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What you want to say – 3 June 2020 June 3, 2020

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. sonofstan - June 3, 2020

This is odd to say the least: an ecclesiatical court (Cof E) has ruled that an inscription as gaeilge must be accompanied by a translation as otherwise it might be seen as political.

“Given the passions and feelings connected with the use of Irish Gaelic there is a sad risk that the phrase would be regarded as some form of slogan or that its inclusion without translation would of itself be seen as a political statement.

“That is not appropriate and it follows that the phrase “In ár gcroíthe go deo” must be accompanied by a translation.”

Also ‘Irish Gaelic’

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/church-of-england-rules-irish-inscription-on-grave-stone-must-have-translation-1.4269053

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Joe - June 3, 2020

Yes it’s odd. And racist. I heard the woman’s daughter on the radio yesterday and she said that they’ll probably go with putting the English translation on the headstone rather than dragging the thing out any further.

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Fergal - June 3, 2020

Ironic that the word ‘slogan’ is used in the CoE statement… one of a handful of English words that comes from Irish

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Starkadder - June 3, 2020

Does the CoE ban also apply to Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Manx, Angloromani, etc. ? If it only applies to Irish, then it’s quite unfair.

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EWI - June 3, 2020
CL - June 5, 2020

“A spokeswoman for the Church of England said: “This decision does not reflect any national Church of England policy.
“This was a judgment from the consistory court of the Diocese of Coventry.
“Consistory court judgments may, with permission, be appealed to the Provincial Court of the Archbishop, in this case the Arches Court of Canterbury.
“The Irish language is an important part of the heritage of the Church of England.
“It was, after all, Irish-speaking monks in Lindisfarne and beyond who played a central role in establishing the Church in what is now England.”

Mrs Keane’s family have launched an appeal against the decision.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/uk-bishop-deeply-saddened-after-irish-language-epitaph-controversy-1003671.html

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2. alanmyler - June 3, 2020

Would any of the US-based commenters like to share their thoughts on what’s happening nationally, or locally where they are, in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing?

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WorldbyStorm - June 3, 2020

+1

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Pasionario - June 3, 2020

The situation in New York is surreal and tense but far from catastrophic. Two-and-a-half months of lockdown seem to have organically dissolved into mostly peaceful mass protests, accompanied by widespread looting, most of it targetted at fancy shops in Manhattan. The looting seems like an opportunistic grab for clobber. It reminds me of the Easter Rising.

BUT — and this is the important point — there has been a lot of violence against property, but not much violence against people. No-one has been killed or even seriously hurt — touch wood — and, while there was a lot of looting on Monday night, the pace seems to have dropped last night, when an eight o’clock curfew came into force. I suspect the police deliberately held off on Monday to avoid inflaming the situation. Macy’s and Louis Vuitton can take the hit.

Rain is forecast for the next three or four days, which should also help literally cool things down. Many shops are now boarded up as well.

I’d be more worried about place like Saint Louis, where several cops have been shot. And while New York has its problems, there are many more dyfunctional metropolises in the US. Police brutality is considerably worse elsewhere, and the the political dynamics of blue cities in red states are more fraught.

At a broader level, I worry that unrest in the cities will benefit Trump, who can run for a re-election on a racist, law-and-order platform as Nixon did in 1968. Nothing rattles white middle America more than images of black people protesting and rioting in the inner cities. Having said that, Trump is in office, whereas Nixon wasn’t, so it’s hard for him to distance himself from the triple mayhem of covid, economic depression, and civil unrest.

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WorldbyStorm - June 4, 2020

That’s a great overview and thanks Pasionario. Couldn’t agree more re the tensions between Trump running on law and order and that difference with Nixon. It feels like getting him out is doable but it may be tight.

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CL - June 4, 2020

A fair enough assessment. Trump is trying to militarize the response to the uprising, but there’s pushback from the military.

“As looters target corporations and banks in protest across the county, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a former Democratic presidential candidate, says “ultra-rich” individuals have been “looting” in America for 40 years.”
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/while-riots-target-corporations-banks-bernie-says-ultra-rich-have-been-looting

“Don’t talk to us about looting. Y’all are the looters. America has looted Black people. America looted the Native Americans when they first came here, so looting is what you do. We learned it from you. We learned violence from you. We learned violence from you. The violence was what we learned from you. So if you want us to do better, then, damn it, you do better.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/1/tamika_mallory_speech_police_brutality

In America’s hierarchical power structure the Irish have traditionally played the role of intermediary between the rulers and the oppressed. This continues in New York City. NYPD, Chief of Department, Monahan, has taken the knee at one of the protests. Yesterday the police commissioner Shea was at Bishop Herbert Daughtry’s House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn.
But more than the oul’ plámás is of course needed. Some front line hospital pandemic workers had to wear garbage bags as protective equipment. On the other hand the NYPD is well equipped with tanks, guns, helicopters, etc.

” Reverend Herbert Daughtry, a veteran civil rights leader, said he thinks the youth and diversity of the protests is different this time and have the power to create a new world.”
https://wcbs880.radio.com/articles/news/nypd-commissioner-we-stand-with-the-floyd-family

Daughtry is a long time friend of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey,
George Harrison, leftwing radical and IRA gunrunner, used to hold his St. Patrick’s Day event in Daughtry’s church.

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gendjinn - June 4, 2020

Except the NYPD have one of the worst records of police brutality and racism in the country. Going back to before I was born. The lawsuit payout stats substantiate it.

Here is what they did last night.

US and international media is barely covering 1% of what the police are doing, what little is getting covered is edited to make the police look better. Editing out the police driving at speed into crowds for example.

This is not going to fizzle out, illegal curfews or not. 40 million unemployed, economic devastation and a pandemic. History is very clear what happens to societies when those forces intersect.

The summer is only beginning and I see nothing coming to quell the decades of pent up rage that are poised to sweep away the rotten edifice of institutional racism in the US.

Things will get much worse before this is over.

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CL - June 4, 2020

“Nearly 70 percent of New York City’s residents are Hispanic, black, Asian or mixed race — a non-white majority that’s steadily solidified since the 1980s.
But over at One Police Plaza, the top ranks of the New York City Police Department appear to be frozen in time.
Almost 80 percent of the NYPD’s chiefs and deputy inspectors and inspectors who hold a rank above captain are classified as “non-Hispanic white.” Add in captains, and the NYPD leadership is still 72 percent non-Hispanic white.
While the racial and ethnic diversity of rank-and-file patrol officers has grown substantially over the last 30 years, the upper echelon of the nation’s biggest police force hasn’t come close to keeping pace…
The share of patrol officers who are black rose from 13 percent in 1988 to peak at 18 percent in 2008. But that figure has since dropped to 15 percent — in a city where 24 percent of the population is black.”
https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/09/03/nypd-diversity-top-ranks/

” Floyd repeatedly said “I can’t breathe,” the same phrase said by Eric Garner before he died in 2014 after an NYPD officer held him in a chokehold.
“I can’t breathe” became a national rallying cry against police brutality following Garner’s death.
Sharpton, a civil rights leader and Baptist minister, said Thursday that if they had prosecuted the officer in that case maybe Floyd would be alive today.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/al-sharpton-george-floyd-death-justice/

“Hundreds of de Blasio’s former and current staffers have decried his handling of the protests and law enforcement policies, as the Daily News reports. In an open letter to their one-time boss, they write that they’re demanding “radical change from the Mayor, who is on the brink of losing all legitimacy in the eyes of New Yorkers.” The asks include the firing of NYPD officers who have used excessive force, a reduction of the NYPD budget, and the release of police disciplinary records.”
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2020/06/04/de-blasio-rebuked-in-letter-from-staffers-privacy-concerns-may-complicate-contact-tracing-upstate-regions-cleared-for-outdoor-dining-489428

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CL - June 4, 2020

“Mr Lester is one of more than 1,500 people to be arrested in New York City since protests began over the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of heavy-handed Minneapolis cops.
New York’s jails are overflowing as the city – and the rest of the country – tries to put down the biggest civil unrest since the uprising that followed the assassination of rights activist Martin Luther King Jr in 1968.
No tear gas has been thrown or National Guard deployed here, unlike in other cities. Nevertheless, scenes of brutal crackdowns and mass arrests by the NYPD on Black Lives Matter demonstrators has caused outrage.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/overflowing-police-cells-york-screaming-091104290.html

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WorldbyStorm - June 4, 2020

“The share of patrol officers who are black rose from 13 percent in 1988 to peak at 18 percent in 2008. But that figure has since dropped to 15 percent — in a city where 24 percent of the population is black.”

Says it all. And of course who would want to join in that context either.

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Pasionario - June 4, 2020

I didn’t say the NYPD had a half-way acceptable record on policy brutality.

I said that policy brutality is WORSE elsewhere — and considerably so.

The stats bear this out:

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/cities

I specifically mentioned Saint Louis, where they have had 17.9 police killings per million people over a six year period. That’s the worst in the entire country.

In New York, the corresponding figure was 1.3, which is at the bottom of the scale.

Meanwhile, the lootings here seem to have ceased last night. I went to the demo at the mayor’s residence, which was entirely peaceful while I was there though there were a load of menacing looking cops lined up in a phalanx with plastic bracelets at the ready. I left before the curfew, which is when things started to get violent as the police started arresting people for breaking the curfew.

No-one got seriously hurt, as far I can ascertain from reports.

The political and institutional dynamics are complex. The governor Cuomo — a Clintonian machine Democrat — and the mayor De Blasio — elected on a progressive, anti-poverty platform — openly despise each other. Cuomo could have sent in the national guard — and signalled his willingness to do so — to quell looting. De Blasio and the NYPD have a terrible relationship too, and the mayor has been desperate to placate them since the Garner killing.

De Blasio ordered the curfew to head off a potential national guard deployment. In doing so, he alienates the protesters and many of his own staffers but seems to have dealt with the looting. The police feel they have to enforce the curfew if they’re not to lose face. But there’s never been a curfew in living memory so they don’t really know what they’re doing. Someone has to back down. I don’t know who it will be.

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sonofstan - June 4, 2020

“I specifically mentioned Saint Louis, where they have had 17.9 police killings per million people over a six year period. That’s the worst in the entire country.”

I’ve been in St. Louis – it’s a classic donut city isn’t it? the city itself is quite small, with a lot of unincorporated cities around it – rich and white – where the tax base doesn’t make any contribution to the areas of the city that need services most. There was, I’ve just discovered, a plan to merge city and county and create a metro area with a single tax base last year…. not supported by the richer suburbs.

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Pasionario - June 4, 2020

There’s a similar problem in a lot of US cities. White flight to the suburbs in the 60s and 70s left behind impoverished urban centres, which don’t have the resources to arrest their decline and get little assistance from the state and federal governments.

New York bucked the trend from the 90s until the present — at the price of sweeping gentrification. But now the pandemic could trigger a new wave of flight from the city.

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CL - June 4, 2020

All this is intermingled with the virus pandemic.

” being black is a pre-existing condition.”-Gary Younge

https:/www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/06/we-cant-breathe

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CL - June 4, 2020

Mass walk underway now from Brooklyn to Manhattan. No social distancing.

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EWI - June 5, 2020

There’s a similar problem in a lot of US cities. White flight to the suburbs in the 60s and 70s left behind impoverished urban centres, which don’t have the resources to arrest their decline and get little assistance from the state and federal governments.

Rather closer to home, something very similar is what happened to cause Dublin such problems over the past century and a half.

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gendjinn - June 6, 2020

Pasionario, you seem very invested in making me agree that the NYPD is on the 6.95th ring of hell while the rest of the US are on the 7th.

I am curious, are you aware of the flaws in the stats you cite and think I’m not, or you are ignorant of them?

Regardless of any ranking of USPDs, they are all essentially B-Specials, if you are an obedient white you get the RUC treating you as a Unionist experience.

The SPLC has been warning since the early 90s that neo-nazis and racists were infiltrating the police and military. Now they are in senior positions and have hiring authority.

Don’t be an ally to that by in any way contributing to minimizing the problem. Policing in the US is fundamentally broken and the last 25 years of reform have only exacerbated the problem. The only reform now is abolition.

And I see Seattle has run out of tear gas and it will be 30 days until they get a resupply.

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3. Joe - June 3, 2020
4. Paddy Healy - June 3, 2020

My new email address is paddy.healy25@gmail.com

Can you send notifications of posts to this address from now on
Paddy Healy

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WorldbyStorm - June 3, 2020

I think Paddy that has to be done by signing into WordPress. I don’t think I have that sort of control my side. I’m not sure though. I’ve never had to do it in the past.

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Paddy Healy - June 3, 2020

Thanks My eircom is back I am now receiving notifications

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Paddy Healy - June 3, 2020

I haven’t received any new notification to paddy.healy25@gmail.com yet

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5. oliverbohs - June 3, 2020

Free book corner: A New Ireland: A New Union, A New Society (with an updated intro)by Paul Gosling can be downloaded for free on his own website, and right at this moment, The End of Policing by Alex S Vitale is available for free on the Verso website, for however long that lasts. Don’t know what these are like except that they are gratis at this moment in time

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6. irishelectionliterature - June 3, 2020

http://revolutiontimes.org/collection.html
Has loads of old issues of The Black Panther and more in pdf format. Very interesting.

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7. Paddy Healy - June 3, 2020

Prof Diarmuid Ferriter on 1920
Prof Ferriter Made no mention of the great General Strike held in April 1920 in the Irish Times article.
But interestingly he attributed views to General McCready similar to those later expressed by Lord Mongomery of Alamein in 1923
“By the end of 1920, the 10,000 strong Royal Irish Constabulary was augmented by more than 10,000 Black and Tans and Auxiliaries alongside up to 40,000 regular British army troops and the war was costing the British government £20 million a year. But who was in charge? Nevil Macready, the commander of the British forces in Ireland, did not want the job and admitted, “I loathe the country”; while he brought more efficiency and modernisation to the military effort, he had no inclination to take control of the police. As far as he was concerned, only a sweeping, draconian military response (“Cromwellian severity”) could crush the IRA and such an approach was not politically feasible.”-Prof Diarmuid Ferriter

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8. Alibaba - June 3, 2020

Joan Collins has left Independents4Change to establish a new party called Right to Change (RTOC) whose policy platform is similar to the Right2Change campaign. Apparently she plans to connect up with councillors, community groups, trade union activists and like-minded TDs in case there is another general election. Make what you will of that.

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9. Maguire the Squire - June 4, 2020

Wikispooks search engines been about for some time,their latest edition titled “The Dedman Files” focuses exclusively on the Dublin-London Espionage connection.

https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Wikifreaks

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bob - April 26, 2021

Groovy

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10. CL - June 4, 2020

“Combined with its six-week shutdown, Germany’s “track and trace” system has been instrumental in stalling the spread of Covid-19 and preventing it from overwhelming the health system….
Some experts think it’s not entirely fair to hold Germany up as an exemplar of crisis management. “There are other model countries that have received much less attention, such as Vietnam, which has seen no deaths at all from Covid-19,”…
By June 1, Germany had 183,508 confirmed Covid-19 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, making it the world’s ninth-worst-hit country.
But the number of infected people who have died is remarkably low — just 8,546, or about 4.7 per cent of the total. That works out at roughly 103 deaths per million inhabitants, compared with 430 for France, 554 for Italy and 579 for the UK.”
https://www.ft.com/content/cc1f650a-91c0-4e1f-b990-ee8ceb5339ea

Deaths per million-Sweden 446

Deaths per million-Ireland 341

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/

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WorldbyStorm - June 4, 2020

My God, Vietnam. Wow. That’s some record. And it’s not the calmest society from what I know of people who’ve been there, it’s very busy and active, indeed sounds kind of fun. Interesting political set up too.

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Sputnick - June 4, 2020

You know that COVID-19 according to Luc Montagnier is man made dont you? and that the British Government have completely collapsed!The Home Office and its subsidiaries simply dont exist anymore instead they sit at home and get paid to prevent.What this means is that all the British Councils are closed so are other British ministries and Departments….As a leftist the following: the British Government should employ temp workers in their places to work into when ever deadline is agreed.Government workers should be asked to go back to work if they dont they should be told that a temp will take their place however Guarantee in writing their jobs are secure and they will be paid normally.The tory gangstars that are on strike so to speak that work in these Government Departments and councils hide behind pseudo socialists leaders such as Mark Serwotka.These gangstas and pseudo socialist are part of a sinister drive to prevent and prohibit…thats it simple.

The COVOD19 vaccine is here and can be bought right now by the British Government for their employees but they refuse to do so ..see the packaged product below and decide for yourselves:

https://microbiozindia.com/pharma-news/chinese-firm-sinovac-99-sure-covid-19-antibody-will-work-report/

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11. sonofstan - June 4, 2020

Just at an interesting virtual book launch for this
https://www.press.umich.edu/11393212/sounding_dissent

Stories from the audience: Christy Moore being run out a club in West Belfast in the ’80s for singing Joe McCann and a band being asked to play ‘take it down from the mast’ at the Hatfield on the Ormeau Rd. and, when it got ot the chorus, half the audience stood up and inserted ‘stickie bastards’ where ‘Irish traitors’ should be, causing the other half to start throwing things. Apocryphal surely 🙂

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WorldbyStorm - June 4, 2020

Remember being in Portrush in the mid-80s at a USI conference where late in the evening songs were being sung, many of them with anti-Stick lines. As the only person at the event with any connection to the WP it was… educational.

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sonofstan - June 4, 2020

Well there would have been history there with USI at that time wouldn’t there?

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WorldbyStorm - June 4, 2020

I guess, though it seemed to be history with everyone outside the WP (bar the Campaign for labour Representation!).

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Joe - June 4, 2020

They were all bastards.

On Joe McCann and Christy Moore, Christy made a reference to it in a book of his songs (songs he sung) that came out in I’d say the eighties. Something along the lines of “I used to sing this song regularly until I sang it one night at a gig in Belfast”.

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12. roddy - June 4, 2020

Joe McCann was held in high regard by most Republicans I know.When a memorial was put up for him a few years ago,Gerry Adams was in attendance along with several SF figures.McCann and Adams were close colleagues before the 1970 split and Joes family made sure SF,IRSP and others were invited.Assholes in drinking clubs whether of the SF or sticky variety are not a good barometer.I once saw a drunk contrarian objecting to the Wolfe Tones singing “flower of Scotland”!

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13. sonofstan - June 5, 2020

This line leapt out in a review of Masha Gessen’s Surviving Autocracy (about the Trump regime)
“the executive branch furthering its agenda by disguising itself as an insurgency” (referring to the anti-lockdown protests)
That’s the Brexit story too…

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Fergal - June 5, 2020

Speaking of Joe McCann… I remember when Prince Charles was in Galway and the great and the good and those who want to be great and good were tugging their forelock…a solitary protestor held up a placard seeking justice for Joe McCann killed by a para…

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WorldbyStorm - June 5, 2020

Good for that person re McCann.

Sonofstan, that’s it precisely. I always find it weird when people see Trump etc as ruptures with the pre-existing context. In style, tone and some content, surely, but they are essentially continuity of capitalist/business interests under another facet. And the difference is they are not at all circumspect in appealing to certain groups overtly.

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sonofstan - June 5, 2020

Continuity too in the structured racism that keeps the white working class onside with interests that work directly against them.
On the other tip: I found this while going down a Dominic Behan rabbit hole –

The cover captures the mid-sixties showband/ ceili band aesthetic perfectly 😉

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WorldbyStorm - June 5, 2020

That’s fantastic, that cover.

Yeah, it’s absolutely about structured racism, allowing for class elites to develop etc.

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kestrel - June 6, 2020

wbs – sorry to intrude here. (I do not know anything about Joe McCann). But Sinn Fein for at least the past 20 years have been the shocking enablers of huge English businesses in this country. It is as if they were ‘turned’ by the English, into ending the ‘troubles’ in the north and told that they would be employed by English businesses once these businesses were established in the Republic. And, (it seems to me) Fianna Fail Willingly agreed to this foothold of England in this country.
F.F., it seems to me, are: (as W.B.Yeats would say), ‘beggars on horseback’.
And, if F.F. now get themselves into Govt., then most Euro money in this country, will be spent in English business.

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14. CL - June 5, 2020

“Direct Provision is this generation’s Magdalene Laundries….
If the Taoiseach is serious about showing solidarity with people of all races and backgrounds as he says, then his government must start treating people currently living – or, more accurately, locked up – in Direct Provision as human beings.”-Mary Lou McDonald.
https://www.joe.ie/politics/mary-lou-mcdonald-direct-provision-698625

“As listeners learn, some people really are treated differently from others. After hearing the march being decried, Jesse calls to explain why he went along. “The racism in Ireland is what fuelled a lot of black people to attend,” he says, pointing to the casual racist insults he receives in the street, as well as derogatory slogans once daubed on his house.
Similarly dreadful experiences are echoed by Timi, who recounts how he and his young son were accosted by a man shouting at them “to get the eff out of this country, and then [used] the N-word”. Timi, who grew up in Ireland, is unfortunately used to receiving such abuse, but is depressed that it was his son’s first – but certainly not last – racist incident. He’s even more upset at the bystanders who “sheepishly” looked away. “That’s the worst thing about racism for me: you just feel so alone,” Timi says. “It just says to you that everybody around you agrees; they’re all complicit in the act.”
https:/www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/get-the-eff-out-of-this-country-irish-racism-as-heard-on-liveline-1.4270703

“Children should learn about racism and black history from an early age while more teachers of colour are needed in our schools to encourage an understanding of Ireland’s cultural diversity, a group of young black Irish people have agreed….
While racist police brutality is not a problem in Ireland, Garda “micro-aggressions” towards people of colour happen all the time, says Odoemene, who now works at the University of Birmingham. “I never had any issues with guards growing up but as I became a man I noticed how they approached me differently compared to white friends.”…
“Racism in Ireland ranges from overtly extreme and being called the ‘N’ word to subtle things like ‘you’re very educated for a black person’ or ‘you’re very articulate’.”…
Turner, who is mixed race, moved to Ireland when she was nine. In Nigeria, she never felt different but here, she suffered racist abuse from the moment she arrived.
“I remember walking to school and people calling me and my sister the ‘N’ word and there was nothing we could do about it….
Amanda Adé, who spoke outside the US embassy at Monday’s protest, says racism has been “programmed into people’s consciousness” and that many Irish are “blissfully ignorant” of their prejudices towards people of colour.

People need to learn to call out racist remarks and not “brush them off as banter”, says Adé. “It’s great the black Irish community finally has the courage to step up. It helps people realise racism is real and brings it beyond what’s going on in America. It brings it home to Ireland.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/white-irish-people-have-never-had-to-think-about-this-1.4271935

“Africans in Ireland experience more racist incidents than any other group. As Irish Network Against Racism reports, these include political hate speech, racist crimes, racist violence, intimidation, racist bullying, discriminatory treatment in housing, education and service provision and lack of access to healthcare and employment.
Crucially, reports INAR, the responses of the gardaí have been considered inadequate in two out of three cases. Many Africans don’t think it’s even worth reporting racist incidents and there have been allegations of racist harrassment by gardaí.
We urgently need Hate Crime legislation, such as is on the books of in a majority of OECD countries, accompanied by intense anti-racism training for gardaí and perhaps positive discrimination to “unbleach” the force.”
https:/www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/columnists/victoria-white/victoria-white-we-cant-whitewash-the-pernicious-influence-of-400-years-of-slavery-1003199.html

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CL - June 6, 2020

“Ireland needs to learn from the failings of countries like Britain and the United States when it comes to race relations, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said….
The next government should focus on “rooting out” racism in Ireland, and look at why the country did not have higher proportions of ethnic minorities in senior positions of various fields…
“We have an opportunity not to repeat the mistakes of countries like Britain and France, and the US. We can learn from their mistakes around race relations and get it right here,” he said.”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/ireland-needs-to-learn-from-us-race-relations-mistakes-leo-varadkar-1.4272140

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15. Paddy Healy - June 5, 2020

British Army Commander General Macready and Lord Montgomery of Alamein believed that the only politically acceptable way to squash the rebellion that was the Irish War of Independence was to get the Irish to squash it themselves …..

Dictionary of Irish Biography Cambridge University Press
Macready, Sir (Cecil Frederick) Nevil by Keith Jeffery
“(General)Macready made it clear to the British government that without a drive of Cromwellian severity (which was politically quite unacceptable) no military solution was possible in Ireland. Unlike his friend and colleague Sir Henry Wilson (qv), chief of the imperial general staff, Macready recognised the necessity of trying to negotiate some sort of settlement with the Irish republican leadership”

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16. Alibaba - June 5, 2020

People are urged not to attend Black Lives Matter protest in Dublin on Saturday afternoon and to sign a book of condolence online instead. 

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/lord-mayor-of-dublin-urges-people-not-to-attend-george-floyd-protests-1003653.html

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Alibaba - June 6, 2020
WorldbyStorm - June 6, 2020

Good piece.

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CL - June 6, 2020

“Racism is one of the US’s original and enduring scars, but to acknowledge that specificity cannot be to deny the broader prevalence of the same, virulent disease – not least here in Ireland.
Discrimination against minorities here has a long history – ask any Traveller – but greater ethnic diversity has made its toxic influence even clearer. Studies consistently find relatively high levels of discriminatory attitudes towards immigrants here. Every person of colour will have their own story: a job they didn’t get, an insult shouted on the street, a degrading comment left online….
Our political parties, government departments, Garda Síochána, media and school staff rooms remain overwhelmingly white, and that must change. More fundamentally, however, the virus of racism, and the wider challenge of social integration, cannot be addressed without rethinking our ideas of Irishness in ways that account for the transformation of recent decades. That will require a new mental framework through which we view such ideas as identity, citizenship and belonging.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-racism-in-ireland-a-virulent-strain-1.4271970

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Alibaba - June 7, 2020

I like this. It is pointed and direct and good to see in an Irish Times editorial.

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CL - June 7, 2020

” the rejection of US foreign policy and power—at times, reflexive and crude but rarely completely unjustified—never entailed a wholescale repudiation of American culture or potential….
Back in the 1860s, Lancashire mill workers, despite being impoverished themselves by the blockade on Confederacy that caused the supply of cotton to dry up, resisted calls to end the boycott of Southern goods, though it cost them their livelihoods. …
Europe has every bit as vile a history of racism as the Americas—indeed, the histories are entwined….
Fascism is once again a mainstream ideology on the continent, with openly racist parties a central feature of the landscape, framing policy and debate even when they are not in power. There are no viral videos of refugees in their last desperate moments, struggling for breath before plunging into the Mediterranean (possibly headed to a country, Italy, that levies fines on anyone who does rescue them)….
Levels of incarceration, unemployment, deprivation, and poverty are all higher for black Europeans. Perhaps only because the continent is not blighted by the gun culture of the US, racism here is less lethal….
Few will deny the existence of racism in their own countries but they insist on trying to force an admission that it “is better ‘here than there’”—as though we should be happy with the racism we have….
“Racism’s bad everywhere,” …“There really is no ‘better’ kind.”-Gary Younge.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/06/what-black-america-means-to-europe/

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17. roddy - June 6, 2020

Aye but if the Panthers were to start a revolution ,I doubt many of these “young people” would step forward.

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18. yourcousin - June 6, 2020

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19. CL - June 7, 2020

” The black people and young people who compose the lion’s share face not only police violence with regularity, in the case of the former, but among the most dire generational economic prospects in modern U.S. history, all in the midst of a world-stopping pandemic. These are rendered starker by the ballooning assets of the country’s billionaires — a 15 percent overall wealth increase since March, even as millions of Americans have lost work. The near future stands to see a compounding of the resultant phenomena. Food lines, coronavirus-safety measures, the simmering desperation of the unemployed, all are poised to become the purview of armed agents of the state in some form, if they aren’t already.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/george-floyd-protests-america.html

“rioting police…using often indiscriminate violence against people — against anyone, including the peaceful majority of demonstrators, who happens to be in the streets….
They have surrounded a car, smashed the windows, tazed the occupants and dragged them out onto the ground. Clad in paramilitary gear, they have attacked elderly bystanders, pepper-sprayed cooperative protesters and shot “nonlethal” rounds directly at reporters, causing serious injuries. In Austin, Texas, a 20-year-old man is in critical condition after being shot in the head with a “less-lethal” round. Across the country, rioting police are using tear gas in quantities that threaten the health and safety of demonstrators, especially in the midst of a respiratory disease pandemic….
rioting police have the imprimatur of the state…. an assertion of power and impunity. …
The police, James Baldwin wrote “represent the force of the white world, and that world’s real intentions are simply for that world’s criminal profit and ease, to keep the black man corralled up here in his place.” …
Trump.. has incited America’s police forces to be even more violent with protesters….Trump is someone who embodies the political and social order the police have so often been called to defend.”-James Bouie.
https:/www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/sunday/police-riots.html

“Trump has consistently projected himself as a budding strongman, reveling in authoritarian threats calculated to thrill his supporters and terrify his opponents.” But “His prevaricating yet cruel response succeeded in making him look tyrannical and weak at the same time — a potentially fatal mix for any leader….
For those expecting a crushing response to a national uprising, Trump’s extreme statements gave plenty of reason for either hope or fear. The problem for Trump is that, even as his threats get more severe, he seems unable to match them with effective action…
Put to the real test, Trump’s reaction has been the worst of both worlds for his political career. He responded to the uprising with enough brutality to outrage his opponents, but not enough to truly suppress them and satisfy his base….
he might still end up delivering the real authoritarianism that many of his supporters are clearly craving…..”

How Protests Over George Floyd’s Killing Exposed Trump as a Lame-Duck Authoritarian

Interesting times. The situation is somewhat tense, to put it mildly, as all sorts of contradictions are accentuated. One would have to be as foolish as the economists who predicted the recent unemployment numbers to make a guess as to the outcome. As the renowned dialectician, Yogi Berra, put it “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”,

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20. Starkadder - June 8, 2020

I found this online, and I felt some people here might be interested in it

It’s a profile of the late journalist Alexander Cockburn:

https://bookandfilmglobe.com/creators/remembering-alexander-cockburn/

I really miss those 80s leftist journalists, like Cockburn, pre-9/11 Christopher Hitchens, Gore Vidal, Molly Ivins, June Jordan and Andrew Kopkind.

There doesn’t seem to be the same kind of writing about now- there’s far, far fewer media outlets, a lack of interest in actually researching stories, and a reluctance to articulate unpopular opinions about art and culture.

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21. sonofstan - June 8, 2020

In case there was any doubt that Peter Mandelson was a tone deaf idiot, this is his reaction to the dumping of the Colston statue in the Avon yesterday:

Because otherwise, you’re just giving the green light for the same sort of action and mob rule that anyone else wants to do, take the law into their own hands, and do as they please. I mean, that’s the law of the jungle, isn’t it?

‘Law of the jungle’ Peter? What might you be getting at?

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WorldbyStorm - June 8, 2020

I’d have a fair few problems with the health aspects of all this (and it sits problematically with the Cummings controversy / US business people trying to open up etc – difficult not to think that in some ways the dynamic at play is one of lock-down fatigue seeking an outlet – although in the case of events in the US that’s not entirely fair given the centrality of the issues at their heart and how they have played out )… but… but… the Colsten thing is one I can heartily endorse even if they should have social distanced properly! Long long overdue.

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sonofstan - June 8, 2020

Keir Starmer, on the other hand, does not heartily endorse this. Still scared of the Daily Mail.

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CL - June 8, 2020
WorldbyStorm - June 8, 2020

Bah! He should. There is a genuine issue of health in all this but that said the Colsten thing is such a blot it really did require some correction.

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Joe - June 8, 2020

Scottish friend of mine on Facebook has posted about another statue.
https://images.app.goo.gl/YECCnj8DeC59L7qeA?fbclid=IwAR0m2hH5ARWYji-AMqP0o6oe6DA16VocDluy8Jr-Yw9xFK-pS-q729jI9Ek
My friend says:
“Protestors toppled a statue of a slave trader in England.
This lad cleared Sutherland of the inhabitants with a vicious hand disregarding the well being of all the people.
There was a time of terror for the highlanders.
He was honoured for his success.
He continues to throw a shadow across the land.
Too many statues to tyrants in Britain”

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CL - June 8, 2020

“Matt Hancock has been accused of “ignorance” after claiming the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the UK are not directed at homegrown racism.
Labour MPs and march organisers lashed out after the health secretary said: “Thankfully, this is all based in response to events in America rather than here.”
Gary McFarlane, a Black Lives Matter activist, pointed to the deaths of British black men after being restrained by police “in circumstances not dissimilar to the murder of George Floyd”, to explain the protests.
David Lammy, Labour’s justice spokesman, echoed the criticism, saying: “Racism and prejudice exist in the United Kingdom as well as the United States.
“To suggest there is only a problem on the other side of the Atlantic might make Matt Hancock feel better, but it shows real ignorance.
Diane Abbott, the former Labour shadow home secretary, said: “Hancock is completely wrong. Events in America have triggered the protests. But they are overwhelmingly a response to a long-standing issue about police brutality here.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/matt-hancock-ignorance-black-lives-matter-protests-uk-racism-a9553226.html

“Normal People star Aoife Hinds has told of how she was racially abused while filming the hit drama on the streets of Dublin.”
https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2020/0608/1146152-normal-peoples-aoife-hinds-racially-abused-in-dublin/

“A former Kerry minor footballer from Ard na Caithne in the Kerry Gaeltacht has spoken of the racist abuse he’s received when playing Gaelic football with his club An Ghaeltacht, with one opponent telling him to “go back to the cotton fields”.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2020/0608/1146174-kerry-teen-i-was-told-to-go-back-to-cotton-fields/

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22. Paddy Healy - June 8, 2020

Proposed EU Levy on Big TECH Will Hit Ireland harder than any country in the Eurozone
Irish Independent Editorial May 28, 2020

“Amid the fanfare to announce a plan to borrow €750bn to bankroll reconstruction efforts for the eurozone’s battered economies, the commission also made known that it is exploring a new levy on large businesses, which could yield about €10bn a year. It would target big tech companies such as Facebook and Google.
Our long-standing relationship with big tech, and our reliance on foreign direct investment, means we will be hit harder than any other country in the eurozone.”

Paddyhealywordpress Irish Economy Grossly Over Dependent on Multi-National Companies”
The Independent editorial recognises that sovereignty issues arise: “The price may well be balanced against surrendering further autonomy and sovereignty.”

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Fergal - June 8, 2020

What about Francis Drake? Statue unveiled to him in Carrigaline just a few years back…
Wikipedia starts with this… Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596[3]) was an English sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era
Privateer sounds like code for pirate!

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - June 8, 2020

A privateer was indeed a pirate, albeit with a license to practice delivered by his (usually) government. He was allowed to prey on the ships of other nations, but if he practiced his craft on one of his own he would be liable for punishment.
Why they put up a statue to Drake anywhere in ireland boggles the mind his relationship to the people here was as bad as anyone’s.
As for Colston, I fear that he is likely to be fished out, cleaned and placed back on his pedastle, peobaly in a ceremony attended by representatives of all political parties. They should have taken a sledge to him.

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sonofstan - June 8, 2020

“As for Colston, I fear that he is likely to be fished out, cleaned and placed back on his pedestal”

I doubt it.
I hope I’m not one for unreasonable optimism, but something has changed.

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Joe - June 9, 2020

I thought initially that this would be another round of protests and/or riots for a week or two and then back to same old same old.
But maybe something has changed.
I’ve noticed handwritten Black Lives Matter and similar banners in house windows of an evening as I walk the dog. I’m guessing the same kind of people who led and fought and won the Same Sex Marriage and Repeal campaigns. Like my daughter and her friends who were on the first Black Lives Matter march here a fortnight back. More power to them … please god they’ll make a better job of it all than we did. And maybe we’re not finished yet either and we can help them out and follow their lead!

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alanmyler - June 9, 2020

Your daughter and her friends sound like the sort of people that are needed alright. Fair play to them. But can I just enquire about their position on the DPRK…?

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Joe - June 9, 2020

:). Methinks they’ve better things to have a position on.

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23. Paddy Healy - June 8, 2020

Ireland To Lose OUT under Proposed Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base in the EU
German Economic Institute Report Authors: Hentze, Tobias; 2019; Series/Report no.: IW-Report 2/2019
Abstract: The introduction of a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) in the European Union (EU) would substantially change the rules of the game in international taxation. According to the proposal by the European Commission (EC), the profits of a Multinational Enterprise (MNE) would no longer be assessed by using the arm’s length principles and (hypothetical) market prices, but split based on a formulary apportionment.

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24. CL - June 9, 2020

” Out of 62,000 excess deaths in the UK, says former chief scientific officer Sir David King, “40,000 excess deaths could have been avoided if government had acted responsibly….
It is now clear that the worst outcome of the turmoil over leaving the EU has been to land Britain with a leadership of spectacular incompetence during one of the worst crises in British history….
Johnson and mediocre ministers have throughout conveyed a frightening sense not of malignancy but of amateurs at work, lightweights baffled by what is happening and unable to learn from experience.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/09/the-brexit-crisis-led-to-totally-incompetent-leadership-at-a-time-of-unprecedented-calamity-now-we-are-paying-for-it/

Also from the Cockburn journalist clan:
“Defund Police. Invest in Black Lives. What just weeks ago was a slogan is fast becoming law.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/06/09/paradigms-take-years-to-shift/

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sonofstan - June 9, 2020

Reading ‘Set the Night on Fire’ Mike Davis and Joel Weiner on LA in the sixties. The bit on the Watts rebellion in amazingly apposite right now. This quote from Chief Parker of the LAPD shows how far back certain tropes go:

When you talk about dislocated minorites, and I’m not saying this for sympathy, because I don’t have to, but the police fo this country are most downtrodden, oppressed, dislocated minority in America

Or ‘blue lives matter’

And this, from the report commissioned by the city into the uprising:

A Negro in Los Angeles has been able to sit where he wants on a bus or in a movie house, to shop where he wishes, to vote, and to use public facilities without discrimination. The opportunity to succeed is probably unequaled in any other major American city

Translated into today’s language: we had a black president: how can America be systemicly racist?

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CL - June 9, 2020
25. CL - June 9, 2020

‘Those whom the gods need to destroy they first make mad’

” Donald Trump on Tuesday renewed his attacks on antiracism protesters, suggesting that a 75-year-old man assaulted by police in Buffalo, New York, was a “provocateur” working for a radical anti-fascist group….
The president …took aim at Martin Gugino, 75, who was knocked down by police officers during protests in Buffalo, in an incident that was seen on video by millions of people online. Mr Gugino, who landed on his head and could be seen bleeding, has been hospitalised. Two officers have been charged with assault in the case.

Mr Trump said Mr Gugino “could be an ANTIFA provocateur”. …

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, leads Mr Trump by an average of eight points in national polls.”
https://www.ft.com/content/41440626-d222-47e1-b0c0-3a924dce4ffc

““If there was ever a reprehensible dumb comment – and from our president,” Cuomo said in a press briefing Tuesday, ripping into Trump for his comments on the injured protester.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/09/trump-should-apologize-for-calling-injured-75-year-old-protester-antifa-cuomo.html

” Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday that New York City will paint “Black Lives Matter” on prominent streets in all five boroughs.”
https:/newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/06/09/new-york-city-to-paint-black-lives-matter-on-prominent-streets-in-all-5-boroughs-de-blasio-says/

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26. relationship Advice - September 6, 2020

relationship Advice

What you want to say – 3 June 2020 | The Cedar Lounge Revolution

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27. http://Scritter.Guldhammer.Info/VictorArand - February 17, 2021

http://Scritter.Guldhammer.Info/VictorArand

What you want to say – 3 June 2020 | The Cedar Lounge Revolution

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