Ireland

IRELAND: It’s now almost 100 days
since Enda Kenny took office at the head on the FG/Labour Coalition. The
election result was heralded as an historic defeat for Fianna Fáil, a
victory for Fine Gael and a major breakthrough for Labour. But despite the Independent description of Enda’s “ageing
matinee idol looks and good manners”, the election was no beauty
contest. The Irish economy and the Irish working class have been put
through the wringer over the last 3 or more years and it was the serious
impasse in the economy and within society also that defeated Brian
Cowen and the late Brian Lenihan.

Within the last couple of weeks there has
been yet another outbreak of youth protest internationally with the huge
movement in Spain which encompasses some 80 cities and now a new
movement in Greece has erupted. Meanwhile in North Africa and the Middle
East new waves of struggle are being prepared. However, if the Irish
press are to believed the waves of struggle that are affecting
everywhere else will barely cause a ripple in good ould Ireland. After
all, with the royal and presidential distractions of the last few weeks,
the only revolting youth to get any coverage in Ireland were Jedward.

IRELAND: News that Labour Ministers and TD’s have
been involved in a concerted campaign to attack Richard Bruton’s attacks
on low paid workers through changing the mechanisms of the Joint Labour
Committee has been denied by Pat Rabbitte who has claimed that the
suggestion is “utter nonsense”.

Options
are starting to run out for the Irish ruling class, already this week
they have deployed Jedward, Jack Charlton and the British Queen, while
Obama is waiting in the wings. Sooner
or later Bono and Geldof will appear and then it’ll be back to normal,
maybe they’ll even take the seals off the post boxes. Normal of course
is the IMF/EU, the Croke Park agreement and trying to reduce the
interest rates on the bailout.

If anyone was under any illusion that the mere detail of a
general election would have made any difference to the prospects for the
Irish economy and for unemployment in the state then by now their
illusions will have been severely tested.

Last
Thursday’s elections in the North saw a further swing towards both the
DUP and Sinn Féin. This reflects a drawn out process that has gradually
eroded the support for the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP since the
signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

As we approach the 95^th
anniversary of the Easter Rising many Irish socialists and republicans
will go out as they do every year to marches to celebrate the
anniversary of the episode which asserted Ireland’s right to national
self-determination. It was, however, also a revolution which saw the
working class prove itself in the words of Connolly as “the incorruptible inheritors of the fight for freedom in Ireland.”

As we mark the 95th anniversary of the easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland,
we republish an article written 10 years ago by Alan Woods and Ted
Grant.

In this article, written on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Uprising, Ted Grant writes that it is impossible to understand this heroic event without understanding the ideas of its leader, James Connolly – who considered himself a Marxist and based himself on the ideas of Internationalism and the class struggle. 

The announcement that the Irish banking sector needs another
€24 billion, that’s €24,000,000,000 in real numbers or another €5,500
for every Irish man, woman and child, is another sign of the capitalist
crisis in the state. Standard and Poor’s one of the main international
credit agencies has now downgraded Ireland by a further point.

In Belfast on March 26th, a twin demo to the London protest took place. Here is a report.

IRELAND: Friday’s election saw Labour gain the most
votes and seats in its history. But Fine Gael came out as the largest
party. Eamon Gilmore and Enda Kenny have established negotiating teams
to prepare the way for a coalition government. While Labour’s leaders
have given the negotiations the go ahead any final decision must be made
by the party conference which meets on Sunday. Fightback is wholly
opposed to such a deal.