THE IRISH NEWS:
Posted by Jim on December 20, 2025
Chris Donnelly: Amidst the darkness and hate, here’s to hope and a better 2026.
In the words of the 19th century abolitionist Theodore Parker, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”.
People carrying bags and boxes of food and humanitarian aid that was unloaded from a World Food Programme convoy that had been heading to Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip
By Chris Donnelly
December 19, 2025 at 6:00am GMT
With less than two weeks left of the Year of our Lord 2025, it seems appropriate to reflect on the 50 that have come and gone since the apple fell and fireworks lit up the sky to mark the new year.
The late Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year, themed ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, but on the international stage, darkness continues to crowd out both hope and light.
The brutal genocidal campaign waged by Israel against the Gazan population led to more than 60,000 being killed in a vicious two-year onslaught. The truce that came into effect in October has not prevented Israel from killing almost 400 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire.
Peace and justice will continue to be cruelly denied the Palestinian people, just as it was for generations prior to October 7, 2023.
Violence against Christians in Nigeria and the Sahel region of Africa by Islamic extremists has led to thousands being killed and village communities destroyed, illustrating how intolerance of minority faith communities is a worryingly persistent theme across the globe, as the Bondi Beach atrocity demonstrated.
This was a year in which the Nobel Peace Prize was sullied (not for the first time) by being given to Maria Corina Machado.
The US government is breaking international law by killing people off the coast of Venezuela and is shamelessly engaged in an attempt to overthrow a government to put in place a new regime that will be more amenable to serving its interest, ie: stealing Venezuela’s oil.
That has been the American way since the Monroe Doctrine two centuries ago threatened European nations away from the Americas as the US declared there was to be only one bully in its back yard.
Perhaps Vladimir should have declared a Putin Doctrine to justify military intervention in Ukraine, if only to expose the utter hypocrisy of it all.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, debased the sport by creating a peace award for the sole purpose of giving it to Donald Trump at the draw for the 2026 tournament scheduled for next summer in the States.
Many who would have considered attending that event will have several reasons to think twice.
The extortionate price of game tickets – even after organisers made a concession for a token number to be sold at reasonable prices – aside, there is also the small matter of the condition being considered for all foreign visitors to provide five years of social media history, clearly implying those who may be deemed to have been vocally critical of American leaders could be denied entry.
It’s a million miles away from the message delivered by US Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Munich last February, when he lectured Europeans about how they have abandoned free speech.
But then, consistency has never been the trademark of the unhinged right.
The land of the free and home of the brave continues to be led by a government – and political class – that cheerleads the Gaza genocide, gaslighting millions of its own citizens and others across the globe by smearing with the antisemite label anyone who would dare to raise their voice against the slaughter.
The President’s utterances compete on a daily basis with his actions when determining which is more outlandish.
When he’s not joking about “signing the rights of the Golan Heights” to Israel and wanting a cut of the profit Israel stands to make, he’s threatening a democratically elected government in Venezuela, denigrating and demonising people living in the poorest countries in the world, and mocking the tragic killing of a celebrated Hollywood personality and his wife at the hands of their own troubled son.
Spare a thought for those self-proclaimed people of faith obliged to perform mental contortions on a daily basis when squaring their beliefs with their professed undying love and fealty to President Trump.
Meanwhile, in Britain, the message from the new chief spook at MI6, Blaise Metreweli, is that “the frontline is everywhere” in the battle with Russia, as she starkly declared that “it will be our rediscovery of our shared humanity, our ability to listen, and our courage that will determine how our future unfolds”.
The British government has remained resolute in its support of Israel throughout the genocidal campaign in Gaza, just as it remains faithful to the American administration bullying smaller nations in the Americas. In Ireland, we know only too well of the conduct of Britain’s intelligence community.
Never mind rediscovering it, their vision of a shared humanity is one which should remain forever buried.
The message from the top in our rights-based western world order is that we must hate the Russians because they are coming for us. Even the residents of sleepy Fivemiletown are not safe. Don’t you know they even fly drones over Dublin?
Hate the Chinese too, because those people simply aren’t to be trusted – just please don’t waste your time reading about the Opium Wars. Staying ignorant is an essential part of their plan.
Hate the Muslims as well, except for the very wealthy ones whose financial footprints are all over London.
Amidst the gloom, hope can still be found.
It is in the bravery and defiance of the Palestinian rights protestors, raising their voices in determination and ignoring the shameless gaslighting from officialdom.
It is in the volunteers who work in the People’s Kitchen in Belfast amongst the city’s homeless, giving their time to those on the margins for whom despair is the overwhelming emotion.
It is present on the stages of the nativity plays being performed by our youngest school kids in front of their loving parents and grandparents.
It is in the beautiful jubilee ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ logo which symbolises global solidarity, faith and resilience on a cross-shaped anchor amidst the turbulent sea of today’s world.
In the words of the 19th century abolitionist Theodore Parker, made popular by Martin Luther King Jr, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Here’s to a better 2026.
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