Archive for the ‘Arts and Culture’ Category
“If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president” – Justine McCarthy’s interesting comment on the 2025 Irish Presidential Election
This article was published in the September 26 2025 edition of the Irish Times.
If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president
Northerners have a vested interest in an election portrayed as seminal for the abolition of partition. But they don’t have a vote
Catherine Connolly’s presidential election campaign would be a stroll to the park if Ireland honoured all its citizens’ rights. Instead, the Independent candidate is being accused of lip service by two parties that have ensured the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of potential voters from choosing their head of state.
Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland are allowed no say in an election that is being billed as crucial to their future constitutional status. Sinn Féin insists the next president must “champion a united Ireland”. Fine Gael says its candidate, Heather Humphreys, as a Presbyterian from a Border county, would symbolically unite the island. Fianna Fáil presents its candidate, Jim Gavin, as being Border-blind due to his involvement with the all-island GAA. Yet those living in the North’s six counties are silenced in the election. Their continuing exclusion reduces them to nominal citizens.
Addressing his party’s annual conference last weekend, DUP leader Gavin Robinson rebuked the Republic for what he called its “institutional intolerance of Protestant culture and heritage” but the southern State’s starker prejudice is against its own citizens in the North. Under the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, affirmed by the 1998 Belfast Agreement, people in Northern Ireland are entitled to choose to be citizens of Ireland. As such, the Irish President is their president. Ever since Mary Robinson’s election to the Áras in 1990, the office’s holders have striven to represent them with their presence and their utterances. But across the Liffey in Government Buildings the realpolitik means that extending voting rights to Northern citizens would be electoral hara-kiri, virtually handing Sinn Féin the presidency on a plate.
Read the rest of this entry »Bad Man Dies in Utah, USA – Sniper Kills Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump Inflames Right-Wing Hatred
A close friend and comrade, Mark Findlay writes :
Seriously, nothing good will come out of this, save a bit of schadenfreude. It will only enrage the far right even more and replacements will be found. Just like the daft idea of shooting Trump. He survived and made the most of it propaganda-wise. I am completely opposed to any idea of assassination of our opponents.
Let’s wait to see the results of the police investigation. At the time of writing no definitive evidence is in the public domain about the identity of the assassin.
Read the rest of this entry »Graham Linehan, an obsessive anti-trans comedy writer (Father Ted), has been arrested by British cops “I arrived back in London to discover the UK is still a police state run by trans activists”
Graham Linehan, the obsessive anti-trans comedy writer (Father Ted), has been arrested by British cops in a London airport after a ten hour transatlantic flight. “I arrived back in London to discover the UK is still a police state run by trans activists”
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/i-just-got-arrested-again.
The anti-trans “left” will go crazy.
John Meehan September 2 2025
Keir Starmer’s Cops Arrest Screenwriter Paul Laverty in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt – “The most important court in the world is the court of public opinion”
The screenwriter of many Ken Loach films – including The Wind That Shakes the Barley – Paul Laverty – has been arrested in Edinburgh for wearing a Pro-Palestine T Shirt.
Link :
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Wikipedia)
Update : Paul Laverty Released and charged with a terrorism offence
The most important court in the world is the court of public opinion
Paul Laverty : https://bsky.app/profile/dmcguirecfc67.bsky.social/post/3lxap5nwebc2s
Trump-Putin Anti-Ukraine Summit in Anchorage Alaska – Large People-Power Protests
This report sets the scene :
Ukrainian refugees in Alaska have mixed feelings about US and Russian leaders’ meeting
Amy MacKinnon, Anchorage Alaska, Financial Times, August 15 2025
“On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of local residents rallied in support of Ukraine at an intersection of Anchorage’s East Northern Lights Boulevard, waving the country’s blue and yellow flag. A small brass band played Bella Ciao, the Italian folk song adopted by the anti-fascist resistance during the second world war. Passing cars honked their horns. “They are trying to make decisions, agreements, without Ukraine being involved,” said Anna Koraa, who moved to the US from Ukraine in 2019. Her mother, Olena Lazar, left Zaporizhzhia — one of the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claims, but does not fully occupy — and came to Alaska shortly after the war began. Lazar is deeply sceptical about Friday’s talks. “He won’t stop until he takes all of Ukraine,” she said of the Russian leader.”
A number of short reports are linked below :
Protesters Against Trump-Putin Ukraine Betrayal in Anchorage Alaska
Largest Ukraine Flag in the world on the way to Anchorage Alaska
Read the rest of this entry »Caucusus Colonels’ Fable in Dublin’s Phoenix magazine – real journalism versus pro-Putin deliberate misinformation
“Down the rabbit hole” is an English-language idiom or trope which refers to getting deep into something, or ending up somewhere strange. Lewis Carroll introduced the phrase as the title for chapter one of his 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, after which the term slowly entered the English vernacular. The term is usually used as a metaphor for distraction.[1] In the 21st century, the term has come to describe a person who gets lost in research or loses track of time while using the internet.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Fact check: Fake claim British Colonels were ‘captured’ in Ukraine
The fable spread among all usual tankie publications – that is, organs which uncritically peddle pro-Putin propaganda – and influencers (for example the former British Westminster MP George Galloway). It fitted in with The Phoenix magazine’s pro-Putin takes on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The magazine has form :
The story surfaced in the first week of August 2025. It is a media disinformation classic – 2.78 million views, spread in 53 countries, 17,800 posts, spread in 16 different languages.
A quick internet check revealed the story was not appearing on reputable news sites, and that it was spreading like wildfire on pro-Putin conspiracy organs.
Read the rest of this entry »Glastonbury to be banned after Kneecap insulted Keir Starmer on stage
Many thanks to Simon Pearson for alerting us to this wonderful news.
Link :
https://bsky.app/profile/anticapitalistmusings.com
We are betting that most readers know all about the Belfast rap band Kneecap – but have never heard of Bob Vylan.
You have heard of Bob now ;
It was someone called Bob Vylan who caused horror and disgust when he displayed the words: “Free Palestine. United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a conflict.”
Bob knows how to rub salt on Keir Starmer’s wounds :
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bob Vylan started chanting: “Death, death, to the IDF!”
How was this allowed to happen?
Source :
Jun 28, 2025
It’s fair to say this year’s Glastonbury has been an enormous headache for supporters of genocide, particularly the prime minister.
Read the rest of this entry »Keir Starmer’s crazy comment about pro Palestine Kneecap playing at Glastonbury – ex taoiseach Leo Varadkar raps British PM’s loony statement
Irish Rap performers Kneecap are booked to play at a huge music festival in Glastonbury, but British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer thinks that’s not “appropriate”. Starmer’s crazy comment is so off-the-wall that ex Irish taoiseach (prime minister) the ultra-conservative Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael), thought it was a gag.
Irish Times news report :
“Kneecap’s official Instagram page shared a screenshot of the article containing Mr Starmer’s comments, stating that “arming a fu*king genocide” was what’s “not appropriate”.
In a comment underneath the post, Mr Varadkar said he had thought the comment from Mr Starmer was a “gag”.
“[I] no longer hold office nor have any mandate so my views don’t count for so much anymore. I get that. But I really thought this was some sort of gag. It’s the role of artists to be avant garde, inappropriate, challenging, disruptive – from James Joyce to Sex Pistols and Playboy,” he said.”
See also at this link :
Starmer claims Kneecap Glastonbury set “not appropriate”
The Issue is Genocide in Palestine
Read the rest of this entry »Bono defends taking honour from Genocide Joe Biden and questions ‘competitive empathy’ over Gaza
Bono defends taking honour from Genocide Joe Biden and questions ‘competitive empathy’ over Gaza
U2 singer faced criticism for accepting US medal of freedom from administration giving military backing to Israel
Link :
U2 frontman Bono Defends his medal gifted by Genocide Joe Biden
Irish Times Report, May 25 2025
The U2 singer received the highest civilian honour the US has to offer in January, becoming the first Irish recipient since former president Mary Robinson in 2009. It was awarded for his years of activism in trying to combat Aids and poverty.
However, Bono was criticised by some for accepting the award from an administration that was giving military backing to Israel at a time when thousands of Palestinians were being killed.
He on Saturday questioned why anyone would think he was “not shocked and appalled by what is going on in Gaza” and happening to the children living there.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution blog features a regular weekly slot
Sunday and Other Stupid Statements From the Week
These Bono claims, despite stiff opposition, are probably the most stupid Sunday statements made so far in 2025.
Bono is an apologist for Genocide Joe’s criminal armed support given to Israeli war criminals attacking Gaza.
The left needs to promote one united simple response :
From Ukraine to Palestine, Occupation Is A Crime
These demonstrators in Ghent (Belgium) promote the right message :
Tomás Ó Flatharta 