All the news media in Ireland have gone ballistic in the last few days ramping up the Covid fear to new extreme levels. There are already 100,000s of people absolutely terrified by their misleading news and this sustained level of fear for over 10 months now is very likely leading to very dangerous health conditions for these people leading to heart conditions, mental issues, cancer and all sorts of problems caused largely by the extreme stress that they have put themselves under because unfortunately the media and the politicians are giving highly distorted, mis-leading inaccurate and sensational news about the Covid situation.

A good example is the news from the past few days where we are told the hospitals are overflowing with Covid patients and as of today it is claimed 46 are dead from Covid.

The aim of this article is to bring some context and reality to this, something the mainstream media and politicians and their bureaucrats are strenuously going out of their way to not do.

read full story / add a comment

Music can uplift, inspire, or soothe us at any stage of life. We might react with smiles or tears when we hear a certain song, depending on the kind of event that it prompts us to recall. 'Magical moments' welcomes art and writing related to memories of joy, awe, peace or happiness. read full story / add a comment

In surprise move Glenn Greenwald who helped publish NSA Edward Snowden's revelations on widespread mass spying and other activities and who setup the The Intercept with Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill in 2014 as a vehicle to publish this material, has resigned from it.

He has been forced out by the editors who tried to stop him from publish his recent articles on the Joe Biden email scandal. They were trying to protect the Joe Biden camp.

He tweeted: The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.

Greenwald has released a lengthy statement on this issue which we reproduce here.

read full story / add a comment

Van Morrison and Andrew Lloyd Webber have enough and has launched the Save Live Music Campaign and have released this message

As you know, we are doing socially distanced gigs at Newcastle Upon Tyne’s Gosforth Park, Electric Ballroom and The London Palladium. This is not a sign of compliance or acceptance of the current state of affairs, this is to get my band up and running and out of the doldrums. This is also not the answer going forward. We need to be playing to full capacity audiences going forward.

I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this.

Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up. read full story / add a comment

“We are slipping back from the age of reason into the mire of mystery, into a world of gods and devils, ghouls and angels. The difference this time is that we have chosen ignorance over knowledge, vapidity over insight, folly over realism. Consequently, we only have ourselves to blame when the rich and powerful take advantage of us.” – Andrew Davenport

Introduction

Why do we need to talk about Romanticism? What is Romanticism? And how does it affect us in the 21st century? The fact is that we are so immersed in Romanticism now that we cannot see the proverbial wood for the haunted-looking trees. Romanticism has so saturated our culture that we need to stand back and remind ourselves what it is, and examine how it has seeped into our thinking processes to the extent that we are not even aware of its presence anymore. Or why this is a problem. The Romanticist influence of intense emotion makes up a large part of modern culture, for example, in much pop music, cinema, TV and literature, e.g. genres such as Superheroes, Fantasy, Horror, Magical realism, Saga, Westerns. I will look at the origins of Romanticism, and its negative influence on culture and politics. I will show how Enlightenment ideas originally emerged in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Church and led to the formation of a working class ideology and culture of resistance. read full story / add a comment

Should sustainability and affordability be a major factor in the design and development of future buildings? What about aesthetics? There are many individual examples of modern buildings today that have positive aesthetic qualities, but can major future problems, like climate change, be resolved by individual efforts? Or will it take the role of the state with grand visions for the future? read full story / add a comment

How times have changed. In the space of a few weeks ordinary things like going to the beach or swimming have become illegal activities, criminal acts. We have sleep walked into a police state and we are clapping our way through it.

We are told that the lockdown will have to continue indefinitely. We are told there will be more rounds of Covid-19 each worse the next. This is completely counter to most diseases which get milder over time. We are told when the lock down lifts, groups no larger than 10 will be allowed. What does that mean for flying, going to the theatre, cinema, concerts, football matches. Going to the beach, staying in a hotel.

Actually it’s pure crap and if we don’t wake up and reject this bullshit, we are totally fucked.

read full story / add a comment

Between 5th and 12th March you are invited to attend one of our nationwide special screenings of the highly acclaimed Palestinian documentary film ‘Naila and the Uprising’. All screenings of the film will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with the film’s producer Rula Salameh. read full story / add a comment

The Arts Council today launched their new policy Paying the Artist. This sets out a vision and plan to create change over the period 2020–2022. We, in Visual Artists Ireland, welcome this firm show of support for individual artists, and recognise it as part of the on-going support that the Arts Council has given our work in this area, particularly since our 2011 campaign Ask! Has the Artists Been Paid! which led to the concrete changes that have been building over the years, and impacting all art forms. We want to thank all of the supporters that we have had over the years on this campaign, especially those who worked with us on developing our approach that is aimed to benefit all artists. We are also very grateful to our sister representative organisations, all of whom bring the experiences and realities of their own artists and organisations. Listening to them and learning from them has been truly an amazing experience. We want to thank the Arts Council for their open ear, and thank them for the acknowledgement of our reports such as The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of the Visual Artist in Ireland, which formed the basis for our campaign, and the role that we and other representative and resource organisations have played during the consultation process and will play into the future roll out and support of this policy area. read full story / add a comment

Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is a 2019 comedy-drama set in 1969 Los Angeles and features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The story centres around veteran actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), star of the 1950s Western television series Bounty Law, and and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton is worried that his career is in decline and is reticent to take advice to travel to Italy to make Spaghetti Westerns. Cliff Booth also struggles to get work in Hollywood due to rumors that he murdered his wife on a boating trip. read full story / add a comment

The Factory

“And such should childhood ever be,
The fairy well; to bring
To life’s worn, weary memory
The freshness of its spring.

But here the order is reversed,
And infancy, like age,
Knows of existence but its worst,
One dull and darkened page;—”

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon – The Vow of the Peacock and Other Poems (1835)

read full story / add a comment

The importance of theatre is demonstrated by the prevalence and variety of forms it takes both locally and globally in society today. Indeed, over the centuries theatre has played an important sociological and ideological role. It has been used both by communities and elites to propagate and spread ideas for the consolidation of society (Morality plays), for social improvement (Neo-Classical plays) as well as instigating and promoting revolutionary ideas (Brechtian theatre). read full story / add a comment

Poetry is often associated with genteel people and laid-back lifestyles, yet over the decades since the Enlightenment many poets have been actively involved in the most radical of political and art movements. Setting up a solid foundation for such attitudes was the poet extraordinaire, Alexander Pope. In this essay I shall look at the connection between poetry and socio-political struggles over the centuries. From Pope to the Chartists, and from the Irish revolutionary poets to the postcolonial writers writers of Africa, poetry has played an important part in social change. The recent explosion of global demonstrations and rallies has also been connectioned with radical poetry as will be seen in Chile for example. read full story / add a comment

Film about the last two surviving members of the Piripkura people, a nomadic tribe in the Mato Grasso region of Brazil, struggle to maintain their indigenous way of life amidst the region's massive deforestation. read full story / add a comment

The last season of the Game of Thrones has prompted public outcry and culminated in a petition (signed by almost 1 million outraged viewers) to disqualify the entire season and re-shoot a new one. The ferocity of the debate is in itself a proof that the ideological stakes must be high. read full story / add a comment

This year we mark the centenary of the First Dáil. The Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress played a significant role in shaping the ‘Democratic Programme’ of the Dáil meeting in January 1919. Yet, much of what was contained in that document was subsequently forgotten or dismissed. The ITUC as forerunner of the ICTU played a constructive role in helping to steer Ireland towards a coherent social vision for the entire island of Ireland. The challenge remains. Following a bruising economic crisis after 2008, the lessons of economic and policy development have not been learned or applied by Government. read full story / add a comment

Charlie Donnelly Winter School, 2019
▶Various venues in Co. Monaghan and Co. Tyrone
Organised by Friends of the International Brigades and the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum read full story / add a comment

Current efforts by social media companies and Atlanticist think tanks to remove various alternative media pages are part of a coordinated corporate attempt to disrupt and destroy a "global intifada" of social movements, according to documents and data examined by this writer read full story / add a comment

To mark UN International Day of Solidarity With The Palestinian People 2018, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign presents a free evening dedicated to Palestinian culture at which you can sample Palestinian food, hear live traditional Palestinian music, poetry and prose. read full story / add a comment

The 12th Dublin Anarchist Bookfair takes place on the 15th September 2018 at the Teachers Club 35 Parnell square and on the evening ofthe 14th at Wynns hotel. Every year hundreds of people attend the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair for a day of inspiring discussions and the opportunity of meeting lots of other radicals, browsing books and meeting campaigns.

With two weeks to go we are finalsing the details join the Facebook event to let us know you are coming so we can plan for expected numbers and when you do so ask 10 of your friends who you reckon should go. If you are on Twitter than RT our promotional thead read full story / add a comment