Unity

As Ireland kicks off its EU Presidency with lavish ceremony and a headline appearance from Zelensky, Eoin Ó Murchú argues the spectacle masks a bloc in deep crisis over energy costs, Chinese competition, and a bitter budget battle that could slash hundreds of billions in spending. Why is Micheál Martin refusing to let Ireland debate where it actually stands on militarisation, neutrality, and the future shape of Europe? Read on for a sharp critique of the Presidency that prizes servility over substance.

Discover the remarkable story of Sean Morrissey, the quiet Turf Lodge leader whose courageous stand against violence in August 1969 may have saved countless lives during one of Belfast’s darkest moments. Ahead of a special July launch featuring Sinead Morrissey and rare NVTV interviews, revisit the extraordinary conviction of a man who chose solidarity over retaliation when it mattered most.

As NATO convenes in Turkey to reaffirm its commitment to Article 5 and pour billions more into Ukraine, Lynda Walker exposes how member states are rapidly transforming into weapon based economies, with Ireland’s arms industry alone now worth €23.6 billion. Discover why the Irish Communist Party is calling for urgent resistance to imperialism and a redirection of military spending toward humanitarian aid for Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon and Iran.

As Dr Hussam Abu Safiya awaits death in Israeli custody and Marwan Barghouti endures taunts from his captors, Dianne Kirby exposes how a thousand days of genocide have laid bare the moral rot at the heart of the western world order. From Israel’s failed divide and rule militias in Gaza to the Palestinian flag flooding World Cup stadiums while FIFA stays silent, this searing analysis reveals why global elites can no longer hide behind their complicity.

When referee Omar Artan, hailed as the best in Africa, was detained for 11 hours and refused entry to the United States ahead of the World Cup, FIFA officials and participating nations responded with deafening silence. This piece by Raymond O’Connell examines how Infantino’s cosying up to Trump, the punishment of Iran, and the collective cowardice of the football world reveal a sport that has been pear shaped for decades.

Last week’s Belfast conference on Irish Unity revealed more about the parties’ obsession with Reform UK and Brexit than any concrete plan for reunification, with Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and the SDLP all failing to explain what a united Ireland would actually look like. This sharp analysis examines the surprising economic data showing Brexit has boosted Irish trade with Britain to record levels, and asks why nationalist parties are suddenly competing over a cause that barely registers as a priority for voters.

Lynda Walker reports on how the Second Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress in Dublin brought together voices like Ilan Pappé, Francesca Albanese, and Medea Benjamin to confront the Gaza genocide and expose Zionism as a global political system. Read for a powerful account of how activists, scholars, and former statesmen are turning international solidarity into concrete action for Palestinian liberation.

In Ali Smith’s near future novel Gliff, truth tellers are branded “unverifiable” and erased by the state, while a whistleblower mother, two haunting parables, and a horse named Gliff carry the flickering hope of resistance. Jenny Farrell explores how Smith transforms surveillance, complicity, and redemption into one of the most urgent dystopian works of our decade, ending with a challenge that places the reader directly on the horse riding north.

Irish progressives cheered Keir Starmer’s resignation, but Eoin Ó Murchú writes for Unity that his successor Andy Burnham represents nothing more than continuity Starmerism dressed up in friendlier rhetoric. From his Blairite economic advisers and Labour Friends of Israel background to his promises of increased military spending and market reassurance, Burnham is a threat to Irish unity, neutrality, and working class interests in both Ireland and Britain.

Israel has transformed atrocity into spectacle, from paid binocular viewings of Gaza’s destruction to newly legislated public executions of Palestinians broadcast as state sanctioned entertainment. Dianne Kirby examines how this descent into dehumanisation exposes not only the collapse of Israeli democracy but the complicity of a western world that continues to grant impunity even as global opinion turns.