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Showing posts with label Leo Varadkar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leo Varadkar. Show all posts
Dr John Coulter ✍ With the benefit of hindsight, outgoing Taoiseach and Fine Gael party leader Leo Varadkar had only one political card to play after losing the two recent referenda in the 26 Counties - quit both posts!

While the public did not get any hint of his looming resignations during the recent St Patrick’s celebrations in the United States, perhaps Varadkar’s time in Washington gave him space away from Leinster House to consider his future - and the future of any cross-party coalition in the Dail capable of outgunning the Provisional IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, at the next Dail General Election.

If past opinion polls over several months are taken as a sounding board, Sinn Fein could be set for its best electoral achievement on the island since the 1918 Westminster General Election when it notched up the majority of the 105 Commons seats on offer when Ireland was still all under British rule.

If those opinion polls are correct, Sinn Fein could either be on course to form a majority government in Leinster House, or be the largest party in a coalition government - but with whom? In either scenario, Sinn Fein boss Mary Lou McDonald is tipped to become Taoiseach.

Such an outcome would leave Sinn Fein holding the two top political posts on the island - Taoiseach in Leinster House and First Minister at Stormont.

It’s no wonder Sinn Fein is chomping at the bit politically to ensure the partitionist parliament at Stormont delivers effective power-sharing. The Provos’ political wing needs to convince Southern voters that it is not merely an apologist for IRA terror, but a party of responsible government capable of making key financial decisions.

Sinn Fein will have a chance to see if the lipstick and ballot box strategy is working in a few months’ time when Southern Irish voters go to the polls in the European elections to decide who their MEPs in the European Parliament will be.

If Sinn Fein increases its European vote and number of MEPs, then the Stormont lipstick and ballot box strategy is working and the republican movement has been successful in airbrushing the Provos’ terror campaign out of the political debate.

This leaves the non-Sinn Fein parties and Independents with a massive political migraine - how to stop Mary Lou becoming Taoiseach?

Sinn Fein, like Varadkar, championed the Yes campaign in those two recent referenda. Southern voters delivered a decision No/No. Could this be interpreted as a socially conservative Right-wing backlash against the Dublin political establishment?

Like then British Prime Minister David Cameron in the 2016 EU referendum in the UK, Taoiseach Varadkar totally misread voters’ intentions in 2024.

Cameron was a champion of the Remain campaign. He lost and quit as PM. Cameron set the pace; Varadkar had no obvious choice. He had to quit.

It was clear that in trying to stop the Sinn Fein bandwagon, Varadkar wanted to use the two referenda to make the 26 Counties an even more liberal, secular and pluralist society than Sinn Fein could ever promise. The plan backfired considerably.

To keep Sinn Fein out of power in the last Dail general election, the two bitterly rival Dublin establishment parties - Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil - had to form an historic coalition.

With that crucial Dail general election looming within a year, will Fianna Fáil try to out-green Sinn Fein in terms of a nationalist agenda, and will Fine Gael swing to the socially conservative radical Right to reverse Varadkar’s defeat in the referenda?

However, in doing so, could it put such a strain on the current FF/FG coalition that it falls apart during the election allowing Sinn Fein to electorally dander into power in Leinster House?

The Southern parliament has a long history of electing a significant crop of Independent TDs and minority parties. Ironically, they could hold the balance of power in the next Dail should the Sinn Fein bandwagon not deliver enough TDs for Mary Lou to form a majority government.

And given last November’s Dublin riot and the underlying problem of immigration in the 26 Counties, could Hard Right-wing parties or candidates make a break-through into Dail politics?

Indeed, is Sinn Fein so desperate to get into power in Leinster House that the party will climb into bed politically with anyone or any party in the Dail simply to gain that coalition government majority?

In the last Dail election, it could have been worse for the establishment parties. The only reason that Sinn Fein was not part of a coalition government was that the republican movement did not run enough candidates. Sinn Fein has learned its lesson and will not make that mistake again come the next general election.

The non-Sinn Fein candidates and parties cannot afford to wait until after the votes have been counted to see if Sinn Fein emerges as the largest party.

They have to act now. They must form an electoral pact and formally announce a political rainbow coalition of candidates and parties opposed to Sinn Fein under the banner that a Sinn Fein Dail government will see another collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy as Sinn Fein’s social housing policy will financially bankrupt the Southern economy.

At the polling stations, Southern voters will have to adopt the Northern Ireland ethos of ‘themuns’ and ‘usuns’ and vote tactically with transfers to keep Sinn Fein out.

Granted, there is a severe social housing crisis in Southern Ireland. But economically, Sinn Fein is still anchored to the outdated Far Left agenda of communist James Connolly’s Irish Socialist Republican Party.

In financial policy terms, Sinn Fein is still stuck in its foundation year of 1905. After all, it was only in 1986 that Sinn Fein eventually voted to allow its TDs to take their seats in Leinster House.

There is no doubt that under a Mary Lou premiership, the now whispering campaign for a border poll will become loud shouts. But Sinn Fein in government in Leinster House does not mean Irish Unity is a certainty.

Perhaps a five-year term of Sinn Fein’s looney Left economic policies - and especially on social housing - will be the killer financial blow to any genuine hopes for a united Ireland, leaving Southern Ireland as a third rate banana republic located geographically on the extremes of the European Union.

In this scenario, that leaves Irish Unity politically binned for at least the remainder of this century. 
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online.

Leo Has Left The Anti-Shinner Coalition In A Political Pickle

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Should An Taoiseach Visit US on St. Patricks Day?

In view of the United States support for Israeli genocide being committed in Gaza this question is being raised by many. 

On the surface the answer should be simple, No, he should not go this year. Unfortunately in today’s world where money and trade, plus good relations with the USA trumps all other considerations the answer is not that clear cut, though it should be.

Some politicians in Dail Eireann while sat in opposition are trying to put pressure of Leo Varadkar not to attend this year’s celebrations with the US President, Joe Biden, at the White House. Unfortunately Sinn Fein, the main opposition party will be attending the annual piss up despite being supporters of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. This stinks somewhat of hypocrisy, kind of we support you but don’t fuck up our St. Patricks Day celebrations in the US, even if they are Israels major backer. The party says “we will also advocate for an end to the Israeli genocidal war and occupation in Gaza and the West Bank”. That’s grand sounding but they are not the government in the 26 counties so how much weight will their protests carry? 

It is Leo Varadkar, supported by the main party of opposition, who should be pressurising the US to stop supporting Israel and supplying them with ammunition. Will Sinn Fein and the Taoiseach work together on this one? Will Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein President, in such a scenario work with Varadkar? Will An Taoiseach put pressure on the US administration to cease backing the Israeli murder machine? Don’t hold your breath! As these parliamentarians have decided to attend Varadkar and McDonald should seek an audience together with Biden and US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to seek congressional approval for an arms embargo and economic sanctions on Israel. This is one of many things they could use the trip for, but will they?

On Sunday 11th February on RTEs Week in Politics presented by Aine Lawlor the question was asked of Social Democrats leader, Holly Kearns, “would you go to the White House if you were in Government”? She replied with a resounding, “yes if I was in Government I would go. I think it is important to represent the national interests therefore I would go and I think it is right the Taoiseach should be there”. This answer is contradictory because the Social Democrats are a minor party of opposition and have stated “no Social Democrats will be attending” due to their position on the situation in Gaza and US support for Israel. By the “national interests” it is meant national bourgeois interests, economics, trade and sucking up to the US President irrespective of the crimes they are complicit with against the Palestinian people! In a world where profits, trade and prestige take preference over all other considerations, moral and political, Kearns was saying to the effect of, while in opposition I and my party will protest at the US support for Israel but if ever in government the interests of the Irish rich and powerful in Ireland would take preference. Trade and profits will always, under the capitalist system, supersede all other interests including genocide.

Perhaps the only consistent TDs in the Dail are those of People Before Profit-Solidarity. People Before Profit-Solidarity TD, Mick Barry has said “Taoiseach Leo Varadkar should not travel to meet with US President Joe Biden in the White House on St Patricks Day”. Mick Barry told in no uncertain terms RTEs This Week “business as usual is over and Mr Varadkar should not be celebrating St. Patricks Day with the main supporter of Israel”. Recent figures released by the Palestinian Health Authority have shown that Israel's offensive has killed over 28,000 people, many of them women and children. The PBP/Solidarity TDs in the Dail may be small in number but are the only set of consistent souls in that assembly.

If by some quirk of nature An Taoiseach does use this opportunity to push ‘cousin Joe’ (as Biden likes to consider himself Irish - that’s a joke) into stopping US support for the Israelis, he should also make it abundantly clear that Irish protests against Israel are much the same as those voiced against Russia when they invaded the Ukraine. These protests must not be confused, or allowed to be confused with ‘anti-Semitism’ which, no doubt, the Israelis will try to claim, but on the grounds of opposing aggression just the same as the actions of Hamas on 7th October 2023 were condemned.

My own view is no Irish politician, in the North or South jurisdictions, should attend this-years glorified party. How much damage would be caused to the economy, albeit the bourgeois variant, if for reasons of concern for the Palestinians no Irish delegations attended? Is anybody seriously suggesting that boycotting the event would seriously damage the 26 counties' standing in world affairs? If Joe Biden is serious about being Irish, he should be open to Irish concerns and act accordingly. 

It is my guess the subject will be barely touched upon, I might be wrong and hope I am, it will be more about back slapping, getting Oliver Twist (pissed) and presenting a bowl of Shamrock. I cannot imagine the murder of thousands of Palestinian civilians being allowed to stand in the way of these very ‘important’ festivities, not for one second. Again I might be wrong and, unless privy to the conversations which take place none of us will ever know what the representatives of Irish and US capitalism discuss or, more to the point, don’t discuss.
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Should Leo Varadkar Attend Patrick's Day Jolly Junket In Whitehouse?

Diarmuid Breatnach ✏ writing in Rebel Breeze challenged Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

According to media reports, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he expects to see a united Ireland in his lifetime. I think he’s wrong but he’s entitled to his opinion. However, some of his following remarks are objectionable and need to be challenged.

Varadkar claimed that in a united Ireland “there will be roughly a million people who are British.” That is false. There may – or may not – be a million Irish People who consider themselves British in a united Ireland, we’ll see. But they will be Irish Citizens.

And they should have equal rights with all other citizens. They should have an equal right to vote, to housing, to their language, without any special restrictions, not to mention pogroms – in other words, nothing like the way their statelet treated its large Catholic minority.
A British soldier stands in front of a section of the burned out houses of Catholics in Bombay Street, Belfast in 1969 (which the Army did not try to prevent Loyalists burning). The arson was the Loyalist response to demands of Catholics for civil rights (while the colonial police response was batons, bullets and gas). (Photo source: Clonard Residents’ Association)

I agree with Varadkar that the quality of a country should be judged “by the way it treats its minorities.” So Varadkar, how did and does your Gombeen State treat its probably oldest ethnic minority? You know, the Irish Travellers?

It is true that “a Republican ballad, a nice song to sing, easy words to learn for some people can be deeply offensive to some people.” Presumably he means to Unionists and Loyalists. Yes, and antifascist and anti-racist songs can be deeply offensive to fascists and racists.

It is also true that some people in the Southern States sing songs about the Confederacy and Robert E. Lee and call it their culture. And the comparison fits – but not with Republicans but with Loyalists!
One of the charming annual expressions of Loyalist culture: a huge bonfire to burn Irish Tricolours and representations of Catholicism. Palestinian flags and representations of Celtic FC are frequently burned too. Slogans such as KAT (‘Kill All Teagues [i.e Catholics]) are often displayed also. (Photo source: Wikipedia)

It’s not Irish Republicans who spread racism and sectarianism: the Republican creed came into existence precisely against sectarianism. And we know Varadkar actually knows that because not long ago he made some remarks about the wide embrace of the Irish Tricolour.

The Irish Tricolour: a flag presented to revolutionary Irish Republicans by revolutionary French Republican women in Paris in 1848. Not a flag of monarchism, sectarianism or collusion with imperialism or colonialism.

While we uphold Republican principles we don’t have to apologise to anyone, least of all in our own country, Varadkar. It’s you and your party (and the rest of them serving the Gombeen class who threw away independence and slaughtered Irish Republicans) who need to be ashamed.
Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of the current Coalition
Government, who made the remarks this week. (Photo sourced: Internet)

People living in Ireland can think and feel what they like, good or bad. But in public, we will celebrate the valuable things in our history and culture. And we’ll do so proudly without apology to anyone.

On the other hand, public displays of Orange sectarianism, racism, homophobia, fascism and anti-LGBT targeting won’t be tolerated in an independent, reunited Ireland. Not for one minute.

⏩Diarmuid Breatnach is a revolutionary, singer, writer and anti-imperialist socialist activist.

Concessions To Colonial Loyalism

Anthony McIntyre 🏴‍A video of Taoiseach in waiting Leo Varadkar has been doing the rounds after he was filmed in one of Dublin's gay night clubs kissing a male companion. 

It was sent to me by a friend, more as a laugh and not in any judgmental sense. Neither I nor my friend give one soaring shag about who Varadkar kisses. Better that he kisses a person than bites him. 

Had Varadkar been smooching with an altar boy there would be grounds for concern, but he wasn't. His clinch was with a consenting adult. That however would not stop those, inspired by their Christian love, to hate him enough to want to see him hanged from a crane. Their view of theocratic Iran is that it is a great wee country if it wasn't for those damned Muzzies. Ireland would be great country too if only it had a different one true Theo. 

On this matter some Blueshirts have opted to become hair shirts. A Fine Gael rural TD said “we have a very conservative base and we are pissing them off all the time.” A leading figure in the party complained that “if he was a cat he would definitely be on his ninth life”. That senior figure is not getting the finance portfolio given their difficulty with numbers. Even the critics would be hard pressed to find the previous seven cardinal sins that Varadkar has wasted the majority of his lives on. If he was a cat the chances are he wouldn't have a clue as to who his father is. To the puritan that might make him a bastard but preferable the bastard to the puritan. In none of this do we learn anything about his ability to govern. 

As Taoiseach he will do a good job . . . for the rich but that's a different matter. If Mary Lou McDonald was to be filmed kissing some guy not her husband, it might offend those desperate to be offended but society should shrug and move onto the next issue rather than making the kiss the issue. There might be plenty of good reasons to object to either McDonald or Varadkar becoming Taoiseach but who they may have kissed is not one of them.

Not too long back the puritans and the prudes were kicking up about the Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin because she had committed the unforgiveable sin of "singing and dancing at a party with her friends". It was behaviour unbecoming of a prime minister, they snarled. 

Varadkar waded in on her behalf:

I thought she looked great. And she’s a good dancer. She’s 36. She’s allowed to party with her friends. There’d be no fuss if it was a 60 plus prime minister having late night drinks in the golf club bar . . . She’s welcome to a party in my house next time she’s in Dublin.

Meanwhile, on his own night out, Leo's lips are sealed:

I think it’s very much a personal matter and as you say it does relate entirely to my private life and for those reasons I don’t want to comment on it.

With religious whackjobs in Indonesia pushing the government there into banning extra marital sex, it is invigorating that Finland and Ireland produce public figures like Marin and Varadkar willing to let their hair down rather than permit the clerics to hide it.  

The real concern about Varadkar being videoed while partying is as one observer put it:

that someone filmed two people kissing in a gay club which is a terrifying thought to any gay person who isn’t out publicly but feel safe in that space.

Envious voyeurism perhaps? 

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Lips

Tommy McKearney ☭ The recent exhaustive celebrations of Michael Collins’s life were selective and tendentious. 

September-2022

There was very little mention of his campaign against Dublin Castle’s G men and British intelligence but heavy emphasis on his role in negotiating the Treaty and founding the Free State.

In reality, the centenary events were partitionan attempt by the Southern establishment to cement the present neoliberal status quo. It was almost as if the fallen general was reaching out posthumously to endorse a hundred years of right-wing governance by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

All the while, a century of so-called Irish independence was being heralded by the Dublin government as if British interference in Irish affairs had ended with the establishment of the Free State. Nowhere was there any reference to when Collins had lamented that too few in Irish political circles understood how the British state really operated in Ireland. While the same critique might well have eventually applied to the Big Fella himself, his observation was and remains accurate and relevant.

This is an important factor when analysing the present situation, and not only in the Six Counties but throughout the country. Because no matter how much talk there is of independence or, nowadays, of a new relationship between the two countries, English imperialism still exerts a huge influence on this side of the Irish Sea—a fact that still makes breaking the connection essential if we are to build a fair and progressive society in this country.

Regardless of what structures happen to be in place here, the British ruling class continues to look upon Ireland as somewhere to be kept within its immediate region of influence, if not as an actual colony. This was the underlying rationale behind the imposed Treaty. This too was the thinking underpinning Britain’s response to the most recent Northern conflict, when it employed bloody counter-insurgency measures to deal with what at first had been identified as a democratic deficit.

And so it remains, as evidenced by the recent Tory leadership debate, both candidates eager to override an international treaty in relation to the Six Counties and casually dismiss investigation of British state criminality in Ireland.

Britain’s exercise of sovereignty over the Six Counties gives it a direct say in affairs in the northern part of Ireland. By extension, this also affords an opportunity to have an influence on matters south of the border. On the one hand this occurs through official channels, such as the North–South ministerial arrangement and the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference, both established under the Belfast Agreement.

There is nevertheless a less visible but equally strong element at work. That is, the Southern establishment’s deeply rooted fear of the type of transformational change that might emerge in a post-partition environment. This means in practice that Britain has disguised leverage over political decision-making in Dublin. All that is required is to merely intimate that London may consider making constitutional change north of the border.

Indeed, desperation to maintain partition has accelerated a de facto merger between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, a pact that has been further sealed by the Varadkar-Martin double act at the Bealnablagh centenary commemoration. Ironically, this consolidation of ultra-conservative forces has been responsible for the rapid expansion of anti-partitionist Sinn Féin.

Undoubtedly, official Britain is keeping a watchful eye on these developments. London always has a keen interest in what is happening in a country a few miles off its western shores—not that Ireland is any military or financial threat to British interests. Moreover, the old Empire’s decline as a global superpower has actually reduced the risk of Ireland being used as a springboard for invasion.

London’s strategic priorities vis-à-vis this country have therefore changed over recent decades. No longer required as a vital military “asset,” or indeed as important a source of cheap agricultural produce as before, the emphasis is now on ensuring that Ireland does not set a “bad example” for the English working class, that a new Irish Republic would not, in the words of James Connolly, become “a word to conjure with—a rallying point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of departure for the socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human freedom.”¹

Over the past four decades Britain’s welfare state has been subjected to a relentless neoliberal assault. The once-proud National Health Service is faltering in all sectors.² Council housing is a thing of the past. Less-well-off third-level students are having to take out government loans that often require a lifetime to repay. An astonishing 13 per cent of the population are living in absolute poverty, according to a report by the House of Commons library.³ More recently, the threat of inflation is exacerbating the hardship experienced by working-class communities in Britain.

The blame for this grave situation lies primarily with the Thatcherite Conservative Party and its wealthy backers. At the moment Liz Truss, the favourite to become leader of the Conservative Party and therefore prime minister, is proposing to cut taxes on the rich and smash the unions. Her merciless political code is shared by Rishi Sunak, her challenger for 10 Downing Street.

Unfortunately, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, is offering little alternative to the free-marketeers as he remains wedded to right-of-centre Blairite economic policies.

Significantly, though, opposition to this cosy neoliberal consensus is now emerging from within Britain’s organised labour movement. Indeed the most prominent spokesperson from within the trade union movement is Mick Lynch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, son of Irish parents and, incidentally, an avowed admirer of James Connolly.

In the light of the present “condition of the working class in England” it is hardly surprising that Britain’s privileged ruling caste would view a move towards socialism in Ireland as inimical to its self-interest. Unlike China or Cuba, we are a close neighbour, with a substantial and regular exchange of tourists and visitors, not to mention the historically large Irish diaspora living in Britain (one of whom is the aforementioned Mick Lynch).

Imagine how difficult it would be for Britain’s neoliberal establishment to justify or even explain why a newly socialist Ireland could provide a comprehensive health service, public housing and an end to poverty while they preside over a deprived society. Better from their point of view to use all available leverage to reinforce the position of their right-wing bedfellows in the Republic.

A presence in the Six Counties affords many opportunities, direct and indirect, to do so. The Orange card was played before to foil the “freedom to achieve freedom” by providing “stepping-stones” to the Republic. A modern version would be used again but this time to prevent socialism.

Challenging the carnival of reaction, north and south, must now mean leaving the Big Fella to rest in peace. Focus instead on working to achieve Connolly’s vision of a workers’ republic, with the working class in control of everything from the Plough to the stars.

References :James Connolly, Socialism and Nationalism (1897).
See “Britain is ‘sleepwalking’ into the death of the NHS,” Morning Star, 19 August 2022.
House of Commons Library, “Poverty in the UK: Statistics,” 13 April 2022 (https://bit.ly/3pAFFUo).


Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. 
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney 

Varadkar-Martin Alliance Desperate To Maintain Partition

Anthony McIntyre ✒ What happened outside the home of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar last week was nothing short of thuggish intimidation. 

A mob comprised of “far-right, anti-vaccination and hardline Catholic activists” descended on the property to pollute the Varadkar home with its unsolicited noise, some of which was hateful abuse aimed at sullying Varadkar's right to live his life as a gay man.  

The protest group, which calls itself We the Sovereign People, were behind the demonstration. One of the far-right protesters regularly posts videos online spouting conspiracy theories and has previously targeted Jewish people online. Videos posted to social media show around 25 protesters, some with placards bearing anti-vaccine messages, and another in which homophobic insults can be heard.

The group had, a week earlier on two separate occasions, gathered outside the home of Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and are said to be planning protests outside the surgeries of GPs over the latter's endorsement of vaccination for Covid-19.

On top of this, Varadkar had earlier been the recipient of death threats which were reported as having been taken “extremely seriously" and which at the time led to round the clock Garda protection. 

I have some idea of what it is like to have the peace of my home disturbed by a mob intent on intimidation. I was not at home on either occasion when the mob arrived, led by a local Sinn Fein personality who later became a councillor for the party. We who lived there were not drug dealers or engaged in anti-social behaviour like house breaking or car theft. The ire of the mob was sparked by myself and a fellow former blanketman having spoken out against a Provisional IRA killing of a local republican: Joe O’Connor’s crime was to have belonged to a different IRA from the one the mob supported. On the second occasion, unfortunately,  my heavily pregnant wife stood in the garden facing the mob. I, ironically, was in Cookstown at a conference on free speech, while those gathering outside my home were virulently opposed to any such thing. A neighbour joined my wife and asked the protestors to disperse and desist from harassing a pregnant woman. As unnerving as it was for me, it was much more arduous for my wife who later wrote about her experience:

It first began in earnest in the wake of the IRA’s murder of Joe O’Connor, where I was subjected to a picket of my home, new in a foreign country with no family and few friends, six months pregnant. I had been a union organizer and was no stranger to pickets, although picketing a home in the dark of night was unusual ... A monster had taken over my life. I suffered from severe depression and exhibited all the hallmarks of PTSD ... For speaking out against Sinn Fein, I have been traumatized. Vilified, intimidated, and threatened, I have lived in fear and under surveillance.

When the home of Simon Harris was mobbed by people from the opposite end of the political spectrum to those outside the Varadkar residence, the then Health Minister described it as "intimidation and thuggery. It felt like a violation, it was a violation." So, I instinctively empathise with Leo Varadkar in the face of the violation he endured. His partner too, who like my wife, cannot carry on as normal once the mob seeks to stigmatise the family home.

For these reasons it is welcome that Sinn Fein has jettisoned its previous practice of mobilising home-intimidation against its critics. My local MP at the time our home was mobbed, Gerry Adams, said absolutely nothing against the killers or the people assembled at my home, instead maliciously and falsely labeling myself and Tommy Gorman "fellow-travellers of the Real IRA." Mary Lou McDonald, in a departure from the stance of her predecessor, was unambiguous in her criticism of the gang at the Varadkar home, while her party and Dail colleague Martin Kenny said “intimidating protests outside homes are just not acceptable and are something we all need to stand up against." 

Let's hope, borrowing from the lyrics of an old Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes number, this time it's for real. 

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Mob At The Door

Tommy McKearney ✒ Full marks to Leo Varadkar for creativity. When it comes to offering the public something imaginative, he is hard to beat.


He has provided us with many servings. Remember his claim during a period of neo-liberal austerity that welfare recipients were damaging the economy? Then there was his insistence that leaking a confidential document to his pal would improve the health service. Or what about his assertion that the private sector can and will address the housing crisis?

Now we have this intriguing proposal to establish a branch of his party in the Six Counties. So, eighty-five years after a large body of party supporters under the leadership of its first chairperson went to spread their hateful message to the people of Spain, the Blueshirts are coming north. North of Monaghan, that is, the birthplace of their infamous founder.

All right, we may scoff at the incongruity of these patently disingenuous utterances; but beware. Varadkar is not only a right-wing ideologue committed to stringent neoliberalism, as evidenced most recently by his avid support for CETA: he is also a hard-headed realist with a view to the long term. No matter how discordant his utterances appear on the face of it, there is always an underlying and well-thought-out message.

This was the case, for example, when some weeks back, in order to coax the trade union movement into social partnership talks, he disingenuously implied support for increasing wages.

It is in this light that we should consider his address to the Fine Gael ard-fheis when he highlighted the North and his position on the national question. Unlike the Augustinian republicans of Fianna Fáil (God grant us unity, but not just yet), the Blueshirts feel no need to be seen to aspire to end partition. By a strange paradox, this leaves them free to carry out a clinical analysis of the situation in Northern Ireland, and they are now acting in the light of their findings.

After the British general election of 2019 resulted in three nationalist MPs being returned for four Belfast seats, Varadkar spoke accurately of changing political tectonic plates. At that time he argued against pursuing a united-Ireland agenda. However, he has since changed his mind, telling his ard-fheis last month that reunification should be the party’s “mission,” and that this can happen in his lifetime.

It hardly needs a learned political scientist to explain the reasoning behind the latest Fine Gael assessment. The chaotic and very public infighting within the DUP has revealed not just the perilous state of that party but also the terminally damaged condition of Irish unionism in general, details of which we have covered several times in this paper over the past months.

Consequently, the pragmatic Blueshirts are acting accordingly. In contrast to the rudderless Fianna Fáil, the folk in Upper Mount Street have accepted reality and are laying out the groundwork for the type of post-partitioned Ireland they are planning to inflict upon us. Their intentions emerged in Varadkar’s ard-fheis address.

Inspired, perhaps, by the rousing endorsement received by Jeffrey Donaldson, the new leader of the DUP, at the 2019 Fine Gael ard-fheis when he proposed that “Éire” rejoin the Commonwealth, Varadkar suggested that his party establish a branch in the Six Counties, saying: “Not with a view to contesting elections but with a view to recruiting members and building networks with like-minded people, including those in other parties.”

He continued by defining the type of post-partitioned Ireland that he did not want to see. Taking a swipe at Sinn Féin, he insisted that he did not envisage a “cold form of republicanism, socialist, protectionist, anti-British, euro-critical, 50% plus one and nobody else is needed.”

While throwing in a few items supported by no credible political current in Ireland today (nor, in fairness, by Sinn Féin), such as narrow nationalism and “ourselves alone,” he made his intention clear. In his view, the new Ireland must not be republican, socialist, or EU-critical.

Fearful, perhaps, that Fine Gael might steal a march with its lurch towards reunification, Sinn Féin appears to have softened its position in relation to civil liberties. Seemingly determined to avoid causing offence to the state, Mary Lou McDonald has ordered her party not to oppose renewal of the Special Criminal Court.

Confronted with the confusing spectacle of Fine Gael’s support for a united Ireland and Sinn Féin’s about-turn on the draconian Offences Against the State Act, it is important that socialist republicans promote a clear left-wing vision for post-partition Ireland. A useful step would be to convene a series of meetings using “A Democratic Programme for a New Century” (2009)* as the basis for discussion.

*Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum, “A Democratic Programme for a New Century” 

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. 
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney 

Fine Gael And A United Ireland

From the Irish Examiner ➤ the sun has been shining on the back of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and not everyone is amused.


By Michael Clifford

Briefly, in the last 24 hours, it looked as if some intrepid politics watchers may have collared their very own Dominic Cummings, as photographs circulated of the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hanging out with some mates in the Phoenix Park, possibly breaching prevailing public health rules.

There were four males present, just within the limit for social gatherings under the current phase of emergence from the lockdown.

Three of them, including the Taoiseach, were 'topless'. This is within the laws of decency, as none of the men bore any sign of corpulence or rolls of excess fat that could have assaulted the notion of decency.

The Taoiseach appeared to be drinking from a can of beer. Despite the alcohol and the muscle on display, there was no sign of trouble. In any event, Gardaí were reported to be in the vicinity, just in case anything got of hand.

However, the location of this assembly was the Wellington Monument in the south of the park. This is 8km from Mr Varadkar’s Castleknock home, a full 3km beyond the allowable distance in the current phase. Gotcha!

Continue reading @ the Irish Examiner.

Hot Under The Collar Over Shirtless Leo

Alex McCrory is scathing of Sinn Fein's West Belfast welcome to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. 

Performing Seals

Leo Varadkar will certainly throw the nationalist cat among the republican pigeons if he goes on the Brexit offensive by committing his party, Fine Gael, to organising and contesting Northern Ireland elections. So says controversial commentator, Dr John Coulter, in his Fearless Flying Column today, as he outlines a Fine Gael blueprint for success in the North.

Varadker's Green Lambeg

With Stormont in stalemate, commentator Dr John Coulter uses his Fearless Flying Column to call for an all-island security forum to protect Ireland from the threat posed by jihadi cells.

A Lack Of Hot Pursuit

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