Category Archives: Nonviolent News

Only issues of ‘Nonviolent News’ from 2021 onwards are accessible here. For older issues please click on the “Go to our pre-2021 Archive Website’ tag on the right of this page.

Billy King: Rites Again 336

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Hello again for my first sharing of thoughts for 2026. And my first thought, looking at Afri’s Féile Bríde programme is the contrast with the Irish government which proclaimed a public holiday in Saint Brigid’s name but totally ignore anything about her such as her peace and sanctuary making and aspects of her mediation. Yes, it is indeed the first public holiday honouring a woman and to be welcomed but they avoid looking at what kind of woman she was. Anyway, on with the rest of the show –

But not before telling you, if you haven’t already listened to/seen The Neutrality Song written by John Maguire and performed by JoeBlack Ryder, do so NOW at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A87_exf8inQ

Tyred out

They were both Scottish and basically invented the same thing but it was the later person who succeeded in popularising the invention. It had been patented in Scotland by the first person but it was the second whose name became known widely around the world associated with it – and it transformed the world of transport. The second invention was in Belfast in 1888.

What was it? Most of us use the invention every day in one form or another if we are travelling by bike, bus or car. It was, of course, as those looking at the title of this piece will have realised, the pneumatic tyre and the successful re-inventer was John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish vet who developed the air filled tyre for his son Johnnie and his tricycle when they lived in central Belfast.

The INNATE peace trail of the centre of Belfast and the Ormeau Road covers the invention as it passes the former North of Ireland playing fields, now Lavinia Square, where a plaque marks a significant event in the popularisation of the invention (the trail includes some culturally or technologically significant items as well as the stories of those working for peace, justice and inclusion) There were cycle races there in 1889 and Willie Hume was a competitor in a few races – all of which he won. And that was because he had Dunlop’s pneumatic tyres. So ‘everybody’ decided they should get them and the rest has been history (initially some cycle races banned pneumatic tyres they gave so much of an advantage).

That history is actually quite complicated as is revealed by my source – a concise but detailed pamphlet by Jim Cooke (Dreoilín, 2000). The tyre and tube combination that we know for the bicycle today went through various stages and inventions by Dunlop and others (the two-way valve was one important development, Dunlop’s original valve was one-way only). The business development was equally complicated and Dunlop, already prosperous from a very successful veterinary business made money but not the fortune he could have from his invention – as is so often the way for inventors, others profit more. Initial business development was in Dublin and Dunlop moved there from Belfast and lived in that city until his death in 1921.

Johnnie, his young son for whom he initially developed the pneumatic tyre (Dunlop père coined the phrase ‘pneumatic’ for the air-filled tyre), died of meningitis aged 42. But his son, John Boyd Dunlop’s grandson, also John Boyd Dunlop, was an important figure in Irish medicine and helped to develop the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin.

Meanwhile the ‘second age’ of the bicycle is coming even if providing the infrastructure to allow it to happen is so slow. Young Johnnie Dunlop was allowed out in central Belfast late at night in 1888 to try out his new pneumatic tyres on his tricycle…..it would be a foolhardy parent who would allow that today anywhere on the island of Ireland but maybe that day will come again….

But I will share a final conundrum which those on the Belfast peace trail are asked: what did John Boyd Dunlop invent at the same time as the pneumatic tyre. Well, it’s a bit of a (flat?) joke really because the answer is “the puncture”…….[If I can get my spoke in, some tyred jokes just keep getting re-cycled – Ed]

Not so Nobel

I am again revisiting the issue of who receives the Nobel prize for peace. No, it is not because of a winner passing on their Nobel medal to the current president of the USA (which says a lot about both the recipients and the awarding body) but rather what was said by figures in Norway about the prize.

I first covered this issue quite some time ago https://www.innatenonviolence.org/billyking/bk206.shtml when writing about Fredrik Heffermehl’s “The Nobel Peace Prize – What Nobel Really wanted” (Praeger, 2010). To recap from there, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the Peace Prize “should be for champions of peace, the confraternization of nations (‘confraternization’ is a difficult term and Heffermehl’s interpretation of putting ‘brotherhood among nations’, written in Swedish, into modern language), the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” This is almost totally ignored in the modern awards.

As I stated then “Originally members of the Nobel Committee included a strong representation of peace movement people; now it is elected according to the strength of parties in the Norwegian parliament and, Heffermehl argues, is used as a tool of pro-NATO Norwegian foreign policy.” So we shouldn’t be surprised at reactionaries and war criminals (e.g. Kissinger) receiving it. In fact the award is often totally at odds with Nobel’s intentions – not so Nobel or noble indeed.

However my triggering in writing this piece was reactions in Norway to María Corina Machado’s Nobel award being passed on to POTUS. Obviously, as was stated in Norway, ‘the prize’ cannot be given away although the medal can (Mairead Corrigan Maguire has given hers to the Ulster Museum in Belfast, a suitable holder). A former mayor of Oslo who is now secretary general of Norwegian People’s Aid, said the situation could damage the reputation of the Nobel peace prize and the Nobel committee. “This is unbelievably embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most recognised and important prizes. The awarding of the prize is now so politicised and potentially dangerous that it could easily legitimise an anti-peace prize development.” (Guardian 16/1/26)

Yes, the Nobel Prize for Peace is still the most prestigious award, possibly of any kind. It certainly outranks the Tipperary Peace Convention/Prize. Many of the recipients are admirable people, some are not. But for those who look at the Nobel prize in relation to the original intention, and more generally in relation to the promotion of ‘peace’, its reputation, and that of the Nobel committee, is long since damaged. And why should Donald Trump worry about not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – after all he has the totally bizarre FIFA peace prise (sic) by sycophantic FIFA President Gianni Infantino – though this has become not only a widely considered joke but also a political football….

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is usually defined as believing in the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people (as proposed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill in 18th – 19th century Britain). This is of course distinct from 21st century capitalism where the aim is frequently the greatest wealth of the smallest number of people. But as you know from this Colm, I might start talking about one thing and end up on a complete tangent. Though utilitarianism does have a fair bit to recommend it.

My tangent is going to talk about a recent interaction with a utility company where, at the end of an initial contract

our household was being shoved onto their most expensive rate. So, I had a phone call to get me back where we were. Mention the possibility of leaving and you are nearly there. But said company, who have their call centre in the city where they are based, seem to try to stand out from the crowd. The first point is that the music when on hold in the queue to get a human being includes a raunchy punk number associated with the city concerned. Unusual, certainly.

And their call assistants seem to be encouraged to be human beings; on my recent call I received a strong recommendation to see a film which seemed relevant in the utility-arian’s mind given a personal detail of mine which was shared during the conversation. I have duly noted said recommended film and may view it when possible to do so. But a personal touch like that makes you feel said company has at least a bit of a soul even if it is a profit driven enterprise.

But God be with the days – or not – when you had no choice on your utility supplier – take it or leave it. The ESB (Electricity Supply Board) was the one electricity supplier in the Re:Public. And none of the utilities were private companies you could own or partly own through shares. So the ironic comment from your parent for leaving the lights on might have been “Have you shares in the ESB???!!!” when such was impossible. Of course something stronger might have been said too but that is another matter.

Our ancestors

We have have hopefully long moved on from the idea that the lives of our ancient ancestors were nasty, brutish (oops, I typed ‘british’ there, better correct that quick, ‘i’ and ‘u’ are beside each other on the qwerty keybored….) and short. They may at times have been nasty, they may have been short or shorter, but for brutish you could well look at some people’s and countries’ behaviour today.

Positive and progressive traits and skills which we associate with modern humans are all the time being found to apply to our ancient ancestors, including varieties of creativity. And the complexity of the bushy bush rather than the family tree of so-called homo sapiens keeps getting more complicated. How many varieties of hominins were around altogether? More and more seem to be discovered and our emergence is probably the result of good luck as well as good management of lifestyle and resources apart from any possible genetic advantage.

Rutger Bregman’s ‘Humankind’ is just one of the books that looks at the nature of humanity and our cooperativeness.

The Céide Fields in North Mayo is one great example of people living harmoniously and cooperatively in our pre-history on this island, 5,000 years ago. But I was struck by a paragraph from Bill Bryson (he of “A short history of nearly everything” from 2003, with a new version coming out). Asked about the complexity of the human family tree he said: “The thing that fascinates me as a complete outsider is, how did these people all get around? I mean, how did they disperse and what happened when they came upon each other? There’s a tendency to think they would have been fighting, but actually there was a lot of interbreeding. I think it’s kind of heartwarming, the idea that these people were living side by side for long periods. Because we modern home sapiens don’t do that very well at all.”

That was from the ‘New Scientist’ of 27/12/25. And a final quote from Bryson which also says a lot in a few words is “I was terrible at science in school.” And look where he got. That reminds me of the old adage that “Behold the turtle – it only makes progress when it sticks its neck out.”

But to finish off on our ancestors, it has usually been thought that towns ‘proper’ only came to Ireland with the Vikings. Monastic settlements were thought to be the nearest thing. However archaeological excavations near Baltinglass in Co Wicklow may be revealing a much earlier town as revealed at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyw59v8978o with info from Antiquity archaeology journal. The excavation is of Brusselstown Ring (SW edge of Wicklow mountains). A bronze age ‘village’ had already been identified elsewhere in Ireland with 74 roundhouses but in Brusselstown Ring there is the possibility of 600 roundhouses and Dr Brandherm of QUB said “We’re talking a proto-town of sorts, and that’s 2000 years before the Vikings.” There may also have been a stone lined cistern for storing fresh water. There are always new and exciting things to learn about our ancestors and about human innovation. And that can make us wonder why modern humans have progressed so little on areas like conflict and common concern for each other.

–

Well, we are now fairly long embarked on the year 2026 but at the end of January I and you can see and feel the daylight getting longer which is a lovely feeling. Winters are getting shorter with global waming (sic) until, catastrophe of catastrophes, havoc is caused to our weather with the Gulf Stream/AMOC disappearing when We Have Problems, and we don’t need to journey to Newfoundland any more cos Newfoundland will have come here. In the meantime storms are getting stormier and rain rainier. Always look on the bright side of life….

But if you want a bit of a laugh before you go, try Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah as an Irish folk song…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQEzWCknLo There are different Cohen lyrics for the song and I leave you to debate whether it’s about religion, sex or both, but the ‘Irish’ version will do you good though you need to watch the visuals too…. There’s more of MurtR Guitar at https://www.youtube.com/@MurtRGuitar/videos though I think Hallelujah is the best of the bunch and heading for half a million views…

Until we meet again, Billy.

INNNATE annual report for 2025

Annual reports, Nonviolent News, ,

For all of humanity’s technological achievements there are many areas where progress has been slow to non-existent; these include learning to share the earth’s resources fairly, learning to deal with the real threats of global heating and war, and learning to deal with conflict in general. It is not that the knowledge in how to do these things does not exist, to a considerable extent it does, but the ‘knowledge of that knowledge’ is missing along with the energy and political will needed – apart from the selfish and vested interests which are happy with the Titanic-iceberg-bound status quo.This is where INNATE comes in or tries to come in through networking, information and training. Yes, INNATE is a small entity trying to relate to a wider constituency and what we can do is limited. But we are about creating awareness of nonviolent approaches which can have very real effects at all levels of life.

In relation to information produced, the usual 10 full issues of Nonviolent News were produced in 2025 along with 2 news supplements the months there was no full issue. And as usual there were web, email and (shorter) paper editions of this publication. We were pleased that in addition to the regular columns from Larry Speight and Billy King, Kate Laverty joined us as a columnist this year and we have other contributors – articles always welcome for consideration.

INNATE has two websites, the main website at www.innatenonviolence.org and the Flickr photo site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland There is much more material on the ‘main’ website than just Nonviolent News, e.g. 120+ downloadable posters for home printing. The photo site has the best part of 3,000 photos, a total which should be well surpassed in 2026, and these are included in 57 different albums, some subject oriented and others focused on a particular organisation; going to the appropriate album is the easiest way to find photos you might be looking for or want to see. Contributions of photos are welcome.

In 2025 we embarked on a training series on different aspects of conflict for the Migrant Centre NI Peacebuilders’ Project. This will continue in 2026 and includes understanding conflict and helping prevent it through good communication and decision making, as well as conciliation, negotiation and mediation. We are happy to explore training options with anyone and there is a ‘DIY’ workshops section on the main website for people to do their own exploration and training. INNATE can provide training or training support on a wide variety of areas including different aspects of conflict, nonviolence, campaigning, decision making, and monitoring (work in 2026 may include the last of these – we initiated monitoring of contentious situations in the North at the end of the 1980s).

There are many other aspects of work and interaction which are not covered here. While public events were lacking in 2025, the first part of 2026 will remedy that including a webinar on violence and nonviolence at the start of the Troubles in the North ‘with people who were there’.

INNATE moved physical address this year without any disruption but most information flows, in and out, are electronic. INNATE exists on a financial shoestring, is entirely voluntary, and depends on subscriptions and donations to continue. A financial statement is available on request. There is the opportunity for anyone anywhere to be involved with work supporting INNATE, and most meetings are held remotely; if you might be interested in looking at involvement, we would be delighted to talk.

Coordinator, INNATE, February 2026

News Supplement, January 2026

Nonviolent News, ,

Mitchell Institute events: Ethics of peace negotiations, Christian ethics and peacebuilding

Upcoming events at the George Mitchell Institute at Queen’s University Belfast can be found at https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/events/ These include a presentation by Kristoffer Lidén on ‘The ethics of peace negotiations’ at 5pm on 13th January, ‘The Cost of Flying the Flag’ in Northern Ireland, with Prof Declan French at lunchtime on 22nd January, a symposium on ‘Peace in/from the Margins’ on 23rd and 24th February, and a conference on ‘Christian Ethics and Peacebuilding in the Age of AI and Autonomous Weapons Systems’ on 3rd March.

Afri’s Féile Bríde, year in print and film

Afri’s annual Féile Bríde conference takes place in Kildare on Saturday 7th February from 10 am – 4 pm with the title Walking the Way of Brigid. Further details and speakers in due course on the Afri website at www.afri.ie The informative annual Peacemaker newsletter from Afri is at https://www.afri.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Peacemaker-Afri-Newsletter-2025-Small.pdf and a ten minute video of some of Afri’s 2025 is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0O2-cVNOA The Doolough Famine Walk will be on Saturday 13th June this year.

More war machinery made in Belfast

Thales in Northern Ireland has a hand in a new radiowave machine for targeting drones. It is a type of Radiofrequency Directed Energy Weapon which uses high frequency radio waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside drones, causing them to crash or malfunction.  “Thales, which led the development of the RF DEW demonstrator, employ around 100 highly skilled engineering and manufacturing staff in Northern Ireland on the project ……” https://www.gov.uk/government/news/british-soldiers-take-down-drone-swarm-in-groundbreaking-use-of-radio-wave-weapon You can see just some of the past resistance to Thales in Belfast at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72177720297420924/

Development Education and Hope

The Centre for Global Education (CGE) and Comhlámh are organising a webinar titled “Development Education and Hope” which will share and debate the content of Issue 42 of Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review on the theme “Development Education and Hope”.  It will be held on Wednesday, 14 January 2025 from 12.00pm – 1.30pm (online).  Register at: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/development-education-and-hope-webinar-tickets-1974263128162?aff=oddtdtcreator CGE website is at https://www.centreforglobaleducation.com/ and Comhlámh is at https://comhlamh.org/

AVP: Another busy year

AVP, the Alternatives to Violence Project, has continued to grow and now includes 70 outside volunteers, 35 of whom are trained outside facilitators, alongside 50 inside facilitators, of whom many have only recently begun their facilitation journey. It delivered 43 workshops across 11 prisons in 2025, with a total of 451 participations by inside and outside participants. In addition there were numerous community gatherings in prison as well as online practice sessions. https://www.avpireland.ie/

Financial Justice Ireland

Financial Justice Ireland (FJI), formerly Debt and Development Coalition Ireland and formed in 1993, works for a financial system that serves the needs of all people, for global financial justice, rather than just some people, and which does not take the planet for granted. Further details at https://www.financialjustice.ie/ where there is a teachers’ portal with material for post-primary teachers. Their new strategic plan for 2025-2029 is also there.

Síolta Chroí upcoming events

These include a tree harvesting day on Sunday 20th January, a webinar on ‘Food, Farming and Medicine’ with Dr Rupa Marya from 7 – 8 pm on 22nd January, and a ‘GIY’ workshop on ‘Food gardening for beginners’ on Saturday 21st March. More information about Síolta Chroí and the above events at https://sioltachroi.ie/   Síolta Chroí is at Aghacloghan. Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.

Feasta: Economic literacy

Feasta and other Wellbeing Economy Alliance Ireland Hub members will be contributing to an Economic Literacy webinar organised by Cultivate: “Exploring Different Economic Approaches”, on Tuesday 27th January from 3.30 – 5pm Irish time, as part of a new ‘Reclaim the economy’ week. This webinar will explore ecological, circular, social solidarity, and wellbeing economy frameworks. https://www.feasta.org/

Arms resistance in Bogota

On 1st December 2025, antimilitarist organisations, activists, and artists carried out a Nonviolent Direct Action against the Expodefensa Arms Fair in Bogotá, Colombia. Despite its nonviolent nature, the nonviolent action was harassed and violently repressed by the Public Forces, leaving several people injured. See https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2025/colombia-nonviolent-direct-action-against-expodefensa-repressed-public-forces

Petty Belarus action against Our House activist

In a serious but small-minded action, the apartment of Our House leader Olga Karach in Vitebsk (Belarus) has been confiscated by the Belarusian authorities. Personal belongings were partly seized and listed for auction, while others were looted by representatives of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The apartment itself is expected to be put up for a state auction. These new reprisals follow a long line of actions aimed at punishing Olga Karach and all human rights defenders of Our House for their persistent work to protect Belarusians. In July 2024, the Brest Regional Court sentenced Olga Karach in absentia to 12 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of 600,000 Belarusian rubles (approximately 170,000 euros), one among many penalties. Our House website is at https://news.house/

Editorial: USA, rogue state extraordinaire

Editorials, Nonviolent News, , , , , , , ,

We have previously disputed and tried to debunk the common western idea that, prior to Donald Trump becoming president of the USA that there was such a thing as a just, liberal post-World War II ‘world order’. This was a US and western fiction. Biden and Obama used drone or other attacks to kill who they wanted. The USA – and others such as the UK – helped destabilise Asia, the Middle East, and Africa through their attacks on Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Going back a generation or two, the USA killed many millions in Vietnam and Cambodia for absolutely no logical purpose and with no positive result except its own perceived interests.

Any analysis of the history of the USA has to conclude that while its foundation was ‘anti-colonialist’, its establishment in pushing aside and often exterminating the first nations, and its actions against Mexico, when expanding its boundaries was undoubtedly imperialist. Now we are again told, by the US State Department, that “This is OUR hemisphere” after the attack on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro. This was not the way to bring human rights to Venezuela. And the USA is not ‘America’.

While the attack on Venezuela was limited, with perhaps forty people killed, the idea that one country can intervene where it likes in its own interests and force a country to act as dictated to is extremely dangerous – the idea that it was to control drugs supply if a fictional fig leaf and there were many other ways to do that. The question is of course – who will be next? If the cowardly western nations with their supposed high minded ideals fail to condemn Trump then the Donald will conclude that he can act with impunity, certainly in his ‘own’ hemisphere but elsewhere as well – Africa, the Middle East, who knows.

It is ironic, though partly based on his own musings, that Trump was seen initially as an ‘isolationist’ president. With failures at home on the cost of living, for example, he may have turned to foreign military ventures as a way to distract and show his power. The problem is not just what he has done and may do but what Putin and Xi may conclude from such events. If one military superpower, admittedly the pre-eminent one, can act like this, why should Russia and China restrain themselves from acting accordingly? The USA is not the only rogue superpower, it seems to go with the territory. The fact the world is looking at a possible military takeover of Greenland by the USA is evidence of current international lawlessness and dangers.

Imperialism always has its self justifications and often there is some truth in them. The British Raj brought a railway system to India, essential for movement of goods and people, but it did so to enable control and its economic gain. Maduro has been a brutal tyrant who needed replaced along with his regime – but do we really think the USA was acting out of the goodness of its heart to control drugs and liberate the people of Venezuela? The USA likes to think of itself as the world’s policeman but it is a world bully. And what the outcome will be in Venezuela is far from certain beyond suborning itself to the demands of the US president; will the people be any freer or less poor and the country more democratic? The answer to these questions is ‘currently unlikely’.

Ireland is heavily dependent economically on US multinationals and investment. That does not mean it should not take action – it means it is morally obliged to do so. The least it can do is express strong disagreement with the US action as well as ban the US military from the use of Shannon Airport (or anywhere else in the Republic) to avoid actively facilitating US military control and further rogue actions around the world. Moral cowardice is too weak a term to apply to Irish governments over the last few decades in regard to Shannon; it is reprehensible political failure of the worst kind to support such a violent, rogue state as the USA. Irish inaction on this is woefully shameful especially when most citizens want to see Ireland playing a positive, neutral role in world affairs rather than supporting militaristic ventures by a country which acts in such a destructive way.

However there is another way in which governments and often people in Ireland and Europe are avoiding what is really happening in the world and especially in Europe itself. The drift to armed conflict with Russia is like the drift into the First World War. There is a massive lack of understanding of conflict and how it develops – and a massive lack of understanding of how conflict can be de-escalated without perpetuating injustice or simply acquiescing to might-is-right approaches. Western Europe seems intent on continually adding fuel to the fire – and the Irish government is now a fellow traveller with that approach.

Of course there are dangers emanating from Russia but many of those dangers come from western European approaches and responses to that country and its brutal and autocratic leader – whose personal emergence came not only through the re-emergence of political patterns in Russia but also western approaches to that country at and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is cruelly ironic that with all our 21st century knowledge of science, technology, and some human sciences, we as a world know so little about creating a peaceful world through creative means of dealing with conflict. As with global heating, closing our eyes and hoping the issue will go away can be, literally, fatal. We have the ready means to destroy what civilisation we have and yet we seem content to tread the same weary path to self-destruction. Homo ‘sapiens’ may be a misnomer.

The greeting to wish people a ‘peaceful New Year’ seems both wildly appropriate and inappropriate when we find ourselves where are are now. We do have the means, through nonviolence and creative approaches to conflict and global heating, to deal with the big issues but what we need are the political will and direction to take the path to peace and not the path to oblivion. As peace, green and human rights activists we can do what we can but we need to have a larger, wider movement with national-cultural support and governments that look, listen and learn. l

News, December 2025

Nonviolent News, , ,

Where the Shannon protests flow: ‘Boeing 3’ charged

There were four aircraft associated with the US military at Shannon Airport the weekend of 22nd November, with Gardai, an Irish army armed patrol, and airport security police present. Three pro-Palestinian peace activists entered the restricted area in a van on 22nd November, crashing through a barrier. Despite the van being surrounded, the peace activists managed to spray green paint, climbing up to a hole in the roof of the van, on a US Navy Boeing C-40A number 16-8980 despite being surrounded by armed security personnel who at one stage had their weapons drawn. Kaspar Stratta, Emily Cathcart and Cónán Kavanagh were subsequently charged at Ennis District Court with the criminal damage of a Boeing 737-700 belonging to the US Navy Reserve at Shannon Airport on 22nd November. On arrest one of the activists stated “The use of Shannon Airport by the US military breaks Irish neutrality. The US is a belligerent power complicit in the genocide of Palestinians.” Palestine Action Éire claimed responsibility for the action. See e.g. https://www.instagram.com/p/DRXwD4TjKtO and mass media reports.

As Shannonwatch say “the authorities go to great lengths to protect US military planes at Shannon, while the government refuses to say what is on them and refuses to allow inspections to take place. At the same time, people who refuse to accept this shameful practice and who take action are arrested. The crimes against humanity and the war crimes facilitated by Shannon are condoned by the authorities while peace activists are impeded, arrested and charged. ” https://www.shannonwatch.org/content/warplanes-protected-while-peace-activists-are-arrested

There are now 12 peace activists being prosecuted for peace actions at Shannon air/warport, and other activists are before the courts for actions against Collins Aerospace in Cork and for pro-Palestine protests in Dublin.

Striking testimony to the work of AVP

While there has been structured analysis of the effects of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in Ireland (see e.g. ’Impact’ in the menu bar of the AVP website), two recent online personal accounts tell a remarkable story of moving on from personal violence. The first is on the AVP website written by a man in Cork jail talking about his masculinity journey https://avpireland.ie/2025/08/06/masculinity-journey/. Another is in a feature on community education on the Aontas website https://www.aontas.com/learner-stories/my-community-education-story/ These two stories are not isolated cases. Much more can be found on the AVP website at https://avpireland.ie/ including info on being added to their mailing list and/or getting involved.

MNI: Mediation Theory & Practice

The next 8-day Mediation Theory and Practice course from Mediation Northern Ireland (MNI) takes place from Friday 6 Feb 2026 – Friday 27 Mar 2026 and is online via Zoom. This is a practical, accredited mediation training programme designed for real situations and recognised worldwide with a school principal saying that the course “has been transformative in every aspect of my life.” Further details at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/mediationni/1751183 and the MNI website is at https://mediationni.org/

Death of Margaretta D’Arcy

We very much regret to record the death of Margaretta D’Arcy, after a remarkable 91 years. We can do no better in recalling her life than to reproduce Galways Alliance Against War’s tribute to Margaretta:

“We mourn the passing of our comrade Margaretta D’Arcy.

Margaretta’s profound, active commitment to peace and social justice was the work of a lifetime. As a young woman, she was a part of the British peace movement from the very founding of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1958, alongside her husband, John Arden, the renowned dramatist and novelist. They were not merely supporters but vital participants who wielded their art as a tool for the cause.

This commitment was also expressed through fearless direct action. In 1961, she was arrested and imprisoned for her part in a sit-down protest at London’s Ministry of Defence, organised by the peace movement’s radical “Committee of 100.” Her dedication continued into the 1980s, where she stood in solidarity with the women at the Greenham Common Peace Camp, protesting the stationing of US nuclear cruise missiles in Britain.

In later years, she brought this unwavering spirit to Ireland. In October 2012 and September 2013, she and Niall Farrell of the Galway Alliance Against War blocked the runway at Shannon Airport, protesting its decade-long use by the US military to wage war. For this, she was once again arrested and imprisoned. These acts, spanning over fifty years, demonstrate a breathtaking consistency and courage in her pursuit of peace.

Right up until last month, Margaretta was a regular presence at the monthly Shannonwatch Peace Vigil at the airport entrance. Just weeks ago, she could be seen seated on Galway’s Headford Road, distributing leaflets in favour of the Triple Lock. She knew that imperialist war and threats to Irish neutrality must be opposed irrespective of age or status. As an artist, she believed in using creativity to cut through the political spin that justifies war—a duty she fulfilled with immense energy.

We in the Galway Alliance Against War feel privileged to have had Margaretta in our ranks for so many years. She stands as an outstanding example of a life fully and purposefully lived, dedicated to a future free from wars of profit and power, and to a world that cherishes all its children equally.

The words of Nikolai Ostrovsky serve as a fitting epitaph for her remarkable life:
“Our dearest possession is life. It is given to us but once, and we must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying we might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world—the fight for the Liberation of Humanity.”

Margaretta’s death is a great loss to our movement. Our deepest sympathy goes to her son, Finn, and all her family and friends.” GAAW Facebook site is https://www.facebook.com/groups/312442090965/

See also https://www.shannonwatch.org/content/margaretta-darcy-unwavering-her-commitment-peace-and-justice

Differential policing in UK on Palestine Action, illegal symbols

Amnesty International has welcomed the approach of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to the Defend Our Juries protests in Belfast and Derry / Londonderry on 22nd November, where peaceful protests against the genocide in Gaza and the proscription of Palestine Action were held. Amnesty is acting as an intervener in the coming judicial review of the UK government’s proscription of Palestine Action. Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Director of Amnesty International UK, said “We welcome the approach by the PSNI ….to facilitate peaceful protests against the genocide in Gaza and the proscription of Palestine Action…. The differential approach by police forces to identical protests held simultaneously in different parts of the UK underlines the utter absurdity of UK terrorism law and the disproportionality of proscribing a group like Palestine Action.” https://www.facebook.com/amnestyni and https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/Northern-Ireland The PSNI said they were gathering evidence but loyalists complained that such pro-Palestinian protests in Northern Ireland were treated too leniently and not in accord with the law; meanwhile, in comparison, some human rights activists and others pointed to the lack of police action regarding the display of illegal paramilitary symbols in parades and physical features in the North.

New Centre for Global Development at Maynooth University

This was launched in November and aims to facilitate research, partnerships and solidarity for a just, peaceful and sustainable world and critical education in international development. https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/centre-for-global-development

Positive Swiss role for neutrality

BENE, the Movement for a Neutral Switzerland – or in German Bewegung für eine Neutrale Schweiz – https://bene.swiss/ is working to set up an international network or federation of groups working for neutrality which they consider, rightly, “is a prerequisite for world peace.” Further information is available from them with discussion likely by international Zoom early in 2026.

Eco-Congregation Ireland: Greening church and society

Eco-Congregation Ireland (ECI) encourages churches of all denominations to take an eco approach to worship, lifestyle, property and finance management, community outreach and contact with the developing world. You can sign up for their monthly bulletin at https://www.ecocongregationireland.com/ where there is much more info – look out, for example, for Fran Brady’s article on (clothes) waste colonialism.

FOE: Taoiseach gets it wrong to a ‘T’

Friends of the Earth Ireland have said “in Belém, Brazil, ahead of COP30, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told other leaders that “we need to listen to science, to tell the truth to citizens, for urgent action to meet climate targets, and for leaders to lead”. But he then separately said “LNG can’t happen fast enough”.“ FOE rightly pointed to the contradictory nature of these statements and to the fact Ireland is not on track to reduce emissions in accordance with national and EU obligations, as well Paris Agreement commitments. https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/ Stop Climate Chaos coalition has a mass lobby of TDs on 3rd December https://www.stopclimatechaos.ie/

Conscientious Objection: WBW Europe statement, OHCHR

World Beyond War Europe Network has issued a useful short statement on conscientious objection (CO) where they say “Conscription is being normalised again, recast as a civic duty.” The statement includes a call for what is needed on the issue. https://worldbeyondwar.org/conscientious-objection-could-change-the-world/ Inputs to a forthcoming OHCHR report on conscientious objection to military service can be made by 15th January 2026, see https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2025/call-inputs-un-ohchr-report-conscientious-objection-military-service

ICCL: Arrested at a peaceful protest?

ICCL/Irish Council for Civil Liberties wants to hear from you if you have been arrested at a peaceful protest (in the Republic) for research they are doing on people’s experiences with An Garda Síochána. See https://www.iccl.ie/have-you-been-arrested-at-a-peaceful-protest/

Pax Christi recommitment at 80th anniversary in Florence

Pax Christi International recently had a celebration and recommitment to peace and nonviolence at its 80th anniversary gathering in Florence. Concise details and links are available at https://tinyurl.com/3v5cn3y2 or go to https://paxchristi.net/

Editorial: Despair and hope

Editorials, Nonviolent News, ,

There are so many issues that deserve our attention we can become despondent. Ecological crises, political crises, war, repression, racism, sectarianism, inequality and injustice, interpersonal violence, all impact on our consciousness if we are awake. The world is not in a good place at the moment.

However we can take inspiration from the myriad of people who are taking action on so many different issues. We just have to look at the Irish response to the total destruction of Gaza; large scale solidarity of various sorts and, week in and week out, people demonstrating for an end to the killing and justice for Palestinians. There are so many other causes for which people are struggling.

We also need to reclaim the word ‘woke’ as a positive because the opposite is ‘asleep’ and ignorant of what is actually happening. We should be proud to be awake, to be woke. Conservatives and reactionaries have always accused those who espouse needed changes as mad and bad, as threatening the stability of society and adopting imaginary and unnecessary causes – and yet those causes (e.g. anti-slavery) become accepted. To think that movements for change are perfect is also, of course a mistake, and we all make mistakes and need to adjust, just as society needs to adjust as change, of whatever kind, takes place. A failure to move forward is effectively to move backwards as new challenges confront us.

Despondency can come from frustration at where we are at in our cause and campaigning. Bill Moyer’s MAP/Movement Action Plan, now a relatively old USA formulation of stages successful social movements go through, is a really useful tool in helping us with this (you can find plenty of information if you word search for it). The stages there should not be taken as a definitive list but as an indication of how things can go and grow. The most relevant aspect of this in relation to how we feel is that a campaign may actually be further on towards success than previously but the situation feels worse, and there can be greater frustration than earlier. Working for change is not easy and understanding where we are at is difficult but essential so we have the courage and knowledge to continue.

As we come to the end of one year and the start of the next there is a cultural norm to at least talk about ‘new year resolutions’. This is not pointless but our self evaluation needs not to be just an annual commitment of some sort to do or not do this or that. It should be part of what we are and do. However self evaluation can also become obsessive and as with so many things in life it is a question of finding a balance. Over commitment can lead to a deterioration in our personal relationships and that may not be good for us nor our friendships and close or intimate relationships.

We can only do what we can do, and if we do that then we have done our bit. Of course we may feel that we could have done more but that, if it consumes us, can become counterproductive. If we do not have at least some balance in our lives – for spending time with those we are closest too as well as enjoyment – burnout or simply crabbiness and minor misery will make us an impediment rather than an asset for change.

Being comfortable with ourselves is both a necessity and a risk. If we are too comfortable then we will drift into complacency. But while we should always be challenging ourselves we need part of those challenges to be small, achievable things; seeing success is necessary to retain our commitment and stamina. But we also need our longer term goals such as achieving equitable, sustainable energy systems to prevent further climate heating, or the advancement of nonviolent means of confronting repression and violence so we are not caught in endless war.

Our minds are wonderful things. If we set our minds to be activists who care not just about our causes but also for ourselves and for those around us then we can be a real part of the change that we wish to see. May the wind be at our back.

Eco-Awareness with Larry Speight: The global is local

Eco-Awareness, Nonviolent News, , , ,

Larry Speight brings us his monthly column –

As the immediate has a profound effect on our lives it is not surprising that we on these islands are keen weather watchers and listen to weather forecasts throughout the day so that we can prepare for what is to come. Prolonged heavy rain might mean flooded roads requiring us to take detours to get to our destination and a storm might mean fallen electricity poles resulting in the loss of electricity to our homes. Knowing about what weather to expect incentivises us to prepare for it so that when it arrives we suffer less than we otherwise would have.

As a rule, we like to know about things in advance of them happening so that we can make the appropriate preparations, a redundancy for example. Under the radar of everyday life there is an industry that prepares us for death through encouraging us to draw up a will, write post-death letters to our loved ones and make provision for our funeral. As soon as young people get their first job they are encouraged to cast their minds 50-years into the future and save for their retirement.

The motto of the boy and girl scouts is Be Prepared.

Given humankind’s long history of living within set boundaries where our wellbeing was largely determined by local events it is not surprising that we in Ireland are inclined to frame issues in terms of the local. Until a few decades ago there were sound grounds for this, especially when much of our food was sourced locally. However, living as we do today in an exceedingly complex economy what happens globally is often more important that what happens locally. The price of oil is a case in point. A major disruption to the oil market could, within a matter of hours, raise the price of heating oil beyond most peoples’ means.

It is the global dimension to our lives that makes the annual two-weeks of negotiations on limiting global warming emissions under the auspices of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) so important. The most recent one, COP 30, took place in Belem, Brazil this November.

Although the outcome was disappointing in that the petrostates along with other countries blocked reference in the final text to the core issue of transition away from fossil fuels. Agreements were reached on ecological literacy, climate-resilient health systems, expanded early-warning systems, climate justice and harmonising global carbon accounting standards.

The COP held in Paris in 2015 produced what is thought to be the most important outcome of all the COPs which is the agreement to limit global warming to 20 C with a focus on limiting the rise to 1.50 C as against pre-industrial levels. Today the global average temperature stands at 1.3OC and is on course to warm to 2.60 C by the end of the century.

There is almost near consensus among climatologists that to breach the 1.50 C limit will be catastrophic for life on Earth. Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, is quoted in the Guardian, 13 November 2025, as saying that: “A world at 2.6C means global disaster … (it) means the end of agriculture in the UK and across Europe, drought and monsoon failure in Asia and Africa, lethal heat and humanity.”

A temperature of 2.6C would lead to the collapse of the Atlantic Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which helps ensure that we on these islands enjoy a mild climate. It would also lead to in an increase in the melt rate of ice sheets resulting in a rise in sea levels displacing people in coastal towns and cities around the world including Dublin, Belfast, London, New York and Ho Chi Minh City. It would turn rainforests, which are one of the Earth’s major sinks for CO2, into savannah. Mosquito borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever, which are common in the tropics, would become more widespread.

What many will find particularly upsetting is that these likely outcomes are expected to occur within the life-span of children born in recent years who will live the nightmare of a chaotic world in which most of what we take for granted will cease to exist. This includes food variety and availability, water quality, electricity supply and convenient, comfortable transport.

One of the consequences of living in a world whose ecosphere is collapsing is that supply networks collapse with it. As an island people some might think that we have a propensity for economic self-sufficiency and should not be unduly worried about distant economic, ecological and political events. This view is mistaken.

Agriculture is an illustrative example. In spite of our island having mild weather and good soil 83 % of the fruit and vegetables we eat and 80% of the animal fed we use is imported. The latter comes from a variety of countries including Argentina, the EU, Brazil and the USA. When it comes to manufactured goods comparatively few are produced on either side of the border.

In the light of the ecological and economic catastrophe that will arise out of our collective mismanagement of our relationship with the rest of nature, which the former US vice-president Al Gore described at COP 30 as “literally insane”, what are we doing in terms of preparation? More to the point, what are we doing to avoid the predicted catastrophe?

If driving fast on a winding road we have the power to prevent a terrible collision by slowing down and driving with care. We don’t need to have a collision to learn a lesson about driving too fast. Likewise with the consequences of our consumer lifestyle which is eliminating biodiversity and raising the global temperature to a level that will make life unbearable.

While we should prepare for the collapse of the ecosphere and what this will mean in terms of meeting our everyday needs we should at the same time live in a more ecologically sensitive way whilst campaigning for systemic change underpinned by compassion.

The Peace Line with Kate Laverty: Peace in ordinary soil, the Moral Imagination

Nonviolent News, Readings, , ,

The Beloved Community:

Growing peace in ordinary soil

There are words that sound too grand for ordinary days.
The Beloved Community might be one of them.

It has a kind of cathedral weight to it — words fit for marble halls, not corner shops or youth centres. Yet, beneath its grandeur lies something startlingly simple: a vision of a world where no one is disposable, where conflict becomes the doorway to understanding, and where love is not sentimental but deliberate — muscular, determined, unembarrassed.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of the Beloved Community not as utopia, but as practice — a social order built from compassion, truth, and courage. He wrote that it is “a type of love that seeks nothing in return,” and that peace is not the absence of tension, but “the presence of justice.” In his words, we find both the ache and the architecture of nonviolence: a love that refuses to give up on anyone, and a justice that restores instead of punishes.

In communities like ours — shaped by history, heartache, and fierce resilience — these words must find new clothing. We might not speak easily of “the Beloved Community,” but we know what it feels like. It feels like the kettle always on, like laughter rising from the back of a youth club, like someone remembering your lost loved one’s name. It feels like sitting in the same room with someone you once feared, and realising your humanity is shared.

To cultivate this kind of community is not romantic work. It is patient, splintered, soil-under-the-fingernails work. It asks us to practice what peace scholar John Paul Lederach calls “the moral imagination” — the capacity to see beyond what is, into what might yet be healed. It means asking, even in small ways: What would it look like if we met one another with gentleness instead of suspicion?

Grassroots peacebuilding is where this vision takes root — not in grand statements, but in the quiet rearranging of how we live together. Conflict is not exiled but transformed. As one of King’s followers, Bernard LaFayette, wrote: “Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.” That courage is not loud. It’s the soft defiance of hope in a world that still believes in retribution.

To live toward it is to believe that peace can bloom in unpromising ground. That love, even when bruised, can keep loving. That we can be repairers, not repeaters, of harm.

The Moral Imagination and the sea

I am sitting on Kilclief beach on a small outcrop of land, feet buried in the sand, as the dawn light spills across the sky. I’ve been here a while. The tide hums its restless hymn, reshaping the edges of the world in small, deliberate gestures. It is a lesson in transformation, in patience, in possibility.

This, I think, is what John Paul Lederach meant by the moral imagination: the audacity to see beyond violence into the fragile outline of what could be healed. It is not a flight from the real, but a deeper rooting in it — the ability, as he writes, “to imagine ourselves in a web of relationships that includes our enemies.” It is an unsettling invitation, this imagining — one that requires us to face truth without losing hope, to look at wounds without surrendering to despair.

On the sand, I pick up a piece of sea glass — once sharp, now softened by time and tide. The sea has performed its quiet alchemy: turning brokenness into translucence. To imagine peace is not to deny pain; it is to transform it. It invites a restless tenderness, a refusal to accept that cycles of harm are the whole story.

The sea helps me think in wider circles. It stretches my moral muscles beyond immediacy, reminding me that all boundaries are porous. That peace is not a fixed state but a rhythm — a give and take, a reaching out, a coming home.

So I sit, and I listen to the tide’s long breathing. The wind tastes of elsewhere. The waves have touched a thousand unseen shores. To stand here is to remember that our local work — the youth group, the garden, the kitchen table conversations, the women’s group, men’s group, art group, exercise classes — is part of something vaster: a tide of human repair moving quietly beneath the noise.

At Forthspring, our work is a daily reimagining of community where conflict once stood. The moral imagination asks us to see not just what is broken, but what is possible when we choose relationship over reaction. It calls us to hold truth and hope in the same hand. When I look out to the horizon, I think of Lederach’s gentle insistence that “the moral imagination is not born from abstract theory, but from lived encounter.” We know better than most that imagination rooted in relationship can move mountains.

Peace work, like the sea, requires endurance and wonder. It is repetitive, tidal work — forgiving, rebuilding, beginning again. Yet each act of courage, each conversation that crosses a line, each child who learns another way to belong, reshapes the shoreline of our common life.

Readings in Nonviolence: Ukraine

Nonviolent News, Readings, , , ,

– Peter Emerson describes and analyses –

The land is flat. It stretches for miles. And many many years ago, there were just a few settlements; they traded; they spoke the same basic language, its word for ‘word’ was ‘slovo’, and hence the name, ‘Slavs.’ Some villages became towns; then, in battle or in bed, a few bigger towns developed into city states. One of the first was Kievan-Rus, a state or an empire of the 9th to the 13th Century which grew to extend from Kiev, not quite to Crimea in the south, but up north to rule many smaller cities, one of which was called Moskva. Next, in 1238, from the east came the Mongol hordes; they took Moscow and two years later, sacked Kiev. They went further west to Hungary and so on, as well as to the south and east, to Baghdad and Beijing but, like every other empire before and since, they fell first into four bits and then completely apart.

A little later, while western Europeans went west to kill and conquer in the Americas, the Russians expanded militarily to the east. In 1552, Ivan the Terrible (awful, or full of awe) took Kazan, the first of many conquests; another, in 1860, was Vladivostok (the ruler of the east) and to the south, Vladikavkaz, (governing the Caucasus). To the north was the Arctic. And apart from the mountains, deserts and seas to the south – the Caucasus, Pamirs and Himalayas; the Kyzylkum, Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts; and then the Black, Caspian and Aral Seas – there was no other natural limit to what was otherwise continual expansion.

In 1867, however, the Russians decided the Pacific Ocean was far enough, so they sold Alaska to the US for $7m (about $200m in today’s money). In contrast then to the three other compass points, there were no obvious physical barriers in the west where lived the Lithuanians, whose lands at one stage went all the way to the Black Sea, and the Poles. The border here was religious: Orthodoxy versus Catholicism; Moscow, it was said, was the third Rome, blessed against the Swedes (Charles XII) in 1709 at the Battle of Poltava (in today’s Ukraine); against the French in 1812 at Borodino (Napoléon); and against the Nazis in 1941-2 in WWII in Moscow (Hitler).

The main difference between the Western European empires and the Russian (or Soviet) version was the fact that the latter was always contiguous. While the former were far flung, Moscow wanted total control. Yugo-(southern-)slavia was difficult – too far away – but after ‘adjusting’ the Czechoslovak border near Uzhhorod, now in western Ukraine, Stalin ensured he had a common border with Hungary (1956) and the Czechs (1968). Meanwhile Ukraine – the krai or border lands – was part of the empire, to which in 1954 Nikita Khrushchev ‘gave’ Crimea.

_____________

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. Whereupon the West, which has many ‘monolingual experts’ – an oxymoron of the highest order! – ‘advised’ Gorbachev on democratisation. “You need our system of democracy,” they suggested – majoritarianism, majority rule and all that – without accepting that the Russian word for this ‘majoritarianism’ is ‘bolshevism’ {большевизм}. That was one mistake. You also need the right of self-determination, they added; another error. So if a republic, oblast (province) or krai, or any other minority wanted to secede, and if a majority of that minority voted ‘yes’ to do so, they could succeed to secede; but if a minority of that small majority then wanted to secede as well, and if a majority of that minority of that small majority voted to secede, then they too could succeed. Etc., ad nauseam.

So just as

(i) Ireland opted out of the UK, and NI opted out of opting out to opt back in again (1920s), a status confirmed in the border poll of 1973, when 98.9% voted ‘yes’ but, led by the SDLP, some 40% abstained – and The Troubles continued;

so too

(ii) Georgia opted out of the USSR (1991) by 99.5%, and South Ossetia opted out of Georgia (2006) by 99.9%, whereupon the Georgian enclave of Akhalgori tried to opt out of opting out…

so too

(iii) Croatia opted out of Yugoslavia (1991) by 93.4% while the Orthodox abstained, so the three krajina – there’s that word ‘krai’ again – opted out of Croatia by 99.8%, where the Catholics abstained;

so too

(iv) Bosnia opted out of Yugoslavia (1992) by 99.7% while the Bosnian Serbs abstained, and the latter in Republika Srpska opted out of Bosnia by 98%… and Herzeg-Bosna also wanted to opt out of Bosnia;

and so too

(v) Ukraine opted out of the USSR (1991) – see below – so Donetsk opted out of Ukraine by 90.0% (2014) so Dobropillia (69.1%, almost 2,000,000 voters) tried to opt out of opting out and to opt back in again…

and

(vi) etc., and so on, ad nauseam.

In a nutshell, the right is wrong. It has led to so much violence. No wonder the headline in Moscow’s Pravda newspaper in 1988, when the first ethnic clashes took place in Nagorno-Karabakh ‘in’ Azerbaijan ‘in’ the USSR, was “Vot nash Olster,” {Вот – наш Ольстер}, ‘This is our Northern Ireland.’

And little wonder then that, for many years, Russia called this right of self-determination ‘Matrioshka nationalism,’ after those famous Russian dolls. In 2006, however, when the above vote in South Ossetia suited Vladimir Putin’s policies, referendums just sort of became OK.

But back in 1990, the USSR was beginning to fall apart. There was some horrible violence in Georgia, where eight protesters were murdered by the Russians; tens were killed in Azerbaijan; and then, in 1991, eleven died in Lithuania. This last, the West decided, was the final straw. So we ditched Gorbachev and supported his protégé turned opponent, Boris Yeltsin – and that was a huge mistake. Not only were our diplomats at fault, for so too was the western media, not least The Irish Times. If something was western, like Mercedez-Benz, or if someone was supported by the West, like Yeltsin, it or he was apparently brilliant. So Yeltsin was ‘good news.’ But if an Irishman published an article on consensus in Moscow News and another in ‘Novy Mir,’ {Новы Мир}, New World, (where it featured alongside a piece by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn), that was just non-news.

So in 1991 it was Yeltsin, and then came Putin with wars in Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine. But Boris, not unlike his English counterpart, had only ambition: no policies, certainly no principles, just (a bottle of vodka and) ambition. At that time of 1991, because some western ‘experts’ regarded the USSR as being so similar to Yugoslavia, the West decided to ditch Slobodan Milošević as well, because he was an extreme nationalist… and support Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman instead, even though he too was an extreme nationalist.

Yes, Yugoslavia was now falling apart as well. In a nutshell, “all the [Balkan 1990s] wars started with a referendum,” (Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo’s legendary newspaper, 7.2.1999). In 1995, the settlement agreed in Dayton for Bosnia recognised the ‘facts on the ground’ – acts of aggression – which define today’s legitimate borders. It was another huge mistake, with consequences for Crimea in 2014, and now, in 2025 for Ukraine where, yet again, the aggressors – and not only the aggressors – are working to reward aggression.

But back, first, to 1991. Ukraine opted out of the collapsing USSR, for otherwise, to quote the then Ukrainian communist leader, Stanislav Hurenko, “We’re in the shit.” The new state, which the West also advised to be majoritarian, first held a referendum on independence in December that year, and every Ukrainian province or oblast voted in favour by 80% or more… except Crimea, where the Tatars abstained, and where only 54% voted ‘yes’. So another blunder was to assume that such a small majority could still be regarded as ‘the will of the people’.

In 2004, Ukraine elected Viktor Yushchenko as the new president. They used the French-type two-round system: thus, with spontaneous demonstrations in Kiev’s city centre, (with many protesters sleeping in ‘spontaneously’ USA-donated tents), Ukraine, a country of mainly Slav Christians, divided into two: Russian-speaking Orthodox in the east, and Ukrainian-speaking Catholic/Uniate in the west. The two are – or were! – so similar. But divided they had now become. It’s called democracy. And divided they now are. It’s called war.

Six years later, in 2010, another presidential election, the loser of the previous contest, the other Viktor, Yanukovich, was victorious… again by a whisker. Hence the protests in Maidan, also in the city centre. They turned violent. Horribly. So the EU changed its mind; democracy, no no, it’s not majority rule at all, it’s the opposite, it’s power-sharing. A delegation rushed over to Kiev. Too late. They arrived on the very day that Yanukovich ran into exile! Yes, too bloody late.

But the West had won? Ha! Putin was not going to do nothing. He planned another referendum in Crimea where, with the ‘assistance’ of little green men everywhere, the locals voted to re-join Russia, supposedly by 96.8% – the Tatars again abstaining. Donetsk and Luhansk now followed with their referendums, 90.0% (as stated above) and 96.2%… and, as it happened, 2014 was also the year of Scotland’s poll: little wonder the word ‘Shotlandiya’ {Шотландия} was used by Russian separatists in Luhansk. ‘Everything is connected,’ as Vladimir Vernadsky, the Russian Ukrainian, once said, {Всё связано}, vsyo svyazano.

_____________

In 2020, I was travelling overland to China, a journey which involved crossing the Caucasus mountains – it is a most beautiful border – from Georgia’s Tbilisi to Russia’s Vladikavkaz. “Zdravstvuite,” I said, (the Russian word for ‘hi’); so I was detained, interrogated with ridiculous questions like, “Where was your grandmother born?” – I didn’t know – but I was eventually released. “It would have been better,” my mini-bus taxi driver said afterwards, “if you didn’t speak Russian.”

After a night in town, I caught the train which first goes west to Rostov, and then heads north round the Ukrainian border up to Moscow. And half-way there, very near the border, the train stopped at a brand new railway station; no town, no village, nobody, just a brand new railway station in the middle of nowhere. Logistics for today’s war.

On my return to Belfast in 2021, I informed BBC Radio 4 and my Irish Green Party colleagues of what I thought was very worrying. What I do not understand, however, is (i) why US spy satellites pretended not to notice these sabres being rattled – apparently, I later learnt, there were three new railway stations – and (ii) why, therefore, the West expressed surprise in February 2022, when the Russians invaded.

_____________

So, after nearly four years of war, what’s next? The first thing to acknowledge is that there are several non-military ways of confronting violence, as Mahatma Gandhi would have told us. Ambassadors and others in Moscow could have gone to Pushkin Square and joined the local protesters – they were there – or hold their own demo. We all know how difficult it is for Russians themselves to protest; for embassy staff, however, and/or for famous, preferably old westerners – retired presidents such as Barack Obama and Mary Robinson for example, old kings like Charles, old popes, Leo, et al – a few or many could go to Moscow to just stand there, in protest, and fast maybe; it could be fantastic; at the very least, it would be a tactic which would risk the lives of only a few old folk, rather than a military tactic which could endanger those of hundreds of young Ukrainians… and Russians, let alone yet more poor civilians of all ages in Ukraine.

Secondly, the West should acknowledge its own mistakes: not only (i) supporting majoritarianism and Yeltsin, for example, but also (ii) failing to understand how Putin thinks, in blaming him for everything (including the war in Georgia which, apparently, Putin started… while watching the Olympics in Beijing?! – no no; Mikhail Saakashvili, the then president of Georgia, was just as guilty), and (iii) not accepting that it was unwise for NATO to expand eastwards. Indeed, in 1985, with the then inevitable dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, formally and finally dissolved in 1991, was NATO’s job not finished? Should not the generals et al have retired?

But we are where we are. The war is still raging. Russia, which cares little for its own soldiers, is marching westwards, slowly but relentlessly, creating yet more ‘facts on the ground.’ Ukraine is losing territory. Kiev has only the moral upper hand; the way it conducts its military offensives against Moscow’s military, as opposed to the latter’s ceaseless attacks against Ukraine’s civilians and its infrastructure, in particular its energy supplies. Kiev’s morale is still high, but for how much longer? Russia meanwhile has strength in numbers, despite having lost many men of fighting age who have fled to Georgia and elsewhere, and despite a surprisingly large number of civilians opposed to the war, at least in private.

So let us accept that any peace treaty will require compromise; that we in the West must accept some difficult changes, (and I know that many Poles and others will not like what follows), but I suggest we should remember our histories, and use them to good effect. Why not, therefore, to facilitate a cease-fire, (re-)create Mitteleuropa: a neutral, nuclear-free zone, from Finland to Greece?

_____________

A ‘Mitteleuropa’ proposal.

1.     Crimea to be under joint, triple or UN authority, its local administration based, not on majority voting, but on multi-optional, preferential decision-making.

2.     All other pre-2014 borders to be recognised.  All Russian forces to be withdrawn from Donbas, etc., and all Ukrainian forces from Russia.

3.    A neutral Mitteleuropa or Middle-Europe to be created: from Finland and the Baltic States, via Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, to Ukraine, Moldova and the Balkans, all to be non-nuclear and not in NATO but, if desired, in the EU.

–

Peter Emerson served as an OSCE election observer in six different Ukrainian contests, 2004-14; a member of the EU’s Monitoring Mission for South Ossetia, 2008-9; addressed the OSCE / ODIHR in Warsaw on the dangers of adversarial voting procedures in 2009; and recently gave university lectures on preferential decision-making in Moscow, Mykolaiv and Kiev.

The de Borda Institute, Belfast,

Berlin, 27.11.2025

www.deborda.org

Billy King: Rites Again, 335

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts –

It was sad to hear about the death of Margaretta D’Arcy. I only met her a couple of times, once in her home in Galway where she was very forthright (good for her) in demanding to know why I wasn’t sitting down or doing other things deemed unlawful by the state at Shannon AirWarport. I had or have no good answer to her question except I know that in doing so the legal charges can put your life on hold for some years and prevent you doing other things that you deem important.

It is fitting that the day before her death another three people entered the guarded space of that (effectively) US military base. My congratulations and thanks go out to them and all those who have put themselves on that line. As the Simple Flying (‘simple’ is the word) website says, “Shannon holds an exclusive role as a de facto logistics node for US military operations.” https://simpleflying.com/three-arrested-van-breaches-shannon-airport-us-military-aircraft/ And as The Ditch (Dia duit) said at the end of last year “The US government uses Irish territory as a critical hub for its illegal transport of munitions to the Israel Defense Forces and Nato member states. “ https://www.ontheditch.com/irish-airspace-a-critical-hub/

But on another matter, aren’t shortages terrible, when a desired product comes in short supply. Just look at the shortage of TNT in Europe. Ooops, TNT is the major component of most military munitions. I read that NATO is facing a critical shortage of explosives after much of Europe’s TNT supply was used in the bombardment of Gaza. Poland’s state-owned Nitro-Chem, Europe’s only large-scale TNT producer, is struggling to keep up with demand. This is just one of the many ways Europe has been complicit in the genocide in Gaza.

Love Orange, Love Green

I have been digging out a few oul books. This month I look at something a bit different: “Love Orange, Love Green – Poems of Living, Loving and Dying in Working-class Ulster”, Whitcor Publications, 1974. 178 pages; this was compiled by Marion White and Jim McCorry (their surnames presumably providing, in abbreviation, the publishing name) with some help from Sam Smyth.

It is an amazing publication which can take you back to the exceedingly raw emotions of that time in Northern Ireland. As its name suggests it is poems by working class people, presumably mainly or entirely from Belfast, some proclaiming a militant loyalism, some a militant republicanism, and some a sardonic view of everything or something specific around them. There are no punches pulled and no toning down of anything, what the editors/compilers got is, I imagine, pretty much what they published. It cost 50 pence at the time, the equivalent of about £5 in 2025.

Thus you can have a loyalist viewpoint cheek by jowl with a republican one:

“Hark, it’s the sound of battle, in action we must go

As we defend old Ulster from each rebel foe

Loyal Ulster calls her faithful sons, as we together join

To fight like good King William’s men at the battle of the Boyne…..”

and then in another poem –

“Men of the North, Thraldom who scorn

Never shall bend the knee,

Defiance we throw at the old foe

Free men we wish to be…..”

These expressions nearly makes you think that old lie, that all our wars were merry and all our songs were sad (a saying accredited to G K Chesterton), has something going for it. But there is much more than paramilitary-supporting bravado. A loyalist attacks moderates for, effectively they say, supporting the Provos. A republican attacks the Irish government. Laments for some who have died. Tragedies that should not have happened. Some poems are somewhat and perhaps surprisingly subtle in their support for one side or another, although support was presumably intended, so that it is difficult to say which foot they kick with and which side they kick.

It is divided into sections – Men behind the wire, Belfast, Some who paid the price, Emotions, Incidents, Miscellaneous, The conmen, Soldiers all, Songs.

My favourite is a non-political poem entitled “The people’s taxis”, taxis which acted somewhat like buses that took off in both republican and, to a lesser extent, loyalist areas when buses were hijacked or destroyed and bus services withdrawn. There is no author/poet attribution.

“When the earth has spun a few more years upon its axis

One of the things we’ll talk about will be the people’s taxis

And we’ll look back in fondness on those stalwarts of the road.

Who wouldn’t know the meaning of the phrase “to overload”

For who would travel poe-faced on a bus that’s so inanimate

With windows closed on smoke and smells

Our best friends won’t refer to.

We jockey for position…..but complain?…we wouldn’t dare to

And who would keep their hauteur…and who would want to try.

When you are sitting cheek to cheek, and even thigh to thigh

When conversations feelers have established friend and foe

We debate politicians…and decide who’ll stay or go

We’re not afraid to speak our minds or commit a social gaffe

And always there’s a nut on board who’ll give us all a laugh

So though we long for peace to come, when trouble is no more

Then neither will the taxis be…

Just buses….what a bore…”

All aboard a very evocative poem (punctuation as in the original). In fact the “people’s taxis” have continued though, thankfully, bus hijackings are few and far between. The book was denied an Arts Council grant for effectively not being “work with aesthetic content”. This is rather sad since one of the meanings of ‘aesthetic’, which went through various transmogrifications from the Greek, is to perceive by the senses or the mind, and another is ‘attractive or appealing’ which the poems would be to lots of people. No, certainly it is not your conventional published poet-tree but heartfelt thoughts effectively expressed, a window on the real emotions of the time and a testament to both people’s humanity and their divisions. And the level of violence as in 1974 has gone but the divisions largely remain.

E-pistemology

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. E-pistemology is the study of knowledge online including AI. [Did you just invent a new take on the word epistemology? – Ed] [Yes, but dozens have probably done it before. However here is another one I guarantee no one else will have thought up – ‘epissedemology’, the study of what people know and don’t know when drunk – Billy] [Are your puns trying to drive people to drink? – Ed] [Surely you know that no one should drive and drink – Billy]

Elon Musk has come up with his Grokipedia (Chokepedia?) because he thinks Wikipedia is too left wing – but then he probably considers Adolf Hitler was too left wing and a wishy washy liberal. But not only that, he clearly considers his creation will be perfect; “Musk was so enamoured of his AI-encyclopedia he said he planned to one day etch the “comprehensive collection of all knowledge” into a stable oxide and “place copies … in orbit, the moon and Mars to preserve it for the future”. (Quote from The Guardian 3/11/25.) Talk about hubris, talk about MAGAlomania. Unchecked by human hand or brain, a significant proportion of Musk’s Grokipedia is and will be a right wing travesty.

He is clearly elon-gating his place in the history of the distortion of knowledge for nefarious purposes, or taking a musk-et to shoot up recognised and scientific processes for arriving at knowledge. Taking the ‘piste’ out of epistemology, a piste is a slippery slope for skiing and Musk’s actions are a slippery slope to a world where knowledge is all in the eye of the beholder – and that beholder is a right wing billionaire/perhaps soon trillionaire bigot. And the rest of us will be thoroughly piste off.

Speaking of billionaires, Bernie Sanders had a nice line about the USA which I am sure many others use too; Abe Lincoln spoke of “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” but the USA was now “Government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires.”

On Tyranny

You are not getting away from the North American continent here either. I have already done an oul book, above, but here I am writing about one from 2017, “On Tyranny – Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder. It is a slim volume published a year into Donald Trump’s first, disorganised, term of office – that seems so long ago now. And the book seems particularly prophetic given what Thump and company have been doing in his second term. It is talking both universally and particularly – universal lessons but often especial mention of, or allusion to, Trump and the USA, and written by someone from that part of the world.

The author should know a thing or two about tyranny if you look at his numerous books focussing on Europe, especially in the Twentieth Century. Whether Trump is T Rex or T Wrecks, well there is still debate about the nature of the man and whether he is the primary mover and shaker with his MAGAlomania and egomania or a useful idiot for the far right – or both, and my money is on ‘both’.

Some of Snyder’s twenty points look major, some minor, but we don’t know what in particular will make ‘the’ difference so it would be unfortunate to say any of them are insignificant. It is scary in the US context how many of these twenty chickens have come home to roost; No.1 is “Do not obey in advance” and yet we have seen the tech giants, and others, rushing to do Trump’s will before being required to do so. No.6 “Be wary of paramilitaries” – people in Northern Ireland should not need reminded about that, whatever their persuasion – is not just about paramilitaries but also the transformation of the police and military. We have seen that with the deployment of the military onto the streets of the USA as well as Trump’s neutral or positive comments about the likes of the Proud Boys.

“Defend institutions”, “Remember professional ethics”, “Believe in truth”, “Listen for dangerous words” are just some of the short chapters in this book, which are then illustrated with historical examples – mainly of failures but also exhortations to positivity. “Make eye contact and small talk” might seem a strange injunction/chapter but it is about maintaining human contact and unspoken solidarity in the face of peril. All of this is important, wherever we are.

However I would feel there are some deficiencies in the book. Firstly, there is no mention of the USA as a colonial enterprise ‘internally’, well, what became internal as the settlers took native lands and also Hispanic lands; this is an important factor in macho politics and (the lack of) gun control which contributes to the right wing political situation. It is an essential part of the backdrop and something which if not addressed contributes to the kind of politics we see today. Secondly, while the law being used to undermine the law is covered, the inadequacy of the US constitution in relation to modern times is not really dealt with.

Finally, although the importance of ‘standing up‘ to authoritarianism is covered, there is no specific mention of nonviolence, nonviolent action and struggle, which is a bit remiss; there is a mention of the danger of terrorist/retaliatory violence (the attack in setting fire to the Reichstag in 1933 is covered and how Hitler used it to gain total control) but not of the importance of building a nonviolent movement or the possibilities of nonviolence including hidden disobedience. Nonviolence is not easy but avoids many of the pitfalls of violence, especially in confronting a power that has most guns.

Trump is keeping his (gun)powder dry before making a move to stay on as President when his second term ends. I consider it would be out of character if he didn’t. He also knows the legal immunity he enjoys as president would disappear if he was no longer POTUS or he would be dependent on having a MAGA-Republican presidency for pardons. What false emergency he can proclaim or use to try to justify an end to US democracy at a national level, such as it is, remains to be seen. But even if that doesn’t work out Vance is waiting in the shadows. Unfortunately watch this and lots of other spaces as to how things develop. US democracy isn’t and wasn’t great but it would be obscene (morally repulsive, disgusting) for it to disappear. They may have talked the talk far more than they walked the walk but it has had positives.

But we shouldn’t imagine we, elsewhere in the world, are immune to tyrannical impulses. Racism is the Trojan horse that the right wing works hard to use to further its agenda, and we see that in both jurisdictions in Ireland. And if you come to believe in racism then you can come to believe in ‘the great replacement theory’ and all the other far right conspiracy theories. And then we are heading to hell in a souped up handcart. All the imperatives in this book apply to us too.

Losing it

There are many things we can lose – our keys, our bank cards, or even our friendships and, in the extreme, our humanity. One story which I saw recently concerned the last two of these. It was a production of ‘Address Unknown’ written by Katherine Kressman Taylor as a novelette before the Second World War and later turned into a one act play. It largely portrays the interaction between two former friends through their letters. It was an excellent amateur production in November at the Southbank Playhouse off Sunnyside Street in Belfast.

The play is set in the period 1932-34 during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and concerns two relatively well to do German friends who were art dealers in the USA, one of whom, Martin, returns to Germany and for reasons perhaps of herd mentality and lack of conscience but certainly self interest gets caught up in serving the Nazi regime. However his friend Max back in San Francisco is Jewish, watching at long distance the horror unfolding, including the horror for his younger sister who is in Germany. When Martin does not aid Max’s sister, Max plots ingenious long distance revenge. You can imagine what the curt message ‘Address unknown’ on a returned envelope implies in this context and it appears twice in the drama.

It is a fairly short book/drama but portrays how easily we can become caught up in things which we would previously have rationally rejected. No society is immune to this. The dehumanisation of others is also our dehumanisation. As we watch right wing violence in Ireland, North and South, we need to be imaginative and creative in how we support and portray the humanity of all. The tragedy of Ballymena race riots in the summer – with charges now withdrawn against the Romanian teenagers who were then-alleged rape perpetrators – is crazy; race riots with no ‘race’ to it.

It is too apocalyptic to say we are always on the edge of the abyss but it does not take long for a society with problems to become a society with extermination at some level – there are many examples of this including Northern Ireland from 1969. This of course means addressing those real problems while they can be dealt with and not leaving them to fester and become totally overboard. Ireland has much working out to do yet.

–

Well, perhaps that is not ending on a bright note but my first item, about Norn Iron, portrays the past there which was a load bleaker than the present. To say the North has problems would be an understatement but progress has been made in some areas which I hope will continue.

It’s now the race into Christmas, I hope you survive the pressures and get to enjoy your Christmas parties and festivities. I enjoy it when we get there and the lull afterwards. And speaking of lulls, there is no full issue of this e-steamed publication, just a news supplement, in January so I won’t see you again until the start of February. Meanwhile, as is my wont [Won’t what? – Ed] [Won’t give up on using that good old fashioned word ‘wont’ – Billy] I wish you and yours a peaceful Christmas and a preposterous new year – Billy.