The Kilmichael Ambush took place on 28 November 1920, when Tom Barry, Commandant of the Third West Cork Flying Column, led his Irish Republican Army unit into battle against two lorries, each carrying ‘Auxiliaries’, veteran soldiers especially recruited to support the police and organise reprisals against the Irish national movement. The ambush was a major […]
Did Seamus Heaney write political poems?
A review of On Seamus Heaney by Roy Foster Although known for his active support of the South African anti-Apartheid movement and for his open opposition to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Irish poet and Nobel-prize winner Seamus Heaney was not famous for his politics. This has led some sceptics to dismiss the […]
DCC’s Oscar Traynor Road Development Plan
And why public land should be used for public housing On 16 November 2020, at a meeting of Dublin City Council, by a vote of 48 to 14 (1 abstention) councillors voted not to gift the 42 acres of prime council-owned land of the Oscar Traynor Road Development in Coolock to the property developer Glenveagh. […]
The best revolutionary film of all time?
A review of Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers and Queimada If you are looking for a recommendation for socialist or revolutionary cinema, then you should start with The Battle of Algiers and Queimada by Gillo Pontecorvo, both of which are contenders for the best revolutionary film of all time. He’s the most dangerous kind […]
David Graeber’s Politics, An Appreciation
“Say what you like about nurses, garbage collectors, or mechanics,” declared anthropologist David Graeber in 2013, it’s obvious that were they to vanish in a puff of smoke, the results would be immediate and catastrophic. A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska […]