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🚨Margaret Connolly calls for a boycott of the upcoming Ireland-Israel soccer fixture ‘I appeal to the players and FAI to boycott the game in Serbia.’ ‘The Irish government has given more than €75 million of taxpayers' money to the FAI between 2019 and 2024 alone. That is taxpayers' money, your taxes. The government is not powerless to act, although it pretends it is. ‘Government influence publicly funded bodies every day of the week through leadership, public policy and engagement. Back in 1999 the government then prevented a Euro 2000 qualifying match between Ireland and Yugoslavia from taking place because of the Serbian atrocities in Kosovo which is absolutely the correct thing to have done. This is despite the fact that UEFA had turned down a request from the government to cancel the game. ‘Ireland recognised Palestine as a sovereign, independent state back in May 2024. But the Dáil and Seanad, 10 years ago back in 2014, supported the bill to recognise Palestine. So there is unanimous cross-party support for Palestine and the Palestinian cause for many, many years. The vast majority of Irish hearts beats with the state. ‘Israel is colonial project, backed and funded by the United States and other western powers. This has resulted in the displacement of millions of people. Thousands have been slaughtered with the express intention on the part of the Israeli regime of deporting, dispossessing, exterminating the indigenous population and destroying their ability to live and survive in the land that is theirs.’
The Ditch109,002 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
🚨Palestine Action Éire target Ireland-based US software company Synopsys Last year The Ditch reported that Synopsys sent goods labelled as "software" from its Blanchardstown base to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) largest arms supplier Elbit Systems. Synopsys sent the package in November 2024 to Elbit Systems' Cyclone plant in Karmiel, Israel, which makes parts for the IDF's F-35 and F-16 fighter jets. Elbit Systems supplies up to 85 percent of the IDF’s land-based military equipment and drones. One of the actionists – who took part in smashing Synopsys's headquarters, spraying "Synopsys Drop Elbit" outside the building – said, "There are so many ways that the public have been pleading the government to act in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the genocide for these past two-and-a-half years. "But our puppet leaders decide to turn a blind eye every day and make only symbolic speeches," adding, "We are waging a fight against complicity in genocide and for the life and dignity of the Palestinian people. "We have enough information to target complicit companies right now, so that's what we did. To supply war criminals makes you a war criminal, and to allow companies to supply war criminals and get away with it, that makes you complicit as well."
The Ditch61,936 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
That's 2025 Bye Brendan McDonagh (remember him) Resignations at Children's Health Ireland and public inquiry on the way after our story on unnecessar surgeries at Dublin hospitals Papers lodged at the High Court for The Ditch's challenge of the government French dockworkers blocking ammunition links to Israel Spanish high court judicial investigation of business executives' complicity in genocide All love to all our supporters and subscribers. We work for you. If you like what we do you can take out a voluntary subscription or make a one-time donation at See youse in the new year TFDFEA
The Ditch91,071 просмотров • 8 месяцев назад
🚨 ‘It’s been suggested this a complex issue. It’s not. It’s a genocide.’ Fintan Drury on Micheál Martin and why the Ireland-Israel soccer match should be stopped: ‘(He said), “We hope Ireland does well in the competition. There's a rejuvenation, there's a journey ahead for this Irish team. They've been doing very well so far and we wish them well.” ‘I saw the comments and I was shocked. I think they are among the most crass, wholly inappropriate comments a political leader has made on this island in recent years. ‘Let's just consider some of the facts – the facts that the taoiseach was well aware of when he made those absolutely inane comments. ‘Let's think of the facts he was aware of when he said that the matches against the genocidal Israel should go ahead. We know that Israel has used more than 250,000 tonnes of explosives to reduce Gaza to at least 60 million tonnes of roll. Fact. We know that approaching 100,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered, butchered by Israel.’
The Ditch16,264 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
We’re political. (And we all know why.) Today in the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, chairperson Charlie Flanagan warned against speaking our name. Tánaiste Micheál Martin used an old favourite of his – we’re a ‘political organisation’. Both men have colleagues who’ve lost their jobs after reports we’ve published. Martin has called us that before when, rather than address our reporting on a substantive level, he decided to lash out in his protection of a party colleague subject of serious allegations published on The Ditch. It was, said the Irish Independent, ‘a dark day for democracy’. Why return to that jibe? He also said we ‘contrive’ things. The real problem, for someone like Martin, however is nothing about The Ditch is contrived. Over the last few months The Ditch has reported on multiple airlines undertaking dozens of illegal arms flights through Irish territory, something Martin in the Dáil said, unequivocally, wasn’t happening. We’ve reported how the state Central Bank has renewed a deal to facilitate the sale of Israeli sovereign bonds – which are marketed as a means to support Israel’s campaign in Gaza. The bank is now reviewing this. We’ve reported how Martin’s government colleague – and committee chair Flanagan’s party colleague – took part in a ‘confidential call’ with his Israeli counterpart to assure him the state would ‘block’ the Occupied Territories Bill. Today we reported how a senior US diplomat warned Martin's office of the ‘consequences’ if government enacted the bill – just before Martin’s announcement the bill would merely be reviewed. Yesterday we announced our intention to legally challenge the state in court, on behalf of journalist colleagues in Gaza, on its consistent and continuing failures to uphold the law with respect to Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Palestine. According to Palestinian-American critic Edward Said the idea that knowledge and its publication can be somehow non-political is fallacy. ‘No one is helped in understanding this today when the adjective ‘political’ is used as a label to discredit any work for daring to violate the protocol of pretended suprapolitical objectivity.’ No one’s helped by these little displays. But we know why they occur. (So do Martin and Flanagan – keep 'em up.) Read more about our legal challenge here:
The Ditch186,338 просмотров • 1 год назад
The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 20: Public servicing, with Betty Purcell ‘Print media is often hostile to RTÉ isn't it? ‘There was historically that tension and competition over advertising. So the Independent would have been hostile but then of course they co-opted the most hostile of all, Brandon O'Connor, into the building. Which maybe was a clever idea because he certainly lost a lot of his anger. And he plays by the rules and he's building audiences for RTÉ so... ‘Very diverse guests as well. ‘Indeed – that was one point that I was going to make. His panels are to – I won't say the right of Genghis Khan – but they are often to the right of the government. Which is the really salient point.’
The Ditch18,106 просмотров • 1 месяц назад
The Ditch Live at the Whistleblower: Away from the mainstream, towards an alternative media ‘I was phoned to go on a radio debate and they said, "Oh we've got X," some ex-British general, "he's going to be the for and could you come on and be the against?" And I said, "I'm not the against, the Irish people are the against." Every single poll says that the Irish public do not want to join NATO, we do not want to give up neutrality. ‘And when I went on the show, to every point they made, I was like, the Irish people don't want it, the Irish people don't want it, the Irish people don't want it. And it was like I was being treated like I was the idiot. This British general – first of all, remember the last time we let the Brits decide what they were doing here – the presenter, were talking down to me as if I was the idiot because I was representing what every single poll tells us.’ Live from The Whistleblower with Oisín Gilmore, Rory Rowan, Aoife Moore and Jenny Maguire
The Ditch32,039 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
Pat Kenny: ‘There’s probably no way we can find out (about planes carrying IDF weapons) if they don’t ask for permission?’ Scott Lucas: ‘There’s no way to find out except when you get a website that is able to get records… that’s what The Ditch did.’ Hate those guys.
The Ditch147,014 просмотров • 2 лет назад
'They were told not only did they not need the surgery, the child didn’t even have the condition. Didn’t even have the condition. Let that sink in. That is what is happening to the children of Ireland. And I say this: there is not enough urgency in government.'
The Ditch100,587 просмотров • 1 год назад
The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 8: Trump's Party and Class, with Nausicaa Runner 'I don't know if we negotiate it. We kind of let them say what they're going to say. If they want to audit us, that's fine. They can audit us and see that we get no money from any foreign government. I just think it's really telling that publishing really basic political statements from another country is seen as some kind of unheard of propaganda. But it's also telling because all those people are forced to read us too. We have so much information that we know makes it to the Pentagon and the White House that they're reading our stories to understand what the Iranian perspective is. So it's this funny thing where, yeah, they come out against us pretty virulently and we are definitely always watching for that. But on the other hand I think that we've succeeded in making ourselves a bit indispensable for those very same people.' - Nausicaa Renner 🍷🌑🌊, Drop Site editor
The Ditch30,626 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад
🚨Abubaker Abed, who joined The Ditch in Doyle's last summer, speaks at the Jewish Anti Zionist Congress this Saturday at 10am with an address titled Freedom is a Verb: Taking Action Without Seeking Permission 'Imagine yourself stuck in a in a tiny swathe of land of around 365 kilometres where your food is controlled by the Israelis, your water is being controlled – everything. It's an open-air prison. You need the permission of the Israelis to get out of Gaza and that's what happened with me when I left three months ago. So growing up under occupation means that you have no freedom and you are like an animal being fed every single day to be slaughtered in one of the wars or escalations.' ⬇️Details below⬇️
The Ditch18,196 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
‘The Black and Tans, the returning grunts, and the Auxies were the officer class. When they were lifted out of Ireland by the British occupation forces they were put on ships and sent straight to Palestine. Their battle-tested thuggery and terrorism were used against Palestine.’
The Ditch56,545 просмотров • 9 месяцев назад
The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 12 From Clare to Here, with Clare Daly ‘Helen McEntee as foreign affairs minister: what is your worldview? What is the actual vision? What is it?’ ‘I think their vision is total subservience to the European Union. They come from that class of people who just love Europe. They’re the same class of people who years ago here loved the Brits. They want to be in with the master and anything that's Irish and different is inherently embarrassing to them. We were an embarrassment and a disgrace because we didn't go along with everyone else – oh my god the embarrassment, we'd be making a show of ourselves with our European friends. ‘We know the citizens of all the other European countries are pretty much like the Irish ones. They prefer to have their money being spent on a roof over their head, a pension, health service – rather than their young fellas being frogmarched into European wars, which is the only future that's being developed for them.’
The Ditch22,815 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 14: Fascism at Home, with William Wall 'It seems plain enough to me that whatever about a posture or certain aesthetics that might hint at a right populism, at its core it's Declan Ganley and his big gaff outside Galway, hoovering up state contracts in the US. They might posture as right populists but it seems to me like a right, capitalist podcast for the right capitalist class. 'I think that that brings it very much home because we are concerned about the rise of the right on behalf of trans people. We are concerned about the rise of the right on behalf of immigrants. We're concerned about all of these things partly out of what you might see as a kind of solidaristic response to the people who are potentially at the receiving end of their rise. 'But we are also concerned because we are trying to win class politics for a mass of people in this country.'
The Ditch18,323 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад
🚨Palestine Action Éire target Acra Control in Dublin This time last year The Ditch reported that Acra Control sent parts from its Clonskeagh manufacturing plant to Israel Military Industries (now owned by Elbit Systems) in Ramat Hasharon. Owned by US-based Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, Acra Control has previously supplied components used in US Predator drones deployed during deadly attacks in the Middle East. And late last year The Ditch reported that Acra Control shipped parts used to improve missile performance to Elbit Systems on 5 December. Early Monday morning Palestine Action Éire targeted Acra Control's Clonskeagh base, with footage showing actionists damaging air conditioning and ventilation equipment at the site. 'We have no hope in appealing to the morality of either the Irish government or these weapons manufacturers, as if they had any semblance of a moral conscience they would have already taken meaningful action against the genocidal states of Israel and the US. 'We tried peacefully protesting, we tried email and phone campaigns, we tried signing petitions and none of it worked. 'History teaches us in times like these escalations of tactics are necessary to ensure our voices are heard. The time for symbolic action is over,' said one.
The Ditch20,559 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад
The Ditch: The Party Line | Episode 1: Ireland and the Snakes 'When publications like the Irish Times talk about global threats, they're not talking about Shannon Airport being used as a de facto military base by a nation that drops bombs on schools. That's not what they're talking about. There are only very specific threats as they perceive them.'
The Ditch28,692 просмотров • 5 месяцев назад
'There's a number of people in Germany. One of them is an Irish citizen, Daniel Tatlow-Devally, who allegedly broke into the Elbit Systems factory in Germany in Ulm and, allegedly, caused some damage. Their trial started the past couple of weeks. 'It's happening in a high-security court complex that was used to prosecute members of Baader-Meinhof in the 1970s. It's a very unusual setup. It's not your typical courtroom. They're coming in behind glass and they are being treated like very dangerous criminals.'
The Ditch15,170 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад