As we approach the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising this article looks at anti-Agreement Republicanism by reviewing its press.
The three main dissident republican political organisations are the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, and Republican Sinn Fein. This article reviews their publications, which are The Starry Plough, The Sovereign Nation, and Saoirse.

These groups are all much much smaller than the mainstream or ‘Provisional’ Sinn Fein, but given the latter’s acceptance of the Unionist veto aka the principle of consent, that is that changes in the constitutional arrangement for Northern Ireland must be endorsed by its electorate, as well as their downsizing of the military arm, it is the dissidents rather than the Provisionals who carry on the spirit of what Irish republicanism meant for most of the 20th centuary.

Related Links: Conflict Archive CAIN Wikipedia on Real I.R.A. Ireland's Own, republican website Davy Carlin article on dissidents The Nationalism Project: site for the study of nationalism
Easter Statements: Na Fianna Éireann Cumann na Saoirse Náisíunta Irish Republican Socialism Movement the leadership of Ógliagh na hÉireann RSY To The Irish People from the Republican Movement IAWM
These Easter statements were all posted to the Indymedia Newswire

The end of casinos and card rooms in Ireland?

About four years ago I got a job working for security in a large Vegas-style casino in Auckland, New Zealand. On my first morning I was introduced to the manager and other people I would be working with, handed a swipe pass, and given a list of my daily duties. The casino and adjoining conference centre and hotel were open 24 hours, all year round, and employed roughly 2,000 people in total. The majority of these were food/drink and cleaning staff on three rotating eight hour shifts. I had started on a Monday morning at 8am, and after being shown the ropes in the control room, my team leader asked me if I'd like to go on a tour of the gaming floor. Why not, I replied.

So off we went down to the enormous gaming floor. Bear in mind this was before 9am on a Monday, so I expected the place to be near empty, maybe a few cleaners hoovering the deep green carpets or polishing the roulette wheels in anticipation of a few people drifting in later on in the afternoon. Not a bit of it. Tables were full, cards being dealt, lights flashing and buzzers sounding, chips being stacked and counted. The "one armed bandit" areas were the worst. Red-eyed, gaunt, pasty, slouching, with their change bucket in one hand and the other eternally poised over the button, these people looked like they'd been there all night, all week, all their lives.

This was in huge contrast to the other "casinos" I'd previously been in - namely the Merrion, and the Jackpot (now closed, as far as I know) on Montague Street. These were card rooms, with no more than 60 people playing in a knockout Texas Hold'em tournament. There was no alcohol, they certainly werent open 24 hours, and the atmosphere was intimate and reasonably relaxed. They were operating in a legal grey area, and even though I'd been playing poker for a good while with friends in private house games, very few people seemed aware of their existence. In the last four years though, there's been a huge upsurge in people playing poker, and the casinos have multiplied in Dublin, and beyond.

This story detailing the way in which the "regeneration" of Ballymun in Dublin is turning out to be a free-for-all for private investors, property speculators, builders and landlords, at the expense of the local community is written by Mick Burke, a community activist from Ballymun. It is taken from the first issue of 'Ireland From Below', a non-profit, community newspaper written, produced and published by a voluntary collective which will report on community struggles all over the island of Ireland. Contact details for the paper are included at the end of the article.

At a series of meetings with tenants in the late 1990s, Dublin Corporation set out to persuade the people of Ballymun that demolition and rebuilding were the best – and only – options for the future of the area. A Dublin suburb with the population of Sligo was to be torn down while the people were still living there; at the same time a replacement town was to be built around them.

That option was at first overwhelmingly rejected by the community and only slowly accepted as part of an overall strategy for the area that was intended to change Ballymun forever – from a high unemployment, low-skill ghetto into a vibrant modern town capable of attracting investment at the same time as giving local people pride in rebuilding and reshaping their town.

The regeneration programme has been underway for nearly ten years, and a different picture has emerged, one in which the profits of private investors, property speculators, building giants and private landlords are prioritised over the interests of the long-standing Ballymun community.

I met up with Maria MhicMheanmain in a small redbrick terraced house in the shadow of Croke Park in Summerhill. She's involved in the campaign against the opening of a new strip club and "adult entertainment" venue on Parnell Street, run by English businessman Peter Stringfellow. The club has already began to advertise in the Irish media and recruitment websites for positions (no pun intended) in the club.

The campaign against Stringfellows was started by a woman called Vera Brady, who lives on Parnell Street. Her family have been there for a hundred years, over several generations. Maria and Vera have known each other a long time, with connections through their families. Maria says, "We dont have a name on our group yet, its just a group of concerned residents who dont want to see this club open in this location. Vera organised Matt Talbot hall for our first public meeting, and also did extensive leaflet drops in the area in order to get local people along.

"The first I heard of the proposed strip club on Parnell Street was on TV on a Friday night, the Late Late Show, a number of weeks ago. My initial reaction was, Christ, where they're planning on building a lapdancing club is less than a minute's walk away from my old secondary school (Mount Carmel). I was aware of a lapdancing club in Galway which opens at midday, and I was enraged that the possibility existed of men queueing up to get into a club like this, while young teenage girls were in the immediate vicinity on their lunch break."

FROM THE COMMENTS:
On the 16th of June 2005, "Bloomsday" the 5 were still free, and protesting. That was the morning the Corduff's abandoned breakfast was photographed and we read of how Shell had illegally entered the lands in Rossport to begin illegal work on an illegal pipeline. Mr. Corduff's Bloomsday Brekkie will have gone cold by now. It would not be sexist to suggest Mrs. Corduff will make him another with cuddles on top.

20:00hrs 30/09/2005

We the Rossport 5 would like to thank our neighbours, friends and fellow Irish citizens for the loving support we and our families have received during these 94 traumatic days. In addition we would like to thank the incoming Norwegian government for their respect, support and assistance. We remind SHELL and their Irish government partner that imprisonments have historically and will always fail as a method to secure the agreement of Irish people.

We now call on our supporters to intensify the campaign for the safety of our community and families. We invite all citizens to join with us at a national rally tomorrow (Sat 1st Oct - Ed: Reports and Photos) Saturday, October 1st. The rally will depart from the Garden of Remembrance at 2pm and march to the Dáil. The campaign has now begun in earnest.

Micheál Ó Seighin
Willie Corduff
Brendan Philbin
Vincent McGrath
Philip McGrath
DUBLIN CITY