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TPQ
Ronan McSherry ✍ On Sunday the Allianz GAA league will conclude in Croke Park with a repeat of last year's All Ireland football final: Donegal v Kerry.

One suspects the GAA 'higher-archy' will be relieved to get to the other side of this year's league since it's been completely overshadowed by the shameful Allianz partnership.

'Hierarchy' is derived from two Greek words: hieros ('sacred') and archien ('rule' or 'order').
 
The ruling from the GAA on the issue of a company, that funds genocide, has been anything but sacred. It amounts to a top-down directive that forbids any discussion or input from its members.

Yet the facts remain: Allianz is the largest investor in Israeli war bonds deemed ‘critical for the war effort’.

The UN special rapporteur has identified Allianz as an enabler of the genocide and has publicly expressed support for the Drop Allianz campaign in Ireland.

Even Allianz plc has attempted to distance themselves from their own parent group. So the question arises, if Allianz has the highest ESG standards as claimed, why is the Irish unit trying to reject any connection?

Before taking time to draw breath and reflect, GAA President Jarlath Burns said of protesters making their way into Congress to wave banners and call for debate on the issue: 

I think there was a line crossed today, coming into our property and disrupting our Congress is unacceptable". Hello!.. 'our property?!'

The use of the term 'our property' does not sit well with those who attended the rally and indeed many GAA members who have organised fundraisers in their clubs to help the victims of Gaza, attended peaceful protests at games and handed out information leaflets explaining the #DropAllianz campaign.

Ten counties voted to end the Allianz alliance. This begs the question: What is the position of the other 22 counties? (24 if you include London and New York). Indeed Drop Allianz banners were spotted recently at the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York.

Why has the Gaelic Players' Association (GPA) not voiced its disapproval and directed their fold to stop promoting Allianz? It is sickening to see young men (role models?) and managers stand in front of the Allianz logo during post-match interviews. Not all the county players are promoting Allianz.
Respect is due to the Tyrone and Dublin squads who took the decision not to have an advertisement for the company that promotes genocide, using their image.
 
Colm O'Rourke has suggested the GPA has hidden behind the GAA on this issue; he's not wrong. Can the players not think for themselves?

It is our GAA, our Association, our Croke Park, our Congress. It was men like Peter and Pascal Canavan, Eugene McKenna, Brian McGilligan, Colm O'Rourke, Colm McAlarney, Bobby Doyle, David Hickey, Pat Gilroy, Greg Blaney - greats who filled and built Croke Park and years later found themselves standing outside the Hogan Stand on the day of Congress in despair that their Association forbids uncomfortable debate. GAA suits driven by a corporate lust for money where business interests trump humanity.

As Pascal Canavan pointed out, they didn't go looking for this campaign to get rid of Allianz. It was brought to them when the facts were laid bare last year.

Humanity

When did we stop caring about the other? I'm no expert on the Good Book but there is a decency and humanity to the credo, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me".

In February, Waylon Gary White Dear, a renowned Choctaw academic, artist and author appeared on the Tommy Tiernan Show. It was a fascinating interview.
 
However on the programme's Facebook page, many viewers were critical that Tommy did not mention a historical link of solidarity between the Chowtaw Nation and the Irish, that was forged during the Famine in 1847, when the native Americans sent a donation to Ireland for hunger relief.

The gift was extraordinary because the Choctaw people had recently been forced off their land, yet they chose to support another group facing starvation and suffering. Or perhaps that is why they sent the gift; they remembered their past.

The Irish too have been generous in reaching out to those most oppressed and in need. In 1985, Live Aid concerts on both sides of the Atlantic, that drew attention to the Ethiopian famine, reached 1.9 billion viewers. Donations flooded in.

We were so proud when it emerged that Ireland raised £7 million, the highest per capita donation in the world at that time.

Was it the Celtic Tiger that engendered a me-féin mindset or perhaps far right propaganda that suggests caring for others, including those in Gaza, is misguided?

I was confronted by a young man last year regarding the local GAA support and fundraising for Palestine. "What about our poor? What about our homeless? We should be helping them".

It is a racist refrain that hides behind altruism.
 
Biding my time, I met him at Christmas and asked, "Did you contribute to the local Foodbank hamper appeal?".. "Eh!"

".. just you seemed concerned about our poor, I was wondering maybe you volunteered at a homeless shelter over Christmas or helped with a street soup run"... "Whaa..?!".. Indeed.

You find people who care about those in Palestine and other war-torn and beleaguered lands, are most likely to reach out with compassion locally as well.

It is not a huge ask for players to refuse to stand in front of a logo that represents a company supporting mass slaughter or refuse to lift a cup bearing its ribbons.

As for Jarlath Burns, or whoever has the dubious honour of presenting this year's league trophy, spare us the "thank you to the sponsor" - not in our name.

⏩Ronan McSherry from Tyrone is a life-time GAA member and former newspaper columnist.

Not In Our Name

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Despite the wealth in this society the waiting lists continue to grow whether for hospitals, houses, driving tests, ad infinitum.

The most recent to join the queue have been the dead, waiting for autopsies to be performed. Our rulers have now resorted to bringing in specialists from the UK to ascertain how people died. Perhaps those pathologists, while they are here, might have a look at the walking dead running Transport For Ireland in Dublin City.

This came home to me yesterday morning as I stood along with a friend wating on a bus at Summerhill. The 73 which seems to be the only bus that services Summerhill right out to Marino is supposed to come every ten to twelve minutes. That what is spoofed on the website. We needed it yesterday to get close to our next stop for the 40D that would take us out to our destination, Cappagh Hospital, for a 1000 appointment. The 40D from Parnell Street can take up to forty minutes to make that journey, so we needed to make its 0900 service, which would get us to Cappagh with twenty minutes to spare. My friend has difficulty walking and is on a stick, so I accompany him on hospital visits. We both have Fee Travel passes so the return journey to Cappagh Hospital, if the bus operator is up to the task, should not cost us a cent.

We arrived at the Summerhill stop close to 0830 which would give us plenty of time to make our connecting bus. An hour later we were still there. Five 73s went past on the outward journey but not a single citybound one.

Not one driver from the outbound 73s stopped to inform us of a problem. I guess it it not their responsibility otherwise they would have to tell everybody along the route. When a citybound one did arrive it was full and drove past us, the driver glancing our way indifferently. He could probably do little else. Taking time to explain the situation to irate would-be-passengers might have made those on his bus, already well behind schedule, just as irate about the inordinate delays. At the very least the service could have sent an inspector around those stops where electronic information boards are absent. But that is the type of thought the brain dead are not inclined to have.

People of different colours and nationalities congregated, frustrated and complaining about the total unreliability of the 73. Yesterday was not just a one off. They needed to get to work, so some started walking into town realising that they would pass plenty of 73s on their way, as the vehicles went in the opposite direction.

Growing anxious we began trying to flag a taxi from about 0900 but had no luck. Eventually I suggested to my friend that he should either ring a cab or the hospital telling it we would need to cancel. He opted for a taxi. It arrived inside two minutes, the private sector succeeding where the public had failed miserably. The last time we headed out to the hospital in terrible weather it cost my friend almost thirty yoyos. This time the journey was much quicker and cost him twenty. A sizeable chunk out of a disability income.

People like my friend wait long enough to be seen by hospital consultants. Their quality of life depends on them making their appointments. Those appointments in turn depend on the public transport system being fit for purpose in deprived areas. I don't imagine there were too many delays yesterday in Dalkey. Many there probably have the financial means to go private in health matters as well, meaning they wait for neither buses nor treatment. All fine for the wealthy and healthy. Ballybough (the poor town), well, it doesn't seem to figure high in the priorities of the people running our public transport service. An impoverished working class community, it can be treated with disdain by officialdom. The wealthy can expect not only a larger slice of the cake but also the cream on top. The most disadvantaged, they get the crusts, and stale ones at that.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

73 🚌 The Busless Route

Guardian ★ Written by Martin Gelin. Recommended by Cam Ogie. 

The US is no longer a democracy. One of the most credible global sources on the health of democratic nations now says this outright. The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University reaches the alarming conclusion in its annual report, that the US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey.

“Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country,” says Staffan Lindberg, founder of the institute.

Since 2012, Lindberg has led his small group of researchers in Sweden to become the world’s leading source for analysis of the health of global democracy. In their latest report, published on Tuesday, they conclude that the US, for the first time in more than half a century, has lost its long-term status as a liberal democracy. The country is now going through a rapid process of what the report’s authors call “autocratisation”.

“For Orbán in Hungary, it took about four years, for Vučić in Serbia, it took eight years, and for Erdoğan in Turkey and Modi in India . . .

Continue @ Guardian.

‘Trump Is Aiming For Dictatorship’ 🪶 That’s The Verdict Of The World’s Most Credible Democracy Watchdog

Christopher Owens 🎵 with the 61sth in his Predominance series.

“Money is not our God.” - Killing Joke


Horns up 

New Horizons

Neurosis - An Undying Love for a Burning World

After the ugly revelations around Scott Kelly, few people would have expected Neurosis to re-emerge, but they have. With Aaron Turner in tow, they have made one of the albums of the year. Filled with cathartic anger as well as more pastoral moments, it’s classic Neurosis. The one/two punch of ‘In the Waiting Hour’ and ‘Last Light’ is universe ending.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Wolfbastard – Satanic Scum Punks

After giving us the face ripping ‘Hammer the Bastards’ in 2022, it seemed impossible for the self-proclaimed ‘D-beat black metal tossers from Manchester’ to top it. But they have. By upping the filth, the speed and the crust, Wolfbastard have given us another faceripper. Bravo lads, especially for the title track and ‘F.O.A.D’.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

mclusky - i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley

Apparently intended as special release to promote an upcoming American tour, this mish mash of new material, previously digital only releases and outtakes is (unsurprisingly) a remarkably coherent addition to last year’s excellent ‘The World is Still Here...’ Standout number is ‘i know computer’ due to the gnarly bass and angular riffing.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Machine Mafia – Red

A side project of the ever-prolific Pound Land, this sits somewhere between Fall like surrealism and Uniform style pounding. On tracks like ‘No’, it genuinely sounds like Adam Stone is having a nervous breakdown and the music heightens the tension in wonderful fashion. Unnerving in the best way possible.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Score – Sunburst Body

The ever-prolific Chris Tate returns with a gorgeous record perfectly timed for the beginning of spring. Although moments like ‘Golden Body’ hint at demons being suppressed until the next winter, the rest of the LP is akin to a zephyr like breeze: soothing ambience on a clear summer day.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Golden Oldies


Chaos UK – Chaos in Japan

One of the pioneering crust punk acts, this live album from 1991 showcases the band at their most ferocious, flying through numbers like ‘Four Minute Warning’ and ‘Police Story’ with the energy and gusto of teenagers. Even the obligatory jokey numbers like ‘Farmyard Boogie’ have an edge to them!



Brutal Truth – Need to Control

After marking their terrain with the magnificent ‘Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses’, Brutal Truth then decided to reimagine the possibilities of being a grindcore band by throwing us this album. A cold, clinical production combined with a stripped-down approach to grind and borrowing elements from industrial music, it’s still killer.



⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Predominance 61

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3098

Maryam Namazie ✊1-February-2026. French: La Journée mondiale du hijab et l’alchimie politique qui transforme la coercition en choix

Every year on 1 February, World Hijab Day invites women, primarily those whose refusal carries no consequence, to wear a hijab for a day. This invitation is framed as empathy: an opportunity to understand and affirm tolerance. In fact, though, World Hijab Day is part of a political project to repackage an instrument of coercion into a symbol of ‘choice.’ The language of choice is only for those who comply. Removing the hijab is never a ‘choice.’ This is not solidarity. It is whitewashing. Celebrating the hijab while severing it from the system that produces it performs a political service not for women but for those in power. It sanitises women’s subordination.

The hijab does not exist in a vacuum. It is embedded in power, history and enforcement. It is part of a system of governance over women operating through the Islamic state, law, family, community, fear, shame, belief and modesty culture. In the diaspora, control continues as the state outsources discipline to community and religious leaders.

The hijab is one expression of a much older project to keep women in their place. It trains women to absorb responsibility for the social order through their own bodies. Societies depend on women for reproduction, care, labour and social continuity. Restricting women’s autonomy maintains the social hierarchy.

From early childhood, girls are trained to monitor themselves with their hijab. Fear is internalised as conscience. Obedience is internalised as morality. With internalised shame, enforcement becomes largely unnecessary. Women and girls learn to disappear. They police one another. Domination becomes self-sustaining. Many even come to believe in the moral necessity of the hijab. This is not delusion in a simplistic sense. It is survival. Fear precedes belief. Belief soothes fear. Over time, belief feels authentic. Nevertheless, belief formed under threat does not negate coercion.

Hidden behind the language of modesty and choice, enforcement secures ownership. Across patriarchal systems, predating capitalism and surviving regime changes, women’s sexuality is not merely controlled; it is socially and politically claimed by fathers, husbands, religions, nations and states. The hijab is one marker to say that a woman is already owned, already regulated, already spoken for. The language of ‘choice’ diverts attention from ownership and punishment, aims to isolate dissenters as aberrations and transforms structural coercion into individual preference.

The far-right also treats women’s bodies as public terrain to be governed in the service of social order. Their dispute with the Islamists is not over whether women should be controlled, but over who controls them. Women are valued not as autonomous subjects but for what their bodies produce and represent for the nation, Christianity, the family and the ‘white race.’ This is why far-right movements fixate on birth rates, motherhood and sexual conduct and why women’s refusal is framed as moral decay or social collapse. As with Islamism, women’s autonomy is treated as a threat and dissent is disciplined through shame, exclusion and violence.

This is why women who transgress their assigned role are treated as existential threats. It is a woman reclaiming what patriarchy denies her.

Much of today’s discourse around the hijab focuses on individual testimonials without any structural analysis. The main political question is why women and girls are punished for refusing to wear the hijab.

Putting the hijab on men like last year’s Ex-Muslims International campaign, or burning the hijab in solidarity with the women of Iran are refusals to reframe an instrument of domination into a harmless piece of clothing. It says the hijab is enforced. It is punished. It is defended with violence. It says that compliance and submission are not the same as consent.

It is important to add: criticising the veil as a system of control is not an attack on women who wear it, any more than condemning female genital mutilation is an attack on women who have been mutilated. No-one serious confuses the victim of a practice with the practice itself.

Moreover, to claim that structural criticism amounts to ‘shaming’ is to shift responsibility away from religion, the clerics and the state and onto those with the least power. It demands silence from dissenting women while granting immunity to the systems that police them.

World Hijab Day functions as ideological cover, whereas No Hijab Day functions as disruption. World Hijab Day depends on women’s compliance and the political alchemy that reframes coercion into choice. No Hijab Day depends on women’s collective refusal and resistance. And as the saying goes, it is disobedient women who make history.

Maryam Namazie is a  is a British-Iranian secularist,
communist and human rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster.

World Hijab Day And The Political Alchemy Of Turning Coercion Into Choice

Ukraine Solidarity Group ✊ A Digest of News from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 22-March-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Russia now attacking Ukrainian hotels.
⬤ violation of religious rights in Crimea.
⬤ Russia’s oil and gas trade with Europe.
⬤ How North Korea armed Russia.
⬤ Students forced and tricked into fighting for Russia.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

The Face of Resistance: The Story of Crimean Tatar Activist Ayder Saledinov (Crimea Platform, March 20th)

Russia’s FSB concocts charges two years after abducting Elvira Abliazova and holding her in total isolation (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 20th)

Polish court allows extradition of Russian archaeologist to Ukraine over crimes in occupied Crimea (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 19th)

Russia sentences Kherson oblast woman to 10 years just after UN Commission blasts such ‘predetermined verdicts' (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 17th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea on March 17th (Crimea Platform, March 17th)

Crimean sentenced to 18 years for a phone video of boats from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 16th)

News from Ukraine

How Russian Forces Are Attacking Hotels Across Ukraine (Tribunal for Putin, March 17th)

RIP Olexander “Vampire” (Solidarity Collectives, March 16th)

War-related news from Russia

Russia: prison authorities punish anti-war protester Igor Paskar (People and Nature, March 19th)

“They destroyed all of Moscow’s competitive advantages”: Internet shutdowns are taking their toll on the Russian capital (The Insider, March 19th)

`Wake up Already’: Internet disruptions and Telegram outages fuel growing anger among Russian users (Meduza, March 18th)

Russia’s highest court upholds terror against Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employees (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 16th)

Inside the Pipeline: How North Korea armed Russia (IStories, March 16th)

The War on Poverty (The Russian Reader, March 14th)

News from the Front

Ukraine’s counteroffensive brings gains in the south but weakens other sectors of the front. Meduza analyses the latest battlefield developments (Meduza, March 19th)

Analysis and comment

Russian society in war mode (Links, March 19th)

Education system resilience in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia: Policies and Practices (Cedos, March 19th)

Impossible Island (Posle Media, March 18th)

New Report: Fuelling Russia's oil and gas influence in Europe (Razom We Stand, March 17th)

Toxic Pacifism: Interview with Mira (Solidarity Collectives, March 17th)

Inside the race to cut Russia off from the global internet (Business Insider, March 16th) Here without paywall

Life under Occupation: The situation in the Ukrainian territories temporarily controlled by the Russian army (Alter Pravo, February 2026)

Research of human rights abuses

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Publishes Report on Violations of Religious Human Rights, Including in Crimea (Crimea Platform, March 20th)

Students in occupied Crimea and Russia coerced, conned and threatened into going to fight against Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 18th)

Human Rights Committee Adopts Reports on Follow-Up to Concluding Observations Concerning Botswana, Cambodia and Ukraine (UNHCR, March 17th)

‘You won't get out of here’: the story of Konstantin Davydenkoʼs Russian captivity (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, March 16th)

Arbitrary detention of Ukrainians in the occupied territories: ZMINA spoke at an event within the framework of the UN Human Rights Council (Zmina, March 16th)

International solidarity

Rally at Parliament underscores UK labour movement support for Ukraine (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, March 18th)

Upcoming events

Saturday 28 March: Together March in London – Eastern European bloc against the far right, meeting 12.0 midday at Deanery Street, off Park Lane.

Wednesday 15 April, 6.0-7:30 pm. Try Me for Treason: Voices Against Putin's War - Part of the Think Human Festival 2026 Actors will perform extracts from speeches made from the dock by Russian oppositionists who have been tried for sabotage for actions taken against the Russo-Ukrainian war Clerici Building, Clerici Learning Studio, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Oxford.


🔴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.

To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to:
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To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.

News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 188

National Secular Society ★ Homosexuality Is "Lewd, Unnatural And Vile".

Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) also warns wives should not 'nag like a dripping tap'

The National Secular Society has reported three newly registered Christian charities to the Scottish charity watchdog for promoting homophobia and misogyny.

The three charities are Inverness - Greyfriars Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), Ayr Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) (pictured), and International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC) in Scotland.

All three are registered under the charitable purpose 'the advancement of religion'. Charities are legally required to act for the public benefit.

Homosexuality is a 'distortion of Satan'

A 2022 statement from the Free Church's general assembly states homosexuality is condemned by god as "abomination", "vile affections", "against nature" and "unseemly".

Churches which solemnise gay marriage are "overturning God's order, seeking to bless what He has cursed, and is deceiving men and women, in affirming them in their sin", it says.

A Free Church report on a pride parade in Glasgow describes gay people as "perverted" and their way of life as "lewd, unnatural and vile". It says warns against normalising homosexuality, which is an "abomination in the sight of God".

Continue @ NSS.

Christian Charity 🪶 Homosexuality Is "Lewd, Unnatural And Vile"

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ Throughout Ireland's often called ‘revolutionary period’, debatably beginning in 1913 with the ’Dublin Lockout’ and ending with the final shots of the ‘Civil War’ 24th May 1923, many support groups sprang up not least in Britain. 

The Irish Self Determination League (ISDL) was formed in Manchester (though some argue London) in 1919 at the request of Sinn Fein President, Eamonn de Valera. The ISDL spread through England and was open for membership to Irish people living in England and those of Irish descent. 

Support for Irish freedom was also policy in some of the major trade unions, not least the Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). There were those in the ranks of the ISDL many of whom were also trade union activists who wished to go a little further than just supporting the fight but wanted an active part in that fight. 

Much is documented about groups in Manchester over the years of struggle, the Manchester Martyrs of 1867 for example and various organisations in Liverpool – which also had/has a number of Orange lodges – but little is written about the North East of England. ‘Much of the archived material focuses on the more heavily documented Manchester and London IRA units but much less is known of the North East network’ which was a vital component of the broader IRA campaign. These volunteers spoke with Geordie, Mackem, or Teesside accents not an Irish brogue!! They were born in most cases of Irish extraction, in Newcastle, Jarrow, Sunderland, Stockton on Tees, County Durham of Irish parentage, grand parentage. The brigade were sworn in by Liam McMahon who was despatched from Dublin to administer the IRA oath. The brigade was divided into units which centred on locating and seizing explosives, detonators, and industrial materials from mines and warehouses to transport across the sea to Ireland. The IRA brigade in North East England regularly worked with and under the command of the Scottish Brigade which was larger. They also did operations alone like the bombing of the Jarrow Bridge spanning the River Don which was constructed back in the 19th century. They also carried out attacks on economic targets and the firebombing of various industrial and commercial targets of interest and benefit to the war.

This IRA brigade in the North East was commanded by local man, Richard Purcell who was born in Kilkenny, a former Coal Miner who worked at Coxlodge Colliery until its closure in 1894 then moving sites with other miners, and his quartermaster, Gilbert Barrington, a Schoolteacher with Joseph Connolly who was the Adjutant. These men were responsible for the entire Tyne and Wear area to as far south as Middlesborough and even touching the outskirts of the coastal town of Whitby. 

The tentacles of the IRA during the War of Independence reached considerably further than the shores of ‘Cork to Donegall’. The largest IRA company in the North East of England was Jarrow with over 90 Volunteers. By November 1920 the IRA in this area consisted of six companies comprising 190 men and by early 1921 that number had risen to around 480-90 Volunteers. The IRA in England stretched the full geography of the country with Scotland a separate command and considered a separate country.

From London, Birmingham, Liverpool and perhaps the largest brigade in England, Manchester, these IRA brigades split into units played a vital part in the overall strategy during the War of Independence. The least documented of these brigades and perhaps the most active was the IRA in the ‘Tyne and Wear’ area (called such because the area covered the River Tyne in Newcastle, Geordies, and the River Wear in Sunderland, Mackem’s). Warehouses and factories were often set alight in IRA attacks in the region costing their middle-class owners a lot of money. Certain agricultural targets were also favourites for selection of attacks by the local IRA. These attacks were something regular in Ireland against crown forces and their big business allies but in the North East of England? These attacks must have come as a shock to the locals who, if they had heard of the Irish ‘War of Independence’ at all, probably considered it something happening in Ireland!

In December 1921 a republican delegation headed by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith met with British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, and a high-powered team consisting of, among others, Winston Churchill and the anti-Irish lord Birkenhead (F.E. Smith). On offer was an agreement which, if the terms were agreed and ratified by both Houses of Parliament, would lead to a treaty between the two countries. With much reluctance and reservations the Irish delegation signed these terms, and in January 1922 the Dail narrowly ratified the terms by 63 votes in favour to 57 against. Westminster had ratified the same terms earlier so was born the ‘Anglo/Irish Treaty’ which led to the Irish Civil War.

The IRA in the North East of England came down fractionally on the anti-Treaty side with Gilbert Barrington particularly outspoken against the ‘Irish Free State’ which was formed as a result of the Treaty. The Treaty split the movement in North East England and this split caused much bitterness among former comrades which was the case also in Ireland resulting with open hostilities in the Irish Civil War. Barrington, who was deeply committed to the Republic proclaimed at Easter Week 1916, was interned by the Free State on one of his anti-Treaty tours of Ireland. He later assumed his career as a School Teacher when all hostilities had ceased, ironically working for a time with ‘Cissie’ Brennan at St. Bede’s School.

Complimenting the IRA in the Tyne and Wear area was an official branch of the republican women’s section, Cumann na mBan – League of Women – headed by Cecilia ‘Cissie’ Brennan, along with her sisters, Francis and Mildred, who were also members of Cumann na mBan. Theresa Mason and Mary Summerville, who was also an IRA Training Officer in firearms, were, along with many others, also Cumann na mBan activists. Jarrow was the largest area of activity of Cumann na mBan in the area, and it was from here Cissie Brennan and her sisters came. Similar to Gilbert Barrington Brennan was a School Teacher and would later become Head Teacher at Saint Bede’s Catholic school in Jarrow. She had started as an assistant school teacher at the same school gravitating later to Head Teacher in 1928. She took command of Jarrow’s nascent Cumann na mBan in late 1920. 

Similar to Irish branches, those of North East England participated in courier work, medical aid, and gathering intelligence and procuring arms. The North East branches operated within a wider network of Irish nationalist women in Britain, working to raise funds to support the families of IRA Volunteers and to arm and equip the IRA in their area. Princess Street in Jarrow was home to Cumann na mBan members and A Company of the IRA. Cumann na mBan as a whole were formed on 2nd April 1914 and with the formation of the ISDL and a little later an IRA brigade in the North East England area it was inevitable the women would organise in the area. Cumann na mBan activity was recorded in Jarrow as early as 1920 and continued until after the Civil War in 1923.

When the Irish Civil War ended in May 1923, resulting in a pro-Treaty victory against the anti-Treaty IRA, the organisation in Tyne and Wear as such ceased. The clouds of war were gathering for the working-class in England as the employers were planning an offensive against organised labour, pay and conditions and general living standards which were already very low. This culminated in a general strike called by the TUC in support of the Miners in 1926. 

Once again, and not for the last time, the Miners were left high and not so dry by the TUC who called off the action after just nine days! What a pity these so-called men of ‘class consciousness’ could not show some of the commitment shown by working-class men and women in collaboration with elements of the petit-bourgeoisie in the North East during Irelands War of Independence. Many of those involved in the war were trade unionists and of those a sizable number were Coal Miners who would be on strike for nine months despite the TUC climb down*.

*The Welsh Miners President, Arthur Horner, served some time with the Irish Citizen Army with who he claimed he did his “conscription”. He moved to Ireland to avoid conscription (despite working in a certified or reserved occupation) into the British Army and being sent to fight for his lords and masters, the propertied and monied classes, and decided to serve with the trade union based Irish Citizen Army. On his return to Wales Horner was imprisoned for a time but after huge protests organised by the Welsh MFGB he was released. His job as a weighman in the pits on union insistence was kept open as was his role of President of the Welsh Miners Federation.
     
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

The IRA In North East England 1919-1921

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3097

Jim Duffy ✍ One of the quietly unspoken facts among the neutrals is that almost all believe neutrality is dead. 

They don't want it be. They just believe it is. Arguably it died with the invention of nuclear weapons. The Second Hague Convention was based on the theory that neutral states could proclaim a cordon sanitaire around themselves and tell other countries 'leave us out of this' - with signatories bound by a promise (worthless, as it was shown in both World Wars) that they would leave a neutral alone.
 
Nuclear weapons obliterated that theory as the effects of nuclear war don't stop at borders. Whether you are a belligerent or a neutral is irrelevant to the fall-out.
 
Add to that, the concept of state independence really died in the second half of the twentieth century. Once upon a time, states could operate largely self-sufficiently. However the modern economy is intertwined with others to a minute degree. It is why Trump's tariffs have bombed. He thought the US functions in the way it functioned under the pro-tariff President McKinley. The modern economy is dependent on integrated manufacturing chains, with American car makers dependent on parts made in Canada and Europe, key battery components from China and Africa that required items the US cannot mine. All his tariffs did was cause all sorts of chaos in the integration, collapsing US industries like agriculture. Tariffs are not workable in interdependent economies.
 
European leaders realised the days of independent sovereign states is over. To survive they have to pool sovereignty - which they have done with the EEC/EC/EU. Britain conned itself into thinking it could return to the old days with Brexit. All it did was marginalise itself, suffer colossal economic damage, and find a decade on that it still hasn't got trade deals it thought would be delivered in weeks!
 
That interdependence really spelled the death knell of neutrality, as it was militarily, economically and in other ways impossible to function as some sort of cordon sanitaire - even if countries obeyed the gentlemen's agreement not to attack neutrals (which in both world wars they broke). The Cork base of medical technology company Stryker by Iranian cyber-attack shows the modern weakness of neutrality. Being in a neutral state made no difference. The same occurred with the Russian cyber-attack on Ireland's HSE, and the Russian cyber-attacks on the parliaments in neutrals Austria and Switzerland.

The Second Hague Convention is based on a world that no longer exists, and arguably started disappearing in the 1920s.
 
The issue isn't that neutrals don't want to be neutral. It is a growing belief in them that neutrality is meaningless in an interdependent world.
 
That growing belief can be seen in Europe's longest lasting neutral. The Treaty of Westphalia in October 1648 ended the Thirty Years War. It recognised that Switzerland was already a long-term neutral. Much of that neutrality was a product of its geography - which made it exceptionally difficult to invade. Yet in the last couple of years Switzerland has found itself increasingly unable to avoid international conflicts that seeped into its economic and financial system. In a break with the past, it condemned Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and acted with greater hostility towards Russia than it had ever done in its hundreds of years of neutrality. It wasn't looking to abandon its neutrality, but didn't see how it could remain neutral in a war that was impacting on it. The Cordon Sanitaire model was no longer working.
 
Now it has found itself having to condemn the illegal US war against Iran, and also the reckless actions of Iran which risk serious economic damage to Switzerland. It no longer lives in a world where a declaration of neutrality means a war will not touch it. It will be impacted upon.
 
It still wants to be neutral. So do Ireland, Malta and Austria. (Cyprus wants to join NATO.) But they all fear that in the 21st century, with vital economic interdependence, of hostile actions targeting them, and with the likes of Putin and Trump who have no intention of respecting anyone's neutrality, plus with the effects of weapons of mass destruction, no country really can be on its own and have a cordon sanitaire.
 
Switzerland is increasing defence spending to 1% of GDP by 2030, a target written in law by Parliament. Austria has upped its target to 1.3% by 2032 and is nearly at 1%. They are realising that neutrality without sufficient defence spending is worthless. But behind it is the fear that for all their commitment to it, neutrality is no longer a feasible option in the modern world. Like cavalry charges of old, they fear the reality of the modern world is making it worthless and ineffective. It is a thought that worries them, haunting their nightmares. They don't want to give it up, yet fear it is just a bit of self-delusion and not a viable option. It is the unspoken truth in the back of their minds.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Neutrality Is Obsolete

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