Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
On the 26th of March 2010, the Fianna Fail / Green governing coalition announced that they were inviting applications for ‘Onshore Licensing Options over the Northwest Carboniferous Basin and the Clare Basin.’ The senior minister in the department at the time was Green Party TD, Eamon Ryan. Conor Lenihan (Fianna Fail) was the department’s junior minister.
The recent BBC documentary 'Panorama: Britain's Secret Terror Force' may have once again put a spotlight on the extent of British state sponsored terrorism in the North and the activities of its various shadowy forces; but the level of orchestration, impunity, collusion and cover up is yet to be truly uncovered. The documentary revealing the activities of the Military Reaction Force (MRF) was aired just a day after Northern Irish Attorney General John Larkin called for an amnesty on atrocities committed during the Irish troubles. He may be right to break this taboo, but was he lobbied by British soldiers and their friends who fear justice taking its course as this evidence comes to light?
Extermination or communism is the choice - but this communism must be more than just the sharing of wealth (who wants all this shit?) - it must inaugurate a whole new way of working together. — Felix Guattari & Toni Negrii
Events in the High Court over the course of a week in the middle of March, and the lack of any real response to them, should be of huge concern to all trade unionists here. Effectively a declaration of war against trade unions and trade union organisers has been made – and the response from the trade union side has been somewhat less than overwhelming.
On Wednesday 12th March High Court judge Paul Gilligan issued an injunction to the Dublin Airport Authority restraining SIPTU members from holding a 4-hour stoppage which had been planned for Friday morning (14th March). The stoppage was planned as part of a campaign by workers in Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to force their employers to deal with a huge deficit in their pension scheme. 80% of SIPTU members in Aer Lingus and 89% of members in the DAA had voted for strike action – a vote that was described by SIPTU as a demonstration that staff are“…angry, disillusioned and frustrated that an acceptable resolution has not been found to the pensions crisis.”

The nostalgic left is a bit of shorthand I’ve started using for those on the left who have reacted to the disintegration of the old left by wishing for idealised simpler times. And perhaps more strangely blaming the collapse on what they see as threatening new developments, like intersectionality. They hold such newfangled nonsense responsible for the current failure of the left to get an echo from the general population.
[Audio recording of recent talk and discussion in the Black Rose anarchist social centre in Sydney on the theme of identity politics and its relevance today. Below is the text of the talk given by Timothy followed by a lively and constructive discussion covering everything from sexual violence in radical spaces to ‘intersectionality,’ feminism and autonomous organising.]
This talk is at a midpoint between being an original work, and being an exegesis of Selma’s James justly famous “Sex, Race and Class.” This astonishingly brilliant work contains within itself the clear foundations of a historical materialist, or Marxist, conception of the relationship between capitalism and oppression. Because I have mixed in many of my own original points, both intentionally and no doubt by accidental misinterpretation, I would strongly suggest everyone here goes and reads the original.
Mainstream media were very excited earlier this week with Forbe's proclaiming the republics "extremely pro-business environment" with of course no critical commentary over what that reality means for the mass of the population who rely on paid labour or social welfare to get by. What lies behind phrases like " low tax burden, investor protection"? Why has there been more investment by US companies since 2008 ( $129.5 billion ) then in the previous 58 years? Should we really be cheering being No1 for attracting corporations?
Privilege and the theory around it is a significant topic of debate at the moment among those interested in radical social change. Touching on many issues dear to the hearts of anarchists, it is hard to avoid.(i) Yet, the two are not fitting together as well as they should and there is a sense of unease about this. (ii) Much of this is because privilege theory has emerged from US academic circles rather than anarchist ones and, ironically, has been co-opted to protect middle- class privileges. (iii) This is a situation in need of repair if we are to maintain our links with feminist, anti- racist and other struggles against oppression. If we are to create a mass movement capable of social change then it has to be able to engage with everyone in the first place.

Guest writer, Dónal O’Driscoll, contributes to the ongoing discussion on intersectionality and privilege theory.
I was recently in the National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street for an appointment with a gynaecologist. The doctor requested I get some blood work done, and so I was placed in a chair outside an intake room. After waiting a few minutes, three people emerged from the room, two in medical uniforms and another in religious clothing.
After the one in religious clothing had left the hall area, the two in medical uniforms looked at each other in shock. One of them then says to the other,
“Well I never. . .”
The other cuts across her, “Me neither. Where was she from?”
“Iran. Wow.”
Like the fading sun of the Summer, there is now little time left to enjoy the last days of Eurostasis we have been enveloped in of late. The relative calm that descended on the Eurocrisis, with the brief exception of the Cyrpus panic in March, is coming to an end with the German elections this coming Sunday.