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Showing posts with label Micheál Martin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Micheál Martin. Show all posts
Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ When Vladimir Putin ordered his armed forces over the border signifying the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine it was expected he would score an easy quick victory. 

Nothing could have been further from the truth as the Ukrainian army have put up a sturdy fight not- withstanding the Russian Army and Ukrainian forces were once part of the formidable Soviet Red Army receiving the same training and kit. That is all history now and the giant Russian machine which invaded on 24-February-2022 expecting Ukrainian forces to go belly up and surrender has not happened. Ukraine have earned many merits over the Russians who frankly have three times the manpower and kit but appear to have no idea how to use these advantages. Despite all these advantages these Russian forces appear to be making a mess of things, similar to the USA in Vietnam where they had to retreat pretty fast form Saigon. 

Could Ukraine become Russia’s Vietnam? Quite possibly as Putin toys with the idea of interim nuclear weapons but somehow, I don’t think he would be so stupid. Donald Trump on the other hand whose technology and military hardware have failed to bring the feudal religious nutter led Iran to heel is capable of doing just that! Trump appears to be suffering from serious ‘arrested mental development’, thinking bombing weaker countries a laugh as would a ten-year old child playing with toy soldiers.

When the crisis first started the Twenty-Six-County Dail, all parties, were bending over backwards to show the world how anti-Putin they were. The Twenty-Six-County government led by taoiseach Micheal Martin were proving to the world how much they hate Putin and his ‘imperialist venture’ into his neighbour. Martin declared Ireland's outrage, calling it an “immoral and totally beyond comprehension.” Ukraine has always been considered by Russia, rightly or wrongly, to be part of their sphere of influence in much the same way the USA considers the Americas, from Brazil, to Argentina, to Venezuela up to Mexico and now Canada under the Monroe doctrine to be within the US sphere of influence. So eager were the Dail administration to prove to the rest of the EU, and the UK, how anti-Putin they are they decided to open up the flood gates for refugees. There was no harm in that, no harm whatsoever, but if we are going to invite people over for tea, we must make sure the larder is full. Housing these well deserving people was a problem and should not have been one. Ireland is not overpopulated, as those neo-fascist half-wits on the far right would have us believe along with some former left-wing organisations and individuals. Malachy Steenson, for example, started out on the far-left with Sinn Fein/the Workers Party and was eventually fucked out of there. Then he tried to find a niche within the Provisional movement and was shown the door, I understand. So the intrepid political traveller finds a home with those whose ideologies he once vehemently opposed on the far-right. Gone are his hammer and sickle badges often worn in his hat. Very fickle these would-be politicians - the German Nazi Party was full of them former would-be communists turned Nazi when opportunity knocked.

Those on the far-right keep telling us ‘Ireland is full’ which is not the case. Countries like Belgium have a smaller land mass than we do yet a far higher population and far more refugees. Very few problems are present because all aspects of society were discussed and planned out. Holland has a land mass the size of Leinster with a population round 19million many are refugees and again few major problems, though the local far-right are trying to create some and, alas, a few people are starting to listen when will they learn? The Twenty-Six County administration should have started building pre-fabricated homes for Ukrainian refugees whose aims are to return to their country once it is safe to do so. Instead we appear now to be telling these ‘International Protection Seeker’s’ to get out, we no longer want or need you is the perceived message! After making the Ukrainians welcome we appear now to be turning our backs on them,’Cead mile failte’ appears non-applicable to refugees any more as gangs led by far- right and former left-allies appear to want these people out with attacks on International Protection Seekers accommodation centres.

The far-right arguments are now being fuelled by government who no longer see the political millage in taking the pro-refugee line. With the US President - and much to the disappointment of the Taoiseach - being good mates, it appears with Putin, a Vladimir and Donald level of friendship, time for a change of political direction perhaps? For these reasons Martin and Harris obviously feel they are not getting the same publicity as they did when everybody was anti-Putin. The Ukrainian Refugees who had been guaranteed a roof over their head as long as it was needed are being told they must leave state paid accommodation. Ukrainian refugees, and they did not ask for this, were placed on full state benefits when they arrived only to have such benefits over time removed. Refugees arrived in Ireland to a gold-plated land, not of their asking, insisted by the government. Now they are being told by Simon Harris, Tanaiste, “Ukrainians living in rent-free State accommodation is not fair”. 

These refugees could have been given a home. A plan could and should have been in place a plan to build pre-fabs housing which served well in Britain after World War II to ease the housing crisis there. Easy to build with full amenities and opportunities for employment, they should have been part and parcel of the plan. Pre-fabs would have been ideal for a people who wish, once it’s safe, to go home again. The problem with this solution is there is no ‘make Micheal look good’ factor involved. What the Twenty-Six-County government are doing to these Ukrainians, in a strange land with the once guaranteed safety nets removed, is bordering on inhuman. 

Why did they promise these people the world in the first place? Simple, there was loads of looking good factor, the administration could benefit from yard after yard of political millage. That feeling appears now to be wavering and Ukrainian refugees, once an asset, are now a liability and the government are increasingly leaning on far-right nonsense about overcrowding. For the record the state has had a housing problem since the passing of the Anglo/Irish treaty in 1922. There were no refugees or migrants to blame then, just inept government policies, as is the case today, as tenement buildings housing numerous families collapsed under the human weight of habitation in Church Street.

Maybe Micheal Martin and his cohorts should have put a figure on the number of refugees we could accommodate competently, and I do mean all refugees not only Ukrainians. Perhaps a figure may have been 100,000 whom we could house in pre-fabs, feed, end employ. Not rocket science really but apparently for Micheal and (simple) Simon a little beyond their mental capabilities! “The move comes after the Government cut the length of time newly arriving refugees can stay in state accommodation from 90 days to 30. The Finance Minister said he was proud of the response to the Ukrainian war but added that there was a need to learn from every crisis” (Irish Daily Mirror 30th 4th 2026). The truth an eternal cynic might think is there is no crisis, only one of Harris and Martin's own making. If this had been given priority, and accommodation awaited these refugees along with amenities and employment it would have been a smooth transition. 

The problem with smooth transitions is not a lot of political milage can be gained. It would not have been possible to ingratiate themselves with other bigger world leaders, the ultimate prize being Trump but alas for poor Micheal and Simon the Mad President was more inclined towards Putin than first may have been thought, a bit of a bastard really eh lads! Still plenty of milage with the Germans, the British, the French all taking an anti-Putin position. 

Now with events in the Middle East putting Ukraine into the shadow as the real bourgeois interests - the price of oil - take world stage the plaudits received for being nice to Ukrainians are no longer forthcoming. Therefore they are no longer any real use so fuck them out on the streets which will cause another right-wing backlash. They really have no idea how to administer a long-term humanitarian programme. 

Firstly, how many people can be reasonably looked after? This does not include supplying tents to live in, they may have done that in bomb torn Ukraine. Why not then integrate to a certain extent with the indigenous homeless as pre-fabricated housing for all would be built before peoples very eyes? The far-right argument would be non-existent because the use of hotels and unsuitable buildings would not be necessary. It is possible the government wanted a far-right bogey man to frighten the left off with so they created the conditions for one to come out of the ground? Well, that’s not working either as I understand a far-right meeting was kicked off the street last month including leading Nazis in uniforms of types, including one of Dublin’s so-called leading Nazis who once boasted his admiration of Hitler being a great “leader”!

These Ukrainian refugees escaping Russian bombs have been used in an unashamed fashion by the Irish bourgeoisie and their government lackeys. From “Cead Mile Failte” one of Irelands famous sayings meaning “one hundred thousand welcomes” the twenty-six-county state, as far as Ukrainian and other refugees are concerned, has turned into ‘the worst nightmare’ - homeless in a strange country with the safety nets once provided withdrawn. Perhaps facing Putin’s bombs might have been a better bet! 

The government have through some of their media, who have shifted policy accordingly, not too well camouflaged anti-refugee statements have managed to unleash the lumpenproletariat of Ireland which appears a larger group than I would have imagined. Thankfully anti-fascists are hitting back and not before time. Perhaps the message here is; don’t go to Ireland if you are a refugee from any land, Ukraine, Somalia, Yemen, Palestine because you will be used, abused, and discarded when your use value has expired !!!
     
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Used, Abused, And Discarded In A Grotesque Manner

Tommy McKearney ☭ Press headlines in Washington on Patrick’s Day 2026 were carrying the news that Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, and once a staunch MAGA supporter, had resigned.


What was really surprising, though, was his reason for quitting. Kent wrote on Twitter that he couldn’t continue because he believed Trump’s assault on Iran was unnecessary, saying that Tehran posed “… no immediate threat to our nation…” adding that the conflict was launched “… due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby…”.


Not that such a trenchant criticism — and indeed exposé — of the USA’s blood-soaked campaign of conquest in the Middle East was having any impact on the Irish delegation to the White House.

While America’s imperial master was absorbing the news that a one-time devotee (along with several other leading MAGA supporters) was causing a headache for the regime, his ego was being massaged by a kowtowing Micheál Martin, sliding in to present Trump with a bowl of shamrock.

Amazingly, this crawling performance from the Taoiseach was reported by the Irish mass media as a successful day’s work. Not only had the Fianna Fáil leader apparently managed to avoid antagonising the emperor but had even contrived to speak up for Britain’s Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

All of which missed the very real point that the photos of a simpering Martin alongside Donald Trump were effectively dismissing the murderous behaviour of US imperialism’s frontman. Ireland’s premier was greenwashing a cruel monster who had facilitated, if not actually supervised, genocide in Gaza, ordered an illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran that began with the massacre of 168 schoolgirls, and had ordered a savage blockade of the small Caribbean island that is Cuba.

In order to counter criticism of this revolting pandering in the White House, the coalition government promoted the excuse that the Republic is economically dependent on the goodwill of Trump. To antagonise the tanned autocrat, they said, would risk endangering US investment in the 26 Counties.

Notwithstanding the fact that acquiescing in this charade is morally repugnant, the reasoning underpinning the decision to “cuddle up” with the US empire is flawed — and dangerously so.

In the first instance, it is widely accepted, even by free-market economists, that the Republic’s government should be seeking to diversify the economy away from its over-dependency on a few US multinational companies. Last month a study¹ delivered by Professor Alan Ahearne of UCG stated that this degree of reliance was “… a structural vulnerability of the Irish economy which public policy should seek to address.”

The reason Micheál Martin and his coalition cronies refuse to instigate a different economic policy is not due to being unaware of the need to do so. Their motivation arises from a determination to preserve the current class structures. Not antagonising Trump also extends to endorsing the US model of capitalism with its rule by the wealthy privileged few.

By the same token, the warm words for Keir Starmer (and Winston Churchill!) were designed to embed still further the southern Irish state within the imperialist sphere. To achieve this end the old Empire, on which the sun has now set, was recently invited to send its navy back into the Republic’s territorial waters.

Last month the Financial Times reported² that during a meeting in Cork, Martin and Starmer agreed a “defence and security pact” which would, in a statement issued later from Downing Street, mean that “… both countries have … committed to completing a series of joint exercises…”. The article continued by saying that the Irish government has recently unveiled a maritime security strategy involving working closely with the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, composed of ten NATO members.

Taken together, we have a situation whereby the government in Dublin is seen to have a servile relationship with US imperialism and its despotic president. Any doubts about the nature of the connection are set aside by the granting of Shannon Airport for use by the American military.

When this fact is considered in tandem with the Irish state joining a NATO expeditionary force led by Britain, it is not remotely credible to claim the country is neutral. In reality it has to be accepted that the 26 Counties is a participant in the imperialist world order and is, moreover, seen to be so. The implications of such a stance are obvious. In the event of a global conflict, Ireland is a target. And all this done to maintain an economic system that preserves existing class structures and the privilege it provides for the few.

For the sake of decency and for the protection of the people it is imperative that we remove the current ruling class and its capitalist programme and, in its place, establish a Workers’ Republic.

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist.
He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament.
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney

Shamrock And Shame 🪶 Ireland’s Kowtow To Imperialism

Jim Duffy ✍ There must be some relief that Micheal Martin's meeting with Trump went OK in so far as any meeting with Trump is ever OK.
 
Countries in normal times value access to the White House, and the smaller a country is the more important that access is. The trouble is that America has elected a complete nutter as president. He knows nothing. Reads nothing. Understands nothing. Drowns in his own prejudices and cluelessness. Often he can for no good reason turn on a visitor and attack them. So countries want the meeting, but dread meeting him. They long for the days when the US actually had an intelligent knowledgeable president, not a complete uneducated imbecile.

Trump typically went off on another of his crazy clueless rants but this time the target wasn't the visitor but bullshit about supposed 'windmills'. (He is so stupid he don't know their actual name. They are wind turbines.)
 
He also thinks they are all built by China (they aren't) and that China doesn't use them. China in fact is the number one user of wind turbines. It is slashing its use of coal and oil and switching to wind turbines. Its production of electricity by wind turbines exceeded 600 GW by late 2025. Of course, being clueless, Trump knows none of that.
 
He even thinks wind turbines causes cancer. They don't. Thinking they do shows he has no idea what cancer even is or how it is caused.
 
Martin must have been so relieved to know that Trump was off on another stupid clueless rant, and that clueless rant wasn't about Ireland or Martin. Trump really is the epitome of complete and utter stupidity. People used to mock George W Bush for being stupid. He was not stupid. He wasn't at the same level as most presidents in terms of intellect, but people who dealt with him noticed that he spent his presidency reading intensely. On occasion he shocked staff by reading seriously intellectual stuff.
He made mistakes and admitted it, unlike Trump. He consulted widely with experts. He listened. He questioned. He never sent people to war lightly, and frequently had nightmares over mistakes he made.

All presidents but Trump found sending people to war weighed heavily on them, causing sleepless nights, and nightmares. In contrast, Trump frequently skipped going to receive the remains of dead soldiers so he could go to play golf. That is well documented. He even talking about bombing a target that would cause deaths "for the fun!" No sane leader ever takes actions that would cause deaths "for the fun" unless they are a complete sociopath. But then Trump has long been defined by mental experts as both a sociopath and malignant narcissist.
 
Successive presidents literally had nightmares where a mistake they made had caused a nuclear attack on the US. Trump tried to cancel a critical early warning system in South Korea that would alert the US if North Korea launched nuclear weapons on the US - giving them enough time to shoot the missile down. He told his national security adviser "I don't care. It costs too much." When explained that North Korea could hit California with a nuclear missile within 19 minutes, he response was a chilling that he didn't care what happened to California as it did not vote for him! He wasn't joking. His Chief of Staff found it chilling.
 
He also kept asking the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff why he couldn't just use nuclear weapons, at least to blackmail countries in trade deals. The chairmen repeatedly struggled to make him understand that nuclear weapons are not to be used that way. In fact they are not intended to be used at all. They are there for deterrence to stop someone using one against you as they that even if they destroy you, you can destroy them - hence mutually assured destruction. The aim is for them never to be used. But Trump couldn't comprehend that. They were like some sort of macho toy to him.
 
G.W. Bush, like every predecessor, and like Obama and Biden, would not dream of going to war in Iran because all of them realised the nightmare of the Strait of Hormuz. If it was blocked, and with Iran having a perfect line of fire on every inch of it (it would inevitably be,) it could cause not just a worldwide recession but potentially a worldwide depression. They all knew that you just could not risk that, ever.
 
They also had advisers in the National Security Council to warn of the risks. Trump got thick in his first term because they kept telling him not to do stupid things he wanted to do. So when he took office in January 2025 he sacked all the advisers on the NSC. Every one. The skills built up since the days of Truman when the NSC was created, were wiped out. All institutional memory, gone. He surrounded himself by imbeciles in cabinet, appointed the ultimate know-nothing imbecile as Defense Secretary. Then he bungled into a war every other President since Carter knew never to do.
 
In fact, presidents often said that the very first thing they are told by their predecessor when they meet is "don't go to war with Iran. It will close the Strait of Hormuz and that will destroy the international economy. Never do it." Carter told Reagan. Reagan told Bush, though Bush already knew from being his Vice-President. Bush told Clinton. Clinton told George W Bush, who had also been told it by his father. Bush told Obama. Obama told Trump - who tried to ignore it until the NSC, and his entire team told him no to do it. Biden knew it, but was reminded by Clinton, Bush and Obama. It was literally the first thing they were told.
 
Netanyahu has been trying to get US presidents to go to war for years. Every US president had the cop-on to say "no!" But he found he was dealing with a full-on unread, unadvised, clueless imbecile.
A French retired general put it succinctly. Being asked now to defend the Strait of Hormuz in the middle of a war, when it has been mined, is akin to being invited onto the Titanic as it is sinking. Nobody would be that stupid.
 
Trump is now throwing a hissy fit that NATO isn't coming to his aid, showing that he doesn't even know what NATO is. NATO is a defensive alliance, not an offensive one. It never ever supports a member who has chosen to go to war with someone else. It did not do it with Turkey when it attacked Cyprus. When it was faced with Greece and Turkey going to war, and both were in NATO, it warned both that it would support neither.
 
It only ever supports a member state under Article 5 if Article 5 is triggered by a country that has been attacked, not one that initiated the attack. So NATO under its rules cannot support the US as the US started the war. It could only support the US if the US had been attacked, not the attacker. The rules could not be clearer.
 
But Trump, unread, ignoring all facts, surrounded by imbeciles, doesn't understand that - just as he doesn't understand wind turbines, cancer, how the economy works, how tariffs work, or pretty much anything. America has elected the stupidest president in US history who knows the least, and he has bungled into the world's stupidest war where he is likely to do catastrophic damage to America's and the world's economy, and he is now complaining that nobody is willing to be as stupid as he was.
He is the Basil Fawlty of international affairs. At least Basil had Sybil to get him out of trouble. All Trump has is the even stupider Hegseth.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Stupid And Stupider

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ As the Twenty-Six-County administration led by Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, and Tanaiste, Simon Harris, prepare for their joint attempt to curry favour with US President Donald Trump they appear to have conveniently forgotten the atrocities committed by the US under this man.

As the bowl of traditional shamrock is prepared to be handed over to Trump, the bodies of countless Palestinians killed during US sanctioned Israeli bombings, during what Trump calls a ‘ceasefire’ brokered by him, are conveniently forgotten. 

Despite the fact that last year Donald Trump insulted the two leaders of Irish constitutional politics by not inviting them for the customary lunch at the White House they appear hell bent on giving him the chance to repeat the belittling. Last year Trump invited former Mixed Martial Arts and fellow rapist, Conor McGregor, to luncheon with him. No doubt the two perverts had much to discuss, and it will be interesting to see who he invites this year. 

Let’s get one thing straight, as far as Ireland is concerned, Trump is not Joe Biden who really absorbed the Saint Patricks Day celebrations, neither is he Barack Obama who also enjoyed the festivities, as did Bill Clinton. No, Trump only likes celebrating himself and bombing smaller defenceless countries like Venezuela whose oil he will half inch (pinch, steal). More recently the administration led by Donald Trump in the US has stooped to new depths when on Trumps social media site an image of former President, Barrack Obama, and his wife, Michelle, superimposed as ‘apes’ was uploaded for the world to see. This act really shows the administration up for what it is, racist, imperialist, dictatorial and above all else, immoral. Yet the leaders of the Twenty-Six-County government insist on visiting him even though Trump has no interest in the audience at all! It is called going through the motions!!

The depiction of the former President and his First Lady as ‘apes’ is as racist as anything Adolf Hitler used to describe Jewish people back in the days of the Nazi regime. Would the two Irish political leaders, knowing the persecution suffered by socialists, communists, trade unionists and, above all, Jewish people have visited Hitler in Berlin? Would they have used trade and ‘jobs’ to placate or even cultivate the tyrant? A hypothetical question and one which of course cannot be answered but the point is the similarities between Trump and Hitler. The difference between the two is one of extremities but principally they are pretty similar, both are/were power crazy, racist, narcissists, and bullies. Who knows how far Trump would go but for the, albeit inadequate, checks and balances in the US which Hitler in Germany dismantled when they got in his way. On that subject has it gone unnoticed the said checks and balances in the USA are being gradually eroded by the Trump administration? 

The Trump government has, on home soil, overseen their Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), agents gun down unarmed protestors in Minneapolis. These protestors were guilty of nothing more than voicing their opposition to Tumps racist immigration laws. Apparently, such protests are no longer tolerated in Trumps USA. The Trump administration tried to claim one gunned down protestor, ICU Nurse Alex Pretti, was armed and dangerous! This was, of course, rubbish as are most of Trump's claims, but much of the media and social media swallowed this dollop of bullshit. Some in the media did speak out and I expect these people to suffer Trump's wrath in the future. It turned out the Nurse was carrying a mobile phone and not a gun at all. Can anybody tell me the difference between the actions of ICE with Presidential approval in Minneapolis and the actions of the Iranian Government who also gunned down and killed protestors in Tehran? Perhaps again the only difference was the numbers killed but principally those actions of the religious nutters in Tehran and those of Trump's mob are the same.

Trump's illegal bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Maduro should have been enough to cancel the visit. After all, would Martin and Haris have visited Vladimir Putin in Moscow after the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine? No, of course not, so why visit the racist white supremacist Trump? The images of Barack and Michelle Obama were disgusting and insulting to the offended couple and, I would imagine, the majority of US citizens! Micheal Martin regularly uses US investment in Ireland and ‘jobs’ as a cover to hide behind for going on this trip. Does he seriously believe, or expect us to believe, that by refusing to go to the US this year Irish jobs would be put in jeopardy? Does Martin really believe these jobs depend on him being ‘well in’ with the US president whoever that may be? What nonsense and an insult to people’s intelligence. US companies are not remotely interested in An Taoiseach’s relationship with the President; all they are concerned with is profit, and profit on profit at that. They come to the Twenty-Six-Counties because they do not have to pay high wages, weak trade unions barely worthy of the name, and very low corporation tax. These are the principle reasons these firms come to our shores and has nothing to do with Micheal Martin going to Washington, or not!

The main opposition party in the Dail, Sinn Fein, have finally come off the fence and stated they would not be attending this year’s events in Washington. Party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, and Michelle O’Neill, leader of the party in the Six Counties, announced “they will not attend St. Patricks Day events at the White House this year”. Mary Lou went on to state; “this is a principled stance in response to the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza.” These atrocities of the Trump gang and their partner in war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu, were going on last year but Sinn Fein still attended the festivities! Why then and not now? Would it not have been more convincing to mention other wrongdoings of Trump, the bombing of Venezuela, the uploading of racist images, instead of just the Palestinian cause? The plight of the Palestinian people is terrible but has never been used by Sinn Fein in other years as a reason not to attend and looks a pretty weak excuse given the fact last year the same could have, and should have been said. Or could this be more about playing to a world audience? An audience increasing in size behind the plight of the Palestinians, could this be the real reason, a bit of political mileage and credibility perhaps?

All things considered, neither government or opposition should be attending the US festivities this year as the US President sinks to new depths. They should not have gone last year and the Conor McGregor experience over the lunch should also have told both Micheal Martin and Simon Harris something -  Trump treats them with contempt!
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Would Martin And Harris Have Visited Hitler?

Tommy McKearney ☭ May I beg to differ with the carefully created mainstream media consensus surrounding Micheál Martin’s meeting last month with US president Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance?
4-April-2025

Ireland’s establishment media took the view that the Taoiseach had very skilfully handled an incredibly challenging situation and had, thankfully, exited the White House without having his ears slapped, à la Zelensky.

Admittedly, it was accepted that Trump has threatened to remove Ireland’s pharmaceutical industry and greatly reduce the amount of exports to the US. Nevertheless, this was practically brushed aside with the excuse that it was essential not to antagonise the Donald. After all, as we were repeatedly reminded, Ireland is beholden to the USA for our supposed “prosperity” thanks to the generosity of their multinationals bestowing us with the benefits arising from foreign direct investment (FDI).

Overlooked in this round of self-serving applause was the fact that the Irish government had achieved absolutely nothing. A fact made embarrassingly clear mere days later, when Trump insulted the entire Dublin administration by hosting the disgraced MMA fighter Conor McGregor on St Patrick’s Day. Indeed, if anything, Martin had reinforced the Irish state’s position of being subservient to the whims of US imperialism: a situation that is an affront to any notion of Irish sovereignty in the first instance but still worse, is detrimental in the long term to the welfare of the overwhelming majority of this country’s people.

For starters, the over-dependence on a small number of multi-national corporations for state revenue and significant employment has been recognised even by free-market economists as a high-risk strategy. Not only are such companies highly mobile and without any organic commitment to Ireland, are liable to take their business elsewhere depending on circumstances. These circumstances may be simply a more attractive offer elsewhere or as a result of arm-twisting by the White House imposing tariffs. This latter option is clearly now on the table and may only be a matter of time before being implemented.

Moreover, there is also the risk that the United States may fall into economic recession or indeed depression. The plethora of erratic measures being abruptly introduced by Donald Trump may inflict damage on the economy. Tariffs coupled with deportation of migrant workers may have the effect of merely increasing prices without benefiting US citizens and thus leading to economic meltdown.

Moreover, the United States has a huge national debt currently in excess of $36 trillion. Influential conservative politicians in Washington believe that this level of debt is unsustainable and are campaigning to have it curbed. To do so, their intention is to cut back on welfare, health and domestic social investment.

Under either scenario there would be a dramatic reduction in American consumer spending, with an obvious detrimental impact on the purchase of Irish imports.

Strange as it may seem but none of this is news to the Dublin government or the Irish ruling class. Indeed, the ESRI and IDA have gone public with their concerns and it now obvious, after Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe’s interview recently on RTE’s This Week programme, that these fears are shared by those in government.

In reality therefore, Micheál Martin’s cringe-inducing, hand-wringing performance in the Oval Office, rather than being masterly politics was a futile exercise, at least from the standpoint of the broad mass of the Irish public.

By any normal rationale, the Dublin government and its Taoiseach should be concentrating their efforts on developing viable alternatives to the state’s absolute dependency on US multi-nationals. In fact, to do so would provide the Republic with a bargaining hand in any showdown with the Trump administration.

But by going down that path would surely involve creating trade relations with countries outside the Western economic zone. Contemporary manufacturing is focusing increasingly on digital technology and climate-sensitive products, utilising solar energy and electric powered transport, and we all know who leads the field in these areas. Along with excelling across the entire high-tech sector, Chinese scientists have taken a lead in Artificial Intelligence, and their factories dominate the electric vehicle market worldwide.

Therein lies the real reason for Micheál Martin’s obsequious simpering in Trump’s office. Not so much to fend off the imposition of tariffs which will or will not happen regardless of an Irish Taoiseach’s intervention, and well he and his coalition know this. Rather, it was done deliberately to reinforce a narrative that Ireland is dependent on and best served by US-led capitalism and by that alone.

Because any real alternative, no matter how beneficial to the working class, would undermine the privileged position currently enjoyed by Ireland’s comprador bourgeoisie. Hence too the ringing endorsement by the establishment media of the Fianna Fáil leader kowtowing in Washington.

Still, on a note of optimism, Martin would hardly have subjected himself to such humiliation had he been confident of the permanence of the current class structure in Ireland. Let’s ensure, therefore, that his worst fears are realised in a workers’ republic.

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. 
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney

Micheál Martin’s Visit To US 🪶 A Managed Car Crash

Tommy McKearney ☭ The recent exhaustive celebrations of Michael Collins’s life were selective and tendentious. 

September-2022

There was very little mention of his campaign against Dublin Castle’s G men and British intelligence but heavy emphasis on his role in negotiating the Treaty and founding the Free State.

In reality, the centenary events were partitionan attempt by the Southern establishment to cement the present neoliberal status quo. It was almost as if the fallen general was reaching out posthumously to endorse a hundred years of right-wing governance by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

All the while, a century of so-called Irish independence was being heralded by the Dublin government as if British interference in Irish affairs had ended with the establishment of the Free State. Nowhere was there any reference to when Collins had lamented that too few in Irish political circles understood how the British state really operated in Ireland. While the same critique might well have eventually applied to the Big Fella himself, his observation was and remains accurate and relevant.

This is an important factor when analysing the present situation, and not only in the Six Counties but throughout the country. Because no matter how much talk there is of independence or, nowadays, of a new relationship between the two countries, English imperialism still exerts a huge influence on this side of the Irish Sea—a fact that still makes breaking the connection essential if we are to build a fair and progressive society in this country.

Regardless of what structures happen to be in place here, the British ruling class continues to look upon Ireland as somewhere to be kept within its immediate region of influence, if not as an actual colony. This was the underlying rationale behind the imposed Treaty. This too was the thinking underpinning Britain’s response to the most recent Northern conflict, when it employed bloody counter-insurgency measures to deal with what at first had been identified as a democratic deficit.

And so it remains, as evidenced by the recent Tory leadership debate, both candidates eager to override an international treaty in relation to the Six Counties and casually dismiss investigation of British state criminality in Ireland.

Britain’s exercise of sovereignty over the Six Counties gives it a direct say in affairs in the northern part of Ireland. By extension, this also affords an opportunity to have an influence on matters south of the border. On the one hand this occurs through official channels, such as the North–South ministerial arrangement and the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference, both established under the Belfast Agreement.

There is nevertheless a less visible but equally strong element at work. That is, the Southern establishment’s deeply rooted fear of the type of transformational change that might emerge in a post-partition environment. This means in practice that Britain has disguised leverage over political decision-making in Dublin. All that is required is to merely intimate that London may consider making constitutional change north of the border.

Indeed, desperation to maintain partition has accelerated a de facto merger between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, a pact that has been further sealed by the Varadkar-Martin double act at the Bealnablagh centenary commemoration. Ironically, this consolidation of ultra-conservative forces has been responsible for the rapid expansion of anti-partitionist Sinn Féin.

Undoubtedly, official Britain is keeping a watchful eye on these developments. London always has a keen interest in what is happening in a country a few miles off its western shores—not that Ireland is any military or financial threat to British interests. Moreover, the old Empire’s decline as a global superpower has actually reduced the risk of Ireland being used as a springboard for invasion.

London’s strategic priorities vis-à-vis this country have therefore changed over recent decades. No longer required as a vital military “asset,” or indeed as important a source of cheap agricultural produce as before, the emphasis is now on ensuring that Ireland does not set a “bad example” for the English working class, that a new Irish Republic would not, in the words of James Connolly, become “a word to conjure with—a rallying point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of departure for the socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human freedom.”¹

Over the past four decades Britain’s welfare state has been subjected to a relentless neoliberal assault. The once-proud National Health Service is faltering in all sectors.² Council housing is a thing of the past. Less-well-off third-level students are having to take out government loans that often require a lifetime to repay. An astonishing 13 per cent of the population are living in absolute poverty, according to a report by the House of Commons library.³ More recently, the threat of inflation is exacerbating the hardship experienced by working-class communities in Britain.

The blame for this grave situation lies primarily with the Thatcherite Conservative Party and its wealthy backers. At the moment Liz Truss, the favourite to become leader of the Conservative Party and therefore prime minister, is proposing to cut taxes on the rich and smash the unions. Her merciless political code is shared by Rishi Sunak, her challenger for 10 Downing Street.

Unfortunately, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, is offering little alternative to the free-marketeers as he remains wedded to right-of-centre Blairite economic policies.

Significantly, though, opposition to this cosy neoliberal consensus is now emerging from within Britain’s organised labour movement. Indeed the most prominent spokesperson from within the trade union movement is Mick Lynch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, son of Irish parents and, incidentally, an avowed admirer of James Connolly.

In the light of the present “condition of the working class in England” it is hardly surprising that Britain’s privileged ruling caste would view a move towards socialism in Ireland as inimical to its self-interest. Unlike China or Cuba, we are a close neighbour, with a substantial and regular exchange of tourists and visitors, not to mention the historically large Irish diaspora living in Britain (one of whom is the aforementioned Mick Lynch).

Imagine how difficult it would be for Britain’s neoliberal establishment to justify or even explain why a newly socialist Ireland could provide a comprehensive health service, public housing and an end to poverty while they preside over a deprived society. Better from their point of view to use all available leverage to reinforce the position of their right-wing bedfellows in the Republic.

A presence in the Six Counties affords many opportunities, direct and indirect, to do so. The Orange card was played before to foil the “freedom to achieve freedom” by providing “stepping-stones” to the Republic. A modern version would be used again but this time to prevent socialism.

Challenging the carnival of reaction, north and south, must now mean leaving the Big Fella to rest in peace. Focus instead on working to achieve Connolly’s vision of a workers’ republic, with the working class in control of everything from the Plough to the stars.

References :James Connolly, Socialism and Nationalism (1897).
See “Britain is ‘sleepwalking’ into the death of the NHS,” Morning Star, 19 August 2022.
House of Commons Library, “Poverty in the UK: Statistics,” 13 April 2022 (https://bit.ly/3pAFFUo).


Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. 
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney 

Varadkar-Martin Alliance Desperate To Maintain Partition

Tommy McKearney with a piece written shortly after this year's Irish General Election.

The connection between the fall of Singapore in 1942 and the latest election set-back for Fianna Fail may not seem obvious at first. However, not only did both events signal the ending of empire but in a strange way each occurred because those in charge were facing in the wrong direction. Micheál Martin has probably never heard of Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival but they share much in common. 

The changing face of southern Irish politics.


Expecting a naval assault, the British general trained his guns out to sea leaving his army vulnerable to attack from the rear, which indeed the Japanese did. Micheál Martin also made a strategic error by attacking brand Sinn Fein while overlooking his own vulnerability in relation to issues that mattered with the electorate; housing, health, childcare and old age pension.

Ten years after the economic crash and with a smug Fine Gael government supported by Fianna Fail insisting that the economy is booming, people were outraged by a housing and homeless crisis, chaos in the health and childcare services and an attack on old-age pensions. All these issues were identified by Sinn Fein as demanding urgent action and unsurprisingly, the party benefited and did so at the expense of those determined to maintain the injustice of a punishing neoliberalism.

Consequently, the general election has delivered an intriguing result with the three largest parties each having practically equal numbers of deputies. Fine Gael is disappointed but they, unlike Fianna Fail, believe this does not pose an existential threat to their future. With their ingrained disdain for working class people, the Blueshirts are content to hold on to the 20/25% of the electorate who benefit under the capitalist dog-eat-dog system.

With that nasty cohort thus catered for, Fianna Fail has always had to look for a broader base. Now, after supporting the Dublin 4 Posh Boys for the past few years, their credibility is damaged and their appeal lessened. They are therefore left with an agonising dilemma. Do they go into coalition with a Sinn Fein party supported by a number of left-wing deputies, thereby risking a reverse takeover? Or do they remain out of government and precipitate another general election at which they face terminal damage from a hungry and reinvigorated Sinn Fein?

On the other hand and notwithstanding their undoubted success, Sinn Fein has need to reflect on how best to proceed. The increase to their vote now includes a significant left-wing current anxious for economic change, as evidenced by the large transfer of second preferences to other left-of-centre candidates. A challenge for Ms McDonald and her colleagues will be to retain the support of this broad constituency if the party signs up to a programme for government that fails to meet expectations.

In the wider context, politics in the Republic is changing. The state has one of the youngest and best educated populations in Western Europe many, of whom are unwilling to tolerate indefinitely a dysfunctional and lopsided economic system. They have voted for something better and will insist that this comes about.

Socialist republicans should therefore work to ensure this happens and not tolerate other considerations diluting our demands.

By the way, a final word about Lieutenant-General Percival. Just like Micheál Martin, he too had difficulty understanding Ireland’s working people, once finding himself severely discomforted in County Cork by a group of local men inspired by the advice and guidance of a Mr Thomas B. Barry.


Tommy McKearney is a left wing activist and author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament.



The Fall Of Singapore And The Anticipated Demise Of Fianna Fail

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