Two weeks ago the exiled Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef took part in a live online debate with Piers Morgan, the conservative British TV presenter, that ignited something of a firestorm on the internet. Despite the technical limitations of the remotely held discussion, the highly articulate Youssef pretty much eviscerated the talking-points of those defending Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip (and the West Bank), clearly catching Morgan on the backfoot. The latter was much better prepared in a second face-to-meet interview with the former surgeon-turned-comedian, though this time resorting ..read more

Dr Thomas Leahy is a lecturer in British and Irish Politics and Contemporary History at Cardiff University, and the author of The Intelligence War Against the IRA, a carefully sourced study reiterating the view among mainstream historians and analysts that the primary roots of the Irish-British peace process, and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, lay in the prolonged military stalemate that characterised the latter half of the so-called Troubles in the north of Ireland. In particular, many scholars argue that the slow road to peace – or an absence of war – began with the halting acceptance by ..read more

A lot of partisan views have been expressed on the results of last week’s regional elections in the north of Ireland. And principally by commentators in the United Kingdom or sympathetic to the UK (including the usual suspects here) attacking and downplaying the vote for Sinn Féin and/or northern nationalist parties in general while defending and hailing the vote for the Democratic Unionist Party and/or unionist parties in general. However, despite all the obfuscation, it is clear that there is more than mere symbolism in the possibility of a member of what was the minority community in the no ..read more

With the reestablishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in recent days, I thought this would be a useful reminder of one aspect of the wars in Afghanistan, an aspect that has had a far greater and direct impact on the populations and nation-states of the West than any amount of would-be Islamist terrorism. Namely, opium. It was during the 1950s that the production of opium became a significant phenomenon in what was then the Kingdom of Afghanistan, as entrepreneurs and criminals under the Barakzai dynasty worked with their counterparts in neighboring Pakistan to tap into the emerging g ..read more

I thought I would post this interesting discussion of recent events in Afghanistan published on the American politics’ podcast, The Realignment. Hosted by centre-right journalists Marshall Kosloff and Saagar Enjeti, this episode features a long interview with retired US Army officer Daniel P. Bolger, author of the book Why We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, a highly critical study of parts of the so-called War on Terror. I say “parts” because some of the writing tends to sanitize or downplay the worse aspects of the US-led campaigns in the Middle East and Asi ..read more

With the shit show that is the by-election in Dublin Bay South still gurgling away, casting the main parties – and some of the main candidates – in a less than flattering light, the reactionary press is getting a wee bit jittery at the prospect of Sinn Féin striking deep into what should be unassailable Establishment territory. How else to explain this McCarthyite analysis from John Lee, the politics editor with the Irish subsection of the British-led Daily Mail group? Winston Churchill said of Sinn Féin’s ideological forebear, Communist Russia, that it was ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery insi ..read more

So here we go again. Ten years of successive leaders in the Democratic Unionist Party being hailed by the usual media suspects in Ireland and the United Kingdom as the “moderate” face of the party, politicians that governments in Dublin and London could “do business with”, bar the short-lived tenure of Edwin Poots. It began with Peter Robinson and his, um, profitable alliance with anti-peace process blow-ins from the Ulster Unionist Party, and his outreach to “garden-centre Protestants” and “unicorn Catholics” that never amounted to anything more than the desperate spinning of a few desperate ..read more

If, like me, you’ve been having a bit of a nightmare with the new so-called block editor when writing and publishing posts on your WordPress hosted blog then I have a (possibly short-lived) solution for you. Simply log into your WordPress account in your preferred internet browser, paste the below url or internet address into the browser navigation bar, substitute your blog name for the “yourblog” text and presto, you’re back to the Classic editor rather than the infamous Gutenberg update. https://yourblog.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?classic-editor I’ve bookmarked the new address in my ..read more

It seems that Edwin Poots, the new head of the Democratic Unionist Party, is taking no prisoners in his contest with the demoralised followers of the former leader Arlene Foster and her would-be successor Jeffrey Donaldson. The Lagan Valley politician has smacked down any notion of reconciliation with his opponents by kicking some of them out of ministerial office at Stormont, elevating hardliners from the traditionalist wing of the party into their positions. By doing so he has completed the long-abiding revenge of the Paisleyite and Free Presbyterian faction in the DUP which saw influence gr ..read more

As I have noted several times before, when it comes to loyalist violence in the north of Ireland, while British and unionist terrorists may pull the triggers it is British and unionist politicians who point the guns. That same dynamic is being played out again with representatives of the Democratic Unionist Party and the Conservative Party government in the United Kingdom making a concerted effort to undermine the so-called Irish protocol by invoking the spectre of loyalist militancy in the contested region. Both groups are “warning” of civil unrest by the “people of Northern Ireland” – by whi ..read more