The crowd outside Liberty Hall

Up to 600 people yesterday marched behind the ashes of Bob Doyle from the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square to a celebration of his life held in Liberty Hall.

A lone piper led a colour party from the Republican Movement and the Communist Party, followed by three generations of the Doyle family who had come over from London to attend the event.

Behind them marched several hundred people in a display of left unity and solidarity we will doubtless see more of on the streets of Dublin over the coming months. Groups attending the celebration included the main unions, Eirigí, the WSM, the IRSP and Dublin Sinn Féin. Banners were also carried by the International Brigades Memorial Trust and the Inistiogue George Brown Memorial Committee. Supporters of the Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Solidarity Campaign demonstrating outside the GPO dipped their flags as a mark of respect as the crowd passed by.

Two wreaths were laid at the plaque to the Irish volunteers of the International Brigades outside Liberty Hall and after a few brief speeches the assembled went inside where a large photograph of Bob sat over the book of condolences.

Related Links:
• Bob Doyle (February 12th 1916 - January 22nd 2009) - A collection of speeches, articles and obituaries
• Bob Doyle: 'An Unusual Communist' - Previous Indy Feature with Video Interview with Bob

Waterford Crystal workers with meeting Chair.

Noel Atkins and Pat Phelan, Waterford Crystal workers and Unite Shop Stewards, travelled to Cork last night to speak out against the attempted closure of the plant. They spoke from the heart as workers tossed on the scrap heap after decades of service.

In the audio, the background to the conflict is provided along with calls for solidarity around the country and a recognition that will hopefully inspire the country and become the first struggle among many against the attack on our class.

Related Links: Thoughts on the crash, what is planned for us and the alternatives
Waterford Crystal Workers Occupy Deloitte head Office in Dublin
Waterford Occupation: Interview with Joe Kelly
Solidarity from New Zealand for Waterford Workers Occupying Factory

el pequeño generalisimo

There is a tendency to dismiss the rantings of Kevin Myers as mere guff designed to sell newspapers. However, this would be to ignore the collateral damage his phosphorous cluster bomb prose inflicts. He has confounded his critics yet again by managing to fill copious column inches of Friday's Irish Independent with another tired tirade, albeit couched in his usual purple prose. Just when we thought he must surely run out of steam, he has managed to dish up yet more of the kind of verbiage that displays a yearning for those mythical days when the croppies knew their place and were content to doff their caps to their betters. His litany of collateral damage includes single mothers, travellers, immigrants, the Irish language, 1916, Muslims in Ireland, Palestinians and prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. His salvo, attacking the legacy of Bob Doyle and his comrades who fought in Spain against fascism, should be a call to make next Saturday's commemoration in their honour a defiant rebuttal of all Myers' and his ilk stand for.

Related Links:
• Myers, Gaza and the BNP
• Mothers of bastards?
• Bob Doyle obit
• Bob Doyle commemoration
• Ireland and the Spanish Civil War

Meeting Saturday: 12:00 Garden of Remembrance
Meeting Saturday: 13:00 Liberty Hall
Those who march on Saturday will commemorate Bob Doyle and his comrades with pride. They will also be standing against everything Kevin Myers stands for. That would be reason enough to be there.

In a piece headlined 'The devil might indeed have the best tunes but it is the lefties who have easily the best myths', (Click Here) he displays once more his ability to spout twaddle cloaked in the language of realpolitik. The lefties may have the best myths but the righties have cornered the market when it comes to propaganda, historical revisionism and sweeping caricaturisation.

Myers is a professional peddler of myth - most of it glib and replete with generalisations. In keeping with his penchant for soft targets, Myers' latest victim is a man who is no longer around to defend himself. Much to Myers' dismay, there are plenty others around to do so on his behalf. Bob Doyle, the last of the Irish members of the International Brigade who fought to defend Spanish democracy against Franco's military coup, died on January 23. A march will be held this Saturday from The Garden of Remembrance to Liberty Hall in Doyle's native Dublin at 12 o'clock, where a wreath will be laid at the memorial to those Irishmen who gave their lives in that war against fascism.

From Here to There

On Friday 13th February, myself and my cousin will head off to Gaza with a lorry full of aid for some of the 60,000 people left homeless after the recent attacks by Israel.

We will be joining up with a convoy of 90 other vehicles in London, where we will leave from the embankment opposite the Houses Of Parliment, and then make our way to the ferry and hopefully 17 days later we will arrive at the border in Rafa.

We are the only Irish crew going, and we feel very proud to be a part of this trip, and to try and give something to the people of Gaza who have suffered so much.

This convoy is being led by George Galloway MP, and is organised by Viva Palestina.

"Overwhelming response to the Galway Palestine Children's Appeal"
Last Saturday, members of the Galway Palestine Children's Appeal were "overwhelmed" by the public response to their appeal for humanitarian aid for the children and people of Gaza - filling not one, not two, but three 40ft containers with medical supplies, household goods, non perishable food, clothes and toys. For more, click here.

Galloway to Lead Aid Convoy to Gaza on February 14th
British MP George Galloway announced on Monday that he will be leading an aid caravan compiled of a number of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid supplies accompanied by ambulances. The convoy will leave London on February 14th heading for Gaza Strip. For more, click here.

Viva Palestina
A life line from Britain to Gaza - Click Here.