Schoolboy Michael was punched, kicked, and beaten with a baseball bat in an alleyway in Ballymena in May 2006. The 15-year-old died hours later in hospital. Four people were given minimum terms ranging from 13 years to 10 years at Antrim Crown Court for killing the teenager three years later, Another man convicted of manslaughter was given a three-year suspended sentence. Two others were also sentenced-one was given 10 months for affray and criminal damage, and the other a conditional discharge for criminal damage.
The Socialist Party and Socialist Youth intervened in Ballymena, seeking to build a united, anti-sectarian movement amongst young people in the town. This is one example of many when of the conscious efforts of comrades to influence events.
Social decay causes alienation and conditions for conflict
First published July 27th 2010 by Socialist Party
Fierce rioting erupted in Ardoyne after an Orange Order parade on 12 July and continued for three days. The period before, over and after this year’s Twelfth was also marked by rioting in other areas and a number of gun and bomb attacks. There was trouble across Belfast — including the New Lodge, Broadway, the Markets, Short Strand, Ormeau Road-and in Derry, Armagh, and Lurgan.
Three PSNI officers were shot in the New Lodge and shots were also fired at the PSNI in Ardoyne and in the Bogside area of Derry. A landmine exploded in South Armagh and there were a number of blast bomb attacks. In total, 88 PSNI members were injured. The PSNI used potentially lethal baton rounds on a number of occasions but fortunately no-one was killed. The police claimed that the trouble in Derry was the worst in a decade.
For a few days, the atmosphere in Northern Ireland was thrown back to a darker, more violent past. In the days after the Twelfth, mainstream politicians and the media conducted a post-mortem on the events in very strident and inaccurate terms. Rioting on this scale is not part of the script of the “peace process” and has to be explained away. It is important that socialists do not exaggerate recent events but soberly estimate where we are at this time.
THE PUBLICATION of the Cory Report into the deaths of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Billy Wright and Robert Hamill, and of the Dail report into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, has provided further evidence of the nefarious role played by the British State in the conflict in Northern Ireland.
British Government policy during the last 30 years has been by and large one of pragmatism. Over the first two decades of the Troubles, it relied on a policy of repression, overwhelmingly directed against Catholic areas, allied with repeated attempts to create political solutions based on the “constitutional” parties. All attempts at a political solution failed.
Police raid on Sinn Fein office at Stormont in search for evidence of intelligence gathering in October 2002 caused a collapse of the Executive which lasted for five years.
First published by Socialist Party 11th October, 2002
AS WE go to press, it seems almost certain that Northern Ireland’s Executive and Assembly will collapse this week. New Labour’s Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid will probably suspend the institutions in the hope that they can one day be resuscitated
Switch of Jeffrey Donaldson and Arlene Foster from Ulster Unionist Party to Democratic Unionist Party in 2004 was a key moment in process which lead to eclipse of latter as unionism's largest party, a position it had held since 1921.
First published Socialist Voice, Newspaper of Socialist Party Ireland, Jan 5th 2004
ON 5 JANUARY Jeffrey Donaldson, Norah Beare and Arlene Foster announced that they were joining the DUP. Their move underlined the results of the recent elections. The DUP are now the largest unionist party and Sinn Fein the largest nationalist party
Despite this some commentators are arguing that the forthcoming review of the Agreement will achieve a deal and re-establish an Executive. Some even argue that the outcome of the election will result in greater long term stability as a deal reached between the extremes will be more likely to stick.
Their logic largely rests on the argument that the leading members of Sinn Fein and the DUP are competent and ambitious administrators who are keen to once again get their hands on the levers of power. For this reason the DUP will abandon their position of refusing to talk to and share power with Sinn Fein. Whilst there is some truth in this it is a minor factor and will not determine the course of events in the next period.
Of vital importance is the fact that three more elections are due in the next 18 months-the European poll in June of this year and the local and Westminster elections next year. Both Sinn Fein and the DUP will see these contests as opportunities to emphasise their dominance over their rivals.
Written by Bill Webster and Peter Hadden , members Better Life for All Campaign Council. Originally published in Militant Irish Monthly, No. 139, March 1986 and on Marxists Internet Archive (as transcribed by Ciaran Crossey).
Generally speaking among political commentators on Northern Ireland the loudest voices belong to those who deny that the working class can overcome sectarian divisions. Such sceptics choose to ignore the true history of the working class movement.
And since writing on the recent troubles has been dominated by such people it is no wonder that there has been no commemoration by press or other media of a vital episode in the history of the labour movement which took place ten years ago.
At the beginning of 1976 the Trade Union Better Life For All Campaign was launched. For a brief moment the trade union movement raised the united voice of Catholic and Protestant workers against sectarianism and against poverty. The potential for class unity was vividly and for all time demonstrated.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald stated that a united Ireland is “within touching distance” in the days before the restoration of power sharing. Her comment was widely reported, not just in local media, but also outside Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein frequently suggest that there is a momentum towards a united Ireland, with references to their hope to be in government on both sides of the border soon and to the impact of Brexit. What they hint at, but are reluctant to state openly, is where the momentum really comes from: demographic change. The population of the North is very slowly changing, with a higher proportion of Catholics and a lower proportion of Protestants.
The idea that demographic change provides a solution is entirely wrong. It would be a mistake to assume that the imperfect peace that now reigns in Northern Ireland will continue indefinitely. That the “peace process” could unravel is clear both from an analysis of the situation in the North but also from an analysis of other places.
The Northern Ireland Assembly met on Saturday February 3rd, and after nearly two years of political paralysis, the Democratic Unionist Party agreed to return to the power-sharing Executive. Day-to-day control of the governing of Northern Ireland has once again been returned to the main parties. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Republic of Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited Belfast to applaud this development but did not meet themselves or issue a joint press statement. There was speculation that Sunak would provide increased funding over to assist the Executive, above the £3.3 billion already on the table, but he did not do so.
As the dust settles all the contradictions inherent in the workings of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement remain to test the system. The problems facing ordinary working people have not changed and remain unresolved. There is an obvious and immediate shortfall in funding, especially for public sector pay claims. Whilst many workers and young people “welcome” the return of devolved government there is little sense of optimism.
The Northern Ireland power sharing Executive has been restored today after a two-year period of stalemate. It was boycotted by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from February 2022 in a protest against the post-Brexit arrangements for trade between Northern Ireland, Europe and Great Britain.
Much has been written and said about the DUP and its boycott over the last two years. Vitriol has been heaped on the party by leading figures from the nationalist parties North and South. Many prominent British political figures and European Union bureaucrats joined in the fray.
The DUP were told repeatedly that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the Windsor Framework were the best that was available, and that renegotiation was possible. This turned out to be untrue. The capitalist powers will often renegotiate what was previously agreed, and will jettison what was once sacrosanct when it suits. The ruling class will always act in its own interests.
First published April 1st 2019 by in Socialist Voice, paper of the Socialist Party in Ireland and The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party of England and Wales
Sinn Fein organised protests against hardening of the border after Brexit
The implementation of new trading arrangements after the Brexit vote in 2016 has proven to be a complex and contentious issue and has paralysed power sharing government in Northern Ireland for two years. Throughout the last five years of negotiations socialists have argued for a solution which recognise the concerns of all communities and minimises any sense of border between the north of Ireland and the South, and in the Irish Sea. Now an agreement has been reached, and the Executive has returned, and we will analyse this in detail in the coming days.
The article republished below dates from April 2019 and illustrates the approach which we advocated for the workers movement. A series of articles since then have maintained and developed a similar approach. The issue of post-Brexit arrangements illustrates like no other the need for an independent political stance by the workers movement. Without one the movement risks falling into one sectarian camp or the other, either deliberately, or by default.
The prolonged countdown to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union has thrown the Conservative government into a profound crisis. The chaos is such that an anonymous European source has compared the UK to a “failed state” (Financial Times, March 21st 2019) and the EU was able to impose its own terms when May came cap in hand seeking an extension of the original withdrawal date of March 29th.
At the time of writing, British Prime Minister, Teresa May, has tried, three times, to win a parliamentary majority for her draft withdrawal agreement, and has three times failed. The withdrawal agreement has been rejected on each previous occasion by a wide margin. The third defeat plunged the government into a mood of despair, and May even hinted at a general election if no way forward can be found. As things stand the UK will leave the EU without a deal on April 12th unless the draft withdrawal agreement is accepted by Parliament in the coming days, a long extension of months or even years is granted, or Article 50 is revoked and Brexit is “cancelled”. If the withdrawal agreement is passed May 22nd will be the new withdrawal date.
