Tag Archives: 2026

News, June 2026

Nonviolent News, ,

Corrymeela leadership change

Corrymeela leader Alex Wimberley is resigning to return to church ministry in the USA at the end of July after seven years in post, and a couple more before that also working for Corrymeela. A photo of him with the children of Ray and Kathleen Davey appears at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/55283530297/in/dateposted/ For more info including on Corrymeela’s decision making process on leadership, see https://www.corrymeela.org/news/276/thank-you-alex-corrymeela-leader

l The exhibition “Corrymeela – an unfinished journey towards peace”, on 60 years work, which was on display at the Linen Hall Library in Belfast now has a permanent home in the Croi at the Corrymeela Centre in Ballycastle and can be seen there. The Corrymeela archive is held at the Linen Hall Library. Current Corrymeela programme info and news can be read on their website at https://www.corrymeela.org/

Data centres cost €€€ as well as climate

Campaigning groups like FOE and Afri have been trying to publicise the climate cost of data centres for years – but now it is clear there is a huge financial cost for consumers as well. Households in Ireland (Republic) have paid an estimated €715 million more in electricity bills between 2015 and 2023 due to the rapid expansion of data centres in the country, a new report from Friends of the Earth finds; this equals €360 a household on average for 2015-2023. This total could rise to €1.6 billion over the next decade – and as FOE states “This is outrageous” and “Ordinary people in Ireland have effectively been paying a hidden data centre tax on their electricity bills.” The data centres industry disputes the figures. See https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/news/the-cost-of-data-centre-growth-in-ireland-households-paid-an-estimated-715-million-more-in-electrici/

l FOE is currently, along with Client Earth and Friends of the Irish Environment suing the energy regulator, the Commission for the Regulation Utilities (CRU), over its recent decision which allows the data centre industry to expand further with only limited restrictions on fossil fuel usage. See https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/

Afri ‘Famine’ Walk at Doolough: A road to remember, a call that remains

This iconic event is on Saturday 13th June this year, registration in Louisburgh, Co Mayo, from 10am where the opening ceremony will take place at 11am sharp before participants are bussed to Delphi Lodge to walk the 18 km back to Louisburgh (shuttle car will pick up those unable to walk the whole way). This event commemorates a real and tragic walk by starving people in 1849 but linking this with realities in the world today. See https://tinyurl.com/mtwaxz6e for more info and booking link. Walk leaders are Donnah Sibanda Vuma, Patrick Bresnihan, Moya Cannon and music by Declan O’Rourke. Participation fee €30, concessions €20, gathering sponsorship welcome.

INCORE: Seminar on racism in NI, disappearances conference

A year after race related rioting in Ballymena, INCORE is organising a seminar in Derry on the morning of 22nd June on “Racism, Intolerance and Misinformation: Conversations for Change”. This event aims to bring together community voices, practitioners, and researchers for a reflective and forward-looking discussion with input from some key people in the field concerned. See https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/racism-intolerance-and-misinformation-conversations-for-change-tickets-1990575079648?aff=oddtdtcreator for more info.

lThe INCORE annual conference will take place from Sunday 30th August to Tuesday 1st September in the Derry campus on a variety of aspects of forced disappearances including disappearances as a human rights violation and state responsibility for disappearances by non-state actors. It is being run in conjunction with the Journal of Disappearance Studies. The deadline for submitting papers has passed but booking is possible until close to the event, see https://www.ulster.ac.uk/faculties/arts-humanities-and-social-sciences/events/incore-annual-conference-2026 INCORE website is at https://www.ulster.ac.uk/incore

Irish solidarity with Palestine continues unabated

It would be impossible to describe in a small space the ongoing level of support for Gaza and Palestine from people in Ireland with regular and special activities around the country and also involvement for years in international flotillas sailing to Gaza (…and blockade breaking is a classic nonviolent tactic). Fourteen Irish citizens, including Margaret Connolly, a sister of President Catherine Connolly, were part of a large flotilla or flotillas recently and illegally hijacked in international waters with participants ill-treated in Israel before being deported leading to the Irish government – extremely belatedly – promising to bring forward the Occupied Territories Bill (covering goods but without inclusion of services). Word search and see also https://www.globalsumudflotilla.org/delegations/ireland/ The IPSC website https://www.ipsc.ie/ has lists of upcoming events (under ‘News’), an amazing list – or look out locally.

ICCL: 50 years fighting for civil liberties

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is this year celebrating 50 years and will be marking the occasion in June with a major conference entitled “Fifty years of fighting or civil liberties: What next for democracy?” in conjunction with TCD School of Law. This will include the launch of the ICCL Strategic Plan for 2026-2029. See www.iccl.ie for current news and areas of work and concern.

Neutrality Roadshow online, video

After an amazing 47 meetings or seminars held by the Neutrality Roadshow around the country, one took place online and can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/kxzvzth9 with speakers Fionn Wallace, Rory Rowan, Patrick Bresnihan, and Clare O’Connor acting as question master. This hour long video covers the main issues in relation to Irish neutrality in a very perceptive manner. See also https://keepirelandneutral.ie/ and the event was co-sponsored by World Beyond War Ireland https://worldbeyondwar.org/ireland/

Lex Innocentium: European Peace Manifesto

Lex Innocentium has again participated in the European Peace Project on the 9th of May, Europe Day, calling for peace and an end to hostility and wasteful militarisation; the Manifesto for Peace was read at the German War Cemetery at Glencree, close to the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, County Wicklow. See 14 minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q09nBiyTaG4 See also https://lexinnocentium21.ie/

Good Relations Week: Include everyone, everywhere, everyday

Good Relations Week in Northern Ireland is an opportunity for many groups to showcase their work in this area. This year it runs from Monday 12th to Sunday 18th October with the above theme. Registration is now open and can include workshops, exhibitions, discussions, performances, cultural events or community celebrations, in person, online or hybrid. More info at https://goodrelationsweek.com/get-involved/

Integrated education in NI

Integrated education in the North has moved from educating 0% of children 45 years ago to 8% today with a consistent majority of parents supporting it if not necessarily sending their Johnny or Seana to an integrated school, sometimes for reasons of geography. Estimates of its importance to a peaceful future vary wildly. A free access exhibition at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, entitled “All Children Together and the story of integrated education in Northern Ireland” is on display until 9th July and looks at the story from its beginnings up to today. https://linenhall.com/event/all-children-together-and-the-story-of-integrated-education-in-northern-ireland-free-exhibition/ and more generally https://nicie.org/

SCI: Belonging beyond borders

The Social Change Initiative in partnership with Ulster University (UU) is organising a public lecture on ‘Belonging Beyond Borders: From Othering to Belonging in an Age of Division’ with Prof. john a. powell who is Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California Berkeley and is one of the world’s leading thinkers on race, identity, and belonging. It takes place in the Belfast UU campus at 6pm on Thursday 11th June. https://www.socialchangeinitiative.com/ and booking at https://tinyurl.com/36d3sm3r

Chornobyl: Context and 40 years of CCI work

A new short video from CCI/Chernobyl Children International at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1o0RcJC5sI looks at what happened at Chornobyl 40 years ago, the ongoing effects, and CCI’s work to mitigate some of the effects of the disaster. CCI has continued to speak out about the effects and dangers of war in the area in releasing deadly radiation https://tinyurl.com/5cbtc2wf Meanwhile CCI are running their specially designed summer camps for children in the affected areas. More information, including about supporting CCI, at https://www.chernobyl-international.com/

Racism on the rise in the North

Statistics from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) show that police recorded 1,507 racist hate crimes and 2,367 racist incidents in the 12 months to the end of March 2026 – the highest annual figures since records began in 2004. As Amnesty International point out, “The figures represent a dramatic year-on-year increase, with racist incidents rising by 561 and racist hate crimes increasing by 320 compared to the previous 12 months.” Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Director, said: “Racist violence is spiralling out of control in Northern Ireland.  These shocking figures must be a wake-up call for political leaders.” https://www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/northern-ireland-year-hate-and-fear-racist-crimes-hit-record-high/ https://www.facebook.com/amnestyni/ See also Belfast Telegraph report https://tinyurl.com/yztahknm on Stormont committee discussion.

Military spending profligacy

The world spent $2.88 trillion on the military in 2025, an increase of 2.9% from the year before, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI). For details see https://www.sipri.org/publications/2026/sipri-fact-sheets/trends-world-military-expenditure-2025 and https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/29/five-charts-that-show-the-rise-of-global-militarisation

Cost of Growth film to be shown in Dublin

A variety of green or related groups have come together to show the Dublin premier of ‘The Cost of Growth’ documentary film in the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin, at 6pm on Wednesday June 24th. There is a very reasonable admission fee. The film challenges Europe’s growth story by exposing the extractive systems it relies on and the communities that pay the price. See https://www.ticketsource.com/null/the-cost-of-growth-dublin-film-premier/2026-06-24/18:00/t-aazaeqr for booking.  *It seems this event is sold out.

British security input to forming infamous NI Legacy Act

As The Detail details, “Minutes from a secret policymaking group involved in devising the Legacy Act reveal that attendees had close ties to security services and state agencies, despite the fact the act was supposed to investigate the state’s role in many killings.” https://www.thedetail.tv/articles/secret-group-security-services-devise-legacy-act-icrir The emergence of this info is courtesy of persistent sleuthing by Daniel Holder, director of CAJ https://caj.org.uk/ 

British Supreme Court ruling a knock back for human rights in North

A recent UK Supreme Court judgement in May on issues regarding the Windsor Framework, the ICRIR, and the 2023 Legacy Act and victims’ rights, has implications not just for victims but for other aspects of human rights in Northern Ireland. In particular it has handed the Secretary of State and government more power on what information it can withhold, but various aspects remain to be teased out. See https://www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/uk-supreme-court-judgment-a-bitter-blow-to-victims/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7pv5gj4xxo

Billy King: Rites Again, 340

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Hello, I was hoping that this Colm [I think you are trying to be Uncle Colm from Derry Girls? – Ed] would be a TFZ – a Trump Free Zone – but it proved impossible. However I will keep it short and sweet and not mention the Donald again, this issue, I promise. You may have read that according to Atlantic magazine, the occupant of the POTUS post has stopped comparing himself to Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and decided he is more in the league of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon. Maybe that makes him a bit of a dick-tator but on a serious note it also makes him incredibly dangerous when in his last few years of insuperable military power he can obliterate what he wants to destroy with no repercussions for him personally.

So we may be in for a rollercoaster ride at best and a downward spiral at worst. Lets hope he gets wrapped up and obsessed with his boorish monuments to himself so he can’t be obnoxious and violent to others. He is a walking illustration of the perils of militarism (the egotism perhaps goes without saying though I have just said it) – as have many US presidents before him. Actions can have a myriad of consequences; for example, the US blockade of Cuba has doubled of even tripled the infant mortality rate there, with much other hardship too.

Meanwhile here we are into meteorological summer which in Ireland means the rain is warmer, or if you are logical and look at a clear night sky long enough you are likely to see a meteor. Well, you never know what will be thrown at us. Cue the old old story about someone from Norn Iron trying to book holiday accommodation in Britain by phone “for the Twelfth fortnight in July” and wondering why they were getting an incredulous response…. The longest day comes later this month and it always strikes me as strange – though obviously not meteorologically – that ‘summer’ comes when the days are already getting shorter. Mind you we have had a few days of record heat in late May which for most people in Ireland were pleasant – but not as a harbinger of ongoing global heating, and not in some places in Europe where temperatures were 10°C or more hotter than in good old Atlantic facing Ireland – tourist slogan “Come for the craic and stay for the cool”….

Own goal

There are own goals and own goals, and would you like to own a goal? [I will keep you goal posted on that – Ed] But the biggest own goal of the last month in relation to Northern Ireland was scored by Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party in Britain. Her office issued a social media post on the usual – and totally discredited – theme that there is a vendetta against British army personnel, veterans, who operated in the North and that Labour government proposals would facilitate that. In fact the number of cases taken show that this is a non-issue but it has become an English/British nationalist shibboleth (as well as a means to try to avoid state culpability).

However the post carried film footage of British soldiers in Derry during Bloody Sunday in 1972 when 14 unarmed people were shot dead by the British army. Her post was withdrawn when it was pointed out that this was what the clip showed. But by including this what it unintentionally said is that the full rigour of the law should be applied to soldiers who were involved in shootings and violent activities outside of human rights law. This was bad enough for her and it was the opposite of what Badenoch and her office were trying nothing should exonerate those much higher up the military and political chains of command who set the parameters for engagement and sent the soldiers in, but that isn’t how these things work, is it? If anyone gets done it is the people at the bottom and in the Norn Iron case that hasn’t even been happening.

Dream time Fianna Fáil

As the two recent by-elections in the Republic show, it is not a dream time for Fianna Fáil, even losing their deposit because their vote was so low in the Dublin election. As regular readers will know, I try to take an interest in polly-ticks on both sides of the border [Shouldn’t that be ‘regular reader’, singular, rather than ‘regular readers’? – Ed] [That is just you being singularly unpleasant again – Billy]. However I was surprised by a recent dream and its vividness in remembrance of it on waking; in the dream I was responsible for putting up an exhibition about Fianna Fáil with various panels and these included accounts of FF misdemeanours and mishandlings – but activists from said political party had stolen the panels which were especially critical of them. I had to threaten that I would publicise their theft if they didn’t return them – which they did, considering that that was the lesser of two evils.

Well, how do you interpret that dream? Where did it come from? I consider said party should have gone out of existence entirely after the economic crash debacle of 2008; Bertie Ahern and the powers that were in Fianna Fail (sic) stupidly did nothing to rein in the property and housing bubble and they made the boom times boomier – which then led to the crash times being crashier and very significant hardship for many different kinds of people.

Their current embrace of NATO and EU militarisation is, I feel, a negation of the positive foreign policy which it has undertaken at various times in its existence, and also a betrayal of what soul it possessed – if a political party, especially a populist conservative one like FF, can have a soul. Micheál Martin being friendly with, and to, unionists is a Good Thing – but not at the expense that he refuses to plan for what a united Ireland would look like. On the latter, let the people decide, as is their right – but they need to know what they are deciding on and such thinking is best done outside the febrile atmosphere of a referendum vote or votes (north, south, east and west) on a u-nighted Ireland.

I am a political animal but not a party political one and I don’t think I could toe the line to be in a political party; I made that choice while (just) still a teenager. So I could do the same critique of many’s another political party. But that was what I dreamt about (see also my next two items which concern FF…) and I have provided a dream interpretation which is not dreamy. Maybe I should dream on. [Are you sure it wasn’t a large dram you had rather than a dream, even a bottle of Dreambuie? – Ed] [That would make me sic – Billy]

T-shock* and nuclear power

Micheál Martin has said Ireland should think seriously about nuclear power, e.g. Irish Times 4/5/26. I have a one word response to this; ‘Rubbish’ – nuclear rubbish or waste that is. Would he like nuclear waste in his back garden needing to be guarded for ten millennia? Of course fossil fuels need to be eradicated from Ireland’s energy mix but the idea that Ireland with its wind, waves, water and sun (yes!) might need to rely on what is the dirtiest fuel of all (and not all it is cracked up to be in terms of carbon dioxide emissions too) is unimaginative and extremely expensive nonsense. High tech junkies keep coming up with their feeling Ireland needs nuclear power – when what it needs is green energy and devolved green energy at that.

*In this case the ‘T’ is for ‘Threat’. I have told you before about a mention of the word ‘Taoiseach’ in the British Parliament many decades ago, at the start of the Troubles, before the word was known on that island; it could have been Gerry Fitt but anyway a Norn Iron nationalist mentioned “a speech given by the Taoiseach in Sligo” – and this was reported in Hansard, the official parliamentary record, as “a speech given in a tea shop in Sligo”!

There has always been hype and spin about nuclear energy from the very beginning. The attractions of small modular reactors is the latest in that hype. There remains the dangers of accidents, environmentally or humanly caused, or even sabotage or attack. Costs can go through the roof. Waste issues haven’t even begun to be resolved. We would do well to steer clear of dangerous white elephants even if that dangerous white elephant is smaller than previously proposed white elephants.

INNATE’s photo album on nuclear power issues, much of it on the 1970s anti-nuclear power movement, is at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157607158367565/with/53807053772 See also Caroline Hurley’s article in this publication https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/2024/02/01/nuclear-power-is-a-regrets-industry-some-facts/

Proud of lethality

Irish people in general have been proud of the role the Irish army has played in international peacekeeping of the military variety. This has been as part of a contribution to peace in the world and has been done without fear or favour and for altruistic reasons. Those of us of a nonviolent persuasion would of course like to see support for unarmed civilian protection (UCP) and other involvements in creating and maintaining peace – including urgent work at home to prevent further climate change which is likely to cause so much conflict on a global scale in the next century.

However the Irish government has been changing tack to align the Republic much more with NATO and with EU militarisation. This has been done by a process of stealth moves so that it does not look like neutrality is being affected – but each chip at the block of neutrality wears it away; removing the Triple Lock on the deployment of Irish troops overseas is just one ingredient in the stage we are at with this. Part of this has been active and increasing engagement with NATO while not formally being a member – to the extent it won’t or doesn’t matter whether we are formally a member of not, that it makes no difference.

While public opinion is clearly in favour of neutrality, the government and Irish elite (sic) have usually been skilful in moving things in their direction; ‘Nothing to see here’ they continually opine while they know damn well they are not just gilding the lily but actively deceiving the population because they, stupidly, imagine that to be a ‘good European’ you have to be a good European militarist. This has repercussions for the Irish army and for expenditure on the military which has, thankfully and rightfully, until now been low by international standards.

But one illustration of the change that has happened appeared in that paper of establishment record, The Irish Times of 21/5/26 https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/05/21/it-was-embarrassing-for-them-irish-army-crew-beats-us-military-teams-at-their-own-game/ An Irish army team is proudly recorded as beating the USA in military ‘games’ in the USA which was defined as a “lethality competition”. And you know what ‘lethality’ is – killing people, and in war or military engagement that usually includes women, children and men who are not engaged in armed action, i.e. those traditionally labelled as ‘innocent’.

The Sullivan Cup after a week of military competition was won by an Irish army team and, as the IT proudly recorded, “In the end, the most “lethal” team came not from the US military but from Ireland”. This was despite the Irish team never having previously operated the M2 Bradley, a 35-tonne tracked vehicle, used for the exercise. Yes, armies are trained to be able to kill people but in a neutral state like Ireland which has not been under threat the main active role, international peacekeeping, has been the prevention of lethality. Taking part in a ‘lethality’ competition is a new and unwelcome departure and just one sign of a changed role for the Irish army, and taking part in one organised by the army of the most belligerent – and unlawfully belligerent – country on this planet is disgraceful.

–

That’s me for now as summer is a-comin’ in and in a short while it will be July, aye, and holliers for many. But if you are a peace or political activist there is never a shortage of things to do at any time of the year….which is why we all need a break. Cue Christy Moore’s ‘Lisdoonvarna’ which emphasises that we all do need a break….and which I usually quote around this time of year with the best description of a holiday ever – “When summer comes around each year / They come here and we go there”. See you soon, Billy.

Editorials: Blockades and nonviolence, European security

Editorials, Nonviolent News, , , , , , ,

Blockades and nonviolence

The recent fuel price blockades by some farmers and hauliers in the Republic raise a significant number of questions about what constitutes peaceful and nonviolent action. There have been very variable, and mixed, reactions and emotions involved and these are understandable. The government chose to negotiate with official, existing bodies representing the sectors involved rather than the protesters themselves and there were concessions made. The protests were in that regard partly successful, even if the concessions were rather less than protesters wanted. There has been a contrast between the strength of the protests in the Republic, dealing with a local and sovereign government, and the lack of protests in the North where the chances of influencing the government in London, who decide on fuel duties, are very slim.

The first thing to say is that the blockades were peaceful but they were blockades. Some protesters refused to use the term ‘blockade’ but they clearly were that; preventing people going about their normal business and stopping traffic by placing vehicles in the way is clearly a blockade. But it is important also to distinguish between what is ‘peaceful’ and what is legal; something can be illegal but peaceful and indeed something can be legal but not peaceful or it may even be violent. What is legal is defined by the laws of the state. What is ‘positive’ socially and economically is another question.

The issues involved include matters to do with fossil fuels, the right and need to make a living, the right of people to go about their normal workday lives, and questions about what is democracy as well as the role of government. Ireland has not moved away from fossil fuels in the way it should have done and that is largely the fault of the government – and the people who elected them. If we were less dependent on fossil fuels then the issue of a considerable jump in fuel prices would not have been the issue it became. On the other hand, if people were unable to make a living because of the cost of fuel then something needed to be done – either government subsidies (by way of reduced fuel tax) or an increase in prices by those using the fuels, or both.

The main issue or problem was people being unable to get where they wanted or needed to be because of their form of transport being blockaded. This was obviously frustrating even if those stopped were supportive of the protesters – and infuriating if they were not, feeling they were being ‘held to ransom’. Did the protesters have the ‘right’ to do what they were doing? In nonviolent theory – except in cases of authoritarian regimes where protesters need to have their identity hidden – the general rule is that nonviolent protesters doing illegal acts ‘take the consequences’ and this is part of the protest, being willing to stand up and deal with what is thrown at them by the state while still challenging the state on it. After a partial victory in concessions being made by the state, and the army being called in to remove blockades, the protesters went home however the possible use of the army in such circumstances is a dangerous move regarding dealing with protests.

But were the protesters justified in causing severe inconvenience to other people​? This is a value judgement. ‘Nonviolent tactics’ can be used in negative ways – e.g. if racists organised a boycott of black and minority ethnic businesses that would be using a ‘nonviolent tactic’ for a negative and indeed violent cause. So it depends on whether you consider the protesters to be ‘right’ in their demand for government action on fuel prices. However in terms of positive nonviolent action by the protesters, other tactics could have been chosen which were more interactive with government and other citizens.

There is no category for the kind of blockade engaged in by the fuel protesters in Gene Sharp’s classic analysis of nonviolent tactics in his book “The Politics of Nonviolent Action” perhaps because such blockades were not much a feature of action when that book was written in 1973. Sharp’s category of ‘Nonviolent interjection’ (using human bodies) is rather different and involves people putting their bodies on the line – not their tractors and trucks.

However other analysis, e.g. https://www.nukeresister.org/2024/07/13/blockades-block-liberation-how-blockades-obstruct-nonviolence-and-democratic-revolutions/ condemns blockades as a nonviolent tactic – “Blockades replace the uncertainty of democracy and the vulnerability of nonviolence with military notions of politics: win and lose, strength and dominance, tactics and strategy.” “Blockades are reactive rather than proactive” and “The blockade becomes part of an order of power that strengthens the one who is already strong.”

A look at disruptive protest activities https://commonslibrary.org/disruptive-protest-tactics-helpful-or-harmful/ has a comparison table of costs and benefits. However its point of “Little evidence of impact on policy change” does not apply in the fuel protests as clearly the government did change its tune. The question is whether that was democracy in action, extortion and holding others over a barrel, or something in between. In 1974 in Northern Ireland the loyalist ‘strike’ or stoppage against the Sunningdale agreement power-sharing government succeeded in bringing down the new political arrangement; blockades were a prominent part of this but there was also a substantial threat of violence behind them.

And this brings us on to the question of what responsibility the government holds. Clearly action was needed of some kind. Should they have negotiated or changed policy faster? Should they have acted earlier to clear blockades? Would that have inflamed feelings? What about the possible or threatened use of the army in this situation? And what is the government’s responsibility in relation to an economic matter like this which is clearly beyond their control (the international market price for fossil fuels); is giving away money the answer? The extent to which the government could or should take action to subsidise fuel prices is a moot point, and using a comparison like still getting the same overall ‘take’, despite higher prices, is one possibility for arriving at a just solution or at least a measuring stick. A windfall tax on increased fossil fuel profits in this situation could also be a possibility which could be used to subsidise fuel prices, even if retrospectively.

Democracy is far more than the workings of a parliament or assembly and elections every number of years. The workings of civil society and NGOs is an important part of democracy and its health (just look at how Putin has hollowed out the civil society which had developed after the collapse of the Soviet Union). Citizenry are entitled to protest whether that be for progressive or reactionary causes and reasons; they have that legal and civic right. When there is a heartfelt issue where the government’s actions are not in accord with the views of a significant number of citizens then there is almost bound to be ongoing protest. The majority of citizens in the Republic are in favour of neutrality and opposed to US military use of Shannon but the craven politicians in the government have been too afraid of US economic power to take positive action – hence ongoing protest and actions at Shannon airport, some of which have been ‘illegal’ but they have also been morally just. This is part of democracy too and it can be argued that it is the government that has been acting undemocratically and in opposition to peace and neutrality.

How you judge the justice issue involved in the fuel blockades will determine how you see the rightness or the wrongness of the actions involved and the disruption to the rest of the population. The protesters were entitled to protest. The state was entitled to react. How civil society saw the issue was an important factor in the equations involved. Some commentators have pointed to the right wing sentiments of some of the protesters and this may be an issue but the overall question is one of justice and fairness to all, protesters and those affected by the protest. Nonviolent theory does of course include the need to disobey unjust laws – but, if need be, it also includes the possibility of disobedience of ‘neutral’ laws which are not immediately connected with the issue at hand.

The lesson in all this is, of course, to have urgent transition from fossil fuel use and prioritising local green energy supplies rather than being dependent on large corporations for either fossil fuels or the provision of clean energy. Decentralised systems are much more difficult to be abused by the powerful and more difficult to disrupt when things are falling apart.

Just like the mixed sentiments of many in the population regarding the fuel blockades, nonviolent theory does not provide an immediate and clear answer on the fuel protests however questions of justice and equity should be to the fore in any analysis. And imagination and positivity in protest is part of nonviolence.

European security

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said (e.g. in Berlin) that security will be one of the key issues of the Irish EU presidency, coming up shortly for the second half of the year. He has also previously said, last December, that there was too much “squeamish debate” about Ireland working with other countries’, including NATO, militaries. He is quite right about an emphasis on security but not in the way he thinks – which evidently only concerns military security against Russia including EU-NATO cooperation. Here are the security issues which need tackled on an Irish, European and world level:

Human security:

The idea that ‘security’ is about military security is dangerous and deluded. Covid 19 was the greatest threat to world wellbeing for a long time and it had nothing to do with military security. Global heating is the largest endemic, global threat. Human security includes the right to life and freedom from violence, adequate food and housing, and civil freedom. The following issues of security all contribute to ‘human security’.

Ecological security:

Global heating is already a monumental disaster and stabilising global temperatures is of paramount importance. For Ireland there is the danger, analysed in a couple of recent reports, that the chances of the Atlantic AMOC current (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation a k a Gulf Stream) shutting down are greater than previously thought, which would leave Ireland with similar weather to Newfoundland and heightened sea levels. But this would affect the rest of northern Europe too and disastrously change weather patterns on a wider scale with likely catastrophic consequences for food production and wellbeing.

Food security:

Ireland is a net exporter of food but it is only in a few fields like dairy and beef. Most other food is imported. The island nature of Ireland and being on the western extremity of Europe adds a complicating and dangerous factor to food importing in times of chaos. At the very least contingency plans need to be in place for emergency times; at the moment the ‘just in time’ nature of food importing leaves countries very vulnerable but an island like Ireland especially so.

Security against war:

The arms build up in Europe is unsustainable in different ways, both economic and in terms of risk. The war in Ukraine, partly caused by NATO expansionism, is brutal but a wider European war, including the possible use of nuclear weapons, would be suicidal. The way to get rid of enemies is to turn them into friends; this is obviously easier said than done but current policies keep upping the level of threat. Ireland in particular, with its positive history of neutrality, should be working flat out on conflict mitigation and transformation. Standing up against the warmaking of the USA should be imperative.

Economic security:

The world is using its resources at an unsustainable rate. Apart from any questions of national and global equity, financial and trade justice are needed to help stabilise migration and avoid the chaos of migration beyond what is bearable for both sending and host countries. Obviously this relates closely to ecological security but it is much more. And developments in AI threaten both the economic and social wellbeing of many workers and would be workers; new parameters and paradigms need to be set for people’s involvement in economic activity and wage-earning. And relative economic prosperity does not guarantee the right to housing, for example, as people in Ireland, especially Dublin, and other places have been finding out.

We all deserve to feel secure. Current economic, military and international relations policies are creating massive insecurity. Emphasis on military security rather than human security is is part of a downward spiral of negativity and violence.

Billy King: Rites Again, 339

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

As more and more US citizens try to acquire European citizenship, with Ireland certainly well up in the list, isn’t it heartening to know that for the 250th anniversary of the USA if you are a citizen you will be able to purchase a commemorative passport which includes a page with a picture of President Trump. In other words on the cover the eagle has landed whereas inside the ego has landed. And Ireland, Republic and North, in the shape of Shannon and Aldergrove airports, continues to facilitate the US military machine and its warmaking. Blessed be the US$. Speaking of which, the Iran war has reputedly cost the US state $25 billion to date; what an obscene and abhorrent use of such a sum of money..

On another matter, it is good to see Ireland will be co-hosting, with Tuvalu, the second meeting of the ‘coalition of the willing’ 60 or so countries working apart from the COP process on fossil fuel phasing out. This will be early next year and a follow up to the first meeting, with petrostates absent, in Colombia which has just finished. Ireland has talked the talk all right but it hasn’t yet walked the walk; let’s see some serious action that the government can brag about at the start of next year.

Don’t mess with messiahs

OK, OK, a million and one people have already reflected in all sorts of media on D Trump’s brush with messiahdom in the shape of a traditional-image picture of him as Jesus healing the sick …with various other things going down in the background. When the reaction to that got too much he then shared a best buddy picture of Jesus giving him a cuddle; more than the best of mates then. His excuse for the first, that he thought it made him look like a doctor, was so lame that that in turn caused all sorts of cartoons and other comparisons or memes of doctors and messiahs. There is of course a 0.01% chance that he believed it made him look like a doctor, that is if he is the most visually illiterate person in the western hemisphere….oh, on second thoughts, given his extreme kitschy tastes, increase the chances there incrementally…

But, while I am not a psychologist [You don’t need to tell us, it’s pretty obvious but that won’t stop you going on to psychologise – Ed] I did want to explore messiahdom a bit. There are many kinds of messiahs. You don’t have to think you are Jesus to ‘be’ a messiah and other religious backgrounds than Christian get it too. I don’t think Trump thought he was Jesus, rather ‘just’ (!) like Jesus in being divinely appointed and infallible despite continuous failures. The second picture he posted, of Jesus giving him a cuddle, is probably closer to his thinking even though he may see himself as a healer of the sick – and how ironic is that when he is busy cutting rights to medical care and funding for medical research. In my barometer for measuring D Trump’s compatibility with Christian thinking he gets approximately 0 out of 10.

Messiahdom is probably more common than you think. I have talked before [Often – Ed] about meeting three people in Norn Iron, from outside, who thought they were ‘a’ messiah – though one of these saw himself as the father of the messiah…… However feeling you are a ‘chosen people’ has a messianic aspect to it, and the ‘manifest destiny’ beliefs of the USA, and the puritan founding fathers (sic) approach to things has led to the USA seeing itself as ‘chosen’ – e.g. as the world’s ‘policeman’ (= military bully in other people’s thinking). So the USA and Israel under a right-wing government, where the leaders of the latter believe they have a divine right to take all the territory around them that they want, are a perfect match – a perfect match made in hell that is.

While ‘Manifest Destiny’ is thought of as a 19th century US expansionist ideology, it has never gone away. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 – opposing European intervention in the Americas – was an anti-imperialist statement but it was also part of an imperialist statement that ‘the Americas’ essentially belong to the USA, and of course the USA’s westward and southward expansion was itself imperialist. The term ‘manifest destiny’ may not have been used in the 20th century but US official thinking largely remained the same despite some variations. Amazingly – or not considering his outspokenness – Donald Trump used the term in his inaugural address in 2025. US imperialism is not just living it is, tragically, thriving even if the result of US intervention in Iran has been to make the situation far worse for Iran, the USA itself and the world.

So when you have a narcissistic megalomanic like Trump as president of the USA it is a lethal combination of a fatally flawed individual and a fatally flawed national consciousness (there are of course many people in the USA who totally and actively reject this thinking and are working away for peace and justice so it is not a ‘national’ national consciousness) with the two reinforcing each other. And we are all suffering from that but the real victims have been the Palestinians, especially Gazans, and the peoples of Iran and Lebanon. Yes, the attacks on Lebanon have been the doing of Israel but one word from the USA could have stopped them before they started (that word was ‘no’ – “No more support of any kind if you attack Lebanon”).

Nuke them

Numerous commentators have pointed out that if Iran hadn’t been trying too hard to get nuclear weapons before the current USA-Israeli onslaught that they sure as hell (sic) would in future, this would be on the same basis that the North Korean regime has nukes as an insurance policy against attack. Moving beyond the MADness of nuclear weapons has become much more difficult in our current belligerent world.

But a balance of terror is no way to run a world. It is not just a question of living in fear and wasteful expense it is is also a question of when something will go wrong. Gradually, gradually, more countries will seek to join the nuclear club and that increases the risks which are already astronomical. It is only through a combination of good luck and occasional humanity that we have not already faced nuclear armageddon and a possible (in that case probable) nuclear winter. How ironic that would be! A world facing global heating meltdown and food shortages due to lack of water through humanity’s stupidity instead freezes and most people die of starvation through cold and an inability to grow crops.

There are those who say the nuclear standoff in the Cold War prevented war. That is nonsense; there were lots of wars and proxy wars but they weren’t in Europe. We now have war in Europe again, currently in Ukraine, occasioned partly by the expansion of that western military alliance, NATO, and nuclear weapons did nothing to prevent that. Far from preventing war, NATO’s policy contributed significantly to the Russian invasion. It has been pointed out numerous times in these pages that the USA and NATO were expecting Russia to accept a situation which was intolerable for the USA. The USA threatened nuclear war in 1962 over Russian missiles in its neighbouring island, Cuba. Yet the USA and NATO expected Russia to accept NATO weapons and missiles in Ukraine, an immediate Russian neighbour with historically extremely close links. This was crass stupidity and there is ongoing crass stupidity in the USA and European countries not acknowledging their role in the tragic debacle that has led to the Ukraine war.

It is not long ago, 2017, that ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, https://www.icanw.org/ received the Nobel Peace Prize. But psychologically, and very sadly, it feels a long, long time ago given the direction things have taken since then. Even the January 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), making nuclear weapons illegal, feels a long time ago.

Not for the first time I have spoken about valuable coverage of issues by the New Internationalist. https://newint.org/ The main feature in their January-February 2026 issue is on ‘The new nuclear arms race’ and there is a good run down on the situation regarding this both globally and in relation to individual situations. It covers South Africa being the only country to develop its own nuclear weapons and then dismantle them; “Under Mandela, Pretoria championed non-proliferation and the once pariah state became viewed by many as a pillar of peace.” Regarding British surveillance of activists, the CND solicitor to the ‘Spycops’ tribunal, Paul Heron, makes the cutting point that “…we are told we live in a democracy, and the people shape how society should be. [But] when people build mass movements the state treats them as a threat.”

Getting rid of nuclear weapons is an essential part of building a peaceful world – indeed this is impossible without their removal. Building collective peaceful security is possible but the lack of imagination involved in politicians’ militarist thinking makes it brutally hard to imagine let alone bring it about. And that is where those mass, popular movements are essential – and mass movements grow from the work and actions of concerned individuals building and building on the zeitgeist.

Arms trade ding dong in the North

The ‘agin-us’ nature of politics in the North (nothing to do with going for a pint of a well known brew…) is nowhere better illustrated than by recent ding-dongs about developing the arms trade in Norn Iron. Oh, if we could make money from irony, the people of the North would be all millionaires; going from a society where people were killing one another, well some people were killing some other people, to making money from weapons to kill people elsewhere, you couldn’t make it up.

Anyway, just one aspect of this is that the British government wants to develop the arms industry in the North – in a similar but different way to what the Irish government wants to do in the Republic – in the Northern case with a well funded ‘Defence Growth Deal’, which I would consider sick and obscene. I have no proof but I suspect that for the British government, investing in and promoting the arms industry in Northern Ireland has the perceived bonus of helping to keep unionists sweet (and binding it tighter to the British economy). If the total pot for this deal is, as reported, £250 million for the whole UK, Northern Ireland‘s take of £50 million is 20% of the total for a Norn Iron population my calculations say is 2.7% of the total UK population. Something strange there.

And unionists welcomed this deal, e.g. Emma Little-Pengelly, the Deputy First Minister who proudly said “Sector turnover has more than doubled over the past decade, rising from £1 billion in 2013 to £2.2 billion in 2023.” Sinn Féin ministers did not attend the launch, however, which omission was then criticised by unionists. Michelle O’Neill then came out saying she did not support the militarisation agenda and the money could have been better used in areas that really needed it. And that in turn led to further criticism of the Sinners by unionists. The fact that Sinn Féin can be considered the ‘peace party’ in this might be considered ironic in relation to the history of the second half of the 20th century – but realities change.

Unionists seldom miss a chance to castigate Irish neutrality and the broken CD from there and many sources on the right in Europe about Ireland not doing its bit for ‘European’ defence is grating. It could be countered that the UK and EU are not doing their bit for demilitarisation…..but then M Martin’s Fianna Fáil is not doing very much for that either. DUP leader Gavin Robinson said “that the sector in 2026 “isn’t all about bullets and tanks” but also about advanced manufacturing and cyber-security, which he said will “undoubtedly help cover the gaping hole in Europe’s defence that is the Republic of Ireland”. (News Letter 25/4/26) Norn Iron Secretary of State Hilary Benn weighed in on the militarist side – it is his government’s spending – speaking about the first duty of the government being to secure the safety of the nation. Of course such funding does no such thing.

However in this ding dong there is the danger that it is seen simply as a case of unionists-for-arms-production and republicans-against-arms-production. There are other kinds of people too and some of us others are appalled. The term ‘making a killing’ has never been so apt.

Consensus….against consensus

An article by Peter Emerson of the de Borda institute www.deborda.org in the April issue of the CRC/Community Relations Council monthly publication https://mailchi.mp/nicrc.org.uk/crc-ebulletin-april-2026?e=dc08e218e6 ends with a nice or not-so-nice story about Belfast City Council: “Well, in 2004, I managed to get a consensus in Belfast City Council. The question was, would these’uns like to adopt a methodology which would facilitate consensus decision-making with those’uns. And, yes, I achieved what some might have thought was impossible, a consensus. Neither side wanted to be in consensus with the other side, so there was a consensus… against consensus.” Oh well….

You can sign up to receive the CRC digital monthly news bulletin at https://www.community-relations.org.uk/publications/e-bulletin-e-news

McKeown and I

I sometimes wonder what makes a ‘good song’ and why some amazing songs, and others that are not so amazing, take off while others are left in the shadows. In terms of the construction of songs, one Irish song that stands out for me is McKeown and I by Mickey and Cormac MacConnell. Mickey MacConnell is best known for his song ‘Only our rivers run free’ which was written when he was 17 and he said about it that “It was never a republican song per se but a song about the love of one’s country.” McKeown and I is on an oul CD I have of Mickey MacConnell’s, ‘Peter Pan and me’ (Spring Records) and you can find different versions online. Mickey MacConnell died in July 2025.

The chorus is fascinating in that it has in summary form the story told in the three verses:

We’re men of straw

We’re men of sand,

Our castles crumble,

Never meant to stand

We’re two born losers,

Sure to failure we’ve begun,

We’re snowmen built

For melting in the sun.

The ‘I’ of the story is accompanied by McKeown in the first and third verses but ‘O’Neill’ in the second. Kids from a deprived urban environment, in the first verse they build a sandcastle on a day at the beach – this is then washed away by the tide. In the second verse they build a scarecrow in the farm of the reformatory where they are incarcerated which the wind then blows away. In the final verse they build a snowman in the prison yard where the year before the judge has told them “Rot in a cell / Until you’re dead” – and they dread seeing the snowman melt away.

We don’t know what ‘I’, McKeown and O’Neill have got up to apart from where they are placed and the judge’s sentence. But the power of the song is in the imagery and the contrast between ‘society’ judging they should be locked up (and the key thrown away) and the innocence of them building a sandcastle, a scarecrow and a snowman. Very affective and effective imagery I think and an amazingly well constructed song.

–

I was in the wrong part of the country to join in with Lelia Doolan’s walk at 91 years young (News, NN 338) but it was demonstrably a great occasion and joyous arrival in Dublin at the end of the long traipse from Shannon for peace. See e.g. https://www.instagram.com/walkwithlelia?igsh=eGlveXczdGFnYWVx It just shows you are never too old – or too young – to do something meaningful. That meaningful act might not be getting your walking boots on, it might be something else entirely. Anyway, for now, I remain, Billy (the kid, I am not quite 91 yet….).

News, April 2026

Nonviolent News, ,

91-year old Lelia Doolan walks from Shannon to Dublin for peace

At 91 years, (national institution) Lelia Doolan has seen too much of the devastation caused by wars, apartheid and genocide and will walk for peace from Shannon to Dáil Éireann. She will be joined by community groups and peace activists along the old road to Dublin as they express the frustration, shame and anger felt by the many Irish stalwarts who have for over 30 years (since 1981), regularly protested at Shannon against the use of the airport by US military planes – whose personnel and cargos the Irish government refuses to inspect. Starting on March 31st from Shannon Airport, the walk should arrive in Dublin around April 14th/15th. This is a walk for peace, for closing Shannon Airport to US military planes and personnel, for passing the Occupied Territories Bill, and for protecting Irish neutrality from war mongers.

The route is Shannon – Cratloe – Limerick – Birdhill – Nenagh – Moneygall – Roscrea – Mountrath – Portlaoise – Monasterevin – Newbridge – Naas – Rathcoole – Dáil Éireann. All are welcome to join for a step, a mile, a song…. Email walkwithlelia@proton.me for a sign-up form; Follow the walk on socials @walkwithlelia Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/walkwithlelia?igsh=eGlveXczdGFnYWVx Upscrolled – https://share.upscrolled.com/en/user/d02bcbbf-48a9-4052-90f2-e24423a03d3c/

Vigils at Shannon & Aldergrove USA war supporting airports

Regular vigils take place to protest at US military use of Shannon Airport and Belfast International Airport at Aldergrove (15 miles west of Belfast) – and resultant complicity in war, death and destruction. Currently there is very significant US military traffic through Aldergrove with the supposition that to some extent Aldergrove is replacing Shannon – because of protests there – as a primary route for the US military (see e.g. Belfast Telegraph 27/3/26) with some planes heading on directly to the Gulf. lThe oldest vigil for peace is a Shannonwatch one at Shannon Airport on the second Sunday of the month from 2 – 3pm. www.shannonwatch.org (see also round up on Shannon court cases on this website). lAt the same time (2pm on second Sunday of the month) a vigil takes place at Aldergrove; about this you can contact +44 7766 168083 or email cairdepalestine@riseup.net lMeanwhile there is now a weekly vigil at Shannon organised by Shannon Vigil Group, 9.30am – noon except on the 2nd Sunday of the month when the Shannonwatch one happens; you can join their WhatsApp group for this at https://chat.whatsapp.com/EdDacVu9s3e9Bmy3PkJSJe?mode=gi_t

l Look out for a national pro-neutrality demonstration in Dublin on 18th April organised by the Irish Neutrality League.

Corrymeela An unfinished journey towards peace exhibition, Belfast

The Corrymeela Community has an exhibition (free entry) with the above title running at the Linen Hall Library, Vertical Gallery, in Belfast from 1st April to 15th May (open 9.30am – 5.30pm Monday – Friday). Corrymeela is the oldest peace and reconciliation body in Northern Ireland – 60 years old last year – and this exhibition explores Corrymeela’s six decades of quiet, sustained peacebuilding and reconciliation work — and poses a question that feels especially urgent in the current moment: who actually builds peace, and how? An Unfinished Journey Towards Peace traces the origins and founding vision of Corrymeela in 1965; the role of everyday peacebuilders alongside the formal political process; Corrymeela’s response to key moments in Northern Ireland’s history, from the Troubles to the peace process and beyond; and the challenges of peacebuilding today — including the rise of nationalism and authoritarianism globally, and how Corrymeela’s current programmes respond. The exhibition also foregrounds the voices and stories of young people and next-generation peacebuilders.

A variety of lunchtime supporting events take place (and one in the evening) – booking necessary. See https://linenhall.com/event/corrymeela-an-unfinished-journey-towards-peace-exhibition/ for more details and also on Corrymeela’s own website at www.corrymeela.org where you can also sign up to receive their monthly newsletter.

MNI & Glencree border training in mediation and conflict

Mediation Northern Ireland (MNI) and Glencree are working together on a Peaceplus funded programme in the border region. The project aims to build and sustain a regional network of diverse grassroots peacebuilders by delivering conflict resolution, mediation, restorative practice and dialogue training to marginalised communities across Northern Ireland and the six border counties of the Republic. Staff recruitment has been taking place (applications now closed). https://mediationni.org/ and https://glencree.ie/

l Glencree is recruiting a new CEO to replace Naoimh McNamee who has been in post for 8 years. Closing date for applications is 8th April.

Report on protest policing in Republic

The Irish Network of Legal Observers has published its first annual report on the policing of protest in Ireland in 2025. The Network observed 70 protests around Ireland in 2025 [Quite some going – Ed]. While the report finds that most of the protests observed by the Network were policed in a human rights-compliant manner, it also identifies issues of concern which include excessive use of force, misuse of Section 8 of the Public Order Act and gardaí not wearing badge numbers when policing protest. “Protests observed outside Dublin were generally policed in a friendly, accommodating manner. However, observers reported more aggressive policing of protests at Shannon Airport…..In Dublin, while the majority of protests were facilitated without significant intervention, legal observers documented a higher tendency for gardaí to intervene and to use force……” The Irish Network of Legal Observers was established by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Dr Illan rua Wall of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, University of Galway, in late 2024. See https://www.iccl.ie/press-release/new-legal-observers-report-policing-of-protest-2025/ for the report and info about the network at https://www.iccl.ie/iccl-irish-network-of-legal-observers/

Falls Troubles exhibition

Falls Community Council has recently opened a new permanent exhibition entitled The Falls – Where The Troubles Began. It is located in St Comgall’s – Ionad Eileen Howell on Divis Street, a short distance from the city centre. This exhibition opens a unique window into one of the most pivotal chapters of Irish political history. It tells the story of the outbreak of the conflict on the streets that surrounded this old school from August 1969 to July 1970 when the area was devastated by destruction of homes and businesses, loss of life and military curfew. The exhibition also recounts the development of the peace process in the area. The exhibition can be booked through the website https://wherethetroublesbegan.com or through Visit Belfast or directly through St Comgall’s – Ionad Eileen Howell, Divis Street, Belfast BT12 4AQ.

Good Relations Awards 2026

The Community Relations Council (CRC) Good Relations Awards for Northern Ireland were announced at an event in late March. Community Relations Council Exceptional Achievement Award – Brian Dougherty; Volunteer of the Year – Jesus Castaneda; Good Relations Youth Award – Jordan Doran; Community Champion Award – Dr Marianne Doherty; Connecting Communities Award – Newry Mela 2025 (Newry Indian Arts Club); Sport for Good Award – TAMHI – Tackling Awareness of Mental Health Issues; Housing for All Award – Valerie Walker. Full details at https://www.community-relations.org.uk/news-centre/community-champions-recognised-good-relations-awards-2026

Earth Day 2026 is 18th April

Earth Day is Saturday 18th April and Friends of the Earth (FOE) is encouraging people to host a Cuppa for Climate around then, to talk about climate issues and fundraise and funds raised will go to “power work pushing for a fast and fair transition away from fossil fuels, challenging harmful data centre expansion, opposing LNG, and fighting for warm, affordable homes for all”. https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/cuppa-for-climate/signup

Dichotomies and dualities in decision making

On Monday 13th April, at 4 pm, INCORE is hosting a talk by Peter Emerson of the de Borda Institute, online, on the theme: “Majority voting may be fair if, and only if, its dichotomy is a duality”. https://tinyurl.com/y2v95w8c “’Shall we drive on the left or the right?’ Is fine…..In contrast, “Do you support Yīn or Yáng?” would be just silly; the two are not a duality, more a unity…..Pluralism is possible.  An egalitarian society needs an egalitarian voting procedure!  And one was devised in 1770.” https://www.ulster.ac.uk/incore The de Borda Institute website is at http://www.deborda.org/

Antimilitarist campaigning for younger people

WRI/War Resisters’ International is organising an online training in 8 participatory sessions from 15 April to 3 June 2026 for young activists (18–35) who want to strengthen their organising skills, connect with activists around the world, and take action for antimilitarism, for conscientious objection, and against the arms trade. Details at https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2026/third-cycle-antimilitarist-campaigning-lab-call-applications 

Videos: Neutrality, Troubles violence, NATO warships in Cork

l A video of Lex Innocentium’s recent conference speakers on Irish neutrality with numerous excellent contributions is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEkw7PJ20Ug This includes a hugely important contribution by senior Fianna Fáil figure Éamon Ó Cuiv strongly backing neutrality and the Triple Lock – his talk has been pointedly ignored by the mass media….. 105 minutes. A second part will follow with more informal discussion from the conference.

lThe video of INNATE’s recent online discussion as part of the Imagine! Festival, “Was nonviolence an option in 1969?” regarding Northern Ireland, with Felicity McCartney and Niall Fitzduff, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJsHwKvoR5I 73 minutes. This explores the situation at the start of the Troubles and what was lacking in nonviolence being effective as well as community and peace initiatives.

lFrench NATO warships in Cork, see 6 minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRf4YuPPUrI

Chernobyl is forever exhibition, Cork

Presented by Chernobyl Children International, this exhibition is a tribute to the strength of survivors and a reminder that the story of Chernobyl is not confined to the past… It is on at Cork City Library, 57 – 61 Grand Parade for the month of April, open 10.00 – 17.30. https://www.chernobyl-international.com/

Carnsore anti-nuclear festivals

Village magazine has recently published a report by Caroline Hurley on a sold-out event organised in the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, in March to mark free festivals protesting Irish government nuclear energy plans back in the late 70s. See https://villagemagazine.ie/back-to-the-point-of-carnsore/ An edited version of Simon Dalby’s account of the anti-nuclear movement of the time (referred to in Caroline Hurley’s text) is available in the pamphlet section of INNATE’s website https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/pamphlets/ and INNATE’s photo site has an album on the anti-nuclear power movement at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157607158367565/

Billy King: Rites Again, 338

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Well, it is back again to war, death, environmental destruction on a MAGA scale, and potential world recession thanks to POTUS. I do believe Donald Trump is very keen on getting awards for his (dire) contributions to humanity and human history. I apologise if I don’t have a golden eagle to give him, at golf he probably cheats to get an eagle anyway. However I can proudly announce that the inaugural Billy King Award (First Class) for Sociopathetic Dangerous Eejit is hereby awarded to Donald John Trump.

I was going to substitute the work ‘Chump’ for ‘Trump’ but that did not seem appropriate given his victim count is growing all the time – and he knows what he is doing but is devoid of empathy, it is a concept unknown to him. It is all so sad and so very, very, unnecessary and unwarranted.

On another note, the news section mentions a video on French/NATO warships in Cork. There are lots of things I don’t get but ‘friendly’ visits by warships is beyond me. How is a visit by warships ‘friendly’? They are not designed to be friendly. If you want to be friendly, please send a mobile patisserie or an exhibition of your best contemporary artists. Warships have a different purpose altogether.

Fear and consternation

The more I look at it, the more amazed I am at it as a photo. It was used as the visual for INNATE’s online session entitled “Was nonviolence an option in 1969?” as part of the Imagine! Festival in Belfast. The photo is by (Nonviolent News columnist) Larry Speight and shows two soldiers in Castle Street, Belfast, in autumn 1972. It clearly shows the fear and consternation in their eyes. And we more typically get the fear and consternation in the eyes of civilians, or children, so seeing it in soldiers can be somewhat unusual, maybe even powerful or is it them powerless to cope with the situation they have been dumped in.

www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/18063000674/in/album-72157614893100575

British soldiers were thrown into a situation in the Troubles which, largely speaking, they were not trained or properly trained for, and they were certainly at risk. That in no way excuses military policies and ill treatment by soldiers, nor should it be used as a ‘keep out of jail’ card as veteran and pro-military parties in Britain wish to do. You would expect ‘state-sponsored’ soldiers to act in a more responsible and accountable manner than non-state paramilitaries. But it should raise questions about what these soldiers were tasked to do by their political masters.

Fear and consternation. Bitterness. Hatred. Revenge. All these are words associated with violence and war. But we do well to remember that on all sides in war there are human beings, most of of whom find themselves in situations they would have wished to avoid. Northern Ireland has moved past the Troubles but not yet ‘beyond’. And if this was the result in a little war with a few thousand deaths over thirty years, it is difficult to imagine what it is like when that many are killed in a much more violent situation over a day or a couple of weeks.

War is a crime against humanity.

People with greenhouses shouldn’t throw scones

With an average suburban garden I was wondering whether to get a moderate sized greenhouse both to grow a bit of summer veg and bring on little seedlings, mainly summer flowers but some herbs as well. I was hoping to buy local but in the end I decided just to get a modest (1.8m square) lean-to greenhouse for against a wall only just taller than that – you don’t enter it at all, it is only half a metre deep. And to acquire that I had to go online. Maybe I shouldn’t have been swayed by aesthetics (ascetics?) but I decided a larger, freestanding one would ‘take over’ the space in our back garden. It was all pondered long, and at my age I wondered in the expense was worth it.

As I have written here before, I grow herbs in tubs or window boxes outside, most of the ones we might want at least as far as fresh ones growable here go; parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, chives including an early and later variety, garlic chives, Welsh onions (like a larger chive with stems like scallions), red veined sorrel and a bit of wall rocket, if they counts as herbs, oregano, tarragon, mint. With the greenhouse I hope to grow basil there – to date it has had to be indoors as slugs liked it as much as myself when grown outdoors. Maybe coriander will be an option in the greenhouse, it just went to seed before when I tried it outdoors.

Clearly I have personally gone to seed. Though constructing a kit greenhouse, even a small one, has been a challenge, I hope the rewards will be worth it. I did build a large cloche, the clochasaurus as I called it, from scrap wood years ago, that in due course rotted and fell to bits and that is a Bargain Solution if you fancy doing it. This one is metal, mainly aluminium, and will see me out. It is beside our picnic table so I would hope to have the odd scone there or cup of tea and enjoy watching nature at work. People who have greenhouses shouldn’t throw scones, they should sit down in our beautiful warm weather [What country are you in? – Ed] [Sarcasm seems to pass you by – Billy] to take a break and eat one.

The devil’s buttermilk

I am not the only commentator to note the DUP’s opposition to minimum pricing on alcohol in the North (e.g. John Manley in the Irish News 25/3/26), particularly in relation, and contrast, to their founder’s (who later foundered or was foundered out of the church he founded) opposition to “the devil’s buttermilk” (alcoholic beverages). Not many people drink buttermilk now so the phrase is totally archaic, it even was in Ian Paisley Snr’s time but he had a clever and nifty if often brutal turn of phrase.

Anyway, the DUP stand is totally illogical. Spokespeople for the party point to minimum pricing being only one part of an appropriate response to alcohol abuse but don’t go on to say “but one part is better than none”. They also point to more research being needed whereas research from as close as across the nearest water shows it can have a positive effect. With deaths attributed to alcohol rising in the North surely it would be better to act now and review the matter, if required, at a later time. Minimum Unit Pricing exists in the Republic and in Britain.

Speaking of buttermilk and its origin in the dairy industry, and pollution arising from agriculture including the devastation of Lough Neagh (“Say Neagh to pollution”) it is fascinating that the DUP has also been responsible for the failure to have an independent environmental protection agency in the wee North. Whether in both cases, alcohol and pollution, change is held up by DUP pandering to its supporters plus the farmers’ lobby and the alcohol industry, well, I couldn’t possibly comment but if I did I would say ‘quite possibly yes’. However all the larger parties in Norn Iron backed intensive farming previously so they have company, or did, on that or a closely related issue.

None of this reflects well on Storm-ont’s atrocious reputation in failing to make effective decisions on issues that matter.

Corrymeela 60+

There is only one peace and reconciliation group in the North which predates the Troubles, and still is going strong, and that is Corrymeela, founded 1965. One fact it is also notable for is that ‘the founder’, Ray Davey, and many of the early members and supporters were Presbyterian. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late but there have always been progressives in its ranks though, it would seem, their number has been depleted in recent years.

Ray Davey developed his thinking on community and had a commitment to reconciliation growing from his experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden (including during the bombing) in the Second World War (see e.g. https://innatenonviolence.org/readings/2015_09.shtml ). A community grew around him as Presbyterian chaplain at Queen’s and a slightly ramshackle former holiday centre on a small cliff edge outside dulse and yellowman Ballycastle (Co Antrim) was purchased; cue the old joke about early visitors who were staying there being told they would have to make their own beds….and being handed a hammer, nails and wood.

Anyone who was even of student age in 1965 would be at least around the 80 years old mark now so many of those people involved from those times are, sadly, dying. But Corrymeela has been pro-active in recording and archiving its story and the story of those involved. You can find out about current work at www.corrymeela.org and there will be an exhibition on the Corrymeela story in the vertical gallery in the Linen Hall Library in Belfast running until mid-May (see news section this issue). A publicly accessible archive on Corrymeela can be found at https://corrydocs.028ni.org.uk/index.php/documents but serious researchers would need to get accredited for documents mainly available to Corrymeela members. And a short history of Corrymeela House in Belfast appears in these pages at https://innatenonviolence.org/readings/2014_11.shtml with our photo album on Corrymeela being at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157654407818544/

Anyway congratulations to Corrymeela on being over 60 years young and all the best for the next 60……I look forward to visiting the exhibition at the Linen Hall Library.

Divis-ion

You’ve heard this one before from me but given the news item in this issue about the exhibition in the former St Comgall’s in Divis Street, Belfast, I’ll repeat it. The reason is the location of the story was outside the school in 1980 in an interaction with a school crossing warden in this inner city Catholic neighbourhood. A group of Buddhist monks (and one nun) came to Ireland on a peace pilgrimage https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/19216126103/in/photolist-vh4EP2 and while their visit in the context of Norn Iron was focussed on reconciliation, more generally they addressed issues of nuclear weapons and uranium mining (which was a possibility in Donegal at the time).

I borrowed a book from the monks at their Belfast meeting, some of the attendees are pictured in the link above, as there was a Hiroshima illustration I wanted to copy it professionally for possible use as a poster. I said I would return it to them the next day when they were doing a walkabout in north-west Belfast. However I couldn’t find them on either side of the divides; I hadn’t allowed for them taking a sandwich break in Woodvale Park which I hadn’t ventured into. Anyway, frustrated at not finding them I was on the (old unreconstructed) Divis Street and stopped to ask a school crossing warden. As Buddhist monks wandering about the place were not that common in Belfast I hastened to add to my enquiry that the monks were dressed in orange robes. Quick as a flash, with dead pan humour and inwardly smiling but with little hint of an outward smile, he replied “It’s the wrong road for orange men!”.

–

Meanwhile the issue of the terrible level of femicide has been aired in relation to the North with judgement in the Natalie McNally trial and around the same time the killing of Amy Doherty in Derry. It is not just at the societal or international level that us humans have problems with violence. Most women in our society who are murdered are killed by someone known to them, even their partner as in the Natalie McNally case. We have a long way to travel in relation to violence at all levels of life – and us men in particular have the furthest journey to make.

Well, that’s me for another month, we are now into Summer Time and the brighter half of the year, past the spring equinox. Long brighter evenings beckon even if we cannot say they will be warm or dry. And for another change I wish the world some peace, not very likely, but more likely if we hold to our principles and our struggles for dealing with conflict in a humane manner and not beating the tripe out of other humans and the environment. C u soon, Billy.

Readings in Nonviolence: The philosophic roots of nonviolence – An interview with Roberta Bacic

Nonviolent News, Readings, , , , , , ,

Roberta Bacic is Chilean and came to Europe three decades ago to work for the War Resisters’ International. She is the curator of Conflict Textiles https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/conflicttextiles/ and a Visiting Professor at Ulster University.

– Rob Fairmichael spoke to Roberta Bacic and there is also a short input in the interview from Clem McCartney.

Rob Fairmichael: Roberta, I’m delighted to be talking to you here about secularism, and about secularism and nonviolence. So, I don’t know if you could start off with just a general kind of comment about where you come from in relation to secularism, the world, humanism, religion.

Roberta Bacic: Well, I’m not going to go that road, because I don’t have to put a label. You know, enough labels, enough ranks for everything, and I think I stand with the position based on observation of the world, of our capacities of thinking and feeling.

My position on pacifism and nonviolence comes from the empirical observation of the human condition and the natural order; by rational reasoning in which I act with feelings of affection and empathy. I have as much affection for a robin, or maybe more, than for a human being who’s throwing plastic around the world.

So my position in the world is a humble position in front of the huge power that is in nature and is in the world. So, that is my stand. It’s a philosophical stand. It’s not necessarily translated into an operative system. I’m not pretending to create and subvert the system. I’m intending to live a coherent life by which I can empathise with others, I can live in empathy, or not so much empathy, but we can coexist by basic principles of respecting also the environment.

Rob: How did this approach develop within your life? I mean, where did you start from, and how did that approach develop?

Roberta: Well, my parents survived the Second World War. One was in the concentration camp, and the other in prison because he didn’t want to kill. So, I have no empathy for the idea that it is either you have to forgive, or you have to reconcile, or you have to do this and that. The institutions that have been responsible and colluded with what happens are the same institutions that expect us to conform.

So, I have questioned from the age of 12, that was my first moment in which I decided I would not engage by being part of those institutions, I had to find another way to observe the world, in which I would not have to obey orders, and I would be in a position that I could be connected to everybody around, and not necessarily starting from the humans.

I had one of my first affectionate relationships with a snail that I had in the little tin on my windowsill, and I saw it grow and live and progress, so I don’t need so much the humans as a reference. I coexist with humans, and maybe that’s also why I have developed all this effort to create different languages, like textile language, to allow different ways of expression.

The system is very monolithic. I don’t want to hear anybody preach. Most people who preach at the end don’t behave the way they preach, or they think they can be forgiven or what they did can be forgotten because they had good intentions. I don’t have the ambition to convert anybody, I just want to be in harmony, and in that way it builds on those instincts in the natural order of cooperation, caring, consideration, and altruism.

I don’t want to be antagonistic, having to reject those whose instincts are control and dominance, and to use their tactics. No point. When there is no communication possible, I stay outside.

Rob: Would you define your approach as a secular one, or a philosophical one?

Roberta: Philosophical. It comes from philosophy, it comes from the rational. I don’t need anything superior. I don’t need to know from where I come or how the world was constructed. I don’t need answers. I can look at my cat and see that she has a wonderful life and enjoys the sun, doesn’t like the rain, and doesn’t need to know why she was born, and who gave her life, and when will she die, and she has no belongings. I look at the birds, they don’t need a passport, they can travel 2,000 kilometres without having eaten and having a ticket, you know? So that makes me be much more humble. I don’t need the big answers. I am very pleased to have a good life. I live simply, and that is what guides me.

I recognise the incredible complexity of the cosmos, from a philosophical point of view, and the earth within that of which we are a part. Wonder, awe, humility. We are only part of it. Where do we get all this idea that we are the centre, we humans are the centre? Why should we be the centre? We have no reason to be the centre.

Rob: Somebody who I believe was important in your thinking was Jorge Millas. Do you want to say something about his influence on your thinking?

Roberta: Yeah, I think he had a big influence on me, first of all, for his humility. He would get into the class to do his lesson, and would not throw it onto you. He would just share his distilled thinking of life, and would never speak against anything or anybody. But he would be very strict in that you had to reason, you had to be coherent, you have to live a life according to the world of natural order, not the world order created by mechanics or other things, you know? So, he was very important in the way that he gave us freedom, but a freedom that was freedom to push you to do better. You always can do better. He would have absolutely disliked the teaching of, “oh, how good you are doing” – this very pampering thing.

He wanted you to be consistent, and that your capacity of thinking was innate to your humanity, and you shouldn’t be applauded for that. You were doing what you had to do. It wasn’t something that you praise, and you give a grade, or whatever. So his attitude was very important to me. He was very important also in his physical element. He walked very gently, very, I would say almost slowly, but he had a halo. You would feel that there was an air around him of serenity that came from complete clarity of where he stood.

When he entered the class, we had people who came to listen to him, even if it wasn’t part of their course. They were times when you didn’t work only for the mark. He would just develop a concept. So this idea of following a thinking process, but also feeling the thinking, and that you don’t impose, and that you wonder how do you get to this realisation.

And to get to what one of his followers calls “the joy of thinking”. It’s a joy to think. It’s a joy to think that we have limitations, that we don’t have the answer. That we can progress and be and feel, having doubts. And the more doubts we have, the more tolerance we have to others.

So I think he was central. He was also very important insofar that he came with his books; he would read a word, a sentence, and would give you the space. He would also answer questions from the students in a very calm, measured way.

I remember once a very irritated Marxist student wanting to turn the philosophy class into a class of politics. He asked him what role did religion have in his thinking. Jorge Millas walked along the room, very calmly, he didn’t answer strongly. He didn’t get irritated, he didn’t dismiss him. He put his hands under the chin. I can vividly still see him today as he said “Thank you for your question. In this class, in this thinking, there is no space for God.”

So it was a key point in my definition of how far I would go in politics too, because though I have been all my life very aligned with Marxism, I never became a militant, because I’m not going to endorse the terrible things some people have done to other people in the name of socialism, or Marxism, or Communism.

Rob: Coming on more specifically to nonviolence and aspects of nonviolence and so on. Nonviolence is sometimes very identified with religious points of view, whether that might be Christian or Buddhist or something else. Do you think that can be problematic in terms of a wider approach or understanding of nonviolence, or is it a matter of letting a thousand flowers bloom? You know, wherever you come from, you can come to nonviolence……

Roberta: Absolutely, nonviolence has been taken over. But nonviolence is a way of living and behaving in the world in which you use your reason to what can be effective and what cannot be effective. I can well remember being part of the movement against torture in Chile, Sebastian Acevedo, being a leader, and the big discussion was, shall we accept the communists? He said, “welcome, welcome all the communists. That means they haven’t found answers. They might come seeking protection for themselves and come and help us to find answers and ways to respond to the dictatorship.” You embrace everybody. It’s a strategy to live and to act in front of what’s happening.

Rob: I suppose as a Christian, I see no contradiction between my religious beliefs and what I see as the effectiveness of nonviolence. So, for me, the two things would mesh together. I very much think that nonviolence can stand on its own two feet, that it, in a way, doesn’t need a religious backing, but if it does have a religious backing, whatever source it…

Roberta: We all have to have our own ways of survival and standing in the world. We step into nonviolence as a way to respond to the world with those principles, and we can live with other people. I think in nonviolence strategy, to be efficient, you have to be accepting the principle of nonviolence. That’s the only thing that you can expect in common. The rest can come from different parts of thinking, philosophies, religion, mystical or non-mystical.

You don’t have to agree in everything. You have to agree in a strategy, and if you’re going to be in the street and you’re going to be in an action. I was quite often in actions with people who were very political, and from different strands of life, but together we held hands and we stood together. It’s the image of the apilleristas* holding hands in front of the Congreso Nacional, they were not pretending that we were all equal. They dressed in different colours, not to look like the military in uniform. It was a strategy to be different, each different. But the thing was we were showing that we were living up to other principles.

The importance of that is also nonviolence in daily life. It’s about being able to say what you agree with and where you disagree, and not to find the middle way, because quite often there is no middle way. It’s to accept the other, living different, having different principles, and coexisting.

I don’t think that you always want to come to a middle way, you have to give up a bit, and the other has to give up. So why should they? You can coexist in different beliefs, in different religions, in different stance, in different work. That doesn’t matter.

Clem McCartney: Pacifism and nonviolence within religion, it’s a good question where that comes from because the early religious thinkers, tended to adopt a position of love and compassion and basically non-violence. But where did they take it from? They may have taken it from existing thinking along those lines in different ways. Buddha renounced his power, his influence, his status, and meditated and searched for the meaning of life. And he probably was drawing from all these other disciplines that he studied and learned about.

The Old Testament prophets were very far from nonviolent, and very far from being pacifists, and in a sense, Christianity was a rethinking, a New Testament, a rethinking of that particular religious strain. And it came at a time when the Jewish community was under pressure from the colonial power and powerless, so it incorporated a much more non-violent element into it. So it’s not a question of where it comes from; it comes from so many different places. It reflects, when Roberta says that you find the concept in your own study of nature or human behaviour, human attitudes, emotions, and so on. But you can find it in other places as well. I think there’s a problem of saying you’re a secular pacifist, because that means saying something you’re not, you’re not religious, rather than saying, I’m a pacifist.

Rob: One detail that I would like to look at briefly before we come towards an end, is it comes to mind about the life and writings of Gene Sharp, because one of the issues within the nonviolent movement was the moral or pragmatic approach, if you like, to nonviolence. And some people accused Gene Sharp of not adopting a sufficiently moral kind of approach to nonviolence, but simply emphasising the pragmatic.

Roberta: Well, I don’t know if it’s a debate. I think Gene Sharp has done great contributions, and he has been trying to also implement methodologies, but the methodologies come after, and procedures on how to live according to that; it comes after you have taken a position, and from where you stand. So I think his ideas and his position of trying to create a movement are very valid. How we do it is our responsibility, and if we can’t do it, we can’t make the other responsible. Because whenever he was writing, he was writing in a time in which it seemed, like, for us engaging with agendas, it seemed to be a change of the world order, and we were going to come to a more fair world. It didn’t happen. Gene Sharp wrote at the time that nonviolence was becoming quite strong, there had been all the movement of Gandhi and other movements in the United States. So, the writings also respond… I don’t know if you agree on that, but writings respond to the times you live.

If I would have decided to fight the dictatorship with a gun, I hadn’t achieved anything, but I have to concede that Pinochet had to go because of the nonviolent struggle, the public discourse, and also the ones who threatened the order with guns. So, it’s a combination of things; there is no one position that will sort it out.

And now, I have been taken quite aback with a book I am reading on the Magdalene girls, an extremely good book that also has textiles that speak to this horror, and looks from the point of view of archaeology and anthropology. You know, all that was happening in Dublin, and people were seeing the girls through the windows and did nothing. So that shows that we haven’t had the simple values of empathy and outrage, engaging and putting myself in the situation of the other. I think that it’s no time for preaching. It’s a time to be humble and to act.

Rob: And I think, just in regard to an ending point here, it is a difficult time to believe in nonviolence, because violence is everywhere, and, violent approaches within states, and between states, and, all sorts of things.

Roberta: It’s always a time to be nonviolent, because we see that violence brings more violence and more violence. So, it is impossible to think that if I would change my position, I would achieve anything more. What is clear is we have not been able to achieve more inclusive spaces in which people think more and choose better presidents or prime ministers or all of that, because in many countries they are not imposed on them. There are elections but it is not democracy, because people are not participating in making decisions. So we are in a moment of absolute crisis of a system that’s not working.

And we don’t have prominent leaders or states people who inspire us. To be able to move forward, we need to engage with lots of respect in the difference because the commonality is very easy. I find it always more interesting, a conversation with people who think different. One has to find a way in. Is it through affection? Is it through a hobby? Is it through a sport? Something that unites, some food that you like, whatever unites you, that allows you to discuss all these differences.

 

Because the reality is that we can live with different viewpoints. Certainly we can. My father and my mother were from different religions, suffered differently, but they had a life together. What united them was emigrating and being refugees, or asylum seekers in Chile. And that big bond of making a new life together was enough to overcome any differences. So, it wasn’t because they were against this or that, it was what they did together. And I think it’s this togetherness that is very important.

 

* https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/conflicttextiles/search-quilts2/fulltextiles1/?id=222 ‘Encadenamiento / Women Chained to Parliament Gates’, Anonymous. (© Conflict Textiles, Photo: Martin Melaugh)

News, February 2026

Nonviolent News,

Féile Bríde: Walking the way of Brigid

Afri’s Féile Bríde takes place on Saturday 7th February at Solas Bhríde, Kildare with this year’s theme, Walking the way of Brigid asking what it means to live with care and courage in our time. Contributors include Eman Mohammed on Brigid’s Fire and Righteous Rage: What care demands of us today; Patrick Bresnihan, Patrick Brodie and Paulie Doyle on The price of Prosperity; John Maguire on Louie Bennett: Feminism, Peace, Labour!; a documentary by Tommy Hayes on The garden where the parties grow; a launch feature on peace education for schools plus music from Cormac Breatnach, Sive, and Tommy Hayes. Full programme and booking at www.afri.ie with the programme running from registration at 10 am through to close at 4pm. Organised by Afri in partnership with the Solas Bhríde Centre, the Brigidine Sisters and Cairde Bríde. Full fee is €35, concessions €25.

l 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 work in 2025 is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0O2-cVNOA The Doolough Famine Walk will be on Saturday 13th June this year.

Mitchell Institute open events: Peace, weapons, victims, law

The Mitchell Institute at QUB organises a variety of open seminars and conferences on a variety of topics within its stated remit of “Building a peaceful, inclusive and secure world”. Events of interest coming up include a symposium on Peace in/from the Margins on 23rd and 24th February sharing “epistemic insights and lived experiences of building peace from hidden, excluded or marginalised locations”;   a conference on 3rd March on “Christian Ethics and Peacebuilding in the Age of AI and Autonomous Weapons Systems” with 12 papers presented as part of 4 panels with a keynote address by Prof Peter Lee; and lectures on Innocent Victims, Heroic Survivors and Monstrous Perpetrators

by Dr Harriet Gray on 18th March, and on Civil War, Foreign Intervention, and International Law by Prof Brad Roth on 18th March. Full details at https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/events/

ICCL: 50 years young

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) was founded in 1976 with leadership from Kader Asmal (also founder of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement and subsequently a minister in the first couple of democratically elected governments in South Africa) and Mary Robinson (subsequently President of Ireland) among others. So it celebrates 50 years work this year and there will be a flagship 50th Anniversary Conference in Dublin on Tuesday 16 June, further details to be announced. With a proud track record of campaigns and achievements the work very much continues – see https://www.iccl.ie/ for details.

St Brigid appears again / Neutrality song

Miracles never cease and St Brigid has appeared yet again at the Department for Foreign Affairs to mark her feast day, delivering a St Brigid’s Cross and Downpatrick Declaration, calling for peace, human rights and the retention of the Triple Lock to Minister Helen McEntee See 3 minute video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECdrDxfpkac

l Meanwhile a rendition of a great song, The Neutrality Song: Save the Triple Lock, performed by JoeBlackRyder and written by John Maguire to the tune of The wearing of the green is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A87_exf8inQ

EU approves of investing in nuclear weapons

“The European Union published guidance on December 30 that reclassified nuclear weapons as acceptable investments under its sustainable finance framework, completing a policy change approved in November that narrowed the definition of banned armaments from “controversial” to “prohibited.” The shift addresses earlier vagueness that the Commission said hindered efforts to raise $932 billion in defense investments over four years. Under the revised rules, only four weapon categories remain expressly outlawed by a majority of EU states: personnel mines, cluster munitions, and biological and chemical weapons. Nuclear weapons manufacturers avoided exclusion because only Austria, Ireland and Malta signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, though all EU members support non-proliferation under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The updated guidance also permits ESG* labelling for companies handling depleted uranium for anti-tank ammunition and white phosphorus, which is toxic but not classified as a chemical weapon.” https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/14/144240/nuclear-weapons-are-now-esg-compliant *Environmental, Social and Governance. Thanks to Caroline Hurley for this information, more to be found elsewhere on this….e.g. https://www.ft.com/content/f789a262-e774-41b2-8f36-0995650e6a16

CAJ Webinar: Unpacking Legacy and NI Troubles Bill

Focusing on “Unpacking the Joint Framework on Legacy and the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill”, CAJ, the Committee on the Administration of justice, has an online webinar which will feature an NGO panel, presentation on the Joint Framework and Bill from CAJ, followed by input from the Pat Finucane Centre, Amnesty International, Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Relatives for Justice. This is on 3rd February from 3.00pm to 4.30pm and you can book at https://tinyurl.com/y2x7dt2n The CAJ website is at https://caj.org.uk/

Doomsday clock ticking closer to midnight

“If we remain silent, we are playing with a loaded gun” said Adi Roche of Chernobyl Children International in relation to The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists having moved the Doomsday Clock to just 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been since its creation in 1945, warning that humanity is now living in a time of “unprecedented danger.” The decision reflects escalating global instability, with the war in Ukraine cited as a key driver, particularly the ongoing weaponisation of nuclear power. Calling on global leaders to act decisively, Roche urged renewed international leadership to reverse the trajectory toward catastrophe. “This moment must galvanise world leaders into urgent action. We must use the power of human intervention, diplomacy and moral leadership to turn the hands of the Doomsday Clock back from midnight.” https://www.chernobyl-international.com/news/

Organic Centre, Rossinver, Leitrim: Going for organic growth

The Organic Centre in the heart of rural Rossinver, Leitrim looks forward to 2026, as we come into the Spring and brighter days ahead. As an educational charity, the centre specialises in promoting all things organic, sustainable living and biodiversity. The Organic Centre was founded in 1995 by local organic growers, and farmers. Developed on a 19-acre green field site at the foot of limestone hills beside Lough Melvin, it became a pioneering organisation, at the forefront of organic growing, and action for climate change. The centre currently looks forward to almost 40 courses ranging from growing skills including introduction to gardening, and grapevine skills, to renewable workshops, to heritage skills like stone wall building, hand spinning, and willow weaving. https://www.theorganiccentre.ie/Learn/weekend-courses

The calendar year hosts a multitude of free seasonal events, including one to mark Brigid’s Day, Apple Day, Samhain, a Green Christmas fair, a large range of free activities for Biodiversity Week in May and Heritage Week in August, to name but a few. And coming soon on 1st March is Potato Day, a free family friendly event, with demonstrations, tours, and an onsite craft and food market. For certified training for growers, the centre also hosts a now adapted, part time course over two years, Level 5 in organic horticulture, an opportunity to learn and be part of a movement, as policy makers nationally and internationally start to recognise the importance of organic agriculture for planet and health. The MSLETB in Organic Horticulture closes for applications on 6th February. https://www.theorganiccentre.ie/Learn/now%20part%20time%20horticultural-course

You can organise a tour or workshop (in topics such as composting, container gardening or biodiversity in your garden) as an away day with your work, school or family. Just ring 0719854338 or email info@theorganiccentre.ie And if you are interested in hiking, after you’ve finished investigating the 19 acre site, you can unwind and walk on towards the new Fowley’s Falls trail that links up with the Organic Centre, and end at the Grass Roof Cafe for tea and coffee. Check out the Organic Centre’s website and social media channels for more information on courses, events, and the onsite and online shop. www.theorganiccentre.ie

Clare O’Grady Walshe on Kenyan seed sovereignty success

Síolta Chroí’s current series on food sovereignty includes a webinar on Seed Sovereignty: Learning from the Success of Kenyan Farmers on 19th February, time TBC, with Clare O’Grady Walshe who played a role in the Kenyan court ruling that “Sharing Seeds is not a crime”, a landmark seed sovereignty ruling – it is hoped to also hear from a Kenyan activist. See https://sioltachroi.ie/product/webinar-seed-sovereignty-learning-from-the-success-of-kenyan-farmers-19th-feb/

WRI statement on war in NE Syria and the Kurds

War Resisters’ International (WRI) has issued a statement on the Syrian government onslaught on autonomous territories in the north-east of Syria. “The operations carried out by the Syrian government and its affiliated forces violate the principle of protecting civilians and constitute war crimes as defined by international law. Therefore, all states and international institutions must take action to immediately halt the war and engage in urgent diplomatic efforts towards a peaceful solution …..” See https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2026/war-resisters-international-executive-committee-statement-no-war-rojava

Global learning training for post-primary teachers in North

The Centre for Global Education is offering post-primary teachers across Northern Ireland free and comprehensive Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) that aims to enhance classroom practice in global learning.  This fully funded training is to equip teachers with the skills and confidence to facilitate discussions on sensitive global topics in the classroom. To register e-mail info@centreforglobaleducation.com or telephone 02890241879. Spaces will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. https://www.centreforglobaleducation.com/

INNATE posters on gold mining, war toys

New A4 print-it-yourself posters on gold mining in the context of the Sperrins (and the forthcoming restart of the public enquiry on Dalradian’s plans there) and on war toys appear with the more than 120 others on a wide variety of issues in the Posters section of the INNATE website. https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/posters/

Eco Congregation Ireland (ECI): Yearly review

An overview of ECI work and involvement in 2025 can be found at https://www.ecocongregationireland.com/2026/01/16/eci-annual-review-2025-now-available/ and you can sign up their regular newsletter on the website too. Eco-Congregation Ireland 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.

Barefoot across Europe

Walking across Europe, from Instanbul to Claremorris, Co Mayo is amazing but to do it barefoot is an incredible ‘feet’ of slow travel. Eamon Keaveney is nearly back, having walked over 6,000 km – breaking records – in his bare feet in a fundraiser for Friends of the Earth in Ireland https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/ and Jigsaw, a free therapy and mental health support for young people https://jigsaw.ie/ You can add to this fundraiser at https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/BarefootAcrossEurope

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