Eamon DeValera’s 1937 Irish Constitution contains symbolic sexist wording – the “woman in the home” clause. Laura Cahillane explains why almost everyone on the Irish and feminist left is advocating a Yes vote.
On March 8 – International Women’s Day – Irish citizens will vote in a referendum on whether or not to replace the so-called “woman in the home” clause in the Irish constitution.
This clause, which dates from 1937, specifies that: “The State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.” It goes on to say that: “The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”
Originally, the purpose of the provision was to acknowledge the importance of care in the home, which was then provided almost exclusively by mothers. The purpose was to ensure that mothers could remain in the home and would not be forced to work due to financial reasons.
However, the state help implied by the wording was never actually put into practice – women were never supported to provide care in the home. Worse, the constitution was often used to bolster arguments that a woman’s place was in the home and that policies which excluded women from work were acceptable.
Now, as part of a double referendum, Irish citizens will have the chance to change the constitution to a more gender-neutral wording. This is alongside another vote on whether to change the constitution’s definition of “family” to expand it beyond marriage.
Ultra-loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson is live-tweeting the “secret” DUP meeting where Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is trying to persuade his party to return to Stormont.
NEW: DUP Party Exec meeting live:
JD just began speaking:
Says negotiations are over, and DUP aren’t going to get anymore.
Joe Brolly is tirelessly promoting the cause of the Palestinian people.
Readers familiar with political parties based in the six county state in the north of Ireland may be rubbing their eyes in disbelief – is it really possible that the SDLP is taking a stand on this issue, agreeing with most people on the Irish left, and against the Sinn Féin party? The answer is Yes.
The article below puts a remarkable story in context :
Industrial Development Authority (IDA) boss reveals Sinn Féin plans to woo US firms on corporate tax
A daft idea promoted by many political commentators is that if a political party with a left-wing voting base moves to the “centre” (which in this context is a weasel word for “right”) it can win control of a government more easily, and “reassure” the owners of capitalist states at home and abroad. Once the leadership of a political party absorbs this idea, all sorts of radical policies are thrown into the litter bin.
Unfortunately the leadership of the Sinn Féin party is falling into this trap – the left message is : you are in a hole, stop digging.
This Sunday Business Post story shows that significant sectors of the capitalist class understand this dynamic.
The Sinn Féin Leadership Promotes Contradictory Messages
Mary Lou McDonald and Pearse Doherty on ‘outreach programme’ to reassure big business, but executives fear wealth tax
Sinn Féin has made it clear to top multinationals that it has no issue with Ireland’s corporate tax rate and will not raise it if elected, the new chairman of IDA Ireland has said.
However, Feargal O’Rourke has revealed that the party is determined to hike personal taxes on top earners, in a move that has prompted serious concerns among business leaders.
O’Rourke, the former head of PwC Ireland, said Sinn Féin has “been very much on an outreach programme” with big businesses since the last election to reassure them it will “not rock any boats” should it gain power.
In the early days of 2024 thoughts turn to the next general election in Ireland which will create the 34th Dáil Éireann no later than February 2025.
Before that, in May 2024, voters in the 26 county bit of Ireland elect local authority councillors and members of the European Parliament.
All reliable opinion surveys suggest Sinn Féin will be the biggest party after the next Dáil general election, and that the current FFFGGG (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Greens, Gombeens) coalition may stay in office.
Sinn Féin does not rule out coalition with the right-wing parties, and – once we ignore silly point-scoring – we can see that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens do not rule out coalition with Sinn Féin. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is explicit on this point :
The prospect of such a government should send shivers down the spine of any self-respecting supporter of the radical left in Ireland.
Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG), two tweedledum and tweedledee capitalist parties, have controlled every government running the southern 26 county bit of partitioned Ireland since a 1921 Treaty was signed with the former occupying power, Britain. A carnival of reaction followed on both sides of the Irish border.
Faced with a false choice between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the only rational policy for the left was and is: no coalition, on principle, with any right-wing party.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said there would be “huge difficulties” with his party going into government with Sinn Féin, but did not rule out the possibility of such a coalition after the next election.
Irish Times December 26 2023
Fianna Fáil (FF) and Fine Gael (FG), two tweedledum and tweedledee capitalist parties, have controlled every government running the southern 26 county bit of partitioned Ireland since a 1921 Treaty was signed with the former occupying power, Britain. A carnival of reaction followed on both sides of the Irish border.
Faced with a false choice between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the only rational policy for the left was and is : no coalition, on principle, with any right-wing party.
On November 15 2023 Dáil Éireann (parliament of the 26 county Irish state) debated 2 opposition motions calling for immediate action against the genocidal war waged by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people living in Gaza. Holly Cairns TD (Teachta Dála [Dáil Deputy]) leader of the Social Democrats party, introduced a motion calling for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, Ms Ehrlich. The text of Holly Cairns’ speech is below.
The deputy from Cork South-West pulled no punches :
When did EU leaders lose their humanity? At what precise moment? Was it when Israel cut off supplies of water, food, medicine and fuel to 2.3 million people in Gaza, and no one shouted “Stop”? Was it when more than 5,000 children were slaughtered, and no one shouted “Stop”? Was it when the fuel ran out and incubators keeping premature babies alive were turned off and no one shouted “Stop”? Was it on Friday, when the death toll reached more than 11,000 and no one shouted “Stop”? Was it at the weekend, when they had to stop counting the bodies and still no one shouted “Stop”?
Holly Cairns TD, Leader, Social Democrats
The opposition motions were defeated by 85 votes to 55 (expel the Israeli ambassador from Ireland) and 80 votes to 60 (refer Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Parties supporting the Cairns motion were Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, and Solidarity-People Before Profit.
This article comes with a strong recommendation from Joan McKiernan :
“This terrific article should be widely circulated….
“I must say that with all the classes I had long ago in the IS (International Socialists) on the Russian Revolution, I have no recollection of discussions of Ukraine. So the author’s discussion of that history is important for all of us involved in supporting Ukraine now.”
Paul Le Blanc is launching a new book in Dublin on Tuesday November 7 (the anniversary of the October revolution) in the New Theatre, behind Connolly Books in Temple Bar. Doors open at 7pm, with Paul Le Blanc giving a short talk on Lenin’s politics and theories starting at 7:30. This will be followed by an interview including opportunity for some questions from the crowd.
Paul Le Blanc reviews a critical thread of Marxist theory and history on the right of national self-determination, and the question of Ukraine, concluding that revolutionaries today need to defend the current resistance to the Russian invasion including its rights to seek arms.
In his critique of ultra-left sectarianism, Lenin denounced a tendency to present quotes from Marx as the basis for settling on a tactical orientation to guide us through the complexities of our own time. He insisted that “what is most important, that which constitutes the very gist, the living soul, of Marxism” is “a concrete analysis of a concrete situation.” That is certainly the case when we are considering realities so complex as the Russian-Ukrainian War.
I have attempted such a “concrete analysis of a concrete situation” in an 8900-word article entitled “Making Sense of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine” for the online publication Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal. In the final 2400 words of the article, I seek to relate the larger analysis of the invasion to previous Marxist theory and lessons from revolutionary history. I urge readers to consult the first 6500 words of the larger article. At the same time, I am hopeful that my review here of some of the relevant history and theory will be useful for those working to sort things out regarding these momentous developments.
Irish Police boss Drew Harris is in trouble – rank-and-file members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) have voted no confidence in their chief – 10803 ballots issued, 9129 returned, 99 per cent of them (9113) against Harris, only 116 in favour. The GRA is on a collision course with Drew Harris and the Dublin Government over rosters introduced to deal with the Covid 19 emergency in 2020. Justice Minister Helen McEntee might be wishing she never heard of Drew Harris, but she has no excuses – plenty of warning lights were flashing.
Drew Harris was always a controversial choice. Appointed in September 2018, his preceding police career was spent in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) of Northern Ireland from 1983 onwards. The RUC was renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in 2001 in order to overcome a well-earned bad reputation. Skeletons are in the cupboard, and they haunt the boss of An Garda Síochána. One significant reason for the RUC’s negative image is the 1975 Miami Showband Massacre.
Unclean Hands of Garda Boss Drew Harris
Miami Showband Massacre Survivor Stephen Travers on the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris :
When he was part of the PSNI, Mr Harris had blocked, delayed and frustrated every effort to “find out who shot our lads”, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
On Wednesday September 27 a world premiere takes place in Dublin’s Irish Film Institute
World Premiere
During the winter of 1969, young boys started to disappear from the streets of Belfast, never to be seen again. By 1974, as the Troubles were reaching a bloody and vicious peak, five boys in total had vanished within a five-mile radius. Fifty years later, as the disappearances remain unsolved and families continue to search for answers, filmmaker Des Henderson (How to Diffuse a Bomb) reopens these largely forgotten cold-cases, unearthing disturbing revelations in secret state documents to tell an extraordinary tale of abuse, trauma and potential cover-up.
Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn
Ed Moloney offers the recommendation below. Chris Moore, a journalist who has researched the subject thoroughly for many decades, wrote a fascinating (and chilling) background story about state collusion and child abuse on Ed Moloney’s blog in June 2023. it is reprinted below.
I had the opportunity yesterday to watch the new Kincora film made by Belfast’s own film company Alleycats. Called ‘Lost Boys’ it asks a simple but necessary question: was the disappearance and murder of four Belfast schoolboys in the 1970’s linked to the subsequent Kincora scandal, which broke some few years afterwards, revealing that all the employees at the home for wayward boys had been abusing inmates for years?
Tomás Ó Flatharta 