There aren’t that many Catholic priests whom leading IRA members have embraced down the years. If you recall the days when the Catholic church in Northern Ireland used to condemn the IRA – yes, it did condemn it, even if it no longer does so – the IRA saw the Catholic church as its sworn enemy in the battle for nationalist hearts and minds, not … Continue reading Fr. Gary Donegan & The IRA

Malachy, 37 days before The Claudy Bombings, you were King of the Heap in the South Derry Brigade of the I Ran Aways when you triggered a landmine that blew three British soldiers to bits and maimed four others. Then 24 years of age, you were four or five years older than most of the other young I Ran Aways and were undoubtedly a highly-regarded … Continue reading Open Letter to Malachy O’Kane re His Part in the Claudy Bombings

Shortly after midnight on February 4, 1974, a 50lb IRA bomb exploded in the rear luggage compartment of a private bus ferrying off duty British soldiers and their families from Manchester to Catterick army base. While the person who informed the IRA of the target must have seen women and children regularly boarding the bus, the bombers went ahead and planted the bomb. The IRA … Continue reading Martin McGuinness & the M62 Coach Bomb

Bishop Noel Treanor will probably be best remembered for spending well over £1M on lavish upgrades to his Belfast residence, ‘Lisbreen’, on Somerton Road, over a third of the cost picked up by a generous Stormont grant in 2014. Bishop Treanor may also be remembered for his poor relationship with the head of the Catholic church’s own child protection agency, Ian Elliott, to whom the … Continue reading Bishop Noel Treanor and the Belfast Brigade of the IRA

What’s the story with CATHOLICS and the belief that global pandemics and wars are SENT BY GOD as a PUNISHMENT FOR SIN, for a WORLD TURNING AWAY FROM GOD? Almost exactly a century ago and three years into the First World War, three children in rural Fatima, Portugal, claimed that Mary, the Mother of God, appeared to them in 1917 in visions on the 13th … Continue reading Does the Catholic church believe that God sends Chastisements?

1) Where the Civil Rights’ movement and the Social Democratic and Labour Party successfully represented Northern Nationalists in the early 1970s, introduce an unwanted campaign of terrorism largely fought by teenagers and young persons. 2) Target not only British soldiers who were initially welcomed by the Nationalist community, but also Protestant neighbours, not only members of the RUC and UDR, but also Protestant neighbours who … Continue reading The 15 Takeaways of the IRA Army Council

In September 1998 the IRA made a staggering and overdue admission to its newspaper, An Phoblacht, that it had murdered and secretly buried – disappeared – ‘a small number of people’ during the 1970s – in effect admitting that it had committed the most serious Human Rights’ atrocities. In March 1999, the IRA declared that it had disappeared the remains of 9 victims – it … Continue reading The Victim the IRA Disappeared Twice

The oft-repeated claims by Republic of Ireland political parties, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour, that Sinn Fein was “unfit for government” in the Republic of Ireland were a hypocritical affront to citizens in Northern Ireland, but – if it’s possible – even more of an affront to those citizens in NI who identified as Irish citizens carrying Irish passports. Why should Irish citizens in … Continue reading Sinn Féin Unfit for Government?