Ain’t Nothing Change But The Weather

Posted on 27/03/2013 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

Éamon Gilmore – Calm The Rich, Con The Poor

One definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result each time. So take the words of Robin McAlpine in the Scotsman newspaper on the SNP’s policies for an independent Scotland and more importantly the example of Ireland’s calamitous slide into cowboy capitalism during the 1990s and 2000s.

“Currently, the SNP exists in a third-way fudge between two political philosophies. Critics have named this delusion “the myth of Scandimerica”, the belief that you can have Scandinavian social services with US-level taxes. Actually, there was no need since the delusion already had a name – the Arc of Prosperity.

The Arc of Prosperity was a knowing fantasy predicated on the belief that corrupt, housing-and-speculation-gone-mad Ireland was actually the other side of the coin of socially democratic Norway.

The opposite is the truth; economically and socially the politics of Ireland were diametrically opposed to Norway. The former followed unstable get-rich-quick doctrines with an unsustainable faith in short-term trickle-down. The latter emphasised productive growth, a balanced economy and long-term investment strategies where the equality and high standard of living these generate make higher taxes painless.

Let’s call these the neoliberal model and the European social model. There isn’t space here to detail their characteristics but very loosely one promotes progress-through-conflict (markets, competition, wealth-creators) and one promotes progress-through-mutuality (productivity, balanced economy, public services).

…they are more-or-less mutually exclusive. The things you do to increase real productivity work against short-term speculative gain. The things you do to encourage competition create unbalanced economies. The ideology of “wealth creators” is at odds with the ideal of a strong welfare state.”

Which begs the question, why are the three establishment parties of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour working so hard to revive a socio-economic model that has proven to be such an economic, social, cultural and environmental disaster for our island nation? What is driving the political, business and media elites in this country to recreate the Celtic Tiger economy and society of a decade ago when they – and we – are well aware of its superficial and ultimately corrosive nature? Are the political classes in Ireland so lacking in wit that like a dog returning to its vomit they must nose at the mess they have created in the hope of lapping it up again?

We Fight For Neither King Nor Kaiser (Íomhá: éirígí)

Or do they wish to replace a failed Celtic Tiger economy with another certain-to-fail Neo-Celtic Tiger economy that is little more than a self-perpetuating Ponzi Scheme for the top 1%? And where does that leave the other 99% of the population who have nothing for their labour but bitterness and resentment? What then of any concept of social or communal responsibility by the majority when a minority can simply act as if they exist above such things?

We have a choice in Ireland. We can become the Celtic Norway or Finland of western Europe with our social and cultural mores reflected in our economic structures. Or once again we can become the Wild West of Europe, where society and culture are dirty words, where concepts like responsibility are deemed to be an unnecessary restraint on our freedom to do our worse.

Comment: Why SNP must tap into their inner Borgen (scotsman.com)
One of Ireland’s ugly economic realities: snakes on the loose (seattletimes.com)
Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor – “Tempered with Reality: Economic Theory and the Real World” (irishcentral.com)

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From Boycott To Frankfurt, Only Our Rivers Run Free

Posted on 19/04/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

“When apples still grow in November

When Blossoms still bloom from each tree

When leaves are still green in December

It’s then that our land will be free

I wander her hills and her valleys

And still through my sorrow I see

A land that has never known freedom

And only her rivers run free”

So go the lyrics of Mickey MacConnell’s famous ballad “Only Our Rivers Run Free”, an indictment of the British Occupation and apartheid state in the North of Ireland in the 1960s, and now it seems that our Fine Oibre coalition government has determined that in the finest traditions of our colonial past even our waters will no longer run free. From the Irish Times:

“HOUSEHOLDS WILL pay an average of €39 per annum over 20 years to cover the cost of the loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund to install water meters in one million Irish homes.

Government sources confirmed yesterday the cost per household, based on the size of the NPRF loan, would work out at about €780, but that the cost would be levied as a standing charge over a period of two decades, in much the same way as such charges are already imposed by other utilities such as the ESB and Bord Gáis.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed yesterday that householders would pay for the cost of the meters but that the cost would not be an upfront one. Charges are to become operable in early 2014.

Government sources said last night that, in general, no charge would be applied until water meters were installed. However, it is unlikely that all one million homes will have meters in place by the end of next year.

The sources said households that have no meters installed will pay an “assessed charge” based on the metered charges paid by comparable metered properties. This system will be applied to the approximately 350,000 households that will not be metered because it would be too costly or too logistically difficult.”

Along with the so-called “Household Tax” the citizens of Ireland are being burdened with yet another mechanism to forcibly extract the maximum amount of money from their household earnings in order, ultimately, to pay off the banks and financial institutions of Germany, Britain and elsewhere in Europe (and we’re not the only ones). Irish families will go hungry (or into exile) while our absentee landlords in Frankfurt and London will grow fat on our suffering. And if we dare to resist this blatant system of extortion? According to the Irish Independent:

“TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has warned that people will be cut off it they fail to pay water charges.

Amid continued speculation that households face an €800 bill for new meters, Mr Kenny refused to give details of potential costs when the new charge is introduced in 2014.

“These are all matters for discussion about how the system is actually going to work,” said Mr Kenny.

“If you don’t pay your electricity bill, if you don’t pay your water bill, it’s cut off.”

The Taoiseach pointed out that while water is “fundamental for life”, the Government is not in a position to give people a free allowance.”

Water is but of course “fundamental for life”, which is exactly why the Fine Gael – Labour government is ready to tax it – and at the behest of their masters in Europe. Like some bizarre, reborn clone of the 19^th century Irish Parliamentary Party the coalition government will simply become the public face, the cipher and mechanism, for foreign interests in Ireland. Interests whose only purpose is to exploit the Irish nation and the Irish people for their financial, economic and political benefit.

However, not all the croppies are ready to lie down and die. As the Irish Examiner points out:

“Backlash over planned water charges has deepened after campaigners warned of a one million strong household boycott.

As Taoiseach Enda Kenny was accused of sending mixed messages over threats to cut-off non-payers’ supplies, a mass of residents’ committees nationwide warned they would not pay.

It has been previously reported that the Government could allocate 40 litres of water per day free to each household. Any water used on top of that would be charged.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said: “The Government is so gung-ho in forcing out levy after levy that the Taoiseach doesn’t know what he’s telling people.”

Ms McDonald said his contradictions were just another example of the “confused fiasco” during the run-up to the introduction of the household charge.

And with no Government guidance on costs for water, the Association of Combined Residents’ Associations (Acra) warned its members would not pay any tax on the family home.

“Our members up and down the country are already pinned to the collar trying to survive,” said spokesman Malachy Steenson.

“We successfully made the household tax one of the biggest campaigns in recent decades. Water charges will be even more forcefully opposed.”

John Lyons, Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, said the fact that half the population had yet to register for the controversial household charge suggested the same people would protest against water.

“If they cut our water supply – this life giving force – there will be a hell of a lot of trouble,” Mr Lyons warned.

“I think we could see a million people marching against the Government over this.”

The Government has estimated that around 906,000 households have registered for the €100 euro household charge – of a total 1.6 million that are eligible.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins accused Mr Kenny of “constructive ambivalence” and warned that the controversy surrounding the Government’s mixed messages would only intensify opposition to the charges.

“You could say that the Government is inept, but it maybe also reflects the fact that the Labour Party is desperately trying to cover up its pledge that it would not introduce water charges, which it has since betrayed,” Mr Higgins added.”

Of course one is left pondering the most obvious question of all. How is it that at the start of the 21^st century the people of Ireland find themselves in the same position in relation to foreign powers and institutions that they were in at the start of the 19^th century? Or indeed the 20^th?

Is this not the ultimate indictment of our political, business and media classes who have led us full circle into a new quasi-colonial relationship with the European Union, and the absentee landlords of the IMF-ECB. From Boycott to Frankfurt, we find ourselves yet again the playthings of others.

“I drink to the death of her manhood

Those men who’d rather have died

Than to live in the cold chains of bondage

To bring back their rights were denied

Oh where are you now when we need you

What burns where the flame used to be

Are ye gone like the snows of last winter

And will only our rivers run free? “

Water Charges (politicsinireland.wordpress.com)
Backlash deepens over water charges (thepressnet.com)
Kenny says householders will pay for water meters, should be fun collecting for that Kenny. (teddyoshea.wordpress.com)
Water charges… redux (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
Afterthoughts – Easter 1916 Commemorations (awakenlongford.wordpress.com)
Water Charges (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)

A Pluralist Ireland? Does That Include The 1.7 Million Irish-Speakers?

Posted on 10/04/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

A new report on the administration of primary schools in Ireland and the teaching of religious studies has been published by the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, a state advisory group on education. Among its recommendations is the recognition of the high demand for teaching through the Irish language, both in dedicated schools and within the broader educational system. However only 5 pages in the 164 page document is devoted to Irish medium schooling, probably reflecting the already pluralist nature of the Gaelscoileanna movement. The major focus for the group is the system of English medium education Ireland and its close ties to the Roman Catholic Church and other religious denominations. The relevant excerpts for Irish are:

“Irish Medium Primary Schools

The Status of the Irish Language

While the provision of Irish medium primary schools, for parents who wish to have their children educated through the medium of Irish, forms part of the diversity of patronage process, there is also a special dimension to the issue. The denominational or religious character of the school is not a cause of concern here, and Irish medium schools exist under a variety of religious patronage arrangements – denominational, multi-denominational and inter-denominational. The distinguishing feature regarding these schools is the significance of the Irish language in Irish society and the desire of some parents that it be the medium of school education.

The Advisory Group notes, and welcomes, that Irish medium schools are included within the remit of the new school patronage arrangements announced by the Minister in June 2011.

To appraise the matter satisfactorily, it is important to note the place of the Irish language in the Constitution, legislative provision and statements of government policy. Article 8 of the Irish Constitution states “The Irish language as the national language is the first official language”.

The Education Act (1998) sets out responsibilities in relation to Irish in the objects of the Act in Section 6:

(i) to contribute to the realisation of national policy and objectives in relation to the extension of bi-lingualism in Irish society and in particular the achievement of a greater use of the Irish language at school and in the community

(j) to contribute to the maintenance of Irish as the primary community language in Gaeltacht areas

(k) to promote the language and cultural needs of students having regard to the choices of their parents

In Section 9 – functions of a school – it notes that a recognised school shall provide education which will:

(f) promote development of the Irish language and traditions, Irish literature, the arts and other cultural matters

(h) in the case of schools located in the Gaeltacht area, contribute to the maintenance of Irish as the primary community language.

The objective of Government policy in relation to the Irish language is to increase the use and knowledge of Irish as a vibrant community language, increasing the number of families who use Irish as a daily means of communication, promoting the use of public services through Irish as a choice for citizens, and providing strong linguistic support for Gaeltacht communities. The “Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030”, (2010), is based on a “Government Statement on the Irish language” (2006) and one of its objectives was:

Objective 6 “A high standard of all Irish education will be provided to school students whose parents/ guardians so wish. Gaelscoileanna will continue to be supported at primary level and all Irish provision at post primary level will be developed to meet follow-on demand.”

The Strategy notes that “the education system is one of the critical engines for generating the linguistic ability on which this 20 year strategy is premised”. It highlights the need for “a focus on developing expertise and skills among the teaching profession – given the critical importance of the school in influencing language awareness and behaviour”.

The Programme for Government, “Government for National Recovery 2011-2016” (2011) stated “We will support the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-30 and will deliver on the achievable goals and targets proposed”. The Advisory Group recommends that parental demand for Irish medium schools should form part of the analysis of the 47 areas, recommended in Section IV of this Report.

Teaching through Irish in Primary Schools: the Current Situation

It is clear from the above statements that the concerns of parents for Irish-language medium schooling have very strong official support.

Currently, approximately 8% of primary schools teach through the medium of Irish and this percentage is reflected also in the number of students and classes who study through Irish. It can be seen from Table 15 below that the number of schools in the Gaeltacht where
the language of instruction is Irish has dropped from 153 to 106 between 1975/76 and 2010/11. The number of students has also dropped. In contrast, the number of schools teaching through the medium of Irish outside of the Gaeltacht has risen from
20 to 140 in the same time period. These schools now have almost 30,000 pupils enrolled. Almost all the Irish medium schools are under the patronage of Catholic bishops or An Foras Pátrúnachta na Scoileanna Lán-Ghaeilge Teoranta.

Census Data on People who can Speak Irish

Almost 1.66 million people, aged 3 years and over, were able to speak Irish in 2006 compared with 1.57 million in 2002. (There was an increase of 8% in the total population during that time period). This information was gathered in the 2006 National Census. Further information obtained is provided below and is abstracted from Volume 9 of the 2006 Census of Population – Irish Language (Oct 2007).

In percentage terms, there was a slight decline from 42.8 per cent in 2002 to 41.9 per cent in 2006.

Ability to speak Irish was highest among the school-going population with over two thirds of 10-14 year olds recorded as being able to speak the language. The figure for 15-19 year olds dropped back from 66.3% to 64.7%. Ability declines in the immediate post-education age groups but picks up again for 45-54 year olds. Irish speakers accounted for 70.8% per cent of the population aged 3 years and over in Gaeltacht areas in 2006 – down from 72.6 per cent in 2002. The proportion of Irish speakers varied between Gaeltacht areas. It was highest in County Waterford (79.5%) and lowest in the part of the Galway Gaeltacht located in Galway City (50.7%). All Gaeltacht areas, apart from Meath and Waterford, experienced a decline in the proportion of Irish speakers between 2002 and 2006. Of the near 1.66 million persons who indicated that they could speak Irish, just over 1 million (60%) either never spoke the language or spoke it less frequently than weekly. 485,000 (29.3%) spoke the language on a daily basis within the education system. However, the majority of these (453,000) did not speak the language outside the education system. Just over 72,000 persons, representing 4.4 per cent of all those who could speak Irish, spoke it on a daily basis outside education while one in four of these also spoke it daily within the education system. A total of 36,500 Irish speakers living in the Gaeltacht, representing 56.8 per cent of all Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas, spoke Irish on a daily basis around the time of the 2006 census. 14,000 (38.3%) of these daily speakers spoke the language within the education system only. Nearly 19,500 (30.3%) of those able to speak Irish in the Gaeltacht either never spoke the language or spoke it less frequently than weekly. The occupational groups with the highest ability to speak Irish were teachers (78%), gardaí (74%) and religious (59%). The higher the educational level attained, the more likely the ability to speak Irish.

Recommendations:

• Accurate information on schooling through an all Irish medium should be made available to all parents, whose school preferences are being solicited, as set out in Section IV.

• It was stressed at the Forum that many all Irish medium schools tend to start out from a small parent base, but subsequently thrive. The Advisory Group recommends that the DES should analyse the pattern of such experience, as a guide towards evaluating future applications for such schools.

• Because of the State’s special commitments with regard to the Irish language, the Advisory Group recommends that the current regulation on flexibility of transport arrangements for parents seeking access to all Irish schools, should be maintained, and enhanced where judged appropriate.

• The DES and the educational partners should explore the possibility of a special category on the teachers’ redeployment panel to facilitate Irish medium schools in recruiting staff appropriately proficient in the Irish language.

• The Advisory Group recommends that the concept of a “Satellite” entity for an emerging school, under the auspices of a well-established Irish medium school, should be piloted.”

Given the recent hostile statements by the Minister for Education and Skills, Labour’s Ruairí Quinn, on the status of the Irish language in the school system and the clear desire of the Fine Oibre coalition to undermine the teaching of Irish in general, one is less than sanguine of any real policy change coming from the present government in relation to Irish medium schools. Inside or outside the Gaeltachtaí.

More Irish Than The Irish? (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Future Is Irish (ansionnachfionn.com)
The State Of Irish – In The Irish State (ansionnachfionn.com)
Smells Like No-Irish Spirit (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Empire Strike Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Heard The One About The Self-Hating Irishman? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Lets Speak The Truth: Those Who Hate Irish Speakers Do So Because They Are Racists… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Get Your Gael On! (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)

The Empire Strike Back!

Posted on 05/04/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The results from the 2011 Census of Ireland published last week revealed continued growth in the Irish-speaking communities of the nation and the raised social standing and acceptance of our indigenous language and culture. 1,777,437 million people or 41.4% of the population stated in the census that they were able to speak Irish, an increase of 7.1% since the 2006 results. Of that number 801,063 recorded themselves as regular Irish speakers, another big jump from the last census. We know, of course, what the reaction was to these results by the anglophone supremacists who dominate much of the news media in Ireland. Arrogance, lies, falsehoods, distortions and simple anti-Irish propaganda of every conceivable form and make. So no surprises there.

And no surprise in the news that the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government, who’s ideological hostility and indifference to it’s Irish-speaking citizens and communities is greater than that of any government in the 90 year history of the state, is now signalling its intent to implement another policy to undermine the growth in Irish observed over the last several years. Eroding the equal rights of Irish-speaking citizens with their English-speaking peers is not enough. Now the anglophone elite want to erode their educational rights and standing too. From the Irish Times:

“THE AMOUNT of class time devoted to Irish and religion in primary schools has been questioned by Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn.

He said teachers had told him how up to 30 per cent of all contact time in some primary classes was taken up by these two subjects. “If we are worried about literacy and numeracy and this figure is close to being correct . . . then we have to ask ourselves questions.”

In an Irish Times interview, he recalled how some educationalists had labelled Irish-language policy as the “biggest single policy failure in Irish education”.

Last year, Fine Gael proposed the abolition of compulsory Irish after Junior Cert; it later abandoned the proposal under pressure from the Irish-language lobby.

Asked if he would revive such a measure, Mr Quinn said: “I am implementing the programme for government.” (This proposes no change in Irish-language policy.) He said he had “enough fronts” open at present, including the drive for major reform of the Junior and Leaving Cert exams. Mr Quinn said he would be happy to get some of these reforms “over the line”.

Mr Quinn said his priority in office was to overhaul second-level education, which, he said, “did not encourage independent thinking”. He hoped the new Junior Cert would be implemented from 2017, with a revised Leaving Cert being rolled out shortly after.”

The latest battle in Ireland’s 800 year old culture war has been well and truly flagged. Not content with abolishing the Office of the Language Commissioner, gearing up to gut the Official Languages Act of 2003 of any meaning or purpose and undermining from the outset the state’s 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language, Fine Gael and Labour are now intent on lowering the status of the Irish language (and Irish speaking children) in the education system.

Are these people our new Anglo-Irish elite?

Colum Kenny, The Irish Independent And Some Media Spin (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Young Fine Gael – The Irony Is In The Name (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
The State Of Irish – In The Irish State (ansionnachfionn.com)
Smells Like No-Irish Spirit (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils (ansionnachfionn.com)
Lets Speak The Truth: Those Who Hate Irish Speakers Do So Because They Are Racists… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Census 2011 And An Inconvenient Truth – Irish-Speaking Citizens On The Rise (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (ansionnachfionn.com)

Smells Like No-Irish Spirit

Posted on 14/03/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

I have frequently pointed to the complete and utter bullshit that passes for a genuine commitment to equality between Irish and English speaking citizens in modern Ireland, and none more so than in the ranks of our political parties. From Left to Right they make various public utterances about supporting the Irish language while rarely actually doing anything concrete about it.

Do you know the policies of the political parties in Ireland on the Irish language?

Well, we know Fine Gael’s all right. Abolish the Office of the Language Commissioner to prevent Irish speaking citizens seeking redress for discriminatory treatment by the state, gut the Official Languages Act of 2003 of any meaning to emphasis the standing of Irish speakers as second class citizens behind their English speaking peers in the eyes of the state and the public at large, reduce and denigrate the status of the Irish language in the education system to discourage its learning, starve Gaelscoileanna of resources so that they wither on the vine, force the closure of small Gaeltacht schools by reducing pupil-to-teacher ratios to non-viable levels, and generally complete what eight hundred years of foreign colonial persecution failed to do.

And the Labour Party? The tail-wagging puppy running alongside the Fine Gorm dog, eager to lap up its running-mate’s vomit as long as it gets to be part of the pack? It has no more interest in the Irish language than it has in those it once worked on behalf of. Did you not hear the news? Labour doesn’t do poor people any more. It does middle class professionals, journalists and academics, people with degrees and two car households. But like, people on social welfare? Households struggling on one income and bills to pay? Old people? Ugh. No thank you. We’ve moved on from that. Much like our dear leader.

Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party? Don’t make me laugh. Yes, they brought us the Official Languages Act. Ten years ago. And it only took 70 years and the possible threat of a Supreme Court judgement to force them into doing that. As for the Act itself, it was not created to facilitate genuine communal and language equality in the state between Irish and English speaking citizens. No, it was created to limit that equality before a legal judgement could have been sought that would have demanded something far more substantial and far-reaching. But, as the song goes, what have you done for me lately? The answer? Sweet FA…

Ah, but you cry, what about Sinn Féin? The true republican party? To which I reply: get over yourself. Have you seen Sinn Féin’s policies on the Irish language? No? Next time you’re on their website try using the magnify option in your browser. You might be able to find something there. I say might be able to. I tried. It took a while. Go to Policies, then scrawl down to Culture and bing, you’ll find Sinn Féin’s program for the Irish language. Well, program might be going a wee bit strong. Actually policies is probably being a bit over-the-top too. Wanna see them? Don’t worry, it won’t take long.

“Irish Language development

Irish-language newspapers should be expanded with support of government funding;

All public authorities and public buildings shoperate a bilingual policy;

Provision of two-way translation and translation staff in elected chambers;

Increased funding for Foras na Gaeilge.”

Taa-dah! Amazing, yes? Isn’t it wonderful what you can do with a grubby old pencil and the back of an envelope? And I love the attention to detail. “Shoperate”! Fantastic. Makes ya proud ta be Oirish, so it does.

I could go on. There is the Green Party. I tried to find their Irish policies but to no avail. There was something about the Hill of Tara and no motorways, no way, ever – Ooops, sorry, that was like soooo 2007, wasn’t it Moonchild Dawntreader?

I had a look at over at the United Left Alliance, the Trot love-fest between the Socialist Party and the People Before Profit (who in fairness have actually heard of the poor – y’know, the ones the Labour Party apparatchiks avoid by not crossing the Ha’penny Bridge and offending their newly refined sensibilities by some guy begging for money. That’s when they’re not in their BMWs and Audis – no Mercs though. We are after all, socialists…). My prime impression from the ULA, SP and PBP websites to queries about the Irish language is this: what the fuck is the Irish language? Do you mean Polish?

In fact, as far as I can work out (and the ULA folk are pretty cagey about this when you try to pin them down) both the Socialist Party and the People Before Profit oppose the Irish language in the education system as it presently stands, disagree with the Official Languages Act and the Language Commissioner and are at best lukewarm about Gaelscoileanna (or as I was told by one bug-eyed SP activist, Gaelscoileanna are “racist institutions” because the children there speak Irish. Go figure…). So, when it comes to Irish, it seems the ULA and Fine Gael and Labour stand shoulder to shoulder. Which is nice. For them. Not so much for the rest of us, of course.

All of which rambling brings me to a post by Eoin Ó Riain at Athfhás, detailing the invisible language on the websites of our national political parties – namely the Irish language. Its an excellent feature, though all too depressing. But it tells you everything you need to know about what Ireland’s political parties really think about the nation’s Irish speaking population. Read it!

Ann Marie Hourihane – Carrying The Torch For The English Language In Ireland! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Ireland – A Western Province Of The British Isles (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Lets Speak The Truth: Those Who Hate Irish Speakers Do So Because They Are Racists… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (ansionnachfionn.com)
What About Our Irish Rights? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Ivan Yates – No Irish For Your Children. But Plenty Of Irish For Mine! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish In America (ansionnachfionn.com)
The State Of Irish – In The Irish State (ansionnachfionn.com)
Young Fine Gael – The Irony Is In The Name (ansionnachfionn.com)
Heard The One About The Self-Hating Irishman? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Silent Voices (ansionnachfionn.com)
Colonially Speaking (ansionnachfionn.com)
An Anti-Irish Free State? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Freedom To Talk (ansionnachfionn.com)
From Irish Ireland To English Ireland (ansionnachfionn.com)
Speaking In Two Tongues (ansionnachfionn.com)
Get Your Gael On! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Alice Milligan – An Fíorghael (ansionnachfionn.com)

The State Of Irish – In The Irish State

Posted on 06/03/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

In today’s Irish Times (following on from yesterday’s bizarre anti-Irish rant by Ann Marie Hourihane) Finbar McDonnell examines the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government’s attitudes to it’s Irish speaking citizens in these economically straitened times:

“THE VIBRANT Seachtain na Gaeilge festival runs nationally until March 17th, with tomorrow a Lá Gaeilge in the Dáil. At the same time, Irish language groups are campaigning against the effects of funding cuts on the language. So what is the state of the language and how might the current recession affect it?

Since independence, all governments have supported the language and, 90 years on, the evidence suggests these policies have had mixed results.

The main policy focus (perhaps to an unbalanced extent) has been the education system. [ASF: or to put it more honestly, the effective ghettoization of the Irish language in our school system!] In many ways, achievements here are disappointing compared to inputs.

On the other hand, the work of the schools has led to the number of people who say they can speak Irish rising from 20 per cent of the population in the 1920s to more than 40 per cent today.

The 2006 census showed that 1.66 million people have an ability to speak Irish, with more than half a million people using Irish every day. This included more than 72,000 people who spoke Irish daily outside the education system.

As such, there has been some movement towards a bilingual society, although Ireland is clearly no Canada or Belgium.

Opinion polls consistently show that strong public support for Irish (despite a minority who don’t seem to “get” the language) and the vibrant Gaelscoil movement, as well as growth in the use of Irish in Northern Ireland, represent strong sources of optimism. (Research suggests one in four parents would send their child to a Gaelscoil if available.) While many languages around the world died in the 20th century, Irish is very much alive.”

There is more, including the worrying decline of Irish in the traditional Irish-speaking heartlands of the Gaeltacht, though with the proviso of the very public increase of Irish speakers in major urban areas like Dublin, Cork, Galway, Belfast and Derry. However it is the government’s record on the Irish language that receives the most attention, including its long-term commitment to agreed strategies to encourage growth in the number of fluent speakers across the country:

“On the positive side, the recent Gaeltacht Bill suggests commitment to the strategy. As well as focusing on the urgent challenges facing Gaeltacht areas in keeping the language alive, an innovative part of the Bill will allow any area where large numbers of Irish language speakers live or work to become a “Gaeltacht network” (groups in both Clondalkin and Co Clare are already looking at this). New “Gaeltacht” areas, with a range of outlets for people to use Irish, could generate local pride and create virtuous circles of language visibility and use.

On the other hand, the national austerity is having detrimental effects and particularly negative decisions include:

The proposal to merge the Office of the Irish Language Commissioner with the Office of the Ombudsman, which will lead to almost no savings, but may well affect the rights of Irish speakers;

The cutting of grants to trainee teachers to spend time in the Gaeltacht. This is particularly illogical as trainee teachers need more and not less time in the Gaeltacht;

Reduced funding for small Gaeltacht schools.

The risk is that spending cuts from different Government departments could, taken together, undermine the “horizontal” Government objective of supporting the language. There is an urgent need for the Cabinet committee on the Irish language to take a “joined-up” view to ensure the 20-year strategy is given high-level leadership and oversight.”

And is that likely to happen, given the government’s generally deplorable record on Irish and prevalent anti-Irish attitudes amongst many members in both parties?

Young Fine Gael – The Irony Is In The Name (ansionnachfionn.com)
Lets Speak The Truth: Those Who Hate Irish Speakers Do So Because They Are Racists… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Heard The One About The Self-Hating Irishman? (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Future Is Irish (ansionnachfionn.com)
Get Your Gael On! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Ann Marie Hourihane – Carrying The Torch For The English Language In Ireland! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Freedom To Talk (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fighting For The Truth (ansionnachfionn.com)

What About Our Irish Rights?

Posted on 28/02/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The much heralded Constitutional Convention is finally on the horizon after many a false dawn. According to the Irish Times:

“The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste are to brief Opposition leaders Micheál Martin and Gerry Adams as well as the Dáil’s Technical Group this evening on the Government’s plans for the proposed Constitutional Convention.

Mr Kenny and Mr Gilmore will meet with Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin leaders tonight.

Independent TD for Kildare North Catherine Murphy, who will attend on behalf of the Technical Group at Government Buildings, said she was preparing a “menu” of options with her colleagues.

The Cabinet formally agreed last week to establish the Convention and a spokesman said at the time that the Government would be holding consultations with the Opposition.”

I’ve highlighted my fears for the Irish speaking community of Ireland in relation to this convention, especially one convened by a coalition government dominated by the anti-Irish factions in Fine Gael and Labour, but it’s interesting to see at least one party’s main concerns. According to Slugger O’Toole the press briefing from Sinn Féin focuses on:

“• Acknowledge and take account of the relevant prior commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.

• It should be able to consider recommending a new constitution for the 21st century which is inclusive, reflects the desire for Irish unity that is shared by the majority of citizens on this island and which protects the rights of citizens, including our unionist neighbours.

• The Convention’s Terms of Reference must also ensure that the outcome does not prejudice any future process of agreeing an all-Ireland constitution – post a referendum on unity as set out in the Good Friday Agreement.

• It should involve the economically disadvantaged, citizens from all provinces including northern citizens; ordinary unionists and their official representatives; citizens in the diaspora; and our newest citizens – in addition to the political parties, civil society representatives and those with relevant academic and legal expertise – and ensuring the equal representation of women on the Convention.

• The Convention’s process must also be fully public, transparent and accountable, from discussion of terms of reference to appointments, and from the debates to conclusion of recommendations.

• There must be clarity in the Terms of Reference about the conventions final report and how it is put to the people in a referendum.

• It must be able to examine the need for guarantees of economic and social rights, the extension of voting rights for northern citizens and citizens in the diaspora, and the architecture necessary to establish a more robustly inclusive, fully representative and accountable democracy.

• It must contain all the modern equality and human rights protections that reflect the full spectrum of our international obligations and any others that are necessary to establish a rights-based society.

• Including the equivalence of human rights protections north and south.

• The Convention must in its work consider and make a complementary contribution towards an All-Ireland Charter of Rights.”

What? No Charter of Irish Language Rights, no Irish Bill 101? No guarantees to protect, or indeed to enlarge, the position of the Irish language in the Constitution of Ireland? No demands to incorporate aspects of the Official Languages Act of 2003 into the constitution?

Sinn Féin, a progressive nationalist party?

Tell that to Plaid Cymru, Convergència i Unió or Parti Québécois!

From Irish Ireland To English Ireland (ansionnachfionn.com)
Silent Voices (ansionnachfionn.com)
Colonially Speaking (ansionnachfionn.com)
No 11% Has The Right To Fix The Boundary Of A Nation (ansionnachfionn.com)
Political Policing (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)

Young Fine Gael – The Irony Is In The Name

Posted on 21/02/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

Over the last year I have catalogued on An Sionnach Fionn the inherent hostility of the right-wing Fine Gael party to the Irish language and Ireland’s Irish speaking communities, a situation that has only worsened since it entered into government with its junior coalition partners in the supposedly centre-left Labour Party.

In power both parties have displayed various levels of antipathy or indifference to any notion of equality between the nations’s Irish and English speaking citizens. Driven by Anglophone contempt they have taken measure after measure to undermine the status of our national tongue while slowly dismantling a decade of civil rights legislation for Irish speakers (legislation that took a shameful eighty years to be put in place and which has met consistent opposition from within the civil service and other public bodies).

Now these crude anti-Irish impulses have reached their absolute nadir with the conservative “youth wing” of Fine Gael, Young Fine Gael (YFG), passing a resolution at its recent conference (attended by FG leader Enda Kenny) calling upon the party to effectively degrade the Irish language and the standing of Irish speakers in the education system by removing its obligatory teaching in the last few years of schooling. From the Irish Times:

“A resolution passed at last weekend’s Young Fine Gael national conference in Tullamore calling for the removal of Irish as a compulsory subject in the Leaving Certificate has been criticised by Fianna Fáil.

The motion, proposed by Young Fine Gael’s Wexford branch, called on Fine Gael “to live up to its election promise and remove Irish as a compulsory subject in the Leaving Certificate.”

Fianna Fáil spokesman on Justice, Equality and Defence Dara Calleary said…“The continuation of this policy by Fine Gael to downgrade Irish within the education system has no merit and threatens to undo the significant work that has been carried out, particularly through the Gaelscoil movement, to increase Irish usage in our communities.”

Mr Calleary said Fine Gael was intent on damaging progress made in advancing the language in recent years and criticised the party’s “lack of enthusiasm” for the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2012-2030…

The proposal was criticised by language and Gaeltacht community groups last year prompting a number of Fine Gael election candidates to express their disquiet at the plan.

In February students marched on Fine Gael headquarters and handed in a petition signed by more than 15,000 students opposed to the measure.”

Young Fine Gael, which has moved increasingly to the right in recent years, has regularly embroiled itself in questionable activities and policies (not to mention quiet bizarre attempts to recruit new members). At the start of this year YFG activists publicly supported a proposal to make the controversial former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher an “honorary member” of their organisation despite her disastrous role in Irish affairs in the 1980s, a role which arguably prolonged the conflict in the North of Ireland by over a decade. FYG members have been involved in invitations to various right-wing figures from around Europe to make speeches or give lectures in Ireland, notably the infamous Holocaust-denier and Nazi-apologist David Irving, and Nick Griffin the leader of the British National Party, an extreme right-wing British nationalist organisation with Neo-Nazi and fascist roots (the “Irish” commentator and arch British-apologist Kevin Myers seemed to make an extraordinary defence of both in his regular column for the anti-liberal Irish Independent newspaper in January).

Now, true to Fine Gael’s corrupt Neo-Unionist and anti-democratic roots, elements of the party are once again targeting those in Ireland who identify with our indigenous language and culture in an attempt to roll back the slow progress of growth and development made by the Irish-speaking communities of Ireland since the 1990s. A veritable vipers’ nest of Anglophone intolerance and bigotry, Young Fine Gael – like much of its parent party - represents all that is wrong and self-destructive in modern Irish society. A society where all too many are still bound by the mental shackles of eight centuries of colonial occupation.

Less Young Fine Gael and more Young Palesmen.

From Irish Ireland To English Ireland (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils (ansionnachfionn.com)
Ivan Yates – No Irish For Your Children. But Plenty Of Irish For Mine! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Speaking In Two Tongues (ansionnachfionn.com)
Contrasting Attitudes – Ireland And Wales (ansionnachfionn.com)
Get Your Gael On! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Petition launched to ‘save Irish’ (introtosociology.wordpress.com)

From Irish Ireland To English Ireland

Posted on 20/02/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

There’s been something of a surprise result from Latvia where a national referendum has rejected moves to make Russian the second official language of the small Baltic nation along with Latvian. In an unusually high turnout which saw 70% of registered voters going to the polls, a majority of 75% voted against the proposal, much higher than was expected. From the Guardian newspaper:

“Latvian voters have resoundingly rejected a proposal to give official status to Russian, the mother tongue of their former Soviet occupiers and a large chunk of the population.

Russian is the first language for about a third of the Baltic country’s 2.1 million people, and many of them would like it to be a national language to reverse what they claim has been 20 years of discrimination.

But for ethnic Latvians the referendum was an attempt to encroach on Latvia’s independence, which was restored two decades ago after half a century of occupation by the Soviet Union since the Second World War.

Many Latvians still consider Russian, the lingua franca of the Soviet Union, as the language of the former occupiers. They also harbour deep mistrust towards Russia and worry that Moscow attempts to wield influence in Latvia through the ethnic Russian minority.

“Latvia is the only place throughout the world where Latvian is spoken, so we have to protect it,” said Martins Dzerve, 37, in Riga, Latvia’s capital. “But Russian is everywhere.”

With more than 93% of ballots counted, 75% of voters said they were against Russian as a national language, according to the national election commission.

More than 70% of registered voters cast ballots, considerably more than in previous elections and referendums. Long lines were seen at many precincts both in Latvia and abroad, with voters in London reportedly braving a three-hour wait.

…Mara Varpa, 57, said she voted against the proposal since Latvian was an integral part of the national identity and should therefore remain the sole official language. “I don’t think there should have been a referendum to begin with because it’s already in the constitution, but since there was I had to vote,” Varpa said.”

It’s interesting – and instructive – to see how the Latvians and other Baltic peoples regard their languages as the primary signifier of their national and cultural identities. This has been explored from the point of view of Irish speakers in Ireland where once the Irish language was indelibly associated with Irish national identify (and still is for many citizens).

Yet, as I noted recently, much of “Official Ireland”, the political establishment and its fellow-travellers, has now rejected the notion of an Irish Ireland and has instead embraced the concept of an English Ireland while paying lip service to any concept of bilingualism. Indeed this was heralded way back in 1996 by the Constitution Review Group which included many “experts” close to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party and which recommended that the Irish language be robbed of its status as Ireland’s national language (its unique legal position under Article 8 of our constitution). Instead they urged that the English language be given the same status once reserved for Irish.

“Article 8 [the current wording in the Constitution of Ireland]

8.1 The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

8.2 The English language is recognised as a second official language.

8.3 Provision may, however, be made by law for the exclusive use of either of the said languages for any one or more official purposes, either throughout the State or in any part thereof.

Discussion [by the Review Group]

Article 8 establishes the two official languages of the State. It accords primacy to the Irish language which is described both as the national language and the first official language. The English language is recognised as a second official language. This wording is unrealistic, given that English is the language currently spoken as their vernacular by 98% of the population of the State. The designation of Irish as the ‘national’ and the ‘first official’ language is of little practical significance. The intention to give special recognition to the Irish language is understood and respected but it is arguable that this might be better achieved, while allowing both languages equal status as official languages, by including a positive provision in the Constitution to the effect that the State shall care for, and endeavour to promote, the Irish language as a unique expression of Irish tradition and culture.

The Review Group considers that there is an implicit right to conduct official business in either official language and that the implementation of this right is a matter for legislation and/or administrative measures rather than constitutional provision.

Recommendation [by the Review Group]

The first and second sections of Article 8 should be replaced by English and Irish versions on the following lines:

1 The Irish language and the English language are the two official languages.

2 Because the Irish language is a unique expression of Irish tradition and culture, the State shall take special care to nurture the language and to increase its use.

[However the third section of Article 8 would be left the same:

3 Provision may, however, be made by law for the exclusive use of either of the said languages for any one or more official purposes, either throughout the State or in any part thereof.]”

In other words, the Irish language would be of the same legal status with the English language but the state would be free to make exclusive use of the English language if it so wished. And who imagines it would do otherwise?

So, given all the promised constitutional reviews and amendments committed to by the (anti-Irish) Fine Gael – Labour coalition in their programme for government how long will it be, I wonder, before this particular section of the 1996 review is dusted off?

Speaking In Two Tongues (ansionnachfionn.com)
Get Your Gael On! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Ivan Yates – No Irish For Your Children. But Plenty Of Irish For Mine! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
RTÉ Should Be TG4 – And Here’s Why (ansionnachfionn.com)
Some Irish Pride (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Latvians reject Russian as official language (guardian.co.uk)

Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always?

Posted on 07/02/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

An article in the Irish Times decries the alleged “preferential” treatment given to Irish-speaking children in the education system because some students receive higher grades for successfully completing their study and examinations solely through the medium of the Irish language. No matter that Irish-speaking children are otherwise discriminated against in Ireland through the lack of Irish-medium schools, education services or the provision of social amenities. No matter that Irish-speaking children are forced to use the English language in wider society and sometimes face abuse and bigotry for not doing so. According to this writer it is the children of the dominant English-speaking majority who are discriminated against!

“Leaving Cert students who do their exams through Irish get grade boosts that add up to extra CAO points. This has been the case for so long it has been overlooked as a very serious inequality in our system.

The Leaving Cert is supposed to be a “level playing field”. That’s the phrase that supporters of this exam love to use.

Take two students, equally able, going for the same course in university. The student from the Irish language school has a better chance of getting that course, even if Irish is not required to study it. It doesn’t make academic sense at all.

I accept that completing an exam such as history through the Irish language is challenging, but not for a child that has had the benefit of 14 years of Irish language education.”

Challenging? Is that how one would describe life for an Irish speaking child living in a frequently intolerant English speaking society part of which actively discriminates against those raised in our native tongue, not least in the services provided by the state itself? Bizarrely the writer recognises this point by highlighting the state’s failure to meet the huge demand from parents and children across Ireland for Irish medium education, in the process contradicting his own argument.

“In my own locality there is one gaelscoil (Irish language primary school) and it is oversubscribed. The nearest gaelcholáiste (Irish language post-primary school) is miles away.

I absolutely support the right of parents to choose an all-Irish education for their children. I also realise that the bonus system is designed to encourage more parents to choose Irish language schooling. As we have seen, however, demand exceeds supply so the interest is being stoked by the bonus points system without a corresponding increase in provision.

Meanwhile, awarding bonus points for Irish continues to discriminate against those outside this limited Irish language school system. When a large pool of students are going for a small number of high point courses in university, is it really fair that those whose parents had access to a gaelscoil and gaelcholáiste should find themselves at such an advantage?”

But if all that is true then surely the most obvious and logical solution is to provide more Irish medium schools? That is, even greater numbers of children studying through the Irish language, not less. It could be done, for instance, by encouraging greater bilingualism in the English language education system, which compromises some 90% of schools in Ireland. Instead we have a situation where the Department of Education has become notorious for its anti-Irish policies, including a freeze on the construction of new Irish medium schools no matter how great (and growing) the demand is.

Furthermore, the present Fine Gael-Labour coalition government has set itself on a path of destruction through the nation’s Irish speaking communities by forcing the amalgamation or closure of Irish medium schools with its new regulations changing the teacher-to-pupil ratio in small rural or urban schools. Given the government’s now proven hostility to the Irish language, and its determination to roll back the limited civil rights provisions for Irish speaking citizens enshrined in the Official Languages Act of 2003, how anyone could argue that English speaking pupils face discrimination in contemporary Ireland is beyond comprehension.

The points made in this article are just another form of soft prejudice. If the writer truly believed in equality and equal access to education for all schoolchildren then the only rational course would be greater numbers of Irish medium schools up and down the country and at all levels. The demand is there, as is recognised: but instead of meeting that demand and “levelling the playing field” with a 50/50 Irish and English medium education system the writer simply wants the existing imbalance tipped even further in the favour of the English speaking majority.

Yes, there is very serious inequality in our education system. And it is an inequality that Irish-speaking children and their parents face every single school day.

Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back! (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Truth About Irish (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
RTÉ Should Be TG4 – And Here’s Why (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils (ansionnachfionn.com)
Colonially Speaking (ansionnachfionn.com)
Contrasting Attitudes – Ireland And Wales (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Little Less Ireland, A Little More Éire (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fighting For The Truth (ansionnachfionn.com)
Silent Voices (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Future Is Irish (ansionnachfionn.com)
Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always? (ansionnachfionn.com)

Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back!

Posted on 24/01/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

Tá An Réabhlóid Ag Teacht! The Revolution Is Coming!

Over the last several months I have regularly highlighted the alarm felt by many in Ireland and beyond over the Fine Gael-Labour government’s attitudes to the Irish language and the Irish-speaking population of Ireland (and those who identify with both). It has become clear that the discriminatory policies adopted by Fine Gael in opposition have been carried over into government and with the connivance of the Labour Party the coalition is intent on rolling back a decade of civil rights legislation for the nation’s Irish speaking citizens. We have seen attacks on the Official Languages Act of 2003 and An Coimisinéir Teanga or the Language Commissioner, culminating in the move to abolish the latter office, thus removing any statutory force for Irish-speaking citizens to ensure their legal and constitutional rights in seeking equal services from state with their English-speaking peers.

So I’m highlighting again your chance to do something to protect language rights legislation in Ireland. The government has produced an online questionnaire for those supporting the Official Languages Act to voice their opinion, and though we may feel sceptical about their motives in doing so, it presents an opportunity for those who support Ireland’s indigenous language and culture to stand up and be counted.

Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge has now produced a short video explaining what you need to do, so please watch it and then follow the links below to the survey itself, both in English and Irish. It should take no more than 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire and anyone who speaks or identifies with the native Irish language and a native Irish identity, regardless of your own daily spoken language or where you come from, should please take a few short moments to fill it out.

The survey in English is here.

The survey in Irish is here.

Please support civil rights in Ireland and share this post with as many of your friends and contacts as you can.

Cosain Do Chearta Teanga! Protect Your Language Rights!

Colonially Speaking (ansionnachfionn.com)
Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Civil Rights! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fighting For The Truth (ansionnachfionn.com)
RTÉ Should Be TG4 – And Here’s Why (ansionnachfionn.com)
Silent Voices (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils (ansionnachfionn.com)
An Irish Slam! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fine Gael, “No Irish Here!” – A Flashback From 1938 (ansionnachfionn.com)
There’s No Éire In Ireland! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Sábháil Ár dTeanga (ansionnachfionn.com)
Second Class Citizens With Second Class Rights (ansionnachfionn.com)
A New Era for Newry Gaels (sluggerotoole.com)
Suil Charad – Irish Language exhibition recommences…. (seachranaidhe1.wordpress.com)

A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils

Posted on 23/01/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The recent announcements by the FG-Lab coalition government that is to “re-adjust” teacher-to-pupil numbers in classrooms acroos the country has drawn a groundswell of condemnation, not least in the Irish speaking communities where (surprise, surprise) the cuts are set to fall the hardest. The Irish Times carries the latest report on the reactions to the ministerial diktat:

“PARENTS OF children in small Gaeltacht schools have called on the Minister for Education to outline how he believes imposing new pupil-teacher ratios in small primary schools will save money in the long term.

“Ruairí Quinn, éist linn!” chanted more than 200 parents and their children at a demonstration in Galway at the weekend.

The parents from nine Gaeltacht schools in south Connemara expressed vehement opposition to a change which they describe as “discriminating against rural communities, non-Catholic school populations and Irish speakers”.

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation members attending a consultative conference in Galway also described the move as a “blunt instrument”. The organisation’s general secretary Sheila Nunan described the budgetary measures as “flawed and lacking in planning” and called for a “coherent, long-term and resourced strategy for sustainable schools that met children’s needs irrespective of location”.

Such a strategy should “respect linguistic diversity and plurality of patronage”…

The change to pupil-teacher ratios for those primary schools with four or fewer teachers was announced as a form of “phased increase” in pupil threshold in the December budget. Larger primary schools will not be affected.

At the Galway demonstration, which was held in “solidarity with INTO members”, Connemara Gaeltacht parents said Mr Quinn was “forcing closure by stealth” by eroding confidence in the viability of schools with four teachers and under.

…Leitir Calaidh parents Maria Nic Dhonncha, Mairín Ní Fhatharta and Margaret O’Sullivan said they were “very disappointed” at remarks by Minister of State for Education Ciarán Cannon in Ballinasloe on Friday night in which he proposed “clustering” junior and senior cycle primary classes from several schools under one board of management.

“Mr Cannon doesn’t seem to understand that if we lose our school, we lose our community, our identity is gone and it will affect the Irish language,” the parents said. “If Mr Cannon reflects the general attitude of Government, then as a society we are in serious trouble.””

I believe it is more a case of Ireland’s Irish-speaking society being in serious trouble as our present government pursues a series of discriminatory policies against the country’s Irish speaking population, policies that first came to light when Fine Gael in opposition announced plans to destroy the place of the Irish language in our education system. It seems the campaign to ghettoize Irish speakers has not gone far enough for the anglophone Fine Gael dog and its Labour tail (though in the latter case perhaps I should be using a metaphor referencing something slightly lower down on a dog’s anatomy?).

Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship… (ansionnachfionn.com)
Special Educational Needs And Gaelscoileanna (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fighting For The Truth (ansionnachfionn.com)
Abair Leat! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Silent Voices (ansionnachfionn.com)
Freedom To Talk (ansionnachfionn.com)
Colonially Speaking (ansionnachfionn.com)
RTÉ Should Be TG4 – And Here’s Why (ansionnachfionn.com)
Language Rights Are Civil Rights (ansionnachfionn.com)
A New Era for Newry Gaels (sluggerotoole.com)

Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship…

Posted on 19/01/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The Irish Times carries a report on the protests by various Irish language organisations to the latest moves by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government to starve even more resources to the Irish-speaking communities of Ireland.

“A NEW funding mechanism being introduced by Foras na Gaeilge has been strongly criticised by the 19 Irish language promotion organisations that receive their core funding from the body.

Foras na Gaeilge, a North/South implementation body set up under the Belfast Agreement, has a role in advising the administrations North and South in matters relating to the Irish language.

It also channels State funding to Irish language organisations throughout the island of Ireland.

Following concerns in recent years over increased administration costs, Foras has been trying to replace the existing grant-in-aid system with one of competitive tendering for funding.

Under the new system all the core funding would cease and the organisations, all of which are not-for-profit, would have to compete on a three-yearly basis for funds to implement schemes planned by Foras.

The affected organisations say this would result in a commercialisation of a sector that is community-based, and that they would not be able to survive without State funding.

Conradh na Gaeilge general secretary Julian de Spáinn said the new approach would ensure that instead of working together, Irish language organisations would now be set in competition against each other.

Mr de Spáinn believes it could result in the destruction of the Irish language movement.”

That surely is the whole point of the coalition government’s policies? Not just the destruction of the Irish language movement but of the Irish language full stop. What the British couldn’t do in Ireland over eight centuries the Fine Gael and Labour parties seem fixed on completing in one five-year term of office…

Some Irish Pride (ansionnachfionn.com)
An Irish-American Story (ansionnachfionn.com)
RTÉ Should Be TG4 – And Here’s Why (ansionnachfionn.com)
Colonially Speaking (ansionnachfionn.com)
An Irish Slam! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fighting For The Truth (ansionnachfionn.com)
Silent Voices (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Year Of The French (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Civil Rights! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Second Class Citizens With Second Class Rights (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fight The Power! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Learning Irish…in Middle Tennessee? (authoressinspired.wordpress.com)
A New Era for Newry Gaels (sluggerotoole.com)

A Sticky Situation

Posted on 03/01/2012 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

In the Irish Times Mick Heaney asks whether the takeover of RTÉ’s news and current affairs department in the 1970s and ‘80s by a conspiratorial group of Workers Party activists-cum-journalists has been overstated by the historians of the period.

“Irish media mythology paints the programme Today Tonight as the key front in an internal and vicious tussle for power at RTÉ by the Worker’s Party – but has the role of the so-called ‘Stickies’ been exaggerated?

In October 1980, a new show called Today Tonight , was aired on RTÉ One. The aim of the programme was to shake up the station’s current affairs coverage, deemed moribund for several years.

While Today Tonight covered the political dogfights, economic malaise and personal tragedies that dominated life in the Republic during the 1980s, the programme was, according to Irish media mythology, the key front in an internal, and often extraordinarily vicious, tussle for ideological mastery of RTÉ by members of the Workers’ Party or, to use the slang of the time, “the Stickies”.

Against the bloody backdrop of the Troubles, a secret branch of the party, the Ned Stapleton Cumann, was supposed to wield huge influence in Montrose, shaping editorial policy, ensuring compliance with Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act – which excluded Sinn Féin and the IRA from the airwaves – and sidelining those who disagreed with them. It remains one of the most contentious chapters in RTÉ’s history. These days, many of those involved feel that the legend has outgrown the reality.”

Is that so? In fact, if anything, most observers feel that the reality was every bit as bad, or worse, than the legend, and that Ireland’s public service broadcaster was effectively hijacked by the members of an anti-democratic communist conspiracy for over a decade. Moreover, many of those selfsame conspirators still hold positions of influence within the country’s media establishment (not to mention their one-time political allies). To borrow a phrase from elsewhere, they haven’t gone away you know.

Eoghan Harris, Free Speech And The Art Of Dissemblance (ansionnachfionn.com)
RTÉ Versus TG4 (ansionnachfionn.com)
Gay Byrne Claims Provisional IRA Were “Gangsters”. Sorry, That Should Read, Gay Byrne Claims Old IRA Were “Gangsters” (ansionnachfionn.com)
Is Labour running the Irish Media? (politics.ie)

Freedom To Talk

Posted on 08/12/2011 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

If the message hasn’t been driven home that the Irish language and those who speak it are at the top of the Fine Gael-Labour government’s list of targets, then the latest news from the Irish Times will surely leave no doubt:

“National cultural institutions, such as museums and parks, could be forced to close or restrict access to the public under cuts outlined by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Cuts of €37 million to allocations for the Arts and the Irish language would negatively impact on tourism, employment opportunities and on the range of services provided to the public, the department said in a document published yesterday.

In its Comprehensive Spending Review, the Department said cuts of 15 per cent, as envisaged by the Department of Public expenditure, would have significant negative implications on its core functions.

There would also be negative impacts on “lifeline transport services” to the islands.

Irish language and Gaeltacht-related programmes would be cut by €2.7 million…

The total allocation for Irish language and the Gaeltacht would be cut by €6 million over the three years, from a full-year allocation this year of €34.5 million.

This would hit Irish language support schemes.

Although many of the proposals in the spending reviews were not adopted by the Cabinet for this year’s budget, it is understood they could be considered in future years.”

Funny. Here’s me thinking that Irish speaking citizens were taxpayers too, with the same entitlements as their English speaking peers? Yet it seems that the cuts are falling disproportionately in areas effecting their lives.

What’s that old saying? No taxation without representation?

Fight The Power! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Sábháil Ár dTeanga (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Civil Rights! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Special Educational Needs And Gaelscoileanna (ansionnachfionn.com)
Abair Leat! (ansionnachfionn.com)
There’s No Éire In Ireland! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Some Classic Irish Language Book Covers (ansionnachfionn.com)
Second Class Citizens With Second Class Rights (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Contrasting Fortunes Of Gaelic Scotland And Gaelic Ireland (ansionnachfionn.com)
British Minority To Irish Majority: Your Language Is Foreign Gobbledegook (ansionnachfionn.com)

Sábháil Ár dTeanga

Posted on 19/11/2011 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The outrage sparked by the Fine Gael-Labour government’s controversial decision to abolish the office of An Coimisinéir Teanga continues to grow. The Irish Times carries the latest news:

“ACADEMICS, IRISH language organisations and former minister for the Gaeltacht Éamon Ó Cuív have criticised the decision to merge An Coimisinéir Teanga’s (the Irish Language Commissioner) office with that of the Ombudsman.

The merger, announced as part of the Government’s public sector reform programme, has been described by Mr Ó Cuív as “window-dressing” and a move that would cost more than it would save.

The language commissioner’s office costs about €600,000 annually and is charged with ensuring language rights are adhered to under the Official Languages Act.

Its annual report has been critical of a number of departments and public bodies for failing to meet these requirements.

NUI Galway Irish lecturer Dr John Walsh said that the move was “incomprehensible”. “It will not save any money, and contradicts other policies on the Irish language,” Dr Walsh said. “This is a severe blow to the promotion of Irish and undermines years of efforts to strengthen language rights.””

Which is sort of the whole point. It is increasingly clear that the Fine Gael dog, with its Labour Party tail, is set on a policy of rolling back two decades of civil rights legislation and equality for Ireland’s Irish-speaking citizens. The anti-Irish agenda of the present coalition government is only going to grow in the months and years ahead. This week it is the office of An Coimisinéir Teanga. Next time it will be the Official Languages Act itself. And after that?

Ireland – The Mentality Of A Slave (ansionnachfionn.com)
Irish Rights Are Civil Rights! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Language Rights Are Civil Rights (ansionnachfionn.com)
Named And Shamed – Discrimination In Ireland (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
There’s No Éire In Ireland! (ansionnachfionn.com)
Cúla Caint – The New TG4 App For Kids (ansionnachfionn.com)
Second Class Citizens With Second Class Rights (ansionnachfionn.com)
Not One Small Victory But Three (ansionnachfionn.com)
The Book Smugglers. Ireland, Lithuania, And The Freedom Of Language (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fáilte! (ansionnachfionn.com)
A Tale Of Two Irelands (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Is a fluent German speaking Taoiseach more useful than a Fluent Irish speaking one? (politics.ie)
Cathal Goan Lecture Today (irishstudies.wordpress.com)
Cláracha Gaeilge ar Neartv- smaointí (politics.ie)

Michael D. Higgins: “Hamas Is More Advanced Than The IRA”

Posted on 16/10/2011 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

What a week it’s been in the race for the Áras. We’ve had a mystery whodunit (Dana), a shocking televised trial (McGuinness), an uncomfortable tragicomedy (Norris), a disturbing authoritarian drama (Mitchell), some touchie-feelie fuzziness (Higgins), an Irish version of The Hills-meets-The Kardashians (Davis), and a really bad memory act (Seán Gallagher).

Indeed it is to the latter candidate that I turn as we look at how the Fianna Fáil Independent nominee has fared in recent days. If we are to believe the news media establishment (which has grown rather fond of Gallagher as their Anyone-But-McGuinness campaign has faltered) he seems to be a winner. We are told that he is now the favourite. At least that is what the Irish Independent is claiming in a report that should take the reward for the best spun article of the election (so far):

“The fight to be the ninth President of Ireland is now a two-horse race between Labour’s Michael D Higgins and Dragons’ Den star Sean Gallagher, according to the latest Sunday Independent/ Quantum Research nationwide poll.

Several candidates including Mary Davis, Dana Rosemary Scallon and Senator David Norris have all seen large drops in support, while Martin McGuinness remains well behind the leaders.

… Mr Higgins remains the front-runner on 36 per cent, up nine points on the previous poll.

But close behind him is Mr Gallagher, who has seen his support rise spectacularly from 9 per cent in mid-September to 29 per cent this weekend. His support almost doubled last week alone.

The bad news continues for Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell. Despite having the Fine Gael party machine behind him, his support has dwindled further, dropping from 10 per cent to 6 per cent.

Mary Davis fares the worst. In our last poll, her first-preference share stood at 12 per cent but now her support base is down to 4 per cent.

Dana Rosemary Scallon’s support is also in meltdown; her vote has gone from 7 per cent to just 2 per cent.

Former front runner, Senator David Norris, has also seen his support decimated, down from 20 per cent last time round to 10 per cent now.

Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness has seen a marginal rise in his support from 11 per cent to 13 per cent, but it would seem he has far too much ground to make up between now and polling day.”

From reading the above piece, and the placing of the reporting of McGuinness’ polling numbers behind all the other candidates, it would be hard to credit that McGuinness is actually in third place and his support has gone up; and that despite a week of terrible reporting and some undoubted PR setbacks (the survey was conducted on Friday by Independent Newspapers controversial in-house polling group).

However RTÉ is reporting that:

“Independent candidate Seán Gallagher has moved into the lead in the Presidential election, according to a Red C poll for the Sunday Business Post…

The poll suggests that Seán Gallagher has jumped 18 points since the last Red C poll nine days ago, and is leading on 39%.

The Red C poll shows Michael D Higgins is in second place with 27%.

Martin McGuinness is down three points to 13%.

Gay Mitchell is down two points to 8%.

David Norris is down seven to 7%.

Mary Davis has lost five points to 4%.

Dana Rosemary Scallon is down three points to 2%.

The poll was taken on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, before the RTÉ Prime Time debate was held.”

Ah, statistics, damned statistics and lies. Anyone have a coin to flip?

Given the media establishment’s long-term love affair with a certain political party (until an unceremonious – and rather timely – dumping of the latter) it is no wonder that some newspapers and journalists have started to row in behind Gallagher. A strong showing in the Presidential election will set him up nicely for a run at Dáil Éireann in a few years time and then the leadership of a certain political party.

And people thought that certain party was foolish not to field an official candidate? Sinn Féin isn’t the only organisation in Ireland adept at pulling deft political strokes. Or planning for the future.

The most important part of the RTÉ article is the fact that the poll took place before the controversial Prime Time debate which has sparked so much criticism amongst the online chattering classes (not too mention the old school phone-in radio shows). It will be interesting to see how Martin McGuinness’ numbers change in reaction to the hostile grilling he got from presenter Miriam O’Callaghan and the negative reaction it drew from many viewers. Despite several attempts to turn the story against the Sinn Féin candidate by some Establishment journos many believe there will be something of a sympathy vote added to McGuinness’ core support.

Talking of support, the Labour candidate Michael D. Higgins, that well-known supporter of non-Irish terrorists international freedom-fighters, from Latin America to the Middle East, has spoken out via the Irish Independent about his concerns that Martin McGuinness’ election would give a retrospective mandate to the Irish Republican Army’s thirty-year armed struggle:

“Michael D Higgins, the Labour candidate, has raised concern that Martin McGuinness is using the presidential election to “rationalise” and “endorse” the Provisional IRA campaign of terrorism.

In a strategic intervention, Mr Higgins – one of the two clear frontrunners – has also told the Sunday Independent that it would be “quite wrong” for Sinn Fein to “claim ownership” of the peace process for “electoral purposes”.

He said there was a “clear conflict” between accounts given by Mr McGuinness of his “paramilitary career” and information available to successive Governments.

“Irish people want a President who will be honest and open… I believe it would be helpful if the conflict over different accounts was faced up to and answers given,” he said.

Mr Higgins said that he, personally, was “absolutely and unequivocally opposed to the campaign of violence carried out by the IRA” and highlighted his “political opposition” and “personal revulsion” at that violence.

On the IRA campaign of violence, he said: “I would be particularly concerned if this presidential election campaign was to be used to seek some sort of rationalisation of or endorsement for that campaign.”

In what was last night interpreted as vindication of the strategy to highlight the terrorist past of Mr McGuinness, the former Labour minister added that he expected the electorate would “want to consider not just the recent record of Martin McGuinness but also his record overall”.”

Oh-ho. Is that so, Michael D? Well, let’s have a look at your record shall we? Hmmm, where to begin…? Why not with your 2004 statement following the death of the Palestinian terrorist guerrilla freedom-fighter Yasser Arafat, which is still sitting proud on the Labour Party’s website:

“Responding to the death of Yasser Arafat, Labour Foreign Affairs Spokesman Michael D Higgins TD said his historic achievement will be to have held together a disparate coalition of groups under the umbrella of the PLO and to have transformed that group into a recognised political entity.

After the 1967 War, his achievement in organising a demoralised Palestinian people had as its crowning moment his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 1974. From that moment on, the struggle of the Palestinian people had international recognition.

Later, as many different countries came to recognise the PLO, it became clear that Yasser Arafat would be recognised as the symbol of the Palestinian people’s struggle.

In later years he has been a virtual prisoner in Ramallah, spending most of his time under house arrest. The refusal of Ariel Sharon, supported by President George Bush, to negotiate with Yasser Arafat as the representative of the Palestinian people had the effect of stalling the peace process and led to international condemnation.

The contradiction of Arafat’s being kept under house arrest, being deprived of resources, and yet at the same time being required to exercise control over disparate militant groups involved in attacks on Israeli civilians, was not lost on the international community.

His critics will stress his slowness to deal with the findings as to corruption among elements of the Palestinian Authority, and his alleged autocratic style of leadership. Nevertheless, he will be seen as the uniting figure of Palestinians in their struggle, the iconic figure around whom different groups organised, the person who established the Palestinian struggle internationally, and undoubtedly the major founding figure of a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state”, he added.”

Umm. Did Michael D. Higgins just excuse Yasser Arafat for any responsibility in the killing of Israeli civilians by Palestinian “militant groups” during the latter part of his leadership of the PLO? Actually he has a point there, albeit a narrow one. But when did the killers of civilian men, women and children become militants not terrorists? Or is such neutral language only reserved for exponents of political violence outside of Ireland?

At the same time Michael D. Higgins, then an opposition spokesperson for Labour, turned out in Galway for a candle-lit vigil in Arafat’s honour with some, um, interesting folk:

“The Islamic community of Galway marked the death of the Lion of Ramallah with a candlelit vigil in Shop Street last night, organised by the noted anti-war activist, Nuria Mustafa Dunne. Co-religionists from Egypt, Palestine, Iraq and Pakistan met in solidarity, with activists from the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a representative from Amnesty International… the Irish Centre For Human Rights in NUI Galway along with Michael D Higgins, Mary Kelly and Green Party City Councillor Niall Ó Brollachain to bear witness to the fallen scourge of Zionism.”

So, Arab terrorist-turned-statesman good; Irish terrorist-turned-statesman bad? Interesting world view Michael D.

You were also pretty unhappy about Hamas, the Palestinian political party, being added to the European Union’s list of terrorist-supporting organisations in 2007, as this Oireachtas Report makes clear:

“Deputy Michael D. Higgins: Several questions immediately arise from the Minister of State’s response. …Does he agree that the credibility of the European Union is badly damaged by, in the first instance, the clearing house decision that added Hamas to a proscribed list, with no accountability to this Parliament or any parliament in Europe, and, following that, its failure to recognise the result of the election, which was acknowledged as free and fair by several international bodies, including the Carter Centre? All we had from the EU was a mealy-mouthed statement expressing gratitude that no lives had been lost in the course of the election. It is absolutely absurd to suggest it is dealing with all the parties. What contact has the EU with Hamas?

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, suggested in a previous reply to a question on this issue that he had made the Irish position known. However, we do not know what the Irish position is. Is it our position not to recognise the results of the election? Is it our position not to have any contact with Hamas? Is it our position never to remind Israel that as an occupying force, it is in breach of international law by cutting off vital structures for Gaza?”

You go for it, Deputy Higgins. Free Occupied Palestine! But don’t mention Occupied Ireland. Oh, you sort of did.

“Deputy Michael D. Higgins: Hamas is more advanced than the IRA.”

You what now?

Okay. Deep breadth.

In fairness, I find little to disagree with when it comes to the political, social and economic views of Michael D. Higgins. However the absolute obsession of many on the Irish Left with Palestine I don’t get. I find my sympathies lie more with Israel as I see in that state (or perhaps I should say people?) something much more empathic to an Irish person given our similar histories and nature. Admittedly those sympathies are harder to sustain when one see’s the deplorable treatment of the people of Occupied Palestine under Israeli rule and the failure of Israel to engage in any meaningful process towards making peace with their most immediate Arab neighbours. But that is a discussion for another day.

What irritates me is the utter hypocrisy of many on the Irish Left (and some on the Right) who will gnash their teeth and cry tears of blood for a foreign people under an occupation in a foreign land. But Irish people living under an occupation in Ireland? Eh, no thanks. We’re not into that sort of thing.

Yes, Higgins facilitated the scrapping of Section 31 in 1993, the piece of Irish government media censorship that banned Sinn Féin from the airwaves (and which probably added another decade and a few thousand more casualties on to the Northern conflict as Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour protected their own electoral backs). But the removal of that anti-democratic law was a necessary part of the unfolding Peace Process, not some selfless benevolent act on behalf of the political establishment.

Sorry, but when all is said and done, hearing Michael D. Higgins question others on legitimizing acts of political violence is more than even I can stomach. To paraphrase the late, great Carl Sagan:

“If we like them, they’re freedom fighters… If we don’t like them, they’re terrorists. In the unlikely case we can’t make up our minds, they’re temporarily only guerrillas.”

Martin McGuinness. The People’s Choice? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Martin McGuinness – Uachtarán na hÉireann? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Gallagher …. The Last of the Independents (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
McGuinness Won The Audience But Did He Win The Debate? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Liberal Britain, Or Don’t Mention The War. The Irish One, That Is. (ansionnachfionn.com)
Primetime Presidential Debate 12 October – Will it change anything? (politics.ie)
Martin McGuinness is the new John Redmond. (politics.ie)
SpunOut.ie YouthRising Presidential Debate Oct 2011 (politics.ie)

Labour Versus British Unionists – A Snapshot Of Irish Political History

Posted on 15/10/2011 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The wonderful Irish Election Literature blog carries a 1938 anti-Fianna Fáil leaflet from the Irish Labour Party, that also targets the remnants of the British Unionist minority in the South. It is a timely reminder of the political forces that were still extant in the early days of an independent Ireland when the British ethnic minority formed an influential voting block. It also allows us to envision, in part, what the politics of a Reunited Ireland may look like with a far larger British ethnic vote in the north-east of the country.

The political antecedents of Fine Gael relied on the Unionists in the Free State to to take and hold power in the 1920s and ’30s. One wonders what deals “Nationalist” political parties may do in an All-Ireland state with a British Unionist minority and their representatives? Interesting times ahead.

The Labour Party And The Official IRA – They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Playing The Race Card In Ireland (ansionnachfionn.com)
Gay Mitchell: Blue Shirts And Blue Bloods (ansionnachfionn.com)
Fine Gael: The Terrorists We Embrace And The Ones We Don’t (ansionnachfionn.com)
No Irish Wanted Here! (ansionnachfionn.com)
This Week At The Irish Election Literature Blog (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
Stephen King. Ireland’s Very Own “Harigate” Scandal? (ansionnachfionn.com)
Sinn Féin And The Labour Party, Head-To-Head (ansionnachfionn.com)
Saving online material during political events… (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
The Labour Party In Scotland – Fianna Fáil With An Accent? (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
This Week at The Irish Election Literature Blog (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)

Sinn Féin And The Labour Party, Head-To-Head

Posted on 07/09/2011 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

The Cedar Lounge Revolution carries news on a Sunday Times poll that places Sinn Féin a percentage point ahead of the Labour Party (though, it should be said, still within the statistical margin of error):

‘What an interesting poll the Sunday Times brought us this weekend. A poll which decisively points to Fine Gael dominance, potentially for quite some time to come. Isn’t it a sign of how things have changed that polls now come but rarely and that in some respects we have much less sense of the temperature of the polity than even six months ago. And that too is – perhaps a sign of FG dominance.

Most intriguing aspects? A Labour Party which has crashed not just below Fianna Fáil but also Sinn Féin.

I should stop right here and say this is but a single poll and it doesn’t appear to have a continuity with previous ones taken earlier in the Summer, but we can only work with what we get.

So granted this could be a rogue, and yet there are reasons that any consideration of the political environment as it now is suggests for a weakening of Labour Party support.

Think about the most high-profile issues other than the relationship with the IMF/EU, the subsidiary ones. JLCs, welfare cuts and so on. Hardly the stuff of dreams for a Labour Party which even still must look to its left flanks in order to shore up its support.

This site has argued long and hard that there’s a terrible misconception at the heart of much of political activity in this state, a misconception willfully or otherwise generated in part by the media. It’s the idea that if ‘hard’ decisions taken, a shaken but eventually grateful electorate will ‘reward’ those taking them.

There’s not much to support this viewpoint. Quite the opposite in fact. One can critique the Rainbow Coalition of the mid-1990s for many things, not least its less than full-blooded enthusiasm for the peace process [and strange how antique that term suddenly sounds] but in matters economic it was, compared and contrasted with its successor both moderately progressive and fiscally cautious. Yet for all that stability it takes but a second to remember the ‘It’s payback time…’ headlines in the Independent. No great reward there. No great reward for Fianna Fáil or the Green Party following their implementation of the ‘hard’ decisions, even if some of that lack of reward was due to the sense that there was no end to the ‘hard’ decisions. Two political formations that had solid histories in this state both in the contemporary period and longer, much longer in the case of FF, broken and broken badly by impact with the electorate. So where is this chimerical reward?’

The full article is well worth reading for the type of refreshingly honest views on Ireland’s political and socio-economic woes, and the farcical solutions offered, that rarely make it into the pages of the establishment press. Which of course raises the question, what is Ireland’s news media for if they have simply abdicated all responsibility both for contributing to the dire straits we are in or giving any real critique of the continued use of the same failed voodoo economics that got us here in the first place? If Ireland’s journalists and media folk are not part of the solution then surely they are just another part of the problem? Unfortunately we can’t vote in editors (or proprietors) as we can politicians but we can vote with our euros and simply stop supplying these economic terrorists with the oxygen of publicity.

The Labour Party And The Official IRA – They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Sunday Times Poll: The Labour mud-guard on the Fine Gael led government? (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
Labour councillors urged by Sinn Féin to vote against waste service privatisation on Monday (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
The Ó Muircheartaigh For President? (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Sinn Fein and The Presidency (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)

The Labour Party And The Official IRA – They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know

Posted on 23/08/2011 by Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

Proinsias de Rossa – He Give You Happy Ending!

The hijacking of the leadership of the Irish Labour Party by ~~Official Sinn Féin / Official IRA~~ ~~Sinn Féin the Workers Party / Official IRA~~ ~~the Workers Party / Official IRA / Group B~~ Democratic Left in the 1990s is one of the great putsches of Irish political history. The sequence of events is clear enough. In the late 1960s the higher echelons of Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army had come under the influence of would-be communist revolutionaries more concerned with liberating the global working classes than the Irish population of the North of Ireland. The fact that the working classes of the world weren’t all that sanguine about the glories of communist liberation and that Irish citizens living in the north-east of the country were rather more concerned about being murdered in their beds by rampaging mobs from the British ethnic minority than Marx or Lenin never really bothered these newbie Reds. The proletariat would follow where the revolutionary leadership led them (for the leadership knew better).

In no time at all the Irish Republican movement was split, Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army into Official (‘communist’) and Provisional (‘nationalist’) wings. Official Sinn Féin (OSF) gradually dumped all pretence of being an Irish Republican or Nationalist party and became just another bunch of pretentious Western European Marxist-Leninist beardies, albeit a bunch of pseudos with a rather handy military wing in the form of the Official IRA (OIRA). By the late-1970s the OIRA were on ceasefire while OSF played at holier-than-thou working class politics, decrying all forms of (Irish) nationalism, while making some rather odd friends across the barricades amongst the British separatist minority in Ireland – much to the approval of their fellow communists in Britain, who kindly gave their imprimatur to the whole exercise at which their Irish puppies happily wagged their tails (and some still do). They also managed to infiltrate several key areas in Ireland’s news media establishment, particularly the News and Current Affairs Department of RTÉ, where they openly displayed a Stalinist iron-fist control, deliberately setting news agendas and self-censoring reports from the North of Ireland.

Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run, Here Comes The Farmer With His Gu- Oooops!

By the 1980s OSF had gone through several transformations to become the Workers Party, a straightforward Irish communist party in all but name, anti-democratic authoritarian tendencies an’ all. Wedded to its pure ideology and intolerant of any dissent or disagreement the organisation in the north-east of the country became a by-word for petty street thuggery and intimidation hidden behind the genuine and principled few. The Official IRA was now known internally as Group B and became the party’s enforcers, the breakers of legs and shooters of kneecaps. They also provided much of the party’s funding through an organised web of criminality: robberies, kidnapping, drug-dealing, extortion, prostitution, smuggling and many other ‘special activities’. However the old enmities derived from the original split with the Provisionals never went away and many in the WP / OIRA developed what are best described as ‘mutually beneficial relationships’ with the British authorities in the North of Ireland, military and political, which resulted in the movement becoming, however incongruously, a part of Britain’s counter-insurgency war machine against the Provisional IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin.

The closeness of these relationships were such that it led to a few members of the Workers Party into becoming spies and informers for the British Forces in the Irish communities of the North (with the approval and connivance of some of the organisation’s leadership), allowing the WP to target political or community rivals as well as bringing in yet more ‘special revenues’, this time from British government coffers. The fact that this ‘collaboration’ resulted in the imprisonment or deaths of Irish citizens seemed not to bother the Workers Party apparatchiks one whit in their single-minded aim of bringing about about a class revolution in Ireland. Yet this dual game of playing at both politics and militarism, while claiming to be unarmed peace-loving democrats and decriers of all forms of violence, could not continue indefinitely and in the early 1990s the Workers Party experienced its most serious split with the formation of Democratic Left (DL).

The Workers Party – Brought To You In Association With Our Overseas Partners!

This short-lived Irish political party eventually merged with Ireland’s Labour Party in 1999 and here is where the real story begins for in a few short years the former DL members who joined Labour had risen to the top of the party and eventually took control of its leadership in a political takeover so ruthless and audacious that it left many traditional Labour activists and members utterly stunned. The new leading lights of the Labour Party were now the likes of Proinsias de Rossa (former IRA, Sinn Féin, Workers Party, Democratic Left), Pat Rabbitte (Sinn Féin, Workers Party, Democratic Left, Labour Party leader), Éamon Gilmore (Sinn Féin, Workers Party, Democratic Left, Labour Party leader) and Kathleen Lynch (Workers Party, Democratic Left). And it is to the latter that we now turn, in this report from the Mail Online:

‘The brother-in-law of Ireland’s Minister of State Kathleen Lynch is a fugitive from justice who is wanted for questioning by police over an elaborate counterfeiting operation.

Just weeks ago, Mrs Lynch was embroiled in controversy for hiring her husband, Bernard, who spent a year in prison for murdering a man in a machine-gun attack before being acquitted on appeal.

Bernard’s brother Brian, 58, was suspected of being the brains behind a massive counterfeiting scam uncovered by gardaí in a raid at Repsol Ltd, which was on the ground floor of the Workers’ Party Dublin headquarters in 1983.

The Workers Party, the political wing of the Official IRA, became Democratic Left in 1992 and merged into the Labour Party in 1999.

Brian Lynch was one of a number of men wanted for questioning by gardaí in relation to the operation.

Another being sought was Seán Garland, who is currently fighting extradition for his alleged involvement in an international forgery conspiracy involving the KGB and North Korea in a plot to undermine the U.S. dollar.

The U.S. has been seeking Mr Garland’s extradition since May 2005 when he was indicted for alleged trading in forged $100 bills as part of the so-called ‘superdollar’ conspiracy that began in the Soviet Union in the 1980s and expanded to involve North Korea – a place Mr Garland visited several times during the period in his capacity as a Workers’ Party officer and as a director of GKG Communications, an international business consultancy.

The U.S. alleges that Mr Garland and six co-conspirators, a Russian, a South African and four Englishmen, used couriers to transport supernotes around the world.

The indictment also refers to Garland as ‘the man in the hat’ and identified specific dates when he had transported forged currency from North Korean embassies.

However, the whole ‘superdollar’ affair has its genesis in a Garda raid on a warehouse on Hanover Quay in November 1983 that uncovered a stack of near-perfect Irish £5 notes worth £1.7m.

This raid led to the gardaí searching Repsol. a printing firm where Brian Lynch was an employee and which was run by Mr Garland.

Mr Lynch had previously worked in his father’s printing business in Cork and was known among the Official IRA as the ‘master printer’.

His sister-in-law, the well respected politician Kathleen Lynch, is the Minister of State with responsibility for disability, equality and mental health. He is also the brother of Ciarán Lynch, the Labour TD for Cork.’

The Workers Party – More Than Meets The Eye!

I previously highlighted the case of Seán Garland (as well as some of the shady history of the Workers Party in Ireland and the baleful influence it has had upon our political and journalistic establishments) but the controversy around Bernard Lynch and Larry White, a Republican activist murdered by the OIRA in highly controversial circumstances in the mid-1970 was largely forgotten, except by his family and friends, until Kathleen Lynch appointed her husband Bernard as a ‘special advisor’, a cushy role paid for by the Irish tax-payer (thank God the Labour Party aren’t like Fianna Fáil, hey? No family-ties, nepotism and cronyism here). As the Irish Times reported:

‘THE FAMILY of a Cork republican murdered more than 35 years ago has called on the Taoiseach to seek the removal of a Minister of State’s personal assistant who was acquitted of the killing in the 1970s.

The family of Larry White are angered that Labour TD Kathleen Lynch, Minister of State at the Departments of Justice and Health, has appointed her husband Bernard as her personal assistant. Mr Lynch, who was then a member of Official Sinn Féin, was acquitted on appeal after being convicted, along with three other men, of the murder of Mr White in the mid-1970s.

The Lynches declined to comment on the matter yesterday. Neither the Taoiseach nor Labour leader Eamon Gilmore were available for comment.

In November 1976, the Court of Criminal Appeal set aside the conviction of Mr Lynch and another man for the murder of Mr White. Two other convictions were upheld. Mr White had been a member of the republican splinter group Saor Éire, which had fallen out with Official Sinn Féin. The 25-year-old was walking from the pub to his home in Cork on June 10th, 1975, when he was killed in a machine-gun attack.

Gardaí arrested and charged four men: Mr Lynch and David O’Donnell (then 21), of Rosewood Estate, Ballincollig, Co Cork and Leeson Street, Belfast; Cornelius Finbar Doyle (25), Nun’s Walk, Co Cork; and Bartholomew Madden (34), Owenacurra Court, Togher, Co Cork. Mr Lynch was at the time a leading member of Cork (Official) Sinn Féin, according to The Lost Revolution, a history of the party by Scott Millar and Brian Hanley published in 2009.

The trial, which lasted 32 days, was one of the longest seen in the Special Criminal Court. The four men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. There were allegations of Garda brutality and of confessions being given under duress.

In setting aside Mr Lynch’s conviction, chief justice Tom O’Higgins said the Court of Criminal Appeal was satisfied there were grounds for suspecting Mr Lynch was aware of the intention to use a stolen white Cortina car for the purpose of some crime, possibly a serious crime of violence. There was, however, no admissible evidence against him of any activity in the preparation or commission of a crime of violence, or the murder of Larry White.

Proof of knowledge that such a crime was about to be committed, even if it had been well established against him, would, in the absence of proof of some active participation, not support the conviction of murder, according to the chief justice. The conviction was set aside.’

Ah, well that’s okay then, isn’t it?

Except, of course, its not.

As the Sinn Féin TD Dessie Ellis pointed out there are an awful lot of skeletons in the cupboards of the former members of Official Sinn Féin that are now found in the Labour Party that have yet to come out:

‘Dessie insists that there are prominent members of Labour today — politicians who had previously been members of Democratic Left, the Workers’ Party and Official Sinn Féin before joining Labour — who were also members of the IRA. ‘There are quite a few hypocrites there. I’m well aware of that. I know some of them from my past. So, I know the positions that they held. Some of them are still there.’

Indeed, for a start one wonders what happened to the arsenal of weapons and explosives retained by the Official IRA that have yet to be ‘decommissioned’ (contrary to public myth the OIRA has not given up or ‘put beyond use’ its stores of weaponry nor does this now seem likely to ever occur). What happened to all those monies raised by the OIRA through criminal activities, and ‘foreign’ donations? Just exactly whose pockets, and whose bank accounts, did all those pounds and dollars and roubles go into?

The Workers Party – The Answer To A Question Nobody Asked

And what about justice? Justice for those people who lost their lives or freedom as the result of actions carried out by OIRA or WP activists?

The next time you see senior members of the Labour Party, and now ministers of the Government of Ireland, spouting on about the necessity for politics only, and their rejection of violence and ‘paramilitarism’, just remember where they came from, what paths they followed, and what utter hypocrisy they cloak their political histories in.

The Official IRA Discusses Education Policy With The BBC, 1975 (No, This Is Not A Joke!)

Seán Garland, The Workers Party, And The Fools Republic (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
The Irish Republican Army Way – And The Taliban Way (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Roibeárd ‘Bobaí’ Ó Seachnasaigh (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Sinn Féin’s Dual Strategy To A Reunited Ireland? (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
One Step At A Time – The Belfast Agreement And Beyond (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
This Week At The Irish Election Literature Blog (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)
The Ó Muircheartaigh For President? (ansionnachfionn.wordpress.com)
Just where did traditional social democracy go? (cedarlounge.wordpress.com)

An Sionnach Fionn

Éire Ghaelach – Éire Shaor

Tag Archives: Páirtí an Lucht Oibre (Labour Party)

Ain’t Nothing Change But The Weather

From Boycott To Frankfurt, Only Our Rivers Run Free

A Pluralist Ireland? Does That Include The 1.7 Million Irish-Speakers?

The Empire Strike Back!

Smells Like No-Irish Spirit

The State Of Irish – In The Irish State

What About Our Irish Rights?

Young Fine Gael – The Irony Is In The Name

From Irish Ireland To English Ireland

Discrimination Dressed As Reasonableness… Isn’t It Always?

Irish Rights Are Equals Rights – So Fight Back!

A Second-Class Education For Second-Class Pupils

Meanwhile In Ireland, Another Form Of Censorship…

A Sticky Situation

Freedom To Talk

Sábháil Ár dTeanga

Michael D. Higgins: “Hamas Is More Advanced Than The IRA”

Labour Versus British Unionists – A Snapshot Of Irish Political History

Sinn Féin And The Labour Party, Head-To-Head

The Labour Party And The Official IRA – They Haven’t Gone Away, You Know

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