Child Abuse remains a major crime problem in Ireland, on both sides of the border. Veteran reporter Chris Moore has worked tirelessly researching the issue, and fighting state censorship.
Governments running the two bits of Ireland must stop pocketing knowledge of abuse, and then using the information for political intelligence purposes, and protecting powerful wealthy criminals.
The building at the centre of the scandal was demolished three years ago, but the cover up of the crimes committed behind its walls continues. It is long past the time that the full truth was told about what happened in the house of horrors.
Suzanne Breen, Journalist, Belfast
McGrath denied his sins to the end – one of his last interviews
KINCORA MONSTER DENIED ALL WHEN CONFRONTED BY AUTHOR IN THIS EXTRACT FROM HIS NEW BOOK, KINCORA: BRITAIN’S SHAME
The UK government has locked up files on Kincora until 2065 & 2085.Veteran investigative journalist Chris Moore’s new book, ‘Kincora: Britain’s Shame’, launched last night in a packed Duke of York bar, means we don’t have to wait until then. #mustread
I parked in the forecourt of a neighbourhood shop with the intention of asking if anyone could direct me to McGrath’s home.
I presented a few items for payment, casually asking the shopkeeper if she could point me in the direction of his house.
Politely, but firmly, she declined, saying that as far as she and others in the village were concerned, ‘Billy’ McGrath was a friendly man who said he had been badly wronged in the courts and pestered by reporters.
“I suppose you are one of them,” she said bluntly. I owned up and then respectfully suggested that the evidence that convicted him indicated that, far from being wronged, McGrath had actually got off very lightly.
Collecting my change, I headed out to the car to consider my next move. I could do the door-to-door routine, but the attitude of the shopkeeper suggested I would receive little cooperation. Then, an elderly man approached, wearing a cardigan, dark trousers and slippers, so obviously he had not travelled too far.
I got out of the car and watched as he moved towards the shop. There is a God, I thought. Gingerly I edged around the car, proffering my hand as he reached me.
He accepted, we shook and I announced myself as “Chris Moore from the BBC”. McGrath smiled wryly and told me he had nothing to say.
Chris Moore from Belfast is no ordinary journalist.
He has worked for decades on the Kincora child abuse scandal. After extensive new research he makes credible allegations about the British royal family’s Lord Mountbatten (killed by an August 1979 IRA bomb in the western Irish county of Sligo) and a wide-ranging British state cover-up.
Kincora: Britain’s Shame – Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up
Readers are recommended to go and see the film “Lost Boys” whenever they get the chance – despite the British State’s efforts to kill the story, aided and abetted by the Irish police force, An Gárda Síochána (Guardians of the Peace).
All of this is grim reading.
The UK government has locked up files on Kincora until 2065 & 2085.Veteran investigative journalist Chris Moore’s new book, ‘Kincora: Britain’s Shame’, launched last night in a packed Duke of York bar, means we don’t have to wait until then. #mustread
This story originally appeared in a German daily paper published in Berlin, die tageszeitung, on May 10 2025.
Deep-fried fish with chips, vinegar and salt is a favourite dish in Ireland. But it was the Italians who spread the dish there.
Almost all the tables are taken on this Saturday evening in Romano Morelli’s restaurant. The Italian restaurant on Dublin’s Capel Street is narrow but long. Hardly anything reminds you that Morelli’s family sold fish and chips here for over 40 years, when the store was still a chipper.
That’s the name of the snack bars that serve the Irish favourite, fish and chips. A dish that most people would probably not associate with Italy, although Italian immigration to Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries had a significant influence on it.
Morelli’s grandfather was one of the last fish and chip vendors to come to Ireland with the first wave of immigration from Italy. He bought the store in 1948, which at the time was a snack bar with slot machines in the basement, says Romano Morelli. To this day, the chippers look almost identical: They are usually a bare room divided into two halves by display cabinets and deep fryers.
On one side, customers wait for the greasy goods, while the other side frantically prepares them. Italian is often spoken in these stores. Above their entrance doors hang the owners’ nameplates: Macari, Borza, Coffola, Fusco, De Vito, Cassoni, Caprani.
Almost all of these families or their ancestors come from Casalattico, a municipality in the central Italian province of Frosinone. More than 2,400 people whose families originally come from this village live in Ireland. Even today, the 800 or so inhabitants of Casalattico celebrate these ties every year and hold a festival on St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish national holiday, on March 17, with music, dancing, Irish flags and fish and chips (and, of course, vinegar and salt).
The connection between the community and Ireland is said to have started with Giuseppe Cervi in 1885, who accidentally left the ship he was on to the USA in Ireland. He hired himself out as a labourer in Dublin until he had earned enough money to buy a coal stove and a handcart with which he sold fish and chips outside the pubs. The business idea came from the north of England, where the meal was sold outside the factory gates.
Breen Reynolds, a former geography lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, doubts that this part of the story really happened in an interview on Irish television. However, it is confirmed that Cervi soon had enough money to rent a store. He ran it with his wife Palma, who is said to be the origin of the expression “one and one”, which is still used in Dublin today to order food. She always pointed to the menu and asked: “Uno di questo, uno di quello?”, meaning “one of this and one of that”.
The customer just had to nod.
Word of the Cervis’ success soon spread at home and many followed them to Ireland. By 1909, there were 20 fish and chip stores in Dublin run by Italians. However, the wave of immigration ended before the First World War.
It seems a Fine Gael Minister in 2012 was a movie fan who liked the Godfather gangster series. Michael Lowry TD lost a defamation action against the journalist Sam Smyth, prompting this exchange between the writer and the politician :
A Fine Gael minister once explained to me how he categorised Michael Lowry losing a defamation action against me in the High Court back in 2012: “It’s not personal, it’s just business.”
Sam Smyth
The fictional inspiration :
I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen; I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!
Hyman Roth, like his old friend Vito Corleone, never lets things get personal. At least, he tries not to and puts up a facade that he does. Of course, that’s not true, he goes after Michael for both personal and financial reasons, but not before pretending it’s never personal.
Lee Strasberg as the gangster Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II
I am not so philosophical: It was very personal to me.
Had I lost, the disgraced former minister would have ended my career as a journalist and put me out of house and home.
Lowry contended that I had defamed him on the Tonight with Vincent Browne show on TV3 on June 24, 2010.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, the High Court judge who considered Lowry’s allegations against me, repeated in his February 10, 2012 judgment what I said that so enraged Lowry that he sought to go after me personally in the courts.
This is the transcript of the show as taken from the Kearns judgment:
Sam Smyth: “But the first that we caught sort (sic) on video with hand in till was Michael Lowry and he resigned as you might remember as Minister for Communications which all this has led on from.”
Vincent Browne: “Now let’s be clear now, let’s be careful about the hand in till. There is no suggestion at all anyway that Michael Lowry used his position as Minister to extract public funds that weren’t, that he wasn’t entitled to.”
Sam Smyth: “No but was in receipt, in allowed? The biggest business in the country to pay for the refurbishment of his home. I mean…”
Vincent Browne: “There was a tax that was a tax fraud.”
Sam Smyth: “And that well, there was not only a tax fraud, I really don’t think most people think it’s a good idea for Ministers to have their bills picked up by businessmen.”
Lowry contended in his legal filings that these words meant he was “a thief, a corrupt politician, unfit to be a TD or Government Minister and was or is a dishonest or untrustworthy politician”.
Compared with most wealthy capitalist countries (for example Russia, the United States of America, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands) far-right racist politics have been late taking off in the two bits of Ireland in the early part of the 21st century. The article below – Irish Politics Affected by Fascism Since Partition in 1922 – provides useful context.
In my opinion it overlooks a critical reason for the relative weakness of racist poison in the 26 county bit of Ireland : the rise of a mass women’s liberation movement in Ireland since the 1960’s; collapse of the Catholic Church’s prestige and moral authority – especially since the early 1990’s – because of its criminal opposition to abortion, divorce, contraception, equal pay – and the institution’s role in systematic torture of women and babies in “homes”.
The 6 county bit of Ireland was not, strictly speaking, fascist – but this Orange State was “A Protestant State for a Protestant People” – and extreme right unionist parties have always shared racist and imperialist politics promoted by the British far-right.
Before the November 2025 Irish General Election far-right racist candidates hoped to build on a relatively significant breakthrough in the June 2025 European and Local Elections. However, a hero of Irish women, Nikita Hand, took a legal case, alleging violent rape, against the prominent kick-boxer racist Conor McGregor in October and November 2025.
More details here :
During the election campaign a woman called Nikita Hand took a legal civil action, alleging rape, against an international celebrity, the kick-boxing superstar Conor McGregor. McGregor is closely associated with a number of mini-Hitler racists, some of whom were elected to Dublin council seats in June 2024. These included Philip Sutcliffe (Dublin South-Central) and Paddy Holohan (Dublin South-West). Most rape trials in Ireland are held behind closed doors, and the details are not widely broadcast.
Irish Politics Affected by Fascism Since Partition in 1922
The Dublin riots, which caused an estimated €20 million worth of damage in November 2023, the violence that surrounded some of the protests in July last year and the week-long rioting in Belfast following the Southport stabbings shocked the political establishment in Ireland and the wider world. For decades there has been a political myth that Ireland is one of the few countries to have escaped the influence of fascist and far-right politics. The reality is that Ireland and Irish politics have been affected by fascism since the ideology first emerged a century ago.
P:olitical Poison is spreading – across the globe police state practices are mushrooming. The articles below paint a frightening picture of Donald Trump’s USA.
‘Do you like being shackled?’ Data shows ‘Trump slump’ of foreign tourists avoiding the US
A tourist takes a group selfie on the ?Big Bus? at Times Square in New York City, U.S., August 27, 2024. REUTERS/Kent J Edwards
According to preliminary government data released on Tuesday, visits to the United States from abroad declined by 11.6 percent in March compared to the same month last year, with international arrivals from China seeing a decrease of nearly 1 percent.
Wolfgang Georg Arlt, the CEO of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, told ABC that the number of leisure trips taken by Chinese citizens to destinations such as Disneyland, Hawaii and New York is significantly declining and is unlikely to rebound until after President Donald Trump has left office. He referred to this trend as the “Trump Slump.”
The U.S. tourism sector anticipated a strong year in 2025 for foreign visitors. After a significant increase in international arrivals in 2024, some predictions suggested that this year’s numbers could match those seen before the COVID pandemic.
However, just three months into the year, there has been a sharp decline in international arrivals. Amid reports of tourists being detained at the border, many travelers from other countries are opting to avoid the U.S. in favor of other destinations. Reacting to the administration’s harsh immigration policies, several nations have updated their travel recommendations regarding the U.S. Recently, Germany amended its advisory to stress that having a visa or entry waiver does not ensure admission into the country. The UK Foreign Office also updated its guidance to highlight the importance of adhering to all regulations, noting that U.S. authorities strictly enforce entry rules and violations may lead to arrest or detention.
The latest news from the Greenland capital Nuuk tells us Yankee bullies have lost the plot.
Very few people live in Greenland; the population is only 56,000. The large island has attracted the attention of the United States of America (USA) super-power, which is blundering around in the Arctic wilderness.
The U.S. military announced Thursday it had removed Col. Susannah Meyers, commander of its Pituffik base in Greenland, stating it would not tolerate any pushback against President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Meyers sent an email to base personnel on March 31 distancing herself from U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit three days prior, according to the independent news organization Military.com.
President Trump’s threats are disintegrating in many parts of the globe; we should remember that small countries are not powerless. They can stand up to imperial mad dogs and inspire others. Danish Red-Green Alliance member of parliament Søren Søndergaard observes :
Finally, as you may know, Trump has announced that he is going to annex Greenland to the United States! Perhaps to gain free access to all of Greenland’s minerals. Perhaps to prevent other countries from using the new shipping routes that are appearing after the polar ice caps melt. Or maybe simply because if you add the territory of Canada and Greenland to that of the United States, the American territory will be larger than that of Russia and will constitute the largest country in the world. This gives a new meaning to the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’: ‘Make America “Great” Again’. But the small and proud Greenlandic people have a saying: ‘Nothing about Greenland without Greenland’.
On Easter 1916 “the world did gaze with deep amaze” after small Ireland struck a deadly blow against the world’s then biggest imperial monster, the British Empire. This defiant message of resistance is immortalized here by Sinéad O’Connor and the Chieftains :
Here is pictorial evidence justifying a stark headline :
We republish one comment which sums up the appalling news :
You should be ashamed of yourself. Bet you’re going to mass on Sunday praising a white washed Middle Eastern man who told you of all things you should help a stranger. Is that Sinn Féins new policy? No wonder the younger members leave in droves.Mary Lou McDonald – Sinn Féin that’s the reason right here
We have a policy on this site of refusing to publish links with sites full of racist poison. The facebook site of Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin TD (Sinn Féin, Wicklow-Wexford) easily qualifies for this prohibition.
Is the racist policy of Fionntán Ó Súilleabhán TD an isolated Sinn Sinn Féin example?
Currently a right wing Irish coalition government has a parliamentary majority because of a pact with a proven corrupt racist politician from Tipperary Michael Lowry (a former Fine Gael government minister). A number of high-profile Irish politicians have corruption black marks against their names besides Mr Lowry : Former Fianna Fáil heads of government (taoisigh) Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern; former deputy leader of the right-wing Progressive Democrats Michael Keating; and so on.
The USA White House is run by a convicted rapist, Donald Trump, who promotes the political ambitions of a convicted Irish rapist, the kick-boxer Conor McGregor.
Readers may have noticed that wealthy powerful criminals like Lowry, Trump, McGregor and Marine Le Pen from France do not give up trying to get convictions overturned :
Here is an extract from a routine Irish Times report, May 8 2023 :
This is the factual position :
“Mr Lowry, a former Fine Gael minister, was previously found by a tribunal to have behaved in a manner that was “profoundly corrupt”. (Irish Examiner, April 2).
Donald Trump is actively trying to get his rapist conviction overturned on very dodgy grounds :
There is only one civilised response over rows about offering decent accommodation to refugees and asylum seekers : the Irish state must help and support human beings fleeing from wars, famine, destruction and poverty in their native lands. Protests against accommodation centres, hotels, and hosting schemes are a magnet for racist attacks on immigrants.
In other words :
Socialism With a Human Face Versus Liberalism With a Shark Smile
These protests are often presented as demands for local “consultation”
Claims are broadcast that refugees and asylum seekers are getting favourable treatment
Vulnerable people are threatened with the old ugly policy of “Go, Move, Shift”
The real story is an old one : Go, Move, Shift. Christy Moore’s song says it all :
Six in the morning out in Inchicore The guards came through the wagon door. John Maughan was arrested in the cold A travelling boy just ten years old.
CHORUS
Mary Joyce was living at the side of the road No halting place and no fixed abode. The vigilantes came to the Darndale site And they shot her son in the middle of the night.
Similar racist protests have stained many parts of Ireland since 2023 : O’Connell Street, Coolock, Darndale, and the East Wall area in Dublin; Newtownmountkennedy (Wicklow), Athlone (Midlands), Ballaghaderreen (Roscommon) and Roscrea (Tipperary) are other examples.
In recent days this political cancer has erupted again – this time in Galway.
Sad to say, we witness more shameful dog-whistle racism, again dressed up as “consultation” with the local community. It continues. Sinn Féin TD for Galway West Mairéad Farrell is following the wretched example set by a number of her party colleagues – lessons have not been learned.
The story is covered on the Cedar Lounge Site – a link is here :
“According to the department, an appraisal of the offer has been paused for three months to allow locals to advance a proposal to develop a community hotel at the site.
A meeting took place earlier this month inviting members of the community to voice their concerns over the possibility of using the hotel to house asylum seekers.
Local councillors and TDs have spoken out over the issue, attempting to assure locals that a proper consultation process will be followed through.
TD for Galway East Mairead Farrell said: “I have organised a meeting with the department for tomorrow morning. I have been in constant contact with the department from last night to this morning.
“They have told me categorically that no one has been moved into Carna and I have organised a meeting, I will give an update at that point.”
In a statement, the department have confirmed that a pause on the appraisal of the hotel remains in place. They said that there was no current contract in place for IPAS but that some people fleeing the war in Ukraine were still being housed there.”
Irish Independent, online, March 26 2025
Ukrainians in Ireland feared cut in ‘vital’ accommodation payment – Red Cross Payment to hosts worth €800 a month was due to expire on March 31
The Irish government is jumping in; part of its agenda is the old tactic of Divide and Rule.
A payment to hosts worth €800 a month, enabling Ukrainian refugees to get accommodation was due to expire on March 31. The state authorities have backed down temporarily, thanks in part to protests by welfare agencies such as the Red Cross and the Ukrainian community in Ireland. Here is a link :
There has been an increase in reports of uncertainty and anxiety among Ukrainians living in Ireland, as the Government is expected to make a decision on the continuation of payments to accommodation hosts, the Irish Red Cross has said.
The humanitarian charity said there has been “a significant rise” in calls from concerned individuals since late last year.
The Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) is a tax-free payment of €800 for those providing accommodation to Ukrainians who arrive in the Republic under the EU Temporary Protection Directive. The scheme is due to expire on March 31st.
The Government is expected to extend the scheme with consideration being given to a €200 reduction in the monthly rate.
decision is “most likely” to be announced towards the end of this week, according to a source, with meetings taking place between the Department of Integration and Department of Justice.
“There has been no final decision yet, with nothing signed off,” the source added.
The Irish Red Cross said on Monday that the payment has been “a vital financial support” for 19,000 Irish hosts.
The organisation is due to present findings of the largest survey of Irish hosts to date to the Government on Tuesday.
Niall O’Keeffe, head of international and migration with the Irish Red Cross, said the accommodation programme has been “a lifeline for many very vulnerable people”.
“It’s not just a value-for-money accommodation solution, many hosts have become invaluable support networks, helping their guests in the transition to life in Ireland and guiding them to access essential supports and training,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
“Reducing support for vulnerable people will force them to make difficult decisions: living in poverty or returning to danger.”
Minister for Integration Norma Foley said last week there would likely be changes to the monthly €800 payment with an announcement due shortly.
Ms Foley said the issue was being dealt with and required engagement with the Department of Justice. The Fianna Fáil TD said she would not “pre-empt” the decision but was conscious that the scheme was due to expire at the end of next month.
Deirdre Garvey, secretary general of the Irish Red Cross, said the conflict in Ukraine has dramatically changed the lives of millions of people and has had a devastating impact on individual lives that “we can never measure”.
“Ireland has recognised this suffering and continues to respond generously. The Irish Red Cross has worked with the wider Red Cross Movement to provide humanitarian assistance in Ukraine and in the surrounding countries that have hosted most of those fleeing conflict in Ukraine,” Ms Garvey said.
“The needs now are as great as ever. Many of the millions who fled are unable to return home, and those who remain face dire conditions, with limited access to water, heat, healthcare and other essential services. Three years on, the mental health toll is huge, both for those who remain and those who fled to safety.”
In a remarkable development, the Sinn Féin migration spokesperson Matt Carthy TD (Cavan-Monaghan) criticises the government’s temporary climbdown : See the link here :
The Red Cross and Ukrainian community protests persuaded the government to back off. Vigilance is necessary, because the state may come back with cutback proposals later this year.
At this point it should be obvious to all anti-racists that saying the ARP is “unfair” to other renters is a racist cop-out. The issue is whether it should be scrapped, or extended to others in need of housing. Leftists should argue the latter as a matter of principle. A possible slogan could be “ Don’t End…Extend “. In other words Extend the ARP to extend to all asylum seekers and refugees as a first step.
Some public representatives have got the balance right :
Example 1 is Ruth Coppinger TD (Solidarity – People Before Profit) :
“A rightward change in government in Germany, and a similar likely change in government in France in 2027, means that Europe will no longer present a united front on the issue.
Much like the initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the John Lennon-esque vision of a country truly united in the face of a societal challenge gave way to good old-fashioned pessimism.
The (Sinn Féin) manifesto read “the special status of Ukrainians under the Temporary Protection Directive should come to an end no later than March 2026. We believe that continually extending temporary measures is not a sustainable solution and is problematic for everyone.”
“If a beneficiary of Temporary Protection is from a part of Ukraine that is safe then, save for exceptional cases, return should be assisted.”
Socialism With a Human Face Versus Liberalism With a Shark Smile
Ukrainian refugees are targets of state racism; left-wing public representatives should support them :
240 refugees are housed at Hubble Student Accommodation; of the 240 Ukrainians at the site, there are 49 school students and 77 are in employment. Following pushback, plans to move the refugees with six days’ notice were paused. Local Labour TD Marie Sherlock said, “the reasoning put forward by the government does not add up” and stated that the decision by the government is “unconscionable.” The government claimed that there was a need to vacate the rooms in a bid to protect the rent pressure zone status of the accommodation, a claim which Sherlock refuted. “The RPZ exemption has already kicked in because the student accommodation units have not been rented out to students for more than two years.” “This flies in the face of a stated government intent to try and help Ukrainians integrate into the communities they live in,” she stated. The term “socialism with a human face” is closely associated with the Prague Spring of 1968, and it appears the new government is pursuing a “liberalism with a shark smile” approach with regard to immigration.
