Archive for the ‘British State (aka UK)’ Category
A tribute to the outstanding journalist Ed Moloney, who passed away in New York Aged 77
Ed was a great friend and will be missed.
Condolences to Joan McKiernan, and all friends, colleagues, and comrades.
A reminder : Ed Moloney’s work on issues concerning child abuse in the six-county bit of Ireland which remain unsolved :
John Meehan October 20 2025
Catherine Connolly Irish Presidential Campaign and Climate Change which threatens humanity
In a Facebook discussion, the Swiss eco-socialist activist Chris Zeller points out that the British “Your Party” makes no statement about climate change which threatens humanity – I wonder has the Catherine Connolly presidential campaign in Ireland made a climate change declaration?
Chris’s statement, which I endorse ” I have the impression that “Your Party” is no exception. In several European countries, we see that the traditional left and the trade unions are more or less consciously putting the ecological challenge on the back burner. I would go so far as to argue that the fossil fuel backlash we are seeing in all key sectors of capital has eaten deep into the traditional left and the trade unions.
We are currently less far along than we were possibly in 2019. However, the Earth system is changing abruptly. The effects will pose a concrete threat to the physical survival of a significant portion of humanity in just a few decades. Yet the imperialist countries – including trade unions and the left – assume that the suffering will spread far away from our societies in Europe and North America.
This, of course, raises important strategic questions. My working hypothesis is that we urgently need to build a transnational revolutionary eco-socialist vanguard.
We need collectives and organisations that vigorously oppose the fossil fuel backlash and the power of fossil fuel capital in general.”
Possibly Catherine Connolly makes a good start here :
John Meehan October 13 2025
Caucusus Colonels’ Fable in Dublin’s Phoenix magazine – real journalism versus pro-Putin deliberate misinformation
“Down the rabbit hole” is an English-language idiom or trope which refers to getting deep into something, or ending up somewhere strange. Lewis Carroll introduced the phrase as the title for chapter one of his 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, after which the term slowly entered the English vernacular. The term is usually used as a metaphor for distraction.[1] In the 21st century, the term has come to describe a person who gets lost in research or loses track of time while using the internet.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Fact check: Fake claim British Colonels were ‘captured’ in Ukraine
The fable spread among all usual tankie publications – that is, organs which uncritically peddle pro-Putin propaganda – and influencers (for example the former British Westminster MP George Galloway). It fitted in with The Phoenix magazine’s pro-Putin takes on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The magazine has form :
The story surfaced in the first week of August 2025. It is a media disinformation classic – 2.78 million views, spread in 53 countries, 17,800 posts, spread in 16 different languages.
A quick internet check revealed the story was not appearing on reputable news sites, and that it was spreading like wildfire on pro-Putin conspiracy organs.
Read the rest of this entry »Keir Starmer’s crazy comment about pro Palestine Kneecap playing at Glastonbury – ex taoiseach Leo Varadkar raps British PM’s loony statement
Irish Rap performers Kneecap are booked to play at a huge music festival in Glastonbury, but British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer thinks that’s not “appropriate”. Starmer’s crazy comment is so off-the-wall that ex Irish taoiseach (prime minister) the ultra-conservative Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael), thought it was a gag.
Irish Times news report :
“Kneecap’s official Instagram page shared a screenshot of the article containing Mr Starmer’s comments, stating that “arming a fu*king genocide” was what’s “not appropriate”.
In a comment underneath the post, Mr Varadkar said he had thought the comment from Mr Starmer was a “gag”.
“[I] no longer hold office nor have any mandate so my views don’t count for so much anymore. I get that. But I really thought this was some sort of gag. It’s the role of artists to be avant garde, inappropriate, challenging, disruptive – from James Joyce to Sex Pistols and Playboy,” he said.”
See also at this link :
Starmer claims Kneecap Glastonbury set “not appropriate”
The Issue is Genocide in Palestine
Read the rest of this entry »Fascism in Ireland 1922 – 2025
Compared with most wealthy capitalist countries (for example Russia, the United States of America, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands) far-right racist politics have been late taking off in the two bits of Ireland in the early part of the 21st century. The article below – Irish Politics Affected by Fascism Since Partition in 1922 – provides useful context.
In my opinion it overlooks a critical reason for the relative weakness of racist poison in the 26 county bit of Ireland : the rise of a mass women’s liberation movement in Ireland since the 1960’s; collapse of the Catholic Church’s prestige and moral authority – especially since the early 1990’s – because of its criminal opposition to abortion, divorce, contraception, equal pay – and the institution’s role in systematic torture of women and babies in “homes”.
The 6 county bit of Ireland was not, strictly speaking, fascist – but this Orange State was “A Protestant State for a Protestant People” – and extreme right unionist parties have always shared racist and imperialist politics promoted by the British far-right.
Before the November 2025 Irish General Election far-right racist candidates hoped to build on a relatively significant breakthrough in the June 2025 European and Local Elections. However, a hero of Irish women, Nikita Hand, took a legal case, alleging violent rape, against the prominent kick-boxer racist Conor McGregor in October and November 2025.
More details here :
During the election campaign a woman called Nikita Hand took a legal civil action, alleging rape, against an international celebrity, the kick-boxing superstar Conor McGregor. McGregor is closely associated with a number of mini-Hitler racists, some of whom were elected to Dublin council seats in June 2024. These included Philip Sutcliffe (Dublin South-Central) and Paddy Holohan (Dublin South-West). Most rape trials in Ireland are held behind closed doors, and the details are not widely broadcast.
Link :
Irish General Election November 29 2024 – Return of a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Coalition – Setback for the Left
John Meehan April 28 2025
Irish Politics Affected by Fascism Since Partition in 1922
The Dublin riots, which caused an estimated €20 million worth of damage in November 2023, the violence that surrounded some of the protests in July last year and the week-long rioting in Belfast following the Southport stabbings shocked the political establishment in Ireland and the wider world. For decades there has been a political myth that Ireland is one of the few countries to have escaped the influence of fascist and far-right politics. The reality is that Ireland and Irish politics have been affected by fascism since the ideology first emerged a century ago.
Read the rest of this entry »US base commander removed for refusing to lower Greenland and Danish flags at Pituffik Space Base – Small countries can humiliate imperialist bullies
The latest news from the Greenland capital Nuuk tells us Yankee bullies have lost the plot.
Very few people live in Greenland; the population is only 56,000. The large island has attracted the attention of the United States of America (USA) super-power, which is blundering around in the Arctic wilderness.
The U.S. military announced Thursday it had removed Col. Susannah Meyers, commander of its Pituffik base in Greenland, stating it would not tolerate any pushback against President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Meyers sent an email to base personnel on March 31 distancing herself from U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit three days prior, according to the independent news organization Military.com.
President Trump’s threats are disintegrating in many parts of the globe; we should remember that small countries are not powerless. They can stand up to imperial mad dogs and inspire others. Danish Red-Green Alliance member of parliament Søren Søndergaard observes :
Finally, as you may know, Trump has announced that he is going to annex Greenland to the United States! Perhaps to gain free access to all of Greenland’s minerals. Perhaps to prevent other countries from using the new shipping routes that are appearing after the polar ice caps melt. Or maybe simply because if you add the territory of Canada and Greenland to that of the United States, the American territory will be larger than that of Russia and will constitute the largest country in the world. This gives a new meaning to the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’: ‘Make America “Great” Again’.
But the small and proud Greenlandic people have a saying: ‘Nothing about Greenland without Greenland’.
On Easter 1916 “the world did gaze with deep amaze” after small Ireland struck a deadly blow against the world’s then biggest imperial monster, the British Empire. This defiant message of resistance is immortalized here by Sinéad O’Connor and the Chieftains :
Read the rest of this entry »Working for Rebel Verdicts – George Blake and Luigi Mangione
Political trials, on occasion, are not straight black-and-white events : Guilty or Not Guilty?
In the USA a shooter killed the Chief Executive of a private medical insurance company – a tsunami of mass opposition to a healthcare system which puts greed first, and healthcare second, has erupted.
On this blog Joan McKiernan reviewed this extraordinary political development, prompting Paul Hunter to send us this article
Why Most Americans Blame Insurers for UHC CEO’s Death – Paul Hunter
Hunter sings from Joan McKiernan’s hymn-sheet.
Murder is not to be taken lightly. It should be approached with extreme reverence and care. It means violating the sanctity of life, and it has the potential to cause severe heartache and trauma to those who have been left behind. For that reason, I will affirm that it is wrong. But I will not for one second shed a tear for United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and I’m not alone.
Thompson was gunned down by a masked assassin while on his way to a shareholder meeting in Midtown Manhattan on December 4. A man matching his description, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested in Pennsylvania five days later.
There can be little doubt as to how Thompson died. The murder was caught on camera. But according to a new poll from NORC at the University of Chicago, roughly 70% of Americans believe that healthcare coverage from insurance companies like UHC bears at least “a moderate amount” of responsibility for his death. It’s easy to see why.
The full article is below.
But what about the parallel to the case of George Blake? Two anti-war activists, Pat Pottle and Michael Randle, sprung Blake from a London jail in the 1960’s with the help of Seán Bourke, an Irish petty criminal who possessed a spark of pure genius.
Here is the connection with Luigi Mangione : Pottle and Randle stated openly they had organised the escape of George Blake and pleaded Not Guilty on the grounds that their action was justified. It remains to be seen if Luigi Mangione will mount a political and legal defence like this. It is a strategy that Luigi and his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, should examine carefully.
John Meehan January 5 2025
Link : George Blake – Rebel Verdict
Who are ‘the Irish’? History shows we’ve been a mixed bunch for centuries – Maurice J Casey
Who are ‘the Irish’? History shows we’ve been a mixed bunch for centuries
Introduction :
From the 1800’s to the early 1990’s Ireland was a world champion in one cruel activity – export of its own people. During the Great Hunger [An Gorta Mór in Irish] (Famine) of 1845-49 official figures state the population crashed from 8 million to 6 million : 1 million died and 1 million emigrated. In almost every following decade, the population continued to fall – from 8.2 million in 1841 to 4.2 million in 1961.
People of Irish extraction – the diaspora – are estimated to number 70 million. In 1921 the British imperialist government partitioned Ireland into two states – the republic and the north. The revolution heralded by the 1916 Easter Rising was betrayed.
Today Just over 5 million live in the republic, 2 million reside in the north, and 1.5 million Irish passport holders reside outside Ireland and Britain.
Up to the 1990’s immigration to Ireland existed – in relatively small numbers. The trend then altered significantly.
In the 2020’s the population of Ireland rose to 7 million. This remains below the 1841 figure of 8.2 million – so much for racist claims that Ireland is “full”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 