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Irish Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Disunited Irishmen - Frank McNally on the year Shankill Road protestants paid tribute in Bodenstown and were attacked by the IRA
Two years after his failed libel action , Peadar O'Donnell enjoyed arguably the finest hour of his political life when inspiring a contingent of Belfast Protestants to attend the 1934 commemoration of Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown. A busload from the Shankill Road among them, they were there under the umbrella of O'Donnell's short-lived Republican Congress, formed when he and others of socialist leaning were expelled from the IRA. On the way to Kildare, according to the next day's Irish Press, 'three dozen Protestant workers' stopped off at Arbour Hill, Dublin, to lay a wreathe in honour of James Connolly. Presented by a 'Mr G McVicar', it read: 'To the memory of Connolly and his heroic comrades of Easter Week, 1916. On to the Workers' Republic.' READ MORE En route to the Workers' Republic, they then drove to Bodenstown, where the Belfast banners included one, in echo of the 1790s, proclaiming 'United Irishmen 1934'. Alas for unity, the first item on the agenda in Bodenstown was a split, or at least an expression of the split that had already forced O'Donnell and his associates out of the IRA. The Irish Press played down the subsequent drama in a three-part headline that dwelt mainly on the event's overall success. '17,000 in Pilgrimage to Grave of Tone', read the top line. 'Biggest Tribute Yet Paid,' read the second. Then came 'Many Protestants in Six-County Group', followed by a colon, and after the colon, ominously: 'A Scene.' The 'scene' arose from the insistence of the main IRA organisers that there should be no 'unauthorised banners'. That turned out to refer to the Belfast ones, including – in a bitter irony – the 'United Irishmen', as well as those of the Congress generally. First there were angry words. Then, reported the Press, 'fifty or sixty members of the Tipperary Battalion of the IRA were called upon to aid the stewards and blows were exchanged with members of the Congress Groups. 'In the course of the struggle, which lasted for several minutes, the identity scroll of the Congress and the two flags of the Belfast clubs were torn.' Recalling the event decades later, veteran communist Michael O'Riordan, who had been there, noted that job of attacking the Northerners 'was given to the Tipperary people because they were the most conservative. The Dublin IRA did not join in at all'. O'Donnell reached a similar conclusion on the day itself. As paraphrased by the Press, he said: 'The IRA leadership was afraid of the Congress, and they had used as their tools that day poor, deluded workers from the Midlands. They would not ask the Dublin workers to attack the Congress flags because [the Dubliners] were finding out their leadership.' O'Donnell went on to suggest that along with the Belfast flags, a 'mask had been torn from hypocrisy' at Bodenstown. He blamed himself and fellow Congress leader George Gilmore that it had not happened earlier: that for years, by their presence in the IRA, they had 'kept this treachery from exposing itself'. But he was optimistic now. The attack would bring 'thousands more to [the Congress] banner,' he predicted. Furthermore: 'The presence of their Belfast comrades that day was a momentous happening, and the laying of the foundation of unity in the future.' Such optimism proved to be unfounded. At its first conference, held at Rathmines in September 1934, the Congress itself split over tactics, with O'Donnell and Gilmore on one side and Roddy Connolly, son of James, on the other. Thereafter it went into steep decline, apart from a last stand fighting for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War, where both Gilmore and O'Donnell took part. Some Belfast Protestants fought in that too. But there were no more massed outings from the Shankill to Bodenstown. Gilmore's life was a remarkable journey in its own right. Born in Howth, Co Dublin, in 1898, he was descended from Portadown unionists. But despite a home education, he and his brothers all became republicans. George joined Fianna Éireann as a teenager, fought in the War of Independence, took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War and, after escaping from prison, worked as secretary for a future Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Seán Lemass. He and Lemass helped organise a mass jailbreak from Mountjoy in 1925 and Gilmore remained close with some of the leadership of Fianna Fáil even while supporting O'Donnell's hard-left Saor Éire (1931) and then helping lead the Republican Congress. O'Donnell was known to complain that Éamon de Valera 'took the best republicans with him into Fianna Fáil and left us with the clinkers'. But after the Congress's dissolution, he and Gilmore combined in organising tenant leagues, which influenced Fianna Fáil's slum clearance and State housing programme of the 1930s. Gilmore later stood as a socialist republican in a South Dublin byelection in 1938 and lost by only 200 votes. Thereafter, he was less prominent in Irish politics. Both men survived to visit Bodenstown again on the 50th anniversary of the 1934 commemoration. O'Donnell was 91 by then and lived another two years. Gilmore was 86 and died 11 months later, 40 years ago this June.
The Irish Sun
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Irish Sun
Major boost for all Irish parents as new free public transport scheme revealed
IRISH parents are set for a big boost as a new scheme that will allow children under 9 to travel free on public transport has been revealed. 2 Public transport for children under nine is set to be free Credit: Alamy 2 It was announced by Minister of State Sean Canney today Credit: James Connolly Part of Budget 2025, the initiative was announced during a Dáil Éireann session today and is now being developed by the National Transport Authority. And it is set to be rolled out in the third quarter of the year. It means that The aim is to ease pressure on household budgets, make transport more accessible and build long-term habits among young children for choosing buses, trains over cars. READ MORE IN TRAVEL Minister of State Seán Canney confirmed in the Dáil that the work is underway and said that he will follow up once a specific date is finalised. He added that the policy is part of a broader government strategy to make public transport more affordable and reduce He said: "The National Transport Authority has statutory responsibility for the regulation of fares charged to passengers in respect of public transport services provided under public service obligation, PSO, contracts. "Under the programme for Government, our commitments include the roll-out of contactless payments, keeping fares affordable and examining the further expansion of free public transport for children. Most read in News Travel "Specifically, budget 2025 included a measure to extend free child fares on PSO services to children aged five to eight years old. "The NTA is working to develop and implement this change, with the new scheme expected to launch in quarter 3 of this year. "This targeted initiative is designed to help with the cost of living for families and to encourage children to start using public transport from an early age." 'It's very important' - Ryanair's 'baggage sizers' warning to Irish passengers ahead of busy Easter break amid €75 fine He also flagged an issue raised by the While ID checks are currently rare on public transport for children, he said that introducing a requirement could add complications to the scheme. He said: "As we have discussed, in budget 2025 which was announced last October my colleague the then Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, secured funding to roll out free public transport across our public transport network for children aged under nine. "This initiative had a number of purposes. It was aimed at reducing congestion by providing commuters with a cheaper alternative. It was also built around creating the habit of using public transport among young children. "Very importantly, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis it was designed to save commuters money." The cost of implementing the measure is estimated at around €8million. The initiative builds on earlier public transport fare reduction schemes such the 20 per cent cut in 2023, the young adult Leap card and most recently the introduction of the new The Short Hop Zone has now been replaced by the new Dublin Commuter Zone which has expanded to 50 kilometres from the city. This updated zone is split into Dublin City Zone 1, and Zones 2, 3 and 4 - which are determined by their Journeys to and from Dublin Commuter Zones 3 and 4 have seen reduced fares - from places like Drogheda, Laytown, Enfield, Newbridge, Kildare,
Sunday World
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
New video game will be an ‘anti-capitalist Grand Theft Auto' ride through the Docklands
According to game-makers, players will be able to 'smash through Dublin and its all-American politics, two-tiered employment and skyrocketing homelessness' A screengrab from the new game A new video game set in Dublin's Docklands promises gamers an 'anti-capitalist Grand Theft Auto' experience. Grand Canal Demolition Derby (GCDD) is a PS1-style game with the action taking place between Dublin's Grand Canal Dock and Saol Eile 'a spectral otherworld'. According to game-makers NAMACO, players will be able to 'smash through Dublin and its all-American politics, two-tiered employment and skyrocketing homelessness'. They will learn about the Free State's over-reliance on America, 'from centuries of colonial limitations imposed by Britain, to the substitution of indigenous industry with US investment from the 1950s onwards'. It also features the 'buyout of Irish housing by investment funds from 2008'. The game's various missions include 'thrashing the Teslas, smashing the servers and maiming the mainframes of American tech companies'. These all server as metaphors 'for the shift from US tech dominance to a socialised economy, where industries and housing are publicly owned and the beneficiaries are ordinary people, not billionaires'. The game was created by NAMACO, which is headed by Donal Fullam, Assistant Professor in Creative and Cultural Industries at UCD's School of Art History, and artist Hannah Hogan, in collaboration with 3D artist Peter Jessiman. It will be launched next week at the 2025 Connolly Festival starting on Monday, May 6. Connolly Festival coordinator, Aaron Nolan, said the new game will allow players to 'rampage through the so-called Glittering Silicon Docks and take on our Tech Overlords Google, X, Meta, Amazon and Apple'. 'The aim is to fight those who thrive on profit hyper-exploitation and seek the total obliteration of our communities,' Nolan said. A screengrab from the new game Today's News in 90 seconds - Thursday, May 1 'Players explore the historical roots of Ireland's lack of state and indigenous industry, and confront the modern fallout of over-reliance on US capital.' He added: 'It also features a guest appearance from Joe Duffy's Liveline, as callers discuss the Ireland's artificially inflated GDP which obscures deep social inequalities, it's political landscape which is shaped to appease American interests and the precarity of having an economy that is acutely vulnerable to downturns in global markets.' Last year, Fullam and Hogan created Mega Dreoilín, an art project in the form of a 16-bit video game. It was shown as part of an exhibition in Pallas Projects/Studios in The Liberties, Dublin in May 2024. In the game, the player navigates the Irish housing crisis, encountering characters including James Connolly, Manchán Magan, Ian Lynch and Rory Hearne, and locations such as The Cobblestone and Guineys. The Connolly Festival is a celebration of trade union leader James Connolly, who was executed on May 12, 1916 for his part in leading the Easter Rising.
The National
28-04-2025
- Politics
- The National
Celtic pub targeted by far-right demonstrators in 'disgraceful' attack
Far-right agitators targeted a gathering of Celtic supporters at a Dublin pub on Saturday where fans were celebrating the Hoops' win against Dundee United that secured the Premiership title. An anti-immigration demonstration had been scheduled to conclude near to the James Connelly pub in Custom House Quay and, according to the 1803 Celtic Supporters Club, around 35 to 50 people from the event then entered the building. Those in attendance at the social gathering asked the supporters of the demonstration to leave, but the club said demonstrators launched a 'physical attack on supporters' and fired 'horrendous racial abuse' at non-Irish members of staff and management. READ MORE: Scottish Tories demand Kneecap be cut from Glasgow TRNSMT festival The agitators were eventually removed from the property by Celtic supporters while management and staff secured the entrance, closing the venue to the public until it was safe to re-open. The Spirit of 1803 Celtic Supporters Club has said in a statement it condemns the display of 'bigotry and hatred'. The statement read: 'Celtic FC is a renowned football club, established in 1887 based on the principles of support for impoverished immigrants and refuge seekers. Celtic FC is also a community of international solidarity, there is an estimated international support base of over nine million supporters (2003) across over 160 Celtic Supporters Clubs established in over 20 countries worldwide. 'There is no place for racism, fascism, anti-immigrant support or even sentiment, regardless of the socio-economic or political climate in the ethos of the spirit of being a true Celtic FC supporter. READ MORE: Celtic invincible 'could' become free agent this summer 'We abhor the attack in Dublin on our club's supporters as much as we abhor the message that the Dublin demonstration heralded, and we appeal to those suffering under trying economic circumstances not to be duped by opportunistic political agitators with a far-right narrative. 'They do not have the solution to your problems, or the will to strategise one if all they have to offer is placing blame upon the world's weakest people, refuge seekers.' The demonstration had been earlier chanting 'Get Them Out' in reference to forced mass deportation and anti-Palestinian solidarity slogans with Israeli flags openly on display. James Connolly, the Irish socialist, republican and leader of the 1916 Easter Rising was himself an economic immigrant from Scotland.
Irish Post
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Post
Language wars erupt on platform one in Belfast
PEOPLE from outside Northern Ireland tend to marvel at the pettiness of the disputes that divide society here. Indeed many here and in the Republic are as bewildered. The current cause of division between partners in government, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, concerns the signage in the big bright new bus and train station in Belfast. In Dublin, the main railway station is named after James Connolly one of the revolutionaries of the Easter Rising of 1916. No one insisted on the new station in Belfast honouring any past martyrs though, no doubt, many republicans would love it to be named after Bobby Sands or Martin McGuinness. It took the anodyne title Grand Central Station, which echoes the name of a big new hotel, and recalls the name of a much more famous Grand Central, long demolished, where the Beatles stayed when they came to Belfast. No doubt a committee sat down and discussed how they might name this new station without annoying anyone. They didn't even succeed in that, for the moaners complain that it isn't central at all. In fact, accessing it through temporary hoardings and bleak alleyways probably creates the expectation in visitors new to it that they are making their way to an embarrassing slum. There is a lot that is wrong with the new station. The stepped entrance on Grosvenor Road has no parking space in front of it. Because of work around it drivers that dared to stop there and drop someone off have to continue on up the road, away from town or do a dodgy U turn in traffic. I could go on. Translink, the transport company insisted on the need to demolish a little bridge over the railway line. This bridge had two things going for it in the eyes of its defenders. One was that it was named after the Boyne, the river that William of Orange crossed in 1690 to defeat the Catholic King James. The other, of lesser significance to some, is that an awful lot of traffic used the bridge, and closing forced it to detour through the city centre at rush hour producing enormous congestion. So, politicians needed little imagination to come up with criticisms of the new station that would signal to the electorate that they shared their concerns. So what did they come up with? Language. The language on the signage, the big bright blue, backlit rectangle in the main hallway that tells you where to get your bus or train. It's in English. Now everyone in Belfast speaks English. It is the language migrants have to learn if they are to get about, do their shopping, find work. But language is about more than communication; it's a marker of identity. And Belfast being in Ireland, many argue that the bus station's signage should be in Irish, to acknowledge the Irish identity of the native people who were, they say, stripped of their native tongue and forced down the centuries to learn English. There is a significant revival of Irish taking place in Northern Ireland now. The recently appointed Sinn Féin minister for infrastructure, Liz Kimmins, decided that the bright new signage in the bright new station should be replaced with bi-lingual English/Irish signage. The DUP has taken offence at this, resting its case largely on the needless expense involved. The combined cost of the old signage and the replacement signage will come to about a quarter of a million pounds. Which in even a regional executive's budget isn't a lot. Irish nationalists say, come off it, this is blatant prejudice against our ancient mother tongue. And even some unionists on social media have agreed with that. There is clear movement towards extending the reach of Irish usage and tuition beyond the nationalist communities. Irish language campaigners however make two points that seem to me to contradict each other. One the one hand they say, this is our heritage, long reviled, and we have a right to recover it. This argument clearly identifies the Irish language with the Irish nationalist tradition. And it is only the nationalist parties that are promoting it. Irish is a statutory language in Northern Ireland now. There is to be a commissioner to promote it. Official documents will be translated into it. Streets in Belfast can vote to have dual language signage. This is also contentious since, it being a minority language, the city council has decided that only a minority of residents - 15% - need request a bilingual sign, and this has annoyed majorities in some streets. Irish language activists say there is nothing to fear from the Irish language, and this doesn't need to be a culture war because the language belongs to everyone. Well, it doesn't actually belong to anyone who doesn't want it. Irish is official in the Republic but it is contentious there too because learning it in school is compulsory and there have been complaints that too many people are being allowed to opt out of it. In a united Ireland, if it comes, unionists will be faced with the prospect of their children being obliged to learn Irish at school or the rest of Ireland will have to drop that compulsion as a concession to them. The resolve to fight for the language in the streets and in the bus station augurs more contention to come. Malachi O'Doherty's latest book How To Fix Northern Ireland is published by Atlantic Books See More: Belfast, DUP, Irish Language, Sinn Féin
