Politics Archives - Page 29 of 134

Posted in:

RTE’s ‘Gun Plot’: Why has it taken so long for the true narrative of the Arms Crisis 1970 to emerge?

by admin 29 April, 2021

By Sean Brennan. The documentary titled ‘Gun Plot’ which was shown on RTE 1 last night was fascinating television. The RTE production team should be commended for this brilliant documentary on a very important and significant political and legal event which occurred 50 years ago but has not been properly addressed by the media up until now. These events in 1969 and 1970 shaped politics in Ireland forever and also had a huge impact on how the troubles in Northern Ireland unfolded after 1970. What was very compelling was the fact that the documentary included the actual tape recordings of the second trial. This was the first time that an Irish court hearing was tape recorded. It was the judge, Mr. Justice Henchy, who ordered the hearings to be recorded. It is important to remember that the actual transcripts of the trial have been lost. The fact that the transcripts of the most important criminal trial in the history of the state are lost is incredible and some might even say sinister. In summary, RTE have performed a great service to the citizens of this country and historians in that they have finally portrayed much of what really happened in 1969 and 1970 but was previously hidden, concerning the events that are commonly referred to as the Arms Crisis and the Arms Trials in 1970. The documentary highlighted certain facts that suggest that Taoiseach Jack Lynch and Jim Gibbons, the then Minister for Defence, had a much greater knowledge and involvement in the plan to import arms for a possible distribution to Nationalists in Derry and Belfast in extreme circumstances than was ever admitted by Lynch and Gibbons. The programme refers to the Army Directive of 6th February 1970. This directive was issued by the Minister for Defence, Jim Gibbons to the Army Chief of Staff, General Sean McEoin, in the presence of Colonel Michael Hefferon, the Head of Military Intelligence on 6th February 1970. The directive stated that the Minister had been instructed by the Government to direct the Chief of Staff to prepare the army for incursions into Northern Ireland and to make surplus arms available for distribution to Nationalist in Northern Ireland for defensive purposes. The documentary also covers the events on 2nd April 1970 when it was feared that the Nationalist population in Ballymurphy in Belfast would be left defenceless against armed and arson attacks by loyalist mobs and B Specials and would be slaughtered. Arising out of the instructions which were given to the Minister for Defence which resulted in the Army Directive dated 6th February 1970 mentioned in the last paragraph, the Minister issued an order for the army to transport army weapons from an army barracks in Dublin to the army barracks in Dundalk so as to ensure that these weapons could be distributed in a short space of time to the defenceless Nationalists in Belfast in the event of them being subject to murderous assault and arsonist attacks. A total of 500 Irish Army rifles were transported in Irish Army lorries to Dundalk. This was exactly the type of situation which was envisaged in the Army Directive dated 6th February 1970. As it transpired, the expected loyalist attacks on the Nationalists in Ballymurphy did not materialise. Of the 500 rifles transported to Dundalk, only 350 were immediately returned to the barracks in Dublin. The remaining 150 rifles were kept in Dundalk pending the arrival of arms to be imported from the Continent. Unlike the army rifles which were sent to Dundalk, these imported arms could not be indentifiable and traced back to the Irish Army. The purpose of importing unidentifiable arms was to avoid or at least mitigate the possibility of damage to our diplomatic relations with the UK. After all it was part of the Government’s emergency plans to supply arms to UK citizens in Northern Ireland which was part of the UK. This could be regarded as an act of war. Secrecy was therefore critically important. Only Jim Gibbons could have ordered the Army to deposit 150 rifles in Dundalk after the rest of the arms were returned to Dublin. This was hidden from the jury at the Arms Trials. Only Jim Gibbons could have ordered the Army to deposit 150 rifles in Dundalk after the rest of the arms were returned to Dublin. This was hidden from the jury at the Arms Trials. The documentary also dealt with the army training camp in Fort Dunree , Co. Donegal. Men from Derry were inducted into the FCA and trained in the use of arms in Fort Dunree. This training was called off temporarily when the media got word of it. It was obvious that the people who were being trained into the use of arms might be supplied with arms to use in extreme circumstances as otherwise the training would have been pointless. It was obvious that the people who were being trained into the use of arms might be supplied with arms to use in extreme circumstances as otherwise the training would have been pointless. The documentary also mentions the meeting in Mount Carmel Hospital in October 1969 when the Secretary of the Department of Justice, Peter Berry informed the Taoiseach Jack Lynch that Captain Kelly met Northerners in Bailieboro, Co Cavan to discuss the importation of arms. Berry had been briefed by the Special Branch about the Bailieboro meeting and regarded it of such importance that he asked Jack Lynch to come to visit him in Mount Carmel so that he could tell Lynch face to face about what he had been told about the Bailieboro meeting. Lynch always denied that Berry told him about the Bailieboro meeting and the discussions concerning the importation of arms. The documentary was measured and overall it suggests that Captain Kelly and John Kelly believed that they were participants in a legal government sanctioned plan to import arms for the defence of Nationalist in Northern Ireland in the event of a

Posted in:

Documents prove the RUC were told about Kincora. What does the former PSNI-MI5 liaison officer Drew Harris, now Garda Commissioner, have to say?

by admin 25 April, 2021

By Joseph de Burca. 1. Moloney and Kinchin-White When the Kincora Boys’ Home child abuse scandal first broke, Ed Moloney was one of a number of journalists who reported details about it in the press. Now, Moloney and James Kinchin-White have teamed up to shine a light on the role of the RUC in the scandal. Details and copies of a number of RUC documents which expose their knowledge of the scandal can be found in an article on Moloney’s blog via this link: Moloney and Kinchin-White prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the RUC were told about Kincora in the 1970s, long before the scandal broke in January 1980 in the Irish Independent in the Republic. Moloney and Kinchin-White prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the RUC were told about Kincora in the 1970s, long before he scandal broke in January 1980 in the Irish Independent in the Republic. 2. The RUC and Roy Garland The RUC documents highlighted by Moloney and Kinchin-White include a summary of a report submitted by Roy Garland to the force. Garland was a former associate of William McGrath, one of the Kincora offenders. Garland was horrified at what he discovered McGrath was doing at Kincora and elsewhere. He wanted to end the abuse at the home and quite literally risked his life to help the abuse victims. One of the Kincora abusers, William McGrath, asked Davey Payne of the UDA to assassinate him. McGrath was the leader of a Loyalist paramilitary group called Tara, and knew many of the key players in the UDA including Payne. Ed Moloney is all too familiar with the name Davey Payne. In 1982 the Official IRA tried to get Payne to murder Moloney. Their motive was to conceal building site protection rackets they were running in the North from the public. The Official IRA and the UDA had entered into a secret pact to exploit building sites in different parts of Belfast. Payne was one of the links between the two organisations. His role was to ensure the arrangement ran smoothly. Moloney had written an expose about the rackets for the Irish Times. Someone working for the Irish Times spiked the article and then delivered it to the Official IRA who were alarmed and enraged. See The Official IRA planned the murders of journalists Ed Moloney and Vincent Browne. 3. Drew Harris It will be fascinating to see if Garda Commissioner Drew Harris comments on the RUC documents (posted on Moloney’s blog). Harris worked closely with MI5 while he was in the RUC. The vice ring which preyed on the unfortunate residents at Kincora was monitored by MI5. Harris had nothing to do with any of this – it happened long before his time – but he may have heard something about what is in the files especially as the Hart Inquiry interviewed former RUC officers and looked at the RUC files on the Kincora scandal. The issue must have been of intense interest to the force and those concerned about its reputation. Hart published his report in 2017. Incredibly, despite possession of these files, the Hart Inquiry concluded that the only people involved in the scandal were the three staff members who were convicted of child abuse in 1981: William McGrath, Joe Mains and Raymond Semple. It has been rumoured for decades that RUC officers with knowledge of the vice ring which swirled around Kincora kept a file on it lest MI5, the Northern Ireland Office and/or anyone in Whitehall or Westminster ever attempt to throw them to the wolves for colluding with Loyalist terrorists or any of the other crimes committed by the RUC. Aside from monitoring the members of the vice ring – such as James Molyneaux, the Leader of the Official Unionist Party – top civil servants such as Peter England at the NIO abused boys trapped in the vice ring. The scandal is a scab that London is still deeply fearful of scratching. Many reputations will be destroyed when the full facts about it finally emerge. They will include (a) those involved in the abuse of the children (b) those who monitored and blackmailed the perpetrators and (c) the police, politicians and civil servants who have covered it up for decades. The latter group includes an array of senior NIO and MI5 officials, many of whom are still alive. 4. Crimes Committed in the Republic All of this is of interest to the Republic because Kincora boys were brought across the border in the 1960s and 1970s to Sligo, Birr Castle and Glenveagh in County Donegal for abuse. The 1984 Hughes Inquiry into Kincora also reported on the case of a boy trafficked to a cinema in Dublin. See also: The Anglo-Irish Vice Ring. Chapters 1 – 3. The issue of RUC files has become a running sore between Dublin, London and Belfast. The most septic wound relates to RUC agents in the UDA who were involved in the – still unsolved – murder of 33 people during the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May of 1974. After he was appointed as Garda Commissioner, Harris denied having information that could shed new light on the bombings, stating that he would be ‘duty-bound’ to report it if he did. ‘The general point is, if we had information which suggested wrongdoing, that would have been required by the [North’s] Police Ombudsman,’ he told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1. He added: ‘The overarching duty to prevent and detect crime also remained. If we had information which pertained to atrocities or crimes here in the rest of Ireland, then we are also bound to share that.’ No doubt Commissioner Harris, who worked closely with MI5 while he was serving with the RUC and later, PSNI, would denounce and castigate any of his former colleagues with knowledge of a cover-up of the Kincora scandal, not to mention collusion with the UDA; especially, the RUC agents involved in the Dublin and Monaghan

Posted in:

The ‘Last Man Alive’ is still saying nothing. Des O’Malley’s silence about his role in the Arms Trials and Arms Crises of 1970 has become thunderous.

by admin 17 April, 2021

By Sean Brennan The purpose of this article is to examine Des O’ Malley’s Role in the events which are commonly known as The Arms Crisis and The Arms Trials 1970. The Arms Crisis erupted during the early hours of 6 May 1970, when a press release issued by the Government Information Service announced that the Taoiseach Jack Lynch had sacked his two most powerful Ministers, Neil Blaney and Charles Haughey, the Minister for Agriculture and the Minister for Finance respectively. The Minister for Local Government, Kevin Boland had also resigned in protest at the manner in which his colleagues, Blaney and Haughey had been dismissed from Government. I should state at the outset that I am the son of Paudge Brennan, Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow for 25 years, who resigned his position as a junior Minister reporting to Boland in sympathy with these other resignations. The reason for the sackings was allegations that Blaney and Haughey had been involved in a conspiracy, carried out behind the Taoiseach’s back and without his knowledge, to illegally import guns and ammunition. It was also rumoured that the guns were for the IRA. There were also imputations that the purpose of arming the IRA was to abolish partition, by force. The IRA hardly existed at this stage and was mocked by Northern nationalists with the taunt “IRA equals I Ran Away”. It was further suggested that Blaney and Haughey were involved in some sort of coup d’etat, whereby it was their intention to overthrow Jack Lynch as Taoiseach. I will prove in this article that this, conventional, narrative of the Arms Crisis was a deliberately fabricated lie. This lie was concocted by Jack Lynch in order to protect his own position. It turns out that Lynch was an inveterate liar. In fact, the author Michael Heney has shown that Jack Lynch lied on more than 30 occasions in matters pertaining to the Arms Crisis and Arms Trials. Lynch was aided and abetted in his lies and deceit by his Ministerial colleague Jim Gibbons who perjured himself while giving evidence at the Arms Trials. It has been commented on by colleagues and friends of Gibbons that he was never the same man again after giving the perjured evidence that he gave at the Arms Trials. Some friends even went as far as saying that Gibbons was a broken man after the arms trials. Gibbons was a practising catholic and it would appear that he suffered severe bouts of guilt and remorse for his dishonest actions during the arms trial. Lynch on the other hand continued to perpetuate the lie about the arms crisis and appeared to be quite comfortable in doing so. However, all may not have been as it seemed. Maybe Lynch was not as comfortable with this big lie as it appears. To be fair to Jim Gibbons, while his behaviour in perjuring himself at the two trials can never be excused nor forgiven, he too may have been a victim of Lynch’s deceit. It might appear that Lynch was protecting Gibbons when he did not sack him together with Blaney and Haughey on 6 May 1970. But this was not the case. Lynch was protecting himself. Lynch could not sack Gibbons as this would risk Gibbons declaring Lynch’s knowledge of the approved arms plan and Lynch’s position would be exposed. By ‘protecting Gibbons’, Lynch was effectively setting Gibbons up and manipulating him into a position where he would be ‘pressurised’ into perjuring himself while being cross-examined by the top lawyers in the country a total of eight times. This must have been humiliating for Jim Gibbons and would have had a devastating impact on him emotionally and psychologically. When Gibbons was promoted to Agriculture and not sacked on 6 May 1970 nobody told him that he would have to perjure himself. If he had known that that was going to be the price of holding on to his position in Cabinet he might very well have taken a different position and the course of Irish history would have been a lot different. Gibbons did Jack’s dirty work, paid the price for doing that and Jack kept his hands clean. Jack always kept his hands clean. Lynch was also aided and abetted in the continuation of his lies and deceit by the media and lazy journalism. The only journalist who contested Lynch’s dishonest narrative was Vincent Browne, who wrote about the Arms Crisis and Arms Trials in Magill Magazine in 1980 using as his source the diaries of Peter Berry, the former Secretary of the Department of Justice, who was a key player in the events. Browne found it impossible to get an Irish printer to print these editions of Magill as printers were fearful of crossing the government and the consequences that this might have for their business and future printing contracts. So these issues of the magazine had to be printed in the UK. It has been suggested that the reason for the media acting in concert with Lynch’s lies is that the media, particularly RTE and the Irish Times had been infiltrated by Official/IRA, Official Sinn Féin and Workers Party members such as Dick Walsh, who reviled FF and in particular Charles Haughey. Last Year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Arms Crisis/Trials. Such Anniversaries normally involve acknowledging the relevant events or occasions, celebrating them and then moving on. However, the fiftieth anniversary of the Arms Crisis was different to the extent that it marked a complete change and correction of the false received narrative of the events that had been promulgated for the previous fifty years. This revision was as a direct result of two brilliantly researched books on the Arms Crisis written by two experts on the subject. The books, ‘The Arms Crisis of 1970 – The Plot That Never Was’ and ‘Deception and Lies – The Hidden History of The Arm Crisis 1970’ written by Michael Heney and David Burke respectively are based on

Posted in:

Prince Philip’s infidelity, love children and the Profumo scandal .

by admin 11 April, 2021

By David Burke. Christine Keeler was the woman at the centre of the Profumo scandal. As a teenager, she slept with Captain Eugene Ivanov, a Russian naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in London, while also having a relationship with the much older John Profumo, the high-flying Conservative MP who was Secretary of State for War. Profumo, who met Keeler in July 1961, dramatically denied a relationship with her in the House of Commons but later admitted he had lied and, in June 1963, resigned in disgrace. Stephen Ward, the artist and ‘society osteopath’ who had introduced Keeler to Profumo, was subsequently put on trial for living off the immoral earnings of prostitutes. He took an overdose of medication before the jury returned a verdict against him and died shortly thereafter. He was found guilty on two charges. Keeler asserted that Stephen Ward was in fact a Russian spy and had amassed ‘kompromat’ about Establishment figures for the Soviets. Any information he passed to the Soviets is now available to Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Keeler also claimed that the late Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was unfaithful to the Queen. “But I learned, first hand, from another of the Duke of Edinburgh’s lovers about another child. I was with her when she was pregnant”. [See page 41 of Keeler’s memoirs.] All of this was known to Ward and undoubtedly was reported to the Soviets. But I learned, first hand, from another of the Duke of Edinburgh’s lovers about another child. I was with her when she was pregnant. Ward also told Keeler how he, Prince Philip and David, the Marquess of Milford Haven, a cousin of Prince Philip, ‘had all visited nightclubs together in the 1940s. They were quite wild times and it was all thought to be a little delicate for Prince Philip when Elizabeth became Queen, according to Stephen. He had no time for Philip and would always put him down in conversation for he hated the Establishment. He thought the House of Lords was full of idiots: “Through inheritance alone these people have been set up in the House of Lords to make judgements on our account, let me tell you”. He would get more and more heated and red in the face: “It’s like a thoroughbred animal; they marry their cousins and land up retarded and deformed with the interbreeding”. [p. 35.] Ward was the son of a vicar who was married to an Irish woman from County Carlow. The Irish connection may account for some of his disdain for the British aristocracy. Ward was also a portrait artist. After the Profumo scandal erupted, 123 of his portraits, including members of the Royal Family such as Prince Philip and the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, were purchased from an exhibition at the time of the scandal for £11,517, a fortune in those days. The purchase was effected by a man who refused to give his name and paid for them by way of a bank draft. The mainstream media are not reporting any of this in their glowing tributes to Prince Philip. In fairness to him, from what is known about his affairs, he seems to have engaged with consenting adults. That is more than can be said of his son Prince Andrew or his uncle Lord Louis Mountbatten. Village has published many stories about the shameful activities of the latter pair, most especially Mountbatten who was a serial paedophile. An updated and expanded version of this article including a description of Prince Philip’s obscene comments to a junior female reporter in Canada; the woman who denied Prince Philip was the father of her children; the censorship of his will, the toilet creeping paedophile cousin of the Queen Mother who spied for the Soviets; more details about Ward and Keeler, and a comprehensive dossier on the paedophilia of Lord Mountbatten can be found here: https://wordpress.com/view/coverthistory.ie David Burke is the author of ‘Deception & Lies, the Hidden History of the Arms Crisis 1970’ and ‘Kitson’s Irish War, Mastermind of the Dirty War in Ireland’ which examines the role of counter-insurgency dirty tricks in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s. His new book, ‘An Enemy of the Crown, the British Secret Service Campaign against Charles Haughey’, was published on 30 September 2022. These books can be purchased here: https://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/kitson-s-irish-war/ https://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/an-enemy-of-the-crown/ https://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/deception-and-lies/ OTHER STORIES PUBLISHED BY VILLAGE MAGAZINE WHICH EXPOSE UK VIP SEX-ABUSE SCANDALS: Mountbatten, the Royal who abused boys aged 8-12. SECOND UPDATE: Kincora boy abused by Mountbatten committed suicide months later Judge a (future) king by his courtiers: Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, pawns in the cover-up of a transatlantic paedophile network. Trump’s mentor: another sociopathic paedophile child-trafficker in the mix; from Roy Cohn to Epstein and Maxwell. Palace of Discord and Deception. [Updated] Prince William’s officials covered-up his uncle’s involvement in the Epstein-Maxwell sex trafficking scandal. By Joseph de Burca. Prince Philip’s infidelity, love children and the Profumo scandal . The Prince, the pauper and the paedophile peer: the dangerous questions the BBC failed to ask. The deep Irish background to the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. By Joseph de Burca Backstabbing and Censorship, by Royal Command Prince Andrew has no need to sweat after publication of the Janner paedophile report. James Molyneaux and the Kincora scandal. James Molyneaux was linked to Kincora child rapist in British PSYOPS document. SECOND UPDATE: The Irish government has become complicit in the cover-up of British Royal sexual abuse committed in the Republic of Ireland. By Joseph de Burca. Mountbatten, the Royal who abused boys aged 8-12. The British Government purchased Mountbatten’s archive for the benefit of historians (allegedly) but has locked it away. It may include details about his links to paedophile networks including the Anglo-Irish Vice Ring. Village’s online book on the Anglo-Irish Vice Ring begins here: The Anglo-Irish Vice Ring. Chapters 1 – 3. Kincora survivor The plot to discredit victims of VIP sex abuse: Carl Beech and the ‘Useful idiots’ at the BBC. The incompetence of the BBC has

Posted in:

Still Standing. (Expanded version.) Richard Kerr is determined to bring his case against the bodies who handed him over to child rapists before the High Court in Belfast this year despite a dark and sinister campaign to stop him. The problem he faces is not so much that the legal system in the UK is corrupt, rather that when it comes to sleaze and the establishment, corruption actually is the system.

by admin 10 April, 2021

By Joseph de Burca. Richard Kerr, a survivor of child sex abuse at Williamson House and Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast, is hoping that his legal action against those responsible for failing to safeguard him as a child, will be listed for hearing later this year. He has faced innumerable delays and obstacles in getting his case to court thus far. He poses the defendants a severe problem in that: He has a very high profile and the media will be watching the trial; No-one denies that he was a resident at Kincora Boys’ Home in the 1970s; No one denies that he was sexually abused. The real issue is whether he was abused beyond the four walls of the residence itself. If that is established, a 40-year-old cover-up of MI5 and MI6 wrongdoing will fall apart and the reputations of an array of NIO, MI5, MI6 and RUC officials, government ministers, Whitehall mandarins and the like will lie in tatters. The first chapters of a 70,000 word online book which provides an account of the Anglo-Irish Vice Ring of which Kincora was only a part, can be found here: The Anglo-Irish Vice Ring. Chapters 1 – 3. The entire book is available free of charge on this website. There is no doubt that sinister and dark forces have been trying to undermine Kerr’s credibility for years. They would hardly have gone to this trouble if he was not telling the truth. They got a lucky break with the appointment of the former judge, Sir Anthony Hart, as Chair of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA). Hart was perhaps the least gifted person available. His 2017 report was a car crash. It even managed to contradict itself on simple, yet crucial, facts about Sir Maurice Oldfield, the former Chief of the British Secret Service. Hart reported that: “There is no evidence to support his claim that he was ‘trafficked [from Belfast] to London’ aged seventeen. The irrefutable evidence examined by us is that from 4 October 1977 until February 1979, except for the few days between 21 October and 7 November when he was on bail before being remanded back into custody …..’ This comment would be somewhat impressive except for one thing: Richard Kerr was born on 12 May 1961. Hence, he did not reach 17 until 12 May 1978. He was therefore still 17 when he was released, i.e throughout the period February-May 1979. However, none of this is really that relevant except to show flimsy thinking on the part of Hart. The important point is that Kerr was abused as a resident of Kincora during 1975-77. It is a mystery why Hart became fixated upon his 17th year to the detriment of the abuse he suffered as a younger teenager and child at both Williamson House and Kincora. In any event there is plenty of evidence that he was taken out of Belfast while he was a resident of Kincora while he was younger than 17. Why Hart focussed on his 17th year is a mystery. Kerr was in fact abused from the age of 8 at Williamson House and during his time at Kincora. The photograph reproduced below is of Kerr while he was a resident at Kincora. Does it look like Belfast to you? It was in fact taken in Venice. For further details about this trip see: Trump’s mentor: another sociopathic paedophile child-trafficker in the mix; from Roy Cohn to Epstein and Maxwell. The next photograph shows him in London: The next picture was taken by one of his abusers in London. At the time he should have been in Belfast as he was still a resident of Kincora Boys’ Home. At least Hart wasn’t corrupt. A crooked judge would not have reproduced some of the revelatory MI5 documents that were supplied to him as Hart did. Unfortunately, it must be stressed Hart made no use of them, misunderstood their importance and bent over backwards to indulge in demonstrably erroneous speculation to dry-rinse the truth from them. A bright, intelligent and corrupt judge would have suppressed them. Kerr had the good sense not to appear at the HIA as did other genuine whistle blowers such as Colin Wallace. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) chaired by Professor Jay decided to ignore Kerr’s case despite the fact he was abused by VIPs in Britain, the very issue her inquiry was set up to investigate. That ship has now sailed and sunk beneath the waves. The IICSA wasn’t torpedoed, it scuttled itself. The living members of the Anglo-Irish Vice Ring of which Kincora was a part have escaped justice yet again. Put simply, the Jay Inquiry has been a stupendous and monumental failure. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) chaired by Prof. Jay decided to ignore Kerr’s case despite the fact he was abused by VIPs in Britain, the very issue her inquiry was set up to investigate. That ship has now sailed and sunk beneath the waves. The IICSA wasn’t torpedoed , it scuttled itself The dark forces arrayed against Kerr have been busy trying to put words into his mouth. One website which included claims that Kerr never made was quickly denounced by him. So, nice try, but forget that one for the trial. See: Who is afraid of Richard Kerr? They have also attempted to intimidate Kerr without success. Where this man gets his courage is a mystery. In November 2016 Kerr received the following anonymous letter purportedly from the UFF: DEAR RICHARD, HAVING READ AN ONLINE ARTICLE ABOUT YOU TODAY CONCERNING YOUR BEHAVIOUR IN LONDON IN 2015, A GROUP OF SURVIVORS HAVE RESEARCHED AND DISCUSSED YOUR ALLEGATIONS. IT IS MANY UK-BASED SURVIVORS OPINION THAT YOU ARE PLAYING A GAME AND WORKING FOR THE ABUSERS STILL. THERE ARE FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS OF YOUR BEHAVIOUR IN DOLPHIN SQUARE AND IN KINCORA INCLUDING ACCOUNTS OF YOU ACTING AS FACILITATOR FOR ABUSERS. THERE ARE ALSO ALLEGATIONS AND ACCOUNTS OF YOU ACTIVELY

Posted in:

Politics

Estates of Fear

by admin 23 March, 2021

Inept decision-makers ignore the wishes and interests of local authority tenants. By Mannix Flynn. Ireland’s Attitude to Social Housing Let’s be clear, though the middle classes could not care less, tenants in our local authority estates have rights. A few years ao it was reported that localauthorities had received 10,000 complaints about anti-social behaviour in just two years, 2015 and 2016. It’s an ongoing crisis. But only for those who live in the flats. You could easily miss this timebomb because the general view is that Council estates are the sinks of our society. This is partly because somuch of housing policy obsesses over how to facilitate private development and private reward. The unnecessary bifurcation between ownership classes for housing is deep-rooted and long-standing; and drives the self-image of far too many. It ownership classes for housing is deep-rooted and long-standing; and drives the self-image of far too many. It also affects construction. As long ago as the report ‘Housing Conditions of the Working Classes in the City of Dublin’ concluded 14,000 new homes needed to be built to rehouse slum dwellers. Crucially this building programme needed to be undertaken by the State because the private sector had not made itself available to “any appreciable degree sufficient to grapple with the present needs of the city”. Inadequate supply of social housing remains an indictment of our society. There are at least 70,000 on social housing lists. But there are other age-old problems. The same report said there needed to be better enforcement of the laws in relation to rented accommodation. That’s a hundred years ago! A 2010 report criticised “housing managementpolicies that make enabling tenant purchase the priority”, to the detriment of quality, amenities and relationships. We don’t get social housing inIreland. Never have. It’s very diff erent elsewhere. In Vienna 62%live in social housing, good-quality social housing. The Legacy Anyway on we go, building sinks, ever since, from the grand scale of Herbert Simms through the 1966 Housing Act and a burst of high-riseincluding the 3,000-unit Ballymun development with disastrously diverted physical and social infrastructure to sprawling 1970s houses in desolate new towns to the limited vision over the last few decades of Part V and 10% allocations of social housing in, or sometimes away from, private housing developments. The quality and conditions are grim for those in the Ghetto. In the Inner City many of the flats are slums. Ordinary people feel abandoned, unsafe, distant from a regime they see as Stalinist. Mostly they feel fear There is a correlation between growing up ghettoised in a slum and dysfunctional behaviour. Ordinary people feel abandoned, unsafe, distantfrom a regime they see as Stalinist. Mostly they feel fear. Fear every day. Dysfunctionality from crime and poor conditions overflows into the inner city generally. Families and elderly people don’t go into the city any more. The multi-agencies that are supposed to be looking after the welfare of the homeless and the addicted fill their own coffers like Christmas. The Council and all the political parties including FFG, People Before Profit and Sinn Féin but also NGOs and community activists have abandoned the flats. Eoin O’Broin writes about a Tiocfaidh ár Lá dee daw utopia of social housing everywhere but people in the ghetto want safety first. Where is Amnesty’s Colm O’Gorman on the breaches of civil liberties for those abandoned in fear in the flats? God knows there must be a judicial review in it for those who bed down amid the mould and vermin. There are certainly enough Acts that are suppose to cover it. Worthy report after report is forgotten by the middle-class worthies paid to churn them out. Nothing ever changes. Social Housing Figures As to social housing, only 9% of Ireland’s housing stock is social housing compared to the European average of 20%. In 2017, there were 24,000Dublin City Council tenants paying more than €78 million in rent. On average, tenants paid €272 per month. You wouldn’t know they pay anything, the way they are abandoned by civil servants and Garda who live miles away, to anti-social behaviour. Anti-Social Behaviour This is defined under the Criminal Justice Act 2016: “A person behaves in an antisocial manner if the person causes or, in the circumstances, islikely to cause, to one or more persons who are not of the same household as the person –Harassment,Significant or persistent alarm, distress, fear orintimidation, orSignificant or persistent impairment of their useor enjoyment of their property”. Anti-social behaviour fails to describe what people are facing day and night in local authority estates, the place they call home – and withoutany help in the event of abuse. When drug lords shoot a lad dead in Gloucester Place or Sheriff St who picks up the pieces? Who deals with theterror residents feel passing the spot every day? It’s not as if anyone provides counselling. The knotweed of this criminality euphemised as anti-social behaviour is tightening its deathly grasp all over the city. A 2019 University of Limerick report found that only a relatively small number of people in social housing (estimated at under 2% between theages of 12 and 40) are involved in criminal and anti-social behaviour, but that their actions were having a continuing corrosive and damagingimpact on a far greater number. Up to 1000 kids, mostly from “chaotic” family backgrounds are groomed into criminal activities Crime in Social Housing Figures A third of Irish people say crime and anti-social behaviour in their community has had an impact on their quality of life. In Dublin the figure rises to four in ten residents who feel their lives have been negatively affected. As of 2018 Dublin’s north inner city had the highest crime rate in the State at over five times the national average. The Dublin North Centraldivision had the highest rate for 11 of the 14 main crime categories, including homicide, sexual offences, assaults, drug crime and public orderoffences, and had the second highest rate in the remaining three. The North

Posted in:

The right-wing QAnon anti-vaccine cult has arrived in Ireland. They, and elements of Ireland’s extreme right, are threatening to reverse gains made by the lockdown. QAnon is a con. Here is the ABC-Q why.

by admin 1 March, 2021

By David Burke. The madness and mayhem in Washington earlier this year was fuelled by thousands of so-called ‘patriots’ who believe the world is ruled by ‘swamp’ puppets of a reptilian race from outer space who murder and sexually abuse children. They see the various anti-Covid vaccines as integral parts of a plot against humanity. In normal times this would be something to laugh at but with Covid killing people on a daily basis and mutant strains reaching Ireland from as far away as Brazil, their beliefs have the potential to kill people. QAnon features across a range of anti-lockdown message boards and web sites involving Irish people. Over 100,000 Irish people have discussed various types of conspiracy theories on Facebook and other social media outlets about Covid-19, lockdowns, vaccines and masks. The coalition of QAnon Qballs, devotees of David Icke, anti-Reptilian conspiracy theorists and right-wing thugs present in Dublin last week could have sparked a super spreading event. The only people wearing masks were the gardai and journalists. One maskless protester, who was carrying National Party literature, told Mark Tighe of The Sunday Times that she was protesting against the lockdown and vaccines. ‘We’re here to protest against RTE as well,’ she added. As reported by Tighe: “Her friend said over ‘9,000 people went missing in Ireland last year’. Asked how this was linked to RTE, the pair outlined a conspiracy theory that involved babies being killed and harvested for ‘adrenochrome’ which is being used to keep RTE celebrities ‘looking young while the corpses are buried under the new children’s hospital’.” The riots in Dublin have provided a taste of what happened in Washington at the beginning of the year when tens of thousands of ardent QAnon devotees from around the planet – including his followers in Ireland – waited for the ‘Storm’ to take place. This was meant to have happened during Joe Biden’s inauguration on 20 January 2021. The ‘Storm’ was to have involved a swoop by an army of patriots working for the US Army led by their fantasy saviour QAnon and his alleged partner Donald Trump. Yes, really. The patriots were set to arrest the key members of a cabal of alleged child-abusing Satanic cannibals. Prison camps had been made ready. Sealed indictments were ready to be served. Of course nothing of the sort materialised. Despite this wake up call, the Qballs and the right-wing elements who joined them in Washington have not gone away. They still hold anti-lockdown-vaccine-mask views. QAnon, apparently, is biding his time. He will yet strike. Joe Biden is now the focus of much attention as a core member of the cannibal cabal. Presumably the Taoiseach and Tanaiste can be added to the list. The purported international circle also includes the Clintons, Obama and Bush family members. According to QAnon activists, the cabal also controls the media and entertainment world, no doubt why RTE are being supplied with so much ‘adrenochrome’. Pat Kenny at Newstalk is obviously thriving on it. Sadly, we have to take this daftness seriously. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake due to the cult’s assertion that COVID-19 does not exit and masks and hygiene are unnecessary. Who is responsible for this madness? QAnon is presented by the conmen responsible for this fraud as some sort of a powerful US military intelligence insider who works with Donald Trump. Trump is portrayed as a latter day political version of Flash Gordon. If we are to believe the hype, QAnon and Trump are not alone: a group of brave generals at the Pentagon opposed to the ‘Deep State’ are helping them in their spare time. The conmen behind the non-existent QAnon communicate with the hundreds of thousands of Qballs via Q drops on message boards. Their most recent e-pulpit was built in the Philippines by a man called Frederick Brennan and operated by Jim Watkins and his son Ron. The Q drops on the Watkins’ message board are deciphered by Q’s horribly gullible devotees. Throughout the day leading up to Biden’s inauguration ceremony, Q dupes were assuring each other that their stormtroopers were about to pounce. ‘Trust the plan’, one of their mantras, was repeated on their message boards as panic grew. It began to dawn on a few that they had been conned. Others insisted that their time was still, finally, about to come. It was all creepily redolent of ISIS’s expectation of a prophesised Armageddon as US-led forces closed in on Dabiq in Syria in 2016. They believed the Prophet Muhammed told his followers hundreds of years ago that “the last hour will not come” until an Islamic army vanquished “the Romans” there. Americans were Romans. The Epstein and Weinstein scandals convinced many that the Q dropping con artists on the Watkins’ message board were telling the truth. Incredibly, 19 or more Republican candidates in the recent elections displayed support for the movement. Two of them were elected to Congress. In Washington five people died. Now, hundreds face prison. Predictably, Trump had thrown them under a bus. No pardons for any of them. In reality, he sees them as witless ‘white trash’. In Dublin the rioters threw fireworks at the Gardai. The potential for serious trouble at future protests is high. Someone, somewhere has made a fortune along the way in merchandising. 8kun, the message board run by the Watkins, earns money from advertising. The fabricated ‘QAnon’ has proved to be a star attraction. Sadly, for the more violent QAnon activists – especially those now facing long prison sentences for the invasion of Capitol Hill – Donald Trump was never in league with anyone or any group even remotely resembling QAnon. He was tweeting, applying his fake mango tan and playing golf. By the time the pandemic is over, the people posting on the Watkins’ message board will have – at the very least – tens of thousands of deaths on their hands. Ridiculously, the Qballs signed up for the campaign to keep Trump in power