Hunger Strike in English Prisons | Grace – just hold me in your arms … | A bleak Christmas for Palestinians | Nollaig Shona Daoibshe

Hunger Strike in English PrisonsIn English prisons five people, imprisoned under new repressive laws targeted at pro-Palestinian activists, are on hunger strike. Several of them will have been on hunger strike now for over 50 days. At the weekend and each day since, protests have taken place across the island of Ireland and in Britain. Irish republicans have a natural affinity with those who use hunger strike in protest against inhumane prison conditions and to advance democratic aims. The use of hunger strike by political prisoners following the Rising and during the Tan and Civil Wars and in the North is well documented.Grace – just hold me in your arms …Next year the judicial review, taken by the Moore St. Preservation Trust, will be held in the Dublin High Court to challenge the Irish government’s support for the plans of the developer - Hammerson – to demolish much of the historic 1916 Moore St. battlefield site.16 Moore St. is where the leaders of the 1916 Rising held their last meeting and where the decision to surrender was taken to prevent further civilian loss of life.Among those present was Joseph Plunkett who was centrally involved in the planning of the 1916 Rising. He was Director of Military Operations in the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was also a member of that organisations Military Council. He was a signatory of the Proclamation and although heavily bandaged as a result of medical operations in early April, Plunkett spent Easter week in the GPO. A bleak Christmas for PalestiniansThe story of Christmas and the birth of Jesus in a stable, as Mary and Joseph sought shelter, is known by billions around the world – even by those of other faiths and none. Christmas will be celebrated – presents given – and many will go to their respective places of worship to remember the child born in poverty, surrounded by a loving family and animals.But for the people of Palestine, surviving in the occupied Palestinian Territories, this Christmas thousands of families will be separated from their loved ones, many of them children, held illegally in Israeli prisons. In the Gaza Strip families will mourn the 20,000 babies and children killed in Israel’s genocidal war and the many more left with life changing injuries. Children will grieve for the parents who have been killed.