One exception is the CPI. Opposition to the European Union has been party policy since that capitalist bloc’s formation. For long, though, the Communist Party has been fighting an uphill battle against the overwhelming influence of the Irish ruling class, supported by its subservient media and a compliant political establishment. Yet there may be the prospect that this attitude could change, albeit not necessarily in a progressive direction.
A recent report published by Oxfam Ireland[1] highlights the huge disparities of wealth in the 26 Counties. Its findings are stark: the top 10% of Irish households hold half of all wealth, with the top 1% owning 13%, and 11 billionaires collectively wealthier than 85% of the population combined. The charity describes such extreme inequality as a ‘policy failure’, pointing to budgets that worsen inequality.
The outworking of this grave inequality is there for all to see: almost 17,000 officially homeless and, according to the Simon Community[2], perhaps ten times as many living in what they describe as hidden homelessness. This is before mentioning the despair arising from a two-tier health service or the burden of education costs faced by working-class families.
Such extreme disparities of wealth, coupled with the lived experience of poverty and hardship, lead inevitably to discontent and anger. This deep frustration with the existing system has opened a door to the fascists, who are currently focusing on deprived working-class communities. However, and in spite of their determined efforts, these thugs are not having a major impact in terms of recruitment or electoral success. There is a danger, though, that this may change due to a number of factors. One major factor is membership of the EU, with its relentless insistence on free-market economics resulting in hardship for many.
Over recent decades, fascism has not had a coherent leadership in Ireland or more significant, societally powerful adherents. However, recent rulings emanating from Brussels may cause this to change. Two in particular: a decision last November to greatly reduce the Irish fleet’s fishing quotas and, especially, a drive now to ratify the Mercosur Treaty.
The first of these, reduced fish quotas[3], underlines the nature of Ireland’s difficulty with the EU. The Hague Preferences, a forty-year-old agreement apparently guaranteeing Irish access to its own waters, was abruptly swept aside by other member states with possibly devastating consequences for coastal fishing communities.
It is, nevertheless, the second issue, that of Mercosur, which carries the greater potential threat. This treaty is being driven by EU members, such as Germany, with large manufacturing sectors anxious to access markets in South America. In return, they are willing to tolerate cheap agricultural products being imported into the bloc regardless of the detrimental impact on European farmers’ incomes. Understandably, the powerful Irish Farmers Association is bitterly opposed to this treaty and already has the support of many TDs, including those right-wing independents led by Minister of State for Agriculture, Michael Healy-Rae.
Should Mercosur proceed as planned (and it most likely shall), it is bound to cause anti-EU sentiment to arise within an often conservative and powerful section of society. It may seem far-fetched to foresee the creation of an ultra-right, Farage-style ‘Ire-exit’ movement, but stranger things have happened.
Reflect briefly on the contents of a recent article[4] by the Financial Times’s US National Editor and Columnist Edward Luce. He wrote that Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, is ‘… planning to open an Irish branch of Bannon’s War Room, his influential Maga daily podcast…’. In a recent interview, Bannon claimed to be looking for an Irish version of Trump. Moreover, in the same article, Luce quotes Robert O’Brien, Trump’s former national security adviser, complaining about Ireland’s left-leaning president, Catherine Connolly.
Taken together, these factors give cause for concern. Consider the effect of powerful, extremely wealthy right-wing American propagandists combining with a disgruntled Irish farming community and thereafter exploiting the misery of Ireland’s dispossessed. No leap of the imagination is required to envisage a drive to follow a course set by the Godfather-like figure in the White House. We have a precedent in that the first Fine Gael chairperson was an unapologetic follower of 20th-century European fascism.
None of which means, of course, that we should change our position vis-à-vis the European Union. There is, after all, a very healthy progressive element within contemporary Irish society. Look, for example, at the election of Catherine Connolly and the massive support for Palestine. It is, however, imperative that as disillusionment with the imperialist EU inevitably grows, this anger is properly directed. It is essential that we continue to encourage all to punch up and not down.
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| Tommy McKearney is a left wing and trade union activist. He is author of The Provisional IRA: From Insurrection to Parliament. Follow on Twitter @Tommymckearney |
Anthony McIntyre ⚽For this one, Paddy and Jay didn't make it.
While we were braving the chill of Drogheda they were sunning it up in Spain. I travelled with Ronan in our neighbour's car. He generously offers to take us there and back on those very rare occasions when Paddy is not available. His young son, who seems much more knowledgeable about soccer than the rest of us, made up the quartet and regaled us with an amazing amount of detail about the sport.
We split company at the stadium as our season tickets are for the Windmill Road side of the ground. The search procedure as we approached the turnstile was thorough. Normally for people my age it is a light pat down, even a pass. This reminded me of the rigorous daily British Army or RUC searches I had undergone on hundreds of occasions on the streets of Belfast. An Garda along with ground security seemed determined to get a grip on the flares that have all too frequently made their way onto the terraces and from there occasionally to the pitch.
This made big headlines for the sport, and adverse ones for Drogheda United, some of whose fans at a previous fixture at Oriel Park damaged Dundalk's newly laid artificial pitch through lobbing incendiaries onto the surface. The hope has to be that the descent of common sense and a concern for others, rather than the strict search procedure was what led to a flare-free game against Shelbourne. Well, at least from the Drogs fans. While I didn't see it or get a whiff of the fumes they emit, there were reports that a hand-held flare was ignited amongst the visiting supporters but was either extinguished or had burnt itself out before the kickoff.
At least for the match at Sullivan and Lambe we were allowed in. The four match ban arising from the Oriel Park flare-up applies to away games only. The club has had a hefty fine imposed on it, to boot.
Flares are not toys. They cause damage and injury as was so sadly evident from a twelve year old boy sustaining facial burn injuries at Oriel. They need to be cut out from fan culture altogether. Officials from the club, if they have not already done so, should engage in talks with the Ultras, whose primary purpose is to raucously support their team, not cause injury to supporters.
The game against Shels proved a lost cause for the Drogs. They scored too early, sat on the lead and ultimately lost it due to two second half strikes from the visitors. The Drogs, with two wins already under their belt for the season fell to a team who had not chalked up a victory until their visit to Louth.
When Brandon Kavanagh struck five minutes in, first there was trepidation, then confirmation that the Drogs would sit back. At one point I noticed six men across the back, leaving four to take part in a counter attack. No sign of urgency to provide much needed back-up.
There was not much in the way of attacking flair from the visitors in the first half, and when the whistle blew to end the first 45, there was relief that the home side had not conceded in the dying minutes of the first period when concentration can decline as the break approaches. That relief did not last long into the restart. Ninety seconds was all it took for the Shels to penetrate the Drogs last line of defence. At that point, the feeling began to settle on me that this would be three points lost.
The Drogs having played five, have taken seven points and dropped eight. Not quite the stuff of relegations rooters - they sit fifth in the table - but not a great start to the season.
However, the gang of thugs from Tel Aviv and Washington are little if any better than was Khamenei, and the legality of their attacks on the sovereign nation state of Iran are at best questionable. For Trump in Washington being a criminal breaking international law daily is no different to the professional house breaker plying their trade every night, it comes naturally. In Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu learned the art of genocide in the West Bank, Gaza and earlier in Southern Lebanon which he is attacking presently. This is not to mention charges of corruption levelled at him in Israel. Trump has made it clear, as he did in Venezuela, he will decide who takes over government in Iran after the Israelis and themselves have finished. It should be the Iranian people who decide their future, not Donald Trump.
It is my albeit qualified opinion Donald Trump is unstable, clinically or even criminally insane. One sentence he tells the Iranian people, in that unstable deranged sounding voice, to take control of their country. The next sentence, having told the people to take to the streets, he bombs the shit out of those same streets. The man is clearly unstable, for fucks sake get him locked away.
The Israelis have made it clear they want ‘regime change’, something the Americans deny is one of their goals. The following day that story changes as Trump starts ranting about who will take over the “government of Iran” and how he will “have a say in deciding who is the next government.” The thugs who assist Trump in his genocide - similar to Himmler, Goering, and Bormann assisted Hitler commit mass murder - are Vice President, J.D. Vance, US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, Jared Kushner - Trump's Son in Law - who has nothing to do with government but still goes on official government trips discussing state business, who is a businessman and one of Trump's right-wing propagandists. This may show how close the relationship is between big business and government in the USA.
The question is, given this corporate relationship, is the present US regime a neo-fascist administration? One thug, Pete Hegseth, boasted; “all the Iranians will see as they look up to the skies will be US and Israeli airpower picking targets until they decide something different”. The Iranian people looking up to the skies are those Trump, on a good day, is encouraging to “take back their country”. Maybe Trump could drop bombs on them while they are attempting this task!!
The Iranians were in discussions with the Americans sorting out a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme when, while still in talks, the US and Israel struck. These talks were evidently a trick! It was the first Trump administration in 2016 who pulled out of a deal they were signatories to agreed back in 2015 under the previous Obama administration with Iran to curb their nuclear programme. The Iranians, the Europeans, Russia, China, and the USA were all in agreement with this deal when Trump, after taking up residence in the White House in 2016, just pulled the plug on the deal. No discussions with the Europeans or the Russians, let alone Iran, he just unilaterally decided it was a “bad deal”.
Scott Lucas of the University College Dublin (UCD) Clinton Institute stated:
The Iranians were in discussions with the Americans sorting out a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme when, while still in talks, the US and Israel struck. These talks were evidently a trick! It was the first Trump administration in 2016 who pulled out of a deal they were signatories to agreed back in 2015 under the previous Obama administration with Iran to curb their nuclear programme. The Iranians, the Europeans, Russia, China, and the USA were all in agreement with this deal when Trump, after taking up residence in the White House in 2016, just pulled the plug on the deal. No discussions with the Europeans or the Russians, let alone Iran, he just unilaterally decided it was a “bad deal”.
Scott Lucas of the University College Dublin (UCD) Clinton Institute stated:
I think we can establish the Israelis want regime change whereas the US want the leadership in Iran to accept two conditions then they can survive. One, they must give up their nuclear programme, civilian as well as military. Two, they have to agree to discuss Iran’s ballistic missile programme, in other words, the limits on numbers and size.
Trump claims the Iranians are or were close to developing a nuclear bomb. He has no evidence to support this apparently ludicrous claim as Scott Lucas stated, “Iran does not have a nuclear bomb, they are not even close to having a nuclear bomb or are they planning a nuclear bomb.” Has Trump made the whole nuclear bomb thing up? The Israeli and US airstrikes have hit a school killing many children making either Trump or Netanyahu, or both, child killers. Neither of these tyrants will lose sleep over this act of pedocide. Trump has ranted, in one of his worse moments; “we’re knocking the crap out of them” he told viewers on US television just after the school was obliterated! What kind of a monster is he, another Hitler?
Trump has been reportedly “scathing” with British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. According to Trump Starmer has been “unhelpful” because he, Starmer, for once had the backbone to stand up to Trump, or so it seemed! Trump claimed the “UK has been very uncooperative” simply because Starmer questioned the legality of these attacks on Iran. Eventually Starmer relented, or gave half way, by ambiguously allowing the US to use British airbases for “defensive actions” which covers a ‘multitude of sins’ and can have many interpretations.
Trump has been reportedly “scathing” with British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. According to Trump Starmer has been “unhelpful” because he, Starmer, for once had the backbone to stand up to Trump, or so it seemed! Trump claimed the “UK has been very uncooperative” simply because Starmer questioned the legality of these attacks on Iran. Eventually Starmer relented, or gave half way, by ambiguously allowing the US to use British airbases for “defensive actions” which covers a ‘multitude of sins’ and can have many interpretations.
The US President – of sorts – has (at the time of writing) told PM Starmer who is considering sending two Aircraft-Carriers to the Middle East; “we don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won”. Keir Starmer instead of shitting himself at this rebuff by Trump should be dancing in Downing Street, at last shaking off the dictatorship sometimes called the “special relationship”, which it is not, with the USA!
The US President continued using the language of a failed history student claiming Starmer “is no Winston Churchill”, referencing the wartime relationship between the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and US President Franklyn D Roosevelt. The circumstances during World War Two were completely different. Churchill wanted the US involved as allies in the war against Nazi Germany, and Roosevelt could not deliver due to election pledges. He was very apologetic but he had pledged to keep the US out of any “European wars” telling the US people; “your boys will not die in foreign wars”. This time it is Trump, as US President, who wants something from Britain so he can carry out illegal acts of terrorism. Donald Trump claims the so-called “special relationship between the UK and US is not what it once was.”
The most annoying aspect about this situation apart from having to listen to Trump's lies is the response of the European political leaders. They all appear shit scared of the tyrant, just as their predecessors were of Hitler who mocked British leader, Neville Chamberlain. Now Trump seems to be courting other more compliant European leaders including Germany’s Friedrich Merz, probably telling him he can offer a ‘special relationship’ now the British have become “uncooperative” - which the Chancellor will bite his hand off for.
The most annoying aspect about this situation apart from having to listen to Trump's lies is the response of the European political leaders. They all appear shit scared of the tyrant, just as their predecessors were of Hitler who mocked British leader, Neville Chamberlain. Now Trump seems to be courting other more compliant European leaders including Germany’s Friedrich Merz, probably telling him he can offer a ‘special relationship’ now the British have become “uncooperative” - which the Chancellor will bite his hand off for.
Why, oh why, do European leaders place so much importance on being well in with a criminally insane man? Twenty-Six County Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee, having been asked “eight times” to clarify her position on the legality of Trump and Netanyahu’s attacks, “stopped short of calling the US and Israelis attacks on Iran a breach of international law” (Irish Daily Mirror 6th march). Perhaps the reluctance of the Twenty-Six County administration to really attack Trump and his cohort Netanyahu is to a certain extent understandable. We are a small country which is already forcibly partitioned by a larger regionally powerful neighbour to the east, perhaps the administration maybe worried about antagonising an even larger power, the USA, to the west particularly with a lunatic at the wheel! Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, and Tanaiste, Simon Harris, should definitely not go – but they will – to Washington for the Saint Patricks Day festivities. Consider such an invite equal to same from Vlad the Impaler! Do not associate Ireland with a mass murderer!!
Who will stop Trump and his partner in war crimes, Netanyahu? Trump has already proved he has no regard for so-called international law and he just ignores the United Nations. Remember Hitler and his contempt for the ‘League of Nations’? Appeasement after appeasement led ultimately to the Second World War. Trump has taken Venezuela, again dictating regime change, and who would succeed Nicolas Maduro, deposed using force by the US, then threatening to invade Greenland, and supplying the Israelis with ordnance to bomb Gaza. Hitler had invaded Austria, and Czechoslovakia before Poland in 1939 in much the same way as Trump has carried out his takeovers.
Who will stop Trump and his partner in war crimes, Netanyahu? Trump has already proved he has no regard for so-called international law and he just ignores the United Nations. Remember Hitler and his contempt for the ‘League of Nations’? Appeasement after appeasement led ultimately to the Second World War. Trump has taken Venezuela, again dictating regime change, and who would succeed Nicolas Maduro, deposed using force by the US, then threatening to invade Greenland, and supplying the Israelis with ordnance to bomb Gaza. Hitler had invaded Austria, and Czechoslovakia before Poland in 1939 in much the same way as Trump has carried out his takeovers.
Were the actions of Hitler used as a blueprint by Trump? There are comparisons, very stark comparisons, between Trump in 2026 and Hitler 1939! European leaders, in sharp contrast to their reactions to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, appear to tolerate and even agree with anything Trump does. Imagine if he decides his dislike of Keir Starmer is so great it is time for ‘regime change’ in London? Or, if the ‘socialists’ won a Presidential election in France who Trump disapproves of, what then? ‘Regime change’ in Paris? What of the Dublin government if Trump gets annoyed with the Dail? Time for Irish ‘regime change’?
Liberal democracy is dead in some of Trump’s immediate satellite neighbours and now he is doing so in the Middle-East. Europe could be next and to think differently is possibly storing up trouble. A European trade embargo on the US may be costly to the middle-classes but the US bourgeoisie would feel the heat as well. War is not a suggestion but trade barriers on Trump's USA are feasible.
Something must be done and quickly before the whole world is under Trumps jackboot!! This is not a war it is the obliteration of a militarily weak country by a super power and their cohorts in Tel Aviv. Admittedly the Iranian regime are not good people, they are murdering bastards, but their overthrow is for the people of Iran not Donald ‘lunatic’ Trump! It is akin to gangsters falling out and the Saint Valentines Day massacre in 1929. The hoodlums in Washington and Tel Aviv have fallen out with the weaker but equally crooked gangsters in Tehran.
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.
Before We Conform, Or Condemn, Let Us At Least Be Curious
♜One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it - Albert Camus♞
In Nigeria, Islamist terrorists massacred a large number of Christian worshippers in a church. It made international headlines. The terrorists admitted their responsibility, and that it was motivated by religious hate. The Nigerian government confirmed all that. Higgins issued a statement sympathising, but neglected to mention that it was a religious hate attack carried out by a hard line Islamist terror group. Instead he suggested it was the fault of climate change!!!
There was outrage all over Nigeria at his comment. Christian leaders and Muslim leaders alike called on him to apologise and to call it what it was - a religious hate crime. A Nigerian Catholic archbishop appeared on RTÉ Radio 1's News at One to explain how offensive and hurtful the President's comments were, and called him to apologise.
Higgins' response was to stand over his wrong comments, and get angry when challenged on it.
When Higgins' letter to the Iranian president was released Higgins stated that he knew for a fact that it was leaked by Israel. He was 100% wrong. It was released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry on its X account. It was open that it had released it. It had nothing to do with Israel.
Journalists at a press conference in the UN, where for some reason he headed the Irish delegation at a Gaza conference (Irish presidents never attend UN meetings as they constitutionally are not part of the executive. God knows why the government let him go!) pointed out that he was wrong (Big mistake. Michael D loses it if told he is wrong), and pointed out the Iranian Foreign Ministry, not Israel, released the letter, and if he had checked the Foreign Ministry X account he would see it there.
Michael D completely lost the head, and began shouting, saying he knew for a fact Israel had released it to attack him.
The UN session was meant to focus world attention on Gaza, but instead the Irish president shouting at journalists made international headlines - to the fury of the Secretary-General. he ending up telling the government 'don't ever send that arrogant man over here again!'
The government was mortified but they had let him run riot for years. The media rarely covered his disasters in foreign affairs (and there were many) as they had a soft spot for him so stayed mum every time he fucked up.
So the government is right to slap down Connolly when she made an unconstitutional, ill-timed intervention. They do not want another out-of-control president riding rough-shot over the constitution and intervening in international affairs.
Higgins did no end of damage to Ireland's international reputation, at various times offending all the Americas, Africa, Asia and the EU with stupid comments. They don't want Connolly to do the same.
⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.
In this week’s bulletin
⬤ French unions’ solidarity call.
⬤ “Left” conscription paradox.
⬤ Kherson defiant.
⬤ Displaced Ukrainians.
⬤ Under Russian & Israeli bombardment.
⬤ Russia abducts Ukrainian children.
News from the territories occupied by Russia
Kherson father and daughter abducted, tortured and given huge sentences for trying to escape Russian occupation (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 20th)
Russia’s FSB to receive unlimited power to block access to Internet and mobile phones in occupied Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 20th)
Seven Ukrainian teenagers brought back after abuse and threats in occupied territory (Ukrainska Pravda, February 20th)
The Face of Resistance: Crimean Tatar Activist Seitveli Seitabdiev (Crimea Platform, February 20th)
Russia uses illegal ruling outlawing a different ‘Crimean Tatar Battalion’ for huge sentences against Ukrainian POWs (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 19th)
‘Witness’ changes story to fit prosecution in Russia’s ‘trial’ of 75-year-old Ukrainian political prisoner Volodymyr Ananiev (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 17th)
Crimean seized at Moscow airport faces up to 20-year sentence for donations to Ukraine (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 16th)
Life Under Occupation (Alter Pravo, January 2026)
News from Ukraine
Frontline city Kherson remains defiant four years after Russia’s invasion (Observer, February 21st)
Russia readmitted to Paralympics after Heraskevych banned for remembering the Ukrainian athletes it killed (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 18th)
ZMINA & “Someone Loves Someone” held Evening of Love and Equality (Zmina, February 17th)
Ex-Energy Minister Arrested Trying to Flee Ukraine (Kyiv Post, February 15th)
War-related news from Russia
Memory replacement: Gulag history museum to be emasculated (Mediazona, 20 February)
Severed ears, executions and a crucified mouse: journalists examine Russian general's messages (Ukrainska Pravda, February 20th)
“The study had nothing to do with treatment”: Russian institute that supplied toxin used on Navalny looked into methods for its detection (The Insider, February 20th)
Suppliers of death: The Insider identifies another 300 companies making purchases on behalf of the Russian military (The Insider, February 18th)
“She fell in love with a Ukrainian soldier. Russia put her on trial for treason” (Meduza, 18 February)
How Russia forces troops in to combat (Meduza, 18 February)
“But Russians are resisting” – Meet Putin’s exiled opponents in Europe (New Eastern Europe, February 16th)
What the Wagner group did: “the Central African Republic supports Trump” (iStories, 14 February)
Analysis and comment
Under both Israeli and Russian bombardment (Labour Hub, February 21st)
“For a just and lasting peace, solidarity with Ukraine’s resistance” – French unions’ call to demonstrate in Paris on 21 February (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, February 20th)
Statement on the Designation of the International Memorial Association as an ‘Undesirable Organization’ (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, February 19th)
Ukraine’s Displaced Must Not Be Ignored in Peace Talks (Zois, February 19th)
The Conscription Paradox: Why Western Leftists Who Weaponise Ukrainian Mobilisation Betray the People They Claim to Defend (Red Mole Substack, February 18th)
Research of human rights abuses
Abduction and militarisation of Ukrainian children — a threat to Europe: Onysiia Syniuk spoke on the sidelines of the Munich Conference (Zmina, February 16th)
Human rights organizations call on the government to ensure dignified evacuation and accommodation for people in need of inpatient care (Zmina, February 19th)
International solidarity
Introducing Soya: new fighter (Solidarity Collectives, 22 February)
Appeal for support / sad news from Dnipro (Facebook, February 19th)
Ukraine at the Berlin film festival: Traces (Russian Reader, February 19th)
Upcoming events
Monday February 23rd, 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM Eastern Standard Time (US). Ukraine’s Anti-Imperialist Struggle: on line meeting.
Sunday 1 March, 6.0-8.0pm, Shoty Cafe (upper ground), SW7 3DL. Write letters to Russia’s political prisoners. No knowledge of Russian is required. All materials and guidance will be provided.
Wednesday 4 March, 6–8pm, Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Public Meeting. Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Parliament, 1 Victoria Embankment, London SW1A 2JR. Chair: John McDonnell MP. Speakers include: Mick Antoniw MS / Yuliya Yurchenko, Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine / Yuliia Bond, Ukrainian Association of Wales / Tanya Vyhovsky, Vermont State Senator / Mariia Pastukh, Vsesvit – Ukraine Solidarity Collective / Johanna Baxter MP / Clive Lewis MP / Stephen Russell, TUC International / Mick Whelan, former ASLEF General Secretary
🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.
We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.
We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.The bulletin is also stored on line here.
To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to:
2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.
To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.
We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.
We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.
The bulletin is also stored on line here.
To receive the bulletin regularly, send your email to:
2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.
To stop it, please reply with the word “STOP” in the subject field.
Freddie Scappaticci, prior to lifting Fenton, told his handler that Fenton would probably not survive this interrogation. This second meeting with Scappaticci and Fenton was not a mild affair, and violence ensued throughout his interrogation.
There might have been an attempt to transport Fenton to Dundalk on the orders of Brendan Hughes, who was in Dublin at the time, but all that came to an abrupt end when Fenton told Scappaticci and the former Marine, both men standing together in the bedroom, that the only reason he returned from England was because his handler assured him that his interrogators would protect him as they were on the same team. Little did Fenton realise that he had just signed his own death warrant for sure.
As was standard practice with Stakeknife, if a person being interrogated by him didn't present a threat to his personal position, then he would interrogate and vacate the scene, his particular job completed. On the other hand, if he felt his position was threatened then he would have to eliminate that threat, which in this case meant Joe Fenton couldn't possibly reach Brendan Hughes and tell him about the treachery of the men in charge of the ISU.
Therefore, instead of leaving the scene Freddie Scappaticci allowed his colleague to vacate the house but stayed behind to make sure Joe Fenton kept his secret to himself. He moved into the kitchen and waited for the firearm to arrive.
Having gone back upstairs and grabbing Fenton by the scruff of the neck, both men struggled on the staircase as Scappaticci dragged him into the street. As far as an IRA operation went, this was bizarre and completely unconventional, indicating that Scappaticci had to dispatch Fenton into the afterlife himself for fear he might reveal his secret.
While being force marched toward the Glen Road bus terminus, Fenton suddenly broke free and attempted to escape, but Scappaticci immediately shouted to his armed IRA accomplice to open fire, which he did, hitting him in the back and felling him. With Scapatticci standing over a badly wounded British agent, he ordered the gunman to finish him off with 3 shots to the head. Joe Fenton lay dead, along with his secret about Stakeknife.
After leaving the execution site Scappaticci immediately phoned his handler and briefed him on what had just happened. Speaking on the phone, he explained that he had no choice but to kill Joe Fenton himself, as Fenton had found out that he, Scappaticci, was a British agent, like himself. He felt his cover had been blown. Ten minutes later the RUC received a call about a body lying on the Glen Road.
When the news reached Dublin, Brendan Hughes went apoplectic and immediately enquired as to the reason why Fenton had been shot dead out of hand. The reply from Scappaticci was that there was ' too much Brit activity in the area', which meant Fenton couldn't be transported to Hughes.
Brendan Hughes did not believe this feeble excuse, realised Belfast was rotten, became frightened for his life and resigned from the Army he loved.
The controversy surrounding the execution of Joe Fenton resulted in an IRA Court of Inquiry which took place in Letterkenny, County Donegal, chaired by the Northern Command operations officer. One of the most pressing questions which was raised at the Inquiry was why Fenton was not delivered to Hughes and his staff, which drew attention to Scappaticci and the ISU. The outcome was that new 'checks and balances' would be introduced thereby limiting the authority of the Internal Security Unit to execute so freely.
Perhaps for the first time, and at Brendan Hughes's persistence, Scappaticci and the ISU were at last coming under some sort of scrutiny.
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| Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney. |
Ten links to a diverse range of opinion that might be of interest to TPQ readers. They are selected not to invite agreement but curiosity. Readers can submit links to pieces they find thought provoking.
Before We Conform, Or Condemn, Let Us At Least Be Curious
♜One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it - Albert Camus♞
As football fans we know this and are prepared for it. However, what happened at Ibrox was shameful and somewhat reminiscent of the dark days of the 1980s.
Glasgow derbies aren’t just football matches. They are tribal, historical: two sides of a religious divide coming together to battle it out for 90 mins for supremacy. They’re cauldrons of hate, bitterness, religious sectarian bigotry, political and national identities on the line, paramilitary trappings on show,. Those loyal to the crown and the union on one side those opposed to British colonialism and the monarchy on the other.
This is somewhat of a simplification but you get the picture - you have two sides who for various reasons hate each other.
This isn’t a hundred year “war” but instead one that stretches way back for centuries. Sunday cast light once again on what is an ignored issue in Scottish society: anti-Catholic hate.
I make no apologies for using the words “hate” and “hatred” - there’s no other way to describe it.
It’s “acceptable” hatred though. Sing songs about killing Muslims, Jews, Gays or those of different races and you’ll be quite rightly arrested and charged with a hate crime. In the west of Scotland sing songs about killing Catholics and being up to your knees in “Fenian blood” (let’s not argue about this, the majority who sing this have no idea who the Fenians were and most probably think the Irish Republican brotherhood were a forerunner to the Wolfe Tones, an Irish Bee Gees if you like) and at worst you’ll be told to “keep it down” - not stop but lower your voice. It’s “acceptable” to be a religious bigot, and that bigotry runs deep.
Now this is a football column and you might wonder when I’m going to get to the game but when Mr McIntyre and TPQ approached me to write about Scottish football I knew somewhere along the line I’d need to talk about these things. Ignoring problems in society doesn’t make them go away. Facing them head on is what’s needed, and it’s time anti-Catholic hatred in Scotland was treated the same way as anti-Muslim hatred or white supremacy. We need to stop pretending that in 2026 this is merely a “football problem”. This is societal, it runs much much deeper, and the scenes at Ibrox whilst shocking and deeply disturbing at the same time were not entirely unpredictable.
Tensions already high, seasons on the line, to the victors the spoils to the defeated another year of failure.
The match itself was entirely forgettable, two disallowed goals (no Liam Scales wasn’t offside, IMO, but of course you’d expect me to say that - right Steve R?) Extra time that couldn’t separate two poor versions of Glasgow big two and it all came down to who held their nerve in a penalty shoot out. 120 mins of mediocre football and a season defining penalty shootout loomed large.
Celtic prevailed and Rangers wilted.
Fans in the Broomloan Road stand celebrated enthusiastically, all 7,500 Celtic fans. Some spilled onto the pitch to take photos with their heroes to capture moments on camera for the future - to say I was there when this happened - snapshots for history. This was all way too much for the Rangers fans in the Copeland Road stand who armed with bottles, bars and flares rushed onto the park and toward the celebrating Celts.
What ensued will make headlines around the world, not because a poor patched together Celtic side managed to defeat their biggest rivals in their own backyard but because of the scenes of carnage: Celtic staff attacked, grown men dragged off the park, lines of police and stewards, police horses, injured fans and officials and God knows what outside the stadium. We’ve all seen the video, I don’t think I need to dwell on it other than to pray the guy was okay and no lasting damage was done (at the time of writing there’s no further news so I’m hoping he’s fine).
Of course the Scottish media were quick as always to try and suggest that celebrating Celtic fans were to blame for this carnage. In particular, Emma Dodds of Premier Sports who suggested this was bound to happen when you give Celtic their full allocation. TalkSport claiming Celtic fans were ripping the stand apart, attempting to tear down nets and goal posts. And less said about the BBC and STV reporting the better.
You’ll struggle to find someone in Scotland who’s impartial enough to admit that the fault for this lies with fans of the Rangers whose hatred spilled over into the scenes we saw. How dare some uppity Tim’s celebrate a victory!
In the cold light of day, and as the dust begins to settle, whilst both clubs have questions to ask, we must not pretend this was a “both sides battle” - it wasn’t. Once again the Rangers ultras, the Union Bears, showed they simply can’t handle defeat. This is what happens when behaviour becomes unchecked and normalised.
Sunday was a symptom of a much deeper problem and it’s time the Scottish government faced this reality and treated anti-Catholic, anti-Irish hate the way they treat all other forms of discrimination. As long as we keep turning a blind eye to this then these things will continue to happen.
Sunday was simply a boiling over of the simmering pan of shame that is Scottish society.
I’m looking forward to football filling this column next week but because I don’t talk about it, don’t think, to plagiarise a former IRA chief, “it hasn’t gone away, you know”
Til next time …
🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.
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