Are Northern Ireland Loyalists entitled to object to the Irish language? Decades of Irish nationalist objections to Irish language discrimination and fakery are nowadays very much downplayed. Since the founding of the Irish Free State, Irish governments and related institutions have partially hacked away at the arbitrary “Irish language requirement” that discriminated against Irish citizens ..read more

In October 2021, Michael McDowell revealed in an Irish Times Opinion column that some [approximate, unspecified] twenty years earlier: In this [Irish] State, a de facto moratorium on investigation and prosecution of IRA members (other than those described as dissidents) came into operation. This was demanded by [IRA terrorist leaders] Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness ..read more

IRA volunteer Conor Murphy owes his life to British soldiers. When in June 1981 British soldiers photographed Conor Murphy along with 4 others – including his brother Declan – handling a command wire leading to a landmine of between 500lbs and 700lbs of explosives – they did not apply the IRA’s own inviolable “shoot to kill” policy to the would-be IRA bombers… No, instead they passed the information to the Royal Ulster Constabulary who arrested the five. Caught and photographed “bang to rights”, the bold Conor cooperated with the RUC – as did some of his colleagues – and shortly after his arr ..read more

I was 3 years their Junior at St. Columb’s College when it was announced that some Senior students were going to Cambridge University back in December of 1970 – Declan ‘Dekkie’ Morgan among them. Declan Dekkie Morgan, December 1970 I knew Ian “Sausage” Doherty [rear, far right] very well since he was a neighbour adjacent to Clarendon Street who had all of us kids playing cricket in “the lane” in Clarendon Street and in Brooke Park for some years. Ian’s family ran Doherty’s Butchers where a trainee Martin McGuinness was very briefly employed. Ian later became Chairman of Derry City F.C. But sno ..read more

Following the March 1973 capture of “The Belfast 10” at Heathrow Airport shortly after they had planted car bombs at The Old Bailey and New Scotland Yard, the IRA wanted to erase the embarrassing loss of so many Belfast IRA Volunteers with a swift resurrection of some more London bombings – this time with a new twist – the IRA bomber or bombers would not immediately flee the capital after one or more bombings but would instead stay on in the city to continue bombing… The haste to reignite the London bombings was intended to reassure a far off Arab dictator – Muammar Gaddafi – that the IRA co ..read more

Following D-Day in June 1944 when the Allies began to attempt to liberate France from its Nazi invaders, the Nazis were pushed back from areas of France they had controlled for four years. In the Brittany region, the Nazis had been supported by local fascist Breton paramilitary groupings which hoped to later gain independence from France. Yann Goulet, on right, leading his Blackshirts/White Ties… One of these was the fascist Bagadou Stourm paramilitary ‘stormtroopers’ unit founded and led by a Breton artist and sculptor, one Yann Goulet, aka Yann Renard-Goulet. Before retreating from towns an ..read more

¿Es Michelle O’Neill apropiada para desempeñar el cargo de primera ministra o viceprimera ministra de «El Norte», Irlanda del Norte? En este momento, no se me ocurre ningún Estado europeo en el que el movimiento político gobernante, o movimiento político gobernante en coalición, haya: secuestrado a sus propios ciudadanos, torturado a sus propios ciudadanos, ejecutado extrajudicialmente a sus propios ciudadanos, arrojado los cadáveres de sus propios ciudadanos a la vista de todos por las calles o en las fronteras, hecho desaparecer los cuerpos de sus propios ciudadanos, sido incapaz o no haya ..read more

Je ne peux pas penser à un État européen à l’heure actuelle où le mouvement politique au pouvoir – ou le mouvement politique commun au pouvoir – aurait : kidnappé ses propres citoyens torturé ses propres citoyens exécuté extrajudiciairement ses propres citoyens a jeté les cadavres de ses propres citoyens à la vue des rues ou à la frontière disparu les cadavres de ses propres citoyens ne peut pas ou ne veut pas aider à retrouver les cadavres disparus de ses propres citoyens ne peut pas ou ne veut pas aider à retrouver les cadavres disparus de ses propres citoyens a bombardé ses propres ce ..read more

Is Michelle O’Neill fit to be First or Joint First Minister of “The North” / Northern Ireland? I can’t think of a European State at the moment where the ruling political movement – or joint ruling political movement – has: kidnapped its own citizens tortured its own citizens extra-judicially executed its own citizens dumped its own citizens’ corpses in full view on the streets or on the border disappeared the corpses of its own citizens cannot or will not help to find the disappeared corpses of its own citizens bombed its own city centres killing its own citizens, men, women, CHILDREN… celeb ..read more

Excerpts from the 1972 American film about the Provisional IRA entitled “The Secret Army” were broadcast in September 2019 by the BBC Spotlight programme and showed Martin McGuinness and other unmasked IRA Volunteers engaging in a car bombing (and other paramilitary activities) in Derry/Londonderry. The Big Story of the Spotlight program was that Martin McGuinness was filmed handling guns and involved in preparing and executing one of his many IRA bombings. One riddle of the story was why McGuinness and other IRA persons identified in the film were never prosecuted for the terrorist acts rec ..read more