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TPQ
Ian Major  ✒ In the UK, no group have the right to parade public roads; and right of veto exists for locals along any parade route. It is not a matter of rights either way. So what is the issue? 

I am conscious of the hurt felt by Irish Nationalists living on the Garvaghy Road at the prospect of an Orange church parade passing through their area. Most of the Unionist people would find no offence if such a parade passed through their area - but we would not want a similar Nationalist parade passing down our street. Having said that, both communities do accept Orange or Hibernian parades in some areas and circumstances. We may not agree with the aims and beliefs of the marchers, but we have tolerance on those occasions. 

The trouble arises where the particular parade has had a history of contention associated with it. That moves it from being a mere parade to be a win or lose contention. So what considerations remain when we Christians consider contentious parades, parades that are opposed by a majority of locals in the route of the march? In our calling to love our fellowman we should give due weight to their feelings. Where there are definite and fixed objections from the local community, Orangemen who are believers should respect that and urge their colleagues to choose a different route. They would not be conceding rights, just respecting others' feelings. There are real concerns about the threat to civil & religious liberties in the UK - but they come from ideologies unrelated to Nationalism and Unionism. The British and Irish of Northern Ireland should direct their attention to those, and avoid disrespecting the feelings of our fellow-citizens about the events of 1690 and 1916.

⏩Ian Major grew up a heathen Protestant, was converted at 17. He lives out his Evangelical faith as a Baptist. 

A Christian Reflection On Contentious Parades

Dixie Elliot ✊Sinn Féin calling for a protest, at Free Derry Wall, against the decision of the Parades Commission to allow the bigots to march down the Garvaghy Road is nothing more than a face saving exercise.


It will achieve nothing.
 
Just as nothing has been achieved since the signing of the GFA.
 
'There's no going back' appears to be their slogan for this protest.
 
But they have gone back.
 
They returned to Stormont after repeatedly saying that 'there would be no return to the status quo.
 
They went back so that Michelle O'Neill could become the Colonial First Minister.
 
And the status quo swallowed them up then spat them back out with the reminder that Stormont was still an Orange Parliament for the Orange Order, regardless of whether or not Sinn Féin was the largest party in the North or Michelle O'Neill was the Colonial First Minister.

If Sinn Féin want to protest they should pull out of Stormont instead of propping it up. 

And they should never return.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

Going Back Is The New Phase Of Struggle

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 20-September-2026.


Ed Sheeran may be a good musician, I really don’t know as I have only listened to one of his songs from start to finish, Galway Girl, which, for obvious reasons, is the only song I will mention in this article that I will not provide a link to in the footnotes. He sacked Macklemore at the behest of a Zionist mentioned in the Epstein files and thought that was it. How wrong he was. The backlash has been swift and brutal, though not as brutal as the genocide in Gaza that Sheeran and his Zionist friends like Kraft pretend is not happening.

To be clear Kraft appears in the Epstein list and was also charged with solicitation of prostitutes but the video of him with migrant prostitutes was ruled inadmissible. And he is a close associate of Donald Trump and to nobody’s surprise Benjamin Nethanyahu.[1] Sheeran also played at Kraft’s 2022 wedding. Not so squeaky clean.

Sheeran says he just wants to sing, to entertain to sing love songs and the like. None of it is political he says and his defenders have gone that extra step to say that music shouldn’t be political. Of course, what they mean is that it shouldn’t espouse causes they disagree with, only safe causes that won’t upset the evening tapas and wine soirées in Dublin 4 and posh areas of other cities around the world. And when an event has passed into history, it is very easy to consider the cause safe and sing about it. Not so much when the struggle is going on. Famously, Brian Cowen - the former Irish Taoiseach (prime minister)  - was after a few pints of Guinness able to give rousing renditions of the Fields of Athenry[2] at his party’s Ard Fheis (AGM) whilst he prepared to hand over the property deeds of half the country to the IMF, ECB and any vulture fund wishing to make a quick buck or two on the fields in Athenry or even just a backyard in Tallaght. But the “Famine” which the song is about was safe history.

These same people have no problem with musicians being political when they support the cause. They did not complain about Sheeran speaking and performing about Ukraine. But of course, that was different - they had the support of NATO, UN, EU, USA, the media, the banks etc. So safe, you could invest in it. And they did. He also met with Noa Argamani following her release by Hamas, but not with Palestinians released in the same period. 

Sheeran, is a coward, a liar and very political when it suits him and his Zionist backers.[3] Sheeran went into damage limitation mode at his first concert after sacking Macklemore. He threw in October 7th, and said what is happening now is unjustifiable, but he didn’t mention who was carrying out the genocide, in fact he didn’t use that word at all. He said it was the most complicated issue in the world, when in fact it is simple: genocide is wrong at all times. He portrayed himself as a victim caught up in a maelstrom not of his own making and again lied that he is never political. He talked of neutrality in the midst of it all. In all it was a self-serving statement that mixed up issues and had little of substance to say.

He also said that he was worried that artists performance material would have to be preapproved by venues.[4] But that is exactly what he did. There is a long history of this in the USA, particularly during the McCarthy period but also long after. Sheeran and Kraft just revived the practice. One of the stadiums to ban Macklemore was the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Georgia, a place that once hounded black artists. The car company doesn’t own the stadium, it just has the naming rights, but it is ironic that a stadium in Georgia of all places named after a company that once happily supplied the Nazis with vehicles and made lots of money out of it should not like people complaining about genocide. This is the same state that effectively banned Ray Charles because he refused to play to segregated audiences.

These people are wrong on every level. Not just about Palestine, but about music being neutral. It never has been, though some have tried to excuse Sheeran as not having realised that some shift had taken place in audiences' expectations. Not so. Music has always being political. Woody Guthrie, who inspired Dylan and countless folk singers, famously inscribed This Machine Kills Fascists on his guitar, something which might land him in jail nowadays. Music is a weapon and a battleground, and he sang about people’s struggles, from the dustbowl poverty[5] to the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti.[6]


Acts that are safe politically speaking get promoted and always have. Those musicians who are not safe anymore are cancelled. In some cases they are murdered by the state. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca is perhaps the most internationally recognised Spanish poet. He was famous in life as a campaigner not only for social causes but for art. He is internationally remembered in part because he was murdered by the Fascists. Victor Jara is perhaps the most famous Chilean singer. He became famous due to his allegiance to the causes of the working class whilst alive and the songs he sang as part of that struggle such as El Derecho de Vivir en Paz[7] (The Right to Live in Peace) against the war in Vietnam. The lyrics are so relevant to Gaza now.

To all humanity

No Cannon will erase

The furrow of your rice field

The right to live in peace.

The Pinochet dictatorship feared him so much they felt compelled to silence his voice and murdered him only days after the coup. Sheeran need not worry, they will never do that to the likes of him, he is their useful complicit fool.

The world is full of musicians and composers who have been murdered, censored or forced into exile. In the Spanish State we have Catalan musicians such as Lluís Llach who wrote many anti-Franco songs such as L’Estaca,[8] which called for the overthrow of the Fascist dictatorship in Spain. He even recorded one on exile itself, Corrandes d’Exili(Verses on Exile),[9] or Paco Ibañez who dedicated his life to putting music to the words of countless poets such as Antonio Machado who died in exile, Miguel Hernández who was captured and imprisoned where he died from tuberculosis, García Lorca murdered at the beginning of the Fascist take over and Rafael Alberti who spent 39 years in exile. In Latin America musicians such as Daniel Viglietti also went into exile following his release from prison in Uruguay and Mercedes Sosa fled Argentina. These might seem like they belong to a faraway time, but at the moment Pablo Hasél is in jail in Spain serving a sentence for singing a song critical of the Spanish king, Juan Carlos I.[10] The song refers to his alcohol abuse, use of prostitutes, trophy hunting of animals in Africa and his plundering of the Spanish finances. All of Hasél’s statements are factually accurate.[11] The former Spanish king appointed by the Fascist dictator Franco, is currently on the run in Abu Dhabi, due to his involvement in financial irregularities as they like to put it, whilst Hasél languishes in prison for the crime of insulting the crown.

Sheeran likes to flout his Irish heritage, which at this stage has been reduced at best to his ginger hair. Irish music is full of references to rebellion, from Robert Emmet,[12] to the Fenians,[13] the 1916 Rising,[14] the effects of the great hunger which saw massive migration,[15] Internment in 1971[16], Bloody Sunday in 1972, recorded by John Lennon,[17] the Hunger Strikes[18] and so forth. Some of it is very political, other songs not so much. You’d think a man who claims to be culturally Irish would know this. But there have always been those who strived to put forward nonsense about music and politics not mixing. Blacks in the US expressed their plight through music, time and again. Whole genres arose due to that and in case Sheeran was in doubt, what does he think the spiritual Oh Freedom[19] is about? Does he think it is just a pretty tune? Does he think it was sung as part of the civil rights movement in the USA for light entertainment?

Oh freedom, oh freedom

Before I’ll be a slave

I’ll be buried in my grave

Black musicians began refusing to play Jim Crow segregated concerts in the 1950s and 1960s. Even The Beatles at the height of their commercial success before they became more political emulated Ray Charles and refused to play Gator Bowl stadium in 1964 because it was segregated. They stood up to the city and the city backed down. Sheeran has no such backbone, he could regress a few million years in evolutionary terms and we wouldn’t notice the difference.

Pete Seeger put it succinctly in a reworked Methodist Hymn, How Can I Keep from Singing?[20]

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear

And hear their death-knell ringing

When friends rejoice both far and near

How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile

Our thoughts to them are winging

When friends by shame are undefiled

How can I keep from singing?

Of course Sheeran’s answer to this, is how can I count my money over the cries and wailing of mothers holding their dead infants in their arms? Put on your headphones and listen to some banal shite on Spotify would seem to be the answer.

There would be no modern folk music without politics, no reggae either nor Ska which was a musical form popular amongst working class Jamaicans.[21] No Hugh Masekela and South African Jazz without the struggle against Apartheid and of course no Miriam Makeba either. All music is political in nature. Some of the folk songs in the US were composed,by the executed trade union leader Joe Hill, amongst others, to stop the Salvation Army from breaking up trade union meetings. The SA would turn up at meetings with their bands to stop the godless trade unionists from organising the working class. So the IWW (the Wobblies as they were known) composed trade union songs to the same melodies as the reactionary songs of the Salvation Army. As Utah Phillips put it, they took the melodies because they were pretty and changed the lyrics so they made more sense. So when the SA turned up, the trade unionists burst into song and the SA went away, with Lucifer’s tale between their legs. One of the songs of that nature is The Preacher and the Slave, also known as Pie in the Sky.[22]

The point of it all is that music has always been political and Ed “butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth” Sheeran is eminently political. He makes statements about Ukraine because he knows the great and powerful agree with him, he says nothing about Palestine because these same forces are on the side of genocide. He meets with released captives of Hamas but has never met, nor will he ever meet a Palestinian detained as a child with no charge and released many years later as an adult, having never been convicted or even charged with a crime. Sheeran is very political, just like Trump. Stupid, crass, self-serving, egotistical, but political: always political. And like Trump he is always treacherous.

References

[1] The Independent (18/09/2026) Robert Kraft: The man named in the Epstein files who is behind Ed Sheeran’s concert controversy. 

[2] Written by Pete St. John and first recorded by Paddy Reilly. 

[3] The Tab (16/09/2026) Ed Sheeran branded ‘coward’ as treasure trove of receipts resurfaces after response to Macklemore. Kieran Galpin.

[4] The Guardian (20/09/2026) Ed Sheeran says the situation in Gaza ‘unjustifiable’ in first show since tour plunged into turmoil.

[5] See Woody Guthrie Dust Bowl Blues.

[6] See Woddy Guthrie Two Good Men.

[7] See Victor Jara, El Derecho de Vivir en Paz.

[8] See Lluís Llach al Palau dels Esports Barcelona 1976.

[9] See Lluís Llach Corrandes d’Exili

[10] See autobiography 

[11] See Pablo Hasél Juan Carlos el Bobón

[12] See Dublin City Ramblers, Bold Robert Emmet

[13] See The Bold Fenian Men

[14] See The Wolfe Tones Grace Live in Belfast

[15] See Robbie O’Connell, Kilkelly Ireland

[16] See The Wolfe Tones, The Men Behind the Wire

[17] See John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

[18] See Christy Moore, The Time Has Come

[19] See Harry Belafonte Oh Freedom

[20] See Pete Seeger How Can I Keep From Singing

[21] Dogukanejderr (03/10/2022) The History of Ska and Its Association with Subcultures. 

[22] See The Preacher and the Slave from Joe Hill (1971).

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.

Music Is Not Political, Says Political Ed Sheeran

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Three

 

A Morning Thought @ 3275

Tommy McKearney ☭ A question for our readers. Is the Trump presidency an aberration in an otherwise properly functioning governmental structure, or is this bizarre regime symptomatic of a deeper malaise?


 Let us examine the situation.

Donald Trump is an obnoxious, unscrupulous, vainglorious, unprincipled thug. He is also a convicted felon who, as president, has used that position to greatly enlarge his personal wealth. Since returning to the White House in 2025, he has used executive orders to introduce a plethora of tariffs that have caused turmoil not only in states traditionally viewed as out of favour with Washington but among long-term allies as well. Coupled with his threat to annex countries that are members of NATO, he has destabilised what, for long, was a solidly united bloc of leading capitalist countries.

Moreover, and in contradiction to his election campaign promise not to embark on foreign wars, he has launched several military operations. Most recently, he has decided to attack Iran. An unwise option as it turned out, resulting in his popularity falling due to the inflationary impact of rising oil prices. Consequently, there is an opinion growing in some quarters that as his influence declines, his presidency will be viewed as an aberration never to be repeated.

Whatever about the Trump style of running the office being a bizarre, one-off phenomenon, the essence of the US presidency and its dictatorial use of economic power backed by flagrant use of military might will not change voluntarily. While Donald Trump may well pass into history as a boorish anomaly, he is not an aberration in terms of the United States’ exercise of power.

In reality, while the Trumpian delivery is theatrical to the point of ludicrousness, his underlying theme of ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) is something that the US ruling class wholeheartedly endorses. The reason is simply that the American Century is no more and the empire is in decline. A condition brought about largely through its adoption of neo-liberal economic policies at the beginning of the 1980s.

A policy found necessary by the US bourgeoisie in what might be described as an example of the inherent contradictions within capitalism. Three decades after the end of the Second World War and the Western bloc’s compromise with its working class in order to offset the attraction of Soviet-style socialism, the capitalist order was feeling threatened by the increasing power of labour. Drawing on the theories of the Chicago School of Economics led by Milton Friedman, the government of Ronald Reagan (and that of Margaret Thatcher) embarked on a mission to crush organised labour.

Utilising a strategy of ostensibly promoting the supremacy of free market capitalism, no consideration of how this impacted on employment or working-class living standards was to be tolerated. In practice, this meant that the state not only refused to consider any input from organised labour but actively worked to break trade union bargaining power.

Consequently, big business found it politically possible to move its manufacturing plants from the USA and relocate abroad in order to take advantage of lower labour costs. (A similar process was also underway in Thatcher’s Britain.) Over time, deindustrialisation led to what became known as the ‘Rust Belt’ across the Midwest and Great Lakes, accompanied inevitably by mass unemployment.

As Lenin had identified in his classic work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, the export of capital replaced the export of manufactured commodities. For several decades thereafter, the US financial sector benefitted as central government paid little attention to the hardship being endured by many working-class Americans.

By the same token, the US ruling class was initially indifferent to the outworking of facilitating the transfer of much of its manufacturing base abroad. Eventually, though, they came to realise that by doing so other countries, particularly China, had built a viable indigenous manufacturing base. Further concern was created by the fact that the People’s Republic had used its enormous sophisticated educational structures to enhance manufacturing processes once controlled solely by the USA.

This has resulted in China’s manufacturing sector now being significantly greater than that of the US. In the mid-1980s, China’s share of global manufacturing stood at less than 5 per cent, in contrast to the US share of approximately 27 per cent. Current figures show that China’s share stands at nearly 30 per cent while the US has declined to just over 17 per cent. Moreover, the PRC is leading global markets in crucial fields, among which are green energy, electronics, heavy industry and industrial automation tools.

Faced with the prospect of being comprehensively outperformed economically by what is deemed as Communist China, the US ruling capitalist class along with its Deep State are reacting despotically. This is evidenced by the fact that Trump was allowed leeway that would not have been tolerated if opposed by the embedded establishment. Between his abuse of office to self-enrich, his criminal conviction and the distinct likelihood of incriminating material in the Epstein files, there were ample grounds for impeachment if so desired.

There can only be one conclusion, and that is, regardless of his style, Trump is allowed, even encouraged, to launch a programme of measures compatible with the interests of the empire.

In short, to answer the question with which we opened: Donald Trump is undoubtedly a boorish charlatan, but he is not in any way an aberration in terms of the methodology, practices and strategy of the Yankee empire. Therein lies the dangerous malaise at the heart of that system.

Reference

¹ Felix Richter, ‘China’s Rise to Manufacturing Dominance’, Statista.

Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist.
He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament.
Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney



Trump Is Not An Aberration But The Continuum

Anthony McIntyre ⚽ Just the two of us for this one. Neither Jay nor his mates tagged along.


First stop the Windmill for a double whiskey to top up the house glass I had already imbibed at home before setting out for the game. It is as well Paddy has the patience of a saint as a bane to my aversion to the sobriety of a judge. The Drogheda prices are much better than Dublin. In one of the bars yesterday I forked out 9.5 yo yo for a shot of Black Bush. I took Powers at 2.50 cheaper the round after that. Even then, considerably pricier than Drogheda pubs. 

It reveals a lot about our loss of confidence in this Drogheda side when the brace of us predicted a defeat going into the game. It's Sligo FFS but the performances from Drogheda throughout a string of matches has been so consistently poor that even the bottom team seems more than capable of walking away from Sullivan and Lamb Park three points to the good. Not a home win in the league in four months helps explain why the Drogs are facing yet another relegation battle and increasing disappointment on the terraces. 

On the night our Jeremiah perspective of doom and gloom was subverted by a commanding performance from the claret and blue who emerged 2-0 winners, game wrapped up in the first half with strikes from Warren Davis and Edwin Agbaje. The latter had played magnificently from start to finish, delivering the killer blow at the most psychologically demoralising moment for Sligo - just before the ref called time on the first half. 

It keeps the Drogs within touching distance of a resurgent Waterford, two points north and only 6 games left. It has also hammered another nail into the Sligo coffin, the Bit O'Red on the precipice almost certain to disappear into the abyss of the lower division for the first time in twenty two years. I wasn't even living in Drogheda when that happened.

Despite the weakness of the opposition the win should not be understated. Kevin Doherty was without seven of his first team regulars either due to injury or suspension. The Drogs allowed Sligo most of the possession, seemingly happy for them to pass the ball in areas they were never going to score from. Off the ball the Drogs put up a shield wall. On the ball they gave the Bit O' Red a bit o' lead. While the home exuded an uncharacteristic confidence, Sligo looked like a team that had lost all self belief, projecting a picture of dejection. 

Still, ninth with 31 points, with a maximum of 18 to be taken from the remaining fixtures, it is a precarious time for Drogheda United. Jeremiah might have taken a back seat for the evening but it is not quite time for Pollyanna to take his place.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.


Drogs ⚽ Bit O'Red ⚽ Bit O' Lead


Q&A: Student activism on American campuses in response to the war in Gaza has become a national debate over where to draw the line between political dissent and antisemitism.

Even as many universities have moved to restrict, disperse or discipline protest activity, demonstrations — and the arguments about how to describe them — have continued, raising questions about free speech, campus safety and whether criticism of Israel is being conflated with anti-Jewish hatred.

Alan Wald, the H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, is a historian of the 20th-century U.S. cultural Left. He discusses parallels to Cold War-era campus politics, Zionism and how debates over the meaning of antisemitism shape campus protests over Israel and Palestine.

Q/ What is Zionism — and why do you describe becoming a Zionist as a “choice” rather than an identity?

A/ Understanding Zionism requires one to enter complex political terrain. The assertion that Zionism is essential to Jewish identity is misleading for several reasons. Judaism is a monotheistic religion at least 3,000 years old, whereas Zionism began as a secular-led political movement in the late 19th century. 

Continue @ ESSF. 

Zionism Is A Political Choice 🪶 Not Always A Part Of Jewish Identity

Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ Ireland relative to her land mass and population size has a long and interesting history which she fails on too many occasions to give full credit to those who helped forge this history. 

From forgotten individuals to organisations the numbers of those who contributed greatly to the island's long and interesting past are forgotten. Of those remembered are people like Admiral William Brown of Foxford, County Mayo, often credited as the ‘father of the Argentine navy’ who fought in the Cisplatine War, better known as the Argentine War of Independence and County Wexford's John Barry who was the first commissioned officer in the Continental Navy in 1775 during the US Revolutionary War 1775-1783. 

Both these men are rightly remembered by the twenty-six-county government as are many other individuals and organisations who have contributed to Ireland's and other countries' bygone days. It is those who are not remembered or given minimum credibility usually due to ideological, perhaps anti-bourgeois tendencies, or because of their gender and others who just do not for whatever reason fit the bill so to speak. There are many of these unsung heroes of Ireland's long history dating back centuries. For our purpose, 1916 is the period under discussion beginning with the formation of the Irish Citizen Army.

On 12th November 1913 a meeting of the Industrial Peace Committee took place in the rooms of the Reverend R.M Gwynn at 40 Trinity College. Here the idea of a worker’s defence force was discussed, having being ruled out of order at a previous meeting, and arrangements were made for a drilling scheme for the locked-out workers and a fund opened to buy boots and staves, with Professor David Houston of the Royal College of science as treasurer - A Descriptive History of the Irish Citizen Army: Kevin Morley P. 7). 

This force would become the Irish Citizen Army and would take part along with the Irish Volunteers in the Easter Rising 1916. This trade union workers' defence force became what many have described as ‘the first Red Army in Europe’ predating Leon Trotsky albeit larger model by four years. Despite the part the ICA played in the events of Easter Week they do not get the recognition or anywhere near it as that afforded the middle-class led Irish Volunteers. 

Arguably but for the ICA, then led by James Connolly who had already planned an uprising against British rule involving the organised labour of the working-class and the ICA, the heroic events of Easter Week may well not have taken place, certainly not at the time they did. Connolly commanded the combined Irish forces, Irish Citizen Army and Irish Volunteers, in Dublin that week and but for his presence and signature on the Proclamation the Irish Citizen Army may have been airbrushed out of Irish history by the bourgeoisie and their governments. Recognition to Marxist led organisations in the fight for freedom appears not the preference of the middle-class exploiters of labour.

On 2nd April 1914 at Wynns Hotel in Dublin the Cumann na mBan was formed. The aims were to advance Irish liberty, organise Irishwomen, and assist in arming and equipping Irishmen for national defence. The organisation initially operated as an independent group serving as an auxiliary to the Irish Volunteers and later their roles would expand. The Cumann na mBan gave sterling service during Easter Week and it was Elizabeth O’Farrell of Cumann na mBan who delivered Pearse’s surrender to Brigadier General Lowe ending hostilities. Cumann na mBan took the anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and probably due to their gender and anti-Treaty leanings they, like the ICA, have not received the credit they deserve for the part they played in 1916. So here are two prominent organisations which took part in the Easter Rising which have received very little credit or recognition for their roles. That then leaves the Irish Volunteers, for the purpose of length I will include Na Fianna Eireann who were the youth wing of the Volunteers, and even here we see double standards by the Dublin Government when it comes to recognising the efforts of some volunteers and, once again, women.

A major point of double standards by the twenty-six-county administration concerns a group of volunteers in County Laois. The descendants of Eamon Fleming (Officer in Charge), Michael Gray, a dedicated volunteer who joined the IRB before the rising, Michael Walsh, and John (Sean) Peter McGuire are now campaigning for formal recognition from the state and awards of 1916 commemorative medals to their relatives. These men who helped sabotage the Portlaoise railway line during the Easter Rising are among those who have been denied recognition, the forgotten heroes. The ‘Colt Wood Sabotage Group’ on the direct orders of Padraig Pearse dismantled the railway lines, derailed a train, cut vital telegraph communication wires at Colt Wood. Such actions would have been worthy of the Special Operations Executive for the allies during World War Two behind enemy lines.

Along with those aforementioned were Patrick J. Ramsbottom (Vice O/C), Lorcan (Laurence) O’ Bradaigh (Brady), Thomas F. Brady, Patrick Muldowney, John Muldowney, Colum Holohan, and Michael J. Sheridan. Local women also played an invaluable part in the mobilisation, dispatching messages, and supporting the operations. Key women of note were Noreen Brady, Kathleen Brady, Mrs May Conroy (nee Brady), and Breda Conroy (also nee Brady). While some participants in this operation did receive acknowledgement, descendants like Pat Flemming whose grandfather led the campaign, and Owen Kirby, grandson of Michael Gray, state many active volunteers have been overlooked (which may include those not mentioned here) and their past applications for 1916 medals were rejected. The women involved have been virtually airbrushed out of history which is shameful. The outcome of their actions in Laois was the successful derailment of a British military train thus slowing down the British advance considerably. They also disrupted communication lines causing the enemy untold problems.

According to state criteria for a medal a person must have ‘rendered recognized military service during the specific week of 23rd April to 29th April 1916’. The reason given many County Laois and other provincial families have come across difficulties and rejections over the decades comes down to how active service was ‘legally interpreted by early State Assessors’. How is it then, if this red tape is accepted, some of the volunteers, rightly so, have been awarded the medal and pension while others have not? Surely, they were all on the same mission, they were all acting under the direct orders of Commander in Chief and President of the Provisional Government, Padraig Pearse, so therefore all should have received their entitlements, shouldn’t they? So far it appears not and the question is, and never mind the state bullshit, why not? The operations carried out by the men and women of County Laois in 1916 were equal to those taking place in Dublin so why the discrepancies? Could it be County Laois was out of the way, therefore not considered as important as the theatre of war in Dublin? This could be the case because of all the executed men after the rising the two men executed outside Dublin, Thomas Kent and Roger Casement, appear to receive the least acknowledgements.

Whatever the reasons for the omissions from honours to the men and women of County Laois for their actions during Easter Week they need redressing and medals issued to their descendants now. An apology from the state should be forthcoming, particularly to the descendants of the women of Cumann na mBan. Medals need issuing to the families of all the neglected volunteers right now with no more hesitation or skirting round the issue. 

The twenty-six-county administration seem to have developed a habit of selectively not recognising individuals and organisations who fought an empire for a week at Easter 1916. Stop these double standards and stop them now, they are not becoming even of this state. The trade union movement honour the Irish Citizen Army and it was those who erected a statue to James Connolly opposite Liberty Hall in Dublin. Cumann na mBan hold their own commemorations along with other republican groups with very little state recognition. 

1916 was and remains one of Irelands finest hours and should still act as a beacon for oppressed and occupied peoples across the globe. The Dublin government, irrespective of party holding that position, must acknowledge all those volunteers through the descendants of the men and women of Easter Week 1916.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

1916 🪶 The Forgotten Heroes

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Two

 

A Morning Thought @ 3274

Jim Duffy ✍ Plagues and pandemics were and are a constant in the human condition. 

The Black Death was as far as we know the worst pandemic ever experienced. Its mortality rate was highest in percentage terms, killing 60% of the known population in Europe. Only the Plague of Justinian had a similar rate.

In terms of death numbers the highest was the Spanish Flu, at its height between 1918 and 1920 but which is believed not to have disappeared until 1960, with the 1957 flu pandemic that killed my grand uncle, Brother Thomas O'Brien, SJ in Sydney, Australia. In numbers of deaths, the HIV-AIDS pandemic comes third, while Covid is fifth to date, with 38 million dying. Covid isn't over though. Hopefully we are past its peak though you never know until it ends and you only know it is over when it has disappeared completely for a decade. Occasionally a pandemic can come roaring back but usually they don't.

Of course the death rate of Covid was suppressed by vaccines. Without vaccines it might have had a death rate akin to the Spanish Flu - which is thought now to have killed 100 million.

One figure gives an indication of how extreme the Black Death was compared to HIV-AIDS or Covid. Covid's death rate worldwide was 0.4375%. The Black Death was up to 60% of the known population. So the Black Death was up to 120 times more lethal than Covid. Even without the vaccines that saved so many, covid would never have reached the lethality of the Black Death. Our answers in the Black Death saw three out of every five people they knew die.

The trouble with pandemics and plagues is that they are a constant. They always occur. We just don't know when. We might not have a pandemic for fifty years, or one could appear next week. We have no idea. All we know is that they usually involve an animal virus spreading into humans, and as we have never had it before our immune system has no way of fighting it.

Covid appears to come from bats in Wuhan. It was a natural bat virus. Either a researcher in the research lab in Wuhan didn’t follow the strict rules to protect themselves and accidentally got the virus and unknowingly spread it. Or it came from the notorious wet markets in Wuhan, where live bats are sold to be used in soups. The WHO had been warning for decades that those markets needed to be closed. China panicked either because a staff member in the lab got infected through negligence, or because China had failed to close down the wet markets.

The Spanish Flu appears to have come from a pig in Kansas. The pig passed it to a farm labourer. He was scheduled to join the US Army as America had joined World War I and so went to the local unit. Unbeknown to him he carried the pig virus and infected the unit. It spread like wildfire through the army and families. Soldiers arrived in the port of Brest and infected port workers. Port workers infected crews arriving in the port. Those crews carried it all over the world.

So the world was thrown into chaos because one pig infected one farm labourer with the Spanish Flu. Or on bat passed its virus to one person in Wuhan.

The US army noticed that lots of soldiers were suddenly getting very ill and some were dying but had no idea what was going on. The same happened in Wuhan. People began getting sick and rumours spread that there was some strange illness spreading. People like Dr Fauci received reports and began wondering "is this a new pandemic?"

China hushed it up as it was either caused by sloppy research practices in the lab in Wuhan, or China's failure despite warnings to close down the wet markets selling bats. Either way, a fuck by China had unleashed a pandemic and China tried to hide it as its reputation was at risk.

Unfortunately, just as the port of Brest spread the virus through crews on ships, Wuhan is a major transport hub, with air flights all over the world and vast numbers getting trains and planes in Wuhan. Bad as that was, the outbreak happened during major holidays, when literally millions were travelling through Wuhan to visit families, or travelling abroad.

That is how easy pandemics start. One animal. One virus. One infected human. So we have no idea when the next one will start. But one will occur. It may come from a cow or a sheep or a cat or a rabbit or a pig or a dog or a pigeon or some other animal. All it takes is one person to catch it and a calamity awaits.

One thing the Black Death taught us is that to stop it spreading, humans have to stop mixing. That is why since mediaeval times we have had lockdowns. The spread can only be slowed down by shutting down the country - at least until you find a vaccine and begin vaccinating people.

That is the world of plagues and pandemics. Predictable in what has to be done. Predictable that another one will always occur. Unpredictable in that you don't know the animal that will pass on the virus the type of virus and when it will occur.

My grandmothers lived through the Spanish Flu, 1929 flu, 1957 flu and the beginning of HIV-AIDS. My grandfathers were two decades older than their wives, so they also lived though the Russian Flu (1889-90s). My great-grandparents lived through five pandemics between the 1840s and 1930s.

Shakespeare lived through two pandemics in one decade. He was primarily a jobbing actor but with London constantly in lockdowns the theatres were closed. So he spent lockdowns writing plays.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Pandemics

Anthony McIntyre ☠ There is growing disquiet in the US about the country's billionaire class continuing to supply the genocidal Israeli state with the weapons of war on children. 

The government has approved a 2.8 billion arms deal which includes the provision of '2,000-pound bombs that have frequently been used in both Gaza and Lebanon to devastating effect.'

The New York Times, is reported to have identified '208 craters at least 40 feet across in an area of southern Gaza where Israel told civilians to move to safety.' Which means at least 208 of these bombs were used to target civilians herded by Israeli Mengele-types into areas designated safe zones which were in fact kill zones. We will be forgiven for remembering the Jews who were told to go to the shower rooms where they would be safely cleansed but which were in fact execution chambers where they were routinely and systematically gassed.

In one incident at the Jabaliya Refugee Camp 195 Palestinian civilians were killed and a further 777 injured by these bombs.

It is the brutal savagery and its penchant for child murder - Norman Finkelstein has described Israel as a nation of child killers - which has led to a drop in support for Israel within the US.

In July a headline in the Tampa Free Press proclaimed that Polls Show 67-Point Shift In American Views On Israel Over Eight Years. 

In the body of the report the figures were broken down:

Appearing on “CNN News Central,” CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten pointed to a series of recent polls showing that net favorability ratings for Israel have turned negative across multiple tracking organizations. According to the data, net favorability stands at minus 10 points in Ipsos polling, minus 11 points according to Fox News, minus 20 points in the Marquette University Law School poll, and minus 23 points in findings from the Pew Research Center. Gallup also reported negative numbers earlier this year.
The figures reflect a dramatic pivot from past political norms. During Donald Trump’s first term, Israel’s average net favorability hovered at plus 51 points. Today, that average has fallen to minus 16 points, representing a 67-point drop in less than a decade.

Enten interpreted the figures:

We’re not just talking about the Democratic base anymore. We’re talking about the general electorate as well . . . The general electorate has turned against Israel. This is not just a left issue. It is an American issue when it comes to opinions on Israel.

Perhaps most welcome of all for those opposed to genocide and most worrying for genocide backers is a Gallup poll finding from last year that just 9% of those age 18-34 of all political parties support Israeli actions.

When Ed Sheeran struggles to keep his show on the road for denying moral support to Macklemore who was cancelled but not silenced by the billionaire class, when the UK government opts to take action against Israeli land thieves in the West Bank, when pro-Israel US Representative Brad Sherman claims Israel is losing the battle for worldwide public opinion and lambasts Israeli ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich as apostles of settler violence, we can feel the winds of change.

None of this change in mindset has come about because of goodwill on the part of those in power. We need think no further than the swine Starmer who dragged his trotters at every opportunity.  It is the result of public pressure, the persistent congregating in the public square by people like you gathered here today. Which makes it important to show up again next week, and the week after that, every week until the genocidal beast is no longer in heat.  

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

Safe Zones Kill Zones

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