Unionism and Unity | National Hunger Strike Commemoration for Mayo | ‘Our Chains will be Broken before we Are’ – Marwan Barghouti | A Thousand Days of Genocide

Unionism and UnityThis week significant developments that can shape the future direction of constitutional politics on this island are taking place in Leinster House. On Tuesday Sinn Féin’s Bill setting out a practical plan to achieve a united Ireland is up for discussion. Fine Gael is moving ahead with its plan for a blueprint for Irish Unity for November. And other parties, including the Social Democrats and Labour have expressed their support for Unity and notwithstanding Micheál Martin’s opposition, it is obvious that there are many within Fianna Fáil who understand that planning for Unity makes sense.National Hunger Strike Commemoration for MayoWednesday 8 July was the 45 anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Joe McDonnell. Joe was the fifth of the ten hunger strikers who were to die in 1981. Last week the 45th Anniversary National Hunger Strike Commemoration was officially launched in Mayo. The march and rally to honour those ten hunger strikers, and three Mayo hunger strikers Michael Gaughan (1974) and Frank Stagg (1976), and Jack McNeela (1940), will take place in Ballina on Sunday, 30 August.'Our Chains will be Broken before we Are’ – Marwan BarghoutiMarwan Barghouti is a Palestinian leader who has spent almost a quarter of a century in Israeli prisons. He is widely recognised as the single most important Palestinian leader, capable of uniting the various Palestinian groups and for that reason Israel holds him in appalling conditions and refuses to release him. For much of that time he has been held in solitary confinement, frequently beaten, denied medical care and contact with his family.A Thousand Days of GenocideIn the way that the news cycle is constantly shifting from one headline story to another the genocide of the Palestinian people no longer catches the headlines in the way that it once did. The devastating earthquake in Venezuela; the US war against Iran; the war in Ukraine; oil prices; the internal machinations of the British Labour Party; and much else have all pushed Israel’s genocidal policy down the news agenda.However, as desperate as some of these other stories are we have a responsibility to constantly remind people that Israel’s torture of the people of Gaza and of the West Bank has been unrelenting for over 1000 days.