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Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ With a fruitcake holding Presidential Office in the White House, the sanity of the supposed ‘most powerful man in the world’ must be questioned, as Trump apparently imagines he’s talking to Iranians who are not there about peace while he drops bombs on their cities!

Without withstanding the religious nutters in Tehran, across the globe in Russia we have a megalomaniac in charge of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal sitting in the Kremlin. In Tel Aviv, a war criminal sits in the Knesset as the head of the Israeli Government, and in Ukraine stands everybody’s friend – I don’t think – Volodymyr Zelenskyy, perhaps the least harmful of these madmen. He only uses neo-Nazi troops in his war with Russia, claiming there are no ‘Nazi links’ in Ukraine which plainly there are. This is a blatant lie because the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian Army claim to “model themselves on the DAS Reich Regiment of the Waffen SS” one of Hitlers elite regiments. Zelenskyy is probably the least significant of the world’s leaders who we stupidly allow to rule over us, destroy our lives, and essentially constantly threaten to burn our house down! Perhaps the man with the least functioning faculties in his top deck is Donald Trump who in my view is suffering from criminal insanity, a couple of cards short of a full deck, and, for his own good and that of his family, should be hospitalised. Some of the mental institutions in the USA are very good if you have the money to pay. Maybe he could retire there out of harms way for the next ten-twenty years, the asylum sounds a fitting end for Trump.

With all these fruit salads in charge and weaker sycophants in lower world positions the future does no look great for us mere mortals. We have mega billionaires, many would argue the true world governments, people like Elon Musk, who intends to commercialise space travel, Richard Branson who also has similar ideas on space movement and many rich individuals who have entered the space cowboy race. The climatic damage these loonies are causing to the planet, in the name of making money under the guise of scientific research, are seldom if ever mentioned. All we mere mortals are encouraged to do is look on in wonder at these marvels of engineering the space rockets designed and constructed by others so these great men can amass huge profits! Down here on earth the amount of domestic aviation travel, a major contributor to planetary vandalism, is on the increase making flights more cost effective for business to make money. People who live near airports with concerns about noise are given scant regard as more and more 747 jets fly overhead. In an interview on 2nd April on Virgin One Ryanair Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary, called the residents living near Dublin Airport liars. He claimed the “noise level” is well within the “legal limits” and the residents, who have fuck all better to do than spend money on expensive companies, are making their readings up! They certainly are not as professional companies took the reading which were well above the agreed level. O’Leary makes a fortune out of Ryanair and the more flights he can get the more money his pockets can boast.

We often hear on various news bulletins so-called experts talking about the damage aviation travel does to the climate. Firstly, aviation fuel is very high octane, and is a major source of damage to our atmosphere. We have experts arguing for fewer passengers and no more runways, both sensible arguments except to Michael O’Leary. Then on the next clip of the same bulletin another expert will come on and without referring to the previous people speaking about passenger reduction they will rant on in order to remain “competitive” we need More passengers at “Dublin Airport”, not less. At the moment a “passenger cap” exists at Dublin Airport but that looks likely to be smashed at the insistence of the Americans – who else?

Putting domestic aviation travel into the shadows is space exploration. During the 1950s and 60s the USSR and USA vied for space superiority. Ignorance could be partially blamed back then but what is the excuse now? As mentioned, Musk is aiming to commercialise space travel and his real aim is to find another planet for a few super rich people to live on, the same gang who are fucking this planet up in the process. Be it Musk, Branson, or any other rich parasite who sends rockets through the atmosphere they are causing irreparable damage to the earth’s atmospheres five layers. These layers are delicately positioned and once damaged will not repair. Coupled with Musk and his gang of space cowboys we also have Agencies like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the US, ROSCOSMOS in Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA) now joined by Japan, the UAE, India all jumping onboard the bandwagon and all helping our planet to the graveyard. 

The latest mission to be shown off to an ever-gullible global public is from NASA. The mission is called Artemis II (Greek Goddess of the Hunt) and is their first to lift off for 52 years. It was on all our screens for fools to marvel at and the astronauts to crack jokes about going for a piss in a confined space. What the gullible global audience perhaps did not give a second thought to was when this piece of equipment lifted off it gave off the equivalent of at very least 28, probably 40, 747 Jets taking off simultaneously. Imagine the climate damage this lift off alone caused without taking into account the commercial travel plans of Musk and the likes in the future? Many of these crafts never actually lift off, they fail on the ground blowing up and killing all on board but also blasting huge gushes of flames and bilge into our atmosphere. And we are supposed to marvel at these fantastic brains which make such missions possible! Would it not be better to listen to these undoubtedly brilliant minds putting their heads together with the likes of David Attenborough to calculate ways of countering the much lower in severity natural climate change? Not the great fortunes to be amassed by the tiny few granted but I bet they’d feel much better.

Elon Musk is obsessed with finding a compatible planet to live on and start all over again, not in the stone-age, but where we are now! Musk is already talking of re-populating Mars, which suggests the planet was once populated, all good stuff for the fictional Professor, Quatermass in the 1967 science fiction film, but to spend billions making it come true? People down here on earth need food, medical supplies, medical operations which could easily be done with this kind of money available. Just so old Elon has an idea of how huge his task in finding another planet with earths peculiarities there are an estimated two trillion galaxies in the universe! Within these galaxies we are looking at 100 billion to one trillion (1,000 billion) planets, each one having to be explored. There is no guarantee any of them will share the same characteristics with our earth and therefore support human life, none at all. Optimists claim at least one will support life as we know it and they are possibly correct but finding that illusive planet makes the needle in a haystack look easy, there are far more pressing issues on earth to be dealing with. The law of averages suggests this may well be true so, go on, which one? This money, as just wasted by NASA, would be better off given to poorer countries so they can develop their medical facilities and save lives. Will the good people who own billions, much of which has been accumulated through the exploitation of labour do this? No, being good Christians – which they are not – they will keep their money and waste it on pointless space explorations.

When the atmosphere becomes damaged it cannot be repaired, at least not by man. The most important atmospheric layer* to us is the Troposphere which controls our weather, temperatures, and melting ice at the poles, it contains 80% of all water vapour. Ice is already coming off certain areas in chunks the size of Wales, a small country, and this will get worse. More damage has just been done with this NASA craft taking off and penetrating through the five atmospheric layers. Then there is all the debris left behind in space and, in the case of Musk, the re-entering once again numerous times causing untold damage to the five layers but particularly the Troposphere. People may have noticed the seasonal floods getting worse every time. The time will come, and it may not be too long away now, when these flood waters will have nowhere to go as the seas will have risen too high. With ice continuing to melt the tides will continue to rise and flood waters will be permanent. For low lying countries like Holland, Belgium and Ireland the long-term prospects are frightening. Within 100 years these and other low-lying countries will be history. At a more local level back in the late nineteen-sixties and early-seventies farmers began digging out trees, bushes, hedges to make larger fields and increase profits. What they were digging out were natural drainage systems and now they get yearly floods and crop failures. Serves the greedy bastards right but their greed pales into insignificance compared to the Elon Musks, Richard Bransons and their gang’s exploits.

The news bulletins do put sane people on to give their take on the subject. Their views are seldom heeded, not as sexy as people making fortunes while the rest perish, but they do make more sense if people would listen and act. RTE News interviewed Dr Peter Thorne of Climate Change Advisory Forum who said adamantly its “time for action, we’ve known of climate change for two decades”, implying only those who do not want to see could miss the changes. Dr Thorne is perfectly correct but how many will listen let alone act? Karl Marx spoke on this subject at the time of the Second Industrial Revolution referring to Ireland:

if Ireland were to sink only 500 feet, the mountain ranges alone would be left, forming two semi-circular groups of islands on either side of a broad sound stretching from Dublin to Galway.

This can equally be applied to the more likely 500 feet rise in sea levels which is happening before our very eyes and are being accelerated by the activities of the capitalist class and their play toys like the latest NASA craft. And still we mere mortals look on with admiration at these great marvels to ingenuity like watching with admiration the arsonist who politely tells residents he has come to incinerate their homes!!

*There are another four layers apart from the Troposphere to earths atmosphere; the:

Stratosphere (12-50 km): Contains the Ozone that absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation; temperatures increase with altitude. The Mesosphere (50-85 km): The coldest layer, where most meteors burn up on entry. Thermosphere (85-690 km): A very thin layer where temperatures increase significantly with height; auras (northern/southern lights) occur here. Exosphere (690-10,000 km): The outermost layer, merging with interplanetary space, where satellites orbit.

Damage to any of these layers could be catastrophic for earth as present changing weather conditions are living proof of. The Troposphere is, for us, the most imminent and important but the other four play a significant role in the maintenance of our planet. What do we do? Applaud those who seek, intentionally or otherwise, to destroy them!!
     
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

And They Carry On Regardless

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3111

Maryam Namazie ✊Blasphemous. Corrupt. Apostate. Kafir.


These words are always defined from the perspective of the religious. The religious lens is treated as neutral, as default. Blasphemy is assumed to be harm, at best offensive, at worst a threat to morality, stability, and even national security.

I have lost count of how many times I have been accused of enmity against God. Of insulting religion. Of wounding fragile sensibilities. And, of course, of Islamophobia.

These accusations are instruments of power. They shift the ground from politics to piety, from power to offence. They turn dissent into sacrilege so authority no longer has to defend itself; it only has to punish.

Conversely, blasphemy is the insistence that nothing is beyond question. It refuses to treat authority as untouchable.


But we are told blasphemy laws are necessary to protect God and faith, protect feelings, prevent violence. Each claim collapses on examination.

If you believe in an all-powerful God, do you truly believe he requires penal codes to defend him? Is that not blasphemous in and of itself?

If the purpose is to protect religion, which religion? Religions declare others false, heretical, corrupt. All claim exclusive truth.

Who decides which interpretation deserves protection? In Pakistan, Ahmadis have been prosecuted under blasphemy laws for identifying as Muslims. Blasphemy laws do not resolve these conflicting positions. They select one and back it with the full force of the state.

And to those who say the purpose is to protect feelings, whose feelings count? The Baha’i in Iran? Ex-Muslims condemned by scripture? Women facing stoning or polygamy? LGBT people labelled sinful? Offence is not neutral. Power decides which offence matters.

But we are told blasphemy laws prevent violence. In fact, they incentivise it. Ibtissame Betty Lachgar is in prison for a T-shirt. Those who threatened her with rape and death are free. The state rewards threats with censorship and persecution and shifts responsibility onto the dissenter. Outrage gains political weight; dissent does not.

This logic extends beyond states with explicit blasphemy statutes. England and Wales abolished its blasphemy law in 2008. Yet in a case involving public Qur’an burning, authorities have relied on public order legislation. Such cases raise the question of why irreverence toward religion is being treated as uniquely dangerous and destabilising in ways that irreverence toward other ideologies is not.

When religion is shielded from criticism in ways other doctrines are not, blasphemy law returns in substance, even if not in name.

If peaceful expression provokes threats and the speaker is blamed, that is not preventing violence. It is surrendering to it.

However it may be packaged, blasphemy law is a mechanism of state control. It turns doubt and dissent into crimes. It turns authority into something sacred so criticism appears immoral rather than political.

When religion fuses with state power, this is explicit. Law is framed as divine command. Hierarchy is presented as eternal.

The moment authority is declared sacred, it acquires privilege. Laws derived from it become harder to challenge. Decisions justified by it become harder to reverse. It claims immunity from criticism.

Yet human progress and political change throughout history have depended on scrutinising, challenging, and rejecting the sacred. Monarchs claimed divine right. Churches dictated law. Slavery was defended through scripture. Expansions of equality have required confronting institutions that claim sacred authority.

Consider the witch hunts of fifteenth to seventeenth century Europe. Thousands of women were burned, tortured, executed—legally sanctioned and religiously approved assaults on women’s bodies. Women who defied prescribed roles, who refused submission, who lived outside male control, were branded heretical and murdered. With devices like the scold’s bridle, an iron muzzle forced into the mouth, women were silenced (similar to the hijab, which is a fabric version).

The claim by some that religion is identity and that criticism therefore attacks people collapses under its own logic. If identity alone justifies immunity from criticism, then any ideology that shapes identity, including nationalism, would be beyond challenge. Democratic politics depends on the right to question all ideologies.

Undoubtedly, equal protection under the law is essential for everyone. But equal protection means protecting people from discrimination and violence. It does not mean shielding doctrines from criticism. Protecting believers and protecting beliefs are not the same thing. Individuals deserve protection; ideas do not. Hate speech targets people. Blasphemy challenges doctrine and ideas.

Blasphemy laws are not only about regulating speech. They protect a wider social order. Sacred authority does not operate abstractly. It is embedded in sex-based norms. The family is one of its central sites.

In patriarchal systems, property and status pass through male lines. That requires controlling women’s sexuality. Family law enforces this through marriage, inheritance, and guardianship. Women are positioned as daughters, wives, and mothers because these roles stabilise lineage and belief.

This is not only about tradition or religion. It has a material function. The patriarchal family reproduces property, status, and labour power across generations.

When doctrine underpins family law, sex-based hierarchy acquires sacred legitimacy. Norms are framed as divine rather than historical.

When women publicly reject what is defined as sacred, they interrupt the reproduction of authority, which is treated as betrayal.

Women’s compliance stabilises the system. Their dissent destabilises it.

Blasphemy laws punish men too. But when women dissent, they challenge both religious authority and sex-based hierarchy at once. The threat is doubled because the system depends on women’s compliance. Women are treated as blasphemous even before they speak, their existence regulated and segregated to prevent fitnah, or chaos, in society.

In such systems, being a woman is in and of itself an act of blasphemy. Their bodies, their hair, their voices, their sexuality are treated as deviations from a male norm. They are not recognised as autonomous subjects but as extensions of male guardians and honour. Before they speak, they are already transgressive.

Women’s blasphemy exposes that the sacred order depends on women’s obedience. That is why it is so violently opposed. A blaspheming woman is framed as dishonour. Punishment is sexualised: rape threats, stoning fantasies, bodily humiliation. The message is clear: your body belongs to the order you have challenged.

Women’s blasphemy has long been erased from official histories. Women who resisted sacred authority were labelled immoral, hysterical, possessed, dishonourable. Their dissent was recorded as pathology or sin rather than resistance.

The imprisonment of Ibtissame Betty Lachgar in Morocco illustrates this. She is serving a 30-month sentence for posting a photograph wearing a T-shirt reading ‘Allah is Lesbian’. The photograph was taken in London. The slogan challenges the assumption that God must be male and male authority natural. For that peaceful expression, she has been imprisoned, mistreated, and risks losing her arm due to serious health complications.

Those who threatened her walk free. But it is Betty who is punished.

This disparity is not a failure of the system. It is how the system works.

Blasphemy laws rely not only on prosecution but on fear. People silence themselves because they see what happens to others. Punishment teaches the limits of speech. When a woman blasphemes and survives, she weakens that fear.

The right to blaspheme is not, therefore, marginal. It is what keeps power answerable. And when women blaspheme, they also expose sacred hierarchy as human construction, making equality and liberation imaginable.

Blasphemy laws protect power by declaring it sacred and disciplining those who refuse submission. They remove authority from politics and place it beyond challenge. They convert dissent into crime and fear into governance.

Women’s blasphemy does the opposite. It exposes sacred authority as human construction. It interrupts the reproduction of obedience. It refuses the demand that women carry, transmit, and protect hierarchy in the name of religion. When women blaspheme, they dismantle the mechanism that keeps power untouchable.

A society that punishes women for blasphemy is not defending God or belief. It is defending domination.

When women speak, they are told they provoke.
When women dissent, they are told they destabilise.
When women refuse obedience, they are told they blaspheme.

A society that cannot tolerate women’s blasphemy is built on fear.
A society that can tolerate, and even celebrate it, is built on freedom.

The above is a lightly edited transcript of a speech delivered by Maryam Namazie at an event organised by De Balie on Women’s Blasphemy vs the State on 21 February 2026. It was first published in The Freethinker on 4 March 2026.

Maryam Namazie is a  is a British-Iranian secularist,
communist and human rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster.

Women’s Blasphemy And The State

Jim Duffy ✍ Trump's ceasefire deal is a disaster - for Trump. 

Think about it. Not a single aim he had for the war is delivered by the deal.
 
No regime change.
 
No protection of ordinary Iranians.
 
No prevention of Iran getting nuclear weapons.
 
No confiscation of Iran's enriched uranium.
 
All he had gotten is to get the Strait of Hormuz open. 

But the reason it was closed was due to his stupidity. He rejected military advice to seize it first to stop Iran getting it. His stupidity allowed Iran seize it.
 
So all this deal achieves is to go back to the status quo ante that had existed before Trump's war.
 
A classic Trump disaster.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Trump's Nothingburger

Seamus Kearney 🎤 ''Blood and tears ran down your cheek, the voice of God's mercy remained silent, only death and hunger of strength were the grains for your furrow'.

A rare photo of Freddie Scappaticci 's troop from the Force Research Unit (FRU).

Freddie Scappaticci was in uncharted waters after November 1992 and his formal dismissal from the Provisional IRA. He was still on the British Government's payroll but the regular payments could not continue indefinitely if no 'product' was forthcoming. The fact that he had not found himself in a body bag, lying on a border road like many of his victims, may have given him a sense of invincibility because he continued to live quite openly in Republican West Belfast.

In 1993 the woman who had given him the alibi the previous year was working in Connolly House, Andersonstown, for Sinn Fein. On a number of occasions Scappaticci walked in and engaged her in conversations, mostly related to his electioneering work. It seemed that Scappaticci had lost none of his chutzpah. He wasn't going away quietly.

The IRA leadership were in a quandary at this point in time as it may have figured that Scappaticci, their main 'rat catcher', was too big a figure to simply interrogate and then execute, coupled with the potential threat to the morale of their rank and file if it was discovered he had duped the entire leadership for literally year upon year. Therefore, a policy of 'damage limitation' was adopted from 1992 onwards, basically keeping him at arm's length and hoping he would go along with the unwritten rule of plausible deniability. This would go a long way to prevent mass demoralisation within the ranks of the IRA.

However, although he had been ineffective since 1990 as a result of the Sandy Lynch affair, Stakeknife still had the ability to hold grudges against certain people who he felt had undermined or marginalised him. When an opportunity arose in the shape of the 'Cook Report' Scappaticci took his grudge a step further and made contact with three of the journalists from the programme. Within a tight circle of people it became known as 'Revenge at the Culloden', as the incident took place in the car park of the Culloden Hotel outside Belfast in August 1993.

After he climbed into a bugged car Scappaticci met Clive Entwistle and reporter Frank Thorne, along with Sylvia Jones.

Not realising that the vehicle was bugged Scappaticci stupidly began railing at senior IRA figures, spitting out his venom against those in his mind had castrated and disempowered him. Shortly after this debacle at the Culloden, Scappaticci was reprimanded by his military handlers in the Rat Hole, in Lisburn and ordered never to pull that stunt again. His handlers couldn't believe Scappaticci could be so careless and potentially compromise his security over three journalists. He was no longer at the heart of things concerning the IRA and that seemed to agitate him immensely. His position in the world of espionage and treachery seemed to have taken a left turn into the surreal.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XIII

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3110

Gary Robertson ⚽ Easter weekend, remembered by many for numerous reasons. 

The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, The Easter rising of 1916 or the signing of the Belfast Agreement/GFA in 1998; for others a trip to Fairyhouse for the Grand National here at Robertson Towers. Easter Sunday will be remembered as yet another match where Celtic rode their luck and got out of jail with a late winner again scored by a substitute.
 
We’ve seen this so many times, taking the lead, a slew of chances follow that a half decent striker would put away but by half time were left to rue what might have been. The second half, the opposition getting a goal back then a nervy end to the match. Prayers offered up in hope of a late winner, a situation we shouldn’t be in but are, before a sub makes his mark and the Celtic fans exhale with collective relief having managed yet again to get out of jail and keep us within touching distance of the title. This weeks star sub - Kelechi Iheanacho who’s 82 min winner means we live to fight another week.
 
Indeed next weekend is the last weekend before the split with Celtic hosting St Mirren, Hearts hosting Motherwell (whose form has taken a dive just at the wrong time for the club), and The Rangers travel to Falkirk on Sunday. Speaking of Falkirk, young Barney Stewart scored again on Saturday for the fifth game in a row for the club who managed to put away Motherwell at Fir Park in a 3-2 victory. I’ve made it clear I’m a fan of the Motherwell manager and I still am. Every club goes through rough patches and I’m sure the ‘Well will have a major say in the title race. To write them off is foolish, sure they can’t win the league from fourth but they can make sure others don’t either. Only a fool would judge Askou on recent performances and not on the season as a whole. Falkirk themselves have been a constant threat throughout the season and they too will have a bearing on where the SPL title ends up.
 
So to the other matches.
 
With Storm Dave on the horizon it looked a little touch and go for a time if we’d have all three title contenders playing this weekend but thankfully we did, and for the neutral a plethora of goals to savour.
 
Ibrox, Saturday, and a chance for Rangers to overtake Hearts if only for 24 hours at the top of the table. Honestly, it’s hard not to be impressed with this team. Once they broke down a determined United with a tap in from Naderi in the 30th minute the crowd could settle as could the team and get the job done. A second from Sterling followed ten mins later to put the ‘Gers 2-0 ahead and more importantly to the top of the table. It wasn’t pretty. Indeed, a goalkeeping howler led to this but it mattered not: the score is prize, not how you get it. 

Shortly before half time the travelling Arabs were given hope as Fatah scored from a lovely through ball from Agyei and as the half time whistle blew for some the nerves returned. A short lived worry though as this Rangers team are battlers and another from Aasgaard in the 52nd min restored the Rangers advantage. And whilst Sapsford did pull another back in the 72nd min even at 3-2 Röhl and his men never looked like dropping points here. A late fourth by former Aberdeen hitman Miovski putting the icing on the cake, sent the Rangers to the top and the majority of the 51,000 home happy.

Saturday night, Clyde 1 Super Score Board comment section was awash with cigar smoking feet up Rangers fans celebrating their top of the league position, a little prematurely perhaps but when you’ve won one title to your rivals thirteen in fourteen years it was difficult not to let them have their moment in the sun.
 
Sunday, and over to snowy West Lothian who had felt the brunt of Storm Dave on Saturday night and were suffering from the prevailing conditions. My son informing me that it’s too damn cold to go out or turn the heating off. We’ve raised a generation of softies 🙄🤣 Anyway, back to the football and Hearts travelled to Livingston, desperate to retain their three point advantage at the top of the table, now finding themselves in second, albeit on goal difference, having spent the majority of the season with only blue skies above. Livingston with little but pride to play for and rooted firmly at the bottom of the table looked there for the taking, and as the team bus travelled along the M8 I’m fairly sure three points was already in the minds of the players. Livi though weren’t there to lie down, aren’t quite ready to die just yet and continue to fight what seems a losing battle by stunning the visitors with a bullet from May in the fifth min. 1-0 to the hosts and the roars of both Livingston and Rangers fans alike could be heard far and wide. 

Hearts, though, haven’t been league leaders most of 2025/26 for nothing and it wasn’t too long before Shankland (a man who in my opinion should start for Scotland at WC2026) pulled one back for the visitors and levelling the scores at 1-1 in the 24th minute. A powerful header from the club captain to take the teams in level at half time. 

From sunshine in the first half to blizzard conditions in the second the rapid change in temperature seemed to galvanise Hearts who came out looking much the stronger in the second 45. Fans who’d braved the weather and made the short trip from the Capital were rewarded in the 51st minute when a Shankland cross was met by the head of Braga and nestled into the net. Hearts were once again three points clear. Football though as we’ve said many times is not a game for counting chickens and it’s this unpredictability that keeps us turning up, tuning in and supporting clubs throughout thick and thin. As the sun reappeared so did the Livi spirit and some lovely build up play in the 58th minute led to an equaliser from Smith. An utterly stupid challenge by Leonard in stoppage time led to a yellow which after a VAR check was then scrapped and replaced with a red, it will have both manager and fans leaving scratching their heads. Final score 2-2 and Hearts lead the table by one point. There are now 3 points between the top 3 and some very tense moments lie ahead.
 
Final word of the weekend belongs to Raith Rovers who lifted the KDM Evolution trophy (Scottish challenge cup) in front of nearly 5000 at Partick's Fir Hill, taking care of Inverness Caley by four goals to one. It’s a long slog from August 27th to April 5th and whilst condolences must go to Inverness it’s hats off to Raith. Congratulations to Dougie Imrie his staff, team and of course fans.

Til next time …

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

Getting Away With It

Anthony McIntyre ⚽ I rushed home from the weekly Gaza vigil to catch this one.

A 1245 kickoff, but a bus at 1300, meant I would miss much of the first half. By the time it ended I wished I had missed both halves, or at least not left United Park the previous evening where the Drogs put up a better fight than the Reds.  Liverpool were simply overwhelmed. Not only that, once Van Dijk was marginally off the pace, causing him to give away a clear penalty - not for the first time this season -  Liverpool put in yet another troubling underwhelming performance. Much like it has been throughout the second year of Arne Slot's reign.

The scoreline was still 0-0 by the time I arrived home. Liverpool seemed to be playing well but then that penalty, rightly awarded against the Liverpool captain, heralded the start of the rot. Take nothing away from Manchester City. They were dazzling, some of their goals pure brilliance. The gap between them and Liverpool is something we might expect to see between a top Premier League outfit and an opponent from the Championship. That is worrying. Liverpool more resemble Spurs than they do a serious contender for silverware.

At 4-0 behind, I said to my son that it would do no harm to see them beaten by seven goals with nothing offered in return - about more later.  Mo Salah at least was determined to ensure that end of the equation, squandering his best opportunity of the match with a penalty kick, easily gathered by the City keeper. Somebody described it as the most predictable penalty miss in years. It was a measure of how the Salah star has fizzled out as one of the all time greats of the Premier League has gone from hero to zero. I have little sympathy for him. His exorbitant wage demands, which the club agreed to in order to extend his contract, should have been reciprocated with top class performances. He took a lot and gave little. Even his performative petulance after being dropped a few months ago because of underperforming, was delivered much like his penalty. A bin man, nurse, accountant or shop assistant carrying out their task as ineptly as Salah, no matter how good they had been in the past, would be shown the door by their employer, with no possibility of winning an unfair dismissal claim at an employment tribunal hearing. When he goes at the end of the season he should consider donating this season's wages to the homeless shelters and other agencies that serve to help the city's most disadvantaged.

My reason for preferring a wider margin of victory was that it might have served as a wakeup call that tinkering and tweaking with the players is no longer an option. This is a team that despite having high quality individuals simply cannot function as a collective unit. They are simply free floating and not plugged into the mothership. Arne Slot has proven beyond doubt by now that he is not the man to take Liverpool forward. After last year's success for which he deserves immense praise, he is now leading the club with a white stick, the vision of last season having been progressively weakened by the type of cataracts that no amount of rose tinted spectacles can make right. When a Klopp team would go through a lean spell there was a confidence that he could identify the problem, then fix it. With Slot, he knows there is a problem but seems wholly incapable of identifying let alone fixing it, leading to a conclusion that the problem is not on field but can be located in the technical area which he patrols like a cow in a field watching a train go by. The cow has as much impact on the direction or speed of the train as Slot has on the team.

Salah might be the most notable of the absentees from Quality Street but he is not alone. Van Dijk while only marginally slower and still capable of putting in much better performances than Salah is nevertheless the victim of a truism in the sport. At this level a marginal difference in pace makes all the difference. His reading of the game remains fine but lacking the ability to turn the page is proving a huge impediment in a defensive structure that has looked quite unsteady throughout the season.

Beginning tomorrow evening, we can anticipate an exit from the Champions' League at the hands of last year's winners. This season is a write off. Next will be no better if a real shake up does not take place. Salah departing is a plus but Arne Slot should join him. If Virgil Van Dijk opts to see out the remaining year of his contract, it should not be in the captaincy. Dominik Szoboszlai is the player best placed to fill that role although with his talent the lure of quality abroad might tempt him to leave Anfield. When he looks at how Real Madrid dealt with Manchester City and judges it against Liverpool's sham fight on Saturday, Madrid and its sunny skies must seem a much better option than the dark clouds Merseyside.

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In the Wrong Slot, Arne

Barry Gilheany ⚽ After a penalty shoot out at the London Stadium, Leeds United went through to their first FA Cup semi-final for 39 years after a 2-2 draw with West Ham United. 

However that bland statistic can never tell the whole story of yet another mad cap Leeds venture in which we oh so nearly grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory in Eleven nauseating minutes of stoppage time when a comfortable 2-0 lead evaporated within the space of three minutes to send the tie into extra time when only a linesman’s flag prevented the Hammers from completing the comeback. 

Yet on this occasion, we showed real resilience and fortitude to come through 4-2 in that excruciating round robin event – the penalty shootout. It is an avenue of escape that will not be available to Leeds if they persist in failing to see away games out from winning positions. But let us forget such recriminations at least until the resumption of our Premier League survival campaign and savour a moment that almost two generations of Leeds fans will never have experienced – participation in the penultimate round of the greatest Cup competition in the world.

And the events of last weekend fully support this sobriquet. The last eight of the tournament saw the classic Cup upset as Championship side Southampton knocked out Premier League leaders Arsenal 2-1 with a winner from Shea Charles who hopefully has a great future with Northern Ireland ahead of him; the 4-0 evisceration by Manchester City of Liverpool for whom Mo Salah, the best forward to have graced the top flight in my lifetime, looked a sad, tragic shadow of his former self and the ending of League One bottom side Port Vale’s remarkable Cup run by a 7-0 defeat at Chelsea which does not close the book on the concerns about the performances and personalities of Liam Rosenior’s charges. But the piece de resistance was the encounter between two sides batting against relegation from the Premiership, though in truth demotion would be a much greater calamity for the Hammers because of their welter of debts.

The match took place on a very poignant date in Leeds United history; April 5th, 2000, was the day on which two Leeds fans, Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus, were murdered in a mass stabbing in Taksim Square, Istanbul before a UEFA Cup semi-final with the Turkish side Galatasaray. Before kick-off, the Leeds team acknowledged the anniversary by laying wreaths at the away end where 9,000 Leeds fans were congregated. Respects duly paid, proceedings then got underway. I went into the match with my friend in the pub in a relaxed mood as vital Premier League points were not at stake and regarded it as a bit of R&R from the relegation struggle. Despite those who have sought to devalue the Cup by not fielding full strength sides, a Cup run is not just a welcome distraction of the relegation battle but can aid it as winning football matches always boosts morale and confidence if that does not sound too tautologous.

Leeds started the best and a fine effort by Noah Okafor (a serial Cup winner in Italy and Switzerland) almost put us ahead in the second minute. However, the hosts soon got into gear and only two brilliant saves by recalled Brazilian keeper Lucas Perri kept them at bay. But breakthrough in the 26th minute as Japanese midfielder Ao Tanaka began and completed a move with a swerving shot that put us in the lead. For the remainder of the season, Tanaka must be at the centre of our midfield. We should have been further ahead but were thwarted by yet another example of inconsistent officiating when a tackle by Maximilian Kilman on our German midfielder Anton Stach in the penalty area after he has shot for goal I (saved by Hammer keeper Areola) forced him out of the game. No spot kick was awarded despite the clear and obvious nature of the foul. At the end of the day, the injury sustained by Stach who has been such a vital cog in the midfield engine room has been this season matters much more than the decision not to award the penalty. Let us hope he recovers in time for the visit to Old Trafford next Monday evening.

So we went in a goal to the good at half time. We contained wave after wave of West Ham attacks powered by a triple substitution. And then what should have been the clincher when on this occasion Maximilian Kilman was correctly adjudged to have fouled Brenden Aaronson in the box, we were awarded a penalty. Up stepped Dominic Calvert-Klein who had come on in place of Nmencha and coolly converted it to make it 2-0. DCL showed real cojones in steeping up to the plate in this manner after his calamitous miss at Crystal Palace and his miss for England in the friendly against Uruguay which put paid to any chance of him boarding the plane for the World Cup this summer as Harry Kane’s understudy. 

Cue an exodus of home fans and the wiping of all signs of exuberance from the visage of celebrity Hammer Danny Dyer who kept appearing with irritating regularity on our TV screens. It was all going so swimmingly and Wilfried Gnonto should really have put everything to bed but missed when yards from goal. But this is Leeds, remember, and another double calamity, perhaps engendered by the 11-minute stoppage time announcement, beckoned as West Ham rediscovered hope and familiar anxieties stirred in the minds of Leeds fans. Sure enough in the 93rd minute Mattheus Fernandes poked home a rebound from a volley from Jarred Bowen to reduce the deficit and three minutes later a panic stricken Leeds defence relinquished their advantage when after a cross by Adana Traore into the six yard box was met by Disasi whose overhead karate kick hit the net and was allowed to stand despite protestations from Leeds that Disasi’s high boot prevented Paschal Struijk from clearing the ball. Cue pandemonium and joy and frustration in equal measure by those Hammers fans who had deserted their team and who on learning of its resurrection tried to re-enter the ground but were prevented from doing so by stewards. They deserve no sympathy as games are never over at 2-0 as so many fans will attest.

While not on the scale of that of our relegations and Play Off Final defeats, the devastation felt by me and my friend whose life ambition was to see Leeds win a Cup Final at Wembley was raw and visceral at the snatching away of our dreams. I held out little hope of retrieving the situation in extra time and a minute into it the blade appeared to have dropped when after a rush of blood to the head on the part of Perri, Castellanos poked the ball into an empty net only for it to be almost instantaneously ruled offside. We could have regained the lead only for a last ditch clearance by Tomas Soucek and Gnonto blazing another effort over the bar. Perri again put his body, or more accurately his face, on the line by keeping out a shot from Castellanos. Bowen again rattled the woodwork, and Pablo was offside when he put the rebound into the net.

So it ended 2-2 and into the penalty or as I would put it the penance shoot out. The particular set piece drama was provided by the debut for the Hammers of 20-year-old goalkeeper Finlay Herrick who replaced regular keeper Alphonse Areaola injured in the dying minutes of extra time. By saving our first effort from Joel Piroe, he looked set to write himself into Cup and West Ham folklore. However Perri responded in kind by denying efforts from Bowen and Pablo Felipo. It was left to Pascal Struijk to send us through to the semis where we will meet Chelsea at Wembley; the historical resonance of this meeting is lost on no one of a certain generation.
 
⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter. 

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