Echoes of an incomplete coup; the moral and political necessity for a second Irish republic

The “Big Bang “ theory, and the notion of the “primeval atom” as the singularity which started everything, were invented by Fr. George le Maitre. Only by good fortune did Penzias and Wilson find the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that allowed this theory to prevail over Hoyle's” “steady -state” model

We would require similar luck to find the CMB of Ireland's attempted coup 1997 to the present. Many of the permanent government, senior civil servants in backrooms, are still in office so the policies still obtain. Yet we will likely never find a memo that ordains dumbing down of the arts by closing academies and debauching the Abbey, Ireland's national theatre; we will never find a memo facilitating the transfer of all IP to Shay “Kim Dotcom” Hennessy, who as chair of IMRO destroyed the music biz with his cronies in FF;nor one that mandates that the transfer of all power in the universities to “chief officers”in the 1997 legislation should allow the CEO act outside the law.

We do know that the e-voting system being proposed was slipshod in the extreme, written by one individual who did not understand the PR system, and was scrapped only after a long and bloody battle. The bewildered old men who took office in 2011 have done what FG always did; find a globalizing force and use it on us. Once it was the Church; now it is Wall St.

For non-Irish readers, it is important to note that what facilitated this coup attempt was first of all a torrent of borrowed money. Secondly, there are no independent unions in Ireland; it is a corporatist system. Thirdly, there is no prosecution of white collar crimes; that has allowed law firms to metastasize as what should be criminal issues are pursued by individuals at great expense in civil court. Finally, the facts of Ireland's colonial history shrouded the state in mystique, particularly after we were told that the Brits had always been our friends.

The mechanisms used were, first of all, evisceration of civil society; for example IMRO sent thugs around to close down venues by upping rates and now many venues (a la the 18^th century) run samizdat unadvertised concerts so that IMRO will not charge them. Secondly, the national narrative was debauched. “Irishness”, once a valued birthright of many, was reduced to a franchise held by an extreme minority around Bertie Ahern. The flip side of this, of course, was massive immigration; and indeed massive emigration of the Irish, now replaced by foreigners at a rate unseen since Cromwell. Freedom of speech was destroyed through dozens of high-cost law suits against academics, suits in which the unions refused to participate though it was their duty to do so.

These cases were instructive; it was found in both the Cahill vs DCU and Fanning vs UCC cases that the state universities were acting ultra vires their powers; that is, they were trying out methods of control of citizens that were found to be illegal. None of the senior management or law firms involved was punished in any way; indeed, the law firms made a fortune from deliberately getting the law wrong. Law has lost its true role in the “free” state. We have no way of knowing even if the huge incursions by the state into civil society like NAMA and indeed abortion are constitutional, nor will we ever in the state as is. And that, my friends, is a paradigmatic example of why this version of the Irish state needs to be shut down and replaced.

Moreover, it is not unfair to describe what went on from the late 1990's as removing the effective people who set up many of the better processes and institutions in the state and civil society from access to any resources, and often (like this writer) from the country. In general, these processes and institutions had been set up on a volunteer basis out of love for the country and were replaced by something grotesque and vastly expensive. The classic example is the Irish tech industry, whose genesis was described in an acclaimed book by Sean O Riain as due to an informal, under the radar compact between entrepreneurs and public servants, It was replaced by the ghastly and failed SFI and Medialab

Perhaps our replacement by east Europeans can be explained as survival of the fittest; but if so, why were criminal means used to destroy us rather than have nature take its course?. Alternatively put, how long do the criminal retards who administer Ireland on behalf of Wall St think we will put up with them?

Let's look at a few solutions; they are also described in my two books on Ireland.

Eire nua principles

What is lacking more than anything in Ireland is a sense of national purpose, principles to give meaning to the struggles of people's existence. Even the endemic corruption is secondary to this; the results we have seen in suicide, alcoholism and emigration. Yet the visible failure of the current colonial state to provide any kind of decent life for its people is itself a massive opportunity. Here are some ideas;

1. The Irish state's primary purpose is that the Irish people as a whole should reach the same cultural and material level as their western European neighbours.

1. cot'd Up to 1998 it looked en route to do so; what happened after was the disempowerment of native people of ability, often through criminal means, for the benefit of globalized corporatism and local gangsters; the attempt to substitute for their ability with borrowed money; and finally, the recolonization of the country by international financiers with no light in sight.
2. All of this can be reversed and indeed the steps involved are less radical than the steps through which the coup was attempted In particular, removing the parasites, criminals and incompetents from the “public service” is very simple, involving as it does a quick survey of publicly available track records; finding out the able can be done by checking who was at the cutting-edge of the arts and technology in 1998 before the criminals took over; the resources of the republican narrative are available as we seek to distance ourselves from the disgusting structures of the state, the enormous mafia law firms, and the continued incursions of the state into an ancient and viable civil society and community structures
3. National aspirations should be encapsulated in a desired second republic with a redrawing of the border to reflect the island's permanent and overwhelming nationalist majority; a first article of a new constitution that forbids the state from taking life, or imposing debt on its citizens; a parallel local currency that allows returning Irish emigrants buy the many houses now held by the state through Nama; and, above all, a recognition that the state in its current form is mainly a mechanism for regulating access to resources that are free on the web, with all welfare and maintenance money being borrowed abroad.
4. Statutes of limitations should be abolished for crimes (and there are many such particularly since 1997) in which the investigations was thwarted by corruption in the civil service. Such treason by public servants should mean a life sentence a la Brazil
5. Neo-corporatism/”social partnership” should be ended by dint of allowing strikes for single dismissals, permitting people to join all unions or none in any job, and scrapping the medieval labour tribunals.
6. As things stand, military action against the Irish state, while treason in the 1937 constitution, seems politically justifiable on the grounds that the state is committing genocide (as defined as the extirpation of the Irish ethnicity). What prevents it morally is the extreme unlikelihood of success of an uprising – about the same chances as 1916
7. In the meantime, we must guard our essence in improvised community, if necessary emigrating and using foreign passports as our Irish ones are now unsafe due to gilmore's treason. Some readers will be aware that I have had some success in creating an alternative university of Ireland and research facilities using none but my own money. Likewise, many of us have left IMRO. Instead of the futile task of attacking the Irish state, we should seek to replace its structures as we wait to vote in a second republic a la 1937.

Seán Ó Nualláin 18 Feabhra 2014

27 u Feabhra; here is an excerpt from my "Ireland in crisis" book proposing amendments to the constitution;

 

"In short, we need a new republic and a new constitution, but not a new stipulation of how power is transferred.

Conversely, many of the amendments voted on since 1937 – in particular those related to topics like divorce, abortion, the Good Friday agreement, and the degree of EU membership that have been voted on twice – should be revisited and probably rescinded by fiat of the entry into power of the new constitution. The following changes are necessary;
1. Deletion of the theocratic prologue in favour of a secular statement like that with which the Indian constitution opens. Something along the following lines, which refers obliquely both to Buddhism and the American declaration, might be acceptable. If necessary, the existence of individual conscience as the moral unit of the state needs to be stated explicitly;

“Prologue; In the presence of the unbounded, the infinite, and the unoriginated, in which we move and have our being, the Irish nation acknowledges its role in the work of nature’s architect. It is asserted that through his rational being, man is impelled to ever greater autonomy and perfection of his powers; and to do this in joy in the context of a supportive community and state. For centuries, our country has been passed from one colonizer to another, often aided and abetted by native collaborators. We proclaim our autonomy and our wish to express ourselves fully both individually and as a nation fit to take it place in he community of those nations that exemplify humanity’s highest achievements. Thus, the state sees itself as having a central role in preserving the hierarchy of values in human relations, in accordance with best practice as attested by reason and scientific fact.

By the passage of this constitution, the 1937 constitution and its amendments are annulled; likewise for any laws arising form colonial domination Laws emerging from this constitution cannot be rescinded by threats of violence to others or oneself. “
2 Addition of an article like the first amendment in the US which, by protecting religions from the state, has also protected the state from religion. In fact, given that, as exemplified by incidents described in the tenure and music chapters in this book, the law in Ireland has been used with the express purpose of destroying the higher reaches of the Irish psyche, it is necessary to constrain the state in relation to civil society, and the use of the law, even further;

“ Article 1;The state shall not interfere with working positive manifestations of civil society and community, be those often ancient manifestations of the Irish genius manifest in sports, the arts, religion or some other form of culture. Nor will it allow any such interference by any corporate entity.

The state acknowledges these developmental stages in the person; beginnings of life, physical growth and maturation, incorporation into the society as a moral agent, psychosexual development, education from infancy to the highest levels of human culture, union in marriage between man and woman, some score years in the front line of the responsibilities of adulthood, reflective retirement and natural death. It acknowledges that community and civil society structures have been in place since time immemorial to cater not just for these aspects of humanity, but for activities like welfare and transport .It guarantees that the institutions in which it participates to these ends shall serve to ennoble and edify the individual and society and the most severe criminal penalties will be afflicted on is employees who violate this trust.

It guarantees the right to work in that its role as a preserver of the hierarchy of value will lead it to endorse creative activity, be that related to money-making or not. It guarantees minimum standards of housing and food to every citizen, while ensuring that the nation does not become one involving a permanent class of dependents.

In this same vein, the state will not interfere with the rational operations of markets in areas not explicitly the state’s domain, except insofar as it insists on its role as provider of free and accurate information. In this vein, it is accepted that private property has long ago been established as part of civil society, and that humans by their rational being have a right to the quiet enjoyment of their possessions.

The state shall make no law imposing debt incurred by one person on the nation as a whole. Laws cannot allow any citizen summary control of the livelihood, physical person or property of anyone on the national territory. In the event of any dispute in civil law in which the state enters against an individual, pains shall be taken to ensure that the citizen has adequate representation, if necessary funded by the public purse”

So the attack on tenure described elsewhere in this book could have been averted by a dismissal procedure that keeps the employee on the payroll until a rights commissioner decides whether there was a breach or procedures. In the event that there is in the RC;’s opinion, the case goes to the circuit court with the state funding the employee, who remains on the payroll. Otherwise, (s)he must pay for the case.

3 Deletion of all other sectarian and sexist implications of the 1937 constitution

4. A redefinition of criminal law to include economic activities that sabotage our independence, and indeed pro-active hiring of foreigners over Irish nationals in the public sector.

“Article 2; The civil service shall have a median salary the same as that of the industrial wage, and no civil servant shall earn over double the median industrial wage. Acts by civil servants that threaten the autonomy and well-being of our country shall be considered to have a gravity similar to manslaughter or child abuse”

5. It is fair to say that the early 21^st century has witnessed deep confusion about what money is. The following articles attempt to remove Ireland from the financialization of the economy,

“Article 3; i The wealth of the state is to be calculated from a realistic appraisal of natural and technological resources, to be updated each year. If it is necessary to engage in exchange rate calculations, best mathematical practice will be used to maximize the state’s productivity from the exchange while maintaining the people’s role as the guardians of value

ii With respect to monetary and fiscal policy, the state shall maintain control over its interest rates, taxation, and budgets.

iii Financial bonds will be issued by the state only with specific projects in mind that, in keeping with the state’s role in the preservation of a hierarchy of value, add to the environmental, social and cultural welfare of the country. “

6. The success of any country in the 21^st century hinges on astute use of communications media. In particular, there needs to be a well-defined distinction between carrier and content;

“Article 4; The state shall provide a world-class communications network by application of a licence fee on media devices. It reserves the right to commandeer this is true case of national emergency and for such items as budget broadcasts. It will run Gaelic language and classical culture programs, with artists paid from the public purse, over the auditory and visual media that obtain at any time. It will not compete in the sphere of popular culture, but will ensure that licenses to do so are assigned fairly”

7. One of the great recent scams has been privatization of state resources- o r “briberization” as Greg Palast memorably described it. A dreadful result in Ireland was the backward broadband infrastructure alluded to in the last article. Yet, at times, disruptive technologies indeed enter and make state enterprises redundant, as MOOCs may be said to be doing to state universities.

“Article 5 ; It is acknowledged that disruptive technologies can cause massive changes to practises. In this case, the state will not offer any barriers to self-financed competitors from the private sector. It will if necessary introduce redundancies among its own employees, while attempting to retrain them, but will not privatize its services, instead, it will continue to provide a perhaps attenuated and refined service”


The People and their Territory

It is a historical fact that a terrorist campaign in the name of a united Ireland paradoxically led to the Irish state's dropping its claim on the north-eastern part of the island, and indeed the claim of the nation on any territory at all. The history of British colonisation and genocide in Ireland, and the inspiration Ireland's revolts gave to other colonies, are similarly historical facts. While a united Ireland should remain an aspiration, an altogether more interesting project is possible. One of our Nobel laureates, John Hume, suggested that the 100 million or so people worldwide of Irish ancestry should be offered nationality, if not citizenship; this so far has been acted upon only in a feeble fashion

It is unacceptable not to have a national territory. It is also unacceptable that many people who are culturally Irish have not been admitted as citizens, and cannot travel on our invaluable passports. The ultimate solution to the problematic North-Eastern corner of our island Ireland may ultimately lie in close ties with an independent Scotland; it makes sense to introduce an article like the following;

“Article 6 ; The Irish people, the survivors of centuries of genocide and exile in whom the power of the state is vested, and who have electoral suffrage, are on the one hand those who can show a genetic link with the country with a test funded at their own expense and in the context of best practice in science at the time. With respect place of to birth, it is those conforming to the result of the 2004 referendum on this issue. On the other hand, for those not born there, a cultural affinity can allow entry to citizenship”

“Article 7; The national territory, from this moment the land and practice specified by Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 constitution, will be finalized in the referendum to be held as stipulated in the 1998 “good Friday” agreement. Counties may whish to vote themselves out of our state, in which case they will lose their right to our passports. In this context, we declare the right of the Scottish people, our cousins, to achieve independence through democratic means”

Finally, it is necessary to stipulate that corporations are not people;

“Article 8; Corporate status, with its protections, is to be granted by the state only with assurances that the corporations are behaving ethically. In particular, while they are allowed to hold property through their officers, corporations are not people and any attempt to insist that they are will be met with revocation of corporation status by the state”

State and civil society continued

The incursions by the state into civil society culminated in deepening of employer/union “partnerships” which resulted in a de facto loss of the right to withhold labour, to get reinstated once fired, and indeed to form trade unions in the public service (since the state insisted that you join one of its choice as a condition of employment). Simultaneously, membership of unions in the private sector is vanishing. This is one area that the state should withdraw from.

The experience of Ireland as an independent state indicates that the state can run a rudimentary health service, schools up to but not including third level (where its institutions need private competition), an airline, and a telecommunications network, inter alia. Its incursions into the music business and indeed the arts in general, software and most of science, and much else have had the sole effect of providing subsidised competition for altogether more talented individuals. All this needs to be rectified.


The economy

Ireland must be prepared to regain control of its destiny, even if this means renegotiating the terms of its membership in the EU, WTO, and so on. For example, an average house should cost at most double one's income, and the mortgage should last at most 20 years.

A full-scale nationalisation of the banks has happened, and must be adjusted in favour of the people and against the incompetent and immoral bank management. Many of the “jobs’ in the civil service can be done away with, and it is a relatively trivial matter to balance the budget as soon as it is clear that we are not paying back debts that we never accrued, and that we take care only of our own citizens, while abiding by international refugee agreements.

Environmental costs must be factored into every activity monitored by the state. Corporate enforcement must rise to the level of the US; this in itself will release massive energy from individual entrepreneurs who have been struggling under the crony capitalism that weighed on recent Irish public life, and destroyed countless businesses

Finally, it is taken as self-evident that the state should aspire to social justice, indeed equality of opportunity, for all its citizens."

Same as the old boss; a new, sinister type of colonial administrator

In 1999, Germaine Greer gave a provocative talk in the arts building at UC, Dublin. She alluded to the then recent appearance of a transvestite with “bazooka tits” at the eurovision song contest, already a celebration of camp. She argued that there indeed was the type of “woman” that men might fall for; no time of month or fertility issues, easy to get on with, and always available for the wild thing. In fact, she argued, this new trend was disturbing and dangerous for feminism, and for women in general.

It has not been emphasized enough that neoliberalism, considered as the hegemonic political force that it has become, seeks to control fertility. It is now clear that the plan for Ireland is to replace the Irish with eastern Europeans paradoxically schooled in wild west capitalism; our government does not blink as 300,00 young, energetic Irish emigrate. The corporate tax regime in Ireland will work better without the Irish; it is clear from the Flannery incident that this government, like its predecessor, has no intention of enforcing the law against its friends. Yet the strange obsession with gay marriage perhaps portends something darker still.

The greatest discovery that young men make is that girls actually like them. To negotiate a relationship across the gender gap is to become au fait with a completely different way of experiencing the world, and traditional marriage has been encouraged in every civil society in the world as the main locus for procreation. For gay marriage, on the contrary, we are referred to the example of Nero and his pre-nuptial forced castration and feminization of a male friend.

All this is by way of asking why business man Rory O'Neill addressed Ireland's Abbey theater, a pantomime queen in drag, at a time when men are encouraged in the USA to “marry” each other and outsource procreation to baby farms in east asia. O'Neill was apparently on a short-list for the Euro elections as a labour candidate. The abbey is going through its nadir with the Peacock mainly dark; the incompetence of the Abbey's artistic director Fiach Mac Conghail is now well attested by an official report, and suggests that the plan was indeed to sell off that entire city block as he ran the Abbey into the ground. Before him was the equally incompetent Ali curran.

While the “free” state was IMHO an aberration, the fact is that many worthwhile processes were preserved in its society. One by one, they are being destroyed and subverted. It was inevitable that our overpaid colonial administrators would eventually subvert gender; all that remains is the case of the 8-year-old boy who wants a sex change before puberty. The colonial administrators that govern us on behalf of their international financier masters are well capable of a referendum on this after a suitably -chosen supreme court case

. In the meantime, at the sochi Olympics, gendered rituals of love and estrangement, dominance and “submission” which is itself real power, trust and abandon are aesthesicized on the ice by beautiful young couples. Ireland as ever does not even compete. The USA sends Billie Jean King who of course is invisible.

Of course, a country like the USA that has lost its honour to its own spook services has to try and find something that it does best. It is becoming clear to the rest of the world that the USA is very stuck in a groove and is producing little of any worth in any field; indeed, the NSA's boosting of the likes of Google is destroying native American tech. It took Ireland to bail out the USA in 2010 at the behest of Geithner.

Seán Ó Nualláin 17 Feabhra 2014

PS This is hopefully my last foray into the gender front in the culture wars but a final point needs to be made. Remarkably, it was a young, fertile woman who help the barricades on the pro-life side of the abortion issue last year. When Lucinda Creighton herself got pregnant, veteran moral and political prostitute Tom Parlon remarked that she was now unfit for political office, as she would have  ababy to care for.

It should not surprise anyone that abortion legislation was voted in by misogynists; legislation so bizarre that Kermit Gosnell was simultaneously given 3 life sentences in the USA for the late-term abortions that it sanctions, having been convicted of murder and avoiding the death penalty only by agreeing not to appeal. What is remarkable - and I write as someone against "affirmative action" of almost every sort - is that we urgently need pregnant women and mothers in our political offices as representatives of a critical class of society. Mr Parlon clearly prefers Ms Bazooka tits to a real woman.

Monica Lewinsky, the founder of modern Ireland

Monica Lewinsky, the founder of modern Ireland

With some justice, it has often been postulated that Oliver Cromwell is the true father of the Irish nation. While his own surveyor, Petty, documented that OC did a population cull of about 1/3 of the population, the fact remains that the factionalism that weakened the Irish response to him attenuated considerably – for a while, at least.

20 years ago, it was reasonable to think, in the wake of the IRA ceasefire, that a 32-county united Ireland was in the offing for 2014. Moreover, it was to be a country with considerable cultural and technological clout; our software engineers and musicians were acknowledged as wold class. It looked like Joyce's dream in the “Voyage of Bran” final section of Ulysses was to be realized.

So what happened? First of all, John Major allowed the Republicans rifle through Bill Clinton's personnel file at oxford to see if, in his zeal to avoid Vietnam, he had applied for a British passport. Once elected, BC's response was to overrule all the advice of his security staff and inflict Gerry Adams on the world. GA up to that point was an incompetent and deeply compromised ex-activist in the IRA, surrounded by spies like Scappaticci and Donaldson, and responsible for at least 4 unnecessary deaths in the hunger strike as Richard O'Rawe has demonstrated.

Yet the Americans were still respecting Ireland's national aspirations until the Monica Lewinsky incident. Then the game between “deal at all costs” to burnish BC's image. The fact that the 26-county state was sacrificed for GA and his cronies should not escape anyone at this stage. It is also clear from Mitch Reiss's public statements (eg UC Berkeley Mar 8 2012) that the British kept GA alive to push through this deal

So we Irish have ended up as a “state” with no national territory under an “agreement” any detail of which the Brits can welsh on at any moment, as Mandelson demonstrated when he collapsed the assembly. In my book “Ireland in crisis” I have proposed a solution – we reinstate the claim on the whole island and allow the referendum proposed in the 6 counties under the GFA take place as a secession license by individual counties. Moreover, just in case anyone ever says again that Ulster is majority British, we allow Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan the right to join Britain Residents of counties voting to leave Ireland would lose automatic entitlement to Irish passports, and would have to qualify in tests similar to the ones the French use to assess citizenship material.

These tests can indeed be spread to the USA, whose Irish population is doing nothing for Ireland in the absence of direction from the Irish "state", , and Argentina, whose Irish population is very culturally simpatico. The USA has always sided with Britain against Ireland; it is absurd that so many of its population have Irish passports without any commitment to the country. There should be  a quid pro quo where these passports are retracted unless the 50k "undocumented' Irish in the USA get green cards.

The result would be that only Antrim and Down would stay with Britain and it would not be difficult to control these areas. To hang on to your passport, you would have to re-qualify. With his lack of knowledge of Irish, no Gaelic games background, and a selective version of Irish history, it is likely that the right honorable GA – like many of his cronies – would fail to qualify.

PS The Free State has of course decided to interfere with our lives as Irish living in the USA. Get us citizenship? You must be joking! Junior minister Joan Burton of the Labour parasite party has decided not to grace the St pat's day Parade in NY. Hopefully the NY community will exclude her and others of her ilk from the Free State from other events, since they are obviously not happy here.

  Seán Ó Nualláin 13 Feabhra 2014

Mayor de Blasio and the nth genocide attempt against the Irish

During the week I had this exchange with my friend Sean, an Irish-American handball player

• Did you know the Mayor of NY is refusing to walk in th St pat's Day parade?
• Why?
• It's gay rights. They will allow gays march but not with a separate banner
• Is Mayor de Blasio gay?
• No, but his wife used to be.
• Is his wife a guy?

That just about summarizes the absurdity of this situation Mayor de Blasio is now lame-duck, has lost  the support of his security apparatus who of course insisted on wearing their uniforms in the city they serve with pride, and there is a good chance de Blasio will not serve out his term. Surely his wife's conversion to heterosexuality should have given him pause, and suggests that sexuality is a spectrum that should not involve inflicting banners on oneself in the media glare as one searches for one's identity.

This is not the first time that US Democrats have used the gay community against the Irish; similarly, the imagined “right” for the normative practise of marriage is tearing apart the government coalition in Ireland. The SF Irish were not even allowed get their side of the story out about the ethnic cleansing of their neighborhood pre-1975 by the gays due to the disgraceful Dan White incident in the late 1970's.

In 2012, we forced the resignation of the US ambassador to Ireland, after his visa chief Bradley Wilde of the mysterious “diplomatic security services” was found actively involved in a campaign to effectively derecognize Ireland. He did this by refusing automatic entry to diplomats, “losing” Irish passports in the embassy, and indeed on at least one occasion insisting on interviewing a female minor without her parents present. It is doubtful that diplomatic immunity covers the last action in particular. Wilde too was forced to resign.

This follows Tim Geithner insisting on Ireland carrying the world's sin of debt in 2010 and Bill Clinton forcing us into the 1998 “agreement” which lost us not just the 6 counties, but the entire island as the notion of a national territory was expunged.

The good news is that the AOH have stood up to the bullies like de Blasio and “bed, bath” etc. The bad news is that our traitorous head of foreign affairs, Eamon Gilmore, is angling for a UN job instead of protecting our rights. While in opposition, as wikileaks showed, he briefed the US embassy about even the inner workings of his own party.

De Blasio, Gilmore etc; we Irish have seen off far tougher people than you. Even at Ireland's nadir in 2012, 34.1 million US citizens gave their ethnicity as Irish (as distinct from the 5 million for the abortive NI state). While the Jews may “own” America, the Irish ( with the chair of the Joint chiefs, the head of the CIA, and the UN ambassador all being Irish) can certainly claim to run it.

The notion that we will put up for much longer paying back a “debt” on E100 billion that we never incurred on an island that is now only a “territory” (a la Ca and Co pre-federation) and tolerate massive immigration to Ireland while our own kids are forced out of Ireland into undocumented status in the USA, which we run, is absurd. Hillary Clinton, Bradley Wilde was your fault; be warned. In fact, while the Republicans would win Wyoming with or without the Irish, the Democrats' chance of even one senate seat nationally would approach zero if their recent actions against Ireland were publicized.

  Seán Ó Nualláin 8 Feabhra 2014

PS Please note that it was Gilmore while in opposition who re-introduced the epithet "traitor" into irish politics while discussing the financial shenanigans leading to the "Free" state's loss even of partial sovereignty over part of the island.

Urgent action items for a new Irish political movement

Urgent action items for a new Irish political movement

Introduction

Any new Irish political movement, from its inception, must engage the public with a clear and simple name and mission statement. It should represent a clear break with the past in terms of party politics, while reflecting older parts of Irish society and culture. A simple name like “New Ireland/Eire nua” will do; a clear mission statement follows.

The split between the social left and right in fine Gael in 2013 is unlikely to lead to a new party; in fact, this writer sees most of the “rebels” campaigning for gay marriage to secure their party's nomination for the 2016 general election. Given that any new party must attempt to secure a better deal on Ireland's debt, these fine Gaelers would have been inappropriate in any case. A realistic plan for securing such a deal is proposed below, and if successful would ensure a wind of public approval.

The first point made here is that, while as of 2014 many of Ireland's problems are very difficult, much of the damage done during 1997-2014 was done in plain sight and can be reversed. Then we can attack the deeper problems. A set of actions required will address particular areas of Irish society and indicate how to repair the damage.

Once consensus is reached on policy, the party should seek visibility through high-profile events like successful court actions that stop injustice and corruption. Several such have already been successful, including one in US Federal court. A consistent party line can then be explained to the public through the conventional media, and amplified by social media. Contesting of elections will require canvassers, as even the Obama 2012 campaign was forced to acknowledge that no, Facebook is not enough. The model of a party organization in every parish is probably unattainable until the 2020's; contesting every seat in 2016 is within our scope.

The invisible crimes of the Bertiestate

Before doing the above, the damage must be characterized. A first issue was the attach on Irish identity itself. Prior to 1997, the consensus was that, for example, anyone running an Irish music session in a pub, creating new music or running an international academic conference on a voluntary basis for the perceived good of the country was to be encouraged. That ethos ended in 1997 and anyone going the extra mile for Ireland was encouraged to “commit suicide” unless they complied with the part line.

A first weapon in the assault was “individualization”. Given the amount of money briefly floating around, people were encouraged to cocoon rather than socialize. As expected, given the lack of white-collar law enforcement, criminality became rampant. A second weapon was dumbing down the arts and intellectual debate, by closing elite academies, disempowering independent artists, suing academics, and ramming bad pop music (often made by people close to An Taoiseach) down people's throats through all media.

A third weapon was subtler; the assault on the idea that to be Irish is a good thing. Not only was mass immigration imposed, despite a 2004 vote showing people did not want it, but draconian legislation was introduced to prevent any assertion of Irish identity (including flying the tricolor in taxis or at parades). Indeed, the 1998 “Good Friday” agreement does away with the notion that the Irish have a national territory and introduces cross-border bodies that can take over any aspect of Irish life. Remarkably, at the same time (end 2013) that President Higgins encouraged the Irish to stick together, his government introduced the taxi legislation that specifically prohibits the Irish from helping each other economically; he is himself the patron of Doras Luimni – “protecting and promoting the rights of all migrants”.

The results of these attacks have been economic disaster and ethnic suicide. Ireland is a colony now in precisely the way it was in the 19^th century; while now as then in terms of explicit law it is not a colony, in actual fact its place in the current world order is as debtor of last resort. In the meantime, the suppression of the creative class during the years of the Bertiestate means that many of the entrepreneurs have left.

So what can be done? There seem to be insuperable constraints. For example, the governments in power 2010-2014 have agreed to an interpretation which for the first time in world history involves a sovereign paying off junior unsecured debt incurred by private banks; yet these governments were democratically elected. In fact, what they agreed to is the oldest trick in the economic hit man's arsenal; find a self-appointed elite in a country who are willing to agree that monies are owed, and then use the people and the nation's resources to pay off this “debt”.

The lack of protest can be put down to the fact that the unions and republican movement were bought off, many emigrated, that social welfare was still adequate, and that evictions were put on hold until 2014. It is likely that the result of the 26,000 expected evictions will be incendiary. That will present a massive opportunity for a new party free of stain by association with all established parties.

The “Good Friday” agreement, already a bad deal made worse by Mandelson's success in interpreting it as a set of engagements unilaterally imposed by the Irish on themselves without any reciprocity from the British, was voted in by a 97% majority. Immigration has been agreed by running referenda a second time, with threats and promises. The undoubted crimes of the banksters are subject to statutes of limitations.

It is this writer's view that all these issues need eventually to be addressed, perhaps in the context of a new republic and constitution. For the moment that's pie in the sky; let's work with what we have. Some of the constraints are imposed by dictats from within the bureaucracy with no legal basis. For example, RTE keeps saying that it cannot emulate Canada and play over a minute percentage of Irish music because of the EU. We checked with the EU commissioner, and RTE is plain wrong Competition law in Ireland breaks EU guidelines. Likewise, the tendering process for the Poolbeg developments breaks EU law.

We must continue to bring the crimes of the Ahern era to light. The native music industry was destroyed by crimes that were resolved by a US Federal court judgment and British legal case . That judgment and legal case should be publicized. The Medialab/Digital hub disasters need to be highlighted. Yet that will not be enough.

What can be done in the current legislative framework?

As we have seen, the EU can also be used in favor of the Irish as many of the interpretations of EU directives in Ireland are the result of power-grabs by bureaucrats. They can be researched and exposed as we have done in several cases.

Likewise for the unprosecuted crimes of the Ahern era. The most innocent explanation of why they remain unprosecuted is that the incoming 2011 coalition were unwilling and unready to change the senior civil servants who committed these crimes at Ahern's behest. Yet this coalition is now liable for them.

Evictions/repossessions in the USA from 2008-2013 proceeded in the absence of any legal framework. It seems to be the case that property in Ireland was similarly securitized, and that the banks lack clear title. The closing of the 2009 loophole pointed out by Judge Dunne does not apply to securitization. In 2013, the USA finally passed legislation retrospectively making legal what had been illegal evictions by the banks up to then. Eire nua should stress the securitization issue.

That is not to say that every bad investment should be protected. However, it allows an insistence that every Irish person who has paid for it at current market rates is entitled to one home, and indeed granting credit for payments already made vis a vis the current value of the home. Indeed, Irish people who still fail to reach muster can be assigned a home in one of the many ghost estates in NAMA after their overpriced house is repossessed; these can also be used to bring Irish emigrants back, in return for payment or community service/public works. neoliberalism

Secondly, as the Gathering of 2013 shows, Irish communities (and their extension in “civil society”) still work very well when the state takes a light touch or stays out altogether. In fact, the state is performing so badly in sophisticated areas like IT that alternative universities are being set up, and indeed research entities that compete well with SFI (let alone Medialab/digital hub) and do so at no cost to the taxpayer. This applies also to music, where Ireland's most successful and best music acts have all left (or never joined ) IMRO. Eire nua should point out that that brains, work and talent of the Irish are enough to guarantee success, once the corrupt state gets out of the way.

It is worth noting that neoliberalism is similarly dumbing down American culture, and that Irish software engineers could again compete with the Americans. That leads to the first plan for writing down the debt. Ireland's corporate tax regime is a source of much annoyance to the EU. Why not agree to bring the tax up to EU levels in exchange for a debt write-down? In that case, the likes of Facebook would probably leave – and good riddance. At the very least, our software engineers could hack together something better in a day. If google followed, we could prevent it crawling our state websites, freeing Irish companies to work of the same algorithms that google pilfered elsewhere in the first place.

Local government does not really exist in Ireland; there exist local authorities, laws unto themselves. They must be made subject to the will of the people by joining up the local and national levels.

These policies can be put to the public immediately. The following section looks at a more radical progression.

What can be done in the future if we encounter success with stage 1?

There are huge opportunities for a country that, like Ireland is close to its roots and engaged in modernity, particularly an Anglophone country. It has been hinted at that, since Lisbon and Nice were voted on twice, why not do so a third time and abide by the result? Similarly, there now is a constitutional anomaly in that the 1998 “Good Friday” agreement defines Irishness as being born on the island of Ireland and the 2004 referendum rejected this, this surely requires another referendum, one that reinstates the notion of a national territory.

In fact, there is an argument that those on the North-Eastern corner of the island, as well as those in the genetic diaspora, get their passports too cheaply as we Irish struggle enormously to protect the country. Why not make the referendum in the North-Eastern corner envisaged by the “Good Friday” agreement a chance for individual counties to opt out of the passport scheme. So, for example, if Co. Derry voted to stay in the UK, its residents would lose their automatic right to an Irish passport.

They then would have to earn them in test, as prospective French citizens do, tests that show that they know Irish history and culture. Similar test could be imposed on the Americans, absent any action on the 50,00 “illegal” Irish in the USA, as a useful prod to Obama's democrats. Conversely, the culturally Irish in countries like Argentina who currently do not qualify would now do so. As a parting shot on this theme of Irish pride, the referendum in the North-Eastern corner might also include Cavan,

Donegal and Monaghan to still forever the notion that the majority in Ulster are British.

The carrying capacity of the land in Ireland is more than sufficient for agricultural self-sufficiency. Most of the foreign firms in Ireland like Facebook and paypal produce non-essential services. There are many South American countries with vast oil reserves willing to trade with us in defiance of the USA and its spy services. We should not fear tough negotiations.

Finally, there is scope for a totally new constitution for Ireland, one that forever prevents the state from destroying civil society and community structures. It can also pre-empt future culture wars by removing the Catholic ethos, while reminding everyone that the state must have values. That will be a topic for discussion further down the road.

Seán O Nualláin 1/1/2014

PS The  cynicism about the sincerity of the FG "rebels" still seems well-placed despite their claim for a mass meeting on 25 Jan 2014 as reported in the media today (5 jan). There are NO policies, and the whole enterprise seems an attempt to create a bargaining-chip for the tearful reunion with FG. This seems even more true given that Lucinda is expecting  baby (congrats, Lucinda) and will be tempted to secure their future.

and now here's the rub. Lucinda used to have a glittering future and has been treated very roughly. It is possible that she has unleashed forces both outside and within herself - in the Irish body politic as in her psyche - to which Kenny will need to alert himself. His track record suggests no such sophistication, so the new party may well happen with L as prime actor after all.

PPS (4 Feb 2014) L is waiting for the moment that Timmins and others leave to rejoin FG. If she now  declares RA a new party, timmins and others will be gone like a puff of smoke. However, if they leave before she does so, she will be on the moral high ground as she declares a new party and they will not have any bragging rights.

What she is doing IMO is waiting for Mattie McGrath and other independent TD's  to commit so that timmins' disappearance will not matter and she retains a dail group. Then again, she is due sometime about April so timmins  et al may just run down the clock and wait for mother Lucinda to disappear into obscurity as they argue that gilmore was forced to re-open the Irish embassy in the vatican cos of their stance.........

ICIS 2 Dublin Nov 8-9 2013; second call

Second call for papers for the International Congress of Irish Studies ICIS 2 symposium
The re-enchantment of Ireland

Nov 8-9 2013 at the Donnybrook Room, Bewley's Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

Confirmed plenary speakers/panellists include Dr Desmond Fennell, Arthur Riordan, Prof. Des O'Neill, Prof Cathal MacSwiney-Brugha, Gabriel rosenstock, Ronan Smith and Melanie O'Reilly

                                          Prof Des O'Neill

                                          Prof MacSwiney-Brugha

  Prof MacSwiney-Brugha, Dr Des Fennell and Feargus Denman

Arthur Riordan and Melanie O'Reilly

Confirmed panels include
"Episodes from an incomplete coup"

In the course of the last two decades, lamented failings in Irish political culture an acknowledged democratic deficit at the broader level of the European Union have been a backdrop to numerous more specific incidents where the responsibility of the state and public institutions to serve Ireland's citizenry with impartial prudence has been flouted. These disquieting patterns and certain particulars will here be discussed.

“To declare a new republic, or not?”

The frustration experienced by Ireland's public and, indeed, members of the political class, in the face of a calamitous reality-check amidst the broader international economic crisis, is often told; equally, the tentative-to-meek Irish response, almost without protest, in the face of recent calamity. This panel continues a conversation that has so far failed to ignite real political impetus in seeking renovation of the Irish republic.

“Just Once or with improbable frequency: Can the unlikely success of left-field Irish musical theatre be continued?”

In recent years Ireland has produced high caliber musical theatre across genres, from historical science counter-fact of Improbable Frequency through the biting political satire of Anglo! Of a sudden, it has seemed, Ireland has a burgeoning tradition in quality musical theatre. Participants in this panel consider the possibility of its success being sustained and young talents nurtured in the present economy of arts.

"Intellectual life, academe and common knowledge in Ireland"

Higher education in Ireland is under strain, stretched thin by budget cuts and confused agenda. Intellectual life (whether as vocation or formation) should serve not only to educate an economically productive populace, but also the production and circulation of knowledge as a common good. This panel invites discussants to reflect upon their experience of the ideal University in Ireland, however imperfectly embodied, not only in educational institutions, but also in the public sphere, where journalism and the media are integral to the kind of 'information economy' that is indispensable for real democracy.

The deadline for abstracts, which can be up to 300 words, is Oct 5 2013; however, potential participants for the panels and indeed proposals for other panels will be accepted until Oct 15.

There is a suggested fee of 40 Euro per session, 100 Euro for all sessions.
Cheques should be made payable to Nous Research, Dublin 4.

Students are encouraged to attend any single session of especial interest without payment.
No-one will be turned away for want of funds.

For further details about ICIS, proposals for any additional panel and submission of abstracts please contact feargus@gmail.com or seanoig@gmail.com

Provisional schedule;
 Nov 8 10am – 1pm

9 am – noon Episodes from an incomplete coup

Session chair/moderator  Prof Des O’Neill

Des O’Neill  “The failed privatization of the Irish medical system”

Break 10-30 am tea/coffee

11 am Sean O Nuallain "From social partnership to corporatism and beyond; the state and Irish civil society"

Moderated discussion

Noon
(Provisional) Press conference on the state's collusion with criminals in defrauding Irish musicians

Nov 8 2pm- 4pm Intellectual Freedom Session chair/moderator Feargus Denman

2pm Cathal Macswiney Brugha "Terence MacSwiney and Intellectual Freedom"
3pm round-table discussion chaired by Feargus Denman
 4pm Break  am tea/coffee

4-30pm submitted papers


Nov 9 10am – 1 pm
Panel discussion on the perceived necessity for a second republic, to be chaired/moderated by Demond Fennell.

Joe McCarthy (fiasco.ie) “Hanging chads and other garbage: waste, power and voting in the first Irish republic”

Break 11 am tea/coffee

11-15 Sean O Nuallain “The Tim Pat Coogan/Dan Rooney visa affair: does the USA really support the idea of a united 32-county Irish republic?"
11-45Desmond Fennell
12-15 Cathal Macswiney Brugha "The second Dail and the first Irish republic"
12-45 Gabriel Rosenstck; "From Christ to Krishnamurphy; postchristian secular Europe's search for its roots" Discussion

1-30 Lunch

Nov 9 2pm  - 5pm

: "Independent artists and undependable regulators: rights and oversight in
the Irish music industry"
Introduction 2-30pm  “The Irish music scam; how corruption in IMRO and the state regulatory bodies destoyed one of Ireland's flagship industries” (conference chair)
2-40 Melanie O'Reilly: "The Irish music biz: celtic mysteries, hiddenagendas, and why I became a singing detective."
Reply/amlpification by Danny Macarthy

3-45 pm Tea!coffee
4pm “Just once or with improbable frequency; can the success of Irish musical theater be continued?”Panel discussion, chaired by Ronan Smith who will make introductory comments

. Discussants include Arthur Riordan, Ronan Smith,Melanie O’Reilly

 

The re-enchantment of Ireland.

The  2^nd ICIS conference is planned for  8-9 November 2013, Bewley’s Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin.

 Inquiries to contuirt2013@gmail.com;  The proceedings of ICIS 1 have been approved for  publication and will be out in book form in October  2013; in the meantime CSP has published “Ireland: a colony once again”

Summary call

 

Last year, the inaugural conference of the International Congress of
Irish studies took place at UC Berkeley -
http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/ihouse.html?event_ID=55681.
The proceedings of the first ICIS conference are in press with CSP,
due to appear this month, and the conference chair has a strong record
of getting proceedings published in four such volumes to date.

With last year's seminar, academically sponsored by and hosted at the
number 1 public university in the world, we aimed to open up a
refreshing range of perspectives. Speakers such as Ishmael Reed
(McArthur fellowship recipient), Harry McGee (Political Correspondent)
and Stephen Watt (Theatre ) addressed the event amid a high
calibre of academic papers. We will now  host a
comparable event in Ireland on: Friday Nov 8th and Sat. Nov 9th 2013
in the Donnybrook Room , Bewley's Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

In addition to the themes suggested below,
here will also be a focussed workshop on the following motion and
consequent points for discussion as part of the conference:

"The moral and political impetus of the first Irish republic
has spent itself or has been spent.
If this is so, what form might a new political dispensation take to

optimize the welfare of the Irish people? How would this be reflected
in a renewed republic's constitution?

If it is not so, what reforms to current structures will best serve
the people as a priority and how should they be pursued?”

The discussion is framed with the assumption of crisis, as in a time
which calls for decisive intervention to resolve complex difficulties.
While the notion of a new republic circulates, discussions to date
have yet to attain either theoretic rigor or practical impetus. Surely
in political discussion, the concrete is what's called for?

Participants are encouraged to bring up any themes they wish in
politics, law, technology, and the arts.

By way of example:
- problematics of defining Ireland and the Irish, as in the 1998 GFA
agreement where “Irish means born in Ireland” was overwhelmingly
repudiated by subsequent referendum.

• the elision of the national territory
• The failure of the legal system, with court schedules jammed, legal costs skyhigh, and law thus being used as an instrument to buttress privilege versus a promoter of justice

• the failure of the criminal justice system
• - the endemics of corruption
• The failure to implement even basic corporate law to the point that the privilegeds like U2 tended to use dissolved companies with impunity to deal with day-to-day business, while keeping their solvent companies away from the action
  - the interwoven mismanagement of private and public finances
  - the corporatist structure of the society, with no effective bodies
  for the protection of workers
  – the absence of security for [private sector] labour/industrial
  action since 1990
  - the abrogation and denial of property rights in Ireland (privacy of
  data; artists' IP and copyright)
  - the dynamics of (explicit and insidious) power at play throughout
  the above vis a vis civic identity and culture
• The destruction of civil society by increasing transaction costs through devices like IMRO, or by more direct means

For additional themes, and details about our organization, please see below

Please send inquiries and abstracts to eireann@yahoo.com

The deadline for abstracts is Oct 5 2013; however, discussants are encouraged for the workshop on the second republic, which will consist of a focused set of presentations and a moderated discussion

Additional themes; the re-enchantment of Ireland.

As exemplified by the first, highly successful event at UC Berkeley in July, 2012, ICIS conferences address a wide swathe of issues relating both to the island of Ireland and the Irish diaspora. In particular, we focus on topics which are not discussed publicly in Ireland or elsewhere due to the Irish state's stranglehold on discourse, with the message emerging loud and clear from the orgy of litigation against academics from 1999-2012 and exhortations from the Irish Prime Minister for his ideological opponents to “commit suicide” that the state will not countenance any deviation from its received narratives on the part of academics on its payroll. The media run by the Irish establishment is no better, with the result that online fora like “politics.ie” and “boards.ie” get a million views a month. Consequently, there is a huge backlog of topics that should have been discussed in appropriate academic fora but were not so discussed; the apparently programmatic nature of the ICIS conference calls is in fact simply an attempt to clear this backlog rather than any attempt to bias discourse.

While we continue to refuse direct funding from the Irish state, in order to facilitate free discussion, participants are welcome to apply for grants and we will provide letters of support. So far, these applications have met with 100% success, both in the USA and Ireland, with Culture Ireland indeed providing resources for an artist to visit from Germany. 

Similarly, our 2012 panels featured episodes from the darker annals of Irish history: the events that led the word “Connemara' to be a synonym for lazy and feckless in parts of the  American Midwest; the vicious and ruinously expensive attempt to destroy academic tenure and freedom in Ireland; the hunger strike to death of Terence McSwiney. In this vein, we are open to panel suggestions; the  one we have prepared ourselves is

“Just Once or with Improbable Frequency; can the surprising rise of left-field Irish musical theater to international success be maintained?”

Invited speakers will include Lynne Parker (Rough Magic which brought “Improbable Frequency to off-Broadway), Prof Stephen  Watt (Indiana), Arthur Riordan (Rough Magic) and Enda Walsh (Director “Once”). No formal invites have yet been issued

The theme of the first meeting was ”Ireland in crisis”; in this, the second, we examine what has arguably been a disenchantment of Ireland, the pace of which has quickened since 2000, and how to reverse it. Participants are free – indeed encouraged – to disagree whether such a recolonization has taken place; moreover, the following sub- themes are suggestions rather than directions:

1.      Re-enchantment through the Performing Arts;

In summer, 2012, a war of words broke out following an “ex cathedra” announcement from the Irish times that theater groups in Ireland through their refusal to tackle themes of socio-political change were, in effect, wasting taxpayer money. The response from the highly respected Lynne Parker of “Rough Magic” was furious; the miracle was, she argued, that any of the independent groups were still on their feet at all. Underlying all this, surely, is a dynamic whereby the Irish Times and other such organs of the Irish establishment exert a stranglehold on the perception of Irish artists. Debate is to be conducted on the terms of this artificially-created elite or not at all, as the already minuscule Arts grants are likely to be cut off in the name of “social relevance”. How should artists respond?

·         By refusing to interact with state institutions and other organs of the Irish establishment?

·         How can those in the traditional arts defend themselves against the Irish state's infantilization of what they do, a move consistent with the attempt to turn the Gaeltachtai (Irish=speaking areas)into reservations?

·         In that vein, why has the current government not moved against the attested criminal attempt - attested in US federal court after the Irish criminal justice system visibly failed - to privatize all of Irish traditional music and steal the rest of the music copyrights through IMRO with distribution of the effects of the crime to be implemented through Enterprise Ireland stands at trade fairs – for example Midem in 1998? The result has been a clear paucity of new Irish popular music groups on the international scene after the huge success in the 1990's;

·         Can Irish choreography ever recover from the expectations of its nature due to Riverdance?

·         Why are U2 repeatedly allowed to use the Dublin courts and neophyte judges to punish their ex-employees, both in civil and criminal process, while they remain inviolate after their dissolved distribution company Record services Ltd stole from hundreds of Irish artists and in so doing cost the Irish economy a fortune in destroyed businesses and dealt Irish culture a hammer-blow?

·         In the plethora of movies released about the “troubles” why is “Patriot Games” the only one to examine even tangentially the most intellectually and politically significant group involved -the Marxist Irish National liberation Army? While what Sean Bean depicts indeed is a caricature of the desperadoes who flocked to the military wing of Seamus Costello's Irish Republican socialist Party, it is now increasingly clear that the IRSP/INLA set the agenda for Gerry Adam' dual political and electoral strategy. In fact, the refusal of the British to terminate the Provisional IRA - as even hunger strikers members like McKearney now make clear they could have - increasingly looks like it was motivated by fear that Costello's heirs would fill the vacuum. Can we expect a new biopic of Costello to follow up the Carraher 1986 opus in the plethora of movies being made in Ireland over the next decade or, 35 years after his death, is the man who burnt the British embassy in Dublin in 1972 as part of their eviction notice still too disturbing?

·         By the timeworn path of emigration of the most talented? This is now substantially more difficult in that it is attested that a senior consular officer at the US Embassy in Dublin has taken it on himself to second-guess recommendations from US Immigration, often obtained after a very costly outlay both of time and money by the artist involved, that artists of outstanding ability should be allowed work in the USA. While this had been reported to the Irish Democrats prior to Obama’s re-election, they took no action, and only the very public rejection of Tim Pat Coogan for a visa led to a sequence of events culminating in the  resignation of the ambassador and the re-assignment to /Mexico of the consular officer in question, a Mr Bradley Wilde.  Indeed, there is evidence that Wilde  is NOT a standard  state dept  employee, and his actions resulted in Irish passports being “lost”, sometimes within the embassy itself, leading on at least one occasion (ironically hoe on the heels of the Benghazi incident) for a demand for their return by the Irish dept of foreign affairs, who yet did not make a public statement on this critical matter; Papers are invited that discuss whether the contempt of the US administration for Ireland, exemplified by Geithner’s  2010 intervention to make sure that the debt was too crippling ever to be paid back, extends to considering Irish visa applicants mainly as sources for passports to be passed on to the Israelis for another Dubai operation

2. The re-enchantment of the land of Ireland

In 1608 the first colonial reification of a colonial “property” in Anglo-Saxon Law was achieved through what became known as the Irish “Tanistry” case. Immediately, a land that was experienced largely through the “dindsenchas”, narratives about place, had to wait 300 years for a genius of the caliber of Joyce to res-establish this mode of experience in “Ulysses”. Moreover, two minutes with pen and paper will confirm that the cartography of the “dindsenchas”, like that of Joyce is unerringly accurate when it chooses to be; its location of the center of Ireland is more correct on the north-south axis than the reified ordinance survey.

It can perhaps be argued that the over-interpretation of the Tanistry case to facilitate the Munster and Ulster plantations was illegal, and in any case vitiated by the 1704 Queen Anne decision that removed land claims from colonial courts all over the nascent Empire. This issue is still the elephant in the room of indigenous affairs in the former Anglo-Saxon colonies, and we believe that there is a chance to discuss it here.

It could also perhaps be argued that Anglo-Saxon common law was falsely established as the law of the land on foot of the 17^th century Tanistry case, an argument for which the current chief justice Denham has reportedly publicly expressed sympathy. ,Judge Denham also has expressed a willingness to countenance Brehon/Irish law in her courtroom.

Finally, part of the narrative of Irish independence was the contemporary sense of self-sufficiency; Arthur Griffith correctly argued that the carrying capacity of the island was well above even its current population. However, recent activity by both the Atlantic and North Atlantic oscillation has shortened the growing season by 2-3 months, and fodder is now being imported from far more densely populated countries. Is this the final nail in the coffin for independence?

We welcome papers, inter alia, from artists who wish to discuss the disenchantment of the land and how to reverse it through appropriate gestures of reclamation of self-sovereignty

3. Queer, Irish, Catholic

Given that the first  ICIS conferences was n in California's “Bay Area”, we believe it worthwhile to re-examine one of the most troubling sequences in Irish-American history through the prism supplied by the work of Randy Shilts. In his book , “The mayor of Castro street”, which supplied the template for the hit movie “Milk”, this very respected gay activist documents what was effectively the ethnic cleansing of the Irish from the Castro neighborhood (perhaps the only such in American history), all the while demonizing the Irish as bigoted and backward.

However, in Shilt's later “And the band played on”, many of the heroes of the book are Irish starting with the pope's personal physician, one Dr Kevin Cahill, the first person to publicize the fact that AIDS was actually an epidemic. What does this tell us about this fragile nexus of identities of gay, Catholic, Irish and Irish-American at a time when Ireland's deputy prime minister describes gay marriage as the number one human rights issue of the moment?

4.      Intellectual Freedom; content and carrier

Given that ICIS runs academic conferences, so far in elite universities, we will continue to debate this issue sub specie academic freedom until the Irish state accepts certain universally-agreed principles of academic freedom. Recently, the CO of Ireland's Higher education Authority, (the other) John Hennessy, declared that academic freedom was something that should be earned by academics through the public's respect for what they say. Is it now clear that the Irish state does not want real universities?

The spate of university court cases from 1999-2010, perhaps in a lull, ended in an inconclusive situation about tenure. One is reminded of the analogy whereby the USA was willing to allow Japan keep its emperor only after they had dropped two atomic bombs on its people. Will the state achieve what is clearly its goal; the land grant universities simply doing training for corporations, with superstar academics being flown in for short stays, “students” preferably paying the extra fees gouged from non-residents of the country) engaged in projects for these corporations, and everyone else on short-term or no contracts?If the Irish state gets away with this, will universities in  America and elsewhere copy it?

It is clear that an elite continues to  benefit from the absence of real debate, exemplified also by a caste of broadcasters on RTE who have $million salaries to lose. Yet in 2009 Claire Duignan, head of radio at that same station, disgracefully, prevented an RTE radio show from appearing on NPR at no cost to RTE after a trial run showed that there was an audience of many millions in the USA for Irish content.  Is there any need for RTE? Could the license fee money be better spent of supporting Lyric, TG$ and RnaG as before, while also creating an internet carrier with unbiased search algorithms and dispensing with the plethora of pop and “current affairs” programs?

Similarly, the Irish Times, having interviewed the students whose basic rights were violated at DCU in 2003, and chose instead to join the attack on academic freedom and tenure, to the point of having to issue an apology in 2010 to the acaemics who stood up against DCU management, and fought DCU all the way to the supreme court – a case again misreported by the Times.  What we’ve had instead in terms of activism from the Times is an attempt to bias the implementation in law of a referendum result that was being charitably dealt with.  Does the fact that the same journalist  - Kitty Holland – was involved in both cases indicates that Ireland’s Gosnell case will be as unreported as the one in the USA?

5.      Balancing the books

It is fair to say that Ireland is being held hostage by international finance, which seems to have found a way to restore confidence in its dubious products by creating a debtor of last resort, one whose survival as a nation-state is related to payment of unsecured bonds. Moreover, the current Irish government seems willing to risk even the peace in rural Ireland by cutting policing as it prepares itself for the 7^th deflationary budget in a row.

This trend exists simultaneously with the most generous social welfare payments and a burgeoning bureaucracy. Indeed, it is arguable that the permanent government, the civil service, simply change their front-men with each election and continue their often criminal incursions into civil society apace, regardless of what went on in the election.

It is fair to say that many of these functionaries, instead of seeing themselves as administering sectors of the state to facilitate Irish people of energy and goodwill, instead see themselves as victors in a “Darwinian”  struggle over those individuals for that sector of Irish society. The latitude of behaviour they allow themselves is terrifying and has ruined the lives of millions; while exemplified by the banks, the process whereby IMRO was granted a monopoly and destroyed the native Irish music industry involved corruption of a senior civil servant, documented by Anthony  McCann;  Enterprise Ireland continued the job of destruction by attested bootlegging of the up-and-coming Irish artists of the 1990’s at international trade fairs, a practice that successive government ministers, including the present one, has failed to prosecute, even after criminal complaints and a successful US Federal court action made known to him; SFI has become a bottomless pit; the universities are almost wholly unregulated.

Moreover, the gargantuan, overpaid and corrupt bureaucracy seems to be the worst of both worlds; overstaffed, but with decisions made centrally, often by a single unqualified and criminal individual put there in the Ahern era to do his bidding, as a  recent Irish times op-ed speculates. How far can costs be cut while retaining decent salaries for public servants who actually work for the betterment of the country? Can we cut the looming E300 billion + pension bill, stay solvent, and negotiate with the ECB as equals as we reclaim our country? Can anyone who is benefiting from the numerous scams which have so degraded Ireland – from rent subsidy to inflated banking sector wages – truly assist in the recovery? In what sense should we talk of a new national movement a la the Fenians  rather than mere politics?

Papers are invited that discuss the purposes of this nation-state (eg a civic versus ethnic nationalism?), the ethical use of law and administration for this end, the proper scope of the state vis a vis civil society in a reimagined  Ireland,  and how to cost it.

Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D.