Archive for the ‘Ireland’ Category
Yves Sakila – A death on Henry Street, Dublin 1 – Reject and Crush Racism – All Refugees Welcome
On May 19 2026 Ebun A Joseph posted this important message on her facebook page
Yves Sakila is dead. A man lost his life on the streets of Dublin over an alleged case of shoplifting. Let that sink in.
What makes this even more disturbing is that, had the 4:44 minutes footage not emerged, many people would likely have accepted a simplified version of events without questioning what actually happened. The video raises deeply troubling questions: multiple men restraining one individual, excessive force being used, knees pressed onto his body, hands pulled back. It is impossible to watch without feeling shock and real distress.
No one should die over an unproven allegation of shoplifting. What were they thinking? Are people losing their humanity? 🤐
A life has been lost over something allegedly taken from a shop — something replaceable. Yves Sakila is not replaceable. He was a human being.
There is also a wider and painful reality that many Black people recognise too well: the disproportionate suspicion, surveillance, and criminalisation of Black bodies in public spaces, including shopping centres and retail environments. These experiences cannot be separated from the public concern and grief surrounding this case.
This cannot become another social media moment that fades away without accountability or answers. There must be a thorough, transparent, and independent investigation into all the circumstances surrounding Yves Sakila’s death.
A man is dead. His family deserves answers. The public deserves accountability. And communities deserve reassurance that justice applies equally to everyone.
Protests are mushrooming :
Read the rest of this entry »Breaking the Gaza Blockade: Ukrainians on the Sumud Flotilla to Gaza – Arrested on the high seas by Israel’s Genocide Navy – Release all crew members now!
Two Ukrainian activists, Andrii Movchan and Nina Potarska, have been arrested by the armed forces of the genocidal Israeli state.
Israeli Navy’s criminal attack on Gaza flotilla: Ukrainian team among detained crews. Release them all now!
April 30, 2026
The European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) has learned that the vessel carrying the Ukrainian team as part of the Sumud Global Flotilla 2026 was one of those illegally seized by the Israeli Navy early this morning.
According to an Al Jazeera report seven out of the 58 vessels were captured by Israel near Crete, over a thousand kilometres from the coast of Gaza.
ENSU coordinator Szymon Martys described the raid as “a blatant and cynical attack on unarmed vessels navigating peacefully in international waters”. He demanded the immediate release of the detained crews, which include the Ukrainian team of Nina Potarska and Andrii Movchan.
Martys said that ENSU, which is supporting the two Ukrainian peace and human rights activists, had no information as to their situation, but assumed that they, along with other crews, were being held illegally on an Israeli navy vessel.
“They must all be freed immediately”, he added, and called on the Ukrainian government, along with the governments of all the kidnapped crews, to demand their immediate release.
Martys commented that the Israeli’s government’s action–attacking the flotilla when it was far from Gaza and before public attention on its mission would be at a peak–betrayed its fear of the power of international solidarity with the Palestinian people.
“We in the Ukraine solidarity movement understand this truth”, he added. “Powerful governments, like Netanyahu’s and Putin’s, although armed to the teeth, can be brought low by the mass mobilisation of all who stand for the rights of peoples. The Sumud Global Flotilla is symbol of popular indignation at the murderous violence of war and of people’s determination to stand with the oppressed.”
The Ukrainian team had joined the Sumud Global Flotilla to help the humanitarian effort for the blockaded people of Gaza, towards whom they, as members of a nation also victim of brutal invasion, feel a special duty of solidarity.
I invite you to read my new English translation for Спільне / Commons: “Breaking the Gaza Blockade: Ukrainians on the Sumud Flotilla.”
It is a thought-provoking interview with Ukrainian activists Andrii Movchan and Nina Potarska about Gaza, Ukraine, occupation, human rights, and solidarity.
Read the rest of this entry »Government Decision “Heartless and Cruel” and must be opposed says Irish Left With Ukraine
Press Statement – Government decision ‘heartless and cruel’ and must be opposed says Irish Left With Ukraine
Irish Left With Ukraine (ILWU) has condemned as “heartless and cruel” the government decision to withdraw accommodation supports for Ukrainian refugees, and has called on the trade union movement and all progressive forces to immediately launch a campaign to “reject firmly the government’s pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment.”
“In the midst of a housing crisis, the threat to throw 16,000 Ukrainians out of state-provided accommodation will mean evicting many of these people into homelessness,” said ILWU in a statement. “It will mean people being uprooted from their communities, children having to leave schools in which they are settled and have made classmates and friends, and people having to quit their jobs.
Alongside this, the decision to cut and eventually end altogether the Accommodation Recognition Payment will impact directly on a further 42,000 people who are currently accommodated in people’s homes across the country.
Read the rest of this entry »Hungary – “Defeating Orbán is One Thing – Defeating Orbanism Quite Another”
Donnacha Ó Beacháin discussed the Hungary elections with Flor MacCarthy and
@shonamurray.bsky.social on Oireachtas TV. Defeating Orbán is one thing, dismantling Orbánism quite another Expectations are high and Magyar’s support base is diverse, even contradictory. Managing expectations will be key to avoiding fragmentation
Six lessons from Hungary’s vote and Orbán’s defeat An “illiberal democracy” can be ousted — what India and the world should learn
Link :
Six lessons from Hungary’s vote and Orbán’s defeat
Kavita Krishnan examines the fall of Orbán in greater detail here :
Writing in The Hindu after Viktor Orbán’s 12 April 2026 electoral defeat, Indian Marxist-feminist Kavita Krishnan draws six lessons for an international readership and, above all, for India under Narendra Modi. She argues that illiberal democracies can be ousted at the ballot box; that obituaries for universal democracy are premature; that Ukraine won the Hungarian vote; that regime-change accusations are confessions; that Orbán’s fall is a defeat for Xi Jinping as well as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu; and that pro-democracy forces must now discard the “West versus rest” map and consolidate their gains across borders. [AN]
Hungarian voters have swept their far-right strongman Viktor Orbán out of office, ending his 16-year run as Prime Minister and electoral autocrat. Here are six lessons the world can take from them.
Read the rest of this entry »Ukrainians join Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza – Ukraine, Palestine, Occupation Is A Crime
Two Ukrainian volunteers are participating in the 2026 Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza.
They are Nina Potarska and Andrii Movchan, and the links to the media release announcing this participation and their biographical details can be found below.
Media: ukraine-solidarity.eu YouTube Facebook Instagram Mail: info@ukraine-solidarity.eu
ENSU Media statement
Ukrainians join Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza
Ukrainian volunteers in the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza say their participation is a call for humanitarian access, international accountability and solidarity against occupation
Ukrainian volunteers in the Global Sumud Flotilla Mission to Gaza say their participation is a call for humanitarian access, international accountability and solidarity against occupation, reports the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine.
Two representatives of Ukrainian human rights activism have announced their participation in the international civilian mission to Gaza, joining volunteers from across the world in an effort to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.
Read the rest of this entry »Eilish Moore RIP
Many thanks to Marion McEvoy for letting us know the sad news. Eilish was a heroic activist in the National H Block / Armagh Campaign from 1979 to 1981. Smashing H-Block After that she supported many similar anti-imperialist causes which were not popular with the Irish establishment. In the late 1960’s Eilish worked as a nurse. When she got to know me as a political activist, she told me that she had become a great friend of my father Denis in 1968-9. He was suffering from terminal cancer. Like Eilish, he was determined to continue seeing the funny side of life.
I am sure many other friends have great memories of Eilish.
Eilish Moore ran the Meeting Place, a bastion of Dublin’s folk scene in the 1970s for many years. She came from a talented musical family which included her brothers Christy Moore and Luka Bloom (aka Barry Moore).
Condolences to all her friends, family members, feminists, socialists, and comrades. She will be missed.
John Meehan April 25 2026
Vincent Doherty adds :
Eilish was a dear friend who got me back singing and playing music. After having lost the spirit during the 1980’s she encouraged me and invited me a few times to perform at the gigs she ran in Mother Redcaps.Her son Conor loaned me a flute to get me started again and l’m incredibly indebted to Eilish and her extended family for a lot of support I hot over the years. I loved her rougish laugh and her irrevrrence towards various sacred cows. Eilish really was one of a kind.
Eilish Moore sings on RTÉ’s Late Late Show in 1988 :
Link :
Eilish and Nancy Moore, Late Late Show 1988
Seated beside Nancy Moore in the audience is her eldest daughter Eilish, who accepts an invitation to sing. She performs a version of ‘The Work Song’ a cappella. The Work Song was written by Canadian singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. It was first released by the American singer Maria Muldaur in 1973.
This episode of ‘The Late Late Show’ was first broadcast on 13 May 1988. The presenter is Gay Byrne.
Link, Eilish Moore’s death notice :
Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism
A few days before the Hungarian general election held on April 12 2026 the USA Vice president JD Vance flew into Budapest campaigning for the far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán. Vance, a high-profile member of the Catholic Church, picked the wrong place to boost a close ally. The self-described hillbilly bombed in Budapest.
Orbán was also strongly backed by the far-right president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Hungary joins a growing list of countries where candidates closely aligned with the far-right twins Trump-Putin sink to a humiliating defeat.
Adam Novak explores the issues in the interview below published on the
Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (ESSF) site:
Link :
Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism.
Among the fascinating details in the article below, we highlight two :
For Trump and Vance, it is the loss of the most useful ally within the European Council — the one who blocked collective decisions on Ukraine, including the 90-billion-euro loan to Kyiv that Orbán had vetoed. For Putin, it is the loss of the most accommodating European government on energy and sanctions. For European far-right parties, it is the signal that the model is not election-proof.
Vance delivered a speech on Christ and the Christian foundations of European civilisation before a comparatively secular Hungarian audience. He invoked workers’ rights without saying a word about the tech billionaires enriched under Trump. And he denounced Brussels bureaucrats for “making millions” whilst saying nothing of the oligarchy that Orbán himself built. The electoral effect of the visit is close to zero: Vance is little known in Hungary, and it was not Trump who came.
Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism.
After Orbán: Electoral Fractures and the Programmatic Void
The Hungarian legislative elections of 12 April 2026 brought to an end sixteen years of uninterrupted rule by Viktor Orbán. Péter Magyar’s Tisza (Respect and Freedom [Tisztelet és Szabadság]) party won a super-majority of 138 seats out of 199, inflicting on Fidesz a defeat explained by judicial scandals, saturation of the identitarian discourse, a generational fracture, and the concrete effects of the freeze on European funds.
Read the rest of this entry »“A Confederacy of Gobshites – Ireland’s Government of Contempt”- by Éamonn Sweeney
Once again, thanks to the editor of the Cedar Lounge Blog for drawing the attention of readers to very good Éamonn Sweeney left-wing analysis to the current Dublin government, which administers the 26 county bit of Ireland.
On this blog we describe the Mícheál Martin / Simon Harris government as FFFGBG – that is : a coalition of Fianna Fáil (FF), Fine Gael (FG), and Beggar-Gombeens (BG’s). The BG’s were assembled by the North Tipperary ex-FG minister Michael Lowry, who was thoroughly investigated by the Mahon Tribunal following credible allegations of financial corruption in the 1990’s. Fine Gael’s ethical standards are extremely low, but the party was obliged to expel Mr Lowry.
The BG’s got many perks for propping up the FFFG Martin-Harris duo – the biggest was the position of Dáil Ceann Comhairle (speaker) handed to the Wexford racist, and former FG member, Verona Murphy.
Some of the BG’s might be tempted to join their racist-fascist soul-brothers who lead the fuel blockade movement.
A coherent left-wing alternative is very badly needed.
Read the rest of this entry »
