@@@@@@ Public Service Pay Agreement: "The Unions are not hanging around!" "THE UNIONS are not hanging around. Just days after announcing what could be a highly disruptive work-to-rule in the health sector, scheduled to start on 30th September 2026, they set dates for strikes" (Irish Independent, 12.9.2026). Public servants are set to hold two 24-hour … Continue reading Organised Labour
Labour Comment
The Politics of Virtue (August 2010) It remains to be seen if the era of Fianna Fáil dominance has come to an end or if the mould of Irish politics has been broken. Labour Comment cannot claim to know the future. It can only go on the evidence presented to it. On the evidence of … Continue reading Labour Comment
Ireland And The World—Editorial
The history of Ireland has been about emerging from the shadow of England. That has been the objective right up until the present time. Irish nationalism was never isolationist. Roger Casement believed that the dominance of Britain prevented Ireland from connecting with Continental Europe. The seminal event in our recent history was the 1916 Rising, … Continue reading Ireland And The World—Editorial
Red Eddy—Gusty’s Brother
Reading Brendan Clifford’s article about the BICO in the August issue of the Irish Political Review jogged a few memories. I was a comrade of Eddy Spence in the Sixties: He was a member of the Communist Party of Northern Ireland (CPNI) and I was in its youth wing the Communist Youth League (CYL). As Brendan Clifford points out, Eddy … Continue reading Red Eddy—Gusty’s Brother
Casement: The Scientific Proof of Forgery?
Is it possible to identify a writer from the words of a text? Or more to the point, in the case of forgery, is it possible to prove that a person could not have written a text? The premiss of forensic linguistics is that an individual expresses himself in a unique way. Similar, to the … Continue reading Casement: The Scientific Proof of Forgery?
Béal na Bláthair
David McCullough, the radio journalist, was the chief speaker at the Béal na Bláth celebration of Michael Collins' War against opponents of the 1921 'Treaty' this year. However, according to the Irish Times report (24 August), he did not actually mention that War. But that was the one big thing for which Collins had definite … Continue reading Béal na Bláthair
Gove Reforms: What Now In England? And Northern Ireland?
As Northern Ireland, through the DUP Education Minister Paul Givan, faces the prospect of a programme of radical education reform (widely parodied by opponents as a “Cut and Paste” job akin to the 2010-14 “Gove Reforms” in England), England appears set to 'row back' from Gove. A case of 'one step forward, two steps back' ! Below, in the first of … Continue reading Gove Reforms: What Now In England? And Northern Ireland?
Currency Making After World War 2
An Italian Prime Minister at the Versailles Conference at the end of the Great War of 1914-18 was shocked to find that the British believed their own war propaganda and were therefore incapable of making a peace settlement based on fact. The Versailles Settlement was a punitive arrangement, based on a morality generated by wishful … Continue reading Currency Making After World War 2
Letter To The President: Choose Your Casement!
Introduction In his 2016 lecture on Casement, former Attorney General Michael McDowell cordially invited listeners “to imagine and even to judge his real character as we choose …”: in short, he invited us to ignore verified facts about the historical person and to thereby deceive ourselves by freely choosing whatever imaginary Casement took our fancy. Essentially the choice was … Continue reading Letter To The President: Choose Your Casement!
Roger Casement: . . . Witnesses – No Thanks!
In a debate in the Irish Political Review earlier this year about the typescripts—but no diary—sent by the Police to the DPP, Jeff Dudgeon stated that this “does not preclude the typed versions existing before the diary manuscripts” (Irish Political Review, April 2026). Together with other letters in the Irish Political Review, serious doubts were thereby cast upon the existence … Continue reading Roger Casement: . . . Witnesses – No Thanks!
