Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 1213

May 24, 2017

Middle Class More Racist Than Ever

Mick Hall with a piece on Organized Rage on middle class racism.
Hanif Kureishi says it's not the working class who are racist today the middle class are more racist than they have ever been.
  Hanif KureishiI have always enjoyed Hanif Kureishi'swork and especially the films of his books like My Beautiful Laundrette, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, and The Buddha of Suburbia. There are few better portrayals of working class life on the big screen than these films.

He not only understands what makes working class people tick, whatever our colour, religion or race he actually likes and admires our tenacity and common decency to try and do the right thing. Not only that, due to his great talent he has experienced the bigotry of the English middle classes close up.

Unlike the mainstream media, which far to often portrays a middle class whose excreta doesn't stink, while portraying the working classes as a homogeneous lump of bigotry and want. This type of nonsense was epitomised when they and the politicians they support were looking for someone to blame for Brexit, and the election of Trump as US President.

In the UK it was the working classes who took the hit for Brexit. In the US it was Russia they blamed for Hilary Clinton's self inflicted defeat. Rather than face up to their own responsibility and shortcomings they lashed out at us.

In the interview with the Guardian Hanif is having none of this:
The country my father thought of as a place of tolerance has now provided a space for an utterly misconceived and misplaced and vile form of racism, the demonisation of the Other, the positioning of Muslims as backward, misogynistic, racist, anti-gay, the like of which we haven’t seen since the 30s. I don’t think it’s the working class. People say it’s the working class, finally they have risen up, had enough, been deprived, and finally said, well it’s the Poles and the Pakis,’ et cetera. I don’t think so. I think it’s a large section of the middle class who are really losing their place. They are more racist than they have ever been.

His father, Rafiushan came to England from Pakistan in his 20s, married an English woman and with her brought up two children in south London. (Kureishi portrayed their relationship in his book My Ear at His Heart.
The idea of the immigrant coming here to take your benefits, take your women, laze around, watch telly, all of that … Immigrants are the hardest working people. My father used to say to me, and I say to my kids every day, we haven’t come here to sit around on our arse, we’ve come here to make a living, serve this country, work. That has been very shocking and disappointing, and upsets me. Britain’s wealth came out of the empire, and we all came here, to Bradford, to the NHS, to the transport system, and how the Commonwealth and the ex-empire created the wealth of this country. And I feel very bitter about the hatred that is directed against us on a racial basis, when in fact we have served this country. My father was a British subject; my father hated the idea that people would say he was an immigrant. He wasn’t someone from elsewhere, he was originally from India, which was part of the British empire. The lack of gratitude, or sense of history, that the wealth of this great city, one of the greatest in the world, comes out of Britain’s relations with the rest of the world – that is so horrific to me.”

I couldn't agree more with Hanif. Yes there are racist working class people, why wouldn't there be when we live in a society which has never come to terms with the legacy of the British empire. Which incidentally was the most racist institution ever established as it had racism at its core. As bad as they were, compare the British empire with those of the Romans or Ottomans and you will get an idea of what I mean.

The big difference between the British working class and all other social classes is the new comers to the UK mainly live amongst us, in time they often become our friends, neighbours, family members and love ones. This is especially true of boroughs like my own which have a long tradition of welcoming new comers. Why? Because few people can trace their own families living in the borough for more than a handful of generations, and they understand what a cold house the UK can be for newcomers.

True, when they first arrive some local people act like frightened bunny rabbets caught in a car head light, but this normally settles down. Sadly in recent years it hasn't helped with Ukip and before them the BNP stirring the pot. But even with their lies and provocative behaviour the majority of working class people were not persuaded by their reactionary and hateful ideas. Besides many of those who were uneasy about the numbers of newcomers to the borough had legitimate concerns about lack of affordable homes to rent or buy, the pressures put on schools, and doctors surgeries, and the under cutting of wages in the jobs market.

None of these are insurmountable problems. A fair rent act and building a half a million new council/housing association homes would solve the first. Adequately financing the NHS and education the second. And the third could be solved by the ending of zero hours contracts, a legally binding minimum wage of ten pounds and removing the anti trade union legislation from the statute book.

Thankfully with Corbyn Labour, for the first time in 30 years we have a political party contesting the 8th June general election which is promising all three in its manifesto.
The full interview with Hanif Kureishi can be read here.

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Published on May 24, 2017 08:00

The New York Societies Summer Schedule

From the 1916 Societies the summer schedule for its New York end of the operation.


The New York 1916 Society are to attend a number of events over the coming months, in an effort to bolster the ‘One Ireland, One Vote’ campaign across the ‘Big Apple’. Which are listed below;

New York 1916 Society fundraiser on Saturday, May 27th at 19:00–Late, Dermot Mahoney’s Irish Pub, 40 Broadway, Kingston, New York.

46th New Jersey Irish Festival on Sunday, June 11th from 12 noon – 7 pm at Monmouth Park Racetrack, Oceanport, NJ.

19TH Staten Ireland Fair on Saturday, June 10th & Sunday, June 11th, from 12 noon – 7:30 pm at Mount Loretto 6581 Hylan Blvd, Prince’s Bay.

These events, such as the New Jersey Irish Festival and the Staten Ireland Fair provide a major boost for the Irish Community in the New York. Not only do they bring the Irish community together, their organisers have been an integral part of promoting and preserving Irish culture and heritage. As they facilitate a comprehensive program of classes in Irish language, poetry, dancing and all things Irish, throughout the year.

The New York Society are organising more events for later on in the year, which are yet to be confirmed.

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Published on May 24, 2017 02:00

May 23, 2017

Manchester Massacre

Anthony McIntyre shares his thoughts on last night's massacre in Manchester.


The big bang for most Mancunians came courtesy of the IRA having detonated the largest bomb on British soil since the 1940s. Fortunately, while it produced numerous casualties, its fatality count was nil.

In the era of Islamic State, the bulk of eyes presumably were on the capital rather than second tier cities. Most previous mass murder attacks on civilians by theocratic fascists on European soil have tended to be in capitals: Paris, Brussels, Madrid; Berlin; London. There was of course Nice, the exception rather than rule. Still, despite the general trend, Manchester serves as a cruel reminder that nowhere is off-limits. Any city will be packed with “legitimate targets” – for theocratic predators: children. 

The Nazis did not return to Manchester last night, but fellow nihilists of a different creed most certainly did. And with Nazi-like dispassion for children they slaughtered the innocent, eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos among them. Should we be surprised

That ISIS a grisly and terrible threat cannot be seriously doubted. With its horrifying snuff films, its genocidal practices towards Shiite Muslims, Christians, and “polytheists,” and its arch-reactionary social codes imposed through whippings, limb-chopping, beheadings, stoning, eye-gouging, the shooting of children for minor infractions, and its sexual enslavement of women, ISIS is most definitely extremist and perversely evil.

An extreme and perverse evil that snaked its way into Manchester just over 24 hours ago to visit the wrath of a vile deity on Saffie Rose Roussos and others whose minor infraction was to attend a music concert.

What is it about music that infuriates the slayers? The decision to target buildings like the Bataclan in Paris and the Manchester Arena, venues hosting music concerts, are perhaps indicative of the mindset HJ Mencken was scathing of, puritanism: "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The cerebral offspring of a warped theocratic perspective. Throw into the mix the Dawkins view that “religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end,” and the primer exists for murder-suicide.

The timing was dreary, by accident not design. No sooner had one notorious child killer died than another stepped into take his place. Ian Brady or Salman Abedi, there is not a lot to contrast but a huge amount to compare: infanticide for gratification, whether religious or sexual, is an abomination. Context doesn’t matter. It is mere alibi. 

The anger and blackness that descended upon learning of  the Manchester Massacre was similar to what I felt when Palestinian children playing on a Gaza beach were targeted for murder by Israel: or when the infants of Sandy Hook were gunned to death by a US psychopath. There is no evil to equal the evil of child murder.

Those who wilfully target children for murder are beyond either description or redemption. When Brady died in custody last week, my one sentiment was fuck him. Much the same as it was towards Robert Black and Myra Hindley, when they breathed their last stale breath in dank prison cells. Much as it will be if Marc Dutroux experiences a similar demise in a Belgian jail. Fuck Salman Abedi as well before forgetting him. Remember Saffie Rose Roussos instead.  

My own 16 year old daughter was in the air at the time of the explosion, on her way back from a four day school trip to London. On Saturday night her two friends had attended a concert in Dublin by the artist who played Manchester last night, Ariana Grande. Although in no danger whatsoever, I suppose it simply adds intensity to the emotions of the moment and greater empathy towards the parents of the murdered of Manchester.

Meanwhile, the leader of the so called free world, Donald Trump, has just signed a  $110 billion arms deal with the Saudi regime at the very moment the ideology sponsored by that regime was stalking the streets of Manchester.

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Published on May 23, 2017 15:00

Cubs of the Caliphate

Regular TPQ commenter Daithi O’Donnabhain discusses the IS counter offensive in Mosul, their use of child suicide bombers, and suitable responses from the West to what comes after.
When Islamic States (IS) Caliph decided to split with both its parent organisation Al-Qaeda (AQ), and its Syrian offshoot Jabhat Al-Nusra (JN) early in the Arab Spring, one of the main tactical concerns raised within the group was the ability to hold territory in the event of American intervention.
But IS leaders thought that at a minimum, a generation of Islamic youth bearing witness to the Caliphates birth would be epoch making, and nothing would the same even in the event it was subverted.

To give a clue as to the possible scale of their catchment area for their witnesses to this new old civilisation, they had established indoctrination centres and training camps across the areas in Iraq and Syria under their control: in territory that was estimated to hold 10 million people. We have seen the child graduates of these camps appear in snuff films before, usually executing subdued prisoners away from the front lines of battle. Now from the frequency of images coming out of Mosul and other areas, it appears these ‘cubs’ are being used as suicide bombers on the front lines. IS suicide bomber Mosul
IS is looking like losing its territory as they war-gamed, but this loss of territory will not extinguish the idea that has been implanted in its youth. Beyond just the shock value of seeing youth so enthusiastically annihilate themselves and others around them, is the question of what happens to the rest of their classmates if their generals go into hiding before they can be despatched on their own missions? People that have had the authority to install fear in and kill (dreaded) adults at a key time in their psychological growth? Who enjoys playing water pistols after firing AK-47’s into adults as a form of deity worship?
The fact these guys look too much like genuine children to be showing up in the Calais Jungle is a small comfort at least. It gives us time to get our own house in order before the next solution to the last solutions problems is excreted on us by the whoever is allowed to be leading us. But maybe some lateral thinking is required before, so we are not repeating the failed whack-a-mole-and-its-family/village approach that appears to feed the problem its purportedly trying to minimize.

A key component of this will be the distance between the ruled and the rulers. Think back to the Paris “solidarity” march after the Charlie Hebdo massacre when 12 employees of a satirical magazine who published blasphemous cartoons were gunned down by theocratic fascists from one particularly energetic sect they had offended.

En Marche!
The world leaders initially appeared to lead the thing, joining arms in the perfect example of fraternité libertaire.


In it together. Fuck yeah!But the media who of course hold these same powers to account didn’t show us the truest example of what the street looked like. It was completely secure away from the rest of the march, on a closed street. But this was not fake news because it predates 2016 (just go with it).

Giving the terrorists a win?

In fairness to them, they have been vigorously trying to prevent another massacre such as the Charlie Hebdo one. Namely by vigorously enforcing blasphemy laws so they themselves can punish and jail the culprits so groups like the AQ Maghreb branch will not need to commission a response themselves.

Another observation to factor into our thinking is that it is now unusual for a European leader to have any children. For example May, Macron, Merkel, along with Sweden's Luxemburg's, Scotland's and Italy’s leaders are all child free. It leads me to wonder whether this also affects their long term thinking on the type of insecure society they are forcing on us. So we, the public, need to shift their thinking to a shorter term time frame. Perhaps the key obstacle to this is the security our leaders feel in insulating themselves from the consequences of their own decisions. And since they have lauded their citizens for going about normal city living after every terror attack, thankfully it reveals an initial trajectory for us to aim for.

IS suicide bombers that attacked an American base in Kirkuk
I would invite all the Western leaders (by force of law) to share in the stoic bravery of everyday existence with the rest of us by removing all their security details. Armed guards, closing entire traffic grids and bullet proof limos are a signal of their fear, and of course we don’t want to give the impression we are bowing down to fear and giving victory to the terrorists so they all need to go. Immediately. This is not a complete solution; it’s more a first iteration of something we can feasibly do before attempting anything else.
IS Yazidi converts, suicide bombers in Mosul
If the western leaders don’t agree to adjust with us to what we are told by London's Mayor should now be seen as “part and parcel” of city living, they would be doing something analogous to what the older IS operators are instructing the child suicide bombers to do: give their life so that their culture advances, and without giving opportunity for questions like whose culture or whether this culture is worth perpetuating.

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Published on May 23, 2017 01:00

May 22, 2017

Six Weeks Of Misty-Eyed Biopics

Writing shortly after the Theresa May decision to announce a snap general election Mick Hall @ Organized Rage predicted that:
From the mainstream media we can expect 6 weeks of misty-eyed May biopics and fawning promos based on Number 10 briefings.

The British media used this photo to imply May was walking in Wales over Easter when she had her Damascene conversion to hold a snap election, in fact the photo was taken in Switzerland in 2007.
What has already become clear, and we are only in the first week of the general election campaign, the whole of the British mainstream media is supporting Theresa May. From the Sun and the rest of the crime families stable, to the BBC and Sky News, they're all singing from the Tory Party song sheet.

As Craig Murray wrote we've had BBC 2's Newsnight’s misty-eyed May biopic worthy of Netflix's 'The Crown,' and in Saturday's issue of the Guardian we have an astonishingly fawning promo based on a Number 10 briefing, telling the entirely untrue story of how the decision to call an election came to May during an idyllic walk in the Welsh hills.

I doubt any of these hacks bothered to check her whereabouts when she was supposed to be having her Damascene conversion to hold an election in June. What can you say about such cretins when they are first in line to condemn so called fake news?

Not once has she been firmly challenged as to why she told the electorate there would be no snap election over and again, eleven times in all. Nor what her real motives were for calling an election now.

I have often repeated the English middle classes never fail to disappoint. But we now have the Guardian editorial floor trying to justify their move to the far right by claiming May has called the snap election so she can outgun her pro Brexit MP's if she is returned with a large majority which will enable her to negotiate a soft Brexit which will keep the UK in the single market.

They provide not an ounce of evidence to back up what is by any standards a pretty ridiculous claim, to use a popular term amongst the ruling elites its totally fake news.

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Published on May 22, 2017 13:00

Putting Christ Back Into Republicanism

Political commentator and former Blanket columnist Dr John Coulter has been analyzing how Republicanism should develop its ideology to secure the peace process in Ireland. In the second of the two-part mini series, his analysis is taken from his e-book, An Saise Glas (The Green Sash) The Road to National Republicanism. This chapter is entitled ‘Putting Christ Back Into Republicanism’. 


Old-style republicanism has always enjoyed some sort of partnership with the Irish Catholic Church. This Church/State bond was at its most influential when Eamon de Valera was President of Ireland.

However, while the republicanism which led to the Treaty in the 1920s, and the republicans who ran the old Irish Free State, even the republicans who secured full status for the 26 Counties as a full-blown republic developed the concept of Holy Mother Ireland, the republican movements which emerged after the defeat of the IRA in the 1956-62 Border campaign seemed to want to permanently scrap the ethos of Church and State.

During the conflict known as the Troubles, the Official republican movement of the Official IRA and Workers’ Party, the Provisional republican movement, and the various factions of the republican socialist movement (such as the IRSP and INLA) had an exceptionally fractious relationship with the Irish Catholic Church and leadership.

The republican movements which evolved in the late Sixties onwards developed at a time when Left-wing revolutionary politics was becoming a world phenomenon.

The modern republican movements wanted to see themselves as part of a global revolutionary organization, rather than a sectarian anti-Protestant movement on a tiny island on the fringe of the European continent.

The root cause of how republicanism has got itself bogged down with the secular movement goes back to the failed Easter Rising of 1916. In the immediate aftermath, Britain had the high ground. The Irish Volunteers had been defeated, and even spat upon by some Dublin Catholics as they were marched into captivity.

If Britain had boxed clever in 1916, it would have given the leaders a jail term and told them to grow up politically. Instead, it allowed General ‘Bloody’ Maxwell to take charge of ‘mopping up’ the aftermath of the failed Rising.

It was Maxwell who insisted that the Rising leaders be executed. At that time, because Britain was bogged down in the an equally bloody trench campaign of the Great War, the British political leadership agreed to Maxwell’s assertion that the Rising leaders should be executed by firing squad.

By giving the leaders a soldier’s death, he immediately and substantially raised their status from troublesome rebels to international anti-colonial martyrs. James Connolly’s death was particularly gruesome. Although wounded in the Rising, he was strapped into a chair for his execution as he was unable to stand.

Until those British bullets dispatched him into eternity, Connolly was not a republican hero, but a largely insignificant Scottish communist dabbling in Irish politics. Connolly was first and foremost a Marxist, not a Catholic nationalist.

But his execution elevated his writings, beliefs and actions to a new level in Irish nationalism. Connolly’s communism became a significant factor in the rapidly emerging Irish Republican Army which fought the War of Independence a few years after the doomed Rising.

The fallout from the Treaty meant that the Irish Catholic hierarchy largely supported the Free State forces rather than the anti-Treaty IRA. The images as portrayed in the hit 2006 film, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, of the priest hearing IRA confessions and blessing the terrorists before they left to attack the British in the War of Independence, had long since faded into mythology and folklore.

It should not be forgotten that more IRA prisoners were executed by the Free State forces during the Irish Civil War than killed by the Black and Tans during the War of Independence. When republican goes to war against republican, the ensuing bloodshed can be even more sadistic than republican terror campaigns against the British state.

The Free State victors and subsequent Dails for generations to come guaranteed the Irish Catholic hierarchy a central role in the political life of the 26 Counties. Clerical sex abuse, whether by individuals or by institutions, went unchecked and unpunished.

Connolly’s atheistic Marxism within republicanism became a viable alternative to the sexual crimes of Irish Catholicism’s institutionalized religion. For many Catholics in Ireland, the Catholic Church came to symbolize Christianity.

Connolly’s atheistic Marxism became a vehicle to challenge the previously unquestionable power of the Catholic priests. This naturally led to friction between republicans loyal to the Connolly tradition and the Catholic hierarchy, especially during the Eamon de Valera years. It was he who maximized the concept of Church and State.

It has become a matter of some debate that Connolly recanted from his atheistic Marxism in the hours before his brutal execution.

The main ethos of my National Republicanism is to re-introduce true Biblical Christianity, especially the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself, back into republican ideology.

A major stereotype which National Republicanism will seek to eradicate is the false perception that Biblical Christianity is the institutionalized litany of the Catholic Church and bishops under another name.

Biblical Christianity is not the priests trying to shake off the stigma of the clerical abuse scandals. Biblical Christianity is precisely what its title states – the true Christian beliefs as stated by Jesus in the Bible.

National Republicanism will dismantle the structures of the Irish Catholic Church in Ireland and establish a Biblically-based Christian Church which is free of Vatican control. This new Church will be based on Biblical principals.

A perfect example of this type of new Church sweeping the 26 Counties is the Pentecostal denomination, which was founded in Co Monaghan in the early 1900s. In spite of a fall in attendances at mainstream Christian denominations throughout Ireland north and south, the Pentecostal movement is bucking the trend and is increasing in numbers, especially in the Dublin area.

This is not a case of Catholics converting to Protestantism, but a case of Catholics – disillusioned with their Church and the sexual abuse scandals – looking to a new expression of their Christian faith.

National Republicanism will revise the concept of Church and State in Ireland – north and south. Instead of the bond of Church and State, National Republicanism seeks a rebirth of the concept of Holy Mother Ireland through the strategy of Christ and State. National Republicanism wants to see a revival of Biblical Christianity – which our patron Saint, Patrick, introduced to the Emerald Isle – as our national personal faith.

I emphasise the term ‘personal faith in Christ’ as opposed to ‘institutionalized religion’, which the Catholic Church represented.

The modern republican movement, especially those who see themselves as republican socialists, want to see the development and expansion of a pluralist and secular society in Ireland under the supposed banner of a democratic socialist 32-county republic.

In reality, many modern republicans despise the Catholic Church hierarchy, seeing many clerics and nuns as the modern-day equivalents of the Biblical Pharisees.

National Republicanism seeks to restore republican confidence in the Biblical Christian faith. Ironically, the same crisis is facing modern loyalism. One of its most famous slogans is ‘For God And Ulster.’

Yet many loyalists were influenced in prison by the writing and words of the late Gusty Spence and David Ervine, who followed a progressive socialist path. Many loyalist prisoners found themselves in jail because they followed the ‘blood and thunder’ sermons of Protestant fundamentalism, a fundamentalism which largely deserted them once those loyalists found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Just as loyalism abandoned the Christian God in ‘For God And Ulster’ so too, many republicans turned their back on the Catholic concept of Holy Mother Ireland.

Modern loyalism and republicanism are – ironically – both trying to cut religion out of their respective ideologies. Both seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet that Marxism and extreme socialism hold the keys to the future development of the respective communities.

This is a huge error of judgment, especially for republicanism. Having read Karl Marx’s Das Capital from start to finish, I can only conclude there is a startling similarity between the type of ideal society which Marx is trying to create, and the Biblical Christian society which Jesus wished to create.

National Republicanism is seeking a return of Biblical Christianity as a central core of republican thinking by getting republicans to focus on the New Testament account of the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ as told in St Matthew’s Gospel Chapter Five.

In this aspect, Christ outlines a series of attributes, commonly known as The Beatitudes. There is a school of ideological thinking – to which I personally belong – which maintains that Marx based ‘Das Capital’ on The Beatitudes and his overt criticism of religion was merely a tactic ploy to disguise the fact that he had pinched his ideas from the Bible, and the words of Jesus Himself.

In reality, Jesus Christ was the first real communist – not Karl Marx. National Republicanism’s Christ and State ideology is, therefore, based on St Matthew’s Gospel chapter 5, verses 1 to 12. Many of the Beatitudes begin (using the Authorized King James translation) “Blessed are …”

However, when the words of Jesus are taken in a modern context, they make the basis for a realistic political agenda for National Republicanism. Here are the key points which the Beatitudes highlight:


The poor in spirit (verse 3) – the need to restore national pride in society;

Those who mourn (verse 4) – the need to remember and help the victims of the conflict in Ireland;

The meek (verse 5) – the need to help the working class, and for the rich to invest their wealth in helping those less well off in society;

They which do hunger (verse 6) – the need to combat growing poverty in society, and also provide a sound educational and health system for all;

The merciful (verse 7) – the need for a fair and accountable justice system;

Pure in heart (verse 8) – the need to restore the moral fabric of society, to encourage family values and implement the concept of society’s conscience;

Peacemakers (verse 9) – the need for compromise and respect of people’s views based on the concept of accommodation, not capitulation;

Persecuted (verse 10) – the need for National Republicans to have the courage to stand up for their beliefs;

When men shall revile you (verse 11) – the need for a free press with responsible regulation.

National Republicanism is about the creation of the concept of Christian citizenship. Under this concept, compulsory voting – as exists in the Commonwealth nation of Australia – would be introduced to Ireland.

A key emphasis of National Republicanism is Christian pride in the nation under the banner of ‘Ireland for the Irish’. National Republicanism wants to combat the so-called ‘Brain Drain’ where Ireland’s young people feel the need to leave the nation and not return.

National Republicanism would not only seek to keep this generation on the island, but to encourage those who have emigrated to return with their skills to the island.

In this respect, all Irish citizens would complete a two-year compulsory National Service in the nation’s armed forces, during which time they would also learn a vocational trade.

The Christian Churches would have a role in encouraging people of all ages to develop a community service role.

In conclusion, it must again be emphasized that National Republicanism is not seeking to re-establish the rule of the Catholic bishops. Readers of National Republicanism must not confuse having a personal faith with Jesus Christ with those who want to implement a draconian form of institutionalized, ritualistic worship. There is no role for a pope in National Republicanism.

Follow Dr Coulter on Twitter @JohnA

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Published on May 22, 2017 01:00

May 21, 2017

Died Mostly Of Malnutrition-Induced Diseases

Chris Fogarty thanks TPQ for carrying his views on the mass grave at the Dungannon Workhouse grounds.


After weeks of evasion and stonewalling by all regional newspapers, the May 16 edition of the Tyrone Times, alone, citing The Pensive Quill, finally reported what cannot be denied. It headlined; "Mass grave at Dungannon workhouse remains unmarked." Sad to say, its sub-headline reported

Despite the knowledge that hundreds (sic) are buried in a mass grave in Dungannon the plot has never been marked out.

Unless the Dungannon workhouse deaths were inconsistent with Ireland's other workhouses, the mass graves in deep pits in its grounds contain not hundreds, but the remains of thousands of innocents. They died mostly of malnutrition-induced diseases while Irish-produced agricultural abundance was removed at gunpoint by British soldiers to the ports for export.

The genocide required more than hall of Britain's army; 67 regiments of its total of 130.

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Published on May 21, 2017 13:00

Parliamentary Riffraff

The Uri Avnery Column has a low opinion of the standard of debate in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.


That was 52 years ago. Among the members were David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Levi Eshkol and several others of their kind.

Today, looking back, that Knesset looks like an Olympus, compared to the present composition of that non-august body.

An Intelligent  debate in today's Knesset would be as out of place as a Pater Noster in a Synagogue.

Let's face it, the present Knesset is full of what I would call parliamentary riffraff. Men and women I would not drink a cup of coffee with. Some of them look and behave like walking jokes. One is suspected of owning a bordello in Eastern Europe. Several would be rejected out of hand by any self-respecting private employer.

These people are now engaged in an unprecedented competition of outrageous "private" bills – bills submitted to Knesset vote not by the government, but by individual members. I have already mentioned some of these bills recently – like the bill to recognize Israel as the "National Home of the Jewish People" - and they multiply by the week. They do not attract any special attention, because the bills introduced by the government are hardly more sensible.

The question necessarily arises: how did these people get elected in the first place?

In the old parties, such as the Likud and the Zionist Camp (a.k.a. the Labor Party), there are primaries. These are internal elections, in which the party members select their representatives. For example, the head of the workers' committee of a large public enterprise got all the employees and their families registered in the Likud, and they got him on the party list for the general elections. Now he is a minister.

Newer "parties" dispense with all this nonsense. The party founder personally selects the members of the party list, at his or her pleasure. The members are totally dependent. If they displease the leader, they are simply kicked out at the next election and replaced by more obedient lackeys.

The Israeli system allows any group of citizens to set up an election list. If they pass the electoral threshold, they enter the Knesset.

In the first few elections, the threshold was 1%. That's how I got elected three times. Since then, the threshold has been raised and now stands at 3.25% of the valid votes.

Naturally, I was a great supporter of the original system. It has, indeed, some outstanding advantages. The Israeli public has many divisions - Jews and Arabs, Western Jews and Eastern Jews, new immigrants and old-timers, religious (of several kinds) and secular, rich and poor, and more. The system allows all of these to be represented. The prime minister and the government are elected by the Knesset. Since no party has ever achieved a majority in elections, governments are always based on coalitions, which provide some checks and balances.

At some stage, the law was changed and the Prime Minister was elected directly. The public quickly became disillusioned and the old system was reinstated.

Now, seeing the riffraff that have entered the Knesset, I am changing my opinion. Obviously, something in the existing system is extremely wrong.

Of Course, there is no perfect election system. Adolf Hitler came to power in a democratic system. All kinds of odious leaders were elected democratically. Lately, Donald Trump, an unlikely candidate, was elected.

There are many different election systems in the world. They are the results of history and circumstances. Different peoples have different characters and preferences.

The British system, one of the oldest, is very conservative. No place for new parties or erratic personalities. Each district elects one member, winner takes all. Political minorities have no chance. Parliament was a club of gentlemen, and to some extent still is (if one counts gentlewomen).

The US system, much younger, is even more problematic. The constitution was written by gentlemen. They had just gotten rid of the British king, so they put in his place a quasi-king called president, who reigns supreme. Members of both houses of parliament are elected by constituencies.

Since the founders did not trust the people too much, they instituted a club of gentlemen as a kind of filter. This is called the Electoral College, and just now they elected (again) a president who did not obtain the majority of the votes.

The Germans, having learned their lesson, invented a more complicated system. Half of the members of parliament are elected in constituencies, the other half on country-wide lists. This means that the one half are directly responsible to their voters, but that political minorities also have a chance of being elected.

If I were asked to write a constitution for Israel (we have none) what would I choose? (No need for panic. According to my calculations, there is about a one trillion to one chance for this to happen.)

The main questions are:

Will members of parliament be chosen in constituencies or by country-wide lists?
Will the chief executive be elected by the general public or by parliament?

Each answer has its pros and cons. It is a decision about what is more important under the existing circumstances in each country.

I was very impressed by the recent elections in France. The president was elected in a direct nation-wide vote – but with an incredibly important and wise institution: the Second Round.

In a normal election, people first vote emotionally. They may be angry with somebody, and want to express their feelings. Also, they want to vote for the person they like, whatever his or her chances. So you have several winners, and the final winner may be somebody who has got only a minority of the votes.

The second round repairs all these faults. After the first round, people have time to think rationally. Among the presidential candidates who have a chance to win, who is the closest to me (or the lesser evil)? In the end, one candidate necessarily gets a majority.

The same applies to the candidates to the Assemblée Nationale, the parliament. They are elected in constituencies, but if no one gets a majority at the first try, there is a second round there, too.

This may impede the arrival of newcomers, but lo and behold – the election of Francois Macron shows that even in this system an almost complete newcomer can become president.

Sure, an expert can probably find faults in this system, too, but it seems reasonably good.

Over The years I have visited several parliaments. Most of their members left me singularly unimpressed.

No parliament is composed of philosophers. You need a lot of ambition. cunning and other unseemly traits to become a member. (Myself excluded.)

I grew up admiring the US senate. Until I visited that institution and was introduced on the floor to several members. It was a terrible disappointment, Several of them I spoke with about the Middle East obviously had no idea what they were talking about, though they were considered experts. Some were, frankly, pompous asses. (Pompous Asses are a category well represented in every parliament).

I learned that the real business of the Senate is conducted behind the scenes by the consultants and advisors of the senators, who are far more intelligent and informed, and that the role of the members themselves is to look good, collect money and make highfalutin speeches.)

TV Is changing the picture (literally) everywhere.

TV cannot show party programs, so programs are obsolete. TV cannot show political parties, so parties are disappearing in many places, including Israel. TV shows faces, so the faces of individuals count. That explains why good-looking politicians in Israel create new parties and appoint the Knesset members, including the riffraff (some of them also good-looking), who would never be elected in a direct constituency vote.

When Adlai Stevenson ran for the presidency, he was told "Don't worry, every thinking person will vote for you."

"But I need a majority," Stevenson famously replied.

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Published on May 21, 2017 07:00

Nun Arrested For Helping Priests Sexually Abuse Deaf Children


From Atheist Republic a piece by Lena M about clerical sex attacks on children in Argentina which has rocked the Catholic Church in the country.
Photo Credits: Patheos
Argentina: Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf is a Catholic school for deaf children, founded in 1830 by a priest, Antonio Provolo. A Roman Catholic nun from Japan, Kosaka Kumiko, 42, was arrested and charged Friday on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at the Antonio Provolo Institute in the Mendoza province of Argentina and also charged with physically abusing the students.

Before her arrest Kumiko had been a fugitive, “believed to have been hidden in northeast Argentina or in a bordering country.” She had been on the run for about a month before turning herself in late last week. Authorities say that Kosaka lived at the Provolo Institute from 2004-2012. Kumiko’s arrest stems from a sex abuse scandal that has roiled the Catholic Church from Argentina to Rome, and has resulted in Vatican probes and the arrests of two priests, Horacio Corbacho and Nicola Corradi, and three other men.

Dozens of students in the Provolo Institute’s school in Italy were similarly abused for decades. Some victims accuse Corradi, the priest who is arrested in Argentina. In that time the Vatican ordered an investigation and sanctioned four accused priests, but not Corradi.

In a particularly disturbing case, the Roman Catholic nun allegedly forced a 5-year-old girl to wear a diaper in class, to conceal the bleeding, after she was sexually assaulted by a priest. Twelve years later, the officials started to investigate Kumiko’s role in the sex abuse scandal after that girl came forward to allege the nun had placed a dressing or diaper over her bleeding, preventing her from sitting in the classroom.

The students with hearing disabilities who lived far from Greater Mendoza were housed in the Institute. The nun’s responsibility was to watch over those children. Instead, she took advantage of her position to cover up abuse cases. The priests are accused of raping, sexually abusing and fondling the students in bathrooms, dorms, a garden and a basement at the school. The accused priests are being held at a jail in Mendoza and have not spoken publicly since the arrests. If they are found guilty, they could face 10 to 50 years in prison.

At least 24 students of the Provolo Institute in Argentina have come forward seeking justice for the abuse they say they suffered years ago. One of the alleged victims told the Associated Press she witnessed how a girl was raped by one priest while the other one forced her to give him oral sex, always presenting it as a game.

In court, Kumiko, wearing her habit and a bulletproof vest, claimed that she is innocent and said the allegations are a “strategy of the victims’ families to get money” and only “a campaign of discrediting the Church, intended to defile an entire religious order.” “I knew nothing of the abuses, I watched over the children… I’m innocent… I did not know about the abuses. I am a good person that has given my life to God,” she said in court.



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Published on May 21, 2017 01:00

May 20, 2017

Remove The Mark Of Cain From Stakeknife's Victims

Via The Transcripts John McDonagh , Martin Galvin & Mary Ward , of Republican Sinn Féin, speak to Anthony McIntyre via telephone from Co. Louth and get his analysis on the call for a general election in Great Britain and on the continuing fallout from the BBC Panorama programme about Freddie Scappaticci.
WBAI 99.5FM Pacifica Radio
New York City
listen on the internet: wbai.org Saturdays Noon ESTAudio Player
(begins time stamp ~ 21:10)



Audio: Clip from the BBC Panorama programme, The Spy in the IRA, is played. (audio ends)

John: And welcome back to Radio Free Éireann. And we’re hoping to have on Anthony McIntyre to talk about that documentary which aired last week on Panorama and Anthony played a major part in that in doing an analysis of what’s going on and I particularly like McIntyre’s take on it – it said – here’s from his website,
The IRA should issue posthumous pardons to all those killed by its security department on the watch of the British agent, Freddie Scappaticci, a former Republican prisoner, he said. Anthony McIntyre last night said it would be hypocritical for Republicans who campaign against other miscarriages of justice to continue to rely on the corrupted and contaminated evidence. And he accused the IRA and Provisional Sinn Féin leaders of engaging in a massive cover-up when Scappaticci was identified in the media as the top British agent, Stakeknife.

So Anthony will ll be telling us – because in the documentary it talks about Scappaticci when he’s recorded – about how he would break these Republicans. And let’s face it: They were all Republicans that were killed by him. He was the Internal Security of the IRA and if people thought another Volunteer was an informer he had to deal with them and how he dealt with them was just horrendous. And he said every man has their breaking point so people were confessing to things they didn’t do and then he would have them executed. So this is the way they were dealing with informers and like McIntyre’s saying, you’re going around condemning the British government and the kangaroo courts that they had – look what was going on in your own backyard and innocent Republicans were executed of course on behalf of the British intelligence units that were running that. But with us in the studio, before we get McIntyre on, is Mary Ward, she’s a member of Republican Sinn Féin, she’ll be speaking tomorrow up at Rory Dolan’s. Mary, a lot of people know about Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness – about Provisional Sinn Féin. Can you give us a quick history of Republican Sinn Féin?

Mary: Republican Sinn Féin was founded in 1905. We’re the only political organisation still committed to the undiluted gospel of revolutionary Irish Republicanism and the re-establishment of the all-island republic of Easter Week. It is our duty to ensure that the message of Easter Week is carried forward and acted upon. The forces of reaction and revisionism are attempting to rob us of our history, of its meaning and relevance to make our people compliant and subservient to the present day forces of political and economic imperialism. But far from looking inward we, as Irish Republicans, are looking outward and into the future. We have a vision for the type of Ireland we wish to create. We believe Éire Nua provides the framework within which such a new Ireland can be constructed by all sections of the Irish people. We do not believe that the political and economic liberation of the Irish people can ever be delivered by participating in either Stormont or Leinster House. We believe there are no shortcuts to full freedom of Ireland. Our goal can only be achieved by adherence to fundamental principles and wholehearted commitments. One hundred and one years after the heroic 1916 Rising the continuity of Irish Republicanism, proclaimed in Easter Week, is unbroken by Republican Sinn Féin. We can trace our links back all that time.

John: And that’s Mary Ward from Republican Sinn Féin. She’ll be speaking up at Rory Dolan’s tomorrow. I would recommend – go to irish freedom dot net if you want all the information about Woodlawn Cemetery and that. But I played a little clip of a documentary that aired about ‘The Spy in the IRA’ when it really should have been ‘spies in the IRA’ and Anthony McIntyre, longtime guest here at Radio Free Éireann, was featured prominently in it and you have Provisional Sinn Féin a lot of times condemning the British government about what’s going on, they condemned the American government about Guantánamo Bay, about black holes around the world where torture is going on where Sinn Féin hasn’t come clean about the torture that Freddie Scappaticci, under the direction of the British government, was committing torture that was just horrendous. And Anthony, in part of the clip we played Freddie Scappaticci says every man has his breaking point and I say: To what end? A breaking point? What? To confess to what you want him to confess to? Or actually confess that they were informers? And how there was a hierarchy in the IRA that some informers were allowed to walk away, like Denis Donaldson and Freddie Scappaticci, but some people who weren’t even informers were executed! Anthony?

Anthony: Hello.

John: Yeah. I know you were talking about it’s hypocritical of Sinn Féin to be condemning the British government for miscarriages of justice when you had Freddie Scappaticci upwards to, you could say, thirty Republicans that were executed.

Anthony:
Well that’s very true – can you hear me, John?

John:
No, no – we can hear you clear. Yes.

Anthony: That’s very true I mean the sort of absurdity of all this came out in the excellent John Ware Panorama broadcast two weeks ago where we were exposed to this – I mean what we may describe as an appalling vista – and we now have a situation whereby many people, we have to say, are lying in graves up and down the country, sentenced to death by the Army Council of the IRA based on a trial and evidence provided by a British agent, Freddie Scappaticci. So while the British are absolutely up to their necks in this the IRA leadership have an awful lot to answer for.

Martin:
Anthony, one of the things that came out in the documentary – I know when your role in Voices From the Grave came out there were pickets in front of your home, there was a lot of intimidation – what happened – when Freddie Scappticci was revealed – there’s some sort of a press conference that goes on (just like Denis Donaldson) and then supposedly you know with Denis Donaldson, he was told to leave, but Freddie Scappaticci? There was an attempt to back him up and disclaim any problems that he had been an informer or denied that he was a spy. How did that come about?

Anthony: Well that’s very true although the pickets at my home took place after the killing of Joe O’Connor and not after Voices From the Grave. When this guy, Fred Scappaticci, was exposed Danny Morrison and others, but Morrison was to the fore in covering for him, and saying that they didn’t buy into the allegations.
Artist: Brian Mór
And years later we have Morrison saying that he knew in 1990 that Scappaticci was an agent because he had been told by the IRA who had sent word into the prison where Morrison was. We had also a Dublin journalist, who is a lecturer – a senior lecturer of journalism, a man called Niall Meehan writing under the pseudonym Adam O’Toole in the Republican News, and he was also covering for Scappaticci and the whole Stakeknife – trying to rubbish the whole Stakeknife story – and accusing myself and Ed Moloney of having fabricated the whole thing and falling for the Brit line.
Now in my view there was a reason for the cover-up and it was not so much that the Sinn Féin leadership had a great deal of sympathy for Freddie Scappaticci – I don’t believe they had any – but they wanted to cover up for him because a failure to cover-up for him would have meant a failure to cover-up for themselves and for their role in allowing this thing to continue for so long.
And now we have the bizarre situation where they have colluded with a British agent in the deaths of Irish citizens and they – I mean I’m sure the Army Council unknowingly told Scappaticci to carry on – and what I mean ‘unknowingly’: they weren’t aware that he was an agent – but we have a situation now that they must have learned from and yet no moves have been made to exonerate the people from guilt and from carrying the terrible mark of informer and for their families who have suffered such an indignity to walk the Republican communities carrying the mark of Cain. And the word ‘informer’ that’s attached to anybody is a very powerful, derogatory term, a very negative symbol, and people simply must be given the benefit of doubt. And there has to be an enormous amount of doubt in any situation which Freddie Scappaticci was involved in.

John: Anthony, we always we have you on because the re-writing of Irish Republican history is going a lot faster than we can cover in the one hour. It was reported in the papers that Freddie Scappaticci reported directly to Martin McGuinness before they did these executions of Irish Republicans whether they were informers or not. But the re-writing of Martin McGuinness’ life is now getting into the bizarre range. There was a banner that was carried at his funeral saying: Martin McGuinness – Irish martyr. He did not go to war – war came to him. Blessed be the peacemaker. And then you have Martina Anderson stating in the European Parliament: ‘…my generation went to war over discrimination, inequality, lack of civil rights and the denial of human rights.’ No where in there does it say anything about a united Ireland – that people were taking up guns and bombs to get fair housing and to get away from discrimination – and now during the week they unveiled a tombstone to Martin McGuinness and it said on it ‘Óglach na hÉireann’. Now I’m a veteran of the United States Army and when I die it’ll have ‘United States Army ’73 to ’75’. If you go to Dublin they give the years that you were in the IRA – you know, 1916 to 1918, 1921 but on Martin McGuinness’ there’s no dates when he was in it and there’s no dates when he left it. I mean even in death now they’re just putting out this mythic ‘Óglach na hÉireann’.

Anthony: Well, that will be for internal consumption and I mean I simply don’t take Martina Anderson seriously when she makes these types of statements. I mean in a sense her generation, but not the IRA’s - to which she belonged - but her generation did arise against the behaviour of the British state. But I mean herself and others, myself included, over the years always argued that it was to get the British out of Ireland not to modify British behaviour while in Ireland even though the population did arise for largely different reasons and I think Ed Moloney has gone some way to explain this on your programme before.
But the notion that Martin McGuinness having on his headstone ‘Óglach Martin McGuinness – Óglaigh na hÉireann’ – meaning really that Martin McGuinness was a Volunteer in the IRA – and for them to have said from 1970 to his death would have pointed out that firstly the IRA was still in existence but secondly that Martin McGuinness had been lying for decades in relation to it. And I notice that Shane Paul O’Doherty, who’s a fellow brigade officer on the Doire Brigade Staff alongside Martin McGuinness, has said that Martin did tell one ‘whopper of a lie‘ in relation to his involvement in the IRA and having claimed to have left it in 1974. So they’re not going to put up something on a headstone that would allow them to be openly mocked and ridiculed for basically saying Martin McGuinness was a liar but here we’ve buried him anyway. That’s more for internal consumption. And they’ll been going round whispering to their grassroots that basically Martin was an IRA Volunteer and he got all this Stormont thing up and running and really it’s an Army initiative – it’s not all a party initiative and people should keep faith in the programme and the project and that basically they will be telling people that they tricked Bertie Ahern and everybody else, Bill Clinton and Enda Kenny, into going to an IRA Volunteer’s funeral. And they’ll spoof things – like they put the gloves and the black beret inside the coffin – all nonsense for a gullible grassroots that’s prepared to swallow it. They’re prepared to swallow anything.

John: Mary, go ahead.

Mary: Good Morning, Martin – sorry, Anthony – I have a cold here. Coming back to your original point about Martina Anderson’s joining the IRA because they were – for whatever reason she said: I, as president of Cumann na mBan back in the mid-’70’s, would have worked very closely with Martin McGuinness and I would have spoken to him quite a bit and he would have always said when I would have been proposing things or did things that I didn’t ask permission for and then had to go to apologise for doing – one of Martin McGuinness’ favourite sayings was: Why must our people always suffer? Why have we always to be on the outside? Well, I was on a different track and my late husband, Pat Ward the hunger striker, we were fighting for a united Ireland. Martin was fighting to be on the inside and all I can say is: Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis (May he rest in Peace or literal meaning: May his faithful soul be at God’s right side.) but he was hugely successful at that if one looks at the attendees at his funeral he was very successful on getting on the inside. Unfortunately, it was inside the British empire that he was – not in a united Ireland.

John: Well as Ed Moloney brought up, or it might have been either Anthony McIntyre, that he was a failure with the Irish Republican Army because their basic goal was a united Ireland – that failed. He had the weapons surrendered to the British government and also politically he’s the one that organised the peace process, brought up Stormont, and that had to collapse because, politically, it just collapsed – yeah, Martin?

Martin: That was Anthony McIntyre, who we have on the line, who made that point on this show. Anthony, I just want to ask you about something else: This week Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, announced that there’ll be a British general election on June 8th. It was immediately said by almost everybody that the talks between Sinn Féin, the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) whatever, are sort of – they’ll continue but nobody expects anything to happen until – well, after that election. I think now there’s a new deadline of June 29th that’s been put there by the British minister for The North of Ireland, James Brokenshire. People are being told that if they vote on the election, in Ireland in The Six Counties, that it’ll somehow have an impact on whether Brexit occurs. That seems to be just totally absurd. I just – there’s going to be almost an equal division between the DUP and whoever else, Sinn Féin, the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party), Unionist and Nationalist parties. What do you think this election will achieve in terms of the North of Ireland in terms of Brexit?

Anthony: It will make absolutely no difference to Brexit whatsoever. That’s the North of Ireland where people, politicians in the North of Ireland, feeling important about themselves again – their own inflated self-importance – and I mean they use issues like the peace process and they use the peace process like a begging bowl which they shake and ask people to put lots of political time inside that bowl.  I think people are sort of largely fed up with the type of guff that is expressed in those sentiments. I’ve just noticed that the Brexit coordinator in the European Parliament, the former Belgian Prime Minister – a man called Guy Verhofstadt, has said that Theresa May even arguing that the general election will strengthen her hand in relation to Brexit negotiations is a total fallacy and that people simply shouldn’t believe her – that it’ll have no impact whatsoever. So if the whole Westminster Parliament being disrupted and reconfigured in the general election will have no impact it’s highly unlikely that we’re going to see that little place in The North having any impact.
It’ll be a polarised election, a divisive election, whereby they’ll go out and shout about how Brexit is undermining democratic values and that The North’s democracy, as they term it, will have been undermined, has been undermined, by Brexit and now it’s time to put it right. All we’re going to have again is a sectarian headcount. Brexit does absolutely nothing. Nothing will happen as a result of that election in The North anyway in respect of Brexit. But it’ll stir up sectarian tensions and it will also put some wind in the sails of the Sinn Féin call for a border poll which will not happen until such time as the British decide, not Sinn Féin, that there will be a border poll. And even when we do have a border poll there’s no indication whatsoever that a majority of people in The North are going to vote in favour of pulling out of the British state and opting to become part of an inclusive united Ireland. So, all the same here, John. No change! (Or Martin, sorry.)

John: Yeah well listen Anthony, thanks for coming on. We’re going to go to our in-studio guest but thanks!

Anthony: Thank you very much.

John: And that was Anthony McIntyre over in Dundalk.
(ends time stamp ~ 41:34)


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Published on May 20, 2017 08:00

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