Ireland

Abortion law brings tragedy to 17 Irish women every day

By Helen Shaw A seventeen year old Irish woman has won a High Court battle in Dublin to be allowed to come to Britain for an abortion. The woman, known only as “Miss D”, was told in the fourth month of her pregnancy that her foetus had failed to develop properly and is suffering anencephaly, which means that a significant part of the skull and brain are missing. Babies born with this condition are expected to live a maximum of three days. Abortion is illegal in the Republic of Ireland except for cases where the mother’s life is threatened by a medical condition or she is a suicide risk because...

Polish workers lead Dublin wildcat strike

On 27 April a wildcat strike broke out in Musgrave warehouses in Dublin. The whole crew, around 80 people, both immigrant and natives, stopped their work after successive acts of discrimination by the management. Around 50% of the workforce in the warehouse are immigrants, officially employed by work agencies, and face continous discrimination – worse working conditions, lower pay and fewer rights. On the day of the strike, a new work schedule showed workers’ breaks were cut short, expecting them to work for four hours in a row, in temperatures of around 4 degrees Celsius! At the same time...

Irish nurses’ industrial action

Nurses in Ireland are taking industrial action over pay and working hours. 40,000 members of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses’ Association, seeking a 10.6% pay rise alongside a 4-hour cut in their 39-hour working week, are in the third week of working-to-rule, refusing to do clerical or IT work. One-hour stoppages have taken place across the country, including in the largest hospital in Ireland, St. James’s in Dublin. Nurses are the only qualified group in Irish hospitals to work a 39-hour week – other grades work 35, with some clerical staff working 33. Hospital...

Provos, Protestants, and working-class politics - an imaginary dialogue: session five, part 2

Discussion with Donal R: Part 2 Donal: Let's take the question of Protestant/Catholic unity. That's where you really show yourselves up. You accuse me of tail-ending the Republicans. Patrick: The neo-Republicans! Donal: Whatever. Yet you are the ones who are hag-ridden with right-wing Republican myths about the unity of the Irish people. Your talk about working-class unity is part of that Mick: Why right wing? Donal: Well, that's the stuff the old Republican leaders tried to base themselves on, the ones who wanted federalism so that they could continue to have their Catholic, backward...

The rise and rise of Ian Paisley

By Paddy Dollard A news item about a small event of great symbolic importance appeared in the Irish Times the other day. The long-time enemy of everything Papist, Republican, or Catholic Nationalist Irish, Ian Paisley, has ordered five cotton clerical shirts (£30 each) from a shirt-maker in the Republic of Ireland, in Donegal. A sign of the times? The agreement made on 26 March to form a joint Six Counties government by Paisleyites and Provisional Sinn Fein, the communal polar opposites of Northern Ireland politics for the better part of four decades, was expected. It was also surprising...

Irish nurses work-to-rule

Up to 40,000 nurses began a work-to-rule in Irish hospitals on 2 April as part of their fight over pay and hours — and said they will escalate their action if their demands are not met. The Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association launched the work-to-rule — which will mean, for instance, nurses refusing to answer phones, input medical records or attend meetings not about patient welfare — after talks with management broke down on 1 April. Their members will continue to provide normal direct care to patients. The nurses are demanding a reduction in their working week...

Ireland, Northern Ireland: Provo IRA-Sinn Fein and working-class politics

Six articles about how the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein has changed over recent years, and background to Northern Irish politics. The end of the road for the Provos Paisley-Sinn Fein-IRA coalition—Partition remains the big problem - background Six-County politics 'Tan War, Civil war and Partition:"The Wind That Shakes the Barley" , Provos, Protestants and working-class politics – a dialogue , A discussion on Ireland with Tony Benn , Tony Benn and the Treacherous British Liberal Tradition on Ireland

Northern Ireland: the fault-lines “haven’t gone away”

Ian Paisley calls himself the “Leader of the Ulster People”. By that he means, leader of the Protestant-Unionist 56 per cent, or thereabouts, of the people living in the Six Counties. Now Paisley looks set to form a Six-County coalition government in partnership with Sinn Fein-IRA. Paisley is capable of shying away when the moment comes to take the big jump. But all the signs suggest that the “Leader of the Ulster People” is, at the age of 81, about to become First Minister of Northern Ireland, with Martin McGuinness as his Deputy in name and co-equal in practice. Will this mean general, long...

Paisley-Sinn Fein-IRA coalition—Partition remains the big problem - background Six-County politics

By John O’Mahony Ian Paisley calls himself the "Leader of the Ulster People". By that he means, leader of the Protestant-Unionist 56 per cent, or thereabouts, of the people living in the 6-Counties. Now Paisley looks set to form a 6-County coalition government in partnership with Sinn Fein-IRA. Paisley is capable of shying away when the moment comes to take the big jump. But all the signs and insider reports suggest that the "Leader of the Ulster People" is, at the age of 81, about to become First Minister of Northern Ireland, with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein as his Deputy in name and co...

Provos, Protestants, and working-class politics - an imaginary dialogue: appendix

Contents Introduction (2007) Session one: The issues stated Session two: a foothold for imperialism? Session three: Ireland, "permanent revolution", and imperialism Session four: Two Nations? Session five:a Provo socialist revolution? Appendix: a way to workers' unity? A debate from Socialist Organiser, 1983 "A way to workers’ unity?" by John O’Mahony. (Socialist Organiser 113) In Socialist Organiser no.109 we carried an interview with a Belfast NHS shop steward, Micky Duffy. Duffy, a 'Militant' supporter, argued that the workers' unity in the NHS pay struggle opened the way to political class...

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