Archive for the ‘Referendums’ Category
Sinn Féin, Cheltenham Horse Races, and Treaties
This reminds us of a Very Popular Quiz Question :
Q What is the Difference Between the Sinn Féin Negotiators Who Came Back With Treaties Negotiated With the British Ruling Class in 1921 and 1998?
A At least The 1921 Negotiators Came Back With 26 Counties!
Super Chairperson Joe Kelly – What is the Statement behind Your Question? A Frank Discussion About the Irish Peace Process With John Meehan and Killian Forde
Thoughts of Chairperson Joe Kelly, April 8 1938 – December 7 2016.
Phrases that came immediately to mind :
“How’s Your Love Life?”
“What is the statement behind your question?”
“Are there any loose people in the room?”
“What’s your point?”
“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” [borrowed from Emma Goldman]
“Can we break up into small groups?
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Joe Kelly voted No to the deletion of Articles 2 and 3 from the Irish Constitution in a 1998 Referendum, a very unopular decision – only 5 per cent of the voters wanted to keep these Articles.
Joe was very troubled about this and discussed it often with me. Being the man he was, he organised a broadcast radio discussion between me and a then Sinn Féin member of Dublin City Council Killian Forde.
Here is a transcript : Read the rest of this entry »
The super chairperson – Joe Kelly, born April 8 1938, died Wednesday December 7 2016, Aged 78.
Tributes are pouring in to Joe Kelly. In future days a lot more will be written said and sung about an outstanding political activist and very firm friend.Death Notice of Joe Kelly
A small initial contribution is below, along with some other tributes seen on social media.
The mid-1980’s : The first big mass campaign where Joe Kelly and I worked together was Miscarriages of Justice, primarily the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six : innocent Irish people in British jails, framed by the British State, sentenced to life imprisonment and no mass campaign existed. That changed in Dublin, Joe Kelly was its heartbeat. An enormous “Parade of Innocence” in Dublin, headed by the Diceman Thom McGinty, was one outstanding result. Declan Gorman Writes About Dublin’s Parade of Innocence
Abortion Legislation Again
Dublin Government moves with the speed of a glacier on abortion – mote than 20 years after the X Case.
It will be interesting to see if, as reported in the SBP at the weekend by Pat Leahy and in the Irish Times today, the Cabinet does indeed decide to legislate for limited abortion ‘in accordance with the X case judgement’. The SBP suggests that at today’s Cabinet meeting the legislation will mean the following:
…abortion will be available where a mother’s life is threatened, including by suicide. However, it will be not be legal in cases of rape or where the foetus is unviable. It is expected that the “suicide test” will be as restrictive as possible.
If legislation is decided for many will find it near incomprehensible how the latter two instances of rape and foetal unviability can not be included even in this entirely minimal legislation. But as was pointed out to me yesterday discussing this with activists – and as stated in the SBP –…
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An Irish Rising Day, November 17 2012 – “The great only appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!” – Jim Larkin
http://www.facebook.com/actiononx2012
The foundations of the right-wing Fine Gael / Labour Coalition are shaking, trembling, and rocking from side to side :
If it falls, good riddance
“Today a statue of “Big Jim” stands on O’Connell Street in Dublin. The inscription on the front of the monument is an extract in French, Irish and English from one of his famous speeches:
Les grands ne sont grands que parce que nous sommes à genoux: Levons-nous.
Ní uasal aon uasal ach sinne bheith íseal: Éirímis.
The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.The slogan, first used on the 18th century French radical paper Révolutions de Paris,[14] also appeared on the masthead of the Workers’ Republic, founded by James Connolly in Dublin in August, 1898. Originally the organ of the Irish Socialist Republican Party, this periodical later became the official organ of the Communist Party of Ireland, which was founded in 1921. The original slogan is usually attributed to Camille Desmoulins (1760–1794), the French revolutionary”
Today :
Mass protest is the only way to win change on abortion
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/savita-protest-dublin-677586-Nov2012/
The November 17 Never Again Dublin Demonstration got huge media coverage in Ireland and abroad.
The Irish Times Reported :
It was headed by a giant banner which read “Never Again”, adorned with images of the 31-year-old Indian dentist.
Organisers of the Dublin march said about 20,000 people had turned out, but a Garda spokeswoman said they estimated the figure to be between 10,000 and 12,000.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1118/breaking3.html
Clare Daly TD spoke powerfully :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=faZj8L5pqGw
See also this statement from the ULA TD’s Clare Daly and Joan Collins :
Labour and Fine Gael bear responsibility for death of woman who was denied abortion
– The crisis is triggered by 7 governments’ refusals to act on the 20-year-old 1992 Supreme Court X Case Abortion Judgment
– The crisis is caused by the preventable death of Savita Halappanavar – 20 TD’s voted for Clare Daly TD’s Bill to implement the X Case Judgment – 111 Members of the Leinster House Parliament – mainly Fine Gael and Labour Government Deputies – voted against – Read the rest of this entry »
Global Coverage of Savita Halappanavar’s Avoidable Death in an Irish Galway Hospital
“As the news of Halappanavar’s death was reported via newspaper front pages on Tonight With Vincent Browne on TV3, and across Twitter on Tuesday night, reactions almost uniform in their sadness, anger and outrage turned to organising demonstrations both in memory of Halappanavar and against the delay in legislating on the ‘X Case’, which international readers can learn about here. By Wednesday evening, protests had already taken place in Ireland, and Halappanavar’s death and the surrounding issues were being covered internationally.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/poplife/2012/11/14/savitahalappanavar/
Never Again – Savita Sought an Abortion in a Galway Hospital – Irish State Said No – 3 Days Later She Died
Months ago ULA TD Clare Daly TD proposed a new law to implement the 1992 Supreme Court Judgment in the X Case. 20 Dail Deputies voted Yes to Clare’s bill – they have nothing to be ashamed about. 111 Deputies, mainly Fine Gael and Labour Government Deputies, voted against the X Case Bill. Shame on them. Time for a new emergency bill – never again.
Campaign Against House Tax Conference Votes for Opposing the Austerity Treaty
A conference of the Campaign Against the Household and Water Tax (CAHWT) meeting on Saturday May 19 in the Red Cow Hotel decided for voting No to the Austerity Treaty in Ireland on May 31. Eight motions calling for a No Vote were discussed in the morning session chaired by Tommy McKearney. The mood of the conference is summed up in the Dublin South Motion :
Conference Agrees that nationally the CAHWT calls for a No Vote in the forthcoming Referendum on the Fiscal Treaty
A very large majority of the 250 people attending the conference supported the Vote No Policy. No counter-motions were proposed, but members of the anarchist Workers’ Solidarity Movement argued against the majority view.
http://nohouseholdtax.org/national-conference-may-19th-2/
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0520/breaking16.html
50 per cent have not paid the house tax – latest figures
It is official – only 50 per cent of eligible victims have signed up to the house tax – many thanks to Nama Winelake for the story.
In advance of the referendum on 31st May, there appears to be a temporary lull in talk of austerity, at least talk by the Government. It almost feels like being back as a child at home when there are visitors, and you have committed some real or imagined transgression and you know as soon as the visitors leave, you’ll be in for a leathering. And the anxiety is that as soon as the referendum is out of the way on 31st May, we won’t be able to escape wall-to-wall coverage about household charges, septic tank registration fees, fines, prosecutions and the results of the expert group looking at charging structures for a new property tax in 2013 – the only certainty is the commitment with the IMF which states in the Memorandum of Understanding (page 83) there will be “an increase in property tax.”
But what about the household charge for…
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Tomás Ó Flatharta 