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Heartlands Tribune ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs.

On This Day In History . . . 
Paris 1889: The Second International’s Founding Principle

On 14 July 1889, socialist delegates from across the world gathered in Paris to form the Second International. Their principle was simple: “The worker’s struggle has no borders.” because capital crossed them too.

Modern liberals have spent decades twisting that principle into an argument for the unrestricted movement of cheap labour. They are wrong.

Ask them what internationalism means today and you will hear about open borders, labour mobility and the free movement of people as an unquestionable good. What you will rarely hear is the word that mattered most to the socialists who met in Paris: capital.

Nearly 400 delegates from around 20 countries attended the founding congress. They did not meet to abolish nations. They met to stop capital using nations, and the workers within them, as weapons against one another.

That distinction has been buried. The left has paid dearly for it.

Modern internationalism asks workers to celebrate a system in which corporations move money, factories and labour wherever wages are lowest. When that movement drives down pay and weakens unions, we are told the resulting competition is solidarity.

Continue @ Heartlands.

Internationalism Was Never About Open Borders

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ On 4th October 2026 the Twenty-Six-County football team were due to play Israel in Dublin.

The game was due to be part of the scheduled fixtures in yet another European international competition, the European Nations League. Due to the genocide being committed by the Israeli state against Palestinian civilians, including women and children, to say nothing of purposely targeting hospitals for missile attacks, this game is surrounded in controversies. There have been countless calls for a boycott of both fixtures, the game deeming Israel to be the home side is to be played in Hungary, while the game scheduled initially for Dublin has been transferred to Serbia at the Backa Topola which is a cop out by the Football Association of Ireland (IFA). 

The FAI have decided at an emergency meeting that a boycott of these games by the team would have long lasting “damaging” effects on football in the twenty-six-counties. The call by many is in fact a demand that Israel should be kicked out of all competition controlled by Europe’s governing body for football, UEFA, which, if applied, would eliminate any fears in the future the team may draw Israel again. Russia was kicked out of all sporting competition including football after their invasion of neighbouring Ukraine but no such action is taken against Israel whose list of ‘war crimes’ are far greater than those of Russia. A rule for one but none for the other especially when the other are mates of the USA? 

Critics and opponents of such a boycott point to anti-Semitism being levelled at them which is of course nonsense, and this is often used as an excuse not to criticise the Israeli state. Anti-Semitism is making profoundly hate fuelled speeches against Jewish people which is wrong and must be stamped out. Such orations include Holocaust denials and heaping blame on Jewish people for the world’s economic and political problems. Jewish people have suffered terrible anti-Semitism since the 12th century culminating in the horrific events in Nazi Germany and German occupied Europe during the Second World War and must be stamped on wherever it raises its ugly head. Criticising the Israeli government for their murderous actions in Gaza and the West Bank is not anti-Semitic and such criticisms are in fact levelled against the Netanyahu regime by Jewish people both inside and outside Israel.

The FAI have shown an unwillingness, inability, or a combination of both to organise a boycott of these fixtures. They have said such a boycott would cause “long lasting damage” to football under their jurisdiction. It could incur a €10.3 million fine on the association plus €5.3 million loss of revenue through gate takings. This revenue will be lost anyway because the games are due to be played behind closed doors in the so-called neutral venues Hungary and Serbia. It would almost certainly result in points being deducted and relegation for the team but so what? So, it comes down to the possible loss of €10 million in financial penalties and fines against taking a principled stance in support of the women and children in Palestine. Good to see the IFA have their priorities right!! 

The IFA claim to support the Palestinian people and now they have a chance to prove it by initiating a boycott of these fixtures and demanding the Israelis are, like Russia, booted out of the competition. To those who claim that politics should not come into sport, a ship which sailed a long time ago, I suggest they contact the good offices of Mr D.J. Trump who in all but name issued a presidential decree demanding a referee’s decision to red card a US player be overturned in the recent World Cup. Sport, all sport like everything else in life, is political in the broader sense of the word. This could also be an opportunity for the FAI to lead a campaign by individual football associations across Europe to have the Israelis booted out of the European Nations League and all other competitions for a period until the genocide stops. No need for UEFAs permission, they have already decided where their loyalties lie: just organise the boycott, refuse to pay any fines levelled at them and build support outside the governing body.

Given the FAI consider this fudge, moving the game to Serbia, as fulfilling their responsibilities towards the Palestinian people it may now come down to those players selected to play taking action themselves. This would be a last resort but it is the players who hold the ultimate card to have the matches played or not. Arguably footballers should not have these decisions, essentially administrative determinations, forced upon them but alas, like anything else in life, sometimes we have to do things not liked. I believe such a move would be popular among the footballing public and would have the desired effect. The Professional Footballers Association Ireland, the players trade union, would support such a boycott and are bound to defend any player who refuses to play against the Israeli national side should they suffer any repercussions related to their actions. I would strongly recommend the players keep in contact with their trade union if they decide on this course of action. 

The FAI have somewhat hypocritically voted in favour of UEFA “suspending Israel from European competitions” while at the same time agreeing to fulfil their own fixtures and commitments against the far-right state. UEFA voted not to impose the same ban on Israel as they did on Russia, anti-Slavic racism perhaps? In view of this it is coming down to the players to make a stand by refusing to play in these fixtures until at very least the genocide in Palestine stops. If the team manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, who has said he will “respect” any players decision in this regard, selects a second eleven then they too must refuse to play. 

The players should invoke multilaterally what James McClean invoked unilaterally and use (what I call) the “McClean principles”. James McClean while playing in England refused to wear a poppy either as an appendage or superimposed into his shirt at the time of year called “Remembrance Day”. McClean refused and refuses to wear the poppy due to atrocities committed by British troops in the Six-Counties against civilians in much the same way, though on a smaller scale, as are Israeli soldiers doing against Palestinian civilians. The size of the massacre, though relevant, is in principle the same be it one innocent killed or one million. 

This is now a decision I believe the players themselves must take as distasteful such a move may be. They owe it to the people of Palestine who have been killed including many sports persons and footballers. I cannot see any alternative but to take such a boycott of the Israeli games to UEFA telling them in no uncertain terms genocide against civilians will not be tolerated. If the governing body refuse to act then they, the Irish players, will take unilateral action! Will they do this? Time will tell!!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

To Play Or Not to Play 🪶 Should The Players Take Action?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Forty Eight

Jim Duffy ✍ In other contexts the TUPOLEV TU-95 bear bomber was used to send a message to countries that they were a target for Russia in any war. 

It repeatedly targeted Irish-controlled air space (that is, not the sovereign airspace, as that would potentially constitute an illegal act under international law, but the international airspace a country had the legal obligation to police to secure international civilian airflight) between 2017 and 2020.
 
They were no accidental arrivals. At one stage Irish-controlled airspace was targeted twice in two days. Each time, as Ireland's chronically underfunded defence means its air corps cannot intercept planes it had to call out the RAF to intercept the bears and force them out.
 
Russia was sending a deliberate message to Ireland - you are a target for Russia. This was nothing to do with Irish support for Ukraine, the standard spin of the neutrality hardliners. This was before Russia's second invasion of Ukraine. All countries are Russian targets. Every one. Neutrals and NATO alike. Every country had the bear bomber message. Russia sent the message to neutrals 'Neutrality is irrelevant. You are a target.'
 
It is well known why Irish airspace and waters are a target. Russia in any war intends to use Irish airspace and waters to launch ballistic missiles, and potentially nuclear missiles. That is why potentially nuclear-armed nuclear submarines frequently are in Irish waters, as with the submarine in Cork harbour some years ago.
 
Knowing the Irish, through chronic underfunding, is unable to do basic defence, Russia knows Ireland is dependent on the RAF and Royal Navy. However they need to be acting on an Irish request or with Irish permission. That takes time. Russia needs to know how quickly can its bear bombers or submarines intercept and evict its bear bombers and submarines. That would tell it how much time it has to launch missiles, whether ballistic or nuclear, from Ireland.
 
So, Irish negligence is not a threat to itself. It puts every potential target, including major cities in Europe, at risk.
 
People like Richard Boyd Barrett work themselves into a frenzy thinking Ireland is under pressure to join NATO. It is a figment of his paranoia and overactive imagination. I worked in politics in the area of defence. I know the private views of politicians on defence. I did not come across any TD who wants to join NATO. Not one. No party has any intention of joining NATO. Nor has NATO invited Ireland to join or even raised the issue. Neither Ireland, not Austria, not Malta nor Switzerland has any intention of joining NATO.
 
The pressure on defence is not to join NATO. It is simply "fix your goddamned defence. You are putting everyone at risk by your negligence."

They simply want Ireland to have standard defence neutrals like Austria, Cyprus and Switzerland have. Unlike Ireland they take defence as a neutral seriously. Austria has reached 1% of GDP on defence, and will reach 1.3% by 2032 - funded by an extra tax. Switzerland will reach 1% by 2030. Cyprus currently spends 1.8% on defence, excluding pensions. Even tiny Malta, more akin to the Aran Islands times six, spends 0.38% of GDP. Ireland spends a minuscule 0.27% of GDP - the third lowest in the world as a percentage of GDP. Only Mauritius and Haiti spend lower.
 
The pressure is simply on Ireland to have the sort of defence proper neutrals have. It has nothing to do with joining NATO. It is the sort of spending Ireland should be doing as a sovereign neutral state anyway. If you cannot properly secure your waters and airspace, and after one hundred years of independence still rely on your former colonial master to do your defence for you, are you really independent at all?

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Defence Is Not About Joining NATO

Gowain McKenna ✍ with a poem.

Bean an Tí

Half standing pissing against a tree

To hear lovers pass a stoney wall

And have breakfast tomorrow 

With forgotten sorrow 

♞♜♝

Oh the bar man had got sick 

Two weeks maybe three

Bean an Tí

(Bean an Tí)

♞♜♝

So as the lovers passed the ancient script

And secured their sacred crypt

To fluff it out with beaten pillows

On the Willow branch 

♞♜♝

Oh the bar man had got sick 

Two weeks maybe three

(Bean an Tí)

♞♜♝

Bean an Tí. 

⏩ Gowain McKenna is a Belfast born engineer and musician. He has an M.Phil, MS.c and B.Eng in Aerospace Engineering, but has somehow found himself working in the marine industry in Co. Donegal Ireland, the place from which he now calls home. Visit his website.

Bean an Tí

Brendan Curran ✒ with a poem from his expansive body of work.


 The Watch 

I often stood at the broken window hole 
Keeping the watch in my sentry role 
Once every month it was my turn at that spot 
As the clock struck midnight you took up your watch 
♞♜♝
Darkness and silence was my best friend through out the darkness of the long lonely night 
Searching searching..looking with only grey barbed wire and tin in sight 
Then a random noise in the distance, immediately set my Brain on fire 
Was this the beginning of the dreaded attack, or just a bag blowing in the Barb wire 
♞♜♝
Watching watching all night long, plays tricks upon your mind 
The wind blowing through the small window hole… momentarily makes your searching eye go blind
But you cannot stop the watching…In case the enemy attack 
Your sleeping comrades safety in you hands ,you can never sleep or slack 
♞♜♝
Then tiredness and boredom breaks your awareness down 
Your mind starts to drift and you stop spying around 
Do I really have the courage to ring the hut emergency red bell 
Sending the signal around the camp of impending civil war hell 
♞♜♝
But the night turns to dawn as the mornings do 
Peace again has blessed us like the soft morning dew 
the birds songs lifts you…now it’s my turn for bed 
Feeling relief the watch is over, and no one is dead

⏩ Brendan Curran,  Irish conflict poems 2020

The Watch

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Forty Seven

 

Hate Theology @ 9

 

A Morning Thought @ 3220

Gary Robertson ⚽ So there I was sat in Robertson Towers enjoying my morning coffee when like a bolt for the blue it struck me.
 
The majority of my readers will be Irish, hardly a genius moment, no bathtubs and cries of Eureka!! However I’m blathering on about teams from the lower leagues in Scotland and many will be wondering “who and where”?
 
Obviously some are more than obvious but we do have our fair share of oddly named outfits so bear with me, take my hand, or grab me by the throat and I’ll guide you through the oddities.
 
Let’s start right at the bottom and Scottish League Two
 
Spartans FC
 
Having risen through the ranks from Lowland league they have now established themselves in the Second Division. A club based in the Pilton area of Edinburgh formed in 1951 by two university pals their ground holds a little over 3,600 and is called Ainslie Park.
 
Next up Kelty Hearts
 
Formed in 1975 they were until last season a First Division club but suffered relegation and now find themselves in the bottom tier. I think personally they’ll do well. For me they’re one of those “twilight clubs” that aren’t quite good enough for Division One but much too good for League Two. They are based in the small town of Kelty in Fife with a population of roughly 6000. Their home ground is called New Central Park with a capacity of just over 2000.
 
Scottish League One
 
Queen of the South. The only football club mentioned in the Bible (Matthew 12 v 42), Based in Dumfries in the south west of Scotland and formed in 1919 they play their home matches at Palmerston Park, a ground with a capacity of just over 8500. They have flirted with Premiership status but seem to me to be a club whose ambition is mid table mediocrity in the Championship. Of course they’ll need to get there first and a return to that league will be on the agenda of the Doonhamers (club and fans' nickname) this season.
 
Ross County

A club based in Dingwall in the Highlands. Until very recently a Premiership club they appear to be in free fall at the minute. Formed in 1929 their home matches played at Victoria Park and with a capacity of just over 6500.
 
In my opinion a club that’s too big to find itself in the position it is but football's a results game and you reap what you sow etc etc so . . . 

Cove Rangers

Again a team that’s risen from obscurity to establish themselves in the SPFL. Formed in 1922 their home games since 2015 being played at Balmoral Park with a capacity of almost 3000. They hail from the Altens area of Aberdeen. They spent the 2022/23 season in the Championship but again at that time a bridge too far and found themselves back in League One where they sit comfortably. Managed by former Hearts player, Paul Hartley, I’m sure they have aspirations of playing in the Championship again and possibly one to watch for this season.
 
East Fife

A club with the fabulous nickname of The Methil Mafia are based in Methil in Fife. A town of 10,000+ and whose home ground of Bayview can hold just under 2000. East Fife were formed in 1903 and whilst researching this I was surprised to learn that both Scottish Cup and League Cup titles have been held by the Fifers. Granted, in the 1950s, but still. Having narrowly managed to avoid relegation last season I’m sure manager Dick Campbell will want to avoid that this season. Indeed at one point during 25/26 it looked like they may be headed for better and bigger things but soon fell away.
 
In the Championship rather like the Premier Division most are self explanatory but we still have a couple to go
 
Queens Park

Not to be confused with Queens Park Rangers, based at Lesser Hampden on Glasgow's south side and where Scotland captain Andy Robertson - who went off to have great success with the unstoppable Liverpool side under Klopp made his debut. Their stadium holds a mere 990 but that aside they can be a formidable foe pulling off possibly the greatest Scottish Cup shock of all on February 9th 2025 as a single decisive goal from Drozd sank the Rangers under then manager Philippe Clement, a result that would ultimately lead to a change of leadership for the Ibrox club.
 
There was much rejoicing in Robertson Towers that afternoon.
 
Rangers did however manage to regain revenge in style with an 8-0 victory almost a year to the day on February 8th 2026.
 
And finally the Premier League and St Mirren

A club that needs little introduction as having managed to defeat Celtic under Wilfried Nancy and walk away with the League Cup. Jst in case anyone’s looking at the map wondering “Where’s Mirren?”, the club is actually based in Paisley. Formed in 1877, their home matches played at the imaginatively named St Mirren Park, some of us still think Love Street when we think of the Saints as that was the location of their former stadium until 2009 - Love Street, Paisley. With a capacity of 8000 and more than capable of holding their own and pulling off so called shock results not a team to be taken lightly.
 
So I hope you enjoyed this little tour of some of Scotland's oddly named clubs. I’m certain there will be others as Highland and Lowland clubs appear in cup matches so I’ll add the place of origin to all so as to give the reader a more “interactive” experience? No more wondering where these oddly named outfits play their matches. I’ve got you covered.

Til next time ……

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

What's In A Name?

Defense News 💣 Written by Katie Livingstone. Recommended by Christy Walsh.

Russian recruits arriving on the front lines in Ukraine survive an estimated 20 to 30 minutes before they are killed or wounded, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday, marking the first time a senior American intelligence official has confirmed how deadly the war has become for Moscow.

The assessment comes as Ukraine’s battlefield technology has stalled Russia’s advance along the front and drawn foreign partners ready to spend billions of dollars in deals with its defense industry.

European and Ukrainian officials have said for months that Russian casualty rates have climbed to record levels, with Ukraine’s top general telling NATO allies in May that Russia loses at least 1,000 soldiers a day.

“Our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine,” Ratcliffe said at the Defense and Innovation Summit in Pennsylvania. “The average life expectancy of a Russian recruit right now, arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine, is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes.”

“That’s because AI-powered drones have gotten to be such specialized, low-cost killing machines,” he added.

Ratcliffe’s confirmation shows how decisively emerging technology can shape a war — and why the U.S. cannot afford to fall behind.

Continue @ Defense News.

Russian Troops Survive Just 20-30 Minutes On Ukraine’s Front Lines, CIA Director Says

Barry Gilheany ⚽ Marcelo Bielsa is the most iconic figure in recent Leeds United history for his role in steering the club back to the promised land of the FA Premiership after our sixteen year spell of banishment among his many feats in football.

He was likely watching the World Cup Final between his native Argentina and Spain and must have felt deep shame and disbelief at the thuggish and boorish reaction of his compatriots after the final whistle sounded to confirm their 1-0 loss.

How can a nation that has produced a man of such sporting integrity that he ordered his Leeds team to permit their opponents in a match with Aston Villa to walk the ball into the Leeds net after Leeds had scored despite Villa players standing still and entreating referee to stop the game so that one of their injured number could be attended in the ultimate act of sportsmanship also produce a squad that violated every tenet of it on Sunday in front of a global TV audience of 1.2b people? How can a nation that produced a man of such humbleness that he constantly reminded his squad of their (relatively) privileged position in society and their responsibilities to 36,000 plus fans who dispensed with hard earned money to adulate their heroes every fortnight at Elland Road yet also produce the yobbery that unfortunately is a feature of a footballing culture that for every Maradona, Messi and Kempes it produces also throws up a Rattin or Simione?

All (non-Argentine) devotees of the beautiful game breathed a collective, global sigh of relief when Ferren Torres of Spain scored the only goal of 120 minutes of exceptionally turgid fare to prevent the possible obscenity of a team who had precisely zero on target attempts at goal lifting the trophy due to the cruel arbitrariness of a penalty shoot-out. The tragedy for football purists is that Argentina en route to the final featured in some of the most memorable games of the tournament from their dicing with the mothers of all humiliation in their 3-2 wins over Cape Verde and Egypt and their semi-final comeback after Thomas Tuchel decided to retreat to his version of the Maginot Line when Anthony Gordon gave them the lead. But controversy was never far away with dubious refereeing decisions in the Egypt game fuelling hardly paranoid conspiracy theories that FIFA needed the golden calves of Messi and Mbappe in the Final and, in a Clausewitzian dictum that football is an extension of war by other means, came the players’ on pitch articulation of the irredentist nationalist claim to the Falklands/|Malvinas Islands after their triumph over England.

However, apart from the (grievous) noises off such as the overturning of the ban on the US forward Balogun on the direct intervention by Donald Trump; the vindictive treatment of the Iranian squad and backroom staff by the US authorities and the hostile environments created for the supporters of certain countries by ICE, the World Cup was largely a glorious global moment as it was in 2018 and 2022 despite the distinctly anti-global hosts: Putin’s Russia, Quatar and Trump’s USA (notwithstanding the more amenable co-hosts; Mark Carney’s Canada and Claudia Schenbaum’s Mexico). Fans of all participant countries mingled freely in the stadiums and the various fan zones. The exploits of debutants Cape Verde will live long in the memory, and I was delighted that Canada, under Bielsa’s successor at Leeds Jessie Marsch, achieved their first World Cup victory and got out of their qualifying group. I reckon that Wisconsin born Jesse might have to seek permanent asylum in Canada due to the enthusiasm with which he sang their national anthem! The race for the Golden Boot was enthralling with the eventual winner Mbappe in the hunt with Kane, Dembele, Messi and Bellingham almost to the death.

The expansion of the tournament to 48 teams didn’t have the bloating effect that many feared and, with the possible exception of Curacao, did not produce any “punching bags”. While hydration access was an absolute priority, the mandatory breaks for this purpose proved a major irritant for coaches, players and especially non-American TV viewers who rightly saw this as the bowdlerisation of the game into quarters to suit an American football audience. 

For as long as Trump stayed away, it was possible to forget about the malign backstories of the tournament but the incessant panning of television cameras to FIFA President Giavonni Infantino brought back the unpleasant reality of its geopolitics. The matches were communal moments for those who followed the progress of their teams in bars and in the ubiquitous public spaces that are fan zones. Nowhere more did the World Cup provide joyous distraction from the everyday travails and perils of existence than in Gaza where a traumatised people would gather around screens to cheer on, in particular Egypt, despite the ongoing risks to life and limb from Netanyahu’s forever war. A curious divide in partisan political allegiance emerged during the World Cup with Palestinians and their advocates supporting Spain due to Prime Minister Sanchez’s outspoken condemnation of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza and Israelis cheering on Argentina due to the ideological affinity between Netanyahu and far-right Argentine President Millei. They might just need to reflect on Argentina’ s history with Nazism including Juan Peron’s sympathies with European fascism and the refuge it afforded to Nazi war criminals including the logistic organiser of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann.

Once again, England and Scotland did not fail to disappoint; with the Scots’ pathological inability to advance beyond qualifying groups again painfully obvious. We were not even left with the heartwarming memories of an Archie Gemmill or David Narey glorious goals or how Scotland’s 1974 vintage with the spine of Europe’s top two clubs at the time, Leeds United and Glasgow Celtic, came so agonisingly close to beating Brazil and departed West Germany unbeaten. Ok, so achieving third place is incremental progress of sorts for England and the manner of that crazy 6-4 victory gave some fanfare to the common man but, given their proven experience in winning tournaments, it is much more likely that England’s Women will bring home the bacon, next year maybe, than the perennially nearly men.

But there is an elephantine presence in the room that cannot be ignored – FIFA’s stewardship of the global game and the World Cup cannot go unchallenged for otherwise schisms in the game will be inevitable. So much outrage has been caused by the prostitution of the game’s ethics such as the obscenity of the awarding of the inaugural FIFA “Peace Prize” to Donald Trump, to the stroking of other powerful egos and the awarding of the 2034 World Cup, uncontested to Saudi Arabia with yet more disruption to domestic league seasons due to it having to be a winter event and the flagrant disregard for human rights consideration. The USA could be in line to host the 2038 tournament as the transcontinental nature of 2030 held in Spain, Portugal (Europe) Morocco(Africa) and Uruguay and Paraguay (South America) makes it part of an eligible region. 

There is talk of 64 team World Cups. There is the World Champions Club Finals which is another Infantino vanity project which has attracted the ire of the international players body FIPRO and the steady descent of FIFA into a cash cow dependent on World and World Club Cups and which dispenses largesse to expanding competitors in the manner of petroleum-soaked autocracies must bring the day of reckoning closer. While running the risk of being accused of Eurocentrism, UEFA, as the collectivity of football associations most affected by FIFA prolificacy and lack of accountability, must demand a share of power in FIFA or viable collaborative arrangements. Otherwise it should withdraw its member associations. 

At the very least Infantino who heads and is the visible symbol of the institutional rot that is FIFA needs to step down. Sadly he is set to be re-elected at the next FIFA congress thanks to the pork-barrel politics that has characterised FIFA governance and decision making since Joao Havelange succeeded Sir Stanley Rous as FIFA President in 1974.

Go Giovanni, in the name of football, Go!

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter. 

World Cup Reflections

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Forty Six

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