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Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
Orghan ☭ offers a critique of a recent IRSP 
document on immigration.

The response to migrant workers accepting abysmal working conditions as a consequence of their precarious position is not to limit immigration, but to fight alongside them in unions and on the streets, against our common enemy. 

It is our common enemy, the capitalist ruling class, that you correctly state has an interest in keeping wages low and conditions bad, which is something that they can achieve by employing migrant workers. Why then is your reaction to this to curry the favour of this ruling class that oppresses us all? Do you not dare dream bigger than to be allowed to do the precarious work that migrants are currently doing? You could be dreaming of a united working class, realising our power through sheer numbers. But saddeningly, you are giving in to this reactionary tendency which pits workers against each other.

This brings us to the most important part of this critique: At many points in your paper, you package what is obviously a reactionary position in leftist rhetoric. Firstly, this doesn't change that anti-immigration positions oppose the interest of the international working-class movement. Secondly, we see no other explanation for this than that you hope to gain support from working-class people who are unfortunately drifting off into reactionary politics more and more as a consequence of right-wing propaganda. We struggle with the same issue of especially working-class people falling for these talking points that obviously oppose their interest here in Switzerland as well. It is a trend that can be observed in all of Europe. But our response to this cannot be to jump on the same trend. Yes, leftist movements can gain supporters by adapting right-wing positions, but at what cost? Who would these new-found supporters be? Our comrades?

Surely not. They remain reactionaries if they enter our organisations due to us ceding our revolutionary position. We cannot grow our revolutionary movement by betraying it. We must grow it by focussing on the workers who are open to our leftist positions to join our cause. We must work on our propaganda in hopes of also reaching those who have already started going down the right-wing path and convincing them to turn around, instead of meeting them on the right side.

Furthermore, it is at least our local experience that migrant workers tend to have a lot more class-consciousness than local workers, especially if they hail from countries with strong labour movements.

The unions that make the effort to address them directly quickly find these migrant workers to form the frontline of their movement. You talk of "numbers" entering Ireland, but they are not numbers, they are people! The vast majority of them working-class, many from regions suffering from a history of colonisation, which often contributes to them being driven from their homes.

Resources like food, housing, etc. are not scarce, and this perceived scarcity is not a consequence of immigration but of how these resources are made available to the people. You even correctly state this yourselves in your paragraphs about landlordism. In capitalism, there is generally overproduction, the problem lies in how the products of our labour are distrubuted. As long as the working class is not in power, these resources are being distributed by capitalists.

They distribute them inefficiently and unfairly in order to sow dissent among workers. With the rhethoric you use in this paper, you are lending the capitalists a helping hand.

As an internationalist organisation, we have joined the IRSP's events in the past, as well as organised acts of solidarity with the Irish movement here in Switzerland. Under these new conditions, we will no longer be able or willing to participate in IRSP marches or events. Nor will we organise any actions of solidarity for the IRSP in the future. Some of us will be in Ireland for Easter, but we would not join the IRSP march.

We urge you not to give in to capitalist tactics of division and to stand for a strong, internationally united working class. Should this proposed paper become your official position, you are crossing a line which would no longer allow us in good conscience to support your organisation. While we remain unwaveringly committed to the cause of a free and united Ireland, we will find ways to put this position into practice that do not involve working with an organisation that is prepared to stab the international workers' movement in the back in exchange for short-term gains.

⏩ Orghan is a Swiss anti-capitalist collective.

IRSP Wrong On Immigration

Tina Woods ✒ Last week, the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) released a policy document addressing immigration in Ireland.

However, sections of the Left, particularly those aligned with People Before Profit (PBP), swiftly criticized the IRSP's stance without fully engaging with the substance of their proposal. 

It appears that the primary detractors either failed to thoroughly review the document, lacked comprehension thereof, or hastily dismissed it based on superficial grounds. 

What exactly does the IRSP advocate in their proposal? In essence, the IRSP suggests that in a prospective Irish Socialist Republic, the future government could enact measures to regulate immigration, considering its potential economic benefits for the working class. However, the document refrains from delineating specific measures or endorsing a rigid stance on border policies. Instead, it asserts the prerogative of a socialist government to implement measures deemed appropriate. 

A notable critique of the document is its focus on the negative aspects of immigration without acknowledging its potential positive contributions, whether cultural or social. While the IRSP may argue that the document solely emphasizes the economic impact, it could benefit from a more comprehensive examination of immigration's broader implications. 

One pivotal aspect of the policy is its contrarian stance to the narrative propagated by PBP. This distinction is largely underscored by the defense mounted by IRSP members, rather than the policy's substantive content. The IRSP contends that dismissing the concerns of working-class individuals regarding immigration as inherently racist is a fallacious approach. This sentiment was conspicuously absent during the North Wall protests, where such concerns were summarily disregarded. Instead, the IRSP advocates for a nuanced understanding of these legitimate apprehensions among working-class communities. Rather than vilifying them, there is a call to empathize with their grievances and redirect their frustrations toward the systemic exploitation perpetuated by capitalistic structures, rather than scapegoating immigrants. 

Furthermore, the IRSP aptly highlights the peril of ignoring the grievances of significant segments of the working class, which could potentially fuel the ascent of far-right ideologies. This void could be readily exploited by extremist elements seeking to promulgate racist agendas, as evidenced by their adept utilization of social media platforms. 

In conclusion, the IRSP's perspective warrants consideration and merits commendation for its pragmatic approach to the issue at hand. By endeavoring to channel and address societal frustrations while engaging with marginalized communities, they aim to mitigate the risk of further polarization fueled by categorical denunciations from the political left.

⏩Tina Woods is a North Antrim Trade Unionist.

Analyzing The IRSP Immigration Policy

Carrie Twomey 🎤 speaking on LMFM.

“Racism is not the answer” says Drogheda resident Carrie Twomey McIntyre.

She joined Michael Reade to discuss the D Hotel being turned into accommodation for International Protection Applicants.


Racism Is Not The Answer


⏩Carrie Twomey hates Illinois Nazis (just like the Blues Brothers)

Racism Is Not The Answer

The Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum ✏ has released the following statement concerning protests at asylum seeker accommodation.

Protesting against asylum seekers and their places of accommodation is wrong.

Asylum seekers and refugees are not responsible for creating and maintaining the grossly unfair, iniquitous system existing in Ireland today.

So no-one should allow others to use their justifiable anger at the state of our country; the collapsing public health services, money grabbing landlordism, no available public housing, poor wages, no job security.

Migrants and asylum seekers have not caused this mess or made peoples’ lives harder or deprived children of anything.

We need to channel our anger at those responsible. The blame lies with the Irish elites, the landlords both corporate and local, the employers who pay slave wages and those who govern over this state of affairs.

If people focus their anger on migrants and asylum seekers then they are letting the powers that be of the hook.

People are right to be angry but must make sure to hit the right target i.e. the 1% who run and control our lives. Kick up not down.

The solution is to change the system that’s at fault, not to blame those who are not.

Tommy McKearney … Joint-Chair Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum

Target The 1%, Not Immigrants And Refugees

Matt Treacy ✒ I was watching a BBC film about Boris Pasternak, the great Russian novelist and author of Doctor Zhivago, recently. 


What was interesting was that when the regime decided to go after him in the late 1940s they did not initially send the NKVD to kick his door down.

What they did instead was to use the allegedly independent Writers Union and the officially approved Novy Mir literary journal to first refuse to publish Pasternak and then denounce him as a “black sheep.” In typical Stalinist fashion all of this was used as a pretext to imprison Pasternak’s mistress Olga Invinskaya and only the death of Stalin himself probably saved both herself and Boris from death.

It is admittedly stretching the analogy on my part, but do certain people in RTÉ consider themselves to be tasked with a similar role to the Writers Union and the press “organs” of late Stalinism? Do some of them regard themselves as gatekeepers for the government or official line on certain issues?

Certainly, that is the impression that might be garnered from ther RTÉ tweet last night in response to the claim by Fianna Fáil Clare TD Cathal Crowe that perhaps his own Government might consider a cap on the number of Ukrainian refugees taken in to Ireland. The RTÉ News tweet both highlights the fact that Crowe was speaking “contrary to official Government policy” but also, and probably more importantly from a particular perspective, that he was questioning, perhaps even advocating a breach of, “EU law.”


And if there’s one thing that we learned at our granny’s knee it is that no good comes from questioning EU law. It is the modern Irish liberal elite’s version of playing hurling in the fairy ring.

The law in question is Council Directive 2001/55/EC that was approved in July 2001 in response to the refugee crisis in the former Yugoslavia. It was triggered for the first time on February 24 this year in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Article 25 of the Directive refers to the “capacity to receive such persons” on the part of each member state, so there is no legal obligation as is implied by the RTÉ tweet to agree to take unlimited numbers.

As the Article states:

The Member States shall receive persons who are eligible for temporary protection in a spirit of Community solidarity. They shall indicate – in figures or in general terms – their capacity to receive such persons.

Even though the Irish government and all of the Dáil opposition parties have stated that there ought to be no limit, that is a political decision and not one that is legally binding. Other states, including France, have clearly some notional idea of what that limit is given the proportionally smaller numbers they have taken in.

Therefore, when Deputy Crowe states that it is his belief that his own county of Clare and Ireland as a whole has reached that capacity he is perfectly within his rights to do so. The stretching of that capacity is indicated by the enormous pressures being placed on accommodation, schools, health and other public provisions.

It is a crisis that is not helped either by the fact that a large number of people – better described as economic migrants – from other countries, including those who are not considered to be unsafe such as Georgia, are clearly taking advantage of the current situation and indeed the ambiguity around the Directive to stake a claim to being provided with asylum and all that goes with it in Ireland.

Other members of the Oireachtas, including Senator Sharon Keoghan, who yesterday claimed that the Irish state simply does not have the “structural capacity” to sustain the current demand, and Tipperary Rural Independent TD Mattie McGrath who echoed the widespread public unease at what is taking place within communities, have elicited condemnation and even heckling from both government and opposition Senators, TDs and Ministers when saying similar things to Cathal Crowe.

Minister Roderic O’Gorman yesterday defended his government’s decision to accept unlimited numbers of people from countries other than Ukraine on the basis that “Ukraine is not the only war on our planet right now.”

It may not be, but what we do know, and this is supported by the official statistics, that the majority of people presenting themselves for asylum here are not from countries where there is a war, or indeed any other internationally recognised human rights crisis that would justify such numbers.

There is no war in Georgia. There is no war in Albania. There is no war in Algeria, nor Nigeria, nor South Africa, nor Zimbabwe. This is where the majority of non-Ukrainians seeking asylum here, many of whom present no documentation on their arrival in Dublin airport, originate. It is simply unsustainable and unjustifiable that any state be expected to take an unlimited number of such economic migrants, while also fulfilling its commitments to persons genuinely fleeing the war in Ukraine.

The pile on against Crowe is remarkable not just for the reason that he is the first TD in good standing with one of the coalition parties to question the state’s capacity, but that it also highlights how few opposition TDs and Senators, other than those referred to above as well as a small number of others, have posed such legitimate questions.

Indeed, when Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh was asked for his reaction to Deputy Crowe’s statement on Raidió na Gaeltachta this morning his only response was to reiterate his party’s belief that there ought to be no limit on asylum seekers, and that the only issue seemingly is the need to ensure proper provision.

Which of course avoids the obvious paradox that there is a limit to any state’s capacity to do this. As indeed is recognised, at least formally, in the EU Directive governing the current situation. Cathal Crowe and other elected representatives are raising questions that are within the letter and the spirit of the relevant “EU Law” so revered across the political and media establishment.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Cathal Crowe And Others Are Perfectly Entitled To Question Ireland’s Migrant And Refugee Capacity

Matt Treacy ✒ The preliminary results of the 2022 Census were released by the Central Statistics Office yesterday. 


The headline in one outlet that ironically used to pride itself on checking other people’s facts – to the effect that the population of Ireland is “the highest since 1841” – is just wrong. The population of Ireland was 8,175,124. The population of Ireland in 1851 following the Great Hunger was 6.5 million. There was no such entity as the 26-county state in 1841.

The CSO figures show that the population of the Irish state has increased by 361,671 since the last Census taken in 2011. This represents a combination of a natural increase of births minus deaths of 171,338 plus a net inward migration of 190,333.

The comparative figures for 2016 evidenced a total increase of 173,613 since 2011; which was comprised of a natural increase of 196,100 minus a net migration of -22,500.

Much of the latter figure was accounted for by the number of Irish born people who emigrated which also concealed the high level of inward migration that took place between 2011 and 2016.

So, the bulk of the increase of population of 7.6% since 2016 was made up of people coming to live in Ireland from overseas. Many of the births during the past six years will also have been to people of other than Irish nationality.

In combination with a substantial and still unknown number of people who presumably did not take part in either the 2011, 2016, or 2022 Census and are now being offered an amnesty, the proportion of people of other than Irish nationality, and of people born overseas but now possessing Irish citizenship, we are clearly in the midst of a demographic change unprecedented since the mass starvation and emigration of the mid 19th century, and the earlier plantation of settlers from England, Scotland and Wales.

Whether one thinks that is a good thing or a bad thing is not the issue. It happens to be true. As we have seen this week, it is an issue that the Irish establishment from Government ministers to left wing NGOS and media are determined not to be allowed to be discussed.

If someone does manage to breach the omerta – like Carol Nolan – then they are expected to be pilloried for it.

The reaction to the attacks on Nolan was clearly not what was expected from the establishment – to the extent that one news site removed comments on its report of that Dáil exchange,

We look forward to a fuller analysis of the results of the 2022 Census with the hope, perhaps greater than it might have been previously, that the people of this country will be permitted to have a mature and balanced debate on the consequences of mass immigration without being censored, ranted at or maligned as racists.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Census 2022 Reveals Massive Demographic Change

Matt Treacy ✒ Sometimes the NGO sector would give you the impression that whatever client group they have decided to adopt – often when said client group does not even know the NGO exists – would be starving on the side of the road if it were not for their “advocacy.”


Of course, that is not what NGOs do. They rarely practically assist people, well not to any great extent at least in comparison to all the money they receive from the taxpayer via a compliant state which has a cosy, and dare-one-say-it, even unhealthy relationship with said NGOs. This can be explained in part by the alacrity and ease with which many people, particularly in the upper echelons, move seamlessly from one to the other. All this happens on our tab.

A good example of this is the Irish Refugee Council which has recently issued recommendations – or demands really – on how Ukrainian and other refugees, ought to be treated within the education sector.

All of the demands centre on extracting more money from the public purse. They are being made at a time when people who are already here, including people born here with Irish born children, are finding it increasingly difficult to access educational services. That applies right across the board from primary school places, through special needs assistants, right up to the expense of third level education particularly given the enormous pressures on accommodation.

The Irish Refugee Council is not short of a few bob, nor of the clout to ensure that they can persuade the state to spend money outside of what they themselves receive. In 2020 they had an income, almost entirely from the state and various foundations, of €970,284. Of that they spent €866,727 on “charitable activities.”

Good for them you say. Charity means selflessly giving of one’s time and resources to help others less fortunate. Except that a considerable part of the charity work of the Irish Refugee Council is paying their own staff, and paying for their offices and admin etc. This accounts for €727,772. So over 70% of their income goes to paying themselves and ensuring that their electric and social media accounts and so on don’t get cut off.

I mention this, not to be churlish, but to merely highlight the fact that in their submission to the Oireachtas Committee they claim to have “supported almost 300 people in accessing further and higher education via our annual grant system.” They can hardly have much money for this on top of all of their other outgoings? So to this neophyte accountant that appears to basically to ask the state for more money for stuff they don’t do themselves.

This does not make them unique. It is what all of these NGO advocacy groups do. They get vast amounts of money from the taxpayer to look after whichever client group is “theirs” and then they spend most of that money not in directly assisting members of that said client group but in asking the taxpayer – well the people they elect to be accurate – to give those client groups more money from public provisions not explicitly devoted to them.

Which is what the Refugee Council are doing here in their submission to the Joint Education Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. And they are not just talking about refugees from Ukraine who may require assistance in accessing education, but also want funding for “third country nationals who were studying in Ukraine on student visas but who are now unable to continue their studies or to return to their country of origin.”

Why are said foreign nationals not able to return to their “countries of origin” – which are presumably the countries in which they were residing when they acquired their visas to travel to Ukraine, and possibly even some sort of grant? Has Ireland become the default bailout zone for all of these people as well? Don’t hold your breath for any questioning of this by the people you elected.

The Irish Refugee Council has sent its list of demands to the Education Committee where no doubt it will receive a warm reception, and indeed they’ll be in their Granny’s because no-one is going to deny them what they want. Especially not those who seem to believe that, like some secular leftie miracle of the loaves and the fishes, you can just continually add to all the list of stuff that costs money without anyone seeing any downside.

The sort of people who think that not only can the Irish state break all building construction records, and increase social welfare payments, and provide school and hospital places for those already here, but that more or less anyone who wishes can come here and wet their beak too. It is of course impossible. Just don’t tell the Joint Education Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

The Refugee Council And The Miracle Of The Loaves And The Fishes

Matt Treacy ✒ Once again the shining star of European left-liberalism has proven that when the vital interests of it’s country’s citizens are at stake that they are willing to ignore the wailing of the NGOs and extremists.


On Wednesday this week, Denmark announced a deal with Kosovo for that country to take 300 non-Danish prisoners in order to reduce the demands on the Danish prison system whose population has increased by 20% since 2015. Much of that increase has been driven by increased crime and convictions by and of first and second generation immigrants.

Already by 2015, around 40% of the prison population of over 4,000 was not ethnically Danish. At that time, non-ethnic Danes were four times as likely to be convicted as Danes. Of course, many on the left ascribe this to racism rather than recognise the reality that serious crime in Denmark is more prevalent among some, but not all, immigrant communities.

Of particular concern has been the steadily rising number of rapes, which are relatively high for a country that does not or has not had a major history of violent crime. In 2015, the rate of reported rapes in Denmark was 18.5 per 100,000 compared to 11.5 in Ireland. Many rapes are not reported and the estimates for both Denmark and Ireland vary.

Some of that has to do with the culture of certain immigrant communities in which an unquantifiable number of rapes and other crimes are not reported to the authorities, because of lack of trust in the police and other issues. The proportion of rapes that are brought to court committed by non Danish nationals is substantially out of line with the country’s demographics. This is similar to Sweden where 58% of convicted rapists were born outside of Sweden.

Amnesty International published a report in 2019 on what it described as Denmark’s “pervasive rape culture” without highlighting the clear link between younger male immigrants from certain countries and that culture. The clash between open European societies and its respect for human rights including the basic rights of women and children and gay people is stark. Ireland too, has experience of this

There are some other interesting comparisons between Ireland and Denmark. The 300 prisoners to be sent to Kosovo, along with others who will remain in Denmark, have had deportation orders made against them when their sentences are served. Here of course, we have the situation where such orders are as rare as hen’s teeth and strongly challenged by the liberal legal sector, and where people who have been told to leave the country when they are released are left to do so voluntarily. And as Gript has shown, some do not.

The prison population here is close to the overall rate of incarceration in Denmark for a similarly sized population. However, while Denmark’s prison population has steadily grown, the Irish prison system reported fewer sentenced prisoners in 2020 mostly due to a planned release of 500 inmates between March and June 2020, so that they would be less likely to get Covid. Indeed.

It is difficult to get statistics on non-national prisoners in Ireland. I have sent several Freedom of Information requests that have not been answered in relation to what was asked – such as the numbers of prisoners from other countries sentenced in Ireland who have convictions in other countries.

The 2020 annual report of the Irish Prison Service stated that 23.2% of the prison population were “non-nationals.” This is not only out of proportion to the supposed % of the population that is non-national, but probably does not count prisoners who have successfully attained Irish citizenship, although that is something that we do not know for certain.

Meanwhile our own justice authorities might look at Denmark as a model of how to address such problems, especially given that Denmark and its ruling social democratic party are usually the exemplars of what our own liberal-left admire and attempt to emulate in so many other respects.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Denmark To Send Foreign Criminals To Prison In Kosovo

Matt Treacy ✒ The Cabinet today is to approve a proposal that will mark a radical undermining of the vote of the people in the citizenship referendum in 2004.


That referendum, carried with almost 80% approval, closed off a loophole whereby a large number of people had come to Ireland, in order to automatically be granted Irish citizenship once they had children. This right was unique to this country at the time among all other EU and European states.


Since that time, those with an agenda to push have described the vote as a “racist referendum”. They seem to have no qualms in labelling 80% of Irish people in this way – or in seeking to shaft the will of the people in proposals designed to eventually overturn the 2004 vote.

Now the new measure will allow Irish-born children of immigrants to apply for citizenship after 12 months’ continuous residence. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee recently signalled that the Cabinet’s decision would be part of the response to a Labour private members motion last December that proposed completely overturning the law, without even the courtesy of putting any of this back to the citizens in a vote.

The self-satisfied arrogance of those who spoke in the debate, as reported here, means of course that trivialities such as our consent are not necessary. The Senate, which is not subject to democratic election by the vast majority of voters and is increasingly comprised of left liberal appointees from across all parties and none, has effectively become the conduit for another Woke initiative without any thought for its consequences.

What today’s proposal will do – and you may be certain that this will not be the last of it following an earlier declaration of an effective amnesty for over an unknown number of illegal immigrants – is to subvert the clear intent of the 2004 initiative. People knew what they were voting for. They do not need the post-facto interpretation or denigration of that by those fixated by seeing everything through a racial lens.

It will mean that those excluded from citizenship for valid reasons, and who may not even have been processed through the ramshackle process that allows almost anyone who gets here to stay anyway, no matter what their excuse or behaviour, will once again be able to claim citizenship if they have children who were born here. Indeed it will once again throw the door open to extended families being able to apply.

The Twitter response to the report by one journalist made some pertinent points.

One respondent also nailed the politics accurately when referring to the role of the Labour Party in all of this. The party that has obviously completely abandoned any pretence to being representative of the “working class”, not that it ever was. It has lost that to Sinn Féin and is now competing with it for the Woke vote. Labour’s absurdity being underlined by its use of International Women’s Day to support men claiming to be women. Including those who are undermining female sports, and those who are danger to actual women when placed in custody with them.

Of course, this will meet with a generally supportive response from the racial grifters, but you may be also certain that the array of left extremists and NGO state paid activists will see it as “only a beginning.” And it will be only a beginning, you may be sure.

As the recent white paper on Direct Provision indicated, all of this is part of a shared agenda from Fine Gael to People Before Profit, encompassing slum landlords and all sorts of dubious other political and financial chancers.

That agenda is to effectively turn Ireland into a denationalised convenience for those who benefit financially or politically from mass immigration. In the case of a substantial section of the current leadership of the Fine Gael party and the left, it also numbers those who share an antipathy to all manifestations of Irish nationality.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland. 

Your 2004 Vote In The Citizenship Referendum Is Being Shafted By Cabinet

Matt Treacy ✒ In June 2004, the Irish people voted in a referendum which inserted a new Article 9.2 into Bunreacht na hÉireann to limit the right to claim citizenship to children born here who had at least one parent who was an Irish citizen.

 

An unforeseen consequence of the Good Friday Agreement had led to an amended Article 2 of the Constitution which allowed anyone born here to claim citizenship and thus by extension allow their entire family to do so.

The loophole had contributed to a massive 70% increase in immigration between 1999 and 2004. There were proven cases where people travelled to both parts of Ireland in order to exploit this loophole and thus establish a right to residency that would otherwise never have been granted.

 
An unforeseen consequence of the Good Friday Agreement had led to an amended Article 2 of the

The 27th amendment proposed in 2004 brought the Irish state into line with all other EU member states.

The proposal was overwhelmingly popular and was passed by almost 80% of those who cast their ballot. The amendment was opposed by Labour, Sinn Féin, the far left, Greens and the usual suspects in the NGOs and “rights” groups who soak up large amounts of taxpayer’s money from the immigration gig. Those groups tried to label the vote a “racist referendum” at the time. Clearly the electorate were having none of it.

The referendum was held on the same day as the local and European elections. I was on the Sinn Féin election directorate for Dublin which co-ordinated both the local elections and the campaign for the Dublin European constituency. It was a major breakthrough for Sinn Féin. Mary Lou McDonald was elected as MEP and the party took almost 19% of the vote and ten seats in the Dublin City Council area.

So, you might think, that vote was surely was a vindication of Sinn Fein’s opposition to the referendum. Not exactly. Local candidates who knew their areas were unenthusiastic about campaigning against the referendum, to say the least, as were most of us on the directorate. When some party members tried to push the No campaign as part of the election effort, we rebuffed them.

And when one chap who was a representative alongside the usual ragtag and bobtail on the anti-referendum campaign decided on his own initiative to have thousands of leaflets produced to be handed out centrally for local distribution by activists, they mysteriously got lost somewhere in the basement of 44 or 58 Parnell Square.

We were vindicated when the boxes were opened and papers separated and it was clear that hardly any Sinn Féin voters in the city council area had voted No. One box which I tallied in Darndale had 11 No votes, even though the vast majority of votes were cast for Sinn Féin councillor Larry O’Toole and for Mary Lou.

Fast forward 16 years, and this vote is apparently again up for grabs. Communist TD Mick Barry tabled a private members motion on September 24 seeking to overturn the measure. In fact this is only the latest attempt to overturn what was generally considered to be a common sense change, which proves once again the attraction of divisive racial politics on the part of those whose absurd Marxist political ideology no longer floats anyone’s boat.

The last debate on this, in January when there was a similar proposal, provides some insight into how the parties are likely to form up now if it does come to a vote. One suspects, however, that it is the opportunity to grandstand and falsely portray others as racists, rather than any likelihood that the Bill will be put to a referendum, that is attractive to the reds.

Murphy, Barry and Kenny the three communist deputies who spoke on the proposal engaged in the usual faux emotionalism and denial of the facts. The Cork Sinn Féin TD Ó Laoghaire curiously referred to a deportation order to China. It puzzles me as to why the Shinners oppose deportation to states like China and South Africa which represent their own aspirations towards “equality” and the rest. Not to mention the great example of how to use the pretence of achieving that nebulous state to make a few bob.

Sinn Féin, of course, supported the proposal to overturn the vote of almost 80% of the electorate and presumably will support its latest incarnation if it comes back to the Dáil. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Citizenship for Children) Bill 2020 proposes to directly overturn the 27th amendment and allow citizenship to any person born in Ireland. Indeed it extends it by allowing citizenship to any child who has spent 3 years here while a child. It is badly drafted, but the intent is clear.

When Mick Barry introduced the Bill at first stage on September 24, he regurgitated the usual emotive stuff, adding that the proposal was now “inspired by the Black lives Matter movement.” So you can imagine the festival of virtue signalling that awaits if it is tabled for Second Stage debate.

It is a clever re-positioning by the communists whose electoral fortunes have dipped. They are sure to get the support of Sinn Féin many of whose activists’ natural home is with the far left rather than any movement claiming to be nationalist and republican. Beyond that, it potentially provides a means to embarrass the similarly deracinated elements in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael with a dilemma as they seek to trumpet their own sanctimoniousness.

There is already it would seem a basis for a campaign group which has been initiated by Trinners students, and Labour Youth have launched a Born Here, Belong Here group There is also a group called Le Chéile whose founding bumph does not specifically refer to seeking to overturn the 2004 referendum but would seem like a perfect fit given its commitment to “challenge the far right” and generally get everyone in for a group hug. It has signed up many of the usual clapped out old suspects for this sort of thing. It also been ratified by Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly who only left the far left formally when nominated as a Sinn Féin candidate.

It will be interesting to see what happens to the Bill in the coming months.


Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland.
He is currently working on a number of other books; His latest one is a novel entitled Houses of Pain. It is based on real events in the Dublin underworld. Houses of Pain is published by MTP and is currently available online as paperback and kindle while book shops remain closed.

The So-Called “Racist Referendum” In 2004, Sinn Féin Voters, Like Everyone Else, Supported It.

Matt Treacy ✒ As I write, the news media is reporting that at least 4 people have died and 17 more have been injured as a result of what has been declared to be a terror attack by Islamist terrorists in Vienna last night. 

 
This comes after the recent murders of a teacher in Paris and 3 people attending a Catholic Church in Nice, and ends a month of a sustained Islamist offensive that has continued to claim Christian victims in Nigeria and other African countries. In the last 30 days, over 800 people have been murdered in 153 separate attacks in 22 countries.

 
There are fears that Europe may be at the beginning of an organised attempt to escalate terror at the current time. Of course, European states and the political elite will wring their hands over all of this but what will be the response?

In relation to Ireland, will there be a proposal this week to have a minute’s silence in remembrance of the latest victims? Not just in Europe but across the globe. There was a minute’s silence on June 3 in following the death of George Floyd in custody of police in Minneapolis.

On that occasion, a debate on Covid-19 of all things on the same day led to a litany of self-aggrandizing speeches by TDs from all sides, and of course as in the case of the Greens, Sinn Féin and the communists linking it to racism in Ireland. Mary Lou McDonald even declared later that anyone who opposed allowing asylum seekers to enter the country without the inconvenience of being processed in Direct Provision was “no good at all.”

Mattie McGrath rightly described the whole thing as “jumping on the bandwagon, showboating and nonsense.” He also contrasted the virtue signalling with the fact that the same people were supporting the closing down of the country during the first Covid lockdown.

All of this, however, goes well beyond the usual gesturing by the liberals of all parties. Since then we have had the same people, as reported here, raising a similar hue and cry in the Dáil because this state did not take an unspecified number of people from the refugee camp on Lesbos after the refugees themselves had burned it down.

The Islamist who murdered the three people in Nice had arrived there from the refugee camp on the Italian island of Lampedusa. He is Tunisian. Tunisia is not recognised as a state from which it is valid for its citizens to claim asylum. Indeed, it is experiencing its own problems with migrants who come to Tunisia from other African countries as a stopping off point en route to the free stuff in Europe.

Our Pollyannas think that people like Brahim Aouissaoui, the Nice Islamist murderer, should be allowed leave the camps and travel to wherever takes their fancy. Matteo Salvini of the Italian Lega Nord said that Italy must recognise its culpability in allowing Aouissiaoui and others to land in Lampedusa and then leave.

Will our advocates for “unaccompanied minors” recognise that they too bear a moral responsibility for facilitating the unchecked entry of illegal migrants into Europe? Will they even say anything about the latest attacks and perhaps recognise the connection between what they support and its consequences?


Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland.
He is currently working on a number of other books; His latest one is a novel entitled Houses of Pain. It is based on real events in the Dublin underworld. Houses of Pain is published by MTP and is currently available online as paperback and kindle while book shops remain closed.

Will There Be A Minute’s Silence In The Dáil For The Latest Victims Of Islamic Terror?

Matt Treacy ➤ Sinn Féin insinuates concerns might ‘stir up hate’.

 
Having spent several days ignoring the violence in Balbriggan last weekend that included the burning of a house, Sinn Féin has been forced to respond to other people breaking the conspiracy of silence (that includes the national broadcaster) on the issue.

Photo Credit: SecretName 101 on Wikipedia under CC licence

Louise O’Reilly the Sinn Féin TD for Fingal has come under strong pressure from her constituents and members of her own party to address the situation. There is genuine fear in what was once a sedate north county town that the situation mainly revolving around gangs of African descent is threatening to turn the area into a “ghetto.” That is the description being increasingly used by locals who on previous occasions have protested about the lack of will to tackle the gang problem.

In an email sent to the Minister of Justice, Helen McEntee, on August 11, O’Reilly manages once again to avoid referring to the elephant sitting in the middle of the sitting room.

According to O’Reilly, the anti-social violence can be attributed to “poor planning,” a “lack of amenities and an inadequate level of Gardaí.”

She believes that: “Perhaps due to a lack of outlets because of Covid19, incidents of anti-social behaviour have risen.”

This completely ignoring the reality that the behaviour to which she refers and the gangs largely responsible did not suddenly appear during the virus lockdown. This has been an ongoing issue for several years.

In December 2017, a crowd of hundreds of local people marched to Balbriggan Garda station calling for action, with some voicing their view that the lack of measures to tackle the gangs was due to the perception that this would be deemed “not politically correct.”

As with other situations in which communities have spontaneously reacted to impositions on them, Sinn Féin prefer to insinuate that sinister forces are behind the anger felt by many people. The people of Balbriggan and elsewhere are angry with regard to how their communities are being undermined by ill thought out social engineering projects which are somehow supposed to work here, where they have been proven to be disastrous in north London, the Parisian banlieus and formerly sedate low crime Scandanvian cities.

Thus it is that O’Reilly declares: “In the midst of this, there are some who have come to the town to use this as an opportunity to stir up hate.”

So rather than deal with the consequences of the policies her party and the rest of them support, O’Reilly prefers to conjure up some mythical external agency that is causing people to become annoyed. In an update to the email addressed to constituents, some of whose comments were taken down, O’Reilly claimed that she was “not responding to those trying to stir up tensions and trouble.”

And she was not referring to those who are stirring up tensions and trouble by their total lack of respect for the place they have come to live.

She seems to prefer that incidents like those which occurred last weekend are downplayed. Perhaps it was only the scale of the outrage that forced her to say anything. And that anything is exactly the sort of meaningless platitudes we have come to expect.


Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland.
He is currently working on a number of other books; His latest one is a novel entitled Houses of Pain. It is based on real events in the Dublin underworld. Houses of Pain is published by MTP and is currently available online as paperback and kindle while book shops remain closed.

Sinn Féin Claims Balbriggan Violence Caused By Covid

An Irish Times piece on Bernadette McAliskey criticising the British government’s new points-based immigration system 

By Freya McClements

The new immigration system, Bernadette McAliskey warned, ‘will be Windrush down the line’.

There will be a “whitening” of immigration into the UK as a result of the country’s points-based application system, the activist and campaigner Bernadette McAliskey has warned.

“The poorer southern hemisphere economies [will] support a smaller percentage of individuals meeting the various thresholds than the European countries with which they are now competing,” she told The Irish Times.

She also said the new measures could also encourage EU nationals and firms to leave Northern Ireland and move across the Border to the Republic.

The economy of Northern Ireland cannot survive without immigrant labour, and this points system will make it extremely difficult.
So where will industry go? The problem for us in the North, sitting here in this town [Dungannon, Co Tyrone], is that if you want to have freedom of movement and be able to do your job you might as well move back to the European Union. You don’t have far to go.
To be able to keep a pool of labour that is legally recruited  … why would industry not follow you?

The UK government announced on Wednesday that a points-based immigration system which will apply to both EU and non-EU citizens will come into force from January 1st, 2021.

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens living in the UK from before December 30th, 2020, must apply to the UK’s EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to continue to remain after June 30th, 2021.

Under Common Travel Area rules, Irish citizens will continue to be able to live and work in the UK as they do now. 

Continue reading @ The Irish Times. 

The North’s Economy Cannot Survive Without Immigrant Labour

From the Irish Times a claim that: The Ireland I left is no longer there, however hard I try to recapture it - Leaving Ireland while you’re young is easier than returning when you’re older. Written by Claire O'Dea. 

The emigrants’ ship is leaving and all the young people on board are trying to keep sight of their heartbroken parents, waving forlornly on the quayside.

Our pale and anxious heroine, Eilis, played by Saoirse Ronan, is having a peak pale and anxious moment as she stands on the deck of the ship that will take her away from everything and everyone she knows and loves. Green coat smartly buttoned up, new passport clutched in her hand, she is fleeing the narrow minds and narrow opportunities of 1950s Ireland.

In the film adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel Brooklyn, the image of the lonely emigrant girl blowing a last kiss to her sister is perfectly crafted to tug at the heartstrings of Irish and American audiences alike …

… In that phase of emigration, four out of five Irish emigrants went to the United States. Most of the emigration could be categorised as forced to some degree, from victims of eviction and hunger to economic migrants with no prospects at home. Particularly around the time of the 1845-1848 Great Famine, emigration for the Irish was a traumatic experience, a mass movement of the dispossessed … 

… How fitting and yet how extraordinary it is that Ireland is now being influenced, shaped and enriched by new people. In the space of one generation, Ireland has also become a nation of immigration. Continue reading @ the Irish Times. 

Ireland - A Nation of Immigration

From the UNCHR a report on what immigrant Syrian children have brought to a German village. 

In 2015, a group of Syrian refugee children saved a famous German school from disaster and breathed new life into a shrinking village. Nearly two years later, they’ve become an indispensable part of community life.

“It was no life there in Syria, we were all so scared all of the time. I just wanted peace, nothing else,” says Syrian refugee Halima Taha, 30, who fled the war at home four years ago with her husband and three children. Arriving in Germany, they volunteered to move to Golzow, a tiny village on the German-Polish border.

At the time, Halima had no idea what her family’s arrival meant to the villagers. Back then, the village’s shrinking population was bad news for Golzow’s primary school, known by film fans the world over as the setting for ‘The Children of Golzow’, an epic 42-hour documentary filmed over five decades.

Yet the school’s fame wasn’t enough to save it from the effects of a creeping decline. Over the space of eight years, Golzow’s population shrank by 12 per cent, to just 835 people. Then, in March 2015, the unthinkable happened. For the first time since it opened in 1961, the school failed to make up the pupil numbers required for a reception class.

Continue reading @ the UNCHR.

Syrian Refugees Breathe New Life Into Shrinking German Village

Angela Nagle writing in American Affairs sees the Left's stance on Open Borders as flawed and contrary to original Marxian precepts. 

The Left Case Against Open Borders

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