Joe Murray - One of life's gentlest and kindest gentlemen is no longer with us. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam

Today I attended the funeral mass for Joe Murray, a true friend and comrade from my student days at UCG.

Joe was our local postman when I lived then with student friends in a rather famous/infamous(!) rented house in Hazel Park. Many's the night Joe would pop in for tea and a political chat when he was out campaigning/leaflet dropping for the Labour Party or earlier in the day after he had completed his postal rounds. It was usually a few hours later that he would cycle off to his homeplace in Shantalla happy in the knowledge that a few of us around a table in a rented house in Galway had analysed and come up with solutions to all of the problems of the world!

We struck up a friendship then that has remained strong over the decades in spite of years apart. He was a man with a heart of gold, an analytical brain, a soft sense of humour and a gentle smile. Friday before last was my final visit to Joe in hospital when we were making arrangements for his bike to be brought to Richard Walsh's Woodquay for repair before I was to cycle it to the Eglinton Direct Provision Centre where it was to be handed over to an African friend of mine that needed it. This was Joe's request to me. He wanted his bike, that was his mainstay for so long, to be given to a person that could really benefit from it. During our bedside chat, after we finished watching the Lions-South Africa test match (he loved rugby with a passion) on his iPad, Joe proudly showed me the letter that he had recently received from our mutual friend President Michael D. Higgins.

It meant so much to him. For Joe was one of the reasons why Michael D got elected multiple times as a Galway councillor, as a TD and finally as President of Ireland. As a life long Labour Party member, he was one of those dedicated, reliable, hardworking, solid foot soldiers that was out there every night and day, hail rain or snow, ensuring that Michael's philosophy of liberty, fraternity and egalitarianism were known.

Our President, being the loyal caring person that he is, was in the church today along with his darling wife Sabina. Neither of them have ever lost contact with their old friends from the early days of struggle and campaigning when we were all (from an array of left wing parties and from no parties) fighting for a better just and more humane world.

Along with chatting to Catherine Connolly TD, councillor Níall Mc Nelis, Andrew Ó Baoill and Nuala Nolan, it was especially lovely today to see so many of the activists from the time when Michael D. was first elected to Dáil Éireann attending his funeral to give their respects- Niall Kelly, Liam Boyle, Pat Hardiman, Peter Kenny, Liz Hackett, John Cunningham.... Joe's friends have been his friends for so long- it was a tribute to his warm endearing character.

Joe was an old style socialist and trade unionist who wanted to ensure that the working class overcame centuries of exploitation to secure political power. It was therefore appropriate and a tribute to Joe’s life-long and deeply held political beliefs that musician Greg Cotter gave a wonderfully powerful moving rendition in the church that he loved of the classic American socialist song ‘Joe Hill’ "...In every mine and mill, Where working men defend their rights, It's there you'll find Joe Hill...". It brought tears to my eyes as it reminded me of many battles fought but not always won.

My last campaigning meet ups with Joe were in December/January when he was gung-ho about ensuring our fellow UCG progressive Mike Jennings got elected to the NUI Galway Governing Body.

Joe knew for many months that he was dying from cancer. We had our last coffee together in June in a café near the hospital where he had just come from one of his regular clinical visits. After the banter and the sharing of stories, I told him that he would of course feature in my book coming out next year on “UCG Student Days & Nights”. The book will be richer for his presence.

The photo is one I took of Joe in 1984 at his summer graduation in University College Galway (UCG). No wonder he has such a broad smile, for Joe and his fellow students made history that day being the first class to graduate from the part-time evening BA programme. This degree was a trailblazer for the university, as it represented an early attempt to reach out to ordinary working people from office, factory and shop in providing third level qualifications.

Rest in Peace Joe

 

-       Brendan Speedie Smith

Jeremy Corbyn - the most vilified man in Britain

I extend my best wishes to Jeremy Corbyn in today's British elections.

In my lifetime I have never witnessed a British politician so vilified as Jeremy.
The British media(Sun, Times, Express, Mail, Telegraph...), largely owned by tax avoidance billionaires, fear him because of his commitment to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes to fund public services with the result that their news outlets consistently demonise him; large numbers of Labour MPs despise him because he exposed them (‘New Labour’) and their ex-leader Tony Blair for enthusiastically taking part in an illegal war under false pretences that led to the destruction of the Middle East and the death and displacement of millions of people; the right wing Israeli-funded UK politicians of all parties condemn the most anti-racist British veteran of the modern era with a trumped-charge of being anti-semite primarily because of his decades long support for Palestinians and a Palestine free of occupation and colonisation; the Unionists hate him because of his long term support of a United Ireland.
Jeremy has been a lifetime environmentalist, a campaigner against war and nuclear weaponry, for a more democratic EU, and an advocate for human rights and freedom of all oppressed peoples.
I have admired him since my youth when I remember him as a leading campaigner in the Anti-Apartheid and Nuclear Disarmament movements.
If truth, justice and honesty meant anything Jeremy would win today's British general election and be Prime Minister.
In a world beset by Climate Chaos, wars, a new arms race, increasing loss of citizens’ rights, unsustainable consumerism, intolerance, racism, growing inequality, biodiversity loss, and politicians serving greedy vested interests, we need visionary honourable progressive leaders like Jeremy Corbyn more than ever before.

The Irish & European Elections in Ireland: a Step Forward for Democracy?

-->

End to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum Politics?
The results of the local and European elections of last Friday were a watershed in Irish politics. Public anger in the last general election (in 2012) brought to an end Fianna Fáil’s tenure as the largest party in the Irish republic.  Popular disgust at the lies and betrayal of the electorate by the Labour Party has ended its century-old status as the main left-wing force in Irish politics and ushered in Sinn Féin as the new radical movement of the island of Ireland. The division of political power between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-dominated governments, that has been a hallmark of the state since the early 1930s, has come to an end. 

 

There are of course many good honest hardworking idealistic people in all of the established parties- Ciaran Cannon and councillor Frank Fahy in Fine Gael;  Eamon O'Cuiv, John McGuinness and Noel Tracey in Fianna Fáil; Sean Sherlock and Billy Cameron in Labour. But they are too few; power and greed has corrupted too many of their colleagues.  
When Michael D. Higgins left Labour after winning the Irish Presidency the party lost its conscience. Both Fianna Fáil and Labour have betrayed the egalitarian principles of their visionary patriotic founders.

The Cosy Cartel 

This weekend's results show that there is now an alternative government-in-waiting comprising progressive independents, socialists, republicans, environmentalists, community activists and beneficial business interests that has the potential to break the three-party monolith and its long time cosy relationship with property speculators, builders, top civil servants, the trade union leaders, bishops, ranchers, bankers and the EU hierarchy that has created a huge democratic deficit in this country and across Europe that has led to growing public apathy and alienation with the body politic due to the high levels of emigration, unemployment, corruption and taxes.

For the first time since we joined the EEC in 1972, people are starting to question the never-ending loss of sovereignty to a supra-national unrepresentative bureaucratic institution that has created the environment and circumstances to privatise public services and sell off national resources across Europe to multi-national corporations unaccountable to its citizens.

Newly elected TD, Ruth Coppinger

Of course the struggle for nations, local communities and ordinary people to secure control over their destinies will take many more years to achieve and will not be without heartbreak. Sinn Féin could lose their idealism and become over time corrupted by power. But the election results today was a step forward hopefully to a better future for Ireland and Europe that will be a true union of peaceful, democratic independent countries. 

It will mean at last that the great untouchables such as Denis O'Brien and others, who as the Moriarty Tribunal showed undermined the democratic institutions of our state, can be brought to justice.

Jailed for Standing up against Warmongers!

Margaretta D'Arcy is a role model for us all. 
Politicians of all parties in the last three governments facilitated the use of Shannon Airport by US military involved in an illegal invasion and war in Iraq. The country and its peoples were destroyed by this action undertaken purely to secure oilfields for the USA. 
Today Iraq is reduced to a nightmarish Mad Max landscape, controlled by warlords and their religious fundamentalist gangs, millions dead or as refugees; its female, Christian and secular inhabitants without basic human rights. 

Margaretta goes to jail for standing up for human rights, peace and neutrality, the principles supposedly of the Irish state whilst Denis O'Brien, Michael Lowry, Irish bankers, property speculators and corrupt politicians who destroyed our country for their own private gain still walk free and enjoy the riches that they stole from us. No Justice!
President Michael D Higgins participated with Margaretta on many demonstrations against the US war in Iraq and against the American military use of Shannon. 
In the past, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Minister Pat Rabbitte loudly condemned American interference in the affairs of other countries and demanded that Ireland should not be caught up supporting their aggressive imperialistic
So please Mr. President and the Irish government. Have her released now!