freedom Act and would set a dangerous precedent in terms of direct and indirect State interference in the remit of the existing regulatory body.[2]

The NUJ has rarely challenged what it sees as state or private interference in the media before and less still at RTE. RTE’s board is made up of cronies and business interests, people whose interest is served by limited coverage of financial and other issues. Many of them come from the financial sector. Six of the eleven board members are appointed by the Minister for Communications, so there is already government interference in RTE.

The NUJ itself would not come out well of such a review, if the review was honest. For decades it implemented Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act, censoring Sinn Féin, even when the party was standing in elections. When a brave RTE journalist Jenny McGeever was sacked because she broadcast one sentence from Martin McGuinness, “If that is ok with the Police, that is ok with us”, in reference to arrangements for the transport of three IRA volunteers’ bodies back to Belfast.[3] It was an innocuous statement. The NUJ did next to nothing to defend her. They did not defend her just as they meekly accepted the sacking of the RTE authority in 1972. Colum Kenny commenting on his time at RTE remarked that:

During my years at RTÉ, I became for a period what is known as ‘The Father’, or chairman, of the Programmes Chapel of the National Union of Journalists. I found no great appetite among its members, or indeed among the membership of another union representing many producers, for industrial action aimed at drawing public attention to the existence of the gagging Order known as Section 31.[4]

In other words, neither the union nor the members did anything about it. They either agreed with it or decided the truth was not that important, not as important as their careers. The union will not look well, if coverage on Palestine is looked at, nor will it come out shining if coverage of Ukraine is also included, as on this issue, the union itself intervened directly in helping to shape a narrative at odds with reality.

It is as clear as day that on Palestine, Irish coverage has been very biased, in terms of who it gave interviews to, the issues it refers to and the kid gloves that apologists for genocide such as the Israeli Ambassador have been treated with. It is clear even in the language used. The word genocide is never used in reporting, unless quoting someone and even then, sparingly. It is referred to as the war, the conflict etc. It has mainly used the term when reporting on the case taken to the International Court of Justice and gave a succinct but incorrectly limited definition of what genocide is. It stated “In short, genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part.”[5] The definition is actually a lot broader than that and Gaza fits the bill on various counts.[6]

When reporting on the murder of civilians in Palestine, it never uses such terms. It says killed and the casualty figures are always referred to as “According to the Hamas run Ministry of Health”. The message is clear, that these figures come from an organisation that is considered to be a terrorist group and therefore the figures are not reliable. But it is actually the elected government. The last time there was an election in Palestine, Hamas won, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, though it only assumed power in Gaza with the Vichy Palestine Authority appointed by Mahmoud Abbas undemocratically taking control of the West Bank. So, of course the Ministry of Health is run by the elected government. This language is never used in relation to Israel, we are never told “according to the Likud run Ministry of Defence”. In fact, such caveats are almost never used, not even when quoting the most vile dictatorships in the world. At best, they state “according to an official government communiqué”, which is technically correct and does not have the same moral laden judgement contained within it.

In Lebanon, they engage in a similar sleight of hand, referring to attacks on “Hezbollah strongholds”, which is the type of language they hope will give some justification to the bombings. But what are Hezbollah strongholds? They are areas in which the organisation has mass support. You would be hard pressed to find in the media, in general, and RTE in particular any significant explanation of what Hezbollah is. Many viewers hearing about strongholds being bombed would not know and are never informed that what this means is areas in which the organisation has a support base, which is also electoral. We know which areas are Hezbollah strongholds because they are the areas where people voted for them. It is an electoral and military force, increasing its number of parliamentary seats in the 2022 elections from 13 to 15, though its allies in parliament lost seats. But the point is, it is a force with a huge popular base.

Likewise, when Israel told Irish UN soldiers to leave, the President of Ireland, described it as a threat, but the media was more hesitant. When Israel then used UN compounds as shields in their attacks, the resulting damage was described as damage caused by the exchange of fire between the two. You would never guess that one of the sides deliberately used them as protective shields.

In terms of RTE bias and coverage, whilst it has reported on Palestine over the years, once October 7th happened, the official discourse emanating from RTE and most other media outlets was that history began on October 7th. No attempt was made to look at the history of the region, nor the context of Israeli aggression and crimes against humanity prior to October 7th. Previous Israeli attacks and crimes were rarely if ever mentioned. It made one attempt at explaining what Hezbollah was in an article published on its site.[7] The article recognises that it has political support, but constantly refers to the fact that it is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and that other bastion of democracy, Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have never been elected. Saudi Arabia, despite having a nominal parliament is led by a bunch of royal head chopping kleptocrats. Though RTE quotes them favourably as a source of analysis on the nature of Hezbollah. The organisation is according to RTE nothing more than a group that:

…has risen from a shadowy faction to a heavily armed force with major sway over the Lebanese state. The United States, some Western governments and others deem it a terrorist organisation.

The headline on the piece reduces Hezbollah to just being a group that supports Hamas. And that was about it from RTE on the nature of the organisation.

Likewise in Ukraine, though RTE had reported on the country previously, once again history started on a particular date, this time February 22nd 2022. They ignored the 2014 Maidan Coup, the breaking of the Minsk Accords by Ukraine, the repression of non-Ukrainian cultures, which included not just Russians but also gypsies and others. The promotion of WWII fascist Stepan Bandera, the fascist nature of the Azov Battalion were all ignored to favour a simplistic account. Previous acts such as the burning to death of trade unionists in Odessa by fascists in 2014 were never mentioned again. RTE presenters even questioned why NATO wasn’t pushing for all-out war with Russia, and they included in that the possibility of going to the brink of nuclear war. The Irish Times has recently doubled down on this, basically resurrecting the “Russia will invade and attack everyone scenario” so common when the war began and arguing in a piece written by Kier Gillespie from the right wing think tank Chatham House that Ireland should abandon its “neutrality” and Europe should get ready for all-out war with Russia.[8] Incidentally, a sentiment echoed to some degree by the “pro NATO left” in the Irish parliament.

The NUJ for its part, whose members push the narrative on Palestine and Ukraine were not content with the complicity of its members in a particular narrative but organised a protest to skew the debate altogether. Shortly after the war started the NUJ organised a protest at the Russian Embassy to protest the lack of press freedom and attacks on journalists by the Russian state. The Russian state has a dreadful record on the matter, but so does Ukraine. Moreover, in its attempt to portray the Russians as the only threat to freedom of the press the NUJ invited ambassadors from other countries to join in with it at the protest. Fine, except with one exception, those ambassadors represented countries with a poor record in the matter, such as Georgia, Poland and Ukraine coming in 89th, 66th and 106th respectively in Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index for the year 2022. By doing this the NUJ set a narrative that the only threat to press freedom was Putin and whitewashed a number of regimes with dubious records themselves. Whilst it has condemned the deaths of journalists in Gaza it did not protest at the Israeli Embassy but held a vigil instead at an art gallery.[9] You couldn’t make such cowardice up.

So, an investigation of bias in the coverage of conflicts would be welcome. Neither Sinn Féin, RTE, nor the NUJ would come out of it well. But the problem is political. The reason why RTE does that, is that it gets away with it because there is no challenge to its bias. Sinn Féin and the Irish left represented by such stalwarts of mediocrity like People Before Profit, applauded and egged on the push for war and bias about Ukraine and now finds the media supporting those same reactionary forces (NATO, US, EU) in their assault on Palestine. The penny has almost dropped for them, but not quite. RTE was biased on Ukraine and they agreed with it, now it is biased on Palestine and it is too late. But RTE and the Irish media in general represent the interests of the Irish state and so it should come as no surprise that it is biased. This does not mean we should accept it lying down, but you can’t call for bias on one issue in favour of a NATO proxy (Ukraine) and against bias in favour of another proxy, Israel. The two are linked.

In the case of Palestine, the NUJ is passive, passing resolutions and issuing communiqués. As with the Irish censorship law Section 31, the union is content to not take any industrial action on the issue and let its members lie, downplay the seriousness of it all, treat the Israelis with kid gloves and use language that deliberately distorts what is happening. Their role in echoing Their Master’s Voice should be exposed, though Sinn Féin is not the best placed organisation to do so, given its prioritising of its relations with Washington and its own attempts to censor Palestinians in Ireland who did not follow the Palestine Authority line.

References.

[1] Irish Examiner (19/11/2024) LIVE: Election 2024 — Sinn Féin promises 'peer review' of RTÉ's Gaza coverage if elected. Paul Hosford and Cianan Brennan. 

[2] RTE (20/11/2024) McDonald defends Sinn Féin plan to review RTÉ's Gaza coverage. Tommy Meskill. 

[3] Sunday Business Post (20/04/2003) How RTE censored its censorship. Niall Meehan. Archived at CAIN 

[4] Colum Kenny (2005 ) Chapter 5 Censorship, Not ‘Self-Censorship.’ 

[5] RTE (11/01/2024) Explained: Ireland's position on the genocide case against Israel. Juliette Gash. 

[6] See Genocide Convention.

[7] RTE (31/10/2023) What is Hezbollah, the group backing Hamas against Israel? 

[8] Irish Times (23/11/2024) If Russia is indeed planning an attack against a Nato state, distance and neutrality will provide no defence. Keir Gillespie.

[9] NUJ (30/04/2024) Dublin vigil for slain journalists. 

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.

RTE’s Biased Coverage Of Palestine And Sinn Féin’s Call For A Review

Dr John Coulter ✍ I wouldn’t like to be in the shoes of the Shinners who have to make a report to the republican movement’s ruling Army Council as to how Sinn Fein made such a calamitous cock-up in the recent elections in the 26 Counties.

Of course, the social media so-called ‘Shinnerbots’ and numerous elected representatives will be wheeled out to pump out the myth that Sinn Fein is a separate political party and has no links to the Provisional IRA, or its Army Council.

Far be it from me, as a radical Right-wing Unionist and ardent Brexiteer, to lecture Sinn Fein on how it should get the party rollercoaster back on track after the IRA’s apologetic mouthpiece walked on a political landmine in the South’s local government and European elections.

Clearly, the recent series of opinion polls suggesting Sinn Fein was on course to become the largest party in Leinster House after the next Dail general election had gone to the Shinners’ heads.

Sinn Fein simply both took the Southern electorate for granted, and equally failed to get its core vote out. So what’s the solution for the Shinners if the general election in the 26 Counties is not to deteriorate into a Dail disaster?

The Shinner spin doctors will be burning the midnight oil as to how they can sell getting an MEP elected into a demand for a border poll. Basically, the solution is to get Northern Sinn Fein to run the entire political wing. In short, the republican movement needs to order ‘an 1986’.

That’s a reference to the political coup which Northerners Gerry Adams, the former West Belfast Westminster MP, and the late Martin McGuinness, the former Derry IRA commander and Stormont deputy First Minister, staged at a special Sinn Fein conference in 1986.

During that conference, delegates overturned Sinn Fein’s historic abstentionist policy at the Dail, allowing any elected Sinn Fein TDs to take their seats. The Adams/McGuinness tactical victory sparked a walkout by hard-liners to form the fringe organisation, Republican Sinn Fein.

Yet again, it could be suggested just as Sinn Fein in a previous Southern election ran too few candidates, this time around, the party ran too many sending its vote management ‘up the left’ strategically.

However, me thinks the real reason for this month’s electoral catastrophe was that Sinn Fein’s Southern leadership tried to sell the party as if it was a dark green version of Fianna Fáil. And as we know, that tactic has crashed and burned with the Southern voters.

The real fear for republicans is that if the Southern electorate has the potential to defy the opinion polls and desert the party, could the same fate await Northern Sinn Fein in the UK General Election on 4th July?

Could we see traditionally safe republican seats such as West Tyrone, Mid Ulster, Newry and Armagh, Fermanagh and South Tyrone (in spite of the boundary changes in favour of republicans) and even dare I say it, West Belfast, become marginal constituencies?

Maybe Sinn Fein needs a few political U-turns. With the Centre Right and Far Right making gains across the European Parliament, maybe Sinn Fein needs to dump its James Connolly Hard Left-style socialism and rebrand itself as a Right-wing patriotic nationalist movement? Go with the flow, as the statement says!

What is abundantly clear is that in terms of the Dublin establishment coalition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, there is no way Sinn Fein will be able to ‘out green’ that partnership. There is no way the IRA’s ruling Army Council will sanction Sinn Fein evolving into a new millennium version of the now defunct 1970s democratic republican organisation, the Irish Independence Party.

Had its leading spokesman, the Protestant former British Army officer and Larne councillor, John Turnley, not been murdered by the UDA in 1980, it could have been the IIP - not Sinn Fein - which eventually took over from the SDLP as the leading voice in Northern Ireland for nationalism.

One key attribute which the IIP could boast about was that it was not aligned to any republican terror gang - a key factor in attracting Catholic middle and upper class voters.

Modern-day Sinn Fein can recruit all the middle class Catholic ‘draft dodgers’ (folk with no known terror convictions or links to the Provos) it wants, but the party will never be able to escape, deny or ditch its past firm ties to the Provisional IRA.

Could you imagine a Sinn Fein elected representative telling the ruling IRA Army Council where to go to if asked to speak at an IRA commemoration? To defy the IRA Army Council would be tantamount to political suicide.

Like it or not, the Mary Lou ‘dark green’ experiment has come off the rails electorally and a Northern leader with family connections to the IRA is needed to restore Sinn Fein credibility with the Southern electorate in time for the next Dail showdown.

That allows Sinn Fein to boast about the republican movement’s historic links to armed struggle among a new generation of first-time voters. Mind you, a lot of rewriting and revising of Irish history will have to be done to achieve this. Maybe what Sinn Fein really needs are middle class Catholic academics who can spin IRA atrocities as a necessary part of republicanism?

Perhaps Sinn Fein now needs, not just a new Northern-based leadership, but a redefining ideologically of what it means to be an Irish patriot? Maybe the bitter medicine which Sinn Fein now needs to swallow is that it requires a large dose of European-style, Right-wing populist nationalism to get the republican bandwagon back on track?

Sinn Fein’s current Left-wing agenda is an electoral disaster. Just as the Shinners have ideologically flip-flopped over elected representatives taking their seats in Leinster House and Stormont, why not really flip-flop and become a Hard Right nationalist party - the Southern version of the Right-wing Reform UK party in Great Britain?
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online.

Shinners Need Northern Takeover To Save Dail Bid

Carrie Twomey 🎤 Sinn Fein has lost the rosary brigade. 

A substantial rump of the party, the Rosary Brigade was for a very long time the unwavering faithful, showing up without fail at graveside commemorations and the polling booth. What Gerry Adams did or didn’t do was no matter to them. The point was their belief in a United Ireland – Ireland for the Irish, if you will – and for a long time the IRA and Sinn Fein was the vehicle of transubstantiation. 

The tensions between the Rosary Brigade and the Marxist revolutionaries within the Republican Movement has always led to the sort of duality that Adams embodied; depending on where you were in the room the picture shifted. Catholic Nationalists intent on overthrowing the state, which would also include the shackles of the church. The contradiction, while it did chafe, never broke through as long as there were Brits to fight or a peace process to pursue. 

Sinn Fein’s main reason for being has always been financial. The Republican Movement has a strong property portfolio, a multi-million pound income stream funded by various government schemes, businesses, donations, and other sundries. Sinn Féin’s role has been one of accountancy. In this regard, its politics and policies don’t actually matter, as long as the books are kept in order. The momentum of the peace process was enough to keep it going without having to get too serious about actually being a viable political party. 

Now the era of the peace process is over. The IRA as it was is gone, existing now as old men directing younger enforcers more concerned with cooking the books than the bombs or ballots. It is not the Catholic Church alone that lacks a surfeit of priests. Without the conflict and without the peace process, Sinn Fein does not have a fig leaf to hide behind that fits. This has become more evident since the retirement of Gerry Adams. 

Mary Lou McDonald came into leadership painted as a fresh face to take the party into the future. She rode the promise of the peace process dividend into popularity. In the South, however, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail aren’t exactly the Brits. Taking them on in opposition as if they were only took Sinn Fein so far. As the peace process ended, Sinn Fein could not figure out how to politic in absence of it, and kept running the same script: everyone and everything else bad, ourselves alone good. Without a proper foil – which the British and unionists most definitely are – that type of opposition does not work. It becomes hectoring, predictable. In the absence of presenting viable policy alternatives and a clear vision, it is merely the bellows of populism. 

The necessary self-importance of the peace process led to the pretentious policy of acting as the Government-in-Waiting. This was the outworking of having every previous utterance treated as historic. That led to an arrogance that assumed every future utterance would of course also be historic, and a need to behave accordingly. 

But how historic can a populist opposition party be? No longer having a clear vision of what it wanted to be – apart from in government – and only defining itself against what it didn’t want to be on any given day, the contradiction within its support base could not longer hold together. The tension reached breaking point, and the Rosary Brigade, whose faith in miracles proved more unwavering than its faith in the old messiah, was lost. 

It is likely, barring the resurrection of the IRA in the theatre of conflict, the Rosaristas are lost for good, finding their new messiahs preaching the old testament of “Ireland for the Irish”, a hymn they know the tune of, if not quite the new verses. 

The Marxists aren’t happy, either, with the undecided nature of new Sinn Fein. The policies being enacted by the party north of the border aren’t exactly the worker’s paradise promised. The pandering done to protect its nationalist flank from hemorrhaging completely only served to alienate its leftist base. A change of leadership is only deckchair rearrangement, delaying the inevitable acceptance that the ship is sunk. 

Like the Worker’s Party before it, Sinn Fein will atrophy but remain a zombie party as long as the finances continue to need the cover the existence of the party provides. As for the Rosary Brigade, charge as it might on its new horses, it still remains the rump of the rump. 

Despite the pretensions of the first female Taoiseach-to-be, Sinn Fein never became, and now won’t be, the Government it thought it would. Maybe they will achieve a junior status in a coalition, but it won’t be as historic as what it believed it was entitled to. At its best, SF never reached majority status. The New Nationalists have captured Sinn Fein’s rear and will be unlikely to do better. The New Nationalists represent a regressive strain of politics that has always been in Ireland. They are what enabled the Catholic Church, the mothers and babies homes, the misogyny, the sexual oppression, and the cover-up of child sex abuse. 

As the old messiah used to say, they haven’t gone away ye know. That doesn’t mean they represent the majority, any more than Sinn Fein’s claims that it was the Government-in-Waiting meant that it was the Government. While the New Nationalists may appear to be novel, earning new money for old rope only lasts so long before the con is up. The electorate has already made clear it’s not going to be buying these wares in bulk.

⏩Carrie Twomey hates Illinois Nazis (just like the Blues Brothers)

The Charge Of The Rosary Brigade

Tomás Ó Flatharta ☭ People Before Profit is proposing a “Vote Left” transfer pact to operate in the June 2024 Local and European Elections, 26 Counties.

Presenting this positive initiative Paul Murphy TD said:

He was fully aware that there would be different perspectives and, but People Before Profit “sees this as just the start of a process to form a left alternative. - Paul Murphy TD
PBP TD’s Richard Boyd-Barrett, Paul Murphy, and Brid Smith

Link:

PBP Vote Left Transfer Pact Proposal

A useful detailed discussion is taking place on the Cedar Lounge Revolution Blog
(Link: The Cedar Lounge Revolution

A correspondent, IrishElectionLiterature, opened the discussion on a positive note :

Link:

Vote left, Transfer left, Then What?

In the article below, important points from the discussion are highlighted.

This is a serious matter, especially in a context where it is necessary to confront and defeat the extreme racist right.

Colm Breathnach offers a very good template:


Just a personal thing, but here’s my own general set of rules when it comes to voting where a Proportional Representation system is in operation (obviously First Pat The Post system is much more challenging in terms of decisions):Start with the furthest left and keep voting until you reach the border of what you consider to be the left (for me, that’s social democratic or social liberal parties). Of course that border can shift – the Irish Greens were once inside my border of “left”, now they are definitely outside.
Exclude candidates who consistently hold reactionary positions regardless of their ostensible politics – favour genocide, homophobic etc etc. So the Daly’s of the world don’t feature or let’s say a centre left candidate who justified Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Adjust to take account of specific concerns which one might deem important for progress to radical transformation of society. So for example you may alter your ranking to the take into account the candidates position on climate change or Irish unity etc.


⏩Keep Up With Tomás Ó Flatharta.

“Vote Left” Transfer Pact In June 2024 Irish Elections? – A Positive People Before Profit Initiative

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)