One year ago, on Mayday 2004, the summit of the EU heads of state took place in Farmleigh House in the Pheonix Park. The entire park was filled with surveillance cameras, ringed with fences, draped with barbed wire, buzzed by helicopters, rigged with motion detectors and surrounded with riot police. In the end water cannons were deployed to keep a protestors out of the park

History is normally written by the winners and it is common to find each new generation of radicals having to rediscover the stories of those who went before them. Thus, it is not surprising that many of those who protested last year probably were unaware of the history of battles between radical movements and the state that the park played host to in the past.

While the park hosts many of the symbols of power in Ireland - past and present - from the monument to the arch-reactionary Wellington, to the US-ambassador's residence and the Garda Headquarters, it has also seen its fair share of opposition. The invincibles assasinated the British Secretary there in 1882, it was the site of many early 20th century trade union ralies and the magazine fort in the park was captured at the start of the 1916 rising and was raided again by the IRA in 1939. The phoenix park is, in many ways, a symbolic battleground for the soul of Ireland. In recent years radical movements in Ireland have re-energised Mayday in Dublin. This year, even without the pomp and grandeur of the EU heads of state, a series of radical events are planned to span the weekend. A festival of radical opposition that is once again bubbling to the surface. And once again the Phoenix Park is on the menu.

Mayday Radical Events: Anarchist 1st of May picnic in Phoenix Park | DCTU May Day Demonstration - Solidarity with Migrant Workers including a Get up stand up block to help organise the unorganised | Reclaim the Streets

From The Newswire: The emergence of a number of independent republican candidates in this years northern council elections has highlighted a growing discontent within the traditional republican base vote which Sinn Fein could previously have taken for granted.

Although small in number, the fact that these independent candidates have emerged from within working class republican communities across the entire 6 counties, indicates that a growing number of republicans no longer feel that Sinn Fein articulate or represent their ideological beliefs, whether republican or socialist, and that this dissent exists across the entire occupied area.

It also appears that their decision to contest the elections and oppose Sinn Fein's stranglehold within the republican base has been spontaneous and not part of any organised electoral effort by any political grouping.

From the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Kurdish Human Rights Project, London:

Plans for large dams in southeast Turkey including the discredited Ilisu dam project may yet go ahead in spite of adverse impacts on cultural and environmental rights, according to a new report by the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Kurdish Human Rights Project.

The report provides new evidence from hydroelectric dam projects planned for the Munzur, Tigris and Greater Zap rivers.

The study, a report of a fact-finding mission to the region carried out by Maggie Ronayne, Lecturer in Archaeology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, demonstrates how archaeology in particular supports the case of thousands of villagers adversely affected by these projects, most of whom do not appear to have been consulted at all about the dams and many of whom want to return to reservoir areas, having already been displaced by the recent conflict in the region....

Indymedia Ireland/Convergence/Filmbase Present A Day of Film Screenings:
As part of the Convergence Festival, Indymedia & Sustainable Ireland have teamed up with the recently opened Filmbase on Curved Street (the old Arthouse, opposite the Temple Bar Music Centre) to bring you a day of free short films from around the World, plus screenings of three of the feature documentaries from last November's "Videoactive" Film Festival.

Written 17 April 2005

On 13 April about 70 asylum seekers in a hostel on Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin went on hunger strike to protest their 'Fast Track' treatment by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). On 17 April two of the men collapsed and were sent to hospital.

All are Nigerian. Most are men. There are also 14 women, 6 of whom are pregnant. Some are in late pregnancy. The pregnant women are not currently on hunger strike.

Seeking Refuge from a 'Safe Country':
The Irish Government sees Nigeria as a 'Safe Country' and today there is an enforcement of a 'Fast Track' policy for arrivals for deportation within months. With Nigeria deemed 'safe' the new policy means an individual's claims of torture, death or fear for their safety at home are officially ignored.

This, in spite of the fact that the US State Department February 28, 2005 report says: 'The Nigerian government's 'human rights record remained poor, and the Government continued to commit serious abuse.' and that 'Security forces regularly beat protesters, criminal suspects, detainees, and convicted prisoners.'

One hunger striker, Idowu, said: 'The people of Ireland and the Government of Ireland should disregard the propaganda of our home country, Nigeria. My country is definitely not a safe place. How could you call a country where the chief law maker, the Attorney General, was murdered - how could you call such a country a safe place?'

One young single man asked a priest at St.Mary's Pro-Cathedral yesterday morning to reserve a grave for him. He says he knows his life is worthless if he is sent back.

Fathers Seeking Wives and Children:
Many of the men who are facing deportation are fathers of Irish citizen children and came here to be reunited with their wives and families. They thought Minister of Justice Michael McDowell's residency offer for non-EU parents of Irish Citizen children applied to them.

Ironically, it does not. McDowell's 14 January 2005 notice only applies to parents of Irish citizen children currently residing in Ireland - thus, a policy of preventing Irish children from being reunited with their fathers is in place.