President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Ireland on December 2 and 3 2025.
Irish Left With Ukraine stated :
We join with President Catherine Connolly in welcoming President Zelenskyy to Ireland today – Irish Left With Ukraine
This approach is shared by the leader of the Irish Labour party, Ivana Bacik :
” It will be an honour to stand with my Labour colleagues later today and welcome President Zelensky, and his wife Olena, to our national parliament.
In the face of ongoing aggression by Russia, the Ukrainian people continue to display immense bravery and resilience. We are now nearly four years into this war, a war that has shattered lives, displaced families and fundamentally changed the political landscape in Europe.The Ukrainian cause and the Ukrainian people cannot be abandoned. Labour will continue to voice our support for a free, sovereign and democratic Ukraine, taking its rightful place in the European Union. Like with Palestine, the history books will remember those who stood on the right side of history in this conflict, those who supported the Ukrainian people.”
Welcoming a leader of an oppressed invaded nation does not mean agreement with that leader’s policies. This is a no-brainer.
This article was published in the September 26 2025 edition of the Irish Times.
If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president
Northerners have a vested interest in an election portrayed as seminal for the abolition of partition. But they don’t have a vote
Catherine Connolly’s presidential election campaign would be a stroll to the park if Ireland honoured all its citizens’ rights. Instead, the Independent candidate is being accused of lip service by two parties that have ensured the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of potential voters from choosing their head of state.
Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland are allowed no say in an election that is being billed as crucial to their future constitutional status. Sinn Féin insists the next president must “champion a united Ireland”. Fine Gael says its candidate, Heather Humphreys, as a Presbyterian from a Border county, would symbolically unite the island. Fianna Fáil presents its candidate, Jim Gavin, as being Border-blind due to his involvement with the all-island GAA. Yet those living in the North’s six counties are silenced in the election. Their continuing exclusion reduces them to nominal citizens.
Addressing his party’s annual conference last weekend, DUP leader Gavin Robinson rebuked the Republic for what he called its “institutional intolerance of Protestant culture and heritage” but the southern State’s starker prejudice is against its own citizens in the North. Under the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, affirmed by the 1998 Belfast Agreement, people in Northern Ireland are entitled to choose to be citizens of Ireland. As such, the Irish President is their president. Ever since Mary Robinson’s election to the Áras in 1990, the office’s holders have striven to represent them with their presence and their utterances. But across the Liffey in Government Buildings the realpolitik means that extending voting rights to Northern citizens would be electoral hara-kiri, virtually handing Sinn Féin the presidency on a plate.
Let’s have a little fun regarding the nomination campaign of the conservative far-right, anti-choice and racist candidate Maria Steen; Steen is a veteran or Ireland’s anti-choice movement; readers can stay up-to-date here :
“Independent Ireland is expected to make a decision tomorrow or Wednesday morning.
Their decision could influence whether other TDs or senators – rumoured to include a small number on the conservative wing of Fianna Fáil – would lend her their vote before the presidential nomination deadline of noon on Wednesday.” (RTÉ News Report).
The entire Fianna Fáil organisation is conservative – although occasionally it makes gestures towards the left. Between 2011 and 2018 the party leadership realised it had to dump a too close association with Catholic Church anti-feminism and the vile crime of institutional child abuse. It is continuing this tactic by nominating the high-profile Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) figure Jim Gavin to be President of Ireland. Gavin states he is pro-choice, pro same-sex marriage, and voted to lift the constitutional ban on abortion in 2018. These statements make him totally unacceptable to the Irish far-right, which includes Maria Steen and the Aontú party led by ex Sinn Féin TD Peader Tóibín, who is in charge of the Maria Steen bingo card. It is a racing certainty Steen will be on the presidential ballot – she has the nominations of 13 or 14 Oireachtas members plus 4 from the Irish Independent party.
Irish presidential elections have a history of dirty personalised attacks.
The 2025 campaign will feature similar personalised attacks. The Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys was a right-wing minister in recent governments. Her family background includes relatives who were members of a reactionary far-right organisation, the Orange Order. The problem here is that nobody can control their family origins. Every living Irish person can go back a few decades and discover nasty skeletons in the cupboard. Humphreys, who favours ending the partition of Ireland, is no exception.
2025 Fine Gael Irish Presidential Candidate Heather Humphreys
Sometimes the personalised attacks work, on other occasions they backfired.
During the 1990 campaign Fianna Fáil discovered to their horror that their candidate Brian Lenihan was likely to lose the contest to Mary Robinson, a candidate nominated by the Labour party. Government minister Padraig Flynn stated that Robinson had “a new-found interest in her family”. It went down very badly. Robinson, a lawyer who had a civil rights and feminist background, became the Irish state’s first female president, and the first candidate who defeated a Fianna Fáil candidate in the race to live for 7 years in the luxurious Áras an Úachtaráin in the Phoenix Park.
In 1997 the canny Fianna Fáil party nominated a female lawyer and journalist, Mary MacAleese, who was born in the six-county bit of Ireland. The new FF candidate was anti-abortion and had a human rights record on other issues. This prompted an anonymous campaign claiming that MacAleese was a closet supporter of the IRA’s armed campaign during “The Troubles”. A separate campaign was launched against the Labour Party’s candidate Adi Roche claiming, amongst other things, that her brother was thrown out of the Irish state’s army in the early 1970’s for supporting armed defence of the nationalist minority in the six counties. The anti-Roche smear worked, but MacAleese stormed to victory. The Fine Gael party is the number one suspect for originating these personalised attacks, but this was never proved.
In 2011 an independent candidate Seán Gallagher seemed certain of victory until devastating evidence entered the public arena via a six-county businessperson, Mr Morgan from Armagh. Gallagher was a bagman for the Fianna Fáil party, and had relieved Mr Morgan of a substantial amount of money without returning a favour. Mr Morgan was wealthy, deeply involved in the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), and was a sponsor of his county team, Armagh. In Mr Gallagher’s trade you don’t mess with wealthy men, a lesson the candidate learned to his cost.
We are used to NIMBY (Not in my back-yard) racists in Ireland attacking asylum-seekers and refugees in vulnerable accommodation. This political plague is currently sweeping across the British State. An Epping Forest Judge, Mr Stephen Eyre, has political form in the six-county bit of Ireland
Judge in Epping Forest asylum hotel case ran for Tories in NI poll
Liam Tunney, Belfast Telegraph, August 22nd, 2025
A judge behind a landmark ruling on hotels accommodating asylum seekers in the UK once stood for election in Northern Ireland.
Stephen Eyre’s ruling on the legality of The Bell Hotel’s eligibility to house asylum seekers has sparked a wave of complaints to local authorities across the UK, including three councils in Northern Ireland.
The action, taken by Epping Forest District Council against Somani Hotels, alleged the group had not notified the local planning authority of a change of use for the premises.
Mr Eyre is a former election candidate for the Conservative Party, standing in Birmingham Hodge Hill in 1987, Stourbridge in 2001 and again in a 2004 by-election in Birmingham Hodge Hill.
In the 1992 General Election, he stood in Strangford as the Conservatives attempted to gain a foothold in Northern Ireland.
Voters in the 6 County bit of Ireland rejected Brexit in the 2016 British State referendum by a large margin : 55 to 45 per cent. This was a unique political event – opposition to Brexit broke down the normal sectarian divide on an important constitutional development in the north of Ireland : Almost all nationalists voted against Brexit, and they were joined by a significant number of Unionist (perhaps ex-Unionist) voters.
Afterwards a decision was needed : would a new European Union (EU) – Britain border divide the 6 and 26 county bits of Ireland – or would a new border emerge, dividing the island of Great Britain from all of Ireland?
Everybody knew a new Brexit border could not be imposed on Ireland. The British government needed window-dressing for its Unionist allies : the “Windsor Framework” was unveiled with a walk-on part for the reluctant British monarch King Charles.
This rickety constitutional construction kicked a sleeping dog. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement. copperfastened an imperialist crime – the 1922 partition of Ireland. A promise that partition could be ended through an internal 6 county referendum is part of the GFA – but this was never meant to happen. The architects of the GFA reasoned, correctly in 1998, that an anti-partition majority in the north of Ireland was extremely unlikely. The Unionist Veto was safe. After Brexit, not any more.
The former Fine Gael leader and taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is saying out loud what many people know is true but do not want to hear :
A Nigel Farage-led UK goverment could herald a united Ireland – Varadkar
The purpose of the meeting is to raise money for the work of the Samantha Smith Group charity project. The project deals with a very important job: organizes free online English lessons for Ukrainian refugees.
Learn more about the life of the project here.
How does charity work?
We get together at the pub and enjoy hanging out, playing board games or just hanging out. At the entrance we pay for a ticket for 10 euros (or buy tickets in advance in the header of Samantha’s profile). All proceeds will go to support the project.
Even if we get 10 people, the project will be able to pay for its site for a whole year, so even a very small contribution can be significant!
This is a low risk event, we will not be photographing participants.
So come on out and bring your friends!
See you on June 29 at 15.00. At Black Sheep Pub!
P.S. If you have cool tables at home – bring them, we will definitely try
Irish Left With Ukraine co-operates with Free Russians Ireland.
Irish Left With Ukraine, Return Abducted Ukrainian Children Demonstration, June 1 2025, The Spire DublinDes Dertwin speaks, Return Abducted Ukrainian Children Demonstration, June 1 2025, The Spire DublinReturn Abducted Ukrainian Children Demonstration, June 1 2025, The Spire Dublin
The writer Fearghal Mac Bhloscaidh offers very valuable insights into the June 2025 pogroms spreading from Ballymena in North Antrim to other towns in the 6 County bit of Ireland, notably Larne and Portadown. These vile events are related to similar sewer eruptions in the 26 county bit of Ireland and fit into a global rise of genocidal-racist powers such as Putin’s Russia, Netanyahu’s Israel, and their protectors such as Donald Trump’s USA. The latter is still a capitalist bourgeois democracy – but credible analysts now ask – for how long?
Below Fearghal’ s timely article – which contains very useful warnings from history : relevant references are made to the Marxist scholars and activists August Bebel, Victor Serge and Ernest Mandel :
We add :
A chilling report of an interview with the DUP Westminster MP for the Upper Bann constituency, Carla Lockhart.
A stark report from the 6 County bit of Ireland headlined “Week of Violence in North “Akin to 1930s Germany”
Racist Cancer Spreading From Ballymena in Ireland, Irish Times, June 14 2025
I recently discussed three interconnected issues on Raidió na Gaeltachta: reform to the South’s rent caps benefiting landlords and international funds, Trump’s authoritarian militarization of US protests, and the racist attacks in Ballymena/Larne.
We are delighted to publish a third tribute to Cathleen O’Neill on this blog – this time written by Shalim Malekmian for the Dublin Inquirer, May 14 2025. Thanks to Therese Caherty, who drew it to our attention
“A force bigger than life itself,” said a eulogy by O’Neill’s friend Carmel Jennings. “Working-class warrior,” said Rita Fagan, another friend of O’Neill’s.
A large pram is parked beside the door at 58 Amiens Street.
In a room on the left of the entrance, a baby boy wobbles on the ground, about to crawl.
Downstairs, toddlers play and chat with workers at the crèche in Saol Project, an education and support hub primarily for women grappling with drug addiction – but also those experiencing poverty and homelessness.
In the kitchen, patties sizzle in a pan. Most of the kids who come to Saol are children of its service users.
That’s what Cathleen O’Neill, its co-founder, wanted, said Paula Kearney, a training programme team leader at Saol, recently, sitting in the building’s backyard near a barbeque grill.
O’Neill wanted Saol to look after their kids so that women had time and space to recover and thrive, she said.
Two decades ago, O’Neill would bustle up and down the stairs at the old building, shows Born Bolshy, a 2002 documentary about her life by the late director Louis Lentin, saved in RTÉ’s archives.
“If you can! Alright, Mary. Thanks a million, bye, bye, bye, bye,” says O’Neill, before hanging up the phone at a tiny office in Saol.
Deepest condolences to all Cathleen’s family, friends, feminists, socialists, community activists and neighbours. She was a true warrior for all sorts of progressive causes. a very inclusive person, good singer, and unafraid to speak very plainly and politely when it was necessary. She was great company. There are great memories. She helped make Kilbarrack Dublin and Ireland a better place, especially for women. John Meehan
I first met Cathleen in the mid 1980’s via her great friends Joe Kelly and Therese Caherty.
Here are a few memories
23 People launched The Alliance for a No Vote (ANV), October 6 2001 in Dublin. Ivana Bacik, a Trinity College Dublin (TCD) Law Professor, introduced the discussion. ANV spokespersons included Sinéad Ní Chúalacháin, Catherine Naji and Cathleen O’Neill.
Founding organisations :
Irish Family Planning Association; Irish Council for Civil Liberties Women’s Sub-Committee; Lawyers for Choice; Cork Women’s Right to Choose Group; Dublin Abortion Rights Group; Women’s Education Research & Resource Centre, UCD; Pro Choice Campaign; Socialist Party; Workers’ Solidarity Movement.
Bertie Ahern’s government tried to sneak in an anti-choice amendment to the Irish constitution overturning a 1992 Supreme Court decision which made abortion in Ireland legal in certain circumstances – the X Case Judgement. The pro-choice side won.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 