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TPQ
Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig ★ I am encouraged, by the recent podcast by Gerry Adams ( Joe.ie ) in relation to the rise of the far right i Éireann but I’m not fully convinced.

Is Gerry now, directly challenging the Far Right’s attacks, violence and killing; and is he calling out his own party's failure to challenge the Blueshirts’ ideology that is now on the march across the country?

Remember how the Blueshirts violently attacked and tried to kill Republicans back in the 30s?

I would hope to see all progressive people and groups come together, in alliances, to closely examine what Adams has said, and to hold him and Sinn Féin, to account; and formulate a stronger action group to fight against this Right Wing 'cancer' in our society.

The Proclamation of 1916 states very clearly that society holds humanity, justice and religious freedoms for all, as its clear identity. We must be certain of one thing. We must not fall into the trap of the working class, fighting the working class; which only, has ever benefited the powerful and wealthy.

I certainly do not agree with the political direction of Sinn Féin. But progressive groups should come together in strong alliances, with a clear revolutionary understanding, to fight against the rise of the Right Wing, both i Éireann and across the world.

I call on Gerry Adams to go further and clarify his latest podcast, about the Right and Racism; and to assure everyone that it was not just tokenism. I would ask Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin to follow up on the podcast content, with action. That is, direct action against this 'cancer' in our society, on the streets.

And other questions arise here. Is Gerry Adams speaking for himself or for the Sinn Féin party? Will he now ensure that Sinn Féin changes direction so that the party moves away from it's conservative, safe, bourgeois politics; and the consistent move to the centre right, by some senior Sinn Féin politicians. That must end, if we are to take seriously what Gerry Adams has said.

I Dún na nGall we had a number of anti-racist demonstrations when fascists and some racists tried to organise i Leitir Ceanainn agus Gaoth Dobhair. Unfortunately and predictably, Sinn Féin did not support our Anti-Racist counter demonstration. Why?

Go Raibh Maith Agat to all the other politicians who did show up and took a clear stand against racism and fascism on those days.

Furthermore, will Sinn Féin stop, trying to ride two horses and clarify their thinking on migrants and migration, at the very least or is the centre right element within the party that's now in full control?

Are the consequences of imperialism and capitalism being considered, or discussed, around these issues, by Sinn Féin?

A fairly recent document on migration issues that was published by Sinn Féin called, 'International Protection: A Fair System That Works', does not exactly inspire confidence either, or indicate that they are going to go 'all out' to directly confront anti-migrant, Right Wing nationalist groups i Éireann. In fact, it reads more like a pacification document to these groups; and that SF will 'deal' with migrants and migrant issues, inter alia, to the satisfaction of the Right Wing forces, (if and) when they (ever) get into power. What could that mean? Is it a 'vote catching' document?

On the basis of Gerry A's podcast on the Right Wing groups, is Sinn Féin now going to review it's thinking on this major issue?

Will we soon see, well organised, politically clear anti-Right Wing and anti-fascist, street demonstrations by Sinn Féin? Will they, also, show solidarity and work with, all of those who oppose Right Wing politics and it's origins?

As a part of all of that will they show their total support for all minority groups i Éireann; who are regularly and viciously attacked by these same Right Wing groups?

Will we, also, now see, the clear Republican line of class struggle, anti-fascism, anti imperialism, anti capitalism and anti-Zionism, coming to the fore?

Only time will tell, but, of course, 'actions, always, speak louder than words'.

#SinnFéin

#AlwaysAntiFascists

#SinnFéinIreland

#MaryLouMcDonald

Micheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig 
is an independent councillor on Donegal County Council.

Gerry Adams And The Far Right

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

 


A Morning Thought @ 3230

Catherine McGinty ✍ Conor Cruise O'Brien did it. Margaret Thatcher and Douglas Hurd did it. Even Féile an Phobail did it.

They censored voices and attempted to stifle opinions with which they disagreed and of which they were afraid.

Belfast’s Hilton Hotel was the venue on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, for the Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe event organised by Women’s Rights Network NI (WRN NI).

The event was originally scheduled to take place in St Mary’s University College Belfast as part of Féile an Phobail 2026. However, on July 21, 2026, Féile an Phobail, in response to an online campaign, cancelled the event, claiming in a social media post “it would promote campaigns against rights for the Transgender community”.

A sold-out audience which had travelled from all over Ireland and England, listened to and engaged with a stellar panel: Nora Calder (WRN NI); Danielle Loughrey (Gaels For Fair Play), Sorcha Nic Lochlainn (The Countess), Marianne Driessen (Athena Forum) and Fiona McAnena (Sex Matters), moderated by Derry journalist, Catherine McGinty.

Opening the event, Ms Calder described WRN NI as representing “the majority of women in Northern Ireland who believe biological sex is immutable”.

“Women who understand, when we stop recognising biological sex, we start rolling back women’s rights,” she said.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Sex Discrimination Order. For half a century, it has protected women (in Northern Ireland) because of our sex, just as it has done across the rest of the UK,” she added.

However, there is one important difference - the Windsor Framework. Following Brexit, the UK Government agreed Northern Ireland would continue to keep pace with six EU equality directives.
After the Supreme Court's judgement in For Women Scotland, the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) asked the High Court whether the Windsor Framework changes the legal position in Northern Ireland.


“We say it does not,” said Ms Calder. Those directives require men and women to be treated equally. They do not redefine sex. Ms Calder said:

We have heard the argument applying the Supreme Court's judgement would diminish the rights of men entering women's single-sex cases but a right that has never existed cannot be diminished. Our concern is the opposite. If Northern Ireland becomes the only part of the UK where the Supreme Court judgement doesn't apply, it will be women's rights that are diminished. That is why WRN NI is involved in three legal cases currently before the High Court. 

Highlighting the real-life implications of removing a person’s legal right to hold gender critical beliefs, Ms Calder continued:

Whilst one woman is denied female intimate care, we won't be silenced. Whilst one lesbian is told that she must include men in her dating pool, we won't be silenced. Whilst one woman seeking help from a rape crisis centre is told that she must reframe her trauma, we won't be silenced. And whilst one female police officer in PSNI is told she must intimately search a man, we won't be silenced.

She concluded: "Whilst women are told that our rights, our privacy, our dignity, and our safety must come second, we won't be silenced.”

Following Féile an Phobail’s de-platforming of Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe, Geraldine McGahey, chief commissioner of Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI) issued a statement in which she said:

Commentary, whether on social media or elsewhere, is misleading and wrong if it suggests that people who hold protected ‘gender critical beliefs’ or ‘gender identity beliefs’ are not entitled to hold those beliefs or should not be able to express them respectfully.

The guest speakers at ‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices From Ireland and Europe’,
from left: Marianne Driessen, Danielle Loughrey, Fiona McAnena, Sorche Nic Lochlainn and Nora Calder.

Ms McGahey added: 

Employers and service providers should be encouraged and supported to ensure that their policies and their implementation are operating in a way that affords everyone dignity while at work or accessing services.
Public debate that fails to respect everyone’s dignity or that mispresents the law can make these responsibilities under equality law more difficult to meet. Ultimately, equality law in Northern Ireland protects everyone’s right to be treated with dignity and respect.

Danielle Loughrey, co-founder of Gaels For Fair Play - a network of players, coaches and volunteers - spoke about its advocacy for fair and safe sport for women and girls who play Gaelic Football and Camogie.

Ms Loughrey said: 

We continue to campaign for the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) to return to protecting the female category. Sport Ireland and the UK Sports Council have both agreed, through thorough consultation, the majority of people want the single-sex categories protected and to remain as they are.

She added:

Sports bodies really should be looking to protect those categories by providing open or other categories to prioritise fairness for all. The GAA sports bodies can look into making their male categories more inclusive. They should be looking to welcome non-conforming males and make them comfortable within the male category.

Ms Loughrey said the LGFA’s policy of “allowing trans-identified men to play on women’s teams had thrown the safeguarding of children and adults out the window”.

She continued:

Not only is this policy creating the risk of extra injury on the pitch, it is forfeiting our right to build safety and dignity within our changing rooms and within our facilities.
The LGFA policy was introduced without any consultation at grassroots level and with no guidance provided to the clubs on how to deal with changing facilities.
Club and county officials have been deterring and blocking members from even raising their concerns with LGFA management because they [officials] fear repercussions.
A parent at one club came to Gaels For Fair Play about a serious safeguarding concern they had regarding their underage daughter’s team. The girls faced a number of clubs with a juvenile male player. At one match, the girls came over to their parents and said, ‘Please, we don’t want to play against boys’.

Ms Loughrey, who warned girls under 12 and under 14 were already starting to self-exclude from their sport added:

30 parents have since signed that letter from that club and sent it to the LGFA National Safeguarding Officer. As of yet, parents still haven't received any information on whether the LGFA opened an investigation into it or if it is looking at creating any review. The parents are sitting in limbo wondering if, going into next season, they are going to be faced with that same scenario.

Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, director and sport spokeswoman for The Countess, focused on the reality of what happens when women’s rights are not respected.

It has become quite clear there is a major clash of rights where trans-identified men are demanding to be treated as if they are actually women, and given access to women's spaces and women's sports.

She continued: 

The simple fact remains: humans cannot change sex. Women cannot become men, and men cannot become women. Having a transgender identity does not change one's sex.
Effective safeguarding requires that no one be above suspicion. This was a hard learned lesson and should never be forgotten.
The shocking revelation that a violent male prisoner was being held in the women's wing of Limerick Prison was the focus of the first ever tweet by The Countess.
Barbie Kardashian had a harrowing upbringing and a history of violence against women. He had previously attacked a social worker and was charged with threatening to rape and murder his own mother. He was placed in the women's wing of Limerick Prison upon conviction because he had a gender recognition certificate, making him legally female.

Ms Nic Lochlainn added: 

No women's organisations or civil rights NGOs said anything about this. The Countess spoke up instead. Their response to the tweet was swift condemnation. Not of the practice of housing violent men with women but of us for calling attention to it, for not understanding this was acceptable collateral damage, the price to pay for inclusion.

She explained:

A petition was started, an open letter was penned, condemning us for our bigotry, and calling for women, for us, and for women like us, to be disenfranchised within media and politics.
This petition was signed by individuals and organisations such as Amnesty International Ireland, the National Women's Council of Ireland, and the Irish Penal Reform Trust - a powerful few.
This petition has now closed. I looked the other day; it has 974 signatures. In comparison, a petition to remove Barbie Kardashian from the women’s wing of Limerick Prison had more than 7,000 signatures when it closed.

Based in The Netherlands, education specialist Marianne Driessen represented Athena Forum at Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices from Ireland and Europe.

Ms Driessen has written on the protection of women's sports, lesbian visibility, and reform of the gender care for youth.

She said: 

Last May, I spoke at a Dutch educational symposium, arguing that schools should teach about the biological reality of sex rather than the activist concept of gender identity. 
Afterwards, teachers lined up to thank me, not for saying anything radical, but for finally saying something true.

She added: "They told me how much they self-censored. I got comments such as, ‘If I said even half of what you just said, I would be fired’."

‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s voices from Ireland and Europe’ question and answer session, from left: Fiona McAnena, Sorcha Nic Lochlainn, Danielle Loughrey, Marianne Driessan, Nora Calder, and Catherine McGinty

She continued: 

Across Europe, we know self-censoring and cancellations very well. Contrary to what some might think, they have not died down, and the EU continues to develop new instruments to label speech as hateful when it comes to sex and gender.
While much attention focuses on the European Union, the Council of Europe, whose primary role is to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, and in which the UK continues to participate fully, has been an even earlier driver of the gender identity concepts, not through binding legislation, but through soft power, recommendations, resolutions, strategies, funding programmes, expert forums, and partnerships with NGOs.

Marianne Driessen explained:

Instead of seeking democratic majorities at a national level, these activist organisations focus on influencing international institutions, where highly specialised policy processes often attract less public attention and very little organised opposition. From there, these recommendations and policy frameworks filter back into national law and more into the wide array of public sectors with the authority of so-called European standards. One of the most profoundly affected fields is education. Contested concepts, in confusing language, like for example, sex can vary, children are assigned sex at birth, and that children can be born into the born body have made their way into teaching materials and even into the core curriculum objectives of children as young as four.

While: 

At the same time, European institutions have increasingly promoted the idea that certain forms of speech about gender identity should be regarded as harmful, hateful, and discriminatory. Genuine harassment should never be tolerated, but the boundary between protecting people from abuse and protecting ideas from criticism has become blurred.

Originally from the Pennyburn area of Derry City, Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, which promotes human rights where they relate to biological sex, closed the presentations, with the observation "blatant discrimination” such as the Marriage Bar (against women) was outlawed by the 2010 Equality Act and “a set of consistent laws in Northern Ireland”.

Ms McAnena said:

Sex discrimination is outlawed in principle, but the law recognises sometimes the fair or safe thing to do is to treat men and women differently or separately, and that is because of reality. We’re intellectually equal. Some women can be stronger than some men, maybe, but the reality is that, on average, men are bigger and stronger than women. We all know that. That’s why we need separate sports’ categories.

She continued: 

In boxing, the difference between a man and a woman of the same weight, so the sex difference alone, is equivalent to eight weight classes. You can’t train away from that, it's a biological reality. That takes us into male violence, and in particular, male sexual violence. Of those prosecuted for violent crimes in the UK, 91% are men, for sexual crimes, it is 98%.
It is one reason we have single-sex spaces as separate across society, anywhere strangers take their clothes off or are vulnerable. This was never contested. Everyone accepts the constraint you don’t go into the other sex’s spaces, and that’s for everyone’s privacy and peace of mind. And of course, for women and girls, it is about more than that.

For Fiona McAnena:

Some people talk about human rights and claim it is all very complicated, but it’s simple. Everyone’s human rights are being considered and factored into the laws we have and they work on a group or category level. There can be no exception for men who claim they are not a risk. I am furious this has become a negotiation. It isn’t branding all men as predators. It is all men because it is some men, and we can’t tell which ones.The vast majority of men don’t complain they are being labelled predators. They know they are not. They understand and accept the Social Contract.

“The problem,” she added, “is if anyone can claim to be a woman, then any man, even the wrong’uns can access women’s private spaces, single-sex services and support just by claiming to be trans."

‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s Voices From Ireland and Europe’ hosted by WRN NI in Belfast’s Hilton Hotel.

She claimed that: 

It is not opening the door to a small number of trans people, it is opening the door to all men.
So, for the sake of 51% of the population, the female majority, the boundaries must be based on sex, not on identity. We still need single-sex provision to help keep us safe.

Ironically, Féile an Phobail amplified the voices of the women they sought to silence.

And, the law of unintended consequences served only to give veracity to Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai who said: “We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”

⏩Catherine McGinty is a journalist covering the North West.

Respect, Rights And Reality 👭 Women’s Voices From Ireland And Europe

Seamus Kearney 🎤 Thomas McElwee - died on Hunger Strike, 8th August 1981.

His strong voice echoes with me still
Tommy two cups we named him
Standing six foot tall, clenched fists
Always ready to defend himself and the Republic He so fervently seen through his one remaining eye
♞♜♝
Despite the harshness of the prison years
The winter of 78', the meagre food rations
He battled on, through snow and ice
The sweat of a summer sun
The nakedness of a concrete tomb, he refused to yield
♞♜♝
As the seasons changed, he never did
His weakening body turned into a human armalite
Confined to the punishment block
♞♜♝
He continued to hold the vision of a better dawn within his Irish heart
When it came his turn to die, he turned his face into the wind 
His bravery unparalleled,
And defying the natural urge to live
♞♜♝
He died on hunger strike and did it with such grace
That others might one day sing and dance
To the beat of a different drum
♞♜♝
And now many years later
As I see him in my dreams
I walk the cells barefooted
The ghost of him still lingers
Scolding me for doubting
♞♜♝
The victory he always envisioned for us and our people
A dream that eventually came true

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Never To Be The Same Again

Dr John Coulter ✍ We may be in the midst of the summer holidays and the so-called silly season in journalism, but for many political parties, candidates and wannabe candidates, the 2027 Stormont and council elections campaigns have already begun.


I was recently flicking through some of the memorabilia from my late dad’s - Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE - elections campaigns over the years, when I came across a few stickers from his 1983 Westminster General Election campaign in North Antrim - the seat once held for decades by the Paisley dynasty.

A few years ago, I wrote about nearly getting into trouble when Dr Paisley rang my dad at home during that ’83 campaign to get him to stand aside. 

Whilst that campaign was the only election he lost in his political career in North Antrim, it was for me one of the most memorable because of the impact a few ‘Vote Coulter’ stickers caused.

Since Paisley senior had won the Westminster seat in 1970, defeating the then sitting MP Henry Clark of the Ulster Unionists, the UUP had struggled to put up an electoral fight against the Paisley bandwagon.

In the two General Elections of 1974, Paisley senior had been the agreed Unionist Coalition candidate.

In 1979, the year Maggie Thatcher stormed to power, the North Antrim UUP had parachuted in the lawyer Jeremy Burchill (later an UUP Assembly member for East Belfast in the Prior Assembly of 1982-86), but by then Paisley senior was well entrenched in the constituency and romped home with a majority in excess of 18,500.

Boundary changes were to see two new Westminster seats created for the ’83 campaign - East Antrim and East Londonderry. The DUP had its eyes on all three.

Assuming the UUP would fly in another parachute candidate, the original DUP plan was for Paisley senior to run in East Antrim (which comprised a large chunk of his original North Antrim seat), with North Antrim Assembly member Jim Allister (later to become TUV MP for North Antrim defeating Paisley Junior) to run in North Antrim, and high profile Coleraine councillor James McClure to run in the new East Londonderry.

However, the cat was thrown among the political pigeons when the North Antrim UUP association selected dad as the candidate. Whilst dad heralded originally from Tyrone, by 1983, his roots were firmly established in North Antrim through his role as a Presbyterian minister, Loyal Orders chaplain, and lecturer in Ballymena Technical College. In short, he was viewed as a ‘home grown’ UUP candidate rather than a parachute candidate.

The selection of dad as UUP candidate resulted in Paisley senior changing his mind and wanting to run in his original North Antrim, and shifting Allister into East Antrim.

Whilst the UUP knew dad could not snatch North Antrim from Paisley senior, the Jim Molyneaux-led party knew that if dad had a fairly high profile campaign in UUP terms, it would tie down Paisley senior to North Antrim, thus preventing him from spending time canvassing for Allister in East Antrim and McClure in East Londonderry.

The UUP strategy worked. Roy Beggs senior took East Antrim and William Ross took East Londonderry. Ironically years later, the DUP captured both Westminster seats.

The ’83 canvass was literally a bruising campaign for dad. That was the era of the old Fair Hill Saturday market in Ballymena. One Saturday as polling day neared, when dad and his team were electioneering in the market, he was punched and kicked by Paisley supporters.

This is not to say that Paisley senior himself condoned the physical abuse; merely to record that those attacking dad would have been Paisley voters. That specific attack ended abruptly when one Paisley supporter punched dad in the ribs only to hit the butt of dad’s personal protection weapon.

Once the Paisley supporter realised that dad was ‘carrying’, he backed off immediately.

But it was the emergence of dad’s ‘Vote Coulter’ stickers that was to have the unusual effect on the DUP camp and Paisley senior in particular.

It all started when a copy of Paisley senior’s North Antrim constituency canvassing itinerary ‘fell into the hands’ of the UUP team! We knew where and when Paisley senior would be electioneering.

Dad and his fellow canvassers immediately altered their own schedule and would visit the towns, villages, hamlets and estates ahead of the DUP team. The UUP workers would give the kids ‘Vote Coulter’ stickers as those were the days when the primary electioneering technique was a car fitted with loudspeakers.

The car would enter the housing development playing patriotic music followed by someone then using the loudspeaker to announce the arrival of the UUP canvassing team.

It was sometimes known as ‘the ice cream van technique’ in much the same way as an ice cream vendor would announce their arrival in a housing development.

Whilst a party worker would operate the loudspeaker system booming out the benefits of voting for the UUP, dad and fellow canvassers would go door to door. Naturally, all the fuss of the canvass would bring out children. Whilst their parents or guardians would be given election literature, the kids would be given the stickers.

So imagine how Paisley senior must have felt, arriving in a development a short time later to be greeted by kids wearing ‘Vote Coulter’ stickers! During that ’83 campaign, the UUP team handed out as many stickers as they did election leaflets!

But it had an unusual effect. Paisley senior issued a press statement calling on dad to stand aside so that the DUP could give Sinn Fein a hammering at the ballot box.

But in 1983, North Antrim Sinn Fein was a political fringe party - what could sarcastically be described as a ‘two man and a dog outfit’.

Sinn Fein came fourth and polled less than 3,000 votes, well behind the SDLP’s Dr Sean Farren on just over 6,000 votes.

Paisley senior even rang dad at home to ask him to stand aside! It was me who answered the telephone that evening and I honestly thought it was a practical joke when the man on the end of the line said he was Ian Paisley!

Yes, the UUP took a hammering in that election in North Antrim, and dad got a thumping in the Fair Hill market, but thanks to the ‘sticker campaign’, the DUP’s clean sweep strategy of taking three Westminster seats that year across the north west and north east of Ulster literally came unstuck!

In spite of all the in-depth academic electoral strategies at hand, its amazing what a few stickers can achieve!
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Dr Coulter has been a journalist since 1978 and is currently a political commentator with GB News.

Getting Into Sticky Times With The DUP!

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

 


A Morning Thought @ 3229

Anthony McIntyre ☠ David Miller was the victim of cancel culture, an anti-democratic mechanism strategically designed to suffocate voices that dissent or seek to tell us something that partisan lobbies would prefer we do not hear. 

Cancel culture, an anti-intellectual weapon frequently utilised by fascists, runs against the grain of diversity, inclusion and equality on all counts: it seeks to exclude a diversity of voices and deny the owners of those voices a claim to an equal right to be heard. 

Cancel culture meets three, and possibly four, of the fourteen criteria set out by Umberto Eco as constituent elements of Ur-Fascism. David Miller's legal victory this week at a UK Employment Appeals Tribunal over this invidious phenomenon is not merely symbolic but hugely important for those activists opposed to Israeli genocide. It is a landmark ruling in the battle of ideas. 

Miller who had earlier left the British Labour Party after it had suspended him as a result of his accusation that the execrable Keir Starmer had taken Zionist money, saw his contract as a professor with Bristol University cancelled in 2021 because he spoke out against Zionism. He had described Israeli government policy as “all out onslaught… on the left globally.” He further called for “the end of Zionism as a functioning ideology”. He accurately described Jewish groups that sought to have him cancelled as pushing 'to stop anyone speaking out about Palestine”.

In a nine minute video he hit out at the Israeli state's policy of cancel culture being allowed to infiltrate and permeate campus life, asserting that 'no university should allow itself to be held hostage by the State of Israel’s campaign of censorship.' He also praised University College, London (UCL) for the decision by its Academic Board to recommend replacing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, lauding the decision as the “beginning of the fightback”. As we are aware the government in this country too has sought to rely on the muzzling device crafted by the IHRA to cancel out anti-Zionist voices through resort to the antisemitic label. 

Miller outlined what the IHRA was aiming to achieve:

Manufactured controversies around Judeophobia — such as in my case — are being used to silence criticism of Zionism and Israel. That is the purpose of the IHRA definition in practice. If Saudi Arabia was engaged in a similar censorship campaign on British campuses, we would laugh it out of the room . . . We have to fight back . . . and the way to fight back is to organise proper debates to understand these issues and not to be fooled that there is some kind of liberal Zionist panacea which is not as bad as the IHRA… This is a problem for freedom of speech and also for academic freedom.

Proper debate is anathema to cancel culture so Miller lost his job. In 2024 he won an appeal against being fired, The university sought to defend its decision by claiming that Miller's views were political beliefs rather than philosophical ones and should not therefore be covered by the Equality Act. However, the chair of the Tribunal pointed out that there was:

no good reason why the beliefs relied upon by the claimant in this case should be excluded from protection simply because they related to an issue of social importance which might, broadly, also be categorised as 'political'.

The university lodged an appeal which this week also collapsed after a hearing in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The upshot: it is now officially accepted that Professor Miller was the victim of wrongful dismissal and, of crucial significance, that anti-Zionism is a protected belief.

The EAT upheld the findings of the earlier tribunal that Miller “did not oppose or hold antipathy towards Jews or Judaism” and was not supportive of violence as a means of opposing Zionism. This drew a clear demarcation line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism

The ruling is a crucially important legal victory in the battle against Zionist cancel culture that has become so prevalent throughout the academic world. It will prove a serious obstacle in the way of those who seek to muzzle anti-Zionist voices with the label antisemitic. 

Miller has crossed a line in the sand drawn by the Israeli state and its academic apologists in the UK.  Welcoming the verdict, he stated:

I am very pleased that the Employment Appeal Tribunal has dismissed the case put forward by the University of Bristol. It is a remarkable and extremely welcome vindication of my long fight to defend myself and all those who hold and express anti-Zionist beliefs. This judgment has now firmly established that anti-Zionist views are a protected belief under the terms of the Equality Act 2010.

Anti-Zionism is a protected belief in the UK. People can't be discriminated against for holding it. Anti- Zionist speech has won the day over the silencing efforts of hateful Hasbara.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

Miller's Crossing

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 3-August-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Killings of Ukrainian POWs.
⬤ Crimea economy collapsing.
⬤ Ukraine protests analysed.
⬤ Why men of conscription age leave Ukraine.
⬤ Russia’s military indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

We investigated Russia’s military indoctrination of Ukrainian children in occupied territories (The Conversation, July 31st)

Monstrous 18-year sentence against 66-year-old Ukrainian from Russian-occupied Sevastopol (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 31st)

Russia uses Ukrainian flag as pretext for new charges against ‘freed’ political prisoner Serhiy Buhaichuk (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 31st)

Face of Resistance: The Story of Political Prisoner Zavur Abdullayev (Crimea Platform, July 31st)

Crimea unplugged: The Russian-occupied peninsula’s businesses are buckling under blackouts, fuel shortages and a failed tourist season (The Insider, July 30th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, July 29th)

Russia’s attack on Crimean Solidarity extends repression to all lawyers defending political prisoners (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 28th)

Ukrainian sentenced to 12 years for ‘endangering Russian security’ through donation to Ukraine’s defenders (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 27th)

News from Ukraine

Assault regiment commander ordered troops to fire on retreating comrades, media investigation alleges (Kyiv Independent, July 30th)

From Syrski to Drapatyi: Ukraine’s military shake-up (Hromadske, 24 July)

Progress of the war

De-crudeification: How Ukraine’s strike campaign on Russian oil refineries is changing the war (The Insider, July 30th)

Drone strikes on "Russia's Amazon": the story of Wildberries (Ukrainska Pravda, July 29th)

Ukraine and Iran's dangerous new standoff, explained (Kyiv Independent, July 29th)

War-related news from Russia

Darya Shipacheva: convicted of treason and sentenced to 12 years in prison (Meduza, 31July)

Russian losses in the war: Mediazona’s count, updated (Mediazona, 31 July)

Russia's defense giant quietly launches new cryptocurrency despite EU sanctions (Kyiv Independent, July 30th)

Daniil Belousov: A Political Prisoner’s Son, Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison (Russian Reader, July 29th)

Russian music after 2022: between propaganda and protest (Posle.Media, 29 July)

You Could Be in Pictures (Russia’s Elite Universities and the War) (Russian Reader, July 25th)

Comment and analysis

Draft dodgers and veterans: the chasm on which Ukraine's victory in the war depends (Ukrainska Pravda, July 28th)

Can Germany prove Ukraine blew up Nord Stream? (Kyiv Independent, July 26th)

Masculinity, Guilt and Citizenship: how men of conscription age make sense of leaving Ukraine (Commons.com.ua, 29 July)

After the protests: power, capital and Ukraine’s defence economy (Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières, 24 July)

The war’s deepening impact on civilians (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 21 July)

Research of human rights abuses

Ripped from their families and shipped to Russia: The tragic story of Ukraine’s children (The Independent, July 31st)

Only Russia wins if there is no international investigation of its Olenivka mass killing of Ukrainian POWs (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 29th)

War crimes probe initiated after Russians interrogate, then execute Ukrainian POW (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, July 27th)

Ukraine’s implementation of the concluding observations of the UN Committee against Torture discussed in Kyiv (Zmina, July 24th)

International solidarity

Ukrainian campaign group welcomes EU’s 21st sanctions package, but calls for loopholes to be closed (Razom We Stand, 23 July)

Strengthening Sanctions on Russian Fossil Fuels (B4Ukraine, July 2026)

Also not to be missed

Salvadorans fighting and dying in global conflict zones (El Salvador Perspectives, July 26th)

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 207

Atheist Ireland ★ As Ireland starts its six-month presidency of the EU Council, Atheist Ireland has submitted a petition to European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions.

1-July-2026

This official process allows citizens and organisations to ask the Parliament to examine how EU law is being implemented in practice.

We’re asking it to examine a gap in Irish equality law. This explicitly protects people with religious beliefs. But it only addresses atheism, humanism, and secularism as the absence of religious beliefs. It does not give them equal status as positive beliefs in their own right.

By contrast, European law refers to freedom of ‘religion or belief’. And the ‘or belief’ part of that phrase refers to nonreligious philosophical convictions. These have the same legal status as religious beliefs.

The problem is not merely symbolic. It shapes how public bodies, schools, equality tribunals, legislators, and regulators understand and apply rights. It causes practical discrimination against atheists, humanists, secularists, and others.

Ironically, the Irish government does recognise the status of Atheist Ireland and the Humanist Association of Ireland as partners in the formal dialogue process with churches and philosophical bodies under Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty.

But Irish citizens do not receive the equal legal protection that this recognition implies. The gap appears across equality law, religious oaths for public office, the education system, marriage solemnisation, charity law, taxation, political advocacy, and access to effective remedies.

What are the consequences of this discrimination?

The Irish Constitution requires religious declarations for several public offices. This means a conscientious atheist cannot become President, a judge, or a member of the Council of State (which includes the Taoiseach and Tánaiste) because they would have to swear an oath to a god they do not believe in.

The Irish State funds a school system in which most schools are controlled by religious patron bodies. There are no non-denominational schools registered with the Department of Education. Boards of management are required to uphold the characteristic spirit, or ethos, of the school as determined by the patron.

In addition, Irish equality law provides exemptions that allow religious bodies and schools to discriminate on the ground of religion in order to protect their religious ethos. These exemptions affect both employment of teachers, and access to education for non-religious families (Section 37 Employment Equality Act and Section 7 Equal Status Act)

The Irish State has no guidelines on how to give practical application to respecting the beliefs of all families equally in publicly funded schools. The only detailed guidelines in place are those issued by the Catholic Church. These assert that atheism and humanism are not ‘beliefs’, directly contradicting EU and international law.

In a case under the Equal Status Act, the WRC accepted the school’s argument that providing alternative classes for students who opted out of religion might cause chaos within the school. It also suggested that offering another subject to such a child could potentially discriminate against students who attended religious classes.

This illustrates the practical problem. Atheism and humanism are treated merely as an absence of religion. This means the burden falls on the non-religious child to fit around the religious ethos, rather than on the publicly funded school to respect all convictions equally.

The Civil Registration Amendment Act 2012 (Section 45A(1)) discriminates in favour of religious bodies over secular bodies in relation to the solemnisation of marriages. It also discriminates between secular bodies, as only secular bodies with humanist objects can solemnise marriages. The result is that religious bodies are trusted to define their own religious purposes, while secular bodies must fit a narrower statutory category.

Irish charity law and tax law also discriminate against citizens and bodies with non-religious philosophical convictions. The advancement of religion is recognised as a charitable purpose. The advancement of atheism, humanism, or secularism is not. Religious bodies can obtain charitable status and associated tax advantages for the advancement of religion. Secular philosophical bodies cannot.

We’re asking the European Parliament to examine why Irish law does not reflect EU law on freedom of religion or belief.

⏩ Follow Atheist Ireland on X @atheistie

Atheist Ireland Petitions European Parliament On Irish Equality Laws

National Secular Society ★ 'No UK charity should be supporting them', says Keir Starmer.

8-July-2026

A Jewish charity in London is being investigated by the regulator for funding a religious school in an illegal Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron, it has been reported.

According to The Guardian, the charity Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent almost £200,000 to the religious school between 2019 and 2024.

The UK Government has:

a clear position on Israeli settlements: Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We strongly advise against conducting any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements", it adds.

The charity is registered under the charitable purposes 'the advancement of religion' and 'the advancement of education'. Registered charities are legally required to act for the public benefit and are exempted from most forms of income tax.

Last month, Labour MP Melanie Ward claimed 32 charities in England and Wales have donated at least £28m to fund illegal Israeli settlements. The taxpayer may have subsidised up to £5.6m of this, she said.

It is not known how many of the 32 charities are registered under 'the advancement of religion'.

Continue @ NSS.

Jewish Charity Investigated For Illegal Settlement Fundraising

Right Wing Watch 👀Written by Peter Montgomery.


“Prophet” and MAGA propagandist Kent Christmas hosted a July 26 “Revival at Ryman” at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with a cast of characters that included MAGA “prophet” Hank Kunneman and FlashPoint’s Gene Bailey. Christmas, who talked about the event with ElijahStreams’ Steve Shultz on Aug. 3, prophesied that God is getting ready to kill a bunch of people:

“And the days are going to come," said the Lord, "where I'm going to mute the mouth of the evil one. And those that have made covenant with the devil, I'm going to remove them." And the Lord said, "It's a wave, not just of judgment." But God said, "Also, when the glory of the Lord is released, death is going to hit the wicked kingdom." And He said, "The gallows that have been built to hang the Gospel on are going to be reversed." God said, "I'm going to reverse it, and I'm going to hang those that built it [the gallows] on their own judgment.”

Purporting to be speaking on behalf of God, Christmas said God is going to judge and purify the church, including 'every woke preacher . . . '

Continue @ RWW.

MAGA ‘Prophet’ Kent Christmas Keeps Saying God is Gonna Start Killing a Bunch of People

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