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The Observer 📰 Written by Kenan Malik. Recommended by Barry Gilheaney.

With 99 players born in France but just 23 playing for Les Bleus, the tournament highlights how lines of nationality are blurred

It’s a “Love Letter to England”. Written by James Graham, the man whose play Dear England transformed the image of Gareth Southgate from a mediocre national manager into an icon of Englishness, the 90-second film, designed to rouse support for the team at the World Cup, is tub-thumping in a restrained, very Southgate way.

Narrated by Ian McKellen at his most sonorous, it concludes: “We know who we are”. Yet, if this World Cup has shown us anything, it is how complicated it can be to define “who we are”.

Michael Olise, one of the world’s best forwards, was born in west London and played for Reading and Crystal Palace before joining the German giants Bayern Munich, but may win the World Cup with France. Born to a British-Nigerian father and Franco-Algerian mother, he celebrates the fact that he is the product of “four countries… which all enrich me”.

When England took on DR Congo last week, facing them was Aaron Wan-Bissaka, born in Croydon and currently playing for West Ham. 

Continue @ The Observer.

This World Cup Shows How Contradictory And Messy It Is To Define Who We Are

Dr John Coulter ✍ The repercussions of the Jeffrey Donaldson convictions will rumble on for weeks, perhaps months, to come and while we must never forget the suffering of the convicted sex offender’s victims, the current marching season can provide an opportunity to give Unionism some respite amid all the gloom.

Since Donaldson’s guilty verdicts for numerous sex offences, including rape, against two women when they were children were announced last month, more allegations have surfaced about the disgraced former MP’s private life - especially the allegations aired in the hard-hitting BBC Spotlight documentary.

Donaldson was very well known, not just in Unionist political circles, but also in the Loyal Orders and especially in Christian Church circles. The DUP - a party he once led - has launched a supposedly rigorous investigation into ‘who knew what and when’ about the ex-leader’s private life.

In terms of the specific trial, the testimonies of the two women Donaldson abused when they were children - known as Complainant A and Complainant B - shocked many, many people. As even more post-verdict allegations emerged, hundreds of folk must have been asking the same questions - who was the real Jeffrey Donaldson; who got a hint of these allegations; and who allegedly kept quiet about them or turned a blind eye?

And it will not only be the DUP and the UUP who will have to face these questions. Donaldson also held rank within the Loyal Orders, especially the Orange. Did anyone within the Orders know of Donaldson’s secret persona?

And then there’s the Christian churches and places of worship. Again, like the probing questions which the DUP, UUP, and Loyal Orders will have to address, do any Christian folk who mixed with Donaldson on the preaching and testimony circuits have awkward questions to answer?

However, the bottom line still remains that everyone should keep the victims of Donaldson’s sexual crimes in their thoughts and prayers. Even if you don’t believe in God, you should still spare a thought for Complainants A and B - and any other alleged victims which may emerge in the coming days.

Many folk who knew Donaldson personally may be asking themselves - was there anything, any triggers, which they missed, which could have unmasked his vile behaviour earlier in life?

While we’ve already enjoyed the colour and pageantry of the 1st July Somme commemoration parades, affectionately known in many circles as the Mini Twelfth parades, will the Donaldson saga and the horrors of what Complainants A and B had to endure both as children and during the trial cast a dark shadow over the Twelfth commemorations?

When the Orangemen, Orange women, band members and the public reach the respective demonstration fields next week, will the talk still be about ‘who knew what’ concerning Donaldson, or will the expected heatwave lift spirits - even for a day.

Even more pointedly, given Donaldson’s once high profile in the Loyal Orders, will anyone dare to mention the issue in their demonstration speeches or comments? Or, at the Twelfth parades and the traditional Sham Fight at Scarva, will talk of Donaldson - privately or publicly - become like Voldemort from the Harry Potter series - the name that must never be spoken?

The judge at Donaldson’s trial after the jury gave their guilty verdicts said the former DUP boss could expect a lengthy jail term for his crimes. I wonder how many folk will now utter the prophetic words - “I always knew there was something fishy about Donaldson!”

Will these folks, especially those in politics, the Church and the Loyal Orders, be pondering over their various meetings with Donaldson to see if they could remember a hint about his private life?

Many will ask - did the mask of the good-living, born again Christian husband, well-polished politician ever slip ever so slightly in front of them even on just one wee occasion?

Does anyone in the political arena, Christian Churches and Loyal Orders feel any sense of guilt that they did not spot any hint of Donaldson’s private life and could have formally reported it?

Many, too, especially in Christian and Loyal Order circles, will feel a sense of embarrassment at the court convictions and post-trial allegations that every Christian and Orange Order member has become wrongly tarnished with the same brush.

Is it possible the Orange and Black parades in the coming days could give the Unionist community ‘a wee lift’, or is it a case that the demise of Donaldson has cast such a shadow over Orangeism and the Royal Black Institution that there’s a feeling - let’s just get this year’s Marching Season over and done with as soon as possible.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Loyal Order Parades Could Lift Gloom Of Donaldson Saga For Unionism

Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.


Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Twenty Four

 

A Morning Thought @ 3197

Tommy McKearney ☭ delivered the main oration in Toome at the rededication of the monument to Roddy McCorley. 

It is an enormous privilege and honour to be invited here today to speak at the rededication of this monument to the legendary Roddy McCorley. This is because, not only was this man a patriot but the story and history involved surrounding his memory resonate to this every day in many different ways.

While there are few verifiable written details remaining about his life and the circumstances surrounding his last few days, there is much we can draw from his story. Several things emerge in the telling. Because, as with so many aspects and events in the history of this land, there are contradictory accounts of what happened.

If we are to believe the account of Roddy McCorley supplied to the Belfast Newsletter at the time by the British establishment and its intelligence agencies, McCorley was a common thief and highwayman. A criminal correctly and properly executed for his crimes in order to protect the law-abiding subjects of his majesty King George III.

This account has of course, long been challenged by Irish Republicans who have always insisted that Roddy McCorley was a patriot and, as a member of the United Irishmen, had played his part in the battle for Antrim town.

Let me say that this is not a simple matter of which story do we believe. This is not a case of simply accepting a version that suits our particular political position. This story merits, deeper analysis and reflection than merely agreeing with a view that we like.

It is important to consider the era in which these events occurred and moreover, to reflect on how this message resonates to this very day. This was a period of enormous transformation in global politics. A mere quarter of a century before his execution, the British Empire had been shaken to its core by the American Revolution. And of enormous significance was the fact that many of those who fought along with George Washington were from the northern Irish Presbyterian community.

Shortly thereafter, the seemingly invulnerable French monarchy was overthrown by the common people, thereby dispelling a myth that Catholic people would never rebel against a monarch. A fact with obvious relevance for British rule in predominantly Catholic Ireland.

I need hardly add to that by telling this audience, the influence and impact these events had in Ireland, when a mere few miles from here in 1795, on a hillside overlooking Belfast, a group of men made a vow, “never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted our independence”. Of major significance and a fact not lost on the British was that many of those espousing the republican doctrine were members of the Northern Irish Presbyterian community.

Something that was highlighted by words spoken by the Catholic McCorley in the hours after his capture and sentencing, when he famously stated that, ‘Had I remained among the Presbyterians, I would never have been betrayed’.

A sentiment that alone would have alarmed the British authorities, fearing the cementing of a relationship between Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter. A unity that would certainly have definitively fractured the Empire’s grip on territory it considered of immense strategic importance to its interests, not to mention its security.

Herein lies an obvious explanation for the lurid reporting of alleged criminality in the Belfast Newsletter by the then British intelligence services. The attempted criminalisation of Irish republican resistance by the Empire had clearly began several centuries before the British Labour Party’s introduction of the policy in the 1970s.

How we know that the allegation of criminality bears no relationship to the truth is testified to by the celebrated work of the renowned poet, Ethna Carberry, who composed the words of the popular ballad bearing the patriot’s name. Ethna Carberry was the daughter of Robert Johnson, a Fenian from Ballymena who had spent many years through the first decades of the 19 century collecting stories and memories of veteran United Irishmen from Co Antrim.

Due to both to his collecting of these memoirs and his residing in Co Antrim, it is impossible to believe that he could have mistaken a common criminal for a noble and heroic patriot. Nor is it credible that his daughter would not have been aware of the true facts of this case before penning words that have come down the decades since.

True to the last, true to the last
He steps the upward way
And young Roddy McCorley goes to die
On the bridge of Toome today

No, the Crown could not permit the real and accurate story of young Roddy McCorley to be told in case it might result in a challenge to the Empire’s rule. Fear and panic was the method of operation by the forces of the Crown, then as now. Instead, we are aware of how this fear was spread and maintained, as once summed up in a memorable poem by another notable friend and contemporary of Ethna Carberry, the great Alice Milligan, when she wrote her poem entitled, ‘ When I was a little girl’. A piece of poetry telling how children in unionist households would be admonished and terrified, if staying out too late, with the cry, ‘Come in, or when it’s dark, The Fenians will get ye.’

There is an important message in all of this that resonates with us today and in a certain way that reaches beyond simply correcting history, important though that is.

We are today still faced with deliberate falsifications and distortions promoted in order to perpetuate unnatural divisions between people with the clear objective of maintaining a corrupt and vile governing system on this island.

As outlined above, there was a consciously implemented policy of promoting unnatural sectarian division in order to facilitate the maintenance of the Empire's rule. An ancient imperial policy of divide, conquer and thereafter rule. Today, the contemporary delivery of that policy is provided not by relying solely on secretarial division but by the evil use of racism.

Over the last few weeks, we witnessed a toxic campaign of hate as people of colour were driven from their homes. These despicable attacks were carried out in the north by loyalist thugs. However, we must not become complacent or adopt a partisan attitude since there is unfortunately ample evidence that such odious racist opinions are not confined to our unionist neighbours. The poison is all too evident south of the border.

If we are to be faithful to the memory and heroic contribution of Roddy McCorley and his comrades in the United Irishmen, we must resist the manipulations of the Deep State as it strives to create dissension. We know what is needed and we must be aways be alert to the machinations of the forces opposed to its achievement. Dissension and division assist none but the servants of imperialism and prevent the long overdue establishment of an independent sovereign Irish Republic.

Let us, therefore, leave here committed to achieving the dream for which young Roddy McCorley went to die on the bridge of Toome so many years ago.

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

Roddy McCorley Honoured At Toome

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 29-June-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Hong Kongers support Ukraine.
⬤ Russian torture, also here and here and here and here.
⬤ Russian strike on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Crimea Isolated: Putin’s Strategic Prize Turned Into a Strategic Weakness (Byline Times, June 26th)

Medical torture to the end against Crimean Tatar political prisoner with malignant tumour and his family (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 26th)

Mariupol children brainwashed into thanking the Russian invaders for ‘saving’ them (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 26th)

Birthday of Crimean Tatar activist Emir-Usein Kuku, who is being held in Russian captivity for 10 years (Crimea Platform, June 26th)

Russia cripples tortured 23-year-old Ukrainian POW then convicts him of ‘terrorism’ for defending Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 25th)

17-year sentences in Russian captivity for refusing to betray Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 24th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, June 23rd)

Savage sentence against Ukrainian from occupied Luhansk oblast on secret ‘spying’ charges (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 23rd)

Ukrainian teenager who needs vital medication sentenced to 5.5 years for negative comments about Russian invaders (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 22nd)

Russia stages ‘international terrorism trial’ against three Kherson men for resisting its invasion in 2022 (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 22nd)

News from Ukraine

Ukraine’s largest assault regiment investigated over torture allegations (Meduza, 26 June)

The Russian strike on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Tribunal for Putin, June 25th)

Slovak military aid to Ukraine: in the end, only crumbs may arrive (East Frontier Initiative, 11 June)

War-related news from Russia

Running on empty. Fuel rationing in Russian regions (Mediazona, 26 June)

A Russian soldier who threatened Putin with an army mutiny racked up 10 million Instagram views. Who is he? (Meduza, June 26th)

Roads of death: Ukrainian strikes on transport corridors are disrupting Russia’s military logistics (The Insider, June 25th)

One powerful family, different sides of the war (iStories, 24 June)

Going to extremes: Russian authorities’ persecution of the LGBT community has entered the realm of the absurd (The Insider, June 22nd)

Analysis and comment

How ‘transnational repression’ measures could affect Russians in Europe (Meduza, 27 June)

In Mexico, people fear one imperialist aggressor. In Estonia, it’s a different one (People & Nature, 26 June)

Ukraine fights for its rights, Ukrainians fight for LGBT+ rights (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 24 June)

Armenia’s elections and the future of the left (Posle.Media, 24 June)

Ukrainians in solidarity with Palestine (Tempest, June 21st)

Research of human rights abuses

For the First Time, UN Adds Russian Forces to “List of Shame” for Wartime Sexual Violence (Tribunal for Putin, June 24th)

Russian Medical Personnel Torture Ukrainian Captives (Centre for Civil Liberties, June 24th)

PACE discussed Russia’s accountability for crimes against Ukrainian children: Onysiia Syniuk raises concerns over their militarisation and indoctrination (Zmina, June 24th)

ZMINA joins UN roundtable on protecting civic space in Europe and Central Asia (Zmina, June 23rd)

Prisoners’ access to justice: ZMINA and its partners presented a study on barriers to enforcing this right in Ukraine, Greece and Portugal (Zmina, June 17th)

Two fronts: how Russia and the Ukrainian state pressured civil society in 2025 (Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres, 9 June)

International solidarity

On June 26, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, June 26th)

26th June: International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (Labour Hub, June 26th)

Hong Kong protesters: “Oppose Russian hegemonic aggression! No Peace without Justice!” (People and Nature, June 26th)

Unison national delegate conference reaffirms solidarity with Ukraine (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 24 June)

Joint statement of National and International Human Rights Organisations for Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026, Gdańsk (Crimea Human Rights Group, 24 June)

   

🔴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 💣 Bulletin 202

National Secular Society ★ MLAs in Northern Ireland vote to abolish common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.


The National Secular Society has welcomed a "historic" vote which brings the UK one step closer to ending blasphemy laws.

MLAs in Northern Ireland have voted to support an amendment to the Justice Bill to abolish the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. MLAs voted 57 in favour, 24 against.

NI is the last UK nation to retain blasphemy laws: they were abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland in 2021. The NSS has campaigned to uphold freedom of expression and end blasphemy laws since its founding in 1866.

The NSS worked closely with Alliance MLA Connie Egan who tabled the amendment. It also briefed MLAs before the vote, urging them to support the amendment.

The Justice Bill is expected to pass its final legislative stages this autumn.

Blasphemy offences "have no place in a modern society that values free expression"

During the debate, Egan said it was "outrageous" that NI still has blasphemy laws "especially as this society does so much to promote freedom to practise, and freedom from, religion". She thanked the NSS and other groups for their "incredibly valuable" input.

Continue @ NSS. 

Success! NSS Welcomes “Historic” Vote To End Blasphemy Laws In The UK

Right Wing Watch 👀 Written by Kyle Mantyla.


As Right Wing Watch has noted multiple times in the past, one of the defining characteristics of Christian nationalist activists is a willingness to misrepresent history, as time after time they spread debunked myths and blatant falsehoods in defense of their right-wing ideology.

This tendency was put on display by right-wing anti-LGBTQ Christian apologist Alex McFarland during a recent episode of "The Truth & Liberty Show," when he baselessly claimed that our nation's form of government was "modeled after the ecclesiology of the Presbyterian Church."

"Truth is on our side," McFarland declared. "We're a Judeo-Christian representative constitutional republic. We're a republic."

"I don't know if you know this, America has a Presbyterian form of government," he continued. 

Just like there's pastors, teachers, and elders; well, there is an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. Our three-tiered form of government with checks and balances and accountability, we were really modeled after the ecclesiology of the Presbyterian Church.

"You know who said that?" McFarland added. "Our first president, George Washington."

Washington, of course, never said anything of the sort.

Continue @ RWW.

'Truth Is On Our Side' 🪶Alex McFarland Spreads False Christian Nationalist History

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Twenty Three

 

Pastords @ 51

 

A Morning Thought @ 3196

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national team have been eliminated from the World Cup. 

While they definitely lost to the USA in the round of thirty two knock out stage, they are not losers. That is a crown touched by Midas and which sits plum on the malodorous head of the Football Association of Ireland.

Since they first arrived on the other side of the Atlantic for the tournament the fans of Bosnia and Herzegovina took to the streets of Toronto in their thousands to bang drums and chant Palestina. When they arrived in Seattle for the match against Qatar, they crowded into the stadium waving their Palestinian flags and chanting Free Palestine. They did likewise for their clash with the USA in Santa Clara. As New Arab reported:

Despite their early departure, Bosnian fans’ consistent displays of solidarity with Palestine will be remembered as one of the highlights of the World Cup.

Lejla Turcilo, a professor at the University of Sarajevo’s Department of Communication said:

We very well know how important it is for a nation that is suffering to have someone who will keep mentioning it worldwide.

And what does the FAI mention worldwide? That Israel despite its genocide in Gaza is a worthy opponent rather than a leprous state that should be forced to ring a bell to warn of its approach towards civilisation rather than tolling a bell for the Palestinians it is murdering in Gaza and the West Bank on a daily basis.

The words of the professor should shame the FAI:

Bosnians (and Bosniaks especially) know very well how it feels to be exposed to genocide and how it feels to fight not only aggressors, but also to fight for justice and the right to be heard and supported globally. In that context, we stand for Palestine maybe even more than others. We have been in the same shoes, and it is our obligation to let Palestinian people know that we feel them and understand them.

Given the history of Ireland's trauma at the hands of the British you would imagine that the FAI would get this and and back her call for the Palestinian cause to be heard and supported globally. But the FAI choose to ignore it and instead promote on a global stage the legitimacy of the genocidal regime and the most war-like state on the planet.

Saleem Al-Ashqar played soccer. He was goalkeeper of the Khadamat Khan Younis club in the South of Gaza. Last Wednesday the Israelis murdered him. What made him a target? He was cycling to refill a gas cylinder for his family when an Israeli panzer rained heavy artillery down on him. Married just five months ago, his widow is expecting their first child.

Since Israel launched its genocidal project in 2003, it has butchered 1,009 sportspeople, 567 of whom are footballers.

This seems not to count in the minds of the FAI who believe getting six points is more important that showing solidarity with 567 murdered soccer players.

Last week, the US Presbyterian Church voted to recognize Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide. Its spokesperson said:

The General Assembly, which reflects this diversity, spoke in a unified voice against genocide and for measures that will hopefully contribute to the liberation of Palestine.

The Church voted unanimously to disinvest from Palantir and GE Aerospace. The first helps the IDF target Palestinians while the second profits from making engines for fighter jets and helicopters for use by the Israeli military.

The combined action of the US Presbyterians and the Bosnia and Herzegovina supporters puts the FAI to shame.

Next Wednesday an extraordinary general meeting of the FAI will take place. The Board disgracefully is asking the members to endorse the decision to play the games at so called neutral venues. But as Raymond Deane pointed out in a recent letter to the Irish Times, Serbia's foreign minister described Israel as one of its closest friends and key strategic partners, and that under the recently ousted Viktor Orban, Hungary was the most unconditional pro-EU member. The FAI might as well play the matches in Israel.

This is a farce. The FAI really need to stop playing games with its membership and the wider public. It can either stop the game or continue with its rebranding as the Farce Association of Ireland.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

Farce Association Of Ireland

Geordie Morrow ðŸ–Œ with a painting from his collection of art work. 


⏩Geordie Morrow is a Belfast artist.

Waiting And Hoping And Wishing And Praying

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