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Articles by Ciaran Tierney
Calls for Irish University to end its collaboration with Israel
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Gaza students shame the Irish authorities
0:00 / --:-- 1.0x Ready After a summer in which the dreams of dozens of the best and the brightest young people in Palestine seemed to be shattered by the Irish authorities, it was fitting that three survivors of the Gaza genocide managed to shame the Irish Government thanks to the brilliance of their artwork this past weekend.
Gaza students shame the Irish authorities
After a summer in which the dreams of dozens of the best and the brightest young people in Palestine seemed to be shattered by the Irish authorities, it was fitting that three survivors of the Gaza genocide managed to shame the Irish Government thanks to the brilliance of their artwork this past weekend.
Playing Israel in football is unthinkable right now
0:00 / --:-- 1.0x Ready Ten years have passed since football families in Ireland were given a very clear picture of just how cruel, callous, calculating, and downright racist the Israeli authorities could be when it came to the children of Palestine. Activists and clubs across Ireland had raised funds to bring some of the most talented young footballers in Gaza to Ireland and, for reasons best known to themselves, the Israeli authorities picked out one of the boys and decided he could not travel.
Playing Israel in football is unthinkable right now
Ten years have passed since football families in Ireland were given a very clear picture of just how cruel, callous, calculating, and downright racist the Israeli authorities could be when it came to the children of Palestine. Activists and clubs across Ireland had raised funds to bring some of the most talented young footballers in Gaza to Ireland and, for reasons best known to themselves, the Israeli authorities picked out one of the boys and decided he could not travel.
A local's guide to ten of Galway's best-kept secrets
Top places to visit in Galway, according to a local! From a cup of tea to kicking walls, this is what the City of the Tribes is all about. It’s the only city on the Wild Atlantic Way and next year it’s set to become the European Capital of Culture. Galway is a small city on the west coast of Ireland that consistently punches well above its weight and should be a “must-see” destination on any trip to the Emerald Isle.
New game explores links between Ireland and Palestine
Resistance through gaming and fun is the aim of two young women from the Middle East who launched a new card game last week which links the shared histories of Ireland and Palestine under colonisation. The aim of the ‘Roots and Resistance’ game is to teach players about the history, heritage, and culture of two countries with a shared history of being colonised and occupied.
Gathering in shame to honour the US President
Has there ever been a worse time for the Irish to venerate and celebrate the President of the United States? With human rights being eroded, innocent people being shot dead for daring to stand up to armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on US streets, and shackled prisoners being renditioned through Shannon Airport, this seems to be a strange time to decide to honour the first citizen of the US. But it’s happening in Galway this week.
Students and staff express outrage at ongoing links to Israeli institute
Students and staff members marched through the University of Galway's quadrangle early on Monday morning. Photo by Ciaran Tierney Outrage that one of Ireland's leading universities has doubled down on a decision to enter a partnership with Israel's institute of technology at a time when it is being linked with the genocide in Gaza prompted staff and students to organise a protest on the first day of the new academic year.
Neutrality means nothing when we have dollar signs in our eyes
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), four TDs, academics, and peace activists had gathered for a lively and informative three hour discussion which garnered little or no media attention. I know, because I asked three news editors in advance of the meeting if they would be interested in a piece. Not one of them even replied.
Irish politicians warned of 'retaliation' for settlement goods ban
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year Corporate lobbyists have issued a strong warning about the potential for “retaliation” by the United States if Irish politicians press ahead with a bill to outlaw goods and services from the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. In a document which was “leaked” to me last week, the lobbyists warn that there could be significant consequences for the Irish economy if the Occupied Territories Bill becomes enacted into Irish law.
Signs of hope by the seaside in Salthill
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 I live in a city which is choking to death because of a lack of imagination, because so many people rely so much on the car. They feel they have no choice. I see it every day. The cycle lanes blocked by motorists who cannot imagine that they should even have to share the roads with people who opt to cycle or walk to school in the mornings.
Is this the Ireland we really want?
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 A friend of mine is a volunteer coach with his local hurling club. Like many parents all across Ireland, he only got involved with the GAA once his son began to play our national games, as he grew up many miles away, in another county. He finds that he loves helping out at the sprawling rural club just outside the city, even though the early morning sessions can curtail his social life at the weekends. On Saturday, I met him at a 50th birthday party.
An open letter to a West of Ireland Senator
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Dear Senator O'Mahony, I would consider you to be one of my sporting heroes. The wonderful, dignified way you went about delivering two All-Ireland football titles to Galway in 1998 and 2001 left a lasting impression with me and were among the highlights of my 22 year career in provincial journalism.
Compounding the injustice of Tuam
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Why bother writing about the struggle for justice of those who were treated so appallingly by the Irish State? Why not move on? Why bother going to events organised by the families and survivors of the "Tuam Babies" when many media outlets don’t bother?
Struggling to come to terms with a hate crime
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year Apart from the wanton destruction, it was the look of despair and anguish on the young boy’s face which left the most lasting impression. As an adult member of his community brought me on a guided tour of the vandalised mosque, the little boy – no more than nine or ten years old – expressed his bafflement that such vandalism could occur in such a peaceful place.
How could the Irish forget their own history?
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 How can we learn from history if we never even studied it in the first place? How can we understand where we are today without reference points which will help us to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past? With Brexit and the rise of populism, old animosities, mistrusts, and misunderstandings have risen again. And some people have shown an astounding ignorance of the troubled history between Ireland and its nearest neighbour.
No place for buskers in the City of Bluster
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 In the City of Bluster, one of our esteemed public representatives donned an immaculate suit and hired a cameraman to make a video about the city’s thriving street culture. He strolled the streets and persuaded business people to stand at their doorways and express support for his wonderful new byelaws. The video was about buskers but, funnily enough, he did not actually get around to interviewing any of the buskers.
A secret little mission to Galway
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 In the West of Ireland, we don’t like to ask too many hard, tough questions or cause too much of a fuss. We treat our visitors with respect, but a bizarre visit by a prominent diplomat last Friday has raised serious questions about who makes key decisions at a local level and why our elected representatives can be kept completely and utterly in the dark. Who decides to invite an Ambassador to our city?
Hate speech on the rise in 'Land of a Thousand Welcomes'
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 by Ciaran Tierney "Board up those houses with the c***s in it and petrol bomb the s*** out of it". Somewhere in Ireland this week, a man called Anthony sat down in front of his computer or mobile device and decided to write the above comment in response to a “news” story on a Facebook page.
A letter from America
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Dear --------------, I understand that in recent days the Fianna Fail party has stated its intention to support the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 when it comes up for a vote in the Seanad. I would urge you and your party to reconsider your support for the bill and work to prevent this bill from passing.
Is it time to legislate against hate crimes?
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 "She needs to be taken under control and dealt with once and for all.” Against my better judgement, but with a morbid curiosity, last night I sat down to watch a live YouTube video from a former newspaper journalist who now sees herself as one of the leading lights of an “anti-corruption” movement in Ireland.
Sorry, I missed the party
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year Dear “patriots” of Ireland, My apologies. I am sorry I did not get to attend your Dublin street rally last weekend. It would have been good to travel across the country for three hours to stand in solidarity with a fellow former newspaper journalist who wants to stand up for free speech. Only she blocked me from following her on Twitter months ago, just for asking a pretty innocuous question about her beliefs.
No laughing matter for the Italians of Galway
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 A few weeks ago I was invited to a meeting in a Galway pub in which members of the region’s Italian community met up with representatives of the city’s anti-racism network. Up to a dozen immigrants from Italy attended the meeting and it was interesting to note how united they became as they discussed an issue close to their hearts for two hours.
A shame Ireland should never forget
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Peter Mulryan at the grave his mother shares with other women from the Magdalene Laundry in Galway City For eight years now, they have gathered in a Galway graveyard. They meet at the gates, exchange warm greetings, and then walk silently past the rows of graves to an area which has become familiar over recent years. It used to be nigh on impossible to locate these particular graves.
ciarantierney: Ask them!
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Here he comes in his shiny new suit, primed for action and full of the joys of life. He wants your vote and he’s ready and willing to engage with you on your doorstep. As long as you don't delay him for too long! Funnily enough, you haven’t seen much of him for the last five years or so. There’s football on the telly or you are engrossed in your favourite soap opera and you wonder if you should bother answering the door.
Expressing the rage of a denigrated people
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year (personal) 2018 What kind of country jails a cartoonist? Is it the kind of place we should be sending Irish artists to for a celebration of diversity and European pop culture next month? Those thoughts struck me last week when I hosted a cartoonist in my home for a night during his week-long tour of Ireland. Mohammad Sabaaneh is no ordinary cartoonist.
With friends like Katie ...
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 Katie Hopkins cares deeply about the people of Oughterard. She said so in a Tweet, which she posted with a video from a protest in the Connemara town. “Bless these lovely people in Oughterard,” she wrote. “Silently protesting against the imposition of African migrants into a converted hotel in their quiet Irish town. Will Ireland follow Germany? Do we never learn?” Hopkins is British.
Why bother blogging about the election?
Irish Current Affairs and Politics Blog of the Year Why bother blogging about the election? After all, every fool seems to have an opinion, and nobody seems to want to pay for decent journalism these days. Why bother writing about the old friend you met at Christmas who you rarely bump into any more? He’s voting for Noel Grealish in the upcoming election, he said, because he “said what nobody else is saying”.
No going back to the horrors of disrupted lives
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 It’s never nice to feel that you are an irrelevance, that your very existence does not matter and that your views are better left ignored. It’s never nice when things most people take for granted – security, safety, the freedom to pop out to the shops or to enjoy a night out on the town – are being threatened by people who are oblivious to the impact their politics have on other people’s lives.
Beware of shysters bearing promises ... !
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 In my part of Galway, a young man running for the local elections told one of my neighbours recently that he had never heard of Direct Provision. The system which the Irish State has used to detain asylum-seekers for almost two decades somehow slipped under his radar.
When all of this is over ...
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year When all of this is over, will we remember . . . The rich people who flew all over the world so that poor people could die. The 17-year old denied treatment at an urgent care centre, because he did not have health insurance in the richest country in the world. The horse racing officials who thought it was fine for 250,000 people from all over Britain and Ireland to mix, drink and mingle at Cheltenham Racecourse, right at the outset of a pandemic.
How do you like your racism?
Irish Current Affairs Blog of the Year 2018 So . . . how do you like your racism? Do you think it’s all a bit of a laugh when the grandson of a German immigrant and son of a Scottish immigrant tells political opponents who happen to be women of colour that they should “go back” to the countries they “originally came from”? Even though the man who said this, the President of the United States, happens to be the most powerful person in the world?
Deported Palestinian human rights lawyer for Galway talk
An acclaimed Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender whose deportation from his homeland last December caused shock waves across the globe is coming to Galway to deliver a talk on Tuesday evening. Salah Hammouri was interned without trial for seven months before Israel deported him from Jerusalem, the city of his birth, in what Amnesty International described as a “war crime” and a clear breach of international law.
Joyfully rediscovering the 'language of poverty'
There is an old Irish saying that a land without a language is a land without a soul. Over the past couple of years, while working on the smallest of the Aran Islands, I tried to imagine how sad it would be if the last native Irish speaker passed away. Imagine the thousands of years of oral traditions, of myths and legends, of connecting with our ancestors and the land around us which would be lost forever.
Social media and the spread of hate
The National Party join an anti-refugee protest in Dublin. Photo via Ireland Against Fascism on Facebook. When mass murder was taking place in Myanmar seven years ago, social media played a significant role in the genocide of Rohingya Muslims. For years, people had spread Islamophobic material on Facebook in a country of 54 million people, including conspiracy theories and grainy photos of atrocities supposedly carried out by a long-resented minority.
You’ll Eat This Blueberry Cobbler for Dessert (and Breakfast!) All Summer Long
Cobbler is comfort food with a capital C. And when it’s made with luscious blueberries, you’ve got a dish you’ll be proud to serve guests at a cookout or your family on a warm weekend morning. A classic blueberry cobbler is simply sweetened fruit that’s covered with a dough or biscuit topping. Once it’s baked, the juice from the berries bubbles up to stain the batter and infuse the whole dish with amazing flavor.
No ordinary friend
Brave meningitis survivor Liam Cullinane A few weeks ago, on a glorious Saturday afternoon, I met an old friend for a cup of coffee outside a café in the centre of town. He might not realise it, but meeting Liam is almost always an uplifting experience. On this particular day, his positivity was unreal. He was more animated than I had seen him in months. He had just emerged from an oxygen chamber, where he had been getting daily treatment for a few weeks.
The great Galway 'busker war' of 2017!
This is Emma. Busking in Galway. Photo: galwaywalks.com Emma’s a gem. Emma and people like her add so much to the vibrancy of my city. Throughout the year, she’s a huge hit with tourists and locals alike. She takes up her spot at the top of High Street, puts on a backing track, and dances to the best of Irish music. Shoppers take a break to enjoy her superb skills as a traditional Irish dancer, while visitors soak up this perfect taste of the vibrant native culture in Galway.
New Jersey to the wilds of Mayo: How one man lived his dream
“If you are willing to put up with rain or the wind, I have to say that the quality of life in the West of Ireland is better in so many ways." Ciaran Tierney Contributor Aug 02, 2020 After 27 years of living and working in New Jersey, Michael Cusack decided it was time to move “home” to the wilds of the remote Co Mayo countryside and a small village with no shops or street lights, and just one pub.
When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, will we remember...
As the world stands still, safe at home, and frontline staff work tirelessly to battle the novel coronavirus pandemic, it's a good time to take stock and consider what we'll take away from all of this. When all of this is over, will we remember... The rich people who flew all over the world so that poor people could die. The 17-year old denied treatment at an urgent care center in California because he did not have health insurance in the richest country in the world.
Asylum-seekers in Ireland are alarmed by spread of coronavirus
Overcrowding in Direct Provision centres across Ireland has become concerning for asylum-seekers during the coronavirus outbreak. Asylum-seekers in Ireland have expressed alarm over the threat posed to their health by the Covid19 pandemic as a result of overcrowding in Direct Provision centres across the country.
The Irish spirit is shining through the coronavirus crisis
From bingo on the balconies of apartment blocks in Dublin to live yoga classes and rooftop concerts streamed online, Irish people are showing an amazing sense of community and humor in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. People are being told not to mix with others from outside their own households, but they are coming up with novel ideas for connecting with their friends, neighbors, and family members across the globe.
Galway distillery pivots from poitin to sanitizer during pandemic
Micil Distillery in Co Galway is rising to the unprecedented challenge of coronavirus in Ireland. The owner of a small poitin distillery in the West of Ireland has suspended production of the “Irish moonshine” in order to make a brand new hand sanitizer which can help combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
American Democrats abroad casts primary votes in Co Galway pub
American Democrats abroad in Ireland were able to cast their votes for the Democratic primary in Co Galway beginning on March 3. US Democrats living in Ireland are so passionate about the need to defeat President Donald Trump in November that many of them made five or six-hour round trips in order to take part in a primary in a Galway pub on Saturday afternoon.
How the Irish State has compounded the abuse of religious institution survivors
Survivors of Ireland's notorious religious institutions feel they were re-traumatized as the Irish State attempted to construct a Redress scheme. The Irish State has been accused of compounding the physical and sexual abuse experienced by survivors of religious institutions through a redress scheme which has traumatized thousands of people and blocked them from speaking out about what happened to them as children.
How the Irish State has compounded the abuse of religious institution survivors
Survivors of Ireland's notorious religious institutions feel they were re-traumatized as the Irish State attempted to construct a Redress scheme The Irish State has been accused of compounding the physical and sexual abuse experienced by survivors of religious institutions through a redress scheme which has traumatised thousands of people and blocked them from speaking out about what happened to them as children.
Coronavirus forces postponement of Sinn Féin rallies
Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald announced that two upcoming rallies have been postponed after the Dublin school which her children attend has been shut down due to coronavirus Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has been forced to cancel two public meetings in Ireland this week after revealing that her children attend the Dublin school where a case of coronavirus has been confirmed.
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