The Irish Crisis and Wikileaks the Movie

As a native Dubliner I have been following the disastrous story of what has been happening in Ireland throughout this year. Conversations with friends and family have confirmed that the country is now in a terrible state with unemployment growing, together with emigration and profound disillusionment with the discredited and corrupt Irish government. In this piece from the New Left Project blog Dr Nat O'Connor from a major Irish think thank gives his views on what went wrong in Ireland and how it can be addressed. With a general election in the Irish Republic imminent I am sure that we will be hearing a lot more about this in the next few months. Opinion polls already indicate that the ruling Fianna Fail and Green parties will be decimated and that there will be a firm swing to the Left towards both Sinn Fein and the Irish Labour Party, although a coalition government with the conservative Fine Gael party remains the most likely outcome.

Last week I spoke outside Horseferry Magistrates Court, together with Peter Tatchell, where Julian Assange the founder of Wikileaks was applying for bail. This film from STV (Swedish state television) is a fascinating insight into Wikileaks and how it operates. The accounts which Wikileaks has released have been fascinating and have clearly upset the US and many of its allies. They have given a real insight into the operations of foreign policy and international diplomacy and what the Great Powers really think as opposed to what their controlled media tells us. The battle of Assange will really give us an indication of what is happening behind the scenes and I am convinced that the CIA and others will make a real attempt to silence him for good. Meanwhile the information being released needs to be digested and carefully considered. As far as I am concerned the more information we have about what is supposedly being done in our name the better.