The Cedar Lounge Revolution

A more robust policing response to ‘protests’? September 23, 2024

Interesting the fall-out from the RTÉ documentary on the ‘protests’ up in Coolock. It seems to have stirred at least some rhetorical attention on what appear to be significant concerns about the nature of policing of such matters.

The Tánaiste was offering a sort of half-apologia when he suggested that ‘this is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland’ and ‘lessons need to be learned’.

Mr Martin wouldn’t be drawn on whether the garda response to the Coolock protests was inadequate as suggested by some people in the documentary. However, he admitted that the days of what we consider to be “a traditional garda response” were over.

“There was period of time there when the workers in the facility had been ringing [Gardai] consistently. It looked very ominous. It looked very dangerous and threatening. The gardaí did get there. And I think we need to learn lessons from it.

And:

“I think the days of sort of what we might consider a traditional response are over. And I think we cannot accept people taking the law in to their own hands in the pre determined way,” he said.

Mr Martin said that the people responsible for what occurred at Coolock were not getting away with what they did.

“To be fair there have been quite a number of significant arrests arising out of that incident. A report was presented to the Policing Authority in respect of that and quite a number of people are still before the courts. So people are not getting away with what they did,” he said.

Mr Martin also condemned the “intimidation” of RTÉ staff, particularly reporter Barry O’Kelly.

The Commissioner had to admit that there were problems – up to a point:

The Garda Commissioner has said that the decision to stand down the Garda National Public Order Unit at 7am in Coolock in Dublin before disturbances there last July was not the right decision in hindsight.

Drew Harris insisted, however, that calls for assistance were responded to.

Then there was some hand-wringing.

Mr Harris said that people could see the vitriol, the hatred and the abuse directed at the gardaí when they are there to protect everyone and keep the peace.

“Where is all this going?” he asked. “It’s taking us nowhere and its terrible to see.”

I’m sure that’ll change hearts and minds amongst the ‘protestors’. 

This seems insipid:

The Garda Commissioner also defended gardaí for not intervening when RTÉ reporter Barry O’Kelly was being pushed and abused and appeared to have been assaulted.

Mr Harris said gardaí were standing right beside him and facing a volatile mob. That group he said “are riled up, are full of all types of abuse and hatred”. He said that for the gardaí to intervene would have “escalated the situation”.

He accepted that the reporter was in a difficult and unpleasant situation, but he was standing close to the public order line.

Well, sure. But what are the Garda for if not to protect citizens? It’s kind of in the name, isn’t it?

The thing is that it is clear offer an inch to this crew and they will take a foot. That’s always been the case. It was evident from the start of the so-called ‘protests’ and actually it predates them going all the way back to the pandemic when their focus was on a different area. That it has taken so long for some to notice this is telling.

Perhaps there was a feeling that it would all go away. Well, perhaps for most people, as the relative calm that has been seen in areas where previously there were issues. But there’s a core of people involved who self-evidently want to exacerbate any possible situation (as noted on this site, they were at it again only last week – lying, as per usual, about very minor events in the north inner city). 

Martin makes an excellent point about the need for a rapid legal response. There are valid criticisms about the manner in which some were processed through the system in the UK after the riots there, but in general a faster response would appear to be more effective than one that stretches out across the months and even years. 

Change (name) or face political demise – the choice facing the DUP? September 23, 2024

A report here on a former special advisor to Arlene Foster, who argues that:

The actions of the party “will decide whether it is an upward or downward trajectory from here”. Mr Reynolds said that the centralisation of power within the party has “hampered the effectiveness of the DUP internally and externally” and that the party “needs to get over ourselves”.

“Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom would attract around 60-65 per cent support in a referendum and its various parties attract support in the low forties. It survived the fall of the UUP, and it could survive ours,” he said.

“A trait this belief in DUP indispensability encourages is self-obsession. If you see yourself as essential, this elevates internal psychodramas to a significance they just do not have. It bores and repulses voters. In communications, it led to the belief that the world can wait until we are ready to hand the tablets down from the mountain top. This produced a messaging vacuum which was filled maliciously by our opponents.”

And:

Mr Reynolds suggested that the party should return to implementing structural reforms which began under the leadership of Peter Robinson and that the party should appoint a general secretary to focus on party structures and fundraising and a new Party Chief of Staff focused on policy, communications, and political coordination, chosen by the Party Leader.

Recognising that the DUP is a “negative brand”, Lee Reynolds added: “The brand needs to be redefined up to and including a new name.”

“In terms of the broader pro-UK cause in NI, the DUP needs to do two things above all else: support new initiatives to maintain and develop Pro-UK referendum coalition; and work with the other Unionist parties on exploring the future options for Unionism particularly come the next Westminster election,” he said.

The problem in his analysis is that he thinks that because unionist parties get 40% and retention of the Union polls higher again, though I suspect not quite as high as 65%, therefore unionist parties should get 60% of the vote. That’s ignoring that the CNR community has reached parity with PUL and that there’s now a swathe of formerly unionist voters who are ‘united Ireland curious’ and/or are voting for Alliance and others whose views on the constitutional issue are much hazier. He’s like someone arguing that because the CNR vote is on paper ahead of the PUL vote therefore unity is inevitable. But that’s not how all this plays out in reality.

Still, reading between the lines all this doesn’t really address the central question: How does the Union survive in a time when Northern Ireland is no longer a polity where the majority are clear-cut unionists?

This isn’t to say that a UI is at hand, more that political republicanism now is a much more cohesive force and has the numbers behind it to remain the largest bloc indefinitely, albeit falling short of a majority for a  United Ireland for a period of time, perhaps quite a long period of time.  Perhaps addressing how unionism does reach out to non-unionists or those who aren’t keen to see the dispensation change with relation to a UI anytime soon is a more difficult order of business. 

Left Archive: Resistance, Irish Socialist Network, Number 17, Spring 2013 September 23, 2024

To download the above please click on the following;

To go to the Archive please click here.

This document joins others in the Archive from the Irish Socialist Network, and more are to come. As an aside there are a number of formats used by the magazine over the years – from A2 sheets that fold out to this one which is A4 four page.

The front page article notes:

As Ireland sends troops to Mali to assist the French-led intervention, some  attention has focused on the fact that the intervention is shoring up a Malian army that has a track record of torture and murder. There has also been reference to the question of access to resources such as uranium. But surely Ireland is not motivated by the pursuit of such squalid commercial self-interest?

And:

Just as Irish military involvement in Mali is  designed to support the foreign policy  and commercial objectives of large EU  powers like France, so also is Irish  policy towards Africa more generally coming to follow a corporate agenda.

There’s a piece by Clare Daly – at that point a ULA TD for Dublin North where she argues that:

Bringing together groups with a  different history was never going to be easy. But rather than pooling their
strength in the interest of taking the movement forward, the existing groups tried to out-recruit each other to the
detriment of the bigger project. But that project remains. Activists in the ULA are determined to keep this project  alive. The United Left will be launched as a broad-based, bottom-up alternative to give trade unionists and community activists the chance to come together  and push the struggle forward. We don’t have all the answers but we hope that we are asking the right questions.
The establishment and their media are hell-bent on trying to discredit the idea of an alternative. They attack us
because they are fearful of people  organising. Don’t be intimidated: we are only beaten when we stop fighting. This is a weak, unpopular government. It’s time to take them on.

Ed Walsh writes about the death of Hugo Chávez and the enigma of his political persona. 

There’s another piece by Henry Silke on what comes after the ULA. He suggests:

When a scandal broke involving Mick Wallace–a developer turned TD who avoided tax and workers’ pension pay­ments and was close to the SP’s Dalystand -it. the ULA was not able to with­Clare But the underlying structural problems long preceded the Wallace affair. The SP believed-very early on-that the ULA hadn’t attracted enough members and opposed any movement towards it becoming a party. It seemed to attach no value to the uniting of the left (in­cluding unaffiliated leftists) under a po­litical banner.

Colin Coulter writes about how:

Nationalism-whether British or Irish-has nothmg . to offer workers in the six counties other than division and distraction. At a time when many working-class children on either side of the border are going to
school on an empty stomach, it is worth remembering that a flag makes for a very poor breakfast.

There’s also a piece from Sráid Marx/www.irishmarxism.net that concludes:

The trade unions have focused on the threat to jobs and of privatization but have not highlighted the main reason for the change-making sectarian dis­crimination easier. The sharing of sectarian privi­leges in the Stormont Executive means that while this appears currently to be of benefit to Protestants, a new Minister would be perfectly free to discrimi­nate the other way. Housing then becomes subject to arbitrary sectarian judgments for both Protestants and Catholics. The changes to housing are part and parcel of welfare changes from which no one will benefit. Socialists should campaign against Nelson McCausland’s plans but demand that tenants them­selves-along with housing staff-should have con­trol.

Dublin Communities Against Racism – A call to unity September 22, 2024

This from DCAR:

This poem – written by Dublin poet Mikey Cullen and created with the 1916 Society – is a call for unity . . . for all the people of Ireland to reject the division fostered by the far right against our fellow man and direct the justifiable anger we are all feeling in this country at the state of things towards those who are actually responsible – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the corporate, financial and land-owning interests that they represent .

“Fight the real enemy! The enemy of the working class travels in private jets, not migrant dinghies.” – Zara Sultana

With thanks to Peadar Brown’s for having us in to shoot this piece and to Creative Workers Cooperatives and Jack Molloy for the hard work in getting this piece filmed and made.

Culture Thread 22/9/2024 September 22, 2024

gregtimo proposed in comments recently the idea of a Culture Thread.

It’s a great idea. Currently culture is a bit strange, but people read, listen to music, watch television and film and so on – spread the net wide, sports, activities, interests, all relevant – and any pointers are always welcome. And it’s not just those areas but many more. Suggestions as to new or old things, events that might have been missed, literally anything.

Sunday and other stupid statements from this week September 22, 2024

All examples welcome.

Could someone be more pleased at this news, from the Business Post?

All of the appointments to key portfolios were significant and amounted to a statement of intent, in terms of the direction the president sees Europe taking in the coming decade.

Overall, the commission will be less populated by Greens and the left, with 13 commissioners coming from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and one coming from the conservative ECR bloc. There is no Green, while the Socialists are down to five commissioners and the Liberals have just four. In principle, this political realignment should suit an open liberal economy such as Ireland’s.

As to the planet and a climate crisis?

Also from the Business Post:

Are the Soc Dems temperamentally suited to government? They passed up the chance after the last two general elections, foregoing the opportunity to bring about real change, particularly in health. The party is quite ideological in its outlook and likes being liked, especially online. Are its TDs willing to get their hands dirty (making unpalatable decisions) and take the abuse on social media that inevitably goes with being in government?

Difficult to see how they ‘passed up’ government in 2020 or 2016 given the clear inclination on the part of the larger parties to work with the Green Party (who had twice the SDs number of seats) at the last election and the fact that Fine Gael sought Independent support in 2016.

This in this morning’s Independent makes a bold claim:

We need to change the planning of Irish cities, especially Dublin. These are becoming recognised as a disaster that is starting to harm national prosperity. The future may lie outside Dublin in places such as Limerick.Ireland needs to develop and embrace pro-urban planning that is about economic success and growth, not limitation and control. The key to modernising Irish urban planning eludes many because they continue to hold on to old-fashioned and irrelevant ideas. They think of urban planning excessively in terms of beautifying the city centre or making more cycling-friendly suburbs.

Has Stephen Collins really thought the following through?

Successive opinion polls have shown that a clear majority of voters are in favour of Ireland being involved in EU defence, but the Government seems paralysed by fear of the inevitably noisy objections of the vocal neutrality lobby. It is about time that mainstream parties developed some backbone and started an honest dialogue with the electorate about the reality of the international security situation. There is a real danger that if we don’t face up to the doublethink about neutrality ourselves, others will lose their patience and force us to do so in ways we really won’t like.

Huh?

Politics moves awful fast these days, but have a heart the Irish Times. Jennifer Bray in an overview of the week and Fine Gael’s poll numbers asks:

The question is: has Simon Harris peaked? And even if he hasn’t, and further gains lie ahead, will any of it be enough to win seats for a raft of new and relatively unknown candidates?

56 years after Tuskar air crash September 22, 2024

The past is very close, even 1968. Take this example:

A victim of the Tuskar Rock air crash, who was killed before completing his masters qualification, has been awarded a posthumous degree in University College Cork (UCC) more than half a century after the tragedy.

Michael Cowhig from Kilbrittain, Co Cork, had been travelling to England to attend a conference in Reading when Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashed en route from Cork to London on March 24th, 1968.

The crash, which took place in the sea off Tuskar Rock, Co Wexford, claimed the lives of all 61 passengers and crew on board.

Mr Cowhig and his colleagues, John Nyhan and Thomas Dwane, worked at the Agricultural Research Institute at Moorepark, Fermoy – now Teagasc – and were to share their research into milking machine practice at the conference.

HIs wife Kathleen Anglin was there to receive his certificate.

This was on foot of the following:

He had submitted a thesis to University College Cork towards a masters qualification shortly before the crash.

The process of awarding the masters ended following his death, until his family recently approached UCC to ask that his work be reviewed for consideration.

They were prompted to do so by a memoir by Mr Cowhig’s supervisor, retired professor and former MEP Tom Raftery, which stated that the thesis had in fact been approved at the time for the award of a master’s degree.

And:

Prof Alan Kelly, head of UCC school of food and nutritional sciences, subsequently reviewed Mr Cowhig’s thesis and recommended the university recognise it for the award of a master’s degree, which was agreed by the relevant college committees.

“The work was of a very high scientific standard, and presents an important historical record of technologies which were only newly being put in place on Irish farms,” Prof Kelly said. “If a thesis of this standard was submitted today we would have no hesitation in making the award.”

A two-thirds ‘pint’? Not sure about that, now. September 21, 2024

This week comes news about the pint.

…abandoning the British pint for a smaller measure could boost the nation’s health, researchers say.

Scientists reached the conclusion after a trial in a dozen pubs, bars and restaurants in England during which pints were scrapped and two-thirds of a pint became the largest draught beer available.

The experiment, which met a measure of resistance, resulted in the amount of beer sold falling nearly 10%. Though modest, the drop could lessen the impact of alcohol-related harm, which claims thousands of lives in Britain each year, the team believes.

“This is the first real-world study to look at this,” said Prof Dame Theresa Marteau, study leader and director of the behaviour and health research unit at the University of Cambridge. “Does this have the potential to contribute to population health? I’d say definitely, yes.”

Needless to say there are very real risks from alcohol consumption and considerable debate about whether any level is safe. In the UK the recommended intake is 14 units (slightly different to our units as it happens). 

Anyhow, would smaller measures work? Perhaps, but in the following one can see one reason why it won’t be adopted widely. 

After crunching the figures from 12 establishments – one was excluded – the smaller servings were found to reduce the volume of beer sold by 9.7%. Although wine sales crept up, the amount of alcohol consumed overall was still down. Earnings dropped 5%, the authors report in Plos Medicine.

I know in some pubs here in Dublin some beers are provided in slightly smaller measures in branded glasses. I can’t recall which but I was somewhere earlier in the year where that happened. Can’t say I was entirely delighted because I didn’t know it would be served in a slightly smaller glass. Would I have ordered it if I did? Maybe, but I suspect I’d have defaulted to Smithwicks or whatever. 

Intriguingly measures of ‘pints’ or ‘pint-like’ drinks differ internationally:

None of the establishments permanently scrapped the pint. Beyond the loss in takings, there is an inertia to overcome. The British pint, introduced in 1698, is a cultural foundation. But at 568ml, it is among the largest common beer serving in the world. Germans favour 500ml, a US pint is 473ml, the Australian schooner, 425ml.

Hardly needs saying that here in Ireland we use the imperial pint. I do like 500ml ‘pint’ glasses though. But that raises another question which is that in a lot of off-licenses cans of beer from small breweries come in smaller measures of 440ml or even smaller. Oddly that I kind of like too, though some are absurdly pricey. 

As to the effort to mitigate drinking this is the take from some of those in bars in London. 

Rosalie and Ella, both 21, were unanimous at the Crown and Greyhound in Dulwich. “Realistically, we’d still drink the same amount,” said Rosalie. “I was in Australia drinking schooners and it definitely didn’t slow me down,” added Ella. “I’d treat two-thirds as halves. I’d definitely round down.”

The Irish-American astronaut and traditional music September 21, 2024

This site often looks at things musical/cultural and scientific at the weekend – here’s a story that combines the two.

Irish-American astronaut Cady Coleman, who grew food in space, was among the unique visitors to the National Ploughing Championships this week.

The Massachusetts native, who also recorded two tracks on The Chieftains’ 50th anniversary album, Voice of Ages, over a phone line from the International Space Station and had a cameo in the 2013 Oscar-winning movie Gravity, felt very much at home in Ratheniska, Co Laois.

I wasn’t aware of the Chieftains connection but it’s really interesting:

Coleman, 63, has been aboard the International Space Station twice. On the first, she travelled over six million miles, orbiting the earth 256 times in 15 days. For the second, she stayed up for 159 days and recorded a St Patrick’s Day clip of her playing a tin whistle given to her by The Chieftains on St Patrick’s Day 2011. This mission included her recording, which appears on Voice of Ages as ‘The Chieftains in Orbit’, with Coleman credited as joint performer. 

 But the link which established the connection is equally interesting:

Proud of her Irish heritage, her links to The Chieftains had mundane beginnings. She said: “I met them because Paddy Moloney’s son, Padraig, is a nanoscientist, and he had an internship at NASA and I met him when he lived with friends who also played music.

“We all played music together and I got to know The Chieftains. Now when they come to a local place, they often invite a local band and in the case of Houston, they invited the astronaut band (Coleman is in a group called Bandella with Chris Hadfield, who famously sang Space Oddity from the International Space Station, and Stephen Robinson).

“So the story behind the tin whistle came at a point where I could actually bring some things with me into space, we had some extra room so I asked Paddy Moloney if I could bring something. Paddy Maloney gave me a tin whistle and Matt Molloy gave me an Eb (E flat) flute that was like a treasure of Ireland, very old, made in the 1800s, and a beautiful, beautiful instrument.

“So I really loved bringing those up to space where I played two songs over the satellite phone – Fanny Power and The South Wind – and then they put it on their 50th anniversary album, which I’m very proud and terrified about. But I think they come in pretty quickly so it’s safe to listen to.”

But that’s not the only musical connection:

Coleman is married to glass artist Josh Simpson who lives in Massachusetts.^[12] They have one son. She is part of the band Bandella, which also includes fellow NASA astronaut Stephen Robinson, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Micki Pettit (wife of the astronaut Donald Pettit). Coleman is a flute player and has taken several flutes with her to the ISS, including a pennywhistle from Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains, an old Irish flute from Matt Molloy of The Chieftains, and a flute from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (band). On February 15, 2011, she played one of the instruments live from orbit on National Public Radio.^[13] On April 12, 2011, she played live via video link for the audience of Jethro Tull‘s show in Russia in honour of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin‘s flight, playing in orbit while Anderson played on the ground.^[14][15] On May 13 of that year, Coleman delivered a taped commencement address to the class of 2011 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.^[16]

And she’s one of four astronauts immortalised by An Post:

In 2019 the Irish postal service An Post issued a set of commemorative stamps for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings, Catherine Coleman is featured alongside fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Eileen Collins.^[18]

You can buy those from An Post here. Nice  commemorative issue. 

And, speaking of those there was a small incident around that series. 

An Post has been forced to apologise for a spelling error that appeared on its new commemorative stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings.

The series of stamps, which featured four NASA astronauts with Irish ancestry, saw the Irish word for moon, ‘gealach’, accidentally replaced with ‘gaelach’, meaning Irish.

The mix-up resulted in the sentence “50th Anniversary of the First Landing on the Irish” appearing on the stamps.

Great. Just great. I see in the set on the A Post website the set has been corrected. Probably as well. 

On a related tangent, anyone here been to the Ploughing Championships?