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Gary Robertson ⚽ Behold the golden chalice, who should ever drink from it may forever be scarred with the shame of Scotland manager.

So Steve Clarke has gone, drifted off into obscurity on the raft of “at least I got Scotland to both the Euros and World Cup.”
 
I don’t think Stevie boy was a bad manager. I mean, clearly his tactics worked at some level and we should be grateful at least for the job he’s done but the death knell sounded long before we were pumped without lube by Brazil. To scrape past the troubled land of Haiti by a solitary deflected goal the omens weren’t good and so it proved. Two further failures, and despite having signed a new contract before heading off to the US Clarke handed in his resignation and once again the good ship Scotland FC is rudderless.
 
So who fancies the job? Who’s willing to destroy their reputation and drink deeply the poison offered up by the SFA?
 
I love my country, as any patriot should, but there’s no way I’d, even if I was in a position to do so, offer up my services to be manager of the Scottish football team.

Who honestly in their right mind is going to look at the achievements of Clarke and think “I can do that and better”?
 
If the betting is to be believed then former Celtic, Spurs and Forest boss Ange Postecoglou is the man to take over. I suppose you could argue he was the most successful Spurs manager for years and he did a first rate top notch job at Celtic. He’s also available so it would make sense his name would come up in conversation but I don’t know. I like Ange and I’d hate to see him booed off the Hampden turf by the very fans who once held him in such high esteem.
 
Celtic news and finally a signing, pen put to paper and we are proud to announce - Alex Oxlaide chamberlain has signed a new one year deal.
 
That’s it. We’re well into July and once again the board are dragging their feet, trying hard to get players on the cheap and leaving the fans frustrated.
 
I don’t want to speculate on rumours. I mean, they’re just that, rumours; nothing concrete so it’s pointless, as pointless as the Salah to Rangers talk. That wasn’t ever going to happen and I don’t want to fill this column with if buts and maybes. Stick to the facts and at time of writing once again Celtic fans have little to celebrate.
 
Across the City, McInness' Rangers have gotten their pre-season off to a flyer with a 5-1 closed doors victory over Raith Rovers.
 
McInness has been busy in the transfer window, perhaps the pain of missing out to Celtic in the league last season spurring him on to better his squad. Rangers seem to be in good shape and will be a potent threat this year.
 
So that’s the week that was. Little for Celtic fans to get excited about green shoots of optimism for the other SPL clubs just another week in the world of Scottish football.
 
Perhaps next week . . . who knows.

Til next time ….

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

Groundhog Celtic

Anthony McIntyre ⚽ As we settled into our seats to watch 5th place take on 8th I felt the first warm wave of blended course through my veins, courtesy of a neat double Scotch whiskey imbibed in the Windmill prior to the game. 

Paddy was driving so sidestepped the Glenfiddich. I don't think he takes Scotch in any event. For me, blended or single malt, it doesn’t really matter - I’m gonna drink it anyway. What I like about the occasional pre-match tipple in the Windmill is that the Scotch isn’t alone in being blended. Home and away supported mingle and blend into a single fan zone.

On the way over there wasn’t a lot of the sun about. That was until we got into the ground and it emerged to glare at us from whatever cloud it had been snoozing behind. For those of us inclined to give out about a sun drought Ireland it gets its revenge for the slur week in, week out, to bathe Sullivan and Lambe Park in its golden glow working its Midas touch on our eyes. Although Paddy was in part protected by sunglasses, for much of the game we resorted to holding our phones aloft to provide shade so that our peepers could follow the play. That’s one huge unforeseen disadvantage of having switched stadium sides preseason.

It’s potency wasn't so effective as to block my view of  Harry Wood menacing the Drogheda defence in the ninth minute, his effort blocked, I commented to Paddy that Wood was dangerous and could pose problems for the Drogs backline. So it proved to be as he punished the home side with a brace of strikes.  

A despondency has set in to the Drogs fan base as of late, with only the true believers holding out for a change in fortunes. Apart from Jay on the journey across who predicted a 2-1 victory for the Drogs, no one else was upbeat. I felt the best to be expected was a draw.  

It wasn't long into the game before Shels were building up a head of steam.  So when Wood executed the first of his strikes in the fifteenth minute it signalled an uncomfortable night ahead. The visitors bared their teeth to intimidate the Claret and Blue, leading to a 19th minute yellow card for Paddy Barret. Five minutes later the home side pulled level, Thomas Oluwa heading home from close range a Brandon Kavanagh cross. Oluwa, the subject of much criticism for not delivering, is not without backers, some fans in his corner claiming that if he was given the service he would be much more productive in front of goal. I always feel he is too easily pushed off the ball or beaten to the second ball, and would see more chances fall his way if he retained possession. 

In the 36th minute the Drogs took the lead, something that seemed a distant possibility at the time of the Wood goal. Mark Doyle slotted home a well placed pass from Jason Bucknor. No time to rest on laurels as Harry Wood once again tested Luke Dennison in the Drogheda goal a few minutes before the break. Still, it was something of an achievement that Kevin Doherty could accompany his players to their break a goal to the good, even though Dennison's work tasks had been more numerous than his opposite number. 

When play resumed Paddy Barret didn't appear, the Shels staff probably calculating the risk was not worth it as he was carrying a yellow card, a visible target on his back for opponents willing to take a chance and force a foul and a possible red.  All hands were needed on deck if this one was to be turned around for the visitors. More changes followed as either side fought for the edge. 

It was clear that Shelbourne were finding their way back into contention with Ward persistently harrying and Dennison saving twice in the space of a minute. The writing was on the wall and it spelt goal when a minute later Wood again penetrated the Drogheda defence and pulled the sides level. 

Ryan Brennan made an uncharacteristically clumsy challenge with about twenty minutes remaining for which his name went into the book, underscoring a detectable sense of frustration amongst the Claret and Blue. Brennan around the 80 minute mark tried a spectacular effort on goal that came very close to putting the Drogs in front. In the dying minutes another effort from the Drogheda captain fell the wrong side of the post when it looked certain he would score.  The pressure eased a bit when Harry Wood was replaced in the 77th minute. If the Drogs were not quite out of the woods they were rid of the Wood. No Hattrick Harry would find itself splashed across the sports pages. 

While not anything near as long that World Cup viewers are familiar with, four minutes of extra time still seemed an extended bout for a team no means safe from the threat of relegation. Despite being a home game where three points are considered the only acceptable outcome, Drogs fans wanted to get out with at least one point in the bag. They can be even less confident that they can achieve that much in the next home fixture when they face the Bohs. 

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

Drogs ⚽ Shelbourne ⚽ Points Dropped

Frankie McKillen ✍ I keep coming back to it. Three words. “I can’t breathe.”


Said by a dying man in Minneapolis in May 2020 and the whole world stopped what it was doing. Murals went up overnight. Politicians who couldn’t find Minneapolis on a map were suddenly experts on American policing. Corporations that wouldn’t give a homeless man the time of day were putting black squares on their Instagram. Millions marched. Three words became a brand.

Then a man called Henry Nowak said the same words, dying, in Southampton. And nothing. No mural. No corporate statement. No politician taking the knee outside a Hampshire police station. Same words. Same fear in a man’s throat as the life goes out of him. Different universe of response. And before anyone tells me it’s because nobody saw it – they did. It was filmed. It was shared. People were angry about it, same as they were angry about Floyd. Questions got asked about what the police did and didn’t do. All the ingredients were there. The cake just never got baked.

So why not? The easy answer – the one that lets everybody off the hook – is that America has its own particular history, its own wound that never healed properly, and Floyd’s death just happened to land on the rawest part of it. Fine. There’s truth in that. But it’s not the whole truth, and I think most people sense that, even if they don’t say it out loud. The real question – the one that actually matters – isn’t about the dead men. It’s about us. What is it that decides whether a death becomes a movement or just a paragraph in a local paper? What decides whose anger gets taken seriously and whose gets a security briefing instead?

After Floyd, America burned in places. I’m not going to pretend otherwise – shops gutted, buildings on fire, people who had nothing to do with any of it losing their homes and their livelihoods, some losing their lives. That happened. But watch how it got talked about. The violence got wrapped in understanding. Commentators lined up to explain the rage behind it, to give it context, to humanise it. The disorder was treated as the unfortunate cousin of a legitimate grievance.

Now watch what happens in Britain, when ordinary people get angry about immigration, or about crime in their own streets, or about policing that doesn’t seem to apply equally to everyone. The vocabulary changes overnight. Suddenly we’re not talking about grievance and context – we’re talking about extremism, about racism, about the far right circling like vultures. Sometimes that label fits. Often it doesn’t. But notice the pattern – one crowd gets analysed, the other gets a label slapped on it and filed away. One crowd’s anger gets explored. The other’s gets assumed, and dismissed before the first sentence is finished.

People aren’t stupid. They see this. They see which causes get the politician’s knee and which get silence. They see which grief gets a hashtag and which gets a line in the local news and nothing more. They notice who becomes a symbol and who becomes a statistic, filed and forgotten. I’m not saying every protest is righteous, or every grievance equally sound – that would be its own kind of dishonesty. What I’m asking is simpler than that. If we say understanding matters, does it matter for everybody, or just the people whose anger fits the right story? If justice is the principle, does it apply when it’s inconvenient, or only when it’s fashionable?

Look at what happened after, too. In America, the machine moved. The officers were suspended, charged, tried, convicted. You can argue with bits of how that went, but nobody can say the state didn’t act. It showed its hand – police can be held to account, in public, with consequences.

Nobody in Britain is holding their breath for anything like that over Henry Nowak. There’ll be an investigation, there’ll be a statement, there’ll be the usual promises that lessons will be learned. And then there’ll be quiet. Not because the cases are identical – they’re not, no two ever are – but because nobody seriously expects the same ending. And that gap, between what one community expects from the system and what another expects, is its own kind of rot. Justice that only some people believe is coming for them isn’t justice. It’s a postcode lottery with better PR.

And here’s where it gets even messier, because the story doesn’t sit still long enough to be tidy. Tyre Nichols died in Memphis in January 2023, beaten by police officers – Black officers, beating a Black man – and the footage was as bad as anything that came out of Minneapolis. The state moved fast again. Sackings, charges, the lot. And the world barely blinked. No global wave. No summer of statements. The cameras packed up and went home quicker than anyone expected.

If it was really about police violence, why didn’t that case detonate the same way? If it was really about accountability, why did one tragedy become a chapter of history and the other a news cycle that came and went? Maybe America had already had its reckoning and didn’t have the appetite for a second one. Or maybe – and this is the bit that makes people uncomfortable – outrage isn’t really driven by the facts of what happened at all. It’s driven by whether the death fits a story that’s already being told. Some deaths slot neatly into the narrative everyone’s already arguing about. Others, just as brutal, don’t fit anywhere, and so they don’t go anywhere either.

Morgan Freeman has been saying some version of this for years, and it’s cost him plenty of goodwill with people who’d normally be cheering him on. Asked on 60 Minutes how you stop racism, he didn’t hedge – he said stop talking about it. Stop sorting people into categories and calling that progress. “I don’t want a Black History Month,” he told them. “Black history is American history.” He’s said much the same about being called African-American – he’s an American, full stop, and he doesn’t see why there has to be a hyphen in front of it. Predictably, he got hammered for it. Plenty of people argue the categories are necessary precisely because the inequalities are still there, baked into the structure, and pretending otherwise just makes the problem harder to name and fix. That’s not a daft argument. It deserves a proper answer, not a shrug.

But Freeman’s actual challenge still stands there waiting to be answered: if equal treatment is the principle, what happens to that principle the moment it depends on who’s asking for it? He’s not saying forget history. He’s saying a rule that bends depending on which group is in front of you isn’t a rule. It’s a preference wearing a rule’s clothes. Nobody needs convincing that George Floyd deserved sympathy. He did. Nobody needs convincing that Tyre Nichols deserved justice. He did. And nobody should need convincing that Henry Nowak’s death deserves a proper look too. It does.

The question that won’t go away is why these deaths land so differently. What decides which ones become a cause and which become a case file? Whose fury gets called righteous and whose gets called a problem to be managed? These aren’t comfortable questions, and I don’t pretend to have them fully worked out. But any society that claims to care about justice ought to be very wary of building a ladder of grief – some victims at the top, worth the world’s attention, others further down, worth a paragraph and a press release.

If police kill unlawfully, they should answer for it – wherever it happens, whoever they are. If a citizen dies after the state gets involved, that death deserves scrutiny, full stop, not scrutiny rationed out depending on the politics of the moment. And if justice is supposed to mean something, it has to mean the same thing on a wet Tuesday in Southampton as it does on a hot night in Minneapolis.

George Floyd’s last words became one of the slogans of this century. Henry Nowak’s last words didn’t become anything at all, beyond a paragraph most people scrolled past. That gap doesn’t tell us much about either man. It tells us about ourselves – about which stories we’re willing to pick up and carry, and which we let drop without a second thought. Freeman’s challenge is the same one sitting underneath all of this: are we actually willing to apply our principles to everyone, or only to the cases that are easy, fashionable, and don’t ask anything difficult of us?

Justice shouldn’t run on fashion. It shouldn’t run on which way the political wind’s blowing that week. The moment it starts picking favourites, it stops being justice and becomes something else entirely.

🕮 Frankie McKillen is a Belfast Rockabilly

Three Words, And Who Gets To Own Them?

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3198

People And Nature ☭ This statement by HK Anti-War Mobilisation was published on Facebook on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, in February. It deserves to be shared widely – please copy and paste.


The Russian invasion of Ukraine will soon enter its fifth year. We pay tribute to the Ukrainians’ steadfast resistance and condemn in the strongest possible terms Putin’s expansionist war that killed five to six hundred thousand Ukrainian soldiers and fifty-five thousand civilians, including two Hongkongers who volunteered to fight.

Photo from HK Anti-War mobilisation facebook page

The US is equally shameful, for its opportunistic attempt to exploit Ukraine’s natural resources, its exclusion of Ukraine from the negotiating table and capitulation to Russian demands. We also condemn European countries for continuing to import Russian natural gas, and criticise Russia’s allies for providing diplomatic, military and economic support.

While Ukraine was going through one of the coldest winters in recent years, Russia intensified its bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and civilian areas, leaving millions of Ukrainians with disrupted power, heat and water supply. Such targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure are war crimes.

We demand this unjust aggression to cease immediately, that Russia must be held accountable, and that Ukraine‘s post-war redevelopment must be supported unconditionally.

Fatigued. But Ukrainians fight, rather than give up territories

Ukrainians are exhausted after four years of resistance. An opinion poll has found that 72% of Ukrainians were prepared for a peace plan that freezes the current line of conflict, as long as there are security guarantees for Ukraine, and that Russian-occupied territories would not be recognised [internationally]. [Rather than] anything short of that, two-thirds of Ukrainians are prepared to endure war as long as necessary, and 75% of Ukrainians reject giving up more land in return for a ceasefire.

Our support for Ukrainians’ self-determination is unwavering. Ukrainians have the right to conduct armed resistance against the brutal invasion by their superpower neighbour. If the resistance continues, decent military compensation and welfare must be provided to soldiers and their families. If a peace deal is reached, it must not come at the price of Ukrainian sovereignty and wealth—that would just be pillage and plunder in a different form.

The burden of post-war reconstruction shall not be borne by the grassroots. Ukraine must resist further privatisation and austerity measures just to satisfy their international debt conditions.

Despite launching human wave tactics against Ukraine, Russia has been advancing more and more slowly. Ukrainian resistance has not only defended critical positions but also drained Russia’s national strength. With 14.5% inflation and a new high external debt since 2006, Russia was forced to start selling its gold reserves last year. Its population is declining due to conscription and emigration.

However, the US has been blaming Ukraine for being unwilling to negotiate for peace, while lapping up Russia’s ridiculous demands during peace talks. Under Trump’s 28-point deal, the size of Ukraine’s armed forces would be limited to 600,000, while critical industrial regions and fortifications, including the entire Donbas region, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces, would be annexed by Russia – areas that Russia has never been able to seize since the war started in 2014.

In fact, the side blocking the path to peace is Russia. To maintain his dictatorship, Putin would by all possible means keep this war going. Not only does the current “peace deal” justify Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territories, it also fails to hold Russia accountable for their war crimes (kidnapping children and bombing civilian infrastructure). It cannot deter future Russian invasion.

With continuous support from allies, for example China, who increased Russian oil imports and provided crucial military technologies like chips, radar and drones since the outbreak of the invasion, Russia have been able to obtain important military resources despite western sanctions.

All nations must cease supporting Russia. We stand by Ukraine in rejecting an unfair ceasefire deal and in refusal to give in to a superpower.

While Ukrainians are united against an external threat, internal conflicts are yet to be resolved.

Grassroot servicemen and wartime labour are not honoured. [There is] nationwide protest against corrupt oligarchs.

The majority of the Ukraine Armed Forces come from the middle and the lower class. This is a result of government conscription in labour-intense regions, while the rich could bribe their way out of conscription or even the country. Soldiers currently receive a mere 600 US dollars basic salary a month.

With the government reducing public expenses and reforming the combat reward system, only those engaged in direct enemy contact are entitled to the full bonus. Adding to that is that many servicemen must buy their own equipment. Effectively, the soldiers have been dealt a pay cut.

At the same time, the Ukrainian government has started offering interest-free mortgages, free education and healthcare, and a high annual salary to volunteers aged 18 to 24. To senior volunteers who joined the resistance since the early stages of the war, this is no doubt a blow to their morale.

The government should tax the rich, nationalise key industries, confiscate oligarchs’ assets to improve all servicemen’s welfare, salary, their families’ livelihood and the quality of military equipment.

In the past four years, Russia has been bombarding civilian infrastructures. Frontline workers risk their lives daily to service maintenance. Since the start of the invasion, 2747 Ukrainian workers have been injured and 677 killed at work. Although legislation has been passed to provide relief to the injured workers, so-called “critical sector” company lists have been classified and compensation has been delayed or denied to the workers by the bureaucracy.

Last July, a nation-wide protest broke out in opposition to Zelensky’s decision to strip the independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Although Zelensky soon revoked the decision and removed Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of President, following a bribery scandal, corruption is still a serious problem in Ukraine, with energy and mining oligarchs embezzling public funds.

Since the dissolution of the USSR, political power and economic wealth has been dominated by oligarchs. Only by putting these resources under public scrutiny and planning the economy according to democratic principles, can Ukraine effectively direct national resources towards the resistance, attain social justice and protect public welfare.

Russian antiwar campaigns never ceased. Underground resistance sabotaged Russian railways

At the same time, despite Putin’s crackdown on anti-war protests, arresting over twenty thousand protesters, the anti-war sentiment remains strong.

Examples include: “Feminist Anti-War Resistance” and “Women in Black” flash mob protests, “The Ark”’s accommodation and psychological support to Russians in exile, “Stop the Wagons”’ sabotage of the Russian railway and “Solidarity Zone”’s financial and legal support to antiwar activists.

We must reiterate that anti-war activism is not a crime. Russia must release anti-war activists immediately and cease its crackdown on dissidents.

Support resistance for justice. Strongly against the US’s robbery deal

Based on justice and the welfare of Ukrainian people, we demand Russia to cease invasion, return occupied territories and compensate for the destruction it has caused. The international community must hold Putin and his ruling clique accountable, cancel Ukrainian debt and remove all collateral attachments, including privatisation and cutting of social welfare.

We do not accept any foreign attempts to extort benefit from interference in peace talks and the US’s attempt to steal Ukrainian rare-earth resources.

No peace, no justice!

Say No to Hegemonic Aggression! Russia Ceasefire Now! Withdraw Troops Now!

Support Ukrainian Resistance! Cancel all Ukrainian debt!

Confiscate Russian and Oligarchs’ Assets and Use Them for Ukraine’s Reconstruction!

Anti War Is Not A Crime! Release all Activists!

Occupation Is No Peace

Occupation Is A Crime

Make Fascists Afraid Again

Ukraine Is Not For Sale


☭  I have only just come across this statement, which is now a few months old. It’s well worth circulating, to highlight the way that these brave people are speaking out against Russian aggression -  SP.

Hong Kong Protesters 🪶 “Oppose Russian Hegemonic Aggression! No Peace Without Justice!”

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)

   

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 202

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