Tag: Ireland

Dear Mr Obama, before your visit to Ireland

Ronit Lentin

obama-and-palestine-2Dear Mr Obama

I supported you when you ran against Clinton for the Democratic nomination and when you ran against McCain for president, not merely because it was refreshing to have an African American president, but also because you struck me as bright, progressive, and intent on making the US and the world a better place. I was impressed with your promises to close Guantanamo Bay Cuba, end American involvement in Iraq, and with your apparent determination to bring about a solution to the question of Palestine. Continue reading “Dear Mr Obama, before your visit to Ireland”

Qualified welcome

Ronit Lentin

After the whirlwind election campaign in which equality, immigration or integration did not feature, we have a new government, to which I would like to extend a qualified welcome. Appointing Alan Shatter to Justice was a foregone conclusion. Shatter has a good record of speaking about equality issues while in opposition, but coupling his Justice portfolio with Defence sends the wrong message, at least at the level of public discourse. Justice and Defence wreaks of security, crime prevention, the Gardai, the military forces – all important issues, but say little about equality, which, as Vincent Browne argued in The Irish Times, this Fine Gael-Labour coalition has so far failed to embrace. Continue reading “Qualified welcome”

First reflections on Irish elections, February 2011

Ronit Lentin

OK, I didn’t vote for the first time in my life. Not because I was confused, nor because there was no one to vote for (after all there was the Left Alliance, and particularly the Socialist Party), nor even because I didn’t feel strongly enough about getting Fianna Fail out. But because I realized, finally, that the system does not work. That laws are not made by the Dail but by cabinet and that the enforcement of the party whip does not allow members to vote independently. And that many of the laws on the books are anti-equality anyway.
But this does not mean that I have nothing to say, even if some of my friends say that not voting does not give me the right to comment (since when is voting compulsory? Not voting is also a political act). Continue reading “First reflections on Irish elections, February 2011”