17 Aug 2021

On the developments in Afghanistan

While we watch the scenes from Afghanistan in horror, let's not forget that it was the invasion in 2001 that made all of this inevitable.
This poem from Kevin Higgins, which was written just before the US went into Afghanistan, remembers the dangerous stupidity that gripped the West.
It is important to learn from history. Never again.
31 May 2021

Ireland, plus ça change – Yet again the Irish state is failing vulnerable pregnant women

By Jo Murphy-Lawless, via The Elephant Collective on Facebook. In June last year, in the midst of Covid times, Keith Adams published a piece on the Centre for Faith and Justice website entitled No Country for Poor Women (https://www.jcfj.ie/2020/06/18/poorwomen/) where he examined data from two reports on poverty and prison conditions, the Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2019 (https://www.irishprisons.ie/wp-content/uploads/documents_pdf/IPS-Annual-Report-2019-Web.pdf) and a report from the SVP entitled 'The Hidden Cost of Poverty' (https://www.svp.ie/getattachment/869467cb-2d60-4fe2-b612-a8c6e4357cdc/The-Hidden-Cost-of-Poverty.aspx). He argued that these reports challenge us as a society to think hard about the interconnections between gender and poverty and the stark consequences for women caught in poverty when things go badly wrong. Taken together, the reports lay out the following:
  • The rates of committal to prison for women are increasing overall
  • Even though women are more likely to be charged with non-violent crime - typically shop-lifting, receiving stolen goods and non-payment of fines - the rate of their being held in prison on remand is higher than for men
  • Committal to prison for non-payment of fines alone has been escalating dramatically
  • Women are commonly being sent to prison for very short sentences – 75% of women sent to prison in 2018 were serving three months or less
  • All three major categories of crime committed by women centre on the root problem of living in poverty
  • The SVP report estimates that the annual cost to the state of NOT dealing with the consequences of poverty ranges between €3bn and €7.2bn
When we look elsewhere at statistics on women and poverty (and a comprehensive database on poverty has been made far more difficult to put together since the independent statutory Combat Poverty Agency was abolished by the state in 2009), we learn that in 2019, single parent households with one or more children under the age of 18 had the highest at risk rate of poverty, 29.7 per cent compared with 6.1 per cent in two person households with one or more children under the age of 18 (CSO, 2020). (more…)
29 Apr 2021

European Defence Fund – Plenary speech

Today the European Parliament had its last chance - with our group's rejection amendment for the European Defence Fund - to say NO to crossing the line and dumping €8 billion of public funds into weapons spending. Sadly this morning it voted for militarism over common sense, 697 to 139. In writing this cheque for the European Defence Fund, the parliament has put in place the cornerstone for an EU military industrial complex. A union founded on an ideal of peace signing off for the first time on a slush fund of €8 billion for merchants of slaughter. What now for Irish neutrality?
28 Apr 2021

European Defence Fund history

Tomorrow in a vote the European Parliament has a chance to say NO to the "European Defence Fund," which will trample the EU treaties to grab billions out of the EU budget for arms companies. The EU is militarising right in front of our eyes and the Irish establishment pretends it's not happening. Write to your MEP if you oppose this and ask them to support the LEFT amendment against the EDF.
11 Apr 2021

Second anniversary of Julian Assange’s arrest

Two years to the day since Julian #Assange was arrested and the US indictment he had always feared was finally unsealed. Two years in jail and counting, for the crime of telling the truth. #FreeAssangeNow.

I recently spoke about this ongoing travesty, and the danger to us all.