As Brussels lays out its priorities for next week's UK summit, London's goals remain unclear
Trade
As Brussels lays out its priorities for next week's UK summit, London's goals remain unclear
Dominic McGrath
15:36
Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president: the UK has been tight-lipped about its priorities ahead of the summit
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: The Government cannot continue to pay lip service to atrocities in Gaza
There are many other conflicts in the world, such as the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan. Yet, we find commonalities in our shared history with the Palestinians. This can be linked to what Fintan Drury, in his new book, Catastrophe Nakba II, terms us being 'indelibly marked by the experience of being colonised by Britain'. The folk memory of the famine that transformed Ireland lives on, when entire communities were wiped out, which perhaps heightens our reaction to the current famine in Gaza, including the nightly images of emaciated children and starving babies. As TCD academic Brendan Ciarán Browne has written, blockaded humanitarian aid trucks waiting to get into Gaza should remind us of British colonial ships laden with crops and livestock departing our shores while our ancestors at home starved. So, we, the Irish people, empathise with the Palestinians. Still, as international agencies operating in Gaza have run out of superlatives to describe the hell there, hard questions are being asked of many European governments, including our own. The Germans are struggling with reconciling the genocidal ideology that paved the way for the mass genocide of European Jews, and their response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Many German Jewish writers have objected to the conflation of antisemitism and criticism of Israel (as have scores of intellectual Jewish thinkers), and they have suffered as a result, including being defunded and not awarded literary prizes. Small potatoes, you say, but not if it's your livelihood. In that situation, the moral luxury of commenting becomes costly. Spare a thought for the many Jewish people, who abhor the genocide in Palestine. To ever escape a cycle of violence necessitates acknowledging suffering on 'the other side'. What must that be like, go to bed, turn off the light, and be left trying to square the outsized tragedy of your past, the visceral fear the Hamas attack on October 7 provoked, with knowledge of the massacre and famine in Gaza supposedly carried out in your name? Tide may be turning in Germany The tide may finally be turning in Germany. Last week, its foreign minister Johann Wadephul warned that the fight 'against antisemitism…and full support for….the state of Israel must not be instrumentalised for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip'. He said they are thinking carefully about what 'further steps to take'. They need to hurry up. Of course, many Western countries persist in seeing only what they want to see about the current phase of the Zionist mission. A question that must be posed to the Irish Government is what concrete steps they are going to take to object to the complete annihilation of the Palestinian people? Omar Shaban is the founder of Palthink for Strategic Studies and a senior analyst and development expert with extensive experience in Palestine. Mr Shaban has led humanitarian and emergency programmes for Catholic Relief Services in Gaza for 10 years and worked with UNRWA for another 10. He was born and lives in Gaza. Mr Shaban suggests that the Irish Government request that EU states stop supplying arms to the Israeli military. The Social Democrats in Germany have just called for the German arms exports to Israel to be halted to avoid German complicity in war crimes. Germany is the second-largest weapons supplier to Israel after the US. He asks that the Irish Government work to pressure Israel to open the Rafah crossing with Egypt to allow patients, injured children and their families to be evacuated. It doesn't seem like a lot to ask. He advocates that Ireland works closely with other EU states that share the same position to declare a clear joint statement asking Israel to stop the war immediately and to allow the flow of aid through international organisations such as UNRWA and WFP. This statement should include an ultimatum that if Israel doesn't do this, then the EU will impose trade sanctions. The EU can suspend sections of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement under Article 2. According to European Commission statistics, the EU is Israel's biggest trading partner. Some 34.2% of Israel's imports came from the EU, while 28.8% of the country's exports went to the EU. Of course, practically, that leaves our government with a problem. As reported in The Irish Examiner last week, Ireland is Israel's second-largest trading partner. Israel's exports to Ireland have exploded since 2021. As Patrick Bresnihan and Patrick Brodie exposed, for all our performative statements, meaningful sanctions on the Israeli economy would jeopardise our economic position. As reported, the vast majority of what we are buying are 'electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies,' mainly used in tech and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Ambassador Adel Atieh, who lives in Ramallah, is the director of the European Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Palestine. He suggests that if the EU Council fails to take responsibility for reviewing the EU-Israel association agreement, and if the European Commission continues to neglect its legal obligations regarding agreements with Israel, Ireland should consider asking the European Court of Justice to investigate and provide a legal opinion. Furthermore, Ireland should issue a public warning to settlers holding Irish citizenship, urging them to withdraw immediately from settlements due to their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr Atieh says that this stance could encourage other EU member states to adopt similar positions, potentially leading to the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of settlers from the West Bank. This month, the UN General Assembly will vote on granting Palestine full membership status. Even if a US veto blocks Palestinian statehood at the Security Council, the General Assembly retains a critical pathway through the 'Uniting for Peace' resolution. This mechanism allows the Assembly to convene an emergency session when the Council fails to act due to a veto, and to recommend collective measures. Our Government must exert public pressure on other countries to accede to this. Silence of Irish professional bodies Back home on Irish soil, the questions for our government extend to professional medical bodies, including the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA). The management of their relationships with Israeli counterparts and their deafening silence in calling out the genocide, as I've written before, raises serious questions about them. Dr Angela Skuse, a GP working in Inclusion Health in Dublin with homeless people, says none of the Irish medical organisations have issued a statement that includes the words 'genocide' or 'Israel'. Any statements issued have been careful not to 'take sides', and as Dr Skuse said, could equally refer to a natural disaster. 'Why is the medical profession so silent? Doctors are one of the most trusted professions. If we won't speak out and say that it's wrong, that it's a genocide and Israel is committing it — who will?' She adds that hundreds of healthcare workers have been murdered. Trinity College has just ended academic co-operation with Israeli institutions. The medical organisations should follow its lead and expel Israel from the World Health Organization and the World Medical Association. Ultimately, it will never be enough for the Irish Government (or professional bodies) to mouth support for international law from the sidelines. If we do nothing concrete, we engage in a problematic form of empathy or virtue signalling. Just as many Jewish people have the hardest of choices about whether to speak up, we and other Europeans are presented with choices too. The question is, what choices will our Government make in our name?
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Hopes of significant UK funding allocation for Casement Park
The UK's Chanceller of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is to set out her spending review in the House of Commons later today. Many are hoping that a significant allocation towards the construction of Casement Park in west Belfast will be included. The stadium, the home of Antrim GAA, has been derelict for over a decade. It is estimated that the project will cost £260 million (€296.9 million), less than half of which is already in place. The Irish Government has pledged around £43 million (€51 million), the Stormont Executive £62.5 million (€74.2 million) and the GAA £15 million (€17.8 million). A shortfall of £140 million remains. It was hoped that the stadium could have been redeveloped for Euro 2028 but this did not come to pass. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said afterwards that he wanted an "alternative proposition". Many, including in the GAA, are quietly hopeful that a significant sum will be provided later today. However, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is facing huge spending demands from across Whitehall. Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, has been among cabinet members pushing for increased funding for his department, including money for Casement Park. However, Mr Benn has previously stated too that the UK government cannot plug the full £140 million gap. The Stormont Executive committed to redeveloping Casement Park in 2011 as part of a strategy to revamp football's Windsor Park and the rugby ground at Ravenhill. While the two other Belfast-based projects went ahead, the redevelopment of Casement was delayed. Intense lobbying efforts have been underway in recent times, with Ulster GAA visiting Westminster last week, to press politicians on the need to include a significant allocation in today's spending review. Last week Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill also called on the British government to provide substantial funding to help rebuild Casement Park. Taoiseach Micheál Martin stated last September that he would not rule out further money being provided by the Irish Government. The 34,500 capacity stadium has planning permission until July 2026 so it is hoped construction can start before then. This afternoon's Spending Review will be a pivotal moment for the UK government, as it maps out its day-to-day spending and investment plans for much of the remainder of the parliament. Defence, health and infrastructure are likely to be prioritised, in what is otherwise a constrained spending package.
Sunday World
9 hours ago
- Sunday World
Terror chief ‘Harmless' Harry Stockman on brink of being kicked out of the UVF
Stockman's desperate attempt to save pal Irvine from the chop have backfired and he could be gone within a week The paramilitary leader is said to be staring down the barrel as restless members turn their sights on him after years of corruption and he is set to follow close associate Winston `Winkie' Irvine out the door. Stockman's desperate attempt to save pal Irvine from the chop have backfired and he could be gone within a week. A vote of no-confidence has been called and Stockman will find himself on the outside after years of lining his pockets on the back of the UVF name. His friend Irvine's fate was sealed at a secret Battalion meeting this week and brings to an end a long criminal career and a charmed existence. Irvine, long time commander of UVF B Company in the Woodvale, is a wealthy man, thanks in part to a string of publicly-funded jobs – but more directly as a result of his criminal activities including racketeering and drugs. According to sources, he was also responsible for ordering beatings and forcing people from their homes, all of which made him a hate figure. The British and Irish governments turned a blind eye to his activities in the hope he was the man who could deliver the UVF away from criminality. Now, members of the terror group believe he was the under the control of British security services. This week, the Sunday World can reveal the chain of events that led to Irvine's expulsion and the shake up at the top of the organisation in decades. Irvine is said to be stunned at his expulsion, believing the leadership of Stockman and chief of staff John `Bunter' Graham had his back. But Graham saw the writing on the wall during a meeting of 1st Battalion UVF, attended by Brigade staff, company commanders, and senior members. They demanded Winkie's head and Bunter granted them their wish. With Irvine gone and Stockman likely to follow him out the door it raises fresh questions about the future of Graham himself. After more than four decades as chief of staff he now appears isolated. His ailing health could see him stepping down. Stockman would have been seen as his natural successor but with his fate all but sealed, the smart money is on Shankill commander Sam Austin, according to source. Allegedly the leader of the unit, he is a popular figure and is believed to have been one of the loudest calling for Irvine and Stockman to be expelled. The son of legendary UVF commander, the late Sam 'Pinky' Austin, he is seen as a safe pair of hands and is anti-drugs. He is vehemently anti-drugs having lost his son Dan to an accidental overdose in 2018. Graham had come under pressure in recent weeks to replace Stockman as second in command with Austin but may now step aside completely. Irvine now hasn't a friend in he world. His demise has been a long time coming but was inevitable the moment his MI5 handlers dropped him in 2022, sources believe. That came in the wake of a hoax bomb attack carried out by his UVF B Company and was aimed at then Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney who was attending a cross community peace building event in north Belfast hosted by the John Hume Foundation. Not only did his security service masters not know about it neither did Graham who insisted it had not been sanctioned. Irvine initially tried to dodge the blame claiming it had nothing to do with him and in a meeting with Irish government representative tried to pass the buck to East Belfast UVF and Mid-Ulster UVF. East Belfast at the time was at loggerheads with the Shankill leadership. Stockman went behind Graham's back telling senior figures that he had lost control of rogue elements within the organisation. Betraying Graham was a fatal mistake but even as the net was closing in Stockman tried fiercely for his friend even as details of Irvine's connections with intelligence services and the PSNI emerged during his court appearance and conviction for gun running. Anger remains over the sentence handed down to his co-accused Robin Workman who was ordered to transport a cache of weapons to Irvine. The guns were found in the boot of Irvine's car after the pair were intercepted in June 2022. Workman got five years while Irvine got 30 months and will likely to be out within a year. There is also suspicion around the delay in sentencing the pair and that Irvine's light sentence was influenced by the intelligence services. Last week we revealed that Graham had ordered Irvine was to be left alone to serve his sentence. But without the cover of UVF membership he is vulnerable, particularly as he is sharing a wing with the five people convicted of the murder of Ian Ogle, none of whom have any allegiance to the UVF. Others include Gary Taylor and Nigel Brown serving life for the 2005 murder of schoolboy Thomas Devlin in 2005 both of whom have been stood down and have come under threat from the UVF behind bars. Another is Stephen Brown doing 30 years for the double murders of teenagers Andrew Robb and David McIlwaine in Tandragee in 2000. Attention will now turn to Stockman, a divisive figure. A former shop steward in Shorts he rose to the top of the UVF following the Good Friday Agreement. He was lucky to survive when UVF man Dee Madine stabbed him 10 times in 2011. UVF sources have told the Sunday World a battalion meeting will take place shortly when Stockman's fate will be sealed. Harry Stockman News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday June 10
