Tomás Ó Flatharta

The editors are still gathering thoughts at this site, and found articles that are worth reading (we also had to plough through some awful rubbish).

Let us begin with a surprisingly positive piece from the right-wing Dublin tabloid, the Evening Herald :

History in the making as poster boy Boyd Barrett and hard left triumphs –

NEW FACES: ‘We won’t be doing any deals’

http://www.herald.ie/opinion/cormac-murphy-history-in-the-making-as-poster-boy-boyd-barrett-and-hard-left-triumphs-2559394.html

Harry Browne in the American radical magazine Counterpunch suggests :

Same Old, Same Old at the Top, But …

Irish Election Makes Room for the Left Read the rest of this entry »

DUBLIN COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS

The present economic crisis having its roots in international capitalist contradictions was accentuated by decisions taken by the Fianna Fail government serving the interests of bankers, speculators, and developers. The Fianna Fail solution to solve this crisis was by imposing austerity measures on social welfare recipients, low and middle income earners. These measures must be vigorously resisted and reversed.

The four year Fianna Fail plan approved by the IMF/ EU and supported in broad terms by Fine Gael promises more austerity. This policy will solve nothing. This agreement must be renegotiated with the minimum demand to uncouple the bank debt. Read the rest of this entry »

Maman Poulet Reports :

http://www.mamanpoulet.com/declan-bree-to-join-united-left-alliance/

Good News

And More Here :

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0213/breaking12.html

Congratulations to Richard for doing this interview :

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/interview-with-richard-boyd-barrett/

talking openly about his biological mother Sinéad Cusack, and how adoption worked in the 1960’s when the Catholic Church exercised near-dictatorial social control.

Another life touched by the hypocrite Father Michael Cleary :

“Richard’s brother, Douglas Boyd Barrett, was one of the two sons Fr Michael Cleary fathered with his housekeeper Phyllis Hamilton”

Richard’s  support for a pro-choice abortion policy and the decriminalisation of drugs is very welcome.

Ed Moloney has written a very good obituary of the Sunday Tribune :

http://thebrokenelbow.com/2011/02/08/the-death-of-a-newspaper/

For many years it has been an excellent independent news-source on six-county issues, way ahead of the establishment media which has lived by an old discredited motto “we must say or do nothing which….damages the peace process”.

This followed naturally from its parent “we must say or do nothing which helps the Provisional IRA”  ; a policy which got its supreme moment when Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave made a  state-wide TV and Radio live broadcast hours after loyalist bombs had killed over 30 civilians in Dublin and Monaghan car-bombings in May 1974.  The Fine Gael leader denounced the IRA – no wonder the police investigation failed miserably!

One of the few sane voices those days was the radical North Munster workers’ magazine the Bottom Dog, which featured Mr Cosgrave on its cover, shortly before his discredited government left office after a humiliating general election defeat :

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/02/07/left-archive-the-bottom-dog-the-working-class-paper-of-north-munster-august-6th-1976/

Let us draw inspiration  from these sources, as a Fine Gael / Labour government looms after February 25, likely to be headed by Mr Cosgrave’s spiritual son, Enda Kenny.