Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘Six County State’ Category

Prosecution expected over killing of IRA informer Denis Donaldson – Dublin government minister Jim O’Callaghan makes a statement

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This could be a very significant news story.

Link :
Crimeworld – Prosecution Expected over 2007 killing of IRA Informer Denis Donaldson

Press Association Story :

“A prosecution is expected in relation to the fatal shooting of Denis Donaldson in Co Donegal in 2006, the Irish justice minister has said.

Minister Jim O’Callaghan made the statement after meeting with Mr Donaldson’s daughter Jane Kearney.

“It has now been nearly 20 years since Denis Donaldson was killed near Glenties, Co Donegal in April 2006,” he said in a statement.

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Campism and Its Contradictions – Prime Example is British “Stop the War” Coalition – they have Irish imitators

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2026 begins with very bad news from Venezuela.

Simon Pearson notes :

Stop the War’s Venezuela statement reveals what their Ukraine position should have been.

Stop the War Coalition responded within hours. Their statement, written by convenor Lindsey German, left no room for doubt:

“Trump’s bombing attack on Venezuela must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The apparent forced removal and kidnapping of its president Maduro is a war crime.”

The statement continued:

“Only the peoples of Latin America can decide their own fate and choose their own government and should be able to do so without interference. There can be no support for US imperialism in Latin America or for the crimes of Trump.”

I agree with every word.

Some Similar Reactions :

“all those who vociferously condemn the US actions, and who protest against it, should be equally vociferous in their condemnation of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately far too many on the left don’t apply that logical consistency” Gregor Kerr

“Marco Rubio (US Secretary of State) is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.

Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.” Link :

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

James Ball (@jamesrball.com) 2026-01-03T10:52:15.199Z

“Remember this today tankies and campists, as you scramble to virtue signal opposition to what’s happening in Venezeula:

If you’ve offered justifications for Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine, you’ve created justifications for Donald Trump to invade Venezuela.” James Doyle

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“We join with President Catherine Connolly in welcoming President Zelenskyy to Ireland today”

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President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting Ireland on December 2 and 3 2025.

Irish Left With Ukraine stated :

We join with President Catherine Connolly in welcoming President Zelenskyy to Ireland today – Irish Left With Ukraine

This approach is shared by the leader of the Irish Labour party, Ivana Bacik :

” It will be an honour to stand with my Labour colleagues later today and welcome President Zelensky, and his wife Olena, to our national parliament.

In the face of ongoing aggression by Russia, the Ukrainian people continue to display immense bravery and resilience. We are now nearly four years into this war, a war that has shattered lives, displaced families and fundamentally changed the political landscape in Europe.The Ukrainian cause and the Ukrainian people cannot be abandoned. Labour will continue to voice our support for a free, sovereign and democratic Ukraine, taking its rightful place in the European Union. Like with Palestine, the history books will remember those who stood on the right side of history in this conflict, those who supported the Ukrainian people.”

Welcoming a leader of an oppressed invaded nation does not mean agreement with that leader’s policies. This is a no-brainer.

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A series of Tributes to the Investigative Journalist Ed Moloney – “A strong voice against censorship: both that of the state and the more insidious self-censorship that had crept into journalism”

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A number of tributes to the investigative journalist Ed Moloney are published below.

Also included is an account of how Ed published sensational evidence about the role of William Stobie (at one time a quarter-master in the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association), in the political murder of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. The British state’s unsuccessful attempt to obtain details of the journalist’s confidential sources were defeated.

It is refreshing to read tributes about about a man I knew well that are kind, affectionate, and that do not pretend Ed was a saint.

He had a short fuse!

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Man charged over a child-rape, CityWest racist riots; Despicable commentary by government and Sinn Féin representatives, echoed by irresponsible journalists

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Man charged over a child-rape, CityWest racist riots; Despicable commentary by government and Sinn Féin representatives, echoed by irresponsible journalists

Sinn Féin has a lot of influence, and is playing the racist card.

Listen to Matt Carthy TD, SF, Cavan-Monaghan.

Well-spotted by Saoirse McHugh; and well spoken by Eimer McAuley, a journalist.

Politicians defending despicable “legitimate concerns” protests have carried the ball up the pitch for the riots at CityWest

Politicians defending these despicable "legitimate concerns" protests have carried the ball up the pitch for the riots at citywest.Thank God Eimer is there cause none of these people, TDs included, seem to give a shit when it's a white Irish man brutalizing, abusing, or murdering women or children

Saoirse McHugh (@saoirsemc.bsky.social) 2025-10-23T06:48:13.676Z

Saoirse McHugh :

” Politicians defending these despicable “legitimate concerns” protests have carried the ball up the pitch for the riots at citywest. Thank God Eimer is there cause none of these people, TDs included, seem to give a shit when it ‘ s a white Irish man brutalizing, abusing, or murdering women or children”

Cedar Lounge Revolution :
Spot On, Cedar Lounge Revolution

The same message is promoted by irresponsible RTÉ journalists and government politicians such as Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan on news programmes and RTÉ’s Prime Time referencing “legitimate” concerns expressed by residents, contributing to a “consensus” that immigrants are the problem, and tougher deportation policies are needed.

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A tribute to the outstanding  journalist Ed Moloney, who passed away in New York Aged 77

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https://wp.me/p1iwpM-4NB

Ed was a great friend and will be missed.

Condolences to Joan McKiernan, and all friends, colleagues, and  comrades.

A reminder : Ed Moloney’s work on issues concerning child abuse in the six-county bit of Ireland which remain unsolved :

John Meehan October 20 2025

“If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president” – Justine McCarthy’s interesting comment on the 2025 Irish Presidential Election

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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.

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Dark Comedy Show : Will Maria Steen be a Far-Right Frankenstein Candidate on the Irish Presidential ballot? – It is odds-on, a racing certainty

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Let’s have a little fun regarding the nomination campaign of the conservative far-right, anti-choice and racist candidate Maria Steen; Steen is a veteran or Ireland’s anti-choice movement; readers can stay up-to-date here :

“Independent Ireland is expected to make a decision tomorrow or Wednesday morning.

Their decision could influence whether other TDs or senators – rumoured to include a small number on the conservative wing of Fianna Fáil – would lend her their vote before the presidential nomination deadline of noon on Wednesday.” (RTÉ News Report).

The entire Fianna Fáil organisation is conservative – although occasionally it makes gestures towards the left. Between 2011 and 2018 the party leadership realised it had to dump a too close association with Catholic Church anti-feminism and the vile crime of institutional child abuse. It is continuing this tactic by nominating the high-profile Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) figure Jim Gavin to be President of Ireland. Gavin states he is pro-choice, pro same-sex marriage, and voted to lift the constitutional ban on abortion in 2018. These statements make him totally unacceptable to the Irish far-right, which includes Maria Steen and the Aontú party led by ex Sinn Féin TD Peader Tóibín, who is in charge of the Maria Steen bingo card. It is a racing certainty Steen will be on the presidential ballot – she has the nominations of 13 or 14 Oireachtas members plus 4 from the Irish Independent party.

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“Approximately 100,000 on a far right march in London. A grim new milestone in post-war political history” – Great Article by A Very Public Sociologist

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The writer angrily says “This is the culmination of Keir Starmer’s rancid approach to immigration” – and he is spot on. We have problems confronting a growing racist right in Ireland also, and can learn a very important lesson : Dog-Whistling and Pandering to racists creates a catastrophe.

Link :
Grim Political Milestone in London 13.11.2025 – A Very Public Sociologist

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Epping Forest Asylum Hotel Case Judge Mr Stephen Eyre has right-wing form in the 6 County bit of Ireland

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We are used to NIMBY (Not in my back-yard) racists in Ireland attacking asylum-seekers and refugees in vulnerable accommodation. This political plague is currently sweeping across the British State. An Epping Forest Judge, Mr Stephen Eyre, has political form in the six-county bit of Ireland


Judge in Epping Forest asylum hotel case ran for Tories in NI poll

Liam Tunney, Belfast Telegraph, August 22nd, 2025

A judge behind a landmark ruling on hotels accommodating asylum seekers in the UK once stood for election in Northern Ireland.

Stephen Eyre’s ruling on the legality of The Bell Hotel’s eligibility to house asylum seekers has sparked a wave of complaints to local authorities across the UK, including three councils in Northern Ireland.

The action, taken by Epping Forest District Council against Somani Hotels, alleged the group had not notified the local planning authority of a change of use for the premises.

Mr Eyre is a former election candidate for the Conservative Party, standing in Birmingham Hodge Hill in 1987, Stourbridge in 2001 and again in a 2004 by-election in Birmingham Hodge Hill.

In the 1992 General Election, he stood in Strangford as the Conservatives attempted to gain a foothold in Northern Ireland.

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