Meet Daniel Thomas, the fee-paying school graduate turned “Danny Tommo” who traded a kidnapping conviction for religious rebranding and now leads all black clad anti-migrant demonstrations across Britain. This article traces his connections to Belfast figures with convictions ranging from bank robbery to sectarian murder, and asks whether these self styled Christian patriots are simply the Blackshirts of the 1930s in modern dress.
Once a fringe media talking point, “net zero hysteria” has become the rallying cry of Reform and the Conservatives, who wield selective statistics to argue that Britain need not bother cutting emissions while heatwaves scorch England and glaciers collapse in Nepal. This piece by Mike Morrissey takes apart the numbers behind the anti net zero argument, from the UK’s outsized historical emissions to the global renewables boom that sceptics conveniently ignore.
When President Trump used a visit to Ireland to muse that a united Ireland is “going to happen eventually” and “may as well happen now,” his remarks drew antagonism from the DUP and sharp rebukes from those who see them as a distraction from war and genocide abroad. This article by Lynda Walker asks a harder question: how do we build an independent Ireland for the working class?
The Irish language once appeared on Orange Lodge banners and was preached by Presbyterian ministers, yet today it is being framed as one of the most divisive issues in the debate over a United Ireland. Eoin Ó Murchú examines why both Unionist parties and the Southern Establishment have turned against our language, and what recognition it should be granted if reunification comes to pass.
Every year we are told that 9/11 “changed the world,” but the phrase conveniently omits what came after: the Iraq war, Afghanistan, and a War on Terror that has claimed millions of lives. Raymond O’Connell challenges Fintan O’Toole’s take on the anniversary and asks why atrocities such as the nine year bombing campaign that dropped 270 million bombs on Laos never enter the conversation.
When Andy Burnham declared a border poll “off the table,” he set off a fierce dispute over what the Belfast Agreement actually requires and who has the right to demand a referendum. This piece examines the competing claims of Michelle O’Neill, Malachy O’Doherty and others, and asks whether a future Farage government could change the calculation entirely.
The AfD swept nearly 44% of the vote in Saxony Anhalt, halving Chancellor Merz’s CDU’s vote-share and leaving the left-wing BSW holding the balance of power in an alliance few thought possible. Eoin Ó Murchú examines how working class despair and fatigue with conflict in Ukraine are dismantling the firewall that once kept the German establishment intact.
When Israel declared children’s kites drifting from Gaza an existential security threat and ordered the military to “act massively,” the resulting strikes killed at least three Palestinians, including a four-year-old. Drawing on the analysis of human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab, this article by Dianne Kirby argues that such a disproportionate response reveals a pathological insecurity at the heart of Israeli society, one that threatens Palestinians and enabler allies alike.
European leaders are escalating war rhetoric and shifting resources from welfare to warfare. Eoin Ó Murchú’s article for Unity argues that a conflict with Russia is one Europe simply cannot win, with nuclear arsenals setting the stakes. We must oppose the drums of war and the false flag excuses being used to justify escalation. Working class communities, not politicians, will pay the price of warmongering.
The recent court ruling overturning the ban on the Orange Order’s Garvaghy Road march has reopened old wounds and put Stormont back on shaky ground, just weeks after the fleadh was hailed as a turning point for community relations. Raymond O’Connell brings a personal perspective to the controversy, recalling how the Drumcree standoff once cost him the school he ran when it was destroyed in the rioting that followed.