Social Items

TPQ

Seamus Kearney 🎤 'When it comes to Ireland we will always get on better with the cowards, the spies, the traitors rather than the brave. Those who stand against us, the brave, we must discredit, dishonour and then destroy' -  A British soldier with the Intelligence Corp.

Freddie Scapatticci was only back in the North a few weeks when he was spotted by the Second-In- Command (Adjutant) of the IRA's Northern Command. He had been walking through the Kennedy Centre in Andersonstown with a former Blanketman when he recognised Scappaticci and was alarmed to see him back in Belfast.

The Adjutant of Northern Command convened an urgent meeting with his OC, who was Director of military operations in the North, and informed him that Scappaticci had returned from the Free State and in his estimate was a British agent. The OC Northern Command didn't seem perturbed, after all he had dined a number of times with Scappaticci in the family home over the years and had placed his full trust in him, dismissing the earlier signals which had come from elements of the South Armagh Brigade, signals which pointed at Scappaticci being untrustworthy.

However, his Adjutant persisted and had deduced through his own gut instinct and careful analysis that Scappaticci was an agent and had no allegiance to the IRA. His OC thought it a hunch and without sound foundation, but agreed to go along with his Adjutant's suspicion on this occasion as he was viewed in high standing within the upper echelons of the IRA. His Adjutant had looked upon Scappaticci and the ISU with a 'fresh pair of eyes', similar to Brendan Hughes, as both had been imprisoned in the H Blocks and when released were able to look at situations and certain people from a different angle from the 'Old Guard'. Both men had come to the same conclusion - Scappaticci and the Internal Security Unit was rotten.

It was therefore left to the Adjutant of Northern Command to find a way to terminate Scappaticci and 'put him out to graze', thereby limiting the damage which had already been done.

In November 1992 a meeting took place in Belfast between the Adjutant and Freddie Scappaticci. On the basis of a technicality, in which Freddie Scappaticci admitted he spoke to detectives in Castlereagh the previous month, he was formerly dismissed from the IRA. He was informed that he had broken General Army Orders (which covers a multitude of sins), by speaking in Castlereagh and was no longer in the IRA. For his part Scappaticci was aggrieved and felt it unfair as he had only spoken to detectives in relation to his fingerprint on a battery of a scanner, but the Adjutant remained rigid on the issue and concluded the meeting.

To say that Stakeknife was furious would be an understatement. After contacting his military handler and telling him the 'bad news', they both were seething and wanted to kill the IRA' s Adjutant.

The reality was that Scappaticci was no longer at the heart of the IRA and was now crestfallen. Where he went next was another story . . . 

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XII

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3103

Gary Robertson ⚽ With an international break looming all eyes this week turned to the lower leagues in Scotland and a chance for some of the smaller clubs to attract fans desperate to watch meaningful football. 

Sure the “big game” was at Hampden but honestly it was hard to get excited about a 90 min kick about. Ok, it may have served some purpose in the eyes of Steve “the best manager Scotland has ever had” Clarke in so much as he had the opportunity to see if some fringe players deserved a seat to World Cup 2026 (as a Scot I’m still finding it rather surreal that we’re heading for a week in the sun in June) but other than that there was little enthusiasm here at Robertson Towers for this match. Yes I endured it, after all Scottish football correspondent means sometimes I’m going to have to watch matches I'd rather not but I did my duty dear reader and managed to stay awake for the whole 90 mins, partly due to the fact I had dropped the remote and couldn’t be bothered bending down to change channel, the game itself settled by a deflected goal from Japan and Genk's controversial winger Junya Ito. One notable absentee being Kyogo Furuhashi who since leaving Celtic to boost his profile and make it into the Japan team has had mixed fortunes. I wish him well.
 
So to the meaningful matches. Friday night saw Partick Thistle face Ross County and chance to close the gap at the top to two points before St Johnstone met Queen’s Park on Saturday. Thistle took their chance, grabbed it with both hands and despite falling behind in the second minute galvanised themselves into action and ran out comfortable 3-1 winners. Over 3000 packed Firhill which in itself is quite the achievement but such is the draw of a title race. Further down the league, and Raith kept their playoff hopes alive with 3-0 demolition of Ayr United. That said there’s a total of five points between the final playoff spot in fourth and Ayr United in eighth. 

Whilst Dunfermline look comfortable with two games in hand there’s still hope for most and as we’ve said before strange things happen in life, in football. It’s still up for grabs. Further down in League One two pushing for promotion Inverness Caley & Queen of the South met at the Sarens PSG stadium and battled out a 1-1 draw. Veteran Nicky Clark putting the visitors from Dumfries ahead before Millen pulled one back for the hosts. Not a result that suited either, the point perhaps a better outcome for Queens but now leaving Thistle four points clear with their promotion chasing rivals Stenhousemuir yet to play. An opportunity to widen the gap wasted for Caley.
 
Saturday and St Johnstone lined up against one time cup giant killers Queens Park. The script however didn’t go to plan as the visitors took the lead in the 32nd minute when Murray headed home into the bottom left hand corner of net. However the visitors lead wasn’t to last long as Hearts bound McPake blasted home to restore parity. A point apiece, two points dropped by the league leaders who now find their lead at the top cut to 3 points. Twists and turns to come I suspect. Their next match away to Arbroath who themselves are in third fighting for a playoff place. Could be a juicy one. Roll on April 4th.
 
Stenhousemuir with the opportunity to close the League One gap to merely goal difference went into their game on Saturday full of hope and expectation against a struggling East Fife side. By halftime Stenny were 1-0 up and by all accounts looking comfortable. A second two mins after half time and the visitors seemed to have it comfortably won. But just as you think that leg of your accumulator is well and truly done, and remembering you didn’t do the “two goal ahead payout” option, back came East Fife with vengeance and vigour with two goals in two mins to level the score and send your dreams of retiring to Irelands north western shores perhaps Carraig Airt (where my sons grandfather came from) courtesy of Betfred bookmakers to drift out into the wild Atlantic for another week. Again an opportunity lost for the chasing pack and Stenhousemuir a point behind Inverness, Saturday the 11th of April the two meet in a 5-30 kick off (BBC Alba I suspect) top of the table clash. Fun times ahead.

Talking of top of the table clashes and League Twos top two came face to face a chance to open a gap for East Kilbride or for Spartans to overtake their rivals and climb to the summit. Again neither happened as this match also finished in a draw - 1-1. A late John Robertson penalty for Kilbride ensuring the weekend ended “as you were”.

The Premier league returns on Saturday April the fourth with the Rangers hosting Dundee United. Three point there will take them top of the table, for at least 24 hours, before Hearts travel to Livingston and third placed Celtic face Dundee. But first Scotland play another friendly this time against the Ivory Coast. Anyone interested can find it on BBC Scotland or the BBC Iplayer. With one of the most fascinating run-ins in years across all pro leagues in Scotland I just hope no player ends up missing out due to injury.
 
Til next time …

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

Endurance Test

The Other 98% 💣French General Michel Yakovleff just compared joining Trump's Iran war to "buying cheap tickets for the Titanic" after it already hit the iceberg. And then it got even worse for Trump.

Yakovleff is no random talking head. He's a three-star general, former commander of the legendary French Foreign Legion, and held senior positions within NATO itself. He is one of the most respected military voices in France and regularly weighs in on matters of international security.
 
So when he was asked about Trump's desperate pleas for Europe to join his Iran catastrophe, his answer carried serious weight.

He didn't mince words. He laid out five distinct reasons why every European nation should flatly refuse. And each one is more damaging than the last.

First, Trump doesn't understand how NATO actually works. You don't get to launch your own unilateral bombing campaign and then invite allies to run a separate operation underneath you. That's not how alliances function.
 
If Trump wants NATO involved, NATO takes command. One operation, one flag, one chain of command. "I don't think he understood that," Yakovleff said. That alone is a devastating indictment of a man who claims to be the greatest dealmaker on earth.

Continue @ The Other 98%.

Don't Reinforce Failure

Barry Gilheany ✍ For those not willing to look more deeply being the revelations in the ongoing release of files by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) relating to the late, Uber moneyed paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein . . . 

. . . and for whom their major takeaway is automatic proof of an amorphous conspiracy by ‘global elites’ and their predatory abuses; they uncover, in plain sight, a global policy making programme – but not one run by elected politicians or the ‘deep state’, but an international association of monied oligarchs enjoying a tax-free, lawless lifestyle in the offshore archipelago of dark money and shadow banking. 

A special investigation the UK independent journalistic outfit Byline Times identify four concentric circles of abuse at the heart of the Epstein network: Steve Bannon, the architect of the Alt-Right; Silicon Valley and Epstein’s infiltration of US academia and science – with a particular focus on AI; the disaster capitalism that has roiled the West through the headwinds of Brexit, the chaos of Donald Trump’s first Presidency and the collapse of the rouble after Putin’s fist invasion of Ukraine and Russian aggrandisement.[1] It is the contention of this article that the Epstein Network forms another dimension to the putative techno-fascist order of the Alt-Reich which is the subject of another Byline Times investigative project.[2]

First of all, a brief reprise on the sordid life and times of Jeffrey Esptein who despite the opaqueness surrounding the sources of his wealth, had, as a self-styled ‘financier,’ transformed himself by the early years of the millennium into a permanent fixture of global high society. From the opulent redoubts which his mysteriously acquired wealth enabled him to buy – the Manhattan mansion, the Upper East Side townhouse, the New Mexico hideout, the two private Caribbean islands and the Lolita jet, Epstein was able to construct a world of his own. At its heart was industrialised child rape complete with a bureaucratic edifice of recruiters, handlers, and client lists and with a business culture of silence, loyalty and, for a time, legal immunity. He was a networker par excellence though his modus operandi is not one that would appear on business school curricula. He had fingers in so many pies of elite life. He was, at various junctures, close to the former Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, the successful Northern Ireland peace negotiator Senator George Mitchell and prominent banking figures. He hobnobbed with Silicon Valley bosses Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. He donated to Harvard University and ingratiated with academic figures such as the scientist Stephen Hawking and the linguist Noam Chomsky. He forged relationships in the UK, across Europe, Israel, and the Gulf states. He entertained Woody Allen and met Russian officials. He was interviewed on camera by Donald Trump’s former intellectual muse Steve Bannon in discussion about the future of Western civilisation.[3]

To coin a gory contemporary conspiracy phrase, Epstein knew where the bodies were buried. He knew people and made sure people knew he knew them. Whether through blackmail, flattery, or being powerful networker or fixer, he made himself indispensable to those who moved in his circles. That so many remained in Epstein’s orbit even after his child soliciting conviction in 2008 - such as the sacked UK ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson - speaks volumes more about those circles than about Epstein himself. Despite the welter of revelations about the operation of his sex trafficking network after his death in prison in 2019, very few of Epstein’s associates have since fallen on their swords (his partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell, Mandelson, and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor). It is truly the modern parable of how systems of power and wealth operate to protect their own.[4]

For Hardeep Matharu, a defining feature of how political and elite power operates is hypernormalisation, and the Epstein scandal is a textbook example of it. He draws upon accounts of daily life and expectations in the former Soviet Union to explain how such perverse normality is reified. Recalling reading during Covid 19 lockdown Svetlana Alexievich’s Second-Hand Time which is a “mosaic” of voices of those who had lived through the collapse of the USSR. One short account stayed with him while watching a Government daily coronavirus: 

We lived our Soviet lives by a unified set of rules that applied to everyone. Someone stands at the podium. He lies, everyone applaud, but everyone knows that he is lying and knows that they know he’s lying. Still, he says all that stuff and enjoys the applause. |[5]

Hardeep recalls Dominic Cummings’ notorious rationale in the Rose Garden of 10 Downing Street that he had not broken lockdown rules on the grounds that he had driven to Barnard Castle with his wife and child to test his eyesight and his reactions to this “dehumanising” moment. [6] For such contempt from the elites elicits one of two corrosive reactions from the public: either acceptance or switching off from it altogether almost in a state of learned powerlessness and the paralysis of hope that it creates. The contempt that such dehumanisation engenders inevitably corrodes trust in liberal democracy but also a learned helplessness of our capacity to influence and change things.

Similarly, in his 2005 book on the last generation of the Soviet Union, anthropologist Alexei Yurchak argued that everyone knew the Soviet Union was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative, so ordinary people entered into a ‘play’ with those in power, to maintain a pretence of a normal society. Everyone knew it wasn’t real, but it was accepted as such. Yurchak thus argued that the society was in a state of ‘hypernormalisation’[7] This relationship with truth and power could also be applied to that between Irish people and the Roman Catholic Church before the rupture that look place either side of the millennium. The Church’s flock knew through its grapevine of the huge institutional abuses at the heart of Irish Catholicism. They did not believe most of what was being preached from the pulpit. They knew all the hypocrisies and falsehoods but continued as a critical mass to go along with the functions as it was socially and emotionally convenient to do so until this same mass came to its own collective quasi Soviet “Emperor has no clothes” moment.

So what were the building blocks of the Epstein network and its tentacles? Into the cement mixer went Russia, the opportunities offered by cryptocurrency, Steve Bannon and the Alt-Right and Epstein’s alliance with the tech bros of Silicon Valley. The increasing hegemony of techno-fascism has outlived Epstein and may even be his greatest global legacy (next to the continuing trauma and suffering being endured by the over one thousand victims of his global sex trafficking complex) with the realisation of the Alt-Reich in the Project 2025 agenda of Trump 2.0.

Drawing an analogy with Sputnik, the first successful space satellite launch by the USSR in 1957, Jeffrey Epstein opined in 2013 in a conversation with a senior Russian official that Russia could make a similarly technological and cultural impact through “taking the lead in finance”. He argued that, instead of merely replicating Silicon Valley and chasing Microsoft, Apple and Google, Russia could “leapfrog the global community by reinventing the financial system of the 21st century” through new kinds of money and securitisation. Epstein reminded this official that he had, helped craft the derivatives markets in the United States in the 1970s, and that this was a prelude to a “more advanced disruptive securitisation that is now made possible by.” technology”. Russia, Epstein asserted, was “unique in its capability to execute on a grand vision” for:

a new form of money on a worldwide basis …much larger than any single project envisioned by any [government] and at its core not really that difficult to bring to fruition.[8]

Epstein had good reason to believe that he would receive an audience and encouragement at the highest levels in the Kremlin. For his Russian interlocutor was Sergey Belyakov, who had been a senior adviser to Oleg Deripaska, one of Vladimir Putin’s most stalwart oligarchs and international operator, Oleg Deripaska, a close associate of Epstein himself and the now disgraced Peter Mandelson. By 2013, Belyakov has become Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development. In response to a letter in January 2014 from Thorbjorn Jagland, then secretary general of the Council of Europe, relaying his intention to meet Putin in Sochi, Epstein told Jagland to “explain to Putin that there should be a sophisticated Russian version of bitcoin” – a decentralised digital currency, launched in 2009, that operates, as digital currencies do, outside of the central banking system. In Epstein’s words, it would be “the most advanced financial instrument available on a global basis.” This ambition is key to understanding the rest of the crypto network built around Epstein: tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel; and Donald Trump’s one-time White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon.[9]

The key figure, along with the now X owner Elon Musk, in the so-called PayPal Mafia was Peter Thiel, co-founder of data surveillance firm Palantir which, in its critics’ eyes has its fingers in too many sensitive state operations from health data to immigration control. From the outset, Thiel was an enthusiastic advocate of cryptocurrency and its ability to furnish an alternative to government-controlled fiat money. After email and personal discussions involving Epstein, Thiel, fintech entrepreneur Ian Osborne, former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, and William Burns, then Deputy Secretary of State in the Obama administration and a subsequent CIA director. Just as Thiel’s interest in cryptocurrencies and data systems like those developed by Palantir, was growing, Epstein joined him with a $40 million investment in Theil’s fintech venture capital firm Valar Ventures – which according to former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, was ‘co-owned’ by Thiel and Epstein as they bought into the Israeli surveillance tech firm Carbyne. A spokesman for Peter Thiel has since denied this, and said Epstein was just a “limited partner.”[10]

Both Epstein’s and Thiel’s political outlooks and strategies also began to synchronise with their financial objectives. Epstein’s correspondence reveals close tracking of Trump-Clinton polling, campaign personnel, and appointments linked to Bitcoin and fintech. In his Republican National Convention speech in 2016, Theil used the platform at the crowning of Trump as Republican Presidential Election candidate to attack “financial bubbles” and praise “new forms of money.” He speculated that Bitcoin could be a “Chinese financial weapon” or a hedge against the US dollar’s reserve status.[11] A more glaring example of monetary and fiscal treason can scarcely be imagined.

As Russia’s interference in that year’s Presidential Election steadily cranked up, Epstein was also arranging lunches at his New York townhouse between Thiel, another Trump backer, Tom Barrack, and Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, a veteran Kremlin operator. Turning his attention to the UK where he was a regular visitor, Jeffrey Epstein, according to the recently released messages and emails, saw the UK’’s vote to leave the European Union in June 2016 as a moment of political alignment and a trading opportunity. “Brexit, just the beginning.” he wrote to Peter Thiel; the chaos and uncertainty unleashed by this seismic moment in British politics was something to be sorted financially and leveraged politically.[12]

The next stage in Epstein and his associates’ nefarious project was the funding of and the provision of intellectual heft to the pan-European populist far right. Behind the scenes, Epstein emerged as Steve Bannon’s patron and strategist for the latter’s latest venture ‘Movement’ founded in 2017 by Nigel Farage’s partner, Laure Ferrari (whose name cropped up a few months ago in relation to the purchase of an expensive house in Farage’s Clacton-on-Sea constituency) and allies such as Belgian People’s Party leader Mischael Modrikamen. Its mission was to unite ‘populist and conservative movements in Europe,” defending “national sovereignty” and “effective national borders.” During the turmoil of Theresa May’s government from 2016-19, when she struggled to find an acceptable form of Brexit to the Eurosceptics who had gone from being the minority of obstructive “bastards” in John Major’s premiership to being the kingmakers in a sundered Conservative party, Bannon told Epstein in 2018 that he was meeting then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and the Conservatives’ European Research Group, MP Jacob Rees-Mogg to urge them to topple May. When this objective was duly achieved in 2019 when Theresa May was replaced by Johnston as PM, Bannon exultantly proclaimed “May gone… We really did crush them … We’re rolling.”[13]

Not content with his foray into Britain’s Uncivil Brexit wars, Bannon was also texting Epstein about his wider European ambitions claiming that he was now advisor to the French Front National; Mathew Silvini’s Legia Nord in Italy; the German AfD; the Swiss People’s Party; Hungarian PM Victor Orban; Land and Freedom and Nigel Farage. He was expressing optimism that in the European Parliament elections scheduled for May 2019, “we [the pan European populist front] can go from 92 seats to 200 – shut down any crypto legislation or anything else we want”. Bannon was certainly quite the evangelist for crypto, agreeing that “crypto is the currency, blockchain is the equivalent of internet 2.0.”[14]

In the aftermath of Epstein’s conviction and death; the UK’s Hard Brexit departure from the EU and the emergence of yet another political vehicle for Nigel Farage in the shape of Reform UK, Russia’s cultivation of right-wing populist parties in Europe continued and cryptocurrencies continued to be a covert way of funding them, with Reform UK deeply enmeshed in the swirl of controversy around this subversion of the global financial system. Nathan Gill, former MEP, and leader of Reform in Wales who was sent to prison for twelve years for taking pro-Russian bribes to make Kremlin favoured speeches in the European Parliament was en route, at the time of his arrest in September 2021, to speak at a Kremlin-backed forum on Russia’s DEG e-voting system. He was scheduled to give a presentation entitled “The Same Technology That Gives Us Crypto Currencies Also Will Change The Way Vote,” explicitly harnessing blockchain to election infrastructure. [15]A more blatant attempt to subvert the machinery of liberal democracy can scarcely be comprehended.

Reform’s predilection for this mode of financing has recently risen high on the political agenda with the decision by Keir Starmer this month to announce a temporary moratorium on crypto donation after an investigation by a senior civil servant. This action has been taken in response to two major donations in crypto to the coffers of Reform by the Thailand-based British investor Christopher Harborne; the first worth £12 million in May 2025 and another amounting to £3 million in November 2025. These transactions occur outside of full Financial Conduct Authority - just the type of opaque funding stream anti-corruption experts have warned about.

In his analysis of the rise of the Alt-Reich, Nafeez Ahmed reveals how the far right has grown since the 1930s from a fringe pariah into a mainstream force operating in the heartlands of Western power, where it is poised to subvert liberal democracy from within.[16] The diverse strands within this modern manifestation of the far right coalesce around two key narratives: The Great Replacement Theory and Cultural Marxism; both rooted in antisemitic conspiracy theories that directly descend from Nazism. They now increasingly animate even mainstream political leaders (think of the shifts in the Overton Window around immigration, social cohesion, and integration) and as they intertwine with technology, they are spawning new and bizarre authoritarian visions, which refract the fascist ideologies of the 1930s in a new ‘postmodern’ light.[17]

Although loose and uncoordinated, the proliferating ties between these different political groups and networks across the US, Europe and the UK, are being supercharged through social media and the ‘dark web’ through masculinist personalities like Andrew Tate and Jordan Petersen, and legitimised through respected academic institutions and opaque think tanks. Ahmed traces a network of lobby groups – funded by elites who have accumulated their wealth from extractive industries, finance and technology and explores how that wealth has been channelled to a core transatlantic network of movers and shakers who, by weaponising data and information have created the Alt-Reich.[18]

The rise of the techno-authoritarian far right is not the product of a unified, single plan, but has emerged from multiple converging plans being promulgated by overlapping interests: the political party flank consisting of far right and right wing parties in different nations and regions; the technology oligarchy flank encompassing tech investors, entrepreneurs and platforms; the secretive eugenics intelligentsia flank and the public intellectual flank normalising hard-line attitudes towards ethnic, religious and gender minorities.[19]. The ultimate vision, according to Ahmed, of the Alt-Reich, is the destruction of the entire liberal project and its replacement by new authoritarian, command-and-control political structures modelled on Silicon Valley conglomerates to maintain and perpetuate elite power.[20]

So how does the Epstein network fit into the Alt-Reich set up bearing in mind that the first releases of the Epstein Files post date the book by Hafeez Ahmed of that name? The central figure in the developing techno autocracy that is the USA looks to be Vice President JD Vance. His Ohio Senate run was heavily bankrolled by Peter Thiel who echoes his grievances about the ‘deep state.’ He is the most articulate advocate of national conservatism inside Trump’s second administration and gives the MAGA movement considerable intellectual muscle. [21] In Ahmed’s unravelling of the creeping techno authoritarianism enveloping the US, he sees the boosting of crypto as a tool to devalue major currencies like the dollar, euro and sterling and as part of the vision of dismantling the so-called liberal administrative state and empowering unhindered techno-capital.[22] Vance’s ascent solidifies Thiel’s worldview in America’s executive branch: a political model that treats technology, from surveillance companies such as Palantir, to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as instruments of state power and civilisational competition rather than neutral infrastructure that serves the public.[23]

Future release of the Epstein data trove may shed future light on the obscene nexus between his global sex trafficking operation and his undermining of global democratic order by his financing of bad actors and his contribution to the authoritarian, anti-democratic technocracy whose creeping totalitarianism threatens humanity. The ideological aversion to regulation in Silicon Valley and the dark, unaccountable influence of crypto-politics in our democratic processes stand out as one of his most damaging legacies.

References  

[1] Peter Jukes, The Sleep of Reason; The Lightbulb of Brutal Clarity. Byline Times, Darkness Visible March 2026 pp.30-231

[2] Nafeez Ahmed (2025) Alt Reich. London: Byline Times

[3] James Bloodworth, Who Was Jeffrey Epstein. The Epstein Files lay bare how power always protects its own. Byline Times Darkness Visible March 2026 pp32-33

[4] Ibid

[5] Hardeep Mathuru, Power Protects Itself Through Powerlessness Byline Times Darkness Visible March 2026 pp.34-35.

[6] Ibid

[7] Ibid, p.35

[8] Peter Jukes ‘Brexit, Just the Beginning.’ Jeffrey Epstein’s Crypto-Politics of Disruption Byline Times pp. 43-45

[9] Ibid, pp.43-44

[10] Ibid, p.44

[11] Ibid

[12] Ibid, pp.44-45

[13] Ibid, p.45

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Ahmed, p.3

[17] Ibid, p.10

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid, pp.416-17

[20] Ibid, p.418

[21] Jukes, p.45

[22] Ahmed, pp. 353-54

[23] Jukes, p.45

⏩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.

How To Win Friends, Influence People And Blackmail The World 🪶 The Convergence Between The Epstein Network And Techno-Fascism

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Twenty Seven

 

A Morning Thought @ 3102

Christy Walsh ✍ Did Gerry A dodge a bullet because of courtroom technicalities on costs? Does the legacy of an IRA icon pick up his £400K legal bills?

Background of the Case

Whenever Gerry Adams steps into a courtroom, the air thickens with a peculiar brand of legal gymnastics.

The case was brought by John Clark, a victim of the 1973 Old Bailey bombing in London; Jonathan Ganesh, a 1996 London Docklands bombing victim; and Barry Laycock, a victim of the 1996 Arndale shopping centre bombing in Manchester. On the surface, it was a quest for truth.

£1 for the Open Secret

The claimants played a clever hand, or so they thought. By asking for a mere £1 in ‘vindicatory’ damages, they attempted to strip the case of monetary motive and dress it in the robes of a ‘Truth Commission’. They weren't looking for a payout; they were looking for a judicial stamp on the open secret of Adams' IRA leadership.

But in the English High Court, 'truth' is an expensive commodity, and the gatekeepers are the statutes of limitation. Adams' defence was predictable: the clock had run out. Why sue in 2022 for the sins of 1973? The claimants argued that Adams' own ‘fraudulent concealment’ of his IRA membership made earlier litigation impossible. It was a bold move - asking a judge to ignore the calendar because the defendant is a world-class escape artist.

The Costs Trap: Justice by Intimidation

The narrative collapse didn't happen because the evidence was found wanting; it happened because of something called Qualified One-Way Costs Shifting (QOCS). Under normal circumstances, QOCS are a shield that makes justice accessible for those who cannot afford high legal costs.

Adams' lawyers argued to breach the claimants' QOCS protection by alleging 'abuse of process' - and Justice Swift hinted they might succeed. If the judge formally ruled it an ‘abuse’, the cost-protection would vanish instantly. The victims weren't just looking at losing a pound; they were looking at a £400,000 bill from Adams' top-tier London legal team (see Joshua Rozenberg's analysis[1]).

Faced with the prospect of losing their homes to pay for the defence of the man they were accusing, the claimants did what any rational person would do: they folded.

The ‘No Order’ Paradox

The case ended on a "no order as to costs" basis. Adams spins this as a vindication. It is anything but. It was a tactical retreat. Adams got to walk away without the ‘IRA Leader’ tag being legally glued to his lapel, and the victims walked away without a debt that would haunt their grandchildren.

But Adams' lawyers didn't work for free. Adams' defence was elite, expensive, and extensive. If he cannot recover those costs from the men who sued him, who is footing the bill?

The Shadow of the Trust

This brings us back to a perennial Pensive Quill question: The Bobby Sands Trust (BST). Adams remains a permanent trustee of the BST, an entity that continues to guard the copyrights of a hunger striker with the tenacity of a corporate conglomerate. As documented here since 2016, the Trust operates in a financial vacuum - no published accounts, no transparency, and a ‘half-secret’ status that would make a Cayman Islands banker blush.

Is it a leap too far to wonder if the royalties from One Day in My Life - written by a man who died for the IRA - are being used to pay the legal fees of a man who swears he was never in the IRA? If the BST is acting as Adams' financial bodyguard, then Bobby Sands's legacy has been effectively weaponized to protect a man who denies any role in the IRA and the history of the struggle.

Neither side left with what they wanted. Intimidating financial costs keeps secrets classified and money hidden. The only thing 'firmly under wraps' is the truth: "Was Gerry A in the Ra?"

*For background on the Bobby Sands Trust see earlier coverage here: 


References


⏩ Christy Walsh was stitched up by the British Ministry of Defence in a no jury trial and spent many years in prison as a result.

Classified 🪶"Was Gerry A In The Ra?" 🪶 Alleged IRA Ties Remain Firmly Under Wraps

Gaels Against Genocide     with a statement regarding the instruction of the GAA Executive to have Palestinian flags confiscated at Croke Park yesterday.


Confiscation Of Palestinian Flags

Dr John Coulter ✍ Did you hear the one about the sex therapist, the Catholic priest and the GB News political commentator?

Now that opening sentence sounds like a joke, but it really did happen during the hilarious hit show by top Irish stand-up comedian Neil Delamere, perhaps best known for his TV appearances on the popular BBC comedy show, The Blame Game.

I know this to be true because I was that GB News political commentator who got roasted in front of 800 audience members at the glorious setting of the Diamond in the Ulster University’s Coleraine campus.

As part of our 37th wedding anniversary celebrations, my wife and I decided to go and see Neil as he’s one of our favourite characters on The Blame Game. We got front row seats … what could possibly go wrong?

I should have guessed from Neil’s sterling performances on The Blame Game that he loves to interact with his audiences, and especially those sitting in the front rows.

One thing is for sure, Neil will remember his night in Coleraine in March 2026 because his front row that evening really did contain a sex therapist, a Catholic priest … and me!

However, it is testament to Neil’s fast-thinking wit that he was able to turn his guests that evening into one of the funniest routines of any Irish comedian I have witnessed.

And it was all based on two simple questions - what’s your name, and what do you do?

There’s an old saying; forewarned is forearmed. So when chatting beforehand to some of my fellow audience members on the front row who had been at previous gigs, they told of how Neil likes to chat to front row members.

Now I’ve also been to a Jimmy Carr gig in England and beforehand I was telling a relative that when Carr said he was going to have a heckle amnesty, I would yell ‘heretic’ at him because of his jokes on Christianity.

In reality, I sat as quiet as a church mouse during the Carr gig. So as Neil made his way along the row in Coleraine, my brain was in hyper drive as to what I would tell him my occupation.

I didn’t want to say accredited preacher in the mainstream Presbyterian Church in Ireland given the safeguarding crisis in PCI; should I admit I was a pensioner? Should I tell him I was a retired lecturer in journalism? Or should I just come clean and admit I was a reporter? I opted for the latter.

Now I’ve had roastings in the past during my career in journalism. A former Taoiseach, the late Albert Reynolds, once took me apart during a live TV debate on TV3’s Sunday Agenda programme at the turn of the new millennium.

When I was a staff reporter with the Belfast News Letter in the Eighties, I once tried to go head to head in an interview with the then South Down UUP MP Enoch Powell. He took me apart in minutes by interviewing me on the choice of words for my questions!

And so Neil got to me. The look of joy on his face when I said ‘reporter’. I knew I was in for it! Then the killer question - who do you work for? My brain was saying ‘think, Coulter, think! Just say freelance!’

In seconds, I went over my options. Do I tell Neil about the Monday column on The Pensive Quill? Do I tell him about the online columns on the Belfast News Letter? Do I simply say I was the former Northern Political Correspondent of the Irish Daily Star?

So I just came clean and said ‘GB News’. He looked at me as if I had made his evening! ‘And what do you do at GB News?’ Was the retort? Before I knew it, I’d been sucked in by his professionalism - ‘political commentator’ I said.

Then the verbal demolition began. He had the audience - and even me - roaring with laughter at my expense. The one-liners were punchy, fast and hard-hitting; I had no come-back! I always believed Jimmy Carr could ‘box clever’ and think on his feet when it came to roasting members of the audience.

But Neil was outstanding in the way he could deliver his retorts, cleverly showing why he is one of the best comedians on the geographical island of Ireland. If ever someone writes a history of stand-up comedy in Ireland, north and south, Neil will certainly have a chapter all to himself.

Worse was to follow in Coleraine. For some of us in the front row, Neil wanted us to do our impression of an AK47 assault rifle firing without the silencer! As with all his gags, this had the audience constantly laughing.

Neil could turn any sound we made into a joke. I did my best to copy my primary school days when we would play cops and robbers in the playground. It didn’t work. At age 66, my AK47 impression certainly did not sound like my time at Clough Primary School in the north Antrim hills. It sounded more like a ewe in lambing season!

It has often been said that laughter is a great medicine. And if ever there was a top consultant in this field, it is Neil Delamere. No matter what trials or challenges you are facing in life, a Neil Delamere gig is just the tonic and great therapy.

In terms of entertainment value for money, Neil’s gig was tremendous - and I’m saying that as a Ballymena man! After Neil’s roasting of me, I’m now ready for any showdown with Jimmy Carr! As I said to my wife and friends before Neil’s Coleraine gig kicked off - what can possibly go wrong now?
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

The Sex Therapist, The Catholic Priest And The GB News Political Commentator!

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Hundred And Twenty Six

 

A Morning Thought @ 3101

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)