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Anthony McIntyre ⚽I wan't sure if I would turn up for this one. 


Annoyed at the treatment of Joanna Byrne by the owners my instinct was to flip the bird in their direction. In the end I returned to watch the Drogs while still sharing the middle finger with Trivela, and remaining steadfastly in favour of Ms Byrne being reinstated as Joint Chairperson. I already have a season ticket so the owners don't get a cent more by my going or a cent less by my staying away. 

Those fellow Drogs supporters that I have spoken with and who are resolutely opposed to Israeli genocide, believe that there are options open to fans unhappy with the Trivela cancel culture which don't necessitate missing games. Joanna Byrne herself is refusing to walk away and has committed to returning to the terraces to cheer on her team. Little point in going it alone and becoming the Enoch Burke of Drogheda United, standing outside home fixtures with my badge strewn beanie like some sandwich board Jeremiah in Dublin's Henry Street entreating the sinners to repent, the end is nigh! When I told Paddy about my Enoch disinclination, he burst out laughing, reinforcing my view that aversion not conversion is the better option.  More collective deliberation will undoubtedly take place, and and we shall see what the future brings. 

With the clocks having jumped forward an hour, it was pleasant to drive across town on a bright sunny evening. As we took our seats the glare from the sun made us long for baseball caps with their peaks  rather than the Drogs beanies we were wearing. Just on cue, as kickoff was about to commence, the sun disappeared behind the stand across the pitch from us. Vision perfect, we settled in for the game against the league leaders, Bohemians. 

My beanie was slightly heavier this week, increasingly weighing more like a helmet than a hat. My neighbour and his son had just returned from Anfield having watched the 2-2 draw between the Legends and Dortmund, and had thoughtfully picked up a badge for me on Merseyside, which I squeezed in beside one of Diego Jota at the front of the beanie.  

Just prior to disembarking from the car, I had asked Jay for his prediction. When he said 0-0, I reminded him that he had predicted a draw in the previous game and was on the money. This time he not only forecast the outcome but called it right on the scoreless draw that was eventually served up. Maybe he was going on form, the last two clashes between these sides also ending in draws.

On a nippy but not bitterly cold evening the Drogs were determined not to roll over in the face of the league leaders. Bohemians came to the game on an unbeaten run of nine games in which they had only conceded three goals. They would be very difficult to break down so it was important for the Drogs to prevent them scoring. From the outset the Claret and Blue were combative, almost taking the lead in the opening minutes only for Mark Doyle to do a Mo Salah in front of goal after being put through with a beautiful pass from Warren Davis that left the Bohs defence floundering and short of pace. The home fans gasped in disbelief but applauded the pass that almost made it happen.

Edwin Agbaje made one of the finest blocks the Premier Division is likely to see this season but almost ruined it minutes later when a careless back pass almost handed victory to the Bohs. Dennison, last man standing, did just that, stood his ground and parried what looked a certain goal. 

When Shane Farrell, not long on the pitch as a sub, went to ground in the 87th minute few predicted the drama about to unfold as Good Friday turned bad very quickly. When the Bohs medical team raced to his side to assist their Drogs counterparts, a feeling of uneasiness set in. That type of intervention is normally not called for. When Coach Kevin Doherty was allowed onto the field by the referee, it was clear this was no ordinary injury. After around ten minutes Shane Farrell was stretchered off, oxygen mask covering his face, to a standing ovation. Fortunately, he was released from hospital the following day after an overnight stay. 

Once the injured player was safely off the game resumed, the stoppage causing about ten minutes to be added on. Despite the setback and trauma at losing Shane Farrell, the Drogs steeled themselves. Agbaje's earlier heroics were repeated as the game drew to a close when Warren Davis shut down Myers as he looked certain to find the net. The Drogs held on to secure a point. It was a better point for the home side than the visitors because as a result the Bohs have been overtaken on the outside lane by Pat's. Bohs sensing the threat to their poll position forced the referee to play poker with the amount of cards he handed out. Nine games in, ten points notched up, the Drogs now sit in seventh place. 

Tomorrow, night the Drogs host Galway. Neither Paddy nor I will be there. He is for Galway to celebrate his birthday while I have a long standing boozing arrangement in Dundalk with an old friend from the H-Blocks where we were part of the blanket protest for years although in separate blocks. Whiskey is much more pleasing to the palate than the H-Block dishwater which was served up as tea. Jay will fill in as the on site cub match reporter. 

While the Shane Farrell incident was the most dispiriting aspect of the evening it was disappointing to once again see a flare ignite amongst the Ultras. It had been hoped that after a child sustained a facial injury as a result of a flare at Oriel Park a few weeks back, that never again would they make an appearance as part of fan culture. Despite enhanced security measures, flares somehow still get through. That being so, it is essentially down to the to the Ultras to manage their own turf and ensure safety for all. 

Most important of all, Shane Farrell is out of hospital and on the mend. That was the evening's real victory . . . for both sides.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.


Drogs ⚽ Bohs ⚽ Good Friday


Azar Majedi  & Yassamine Mather🎤 take the political temperature in Iran as it resists assault from US imperialism and Nazi Israel. 

The interview took place one day before military attacks on Iran, and explores the situation in Iran, the January protests and possible outcomes: war, regime change, Balkanisation of Iran. 

The interview was carried out by Dorna, an Iranian/German leftist.


⏩ Asar Majed is the Chairperson of Organisation for Women’s Liberation.

The Bloody January Uprising, The War And What Does Future Hold For Iran?

The Guardian ★ Written by . Recommended by Tony Roche.


The brutalisation of global norms by figures like Pete Hegseth must be seen as an ethical issue. It’s a fight against chaos, and all major religions must play a role.

That combative old hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers, is not much heard these days, though it was once a favourite with church congregations and school assemblies. Written in 1865 by Sabine Baring-Gould, an English clergyman and religious scholar, its belligerent refrain urges the faithful on to battle, victory and conquest: “Onward, Christian soldiers / Marching as to war / With the cross of Jesus / Going on before!” 

Its martial tone suited the Victorian zeitgeist but it made succeeding generations uneasy (though it was still sung in my primary school in the early 1960s). Nowadays, this sort of triumphalism gives religion a bad name.

Pete Hegseth, US defence secretary, and a leading Christian soldier, would certainly disagree. He probably hums it on his way to work. 

At a recent Christian worship service in the Pentagon – an irregular event, given the constitution’s dislike of anything smacking of state religion – Hegseth, referencing Iran, prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy”. 

Continue @ Guardian.

As Team Trump Wage Unceasing War On Iran, Evangelical Nationalists Are Destroying Any Moral World Order We Once Had

Independent ★ Written by Brendan Rascius.


This week, Hegseth prayed that ‘wicked souls’ be ‘delivered to the eternal damnation’ in the fight against Iran

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has upended long‑standing norms by repeatedly invoking his religious faith, blurring the line between church and state in a way that has become particularly pronounced amid the Iran war, according to a new report.

Hegseth — who has a large Jerusalem cross tattooed across his chest — has long worn his Evangelical faith on his sleeve in a manner that has unsettled some military officials.

The former Fox News host has said that the U.S. was “founded as a Christian nation” and that it “remains a Christian nation in our DNA, if we keep it.” He’s also hosted Pentagon worship services that legal experts have branded “unprecedented,” The Washington Post reports. One faith leader invited to preach to servicemembers has said women shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

Hegseth’s proselytizing has drawn heightened scrutiny in connection with the U.S.–Israeli war against Iran, which has now stretched into its second month and shows no signs of abating, according to the Post.

During a press briefing on March 19, he encouraged viewers to pray for the success of U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Continue @ Independent.

Pete Hegseth Is Changing The Way The Pentagon Handles Faith 🪶 Some In The Military Are Finding It ‘Terrifying,’ Report Says

Right Wing Watch 👀Written By Peter Montgomery.


Anti-abortion leaders are cheering legislation introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley to ban the distribution and use of mifepristone, a medication used in most abortions in the U.S.

Anti-abortion groups have been frustrated that women living in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade have been able to access abortion medication by mail. They have been urging the Trump administration to withdraw a more than 20-year-old FDA approval for the drug’s use. Anti-abortion activists were outraged when in October 2025 the FDA approved a second generic version of the drug. Under pressure, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., announced a review of the drug’s safety.

Hawley apparently got tired of waiting for the administration to act. And he wants Congress to take the decision out of the FDA’s hands. After his press conference announcing the legislation on Wednesday, Hawley spoke with the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. “If Congress says we’re gonna take mifepristone off the market for abortion, that’s how it’s gonna be,” Hawley said. “No future liberal administration will be able to roll that back. It will be in the law.”

Continue @ RWW.

Religious Right Cheers Josh Hawley Bill To Criminalize Abortion Medication

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

 

Pastords @ 38

 

A Morning Thought @ 3107

Anthony McIntyre ☠ Often, when I write about the attitude of the UK state to the genocide in Gaza, I focus on the role of Der Starmer.

At the very outset of the worst crime in the statute book Starmer approved the use of war crimes against a civilian population and has pointedly refused to call Israel out on its genocidal actions, instead arming the fiend so that it might maintain its military structure of domination and destruction. 

But Starmer did not magically appear in some Garden of Eden moment where he succeeded in a way that the mythical Adam did not: refusing to succumb to the charms of the strategically created wily serpent of Islamism. Starmer's arrival was the process of a long evolutionary trait within an institution usefully termed by Nicos Poulantzas as an Ideological State Apparatus, the British Labour Party.  Ludicrously, this body has on occasion been described as the party of organised labour. That's on a par with describing Jimmy Savile as the protector of children.

In a recent article, attention is drawn to this evolutionary process by the Guardian columnist Owen Jones who lashed the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his smear against the political left in Britain that it is part of an unholy alliance with Islamists . . .  that snake thing in the Garden of Eden again. The Great Liar of London broadened his observation to include the charge that the left's supposed embrace of Islamism was a manifestation of antisemitism.

Blair's real concern is the growing opposition to Israel which he sees mounting in the UK. Like Starmer, Blair is eager to deflect the charge of genocide away from Israel, trying to reduce it to a mere “barb particularly aimed at Jewish memories of the Holocaust”. Owen Jones asks for proof, stating:

Extraordinary accusations require extraordinary evidence. Yet unlike with his illegal war on Iraq, our former prime minister has not even troubled himself to assemble a dodgy dossier . . . What of the pre-eminent Israeli scholars of genocide who have reached precisely that conclusion, such as Omer Bartov, Amos Goldberg, Daniel Blatman, Shmuel Lederman and Raz Segal? Are these distinguished Jewish academics, who dedicate their lives to studying genocide, diminishing the charge and targeting Jewish distress over the Holocaust?

Shmuel Lederman, the prominent Israeli Genocide scholar referred to by Jones, identifies why so many people are opposed to Israel, and it is not because of its Jewishness:

Much of Israeli society either participated in it actively or gave it legitimacy . . . the majority of Israeli politicians criticising Netanyahu are not doing so on moral grounds—they're talking about hostages or tactical failures . . .  The dehumanisation and demonisation of Palestinians has been ongoing for a long time in Israel—especially when it comes to Gaza . . . For many young people, mocking the suffering in Gaza is almost a form of entertainment, revenge.

In case we forget, Tony Blair is a war criminal responsible for the crimes against humanity inflicted in Iraq. Along with George Bush he lied for the purposes of starting a war which resulted in the exponential growth of the Islamism he so ineloquently rails against.

Now he serves on the Orwellian named Gaza Board of Peace, an institution created by another GOP warmongering president. Moreover,  a Guardian article from 2023 showed the Tony Blair Institute continuing to milk the government of Saudi Arabia for cash after the regime had murdered in its own embassy in Turkey, the dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, When homicidal Islamists are filling Blair's coffers they metamorphize into alright sort of guys, the type who are good for business.


Jones is unrelenting in his castigation of Blair:

Let’s be clear. If there were not a single Muslim in Britain, the left would still oppose Israel’s actions just as forcefully. And what Blair will not confront is that this position reflects mainstream public opinion. A recent poll found as low as 12% of Britons support Israel’s actions in Gaza, while an overwhelming majority supports an arms embargo on Israel, sanctions and the arrest of its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, for war crimes.

In all of this I am reminded of an old joke:

A Labour Party member dies and goes to Heaven, where she meets St Peter:

Labour Party member:  What are all those clocks behind you?

St Peter: Each clock is for every human being born. It keeps a record of their honesty.

Labour Party member: Explain that.

St Peter: The hands of that clock closest to us have never moved. It belongs to Mother Teresa. She never told a lie. The next clock shows that the hands have only moved twice. That belongs to Abraham Lincoln. He only lied on two occasions.

Labour Party member: Where is Tony Blair's clock?

St Peter: Oh, that, we use it as a ceiling fan. 

When the powerful smear the powerless for the purpose of providing cover for genocide, no need to show them the door. The ceiling will do just fine.

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

The Great Liar Of London

Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières ★ Written by Antonín Hořčica.

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Antonín Hořčica , a member of the Czech left party Levice — confronts a dangerous drift within the European left.

Parts of the left, he argues, have traded principled anti-imperialism for selective anti-Americanism, effectively supporting the aggressor under cover of pacifism or calls for “compromise peace.” 

Drawing on his own break with DiEM25, the European Parliament vote on the fourth invasion anniversary, and the example of Ukrainian socialist and anarchist organisations fighting both Russian occupation and their government’s neoliberal economic policies, Hořčica insists the only legitimate leftist position is unconditional solidarity with those under attack. 

Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fatigue is blending with cynicism and a dangerous relativisation. Calls for a “compromise peace” are growing louder, yet they ignore the most fundamental question: who is the aggressor and who the victim. As a member of Levice (The Left), [1] I am proud that our party was among the first to protest against the Russian invasion — on Václavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square) on the very second day after it began. There was nothing to hesitate about: imperialism is always imperialism, regardless of which direction it comes from.

Continue @ ESSF.

Lessons from Imperialist Aggression: Why the Left Must Stand With Those Under Attack Against Selective Anti-Imperialism 💣 The Czech Left And Ukraine

Cam Ogie ✍ The GAA can no longer credibly claim neutrality. 

What we are witnessing is not passive inaction, but an active choice to avoid moral accountability — a choice that increasingly places it at odds with the values of many of its own members.

At the centre of this contradiction is the organisation’s continued relationship with Allianz, maintained despite sustained opposition from players, supporters, and county boards. More troubling still is the deliberate suppression of debate: motions curtailed, dissent marginalised, protest dismissed, and visible expressions of solidarity — such as Palestinian flags — actively removed. This is not administrative caution. It is political management.

The GAA, an organisation historically rooted in resistance and cultural identity, is now deciding which forms of solidarity are acceptable — and, more importantly, which must be silenced. That alone exposes the illusion that sport can somehow exist outside politics. Politics is not absent here. It is being controlled.

But the deeper failure lies not only with leadership — it lies with the counties themselves.

There are those who have spoken out. And there are those who have remained silent.

That silence is not neutral. It is strategic. It allows those counties to benefit — competitively, financially, and institutionally — while others take the risk of dissent.

Yet even those who have spoken out now face a defining contradiction. If they walk onto the pitch in this year’s All-Ireland Championship as if nothing has changed, they do more than undermine their own position — they actively reinforce the system they claim to oppose.

Because participation provides legitimacy. And more critically, it provides cover.

It gives silent counties the justification they have been waiting for: "If it was truly unacceptable, they would refuse to play."

And just like that, the moral pressure disappears. The system stabilises. And those who said nothing are rewarded for saying nothing.

This dynamic is not unique to the GAA. It reflects a broader pattern in how institutions respond to injustice.

Consider FIFA and its handling of global conflict.

Russia was rapidly excluded from international football following the invasion of Ukraine — a decision framed as a clear moral stance. Yet no such consistency exists elsewhere. The United States continues to host the FIFA World Cup. Israel remains fully embedded in international competition despite widespread global condemnation of its actions in Gaza.

This inconsistency is not accidental. It reflects power. Sport does not transcend politics — it mirrors it. And participation within these systems is itself a political act, no matter how often players insist: “It’s only football.”

It is not. It is a choice to continue within a structure that selectively applies morality.

And this is where the comparison with Palestine Action becomes unavoidable.

Whatever one thinks of their methods, their strategy is clear: they do not issue statements and then carry on as normal. They act in ways that disrupt the systems they oppose. They target infrastructure, relationships, and economic links. They impose consequences.

They understand something fundamental that many within the GAA now appear unwilling to accept:

Power does not respond to words alone. It responds to disruption.

The GAA, by contrast, is attempting to contain dissent — to allow just enough expression to release pressure, but not enough to force change.

And those counties who have spoken out, but continue to participate unchanged, risk becoming part of that containment. They become the acceptable face of protest — vocal, visible, but ultimately ineffective.

All of this unfolds against a backdrop of escalating global violence.

The devastation in Gaza has been marked by mass civilian casualties, widespread destruction of infrastructure, and the collapse of basic living conditions. Hospitals, schools, and refugee areas have been repeatedly impacted. This is not abstract geopolitics — it is sustained human catastrophe.

At the same time, tensions involving Iran have escalated into direct confrontation, raising the risk of a wider regional war. The language used by political leaders in this context — often strategic, detached, and devoid of empathy — reveals how easily human suffering is reduced to calculation.

And consider the calibre of those shaping this reality. Donald Trump speaks in terms of dominance and resource interest. Benjamin Netanyahu continues military expansion under the language of necessity. Mohammed bin Salman — widely linked to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi — is welcomed and legitimised at the highest levels of global power. These are the actors defining the current moment.

And still, institutions like the GAA behave as though remaining “neutral” is a defensible position. It is not. Because neutrality, in this context, is not the absence of politics. It is alignment with the status quo.

This is why the responsibility now rests with those counties and players who have already spoken out. Because they are at a point where words are no longer enough.

To continue participating without consequence is to absorb moral outrage without producing change. It is to remain inside the system while claiming to challenge it.

But refusal — real, tangible refusal — changes the equation.

  • It removes legitimacy.
  • It forces confrontation.
  • It denies silent counties the cover they currently rely on.

There comes a point where protest must evolve or it becomes performance. The GAA has reached that point. And so have its counties. Because if those who claim to stand for something are not willing to act —then those who stood for nothing will continue to prevail.

Quietly. Comfortably. And justified — not by their own courage — but by the inaction of those who claimed to oppose them.

⏩ Cam Ogie is a Gaelic games enthusiast.

A Message To Gaels Against Genocide 🪶 Play On Or Stand Up 🪶 The Moral Failure At The Heart Of The GAA

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3106

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