It looks likely that there will be 14 Sinn Féin and up to 10 progressive left deputies in the incoming Dáil.
These 24 progressive left representatives need to eclipse Fianna Fail as the opposition to the incoming conservative administration and ensure that victory could be grasped from the jaws of defeat, so to speak.
This is a [...]

1,950 posts, 2869 comments, and three years on the go. Irish Left Review first started publishing on the 21st of February 2008 with three long articles from Alex Klemm on the need to foster a left vote among new communities in Ireland, WorldbyStorm of Cedar Lounge Revolution on the opportunities of some form of unity [...]

The single transferable vote, which is the form of proportional representation we adhere to in oder to elect our politicians, is a sensible and effective means of democracy. Or is it?
The argument is that it is worth going down the list of candidates in order of preference so that your voting intention can be [...]

There is no doubt that the current crisis in Ireland, and internationally, has major implications not just for the economy but socially and politically as well. However, in Ireland at least, there are no signs that policy makers have grasped the full extent of the problem yet.
It appears that the main pre-occupation is still how [...]

Book Review: Sarah Clancy: Stacey and the Mechanical Bull. Lapwing Press, Belfast 2010.
Sarah Clancy is interviewed by Dave Lordan below
It’s rare enough to go come across a volume of poetry that wouldn’t render you catatonic with boredom, but Sarah Clancy’s isn’t one of those. It pokes you in the eye repeatedly and kicks you in [...]

For those who were unable to attend the ‘New Political Possibilities in Ireland for all Left-Wing Parties in Partnership with Civil Society‘ conference last Saturday you can watch the sessions that are available online so far on Trade Union TV.
As there is a considerable amount to watch I am embedding a selection, which I [...]

JUST TO REMIND PEOPLE THAT THIS IS TOMORROW 5th of FEBURARY
Addmission 5 Euros on the door
Political Change and People Power
‘New Political Possibilities in Ireland for all Left-Wing Parties in Partnership with Civil Society’
Saturday, 5th February 2011

Gresham Hotel, Dublin
People Power and Left Unity: Towards a New Ireland for All People

This conference will allow left [...]

Another batch of excellent articles from #CrisisJam. Contributing to #4 this week:Nyder O’Leary, Tom O’Connor, Eadaoin O’Sullivan, Siobhan O Donoghue and Sara Burke.
Browse the links below, or see the full edition here.
Austerity, mon amour
The really real world of what David McNally calls the neoliberal mutation requires a renewed lexicon. The ‘necessity’ of gouging public expenditure [...]

Fine Gael and a increasingly unsure Labour Party are saying that any alternative to compliance with the terms of the IMF/EU deal is a reckless gamble. Vincent Brown (whether mischievously or otherwise) rounded on Eoin O Broin of Sinn Fein on the basis that burning the bondholders and the strategy [...]

A pork belly’s fence back fires
(In sympathy with Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahy)

The poor créatúr,
he’s the only one
you’d ever see
down my road.
Sure what harm