Book Launch: “Myths from Easter 1916" by Eoin Neeson

by Sam Tue Oct 09, 2007 06:30

Thanks to Cynic for a sincere answer, on behalf of him/her self and a few friends only. S/he says: " People like us want to help ordinary people;" which is what your group believe yourselves to be doing. Problem about S2S campaign, and maybe Tara, is that the 'broad masses' of Irish people don't think these issues are a help. [ I'm not making that judgement - I just want to say there's a terrible gap in perception between what diverse activists see themselves as doing and the way that carefree, indifferent public out there sees the same issues. ] And don't underestimate the carefree-ness of that broad public!

Revolutionary/radical language is another gap between many activists and the nonresponsive public. Problems like these are not unique to Ireland.

As for the Aubane crowd and their proliferating publications - of course they haven't commented on every issue featured on Indymedia Ireland. Different groups have their preferences and priorities. Some like Aubane are heavily into ideology and Irish history; the SP in Dublin suburbs is heavy into local issues concerned with Dublin city government etc. etc. No one group/association can or should attempt to comment or act on every single issue. Life's too short for that, and the span of attention of the individual human brain.

by A Cynic Mon Oct 08, 2007 19:38

I can't speak for the whole left, but all the leftists I know (about seven people, admittedly) are
involved in campaigns such as Shell to Sea, which is designed to help the ordinary Irish people in
Mayo from pollution and exploitation. People like us want to help ordinary people.

P.S. To the best of my knowledge, theB&ICO/ Aubane crowd have never said anything-pro or con-about this key
Irish issue.

by Sam Sun Oct 07, 2007 13:46

All very interesting, esp the cedarlounge.wordpress blog on ICO/BICO. Amazing how influentially irritating they could be with a worn office typewriter and Gestetner duplicator in them pre-computer days! Jeez but some of those guys have gone all around the place since about 1973. Where will we all end up twenty yrs from now? Drawing the pension and calling for the Christian Bros to be brought back into the decaying schooling system?

If the broad masses of the Irish public continue their merry lives without reference to that straggly thing calling itself the Irish Left, there remains my unanswered question:

What has the Irish Left got to offer the carefree indifferent Irish public?

by A Cynic Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:52

They aren't thinking anew at all. As Chekov Feeney has pointed out, the Irish Political Review and Athol Books
are simply publishing a conservative pro-FF, Anglophobic, pro-big-business agenda "more fawning to the
ruling class". They tried Stalinism,Unionism, then Old Labourism and didn't get anywhere, so now
they've been reduced to supporting the Irish "Old Right". Why else would they be publishing the
ultra-conservative Fennell?
Try looking at these links and you'll see they have nothing to offer any left-winger.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/80451

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2001w07/...8.htm

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/the-british...22045

by Sam Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:13

"What have these people (Neeson, Aubaners, Fennell etc.) got to offer the Irish Left?" Good question there. Another question the Irish Left should ask itself sometimes is this: (after the collapse of state marxism in the Soviet Bloc, China, but excepting gallant little Cuba and nuclear-hungry DRP Korea) What has the Irish Left got to offer Ireland?

Capitalist democracies have moved on; USA is a renegade globalising bully; the EU is a loose bag of small ex-colonies and big ex-Empire builders in search of a common social-cultural-economic project; Africa will remain a basket continent for another century; some Latin American states have democratised and modernised their economies. China has gone from Mao religious millenarianism to Deng Xiao Ping Theory i.e. socialism with chinese characteristics. Lots of young Irish lads in Ireland are snuffing themselves. Everybody else is getting on with their careers and mortgages, and hardly think about the miniscule Irish Left.

The Aubaners and fellow travellers are thinking anew, whether we agree with their thoughts or not.

So once again: What has the Irish Left got to offer the Irish?

by A Cynic Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:39

Neeson is an admirer of the lying embezzler Charlie Haughey (the 1916 book he's launching is dedicated
to Haughey) and Murphy has written a sympathetic biography of the anti-semitic Francoist J.J. O'Kelly ("Scelig").
What have these people got to offer the Irish left?

by Sam Sat Oct 06, 2007 00:23

I see Neeson's interestingly-titled new book (he wrote something about the civil war many years ago, didn't he?) is being launched by that very active group, the Aubane Historical Society. They are the same crowd as Athol Books, who also publish the Irish Political Review, aren't they? BICO, ex-BICO, freelance nationalist Des Fennell - what a spicy mixed vegetable soup you get to taste there. All I'll say is they're an interesting political broth.Never a dull moment. Anything they write and publish is more authentic than timeserver Harris'es well paid journo pieces. Good luck with the new book.

by Doctor Who Fri Oct 05, 2007 17:45

Neeson is an interesting historian who I didn't know was still writing. I'll be there!