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Anthony McIntyre  ☠ The BBC has opted not to appeal the verdict against it upholding a defamation claim by the former Provisional IRA leader Gerry Adams. 

Prior to that Taoiseach Micheal Martin, most likely irked by a perception of Adams gloating, announced his intention to reform the libel laws. 

Whatever the benefits of a jury trial, it is indisputable that they are cumbersome and costly. Any reform that is not merely crafted - like the French burkini law - for the purpose of thwarting the authentic plaintiff are not lacking in merit, particularly in matters that fall outside the criminal code and are in the realm of the civil. Nevertheless, coming in the immediate wake of the Adams verdict, there will be public scepticism about the government's agenda; a suspicion that it wants to make it difficult for critics of the powerful. Even though Adams has long been a powerful person who has never balked from using that power to dissemble, prevaricate and deflect the truth away from himself  - in the same haughty manner as Netanyahu or Trump - there is not a huge queue gathering to buy the government line in the wake of the Michael Lowry scandal. 

Most people I talk to, inside both media and political worlds, think the BBC handled the affair poorly. The consensus seems to be that firstly it should never have aired the accusations against Adams on the basis of hearsay, and, secondly, it should have avoided going to court to defend its actions. 

The Taoiseach's assessment of Jennifer O'Leary as a first-class journalist” is one to be shared. She is hardly to blame for the actions of the corporation nor should it entertain any idea of throwing her under the bus because of whatever upset it may feel at losing the courtroom battle. The content of the programme must surely have been lawyered before it aired. If a layperson like myself could spot instantly that Spotlight was in trouble the minute the accusations were made on screen, the barrister employed as a filter should never have let it through.

Jennifer O'Leary's task was simply to gather whatever evidence she could access and frame a narrative for the documentary. Once that was done, it was over to the lawyers to decide whether it would leap high enough to clear the legal bar for defamation. This is standard fare for news media. Journalists routinely deliver their copy and barristers run a legal eye over it, often being over cautious, and frequently tweaking and amending what is in front of them for the purpose of making it resilient to legal challenge. Because of previous failure by Adams to legally respond to accusation of participation in war crimes inter alia, the BBC might have felt that he would never have gone into court - a reasonable enough presumption while he was still Sinn Fein president. The discomfort to the party when serious allegations were put to him in the witness box would have been factored in In his post-presidential era there was sufficient distance between him, no longer at the top, for the party to distance itself from him - it's a Gerry solo run type thing. Even for a person already accused in the media of of being a serial liar that considerably increased the chances of him going into the witness box.

Still, even if the BBC was absolutely certain that Adams would not go near a witness box that should not have been a consideration for its legal filter. The job of the barrister when asked to lawyer a story is not to calculate the odds of a complainant taking the stand but to ensure that what is to be published or broadcast is sufficiently firewalled against any potential court challenge. As the mafia might say why take a chance?

The judge by restricting the date and location for reputational damage - 2016 and to the Republic, seriously disadvantaged the BBC. Metaphorically, he advised the jury that if the smell of 1969-1998 decomposition was too overbearing, they should just hold their noses, lie back and think of the Good Friday Agreement which was a death certificate on the IRA campaign to coerce the British out of Ireland. Yet, while Adams was acknowledged as far back as 1997 by David Sharrock and Mark Davenport as both a warmaker and a peacemaker, the court made it clear that news institutions can't just say what they like about somebody. Thinking that Adams has no worthwhile reputation to protect could easily lead to accusations that he is a paedophile who used his IRA leadership role as an aid for raping children. He would be left with no grounds for refuting such a heinous and false accusation if his reputation is such that anything can be said about him without fear of consequence.

After the verdict Sinn Fein could afford to come out of its monastic quietude and cheer their former president . . . when it was safe to do so. One former key IRA figure lambasted the BBC for covering up the truth on behalf of the British state, echoing sentiments expressed by Adams. Another bout of irony deficiency, because while BBC Spotlight was exposing spies like Freddie Scappaticci Sinn Fein was heavily employed in the cover up business. In fact, what was arguably the silliest article ever written on the North's violent conflict appeared in An Phoblacht under the byline of Adam O'Toole in which the author sought to rubbish allegations against the British agent. Rather than Spotlight being at fault in the matter of Stakeknife, there was much collusive activity between Sinn Fein and the British state at this time with Danny Morrison and Lord Chief Justice Carswell colluding, as distinct from conspiring together, to protect a senior British spy.

When the spy invited Sinn Fein and Spotlight to join him in a dance of deceit, there was only one taker - Ourselves Alone.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.


Dance Of Deceit

Labour Heartlands ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs.

Rejoining the EU? Not If You Care About Britain’s Working Class

The EU was never built for workers. It was designed by bankers, for bankers, with a rulebook written in the language of capital. Those pushing for a return to Brussels’ embrace, whether through Starmer’s “reset” or eventual ‘rejoin’, have conveniently forgotten that the loudest and most principled opposition to the European project once came from the democratic socialist tradition. Brexit Was a Working-Class Revolt Against the EU’s Neoliberal Empire
The Working Class Voted Out for a Reason

It wasn’t xenophobia or nostalgia that drove Brexit. It wasn’t racist pensioners or backward northerners who delivered Brexit, despite what metropolitan liberals claim. It was lived experience. The towns and cities that bore the brunt of deindustrialisation, where steelworks shut, pits closed, and factories vanished, voted Leave. These weren’t mindless protest votes. They were a clear-eyed rejection of a system that had gutted their communities while enriching London and Brussels.

For decades, the EU promised prosperity. What it delivered was stagnation, cheap labour undercutting wages, and a political class that told former engineers and miners to become coders or delivery drivers. 

Free From Brussels 🪶 Why Britain’s Working Class Must Forge Its Own Future

Dr John Coulter✍ Today is Bastille Day in France when the country celebrates the attack on the notorious prison during the 1789 Revolution.


In terms of a commemoration, it is a massive and well-organised military spectacle.

Today, at roughly the same time hundreds of miles away in a wee County Down village called Scarva, an estimated 100,000 people will attend the annual Sham Fight which is a re-enactment of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

It is one of the major events in the Marching Season calendar and has become almost as big as the Twelfth itself. In terms of the Loyal Orders, the Sham Fight is probably one of the first huge occasions in that calendar organised by the Royal Black Institution.

The family atmosphere at the Sham Fight is outstanding. Cuisine-wise, nothing beats a Royal Black ham salad at Scarva on the 13th July, the tradition date of the Sham Fight. However, this year the Sham Fight is on the 14th as the 13th falls on a Sunday.

It’s also a great opportunity for the Black to show off its religious roots. My late dad, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, a Past Assistant Sovereign Grand Master and Past Deputy Imperial Grand Chaplain in the Black, once preached at the religious service which accompanies the day’s activities. He always regarded that service as a tremendous evangelical occasion.

As a journalist, I have covered the event on a few occasions, although one year I let my north Antrim Presbyterian dark sense of humour get the better of me and I filed the headline: ‘Shock Win For James!’ The newsdesk was not amused!

Given the economic benefits which the annual Sham Fight reaps for the Northern Ireland community, the time has now come to organise a series of re-enactments of historic battles which can run throughout the calendar year.

Whilst the French focus on a military parade, the United States is really into its military re-enactment heritage, especially battles involving the American Civil War of the 1860s.

The same ethos could be converted into an economic money-spinner in Northern Ireland. Armed Forces Days have become exceptionally popular across the Province.

Given the service which many people from across the island of Ireland have had in the British military over the generations, there needs to be a series of Veterans’ Days organised to mark those who have served and sacrificed.

Of course, these people are remembered annually during Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day commemorations - but that is only two occasions during the year. There needs to be more.

Indeed, the time has surely come for the establishment of a Northern Ireland Imperial War Museum along the lines of the London format, which attracts tourists from across the globe. Perhaps the site of the former Maze prison near Lisburn could be considered for such a long-term venture?

As for re-enactments, there have been a number of battles which are of great military significance to the people of Northern Ireland. Top of that list would be the opening day of the bloody Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916.

The Loyal Orders, especially the Orange, have organised Somme Memorial parades for decades. For many communities, the Somme parades are affectionately known as the Mini Twelfth.

Numerous community museums have memorabilia from the Somme, and especially the 36th Ulster Division which suffered such heavy casualties on that day. Could there be a re-enactment of the troops ‘going over the top’ as they charged into No Man’s Land?

The Apprentice Boys organisation hosts annual parades in Londonderry to mark both the start and end of the Maiden City siege in 1688/89. Could re-enactments of events during the siege be integrated into those celebrations?

If we take the words of The Sash as a benchmark, we already have the Sham Fight to mark the Boyne. However, what about ‘Derry, Aughrim and Enniskillen’. Each of these military encounters was a decisive action during that crucial 17th century Williamite war in Ireland.

While the Boyne is rightly seen as a key battle in that conflict, the action which really ensured victory in the entire campaign happened on 12 July 1691 at the Battle of Aughrim in County Galway in Southern Ireland.

If ever there was an opportunity to develop Anglo-Irish relations, it would be to have an annual Sham Fight at Aughrim.

Southern Ireland already plays host to the annual Rossnowlagh parade in County Donegal on the Saturday prior to 12 July. Whilst it has become known affectionately to many as ‘The Donegal Dander’, an increasing number of bands and Orange members from Northern Ireland join their Southern counterparts for this event, including the religious service.

As well as the Williamite campaign, the Great War and the Second World War, the island’s rich Presbyterian history could also be marked with a re-enactment of the Battle of Antrim during the United Irishmen’s rebellion of 1798.

As the organisers of today’s Scarva Sham Fight munch on their salad sandwiches, burgers and chips, and see the tens of thousands of folk enjoying this festive family event, perhaps food for thought could be - how many other military encounters could be converted into re-enactments to boost the Northern Ireland economy?
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

Battle Reenactments Will Boost Ulster Tourist Trade

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 2740

 

A Morning Thought @ 2739

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ writing in Substack on 03-July-2025.

Photo: Instagram Beyoncé.

Once again Beyoncé finds herself at the centre of an identarian war. She has been accused of cultural appropriation in the past, when she recorded country songs, a rather ridiculous affair and also when she dressed up as Nefertiti, the Egyptian queen and apparent goddess. I have dealt previously with the country western music issue and how ridiculous it is to say only white people can sing country and its corollary, that only black people can sing certain types of music.[1] I have also dealt with the issue of Nefertiti and cultural appropriation.[2] They were all ridiculous reactionary discussions.

This one is different, but equally reactionary and this time she is clearly on the wrong side. She has done what all identitarians eventually do, celebrate “her” people over and above everyone else, regardless of what they did. Her crime this time is she wore a T-shirt that referred to the Buffalo Soldiers. Probably shouldn’t have been that difficult, but she managed to make a complete racist mess of it all. Bob Marley sang about the Buffalo Soldiers without any great controversy. But Beyoncé’s shirt worn as part of her Cowboy Carter tour for the Juneteenth (end of slavery) celebrations said of the Buffalo Soldiers that:

their antagonists were the enemies of peace, order and settlement: warring Indians, bandits, cattle thieves, murderous gunmen, bootleggers, trespassers, and Mexican revolutionaries.[3]

The language is clearly modern: enemies of peace, order and settlement sounds like a line borrowed from the War on Terror or Israeli genocide against Palestinians. It does not sound like a common phrase from the period, though it is not that far removed from General Sherman’s letter to Ulysses S. Grant when the Buffalo Soldiers were being setup in which he stated “We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress [of the railroads]”.[4] . Beyoncé’s enemies of peace were the indigenous population that was being displaced and also those later involved in one of the great revolutions of Latin America, Mexicans who are also now being hounded by ICE agents, as are other Latin Americans. The deeply reactionary character of her T-shirt cannot be overstated, both in modern terms and also in looking back on US history.

The Buffalo Soldiers were all-black regiments, initially commanded by white officers, set up following the Civil War. Their initial role was to push westward in the expansion of the US and the conquest of indigenous lands. This was hardly a progressive role, they were at the end of the day taking part in the genocide of the native American population. It is not something to be celebrated. They further took part in US imperialist wars in Cuba, Puerto Rico and also the invasion of the Philippines and suppression of revolt there.

Remembering the past is always complicated and looked at through modern eyes. Bob Marley’s song reminds us that they were stolen from Africa and fought for America without going into much detail.

I'm just a Buffalo Soldier
In the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Said he was fighting on arrival
Fighting for survival
Said he was a Buffalo Soldier
Win the war for America.

He limited himself to some facts that they had fought for the US. That was the 1970s but times have changed and we are all more aware of the subtleties of history. Marley, unlike Beyoncé did not describe indigenous people and Mexicans as enemies of peace, order and settlement. Blacks were not the only ones to do this. Many thousands of Irish also took part in the US military campaigns against the native Americans. Of course, they are not the only historical figures who perhaps shouldn’t be celebrated. In Ireland we also have the case of John Mitchel, an Irish revolutionary whose Jail Journal is still read and periodically reprinted. However, when Mitchel went to the US he not only fought on the side of the Confederacy, but advocated slavery and also the resumption of the Atlantic slave trade. Hardly a progressive cause, and it besmirches his role in the fight for Irish freedom, making any celebration of him highly problematic. In fact, despite having been a hugely influential figure in Ireland, Europe and the USA before the Civil War, the 200th anniversary of his birth went almost unremarked in Ireland, in contrast to the 150th.[5] Not everything and everyone in our past is worthy of celebration.

The Buffalo Soldiers were regiments set up in 1867 two years after the Civil War, they were not the black regiments that had fought in that war. To fight against slavery was progressive, but the new regiments set up after the war had an entirely, unequivocally reactionary role, just like Mitchel’s role in the Civil War was entirely and unequivocally reactionary. There was no noble cause and yes, the black soldiers, like the Irish who participated in the Indian Wars, were economic recruits. That doesn’t make it right, they were in service to big capital, just like all the US soldiers, black, white, Hispanic that later fought in Vietnam and Iraq etc., and are no more deserving of our praise or celebration.

These men utilized the state’s latest technologies of mass killing developed during the Civil War and its mercenary soldiers (including the former slaves known as “buffalo soldiers”) to wage their war because they were in a hurry to shovel subsidies to the railroad corporations and other related business enterprises. Many of them profited handsomely, as the Credit Mobilier scandal revealed. The railroad corporations were the Microsofts and IBMs of their day, and the doctrines of neomercantilism defined the Republican Party’s reason for existing. The Republican Party was, after all, the “Party of Lincoln,” the great railroad lawyer and a lobbyist for the Illinois Central and other midwestern railroads during his day.[6]

In order to do that, the native American population was dehumanised as were the Mexicans. Sherman believed that the people of New Mexico where there was a mixture of native Americans, Mexicans and blacks to be a mongrel people and he was determined to prevent that happening elsewhere during the Indian wars and openly spoke about extermination, or what we would nowadays call genocide.[7] All Beyoncé did was repeat and endorse the racist comments of US generals in their wars of conquest and extermination.

Their deployment overseas is also a case in point. Rich reactionaries like Beyoncé might like to celebrate them now, but at the time their role was controversial and divided the black population of the US. Whilst some black newspapers supported the war, others took issue with it. One such piece stated:

Great excitement prevails here among all classes, and some of our colored men seem enthusiastic over the idea of enlisting in defense of the government, while some are more reserved and common-sensed, asserting that no colored man should never again offer his services to protect a government that does not protect him. The government of the United States will allow some of her most loyal and true citizens to be burned and butchered and shot to pieces like dogs, without protection, and go right on ignoring their rights and claims as if all were peace and happiness in the family; and yet, when a foreign war is threatened, these same ill-treated citizens are wont to be rushed to the front in the name of protecting the nation’s honor. Such injustice is not tolerated by any other civilized nation; not even is Spain guilty of such discrimination among her own citizens. As a race what means have we for unjust discrimination? Colored men...let us think before acting. If the government wants our support and services, let us demand and get a guarantee for our safety and protection at home. We want to put a stop to Lynch law, the butchering of our people like hogs, burning our houses, shooting our wives and children and raping our daughters and mothers. In short, as a race, we want indemnity for the loss of ten thousand Negroes who have been lynched and butchered and slaughtered since the civil war. When we are guaranteed freedom and equality before the law, as other American citizens, then we will have a right, as such, to take up arms in defense of our country.[8]

It is not as sharp or as political as Muhammad Ali’s statement about why he wouldn’t go to Vietnam to fight a white man’s war against people who had done him no harm on behalf of people who had. But it comes close. And though Ali’s stance is within living memory, there are nowadays more than a few blacks and whites who lionise the participation of black soldiers in Vietnam (Colin Powell and Barack Obama to name just two).

Likewise, in their role as colonial soldiers in the Philippines, the resistance to the occupation:

…addressed leaflets and posters to “The Colored American Soldier,” designed to remind black soldiers of the discrimination and violence they suffered back home. The propaganda warned the soldiers they were being used as tools in the hands of their white masters to further the latter’s ambitions to oppress other people of color.[9]

As for Mexico, the US Army’s role was in intervention in the Mexican revolution that seriously undermined and weakened the role of Pancho Villa. Now we come full circle with Beyoncé justifying oppression. Whatever historical appreciation is to be made of the Buffalo Soldiers it is not one of unbridled celebration and denigration of the victims of US Imperialism. Of course, the issues raised are not historic, but current. Fighting on the side of imperialism is always wrong, denigrating the resistance is equally heinous at all times. Beyoncé had a whole host of black historical personalities and movements to choose from, such as Frederick Douglass, who renounced his position as US Ambassador to Haiti following a US attempt to set up a naval base there. Or perhaps later figures such as W.E.B Debois, Rosa Parks, the fact she chose the Buffalo Soldiers and that caption is not accidental. She could have chosen the Black Panthers, but the problem is they stood in opposition to the regime in Washington. She, like many identitarians from all races and ethnic groups, declared her loyalty to US imperialism.

Just like in the Indian Wars and the Phillipines, young black soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan and even in Africa itself because the black bourgeoisie, in this case Beyoncé, tells them they have common cause with capitalism and US imperialism and that they should be proud to die for it, fighting the enemies of peace. Though, she won’t be doing any of the dying, not with that bank balance.

References

[1] Ó Loingsigh, G. (20/02/2025) Beyoncé, Irish Dancing and the Nonsense of Cultural Appropriation. 

[2] Ó Loingsigh, G. (12/06/2020) Cultural Appropriation: A Reactionary Debate. 

[3] The Guardian (29/06/2025) Beyoncé faces backlash after wearing shirt with anti-Indigenous language. 

[4] DiLorenzo, T.J (2010) The Culture of Violence in the American West: Myth versus Reality. The Independent Review. 

[5] Russell, A. (2015) John Mitchel -flawed hero. History Ireland. https://historyireland.com/john-mitchel-flawed-hero/

[6] Ibíd.

[7] DiLorenzo, T.J (2010) Op. Cit.

[8] Charles River Editors (2019) Buffalo Soldiers: The History and Legacy of the Black Soldiers Who Fought in the U.S. Army during the Indian Wars. para. 1.186

[9] Ibíd.

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.

Beyoncé Steps Into Identity Wars Again

Action On Armed Violence 💣 Recommended by Christy Walsh.

A coroner’s inquest has ruled that the use of lethal force by SAS soldiers in the 1992 ambush and killing of four IRA men in Clonoe, County Tyrone, was unjustified. 

The decision casts serious doubt on the legality of British military operations during the Troubles and highlights ongoing concerns over accountability for past actions.

The four men – Kevin Barry O’Donnell (21), Sean O’Farrell (22), Peter Clancy (21), and Patrick Vincent (20) – were shot dead by SAS soldiers on 16 February 1992, moments after attacking Coalisland police station with a heavy machine gun. The men arrived in a hijacked lorry at St Patrick’s Church car park, where British intelligence had anticipated their movements. Twelve SAS soldiers were concealed in a hedgerow, awaiting their arrival.

Despite the IRA unit being heavily armed, the coroner, Mr Justice Michael Humphreys, concluded that the SAS soldiers did not act in a manner that sought to minimise the use of lethal force. The inquest found that the SAS opened fire immediately upon the lorry’s arrival, discharging over 500 rounds without warning. Two of the men, O’Donnell and O’Farrell, were shot in the back while attempting to flee and had additional shots fired into their faces as they lay incapacitated.

Continue @ AOAV.

SAS ‘Not Justified’ In 1992 Shooting Of Four IRA Men, Inquest Finds

Friendly Atheist ★ Priest defends convicted abuser in shocking sermon.

A high-ranking priest in Australia told his congregation that it was wrong for them to condemn a fellow priest who was recently found guilty of sexual abuse, downplaying the seriousness of the crimes.

“Sheep do not judge their shepherd,” he told them.

It follows a wild years-long legal battle that was only made public in recent weeks.

The story involves Alexis Rosentool, a priest working in the Australian and New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ANZ ROCOR). In 2022, he was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting two men in the 1980s and doing the same to a child “two decades later.”

Adding another twist to this story, shortly after he was arrested, a right-wing Russian propagandist on YouTube began talking about those charged on his popular YouTube channel despite an order forbidding anyone from mentioning the priest’s name in association with his alleged crimes. The authorities in Australia did this to prevent the YouTuber “from tainting a jury pool with his enormous social media following.” That YouTuber defied the suppression order and was himself sentenced to 10 months in jail. 

"Sheep Do Not Judge The Shepherd"

Right Wing Watch 👀 Written by Peter Montgomery.


The Trump administration decreed Monday that churches can endorse political candidates, carving out a special exemption from a legal ban on nonprofit organizations politicking with tax-exempt dollars.

The action, announced in an IRS legal filing, is a major gift to Trump’s Christian nationalist and dominionist supporters, who celebrated the new policy. Religious-right groups are likely to use the ruling to mobilize grassroots pressure on conservative pastors who have so far resisted turning their churches into de facto political campaign operations.

Intercessors for America, a network of ardently pro-Trump spiritual warriors, was a plaintiff in the case the IRS used to announce the new policy via a proposed consent judgement, along with the National Religious Broadcasters and a couple of churches.

The filing claims that endorsing politicians from the pulpit does not count as participating in or intervening in a political campaign, which tax-exempt nonprofits are prohibited from doing. It’s not the only tortured reasoning in the IRS memo.

The New York Times reported.

The agency said that if a house of worship endorsed a candidate to its congregants, the I.R.S. would view that not as campaigning but as a private matter, like ‘a family discussion concerning candidates.’

Continue @ Right |Wing Watch.

Trump IRS Invites Political Campaign Money To Flow Through Churches

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 2738

 

A Morning Thought @ 2737

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