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Kate Yo ðŸ”– Prison doctors . . .  screws in white coats - A McIntyre.


"Sweet light of Jesus what am I going to do? " ..Everything carried on, the world kept moving as if nothing had changed. But I knew..I knew a choice was coming. One I did not want to face." - Martina Anderson Choosing The Struggle.

Who could blame a woman in distress, especially in the eighties (1985) and especially an unmarried woman living in Buncrana on the run and pregnant. for choosing an abortion? Martina had been arrested along with another woman in Derry and charged with possession of a firearm and causing explosions.

She got, and jumped, bail, fled to Donegal along with her co-accused.

However Martina was no shrinking violet, she was a revolutionary. She grew up in the Bogside, one of seven sisters in a family of ten plus two parents. Her mother Betty is said to have been a stalwart for republicanism and her father Billy, nicknamed Dinky, was a Presbyterian. She writes of the economic hardship endured by such a big family who had little work. This situation was very common for those times. She drew a picture that could be replicated all over the North for those times, indeed even throughout the whole island.

This book however, has more than one aim. Not just to tell her story but of the sacrifices made by her and others to get the North of Ireland to this point. There's more to it though. More important than an outline of her life, she wants to push feminism forward, and to tell the story of the hardships imposed on women through incarceration for the cause of a united Ireland. But also she acknowledges that there is a dearth of accounts from women activists who went to jail. She does this very well.

After being charged with possession of a firearm and plotting to cause explosions she went on the run with her co-accused to Buncrana in Donegal just across the border from Derry. This was 1981. She was still there in 1985 when she found out she was pregnant. She had been seeing Paul Kavanagh but he was arrested in 1981 in England and given a natural life sentence. Due to this he wrote to her telling her to move on with her life, and she agreed and moved on. At that time she was living in a flat in Buncrana and working in a bar. During her spell there she was asked to go on an IRA operation. She then found herself pregnant in 1985 and being on the run was unable to go to England for an abortion so she flew to the continent and had it there.

That was quite something in those days, to fly to a country where the language and system was totally unknown and be able to access abortion services. The book doesn't say but I'd hazard a guess it was Germany, as that country was facing its own difficulties with the Bader-Meinhof. Perhaps there were underground links there to help her in this situation.

It was also a rather reckless thing to do as people were turned for less. It's doubtful the intelligence services on both sides of the border were aware of her trip abroad and its purpose as it could have scuppered the whole IRA operation she was involved in. However, it is written elsewhere that Peter Sherry was tracked from his home to the flat in Scotland where all five were arrested. Pat Magee too may have been under surveillance as this was shortly after the Brighton bombing. Her account of the arrest mirrors Magee's in his book, even the jest - well if you're looking for any more (info) you won't find it here.

After this arrest and charge she was taken first to Brixton, a men's prison which she describes as a hell hole and then on to Durham prison. Her account of the effect of prison on women is as good as any of the male writers such as Jaz McCann or Laurence McKeown.

For these women there were no other republicans in the jails with which to associate. To their credit they set about organising the women there in to small acts of taking control away from the prison authorities. Small, perhaps insignificant, acts of rebelliousness. There are no regular visits from families far away with little money. No regular parcels or Christmas skits that some have wrote about, just the impoverished environment of prison and its effects on the women's bodies and psychological health.

Slopping out for these women had the added degradation of the remains of menstrual periods, with no proper sanitation, toilets that didn't flush properly and sewage regurgitating into toilet bowls. Cockroaches and Victorian buildings with very little light, one window so high up on the wall only the sky was visible and very little natural light. Sometimes only one sanitary towel a day was given, period pain with no pain relief, locked away at night with severe pain and heavy flow. 

Martina was diagnosed with dysmenorrhea (severe pain and cramps). This led to a prison doctor who was ex-military performing an operation. He wanted to perform a hysterectomy but Martina thought that was too drastic and knew that all she needed was pain relief and polyps removed. They offered a D&C performed at an outside hospital by this ex Colonel Francis who was named within the prison as Dr Death. He had been known to have performed hysterectomies on many women, claiming he was an expert in that field. She was taken to hospital under armed guard and returned to the prison and simply left. Martina claims this botched surgery left her incapable of having children.

Martina's health suffered in later years due to the poor diet served while incarcerated. Her bones became a problem.

Martina married Paul Kavanagh and later the two were able to provide a good steady home for any needy child but were prevented from adopting as they were both ex-prisoners. This must have been a severe blow as many ex-prisoners after release went on to have their own families and settled down to parenthood well.

Martina emerges from this book a very likeable person, a principled and dedicated revolutionary. The reason for her abortion however is very controversial. On the one hand she has achieved a good account of imprisonment on women but on the other hand she has pushed back the abortion debate. Her book ends around the time of the repeal of the eighth and her party's fight for women's choice. The reason she chose abortion kills the argument. Choice for . . .  abnormalities, for mental health, reasons that are understandable, but to go on a bombing campaign? She speaks to those women who have had abortions. Speak up don't be silent, for you are not alone. However Martina's choice, or rather the reason for it is unique to her. In that she is alone.

Martina Anderson, 2026. Choosing the Struggle: an autobiography. Publisher: Beyond the Pale Books. ISBN-13: 978-1914318337

⏩Kate Yo is a Belfast book lover.

Choosing The Struggle

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza ★ Recommended by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh.

Earlier this afternoon, my oldest boyhood friend, a distinguished international lawyer who received his doctorate at Cambridge, called me to share the tragic news that Jason Arday, the Black British academic, had been found dead. 

I have been following this story ever since it broke out in July. We commiserated about his tragic death, and concluded that Arday was killed by many people and institutions.

Jason Arday’s death was the result of a convergence of forces that reveal the fragility of the racial settlement in post-imperial and postcolonial Britain and the contradictions of its elite institutions. He was eagerly elevated as a symbol, ruthlessly scrutinized as an anomaly, and callously discarded as a liability. His rise and fall expose the moral bankruptcy of a system that wants the appearance of racial progress without the work of structural change.

Arday was killed by white liberal proponents of performative inclusion who propelled him, shrouding him with the aura of heroic exceptionalism. Cambridge presented him as its youngest Black professor and celebrated his life story as proof of institutional transformation. His appointment was marketed through a narrative of adversity and triumph that emphasized his autism, late speech, poverty, and extraordinary athletic feats. 

Continue @ PT Zeleza’s Newsletter.

Who Killed Jason Arday?

Daily Telegraph 📰 Written by Michael Murphy and Tom Cotterill, Recommended by Christy Walsh.

There is ‘no doubt’ that Britain must protect troops, says Irish republican criticising Labour’s Troubles bill

Prosecuting veterans undermines the United Kingdom’s security, a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) member has said.

Danny Morrison, a former Sinn Féin publicity director, made the remarks in a documentary regarding the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill before Parliament.

The legislation, which was drawn up by Labour, would repeal parts of the Conservatives’ 2023 Legacy Act, which shielded soldiers from prosecution.

Campaigners fear the new act will expose hundreds of elderly Northern Ireland veterans, some of whom are in their 70s and 80s, to vexatious legal cases.

A battle has ensued between former defence chiefs who are campaigning for changes to the bill – which they have described as a “national security threat” – and the Government, which said the previous immunity protections offered under the Tories’ legislation were “illegal”.

‘Endless spiral of lawfare’

Retired special forces commanders said Labour’s bill, without radical changes, could lead to an “endless spiral of lawfare cases against veterans, who will be hounded by money-hungry law firms for decades to come”.

Continue @ Daily Telegraph.

Prosecuting Veterans Undermines UK Security, Says Former IRA Member

Geordie Morrow ðŸ–Œ with a painting from his collection of art work. 





⏩Geordie Morrow is a Belfast artist.

Colour, Texture, And Memory

Atheist Ireland ★ Every child has a right to an objective, critical and pluralistic education. That right is guaranteed under Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention.

12-July-2026

It is an absolute right, not to be balanced against the rights of others or one that can be gradually achieved.

Atheist Ireland is campaigning for this human right in Ireland and for the state to guarantee it in practice and in law. It doesn’t matter what school a child attends: Educate Together, ETBs, Catholic, Church of Ireland etc. They still have this right.

At present the Irish State does not guarantee this right in any school. Our children leave this right at the school gate no matter what school they attend. Look at the Education Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act, and you will see this right is not guaranteed.

All schools claim they are inclusive. They each have their own Patron’s programmes to reflect their ethos. None of these courses are inspected by the state to ensure compliance with the European Convention. The Patron bodies themselves are not obliged to guarantee an objective, critical and pluralistic education to every child in their schools.

The State is well aware that it cannot absolve itself from its responsibility under the Convention, and delegate it to private bodies such as Patron bodies. It learnt that the hard way in the Louise O’Keeffe case at the European Court.

Transferring some schools to different ethos patron bodies would not solve this problem. That would merely redistribute the discrimination, by privileging a larger number of different belief groups. And it is impossible in practice to open enough schools to reflect every belief group in every local area around the country.

Also, including more multi-denominational schools within that approach would not solve the problem. That would merely segregate the children of non-religious or minority faith parents into a catch-all type of school while larger belief groups remain privileged. And in any case, multi-denominational schools do not guarantee the right to an objective, critical and pluralistic education.

The UN has repeatedly told Ireland to open both multi-denominational and non-denominational schools. The Irish government initially said it would do this, but has since dropped the provision of non-denominational schools from its agenda.

Multiple patronage and multiple ethos as the basis for policy is the underlying problem in Irish schools, not the solution. The Oireachtas Education Committee has already concluded that plurality of patronage cannot create pluralism in education. Instead it brings about segregation of children and inequality.

The only thing that can solve this problem is for the State to fund a network of schools, that all children can attend in their locality, that provide an objective, critical and pluralistic education. The state is responsible for making this happen, and is abdicating its duty to do so.

It seems to us that the state will do nothing until someone takes them to the courts. Atheist Ireland is preparing to take such a case with the support of the Law Library’s Voluntary Assistance scheme. We will continue to campaign for our human rights.

⏩ Follow Atheist Ireland on X @atheistie

Every Child Has A Right To An Objective, Critical, And Pluralistic Education 🪶 The State Is Responsible

The Volunteer ★ Written by Chris Ealham, Recommended by Christopher Owens.

Stuart Christie, who died in August 2020, was best known as the 18-year-old Scottish anarchist who, in the summer 1964, was part of an attempt to assassinate General Francisco Franco. It was only the beginning of a long life dedicated to left-wing activism.

By the time Stuart Christie volunteered to transport explosives for the 1964 plot to kill Franco at the Santiago Bernabeu soccer stadium in Madrid, his acquaintance with anarchism in the UK had been building for some time. As he explains in his entertaining memoir General Franco Made Me A Terrorist (2003), he had also been in touch with Spanish exile circles in France. Yet before the attack could be carried out, Christie was arrested by undercover Spanish police.

Born into a working-class family in Glasgow, he had come into contact with local anarchist groups in his earliest youth and began reaching out to libertarians around the world. His association with the Spaniards during the 1960s was overshadowed by the execution in Spain, in August 1963, of Francisco Granado and Joaquín Delgado, anarchists from the Libertarian Youth. He would subscribe to the working-class anarchist tradition for the rest of his life.

Continue @ The Volunteer.

Stuart Christie’s Unending Struggle

Right Wing Watch 👀Written by Kyle Mantyla.

Sean Feucht Says God Orchestrated His Failed Congressional Bid To Prepare To Defy Covid Lockdowns


In 2020, Christian nationalist worship leader and right-wing political activist Sean Feucht ran for Congress in California because he said he had been called by God to bring revival and reformation to the nation. Yet despite having the support of many leading religious-right activists, Feucht finished a distant third in the primary election, receiving fewer than half as many votes as the other Republican candidate in the race

Last week, Feucht appeared on "The Strang Report," where he claimed to have realized in retrospect that God had called him to run for Congress not to win, but rather to give him a "peek behind the veil of government" in preparation for leading a series of lockdown-defying rallies throughout the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[I] really felt the Lord called me to run," Feucht said. 

I felt like obviously God told me to run because I was gonna win. I'm like, why else would he tell me to do this? But I was in California and running in a very—they said it was a purple district . . . 

Continue @ RWW.

God Interfered In Elections

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Sixty Three

 

Pastords @ 57

 

A Morning Thought @ 3235

Shaun Harkin ➤ The Sinn Féin First Minister's justification of the Bogside bonfire pre-dawn raid as dealing with anti-social behaviour is completely hypocritical in the face of what we have witnessed this summer - and completely counterproductive.


There was no pre-dawn raid on the Moygashel bonfire featuring a replica mosque. There was no pre-dawn raid last year when the Moygashel bonfire had a boat with migrants for burning.

There was no police action in response to many 12th of July bonfires dripping with explicit racism, sectarianism and bigotry that are openly organised by loyalist paramilitaries.
 
There was no raids on loyalist bonfires that were clear health and safety risks that led to serious injuries and the burning of homes.
 
I'm not a fan of any bonfires in the North that celebrate sectarianism or come in response to sectarianism. We don't have a celebratory 'burning man' bonfire culture here. We'd be better off with no bonfires at all.
 
That said, I completely understand the frustrations of young people in the Bogside who have been demonised and criminalised for organising a bonfire.
 
For all the rantings of Jamie Bryson about how unionist culture is done down, what happened in the Bogside looks like a blatant example of two-tier policing, two-tier treatment and discrimination.
 
It has left young people, and others, in the Bogside and beyond feeling resentful.
 
Counterproductive is the only way to describe what this will have achieved.
 
I attended the Féile meeting on 25 years of the PSNI in Culturlann where example after example of failed policing and failed mechanisms for accountability went unchallenged by anyone on the top table or in the room. The police relentlessly seek legitimacy and normalisation but their actions produce cynicism, distrust and anger.
 
Cllr Gary Donnelly said he had urged young people not to take their frustrations and anger out on the Fountain because that is exactly what some want.
 
The Good Friday Agreement cemented sectarianism into political institutions. Two-tier and failed policing is emblematic of Stormont's institutionalising of sectarianism.
 
Sectarianism benefits elites. It divides the working-class. Those who benefit from working-class division will work forever to keep it alive.
 
Sectarianism can't be policed away. Demonising and blaming young people and their parents will not challenge sectarianism. It needs to be fully challenged and that starts with the role of the British state, Stormont, its institutions and the police.

⏩Shaun Harkin is a councillor in Foyleside.

Demonising And Blaming Young People

Anthony McIntyre ☠ The latest rant from Brass neck Bibi has been hurled in the direction of the UK government. 

It came during a podcast interview conducted by Avi Harush, a former IDF officer whose terrorist son was killed in April 2024 during the Palestinian fightback against genocide in Gaza. 

Speaking to his host, Netanyahu referred to the UK as the Islamic Republic of Britain. Were anybody to claim that Britain because of its support under Starmer for Israeli war crimes was the Jewish Republic of Britain, they would have been immediately howled down by the Jewish Chronicle and others as antisemites who should be whipped into silence through the lash of cancel culture. He was rightly trashed for his hatemongering by several British Jews. 

Netanyahu's remark was gleefully reported in the Daily Mail, once the stable of trenchant Zionist Melanie Philips who wrote the book Londonistan. The self explanatory sentiment in that work has been regurgitated by Netanyahu who bemoaned what he felt was a loss of support for Israel within the UK. Praising the son of Winston Churchill, Randolph, for describing the six day war of 1967, in which Zionist colonialism occupied and stole more land, as positive, Netanyahu complained:

Just try to find that kind of attitude in Britain now – or in what's known as "The Islamic Republic of Britain". You won't find it . . . 'Someone said – you know – that the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic Republic of Britain.

A man who promotes himself as an intellectual curiously manages to overlook that Pakistan has possessed nuclear weaponry since the 1990s.

Netanyahu's hateful sentiment towards Muslims chimes with a similar comment made in 2024 by JD Vance during that year's presidential campaign in which he suggested that the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”.

This is right wing racist discourse and recognised as such by the Irish Times in its observation on Netanyahu's slur that it:

played into a common far-right Islamophobic trope about Britain’s small Muslim population . . . London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has also been a frequent target of racialised attacks from right-wing leaders abroad, including Donald Trump, seeking to gain political advantage from Islamophobic lies.

And while there are Christless Christians seeking to pass themselves as preachers of Christian love, such as Chris Hudson, who praise the Israeli state at the very moment it is inflicting genocide with the words 'Isn't that little Jewish state amazing?' - imagine proclaiming Isn't that little German state amazing? during the Holocaust  - what is really amazing is how a body of people who make the Holocaust such a huge part of its own history has itself come to commit genocide. 


This is why it is not hyperbole to describe the Israeli state as Nazi. A regime that commits genocide is not best positioned to refute allegations levelled against it of being Nazi. If the victim of a paedophile abuses children, they too become paedophiles. Britain for all its faults much less fits the description Islamic Republic of Britain than Israel does the description Nazi Republic of Israel. 

It is not an antisemitic trope to describe Israel as such. The Jewish Independent observed in 2004 that:

Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli intellectual of such stature that streets in Jerusalem and Herziiya have been named after him, coined the term ‘Judeo-Nazis’ decades ago, when warning against the rise in Israel of an extremist minority of a kind found in many societies. Is his warning relevant again now?

The answer is yes. It is as relevant now as it was in the years 1933 to 1945 when the wheels of the Holocaust started rolling, eventually arriving at its death camp destination.  

⏩Follow on Bluesky.

The Nazi Republic Of Israel

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