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Gary Robertson ⚽ In the late 90s connoisseurs of late night Channel 4 TV were entertained by one of the most bizarre shows ever to hit our screens - Eurotrash.

Once watched, never forgotten, it leaned heavily to the bizarre the provocative and downright unusual from the world of European TV.

In 2026 Eurotrash has a somewhat different meaning in Robertson Towers and undoubtedly many more households around the globe.
 
I am of course talking about Celtic.
 
The whipping bhoys of the Europa league managed once again to find a way to lose on Thursday, this time to Celta Vigo.
 
Yes the “giants” of La Liga came saw conquered and left along with several thousand happy fans having secured 3 points.
 
Celtic on the other hand were left rooted to the bottom of the table and pointless.
 
As pointless as the next five Europa League games we have to play.
 
With teams such as Marseille and Union SG to come Celtic could easily be staring down the barrel of some heavy defeats.
 
I had a little optimism last week after the crushing of Hearts. I thought perhaps finally things were taking shape and with players returning from injury then we might see a better performance against the Galicians.
 
We might share a Celtic identity and their music does feature the bagpipes but in footballing terms we’re a long way apart.
 
Once again the home team flattered to deceive.
 
A goal from the boot of Baur in the 47th minute gave Celtic the lead, a lead that lasted a whole twenty one mins before in the space of three Celta had equalised and taken the lead.
 
It’s the same old story, poor recruitment, bizarre tactics (If any) and a lack of determination.
 
We are perhaps Conference League level but honestly I’m pretty certain they’d find a way to f**k that up too.
 
Looking further afield and away from the pit of despair that is CFC (yes I’m aware they beat Hibernian at Easter road 2-1 but I’ll get to that and why it’s hardly cause for celebration later), despite stormy conditions the Scottish Premiership saw no postponements. All four home teams walked away with 3 points. Dundee Utd coming out on top of a five goal thriller at the Calforth Construction Arena at Tannadice Park (sponsorship eh? For those old buggers it’s just Tannadice) against Aberdeen. Three points that leave the Arabs in fourth place, a point ahead of city rivals Dundee who lost out 2-1 away to St Mirren. United are Celtic's next visitors on Wednesday 28th and whist rife bookmakers see a massive gulf in odds there is, in my opinion at least, very little between the two on the pitch. A fascinating game that sadly Sky have overlooked in favour of Rangers v Hearts on the same night (understandable but frustrating nonetheless).

Falkirk walked away with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Kilmarnock, helped greatly by the away sides prowess at shooting themselves in the foot, not once but twice with own goals from Killies McCarthy in 29 mins and Stanger in the 68th. The bairns (as Falkirk are known) did score the only actual legitimate goal of the match from the foot of striker Murrell on 38 mins.
 
Rangers continued to show why they’re a massive threat to Celtic with another home demolition, this time of St Johnstone. A 4-0 victory in no way flatters McInnes' men. They (as much as it pains me to say it but remaining unbiased) play some very attractive football and with the League Cup looking almost certain to be theirs Ibrox fans will have much to cheer about in the coming months. Of course Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs will fancy their chances in the semi finals but on this form it would take a brave punter to bet against them lifting the trophy.
 
Saturday saw the clash of the top two in the Championship, Partick and Stenhousemuir. This game looked much tighter on paper than the final score line suggested. Partick ran out very comfortable 3-0 winners and took them to the summit, a point clear of Stenhousemuir who despite having more possession never managed a single shot on target in the entire 90+ mins of the match. A deeply frustrating afternoon for the men from the Central Lowlands but a highly satisfying one for the Jaggys of Maryhill.
 
The gap between 3rd and 4th was also closed to a mere two points as fourth placed Inverness Caley overcame Raith Rovers (3rd place) by two goals to nil.
 
League One - and the shootout continues between Hamilton and Ross County. Both sides predictably winning their respective matches: Hamilton 2-1 over East Fife and Ross by 4 with no reply over Airdrie.
 
League Two fixtures were replaced with Scottish Cup round two instead and some notable results included Huntly of the Highland League holding league strugglers Annan to a 2-2 draw only to succumb to the cruellest of finishes, a penalty shootout that saw the league side win 4-1.
 
Bo’ness of Lowland League East took care of League Two Falkirk by a solitary goal and the gloriously Scottish named Clachnacuddin (of Inverness) put three past Bonnyton Thistle (of Kilmarnock).
 
Sunday
 
The storm has yet to pass but as I write the wind is easing slightly so I think the worst is past. Hopefully. 🤞
 
We have two matches to look forward to this afternoon: Motherwell at home to Hearts, and Celtic away to bottom side Hibernian.
 
Hearts were well worthy of their 2-0 victory over Motherwell, a header from Braga in the 29th minute and the 3 points assured when Calvin Miller struck home in 86 minutes.
 
Over to a blustery Easter Road.
 
Having had another rough night Saturday (I won’t bore you with details) I woke up Sunday feeling incredibly nervous. All the stats pointed to a Celtic victory and by all accounts a comfortable one if the odds were to be believed. Yet despite everything I couldn’t shake this feeling that it wasn’t going to be as straightforward as many would have you think. Top against bottom what could go wrong? Plenty, and plenty did.
 
Ok, so Celtic walked away with the three points having won the match 2-1 and whilst in terms of league positions and titles a victory is a victory and fans should be happy, on closer inspection you’d see the massive flaws in this team that on any given day could be seriously exploited by any other team in the league.
 
It came as absolutely no surprise to anyone when Hibs took the lead. In 3 mins in front of a sparse crowd Celtics defensive vulnerabilities were there for all to see as Hibs' Owen Elding fired past Johnstone in goal and the bottom side led and while a shambles in front of goal from a Celtic corner where Hibs' Kerr headed by his own keeper to make it 1-1 the away side looked once again like a team that had been assembled from hitchhikers at the service stations on the way to Edinburgh. No cohesion, no aggression, no tactics. I defy anyone to tell me what they are because other than hoof ball it’s back pass after back pass. Two very poor teams playing in very poor conditions, passes going astray, shots wide and without the individual brilliance that is Camilo Duran putting the Celts in the driving seat on the 43rd minute and in fairness at least one wonder save from the much maligned (and possibly rightly so) Johnstone in goal. There was nothing else to note in this game.
 
I hate to say it but it was rubbish. I’ve watched thousands of matches in my life, from all sorts of leagues and this would rate highly in the least enjoyable ever list.
 
Now I know some will say “but three points are three points” and whilst that’s true we need to look at this not as Celtic fans but as unbiased football fans. Neither team looked good, neither team dominated, neither side looked like they had any clue what they were meant to be doing, and it certainly didn’t look like there are ten teams between them in the league.
 
Martin O’Neill came out afterward and called it “our best win of the season” and “Even better than last Sunday.” Now far be it from me to criticise the man but was he watching the same match as the rest of us? To believe that was better is Trump level delusion. Høgh once again failed to fire, our defence torn open time after time (and but for poor finishing and a wonderful save this could have been a very different column) our midfield M.I.A and our captain practicing his windmill impression while standing a few feet from Liam Scales.
 
It’s a mess and even the introduction of Jota made no difference.
 
Of course now they’ll probably go out on Wednesday and crush Dundee United (but I wouldn’t bet on it).

So I think that’s enough of a rant from me. Celtic are still top of the league by four points from Rangers so I guess it was effective rubbish.

Have a great week and whatever you’re doing do it well, stay safe and have fun

Til next time …… 🐼

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

Eurotrash

Tinfoil Tuesday 🧪 Sci Man Dan takes a look at Owen Benjamin appearing on the Jake Shields podcast where they both just get everything wrong about the moon!



This is What "Not Having a Clue" Looks Like

Barry Gilheany ✍ How African Babies Run The Risk Of Hepatitis B Infection As Part Of RFK, Jr’s War On Vaccines.

On the surface, it looks like an excellent story of medical innovation; another attempt to reduce the scourge of infectious diseases especially in Africa, a continent which has been racked with successive waves of the most appalling diseases known to humanity from HIV to Dengue fever and the Ebola virus. Researchers want to run a clinical trial on an infant vaccine against Hepatitis B in the west African country of Guinea-Bassau an incurable and frequently fatal disease which affects up to one in five adults in that nation. Hepatitis B kills in the most painful and degrading ways possible though liver cancer or liver cirrhosis and in a nation such as Guinea-Bassau that lacks any sort of functioning public health and hospice care services; news of such a development is surely a godsend. What’s not to like?

But strip back the back story (or more accurately the emerging front story) to this clinical trial, then a much more disturbing vista emerges. For why run a ‘trial’ on a vaccine that was developed in the 1970s, licensed in the 1980s and which is widely regarded as safe and effective? The explanatory trail leads all the way back to the US Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK, Jr), and his pathological anti-vaccine agenda that he has pursued for many years before entering President Donald Trump’s second administration. For the question, the trial is posing is whether or not there are unnoticed side effects caused by giving the babies the vaccines within hours of birth which is the current protocol. If one recalls that vaccine scepticism towards, for example, the Covid-19 vaccine was based not overtly on administration of the vaccine itself but in isolated incidence of cardiopathic responses of miniscule proportions of those who had taken the shot, then such drip-by-drip attempts to undermine public trust in vaccine safety as opposed to overt blanket opposition to inoculation makes sense. The idea is to sow confusion and uncertainty among the public in order to undermine vaccination programmes. Introducing a cloud of ambiguity was the MO behind Dr Andrew Wakefield’s notoriously fraudulent study of eight child subjects in 1998 which purported to show a link between receipt of the MMR vaccine by infants at eighteen months and the onset of autism and which has been categorically debunked but not before the re-emergence of measles in certain parts of the world due to the drop in herd immunity levels caused by belief in the MMR-autism link by worried parents.

The damage that would be wrought by this unnecessary clinical trial would be even worse at the micro level for the people of Guinea-Bassau. For without vaccination, around 14 in every 100 babies born of mothers of Hepatitis B will develop chronic hepatitis themselves. If babies receive a vaccine at birth, with routine doses on follow-up, that drops to just four in a hundred. But without that birth shot, the rate almost doubles to seven or eight per hundred[1].

Anti-vaccine groups cover their tracks with the common ruse that there is nothing sinister in checking if something is safe, all the while deliberatively refusing to recognise welters of evidence that prove the given vaccine or procedure is safe. And vaccine trialling does not come without human cost. A randomised control trial necessitates that a large cohort of people do not get the treatment – meaning that babies in a country where one in five mothers has Hep B would be denied a working, lifesaving treatment, just to satisfy the curiosities of RFK, Jr, and his deluded, cultish followers.[2]

But why pick Guinea-Bassau for an experiment to test the side-effects as opposed to the efficacy of vaccines? The answer is that no similar clinical trial would meet required ethical standards in the US or any other advanced First World nation. The legally dubious nature of the proposed trial were sufficiently apparent to the judicial police in Guinea-Bassau who raided the offices of the researchers and seized Hep B vax doses in order to clarify the circumstances surrounding the vaccine.[3]

The researchers were associated with the Bandim Health Project and received $3.2m in combined funding from the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the Pershing Foundation, and the Bluebell Foundation. The research was controversial because of RFK Jr’s eulogising of Bandim Health Project’s co-founders Peter Aby and Christie Hubell as “the deities of vaccine research” for their work on the supposed effects of the DTP (Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussion) vaccine. He praised Aby as a ‘very famous’ researcher on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2023. He also cited Aby’s work in discussions surrounding his decision to halt US aid to Gavi – the Global Vaccine Alliance. RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine views were a major factor in the shelving of an Agricultural Department’s avian flu response plan in February 2025, according to five people with direct knowledge of the matter; a pause which caused alarm amongst lawmakers as it is at that time that wild birds begin migrating for the winter.[4]

As stated, before vaccination within 24 hours of birth is an established public health intervention that can automatically reduce the risks of infection. Tarik Jasoevic, a WHO spokesperson, has stated that withholding the immunisation would be unethical and would expose new-borns to serious and potentially irreversible harm. In the words of Paul Offit, an infectious disease physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has stated bluntly that Kennedy ‘wants to make it so we don’t use a birth dose here in this country…. That’s the goal.”[5]

Stig Bassen Hansen, a founding member of the project based at the University of Southern Denmark where an ethics committee gave the go-ahead for the trial, resigned from it on these grounds:

You are now enrolling numbers in a lottery to test a hypothesis … The children who are randomly selected not to receive the birth dose; those who “lost the lottery” face in their earliest possible days the risk of contracting Hep B which can cause irreversible, lifelong damage. They contact Hep B in the context of a research project which makes their infection happen, in effect, by design.[6]

A closer look at the health profile of Guinea-Bassau and the nexus between the Bandim Health Project and figures within the African nation’s administration throws into sharp relief the preposterous nature of the now abandoned clinical trial. Guinea-Bassau has some of the highest rates of Hep B globally with about 8% of adults carrying the virus. While it may be transmitted from mother to child during birth, it can also be transmitted from another parent, relative, sibling, or caregiver. Children infected with Hep B in the first year of life are significantly more likely to develop severe outcomes, including chronic infection and liver cancer.[7]

The Bandim Health Project has operated in Guinea-Bassau for decades and is closely embedded in the country’s health system. In the words of Mogda Rabolo, former health minister and president of the Institute for Global Health and Development in Guinea-Bassau, the country does not have a single credible institution in public health at this point in time. It is hardly surprising that at least one top official, the current director of public health held a dual appointment with Bandim as recently as December 2025 and that mixed messages have emanated from what pass as health authorities on approval of the clinical trials.[8]

The health security of the people of Guinea-Bassau to the depredations of such experiments would have been further imperilled by the obstacles to obtaining informed consent because of low literacy rates and language barriers. For the phrase in the local Creole for Hep B and any other illness causing jaundice is “febri amarelu” or a yellow fever which is also the name of a separate disease. How is any form of “informed consent” possible in such a milieu?[9]

But for once there is a happy, if not ever after encomium, to this story. For in a post on his LinkedIn account on Wednesday October 21st , the lead researcher on the project Frederic Schultz-Buchhalzer announced that the trial had been halted as it had not been given the necessary government approval.[10] Global outrage at this attempt by influential voices and interests in the US to coax a vulnerable African nation into hosting a totally unethical and likely harmful “clinical trial” which they would not dare attempt on their fellow citizens has led to this very welcome climbdown. Voices around the African continent have been alerted to this attempt to exploit, in the words of Robolo “the asymmetric relationship between Global North research institutions and the Global South”[11] in order to foist this Tuskegee type medical experiment on an unsuspecting population. Is it too much to expect that this is a first step towards vaccine justice in its totality for the Global South.

References

[1] James Ball. RFK, Jr’s anti-vax gamble with African babies’ lives is an experiment in cruelty. The New World 17 October 2026.

[2] Ibid

[3] Nilay Chakrobarty. Police raid offices of RFK, Jr – endorsed research planning vaccine trial for 7,000 African newborns. International Business (IB) Times UK

[4] Rachel Shin and Marcia. Brown RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine views helped sideline a bird flu plan. Politico.

[5] Melody Schreiber. Experts fear ‘unethical’ vaccine is a prototype for US studies under RFK, Jr. 

[6] Ibid

[7] Melody Scheiber. Controversial vaccine trial touted by RFK, Jr gets go-ahead in Guinea-Bassau.

[8] Ibid

[9] Ibid

[10] Melody Scheiber Controversial US-backed trial on African newborns halted 

[11] Ibid

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s “Guinea” Pig Experiment

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Thirty Five

 

A Morning Thought @ 3306

People And Nature ☭ Russia’s federal security service (FSB) is preparing a new case, for high treason, against Ruslan Siddiqi, the Russian-Italian anarchist serving a 29-year sentence for sabotaging a train carrying munitions to the Ukrainian front.

14-September-2026

Siddiqi was convicted in May last year, and the Military Court of Appeal upheld the sentence on 1 July this year. In 2023 he blew up railway tracks in the Ryazan region, derailing a freight train carrying munitions, and organised a drone attack on the Dyagilevo military airfield.

Ruslan Siddiqi in court last year

Siddiqi confessed to these actions and told the court he sees himself as a partisan, opposing Russia’s war on Ukraine. He denied a further charge of preparing another attack. He was tortured extensively during questioning, but the authorities have refused to investigate.

Fires of Freedom, who give legal and other support to Siddiqi, said that, although he should have been transferred to prison after conviction, he is being held at a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) in Ryazan. Transfer has now been delayed because of the new case.

Here is a facebook post about the new charges by Ivan Astashin, who campaigns in defence of prisoners, translated by Giuliano Vivaldi:

“Isn’t that enough for them?” is the first thought that automatically springs to mind upon hearing the news of a new criminal case against anarchist Ruslan Siddiqi, who has already been sentenced to 29 years in prison for two anti-war acts of sabotage and has now also been charged with treason.

And yet for the security forces, everything is much more mundane, has a more practical raison d’etre. The sentence itself plays no role here.

It was the Investigative Committee [a federal agency answerable directly to the Kremlin] who took on the first case against Ruslan. And not just some district department, but the central bureau of the Investigative Committee — or, to be precise, the department for investigating war crimes, genocide, and the rehabilitation of Nazism, which [Investigative Committee chairman Aleksandr] Bastrykin established in 2022.

At the same time, under the Code of Criminal Procedure, only the Federal Security Service (FSB) can investigate cases of high treason. So if the Investigative Committee had “discovered” signs of high treason in Ruslan’s actions, it would have had to hand the case over to the security services.

Naturally, the Investigative Committee did not want to give such a juicy case to anyone else, so they “didn’t discover” high treason, but only terrorism, terrorism, and once again terrorism … which the Investigative Committee has the right to investigate on an equal footing with the FSB.

At the same time, the version that Ruslan was cooperating with Ukrainian military intelligence, which has now become the basis of the treason charge, was always foregrounded. Indeed, it was one of the central elements of the prosecution’s case.

The investigation explicitly proceeded on the assumption that Siddiqi coordinated his actions with representatives of Ukraine’s Chief Directorate of Intelligence. It was precisely through this framework that his actions were classified, among other things, as having been committed by an “organised group”.

So the evidence on which the FSB is now building a new treason case was already there in the materials of the first case. But turning this evidence into a separate charge based on the violation of Article 275 [on high treason] would have meant transferring the case to another agency, the FSB.

The central office of the Investigative Committee took on a high-profile case, “investigated” it itself, gathered the “evidence” itself, brought nine (!) criminal charges, and saw the case through to a conviction. There was absolutely no reason for it to hand such a case over to another agency.

Now the Investigative Committee’s work is finished. The verdict has been handed down; the appeal has been heard. And this is where the baton is already passed to the FSB Directorate for the Ryazan region.

For them, it’s a perfect case. The accused is already in custody. The skeleton of the case has been assembled by colleagues from another agency. All that remains is to rewrite the Investigative Committee’s material to fit the structure of the article of the criminal code on treason, and receive a ready-made crime against state security that has already been “solved”.

I have already told a similar story about Aleksander Leleko: he was convicted as a teenager for setting fire to railway relay cabinets, and several years later the FSB began reworking those same events into a new treason case. [Leleko, from the small Siberian town of Sharypovo, was arrested in 2023, then aged 16, and sentenced to six-and-a-half years. In April this year it was reported that he was in prison hospital, and being administered psychtropic drugs, while investigators sought to put together the new case.]

Therefore, the question “Really, is 29 years not enough for them?” hardly makes sense here. It’s not about the sentence, but about the crime-solving rate, which our investigative authorities so badly need to improve. Especially now, when generals are being blown up and shot at home.

This situation illustrates my point very well that a repressive system has rules. It can produce an utterly monstrous result, but internally it still remains a bureaucratic machine with jurisdictional boundaries, departmental interests, reporting requirements, and its own rules.

An all-powerful security official cannot simply take any desirable article of the Criminal Code and put it into his casework. Even when the decision to imprison someone has already been taken, you still have to properly document who exactly is supposed to imprison them and under which article.

Perhaps, in Ruslan’s case, there also exists a more personal motivation on the part of the Ryazan security services officers. They could not find Ruslan after the first action, caught him only three weeks after the second, and subjected him to brutal torture.

But a much more mundane and so perhaps more frightening mechanism is quite enough to explain the emergence of a new case: the agency needed a criminal case of its own; a ready-made defendant was available with a “body of evidence” already sitting on their desk.

For the security agencies, the people involved in these cases are primarily numbers in a report, not human beings.

🔴 Fires of Freedom, which supports Ruslan, is on telegram (Russian only). In English, there are reports on Ruslan Siddiqi’s case, and information about how to give support, on the Autonomous Action site e.g. here, here and here. Ivan Astashin was interviewed here

🔴 Ruslan Siddiqi’s final statement in court, and letters describing his anti-war action and arrest, are included in the book Voices Against Putin’s War, free to download here. The letters were published by the Russian Reader here

☭ People & Nature is now on mastodon, as well as twitter, whatsapp and telegram. Please follow! Or email peoplenature@protonmail.com, and we’ll add you to our circulation list (2-4 messages per month)

Russia 🪶Jailed Anti-War Partisan Ruslan Siddiqi Faces New Treason Charges

Robert Reich ★ Writing in Substack. Recommended by Christy Walsh.

The Real Meaning of the Midterm Election

Friends,

Multiple polls show Trump’s approval at record lows, but I think what’s happening runs deeper than this. Something very dramatic is occurring.

Many people who consider themselves non-political or independent — or moderate Republican or who even voted for Trump in November 2024 — can’t avoid seeing what’s come so clearly into the open. And they’re finding it disgusting and terrifying.

They’ve watched Trump order the National Guard into cities over the objections of mayors and governors. They’ve watched Trump’s ICE agents drag people out of their beds in the middle of the night, zip-tie them and their children, and haul them away.

They’re watching the Justice Department argue that if the Democrat wins in Alaska’s Senate race, she shouldn’t be certified. They’re seeing Trump threaten to revoke the citizenship of Representative Ilhan Omar.

They see Trump direct the IRS, FBI, and Justice Department against liberal groups that oppose him. They’ve watched him push broadcasters to take off the air comedians who criticize him — Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel. They’ve watched him establish immunity from IRS investigations of himself and his family.

Continue @ Substack.

Trump And His Sycophants Exposed

Dr John Coulter ✍ Forty years ago this month, the then DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley gave me an exclusive interview for the Belfast News Letter which was headlined: Paisley ‘ready to form army’.


Within days that ‘army’ had been unveiled - it was called Ulster Resistance, and was known for its distinctive red berets. It was formally launched at a packed Ulster Hall in Belfast, complete with colour party and organisation standards.

Earlier, in his News Letter interview with me, Dr Paisley said:

I appeal for the mobilisation of the Ulster people. At the moment, structures are being set up for that mobilisation. I will also be advocating the enlistment of the Northern Ireland people in a show of strength - dedicated to die if needs be rather than surrender to a united Ireland.

Initially, it seemed the soon to be formally launched Ulster Resistance paramilitary group would be a mirror image of the earlier loyalist group, The Ulster Third Force, established in late 1981.

As a freelance BBC NI journalist at that time, I got the exclusive story on the Third Force’s show of strength in the Co Antrim villages of Kells and Connor in early November 1981.

If we take the renowned chronicle of victims of the Troubles, Lost Lives, as a benchmark, there is no record of either the Third Force or Ulster Resistance carrying out a murder.

Whilst in the early stages, the DUP - and especially Dr Paisley personally - publicly voiced their support for Ulster Resistance, that backing essentially evaporated once it became clear the group actually had access to a significant arsenal of weapons.


The late state agent, Brian Nelson, was a key player in getting a massive haul of weapons smuggled into Northern Ireland to be divided equally among the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance.

Although much of the consignment destined for the UDA and UVF was found over the years, mystery still surrounds where much of the Ulster Resistance haul ended up.

Was it found? Was it given to other loyalist terror gangs, or is it still in so-called ‘safe places’ as there is no formal record of Ulster Resistance decommissioning its arsenal as part of the peace process?

In terms of who actually was a member or activist in Ulster Resistance four decades ago, given on and off the record interviews I had with journalistic sources inside the organisation in North and East Antrim, the membership seems to fall into two distinct categories.

The first group were people, who like those who were involved with the earlier Third Force, just wanted to be ‘mobilised’ into some form of organisation, but would not have the religious fervour to allow themselves to become active gunmen or bombers. They seemed to see themselves as some form of ‘doomsday’ outfit in the event of Irish unity.


The other faction were dedicated terrorists, who would have been prepared to use the weapons brought in from South Africa to carry out attacks on the republican community and the Republic of Ireland.

However, the publicity surrounding the so-called Paris Three and the DUP distancing itself from Ulster Resistance ‘persuaded’ them not to take up the gun in defence of Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

In this respect, Ulster Resistance resembled an even earlier fundamentalist Protestant paramilitary group known as Tara, which was run by the late William McGrath, the convicted paedophile at the centre of the Kincora Boys Home scandal in east Belfast.

The Tara group also seemed to be a loyalist ‘doomsday’ group which would only activate its terrorist activities in the event of a united Ireland. Again, taking Lost Lives as a benchmark, there is no known record of Tara claiming responsibility for murdering anyone in the Troubles.


This begs the question - are Ulster Resistance weapons rusting away somewhere under the floorboards in someone’s home? Could a situation ever arise that they could be used (if they are usable some decades after they were brought into the Province) in the event of Unionism losing a border poll?

During the recruitment period for Ulster Resistance in the late Eighties, I had an off the record conversation with a representative of the movement. He was a former member of the security forces who alleged he was recruited by Ulster Resistance because of his knowledge of explosives.

A few years later when I was deputy editor of the Larne Guardian weekly newspaper, I got an exclusive interview with the so-called commander of Ulster Resistance’s East Antrim brigade, who again emphasised in the published interview that the group was receiving assistance from the security forces.

This has fed into the whole debate about allegations of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. As one of the researchers for the controversial Channel Four Dispatches programme, The Committee, which was broadcast in October 1991, footage of the Ulster Hall recruitment rally for Ulster Resistance was used.

Indeed, was the arms cache brought into Northern Ireland for Ulster Resistance merely a lever to put pressure on the British and Irish governments to take a more firm hand militarily against republican terrorists. Was the message to these two governments from that specific element in loyalism merely to say - if you can’t do the job against the IRA and INLA, we have the manpower and resources to do it!


Was there also the danger in the aftermath of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that Ulster Resistance weaponry could be used against pro-Agreement Unionists linked to the UUP? The Belfast Agreement saw some very bitter divisions emerge in Unionism between the Yes and No camps.

One of the anti-Agreement militant groups which emerged in the late 1990s was the so-called Orange Volunteers. Ironically, there was a group of the same name which was active in the Seventies, but this original group was largely seen as defunct by the time of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998.

I recall on one occasion the Nineties version of the Orange Volunteers threatening my late father, Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, who was a UUP MLA for North Antrim for 13 years and in the pro-Agreement camp in the party.

One evening, two men came to my parents’ home and shouted into the front door intercom that they were from the Orange Volunteers and that my dad was to be shot. But the two ‘volunteers’ made a hasty retreat when they believed they were being filmed!

The badges which adorned the Ulster Resistance red berets may now be collectors’ items, but to quote the headline on a feature I wrote in January 2006 in the Irish Daily Star to mark the 20th anniversary of the formation of Ulster Resistance - ‘So where are the loyalist weapons?’

Another two decades on from that feature, the question of the location of the remaining Ulster Resistance weapons is still as relevant in 2026 as it was 20 years ago.
 
Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Dr Coulter has been a journalist since 1978 and is currently a political commentator with GB News.

So Where Are Ulster Resistance Weapons Being Hidden?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand One Hundred And Thirty Four

 

A Morning Thought @ 3305

Anthony McIntyre ☠ When offered the opportunity to travel to Dublin to see this play I jumped at it. 


It was in Dublin that I first met Beano Niblock, one of the creators of The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary. While we had been in touch regularly, with many of his writings appearing on The Pensive Quill, it was when he delivered a talk in Liberty Hall that I got to press the flesh for the first time. We ended up in a bar close to Connolly Station for a few pints before he made the journey back to Belfast.

My wife booked us into a hotel for the night so that we could turn our latest visit to the capital into a two day trip. That is the type of thing we do annually in the days running up to Xmas, but a special play merited a special occasion. After drinks in the Bank Bar in Dame Street, we checked into the Mercantile just up the footpath. It was quality from the get go. While we always loved Morrisons for our Dublin sojourns, the Mercantile is the go-to place from here on in.

The play was staged in the Smock Alley Theatre on Dublin's southside, right in front of the Liffey. Just as we arrived at the front door Beano's partner, Jackie Drummond, recognised me and came over to greet myself and my wife and thank us for coming. We owed her even more gratitude for having secured the invitation.


I had never been to the theatre before. A former church building, it was quite an impressive layout on the inside, ready-made for staging plays. In the middle of the floor was a huge dictionary serving as the stage. It was a great prop, capturing the ambience of the evening perfectly.

David Ervine was a very articulate working class loyalist politician who commanded an expansive vocabulary which he was unafraid of using. He wasn't ribbed Dictionary Dave for no reason. Dealing in abstract concepts was not his thing, but he did have a love of words. For anybody not understanding his words it was a simple matter of looking at the dictionary. Once the word was understood the concept he sought to convey was easily grasped.

Ervine, brilliantly acted by Paul Garret, came over as a passionate character determined to fight his corner while studiously avoiding intruding into the corner of his opponent. A man more inclined to employ ring craft rather than punching power as he navigated his way around the political boxing ring that was the political arena in the North, he brought to loyalism a level of articulateness expressed only by a few others, of whom men like Davy Adams and Billy Hutchinson stand out. The natural intelligence possessed by these activists was complemented by Beano Niblock in the literary world. All four in their own way were men who sought to reflect on the world of loyalism unlike say Jamie Bryson who, despite a sharp intellect of his own, only ever seeks to reflect it. In that sense they rather than he always brought more to the loyalist world, managing to bring more out of it than what is on display today with hate marches and burning migrants out of their homes. Collectively they acted as a foil against a deeper entrenchment of the laager mindset which is ultimately polarising and marginalising.

Unfortunately, Beano died a few months ago, depriving the audience of his presence. His fellow writer Martin Lynch was in Dublin for the occasion so it was pleasing to catch up with him. The last play I travelled to in Belfast was one written by him, Chronicles Of Long Kesh. a place where Beano and I spent many years together but always apart. 

The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary took the audience through the life of David Ervine who grew up on the streets of East Belfast, followed Glentoran, married, had children, joined the UVF, went to jail, came out, became a milkman, had grandchildren, and without ever abandoning the loyalist cause he fervently believed in managed to take it on a journey away from political violence. While never conciliatory towards the concept of a united Ireland, he sought to build loyalist opposition on a foundation more redeeming than hatred. 

I left the theatre, looking forward to Mercantile cocktails, dazed by the sorrowful, grief stricken way in which the play concluded, my dominant emotion, empathy. As we made our way through the cobblestone streets that still feature in parts of Dublin, I reflected on an audience, which included myself, that applauded the life of a man who was a member of an organisation which, in May 1974, visited a massacre on the streets of the same city, just across the river. It left me feeling that therein lay the real achievement of the work of Beano Niblock. He never filled his pen with an arrogant presumption that he could whisk people into a make-believe world where they would forgive or forget. His goal was a better understanding. The applause suggested that he succeeded.  

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The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary

Independent Dublin Republicans 🔖will be facilitating a launch of the Constantine B Darcy book profiling the 22 Irish Republicans who died while on hunger strike in Ireland (both the six and twenty six counties) and in England during the revolutionary period 1917 - 1981. 

Independent Dublin Republicans 🔖 Upcoming Event : Book Launch "Ireland's Hunger Strike Martyrs" by Author Constantine B Darcy. Sunday 1st November Peadar Brown's Bar Dublin 8 5.30pm. Chair Patrick Burke.
 
While all 22 Martyrs will be detailed, the book will include a record setting feature on the funeral and reinternment of Frank Stagg provided by former SF Councillor and life - long Republican Gerry Ginty.
 
The Mayo man was one of a unit of "volunteers" who seen to it that a commitment given to Frank's mother to have her sons final wish to be buried in the Republican Plot in Leigue Cemetery was honoured.
 
Despite the IRA committing to doing so following the Fine Gael (Blueshirt) abduction of Frank Stagg's body in order to prevent a massive Republican funeral and burial, Gerry Ginty and a close knit hand picked group acting outside of the (Provisional) Republican Movement, dug through the concrete and carefully removed Frank's body before reinterning him alongside Michael Gaughan in the Republican Plot.
 
Gerry Ginty's participant role is eye opening and at odds with the narrative being promoted by Sinn Fein.
 
"I can say to any of them that I will not stand silent and allow them to rewrite history." Gerry Ginty 2026.
 
Frank Stagg died on hunger strike in Parkhurst Prison on the 12th of February 1976, his body was encassed in concrete by Free State forces on the 21st of February 1976 and was reinterned in the Republican Plot in Leigue Cemetery, Ballina, Co Mayo on the 5th of November 1977.
 
Constantine B Darcy's book will be launched in Peadar Brown's Bar, Clanbrassil Street, Dublin on Sunday the 1st of November 2026 at 5.30pm, with music provided after.
 
The event will be Chaired by Independent Dublin Republican's Patrick Burke.
 
All are welcome.
 
Below is the Roll of Honour of all 22 Hunger Strike Martyrs

Thomas Ashe, died Mountjoy Gaol after being force fed while on hunger strike for POW status 25th September 1917.
Michael Fitzgerald, died Cork Gaol, 17th October 1920.
Terence McSwiney, died Brixton Prison England, 25th October 1920.
Joseph Murphy, died Cork Gaol, 25th October 1920.
Dan Downey, died in the Curragh Internment Camp 10th June 1923.
Michael Joseph Whitty, aged 19, died in the Curragh Internment Camp 2nd September 1923.
Denis Dinny Barry, aged 40, died in Newbridge Internment Camp 20th November 1923.
Andy O Sullivan, aged 41, died in Mountjoy Prison 22nd November 1923.
Joe Lacey, aged 25, died Curragh Internment Camp 24th December 1923.
Seán McCaughey, died Portlaoise Prison, 11th May 1946.
Michael Gaughan, aged 24, died Parkhurst Prison Isle of Wight 3rd June 1974.
Frank Stagg, aged 35, died Wakefield Prison Yorkshire 12th February 1976.
Bobby Sands, aged 26, died Long Kesh 5th May 1981.
Francis Hughes, aged 25, died Long Kesh 12th May 1981.
Raymond McCreesh, aged 24, died Long Kesh 21st May 1981.
Patsy O Hara, aged 23, died Long Kesh 21st May 1981.
Joe McDonnell, aged 30, died Long Kesh 8th July 1981.
Martin Hurson, aged 29, died Long Kesh 13th July 1981.
Kevin Lynch, aged 25, died Long Kesh 1st August 1981.
Kieran Doherty, aged 25, died Long Kesh 2nd August 1981.
Thomas McElwee, aged 23, died Long Kesh 8th August 1981.
Mickey Devine, aged 27, died Long Kesh 20th August 1981.

Ireland's Hunger Strike Martyrs

Atheist Ireland ★The Irish Constitution treats not attending religion class differently to all other school subjects.

14-September-2026

Article 44.2.4 singles out religious instruction, while all other subjects come under Article 42. That distinction matters when exercising our parental rights in relation to the religious education of our children.


Article 44.2.4 takes the control of the arrangements for not attending religious instruction out of the remit of the Department of Education and puts it firmly as the responsibility of the Oireachtas. Article 44.2.4 links religious instruction to the funding of schools while other subjects are not linked to state aid to schools.

Telling us that we should just treat religion like any other subject is telling us to ignore our Constitutional rights.

For example: 

  • The right to not attend religious instruction in schools comes under Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution, while not attending SPHE comes under Article 42.1.
  • The right to not attend religious instruction is linked to the funding of schools under Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution, while the right to not attend SPHE is not.
  • Under Article 44.2.4, legislation providing state aid for schools must not prejudicially affect the right to not attend religious instruction, but this does not apply to not attending SPHE.
  • Article 42.1 does not explicitly refer to ‘not attending’ subjects such as SPHE, while Article 44.2.4 refers explicitly to ‘not attending’ religious instruction.

The right applies to state and patron body religion classes

It doesn’t matter whether a religion course is developed by the state or by a patron body, because the right is based on parental rights and conscience under the Constitution. What matters is the text of Article 44.2.4 and the rights and duties that flow from it.

The Supreme Court said that the inalienable rights of parents under Article 42.1 of the constitution in relation to the religious education of their children must be read in the context of Article 44.2.4, the right to not attend religious instruction.

That firmly links the right to not attend religious instruction Article 44.2.4 with the inalienable rights of parents in relation to the religious education of their children under Article 42.1.

Article 44.2.4 is a sub-section of Article 44.2, the right to freedom of conscience. It makes no sense to claim that the right under Article 44.2.4 only applies to religion courses (religious instruction) developed by patron bodies, as that would conflict with the relationship of the right to not attend religious instruction with freedom of conscience and parental rights under the Constitution.

Why would the Constitution leave it up to the executive to decide what is or is not against the conscience of parents? That would simply undermine the right. And the Oireachtas has clearly reflected parents’ conscience under Article 44.2.4 in Section 30.2(e) of the Education Act 1998.

The duty to protect the right lies with the Oireachtas

One of the key implications of the text of Article 44.2.4 is that it puts the obligation and duty to protect the right to not attend religious instruction onto the Oireachtas, not the executive.

Article 44.2.4 begins with the word ‘legislation’. Only the Oireachtas can put in place legislation so the Constitution puts a duty on the Oireachtas in relation to not attending religious instruction. That duty is linked to the funding of schools. It is a condition of state funding that children have a right of access to publicly funded schools and exercise the right to not attend religious instruction. The Education Act 1998 does not reflect this aspect of Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution.

If the Constitution treated religion the same as any other subject then it would have left the protection that Art 42.1 affords to the rights of parents regarding the religious education of their children under Article 42.1. It would also have left the arrangements for not attending religion classes under the control of the executive. But it does not do this.

We believe that the legislation in place has failed to protect our rights under Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution.

Constitutional and Legal Rights

Here are the key Constitutional and legal rights involved

Article 42.1

The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.

Article 44.2.4

Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school

Section 30-2(e) Education Act 1998

The Minister –

Shall not require any student to attend instruction in any subject which is contrary to the conscience of the parent of the student or in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student.

Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act, 1878

Section 7

The Board shall not make any payment to the managers of any school unless it be shown to the satisfaction of the Board that no pupil attending such school is permitted to remain in attendance during the time of any religious instruction which the parents or guardians of such pupil shall not have sanctioned, and that the time for giving such religious instruction is so fixed that no pupil not remaining in attendance is excluded directly or indirectly from the advantages of the secular education given in the school

Keep up with Atheist Ireland.

The Irish Constitution Treats Not Attending Religion Class Differently To All Other Subjects

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