jump to navigation

Signs of Hope – A continuing series October 20, 2016

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
trackback

Any contributions this week?

Comments»

1. Gewerkschaftler - October 20, 2016

Some possibly positive consequences of Brexit, listed by a member of Attac Austria last night:

– A reliably extreme neo-lib partner for that block in the EU has been lost.

– The xenophobic right (FPÖ) no longer things EU exit is a vote-winner.

– The continuing disintegration of the EU is now made visible.

– There is ruling political consensus on how to go forward in the EU – possibly leaving space for the us to shape Europe from below.

– One of the two countries (UK and Ireland) who consistently vetoed some minimum standardisation of Corporatation tax rules is gone, so we may see some progress on state-enabled tax arbitrage within the EU.

– One of the most aggressively militarised countries most obedient to US steerage is about to leave so push-back on militarisation may be possible.

The people in Die Linke (the largest opposition party in Germany – but you wouldn’t know it from the MSM coverage), whose job it is to observe these things, reckon that the the Union/SPD government is already discounting the UK in its European political calculations.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
WorldbyStorm - October 20, 2016

Weirdly there’s something in that.

Like

Reply
gendjinn - October 22, 2016

That last about the military also releases a mercenary nation from contract and available for hiring by others. As Israel is the US beachhead in the mid east, so too the UK could be the US’s beachhead into the EU.

Like

Reply
2. Gewerkschaftler - October 20, 2016

CETA hangs on a knife-edge because at least one governing party that calls itself socialist has acted accordingly.

The Wallonian regional parliament refuses to sign the preliminary agreement due to be waved through this week after Sigmar Gabriel and the SPD did their usual. And the national Belgian government held to the principle that regional Belgian governments must approve before the national government can sign.

This means the the preliminary signing may have to be postponed this week.

Like

Reply
Gewerkschaftler - October 21, 2016

The Walloonian Socialist government is continuing to hold out against the preliminary signing of the CETA ‘trade’ (i.e. transfer of more legal and economic power to the usual suspects) agreement, despite massive pressure.

The Bulgarian and Rumanian governments seem to have been bought off by promises of Canadian work visa rights.

Like

Reply
Gewerkschaftler - October 21, 2016

Yes!

The Canadian trade minister sees no chance of a deal with the EU over CETA and has returned home. Because Belgium continues to block the preliminary signing.

All that effort may have been worth it.

But I’m not counting my chickens yet. The EU mandarins are still at it.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
3. entdinglichung - October 20, 2016
4. WESTLANDER - October 21, 2016

The Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2

BOOK LAUNCHES

by the author: Dr Pat Walsh

Friday 11 November 2016

7:00 pm

“The Catholic Predicament in ‘Northern Ireland”

Volume Two

Resurgence 1969-2016

Chair: Mark Langhammer

Belfast Historical & Educational Society

In August 1969 came a pivotal event in the collective experience of the Catholics of the North after the Unionist Pogrom of that month set off a defensive Insurrection. Things could never be the same again. And they weren’t.

The Catholic community, let down in its hour of need by both the British Labour Government of the State and Jack Lynch’s Government in Dublin, for the first time fell back on its own resources. In the vital hour it produced something from itself that transformed its situation, turning its position from one of subordination to that of equality.

The Insurrection turned into a 28 Year War that set out to solve, once and for all, the political predicament that the Catholic community of the North had been sealed into back in 1920-1 by Westminster. That was when Britain set up the perverse political construct known as ‘Northern Ireland’ that generated an eternal conflict between its two communities, in which ’the minority’ always came off worst.

Volume One in this series, aptly titled Catastrophe, gives an account of what happened between 1914 and 1968. The present volume tells the rest of the story, putting military and political developments in context.

Resurgence explains why the primary responsibility for that conflict lies with the architects and operators of the system that gave the minority community a stark choice only between permanent second-class status or war. And it describes how that War was ended to the advantage of the community, though short of its final objective, in such an effective way that momentum was carried from war to politics.

It is the story of how the Catastrophe of 1920-5 was transformed by the Resurgence of August 1969 so that the map of Ireland can be unfolded again.

Saturday 12th November 2016, 7.00pm by the author

‘THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: Howth,Sutton and Baldoyle play their part. by Philip O’Connor. 1916 Commemoration Committee Howth Sutton Baldoyle’

While the 1914 Howth gun running that made the 1916 Rising possible is well known, even in Howth itself very little until now was recalled of the part played by local peopl in the Rising, the rise of Sinn Fein and the War of Independence. This story is now told in great detail in what a local community newsletter described as the “”new and magnificent book”, Road to Independence – Howth, Sutton and Baldoyle Play Their Part, researched and written by Philip O’Connor over 310 pages, illustrated by 120 photographs mostly from family and private collections. Though its sources are meticulously referenced, the book has been described by detective novelist and former Irish Times journalist, Eugene McEldowney, as a “marvellous read … written with all the pace of an adventure story, which is really what it is.”

The book traces the revolutionary traditions of the area back through the Land League, the Famine era and the 1798 Rebellion. It covers the rise in the area of the Gaelic League and GAA and also the story of the local Unionist community. It tells of the impact of the “Great War” on the area, of those who went to war or fell victims to it, like the crews of the fishing boats, the Geraldine and St. Micham. It also tells of the pioneering trade union movement among local farm labourers and harbour workers, their creation of a Citizen Army branch which was to be the only ICA group outside Dublin to participate in the Rising and later events. It describes the diverse Sinn Fein movement composed of people from a wide variety of social backgrounds and different faiths, the role of Cumann na mBan, the Irish Volunteers and the IRA in the area, and their fate through the Independence struggle and the “Civil War”, which left indelible marks on the local community.

The book is not purely a local history, as it weaves local events into the broader narrative of the national happenings of that extraordinary time. Some leading local figures from different sides also played significant roles at national level, and these too are described in detail.

Like

Reply
5. LeftAtTheCross - October 22, 2016

Best news I’ve seen for a few weeks, Jinx Lennon released two new albums yesterday.

https://jinxlennon1.bandcamp.com/album/past-pupil-stay-sane

https://jinxlennon1.bandcamp.com/album/magic-bullets-of-madness-to-uplift-grief-magnets

Just listening to “Shop Thy Neighbour” here at the moment, great stuff. Music for our times.

Bwteeen Jinx and the footy Dundalk must be going through a bit of a renaissance these days.

Liked by 1 person

Reply
6. roddy - October 25, 2016

Great news- a portrait of that count Ruairi Quinn in the Dail is to be replaced by one of Kieran Doherty this week.

Like

Reply

Leave a comment