Newspaper readers who followed reports of a very unusual Gerry Adams London trial were not surprised by its collapse.
Procedurally. for this category of case, there is a 3 year time limit. People injured in three IRA bombings – Old Bailey 1973; Docklands and Manchester 1996 – put Gerry Adams in the dock seeking nominal damages of £1 on the grounds that the former Sinn Féin president had been an IRA leader.
Claimants were well aware of these rules, – they did not have a leg to stand on legally. The only issue was whether Judge Jonathan Swift (yes, same name as the famous Irish satirist who wrote Gulliver’s Travels!) would apply the rules. Judge Swift would have looked a bigger fool than Lemuel Gulliver if he ignored the regulations, and an appeal court later overturned his verdict. [1]
Mark Hennessy contributed this analysis in the March 19 2026 issue of the Irish Times :
Simon Pirani offers extremely useful insights which are relevant to every European country, including Ireland.
Insight 1
On the political side, socialists in Nordic countries are streets ahead of us in the UK, perhaps because they are geographically closer to Russia. Bjarke Friborg of the Red-Green Alliance in Denmark underlined in a recent interview the “very real” threat posed by Putin’s regime, “not necessarily in terms of ‘tanks rolling into Paris’, but certainly as a threat to democracy, sovereignty and the principle that borders can not be changed by brute force”. He continued: We oppose Russian imperialism just as we have opposed American and NATO imperialism: not by supporting one bloc against another, but by defending the right of peoples to self-determination and supporting democratic and progressive forces in Russia and its client state, Belarus.
This excellent article appeared in the Friday March 20 2026 issue of the Irish Times :
Concerning the differences between the Ukrainian and Russian States, Catriona Crowe hits the nail on the head :
Casualties are breaking down at a ratio of 2-2.5 to 1, with Russia suffering the largest proportion, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. While the international press can report from Ukraine, although with some difficulty and considerable danger from the front lines, the Kremlin has detained at least 27 journalists since 2022, and 355 international journalists have been branded “foreign agents”.
Irish Times March 20 2026
Catriona Crowe: The brave few risking everything to unmask Putin’s Russia
The Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody against Putin is a record of something totally unseen in the world outside Russia
Ukraine is now in the fifth year of its war with Russia, an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state based on Vladimir Putin’s desire to reconstitute the Russian Empire. It is estimated that casualties for both sides (killed, wounded and missing) will amount to two million sometime this year.
Ian Hislop, Private Eye’s editor, said: “It’s nice to see that Private Eye was getting close enough to the truth fifteen years ago to make some really appalling people – and their fine upstanding legal representatives – nervous.”
Ian Hislop, Private Eye’s editor, said: “It’s nice to see that Private Eye was getting close enough to the truth fifteen years ago to make some really appalling people – and their fine upstanding legal representatives – nervous.🧵3/5
“In our experience, it usually does take quite a while for prosecutors, justice departments and governments to sit up and take notice of what Private Eye has been saying all along.”
“In our experience, it usually does take quite a while for prosecutors, justice departments and governments to sit up and take notice of what Private Eye has been saying all along.”🧵4/5
Individuals operating within the network created by the late Jeffrey Epstein hired numerous people who threatened media organisations which were investigating a vast child abuse and financial corruption racket. One such individual was the Belfast Lawyer Paul Tweed, who wrote to Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 calling the magazine Private Eye “an absolute rag” :
This is the relevant magazine cover :
Belfast Telegraph Political Correspondent Sam McBride has done a fine job investigating the murky professional relationships between Paul Tweed, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein.
The big lesson here is that the British and USA states ignored credible evidence for many years uncovered by investigators. This “tug the forelock” behaviour must cease. A first step in Ireland is to cease all official visits by members of the corrupt British royal family.
The least we can say is this :
Read here here the carefully chosen recent words of Belfast journalist Suzanne Breen, Belfast Telegraph political correspondent and a frequent contributor to BBC NI politics programmes :
“Chris Moore says William McGrath worked for MI5, and it’s even possible that he was planted in the children’s home as part of an intelligence-gathering operation. The journalist makes a compelling case that MI5 — at the very least — knew about what was happening and kept quiet.
Shamefully, there has been no adequate inquiry into Kincora. Some files have been destroyed, while others have been locked away by the British government to 2065 and 2085.
The most marginalised and vulnerable children were raped by powerful men, allegedly including King Charles’ grand uncle.
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.”
ICE is an enemy of Palestine, Ukraine and opponents of the barbaric Trump-Friendly régime of Vladimir Putin
The aircraft, a Gulfstream V operated by ICE charter Journey Aviation, left the ICE hub of Mesa, AZ, at 2:28 a.m. local time Wednesday, and landed at Shannon Airport eight and a half hours later. The plane continued on to Cairo International Airport, which ICE has previously used to transfer Russian dissidents and asylum-seekers to Egyptian authorities, who then force them onto planes to Moscow.
Three and a half days after the ICE flight through Shannon Airport. Multiple phone calls and emails to the Gardai, and we’ve heard nothing from them on what action they took to investigate. I’ve been told by one officer that there is nothing on the PULSE record except my initial report.
Three and a half days after the ICE flight through Shannon Airport. Multiple phone calls and emails to the Gardai, and we've heard nothing from them on what action they took to investigate. I've been told by one officer that there is nothing on the PULSE record except my initial report.
Boycotting the Trump White House’s Patrick’s Day Event in 2026 is a no-brainer for everybody on the left – but Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns TD thinks differently.
Her justification :
Speaking to reporters in Cork this morning ahead of the second day of the Social Democrat’s National Conference, Cairns said “given the height of contentious things coming from the White House at the moment it is perhaps more important than ever to use this unique platform that Ireland has”.
She said Ireland is a small country, but it can be a very influential one.
“We can be a really strong voice for peace. We think Micheál Martin should use this opportunity to use that strong voice to express the will of the Irish people,” said the SocDems leader.
Source – Journal.ie
Social Democrats Leader Holly Cairns TD supports Irish Government attendance at Donald Trump’s 2026 Patrick’s Day Grovelling Event – her fellow TD’s Rory Hearne and Sinéad Gibney look distinctly uncomfortable
Most political parties on the Irish left support a boycott of this nauseating event, with good reason.
In 2025, Donald Trump brutally humiliated Dublin government ministers by accepting his bowl of shamrock a few days before March 17 – which was reserved for the far-right racist, the kick-boxer Conor McGregor. See full reports here, and an excellent Dáil statement by Ruth Coppinger TD.
For many years Sinn Féin mistakenly attended White House Patrick’s Day events, but joined the boycott in 2025.
The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood issued this message in 2024
Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik TD states :
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has said that if US president Donald Trump continues to threaten Europe, then it would not be appropriate for the Taoiseach to visit the White House for St Patrick’s Day.
“If diplomacy this week in Davos, if diplomacy over the coming weeks doesn’t succeed in addressing the appalling threats being made by Trump, then of course Ireland must take its place in solidarity with European leaders who are now calling Trump a bully,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“And we cannot go to Washington with shamrocks certainly in that context, and we cannot allow US planes to use Shannon and, indeed, other European countries which have US bases I am sure are having this very same conversation.
“Because it is unthinkable that a US which is militarily threatening a sovereign state in Europe could be allowed to use European countries as military bases for that.”
Bacik said the US president has “succeeded in normalising the utterly unacceptable”.
“What we’ve seen in the just a year since he took office, we’ve seen a sort of really creeping fascism taking over in the US.”
The Social Democrats need to change tack, and boycott the 2026 Patrick’s Day Trump event in the Washington DC White House.
To: All politicians & political parties on the Island of Ireland
No Shamrocks for Trump – Boycott the White House 2026
We are asking politicians & political parties on the Island of Ireland – to boycott The White House on St. Patrick’s Day.
Why is this important?
The genocide in Gaza continues despite a supposed “ceasefire”. International journalists are still not allowed into Gaza or the West Bank because Israel does not want the world to know what it is doing as it tries to exterminate Palestinians.
While the genocide has been livestreamed to the world since October 7 2023, we still do not know how many people have died as a result. We know that at least 70,000 people have been killed by the Israeli army but have no figures for the number who have died because of lack of medicine for chronic conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions etc. Nor do we know how many have died of cancer or other curable conditions. Every step of this genocide has been funded and supported by the United States.
Now Trump has launched his Gaza “Board of Peace” and his son-in-law Jared Kushner shared slides at the launch of the “Board of Peace” showing high rise buildings and fancy hotels built on the bones of those killed in the genocide. Netanyahu, who is on this “Board of Peace” was unable to attend the launch as it was in Switzerland where he would be arrested under the International Arrest Warrant issued because of the genocide.
The reasons why Irish politicians and political parties should not pay homage to Trump have multiplied since the start of this year – the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro is just one example.
We call on all political parties on the island of Ireland to listen to the people and not go to Washington on St. Patrick’s Day to shake hands soaked with the blood of Palestinians.
Individuals operating within the network created by the late Jeffrey Epstein hired numerous people who threatened media organisations which were investigating a vast child abuse and financial corruption racket. One such individual was the Belfast Lawyer Paul Tweed (see below, a devastating story written by the Belfast Telegraph’s Sam McBride).
Jeffrey Epstein became a convicted criminal in 2008.
Belfast lawyer Paul Tweed and ex-Prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor
Don’t you dare call Epstein a paedophile:
Inside story of leading NI lawyer’s work to clean up vile billionaire’s image… threatening the media on his behalf
PSNI boss Jon Boutcher is interested in recent Irish history – and he wants to know more about events which occurred over 100 years ago. He heads an organisation which has an extremely bad reputation. He wants to clean up the image of the police force operating in the six county bit of Ireland – but has run into serious problems.
He recently described the killing of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in the 1919-21 War of Independence as acts of “terrorism”.
In January 2020 Fine Gael Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan TD (Laois-Offaly) proposed a state commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), whose members included the Black and Tans. A tsunami of public protest forced Flanagan’s government to drop this plan. Flanagan desperately pretended that he was only proposing to commemorate the 1920 police force – the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) – and not the Black-and-Tan or Auxie terrorists. This distinction was ridiculed. The row seriously damaged the Fine Gael government, and was a factor in its disastrous General Election result on February 8 2020.
Readers may be interested in contemporary assessments of the RIC/Black and Tans expressed in the First Dáil.
Pride of place goes to Eoin Mac Néill TD, a government minister. Mac Néill was a grandfather of Senator Michael MacDowell, a former Minister for Justice.
Here is a summary of MacNéill’s Dáil speech, delivered on April 10 1919 :
““Now, it is the determination of the English Government at present, and it is not only their determination but their last resource, to make the police supreme in Ireland, and it is not to relieve our feelings that we have this discussion, but to defeat this infamous policy. We can, and will, and must, defeat it, and to this end we must pledge ourselves, pledge our children, pledge our friends, and pledge our country on no account to submit in any shape or form or at any future time to be police-governed by the English Government. The police in Ireland are a force of spies. The police in Ireland are a force of traitors, and the police in Ireland are a force of perjurers. I say these things, not that your feelings might be roused, but to convince you of the necessity that exists why you should take such measures as will make police government in this country by the enemy impossible.”
Michael Taft, a researcher employed by the SIPTU trade union makes a very good proposal.
The President of the USA is backing reactionary genocidal actors in many parts of the globe – Ukraine, Palestine – and threatening the people of Iran, Venezuela, and Greenland – the list is growing.
Commentary on Irish Political Economy by Michael Taft, researcher for SIPTU
Abandon Paddy’s Day
January 12, 2026
Progressive parties and civil society groups should jointly campaign to force the Government to drop the annual St. Patrick Day’s visit to the White House. There is almost nothing to gain from such a visit and it can only perpetuate what Eoin Burke-Kennedy describes as the ‘Fawning, sycophantic, obsequious [and] “strategic self-emasculation’ approach to the US Administration pursued by Europe and Ireland.
“I don’t need international law . . . [the only limit to my power] is my morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’
In the last year the US bombed Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria. It has threatened to invade or annex Panama, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Cuba and Greenland. It armed the Israeli government’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
It has withdrawn from 66 international organisations (a full list is here), including vital climate change bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
‘The document points to the “patriotic European parties”—a reference to the hard right as represented by France’s National Rally, the United Kingdom’s Reform party, and the Alternative for Germany—as America’s real allies in Europe. Its stated goal of “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” amounts to a policy of constitutional regime change . . . it is the language of tyranny.’
‘America is, understandably, sentimentally attached to . . . Britain and Ireland. The character of these countries is also strategically important . . . we want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.’
And it just so happens that Steven Bannon, an important Trump ally and MAGA organiser, is already in Ireland:
‘I’m spending a ton of time behind the scenes on the Irish situation to help form an Irish national party , , , [Ireland is] going to have an Irish Maga, and we’re going to have an Irish Trump. That’s all going to come together. That country is right on the edge thanks to mass migration.’
Trashing international law, bombing countries and threatening others, pursuing ‘constitutional regime change’ throughout Europe and Ireland: does this deserve a bowl of shamrock?
Humiliation Redux
It’s not as if the Irish Government is ignorant of what could be in store for them on St. Patrick’s Day. Remember the humiliation it received last year. The Taoiseach received an invitation to the White House late in the day (only 12 days’ notice) and it wasn’t even for St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, the President might have been too busy to meet with the Taoiseach. But Trump and Elon Musk had time to meet Conor McGregor on the day, despite the fact that McGregor had been found guilty of rape by a High Court civil jury.
So why would Trump meet McGregor on St Patrick’s Day rather than the elected representative of the Irish people? According to The Times:
‘The Trump family have deepened their business connections with Conor McGregor with the promise of a $23 million investment in one of the form MMA fighter’s business ventures . . . MMA Inc., an American listed martial arts training company . . . Last September Donald Trump Jr. was announced as a “strategic advisor” to the company.’
The Irish Government will have to come up with something special to compete for the US President’s attention.
What’s the Point?
It is difficult to understand what can be achieved with a visit to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day – that’s if the Irish Government even gets an invitation. There is little political influence Ireland can exert given that Trump has scant regard for international opinion (especially European opinion), never mind international law. If anything, a shamrock-as-usual approach is likely to feed Trump’s belief he can act with little blowback. And it is highly unlikely the Taoiseach would sit down in the Oval Office with the US President and, in front of the cameras, lecture him about a rules-based world order.
There is the foreign investment angle; namely, that Ireland needs to maintain inward US investment and, therefore, refusing to meet the US President could stem the flow of US investment. This doesn’t stand up. Over the St. Patrick’s day holiday, Irish Ministers and representatives can continue to meet with American CEOs, as they have done in the past, based on the work of Irish civil servants in US consulates around the country.
Indeed, Ireland might even get some quiet kudos from American CEOs. Trump has made it his business to humiliate CEOs who are reduced to bringing gifts of gold to the White House. The IDA reports that US companies are so cowed by the Trump administration that they don’t release information on investments and job creation here for fear of retribution from Washington. Ireland provides something that Trump derides – consistency and stability. A bowl of shamrock will not impact this dynamic.
“Where we see challenging behaviour, we have to call it out, and unfortunately there’s been a lot of that from the US . . . So we will always use our voice, however small it might seem”.
What’s the best way to call out ‘challenging behaviour’? Refusing to visit the White House over the St. Patrick’s Day period. This would be a clear statement that Ireland opposes Trump’s arbitrary, chaotic foreign policy; a clear statement of support for a rules-based international order; a rejection of Trump’s ethno-nationalist portrayal of Europe (‘civilisational erasure’); and a determination to stop American nativist ideologues interfering in Irish and European democracy.
The parties that made up the ‘Connolly coalition’ should come together, with civil society organisations, to campaign against a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House – putting forward the arguments, mobilising public opinion and showing the power of progressive cooperation on a key foreign affairs event.
However, it is unlikely the Irish Government will concede. So the opposition parties should plan out an alternative St. Patrick’s Day visit with the participation of opposition party leaders and representatives along with civil society activists. This could include solidarity visits to cities that are under siege: Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland. The party representatives could meet with social constituencies that are struggling under Trump’s rule – in particular, the US trade union movement.
Indeed, there could be an alternative ceremony complete with a bowl of shamrocks Why not hold it in New York City and give the bowl to the newly elected Mayor, Zohran Mamdami? The symbolism would be profound, popular and progressive.
And, without interfering in US electoral politics, if the opposition to a White House visit provokes those sections of Irish America who previously supported Trump to re-think their political support – then we will have done the world a service.
That is how you make even a small voice speak loudly.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 