Social Items

TPQ
Frankie Quinn with a poem from his expansive body of work. 

On A Cliff's Edge

If he were to stumble and fall
 Will the light catch his breath? 
 Will the wind toss his hair? From side to side, or blow it straight
 In his face so tears become ice frozen
 Pearls on his face?
♞♜♝
 On a cliff’s edge, 
sharp stone Pillars point toward wild dreams
 Coloured by hard rain on cut cheeks
 Outstretched arms of bewildered boy
 He rests his head on the breeze
 Which steals him away to the warmth.
♞♜♝
Don’t look up! No one there to call out STOP! 
 Or touch the patched-out eyes enflamed with pain
 Black out the blue below each wrist
 Emptiness befriends him on a beach in winter
No coloured towels or squeaky rubber toys
 Mothers push into bags full of love for boys.
♞♜♝
 When you are bad you are bad, you are not allowed 
 To be sad
♞♜♝
 He stepped out walked with the clouds
No permission to scream. Shut your mouth! Don’t
Blame us, you told us you were fine


⏩ Frankie Quinn is a former republican prisoner who is now a community activist. He is the author of Open Gates, a book of poetry.   

On A Cliff's Edge

Norman Finkelstein šŸŽ¤ in an exchange of ideas with Candace Owens about Israel, the Holocaust, and his upcoming book, Gaza's Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places.

Candace Owens With Norman Finkelstein

A Digest of News ✊ from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 2-November-2025.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Ukrainian unions solidarity call.
⬤ Scottish unions’ Kharkiv report.
⬤ More evidence of Russian killing of civilians.
⬤ Persecution of Crimean Tatars.
⬤ Beatings in captivity.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Face of Resistance: Crimean Tatar Activist Zekirya Muratov (Crimea Platform, October 25th)

Russia sentences youngest abducted journalist to 14 years for Melitopol Telegram channel (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 24th)

Ukrainian abducted, tortured and sentenced to life because Ukraine carried out an attack on Russian invaders (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 24th)

Imprisoned Ukrainian marine biologist charged with ‘treason’ for opposing Russia’s plans in Antarctic area (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 23rd)

Russian court orders rearrest and 17-year sentence against blind and disabled Crimean political prisoner (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 22nd)

Occupied territories: ‘ownerless’ homes will go to the Russian state, by law (Meduza, 21 October)

Occupiers Detain Ukrainian Antarctic Scientist Leonid Pshenychnov (Crimea Platform, October 21st)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, October 21st)

Crimean Tatar Political Prisoner Tofik Abdulgaziev Diagnosed with Diabetes and Other Serious Health Conditions (Crimea Platform, October 21st)

Menacing threats against human rights defender Lutfiye Zudiyeva after Russia’s arrests of four Crimean Tatar women (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 20th)

News from the front and ‘peace’ negotiations

Trump and Putin: from summit to no summit (Meduza, 22 October)

Russian invaders gun down civilians in Pokrovsk, try to kill others in evacuation van (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 21st)

Russian army closing in: the battle for Pokrovsk (Meduza, 20 October)

News from Ukraine

Russia’s war has transformed Kharkiv’s hardest-hit neighbourhood (Meduza, 24 October)

Social Protection and Housing in Rural Hromadas near the frontline (Cedos, October 17th)

War-related news from Russia

“We Wanted to Show the Whole Range of Anti-War Resistance in Russia” (Posle, October 22nd)

Journalists and academics swept on to Russia’s ‘extremist’ and ‘terrorist’ list (Meduza, 22 October)

Brainwashing 101: How state propaganda hijacked Russian education (The Insider, October 22nd)

ICE goes after Russian asylum seekers (The Russian Reader, 22 October)

Ribbons of trouble. Criminal charges for teenagers who livestreamed vomiting on war symbol (Mediazona, 21 October)

Prosecutions doubled for ‘treason’ and ‘espionage’ (iStories, 21 October)

Russia passes massive sentences against 15 Ukrainian POWs for defending Ukraine against its invasion (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, October 20th)

“Our people poisoned Navalny”: Former FSB officer on surveilling opposition figures and running black ops in Russia and Ukraine (The Insider, October 18th)

St Petersburg Street Musician Arrested After Viral Anti-Putin Gig (Moscow Times, October 16th)

“One Day, Women Will Eat the Kremlin” (Posle, October 15th)

Analysis and comment

Rental Housing in Ukraine: Current State and Challenges (Cedos, October 24th)

Civilians and infrastructure targeted: Ukrainian unions call for solidarity (Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine, 22 October)

500+ recommendations for Ukraine’s path towards the EU by NGOs (Zmina, October 20th)

‘In the Western European left, there’s a desire to put up a wall and ignore what’s happening in the east’ (Links, October 19th)

Homophobia at the core of Putinism’s ideological positioning (Commons.com, October 11th)

Research of human rights abuses

Growing up waiting for their fathers: a photo exhibition about the children of Crimean Tatar political prisoners opened in Kyiv (Zmina, October 22nd)

"They're destroying Ukraine's cultural elite": number of artists and media workers killed since 2022 revealed (Ukrainska Pravda, October 21st)

International solidarity

UNISON Scotland Kharkiv delegation report (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 23 October)

Toxicity: backing for Russian political prisoner Mikhail Kriger (The Russian Reader, October 20th)

Upcoming events

Monday 3 November, 7.0pm, on line. UNISON Scotland Branches Kharkiv Delegation Report Back. Information and registration here.

Thursday 20 November, 7.0pm: Try Me for Treason – readings of speeches from Russia’s courts / Book launch for Voices against Putin’s war. Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London E1 5QJ. Ukraine Information Group.
šŸ”“This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

The bulletin is also stored on line here.

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News From Ukraine šŸ’£ Bulletin 169

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Eight Hundred And Seventy Eight

 


Pastords @ 10

 

A Morning Thought @ 2958

Martin Galvin  šŸ“° with a letter that featured in the Irish News on 21-October-2025

The Joint Legacy Framework agreed by the British and Irish governments, marks a victory for victims’ relatives, who defeated the Tory Legacy Act in the Court of Appeals and discredited the ICRIR by refusing to participate. The Irish government too, deserves credit for taking Britain to the European Court and for getting Britain to agree terms that have the potential to give justice. However, those who understand the past will welcome the agreement with caution, as we await passage of proposed British legislation, and, crucially, whether new laws are applied in a spirit which finally gives truth to families, after decades of bad faith and injustice.

The inspiration behind this 50 year legacy battle, has always been victims’ relatives, who would not accept being denied the truth about murdered loved ones. All families are equally entitled to justice, but the injustice cut deeper, when state agencies with a duty to uphold justice collaborate in murder cover-ups because the victims were murdered by British state forces or state agents.

When Paras murdered a Catholic priest, a grandmother and eight others at Ballymurymurphy or fourteen civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday, heroic family and friends overcame decades of denials and delays to get vindication at the Saville Inquiry, then a Ballymurphy Inquest. Even today, the prosecution of Soldier F for Bloody Sunday fuels demands for “special protections” for former British troopers who may have gunned down Irish victims.

When Britain shifted tactics, using state agents to aid, abet and sometimes even direct loyalist murders, they left behind families, like those of Pat Finucane or Sean Brown, who believe public inquiries are needed to uncover the extent of crown collusion in the murder of their loved ones.

The Stormont House Agreement on legacy mechanisms was reached in December 2014, but never legislated. It was reaffirmed with legislation promised within 100 days, under New Decade New Approach in January 2020. Nothing followed. Meanwhile families had taken their fight to the European and local Courts, inquests, civil actions and the Ombudsman. Truth was slowly emerging.

British officials, who claimed they could not enact Stormont House legislation without unanimous consent by Stormont political parties, passed a new Legacy Act over unanimous opposition. They took away inquests and ombudsman reports, attempted an Amnesty with British troopers in mind, and sidelined solicitors and human rights groups by funneling everything into an ICRIR Commission to put a lid on damning revelations.

The new agreement, itself, begs the question. Why has Britain refused to allow the Courts or legacy mechanisms to give these families truth, unless it had much to hide?

As we await enactment of new laws, obvious questions must be posed.

Keir Starmer has referenced “special protections” for former British troopers and the proposed statute requires investigations be “balanced” and “proportionate”. Will “special protections” become a thinly disguised amnesty for troopers who committed murder, or an excuse to block genuine investigations because of prior participation in sham investigations? Will “balanced” and “proportionate” mean limiting investigations into crown force killings to balance them in proportion to investigations of Republicans?

British officials have employed a “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” (NCND) policy, which amounts to a blanket national security veto suppressing disclosure of crucial information about the role of paid British agents in Troubles killings. Hilary Benn has even taken cases involving the murders of Paul Thompson and Sean Brown to the London Supreme Court. The Coroner in the Brown case issued a gist simply acknowledging that intelligence reports linked multiple British agents in the murder, while the Coroner in the Thompson case was blocked from issuing even a gist approved by Chief Constable Jon Boutcher. Will the new disclosure regime, mean that families are no longer denied such crucial information about collusion?

One of the fundamental reasons for the lack of trust in the ICRIR were objections about staffing by former senior RUC members. Families believe there is clear evidence that collusion went far higher than local RUC level. Will new statutory conflict of interest standards and the requirement that Hilary Benn confer with an advisory panel before making appointments, insure that families can trust the impartiality of investigators and staff?

As noted above, my reaction to the Joint Legacy Framework is one of cautious welcome. It does have the potential to at last give the truth to grieving families, who have endured all efforts to deny them justice. These families must be commended for having overcome every obstacle to reach this point.

However, understanding the past and what victims’ relatives have gone through, it would be foolish to take British good faith for granted. As always, we should stand behind these victims’ families as they wait to see the final version of British legislation, and, crucially, to test whether new laws are applied in a spirit which finally gives them truth, after so much bad faith and injustice.

Martin Galvin is long time
Irish American activist.

Cautious Welcome For Legacy Agreement

Irish Times ★ Written by Mark Paul. Recommended by John Crawley.


A former senior Nato commander and naval expert has told Westminster politicians that a united Ireland would pose a strategic threat.

The loss of the protection afforded by the North would deepen the threat to Britain from Russia and China, Rear Admiral Chris Parry told MPs and members of the House of Lords in a briefing on Wednesday.

Mr Parry, a Falklands War veteran, also said he believed Chinese warships and submarines would soon be active in Irish waters alongside the Russian vessels that had been operating there in recent years.

He told parliamentarians that Nato should counter the threat from Moscow and Beijing by holding naval exercises in Irish-controlled waters, whether Dublin agreed or not. He also urged the Republic of Ireland to back military co-operation with Nato.

“I would say to the good people of Ireland: you’ve been independent for more than 100 years. Stop blaming the Brits. We have shared interests here,” he said at the meeting in a committee room above the House of Lords on Wednesday evening.

“If anyone attacks Britain, they will attack Ireland. It is as simple as that. 

Continue @ Irish Times.

‘Stop Blaming The Brits’ šŸŖ¶ United Ireland Would Pose Threat To Britain From Russia, Says Ex-Nato Commander

Barry Gilheany šŸŽ„ Reviews Kenny Daglish a documentary Film By Asif Kapedia.


Last week, I had the opportunity and privilege to watch the Oscar winning film maker’s Asif Kapedia latest piece of cinematographic majesty, a documentary on the life and career of arguably the best footballer to grace British football grounds in the 1970s and 1980s – ‘King’ Kenny Dalglish who played for two contemporary giants – Glasgow Celtic and Liverpool where he also assumed the mantle of player manager and manager.

Having previously seen his films on two other legends sadly no longer with us - Amy Winehouse and Diego Maradona – I wondered how he would portray somebody with somewhat less mercurial and more unstable reputations than those two performing giants of our times. I didn’t need to have any concerns as Asif convincingly shows how his rootedness in a loving Glaswegian working class family; the mentoring and whole hearted support he got at Celtic from the legendary Jock Stein; the seamless way into which he fitted into Boot Room ethos of egoless camaraderie at Anfield and the rock of his own loving family fashioned the grounded and decent human being. It helps that, despite growing up in North London Arsenal territory and a family of Gunners supporters, Asif Kapedia has been a Liverpool fan since childhood!

But it is not just his exploits on the football pitch that the film focuses on; it deals with the trauma, horror and visceral injustice of the Hillsborough disaster and its impact on Kenny Dalglish. We see him becoming a de facto community leader for the loved ones of the Ninety-Six; attending endless funerals and visiting the survivors in Sheffield Hospitals. We also witness the psychological toll Hillsborough took on him and how it ultimately influenced his decision in his shock resignation as Liverpool manager.

The documentary is a pastiche of all the memorable moments from Dalglish’s career with the narrations from the subject himself, teammates, distinguished football journalists like Henry Winter, various Liverpool fan spokespersons, and the academic commentator Phil Scranton whose analysis of the culpability of the British state in Hillsborough.

It starts with scenes from the Glasgow of the 1950s and 1960s and of Kenny’s early family life. His father was an engineer and a talented footballer in his youth. It does not take long for the film to touch upon the sectarian realities of Glasgow. Dalglish senior was a solid Rangers supporter and when Kenny was 14, the family moved to within a stone’s throw of Ibrox Park. The young Kenny so wanted to go to the local Catholic school which had a proper football pitch. He was quickly made aware that such a move was just not on due to the entrenched divide of certainly that era, so it was off to the state (or Protestant) secondary school. However, Kenny while playing underage football was to attract the attention of Celtic scouts at the age of 15 and, on the advice of his father, he signed up for the Bhoys. The fact that the Celts were such the predominant power in Glasgow at the time (Stein’s charges won nine Scottish league titles from 1966 to 1974) was probably the decisive factor in his advice.

With voiceovers from Big Jock and the Celtic captain “Caesar” Billy McNeill, the shows wonderful archive footage of the Lisbon Lions European Cup final triumph in 1967 all of whom were born within a 25-mile radius in Glasgow and of training drills involving Kenny. He made his debut for Celtic in August 1971, and his first goal was a penalty he took in an Old Firm derby. We are given a powerful insight into the mental ordeal that he went through before converting the spot kick. What would have been the effect on him if he had fluffed his lines? Perish the thought.

Instead, he proceeded to win four Scottish League tiles and the same number of Scottish FA and League Cups. The archival coverage of his sublime finishing for the Hoops is particularly touching as soccer fans outside Scotland did not have full access to his wizardry. He played the role of the false No 9 long before it became part of modern lexicon and , for me anyway, it was an education in this art.

Having achieved all that was possible at Parkhead (apart from two unsuccessful attempts to win a second European Cup in 1972  –  Quarter Final and 1974 – Semi Final), thoughts begin to turn towards greater goals, especially the elusive European Cup. Kenny wrestles with the conflict between his ambitions and loyalty to Jock Stein who nearly died in a car crash in 1975. His integrity shines through his negotiation of this dilemma and, eventually with the advice of the Big Man, he moves to Liverpool in August 1977 for a then British transfer record of £450,000.

He fits seamlessly into the No 7 shirt vacated by the original Special K iconic figure at Anfield – Kevin Keegan who in the year of the Merseysiders’ first European Cup triumph was transferred to SV Hamburg in a widely trailed move before what turned out to be his last match for Pool on that glorious night in Rome when Liverpool beat Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 (also the occasion of goalscorer Tommy Smith’s valedictory appearance).

With fellow Scotsman Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen signed the same season, Dalglish formed a Tartan backbone to English football’s superpower of the mid and late 70s and 80s. Under the unassuming but wily Geordie, Bob Paisley, who had succeeded the legendary Bill Shankly three years previously and with the engine that was Liverpool’s Boot Room coaching figures of Roy Evans, Ronnie Moran and Joe Fagan Pool hoovered up five League titles, three more European Cups and four successive League Cups from 1978 to 1984 (season 83-84 saw a treble of League title, European Cup and League Cup under Ronnie Moran who had assumed the reins from Paisley.

In partnership with prolific Welsh international striker Ian Rush, over 13 years Dalglish scored 174 goals in 515 appearances for Liverpool but it was his goal in the 1978 European Cup Final at Wembley against FC Bruges which ensured Liverpool’s retention of the trophy is aguably the one that he probably most treasures as it was his life time ambition to lift the trophy and really marked his arrival on the global stage.

But it was by no means all sweetness and light in the wider community around Anfield. The film starkly portrays the effects of mass unemployment, deindustrialisation, and racism on Merseyside (depicted most vividly in Alan Bleasedale’s series The Boys from the Blacksmith) and its outworking in the Toxteth riots in July 1981; the worst seen in Britain. It was era when the Thatcher government was seriously considering a strategy of ‘managed decline’ for Merseyside. The film well conveys how Liverpool Football Club became a badge of identity and a locus of pride in which the hopes, aspirations and spirit of a people often cast out and ‘othered’ by the British establishment.

But it is not just economic and social deprivation on Merseyside that forms the backdrop to this biopic. There is raw and public tragedy. The first was the Heysel disaster in Brussels when disturbances between Liverpool and Juventus fans on the crumbling terraces before the 1985 European Cup Final led to the collapse of wall causing the deaths of 39 supporters of whom 21 were Italian. As the rumours turned into awful facts and as the body count mounted, the morality of proceeding with a football match seemed outrageous; a sentiment that seemed to accord with Dalglish’s feelings. Eventually, in what basically is a footnote in history, the match did proceed with Juventus 1-0 victors. Five years of the exclusion of all English clubs from UEFA competitions followed.

The day after the Heysel disaster on 30th May 1985, Kenny Dalglish was appointed player manager of Liverpool after Joe Fagan stepped back. In his first season 1985-86, he won, for only then the fifth time in English soccer history, the League Championship and FA Cup double with his goal at Chelsea on the last day of the season securing the title. A 3-1 victory over their rivals across (then) Stanley Park, Everton, brought him the one trophy that had eluded Paisley and Fagan – the FA Cup.

On Kenny’s watch, Liverpool underwent significant renewal with the signings of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge, and Ray Houghton. The signing of Barnes was a particularly important statement as it was Liverpool’s first high profile black signing (Howard Gayle had made his debut in 1977 and was an acknowledgment of Liverpool’s black community) and did experience overt racism in his first season; the image of him lifting up a banana thrown at him is especially iconic. Barnes and Beardsley became the attacking lynch pins of the side that won the title in 1988 which was arguably the most rhythmic and attacking Liverpool side ever. Kapedia shows footage from a really vintage match of that season, a 5-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest featuring passing movements and ball retention of such telepathy as to invite comparisons with Don Revie’s Leeds side in their pomp in 1972 or the Arsenal Invincibles Premiership winning team of 2004.

But Kenny Dalglish’s time at Liverpool is not defined purely by his artistic genius on the pitch alone. For in 1989, Liverpool Football Club was plunged into tragedy of incalculable proportions as a result of the deaths of 96 supporters due to crushing at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground at the start of the FA Cup Semi-Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. The story of this monumental disaster and all the egregious injustices that have flowed from it have been well documented and analysed elsewhere. What is most poignant about Kapadia’s portrayal is the fear and agony etched on Kenny’s face as he awaits news of his son Paul and daughter Kelly (now a successful football presenter) who had attended the match. He takes us through how Kenny assumes the role of unofficial spokesperson for the injured and bereaved of Hillsborough. He attends the injured in hospital almost miraculously bringing one fan out of a coma. He goes to as many funerals as is humanely possible. He dedicates the 1989 Cup Final in which Liverpool again beat Everton 3-2. But the psychological effects of him being a public face of the Hillsborough bereaved take their toll. His wife attests to his frequent depressive episodes. Breaking point comes in February 1991 when after a 4-4 Cup replay draw with Everton, he resigns as manager, breaking the apostolic succession from Bill Shankly and the Boot Room regime.

A wonderful exploration of football prior to the Premier League and its cash accumulator culture. A vanished era where a club whose players were born within a 25 miles radius could reach the commanding heights of Europe. When the top English sides had a Caledonian spine. The only omission in the film is his excellent Scottish international record reaching three World Cup Finals in a row.

But what sums up his commitment to the people of Liverpool and to truth and decency was his response to the entreaties of Kelvin McKenzie, who as Editor of the Sun published the sickening falsehoods of Liverpool fans stealing from the dead and urinating, seeking to apologise. Kenny’s response “Put on the Front Page that You Lied.” Bullseye!

On Amazon Prine Video from 6th November 2025.

⏩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.

Kenny Dalglish

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Eight Hundred And Seventy Seven

 

Pastords @ 9

 

A Morning Thought @ 2957

PĆ”draig Drummond  ✊ I've been contemplating on writing something about Drogheda, but where do you even start? 

Another roof torched, a family nearly burned alive, and the same rotten excuses bubbling up from the gutters. Drogheda’s just the latest in a grim roll call, Ashtown, Donegal, Mayo, Coolock, Limerick, Sandwith Street, Finglas, Wicklow, the list is endless on a map of fear stitched together by fire and hate. The same old poison dressed up as concern, peddled by grifters who’ve never known a hard day’s work or a hungry child.

Let’s call it what it is: racist arson, plain and simple. Working-class people turned against working-class people, while the real bastards the landlords, the speculators, the polished suits who gutted housing and sold off the city sit back and laugh. The State can’t wash its hands of this either. Their silence and their cowardice built the kindling. They let desperation fester until the mob lit the match.

This isn’t Ireland’s spirit. It’s the sickness that grows when solidarity is strangled and fear is fed. We’re better than this. We have to be. No tricolour ever stood for burning families out of their beds. The real republic we’re fighting for is one where no one’s left to sleep in the cold or run from the flames.

The arsonists, the agitators, the cowards hiding behind flags and Facebook pages: you don’t speak for us. And to the people of Drogheda, to every worker, migrant, and neighbour who’s had enough of the hate, keep your heads up and your hearts hard. The fire might rage for a night, but solidarity, real solidarity, burns longer.

⏩PĆ”draig Drummond is an anti-racism activist.

Racist Arson, Plain And Simple

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