TRIBUTE ACT: The Shankill Star cap badge features the name of Brian Robinson
JUST over a week until the Twelfth and the incitement is building. Sorry, the excitement. The excitement is building.
In the same way that the BBC doesn’t broadcast Kneecap live, the Twelfth isn’t broadcast live any more. But unlike its Glastonbury output, the acts the BBC will put on show in the parades on Saturday week are not subject to intense scrutiny. The BBC attends its chosen parades and does happy-clappy features on them featuring old-timers eating ice-cream, toddlers with little tin drums and laughing Orange Lils in union jack cowboy hats without giving us an overview including the more, ah, outré aspects of the big day: the Homeric drinking; the garden-pissing; the Fenian-baiting; the paramilitary worshipping.
The musical participants in the parades are available to the BBC in the Parades Commission filings, just as they are to the rest of us. But BBC Ulster just goes ahead and covers the parades anyway, even though said parades contain loyalist bands that have more scrotes than notes; more bums than drums; more… (that’s enough juvenile abuse – Ed).
Should BBC Our Wee Country be covering these parades even though they know they feature bands involved in a litany of sectarian behaviour over the years? Does a parade containing a band named after a UVF or UDA man become acceptable as long as the BBC doesn’t interview its brigadier? Sorry, its bandmaster?
It’s a moot point this year because the BBC is going to go ahead and pretend again that the Twelfth is a family fun event when half the city’s fled to Buncrana or Benidorm to get away from it. But just so you know what you’re really getting when the BBC does its holiday special round-up on Saturday evening, here are ten of the bands that the BBC will do their best to hide from our gaze.
FINAGHY TRUE BLUES Stopped outside St Patrick’s in Donegall Street to march on the spot and play in breach of a ban on music outside the church. Analysis: Played a hymn and not the Famine Song, so a valuable opportunity lost. Loyal rating: 4/10.
PRIDE OF KNOCKMORE Hours after Pope Francis died, the Lisburn band played ‘No Pope of Rome’ at an Apprentice Boys’ parade in the town. The event was attended by a number of prominent DUP figures who took to social media after the parade to condemn the band. Sorry, (checks notes) to say what a fantastic, fun-filled day it had been. Analysis: A scintillating performance seamlessly blending sectarianism, bigotry and hatred – and doing it on a day guaranteed to magnify the effect. Loyal rating: 9/10.
YOUNG CONWAY VOLUNTEERS Showed Finaghy True Blues how do to do it when they played the Famine Song outside that Mecca of Ulster loyalism, St Patrick’s church. 13 members of the band later arrested and found guilty of playing the racist song claimed they were, in fact, playing the Sloop John B. The band wrote an open letter to North Belfast Catholics assuring them that no offence was meant. Analysis: An incident that would have claimed its own chapter in the Annals of Ulster Staunch if the band hadn’t broke like plates at the first rattle of a handcuff. Loyal rating: 1/10.
HILLHAVEN FLUTE BAND Played ‘The Billy Boys’ and ‘No Pope of Rome’ at a band competition in Banbridge. So far, so what?, I hear you say. Well, when contacted the PSNI refused to say whether it was a hate crime or not, which raised the possibility that the words ‘We’re up to our knees in Fenian blood’ might be redesignated a Work of Outstanding Cultural Merit. Analysis: The Irish News reported that ahead of the event local DUP MP Carla Lockhart had promoted the band competition on her Facebook page. Loyal rating: 7/10
CONSTABLE ANDERSON MEMORIAL FLUTE BAND What better way to show your respect and admiration for the RUC than by playing loyalist tunes outside a Catholic church when you’re not allowed to? The band travelled from Larne to give it the guttie outside that centrepiece of loyalist culture, St Patrick’s church in Donegall Street. Analysis: Again, an outstanding performance destroyed by rank cowardice. Three of six men charged and found guilty over the incident told the court they hadn’t been playing instruments. The ‘I nivver done it so I nivver’ gambit is the curse of the band scene. Loyal rating: 0/10.
TOYE FLUTE BAND A parade turned “ugly and aggressive” after a priest remonstrated with loyalist bandsmen urinating against Killyleagh’s Catholic church. A spokesman for Toye Flute Band hit out angrily after the incident – at the local parish priest. He said the incident “could have ended up much worse but police told the priest to go into his house because he was risking getting into bigger bother.” Analysis: Top loyalism on show here, but blaming the Catholic priest and not the Protestant Pissers takes this to another level. Loyal rating: 9/10.
LANARKSHIRE LOYALIST FLUTE BAND The Saturday evening climax to the Scottish band’s ‘Culture Day’ in a Glasgow council hall took a Deep South turn when the prizes were handed out by a bloke in full Ku Klux Klan regalia. ANALYSIS: No bedsheets with holes cut out for eyes here – only total commitment from the Grand Wizard of Wishaw with a real Ku Klux Kan outfit with a real Ku Klu Klan badge. Extra kudos for the string of poppies behind KKK guy. Loyal rating: 8/10.
CLYDE VALLEY FLUTE BAND As if being named after a treasonous, illegal gun-running venture wasn’t thrilling enough, the Larne band travelled 75 miles to Derry in order to show off their purple shirts with the Parachute badge and the letter ‘F’ in the city where the Parachute Regiment murdered 14 people. Analysis: When they were stopped on the motorway on the home by the police, they acted like it was a bigger injustice than Bloody Sunday, which was a bit whiney and un-Ulstery. Another outstanding performance ruined by lack of bottle. Loyal rating: 4/10.
GOVAN PROTESTANT BOYS Alongside the Siege of Derry and the Battle of the Boyne, a Glasgow band occupying Belfast City Hall goes down in history as one of the great military triumphs of loyal history. Not content with parading in mixed areas in Scotland, the band paraded through Belfast’s most famous public buildings, playing a loyal selection of loyal sectarian tunes. Analysis: Loyal Ulster again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when the lodge which booked the hall issued a grovelling apology, saying it had no idea the feral Scotchies would get out of their cage. Sorry, leave the function room. Loyal rating: 2/10.
SHANKILL STAR FLUTE BAND Picture the scene: A cross-community event featuring happy children from all over the city. Groups and individuals that are normally on opposite sides of a wall are in a room together chatting happily and getting to know each other over tea and buns. In walks the representative of the band scene in his milkman’s uniform and a cap with a badge bearing the name of notorious UVF killer Brian Robinson. Analysis: It’s all about getting the message out wherever you can and extra kudos come because the message is being spread to the community which the aforementioned Mr Robinson spent so much time trying to kill. Loyal rating: 10/10.
Historic US flag that marked JFK assassination stolen from Derry school Flag that flew at half-mast following 1963 assassination had been displayed to mark US Independence Day
The flag last flew at the US Naval base on the day of JFK’s assassination in 1963. The historic US flag that was stolen from Foyle College in Derry last weekend.
By Mark Robinson July 08, 2025 at 2:32pm BST A historic US flag flown at half-mast to mark the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 has been stolen from a Derry school located on the site of a former US naval base.
Foyle College, which originally occupied two sites on the Duncreggan Road and Northland Road, relocated to a £27m campus on the Limavady Road in 2018.
The new site was formerly home to a US Naval Communication Station between 1943 and 1977 – the oldest such base in Europe at the time of its closing.
It then became a British Army barracks.
A memorial to the former US station was unveiled in the grounds in 2019, complete with the base’s 50m-tall flagpole.
The original US flag was also gifted to the school at the time by the base’s alumni association.
It flew at half-mast on the site in 1963 when JFK was assassinated, before it was taken down that same day and retired.
The flag has since flown at the school twice a year – to mark the anniversary of JFK’s passing (November 22) and to coincide with US Independence Day on July 4.
Last week’s ceremony was attended by Frank Ekstrom, who was stationed at the former US base.
However, the flag was removed from the grounds of the school over the weekend.
Speaking to The Irish News, the schol’s head of history, Melanie Dougherty, said the flag was “historically significant” to both the school and the city of Derry.
“It’s not just some random Star-Spangled Banner that was bought in 2019,” Ms Dougherty said.
“It actually was the flag that properly flew on the base.
“That Naval communications base, it was the place that all the really important Cold War messages went though, such as during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
“We really hope that someone speaks out and tells us where it is and realises the historical significance of it so that we can keep it for the generations to come.”
A PSNI spokesperson said they received a report that the flag was stolen from the Limavady Road school grounds in the early hours of Sunday, July 6.
“This is reported to have occurred at 4am, involving two individuals, both believed to be male,” they added, urging those with information to contact them on 101.
Noel Doran: We will always be grateful to George Mitchell We arguably owe more to the former US Senator than any other American citizen
George Mitchell in a scene from The Negotiator
By Noel Doran July 07, 2025 at 6:00am BST
We have become so used to crude and bellicose statements from Donald Trump on an almost daily basis that it would be easy to forget the very different contributions which have been made by US politicians over the years.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties produced major figures who took a strongly positive interest in Irish affairs in particular, and we arguably owe more to George Mitchell than any other American citizen.
Watching The Negotiator, Trevor Birney’s elegant and beautifully filmed portrayal of Mitchell’s life and times, at the Docs Ireland 2025 film festival in Belfast, brought home the full extent of his remarkable career long before he arrived at Stormont.
He was a distinguished lawyer, turning down Bill Clinton’s offer of a much-prized nomination to the US Supreme Court, as well as holding key posts in elected politics, before becoming Senate majority leader from 1989 to 1995.
However, his greatest gifts were probably as a diplomat, later criss-crossing the globe while working on the Arab/Israeli conflict over many years and serving with both the United Nations and the World Justice Project.
Only in Belfast could a CV like that be regarded with disdain, with the late Ian Paisley declaring in 1995 that the newly-appointed US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland was “a foreigner and a pro-Irish republican”.
Other unionists were also deeply suspicious of the fact that, while Mitchell was born in Maine, his father was Irish, and immediately began to check out his religious background, before establishing that, to their puzzlement, he was actually a member of the Maronite Church, reflecting his mother’s roots in the Lebanon.
Mitchell, as ever, remained calm as his early days at Stormont were marked by boycotts and walk-outs during a prolonged engagement which played out during a period of deep mutual hostility and appeared doomed to end in failure.
He stuck with it relentlessly, displaying endless resilience and patient diplomacy in the face of one setback after another, and was fortunate that he was able to rely on the endorsement of political leaders from both sides of the Atlantic.
Many of them are interviewed in The Negotiator, including Clinton, who never wavered in his support, and the double act of Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, who first came to power within a month of each other as events started to move decisively in the right direction during 1997.
The reputations of all three have suffered since they left office, but it was striking to see the enthusiasm with which they looked back on their detailed personal involvement in the eventual signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Mitchell was typically modest in his assessment of the peace accord in the documentary, saying that it may not have been perfect but it was the best that could be done in the circumstances.
My recollection, as a journalist closely observing the proceedings, was still that, while there was unquestionably an appetite across the board for a breakthrough, the central players were close to exhaustion by the closing stages and there was a prospect that everything could have fallen apart.
If the discussions had collapsed at the eleventh hour, the delicate balance of the paramilitary ceasefires might well have been lost and a return to full-blown violence was by no means out of the question.
We saw what happened in Omagh only four months after the confirmation of the agreement, with 29 people and two unborn children killed in an appalling bomb attack by the Real IRA, although, as the cross-community structures evolved at Stormont, the atrocity signalled that the campaign by militant republicans was close to an end, while many loyalists were more interested in drug dealing and wider criminality.
Mitchell’s role throughout the process was absolutely critical, as witnessed by the outpouring of affection from the audience during his onstage interview with Miriam O’Callaghan at the SSE Arena, which, at the age of 92, may realistically have been one of his last visits to Ireland.
He cannot be held responsible for the upheavals which have repeatedly undermined the credibility of successive Stormont administrations, although public scepticism about the performance of politicians stretches to many other jurisdictions.
Mitchell demonstrated the highest standards which can be achieved through politics and for that he will always deserve our gratitude.
:: The Negotiator will be shown at the Galway Film Festival on July 11 before a screening in George Mitchell’s home town of Waterville, Maine, the following week. It is due to go on general release across Ireland later in the year.
Tom Collins: A repressive state marching to the beat of a Lambeg drum.
There are those who would like us to see the Twelfth as an anthropological curiosity, nothing more than a quaint ritual, steeped in ancient history and alluring to tourists. But it is nothing of the sorts
Metropolitan Police officers removing 83-year-old Reverend Sue Parfitt from a protest in support of Palestine Action.
By Tom Collins July 08, 2025 at 6:00am BST
The good citizens of Belfast will have some sympathy with the Pope who has decided to get out of Rome and spend the Twelfth fortnight in the cooler hills around Castel Gandolfo.
Fleeing the city is as much a Twelfth ritual as bonfires, and bowler hats, and fire and brimstone preachers.
There are those who would like us to see the Twelfth as an anthropological curiosity, nothing more than a quaint ritual, steeped in ancient history and alluring to tourists.
Such is this myth’s potency that broadcasters fawn over the colourful display of finery, and newspapers fill their pages with smiling children, pageantry and musically-talented bandsmen no more likely to kick a cat than they are to kick the Pope.
But the Twelfth is nothing of the sorts. The Twelfth is a naked celebration of oppression, a triumphalist festival of sectarianism, and an opportunity for some to glorify the state-sponsored terrorism of loyalist killers. Just count the UVF banners as they are paraded through our towns.
To the powers-that-be, that is all invisible.
Look at the north’s official tourism website – discovernorthernireland.com – and you will enter a fantasy world. I have read it so you don’t have to pollute your internet search history.
The intro is worth quoting in full: “Get ready Belfast – July 12, 2025, is shaping up to be one for the history books! This year, the city will come alive in a blaze of color, tradition and celebration as it marks the 335th anniversary of King William III’s famous victory at the Battle of the Boyne – a defining moment that laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty across the British Isles.”
Well, knock me off my white horse.
“A defining moment that laid the foundations for civil and religious liberty across the British Isles.” This is fiction presented as fact on a state-sponsored website paid for by you and me.
Tell this story of “civil and religious liberty” to the Catholics and dissenters who were subject to penal laws; tell it to the Tol puddle martyrs who tried to organize a trades union; tell it to the victims of the Peterloo Massacre; the Suffragettes; the McMahons and victims of the Arnon Street killings, murdered by the Ulster Special Constabulary in 1922; the families denied a living and decent housing throughout the history of Northern Ireland because they were Catholic; the victims of Bloody Sunday, the Ballymurphy Massacre, McGurk’s Bar; Greysteel; and tell it to the men and women being arrested today for supporting Palestine Action and its campaign against the genocide in Gaza.
If King Billy laid the foundations for civil and religious liberty in Britain, it was for an elite; an establishment which – even under a so-called Labour Government – is still doing all it can to quash legitimate protest, to demonise the poor and the vulnerable, and to support a global military machine which operates only in the interests of dictators and billionaires.
The proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act of 2000 is a shameful decision which brings further disgrace to an already compromised Labour Government.
Who is next? Greenpeace? Friends of the Earth? Liberty (The human rights group not the department store)?
At the weekend the Metropolitan Police in London arrested 29 people for holding placards which referred to Palestine Action – those held included an 83-year-old priest, Sue Parfit.
“We are losing our civil liberties,” she said. “We must stop that for everybody’s sake.”
She needs to take that up with King Billy and Discover Northern Ireland. But of course they are only interested in a fake interpretation of history which pretends we are free when in fact many of us are in chains. Incarcerated climate change activists spring to mind.
It says everything about the current British government that expressing support for Palestine Action is now punishable by up to 14 years in prison; yet, if you express support for the UVF, you’ll get a government grant.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn turned up at a Twelfth demonstration in Irvinestown last year. Perhaps this year he could bring Home Secretary Yvette Cooper with him.
There will be those who seek to differentiate between the ‘old’ UVF and its current iteration (allegedly on the point of calling it a day – don’t bet on it). The reality of course is somewhat different.
The UVF was founded to weaponise opposition to Home Rule, to put the Catholics in their place, and to thwart democracy.
Gunrunner-in-chief Edward Carson was pretty explicit: “We must be prepared… the morning Home Rule passes, ourselves to become responsible for the Protestant province of Ulster.” Northern Ireland was forged on the anvil of terror.
Have a look at the guff on discovernorthernireland.com: “Belfast 2025 is more than a parade — it’s a celebration of history, identity, and shared community spirit.”
“Shared community spirit?” Your Holiness, pass me the sick bag, please.
July 8, 1981: Joe McDonnell dies after 61 days on hunger strike
July 08, 2021 09:05
FINAL JOURNEY: Joe McDonnell’s coffin is carried up Lenadoon Avenue onto Glenveagh Drive on its way to St Oliver Plunkett Church in Lenadoon
We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1981
IRA Vol Joe McDonnell dies on hunger strike
THE people of Andersonstown showed their support and solidarity with Joe McDonnell, and on his death have expressed their sympathy and sorrow to his widow and children.
At the same time they feel a burning sense of pride that such a stalwart human being lived in their midst. They also realise, as never before, that England, and her way of life, is the sworn enemy of every man, woman and child in this country, and they are spurred on to even greater efforts to be rid of England once and for all.
Their very presence contaminated us all. In the past forty-eight hours two people from the Andersonstown area have died at the hands of the English – Joe McDonnell after a long and painful hunger strike – and sixteen-year-old John Dempsey, as he showed his solidarity with Joe and his comrades. To both their families we extend our sincere sympathy.
A statement from the National H-Block/Armagh Committee (NHBAC) reads: “NHBAC extends to family and friends of Joe McDonnell and his comrades in the H-Blocks and Armagh, our deepest sympathy.
“This further death in the H-Blocks at the hands of the British Government, must be condemned by all those people who have for so long worked for a solution to the H-Block crisis. This death, like the previous deaths, could have been avoided had the British acted with good faith and humanity.
“But the Irish people have learned to expect nothing else but treachery from the British. We have always resisted their oppression and we will continue, and justice will win out in the end, so long as there are people as brave as Joe McDonnell and his deceased comrades, carrying the torch of freedom and justice.
“Before even further tragedy occurs in the H-Blocks, we call upon the British Government to implement the five just demands of the hunger strikers and protesting prisoners.”
Editorial July 11, 1981
THERE’S nothing we can say about the death of Joe McDonnell that hasn’t been said already about the deaths of his comrades, Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara.
There’s no honour we can give him that would have any meaning, just as our sympathy for his widow, children and family circle would be totally inadequate.
Nevertheless, his courage, determination and absolute integrity, as opposed to the opportunism and dishonesty of his killers, must be mentioned, because these were of the highest order, befitting the cause of Irish freedom for which he lived and died.
To call people like Joe McDonnell criminal is a blasphemy. Irish Nationalists have never accepted Britain’s criminalisation of Irish Republican prisoners. Can even their worst enemies now doubt their heroism and commitment to this just cause?
And, it’s impossible to over-praise the courage, dignity and loyalty of Mrs McDonnell and the McDonnell family. Given the deaths of the first four hunger-strikers and the raising of hopes because of the efforts of the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace, it would have been relatively easy to compromise, to give in, in the hope that an easy solution could be found, and, in a desperate effort to save lives, to pretend that the British Government’s intentions in the negotiations were honourable.
However, the family’s loyality to the dying men and his comrades and to the memory of the dead hunger strikers, was too great for them to take the easy road. No one can take that away from them, and it will be some consolation to them in the terrible burden of sorrow they now have to bear.
If saving lives and an honurable solution had been high on Britain’s list of priorities, Joe McDonnell wouldn’t have died yesterday. And Humphrey Atkins’ statement on Wednesday morning, denying having negotiated through the Commission, is a clear indication of their tyranny and lust for blood.
Solas sioraí d’anam Joe McDonnell agus cabhair Dé dá mhuintir atá faoi bhrón.
Attack on Beechmount hunger strike vigil
A TWENTY-FOUR hour token fast, organised jointly by members of the Beechmount/Iveagh, Colin and St James’ Hunger Strike Groups was the target for physical and verbal attacks from the British army at the weekend.
The Beechmount/Iveagh Youth Against H-Blocks erected a makeshift cell and manned a stall distributing literature relating to the Maze hunger strike. A middle-of-the-road picket was held, and a collection for the H-Block campaign met with a very generous response from the public.
The obvious success of the demonstation was resented by the British army who careered wildly around the vigil in several armoured cars, at about four in the morning, almost demolishing the mock cell and a caravan generously loaned by an individual for the use of the protestors.
The soldiers, who were under the influence of drink, kicked one young man, manhandled another, and threatened the fasters with plastic bullet guns and an alsation dog. Eventually they left shouting UDA slogans and cursing the Pope.
The vigil and the fast continued its course undeterred, and the Beechmount/Iveagh Hunger Strike Committee was greatly heartened by the endeavour put in by the youth of the area, the response from the public and the willingness of local traders and individuals to provide facilities.
