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Seamus Kearney 🎤 In April 1986 the IRA Army Council gave permission to the Director of Northern Command to tighten the grip on all IRA operations, as a result of a number of civilian deaths.

Consequently, all future IRA military operations had to be vetted by him and become more centralised, a sound idea at the time provided there were no leaks in the initiative.

Unfortunately, the Director of Northern Command still had unquestioning faith in the integrity of the Internal Security Unit and ordered Scappaticci as OC of the unit to vet all proposed operations in the Belfast Brigade area. When the Task Coordinating Group ( TCG) were told about this latest development, to say they were salivating would be an understatement. They were ecstatic. However, the elite and security conscious South Armagh Brigade declined in general to comply with the order, because they simply didn't trust Belfast and were security conscious at all times. The fact that their calls for Freddie Scappaticci 's removal had fallen on deaf ears may have fed into their overall attitude toward the new order.

In a highly spectacular military operation, the South Armagh Brigade blasted the Forensic Science Laboratory at Belvoir, South Belfast, on September 23rd, 1992 with a massive 3,000 lb van bomb, destroying vital evidence and undermining the justice system in the North. When the Director of Northern Command was told after the explosion that it was a South Armagh operation he was livid.
The centralisation of IRA operations may have aided the electoral process, but it was a chink in the armour when it came to IRA operations being compromised, as they were no longer water tight within a cell structure.

In 1986 the TCG decided to shed one of their assets, Agent Mints, possibly due to the agent passing his 'sell by date'. The agent had been working since 1978 and had primarily worked in the IRA's Engineering Department, compromising a number of explosive dumps in his eight year tenure. Freddie Scappaticci was invited in by Belfast Brigade to investigate the suspect and the ISU were convened in a safe house in West Belfast to await his arrival. Another agent masquerading as IRA personnel was instructed to fetch Agent Mints, with both men arriving at the safe house without incident.

To the astonishment of the ISU, which included Scappaticci, the former Marine, 'Burke' and 'Hare', Agent Mints broke immediately and gushed out that he had been working for Special Branch since 1978 and had compromised the 'Short Strand Bombs' in which Volunteer Michael Kearney had been executed for in July 1979. He had been the 'East wing' of the operation, while another agent had been the 'West wing', both agents providing the British with a holistic view of the operation in March 1979.

The victim had informed his handlers where he had been summoned to and they had instructed him to go meet the ISU and that they would rescue him. However, no rescue mission was launched and the death penalty was handed down to him after 2 days of interrogation.

His eyes were taped shut and his hands were tied behind his back. A number of shots rang out and Agent Mints fell to the ground. The TCG had shed no tears for him, as he was yet another cog in a bigger wheel, mere cannon fodder to be discarded in their dirty war against the IRA.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act ⅤⅠ

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3062

Gary Robertson ⚽ Tuesday saw the return of the Edinburgh Derby and a chance for Hearts to avenge the defeat they suffered at Easter Road.

With Kieron Bowie now plying his trade abroad and Spurs loanee Dane Scarlett leading the line Hibs looked ready to go again. The match however failed to live up to the hype and in all honesty a draw looked the most likely outcome, in a game of only three shots on target (2 Hearts 1 Hibs) it’s difficult to pad this out. A 88 min winner from Hearts' Magnusson sealed the points for the home team sending the majority of the 19000 crowd home happy.
 
Wednesday saw a hard fought victory for Kilmarnock over St Mirren. A hat trick from Killie's John Jules making it a night to remember for the striker. The final result 4-3.
 
Another young man who’ll remember the 11th of February 2026 is Falkirk's Ben Broggio, the 19yr old scoring his first goal for his team and indeed the only goal of the night, resulting in a win for Falkirk over Dundee.
 
Rangers faced a trip tricky trip to Fir Park to face Motherwell and a chance to close the gap on Hearts before the clash with the league leaders at the weekend. Rangers came out flying and a beautiful through ball found the diminutive Raskin with only the ‘Keeper to beat he finished nicely, putting the Rangers 1-0 ahead and looking dangerous. Motherwell however had their chances but some wasteful efforts and brilliant goalkeeping from Butland in the ‘Gers goal kept the home team at bay. Both sides had their chances though and not to be outdone some world class keeping from Motherwell's Ward kept the bears at bay.
 
Controversy is never away in Scottish football and I’m still baffled as to how what looked a clear hand ball from Rangers' Souttar went unpunished when Celtic's Ralston committed the same “offence” against Rangers in November and this was deemed a penalty kick. Consistency is not a word in the Scottish ref's dictionary.
 
One decision that they did get right (after a VAR check) was the sending off of Motherwell's Fadinger whose reckless and dangerous tackle on Rangers' Moore fully deserved a red. A terrible tackle and to be honest the lad is lucky he didn’t suffer serious injury.
 
Motherwell down to ten, Rangers 1-0 with a full team three points looked destined to return to Ibrox but the Steelmen had other ideas and a header met the boot of on loan Celtic player Welsh in the 89th minute to secure a share of the points and giving Sundays top of the league clash with Hearts even more importance.

Livingston now under Marvin Bartley a former player for the club and Hibs (to mention a few) faced a formidable task against title chasing Celtic. A nervy looking Celtic. However what nerves among the almost 59.000 fans and the team were eased somewhat in the 15th minute when a blistering strike from Saracchi screamed past Prior and from 19 yards made its unstoppable way into the net. 1-0 to the Hoops. There was little more action to report in the first half.
 
The second however saw Livingston battle and they were rewarded with a spot kick in the 57th minute when Hatate made what was a stupid challenge in the box. The Livi number 9 Robbie Muirhead drilled past a despairing Schmeichel to level the scores, and the nerves returned.
 
Stoppage time 6 mins and once again I sat with head in hands again bemoaning a lack of bite in the Celtic forward line. However fairy tales are to be written at special places like Celtic Park and this was pure Hollywood. Celtic having only just signed Alex Oxlade Chamberlain gave the former Liverpool player a twenty minute run out. It was good to see the boy on the park but what transpired left us speechless. Time running out, once again a season looking lost in the 94th minute, up stepped “The Ox” who’s right foot shot from the corner of the D whizzed past Prior, and Parkhead went into meltdown. A new hero is born.
 
A special mention however must go to Livingstons ‘keeper Jerome Prior whose saves (nine in all) kept the visitors in the game. The Frenchman was outstanding in goal for Livingston and is still only 30 years old.
 
Saturday 14th - Valentine’s Day (apparently)
 
Three fixtures in the SPL go ahead while some games elsewhere fell foul to the weather in the lower leagues. Inverness now find themselves five points clear in the League One title race, a solitary goal by Alfie Bavidge enough to take home the points from Hamilton's Broadwood stadium.
 
St Johnstone also find themselves with a five point cushion at the top of the championship and look set for a return to the SPL after a 1-0 away defeat of Airdrie on Friday night.
 
The spoils were shared at Dens Park on Saturday where a miraculous fightback by Livingston from 2-0 behind after 8 mins saw them take a point in a 2-2 draw. Whilst it’s difficult to see Livi surviving, Manager Bartley must have been glad to see fighting spirit in his team.
 
Falkirk welcomed Dundee Utd to the Falkirk Stadium for an intriguing match up. It didn’t take long though for in form Falkirk to break the deadlock as a shot from Broggio in the 17th minute put the bairns ahead however on this day of exchanging gifts with loved ones Falkirk keeper Bain made a terrible mess of what looked like an easy save which was gratefully received by Graham and, with precision, slotted the ball into the net. 1-1 at half time was a fair reflection of the game.
 
Falkirk again took the lead in the 53rd minute with a goal from Lissah only then to see this cancelled out a mere 2 mins later by a Sibbald shot. The turning point, as in so many games, however saw Falkirk's Henderson wipe out United's Watters. After a VAR check the yellow was upgraded to red and Falkirk were down to ten. To their credit they battled though and it looked for all the world like a draw was on the cards until Uniteds substitute Eskesen found himself in space in the 18 yard box and fired home and 3 points back up the road.
 
Hibernian faced struggling St Mirren and with Hibs home form for all to see this was a fairly straightforward task for the team from the hometown of James Connolly. Goals in either half from Elding and Suto secured the points for a Hibs side brimming with confidence.
 
Sunday 15th. Motherwell did what Motherwell inevitably do and took care of a dire Aberdeen who are languishing in the bottom 6, safe from relegation but far from the team once challenging for titles. Goals from Just in the 28th minute and an own goal by the Dons' McIntyre in the 93rd minute sent Aberdeen fans off home licking their wounds and back to the granite city deflated.
 
Now I pondered long and hard about the Glasgow two but eventually decided I’d report in order of kick off times. So Rugby Park and a Kilmarnock side managed by former Hearts and Rangers player Neil McCann looking to drag themselves away from danger and perhaps also put the boot in Celtic's title pretensions. While the Celtic fans were in good voice “here we go again, we’re on the road again” the team were completely out of tune and once again looked like they’d been picked up at random stops along the way and asked to play for 90 mins with lead in their boots and with no knowledge of who was beside them. Twenty mins in and Killie's man of the moment John-Jules outdid Trusty and fired past Schmeichel into the bottom left hand corner of the net and McCann's men into a deserving lead. Kilmarnock's second came from new boy Hugill whose header looped past Schmeichel leaving the keeper looking far from international class. 

Some choice words were typed on social media platforms re Celtics “style” or indeed lack of and as I personally filled the “swear box” with coins at half time thoughts turned once again to the tragedy that was Nancy and the dark days of Wilfred. Killie were 2-0 up and cruising. The second half though belonged to Celtic. A bullet from Tounekti in the 55th minute restored some hope and even the most ardent of Celtic fans must have been hoping for a draw at this stage, thinking it would keep us in touch with Hearts and the Rangers. Minute 63 and there it was, the equaliser from the man himself Benjamin Nygren. Suddenly what seemed impossible only 20 mins previously looked within the grasp of O’Neill's men. Chances galore fell Kilmarnock's way with John Jules hitting the bar with a fabulous effort. 

Stoppage time, seven mins, just hold on. That was the thought at least it was mine. Do nothing stupid and let’s get out of here with a point. A point will do thinks I as the clock ticked round to 96 mins when a cross by Stan the man Cvancara was bundled past the despairing Killie keeper by Julian Araujo that sparked wild celebrations amongst the Celtic faithful and groans on at both ends of the M8. They’d done it, again, another stoppage time winner. Great for viewing, awful on the heart. I’d settled for the draw they had different ideas. That’s why we love this game right?
 
Ibrox 4-30pm and the clash of the big two a match that absolutely lived up to its billing and one any neutral would have loved.
 
As I positioned myself comfortably in front of the TV I found the words of Steve R ringing in my ears “a hat trick for Chermiti will do”, and whilst I dreamt of the impossible (that both would lose) I’ll be paying heed to his predictions from here on in.
 
Wasn’t all plain sailing for the Rangers though as a terrible lapse in the Blues' defence was intercepted and eventually turned in by Hearts' Leonard. In the 19th minute though the Ibrox men were level when after some amazing reaction saves from Hearts' Schwolow what originally looked like a leveller for Naderi was instead shown to have been put into his own net by Hearts Steinwender. Steinwender then looked to have made amends as his cross was met by the head of Braga and jubilation amongst the Jambos. 30th min Rangers 1 Hearts 2. Every good story has a hero though and for the Rangers theirs came in the formidable frame of Chermiti. His first on 39 mins a low shot slid past the Hearts' keeper and Ibrox erupted. 

They say football is a game of two halves and this certainly lived up to it. The second half belonging to the big Portuguese forward who single-handedly tore apart Hearts, blowing a massive hole in the title race. His second a simple header at the near post and finally the Rangers were in front for the first time in the match. I say finally because anyone who watched it with an unbiased eye would have agreed on the balance of play Rangers looked the most likely to score. Rangers 3 Hearts 2. However by this time Chermiti sensed his hat trick and delivered in the 91st minute for a final score of Rangers 4 Hearts 2.

Performance of the weekend? Has to be Chermiti but Prediction of the season? The words of Steve R “a Chermiti hat trick will do” and do it did.
 
Title race on.

Til next time .. . . 

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

On The Road Again

Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières ★ Written by Alex De Jong et al.

At a study day organised by the Ernest Mandel Foundation in Antwerp, historians Vincent Scheltiens and Alex de Jong analysed the contemporary far right’s rise across Europe. 

Their central argument: whilst parallels between 1930s fascism and today’s neofascism exist, drawing such comparisons is strategically counterproductive. 

Today’s far right, exemplified by Geert Wilders’ PVV, functions less as classical fascism than as radicalised liberalism – embracing free-market ideology rather than anti-capitalism, operating through media manipulation rather than paramilitary violence, and targeting minorities sequentially, beginning with trans people. 

The absence of a powerful labour movement and credible socialist alternative has created conditions fundamentally different from the interwar period. Antifascists must therefore develop new strategies focused on social struggle rather than historical warnings that fail to resonate with far-right voters. 

On Saturday 13 December, a study day on the Shift to the Right took place at the Ecohuis in Antwerp. The Ernest Mandel Foundation [1] had invited two historians to shed light on this trend, for the benefit of Flemish militants of the SAP [2] and other interested parties. It was thus a mix of both who listened to the presentation . . . 

Continue @ ESSF.

The New Thirties Will Be Different –🪶 Similarities And Differences Between Classical Fascism And Neofascism

Barry Gilheany ⚽ In the words of one preternaturally pessimistic Leeds United supporter on X (that is our default mentality) . . . 

. . .  it is a concept that it is very difficult to grasp – the possibility that after coming through another challenging FA Cup assignment in the Midlands yesterday at Birmingham City that we might possibly be embarking on an extended run in the competition.

As I write this, the draw for the Fifth Round has not been made and, as things stand, the only teams I wish to avoid are Arsenal, Manchester City and, should lightening strike twice at Moss Road, Macclesfield who are scheduled to play another Premiership team Brentford tonight, after dethroning Cup holders Crystal Palace in the last round (the first occasion in English football history when a team from the sixth tier of the League pyramid has defeated opposition from the top tier).

Without wishing to tempt the vengeful deity Fate, amazing vistas conjure if Leeds do negotiate the Fifth Round. 23 years since we last participated in the Quarter-Final; 39 years since we graced a semi-final and 53 years since we played in a Cup Final – the seismic defeat by Sunderland, Jim Montgomery double save and all that. A successful Cup rematch with the Makems would go someway towards salving that particular historic wound. 

It is not part of our DNA to sail through Cup competitions. Only Newcastle United come near to matching our record of losing Cup fixtures to lower league opposition. Just over halfway into my sixth decade of following Leeds United, I can recall at least thirty such exits and frankly Birmingham can feel aggrieved that they did not add to that tally yesterday. For in the first half at St Andrews they were by far the better team. Fielding six changes from the side that rose like Lazarus from the dead at Chelsea during the week, Daniel Farke’s latest rotated squad were muscled off the ball on practically every occasion. Only two outstanding saves form recalled keeper Lucas Perri, one of which was the tipping onto the crossbar of a sweet volley from Jay Stansfield, Brum’s top scorer, kept the scoreline blank. Leeds mustered not a single shot on goal, and our ineffectiveness was reflected in the substitution of loanee debutant Facundo Buonanotte whose impact on the game was negligible.

St Andrews is the archetypal, old school, citadel of a football venue. While not quite embodying the “nobody likes us, we don’t care” ethos of Millwall fans, Birmingham do however have a reputation of providing a hostile environment for opposing fans and down the decades Birmingham v Leeds has assumed the status of a grudge match due in no small part to the activities of the respective fans’ firms - The Zulu Warriors and Service Crew respectively. One of the nadirs of the era of organised football hooliganism in the 1980s, was the riot at St Andrews involving both at the fixture in May 1985 on the last day of the season. This orgy of thuggery and anarchy caused the death of a 15-year-old on his first day at a football match due to a collapsing wall. The events of that day were overshadowed by the fire at Valley Parade, home of Bradford City the same day which cost the livers of over 50 Bradford supporters who should have been celebrating their promotion to the Second Division and wining the Third Division title. So beware of the romanticisation of the terrace culture of yesteryear.

With that caveat, St Andrews is a refreshing contrast to the sanitised and neutered atmosphere of so many Premiership stadia where customer is king (i.e. those who shell out £1k for a season ticket at the Emirates or the Tottenham Stadium) not the fan, long since priced out of their places of worship. The raw passion that emanates from the terraces there and at other ‘old school’ grounds like Fratton Park needs to be a feature of Premiership culture. Birmingham have only lost one in forty league games at their manor. Birmingham fans’ identity derives from its rivalry with the establishment club of the Midlands, Aston Villa. Let’s hope that that derby rivalry becomes a fixture in every sense of the word in the Premiership.

To return to yesterday’s proceedings, the regular Leeds captain Ethan Ampadou came on, and the entire dynamic of the game was altered as Leeds adapted more effectively to the challenges posed by the hosts. Within four minutes of the restart, Leeds were level due to a superb strike by Lucas Nmencha outside the box after an assist by Noah Okafor. Had VAR been available, Nmencha would likely have been deemed to cross the red lines. But why not give more latitude to forwards particularly given the absence of protest from Birmingham defenders. 

In the course of the second half, the cavalry was sent on in the form of leading scorer Dominic Calvert-Lewin, attacking full back Jayden Bogle and midfielder Brenden Aaronson and Leeds began to display Premiership superiority in quality with a second and likely decisive goal looked probable. However, Birmingham were not going to go down easily. Our goal was peppered with shots, crosses and incisive movement by Birmingham forwards with last ditch defending from Sebastian Bornauw especially keeping our lead intact. However, our defence was eventually breached in the last minute of regulation time, when after the recycling of one of their flurry of corners, the sumptuous volley from 25 yards out by Patrick Roberts found the Leeds net via deflection of the head of the unsuspecting James Justin. The curtain on our Cup run was so nearly drawn when Ibrahim Osman struck the inside of the post in the last minute of stoppage time and Bornauw blocked the rebound from Kanya Fujimoto. The truth is that Birmingham clad in their 70s penguin kit would have deserved a win.

So into extra time when efforts by Ampadou and Calvert-Lewin could have secured our berth in the Fifth Round. But wild finishing in front of goal denied Birmingham their moment of glory. The dreaded penalty shoot thus beckoned. Up stepped Piroe (who missed from the spot at Derby in the Third Round), Calvert-Lewin and Aaronson to the plate and duly converted. Perri then saves from Tommy Doyle (he is as much of a match winner as anybody) and here Roberts turns villain (an operative word) by blazing his effort over the bar. Sean Longstaff then sends us through. A long afternoon but no less satisfying as we were pushed to the limit. Is this our year?

PS We have drawn Norwich at home in the Daniel Farke derby. 

⏩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. 

Dare To Dream ⚽ Is A Cup Run On For Leeds United?

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

 

A Morning Thought @ 3061

National Secular Society ★ British-Iranian secularist and human rights activist Maryam Namazie explains why the Iran protests are different this time – and why young Iranians are embracing secularism.

16-January-2026
Since late December 2025, protests have erupted across the country in 73 cities. They rapidly became an unambiguous rejection of the Islamic state itself. This time, the trigger was a collapsing currency, unpaid wages, soaring food and fuel prices, and widespread shortages—rooted in mismanagement, corruption, and a system that governs through poverty, sex apartheid, and institutionalised violence.


The people of Iran are in open revolt.

The regime's response has been immediate and brutal. Live ammunition has been fired into crowds. According to official sources, hundreds have been arrested and charged as mohareb ("enemies of God"), punishable by death. Estimates for those killed are much higher, reaching into the thousands. But with the shutdown of internet access and communications, alongside widespread repression, the true scale is hard to confirm. This is not incidental: it is a common practice by the regime to sever coordination, conceal the scale of killings, and isolate people from one another as it intensifies repression.

Video footage that has made it out reveals systematic massacres. A horrifying video circulating online, reportedly taken on 8 January from outside the Kahrizak Forensic Medicine Centre, shows rows of bodies laid out as families search for missing loved ones—and all the while, more bodies arrive by truck. This is the Islamic Republic governing as it always has: through terror and religious legitimisation of mass murder.

Reports indicate that families have been forced to pay for the bullets used to kill their children before bodies are released, and that they are prevented from organising funerals or mourning, a practice with clear precedents in the era of mass executions in the 1980s. Collective grief is criminalised.

What is currently happening in Iran is not another protest cycle. It is the collapse from below of religious authority as a system of rule.

This began in 2022 with the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) revolution sparked by the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini for 'improper veiling.' With over 70% of the population in Iran under 35, generation Z, raised entirely under an Islamic Republic, has broken with theocracy entirely. It does not debate interpretations of Islam. It does not look for progressive clerics or illusory 'reforms.' It does not buy into bogus claims of Islamic 'democracy' and Islamic 'feminism.' It recognises religion as an instrument of domination. Clerics are mocked and chased. Mosques are targeted as organs of state power. Religion no longer commands respect for a large number of people. There is a tsunami of atheism in the country. These are defining characteristics of 'Woman, Life, Freedom' and why it targets clericalism and theocracy.

This is secularisation from below. Not legislated. Not negotiated. It exposes the racist deception of cultural relativism that portrays Islamism as people's culture. The state now governs a population that has already exited religious rule in everyday life. This is why Woman, Life, Freedom endures after widespread repression and why the current protests are a continuation of the unfinished business of finishing the regime.

Women's oppression is not a parallel injustice alongside economic collapse. Compulsory veiling, sex segregation, patriarchal family law, and sexual policing aim to punish women's labour, enforce unpaid care and housework, depress wages and manage the economic and political crises. Sex apartheid is also economic policy. This is why attacks on women intensify during economic breakdowns. When the system cannot deliver stability, it governs through the suppression of bodies. And when women revolt, the entire structure is exposed.

Woman, Life, Freedom refuses the separation of feminism from class struggle, secularism from survival, bodily autonomy from material life. That is why the slogan, first raised in Rojava, Syrian Kurdistan, has taken hold of society. It speaks to how people want, and deserve, to live.

The movement's danger to the status quo is clear. This is why in the current revolt, attempts have been made to contain and rebrand the uprising into a 'national revolution' in which the former dictator's son, Reza Pahlavi, is promoted as the inevitable future leader, distorting people's demands and turning the revolt into a tool of geopolitical machinations. This is a false choice between turban or crown, aimed as erasing the uprising's secular and feminist core. This is not only about nostalgia but the dangers of a women-led, anti-clerical revolt. Hence why Rojava is also under constant attack.

A defence of secularism and women's revolution in Iran is a defence of its content: secularism as a material necessity; full equality for women and LGBT people; freedom of organisation, strikes and political assembly; and abolition of executions, religious courts, and patriarchal law.

Woman, Life, Freedom is not a mere slogan. It is a break with the past. The future of Iran will not be decided by crown or turban. Iran's future is female, egalitarian and secular. Against clerics and kings, against militarism, and against regime changes from above.

The defiance of women and others oppressed by the regime have already severed the link between religious authority and social life. The state persists only through sheer violence. How long the theocracy can function in open contradiction to everyday life remains to be seen. The Woman, Life, Freedom movement, however, has already marked a break from which there is no return.

Maryam Namazie is a political activist, campaigner and blogger

Iran 🪶 The Generation That Broke Faith With Theocracy

Socialist Voice ☭ Written by Barry Murray.

31-December-2025

Anyone with an ounce of humanity has been focused, angered, and motivated by the horrific genocide in Palestine. The old saying springs to mind: ‘For those who know, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t, none is possible.’ But perhaps that is not entirely true. As radical, revolutionary activists, where do we stand on Palestine? More importantly, where do we go from here?

Where we direct our energies after Palestine, after the hunger strikes in Britain, and after the Ukraine-NATO war is vital. There is always a danger: the next ‘critical issue’ can deflect our focus and drain our personnel.

Even without these interruptions, a mountain of ongoing political work remains. The ‘old favourites’ have not gone away. Homelessness, a two-tier health service, a chronically underfunded education system, and rampant inequality and exploitation at work—for the majority, the poor and the working poor, very little has changed in 300 years of capitalism. These are the core needs in everyone’s lives.

On top of this is the ever-increasing cost of living, particularly for basic foods, monopolised by multinational corporations and stock market speculators.

Continue @ Socialist Voice.

From Solidarity To Strategy 🪶 Building Power For A 32-County Socialist Republic

Dr John Coulter ✍ February 10th marked the anniversary of one of the most controversial and notorious figures of the Troubles - former INLA Chief of Staff Dominic McGlinchey, who was shot dead near his home in Drogheda.

To a radical right-wing Unionist and born again Christian like me, the death of one of the most ruthless republican terrorists in 1994 might seem like a cause for celebration.

However, as a born again Christian since the age of 12 in January 1972, Dominic McGlinchey’s death in the Irish republic at the age of 39 has ironically left me with many spiritual questions.

This may sound very strange given the words of Jesus to his disciple Peter as told in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew chapter 26 and verse 52. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter cut the ear of one of the men arresting Christ. Matthew states: “Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (New International Version, NIV)

In Christian theology, this is mainly interpreted that those who resort to violence, will eventually die violently. Given McGlinchey’s track record of violent republican activities, and especially the number of killings he was involved in, many Christians could be forgiven for thinking that McGlinchey got what he deserved.

This is especially the theological point given that during his time as Chief of Staff of the INLA, the organisation - directly or indirectly - was behind one of the most vicious sectarian massacres in the history of the Irish Troubles - the 1983 republican attack on the Pentecostal Mission Hall at Darkley in south Armagh.

Three men died and others were wounded in the gun attack and others were wounded in what is viewed in pro-Union circles as part of the ethnic cleansing of the Protestant border community. Darkley has become synonymous with naked sectarian hatred.

While McGlinchey was not directly involved in the massacre, one of the guns used by the attackers was reportedly an INLA weapon. While McGlinchey publicly condemned the massacre, many in the pro-Union community have dismissed his comments as mere empty rhetoric.

What could be more sectarian and a bigger example of ethnic cleansing than massacring Protestants as they met for Sunday worship? While Darkley was a Pentecostal place of worship within Protestant theology, rumours still abound in the pro-Union community that the gunmen mistook the Mountain Lodge hall for a Free Presbyterian Church - the denomination founded in 1951 by Rev Ian Paisley, the leader of the DUP and Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster in 1983.

To many in the Christian community, McGlinchey’s death was God’s justice on him for his part, albeit a minor one, in the Darkley massacre.

So it would be easy to initially dismiss McGlinchey’s death as punishment from God. But 10 February 1994, the date of his death, has never left my mind.

That day, I was on a freelance regional journalist shift at the BBC’s Belfast newsroom. It was part of my rehabilitation into frontline journalism following my participation in the controversial Channel Four Dispatches programme of October 1991, The Committee, which probed allegations of collusion between loyalist death squads and British security forces.

The Troubles were still ongoing in 1991 and collusion was still seen as a taboo subject for journalists, especially someone like me from the Protestant and Unionist community.

I had become the story as to why I had helped make the programme. I only was able to remain in Northern Ireland thanks to my dad, the late Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE, then a UUP councillor on Ballymena Borough Council, using his own personal back channels with the RUC.

In February 1992, about two years to the day before the death of McGlinchey, I had to leave my post as editor of the Carrickfergus Advertiser and East Antrim Gazette weekly newspaper in Co Antrim and joined the Sandown Group of private nursing homes as its director of public relations.

While I had no desire to pursue a career in public relations in early 1992, it was a necessary evil to allow the political heat from the Dispatches programme to cool. By February 1994, I was back in journalism again, mainly lecturing part time in media and journalism at the then Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education and had joined the freelance register for BBC Northern Ireland - a post I had done in late 1981 when I entered full time journalism.

It was back to basics for me, but it was back in journalism. In the early Eighties during my time with the BBC, I had specialised in the overnight shift. So I was quite content to get this shift work back again.

My shift began at 11 pm that night. There were only a few of us in the newsroom and I was hoping and praying for a quiet night in terms of violence as I had been lecturing that day. Maybe, I thought, if I got the early morning bulletins and summaries written if there was no Troubles activity, I could get some time to prepare some lectures as the 1993/94 academic session was my first in lecturing.

But it was not to be. Shortly before midnight, word came in about a fatal shooting in the Irish Republic. Then the newsroom erupted in a frenzy; word had come through that the victim was none other than Dominic McGlinchey. The newsroom went into hyper drive with national and specialist correspondents joining us regional reporters in piecing the story together.

What was initially disturbing about the reporting process is that we seemed to be more concerned about who had shot McGlinchey, not the fact that his teenage son was with him at the time.

While eye witnesses were interviewed about what they had seen or knew about the killing, it was almost an after thought to put in the story that a young lad had witnessed the brutal murder of his dad. Then again, given the brutality of the Troubles, it was not unusual for such horrific tragedies to be witnessed by young people.

There was much discussion among the newsroom team through the night about who was responsible and conspiracy theories were the order of the evening.

However, as my shift drew to a close around 7 am the following morning, it was a claim by a female who went to McGlinchey’s aid as he lay dying which has always both stuck in my mind and troubled me.

The local woman said McGlinchey’s last words were: “Jesus, Mary help me.” Speculation in the newsroom was that McGlinchey was calling out to his late wife, Mary, who had been shot dead herself on 31 January 1987 in front of her children in her home in Dundalk.

While debate still surrounds what his actual last words were, news bulletins were carrying reports at the time that these four words were indeed his last words. These words are also confirmed in the prominent history of the Troubles entitled Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles on Page 1346 for entry 3457 Dominic McGlinchey.

Others speculated the ‘Mary’ he was referring to was the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, and a central figure in Christian, and especially Catholic theology. Mary holds a higher position in Catholic theology than Protestant theology. In the former she is regarded as Mary, Queen of Heaven.

Whilst McGlinchey is regarded in the pro-Union community as a committed republican socialist terrorist, he was buried in his native Bellaghy after a traditional Catholic requiem Mass at St Mary’s Church. If he was such a committed republican terrorist, why was he given a religious funeral? This has always been a theological bone of contention in Protestant circles.

The Catholic Church has been very critical of republicanism through the generations, yet gives dead terrorists a full blown traditional funeral as it would ordinary Catholics.

However, this has not been the key issue which has puzzled me over the decades since McGlinchey’s death. Put bluntly, could one of Ireland’s most notorious killers of the Troubles be in heaven because he called out to Jesus as he died? After that BBC newsroom shift that February 1994, it was a long, slow drive back to my then home in Glynn village near Larne as the pondered the scriptural meaning of those reported last words.

The basis of this theological dilemma stems from the crucifixion of Christ Himself by the Romans at Calvary. Two thieves were also crucified alongside Christ, but while one mocked him, the other asked Christ to remember him.

This passage which has sparked the debate is found in the New Testament in Luke’s Gospel Chapter 23 beginning at verse 39: 

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God?’ He said, ‘since you are under the same sentence?’ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserved. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. (New International Version, NIV).

While he is not mentioned in the Bible by name, many Biblical scholars suggest the name of this repentant thief was Dimas or Dysmas. What is significant is that he called out to Jesus for mercy - in the same way as McGlinchey called to Jesus with his last words.

In modern Christian theology, this act of calling out to Jesus for repentance, help or mercy, is known as a death bed conversion. Based on this portion of scripture, and taking the female witness’s account of McGlinchey’s last words, the former INLA Chief of Staff is now in heaven, not condemned to damnation in hell for his sins, given that the sixth commandment as given to Moses in the Old Testament is ‘thou shalt not kill.’ (Exodus Chapter 20, verse 13, King James Version).

Some may suggest that because of the terrorist atrocities which McGlinchey committed, there is no way that such a killer would be in heaven. However, to deny this concept is to deny the salvation of Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, one of the great Christian writers of the Bible.

When he was Saul of Tarsus, he was one of the biggest hunters of Christians until his conversion to Christianity as he travelled to Damascus. The key verses for Paul’s (then Saul's) Road to Damascus experience are found in Acts Chapter 9 verses 3 to 9, where a blinding light from heaven appears, he falls, hears Jesus asking why he persecutes Him, and is told to go into Damascus, where he'll be instructed, resulting in three days of blindness before Ananias meets him. The event also appears in Acts 22:6-11 and Acts 26:12-18, offering slightly different accounts, but the same core message of divine revelation and transformation.

A Road to Damascus conversion is a key theme in Salvationist theology in Christianity. Given that McGlinchey called out to Jesus, did the former INLA boss have such a religious conversion in the moments before he died?

Both my late father and father in law were clerics and both were present with various parishioners when they became born again believers hours, even minutes, before dying, hence the phrase in Christian theology, death bed conversion.

And given Paul’s past as a violent hunter and persecutor of Christians, there is no reason to doubt how God forgave the violent background of McGlinchey if, indeed, he did call out to Jesus as he lay dying. As with Paul, his violent background did not hinder his conversion and ultimately his admission to heaven after death.

What has to be established in this part of the McGlinchey story is the accuracy of what his last words were. Some have disputed if ‘Jesus Mary help me’ were his last words.

It was a question I wanted to ask a relative of McGlinchey’s, Paul McGlinchey, during the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly campaign. My dad was re-elected to Stormont on the seventh count for the Ulster Unionist Party, but Paul McGlinchey, standing as an Independent Republican candidate, failed to get elected.

Put bluntly, if Dominic McGlinchey did genuinely issue this call to Jesus, then the bitter medicine which many in the Christian community must swallow, is that he is in heaven. Just as the thief on the cross was saved by Jesus, so too, was the former Chief of Staff of the INLA.

The concept of violent people in heaven is not a new debate in Christianity. One of the most contentious stories I ever wrote during my time as Northern Political Correspondent for the Irish Daily Star came in December 2007 in an article marking the 10th anniversary of the death of loyalist terrorist Billy Wright in 1997 inside the Maze Prison.

What’s the links, you may ask. It was the INLA who killed Wright inside the prison; the same terror group that McGlinchey was once Chief of Staff.

Like McGlinchey, there is speculation that Wright may also be in heaven. Wright was once terror boss of the notorious Mid Ulster brigade of the Ulster Volunteer Force, which was responsible for dozens of deaths in that region.

Wright later fell out of favour with the UVF’s Belfast leadership and formed the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force. He was LVF boss at the time of his death.

However, before Wright got involved with terrorism, my Christian sources have told me he was an evangelist and a committed born again Christian, who even carried out Christian outreach in the Irish republic.

A controversial pastor said to me in an interview published on December 4, 2007: “I believe Billy Wright is in heaven right now - perhaps even sat next to the repentant thief who died on a cruel Roman cross next to Christ on the day of crucifixion.”

This is slightly different to the supposed McGlinchey conversion, as this would be a view on Salvation that ‘once saved, always saved’ no matter how sinful the person has become.

The death of McGlinchey, like Wright’s, has produced many conspiracy theories. The biggest debate surrounding both terrorists is the eventual destination of their souls.

As a born again Christian myself, I believe in Salvation and that although I am not, and never will be, a perfect Christian, I know according to my faith that I will be re-united with my late parents and grand parents in heaven when I die.

It will be one of the great ironies of theology that as I dander around heaven, two people will come up to me - Dominic McGlinchey, the once feared republican terrorist, and Billy Wright, the once feared loyalist terrorist.

In the meantime, I have at long last decided to follow in my late father’s footsteps and become a preacher of the Gospel. I am now an Accredited Preacher with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) with my Service of Recognition, or graduation, taking place in September 2024 in First Antrim Presbyterian Church.

I am currently working on a sermon entitled God’s Assurance of Salvation. I must admit as I put the sermon together, those four last words of McGlinchey are constantly running through my mind. 

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. 

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