Left Archive: ‘Vultures Out!’, An Éirígí Special Publication – Summer 2021, Éirígí

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This document, published in the Summer of 2021 is a four page leaflet which argues that:

The vulture takeover of Irish housing has not happened by accident but by deliberate design. Guided by their own vested intersts and a blind ideological belief in the so-called ‘free market’ the establishment parties have rolled out the red carpet for the vulture landlords. Inside this newsletter you will find out exactly how Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Labour and the Green Party all played their part in changing housing policies, tax laws and planning regulations to create the perfect conditions for a vulture feeding frenzy on Irish homes. 

It outlines “What is a Vulture Landlord?”, looks at the impact of same and then offers examples of ‘estates [that] fall to the  vulture landlords’. There’s also a ‘Timeline of Betrayal’ which goes from 2010 to 2021 and details various notable points, concluding with this analysis of changes made in 2021 ‘in response to public anger over Mullen Park [Maynooth] the government promised strong measures to stop the vulture takeover of housing:

Instead of strong measures, the government only made minimal changes to planning rules and stamp duty rates. The vultures will easily overcome these changes by charging higher rents and by directly building housing estates that will then be rented out to desperate tenants paying extortionate rents.

The leaflet also highlights how Éirígí has been ‘fighting the Vulture Landlords since 2016’ and argues that ‘Universal Public Housing is the Solution’. It also points to how ‘earlier this year Éirígí launched Ireland’s only national interactive vulture tracking map’. It offers suggestions for ‘How you can help’ and suggests that readers ‘Join Us’ asserting that ‘[we are] a campaigning political party with a fifteen year proven track record of fighting for the rights of working people across a wide range of political, economic, social and cultural issues’.

Sunday and other stupid statements from this week

All contributions welcome.

The Sunday Independent sub-editors hard at work today on Eilish O’Hanlon’s article on Epstein and Mitchell:

Receiving some emails from the disgraced financier is should not be enough to destroy a reputation 

The piece does not note that Mitchell has resigned from certain positions in public life – clearly not an admission of guilt but indicative that the association raised questions.

Shockingly, Queen’s University ­acknowledges there are “no findings of wrongdoing by Senator Mitchell”, simply that it is “no longer appropriate” for its “institutional spaces and entities to continue to bear his name”. That is a genuinely outrageous and scurrilous statement.

What happened this week is like something from the era of extra-­judicial shaming rituals in the Soviet ­Union, where those who had not broken a law but who had upset the comrades by their supposed deficiencies in character were publicly denounced.

Is it ‘like something from the era of extra-judicial shaming rituals in the Soviet Union’? Really? And is that an accurate characterisation of rationale for the show-trials?

A terrible argument in Starmer’s defence made in the Guardian here:

He could say that what has enraged so many, including among his own MPs, was his admission on Wednesday that he had known, when he appointed him, that Mandelson had continued his relationship with Epstein. But, Starmer could say, pointing his finger at the benches in front of and behind him, so did all of you. It had all been laid out, in detail, two years before Mandelson was posted to the US, in a JP Morgan report covered in the Financial Times. Why did so few of you protest at the time? Why, on the contrary, did the Westminster village, including Farage by the way, along with most of the media, support the appointment, declaring it a masterstroke?

A strange take here:

When Coppinger proposed her bill last Thursday to abolish three-day wait for abortions, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill announced the Government would not oppose it at this stage. I asked the Fine Gael press office if that meant that Fine Gael ministers Helen McEntee and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill would vote to abolish the three-day wait.

The reply was: “The ministers voted to restore the bill to the order paper, respecting the different views across the house.”

That is a nothing answer. Are they in favour of abolishing the wait or not? Why not just tell us?

In the face of this wilfully obtuse reply, all I’m left with is the record. By voting to restore Smith’s bill and declining to oppose Coppinger’s bill, they have aligned themselves with hard-left socialist politicians. What does that say about Fine Gael today?

That they’re broadly a socially liberal party? Is that a surprise to the columnist who asserts that they themselves are ‘pro-choice and voted for repeal’.

A commentator in the Irish Times argues that:

The message for the Social Democrats, Labour and the Greens in the current phase of political stasis is that they need to win over voters from Sinn Féin, rather than trotting after it. One way of doing this would be to present themselves as willing to go into government with any of the big Dáil parties to pursue their policy objectives. Labour and the Greens have done this in the past and have serious achievements to their credit.

Any of the big parties except Sinn Fein? Somehow he has also forgotten that the Green Party lost all its TDs once and all but one the second time and that the Labour Party lost so many that some thought it might never recover. A small price to pay to keep those ‘big parties’ in office – for him.

Another columnist in the same paper writes:

For the past decade, Ireland has enjoyed a period of sustained influence in British political life – throughout Brexit, via Joe Biden’s Washington, now with a Corkman advising a prime minister whose instincts were forged in Northern Ireland. 

But with the sacking-then-resignation of Peter Mandelson, former ambassador to the United States, this era of limited Hiberno-imperium may be about to come to a screeching halt.

Which is odd because last May the same columnist was painting this in very different terms:

Next year will mark a decade from Britain’s European Union exit. If a week is a long time in politics, so goes the cliche, then 10 years should feel like an eternity. Plenty of time, then, for Ireland and the United Kingdom to drop all those hostilities fomented over the Brexit years. 

At its peak, 2018 and 2019, Leo Varadkar was cast as villain-in-chief to the British state, while Ireland had its own fair share of schadenfreude to lob over the Irish Sea. Both bear responsibility for the collapse in that once-friendly acquaintance.

Now everyone with any eyes on the Anglo-Irish relationship will earnestly tell you things have improved since then, the nadir is over, what’s past is past, et cetera.

They are right, but they are neglecting to mention that things could still be much better, that the wound has not entirely healed. Instead of open upset, a stilted distance between these oldest and closest neighbours is still lingering.

‘Limited Hiberno-imperium’ or a ‘wound that has not entirely healed’. You choose.

Fairphone 6

Covered the Fairphone here since it arrived – in the dim and distant past, not least because two of us have had or continue to use them. Liked it, wasn’t mad about the Android system, though other versions with a greater privacy orientation can be used, thought the battery life in the Fairphone 2 was pretty awful.

Now it’s on the…

six-generation Android, aiming to make its repairable phone more modern, modular, affordable and desirable, with screw-in accessories and a user-replaceable battery.

The Fairphone 6 costs £499 (€599), making it cheaper than previous modelsand pitting it squarely against budget champs such as the Google Pixel 9aand the Nothing Phone 3a Pro, while being repairable at home with long-term software support and a five-year warranty. On paper it sounds like the ideal phone to see out the decade.

The new Fairphone is slicker than its predecessors, with a modern, 6.3in 120Hz OLED screen on the front and a recycled plastic body that feels solid and high quality. It looks great in its off-white colour as tested, but also comes in green or black. The phone is resistant against rain and splashes but not immersion, so don’t drop it in a bath or swimming pool.

That battery life?

The battery life is reasonable if not remarkable, lasting about 35 hours between charges with the screen actively used for about four to five hours across 5G and wifi. The Fairphone should see out most heavy-use days, but will need charging nightly.

Always liked it, suspect I’d like it if I had one but I’m stuck for work and other reasons in the Apple ecosystem and the option from my perspective is to keep a mobile going as long as possible – hence I’ve a iPhone 13 Pro and no intention of replacing it for quite a while to go.

Indeed this is the fourth iteration since I had a Fairphone and subsequently I’ve only had three phones during that period including the one I’m using. Whereas if I were keeping up with each release that’d be four mobiles.

That’s the contradiction, isn’t it? Even with modular setup there’s the need to maintain a mobile device closer to the newest models by other manufacturers in order to compete. Fairphone offers a good compromise, and while the article notes that other larger companies have moved their devices (in the main) closer to that sort of longer lifespans and repairability (though not all by a long shot), that must be in part due to the pressure from Fairphone and other pared down device manufacturers. It’s not a long term solution but every bit helps.

And one thing is to recommend to people purchasing new devices mobiles like this – for most people any mobile is wildly over-specced for their needs. Every little bit helps.

I know that house to see!

Piece on the so-called ‘Screamers’ in The Irish Times, the cult that was sited for some time in Burtonport in Donegal. They lived in a fine house on the road into Burtonport, which is still there, and if I recall correctly for sale, or was until very recently.

The piece makes some interesting points, not least the ubiquity of cults of one sort or another even in Ireland. Many hippies and those associated with them moved to Ireland from the US as the 1970s lengthened. One can imagine how certain tropes about this island attracted people. One has to wonder did the place live up to the expectations.

The list is familiar to any of us who grew up during that period:

I spent time with The Two by Twos, a church formed by William Irvine in 1987 in rural Ireland. Irvine’s movement grew rapidly and spread worldwide, reaching the United States by the early 1900s. It still exists today, shrouded in allegations of child sexual abuse and a FBI investigation. I looked at The Children of God in Limerick, The House of Prayer in Achill, The Moonies in Dublin and The Blue Marys in west Cork. But it was The Atlantis Primal Therapy Commune in Donegal, nicknamed The Screamers by locals, that fuelled my imagination.

The Screamers were, even to judge from this article, a very grim crew in ways:

clips of the members confronting each other, physically and verbally pushing and prodding to expose dark truths until they broke down, were difficult to watch. In one, Jenny’s young daughter Becky sobbed as she was shaken and shouted at by a man. Her mother watched silently. And I couldn’t help but worry for Becky, her younger sisters and Becky’s son, Tristan, who were all born into this way of life.

Indeed. But isn’t that the problem with cults, that they are self-isolating, self-contained and tend to function with little or no regard to the broader society. The author suggests that:

It was inevitable that controversy would follow the commune. Catholic Ireland struggled with their alternative lifestyle, accusing them of brainwashing members and of being sex maniacs. The Screamers left Burtonport in 1980, migrating to the island of Inishfree. Jenny went on to have three more daughters, Louise, Alice and Katy, with Corkman Fred Moloney. Becky’s son, Tristan, was born on Inishfree in 1982.

But in light of the practices outlined above it’s difficult not to feel that some of the criticism, even from ‘Catholic’ Ireland, weren’t entirely unjustified, even if the sexual aspects were exaggerated.

It’s not even that surprising to me that they would be able to remain intact – after all Inishfree is just 5km from Burtonport itself, hardly the biggest move ever, throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The state, for all its prurience, as we know was never it would appear all that keen to delve into religious areas and groups with regard to potentially or actually abusive behaviours, and it seems fair to suggest that there was also a broader societal sense of not poking ones nose into other’s business (ironic, almost needless to add, given how the society was in other areas far from unwilling to do so).

I’m trying to recall the last time I met someone involved in a group like that, it must be decades now. I knew a few people who were involved in I think EST. It was something with a three letter acronym, and this was way back when. Can’t say that they would have filled me with confidence that they’d found the way, the truth and the light.

This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… They Are Gutting a Body of Water (TAGABOW)

Off to see these tonight in Whelans and really looking forward to it. They are an American Shoegaze band from Philadelphia, that have been around since 2017. Originally a solo project of of songwriter and guitarist Douglas Dulgarian, it expanded to a 4 piece band. I love the first video which is at a ‘convenience store’ Friendly Rio Market in Austin Texas, which seems to host a lot of gigs. I suppose if you can’t drink until your 21, non bar venues have to be sought for bands.

Losing the room on housing

If I was the government I might be more than a little concerned about some other findings from the IT/Ipsos B&A poll.

Two-thirds of voters back the insertion of a right to housing into the Constitution, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll.

Fewer than a third of voters think the Government is making progress on housing, the poll finds.

Just 17 per cent of voters say they believe the Government is making progress, 28 per cent believe progress has stalled and half of all voters (50 per cent) believe the country’s problems are getting worse.

The idea of a constitutional right to housing enjoys broad backing across supporters of different parties. Two-thirds (67 per cent) of all voters favour the measure, with 23 per cent opposed. Least enthusiastic are Fine Gael voters but even here a majority of those who express a view are in favour, by 48 per cent to 41 per cent against.

And:

Voters favour measures that will increase housing supply even if there are downsides. More than four in five voters (81 per cent) say they want the Government to build more social housing, even if there are local objections.

Predictably, this being the Irish Times there’s this:

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) say they would support measures that benefit landlords if they led to more houses and apartments being made available for rent.

How about measures that didn’t benefit landlords that led to more houses and apartments being made available to rent?

One fear of many of us has been that the housing crisis would become normalised, almost as if it were something beyond the capacity and capability of any ‘solution’, but on the basis of this polling it really does look as if the majority of those polled see the state as being in a position and able to do heavy lifting on the issue and as importantly wanting that to be the case.

And this despite:

Despite the prominence of the housing issue in politics, only a minority of people (29 per cent) say they are “personally affected” by the housing crisis. Seven out of 10 (70 per cent) say they are not directly affected.

Anti-worker

For any who took the empty rhetoric about the working class and workers from Trump and his cronies seriously, yet more evidence to point to the reality. A complete contempt, disdain and hostility from that quarter to those working.

The Trump administration is seeking to finalize its overhaul of the federal government’s civil service system through a rule issued this week by the office of personnel management (OPM) to strip job protections from 50,000 civil service employees.

Under the rule, the president would have the authority to fire and hire an estimated 50,000 career federal employees.

The OPM said it was reclassifying certain career civil service roles so agencies can “quickly remove employees from critical positions who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives”.

The rule also would change how whistleblower protections, meant to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, are enforced. Instead of the independent office of special counsel handling most whistleblower disclosures from federal workers, federal agencies would be in charge of determining job protections for whistleblowers in their own department.

And this isn’t just about rights in jobs, it’s about the potential for political purges.

Critics argue the change would open the door to politically motivated purges. “We have successfully fought this kind of power grab before, and we will fight this again. We will return to court to stop this unlawful rule and will use every legal tool available to hold this administration accountable to the people,” said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.

The largest union representing federal workers called the rule “a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service”. In a statement, the AFGE president, Everett Kelley, said the OPM was “rebranding career public servants as ‘policy’ employees, silencing whistleblowers, and replacing competent professionals with political flunkies without any neutral, independent protections against politicization and arbitrary abuse of power”.

Stripping civil service protections has also been a central plank of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint.

In a statement on Thursday, anticipating the rule’s release, the OPM director, Scott Kupor, said the reclassification would bring “much-needed accountability to career policy-influencing positions in the Federal government”.