As Irish chief Protocol agitator Leo Varadkar visits Northern Ireland. The Unionist & Loyalist Unified Coalition deliver the message from the British populace directly to the official residence of the Irish Government in this part of the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/gBJCUsPvz2
— Greater Shankill Coalition (@Gtr_Shankill_Co) September 2, 2021
This morning.
Location, anyone?
Previously: Ursula Regrets
bus drivers are striking in belfast right now and i don’t blame them 🙃 pic.twitter.com/TBTp4zfUmm
— caffrin 🪐 (@cafffrinn) April 8, 2021
This morning.
Earlier…
The junction of Lanark Way and Shankill Road in west Belfast last night
I have spoken with the Chief Constable as he briefs political parties. Thoughts are particularly with those officers injured by the unjustified & unjustifiable violence of recent days.Those responsible must be subject to the full rigour of the law.All must be equal under the law.
— Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@DUPleader) April 8, 2021
Met with @ChiefConPSNI this morning.Ongoing orchestrated violence must end. Those stoking up tensions at interfaces must be faced down. Those inflicting violence held to account. Above all citizens and communities must be protected. Politics leaders must speak with one voice.
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) April 8, 2021
This morning.
NI scenes not seen ‘for a very long time’ – Coveney (RTÉ)
Pic: Sky News
— La Rantrepreneur.. (@pauldelaney2012) February 2, 2021
Gulp.
Yesterday.
Pitt Park, East Belfast.
Police investigating ‘suspicious’ masked men patrolling East Belfast streets (Belfast Telegraph)
Mark Carruthers was joined by Billy Hutchinson (PUP), Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP) and Mike Nesbitt (UUP) on yesterday’s Sunday Politics for a discussion about flegs.
Billy Hutchinson, the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party repeated the claim he made on Friday that he is not a loyalist leader.
As to who put up the flegs, he said “it was Protestants who put them up.”
Previously: Any Fenians Will Do
NI First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness
First Minister Peter Robinson has rejected Sinn Féin claims he was showing cowardice as a politician.
Earlier this month Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness accused Mr Robinson of “cowardice of the worst kind”.
He claimed Mr Robinson had not spoken out about alleged UVF involvement in violence and racist intimidation.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA said: “I have stood shoulder to shoulder with unionist leaders in condemning the activities of so-called dissident republicans.
“We have not seen the same united approach in response to UVF-orchestrated violence against isolated members of our ethnic minority communities, against the small nationalist community of the Short Strand, against the PSNI during the flag protests or against Alliance party offices.“
Hmm.
From the 1980s, the then MP for East Belfast Peter Robinson was interviewed by John Ware for BBC’s Panorama (above) where he described Loyalist prisoners as “counter-terrorists”.
First Minister Peter Robinson rejects ‘cowardice’ claims (BBC News NI)
Previously: Was It For This?
File Pic: Photocall Ireland
Progressive Unionist Party leader Billy Hutchinson has repeated his assertion in today’s Belfast News Letter that he has no regrets about his part in the sectarian murder of two half-brothers in 1974.
Edward Morgan (27) and Michael Loughran (18) were gunned down on the Falls Road in Belfast as they walked to work on the morning of October 21st.
During the murder trial, evidence was heard that the killers drove around and selected their victims randomly. Hutchinson served 15 years of a life sentence. He previously stated his lack of regret in Peter Taylor’s BBC documentary Loyalists in 1999 (above).
Last December Saw our fleg depart
And it wasn’t okay
‘Cause it’s not on displayThis year
We want it to reappear
That’s basically it in a nutshell
‘Last December’, a Wham! parody for charity by satirists Loyalists Against Democracy (LAD).
LAD were born a year ago this week in response to loyalists protesting at the flying of the Union Jack from Belfast City Hall solely on designated days.
The single, launched last week with proceeds going to SOS Bus NI, climbed Amazon’s mp3 chart and was a 10/1 bet to make the Christmas Number One spot.
Until a Dublin musician called ‘Frankie Regan’ made a complaint to the music distributors claiming the lyrics were sectarian and SOS took the decision to step away from the single.
‘Frankie Regan’, it has since emerged, is a known anti-Lad lad from Coleraine.
Good times.
Swine-y Todd (Loyalists Against Democracy)
Previously: Guevara Ourra Tha’
“Well you know I find it very rich that an American would tell us to think about a new
flegflag how they actually bow down to their flag. You know, from my point of view, you know, the Union Jack is the national flag of the country. I am British and I live in Britain. So, I don’t want to see a new flag or do I want to even be involved in trying to create one.”
Oh.
Current PUP leader and former UVF member Billy Hutchinson with Noel Thompson on BBC One’s Spotlight last night.
US diplomat Meghan O’Sullivan pictured earlier at Camp Twaddell (yes) with Winston ‘Winkie’ Irvine.
Irvine was recently named by BBC’s Spotlight programme as a UVF commander.
Camp Twaddell was set up as a ‘civil rights camp’ to support loyalists who have been prevented from marching past Ardoyne shops.
Meanwhile, the Parades Commission has given the go-ahead for a loyalist parade in Belfast city centre on Saturday week.
G’wan the flegs.
Parades Commission gives go ahead to Belfast flags parade (BBC News NI)
Previously: Branded A Loyalist
Pics: Claire Marie Graham
