Léargas

  Standing up to Bullies.  Some politicians rarely, if ever see the irony in the words they use. Take Boris Johnson. He is currently using the dispute between the Ukraine and Russia to distract attention from the Downing Street Party-gate scandal. As more and more voices within his own party are questioning his leadership credentials Johnson is busy presenting himself as a leader on the world stage standing up for the rights of others. And so we get:  “We won’t accept a world in which a powerful neighbour can bully or attack their neighbours … all people have the right to live safely and choose who governs them.” In a short period in which two Police Ombudsman reports exposed the extent and depth of British state collusion with loyalist death squads and the families of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane and Sinn Féin Councillor John Davey marked the anniversaries of their murder through collusion, Johnson’s remarks carry a strong whiff of hypocrisy. British policy toward Ireland is the v

  Ormeau Road collusion exposed Collusion between British intelligence, the RUC, UDR, British Army and Loyalist paramilitary organisations is a fact of life here. This is indisputable. A succession of reports have confirmed the extent to which loyalist death squads operated under the patronage of the British state. This week the Police Ombudsman produced another report. It examines 11 killings in the South Belfast area, five of which occurred on Wednesday 5 February 1992. That morning two UDA killers walked into Graham’s bookies on the Ormeau Road and opened fire. They killed five people on the Ormeau Road and wounded nine others. Claims of collusion between the UDA and British security agencies were dismissed at that time by many in the political establishment and most of the media. 30 years later and within days of the anniversary of that atrocity, the families were handed a Police Ombudsman’s report that confirmed collusion. It also confirmed that one of the weapons involved w

Reflections on Bloody Sunday.  Somehow human beings, including this columnist,  put more stead in twenty year anniversaries than in nineteen year ones. So in the case of Bloody Sunday 50 years seems more important than forty nine. Why this is so is worthy of some research beyond at this point my capacity. But fifty years it is since that fateful day.  In less than 30 minutes it was all over. The shooting began at 4.10pm. When it ended 13 men and boys were dead. Another was to die weeks later. Another 14, including one woman had been shot and grievously wounded. On our television screens we could see the deadly consequences. The still bodies in their pools of blood. One moment alive. The next dead. Lines of men were filmed being frog marched by British soldiers and forced against walls. A community in shock. Bloody Sunday marked a watershed moment in our history. For many Bloody Sunday also marked a personal turning point in our lives. I know that many of my friends, my peer group