Comments on: US trade unionists oppose Irish colleagues’ anti-Israel campaign

By: craig

craig — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:56:15 +0000

Well, i am Scottish, i live in London and an athiest and pro-Israel. I see the fanatical left wing siding with the islamists who all seem to hate the USA, Britain and Israel. It seems to be almost “cool” to be left wing here….bite the hand that feeds it in a comfy safe European home or what ?

By: So Much For Subtlety

So Much For Subtlety — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:00:51 +0000

Ed – “I dont know about anti-Semitism. Ireland never had more than a few hundred Jews and many left after the country’s economy went south after independence. Some Dublin Jews sympathised with independence, some with the British – it had more to do with class than religion.”

Sorry but didn’t one of the last anti-Jewish riots in these now dis-United Kingdoms take place in Ireland? I seem to remember 1909 for some reason.

But clearly this has more to do with the Hard Left’s role in Ireland, their support for the PIRA, and for pretty much every other thuggish terrorist group in the world. Someone gave the PIRA those AK-47s and Semtex remember.

By: Israelinurse

Israelinurse — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:17:46 +0000

Well I’m as Zionist and patriotic as the next girl, but seriously; there’s no way I’m boycotting Guinness, Murphy’s Irish Stout or one single drop of Irish whiskey. Especially Blackbush. Sorry!

By: elaine

elaine — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:16:05 +0000

The data on East Timor is ridiculous. It really remains the forgotten genocide…and I do not use the term metaphorically (alongside the executions, there were quite well-documented massacres in vilalges and there was a project to ‘eliminate’ the language, the customs through resettlement and to indonesianise the nation by transmigration). During the invasion and occupation by Indonesia, it was estimated that between 100,000 -250,000 people died; the official independent CAVR report published last year put out a very conservative estimate of 110,000. That is a massive proportion of a small population. To say that less than 10,000 were killed makes me question the validity of the whole exercise.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:39:59 +0000

In 1555 William Annyas (Anes) became the Mayor of Youghal in County Cork, he was the first person of the Jewish faith to hold such an elected postion in Ireland or Britain.

There was a three time Mayor of Youghal in 1569 and 1576 and 1581 called Francis Annyas although the exact relation to William is unclear. He commanded the English garrison in Youghal during the Desmond Rebellions.

Israel boycott as ‘Desmond Payback’. Or the diversionary opportunism, in an unprecendented economic crisis, of unworthy leadership incumbents on the traditional Left?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Annyas

By: modernityblog

modernityblog — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:42:52 +0000

people seem to forget that Chaim Herzog, the sixth President of Israel was born in Ireland and resided in Dublin for a sizeable part of his life.

By: Zorro

Zorro — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:20:30 +0000

Ed and Lynne T :

I think Robert Briscoe was the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin, not London. Also Cork sounded like New York, so Jews were put off at Cork instead of New York, or so the story goes.

Also there is an Eamon de Valera forest in Israel honouring the first President of independent Ireland

By: kmag

kmag — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:42:46 +0000

“I would ask why the people promoting this do not boycott American academics …

If only! We could then argue to cut off foreign aid to the countries that do.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:47:55 +0000

There was a small Jewish community in Limerick, who were dumped there and told it was New York. But the population was small and mainly in Belfast and Dublin. My uncle worked for a Jewish chap, and remembers the common refrane of the 1940s, “go back to Palestine”.

By: Nearly Oxfordian

Nearly Oxfordian — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:21:27 +0000

Ed,
Thanks for that. The fact is that there have been a great many antisemitic pronouncements in recent years by Irish – and especially Scottish – senior politicians. You only had to listen to Campbell, let alone Salmond, to hear the hatred simply dripping from their lips.