Tagged with Ireland

Bugging and surveillance – a cause for concern

Car bugBugging devices in all shapes and forms, tracking devices to monitor movement, and remote controlled surveillance cameras were all an integral part of the British government’s war in the north. Over the years they were found in the homes of republican activists, under floor boards and cabinets, attached to wooden beams in attics, and hidden in the insides of cars.

In the years since the war ended the surveillance war has continued. It has become ever more sophisticated. Now according to some reports they can even bug your clothes. The information released by whistleblower Edward Snowden is evidence of the extent to which states and their agencies will go to spy on their citizens and on their allies, as well as their enemies. It’s all about information and information is power. Continue reading →

Pat Finucane: 25 years later the search for truth continues

Patrick FinucaneThe story of Pat Finucane has been told and retold many times. He was one of almost 4,000 citizens to die as a result of the war in the north. Pat was also one of hundreds, perhaps over a thousand, to die as a consequence of state sponsored collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads.

These deaths were not the result of ‘bad apples’ or ‘rogue elements’. Collusion was a matter of institutional British government policy. It was part and parcel of Britain’s political and military strategy in the six counties. Continue reading →

The state of Labour in Ireland

Politics in Ireland seems to be in a peculiar situation these days.

While the public mood has , even according to mainstream commentators, been moving to the left in recent years, the Irish Labour Party has been moving determinedly to the right, while dissent and discussion in the party is tolerated less and less.

Polls show that the Irish public is generally disillusioned with the coalition government of which Labour has been a junior member (with the conservative Fine Gael) since 2011, against the continuation of the severe austerity policies which have now been inflicted in five successive budgets, angry with the banks and the political and economic culture which led to Ireland’s economic difficulties, broadly supportive (though with some contradictions) of social democratic policies and in favour of higher taxes on the rich. Continue reading →

Sinn Féin opposed to austerity, North and South

protest against tory cuts white horse inn derryMike Penning, former Tory Northern Ireland Office minister, and now Work and Pensions Minister flew briefly into Belfast last week on a mission. He threatened that unless his government’s cuts agenda is implemented here, penalties will be imposed on the Executive.

Incredibly he said welfare cuts was a matter of fairness. He arrogantly accused those of us who oppose welfare cuts of ‘burying our heads in sand’.  He trumpeted his working class background; as if that made more acceptable the Conservatives’ strategy to undermine the welfare rights of the most vulnerable. Continue reading →