January, 2023

  Though the Catholic Bishops of Ireland collectively supported the British appointed Provisional Government of 1922, and acquiesced in its murder of its Republican prisoners, that irregular junta, stuffed full of pietistic Catholics, chose not to  follow the normal European practice of giving workers a day’s break from work so that they were free to […]

Is the Tory party in its death throes? Zahawi’s hidden millions, B Johnson party animal, PPE contracts for mates, Matt Hancock and that loving feeling  – is there no end to it? Aren’t some people really brave. Armed only with clubs and big dogs, a group of Irish people attacked a tented area where a […]

I watched an old programme last night where Michael  Portillo’s train took him to Romania and its capital Bucharest.It showed a massive monumental block of flats, no uglier than the Victor Emmanuel monument in Rome, where many acres of handsome streets had been cleared of their residents at a few hours’ notice and flattened by […]

  The Irish Times this morning continues reporting bits of the survey it’s done regarding Irish politics and a united Ireland.The paper emphasise the impartiality of the research, with 1,000  people in the north and 1,000 people  in the south questioned, and in addition  focus group discussion. Today’s report tells the reader how much (or […]

  I strongly dislike our apparent inability to have a sensible and balanced discussion around immigration without accusations of far-right, bigoted or racist being hurled towards anyone even mildly critical of our current approach. Whilst I am sympathetic towards anyone looking to escape hardship – such as economic struggles or political oppression – this does […]

          I write of the Polish State established when “British and French  bayonets rescued Poland  from the bondage of a century and a half” in 1920.   I quote Winston Churchill’s speech in the British House of Commons on October 5 1938 following Poland joining Nazi Germany in grabbing territory from […]

Here’s part of an email Pat sent me today: “On Wednesday the Israelis entered the Jenin Refugee camp and shot dead ten Palestinians. Last year they killed more than 200 Palestinians.” How is it possible that the Israeli state gets away with this kind of slaughter on a weekly if not a daily basis? The […]

I have lived in England these past 58 years and spent the last 16 years of my working life as a public librarian in London..     In all that time I have never once encountered  a book,  nor an essay on the League of Nations.   Nor a magazine article   Nor a television […]

  “HOW THE HOLOCAUST BEGAN” used Nazi film of the mass murder of Jews in Estonia and Ukraine in 1941 within three months of the German attack on Russia. It also showed crowds of very happy Estonians and Ukrainians welcoming the armed invaders with flowers. It also showed Estonians watching with approval the murders. It […]

When people in the west look for inspirational figures who fought imperialism, they often turn to Ho Chi Minh who fought the American military industrial complex in Vietnam. They often turn to Allende another great resistance fighter, assassinated for his attempts to defy western hegemony in Chile. Castro and Guevara are revered in Cuba for […]