Anthony McIntyre 
In the month of Christmas we find that the only spirit haunting Gaza is the ghost of Genocide Past.
In the month of Christmas we find that the only spirit haunting Gaza is the ghost of Genocide Past.Like a vampire, driven by bloodlust, it stalks the bombed out buildings and war-made wastelands in search of victims. The post world war 2 edict of Never Again has been exposed for being as hollow as the hearts and as shallow as the minds of those who swore fidelity to the concept and have borne false witness to it since. For them Never Again really amounts to Never Again will we move to prevent genocide if it is being perpetrated by our allies rather than our enemies.
Mondoweiss has put its finger on the type of peace Gazans are now enduring.
On November 6 a Deputy UN Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, told journalists in New York that:
Add to this the joint statement by Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates warning that the Israeli decision to open the Rafah crossing so that traumatised Palestinian citizens could make their way to Egypt, is to enable the expulsion of Gazans. The eight nations stated their 'absolute rejection of any attempts to expel the Palestinian people from their land,' and have demanded that the crossing be opened both ways. We know only too well the Israeli attitude to the right of return.
This combination of Israeli tactical manoeuvres to secure t the strategic of population displacement has led to a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza claiming:
Against such a sombre backdrop, it is animating to again gather alongside all those who make up Drogheda Stands With Palestine, particularly in the wake of last week's intensified efforts both in the town and in Dublin to force the issue in front of the noses of the Michael Lowry-made coalition that governs this country. That Lowry had such a prominent role as kingmaker tells us that the heartbeat of the governing class is not an ethical one, while allowing us to better grasp the anger that fuses Alan Kelly - our own Alan Kelly, the good one, not the Labour Party guy - when he calls for someone to shout out the names Micheal Martin, Simon Harris, Helen McEntee and call them spineless lying bastards over their inertia on the Occupied Territories Bill.
Mondoweiss has put its finger on the type of peace Gazans are now enduring.
It’s been nearly two months since the ceasefire was reached in Gaza. Hopes were high among the 2 million Palestinians in the besieged Strip that not only would the Israeli bombings stop, but that everything they had been deprived of for the past two years – food, clean water, adequate medicine and healthcare – would flood into Gaza to ease their struggles. The hopes of regaining a fragment of the life they knew before the war, have dissipated, as the reality of a “new genocide” sets in . . . Though some aid has come into Gaza, and people have tried to restore some semblance of normalcy, the reality in Gaza is far from peacetime. Israeli bombs are still falling, people cannot return to their home, and sufficient food aid and medicines are still in short supply.
On November 6 a Deputy UN Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, told journalists in New York that:
Our partners report that since the ceasefire, the Israeli authorities have rejected 107 requests for the entry of relief materials, including blankets, winter clothes, and tools and material to maintain and operate water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Add to this the joint statement by Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates warning that the Israeli decision to open the Rafah crossing so that traumatised Palestinian citizens could make their way to Egypt, is to enable the expulsion of Gazans. The eight nations stated their 'absolute rejection of any attempts to expel the Palestinian people from their land,' and have demanded that the crossing be opened both ways. We know only too well the Israeli attitude to the right of return.
This combination of Israeli tactical manoeuvres to secure t the strategic of population displacement has led to a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza claiming:
This is a new form of genocide. The policy of refusing to allow in what is necessary for people’s survival mirrors what happened earlier, when food was withheld, and malnutrition was deliberately created.
Sadly, the people of Ireland are not alone in trying to compel Western governments to do what they should be doing. The German opposition has slated the country's Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, over his upcoming visit to Israel, where he is scheduled to meet a man wanted by the International Criminal Court on suspicion of war crimes, Beelzebub Netanyahu. Such nauseating contempt for universal human rights and global justice.
On a lighter note, a friend in Belfast, Marty Flynn, baked what he called a Bailies based cake. He sent it through the post and it arrived yesterday, neatly packaged in a Quality Street tub. I am hoping that is not on the boycott list but if it is then I can console myself with the knowledge that we only got the tub and not the contents. It was hardly opened before four of us ate halfway through it. Sated, I came up with the suggestion to share the rest of it with those who I have been honoured to stand alongside for the past two years protesting Israel, a country that has already stolen the Palestinian cake and commits genocide in pursuit of more.
On a lighter note, a friend in Belfast, Marty Flynn, baked what he called a Bailies based cake. He sent it through the post and it arrived yesterday, neatly packaged in a Quality Street tub. I am hoping that is not on the boycott list but if it is then I can console myself with the knowledge that we only got the tub and not the contents. It was hardly opened before four of us ate halfway through it. Sated, I came up with the suggestion to share the rest of it with those who I have been honoured to stand alongside for the past two years protesting Israel, a country that has already stolen the Palestinian cake and commits genocide in pursuit of more.
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| ⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre. |
The Trump administration is facing a wave of condemnation after new reporting has revealed details about the systemic “torture” migrants were subjected to after being deported to El Salvador’s notoriously dangerous CECOT prison.
The Trump administration has sent around 250 migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison as part of its broader mass deportation policy. And, while the prison’s tortuous conditions have been well documented, The New York Times recently spoke with 40 former inmates whose testimony, forensic experts say, indicated “the existence of an institutional policy and practice of torture,” the outlet reported Sunday.
Speaking with the Times, the former inmates said they were beaten repeatedly, subjected to waterboarding-like torture, stripped naked and forced to perform sexual acts, and denied lifesaving medication. Of the 40 men interviewed, only three had criminal histories beyond immigration and traffic offenses, despite Trump’s pledge to only deport the “worst of the worst.”
The detailed account of the torturous conditions left many critics stunned, including former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who called for Democrats – should they regain control of Congress and the White House – to not forget what the Trump administration had subjected migrants to and to hold them to account.
Continue @ Raw Story.
The coalition represents hundreds of organisations representing hundreds of thousands of people.
Betty was arrested on 10 August 2025 in Morocco for posting a photograph, taken in London, in which she wore a T-shirt reading “Allah is Lesbian,” an appropriation of a famous anti-racist feminist slogan. She was sentenced to 30 months in prison under Article 267-5 and fined.By 10 December—International Human Rights Day—Betty will have spent 122 days in prison for a peaceful act of expression carried out outside Morocco. Since her imprisonment, Betty has been held in conditions that pose a grave and escalating threat to her health and safety. A bone cancer survivor with a prosthetic left arm, she urgently requires specialised surgery. Instead, her condition has deteriorated so severely that her humerus bone has now completely detached — a development that significantly increases the risk of amputation. Despite this, she continues to be denied the medical care her doctors consider essential. Betty is also held in prolonged isolation, without a mattress or pillow, forced to sleep on blankets placed directly on concrete in a cold cell with a broken window. Such treatment falls far below the minimum standards required under international law and violates Morocco’s obligations regarding the right to health, humane detention conditions and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Subject: Human Rights Day Appeal – Immediate Action Required for Ibtissame Betty Lachgar
Dear Ambassador
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the continued imprisonment and deteriorating health of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, sentenced to 30 months in prison for posting a photograph, taken in London, of herself wearing a T-shirt reading “Allah is Lesbian,” an appropriation of a feminist slogan in defence of human rights.
Ms Lachgar is a bone cancer survivor whose humerus bone is now completely detached, placing her at real risk of amputation. She has been denied specialised medical treatment, including the urgent surgery recommended by her doctors. She is held in isolation, without a mattress, sleeping on blankets laid on concrete.
These conditions are incompatible with Morocco’s obligations under the ICCPR and the UN Mandela Rules, which require access to adequate medical care and humane treatment.
Ask your representative to:Raise Betty’s case with the Foreign Ministry immediately.
Subject: Human Rights Day Appeal – Please Urgently Raise the Case of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar
Dear [Title + Name],
Ahead of Human Rights Day, I am writing to ask for your urgent assistance regarding the case of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, a Moroccan feminist and human rights defender imprisoned for a peaceful act of expression.
Ms Lachgar was sentenced to 30 months in prison for posting a photograph taken in London wearing a T-shirt reading “Allah is Lesbian,” an appropriation of a feminist slogan in support of human rights.
Since 10 August 2025, she has been held in isolation without a mattress, sleeping on concrete, and denied specialised medical care despite being a bone cancer survivor. Her humerus bone is now completely detached, and doctors warn of imminent risk of amputation without surgery.
Her arrest and imprisonment contravene Morocco’s obligations under the ICCPR and Mandela Rules.
Your intervention could help save her arm and her life.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.
Yours sincerely,
[Address and Email]
3. Join Mattress Action on December 10 (Human Rights Day)
To highlight that Betty has been forced to sleep on concrete for more than 120 days, we will bring mattresses and bedding to Moroccan embassies/consulates on December 10th. This stark, simple image communicates cruelty and neglect in a way no statement can. If you can participate—or organise an action in your own city—please inform us as soon as possible so we can coordinate, support, and amplify your event. Confirmed actions so far: Paris, London, Los Angeles.
Thank you for standing with Betty during these critical days.
In solidarity,
Siham Lachgar • Haram Doodles • Maryam Namazie • Shelley Segal
The Free Betty Campaign Coordination Team
Betty was arrested on 10 August 2025 in Morocco for posting a photograph, taken in London, in which she wore a T-shirt reading “Allah is Lesbian,” an appropriation of a famous anti-racist feminist slogan. She was sentenced to 30 months in prison under Article 267-5 and fined.By 10 December—International Human Rights Day—Betty will have spent 122 days in prison for a peaceful act of expression carried out outside Morocco. Since her imprisonment, Betty has been held in conditions that pose a grave and escalating threat to her health and safety. A bone cancer survivor with a prosthetic left arm, she urgently requires specialised surgery. Instead, her condition has deteriorated so severely that her humerus bone has now completely detached — a development that significantly increases the risk of amputation. Despite this, she continues to be denied the medical care her doctors consider essential. Betty is also held in prolonged isolation, without a mattress or pillow, forced to sleep on blankets placed directly on concrete in a cold cell with a broken window. Such treatment falls far below the minimum standards required under international law and violates Morocco’s obligations regarding the right to health, humane detention conditions and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
1. Sign the Petitions to Free Betty and Publicise her case
Amplify her case across your social media platforms and sign the petitions available on freebetty.org.
2. Letter-Writing Push (Between November 25-December 10)
Write to the Moroccan embassy in your country and to your elected representatives urging Betty’s release and humane treatment. Sample letters which you can adapt or share with members follows below.
You can find contact details of some Moroccan embassies and government officials here.
Amplify her case across your social media platforms and sign the petitions available on freebetty.org.
2. Letter-Writing Push (Between November 25-December 10)
Write to the Moroccan embassy in your country and to your elected representatives urging Betty’s release and humane treatment. Sample letters which you can adapt or share with members follows below.
You can find contact details of some Moroccan embassies and government officials here.
Moroccan Embassies/Consulates:
Embassies relay concerns directly to Rabat. A coordinated international wave of letters creates diplomatic pressure that is difficult to ignore. Key points to include in your letter:
Keep it respectful, factual and firm.
Sample Letter To Moroccan Embassies
Embassies relay concerns directly to Rabat. A coordinated international wave of letters creates diplomatic pressure that is difficult to ignore. Key points to include in your letter:
- Express concern about the 30-month sentence for peaceful expression.
- The photo was taken in London, outside Morocco.
- Betty is a bone cancer survivor whose bone is now completely detached, creating a real risk of amputation.
- She is being denied essential, specialised medical care.
- She has no mattress, sleeps on concrete, and is in isolation.
- Urge Morocco to respect its obligations under the ICCPR and Mandela Rules.
- Call for her immediate release, end to isolation, urgent access to surgery, and repeal of Article 267-5.
Sample Letter To Moroccan Embassies
Subject: Human Rights Day Appeal – Immediate Action Required for Ibtissame Betty Lachgar
Dear Ambassador
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the continued imprisonment and deteriorating health of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, sentenced to 30 months in prison for posting a photograph, taken in London, of herself wearing a T-shirt reading “Allah is Lesbian,” an appropriation of a feminist slogan in defence of human rights.
Ms Lachgar is a bone cancer survivor whose humerus bone is now completely detached, placing her at real risk of amputation. She has been denied specialised medical treatment, including the urgent surgery recommended by her doctors. She is held in isolation, without a mattress, sleeping on blankets laid on concrete.
These conditions are incompatible with Morocco’s obligations under the ICCPR and the UN Mandela Rules, which require access to adequate medical care and humane treatment.
- I urge your government to:Release Ms Lachgar immediately and unconditionally
- Apply alternative penalties as available under Moroccan law
- End her isolation and ensure she has basic bedding and humane conditions
- Provide urgent, specialised medical care, including surgery
- Repeal Article 267-5 and all laws restricting peaceful expression
Yours sincerely,
[City/Country]
[City/Country]
Write To Your Elected Representatives
Your elected representatives can:
Your elected representatives can:
- Request action from the country’s Foreign Minister
- Raise the case in Parliament / Congress
- Make direct inquiries to Moroccan authorities
- Issue public statements
- Help secure medical monitoring or diplomatic observation
Ask your representative to:Raise Betty’s case with the Foreign Ministry immediately.
- Urge diplomatic pressure on Morocco for her immediate and unconditional release.
- Press for urgent specialised medical treatment, including surgery.
- Seek explanations for the prosecution of an act of expression carried out abroad.
- Request monitoring of her detention conditions, including isolation and lack of bedding.
- Press Morocco to repeal laws criminalising peaceful expression.
Sample Letter To Your Elected Representatives
Subject: Human Rights Day Appeal – Please Urgently Raise the Case of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar
Dear [Title + Name],
Ahead of Human Rights Day, I am writing to ask for your urgent assistance regarding the case of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, a Moroccan feminist and human rights defender imprisoned for a peaceful act of expression.
Ms Lachgar was sentenced to 30 months in prison for posting a photograph taken in London wearing a T-shirt reading “Allah is Lesbian,” an appropriation of a feminist slogan in support of human rights.
Since 10 August 2025, she has been held in isolation without a mattress, sleeping on concrete, and denied specialised medical care despite being a bone cancer survivor. Her humerus bone is now completely detached, and doctors warn of imminent risk of amputation without surgery.
Her arrest and imprisonment contravene Morocco’s obligations under the ICCPR and Mandela Rules.
- I respectfully request that you:Raise Ms Lachgar’s case with the Foreign Minister as a matter of urgency
- Urge diplomatic pressure on Morocco for her immediate and unconditional release
- Request that Morocco facilitate urgent surgical and specialised medical care
- Seek clarification on the prosecution of an act of expression carried out in London
- Encourage monitoring of her health, conditions of detention and safety
- Support international calls for Morocco to revise laws criminalising peaceful expression
Your intervention could help save her arm and her life.
Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.
Yours sincerely,
[Address and Email]
3. Join Mattress Action on December 10 (Human Rights Day)
To highlight that Betty has been forced to sleep on concrete for more than 120 days, we will bring mattresses and bedding to Moroccan embassies/consulates on December 10th. This stark, simple image communicates cruelty and neglect in a way no statement can. If you can participate—or organise an action in your own city—please inform us as soon as possible so we can coordinate, support, and amplify your event. Confirmed actions so far: Paris, London, Los Angeles.
Thank you for standing with Betty during these critical days.
In solidarity,
Siham Lachgar • Haram Doodles • Maryam Namazie • Shelley Segal
The Free Betty Campaign Coordination Team
Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.
Before We Conform, Or Condemn, Let Us At Least Be Curious
♜One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it - Albert Camus♞
But did you know that Gordon Lightfoot was asked why he hadn't sued Christy Moore for using his melody?
Lightfoot admitted that the melody was in fact from an old Irish folk song he had heard as a child and it stuck with him. He said he always intended to use it in a song some day and when he heard of the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald he used it to write that song.
So when Bobby used it, the melody had simply reverted to it's place of origin, Ireland.
There are quite a few instances of old melodies being used in songs which went on to become very popular. One being 'Danny Boy' which used the melody of 'The Derry Air.'
The 'Derry Air' was not in fact the original title of this melody. It was actually called 'O'Cahan's Lament' and had been composed by a blind harper called Rory Dall O'Cahan to lament the theft of O'Cahan land during 'The Plantation of Ulster'.
He believed that the fairies had played it to him as he slept under a tree near the River Roe.
Many years later Jane Ross, a collector of old melodies, heard a beautiful tune being played in the street outside her home in Limavady on a market day in 1855.
She went outside and discovered that it was a blind fiddler called Jimmy McCurry. She paid him the then princely sum of a florin to play the tune over and over until she got it taken down.
It is interesting that both the musicians connected to this melody were blind.
Jane Ross is remembered for her connection to the famous melody with a blue plaque outside her former home.
As for poor Jimmy McCurry, he is buried in an unmarked grave in Tamlaght outside of Ballykelly.
Isn't it about time that Jimmy is also remembered for his part in a melody went on to become one of the most played songs in the world, Danny Boy?
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Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman. Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie |
Editor’s note: Teuta “T” Hoxha is one of the “Filton 24” prisoners currently being held on remand in British jails facing charges relating to direct action carried out against Israeli arms firm Elbit near Bristol in August 2024. She is currently on her second hunger strike, but this piece was written between her first and second hunger strikes. Palestine Action is currently banned under British “anti-terror” law.As a prisoner, you learn three things. First, no one tells you anything. Second, you’re usually the last to find out information pertaining to yourself. And third, requests and complaints are shut down with two words: “security reasons.”
Take the example of my library job, removed without reason on 1 August 2025. I was checking my timetable when I noticed the unemployed marker. At my previous prison, HMP Bronzefield, I was security-cleared to work as a Shannon Trust mentor, a one-to-one role helping other prisoners improve their reading skills. I was working as a peer right until my sudden and immediate transfer to HMP Peterborough. It was not until day eight of my hunger strike that I gained clarity behind the decision.
Continue @ Electronic Intifada.
No more so than in the Middle East.
A lot has been written about events since October 7th. But few have really sought to understand the history, the nuances and the missed opportunities that have come and gone over the years.
Quite the tall order and, producing a book that runs nearly 700 pages, it’s a task that journalist Jason Burke has clearly relished as he has given us a tome that not only tells the story of Palestinian resistance but also how secular Marxism ended up being replaced with theocratic Islamism.
Beginning in 1948 with the creation of the state of Israel as well as the Nakba, Burke looks at the history of Leila Khaled, George Habash, Wadie Haddad and what motivated them to fight for Palestine as well as the actions that would shock the world as well as taking in the likes of Carlos the Jackel (or Ilich Ramírez Sánchez to his mother), Yassar Arafat, Ali Hassan Salameh, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof, Fusako Shigenobu, Wilfried Böse, Saddam Hussein, Ruhollah Khomeini and many, many others.
What is particularly illuminating is how early combatants and victims did not fit into the orthodox Israeli Jew/Palestinian Muslim roles that would be commonplace later on in the decade: the Israeli Olympic team killed at Munich were not particularly religious, Habash and Haddad came from Christian families and Mohsen Sazegara (founder of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) grew up in a Tehran household that detested mullahs. Little details such as these demonstrate how the idea of this being a religious war (at least in the early days) gave the wrong impression about the aims of the PLO and their various offshoots, although the Iranian revolution would bring this misconception to life.
Some of it is unintentionally hilarious, especially the period in the mid/late 70s whenever identity politics usurped revolutionary aims. As one such example, when surveying the capabilities of the second generation of Red Army Faction members around the time that they were ordered by Baader and Ensslin to break them out of prison, Burke notes in pithy fashion that:
The RAF was scattered across West Germany: two militants in Heidelberg, half a dozen or so in the so-called Black Forest group in Karlsruhe, four or five in Frankfurt and three slightly ineffectual young women known derisively as ‘the Hamburg Aunties’ in the northern port city.
Burke is also not afraid to note the various issues that were never resolved: antisemitism, tensions between secularism/Marxism and Islamism and how public intellectuals and left wingers allowed themselves to be seduced by prominent activists only to be either let down at how vacant they were (Jean-Paul Sartre meeting Baader) or with egg on their faces when their true intentions were revealed (Foucault and Sartre praised Khomeini).
Of course this is nothing new. Writing in 2015, Don Milligan talked about this grand left-wing tradition being:
…a simplistic response towards imperialism. It is common for people on the left to engage in elaborate apologetics or even smile upon dictatorial regimes and reactionary movements of many different stripes as long as they can be described as ‘anti-imperialist’.
And it’s not a surprise that this carries on to this day.
Demystifying folk heroes/villains, laying out the various fragile alliances in the Arab world, the influence of Soviet/US intelligence and demonstrating how legends were created, Burke has given us one of the finest books of 2025.
Jason Burke, 2025, The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s. Bodley Head. ISBN-13: 978-1847926067
Demystifying folk heroes/villains, laying out the various fragile alliances in the Arab world, the influence of Soviet/US intelligence and demonstrating how legends were created, Burke has given us one of the finest books of 2025.
Jason Burke, 2025, The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s. Bodley Head. ISBN-13: 978-1847926067
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.
Before We Conform, Or Condemn, Let Us At Least Be Curious
James O’Callaghan on his approach for the Hoops as he takes over as Head Coach of the Shamrock Rovers Women’s League of Ireland side
♜One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it - Albert Camus♞
The October 2025 homelessness figures land like a brick through the window of Ireland’s so-called social conscience. Sixteen thousand seven hundred and sixty-six human beings, living, breathing, thinking citizens and children, boxed into “emergency accommodation” that resembles a stopgap solution only if you squint hard enough and ignore the smell of systemic failure rising from the numbers. Eleven and a half thousand adults, over five thousand children, a whole small town’s worth of kids growing up in hotels and hostels, and the government has the gall to present this as a monthly report instead of a national indictment.
In a normal society, these numbers would be a siren from the watchtower. But in Ireland’s mad bureaucracy, they're just another spreadsheet cell. Every statistic in this report reads like a casualty figure from a war that shouldn’t exist, a war waged quietly, efficiently, against the poor. Families make up a quarter of the homeless households, and single adults nearly three-quarters. That’s not just a housing crisis; that’s a generational collapse. Almost six thousand children under eighteen caught in the gears of a system built to grind the vulnerable into administrative dust.
You can practically hear the bureaucrats patting themselves on the back as they churn out percentages about gender and age distributions, as if the tragedy becomes easier to swallow once you convert it into pie charts and percentages. Nearly 60% of adults are men, sure, that tracks, men always get hit first and worst when the floor collapses, but the real horror is in the age bands. Over half the homeless adults are between 25 and 44, prime working and living years, the years society claims it rewards. A quarter more are middle-aged, staring down the barrel of a future that’s shrinking by the day. Two hundred and sixty-seven people over 65, elderly people, shoved into emergency accommodation like some kind of grim retirement plan for a country that forgot how to care.
And Dublin, the gleaming jewel of Irish capitalism, hoards more than 70% of all homeless adults, like some monstrous magnet for misery. Eight thousand one hundred and forty-one adults, enough to fill a small stadium, shuffled between PEA, STA, TEA, and other alphabet soup euphemisms for “we don’t have real housing, so here’s a stopgap.” The fact that the majority of accommodation is still Private Emergency Accommodation, hotels and B&Bs, is a quiet confession that private profit has long since eaten the state alive. There’s no “emergency” when the same conditions repeat every month for a decade; that’s policy.
The report’s self-congratulation about “preventions” and “exits to secure tenancies” reads like something cooked up by a PR team rather than public servants. One thousand six hundred prevented from entering homelessness and 1,234 moved out sounds impressive until you view it through the proper social lens: these are crumbs dropped from the banquet table of a housing system engineered to fail. Tenancies created through Housing First barely hit double digits in multiple regions. Meanwhile, thousands more fall in the front door of emergency accommodation every quarter. You don’t need chemicals to see the hallucination here, it’s all right there in the numbers: the exits are dwarfed by the scale of the problem.
The citizenship breakdown adds another layer of quiet cruelty. Half Irish, half non-Irish, a reflection that capitalism’s failures don’t discriminate, but its apologists will. You can almost predict the cynical debates this will fuel, the narratives that whisper the problem away by blaming migrants instead of the decades-long political decision to outsource the housing system to developers, landlords, and “the market,” as though the market ever cared whether a child sleeps in a bed or on a floor.
Let's call it what it is: state-sanctioned neglect dressed up as progress, a bureaucratic fever dream where human beings become inputs and outputs, and the state issues monthly newsletters instead of solutions. A social analysis doesn’t have to look far, the very structure of the report betrays the ideology behind it. Everything measured, nothing solved. Everything counted, nothing changed.
This isn’t a homelessness report. It’s a confession note slipped under the public’s door. A society that tolerates nearly 17,000 people in emergency accommodation, including more than 5,000 children, is not malfunctioning. It is functioning exactly as designed: protecting property over people, private interest over public need, profit over humanity. And until that design is smashed, these monthly reports will read less like statistics and more like obituaries for the social contract.
⏩Pádraig Drummond is an anti-racism activist.
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