Boycott Israeli Goods

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign 
to read more about the campaign

http://www.ipsc.ie/campaigns/consumer-boycott

Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)

It is with great sorrow and sadness that I report the death of Seamus Heaney in Dublin. I offer my condolences to his wife Marie, and children, Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann.

Seamus Justin Heaney, 13 April 1939 to 30 August 2013.  R.I.P.

--

"The spot is hallow'd where the good man dwells;

Though centuries have laps’d, his words and deeds 

for his remotest offspring still resound”  Goethe

Seamus Heaney was the ultimate poet to me; in his work, his life, his manner, his openness and accessibility. I thought of him as a friendly statue, solid, smiling as I resisted the urge to bow down in his presence. Meeting him at readings down the years he was always the same; kind, considerate, with time to talk and say hello.

Listening Back To Seamus Heaney  with Tom Ashbrook

Rabindranath Tagore

Take a moment for  Rabindranath Tagore  who died on this day in 1941.

I have an old copy of his Fireflies from the turn of the century and he himself said;- 

"Fireflies had their origin in China and Japan where thoughts were very often claimed from me in my hand writing on fans and pieces of silk" 

“The shade of my tree is for passers-by, its fruit for the one for whom I wait.”

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” Rabindranath Tagore  

by Drax Ireland

The EU Directive on the Occupied Territories » CounterPunch

The EU Directive on the Occupied Territories » CounterPunch

From Counterpunch: This directive forbids any form of EU funding or cooperation with any entity established or operating in “the territories occupied by Israel since 1967”, which “comprise the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” 

Furthermore, the directive requires that any future agreements between EU states and Israel or any Israeli entity must include a clause specifically asserting that those occupied territories are not part of the State of Israel.

See the full text of the Directive here

By Drax Ireland

Anew

..when I begin anew
 armed & humbled
by what I have learned
in this world
in this single life
I will stride with a light step
in whatever guise the Goddess chooses
since I am hers to command
in this short eternity and beyond.. 

The Goddess of Hope by Bertel Thorvaldsen























By Drax Ireland

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

 

About the IPSC

"The IPSC was set up in late 2001 by a group of established Irish human rights and community activists, academics and journalists who were deeply concerned with the current situation in the Occupied Territories. In partnership with Palestinians now living in Ireland the IPSC was formed to provide a voice for Palestine in Ireland."

See Upcoming Events

Whilst we have significant troubles of our own it is very important not to forget our brothers and sisters in Palestine who remain very much under the heel of the Israeli Reich.

Please join the IPSC “Irish Artists’ Pledge to Boycott Israel”

http://www.ipsc.ie/cultural-boycott/ipsc-irish-artists-pledge-to-boycott-israel

By Drax Ireland

Poem - Reich Like

Who is speaking for our brothers and sisters 
the Palestinians
Very few it seems
Only the odd heretic
Children murdered mindlessly
Revolutionaries assassinated arbitrarily
The due process of law consigned and constrained
Reich like
.
.
By Drax Ireland

Poem - Searching for Blue

people are stuck sometimes
in the good or bad pieces of their past
or the image of self, frozen at 32
the cyberhallways jammed 
with pretty young things
all in better years in better light.
Sad, trying to rappel back up a linear timeline
oblivious to the counterweight of reality.
Your life moving over the horizon, inexorably 
like an old Johnny Cash
you see photos or video of yourself 
from other angles, not the pretend
they’re shocking, like a crime scene 
you’re so old, so frail, so scared
in that moment you see your death 
Apache horses rising up on the ridge
too many of them to fight
you raise your hands
in a dead god above gesture, 
giving up…
surrendering searching for blue
just one last glimpse of blue
in those final years of grey

By Drax Ireland