Posted by Jim on May 1, 2018
“Ordinary folk in Scotland, Wales, and England have mostly given up to holding on to the racist British Empire pathology.
But sadly, there are still some holdouts in Northern Ireland. A section of the Unionist/Loyalist/ Protestant community has never fully rejected the discredited inglorious British-Empire thinking.
As the attached Irish Mirror article again reminds us, former unionist MP John Taylor seems to have a real problem with the fact that the new, impressive Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, whose father is from India.
Winston Churchill appallingly personified the British Empire racist attitude toward India: “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion . . . Let the Viceroy sit on the back of a giant elephant and trample Gandhi into the dirt.”
—Fr. Sean Mc Manus.
Former British politician John Taylor calls Leo Varadkar ‘typical Indian’
It’s at least the second time the ex-Ulster Unionist MP has described the Taoiseach with a racial term
Brynmor Pattison. Irish Mirror. Dublin. Monday, April 30, 2018
A former Ulster Unionist politician has been labelled racist after calling Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a “typical Indian”.
John Taylor, who now calls himself Lord Kilclooney, replied to a BBC Newsline post on Twitter that linked to an article about the DUP decrying the Fine Gael leader’s “poor manners” during a visit to Northern Ireland.
He tweeted simply: “Typical Indian.”
A host of people replied to the post, with one describing it as “appalling” and “shameful”.
Mr Taylor added to the post by tweeting: “You fail to understand that racially he is half Indian and legally he is Irish.
“Some day you will learn to know the difference in these terms.
“The Indians are a great race and I know as a Member of the British/Indian APPG helping Indians almost daily.”
When a person asked how Mr Varadkar was a “typical” Indian, he replied: “He does not understand how provocative he is to unionists. Irish politicians mostly know better and that is why we were able to have the Belfast Agreement.”
Mr Taylor further accused Mr Varadkar of “damaging North/South relations by being provocative several times to the Unionist Community in Northern Ireland”.
He also posted: “It is not racially abusive as he himself has confirmed he is half Indian. That is great and not to be dismissed as the Indians are a great race.
“However he has damaged North/South relations by being continually offensive and provocative to the Unionist majority in N Ireland.”
Mr Taylor also added: “You should not reject established practice when a foreign politician enters the UK. The Irish PM does not recognize the damage he continues to do to NorthSouth Relations by his provocative actions!”
The life peer landed in hot water last November when he described Mr Varadkar as “the Indian” in another tweet.
He tweeted: “Simon Coveney is stirring things up. Very dangerous non statesman like role! Clearly hoping to undermine the Indian.”
Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone soon called out the post and replied: “Disgraceful comment John. Leo is 100% Irish as you well know. The mind boggles.
Lord Kilclooney said: “In which way is he 100 per cent Irish??”
Ms. Noone replied: “Please go back to the 1800’s.”
In other posts explaining the tweet the life peer claimed the offensive nickname was “shorthand for an Indian surname which I could not spell”.
He added: “I should have said PM and not used Indian as shorthand for his name which I must learn to spell correctly.”
Posted by Jim on
The struggle for national liberation in the occupied six counties has undoubtedly led to a widespread radical politicisation of not just revolutionary activists but the oppressed people who realise that the fruits of our victory must be social and economic as well as the political freedom of national separation.
The term republicanism is something of a dirty word politically among some left-wing groups on the continent where it has right-wing connotations. But our republicanism is anti-imperialist and radical and we realise that if the connection is not made with the struggle of labour then there will be no realisation of socialism in Ireland, just as the labour movement if it ignores the national question is also scuttling the full potential of the working class.
To Connolly, the basic condition of socialist advance was the assertion and acceptance of Ireland’s right to self-government. His opponent in the debate was William Walker, a Belfast member of the Labour movement, whose conception of socialism was reformist, Walker pointed out with pride to the progress of ‘municipal socialism’ in Belfast. Did they not collectively own and control gasworks, waterworks, harbour works, markets, tramways, electricity, museums and art galleries? He even boasted that they had an RIC band! Connolly described Walker’s position as ‘’ gas and water ‘’ socialism and insisted that the Irish question was not merely an economic question, it was also a revolutionary question, a question of national independence.
The debate is also contemporary. The Northern Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions historically traded recognition by the old Stormont government in return that the constitution and politics of the occupied six counties, as other reformists have since done, would not be discussed by the trade union movement. By agreeing to the partition of Ireland the trade union movement and others who adopted this position have helped the British and Free-State governments to divide, weaken and conquer the Irish working class. This siding with the British colonialism continues to this very day. The reformist weakened labour movement is therefore in no position to effectively oppose the poverty, repression and inequality.
We have to reach this pessimistic conclusion. On neither its chosen ground of jobs and bread and butter issues, nor on the ground of increasingly repressive legalisation and practice do the trade unions convince the mass of Irish workers and unemployment that it will or can take on bourgeois government. By its abdication and failures, they leave the worker and the unemployed divided and frustrated, seeking elsewhere the organisations, campaigns and beliefs which promise an end to or a cure for the endemic poverty, inequality and repression.
And so it is increasingly that workers, the low-paid and the unemployed in the ghettos are turning to Saoradh for a lead not only in the fight against British colonialism but also in the struggle for social and economic justice. Saoradh is responding to this challenge. It has established party offices and advice centres in Belfast, Derry and Dungannon, with staff competent to handle routine problems and backed up by experts experienced personnel.
Only a British withdrawal can create the conditions for Irish workers and unemployed, urban and rural, Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, women, men and all gender orientations, young and old to come together and construct the socialist republic in their own interests.
The twin demands of the right to self-determination and the right to work signposts the Irish road to socialism. The answer to the injustice, poverty and national dispossession in Ireland lies in the willingness of the people to struggle and make sacrifices.
That makes revolutionary republicans the greatest threat to the ruling class, both in the occupied six counties and the neo-colonial Free-State, and that’s what makes us the vanguard of the Irish revolution.
Davy Jordan is Saoradh National Chairperson and a former political prisoner based in East Tyrone
Posted by Jim on April 30, 2018
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald’s full address to the All-island civic dialogue event in Dundalk today:
Brexit casts a very long shadow across our Island. We in live everyday with the uncertainty of Brexit, the politics of Brexit and the Brexit negotiations.
It has become the overarching context in which we discuss our future north and south.
The debate on Brexit has become familiar and common place to us all.
My concern at this point is that familiarity often breeds complacency.
To become complacent would be a huge mistake.
That is why, even now at this late stage in game, the threat to our island cannot be underestimated or overstated
Let me remind us all. The people of the north voted to remain within the EU. There is no mandate for Brexit in the north. It’s imposition is fundamentally undemocratic.
There is no good brexit, however soft.
It is bad for our economy, for trade and for prosperity.
It is bad for civic society and for the rights and entitlements of citizens particularly in the North
It is bad for our peace agreements, and progress.
The north is an exceptional and a unique place. It is a contested space, that is now at peace.
That is why it is so important that the north to remain within the single market, the customs union and within the EU. This is not an issue of orange and green. It is a political and social necessity to protect all of our people for now and into the future.
In the lead up to the Brexit referendum, Ireland, north and south, was not a consideration. Our economy, and our agreements were to be collateral damage in the Tory Brexit debate. A Brexit at all costs.
We need to restate Ireland cannot be and will not be collateral damage in a Tory Brexit.
The EU fully recognises and supports our peace agreements and progress in Ireland. They recognise the potential impact of Brexit. They have made firm commitments to Ireland and we thank them for those and we say we wish to hold them to those commitments.
Irelands interests are shared EU interests.
The British government have taken a very cynical response. They have chosen to prevaricate and to delay. They are perhaps seeking to use Ireland and our unique arrangements as some negotiation leverage with the EU.
That is the most cynical and reprehensible approach to politics.
In December the framework for a backstop was agreed. Since then the British Government has refused to bring forward any workable proposals.
We were told that this would be in place by March. That didn’t happen.
We are told it must be in place by June. The British government are again pushing this date back to October and perhaps beyond.
If I had one thing to say to this debate. It must be clear. We need an answer now.
The British Government need to come forward with its proposals now.
All of us who live here, north and south, in business, in civic society, all with environmental concerns, need certainty.
The prevarication and delay must stop. The British Tories cannot decide or veto the progress of these talks. We need an answer and we need it now.
Posted by Jim on
John Monaghan. Irish News. Belfast. Monday, April 30, 2018
THE EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has warned the UK government he will not sign any agreement that fails to tackle The Border issue.
Michel Barnier made the remarks ahead of a two-day trip to Ireland with visits to border regions including Newry and Derry.
The chief negotiator said there would need to be “substantial progress” on The Border by the next major meeting of EU leaders at a summit
in June.
Last week the UK’s Brexit secretary David Davis suggested the EU was trying to create an “artificial deadline” in June as a negotiating tactic.
Mr Barnier will address the fourth plenary session of the Irish government’s all-island civic dialogue on Brexit in Dundalk, Co Louth, today.
The EU’s chief negotiator will cross the border to hear from business and lobby groups about the potential impact of Brexit.
Mr Barnier will host a round-table discussion in Newry today and has a similar engagement in Derry tomorrow.
The former EU regional policy commissioner last visited Northern Ireland in 2000 but in his current role travelled to the border in Co Louth last May.
DUP MEP Diane Dodds has rejected “missing an opportunity” by not meeting Mr Barnier during his visit this week.
Mr.s Dodds said she has already committed to meetings in London and could not meet him.
“I have many, many opportunities to speak to Michel Barnier and I never miss opportunities,” she said.
Last week Mrs. Dodds and Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson issued a joint statement welcoming Mr Barnier’s visit but expressed disappointment that it was announced by Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion.
The Republic’s foreign minister and tánaiste Simon Coveney said he was looking forward to welcoming Mr Barnier and updating attendees on the state of play in the negotiations.
“Mr Barnier and his team have demonstrated a keen understanding of the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland and they have Ireland’s full support. We look forward to continued close cooperation with the taskforce,” he said.