Home - Politics - The Irish left - Groups

The Irish left (groups)

• Opponents of the west in Ireland

"Anti-war" groups

• Peace and non-violence

• Anti-War, My Foot by Christopher Hitchens - pointing out the vast number of people at "anti-war" demos that support violence. I'm sure the majority would support the Palestinian resistance, for example. "It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies of liberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side. Was there a single placard saying, "No to Jihad"? Of course not."

I'm "anti-war" myself! Hey, if you can't beat them, join them. Using their own definitions, I'm "anti-war" myself! I totally support the war being waged by the heroic freedom fighters of the American military, of course. But I am completely opposed to the violent illegal war being waged by the fascist warmongering Iraqi resistance. The Iraqi resistance should stop, and all foreign jihadis get out of Iraq. Their violence is the root cause of the conflict. If they stopped, there would be peace. So I'm anti-war too! Stop the war! Stop the jihad! Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia out of Iraq now!   Stop the jihad now! End the Islamist violence against infidels! Stop the jihad in Iraq and Palestine! Peace on earth now! Heroic freedom fighters.

Irish "Anti-War" Movement / Socialist Workers Party

• Irish "Anti-War" Movement (or via here) - These are not anti-war. They are anti-west. They are linked to the Socialist Workers Party (see here and here), who want to take away our freedom and establish a totalitarian communist state.
  • Discussion board
  • The fanatics of the IAWM claim that Iran has democratic elections: "The US wants to paint Iran as a fascist state with Ahnadinejad as the new Hitler (just like Saddam before him). Iran is a modern country ... It is one of the more democratic states in the Middle East. Iran has democratic elections and a powerful reform movement, ... It is the US and its allies that are undemocratic. ... In Iraq the US are trying to rig the parliament"
  • The Irish "Anti-War" Movement doesn't like being called anti-American (also here).

• Socialist Workers Party
  • The SWP describe: the communist butchers of North Vietnam, who killed nearly 2 million innocent people outside of combat, as a "heroic resistance".
  • The SWP openly supports the intifada (and here), that is, the Palestinian Islamofascist killing of civilians.
  • The SWP openly supports Hezbollah, 2006. "we are happy to join the Arab masses in expressing our solidarity with the fighters of Hizbollah and our hope is that they succeed in defeating the Israeli assault on Lebanon."

• The Iraq War
  • IAWM discussions obviously represent diverse points of view, but it is interesting how many "anti-war" people became pro-Saddam once the fighting started, and go on to sympathise with Saddam's "resistance" after the liberation. See COME ON THE IRAQIS!!, and other openly pro-Saddam posts here and here and here.
  • I'm also sure (though I can't find the reference) that, during the Iraq War, the SWP said the Iraqi troops had a right to resist the invasion. In other words, that Saddam's Iraqi fascists had a right to kill the brave Allied troops coming into their country.
  • The SWP link approvingly to the openly pro-Saddam group ANSWER, and also to antiwar.com, the SWP UK and the Stop the War Coalition, all of which have open pro-Saddam elements.

• The SWP, open admirers of mass murderers like Lenin, are not "anti-war". They are pro-the other side. Why is that so hard to understand?

• The Iraqi fascist "resistance" - fighting to prevent liberal democracy being established in Iraq.
  • Open IAWM support for the Iraqi fascist "resistance" - "For the sake of the suffering Iraqi people we must hope that Iraqi resistance and protest here in the west force the US to pull out as quickly as possible."
  • Plenty of open support for Islamofascist torture and killing on Indymedia (after the Fallujah mutilations). Again, the "anti-war" mask slips for the hard left. They support war (as I do). They're just on the other side. For some reason they support fascism rather than democracy.
  • Rory Hearne of the IAWM, letter to Village, 19-25 Feb 2005: "It is the historic global anti-war movement, manifest on February 15th 2003 - when over 40 million demonstrated across the world - and the defiant resistance in Iraq which have created the crisis for Bush and Blair. It is only through the continued growth and resistance of these movements that we can end the bloody occupation of Iraq and ensure there are no more wars against Bush's "axis of evil""
  • You would think that, even if they support their aims (the end of democracy, and the setting up of an Islamist fascist tyranny), the "anti-war" people would complain about the fact that the Iraqi "resistance" is violent.

  • What is the Iraqi "resistance"?

• The IAWM are not "anti-war". They are anti-west. Why is that so hard to understand?

• The IAWM hangs out with the child-killers Hamas, and declines to condemn them. They are at the conference of the International Campaign against US and Zionist Occupation, Cairo, Mar 2005, which is openly dedicated to "Supporting the resistance in Palestine and Iraq". Given that both of these resistances are violent, it seems strange that "anti-war" people would support them. Present at this international hate-fest were:
  • The child-killers Hamas.
  • The fundamentalist Islamist al-Sadr thugs.
  • The Sunni Iraqi fascist "resistance".
  • The original Islamic religious fascists the Muslim Brotherhood.
  The IAWM declined to condemn any of these groups.

• Christian FLH Borchsenius does a good job of asking the IAWM nutjobs where they stand on:
  • IAWM position on Iran
  • IAWM position on Iraqi elections
  • IAWM position on Afghan elections
  The answer: Silence. The chirping of crickets.

IAWM / SWP support for violent groups

"SOLIDARITY WITH THE RESISTANCE" - Open support by the SWP for the violent, anti-semitic, civilian-targeting, gay-hating, atheist-hating, Jew-hating, Islamic religious fundamentalist terrorist group Hizbollah (for there is no other "resistance" to Israel's attack on Hizbollah in Lebanon, the Lebanese government having wisely chosen to sit it out).
Despite this disgraceful support for violent groups, the SWP are still welcome at "anti-war" marches such as this march in Galway, where a woman actually holds up this issue.

It is spelt out inside the magazine that they openly support Hizbollah:

1. Richard Boyd Barrett, Chair of the Irish "Anti-War" (what a joke) Movement, writes explicitly opposing the disarming of Hizbollah. "a key part of our task is to resist calls for a western force or Irish troops to be sent into Lebanon to disarm Hizbollah. ... the people of Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon have the right to resist colonial aggression and occupation", says this "anti-war" person.
2. Another article by some useful idiot says: "We support Hamas and Hizbollah in their courageous stand against imperialism". Hizbollah, of course, are an agent of Iranian imperialism, while Hamas want to cleanse Israel of all Jews. They are not fighting "against imperialism". They are fighting for jihad.
3. The SWP editorial openly supports Hezbollah. "we are happy to join the Arab masses in expressing our solidarity with the fighters of Hizbollah and our hope is that they succeed in defeating the Israeli assault on Lebanon."

• The Irish "Anti-War" Movement invite a representative of Hezbollah to an "anti-war" meeting in Ireland, Nov 2006. Shame on the Irish government for letting this Islamist jihadi terrorist into Ireland.
  • The Irish "Anti-War" Movement openly admits: "The IAWM is NOT a "Peace organisation" - there are, at least, 10-12 Peace organisations in this country, some of them anti-war/some of them not. The IAWM, as stated in its constitution, is an anti-imperialist organisation whose main objective is to stop the use of Shannon and other Irish facilities by the forces of the Empire, while simultaneously extending support and solidarity with those who are invaded, and those who fight against that invasion and occupation by any means at their disposal."
  • "Anti-War" Ireland also expressed support for violence (so long as it is violence by jihadis, not by democracies): "My personal political position (as a non-pacifist) is that Hezbullah and any other Lebanese group were perfectly entitled to defend their country against Israeli aggression. I would also be understanding of actions taken in defence of Palestinians."
  • Again, I am not "anti-war" myself. What I object to is the claim that these people are.
  • The Irish "Anti-War" Movement also refer to: "some plans we have to invite a couple of leading Hamas and Fatah militants into Ireland soon".

• The Irish "Anti-War" Movement invite a representative of Hezbollah to an "anti-war" meeting in Ireland, Oct 2007.
  • "The conference will challenge the myths and propaganda peddled by the main stream media and discuss practically how we can build the movement of resistance to war and occupation over the coming months. Unity of the anti war movement across organisational and territorial boundaries and solidarity with those who fight the illegal occupation of their country is what we seek." I don't see one word of condemnation of the violence of those who "fight" and "resist". The "anti-war" people are only against some wars, it seems.
  • The conference also has Lebanese and Iraqi politicians. No, not tolerant liberal democrats, silly. Rather, pro-Syrian and pro-al-Sadr politicians, respectively, of course.
  • Supporting this disgraceful event are the "anti-war" groups PANA and the NGO Alliance.
  • Sharing a platform with Hezbollah are Michael D. Higgins of the Labour Party, and Patricia McKenna and Dan Boyle, both of the Green Party. The Green Party are actually in the Irish government!
  • Of course, the fact that the "anti-war" people also invite a violent Irish group like Sinn Fein is simply unnoticed.

More "Anti-war" groups

Anti-America, anti-NATO

• The NGO Peace Alliance
  • As there are possible early signs of victory in Iraq in mid-late 2007, Brendan Butler of the NGO Alliance seems to hope against hope that it is not true (pay-to-view), 17 Oct 2007.
  • From his wealthy Dublin suburb (houses go for well over €1m on his street) he sneers: "Four-and-a-half years ago ... an elated George Bush, standing aboard the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln,' declared that "major combat operations have ended in Iraq". How many more years of infrastructural devastation and deaths of innocent Iraqi civilians are needed before the US administration realises that the Iraqi "war" is unwinnable?"
  • Tony Allwright gives him what he deserves: "As the millionth brave American soldier passes through Shannon, you can almost taste the despair in Brendan Butler's letter .. on having read some rare positive tidings from Iraq, namely that Al Qaeda seems to be on the retreat ... Harking back to George Bush's (in)famous visit in 2003 to an aircraft-carrier which flew a banner saying "Mission Accomplished", he writes as if he fervently hopes that the latest good news will be similarly confounded, infrastructure further destroyed, civilian deaths continue, the war remain unwinnable."

• The Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA)
  • PANA is quoted in the Irish Times, Fri 25 June 2004, as supporting the Iraqi fascist "resistance". PANA's spokesman is quoted by the Irish Times as follows: "He views Iraqi resistance to occupation as a legitimate independence struggle, similar to the Irish and, indeed, American wars of independence."
  • If this quote is accurate, then PANA are not anti-war. They are pro-the other side. You would think, though, that even if they supported the goals of the fascist resistance (an Islamist tyranny, cleansed of infidels), that they would at least complain about the fact that the resistance was violent.
  • What is the Iraqi "resistance"?
  • PANA doesn't like being called anti-American
  • Bizarrely, the "anti-war" group PANA opposes the disarming of Hezbollah, Aug 2006: "The resolution's call for the International Force to be used to prevent the resistance in Lebanon from rearming is recipe for possible future military conflict between UN forces and the resistance. ... PANA believes that an Irish Army that was formed as a consequence of a national war of resistance against an army of occupation has no role in a war against a national resistance movement."

• South Dublin City Anti War Group (or via here) claims to be "against all wars". But bizarrely, prominent among their "Friends" list on their front page is the violent, pro-war group Sinn Fein - IRA, who have killed over 1,500 people, and are still killing today.
• Only against some wars, it seems.

• "Anti-War" Ireland
• gluaiseacht.net
• The Stop Bush Campaign
• The Campaign for Irish Neutrality and Democracy
• Ireland Against The War

• Dublin Grassroots Network
• Co.Kildare anti-war
• Galway anti-war
• Human Rights for Change (Anti-America, Anti-Israel)

• Irish CND (Anti-NATO)
  • John de Courcy Ireland, founding member of Irish CND, was involved with the Communist Party of Ireland, the Workers Party and the SWP, all of whom openly supported violent foreign tyranny.
  • UK CND supports Iranian nuclear weapons (and here)

Attacks on allied equipment

• The Catholic Worker Movement - Religion and socialism. Two bad ideas in one!
  • Dublin Catholic Worker

• Pitstop Ploughshares
  • warontrial.com (or peaceontrial.com, or via here)

• By their own admission: "five members of the pacifist Catholic Worker movement made their way into Shannon Airport and non-violently disarmed a U.S. navy war plane in the early hours of February 3rd. 2003."
• And yet they were acquitted by the jury - on the grounds that they had a lawful reason to damage property. This gives a green light, for example, to any jihadist or fellow traveller to attack US military equipment in Ireland. A shameful day for Ireland. The law must be changed, so that juries cannot make politicised decisions like this, completely outside democratic control.

• I do not see how what they did is any different from saboteurs attacking allied equipment before D-Day.
• German sabotage in WW1:
  • German agents in America and Canada carried out a number of successful sabotage missions in WW1.
  • The largest was the Black Tom explosion of American munition supplies in New Jersey in 1916.
• German sabotage in WW2:
  • German Sabotage Against the United States in World War II was almost entirely unsuccessful.
  • Operation Pastorius was the failed Nazi sabotage attack on the United States in 1942.

• Acquitted saboteur, Australian Ciaron O'Reilly, has many convictions for attacks on the military of free countries. Oddly enough, I can't find any attacks by him on the military of dictatorships. If you know of any, let me know.

• The anti-Israel Derry Anti-War Coalition destroy offices of US defence company Raytheon, Derry, NI, Aug 2006. "thousands of documents and dozens of computers were burned and thrown from windows by members of a group that entered at 8am." They were probably encouraged by the Pitstop Ploughshares verdict, which gave the green light to this kind of violence. Leading this attack on the allied military was SWP moonbat Eamonn McCann. Every argument he makes could be made against the allied military in WW2. Why he thinks he is morally different from a saboteur in WW2 I don't know.
  • The IAWM supports the sabotage, and describes Israel as "a rogue state".
  • Eoin Dubsky supports the sabotage (and here and here).
  • Labour Youth supports the sabotage.
  • The Raytheon Nine

Refueling Peace

• Refueling Peace (or try here) (Anti-America, Anti-NATO)
• Eoin Dubsky (and old page)
• Eoin Dubsky approvingly quotes John Pilger's description of the Iraqi fascist "resistance" as "nationalists defending their homeland".
  • This is the "resistance" that suicide bombs men, women and children in the street, at mosques and at religious processions. It has bombed Shiite Muslim mosques and Christian churches. It kidnaps, tortures and beheads innocent civilians - including journalists and aid workers. It kidnapped and executed the innocent Ken Bigley. It kidnapped and executed the anti-war, lifelong charity worker Margaret Hassan. It has bombed the Red Cross and the United Nations. It seeks to establish an Islamofascist state with no free speech, no freedom of religion, no human rights and no elections. It has no mandate and no popular support. Most Iraqis hate the "resistance" and want to see it destroyed.

  • Why the left would support such people is not hard to believe. The left has a long history of support for tyrants. No, the mystery is how people who describe themselves as "anti-war" and "peace" campaigners could support violent people.
  • So here is my question for Dubsky and Pilger: Even if you support the goals of the fascist resistance (an Islamist tyranny, cleansed of infidels), why don't you at least complain about the fact that the resistance is violent?

  • What is the Iraqi "resistance"?

"Anti-war" people are often remarkably non-judgemental about violence by others

• Eoin Dubsky, Feb 2006, says that by Ireland allowing America to use our airports and airspace, "we've surrendered any possible moral defence against countries or terrorists who may attack us to prevent further military and CIA flights through Ireland".
• Again, for someone who is meant to be "anti-war", Dubsky is remarkably non-judgemental about violence by other people. Surely the Islamofascists wishing to prevent military and CIA flights through Ireland should use protest, diplomacy and sanctions first, instead of heading straight to violent terrorism against our women and children?

• "Anti-war" people are not consistent:
  • Dubsky's non-judgemental comments about Islamist violence show a common failing of "anti-war" groups in the West. Obviously, I think they have ignorant, naive political ideas which will lead to the triumph of tyranny, fascism, genocide and (yes) war worldwide. But perhaps my main criticism of them is simply their name.
  • They're not anti-"war". If they were, they would be furious at the violent Iraqi resistance, the violent Palestinian intifada, Iran's violent threats to Israel, and violent Islamist terror in general. But such fury is usually hard to detect.
  • They're not anti-"war". They're anti-America.

• I am consistent:
  • It's easier for me. I make no claims to be anti-war. I support the military operations of America, Britain and Israel. I wish their military luck in defeating and killing Islamist fighters worldwide. I wish for victory for free countries like Israel, and defeat for tyrannies like Iran. My philosophy is consistent, even if you disagree with it. Unlike the "anti-war" people, I am not inconsistent or hypocritical.

thereligionofpeace.com makes the point: Iraqi civilians killed (all deliberately) in 2006 by the Iraqi resistance: 16,791. Iraqi civilians killed (all accidentally) in 2006 by Americans: 225. In other words, the incredibly careful and skilled Americans have hardly killed anyone innocent since 2003, and those that have died have all been killed accidentally while engaged in street warfare with jihadis. Almost all the deaths in Iraq are at the hands of the resistance, not at the hands of the Americans. As Glen Reinsford says: "Iraqis aren't dying from war. They are being murdered by Islamic terrorists."

The Irish left's support for the Iraqi fascist "resistance"

• The Iraqi fascist "resistance"

• The left's support for the Iraqi fascist "resistance"

• A Message From The Iraq Resistance, December 2004
  • "We thank all those, including those of Britain and the U.S., who took to the streets in protest against this war and against Globalism. We also thank France, Germany and other states for their position, which least to say are considered wise and balanced, til now."
  • Are the "anti-war" protesters proud? Remember these are incredibly violent people that are thanking you. Even if you agree with their goals, these are violent, pro-war people. Shouldn't that disturb you at all?
  • Interesting how the jihadi thug considers the anti-globalisation struggle as part of the same struggle for tyranny and against freedom worldwide. Which of course it is.

• The UCD "Anti-War" Group says (Feb 01, 2006): "We express our solidarity with all democratic, secular and progressive opposition forces in Iraq fighting for US-UK defeat."
  • Given that this "fighting" involves not parliamentary rhetoric or civil disobedience (why not?) but rather actual, literal fighting, that is, violence, including the suicide bombing of mosques and crowds of women and children, it seems amazing that the UCD "Anti-War" Group did not mention this.
  • Why did the UCD "Anti-War" Group not add a disclaimer, given the ongoing slaughter of 10,000 or more Iraqis by people "fighting for US-UK defeat", to the effect that:

    We only support those Iraqis who resist the US occupation through peaceful means. We condemn the disgusting acts of those who resist the US through violence.

• CHALLENGE to the UCD "Anti-War" Group:
  • Does the UCD "Anti-War" Group support the violent Iraqi resistance? If not, please issue such a disclaimer, condemning the violent Iraqi resistance, and apologising for the ambiguity. Tell me about it, and I will happily link to it.

Anti-capitalism, anti-globalisation, anti-free enterprise, anti-free trade

• Irish anti-globalisation

• "Anarchists" who hate capitalism. I find anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist "anarchists" baffling. How could an anarchist hate capitalism?? How could an anarchist want to take away economic freedom and set up a totalitarian collectivist government? The answer is they're not anarchists, of course. They're socialists. In fact, they say so on the page. Without any introduction at all they start talking about: "bringing socialism about". So why don't they call themselves socialists (or, more accurately, totalitarian communists)? "Anarchist" sounds cooler, I guess, to the daft young people who fall for this stuff.
  • Irish "anarchists" (i.e. totalitarian communists) (also here)

• Irish "libertarians" who, strangely, hate capitalism, America and NATO. Baffling. How could a libertarian hate capitalism and America?? The answer is, of course, they're not libertarians. I am a libertarian. They are totalitarian communists.

• Socialists and communists
  • And of course, there are plenty of open, honest enemies of the west in Ireland in the form of socialists and communists, still going and unashamed after 100 million dead.
  • Socialist and communist parties of Europe (including Ireland)
  • Socialist and communist parties of Ireland (or here)

• Trade unions
  • ICTU (Anti-War on Iraq, and generally anti-capitalism and anti-America)
  • SIPTU (Anti-War on Afghanistan, Anti-War on Iraq, and generally anti-capitalism and anti-America)

Other

voteoutffpd.com

• voteoutffpd.com (or via here)

• voteoutffpd.com exchange

Indymedia

• Indymedia
  • Or "Nazimedia", as the right calls it, for its non-stop hatred of Israel and America, and its love for the world's dictators.
  • NaziMedia would have ignored the Prague Spring, too by Damian Penny

• Indymedia Ireland
  • discussion board
  • publish
  • List of censored posts

• Indymedia Watch
• Indymedia Ireland Watch

• An adventure on Nazimedia

The Irish left's support for Palestinian Islamofascism

• Modern anti-semitism (Islamic, left-wing)

• The modern left's support for Palestinian Islamofascism

• The Palestinian resistance (and much of the Arab world) is openly anti-semitic and unashamed of it (just see their TV and schoolbooks).
• The western leftists who support them claim not to be anti-semitic. Often this is true. Apart from the surviving remnants of old European anti-semitism, there are a range of new, trendy reasons why people support the Palestinians:
  • Why do people support the Palestinians?

• Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (or via here)
  • bebo page (or via here)
  • See Blog Irish, Saturday, June 7, 2003 (or here), for a sceptical take on the pro-Palestinian activists Caoimhe Butterly and Mary Kelly.
  • Irish "human shields" must answer questions - Eilis O'Hanlon on Butterly and Kelly, who bizarrely are called "peace" activists.
  • More on Butterly and the pro-Palestinian "peace" activists
  • Mary Kelly's site. Her account of the siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem illustrates the romanticisation of third world thugs, religious fascists and racist killers by rich, free westerners like Kelly.
  • Irish "anti-war" activists hang out with the violent terror group the Palestine Liberation Front in Lebanon, August 2007. "Anti-war", my foot.

• Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  • Database of articles on Israel-Palestine (includes some pro-Israel articles)
    • About author categories (also here)
    • Authors by category

• The "human shields" in Iraq

• IPSC march in Dublin (also here), June 2005, shows the leftist-Islamist alliance:
  • The SWP and SF-IRA march with Islamists who demand "FREEDOM FOR PALESTINE. FREEDOM FOR IRAQ."

• Irish academics' letter to Irish Times calling for anti-Israel boycott, Sept 2006.
  • Signatures include: Kieran Allen, Ivana Bacik, Harry Browne, Bill McSweeney.

• Tom Hyland is known for his support (rightly) for East Timor. But his support for the Palestinians suggests that his position on East Timor is based more on opposition to the west than on any more principled philosophy, such as opposition to all human-rights abusing regimes. John Pilger is the classic example of this narrow world-view.
• Only the desire to oppose the west can explain the strange, highly-selective collection of human-rights causes the modern left supports. This is why they almost never complain about Islamic or communist regimes, for example.

Ireland and Israel

• Judaism
  • Israel

  • In defence of Israel

• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  • War crimes - Israel tries to hit military targets. The Palestinians try to kill civilians.

  • Why do people support the Palestinians?

  • The killing of children and other non-combatants by the Palestinians

• Arab Crimes Against Palestinians Overlooked, Rory Miller and Alan Shatter, Irish Times, 15 Aug 2006 - on endless Irish criticism of and demos against Israel, yet silence on far greater killers, including the non-Israeli killers of Palestinians. Hyperlinked by Tony Allwright.
  • "The truth is that Israel's use of military force, combined over the 60 years since its birth, has caused far fewer casualties and damage than war, conflict and oppression in Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Burundi, Cambodia, Chad, Chechnya, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Eritrea and Ethiopia (and that's only the beginning of the alphabet; if we go to countries beginning with "I", there's India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq)."
  • "Why was the fact that King Hussein killed more Palestinians in the course of a single month than Israel managed to do in decades never held against him, or even raised, on his visits to this country?"

• The pro-Palestinian bias in the Irish media
  • How truth is the second casualty of war by Declan McCormack
  • Israeli voices unheard in Irish media by Eilis O'Hanlon
  • Luckily, one does not have to read the Irish media. One can read directly the American or Israeli media online.

Tax-supported anti-Israel groups

• Galway Arts Centre
  • "Settlement", 2003. A taxpayer-supported anti-Israel exhibition. "This project acknowledges that artists are not 'neutral' beings, divorced from social and political realities, but often hold partisan viewpoints which are articulated through numerous and complex strategies." Though, oddly enough, none of them hold a pro-Israel viewpoint.

• In 2005 the taxpayer-supported National Sculpture Factory made the "Courage to Refuse" installation, urging Israeli soldiers to desert. That is, we have a tax-supported anti-Israel artwork.
  • Have my taxes ever gone to support a pro-Israel artwork? Let me know here.
  • It was included as part of the taxpayer-supported Cork 2005 festival. Has any city festival ever included a pro-Israel event? Let me know here.

• In 2006 the Irish Film Institute in Dublin refused to accept Israeli government sponsorship of a gay film at the Dublin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
  • The Israeli Consul General said: "I was annoyed that they mixed culture and politics and joined the anti-Israel bandwagon. A gay and lesbian event is not just another festival, gays and lesbians have fought for their rights, events such as these should promote openness and dialogue, a boycott rules out dialogue. A boycott ignores the fact that that none of the other Mediterranean countries would even dream of offering sponsorship for an LGBT festival. They see scenes from Lebanon and think it means all Israelis are bad, you wouldn't expect an arts festival to be so closed minded."
  • I am forced to pay through my taxes for this politicised body.

• Freedom of sexuality in Israel - It is the only country in the Middle East in which gays are free.

• In 2006 the Festival of World Cultures in Dún Laoghaire refused to accept Israeli government sponsorship.
  • I am forced to pay through my taxes for this politicised event.

• In 2007 the arts group Aosdána passed an anti-Israel motion.
  • Ian O'Doherty attacks the vote: "The fact that Israel is the least segregated society in the region, and that Israeli Arabs enjoy more freedom than their counterparts in other, Arab-run, countries is something that tends to be conveniently forgotten"
  • I am forced to pay through my taxes for this politicised body.

• I am also forced to pay through my taxes for Irish and EU aid to the vile Palestinian Authority.
  • Hamas brags about aid money "turned into weapons": "Two years ago, one bullet in Gaza cost around €3.50 - now it would cost 35 cents. The American aid money has been translated into weapons. Thank you, America!"
  • Foreign aid of $7 billion pledged to Palestinians, Dec 2007. It really shows that terrorism works. Disgusting. It will pay for a lot of arms and a lot of hatred against the West.
  • I am forced to pay through my taxes for Palestinian "security" forces (i.e. Islamist terrorists) and for indoctrination of hatred in Palestinian schools and TV.

The Irish Peace Society

• The Irish Peace Society (or via here) is linked to a Masters program in "Peace and Development Studies" at UL. That sounds great. Who could be against peace?
  • Sadly, it looks like just another pro-Palestinian-Islamofascist group. They visit Lebanon and visit every anti-Israel activist and killer they can find, yet no one pro-Israel. They link to the website of the Islamofascist mass killers of women and children Hizbollah with the simple tag-line "Resistance organisation in Lebanon".
  • Some of them even openly support Hizbollah, describing its killings as "legitimate resistance .. their militant side is only used to repel the occupier". Also here.
  • The "Peace" Society seems utterly uninterested in what exactly Hizbollah has done (e.g. mass killings of innocent men, women and little children in Argentina). It seems "their militant side is only used to repel the occupier" means they will "only" kill Jews anywhere in the world.
  • Again, the "Peace" Society's open support for the murderous communist tyranny in Cuba, which has killed tens of thousands of innocents, indicates that "peace" is not their agenda. As usual, it's a left-wing, anti-West, political society, not a "peace" society. Any real pacifist would have a lot to say about the mass killers Castro and Hizbollah.

• Lebanon and Syria
  • Hizbollah
  • Hizbollah terror attacks
  • Robert Fisk

• The Irish Peace Society - Email exchange
  • The challenge: Find any pro-Israel, pro-gay or pro-atheist group in the entire Arab Muslim world.

• Other issues
  • The Irish "Peace" Society is against violence by democracies, but sympathetic to violence by non-democracies. It has no problem with what they call the "liberation" (what a joke) of Lebanon by Hizbollah, but it opposed (and here) the real liberation of Iraq.
  • They also entertained the Cuban Ambassador and the Pakistani Ambassador in 2003. These representatives of two non-democracies were listened to with respect instead of abuse. I note the Israeli, US and British Ambassadors were not entertained. Their error was in being free democracies.

• Some updates:
  • Congratulations to the Irish Peace Society for protesting the visit of the Premier of China, May 2004! At last we agree on something!
  • Victoria Firmo-Fontan, the "peace studies" professor who brought the students on the pro-Hizbollah tour of Lebanon, turns up in Jan 2005 wanting to be "embedded" with the Iraqi fascist "resistance" as they suicide bomb women and children in their attempt to stop democracy.
  • Bruce Bawer has a nice put-down of "peace studies" programs. "For the Peace Racket, to kill innocents in cold blood is to buy the right to dialogue, negotiation, concessions - and power. So students learn to identify "insurgent" or "militant" groups with the populations they purport to represent."

• "Peace" groups inevitably do not have any clue how to actually bring about world peace.
  • How to bring about world peace - We actually know how to do this. Here's how.

• Peace and non-violence

The Irish left's support for Cuban communist dictatorship

• Cuba Support Group - Ireland
• Bernie Dwyer

• Galway "One World" Centre
  • One man emigrating is another man 'fleeing', Galway "One World" Centre, November 29, 2007. These pampered western leftists, who have known nothing but freedom all their lives, actually defend Castro's policy of denying freedom of movement, and laugh at those who risk their lives to escape communist rule as "emigrants". They quote some lackey of the regime who they hosted in Ireland. Why did they not host a Cuban dissident?
  • "The crumbling buildings in these barrios demonstrate the high price that years of sanctions have exacted from the people of Cuba." Not the high price that communism has exacted from the people of Cuba.

• Communism

• The unfree world

• Cuba

• The modern left's support for Cuban communist dictatorship

• Finian McGrath

• Tom McGurk

Irish left support for other fascist and communist tyranny

• International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic - Ireland (Anti-America, anti-NATO)
  • their links

Why are young people attracted to the left

• The mind of the left - What is wrong with us that we are attracted to leftism when we are young?

• I can remember being young and finding this kind of stuff convincing. In the 1980s I was pro-CND, in other words, pro-Soviet invasion of western Europe. Luckily, CND failed and the Soviet aggressor was stopped. I was never stupid enough to be consciously pro-Soviet, but I remember being pro-Nicaragua, pro-Libya, pro-Palestine, pro-Cuba. And of course anti-Reagan, anti-Thatcher. I look back now with embarrassment. Though I guess at least I've learnt something from it.

• Leaving the left
  • My history

• Was I That Stupid? by Gerald Posner: "Three decades later I have no pride in the memory of those protests. Rather, I wonder how it was possible to be so mistaken about real politics and world events."

• Anti-globalisation, anti-capitalist protesters

• Victor Davis Hanson describes well why taking no action against fascists, dictators and genocides is always popular: "The truth is that one can sound moral only through the advocacy of restraint, never preemption. Appeasement wins applause for its ethical posturing and non-belligerency; and even when the corpses later pile up it rarely earns the disgust it deserves for getting thousands killed. In contrast, preemption is always equated with blood lust; and even when it saves thousands, critics sigh that in retrospect there must have been a better way."