Ireland

Ireland: The decision of the Workers and Unemployed Action Group to withdraw
from the United Left Alliance is an unwelcome symptom of the growing
impasse within the ULA, previously reflected in the controversy over
Mick Wallace and the departure of Clare Daly from the Socialist Party.
The WUAG has a long standing base in South Tipperary and its departure
will have an influence on the development of the ULA at a national
level.

Across Europe it is the sick the old and especially the young that
are being forced to pay for the economic crisis. In Spain and Greece
youth unemployment stands at over 50%. In Ireland although that figure
is somewhat lower at 17.9% but this still means nearly 1 in 5 youth are
workless.

Many politically active workers and young people in Ireland and beyond will be scratching
their heads over this weekend’s spat between the leadership of the
Socialist Party and former Socialist Party TD Clare Daly. A series of
statements and counter statements have done little to clarify what are
the real political differences between the SP and Daly who is widely
acknowledged as a hard working and respected TD. Unfortunately, the issues
aren’t going away easily, the right wing press will make sure of
that.

Ireland: The formation of a left tendency in the Labour Party is a welcome
development. After 18 months of coalition government it’s clear that
Eamon Gilmore’s claim to defend working people by working with Fine Gael
was not worth the paper upon which it was written.

There has been a certain feeling over
the past three or four years that we are living through history, the
sort of history, that is, which people pick over many years into the
future when they try to explain the factors that led to a war or a
revolution for example.

RTÉ and the Irish press report fairly
regularly about the workings of the Troika and the discussions Enda
Kenny (leader of Fine Gael) and Michael Noonan (Minister of Finance)
hold with European Union and the IMF, although the edited highlights and
the “communiqués” don’t mention the small print. As many people behind
on the mortgage will have found out to their cost over the last few
years, the devil is in the detail.

The flurry of articles in the Irish press over the last few days
attacking the Croke Park Deal should not come as any surprise. However,
it is noteworthy that these ladies and gentlemen chose the days after
the referendum vote to start putting the boot in.

The Irish Times reports that as soon as the result of the referendum
on the treaty appeared to be in the bag, Enda Kenny was on the phone to
Angel Merckel presumably for a pat on the head as he reported on the
completion of his mission.

This year as every year there will be
marches and commemorations attended by the various strands of Irish
socialism and republicanism to mark the anniversary of the Easter
Rising. There will be a remembrance of those who fell in the struggle
for national liberation and socialism in 1916, during the War of
Independence and since then. Attention is already being given to the
possible events to mark the centenary of the rising in 2016

At Easter every year in every parish
in Ireland and in many places around the world Irish Republicans gather
to pay homage to those men and women who died in the struggle for
independence. This year, 2012, will be no different. However, whereas 50
years ago there was only one Republican Movement, today there are at
least seven different republican traditions that have emerged out of the
northern struggle.

Last Saturday’s rally in Ireland organised by the Campaign against Household and Water
Taxes (CAHWT) demonstrated clearly that the opposition to the Household
Taxes is likely to be a major thorn in the side of Fine Gael and Labour
over the next period. The immediate problem for the Department of the
Environment, Community and Local Government however is not the 3,000
people who attended the rally at the National Stadium and those who
attended the other rallies. It’s the fact that only 328,201 households
have registered for the Household tax, from a total of more or less 1.6
million.

IRELAND: The nineteenth century was
proving to be another age of poverty, oppression and starvation for the
mostly Catholic tenant farmers. They were still at the mercy of the
landlords who charged increasingly exorbitant rents and would not
hesitate to evict any family who could not pay. Keeping his tenancy was a
matter of life or death to the farmer and his family.