Posts Tagged ‘religion’
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 »Ballymena Riots – Democratic Unionist party Stormont-Racist Minister Gordon Lyons posted location of people sheltering from riots – He Must Resign Immediately
“Christian” charity has disappeared from North Antrim.
Link :
Gordon Lyons Has to Go – by Eamonn McCann
The scenes we’re witnessing in Ballymena, Larne and elsewhere are vile and indefensible attempted pogroms. They should be utterly condemned by all.
These attacks haven’t occurred out of thin air, however.
In a context of community frustration at deprivation, waiting lists and crumbling public services, far right agitators are spreading racist lies on social media to blame migrants, and Unionist politicians have deliberately fanned the flames of their hate.
Last night, the DUP Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons posted the location of people sheltering from riots:
“It has been brought to my attention that a number of individuals were temporarily moved to Larne Leisure Centre in the early hours of the morning following the disturbances in Ballymena.”
The leisure centre was attacked later that evening – motivated by sheer racism. Gordon Lyons should resign immediately.
Other Unionist politicians have been whipping up anti-immigrant rhetoric.
On Monday Paul Frew, also DUP, went on the attack about immigration in a session on violence against women, and also referenced the case of sexual assault which sparked the racist riots in Ballymena. Frew also railed about immigration in Ballymena in a debate on the 20th May.
The TUV’s Timothy Gaston beat the anti-immigration drum on that same day: “Migration puts pressure on hospitals, schools and housing: that is a fact.”
This is the racist playbook on display. It blames migrants and minorities for the problems in our society. Migrants didn’t underfund the health service, minorities don’t hike up rents, asylum seekers don’t keep wages down. These problems are caused by the super rich, by landlords, and by politicians who protect them
Unionist politicians bear serious responsibility for the hateful scenes of recent days. They dog-whistled and whipped up racist sentiments. Loyalist paramilitaries and far right agitators took the next logical step, attacking ordinary people and making them fear for their lives.
Don’t be taken in by the DUP, the TUV and the far right. Stand up for humanity in a time of fear and chaos.
Awkward Child Abuse Questions for New Conservative Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) Savaged by Donald Trump’s MAGA Attack Dogs
A Cardinal born in the USA city of Chicago 69 years ago – Robert Prevost – will in future be called Pope Leo XIV.
No surprise – child abuse allegations lurk – let’s see
The child abuse connection with Pope Leo XIV is probably the same as all top leaders of the Catholic Church. He wasn’t interested when the news started to break, he moved the rapists to a new parish or new job, while remaining indifferent to the victims.
Pope Francis’ small reforms like allowing communion to LGBT or divorced and remarried people seem likely to be accepted as a modernisation.
Let’s wait and see.
Here is an extract from an Irish Times report “The cardinal, who is a member of the Order of St Augustine, resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and migrants. Often described as reserved and discreet, Prevost will depart stylistically from Francis. His supporters say he will most likely continue the consultative process started by Francis to invite laypeople to meet with bishops.
It is unclear whether he will be as open to LGBTQ+ Catholics as Francis was. Although he has not said much recently, in a 2012 address to bishops, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel”. He cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
Rev Michele Falcone (46), a priest in the Order of St. Augustine previously led by Prevost, described his mentor and friend as the “dignified middle of the road” to the New York Times earlier this week.
“He does not have excesses,” Fr Falcone said of Prevost. “Blessing babies, yes. Taking them in his arms, no.”
“I know that Bob believes that everybody has a right and a duty to express themselves in the church,” said Rev Mark R Francis, a former classmate of Prevost who runs the American arm of the Clerics of St Viator, a religious order.
While praised in Peru for supporting Venezuelan immigrants and visiting far-flung communities, the cardinal has drawn criticism over his dealings with priests accused of sexual abuse.
One woman in Chiclayo, who said she and two other women were sexually abused by two priests as girls long before Prevost was bishop, accused him of mishandling an investigation and of not stopping one of the priests from celebrating Mass.
Obituary: Cathleen O’Neill, witty, irreverent and tireless activist, author and advocate for social change – Lorna Siggins
We are delighted to publish a second tribute to Cathleen O’Neill on this blog – this time written by Lorna Siggins for the Sunday Independent, May 11 2025.
A link is here :
Cathleen O’Neill Tribute, by Lorna Siggins; Witty, Irreverent, Tireless Activist, Author, Advocate for Social Change – Sunday Independent
Cathleen’s Death Notice is here ;
Cathleen O’Neill, Death Notice, RIP.IE
All who attended the funeral will remember the hilarious stories and moving tributes. Cathleen, in lock-step with her campaigning friend and activist Joan Byrne, was fearless.
Cathleen O’Neill, who has died aged 76, was a witty, irreverent and tireless activist, author and advocate for social change whose passion for education and opportunity transformed countless lives.
Described as an “organic intellectual” by Professor Kathleen Lynch of UCD, she said she was one of a rare few experts whose ideas were informed by their own working-class background. She was born and reared in Ballyfermot, Dublin, as the eldest of 13 children, but said in an Irish Times interview in September 2012 that her life “began at 33”.
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Tomás Ó Flatharta 