Gazan doctor fears she will lose place on University College Cork (UCC) course after visa application rejected – Irish Times Story
From the Irish Times, November 1 2025
Well done to the journalist Órla Ryan
One word sums up this story – Despicable
Gazan doctor fears she will lose place on UCC course after visa application rejected
Baraa Mansour, who was evacuated from Palestinian enclave in 2024, says refusal of her visa is ‘devastating’
A doctor from Gaza fears she will lose her place on a Master’s course at University College Cork because she cannot secure a visa to come to Ireland.
Baraa Mansour was evacuated from Gaza in May 2024 so she could complete her medical studies. She has been in Cairo in Egypt since then.
Ms Mansour (25) initially applied for a short-term study visa, which would have allowed her to stay in Ireland for three months, in March. This application was rejected in April.
She appealed this decision via Khurshid and Co solicitors, a legal firm based in Dublin. Her appeal was rejected in August.
n a detailed letter, the department outlined several reasons for refusing the visa. It set out concerns relating to an existing personal relationship Ms Mansour had in Ireland and “grave concerns” she may seek to overstay a visa and remain in the country without permission.
Later that month, she was offered a place on the Master of Public Health programme at UCC. She then reapplied for a long-term study visa and is awaiting a decision.
Ms Mansour said UCC “kindly” allowed her to delay her arrival to date, but she fears she will lose her place if the visa is not granted imminently.
A number of doctors based in Ireland have supported her application, including one who has paid around €9,000 in tuition fees and another who has offered her accommodation. The tuition fees will be refunded if Ms Mansour is not granted a visa and cannot come to Ireland.
Ms Mansour, who was studying to be a doctor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza when the war broke out, said it was “very, very difficult” to leave Gaza while her parents and other loved ones stayed.
Read the rest of this entry »A series of Tributes to the Investigative Journalist Ed Moloney – “A strong voice against censorship: both that of the state and the more insidious self-censorship that had crept into journalism”
A number of tributes to the investigative journalist Ed Moloney are published below.
Also included is an account of how Ed published sensational evidence about the role of William Stobie (at one time a quarter-master in the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association), in the political murder of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. The British state’s unsuccessful attempt to obtain details of the journalist’s confidential sources were defeated.
It is refreshing to read tributes about about a man I knew well that are kind, affectionate, and that do not pretend Ed was a saint.
He had a short fuse!
Political Nonsense Expressed by British MP Zarah Sultana of the new British left organisation “Your Party” – she attacks Volodymyr Zelensky to justify scabbing on the Ukrainian workers – Critics say : “it is perfectly possible to support a people’s struggle for national freedom while opposing the govt or political leadership currently at the head of that struggle”
The British Ukraine Solidarity Campaign is a growing force.
It recently won the support of the UNITE trade union, which also organises in Ireland.
UNITE the Union votes overwhelmingly for strong solidarity with Ukraine
But some parts of the British left offer policies which pretend to be anti-imperialist, but they stink.
It reminds this writer of bad old days in the 1960’s and 1970’s when many left organisations – from the Labour party to Official Sinn Féin and the Communist party – refused to practice solidarity with comrades in the six-county part of Ireland because they disagreed with the policies of Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the main republican organisations which had a mass following.
We can not do anything about political mistakes made in the past – but we can learn from them and do better in the future. One big positive example from those days was the formation of the National H-Block-Armagh.
Readers interested. who like to burrow into useful political history, are invited to read this book review :
Smashing H Block:The Rise and Fall of the Popular Campaign Against Criminalization
In the meantime, congratulations to the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign in Britain.
John Meehan October 28 2025
From Ukraine Solidarity Campaign
We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers’ rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left: www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ysjFKK
First up – yes, Zelensky is no friend of Ukraine’s working class in the sense that his government pursues right-wing, neoliberal, anti-worker economic policies.
Unlike Zarah Sultana, we actually know something about this, since we are connected to Ukraine’s unions and have been actively involved in helping them fight these policies.
Read the rest of this entry »Man charged over a child-rape, CityWest racist riots; Despicable commentary by government and Sinn Féin representatives, echoed by irresponsible journalists
Man charged over a child-rape, CityWest racist riots; Despicable commentary by government and Sinn Féin representatives, echoed by irresponsible journalists
Sinn Féin has a lot of influence, and is playing the racist card.
Listen to Matt Carthy TD, SF, Cavan-Monaghan.
Well-spotted by Saoirse McHugh; and well spoken by Eimer McAuley, a journalist.
Saoirse McHugh :
” Politicians defending these despicable “legitimate concerns” protests have carried the ball up the pitch for the riots at citywest. Thank God Eimer is there cause none of these people, TDs included, seem to give a shit when it ‘ s a white Irish man brutalizing, abusing, or murdering women or children”
Cedar Lounge Revolution :
Spot On, Cedar Lounge Revolution
The same message is promoted by irresponsible RTÉ journalists and government politicians such as Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan on news programmes and RTÉ’s Prime Time referencing “legitimate” concerns expressed by residents, contributing to a “consensus” that immigrants are the problem, and tougher deportation policies are needed.
Read the rest of this entry »A tribute to the outstanding journalist Ed Moloney, who passed away in New York Aged 77
Ed was a great friend and will be missed.
Condolences to Joan McKiernan, and all friends, colleagues, and comrades.
A reminder : Ed Moloney’s work on issues concerning child abuse in the six-county bit of Ireland which remain unsolved :
John Meehan October 20 2025
Catherine Connolly Irish Presidential Campaign and Climate Change which threatens humanity
In a Facebook discussion, the Swiss eco-socialist activist Chris Zeller points out that the British “Your Party” makes no statement about climate change which threatens humanity – I wonder has the Catherine Connolly presidential campaign in Ireland made a climate change declaration?
Chris’s statement, which I endorse ” I have the impression that “Your Party” is no exception. In several European countries, we see that the traditional left and the trade unions are more or less consciously putting the ecological challenge on the back burner. I would go so far as to argue that the fossil fuel backlash we are seeing in all key sectors of capital has eaten deep into the traditional left and the trade unions.
We are currently less far along than we were possibly in 2019. However, the Earth system is changing abruptly. The effects will pose a concrete threat to the physical survival of a significant portion of humanity in just a few decades. Yet the imperialist countries – including trade unions and the left – assume that the suffering will spread far away from our societies in Europe and North America.
This, of course, raises important strategic questions. My working hypothesis is that we urgently need to build a transnational revolutionary eco-socialist vanguard.
We need collectives and organisations that vigorously oppose the fossil fuel backlash and the power of fossil fuel capital in general.”
Possibly Catherine Connolly makes a good start here :
John Meehan October 13 2025
“If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president” – Justine McCarthy’s interesting comment on the 2025 Irish Presidential Election
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.
Read the rest of this entry »“Businessman behind smears against Jim Gavin previously spread false claims about rival” – Irish Times report on Kieran Kelly, far-right targeter of Irish presidential candidate
Far-right activist Maria Steen, who failed to secure a nomination for the 2025 Irish presidential election, agrees she spoke with Kieran Kelly.
The 2025 Irish presidential election is toxic and dirty, and that is going to continue, TrumpSteen or no TrumpSteen.
“When contacted by The Irish Times on Monday, (Kieran Kelly) declined to share any evidence for the claims, saying it would be made available at a later date.
Mr Kelly said online that he had a call this month with Maria Steen, the conservative campaigner trying to enter the presidential election.
Ms Steen confirmed the call during a press conference on Tuesday.
She said: “As you can imagine, I’ve been getting calls from lots of different people who I have never met before and have never spoken to before.
“I had a call with Kieran Kelly. He mentioned nothing about Jim Gavin or any other candidate to me. He talked about, I think, that there’s an organisation called the Wild Geese, of Irish people abroad, who are taking an interest in Irish politics.
“That was the sum total of the phone call. I listened to what he had to say, and that was it.”
- Cormac McQuinn and Pat Leahy Irish Times, September 23 2025
The left-wing candidate Catherine Connolly needs to promote a positive anti-racist message.
The absence of Steen from the presidential ballot paper is tempting government coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to play the racist card in support of their candidates Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys.
Read the rest of this entry »Dark Comedy Show : Will Maria Steen be a Far-Right Frankenstein Candidate on the Irish Presidential ballot? – It is odds-on, a racing certainty
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.
Read the rest of this entry »Britain : “Your Party is Our Party – stop wrecking this opportunity!” Anti-Capitalist Resistance Statement
Britain badly needs a new mass left party. A new organisation temporarily called “Your Party” – headed by Westminaster MP’s Zarah Sultana and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn – looked promising. It has descended into chaos.
The article below by Anti-Capitalist Resistance suggests a way out. Let’s hope political sanity takes over.
Link :
Your party is Our Party – Stop Wrecking this Opportunity
AntiCapitalist Resistance welcomed the announcement by Zarah Sultana of a new left party involving herself and Jeremy Corbyn. When 800,000 people signed up to the mailing list it confirmed a huge appetite for a left voice at elections but also in our communities and workplaces.
The events of the last few days however have been chaotic and exposed deep splits in the organising group of Your Party. The regular leaks to the capitalist press had already shown there were divisions but the membership launch fiasco and the threats to call in lawyers and the Information Commissioners office is hugely damaging.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 