Social Items

TPQ
Dr John Coulter ✍ I recently came across a post on social media lamenting now Sunday worship has become so diluted over the years.

This took me back to my Presbyterian upbringing in the north east Ulstger Bible Belt in the Sixties and Seventies and some of the supposedly unbreakable traditions and interpretations relating to the Biblical Fourth Commandment - remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.

Being a minister’s son, it was usually a ‘full-on’ day in terms of activities. The itinerary could be intensive - 10 am: opening devotions prior to the morning Sunday school or Bible class; Noon: morning service which lasted until about 1.20 pm; 3 pm, after lunch, there was an independent Sunday school, usually run by either the Brethren denomination or the Faith Mission movement in a hall; 7 pm: after the tea time meal, there was an evening church service of about an hour; 8.15 pm, while the adults would go to a late evening service hosted either by the Faith Mission, or the Christian Workers’ Union, us young folk would attend a Youth Fellowship event in a church hall, which lasted until around 10 pm.

There was to be no television watched on the Sabbath, apart from the BBC evening television news bulletin, so the World Cup soccer final was a real challenge as it was usually played on Sundays.

I recall the 1974 final between West Germany and Holland. It was billed to be an exciting showdown and it seemed I was bound to miss it. I needed a cunning plan.

By sheer good fortune, a Loyal Order annual divine service was taking place that afternoon in dad’s church and the speaker was the Rev Martin Smyth, then Grand Master of the Orange Order. My mum was rather bemused when I offered to help her with the post service refreshments in the Presbyterian Manse, but it meant I was able to skip the service.

Dad had a small black and white portable TV which I sneaked into the so-called ‘good living room’ where the refreshments would be served. A sitting room blanket was delicately placed over it and the TV set tuned into the match coverage with the sound muted.

I offered to bring in the cutlery and china plates and cups to the ‘good living room’ while mum prepared the sandwiches and tray bakes. She was so busy with these preparations that she didn’t notice I brought the cutlery and china in one knife or plate at a time! And it took me around five minutes to put each fork in its place!

By the time dad and Rev Smyth came to the room for their refreshments, I’d managed to see both halves of the final, but not the presentation ceremony.

But there is a saying - be sure your sins will catch you out. I told mum I couldn’t go to church for evening worship as I had a history test on the Monday and there was a documentary on World War Two on TV that would help me with my revision.

It was actually the 1949 war movie ‘Twelve O’Clock High’ starring Gregory Peck, about the American air force raids on Nazi Germany. It’s a great film which I still watch today even in my late sixties!

Unfortunately, mum arrived back in the Manse just as the closing credits were running and before I could get the TV switched off! When she checked the television schedule, she realised it was not a ‘documentary’ as I had told her.

The Bible was the only book to be read on the Sabbath; there was to be no revision of school books, unless there was an important exam to be sat on the Monday morning. Traditional Sixties and Seventies comics, such as the Victor or the Topper were banned on Sundays.

I recall getting a severe dressing down when visiting one of my chums’ home on a Sunday, seeing some comics sitting on a chair - and picking one up! Judging by the reaction from the mother, you would have thought I had tried to petrol bomb the house!

And there was to be no buying of sweets or chocolate on the Sabbath. During the summer months, instead of the youth fellowship, we would decamp to the coastal town of Portstewart for the annual convention tent mission.

This would be followed by a walk along the promenade. We once met some attractive girls from another church, but the dirty looks I got from fellow Christians were severe when I asked the girls if they would like me to treat them to an ice cream! Apparently you could be theologically Hell-bound for buying a 99 cone ice cream on a Sunday!

I’ve always been a horror movie fan and for a period of time, there used to be a Hammer Horror double bill on TV starting late on a Saturday evening and running into the early hours of the Sabbath.

Obviously I was not allowed to watch it mainly because it ran into Sunday morning, but also because my parents had received complaints that the minister’s son’s interest in horror films was a “bad example” to set to the other young people in the community!

As Sunday was an exceptionally busy day for my parents, it was always off to bed as soon as the BBC’s Match of the Day had finished. There would be no half hour watching of Hammer Horror until midnight!

So I devised a mind map of the creaky staircases in our Victorian Manse, waiting until my parents went to bed, and then silently made my way downstairs to the sitting room which contained our black and white TV.

I’d open the back door and bring in my pet miniature Shetland sheep dog called Pluto, and with both of us snuggled under a blanket and with the TV audio well turned down, we’d watch Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, monsters, aliens and zombies into the wee small hours of the Sabbath.

Mum and dad never suspected a thing, even when an elder mentioned to them about me constantly dosing off during the afternoon Sunday school! My late parents would be well into their eighties before I would finally confess about the Hammer Horror movie sessions in the Manse!

Given the increasingly secular society developing in Northern Ireland, I wonder if the Province’s Bible Belt will ever witness a return of the ‘gud auld dayes’ of traditional Lord’s Day observance we enjoyed in the Sixties and Seventies?

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Dr Coulter has been a journalist since 1978 and is currently a political commentator with GB News.

Surviving Sober Sabbaths In The Sixties And Seventies!

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.


Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Sixty Four

 

A Morning Thought @ 3236

Kate Yo 🔖 Prison doctors . . .  screws in white coats - A McIntyre.


"Sweet light of Jesus what am I going to do? " ..Everything carried on, the world kept moving as if nothing had changed. But I knew..I knew a choice was coming. One I did not want to face." - Martina Anderson Choosing The Struggle.

Who could blame a woman in distress, especially in the eighties (1985) and especially an unmarried woman living in Buncrana on the run and pregnant. for choosing an abortion? Martina had been arrested along with another woman in Derry and charged with possession of a firearm and causing explosions.

She got, and jumped, bail, fled to Donegal along with her co-accused.

However Martina was no shrinking violet, she was a revolutionary. She grew up in the Bogside, one of seven sisters in a family of ten plus two parents. Her mother Betty is said to have been a stalwart for republicanism and her father Billy, nicknamed Dinky, was a Presbyterian. She writes of the economic hardship endured by such a big family who had little work. This situation was very common for those times. She drew a picture that could be replicated all over the North for those times, indeed even throughout the whole island.

This book however, has more than one aim. Not just to tell her story but of the sacrifices made by her and others to get the North of Ireland to this point. There's more to it though. More important than an outline of her life, she wants to push feminism forward, and to tell the story of the hardships imposed on women through incarceration for the cause of a united Ireland. But also she acknowledges that there is a dearth of accounts from women activists who went to jail. She does this very well.

After being charged with possession of a firearm and plotting to cause explosions she went on the run with her co-accused to Buncrana in Donegal just across the border from Derry. This was 1981. She was still there in 1985 when she found out she was pregnant. She had been seeing Paul Kavanagh but he was arrested in 1981 in England and given a natural life sentence. Due to this he wrote to her telling her to move on with her life, and she agreed and moved on. At that time she was living in a flat in Buncrana and working in a bar. During her spell there she was asked to go on an IRA operation. She then found herself pregnant in 1985 and being on the run was unable to go to England for an abortion so she flew to the continent and had it there.

That was quite something in those days, to fly to a country where the language and system was totally unknown and be able to access abortion services. The book doesn't say but I'd hazard a guess it was Germany, as that country was facing its own difficulties with the Bader-Meinhof. Perhaps there were underground links there to help her in this situation.

It was also a rather reckless thing to do as people were turned for less. It's doubtful the intelligence services on both sides of the border were aware of her trip abroad and its purpose as it could have scuppered the whole IRA operation she was involved in. However, it is written elsewhere that Peter Sherry was tracked from his home to the flat in Scotland where all five were arrested. Pat Magee too may have been under surveillance as this was shortly after the Brighton bombing. Her account of the arrest mirrors Magee's in his book, even the jest - well if you're looking for any more (info) you won't find it here.

After this arrest and charge she was taken first to Brixton, a men's prison which she describes as a hell hole and then on to Durham prison. Her account of the effect of prison on women is as good as any of the male writers such as Jaz McCann or Laurence McKeown.

For these women there were no other republicans in the jails with which to associate. To their credit they set about organising the women there in to small acts of taking control away from the prison authorities. Small, perhaps insignificant, acts of rebelliousness. There are no regular visits from families far away with little money. No regular parcels or Christmas skits that some have wrote about, just the impoverished environment of prison and its effects on the women's bodies and psychological health.

Slopping out for these women had the added degradation of the remains of menstrual periods, with no proper sanitation, toilets that didn't flush properly and sewage regurgitating into toilet bowls. Cockroaches and Victorian buildings with very little light, one window so high up on the wall only the sky was visible and very little natural light. Sometimes only one sanitary towel a day was given, period pain with no pain relief, locked away at night with severe pain and heavy flow. 

Martina was diagnosed with dysmenorrhea (severe pain and cramps). This led to a prison doctor who was ex-military performing an operation. He wanted to perform a hysterectomy but Martina thought that was too drastic and knew that all she needed was pain relief and polyps removed. They offered a D&C performed at an outside hospital by this ex Colonel Francis who was named within the prison as Dr Death. He had been known to have performed hysterectomies on many women, claiming he was an expert in that field. She was taken to hospital under armed guard and returned to the prison and simply left. Martina claims this botched surgery left her incapable of having children.

Martina's health suffered in later years due to the poor diet served while incarcerated. Her bones became a problem.

Martina married Paul Kavanagh and later the two were able to provide a good steady home for any needy child but were prevented from adopting as they were both ex-prisoners. This must have been a severe blow as many ex-prisoners after release went on to have their own families and settled down to parenthood well.

Martina emerges from this book a very likeable person, a principled and dedicated revolutionary. The reason for her abortion however is very controversial. On the one hand she has achieved a good account of imprisonment on women but on the other hand she has pushed back the abortion debate. Her book ends around the time of the repeal of the eighth and her party's fight for women's choice. The reason she chose abortion kills the argument. Choice for . . .  abnormalities, for mental health, reasons that are understandable, but to go on a bombing campaign? She speaks to those women who have had abortions. Speak up don't be silent, for you are not alone. However Martina's choice, or rather the reason for it is unique to her. In that she is alone.

Martina Anderson, 2026. Choosing the Struggle: an autobiography. Publisher: Beyond the Pale Books. ISBN-13: 978-1914318337

⏩Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.

Choosing The Struggle

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza ★ Recommended by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh.

Earlier this afternoon, my oldest boyhood friend, a distinguished international lawyer who received his doctorate at Cambridge, called me to share the tragic news that Jason Arday, the Black British academic, had been found dead. 

I have been following this story ever since it broke out in July. We commiserated about his tragic death, and concluded that Arday was killed by many people and institutions.

Jason Arday’s death was the result of a convergence of forces that reveal the fragility of the racial settlement in post-imperial and postcolonial Britain and the contradictions of its elite institutions. He was eagerly elevated as a symbol, ruthlessly scrutinized as an anomaly, and callously discarded as a liability. His rise and fall expose the moral bankruptcy of a system that wants the appearance of racial progress without the work of structural change.

Arday was killed by white liberal proponents of performative inclusion who propelled him, shrouding him with the aura of heroic exceptionalism. Cambridge presented him as its youngest Black professor and celebrated his life story as proof of institutional transformation. His appointment was marketed through a narrative of adversity and triumph that emphasized his autism, late speech, poverty, and extraordinary athletic feats. 

Continue @ PT Zeleza’s Newsletter.

Who Killed Jason Arday?

Daily Telegraph 📰 Written by Michael Murphy and Tom Cotterill, Recommended by Christy Walsh.

There is ‘no doubt’ that Britain must protect troops, says Irish republican criticising Labour’s Troubles bill

Prosecuting veterans undermines the United Kingdom’s security, a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) member has said.

Danny Morrison, a former Sinn Féin publicity director, made the remarks in a documentary regarding the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill before Parliament.

The legislation, which was drawn up by Labour, would repeal parts of the Conservatives’ 2023 Legacy Act, which shielded soldiers from prosecution.

Campaigners fear the new act will expose hundreds of elderly Northern Ireland veterans, some of whom are in their 70s and 80s, to vexatious legal cases.

A battle has ensued between former defence chiefs who are campaigning for changes to the bill – which they have described as a “national security threat” – and the Government, which said the previous immunity protections offered under the Tories’ legislation were “illegal”.

‘Endless spiral of lawfare’

Retired special forces commanders said Labour’s bill, without radical changes, could lead to an “endless spiral of lawfare cases against veterans, who will be hounded by money-hungry law firms for decades to come”.

Continue @ Daily Telegraph.

Prosecuting Veterans Undermines UK Security, Says Former IRA Member

Geordie Morrow 🖌 with a painting from his collection of art work. 





⏩Geordie Morrow is a Belfast artist.

Colour, Texture, And Memory

Atheist Ireland ★ Every child has a right to an objective, critical and pluralistic education. That right is guaranteed under Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention.

12-July-2026

It is an absolute right, not to be balanced against the rights of others or one that can be gradually achieved.

Atheist Ireland is campaigning for this human right in Ireland and for the state to guarantee it in practice and in law. It doesn’t matter what school a child attends: Educate Together, ETBs, Catholic, Church of Ireland etc. They still have this right.

At present the Irish State does not guarantee this right in any school. Our children leave this right at the school gate no matter what school they attend. Look at the Education Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act, and you will see this right is not guaranteed.

All schools claim they are inclusive. They each have their own Patron’s programmes to reflect their ethos. None of these courses are inspected by the state to ensure compliance with the European Convention. The Patron bodies themselves are not obliged to guarantee an objective, critical and pluralistic education to every child in their schools.

The State is well aware that it cannot absolve itself from its responsibility under the Convention, and delegate it to private bodies such as Patron bodies. It learnt that the hard way in the Louise O’Keeffe case at the European Court.

Transferring some schools to different ethos patron bodies would not solve this problem. That would merely redistribute the discrimination, by privileging a larger number of different belief groups. And it is impossible in practice to open enough schools to reflect every belief group in every local area around the country.

Also, including more multi-denominational schools within that approach would not solve the problem. That would merely segregate the children of non-religious or minority faith parents into a catch-all type of school while larger belief groups remain privileged. And in any case, multi-denominational schools do not guarantee the right to an objective, critical and pluralistic education.

The UN has repeatedly told Ireland to open both multi-denominational and non-denominational schools. The Irish government initially said it would do this, but has since dropped the provision of non-denominational schools from its agenda.

Multiple patronage and multiple ethos as the basis for policy is the underlying problem in Irish schools, not the solution. The Oireachtas Education Committee has already concluded that plurality of patronage cannot create pluralism in education. Instead it brings about segregation of children and inequality.

The only thing that can solve this problem is for the State to fund a network of schools, that all children can attend in their locality, that provide an objective, critical and pluralistic education. The state is responsible for making this happen, and is abdicating its duty to do so.

It seems to us that the state will do nothing until someone takes them to the courts. Atheist Ireland is preparing to take such a case with the support of the Law Library’s Voluntary Assistance scheme. We will continue to campaign for our human rights.

⏩ Follow Atheist Ireland on X @atheistie

Every Child Has A Right To An Objective, Critical, And Pluralistic Education 🪶 The State Is Responsible

The Volunteer ★ Written by Chris Ealham, Recommended by Christopher Owens.

Stuart Christie, who died in August 2020, was best known as the 18-year-old Scottish anarchist who, in the summer 1964, was part of an attempt to assassinate General Francisco Franco. It was only the beginning of a long life dedicated to left-wing activism.

By the time Stuart Christie volunteered to transport explosives for the 1964 plot to kill Franco at the Santiago Bernabeu soccer stadium in Madrid, his acquaintance with anarchism in the UK had been building for some time. As he explains in his entertaining memoir General Franco Made Me A Terrorist (2003), he had also been in touch with Spanish exile circles in France. Yet before the attack could be carried out, Christie was arrested by undercover Spanish police.

Born into a working-class family in Glasgow, he had come into contact with local anarchist groups in his earliest youth and began reaching out to libertarians around the world. His association with the Spaniards during the 1960s was overshadowed by the execution in Spain, in August 1963, of Francisco Granado and Joaquín Delgado, anarchists from the Libertarian Youth. He would subscribe to the working-class anarchist tradition for the rest of his life.

Continue @ The Volunteer.

Stuart Christie’s Unending Struggle

Right Wing Watch 👀Written by Kyle Mantyla.

Sean Feucht Says God Orchestrated His Failed Congressional Bid To Prepare To Defy Covid Lockdowns


In 2020, Christian nationalist worship leader and right-wing political activist Sean Feucht ran for Congress in California because he said he had been called by God to bring revival and reformation to the nation. Yet despite having the support of many leading religious-right activists, Feucht finished a distant third in the primary election, receiving fewer than half as many votes as the other Republican candidate in the race

Last week, Feucht appeared on "The Strang Report," where he claimed to have realized in retrospect that God had called him to run for Congress not to win, but rather to give him a "peek behind the veil of government" in preparation for leading a series of lockdown-defying rallies throughout the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[I] really felt the Lord called me to run," Feucht said. 

I felt like obviously God told me to run because I was gonna win. I'm like, why else would he tell me to do this? But I was in California and running in a very—they said it was a purple district . . . 

Continue @ RWW.

God Interfered In Elections

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Sixty Three

 

Pastords @ 57

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)