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The Irish left (politics)

I could live with this until the War on Islamism began on Sept 11th 2001, when foreign policy became so much more important. I cannot now support any party that does not support America.

• Opponents of the west in Ireland

Politicians

• Michael D. Higgins

• David Norris

• Proinsias De Rossa

• Finian McGrath

• Irish politicians sign a petition calling for sanctions against Israel. Of course, they all have signed similar petitions calling for sanctions against Cambodia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Of course they have.
  • Proinsias De Rossa (Labour).
  • Michael D. Higgins (Labour), "signing on behalf of the entire parliamentary Labour Party".
  • Mick Lanigan (FF).
  • Terry Leyden (FF).
  • A load of people from the Greens and from the violent group Sinn Fein.
  • The "charity" Afri.

• Dennis Prager describes the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as "committing evil" by calling for sanctions against Israel. I agree. They are on the wrong side of history.
• I am beginning to expect Christian churches to be on the side of evil. See the Anglican church and the Catholic church and history and WW2.

• The kind of petition I support:
  • Petition for Regime Change in Iran by brave Iranian democrats.
  • Petition for Regime Change in Syria and Lebanon by brave Lebanese democrats.

The Presidents

• Mary Robinson is a well-meaning liberal, a hero of the long fight to legalise contraception in Ireland. But she achieved nothing at the United Nations because she was not willing to stand with the democracies against the non-democracies.
  • As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights she presided over the international hate-fest, the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. See photos and movie.
  • Mary Robinson after 9/11 shows her lack of support for the democracies. In Sept 2001 in New York she said she was "shocked at the extent of the strong feeling of hatred and aggression towards those who look Arab or Asian".

• President Mary McAleese's trip to the Islamofascist state of Saudi Arabia (where the state executes gay men and women), Feb 2006, is a classic example of the uselessness of "official Ireland".
  • McAleese is not particularly left-wing, and neither is the government that approves her words. Yet in front of an audience representing one of the most brutal, backward, bigoted, apartheid states in the world, she chose to state that the people of Ireland "abhorred the publication" of the Muhammed cartoons. Thus siding us with the Saudi religious fanatics against the modern, tolerant Danish.

• Does Madam wish to attend a beheading?, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Sunday Independent, Feb 19, 2006, on McAleese's visit:
  • "Can you imagine a President of Ireland visiting South Africa during apartheid and saying nothing about oppression and forced segregation being wrong? Or comparing her past slight disadvantages to an audience in which token, handpicked blacks were behind screens? Or justifying giving blacks more opportunities simply on economic and cultural grounds? Or commenting blithely that the "feisty, determined" blacks she met were delighted she had come to the country?"
  • "Our President is anxious that Muslims should not be offended, but in the last couple of weeks she has grievously offended unionists, as well as the many Irish citizens who think we should be standing up for the Danes and free speech, rather than caving into Islamo-fascist intimidation by saying we all "abhorred" the publication of the cartoons."

Summary of Irish politics

• More or less everybody in Labour, Sinn Fein and the Greens is hostile to western power and western victory.

• Even among the sensible parties, sizeable minorities of Fine Gael, FF, and even the PDs are neutrals or even opponents of the front-line western democracies: America, Britain and Israel.
  • See Bertie Ahern's sick tribute to Arafat.
  • See Brian Cowen's pandering to Arafat.
  • Jim Higgins, Fine Gael MEP, supports the IPSC and is hostile to Israel.

  • Labhras O'Murchu of FF, Irish Senate, 20 May 2004 - "The war crimes being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people will shock the world and will be seen for what they are. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has been particularly forthright in support of the rights of the Palestinian people. It is important for this nation, and for all nations, to impress on Israel that of all the nations on earth, it should be wary about engaging in activities which could be perceived as being genocidal."
  • Terry Leyden of FF, Irish Senate, 20 May 2004 - "we should make a request of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, who is now President of the EU Foreign Ministers and has been exemplary in his work on Palestine and recognising the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. I suggest that we withdraw the special status that Israel holds in the eyes of the European Union. A boycott of Israeli products should be undertaken."
  • Mary O'Rourke of FF, Irish Senate, 20 May 2004 - "Senator Leyden wants the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, as President of the EU Council of Foreign Minister, to withdraw the special status afforded to Israel by the EU, and calls for a boycott of Israeli goods. .. Perhaps it is a point that could be considered."

• Rory Miller, Sept 6, 2006: "Among the 120 members of the Dail and the 100 members of the Senate, not one name springs to mind as a regular defender of Israel. There are either those who do not care or pro-Palestinians."

• Ireland is a bit of an ideological wilderness. I have almost no heroes among Irish politicians. My heroes are elsewhere.

• Eoghan Harris nominated (by the FF Taoiseach) to the Senate, Aug 2007. Great. There will be somebody in the Senate to counter the foreign policy nonsense of David Norris and Ivana Bacik.

Parties

The Labour Party

• The Labour Party
• The Labour Party were heroes of the fight to separate church and state in the 1970s-90s. I certainly like their secular, civil liberties side. And, during the 1990s Celtic Tiger boom, they looked like following the lead of Blair's New Labour in the UK in becoming pro-business and even (under Clinton) pro-American.
• Sadly, out of office, they have reverted to type, and their anti-American and anti-capitalist side has made a comeback. Their foreign affairs spokesman is Michael D. Higgins, the leader of anti-Americanism in Ireland. The Iraq War was the defining moment when they split with Blair's New Labour and chose a different route. If Labour want my vote, they need to reverse this decline and return to following the lead of Blair.

• Anti-West:
  • Labour opposed the liberation of Iraq in 2003. And ever since liberation, they have called for immediate withdrawal of the allied troops trying to set up democracy in Iraq.
  • This moral vacuum on Iraq .. why won't the Irish left support those trying to rebuild after Saddam? by Henry McDonald, on the pathetic Irish left-wing silence about - and even support for - the fascist Iraq "resistance". In the face of a fascist assault on the people of Iraq, the Irish Labour Party is silent. "the mainstream, rational left has surrendered the agenda to the Trots and Stalinists. .. not a single voice in the Irish Labour Party spoke out in favour of their comrades in the Iraqi Socialist Party who supported the War". There was no Irish Tony Blair, and "There were no Irish equivalents of the courageous Welsh Labour MP Ann Clywd". The Iraq War is a historic low moment for the Irish Labour Party.
  • Labour's sick tribute to Arafat after his death mentions nothing about Arafat's many deliberate killings of civilians. And "his alleged autocratic style of leadership" is as close as they get to referring to the fact that Arafat was an unelected dictator, who could have set up a democracy with political parties and a free press, but chose not to. Aren't Labour meant to be against dictators, not apologists for them.
  • The idea that Michael D. Higgins should run for President of Ireland is madness. If he became President, he would make Ireland hated in America. Americans don't realise such people exist in Ireland.
  • Labour isn't all bad, though. Labour councillors Aidan Culhane and John McManus have criticised the trendy, unthinking, anti-American, anti-Israel, Michael D. Higgins party line on the Middle East.

• Anti-capitalist:
  • A Sunday Independent poll in Feb 2004 of Ireland's top chief executives asked them which was the best party for business. Their answers:

    Party	Percent
    PDs	50
    Fianna Fail	40
    Fine Gael	9
    Labour	1
    Sinn Fein	0
    Greens	0

    This is a stunning decline for Fine Gael and Labour. Business people think that Fine Gael and Labour are no longer credible managers of the economy. It doesn't have to be this way. In a poll of UK business leaders, Blair's Labour might or might not be top but there is no way it would stand at just 1 percent.

  • Sunday Independent poll of Irish chief executives, Apr 2006. Which party is best for business? 51 percent FF. 39 percent PD. 10 percent FG.

• Labour Youth (and here)
  • The youth wing of the Labour Party (and here) supports sabotage attacks on allied equipment in the War on Islamism: "Labour Youth supports the protest of the Derry Anti-War Coalition. Rather than anti war protestors being charged and brought to court Raytheon should instead be put on trial for supplying components of death to the Israeli State. ... We are calling for and supporting non-violent occupation of all weapons manufacturers that supply arms to the Israeli Military." And this support for sabotage appears on Labour's main website. Disgraceful.
  • Labour Youth calls for Israel Boycott to mark UN Day of Solidarity with Palestine, Nov 2006.
  • Labour Youth, even in 2007, protest the "ongoing illegal and criminal occupation of Iraq by the US government", refer to the "ongoing criminal, illegal and immoral activities perpetrated on a daily basis by the US government in Iraq", and call for Ireland to refuse the US military access to Shannon. What planet are they living on?
  • Labour Youth, Oct 2007, openly supports third-world strongman thug Hugo Chavez. About Chavez's Venezuela, they say: "Conference resolutely believes: That this is an example of twenty first century socialism, and that it is a socio-economic model that is worth aspiring to. ... Conference welcomes: The attempts by President Hugo Chavez to initiate the economic transition from a Capitalist state to a Socialist state, which is to be brought about democratically". I suppose tyranny and poverty are alright for foreigners, just not for Ireland.

• A popular myth: "Ireland is dominated by Civil War politics".
  • FF and FG combined persistently get about 60-70 percent of the vote. As a result, there has never been in Ireland a clear left-right divide, but rather a competition between FF and allies, and FG and allies.
  • A popular myth on the left is that Ireland votes for FF and FG because of their positions in the Civil War, and that people just vote the way their family has always voted, without thinking about it. That most voting is inherited, not reasoned, as one snotty letter writer in the Irish Times put it.
  • Could anything better show the contempt of intellectual elites for the people of Ireland? Do they really think people around the country don't think about their vote? The sad truth for the left is that most Irish people are not left-wing, and want a choice between two sensible, fairly conservative parties. And there is no sign of that changing. The Irish people's support for FF and FG represents reason and long thought, not unthinking inheritance and tradition. One can certainly see why the left would resist such a conclusion.

Other parties

• The Green Party of Ireland
  • The Green Party makes some sense locally - on preserving old buildings and natural areas. I would support them on things like preserving the Hill of Tara.
  • But more or less everything they say about science and international issues is wrong.
  • The Green Party supports homeopathy.
  • The Green Party's long and shameful opposition to the democracy of Israel.
  • The Green Party's sick tribute to the Jew-killing dictator Yasser Arafat, 11th November 2004: "Green Party Leader, Trevor Sargent TD, said today that Yasser Arafat ... would always be remembered as a symbol of the Palestinian people, a symbol of unity, and steadfastness in their struggle for international recognition as an independent state."
  • The Green Party's long and shameful opposition to the establishment of democracy in Iraq.
  • Greens AWOL on Iraq: Why the silence on the Marsh Arabs?, Paul Kengor & Cory Shreckengost, June 24, 2003, point out that many of the West's enemies - from the Soviets to Saddam - destroy their countries' environments as easily as they destroy their political opponents. "If anything, the environmental movement should thank the Bush administration for liberating the environment from the tyrannical activity of an oppressive eco-dictator. ... But don't expect an announcement from Greenpeace anytime soon."
  • John Gormley in the Dail, 10 November 2004 - "I do not welcome President Bush's re-election. I would have preferred John Kerry to have been elected." Well, all I can say is Ha ha ha ha!
  • I do agree with the Greens sometimes: The Greens insult the Chinese ambassador, Apr 2008. Good for them.

• Fine Gael
  • Fine Gael were always historically the pro-capitalist and pro-West party. As Fianna Fail adopted these policies, Fine Gael have, in a slow death wish, been abandoning them. It is bad enough that business leaders now trust Fianna Fail on the economy far more than Fine Gael (see survey). But to make things even worse, on Iraq, Fine Gael did not follow the Tory example of praising the government, but instead sided with the anti-American left against our western democratic allies. If Fine Gael want my vote, they need to reverse this decline and return to what they stood for in the past.
  • Simon Coveney of Fine Gael

• David McWilliams points out that:
  1. Green Party supporters are the richest in Ireland.
  2. The Labour Party has the second richest supporters.

• George W. Bush is more popular in Ireland (19 percent of Irish said they would vote for him in the 2004 election) than:
  1. The Labour Party (11 percent of Irish voted for them in the 2002 election).
  2. Sinn Fein (7 percent of Irish voted for them in the 2002 election).
  3. The Green Party (4 percent of Irish voted for them in the 2002 election).
• Indeed, George W. Bush is more popular in Ireland than any Irish party except the big two of FF and FG. Not that you would ever know it by reading the Irish media.

• Who would I vote for?

Extremist parties

• The Socialist Party
  • Socialist Youth
  • The Socialist Party openly admires (also here and here) the butchers Lenin and Trotsky, who killed 4 million people - in mass executions, death camps, and state-caused famine. This is the equivalent of a party that admires Hitler and Eichmann participating in democratic politics.
  • The Socialist Party doesn't like being called anti-American
  • They praise (also here) the tyranny of Cuba.
  • Joe Higgins in the Dail - "Is the Government saying it shares the values of an administration [the US] that has built a gulag on its own doorstep in Guantanamo whose methods would rival any of the infamous gulags built by the Stalinists in eastern Europe in their heyday?" No wonder he supports Lenin - if he thinks the Lenin/Stalin gulags were only as bad as Guantanamo Bay.

  
  

• Socialist Workers Party

  
  

• The Communist Party of Ireland (and here)
  • The CPI openly admires the butcher Lenin, who killed 4 million people.
  • They openly regret the fall of the brutal imperialist Soviet Union.
  • Again, it is amusing to read how the hard left were appalled and depressed by the events of 1989-91, while the rest of us (i.e. all normal people) were celebrating. The phrase "the world's smallest violin" comes to mind as they describe how their faith was shattered by the liberation of Eastern Europe. "it was a gut-wrenching personal blow to my whole understanding of the world", says Thomas Kenny. "I reckon that many other people, including some perhaps in this room, were traumatised by 1991."
  • You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.

  • Today, the CPI openly links to the communist parties of Russia and the Ukraine, which have killed 60 million people.
  • They openly support the tyranny of Cuba.
  • They also supported the genocide state of North Korea.
  • Michael O'Riordan grew up in a free society, yet supported Stalin, the Soviet Union, communist Cuba and communist North Vietnam. The CPI openly admit: "Michael O'Riordan was a defender of the Soviet Union throughout his life".

The Workers Party

• The Workers Party (also here)
• Official Sinn Fein and the Official IRA
• Sinn Fein the Workers Party

• The Workers Party supported (not just opposed action against, but actually supported!) the genocide states of the Soviet Union, China, North Vietnam and North Korea. They supported East Germany, Serbia, Cuba and the PLO. Anything evil, they supported it.
• And they are still not ashamed of this. They openly say: "We supported the Vietnamese people in their struggle against the barbarous American imperialist aggression ... we have had as guests at our Annual Ard Fheis representatives from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Cuba, China, Korea, the former USSR and GDR"
• The Workers Party doesn't like being called anti-American

• Proinsias De Rossa

• The Workers Party sought funding from the Soviet Government (this was openly admitted in the Proinsias De Rossa libel case).
• Garland planned a global revolution - Claims that the Workers Party had links to the KGB in the 1980s.

• The Workers Party and North Korea (also here)
  • Representatives of genocidal North Korea attended Workers Party ard-fheiseanna in the 1990s.
  • Remember that in the 1990s North Korea killed 2 million men, women and children through famine and concentration camps.
  • They admit links to North Korea: "The Workers' Party has never denied, or attempted to make secret, its links with North Korea and its work to promote political, social and cultural links to Ireland."

• The Panorama program "The superdollar plot", 20 June 2004
  • Transcript
  • News item
  • Article
  • See notes on linking to libel.

• Workers Party President, Sean Garland (and here)
  • Sean Garland arrested 2005! (and more links here and here)
  • U.S. DOJ press release

Sinn Fein - extremist and violent

• Sinn Fein (also here and here and here), Ireland's nationalist socialist party.
• The IRA (also here)
  • An Phoblacht
  • NORAID and INAC
  • NORAID Watch

• The extreme-nationalist, extreme-left party Sinn Fein is the political wing of the violent paramilitary group the IRA, which has carried out armed robberies, kidnappings, extortion, racketeering, smuggling, assassinations, mutilations, bombings, and has killed nearly 2000 people.
• The peace process has largely stopped SF-IRA's war against the British and the unionists. SF-IRA is now mainly devoted to organised crime. It is involved in armed robberies, hostage taking, protection rackets, counterfeiting, smuggling, prostitution and drug dealing. As part of these organised crime activities, it carries out beatings and periodic killings of rivals and victims. It hands down punishments - exile, maiming or execution - without any right to a trial or defence.

• It has extremist tribal politics, which have no appeal to anyone in Northern Ireland who is not Catholic.
• It has extremist socialist economic policies, which if implemented would wreck Ireland's successful economy and cause mass unemployment, poverty and emigration.
• It has a long history in foreign policy of opposing the democracies and supporting foreign tyrannies, from the fascists to the communists to the Islamists.
• It was allied with the Nazis in WW2, and has supported many other foreign tyrannies.

• Northern Ireland
  • Nationalists

• Republicans
• Republican crimes
• SF-IRA's support for tyranny

• Ireland now is the same as Ireland in WW2