Léargas

A Little Englander is someone who thinks that England and the English are superior to all other countries and people. Many people think their country is better than other countries. And some are. At sport. Music. Human rights. Opera. Tiddleywinks. Underwater wrestling. But thinking that you are genetically superior and that others are lesser inferior creatures is what underpins imperialism. It is the road to fascism. It thrives on ignorance. It is also grist to the mill of power seeking demagogues and racists. And political opportunists and tricksters looking to distract attention from their own political shortcomings. Like Boris Johnson who is making a mess of his government’s response to the dreadful Corona pandemic. Cue the decision by the Johnson government to unilaterally break the Withdrawal Agreement and Irish Protocol that was agreed between the British and the EU last year. The introduction of the Internal Market Bill will allow British Ministers to arbitrarily change key

Partition is almost 100 years old. But for democrats across this island, and in the Irish diaspora, for all of that time it has always been the great wrong that has to be righted. But it is not only a historic wrong. It is also a great injustice now, today. It remains the greatest cause of instability and division on our island.  Where stands the leader of Fianna Fáil ‘The Republican Party’ on ending partition and achieving Irish Unity? In the past Fianna Fail leaderships have proven particularly adept at exploiting the widespread desire for Irish Unity and the republican rhetoric of a ‘united Ireland’ in order to win votes. And of course many Fianna Fáil voters and members are republican. However, at no time has their party leadership made a serious effort to develop a strategy, in keeping with their constitutional obligation to end partition and  “unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland ...”   Why? Because both the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leadershi

A century ago a new line appeared on the map of Ireland. It carved its way for 300 miles across the landscape from Derry in the North West to Dundalk in the East. Partition separated farmers from their land, businesses from their customers, and children from their schools. Streams and rivers, bóithre, country roads, fields became the boundary for this new border. The front door of a home was suddenly in a different state. Towns were cut off from their natural economic and social hinterlands. Communities were divided and separated. Partition was imposed at gunpoint by the British Government. The northern state was born in a maelstrom of sectarian violence as thousands of Catholic workers in Belfast were forcibly and violently expelled from their jobs. A brutal pogrom against Catholics saw hundreds killed, and thousands evicted from their homes. Loyalist paramilitaries became the new police force – the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Ulster Special Constabulary with a new law – the Speci