Irish Embassy protests take place around the world

Paul Murphy MEP for the Socialist Party/United Left Alliance has today demanded that any proposed changes to the Lisbon Treaty are put to a referendum in Ireland. This follows talks between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarcozy yesterday, and ahead of their meeting with European Council president Herman Van Rompuy.

Commentators and media are already looking toward the centenary of the 1916 Rising. There has been much less comment so far on the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lockout, also a pivotal moment in our history, despite the fact that July marks the beginning of the events one hundred years ago that led to the most intense labour struggle ever on this island.

The suffering people of Syria stand on the brink of a precipice. Each day brings new evidence that a sectarian conflagration of terrible proportions can ensue, unless a force emerges which could hold out a realistic prospect of uniting its 22 million people through offering a new dispensation. This would be one where the wealth and stewardship of the nation would be democratically invested in them rather than be the subject of warring factions led by local elites and sponsored by cynical international interests.

“The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go.”- James Connolly
You are unlikely to hear this quote being given when broadcaster Joe Duffy makes the case for James Connolly to be selected as the greatest Irish person in the RTE series.  If you do you will probably be told that Connolly’s firm anti-capitalist socialist outlook may have been okay for his time but has little relevance in today’s world.