A to Z of the Irish Times

By Dave Lordan

(From collection titled 'Clonakilty Red Pudding'. The collection is dedicated to ‘Tom Barry’s Missing Statue’)

All strikes are wrong, particularly the ones that go on.
Bombs are good in Baghdad and Belgrade, bad in Belfast
Cheerlead every imperialist war.
Dissidents need not apply.
Editorial line, editorial line, editorial line.
Famines are caused by a shortage of food.
Good for business, good for all.
Hallelujah social partnership!!!
Ignore anti-capitalist and anti-racist events not organized by our friends.
Jail the poor.
Keep repeating the establishment line.
Letters from the organized left not printed. Letters from far right God-spouting nutters pride of place.
Middle class audience, middle class values.
NATO is a peacemaker and moral authority.
Orange marches are an expression of Protestant culture.
Prague didn’t happen, Genoa didn’t happen, Florence isn’t happening.
Queue’s in public services the fault of the staff.
Releases from PR agencies quoted verbatim as truth.
Sanctions which murder hundreds and thousands of children are ‘an understandable reaction to the threat of terrorism’.
Tell lies about the Nice Treaty.
UVF same as IRA.
Vanity mirror for the rich and politicians.
World Bank Good Good Good.
Xtreme left Bad Bad Bad.
Yes Yes men and Yes Yes women.
Zero coverage of Working Class Issues.

Some of the more recent poetry from the collection "The Boy in the Ring" which won the prize for Dave is available here as is a poem on the subject of Shannon Airport.

The Kavanagh Award has been awarded yearly since 1971 and previous winners have included Pat Boran, Celia de Freine, Paul Durcan, Sinead Morrissey, Peter Sirr and Joseph Woods. Lilliput Press published an anthology of the recipients of the award since 1971 in 2004 titled Dancing With Kitty Stobling.

Most Indymedia readers will know Dave Lordan as an unabashed socialist activist and this is often reflected head on in his writing. Here for example is Dave's Tribute To Joe Strummer and also his response to the events in Genoa in 2001.

Around 75 community and housing activists from across the city gathered in the Macro Community Resource Centre on North King St last night, for the launching of a new Tenants First booklet, entitled "The Real Guide to Regeneration for Communities: Making The Right Decision About Urban Regeneration". The booklet has been in production for several months, and five thousand copies have been printed up for distribution around local authority flat complexes and housing estates right across Dublin City.

The booklet was produced not as a leaflet to be shoved through letterboxes, but rather as a tool that local communities can use in facilitating workshops and discussions when faced with regeneration (which based on the contributions from the floor last night, seems to be widespread and increasing). "12 steps to making the right decision about regeneration" are mapped out, and take tenants from the initial stages of finding out information and understanding what is happening, to organising your own agenda, getting resources and fighting for what you want.

Three speakers, Joe Donohue from Fatima Groups United, John Bissett from St Michael's Estate, and Lena Jordan from O'Devaney Gardens gave a brief outline of their experiences to date of the regeneration process. They talked of how each of their communities had experienced difficulties with Dublin City Council, at all stages of the planning and organisation. Also prevalent was the continuing presence of PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) in redevelopments. The results of PPPs were varied, but inevitably lead to the reduction in the number or physical space afforded to social housing, and an increase in housing densities coupled with a loss of open space areas.