Omicron has rapidly spread across the world with record breaking numbers of cases and dislocation to work and life. This article is about Ireland but many of the points apply in Canada. Provinces have given up on testing and tracking. Even the rapid tests are in short supply. Almost every province has cut the isolation […]
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This is a joint statement between Socialist Party Northern Ireland and Socialist Alternative in England, Wales and Scotland. Last year, politics was dominated by the constitutional crisis of Brexit. The seriousness of the Covid pandemic and the global economic crisis has meant that the Brexit process has very much taken a back seat since the […]
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Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael plunge to just 43.4% of the votes — an historic low. Sinn Féin dramatically surge, receiving the biggest share of the popular vote at 24.53%. Socialist TD Mick Barry re-elected. Socialist TD Ruth Coppinger missed out on being re-elected by a few hundred votes, but will be back. How can […]
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For nine weeks, workers at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, where the Titanic was once built occupied the site after the company went into administration, placing skilled jobs at risk. The workers at the shipyard – members of Unite and GMB trade unions – demanded that the government nationalise the yard to safeguard […]
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A very significant surge for the Greens, huge loss of seats for Sinn Fein, and losses for the Left were the headline stories of Local and European Elections May 2019. While the elections absolutely did not represent any ringing endorsement for the Government or political establishment, the combination of the impact of a late Greens […]
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The killing of Lyra McKee on Thursday 19 April sent a wave of shock across Northern Ireland. Lyra was only 29 years old but had already made a name for herself as a journalist, an author and an activist. Whilst over 3,800 have died in the “Troubles” since 1969 some killings strike a particular chord. […]
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On 14 February, British prime minister, Theresa May, suffered her tenth parliamentary defeat over Brexit. The Tory party is split down the middle. May’s government is on the brink of collapse. Yet it is at this precise moment, one of intense governmental crisis, that seven Blairite MPs have chosen to resign from the Labour Party, […]
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Global opposition to victim blaming in Irish rape trial On Tuesday, 13 November Solidarity TD (member of parliament) and Socialist Party member Ruth Coppinger held up a thong in Ireland’s national parliament, the Dáil, while questioning Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about the outrageous victim blaming of a 17-year old young woman in a rape trial in […]
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The election of Leo Varadkar, first as leader of Fine Gael, then as Taoiseach, has been hailed by the international media as an important change. Varadkar is an openly gay man and the son of an immigrant, and the election of such a man as Taoiseach would have been unthinkable up until relatively recent times. […]
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