I agree with the Irish left on civil liberties
(for example, the blasphemy law).
I disagree with them primarily
on the economy, crime, and foreign policy.
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.
More or less everybody in
Labour, Sinn Fein and the Greens
is hostile to western power and western victory.
Even among the "centre-right" 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.
Ireland is a bit of an ideological wilderness.
I have almost no heroes
among Irish politicians.
My heroes are elsewhere.
Eoghan Harris
became an Independent
Senator
(Nominated by the Taoiseach)
in 2007.
At last, somebody in the Senate to counter the foreign policy nonsense of
David Norris
and
Ivana Bacik.
George W. Bush was more popular in Ireland than any of the minor parties:
19 percent of Irish said they would vote for George W. Bush in the
2004 U.S. election.
This means that
George W. Bush was more popular in Ireland than:
The Labour Party
(11 percent of Irish voted for them in the
2002 election
and 10 percent in the
2007 election).
Sinn Fein
(7 percent of Irish voted for them in the 2002 election
and 7 percent in the 2007 election).
The Green Party
(4 percent of Irish voted for them in the 2002 election
and 5 percent in the 2007 election).
Indeed, George W. Bush was more popular in Ireland
than any Irish party except the big two of FF and FG.
Not that you would ever have known it by reading the Irish media.
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.
Barry Desmond,
Minister for Health,
passed perhaps the greatest achievement of the Irish left in my lifetime,
the
Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act, Mar 1985,
that legalised contraception for single people.
I will forever be grateful to him and Labour for this.
So I like Labour on issues like sexuality, religion and civil liberties.
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 after 1997,
their anti-American and anti-capitalist side has made a comeback:
The 1999 merger with the far-left
Democratic Left
(former members of the
extremist Workers Party)
seems to have swung them to the left.
Labour's leaders since 2002 have all been ex Workers Party -
first
Pat Rabbitte,
then
Eamon Gilmore.
Labour's senior MEP until 2012 was the ex Workers Party
Proinsias De Rossa.
These former Workers Party members have all been on a journey
away from their pro-Soviet past, but they haven't travelled far enough for me.
It was a sad day when Labour merged with them.
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman is the anti-American, anti-Israel
Michael D. Higgins.
The Iraq War of 2003 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.
Eamon Gilmore
joined the radical pro-republican terror and pro-Soviet
Official Sinn Féin in 1975.
This became Sinn Féin The Workers Party in 1977,
and then became the (still pro-Soviet)
Workers Party in 1982.
And more.
Eamon Gilmore
was President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) from
1976 to 1978.
He led the USI delegation to the communist
World Festival of Youth and Students
in Cuba in 1978.
See Irish Times, International Edition, 1 Jan 2011.
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?,
Henry McDonald, March 7, 2004,
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 in Nov 2004
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.
Pro-West dissent:
Michael D. Higgins represents the standard anti-American, anti-Israel,
party line on the Middle East.
But there is dissent.
Ruairi Quinn
has also been pro-Israel in the past.
Anti-capitalist:
Alex White, 5 Nov 2008, hopes that Obama's election means:
"the end of the Reagan era, an end to the neo-liberal model of capitalism, which was fostered by President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and which has its apostles in this country".
In other words, he's against the very ideas that have brought
prosperity to Ireland!
He also sneers that:
"we now have the prospect that the US will again become a force for good."
As if Ireland has toppled any dictatorships recently (or ever).
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.
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,
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 in 2007 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.
William O'Brien,
co-founder of the Irish Labour Party in 1912,
was sympathetic to
Trotsky,
and tried to get him asylum in Ireland in 1930.
Luckily,
W.T. Cosgrave
refused asylum to the butcher.
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.
The Green Party's
sick tribute
(also here)
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."
Ciarán Cuffe calls for sanctions against the democracy of Israel, Jan 2009.
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!
Green Party statement on Sustainable Farming, 2008,
supports homeopathy.
It supports a policy in agriculture for vets to use homeopathy!
"Develop responsible use of homeopathy,
e.g. develop a national network of trained vets; provide training courses for interested farmers."
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.
Joe Higgins in the Dail, 10 Nov 2004:
"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 the Socialist Party supports Lenin
- if they think the Lenin/Stalin gulags were only as bad as Guantanamo Bay.
Joe Higgins in the Dail, 4 May 2011, is unimpressed by the brave Navy Seal operation to kill Bin Laden:
"Did the Taoiseach not consider therefore that this assassination was no more than a naked political stunt to project military and political power which was slipping away from the US because of the actions of the Arab people?"
Higgins compares Tony Blair to Bin Laden.
He says that in the Iraq War:
"Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed."
Which is true. The Iraqi resistance killed them.
But he then outrageously says that the Allies killed them:
"The two figureheads of that invasion, Messrs Bush and Blair, were responsible for that. If a group of aggrieved relatives of those tens of thousands of dead mounted an assault on Mr. Blair's luxury compound, wherever that might be, would the Taoiseach equally justify that, because the same logic would apply."
I see no logic, other than that the crimes of A should be blamed on B.
Iraq: Oil war's bloody legacy, ludicrous article on socialistparty.ie, 21 June 2014,
by Judy Beishon of the Socialist Party (UK).
Primarily blamed for jihad violence:
Bush. Blair. Secular liberal westerners. Capitalism.
Not primarily blamed for jihad violence:
Islam. Jihad. Sharia. Mosques. Muslim schools.
In fact, not jihad, but capitalism is to blame!
Beishon says we need
"an anti-capitalist programme ...
That programme would need to challenge and expose the self-interest and greed of all the pro-capitalist political and military leaders that are fighting for hegemony across Iraq today. It should explain the necessity of removing them from power and replacing them with democratically elected workers' representatives who will call for a socialist solution".
Bonkers.
As if a single capitalist lives in Iraq.
Sick:
Socialist Party promotes Lenin and the democidal Bolshevik regime.
2014 article.
"the 'October revolution' in Russia in 1917 is still regarded by socialists as the greatest event in human history.
Under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, it brought into existence the first, and so far the only, workers-led government to hold power for any length of time.
...
This was the most democratic form of government ever embarked on."
Deranged.
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"
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."
Letter of 26 Feb 1989 from the Workers Party to East Germany,
admits they use "illegal" methods of fund-raising.
From Irish Times, 14 Jan 2013.
See p.1
and p.4.
See 4 articles.
Even without the reference to "illegal" methods of fund-raising,
this letter is just disgusting, and condemns the Workers Party forever.
They were the George Galloways of the day - the toadies to dictators.
The Irish Workers' Party send a
toadying telegram to
East Germany in 1963
to congratulate East German leader
Walter Ulbricht
on his birthday.
It praises Ulbricht's "selfless life's work" for which "humankind will forever be thankful".
The Irish Workers' Party
also praised the building of the Berlin Wall.
The Irish Workers' Party
merged with others to form the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) in 1970.
The CPI
had
extensive links to East Germany
during the Cold War.
The CPI was the East German dictatorship's
primary partner in Ireland.
(The other main partner being the Workers Party.)
The CPI still 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.
Michael O'Riordan
grew up in a free democratic society, yet
supported Stalin, the Soviet Union, communist Cuba and
communist North Vietnam.
See obituary.
The CPI openly admit:
"Michael O'Riordan was a defender of the Soviet Union throughout his life".
Interview, 1999
shows he supported East Germany and Cuba.
On Stalin:
"I think he wasn't all bad, not compared with Hitler, Mussolini or Franco."
On the Irish economy:
"All the talk is about this damn Celtic Tiger. It is as if no one has realised this tiger is Asian and that it has already begun to collapse."
The appalling
John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin
denounced him from the pulpit.
"McQuaid informed them that voting for Red O'Riordan amounted to a mortal sin."
What a choice, but I'd have to say I'm with McQuaid.
The extreme-nationalist, extreme-left party
Sinn Fein is the political wing of
the violent terrorist group the IRA,
which has carried out large-scale bombings,
assassinations,
mutilations,
kidnappings,
armed robberies,
extortion,
racketeering, smuggling,
and has
killed nearly 2000 people.
The peace process successfully
stopped the IRA's terrorist war against the British and the unionists.
Organised crime:
The peace process did not stop the IRA's involvement in
organised crime.
In recent years the IRA has been involved in
armed robberies, hostage taking,
protection rackets,
counterfeiting, smuggling, prostitution and
drug dealing.
As part of these crime activities,
it has carried out
beatings and
killings
of rivals and other victims.
It has handed down punishments -
exile, maiming or execution
- without any right to a trial or defence.
SF-IRA, Ireland's most extremist party:
SF-IRA 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 generally successful economy
and cause unemployment, poverty and emigration.
The terrorist party:
Mary Lou McDonald, Nov 13, 2016,
posts a picture of herself at a PIRA event.
She says:
"Delighted to speak at Derry Volunteers Dance. Very moving occasion for all the families. Honoured to be honoured."
See photo
of her at the event, honouring PIRA man
Ciaran Fleming,
who was killed while engaging in terror activities in 1984.
Photo from here.
"Why should I expect any different from a Tánaiste and a Government over this partial-parliament in this little semi-statelet over which he is presiding?"
The mask slips,
Mar 2008,
and
Sinn Fein TD
Arthur Morgan
shows us what he thinks of the rich, successful Irish republic that he would
like to destroy.
Since Mary Robinson was elected to the largely-ceremonial position of
President of Ireland
in 1990,
the position of President
has become increasingly politicised.
Presidents now feel the need to deliver little homilies - like the bishops
or Prince Charles.
Invariably (as with the bishops and Prince Charles),
these homilies tend to be centre-left conventional wisdom.
But she achieved little at the
United Nations because she was not willing to fundamentally stand for reform, and stand with the democracies
against the non-democracies.
Mary Robinson after 9/11
was quick to attack America with wild claims.
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".
Mary Robinson, Nov 2005, displays her moral equivalence between democracies and dictators:
"The Iraq war has weakened the moral authority of the United States and its allies to tackle the likes of China and Russia over their poor records on civil liberties, .. Mary Robinson said
...
"It's much harder now for President Bush in China to talk to China about human rights ... "Where's his credibility?""
Um, maybe because he runs a democracy with human rights, and China doesn't?
On the liberation of Iraq from Saddam, she said:
"the poor, beleaguered people of Iraq are not better off.""It was not a legitimate war".
The racist UN conference in 2001
Mary Robinson presided over the international festival
of Israel-hatred, the
World Conference against Racism
in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001.
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.
"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."
(see Question 33.13)
shows
29 percent of Irish people in favour of Turkey joining the EU,
and 46 percent against.
