Contents
1. Seoladh an Chathaoirligh 2. Area Reports 3. Lloyds Pharmacy Strike 4. Brexit, the Rise of the Right, and a Radical Alternative 5. Cole and Colley, Na Fianna Martyrs 6. Summerhill Occupation
NAMAland
Seoladh an Chathaoir ligh
It’s a Housing Scandal Not a Housing Crisis The words ‘crisis’ and ‘emergency’ are generally used to describe a defined period of intense difficulty. By their very nature a ‘crisis’ or an ‘emergency’ is a relatively short-term and extraordinary departure from normality. When it comes to housing it suits the narrative of government and the assorted housing parasites to describe the current situation as a ‘crisis’ or an ‘emergency’, as it implies that it is a short-term situation that will be resolved at some point in the near future. The facts, however, contradict this narrative. Since the late 1990s housing has been in a rolling ‘crisis’ of one type or another. When a scenario persists for two decades it can no longer be considered a ‘crisis’. It is, in fact, the new normality. In the new normality low and middle-income families are denied affordable housing in our cities and other areas of high demand. In the new normality, mass homelessness is a permanent feature of the housing landscape. In the new normality those who want to buy a home repay crippling lifetime mortgages that bear no relation to the actual construction cost of their home. In the new normality ever increasing numbers of people rent in the private sector, a cohort that has doubled from 10% to 20% in just a single generation. In the new normality REITs and other corporate landlords use international capital to buy up huge portfolios of homes, while paying no corporation tax on the rent accruing from the labour of others. In the new normality the state uses public monies to rent ‘social housing’ from the private sector. In the new normality housing serves as a mechanism for the transference of vast sums of money from those who are income and asset poor to those who are already income and asset rich. We need new language to describe this new reality. What we have in Ireland is a ‘housing scandal’ not a housing crisis. A man-made scandal resulting from the calculated, deliberate housing policies of successive governments stretching back many decades. Those policies, which saw the political establishment hand over virtually every aspect of housing to the private sector, have spawned an entire ecosystem of parasites that have grown fat at the trough of human housing misery. Land speculators, property developers, bankers, estate agents, bankers, solicitors, media owners, landlords and many others collude in a giant cartel to keep the cost of housing high and their profits even higher. It is no coincidence that these assorted parasites have close, long-standing and influential relationships with the political establishment. Collectively they represent many of the key pillars that prop up the Twenty-Six County state. Exposing and ending the housing scandal is therefore about much more than housing. It is also a struggle for democracy and justice. Each blow that is dealt to the housing status quo is also a blow against one or more of the pillars of capital in Ireland. For this reason, Éirígí has prioritised housing as an area of struggle for the last three years and we will continue to do so until we achieve the one measure that will break the grip of the private property parasite – Universal Public Housing.
company could collapse in the space of a year without the government noticing finances on their books’. It stinks of corruption’ Sub-contractors and workers picket Loreto School in Wexford Various sub-contractors and workers in Wexford Town and Bray have been in dispute with ‘Sammon Group’ and the State over non-payment after British company, Carillion (which oversaw the building of the three schools) collapsed and sent Irish company Sammon (sub-contracted by Carillion) also into collapse. Subbies commenced their picket on Loreto Secondary School in Wexford town, Coláiste Ráithin and Ravenswell Primary School in Bray town on 17 th July 2018 blocking the entrance of the schools with machinery and vans. A high court injunction was implemented a few days later and subsequent peaceful pickets have been in place since then. The school is almost virtually complete and due to be opened at the end of August. Subbies who carried out the work are now refusing to sign off their work until payment which will result in a health and safety matter.Other companies can’t sign off on others work. The workers have said this is not a dispute between them and the school and the principal of the Loreto has given his support. A public meeting was also held recently in a local hotel which achieved full attendance. The 26 County government are liable to pay the workers due to negligence in not looking at both companies books when the schools were built under a Public Private Partnership. An estimated €14 million euro is owed which has resulted in subbies having to let go dozens of workers. This has had a profound effect on families, work carried out with no payment and the loss of jobs. Painter/decorators, scaffolders, landscapers, contract cleaners and carpenters all suffering due to State negligence. Sammon Group have picked themselves back up again and now operate under a new name while ordinary workers suffer. Woodvale, a company from Omagh has now been given the contract to finish off the works. Local Area Rep, Gary O’ Brien who has been in attendance at the school and spoken to the subbies said ‘the state has a responsibility to pay the sub-contractors and workers left out of pocket. Considering the state has bailed out failed banks to the tune of BILLIONS, then they have a moral obligation to pay what the workers are owed. This mess could well have been avoided and to echo the words of one of the subbies ‘there is no way a
Wexford Mental Health Services Update Weekly protests outside Slaney House in Wexford Town are still continuing. Many parents affected by lack of services have been in attendance. Local media are in constant contact with protesters which has boosted the campaign and has resulted in the formation of Wexford Mental Health Warriors - Campaign for CAMHS Wexford.
Éirígí Midlands sends its full solidarity to the farmers currently engaged in an ongoing battle with Westmeath Co. Council in relation to the grazing of cattle at the Edmonton-Killynon cow park near Turin in Westmeath. In an attempt to increase the revenue stream provided by these cow parks, the Westmeath Co. Council have been involved in ongoing battles
with tenants, in order to either sell their cowparks, or else evict them - so they can increase rents, by renting them to large farmers on 11 month leases. This is potentially a far more lucrative revenue stream than the letting of the land to small farmers, who pay per head of cattle and graze the land communally. The cow parks are a left over from the Land Law (Commission) Act, introduced at the beginning of the free state, where large foreign owned estates were compulsorily purchased and divided among native farmers, who had previously been estate tenants. Cow parks were reserves of grazing lands, often of dubious quality, that was kept aside for communal grazing for landless farmers, or farm labourers. To qualify for the usage of a cow park, you could not own in excess of 2 acres.
us to farm as we have always done”. At the centre of the fight around the Westmeath cow parks is the issue of class; small subsistence level farming is seen as no benefit to either the council or exchequer. However at a time when large-scale farming is contributing to the degradation of our natural environment, particularly on the crucial issue of greenhouse gas emissions, small scale and cooperative farming should have some role to play in the reduction of those emissions. There are also issues of future food security to consider, and the social/community benefits in supporting and maintaining these small scale farming systems.
Fast forward to more recent times, and this particular cow park. There has being an ongoing battle between the County Council in Westmeath and three families who have being grazing the cowpark for 40 years. The battle has seen the County Council drag low income farmers, who wouldn’t be using the cowpark had they other options, through the courts for over 3 years. The council, in an obvious attempt to increase revenue, decided to evict the tenants in the hope to lease it to a single tenant, or sell it off as they have done with other cow parks in Westmeath. The council look to have finally got what they wanted in judicially evicting the tenants. The tenants of the cow park even approached the council to see what sort of rent they would be looking for from a single tenant, to see if they could perhaps offer the same and keep their cattle on the land. However, the council refused point blank to engage with them on the issue of continuing to graze the land. Mags Glennon, spokesperson for the tenants, had this to day: “They have no understanding of the background to cow parks, the principles and benefits of small scale farming, or the fact that the few hundred euros earned each year makes a huge difference in the budgets of those on low incomes in rural Ireland. Westmeath Co. Council have wasted tens of thousands in legal attacks on us tenants, when they could have merely raised the rent and allowed
Between 2012 and 2016, Ireland’s dairy herd increased by 22%, and associated emissions went up 24%. Agriculture is responsible for over a third of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, 90% of the dairy products produced are exported, which obviously has huge benefits in terms of revenue (over €3billion per year and growing); however with Ireland failing year on year to make their emission reduction targets, it is
clear that this model is not sustainable. Surely now, more than ever, local authorities and the government in general should be encouraging small scale farming as part of the solution. However, agriculture is one of the huge vested interests in this country, with the likes of the Kerry Group and Kepak major players on the international stage, there are ongoing attempts to downplay the impact of large scale dairy farming on the environment. As recently as April, An Taisce, the ‘national’ trust for the Twenty-Six County state, had to call Michael Creed, the agriculture minister to task over his misleading Leinster House in relation to carbon emissions related to dairy farming. Protect our environment and rural communities defend small scale farming!
Campaign for Public Housing Campaign For Public Housing was launched in the area in March with some pickets and protests at the local PTSB in Coolock. We are planning to get back doing activity around the campaign in September. Contact Ciarán Heaphey if you would lime to get involved in the fight for a new type of Public housing for all citizens Members were involved locally in the ‘Communities Against Low Pay’ initiative around the ongoing Lloyd’s dispute. Posters were distributed in the area and members helping out at pickets. An Teanga/Irish language Classes Classes finished until September. Irish language classes are run weekly in the Coolock area for the past 2 years. They are free and open to all. September will see us relaunch the classes with a new teacher and plan for the year. We intend launching a new fb page and Coolock umbrella group for the language, expanding out our activities and making contact with groups
like Misneach and Conradh na Gaeilge. Contact Ciarán Heaphey if interested in learning the language. COLE/COLLEY COMMEMORATION Upcoming Public Meeting We have just finished putting out 16,000 newsletters, covering issues like local election, healthcare, housing, Irish language,remembering our revolutionary past and local anti social problems. Our next newsletter will begin distribution in August. The newsletter is a special, covering our Democratic Programme for a New Republic, which will be explained at a public meeting on 13 th September 7.30pm in Kilmore Recreation Centre, Cromcastle Rd, Dublin 5. Come along and hear Éirígí’s vision for a new Ireland. Dublin Northeast Remembers Walking tours are in the procress of being organised. Details will appear on our page in coming weeks. Next public event will be a talk by liz Gillis on the 1918 General election on 10th Novemeber in Parnell’s GAA Club. Our talks are always well attended and booking is advised for this one. Details will appear on FB page in September and posters, leaflets distributed throughout the area prior to event. #NoBusPrivatisation Defending our public transport service! Massive response from Northeast citizens to the National Transport Authority’s consultative public meeting in Northside SC this afternoon. Citizens angry at the majority of proposals for the northeast of Dublin, which could see withdrawal of some exisiting routes. (Almost felt for the NTA reps with the pressure they came under!) Two more organised for Northeast in Clarehall SC 14th August and Donaghmede on 24th August. Get down and have your say or go onto busconnects.ie to fill out a survey.
D8HAC Altogether Now 4 July was first year anniversary of Altogether Now,the homeless outeach initiative was set up by area rep Damien Farrell. Over 100 nights of service,volunteers (there are up to 12 non party volunteer members of the group) provided food,tents,sleeping bags,clothing,essentials to 2,392 homeless people. The group have also utilised their profile and visibility to expose serious deficiencies in the support and services provided by official homeless services,the limits of the freephone service,the suppossed after hours service to access overnight emergency beds. The group have also made several interventions through support outreach for individuals and advocations which have resulted in the reversal of evictions,permanent housing and improved emergency accommodation conditions. The anniversary was marked by a public event and local historian Mark Jenkins supported the event with a historical walk through the Liberties, all proceeds were donated to the group. The group continue in its work and are available for donations and volunteers every Tues and Wed between 8pm and 10pm. Campaign for Public Housing On Tues 31 July a group of housing activists from grassroot organisations began an occupation of a house,a private house previously used for housing by slumlord pat o donnell. O donnell had aquired posession of the property,and others adjoining it by illegal eviction of former tenants,mainly foreign students. The tenants had been paying up to €350 euros each per month to live in overcrowded and dangerous conditions prior to the evictions in May 2018. They have been vacant ever since. The action was a consequence of calls for action on a worsening emergency from two conferences in June and July organised by dcha and ihn. Area rep damien farrell,eoin o shea and gareth murphy attended and contributed at the conferences to raise the point that all actions,protests should have at its core the de-
mand for an ideological change regarding housing provision and for universally accessable public housing for all. Damien, liased with the actions organisers in advance of the action and gareth murphy was a member of the support group during the initiation of the occupation. The 35 Summerhill Parade occupation has called the buildings owned by o donnell and others to be taken into public housing stock by the local authority, amongst other demands.
August 4th, 1918, marks a very significant date in both the GAA calendar and in Irish resistance to British occupation. It was a day in which the GAA stood against the British Empire – and won. It was ‘the greatest single act of defiance outside the purely political sphere between 1916 and 1922’, as the association’s official historian put it.
In 1918, at the height of WWI, the British administration tried to enforce conscription in Ireland. This was met with massive opposition. The British blamed the GAA in part for this opposition. The introduction of a proclamation prohibiting all ‘meetings, assemblies, or processions in public places’ without written authorisation from the police followed in July of that year. In response to this, the GAA organised a programme of games, which they billed as ‘Gaelic Sunday’. The games were to take place in every parish across the country, at precisely the same time – 3pm on Sunday, August 4th. An
estimated 54,000 players participated in a game with over 100,000 watching across the entire island. It all ran entirely without major incident and forced the abandonment of the requirement to seek a license to play a GAA match.
To mark the centenary of this magnificent act of defiance, a game of hurling was organised by Éirígí’s own Ian Ó Dálaigh in Galway. Those present also took the opportunity to display solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation. The GAA was born out of oppression, and so we it thought it fitting to make the connection between two struggles for national liberation.
Lloyds Pharmacy Strike Éirígí sends its solidarity to the Lloyd’s Pharmacy workers who have been engaged in an ongoing industrial action over their working conditions. The workers, who are represented by Mandate, say they are “fighting back against low pay, insecure hours at work – including zero hour contracts, inadequate sick pay and they’re also fighting for the right to trade union representation”. The workers have engaged in seven one-day strikes so far, and say they will proceed with an eighth strike shortly, “unless management at the company see sense and agree to meet with the workers’ representatives”. The strikes have taken place as Lloyd’s management continues their refusal to implement a Labour Court recommendation which stated that the company should allow their workers trade union representation. The core demands of the strike are: • A pay increase and incremental pay scales; • The introduction of a sick pay scheme; • Security of hours and the elimination of zero hour contracts; and • Improvements in annual leave entitlements and public holiday premiums Lloyds Pharmacy is Ireland’s largest pharmaceutical chain, operating 88 stores across the country with approximately 800 workers employed in their pharmacies. Lloyds is owned by the McKesson Corporation, which is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world with revenues of €169 billion in 2017 – more than double the revenue of the Twenty-Six County state. McKesson also own UDG Healthcare (formerly United Drug) which is headquartered in Ireland, and where the workers are afforded their right to trade union representation (SIPTU and Unite represent staff in Ireland). Lloyds argues it does not operate zero hour contracts despite Mandate publishing a number of the contracts. A number of employment experts have also stated that the contracts do not guarantee any hours of employment for workers. The company also argues that it already negotiates with an internal staff representative body; however this body was established by management, is funded by the company to the tune of €10,000 and has never allowed elections to take place. John Douglas, Mandate Trade Union General Secretary said: “Our members are determined to win the respect they deserve. In recent years we have heard a lot of talk about closing the gender pay gap. These workers, 92 percent of whom are women, are trying to do just that, but are being refused their rights and are being forced to strike. We cannot tackle low pay and the gender pay gap without adequate collective bargaining legislation.” Mr Douglas concluded by criticising the anti-union attitude of , “Lloyds Pharmacy are happy to take money off the Irish State through very lucrative contracts with the Health Service Executive (HSE), but refuse to acknowledge another arm of the State, the Irish Labour Court, which has told them to allow their workers the right to representation. This hypocrisy isn’t lost on our members, and it’s not lost on the public or our politicians. They cannot have it both ways.” Mr Douglas said if the company continues to refuse their workers the right to representation, the Union will be organising more actions in the coming weeks.
Brexit, the rise of the Right and a Radical Alternative
Éirígí’s position on Brexit was unambiguous, we campaigned vigorously in the Six Counties for a yes vote. Internal discussions within the Party ran consistent with a republican and socialist analysis on the nature of the EU, as far back as the time Ireland entered the EEC in 1974. There is an argument that membership of the EU brought Ireland certain benefits in terms of equality particularly women’s equality in the workplace - as well as advancements in other progressive social issues. It is important to remember however that those who brought us into the EU, and sing its greatest praises, had to be dragged kicking and screaming to implement some of the equal rights they now proclaim so loudly. Upon joining the EEC, the Labour Party, who held the labour ministry in the then Fianna Fáil majority government, asked that Ireland be exempt from the equal pay for equal work directive as equality started to look a bit expensive. While Europe certainly did enforce some progressive change upon the Twenty-Six County state, the fact that these changes needed to be implemented from an outside party says more about the reactionary, patriarchal nature of the Twenty-Six County state than it does about Europe. While we certainly acknowledge that there have been benefits to being part of the EU, we also recognize that the EU was founded as a capitalist economic counterbalance to the socialist bloc. The EU acted as a sort of new MacArthur plan for poorer countries on the fringes of the economic powerhouses of France, Germany and Italy, when the war of ideas was still taking place and political realignments could have deadly consequences for the capitalist system, the EU maintained firm control over western Europe. In Ireland, republicans and socialists have form in regard to Europe: we have analysed what it is Europe represents versus what we are fighting for, from the referendum on entry to the EU to every single subsequent referendum, socialists and republicans have encouraged a NO vote. Since our foundation in 2006, we in Éirígí have campaigned against four different EU referenda. We campaigned against Lisbon twice and Nice twice, so while there was internal discussion on the matter, it would have been quite surprising if we had come out arguing for a Yes vote. Sinn Féin, on the other hand, with an identical track record to ours on the last four referendums and who had campaigned against each and every EU referendum, seemed to have tested the mood of the nationalist electorate in the Six Counties and asked people to vote remain, in what looks to have been an attempt to put clear water between themselves and the British right wing, and use this leverage over the electorate they read so well. Full marks for cunningness and opportunism. Éirígí’s position on Brexit was straight forward and principled. We firmly believe that the European Union is an anti-democratic behemoth, in the pockets of both NATO and the IMF. As shown by Syriza in Greece, all resistance is futile. The fiscal constraints placed upon countries who do not
(or cannot) fit the economic framework is evidence that the EU would rather plunge the ordinary citizens of a country into crippling poverty than concede that the model of privatisation and open access to the markets is not always the solution to recession. For us, we wanted to expose the narrative of a shared and compromised peace for the sham it is. We are now 20 years out from the Belfast Agreement. There is a commonly held notion that this agreement handed control of the destiny of the people of the Six Counties to the people of the Six Counties, that British troops - and with them British control - had left. The leave vote has exposed this narrative as an utter lie, and all discussion around the border shows that if the Tory government cannot find the magic bullet in regards the north of Ireland and the border, that the default setting will be that of a “hard border”, along with all that entails. We argued leave based on a firmly internationalist basis; the implications that Brexit could potentially have on a second Scottish independence referendum, that would give precedence to Catalonia, and the Basque Country. We argued leave as we see the breakup of the EU as progressive and a prerequisite to a federated Europe made up of independent workers states, which James Connolly argued for. As Lenin discussed in State and Revolution, revolutionary change cannot come merely from workers taking control of capitalist institutions; these institutions must be smashed and replaced by workers institutions. We carry that analysis over to the capitalist and brutally imperialist nature of the EU. In arguing leave, we were not naive, we knew that the British far right and their reactionary cousins in the Six Counties were also arguing leave, but for very different reasons. The Tories, in what was an almighty blunder, sopped to their far-right back benchers, and in an attempt to outmanoeuvre UKIP and stop any further leaking of votes, decided to give them what they wanted in an attempt to shut them up. There is no doubt the arrogance of the Tory government, the alignment of the majority of capitalist institutions, and the general smugness of the remain campaign (summed up by “Sir” Bobs remain boat party, gloatingly giving the fingers to fishermen also protesting and arguing leave on the Thames). Whatever the intention of allowing a vote on Britain’s membership, how it played out was the establishment verses regular voters outside of the liberal London bubble. There is no doubt the leave campaign buoyed on by Tory renegades like Johnston and Reece Mogg, along with Nigel Farage, as well as a plethora of groups to the right of UKIP, painted a picture of a return to the glory days of Empire, of a prosperous Britain, of blitz spirit and at its core a white protestant Britain. It is clear that the leave vote was largely (though not entirely) a victory for the forces of the right. Some on the left argued for what they called a Lexit (a left exit), trade unions like the RMT, as well as the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the Socialist Workers Party all argued leave based very much on the same scepticism with which republicans and socialists in Ireland tend to view the EU. However, these voices were somewhat drowned out in the chorus of racism and
British exceptionalism. As Marxists it’s our duty to not merely be happy that the result went our way, but to analyse the forces at play. There can be no doubt that anti-immigrant sentiment, racism and xenophobia played an important part in the no vote, but perhaps not as much as the establishment may want you to believe. A poll shortly after showed “concern” about immigration to be way down the list of leave voters’ concerns. This of course can be counteracted by the huge spike in racially aggravated crimes after the vote, but let us not forget that Britain has always being a racist and imperialist country, that it has always treated its immigrant population with utter disdain and subjected them to systematic abuse. Deaths in custody of black and brown people have a large prevalence in relation to the ratio of the population they come from. Obviously, it goes without saying class also plays an important role in this. In the main, people in Britain voted leave because they never saw any of the benefits of the EU membership that the establishment alluded to. Most people saw membership of the EU coinciding with the running down of heavy industry and manufacture, increased unemployment, privatisation of public assets turning once reliable and steady careers into zero hours minimum wage jobs (ironically it was a British woman who was the main ideologue behind neoliberalism). We know that when governments and establishment institutions talk about stability, nothing is more terrifying to someone long-term unemployed than the idea that nothing is going to change, and that this is being promoted a positive is a particularly macabre prospect for those living in poverty, struggling to make ends meet. As discussed above, there can be absolutely no ambiguity regarding the rise of toxic nationalism and islamophobia in Britain as evidenced by the large “Free Tommy” marches around the country. However, there appears to be a strange smug sort of EuroNationalism emerging from the commentariat in Ireland. Of course, we all delight in the chaos that’s engulfed the Tory Party, with Teresa May stumbling from one disaster to the next in regards their exit strategy. The liberal attitude in the Twenty-Six Counties seems to be “stupid Brits, serves them right for wanting to leave”. Leo Varadkar has been happy to evoke the spirit of Irish nationalism when discussing Brexit. Speaking in October last year, he said “What we’re not going to do is to design a border for the Brexiteers because they’re the ones who want a border. It’s up to them to say what it is, say how it would work and first of all convince their own people, their own voters, that this is actually a good idea.” Those who are happy to point to the rise of racism in Britain seem to be deathly silent on the murderous European border policy, which has seen people drown in their thousands in the Mediterranean Sea. This smugness is typical of the type of attitude that saw Trump rise to power in the US as well as Brexit in Britain. The repeating of liberal mantras in the echo chamber of social media and the commentariat cannot affect change. Only through effective political work in working class communities can real change come about. The reactionary racism of the far right has no answers for the problems faced by the working class across Europe. It does, however, give an avenue for people to vent their anger at the system (and obviously immigrants). The irony of course is that the far right across Europe are generally bankrolled by the business class. In Italy, for example, the money that’s funding the street fascist group, Casa Pound, can be traced directly to the country’s ruling elites. It is well established historical precedence, that in times of austerity the ruling class wheel out nationalism as a counter to demands for better
pay and working conditions, i.e. it’s ‘not your bosses fault you’re paid badly, it’s that the market is flooded with too much cheap immigrant labour and your poor old boss can’t pay you what he would like to, as he wouldn’t be able to compete with others in his industry’. In terms of capitalism, it’s the oldest trick in the book. The liberal centrist agenda is equally devoid of answers, but it also has a whipping boy: the lazy lumpen proletariat, the dole scroungers and benefit cheats. They abhor racism, and love their Polish handyman who works twice as hard for half the pay of an Irishman. They talk about the great benefits immigrants bring to the economy, how they do the jobs Irish people don’t want to do, as if people’s entire worth is based on their ability to be exploited in low pay jobs. Both the liberals who coat their centrist politics in radical language and the far right with their disgusting racism are unable to deliver change, because they do not want change. We want change, we want seismic revolutionary change, we want to provide a safe refuge for people fleeing war, not watch them drown in their thousands in the Mediterranean Sea. We want an economy that benefits the people of Ireland, not one that exploits them for all their worth. We want a completely new form of housing, where people don’t spend 60 or 70% of their wages on the roof over their head, we want public housing for all. We want to build a New Republic. None of these things can be achieved within the rigid economic framework of the EU. Brexit strikes the first blow against the EU, but we need to grab the narrative away from the right, and their little Englander mentality and European equivalent. The EU has no solutions, only the prospect of more of the same. While there are a sizeable number of people benefiting from the status quo, the vast majority of Europeans, and people in general, have nothing to lose and excuse the cliché, but a world to win. The leave vote is beginning to provoke the conversation about the purpose of the EU. The revolutionary left must not shy away from this debate, regardless of whether they are technically on the same side as some of those on the far righ - that is all the more reason that we have to win these arguments from a firmly internationalist perspective. Teresa May has now personally taken control of the Brexit negotiations with the EU. The question of the nature of the Irish border is fundamental to the negotiations and every dilly dally, every gaff about the intransient Irish, every example of the right wing of the Tory Party’s barely concealed anti-Irish racism, are the building blocks for what we should be building: an Irish unity movement, similar to Scotland’s Radical Independence Movement. We need to start building on the streets. Both the EU and partition are enemies of progress. Let’s not let this moment pass!
Cole and Colley, Na Fianna Martyrs Each year, Éirígí holds a commemoration for Seán Cole and Alfred Colley. This year’s commemoration happened on 22 August. The following piece was kindly permitted to be reproduced by Donal Fallon; it was originally published on his “come here to me” blog. On Yellow Road in Whitehall, a small memorial amidst terraced houses honours the victims of an atrocity. This memorial marks the spot where the bodies of Alfred Colley and Seán Cole were found on 26 August 1922. Cole was a 19 year old electrician, while Colley was a 21 year old tinsmith. They were both members of Na Fianna Éireann, the republican boy-scout organisation, and were killed because of their political affiliations. It happened mere days after the death of Michael Collins at Béal na Bláth, yet unlike that event it has been largely forgotten. While history has recorded that seventy-seven political opponents were executed by the Free State during the Civil War (the figure now appears higher),the number of unofficial killings was significantly higher still. Bob O’Dwyer’s study Death Before Dishonour, a labour of love drawing on primary source materials, points towards a figure of more than 120 such killings, with some bodies discovered in ditches and back alleys. There is no denying that the bitterness of this Civil War cast a long shadow over the new state. Dr. Noel Browne remembered the bitterness that still existed in the 1940s, on his entering the Dáil: I recall my shock at the white-hot hate with which that terrible episode had marked their [older TD’s] lives. The trigger words were ‘seventy-seven’, ‘Ballyseedy’, ‘Dick and Joe’ and, above all, ‘the Treaty’ and ‘damn good bargain!’. The raised tiers of the Dáil chamber would become filled with shouting, gesticulating, clamoring, suddenly angry men. The stories that (almost) got away: In recent years, family researchers and historians alike have devoured the Witness Statements of the Bureau of Military History. These first-hand accounts of the Irish revolution have proven to be invaluable (though flawed) sources, providing first hand testimonies of key events like the 1913 Lockout, the Easter Rising and the subsequent War of Independence. We have drawn on them quite extensively, for example in this piece on looting during the 1916 Rising. The Bureau was established with the explicit brief to “assemble and co-ordinate material to form the basis for the compilation of the history of the movement for Independence from the formation of the Irish Volunteers on 25th November 1913, to the 11th July 1921.” Some republicans refused to engage with the BMH in any form, believing it to be a project tainted by association with the Free State. Crucially, the BMH stopped short of seeking reminisces of the Civil War, no doubt fearful of opening old wounds. In spite of this however, there are still some references to the Civil War from participants who insisted on discussing those events, which have thankfully been included in the digitisation of the memoirs. One such republican to discuss the Civil War was Alfred White of Na Fianna Éireann. He talked of the deaths of Colley and Cole in the aftermath of events in Cork, describing what happened as murder: The unfortunate death of Michael Collins from a stray bullet removed the one man who would have had the strength to control them, and sharpened by their desire for vengeance. Their first victims were two unarmed Fianna boys, Seán Cole and Alf Colley, whom they captured at Newcomen Bridge (the military uniforms were clearly seen by witnesses under the disguise of trench coats), brought away in a car and murdered. He was not alone in linking the deaths of the young activists to events in Cork. Frank Sherwin, another prominent member of Na Fianna who later served as an Independent TD, detailed in his memoir how he felt histories of the Civil War overlooked these connections: Several books have been written about the Civil War. They deal largely with events leading up to the attack on the Four Courts and the fighting up to a period when Collins was killed, but they gloss over the remainder of this tragic event. When Collins was killed the ‘Terror’ began. Sherwin, like White, did not mince his words. To him,”murder gangs” were to blame, while “men were found riddled with bullets all around the outskirts of the city. All over the country, similar mur-
ders took place and went on not only for the duration of the war but for months after it ended.” The Oriel House Gang: While the republican press presented Colley and Cole as ‘boys’, they were senior figures in Na Fianna. Colley held the rank of Vice-Brigadier of the Dublin Brigade, while Seán Cole was a Commandant. Most sources suggest they had joined the organisation in 1917 and 1918 respectively, in the period between the Rising and the outbreak of the War of Independence. Their senior positioning within the body would have made them political targets, but to whom? The task of monitoring and neutralizing political opponents fell largely on the shoulders of the CID (Criminal Investigation Department), based at Oriel House, a building which stands on the intersection of Westland Row and Fenian Street. Oriel House today As Eunan O’Halpin has noted in his study Defending Ireland: The Irish State and its Enemies since 1922, the behaviour of the CID during the Civil War was “highly controversial”: Allegations soon surfaced not only of widespread ill-treatment of suspects, but of killings – a British army intelligence resume of 9 September [1922] spoke of the “murder of a number of prominent republicans…Certain of these…are laid to the door of Oriel House” Even among senior Treatyite politicians, there was an awareness that the behaviour of Oriel House was sometimes inexcusable. Ernest Blythe, later a prominent Blueshirt in the 1930s, would use his statement of the Bureau of Military History to acknowledge that while “investigators were somewhat tough with prisoners”, this was justified: Oriel House was a somewhat doubtful institution, and a good many suggestions were made that its methods were too like the worst we hear of the American police. However, the American police operate under peace conditions, whereas Oriel House at the time was carrying on under war conditions, and if investigators were sometimes somewhat tough with prisoners, I should say that the circumstances were such that tough methods were not only excusable but inevitable. Padraig Yeates, author of the masterful A City in Civil War: Dublin 1921 – 24, has detailed the manner in which the CID became “probably…the most effective counter-insurgency unit working for the Free State.” Under the stewardship of Joe McGrath, the body operated on multiple fronts, with a “Protective Officers’ Corps that was dedicated to guarding Ministers, important government supporters, public buildings and some commercial premises.” There was also a “Citizens’ Defence Force…which included about a hundred British ex-servicemen as well as former IRA Volunteers and some women.” The CID utilised informers and agents in the ranks of the IRA, and unsurprisingly the building was physically attacked on multiple occasions. In the autumn of 1922, four mines were planted in the basement of the CID building, though only one exploded. Simultaneously to this, republicans opened fire on the building, firing “fifty or sixty rounds”, but leaving when the CID returned fire. The bodies of Colley and Cole. The events of 26 August caused shock throughout the city, in particular because they happened in broad daylight. The Irish Times wrote of the shooting of the two that the “terrible deed has caused a painful sensation. It was witnessed by several residents.” The two young men were kidnapped in
the vicinity of the Newcomen Bridge, and it was reported that: A little before six o’clock a large motor car came from the direction of the city at high speed, traversed Puckstown Road and turned into Yellow Lane. Five or six men wearing trench coats and hats, which they had pulled down over their eyes, sat in the car. There was some commotion in the vehicle and two men appeared to be struggling frantically to escape from it, but the others prevented them from doing so. A few people at the cross roads, attracted by this unusual occurrence, stood watching the men, when one of them drew a revolver, and in a threatening manner ordered them off. Driven further up Yellow Lane, it was reported that the two lads tried to run away, “but they were firmly held and revolvers were presented at their heads.” The City Coroner later said that four shots were fired into each of the men, after they had been “placed against the piers of a field gate and foully murdered.” On the very same day that Colley and Cole were murdered, Anti-Treaty IRA Lieutenant Bernard Daly was taken from his place of employment in Suffolk Street by armed men, and his body was later discovered dumped in a ditch on the Malahide Road. It was another shocking dimension to a terrible day. At the inquest into the deaths of the two young men at Yellow Lane, which returned a verdict of wilful murder, a letter from the leadership of Na Fianna Éireann was read out. It said that the two had attended a Fianna parade, “of the Northern City section of the Dublin Fianna, fixed for 3pm, the place being Charlemont House…At the conclusion of the meeting they were picked up by armed men in the vicinity of Newcomen Bridge, taken near ‘The Thatch’, and there, without any preliminary, foully and callously murdered.” A bitter war of words emerged during the inquest into the deaths. Alderman Michael Staines alleged that Cole was about to leave the “irregulars”, and similar claims were made by other figures, including the TD Darrell Figgis, implying that the republican movement had a policy of shooting those who wished to desert its ranks. These claims were rejected by the families as slander, while Na Fianna HQ described such allegations as “a base and cowardly lie, which has evidently been spread to cover the tracks of the real murderers. The fight of the Republic is not waged on the basis of the assassination in cold blood of mere unarmed boys.” The mother of Seán Cole wrote to every member of the Dáil, maintaining that her son had been killed by “men in the service of the military junta, which calls itself a government.” “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” In the aftermath of the killings, this illustration by Countess Markievicz began appearing in the city, showing the two Fianna activists surrounded by men in trench coats, exactly as witnesses had described the killers. Such illustrations were important in the propaganda war; leading Anti-Treaty leader Ernie O’Malley remembered that “we used cartoons drawn by Countess Markievicz pasted on letter-boxes and lampposts…The CID raided frequently for the printing press, it had to be moved frequently.” The two Fianna members were both buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, though in rather different circumstances. Colley’s family requested a private family funeral, though republican bodies were represented, while Cole’s was a larger show of strength. Na Fianna and Cumann na mBan were prominent in the procession. Ernie O’Malley would remember how women took on an important role in such ceremonies against the backdrop of state repression: Funerals went to Glasnevin Cemetery. Soldiers in green uniforms marched, with arms reversed, after bands playing the ‘Dead March’, following their dead. Our men were buried quietly; women mostly as mourners. The CID were nosing for men. Cumann na mBan girls in uniform, some with eyes shut and faces screwed to one side, fired a volley over graves with revolvers or automatics.” In the years immediately after the murders, Colley and Cole became a rallying point for republican commemoration. Countess Markievicz spoke in Glasnevin Cemetery on the second anniversary of the killings, drawing on the same words that had inspired her illustration in 1922: So today let us carry from these graves a message of hope to Ireland. We will carry no bitterness for their murderers. We of the Fianna still stand by the old chivalrous ideals of the Gael. We will say, as our two martyrs would say, in the words of Christ, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The first memorial to the boys at the location were their bodies were discovered was unveiled in December 1926 . The newspaper Irish Freedom claimed that “over 1,500 people” attended the unveiling of that memorial cross, and it was reported that “there were over 200 members of the Dublin Fianna present, practically all wearing uniform.” In the 1960s, the memorial which still stands at the site was unveiled by
Seán Fitzpatrick of the National Graves Association, in the company of Fianna veterans of the revolutionary period. The Civil War witnessed many tragedies, on both sides of the political divide. When republicans set fire to the home of Seán McGarry, a TD who had supported the Emergency Powers Act, his seven year old child was burnt to death. Yet the manner in which the forces of the new state systemically and ruthlessly targeted political opponents – including teenage member of Na Fianna in some cases – is deserving of greater study than it has been given to date. The new Irish state, one writer has claimed, “came into the world with internment, executions, torture and exile marking its every step.“ When confronted on the seventy-seven sanctioned executions of political opponents a few years after the conflict, government Minister Kevin O’Higgins replied that “I stand by the seventy-seven executions and seven hundred and seventy- seven more if necessary.” While the number seventy-seven became etched into the memory of the conflict, what of the others who met their ends in such tragic circumstances? John Dorney’s excellent recent article on violence on the Civil War correctly points out that “the State’s use of executions, both official and unofficial is best understood as a means of terrorizing an opponent that increasingly refused open battle but which continued to nibble away at the state’s life support, into submission.” Yet, while Colley and Cole were killed at a time when republicans were still capable of waging a battle against the new Free State, unofficial executions continued even after the IRA Ceasefire in May 1923. Further centenaries may prove more challenging that the one just passed.
Éirígí
There has always been a loosely connected group of pro Palestinian activists around Clonmel, Carrick On Suir Waterford and the villages in between. We organised two large protests in 2014 during the murderous assault “Protective Edge”. Between then and 2017 no physical forms of action were taken despite several attempts by one or two of us to organise. With the arrest of Ahed in 2017 we finally got a group back on the streets to highlight the occupation forces evil once again. After a few events though it seemed some were more interested in flying party flags and photo opportunities so it was doomed to fail. Following on from Tipperary County
Council refusing to pass a motion calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, some refused on the grounds that they were not aware of what was happening in Palestine, I decided to start a weekly petition on the streets in Tipperary towns. I was joined by three or four other activists with no hidden agendas and the group quickly started working together. The South Tipperary Friends Of Palestine now does a stall every Saturday, collecting signatures and handing out leaflets highlighting BDS, telling people what they can do to help and educating those who ask questions. The positive feedback from the public out weighs the negative by 99% .
We also set about organising a fundraiser to assist with bringing kids from Gaza to Ireland to play soccer. Our fundraising consisted of a darts tournament and music night on Sunday 22nd of July. So far we have received €845 but donations are still coming in. We will be continuing with our petitions until September when they will be handed in to Tipperary County Council.
We are also organising a kids event, to highlight the loss of life and constant imprisonment of young children in Palestine.
Direct Housing Action in Summerhill On Tuesday the 7th of August, Dublin Central Housing Action called a rally outside the GPO in central Dublin which culminated in a direct action, consisting of an occupation of a property.The rally was attended by around 150, who marched from O’Connell Street to a location only known to the organisers. This later transpired to be 35 Summerhill Parade. When the crowd had gathered outside the building the organisers announced that earlier a small group of housing activists had forced their way into the building and had occupied it, and the assembled crowd were there to act as protectors to the occupants while barriers in the house were errected and the workings of the occupation were organised. There was a resilient yet positive attitude amongst the crowd. About an hour after the crowd had turned up in support of the occupation, the Gardaí arrived. Three uniformed Gardaí backed up by two detectives aggressively confronted the crowd, demanding to know what was going on. When the situation was explained by a prominent housing activist, the attitude of the lead Garda took a nasty turn with him proclaiming that this was a criminal matter, not a civil one and that the Public Order unit would be called. After these empty threats the Gardaí realised there was nothing more they could legally do and left, but before they left they still had time to confer with the Landlords’ heavies who turned up in a Black, 06 registered Range Rover, observing what was happening, and subsequently attempting to intimidate the assembled activists by parking across the street and taking pictures and video on their phones. As the evening wore on, everything settled down with all but a small dedicated number standing guard outside the property until the early hours. Support from the community was enthusiastic with residents and passing motorists alike all voicing their suppor. Some lent words of encouragement and admiration, others offered food and basic supplies. The Occupation itself was enthusiastic in reaching out to the community, with canvassing teams already put to work throughout the surrounding area within
an hour of the start of the occupation. Houses were knocked on and residents engaged. One such resident the author spoke to voiced her support for anyone fighting the landlords, and said she remembered the evictions that had happened recently and voiced her disgust at what she saw. The evictions she was talking about happened in early May when around 120 mostly Brazilian English language students were evicted from their accommodation within a period of just 24-hours with nowhere else to go. The landlord in question had used the excuse of fire safety to put out the tenants from 33-39 Summerhill Parade, which is the reason activists targeted this particular property for the occupation. On the first night of the occupation a statement was released outlining the reasoning for the targeting of this particular property. Here is a small excerpt: “35 Summerhill Parade is a property owned by Pat and PJ O’Donnell (owners of POD, and sponsors of the Clare GAA team). This house is part of a cluster of properties on Summerhill Parade owned by the O’Donnell family. All properties had similar issues with overcrowding, poor conditions and dodgy cash in-hand dealings. A total of 120 tenants lived between the five properties, each paying between €350-€450 for a bed in a room of 6-8 people. In May, a mass eviction occurred between the five properties resulting in these 120 tenants being illegally evicted over the duration of a week”. The demands of the group calling themselves the ‘Summerhill Occupation’ were also put forward: “Our immediate demands are that the houses owned by Pat O’Donnell on Summerhill Parade be compulsory purchased by Dublin City Council and given to the local community. We want to highlight that private, vacant properties can, and should be put into public ownership. All vacant land and properties should be put under public ownership. We call for people to take action and get involved in the housing movement, a wider demand of homes for all. The housing crisis is not a natural disaster; we do not need to accept that this is simply the way it is. But things won’t get better on their own - action is needed, by people and for people.” The occupation has reinvigorated appetite in the local community for a radical change in housing policy, rents in this area are amongst
the highest in the State, with the number of people on the Councils housing waiting list also amongst the highest in the State, with over three thousand on it last time figures were compiled. This action and actions like it are vital if we are to build any opposition to the current housing regime enforced on people up and down the state. Educating people on why a system of Public Housing should be in place, the benefits of such a system as well as direct actions against slum landlords, impotent government ministers and the abhorrent homelessness situation are vital if we are to challenge the housing status quo. Public Housing, a cost-rental system of housing provided by the state to anyone regardless of income is the answer to solving this problem, and we must settle for nothing less - anything less is opening up the possibility of repeating the mistakes of the past. A house is a home, not a commodity.
Change of email address/do not want to receive these updates? If any members or supporters are changing their email addresses, be sure to let us know so that your contact details can be updated. If you are receiving this update in error or if you don’t want to receive any further updates please email the eirigigeneralsecretary@gmail.com account and ask to be removed from this database.