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

 

Pastords @ 39

 

A Morning Thought @ 3114

John Ware ✍ rejects both the form and content of a recent faux characterisation of his journalistic standards. 

I don't know Niall Meehan, but I read that he is the former "Head of the Journalism and Media Faculty" at a private college in Dublin.

So he will know that scepticism, curiosity, and an open mind are key to fair minded, ethical journalism for which I dare say he sees himself as one of Ireland's custodians.

Unfortunately, these qualities were absent in a series of ad hominem attacks he recently posted about me.

First, by buying incuriously into a classic example of moral confusion in The Phoenix with the inference that I was a Very Bad person for giving evidence in court recently against Gerry Adams who spent two days in the witness box denying he'd ever been in the IRA.

I have no difficulty justifying breaking my off-the-record undertaking of 43 years ago to his right-hand man, Danny Morrison. While, of course, I maintained it for the purposes of my programme about Adams and Morrison in 1983, it was rather more conscience-testing in the face of Adams' latest chutzpah attempt to rewrite history on oath. Since I was in possession of a relevant piece of evidence contradicting his outlandish denial of IRA membership (so insulting to IRA victims), when I was asked to provide it, I took the view that there was a much greater obligation to the victims, the general public and the historical record, than to Danny Boy. The war has, after all, been over for almost three decades! Furthermore, all political parties including Sinn Fein always insist that legacy victims are the priority when this is so obviously untrue. Finally, let's remember that collusion by silence cuts both ways - whether covering up awful crimes by the State or by the IRA, although not, it seems, to Messrs Meehan and The Phoenix.

Second, my reported comments to Ian "Butch" Studdard in 1983 have been taken right out of context. Studdard was in thrall to Adams, and didn't mind who knew it. If I said what he says I said, it will have been a deliberately provocative satirical riposte to his face for his fawning over Adams. I certainly recall being told that Studdard had warned Adams in advance that I was investigating his claims never to have been a member of the IRA which was a grossly unprofessional and uncollegiate thing to do.

Third, Meehan references a 39 year old article which I wrote as a contribution to an investigation by the much respected Ireland correspondent of The Independent David McKittrick in which we suggested Colin Wallace - an army press officer and part time UDR solider who alleged there was an intelligence services smear campaign against certain MPs - was also something of a Walter Mitty. And, that one way of testing his credibility was to examine the derring-do claims he made about his exploits as a display parachutist at public events with two army teams called The Phantoms - whom he said he commanded - and the Black Knights. 

Wallace complained to the Press Council who ticked me off for preferring the evidence which suggested Wallace had bragged about his parachuting achievements, whilst simultaneously accepting there was "clearly room for rival versions...".  It was a bizzare verdict but in any case, readers can judge for themselves which version they prefer based on the research that I conducted.

In raising the Wallace business, The Phoenix makes the smeary suggestion that I was part and parcel of an establishment attempt to discredit evidence that "state forces (had) promoted illegal (sic) loyalist violence." This was a silly thing to do because a couple of google clicks would have demonstrated the opposite. My work for the BBC on collusion between agents working for military intelligence and special branch led to the Stevens 2 and Stevens 3 inquiries, as recognised by Sir John Stevens himself and by the Irish government at the time. Also, in the government commissioned report that found extensive State collusion in the assassination of Patrick Finucane, the late Sir Desmond de Silva QC said:

I should also record that retired senior intelligence officers, and the former BBC journalist John Ware, also engaged extensively with the work of my Review and provided me with important evidence and insights. Their assistance was provided voluntarily and was extremely valuable in enabling me to produce this Report.

I mention this only to demonstrate the puerility of The Phoenix's journalism and Meehan's apparent respect for it. Incidentally, if it's ethical values they're in search of, they will find an exploration of them over 18 chapters in my book (Neither Conform Nor Deny) due to be published next month. It's a forensic analysis of the moral maze into which the British State ventured by always prioritising the protection of agents over the criminal justice system and sometimes over life itself during the NI conflict.

Finally, Meehan draws attention to claims made about me and the BBC by an Al Jazeera journalist called Richard Sanders and a barrister, Martin Forde KC.

As with his other posts, Niall Meehan's incuriosity prevented him from seeking my side for each of the stories he cites. But he's in good company with Messrs Sanders and Forde whose allegation that I and my Panorama colleagues misleadingly edited an email in a programme about Jeremy Corbyn, is completely untrue and objectively so. The real mischief is in the way Al Jazeera reported the edit. Both Sanders and Forde ignored a courteous letter drafted by the BBC legal department to Forde which he refused to discuss followed by repeated attempts by me to patiently demonstrate how he and Al Jazeera had got the detail round their necks - not to put too fine a point on it. It may come as no surprise that a journalist failed to grapple with the detail wherein lies the devil, but one expects better from a KC. KCs are not infallible, after all. In my opinion, and in the opinion of the BBC, Forde and Sanders' conduct over this was intolerably high-handed.
 
For those still interested, the detail is laid out here - with some unsettling reflections on Messrs Sanders and Forde's approach to reasoned, evidence-based argument . . .  and the ethical standards of Al Jazeera's journalism, at least in this case here.

John Ware, a veteran investigative journalist, is author of
the upcoming book Neither Confirm Nor Deny.

Incurious Journey

You've been had, writes Carrie Twomey 

Want to know what American interference in Irish politics looks like? How an American attack on Irish democracy operates? 

Last year at St Patrick's day in Washington DC, President Trump invited Conor McGregor to the White House, where he was introduced to senior members of his cabinet such as Elon Musk, and met Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. Musk maintains a fondness for Irish far right accounts on his social media platform, often boosting their posts to his millions of followers. 

McGregor was even given time at the White House press podium, something no Irish Taoiseach has ever been afforded, where he outlined his vision for Ireland. The official meeting with Ireland's actual, democratically leader was brief and far less sensational. 

Many viewed the McGregor invitation as a calculated insult. It was a blatant indication of the direction the Trump administration would prefer to see Irish politics go in. It was also thought at the time that the Trump administration was preparing to support McGregor as a candidate for the Irish presidency. The invitation to the White House and facilitation of high level introductions was a powerful endorsement of McGregor and his views. 

Upon return to Ireland, in April McGregor was being interviewed by Tucker Carlson at the Freemason's hall. Carlson was also feted at McGregor's pub. 

By the end of the year, Steve Bannon was openly declaring that Ireland was going to have an Irish Trump, and that an Irish MAGA movement was being created. 

These markers are the fins of the shark surfacing as it hunts. 

The American influence on and connections with the Irish far right has been evident for years, mainly having come in via religious support on anti-abortion. 

Since Trump first came to office in 2016, that influence has intensified, being visible in the language and tactics used by anti-vaxxers during Covid, anti-immigration rhetoric, protests, and increased racism and racist attacks. 

The predatory, profiteering nature of social media data capitalism has enabled the spread of toxic propaganda, turning local Facebook and WhatsApps group into vectors of disinformation. 

One of the first official acts the new Trump appointed, MAGA supporting US Ambassador did upon arriving in Dublin in January was attend a far right conference featuring the likes of Malachy Steenson, Una McGurk, Jana Lunden, and Eddie Hobbs, who has been a guest on Steve Bannon's internet show. Ambassador Walsh showed up to this conference a couple weeks after Bannon's 'Irish Trump' comments. 

Who arranged his attendance? 

In March of this year, the US State Department issued a directive to all US Embassies and consulates to "recruit local influencers, academics and community leaders abroad to carry counter-propaganda messaging, an approach designed to make American-funded narratives feel locally organic rather than centrally directed". 

In other words, to launch MAGA internationally, as Bannon had signposted previously. 

It would be foolish to look at the April fuel blockade and not question what part the malign influence of the US government is playing in the protests. 

The rhetoric and accompanying propaganda is heavily Americanised, even down to ridiculous attempts to compare the Gardai and Irish Army to ICE. The tactics employed are the same was what was done in the 2022 Canadian "Freedom Convoy", which was referred to then as "Maple MAGA" and heavily funded from American donations. 

It is obvious by even a causal check on social media sites that massive amounts of bots are posting support of the blockade - click on the profiles and they reveal themselves with follower lists in the double digits and multiple name changes. Who is paying for this online campaign? 

Most telling, in terms of analysing the amount of American influence in this protest, is where the protesters are focusing their ire, and where they are deliberately not. They are not protesting the war which has caused the rise in fuel prices. They are not blocking the US Embassy or Shannon airport, or US companies that are connected to the war, and they are nowhere near Trump's golf course in Doonbeg. 

Instead they are driving handmade gallows on trailers up and down O'Connell Street calling for the deaths of the Taoiseach and Tanaiste. For as many things that you can complain about the Irish government for, starting a war in Iran that halted global supply of oil is not in their gift. 

They openly declare they want to bring the Irish government down - to be replaced with what? To what end? 

The Americans would benefit from a weakened Ireland and an Irish government in chaos. 

Ireland is geographically strategically important. It is economically important with its tech and pharma multinationals. It punches above its weight diplomatically, acting as an important bridge. It is a trusted and respected partner in the EU. 

Ireland is also one of the most vocal and visible supporters of Palestinians. This support has long drawn the attention of Israel, who used to send Nazi hunters to Ireland in the 1970s. Ireland's presence in Lebanon as UN peacekeepers has also been a longstanding annoyance to Israel. 

Ireland is also a strong supporter of Ukraine. This has continually irritated the Russians, who currently probe the seabeds around Ireland looking for data cables and sail their shadow fleet tankers near Irish waters. 

Both Russia and Israel play key parts in the American MAGA movement, and in the global far right network the Irish far right is part of. Russia and Israel also share antipathy towards the EU. 

Ireland has powerful, fascist enemies. The United States, Israel, and Russia need a weakened Ireland to achieve their goals. 

A strong Ireland helps the international resistance to fascism. It pushes the EU to stand up against Israel in its genocidal activity in Gaza and its push into Lebanon. It helps keep the EU united against Russia's aggression and imperialist desires. It has the ability to regulate and enforce legislation against American technologies. It can and will advocate against supporting the US's war on Iran. 

That is the Ireland the blockade protesters want to topple. That is the Irish government the manufactured protest is targeting. 

It wasn't the Irish government that caused the rising fuel cost. It was Israel, and the United States, with their war on Iran. As pressure on fuel resources increases, Russia also stands to benefit, which will help its war expansion. 

These protests are vampires sucking up the very real fear, anxiety, anger, and concerns Irish people have about rising costs, economic pressure, housing, healthcare - all the same issues working people are suffering from around the world because of the excesses of capitalism. 

The protests are diverting the energy of the Irish people away from focusing on actions that would bring tangible changes and deflecting the blame from the warmongers causing the problems. 

Don't fall for it. Blockade Doonbeg. Boycott and protest the Irish Open. Expose the grifters who are profiting from attacking the country. These people will walk Ireland into a fascist state if you let them. 

If you feel like this blockade protest is an attack on the nation, you're not wrong.


⏩Carrie Twomey hates Illinois Nazis (just like the Blues Brothers)

Duped Again

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3113

Pádraig Drummond ✊ April 3rd marked the second anniversary of the tragic killing of Josip Štrok, a young man whose life was stolen in a racist attack here in Dublin.

Josip Štrok

We remember Josip with sorrow, and we stand in solidarity with his family, friends, and all who loved him. No words can ease the pain of such a loss, but we send our deepest condolences and our unwavering support.

What happened to Josip was not an isolated incident; it was the consequence of hatred, of words turned into violence, of a climate where racism is tolerated, excused, or even encouraged. The abuse shouted during the attack, telling people they do not belong, that they are “not at home”, is a chilling reminder of how dangerous this rhetoric is.

Racism has no place in our society, not in our streets, not in our politics, not in our communities. Dublin is a city of diversity, resilience, and shared humanity, and we must defend those values every single day.

Those who spread fear, division, and hatred must accept responsibility. When public figures and candidates fuel hostility toward immigrants and minorities, they are not bystanders; they are part of the problem. As has been said, they have blood on their hands.

We must reject the false narratives that try to redefine Irish identity as something rooted in exclusion and xenophobia. That is not who we are. True community is built on respect, compassion, and solidarity, not hate.

Let us honour Josip Štrok not only with remembrance, but with action. Speak out against racism. Challenge hate when you hear it. Stand with those who are targeted.

Because silence allows hatred to grow, and we cannot allow that to happen again.

Josip Štrok R.I.E.P

⏩Pádraig Drummond is an anti-racism activist.

Remembering Josip Štrok

Labour Heartlands ☭  Written by Paul Knaggs.

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” - George Orwell,

How the British Left Traded Solidarity For Virtue Signalling, 
And Why the Working Class Is No Longer Listening

There is a speech circulating in left-wing circles in Dublin that ought to unsettle every socialist in Britain. Not the kind of unsettling that produces a conference resolution or a letter to the Guardian. The kind that keeps you awake at three in the morning. The kind that names a thing you have been half-knowing for years but have lacked the honesty, or the courage, to say aloud.

The speech was delivered by László Molnárfi, former President of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union, at an event organised by the Socialist Workers Network. It is, in the truest sense of the word, a reckoning. Molnárfi names what many on the left have known for years but have been too comfortable, or too afraid, to say: the socialist left has lost the working class. Not because the working class has turned fascist. But because the left abandoned it first.

He describes a scene from April 2025. An anti-immigration march of ten thousand people down O’Connell Street. A counter-protest of two hundred left-wing activists. The class disparity was unmistakable. On one side stood working-class people, expressing a deep and complex dissatisfaction that no serious observer could reduce to simple racism. On the other stood leftists, primarily students and self-styled thought activists, shouting “Nazi scum” at the very people they claimed to represent.

“The Socialist left rushes to defend the system, but this defends neither asylum seekers nor the working class. In fact, it defends the government.” — László Molnárfi, TCD Students’ Union

He was speaking about Ireland. He might just as well have been speaking about Britain.

Today, as this article is published, the Together Alliance is marching through London from Park Lane to Whitehall. The organisers announced from the stage that half a million people had gathered. The Metropolitan Police put the figure closer to fifty thousand. The gap between those two numbers tells you something about a movement’s relationship with reality that no opinion poll could. A left that cannot accurately count itself is a left that has prioritised how it feels over what it is actually doing.

But here is the deeper point. The people who have walked farthest from the left are not in London today. They are in Scunthorpe, where only this week Reform UK took the Brumby ward by-election from Labour on a turnout of seventeen per cent. The Greens polled one hundred and thirty-three votes. The march in London will not speak to a single one of the four thousand five hundred people in Brumby who did not vote at all. And it is those four thousand five hundred, the silent and the exhausted, whose absence should terrify the left far more than the eight hundred who voted for Reform.

Can The Left March For Victory While Losing The Working Class?

Christopher Owens 🔖 Despite the passage of time, the Victorian era still fascinates and has a grip on the collective psyche.


A lot of this is to do with the fact that, due to the Industrial Revolution, the modern city evolved into the form that we know during this period. Therefore, the myriads of cobbled backstreets, towering chimneys and terrace housing still feel familiar and just as claustrophobic in 2026.

The image of a top hatted Jack the Ripper slicing his victims up in smog filled streets is another potent image that, for many, epitomise the era: the rich exploiting the poor working class in ways never seen before. Likewise, the folk-devil Spring-heeled Jack would be used as way to warn misbehaving children. Therefore a link was made by some between modernity and evil not of this earth. One that Jonathan Traynor has chosen to explore further in his new book.

With his previous works involving post-apocalyptic surroundings and the struggle for individuality in a suffocating world, some might find it odd for him to explore 19th century Britain. But considering both novels covered contemporary issues, it’s notable that he does the same here.

Telling the tale of Earl Black, the working-class Giles Jennings and alcoholic xyBal, these esteemed gentlemen and daemon respectively are special agents for Her Majesty’s Government who deal with cases that may be simple on the face of it but involve the supernatural. Of course, the Earl is well equipped to deal with this, being over 350 years old and the last of his kind. Such tasks involve dealing with Prussians who have stolen secrets that threaten the British Empire, factory owners in Manchester who won’t free their staff and goings on in Cambridge that involve carnage.

A kind of cross between Sherlock Holmes, The X-Files and Hellblazer, if you will.

The theme of an establishment that seems to have unlimited powers thanks to the supernatural is an eternal one not just because of David Icke but also because it reflects the growing fear among many that the government are ruthless when it comes to these issues and many feel powerless to defend themselves accordingly. In Earl Black . . .  Traynor does an immense job of demonstrating how such forces would be incorporated into Her Majesty’s Secret Service no problem. At the same time, Traynor knows that he’s writing a penny dreadful at the end of the day so it’s to his credit that the reader goes on the adventure with these characters while still pondering the implications.

The book also taps into fears about immigration which were as common back then as they are today. While having tea with Queen Victoria, Jennings depicts his working-class upbringing in a manner that most from such backgrounds would understand:

Your majesty, I grew up in the dark and dirty back streets of the east end, there are more non-humans, as you say, than most, err, how can I explain, than the members of parliament can imagine. Imps, faeries, elves, all types. The truth is most represent no threat or mean no harm. Like us all they just want to survive. They provide many services to the community, help people. I know of one who acts as a community banker, it makes sure to collect people’s money and distribute throughout the week so it cannot be wasted on drinking and gambling.

Once again, Traynor hits it out of the park with a gripping tale of horror and intrigue that also taps into concerns and fears that are older than we think. He should explore this terrain further.

Jonathan Traynor, 2026, Earl Black and the Daemons of the British Empire. Traynor Press. ISBN-13: 978-1910728710

⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Earl Black And The Daemons Of The British Empire

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3112

Tommy McKearney ☭ Press headlines in Washington on Patrick’s Day 2026 were carrying the news that Joe Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, and once a staunch MAGA supporter, had resigned.


What was really surprising, though, was his reason for quitting. Kent wrote on Twitter that he couldn’t continue because he believed Trump’s assault on Iran was unnecessary, saying that Tehran posed “… no immediate threat to our nation…” adding that the conflict was launched “… due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby…”.


Not that such a trenchant criticism — and indeed exposé — of the USA’s blood-soaked campaign of conquest in the Middle East was having any impact on the Irish delegation to the White House.

While America’s imperial master was absorbing the news that a one-time devotee (along with several other leading MAGA supporters) was causing a headache for the regime, his ego was being massaged by a kowtowing Micheál Martin, sliding in to present Trump with a bowl of shamrock.

Amazingly, this crawling performance from the Taoiseach was reported by the Irish mass media as a successful day’s work. Not only had the Fianna Fáil leader apparently managed to avoid antagonising the emperor but had even contrived to speak up for Britain’s Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

All of which missed the very real point that the photos of a simpering Martin alongside Donald Trump were effectively dismissing the murderous behaviour of US imperialism’s frontman. Ireland’s premier was greenwashing a cruel monster who had facilitated, if not actually supervised, genocide in Gaza, ordered an illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran that began with the massacre of 168 schoolgirls, and had ordered a savage blockade of the small Caribbean island that is Cuba.

In order to counter criticism of this revolting pandering in the White House, the coalition government promoted the excuse that the Republic is economically dependent on the goodwill of Trump. To antagonise the tanned autocrat, they said, would risk endangering US investment in the 26 Counties.

Notwithstanding the fact that acquiescing in this charade is morally repugnant, the reasoning underpinning the decision to “cuddle up” with the US empire is flawed — and dangerously so.

In the first instance, it is widely accepted, even by free-market economists, that the Republic’s government should be seeking to diversify the economy away from its over-dependency on a few US multinational companies. Last month a study¹ delivered by Professor Alan Ahearne of UCG stated that this degree of reliance was “… a structural vulnerability of the Irish economy which public policy should seek to address.”

The reason Micheál Martin and his coalition cronies refuse to instigate a different economic policy is not due to being unaware of the need to do so. Their motivation arises from a determination to preserve the current class structures. Not antagonising Trump also extends to endorsing the US model of capitalism with its rule by the wealthy privileged few.

By the same token, the warm words for Keir Starmer (and Winston Churchill!) were designed to embed still further the southern Irish state within the imperialist sphere. To achieve this end the old Empire, on which the sun has now set, was recently invited to send its navy back into the Republic’s territorial waters.

Last month the Financial Times reported² that during a meeting in Cork, Martin and Starmer agreed a “defence and security pact” which would, in a statement issued later from Downing Street, mean that “… both countries have … committed to completing a series of joint exercises…”. The article continued by saying that the Irish government has recently unveiled a maritime security strategy involving working closely with the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, composed of ten NATO members.

Taken together, we have a situation whereby the government in Dublin is seen to have a servile relationship with US imperialism and its despotic president. Any doubts about the nature of the connection are set aside by the granting of Shannon Airport for use by the American military.

When this fact is considered in tandem with the Irish state joining a NATO expeditionary force led by Britain, it is not remotely credible to claim the country is neutral. In reality it has to be accepted that the 26 Counties is a participant in the imperialist world order and is, moreover, seen to be so. The implications of such a stance are obvious. In the event of a global conflict, Ireland is a target. And all this done to maintain an economic system that preserves existing class structures and the privilege it provides for the few.

For the sake of decency and for the protection of the people it is imperative that we remove the current ruling class and its capitalist programme and, in its place, establish a Workers’ Republic.

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

Shamrock And Shame 🪶 Ireland’s Kowtow To Imperialism

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