Dublin Anti-War Protest for Yemen

A month on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European states, including Ireland, are faced with some of the most significant challenges in decades. How should the West react? With humanitarian aid? With issuing a welcome to refugees? With weapons? With direct military interventions such as imposing a ‘no fly zone’ and therefore potentially extending the … Read more

Interview: Father Peter McVerry

Father Peter McVerry has been working with homeless people for over forty years. When he started there were about a thousand homeless in Ireland. Now, there are officially about eight thousand, with many others unofficially so. Last week, Daniele Idini caught up with the legendary social justice campaigner. Daniele Idini (DI): You have seen different … Read more

Interview: Belfast on the Twelfth

In interview with Daniele Idini, photographer Graham Martin reveals he was drawn to cover the Twelfth in Northern Ireland after developing an interest in geopolitical events while living in Brazil. Before his trip North he expected trouble, but encountered a surprisingly welcoming atmosphere, even in hardcore Loyalist areas, although much of the iconography remains disconcerting … Read more

Greece: Refugee Pushback Award Withdrawn

Continuing tensions in Greece over that State’s handling of the refugee crisis contradicts a carefully constructed public image the ruling right wing Nea Demokrita (New Democracy) wishes to project to a domestic and international audience. The issue of illegal ‘push-backs’ of migrants has continued to generate outrage, controversy, and outright denial in European media. This … Read more

Killing Kelly?

The strange death of Dr. David Kelly was explored in celluloid at the premiere of Killing Kelly documentary at the Everyman Theatre, Muswell Hill, North London on Saturday, July 17 2021 at 9 pm. This is the second in what could well turn out to be a series of documentaries of collaborative works between George … Read more

Peter Dooley: An Independent Candidate for Political Homeless

Dublin Bay South by-election candidate Peter Dooley has an impressive track record of fighting for a just society, especially through the Dublin Renters’ Union, and unlike many on the left in Ireland, has drawn attention to the devastation to ordinary people’s lives caused by the longest lockdown in Europe. This by-election in Dublin Bay South … Read more

Northern Ireland: Poots Booted Out

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was founded by the Reverend Dr. Ian Paisley in 1971. Paisley was an enigmatic figure in Northern Irish politics, offering a heady mixture of fundamentalist Christian values, Unionist rhetoric, and a cult of personality, culminating in a power sharing agreement with his greatest foes. Paisley was a maverick, non-establishment figure … Read more

Covid-19: A New Irish Social Contract?

Surveying the demise of the Celtic Tiger, Fintan O’Toole devoted an opening essay ‘‘Do you know what a republic is?’ The Adventure and Misadventure of an Idea’ in Up the Republic! Towards a New Ireland (2012) to assessing the health of the Irish Republic. He considered its vitality based on the presence, or otherwise, of … Read more

Belfast’s Broken Record Crackles On

There is a strong impression of the same old story of the Troubles in Belfast, all over again. The new element is the pandemic affecting teenage lives. Words and images by Fellipe Lopes in collaboration with Daniele Idini. It is hard to see a purpose behind the recent violent protests in Belfast that have fleetingly … Read more

Brazil’s Pandemic Reaches Crisis Point

At the beginning of the pandemic, the Paraisópolis Favela Residents Association (G10 Favelas) hired a team of doctors, nurses and first responders with ambulances to serve the favela residents, because the SAMU (Mobile Emergency Care Service) could not provide services to the local community. The Paraisópolis favela is the second largest community in São Paulo … Read more