The photograph voted the winning wonder of Ireland .

Belfast Telegraph:

An amateur snapper from Co Down fought off thousands of competitors to win a tourist photography competition, it was announced yesterday.

Ryan Wilson impressed the judges with his entry entitled Into the West to take home first prize in the Wonders of Ireland contest.

The winning picture features Tyrella beach near Downpatrick against the stunning backdrop of the Mourne Mountains, with a horse and rider in silhouette.

The photo also shows a dramatic sky with heavy clouds and sun bursting through, which was described as “typically Irish”.

Irish and visiting tourists submitted thousands of photo entries, with 56% of images coming from visitors.

The 11 runner-up photographs were the work of Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, UK, German and Irish tourists.

The announcement was made by Gulliver Ireland at the launch of the GoIreland.com Photography Awards 2009 yesterday.

Held in association with John Hinde Ireland, the GoIreland.com Photography Awards is an international amateur tourist photography competition that highlights Ireland and its tourism qualities using a different theme each year.

Blasphemy law a return to middle ages - Dawkins

ALISON HEALY

THE NEW blasphemy law will send Ireland back to the middle ages, and is wretched, backward and uncivilised, Prof Richard Dawkins has said.

The scientist and critic of religion has lent his support to a campaign to repeal the law, introduced by Atheist Ireland, a group set up last December, arising from an online discussion forum. The law, which makes the publication or utterance of blasphemous matter a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine, passed through the Oireachtas last week.

In a message read out at Atheist Ireland’s first agm on Saturday, Prof Dawkins said: “One of the world’s most beautiful and best-loved countries, Ireland has recently become one of the most respected as well: dynamic, go-ahead, modern, civilised – a green and pleasant silicon valley. This preposterous blasphemy law puts all that respect at risk.” He said it would be too kind to call the law a ridiculous anachronism.

“It is a wretched, backward, uncivilised regression to the middle ages. Who was the bright spark who thought to besmirch the revered name of Ireland by proposing anything so stupid?”

Messages of support for the campaign were also received from the creators of Father Ted Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, and the European Humanist Federation. The federation, which represents 42 organisations in 19 countries, said it was “appalled” at the new law and it was “a seriously retrograde step”.

At the agm, Atheist Ireland members voted to test the new law by publishing a blasphemous statement, deliberately designed to cause offence. The statement will be finalised in the coming days.

Atheist Ireland’s chairman Michael Nugent said the group wanted to highlight the ridiculousness of the law. Labour Senator and barrister Ivana Bacik told the meeting that an amendment provides for a review of the law within five years. “There’s a great potential to have this very much altered if not removed altogether,” she said. The new law invited people to make complaints to gardaí and would result in “a huge amount” of wasted Garda time, she said.

“So for lots of reasons I think it’s going to be highly problematic . . . and it’s bad lawmaking if nothing else.”

Ms Bacik said the establishment of Atheist Ireland was “long overdue”. More than 150 people attended the meeting in Dublin and the group ran out of membership application forms. “I think it’s also good to see an organisation that has the word atheist in the title because for a long time many of us were in the closet,” she said.

“It’s not fashionable or popular to declare oneself to be an atheist. There are many people in Ireland who would like to describe themselves as atheists and I’m one of them. I think I may be the only self-confessed or card-carrying atheist in the Oireachtas.”

She said there should be space for atheists, agnostics and believers in organised religions. “And that’s the nature, to me, of a pluralist and tolerant and democratic republic, a country in which there is space for all of us, and in which no body’s belief elevates them to any particular position.”

The meeting agreed to campaign for the removal of all references to gods from the Constitution and for a secular education system. Ms Bacik said the education system, particularly at primary level, was “built on sectarian lines. It is a fundamentally sectarian system in which in our equal status legislation, schools are entitled to give priority to children of a particular religion”.

The group also launched a website www.countmeout.ie which provides information on how to formally leave the Catholic Church.

Atheist Ireland believes that many lapsed Catholics, agnostics and atheists are counted in the church’s membership and claims that these figures are used by the church to justify its continued involvement in education.

Atheist Ireland will also encourage people to read the Bible. Mr Nugent said an objective reading of the Bible was one of the strongest arguments for rejecting the idea of gods as intervening creators or moral guides.

Dick Spicer of the Humanist Association of Ireland welcomed the formation of the new group and said it illustrated the changes that had taken place in Irish society. “It’s a sign of how far we’ve come in Ireland, so take hope for the future. This society does move and it does move forward, more so, I think, than we appreciate.”

Dissidents or Dissenters?

Thought I would post this recent Christopher Hitchen's excerpt as it makes typically engaging reading on Northern Ireland.

From: Terrorists, Dissidents, and Copy Editors
Why it matters how the media describe killers in Iraq and Ireland.
By Christopher Hitchens


'Until recently, the same newspaper(The New York Times) used to employ a description of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland that was slightly less misleading and also somewhat more amusing. Aware of the fact that its readers knew that there were two discrepant kinds of Christianity practiced in the province, the New York Times would do its job of being strictly informative by characterizing the IRA as "overwhelmingly Catholic." One could see what the editors were vainly trying to do—namely, to suggest that very few Ulster Protestants indeed were succumbing to the temptation to enlist in the ranks of the IRA—but the resulting image was nonetheless risible, as if someone encountering a gunman of the IRA would be first and foremost overwhelmed by his Catholicism. (Come to think of it, where was Bill Donohue of the Catholic League when this slander was being promulgated? He usually kindles into flame at much less provocation.)

But now something really depressing has happened and is spreading like weed across the media. Since the Good Friday agreement that committed the IRA to disarmament and the Republican movement to electoral politics, two small, ultraviolent nationalist factions have sworn to continue the armed struggle. In the past week, they have randomly slain members of the army and police. And it has been agreed, apparently without a discussion or an argument, to refer to these gruesome elements as dissidents.

I have consulted the final court of appeal on this, in the form of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the ruling is pretty final. All the origins of the term lie in expressions of argument and opinion, and of "dissent" from ruling systems or ideologies. There is a solitary and obscure reference, from a report in the London Times of 1955, to an obscure Vietnamese sect described as "dissident" and also as launching attacks on local Vietnamese army positions, but otherwise all the sources and authorities are unanimous: The term describes only attitudes and not actions, and it is most famously associated with the intellectual opposition to Soviet totalitarianism. (Prior to that usage, it was principally applied to those religious people of conscience who refused allegiance to the established Catholic and Episcopalian churches, which ironically would perhaps qualify the word dissident as being "overwhelmingly Protestant.")

Thanks for the original link K.

Mike

Could The Leaders Of Sinn Fein Be Doing More?-Soothing Words Are Not Always Enough

With senior leader of Sinn Fein condemning the recent murders in Northern Ireland and the insistence that the Republican movement pass on any information regarding the same, people have heralded halcyon times in Republican openness.

Is this really the case, or are certain factors not being revealed?

The likelihood of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness knowing about the timing of these killings is very doubtful, but there is little doubt that the senior figures in Sinn Fein must know who the perpetrators are.

These murders where carried out in a professional, militaristic fashion, leaving little evidence or trace of identification, and is therefore unlikely to be the work of a fanatical teenager.

Those responsible fired at the victims from a distance and then finished them off from point blank range as they lay dying. This levelheadedness, in the face of such a crime points towards a more mature killer, perhaps one with many years experience.

Thus, with many members of the PIRA leaving after the ceasefire, disgusted by the democratic path taken by SinnFein, it is possible that these disaffected individuals were involved in the recent murders.

It stands beyond reasonable doubt that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness know who jumped off the ship ten years ago, and the names of these individuals should be presented to the authorities.

Northern Ireland is such a small place and the numbers involved in terrorist activities are so low, therefore individuals who left the organisation have to be compiled, profiled and handed over to the police.

If this was carried out, we really would be witnessing a new age of transparent Republicanism.

Pikey

Dangerous Times

Eve Merriam said, "I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"

These sentiments are difficult to read after the events of the last few days in Northern Ireland. In the last decade the majority have tossed aside the bondage of conflict, adapting to life in a peaceful land, albeit with tentative steps. Few wish to turn back their clocks to the bygone days of retribution, division and political paranoia, but three killings in as many days shows deepening cracks in the countries socio-political landscape.

At this point no group has taken responsibility for the killings, but 'The Real IRA' are strongly suspected of involvement. Republican leaders such as Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have called for Nationalist/Republicans to pass on information to the police, an act traditionally held in disdain during 'The troubles,' and seen by many as acquiescing to British occupation. This eventuality seemed unthinkable a few years ago, and stands in testament to how far the political process has come, but is the house of cards going to stand up to the current storm?

These atrocities have a real danger of stoking old flames and hatreds that need little encouraging to ignite into something perilous for the future of the country. Loyalist paramilitary leaders called for calm in communities as graffiti calling for revenge was seen in various parts of the province.

What the future holds remains to be seen. The stability of the province stands on a precarious knife edge, one that people over the age of twenty will remember all too well, for they were the dark days of the countries history.

People now squint at the news in disbelief at the current situation, hoping and praying that history does not repeat itself.

Only time will tell.

Pikey

Corsas and Corpses

Corsas & Corpses

I am writing in response to the recent article in the Mourne Observer “Newcastle park venue for major music festival.”

http://www.mourneobserver.com/160408news06.html

In recent weeks councilors have been tossing this issue about like excitable children playing pass the parcel. Some of their language and views expressed in the article shows at best, severe naivety, and at worse, blinkered vision on behalf of the councilors involved.

Let’s get a few things straight.

This is not a “Cultural” event.

The adjective “Cultural” as outlined in www.dictionary.com is, ‘of or pertaining to culture or cultivation.’

Having attended similar events myself, I know at first hand that there is nothing enriching or nourishing that goes on at such parties. This is not to say that they are not a knee knockingly good fun, they are, but attempting to cast up sugar coated images in order to gain the publics' acquiescence is not fair game.

We have all been teenagers, and we can all remember attempting to feel our way into a world full of apprehension and giddy childishness. Cllr Jim Wells stated:

”There are fringe events that go on at these raves and these are the things we have to think about. There are all sorts of extra curricular activities and I don’t know if we should be encouraging this in Newcastle.”

Euphemistic statements like these say everything and nothing all at once. Statements do not need to be coded to protect us from harsh reality, unless there are ulterior motives by those with decision making power. We can say it out loud that “Fringe events” such as vandalism, violence and drug abuse would occur on a large scale. Not very curricular I think you will agree.

Let’s not collectively paper over the real issues, blinded by corporate benefits. It is an insult to our intelligence as a people,

For those who have not danced until sunrise in a field before, let me let you into a few home truths.

1. The only thing pertaining to Irish culture surrounding this event is the fact that it would be hosted in Newcastle, which in turn, happens to be in Ireland.

This is the only cultural connection I can find.

This corporate event would be nothing more, nothing less. Let’s not kid ourselves.

2. Drug taking on a massive scale WILL take place. I am not saying if this is right or wrong, only that its presence is not beneficial to Newcastle’s tourist industry, nor is it an opportunity for cultural celebration. We all (some more than others) know how drug (including alcohol) use in Newcastle has exploded in the last ten years, with participants getting ridiculously younger.

Does Newcastle really need a celebration of cheap chemicals and even cheaper booze on its golden shores?

Cllr Willie Clarke stated, “Unsavory events take place in Newcastle already, and therefore this aspect could not be held against the festival.”

Which unsavory events is Cllr Clarke referring to exactly?

Double parking?

Doing 36 mph, inside the 30 limit?

I find this statement very confusing. It’s like saying, “For sure there are pedophiles in our community, but its fine to have the National Pedophile Convention in the Slieve Donard Hotel.

Cllr Clarke also went on to say that the event would be a “Good economic opportunity” for the town as “hotels and guest houses would be booked for miles around.” As I said before, I have attended events like this and a very small percentage of protagonists stay in rented accommodation. Most people dance, drink, take drugs then sleep in their cars, or drive home.

Now, I am only surmising here, obviously there are exceptions, albeit a handful.

On this basis local hotels and guest houses will not fair so well, although off licenses and drug dealers will have a cash bonanza. Not quite the “good economic opportunity” talked about by Cllr Clarke.

The words of Cllr Eamonn O’Neil provided particular pertinence in shaping my attitude to the matter in hand. He stated “Tourism is what Newcastle is all about. We should be seen to be attracting events to the town.”

There is nothing wrong with what he said per se, indeed, Newcastle does need to attract tourism, but what price?

Public funded parks taken over by big business?

Erosion of loyal rate payers rights to peace and quiet in the face of private enterprise?

I understand the need for councilors to try and drum up support for business in the town and also how economically attractive such an event must look with its flashy PR and corporate backing, but is this really a worthwhile concession to make in the face of public distaste?

I fear not.

Newcastle, with its new promenade now looks like a tourist destination to be reckoned with. Whether you call It the ‘pearl of Down’, ‘the diamond on the Mournes’, or simply ‘home,’ there is no doubt, its special.

Is the council really going to tacitly consent to mass illegal drug use, whilst hiding behind a flag of cultural modernity?

I suppose only they can answer the question.

Pikey (Newcastle resident of sorts)

For God and Ulster

Today’s Newsletter carries a report in which Rev. Stephen Dickinson objects to the presence of a chinese dragon as part of the proposed 11th Night parade in Tandragee, labelling it as “offensive” and “insults the name of Jesus Christ.”

The story carried over onto the Talkback programme today, when the Rev. Dickinson further elaborated on his objections, arguing that the dragon represented a drift into including ‘pagan’ elements within the Twelfth.

Taken at face value, the Rev. Dickinson’s objections could have been understood from the position of a religious figure not wanting what he believes is a celebration of protestantism to be further diminished in the same way that many religious leaders of all faiths object to the materialist ‘hijacking’ of key dates in their religious calendars.

At one stage he forcefully stated that “we need to put protestantism back into the Order.” However, his argument fell down badly when he skipped over the objections of a caller about what goes on at 11th Night bonfires. (Discussion about 39 mins into programme.)

The incident is also an unfortunate reminder of earlier opposition from within loyalism to the chinese community.

From Slugger O'Toole

I find the actions of these so called Christians repulsive.

The politicians talk of 'progress' and a 'vibrant Ulster' but in reality this is only the case if you are white and middle class.

There is inherent xenophobic undertones to many things I witness now whether that be muttering in the supermarket queue, or outright racist slurs.

The fact is that this has to stop. The demographics of the country are changing and this is the natural state of affairs in a post conflict society, therefore people need to open themselves and embrace their brother and sisters from around the world, who come to Ireland searching for a better life.

If the shoe was on the other foot would we want an opportunity to better ourselves?

Its time to scramble out of the dark ages and evolve. For some in this society that may be a big ask.

Pikey

And theres more..................................

PS: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/oct/22/race.ukcrime

Vote Un-Democratic Judas Party

The DUP have showed where their hat lies in the political ring. For DUP MPs Unionism is nothing at all to do with identification with the people of this entire Kingdom or the freedom they enjoy. The very fact they identify with an ideology that calls itself 'Unionism' is at this point in time nothing short of laughable. They have given a firm, two fingered 'fuck you' to the people of the UK, while hiding behind botched top secret issues of national security, using the troubles as an example of their consistent tough stance of terrorism.

The DUP and Lady Sylvia Hermanthe sole UUP MP, who predictably voted with the Brown administration saved Labour's on edge Scotsman from humiliating defeat in a vote that should have brought this government to its knees This is a government that has failed ot listen to the masses and increased the gap between rich and the poor with breathtaking billigerence. Despite this, the DUP saved this floundering Prime Minister and this government to do a deal, which to use their beloved biblical language, did a Judas.

There has rarely been a more stark example of how a political party has lost sight of the wood for the trees. A party that is intent on selling their country out for a short term economic package that brings Britain one step closer to a consumer concentration camp.

Shame on you. All good church goers as well.
Thou shall not.........................be a sell out bastard.
Yeah right.

Pikey

Keep repeating.....You are free...Keep repeating....You are free......

Brown got it through - 315 votes for and 306 against.

Big Brother 2008 - the house is now 93,000 square miles in area and has a population of 60,000.

Tyranny in the UK.

Only 9 votes made the difference and they came from the Democratic Unionist Party

who have blatantly bent over for Brown on this historic day of reckoning. Cries of

'you have been bought' were heard round the boiling pot of emotion that was the

British Parliament last night when the results were announced. A smiling and defiant

DUP sat grinning like idiots knowing that the good times would soon roll as a result

of an obvious backdoor deal.

This is a dark day for democracy in Britain, one that saw the dictates of the Magna

Carta dissolved, behind a smoke screen on erroneous and un-provable 'terror'

intelligence. The behaviour of the DUP goes to show how far they are prepared to go

in order to win favour on the mainland. It is vomit inducing to think that they have

the word 'democratic' in their party name, one that should be changed immediately to

'deferential.'

This morning when most people woke up and lift their news papers they will not be

confronted with one of the most democratically corrosive decisions of modern time,

their bleary eyes will fix upon a smokescreen story. The front pages are leading

with the government's confidential documents about Al-Quida that were left on a

train. This alleged blunder comes at the very convenient time, diverting public

opinion away from the biggest story of the last 6 months:

The massive leap towards a totalitarian British police state.


Someone tell me where this threat is. Where is it? Its all around we are told.

Does any see it? No. Its an un tangible construct that is being used to keep people

afraid and therefore allow the enforcement of an agenda with Orwellian overtones.


The actions of the DUP and other MPs have made this a day in which for one to talk

about democracy in Britain is not only illusionary, but downright stupid.

It could be time to flee the scene while we still have the chance. Book your tickets

early, there my be big demand.

Pikey

Progress! Development! A New Province...

You might have heard mutterings from the corridors of Stormont buildings referring to Belfast as the cultural capital of Northern Ireland, one that has transcended a bloody 30 year war, and exited the turmoil with a renewed sense of identity and togetherness. Rhetoric aside, there is no doubt that the city, and county for that matter, have changed, but have the ghosts of the past been forgotten, or is there a now unifying force in town?

‘Capitals of culture’

This is a phrase I have been thinking about lately and something that has confused being immensely. Say it out loud, and you think of the likes of Barcelona, Athens or one of the other great European capitals which are dripping with cultural diversity, embodying what its means to be part of that culture. They have a collective identity, a common shared purpose, and despite some internal differences, speak with one voice.

Belfast, on the other hand is not one of those places that you immediately spring to mind when accumulating the European cultural top 10. Why is this you may ask? With the troubles a dinner table taboo, progress and development are now topics for post dining conversation.

The men on the hill, sitting behind their comfy desks all sing from the same hymn sheet, one that has been carefully prepared to prepare the province for modern times.

We are living in disposable times where a weary people live to work, talk about work, write about work, dream about work, gossip about work, and will eventually die because of work.

Has the ship been scuttled by our elected representatives? Has post conflict Northern Ireland been led astray by the powers that be, thus bypassing the crossroads of opportunity in favour of rampant, faceless capitalism?

I see a PFI virtual Disneyland increasingly void of character and identity, homogenized more by the day in the mirror image of the power elite.
There is no doubt that the country is a better place to live than during the troubles, but lets be honest here, that is not difficult. As a people we should not have to settle for this treatment. We are being bent over double by rising prices, combined with some of the lowest wages in Great Britain, pushing most back into a corner of debt and reliance on credit. This is creating a monster culture of servitude in which our children and children’s children will be expected to pick up the bill.

We all now have a role in the movie that is the surveillance state. The proliferation of CCTV cameras in the province is nothing short of breathtaking. Recent study showed that these highly expensive machines do nothing to reduce crime levels. So why waste public money lining the pockets of lecherous private companies profiting from the proliferation of fear? We are all now virtual prisoners in our own communities, guilty until proven otherwise.

This monster will be a difficult beast to tame and who knows which aspect of our lives it will rampage in next?


As the late, great Bill Hicks said,” It's just a ride and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.”


So as far as I can ascertain, there is indeed a unifying cultural aspect within Northern Ireland and this is consumerism. The old religious divides and tribalism remain largely intact, despite what we are told on the news. After the political triumph of the Good Friday Agreement and St Andrew Agreement a vacuum was created in the culture of Northern Ireland. It used to be filled with horrific daily news stories about atrocities committed during the thirty year conflict on the streets of the province. The dawning of relative peace meant that something had to fill this space, something big, and something overwhelming. This where consumer culture was ushered in with it quick fix escapism and feel good therapy, soothing the wounds of war.

We don’t need to buy into this fake opulence and are only at the mercy of the masters if we hand them our support. On the surface the ghosts of the past have been blurred by frantic shopping and mirrored shopping malls, but when the veneer is lifted, one will see a society divided by old differences. Things may have moved on slightly, but not as much as we would like to believe.

Pikey

A Loyal State indeed.....................

In his new book entitled, ‘The State of loyalism in Northern Ireland’,Graham Spencer brings to light an issue that has been largely overlooked in recent years: The post-conflict loyalist community in Northern Ireland. He argues that the Loyalist role in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement was paramount and something that is now forgotten. Spencer also reminds the reader that without this monumental effort by individuals such as David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson, the current power sharing assembly would not be in place today.

Therefore was the great loyalist leap forward of the late nineties all in vain? Are loyalists being over looked my mainstream politics, and could this have dire consequences for the future political landscape in the province?

The conventional image of paramilitary loyalism can be summed up in one word: criminality. Gone are the days of the fearless protestant warriors, defending communities for queen, country and the cross. This kind of rhetoric may have filled the imagination of yesteryear, but as the troubles progressed, gangsterism quickly replaced romanticism.

Over the years loyalism has been the subject of loathing by unionists and nationalists alike. It has propagated an image that appeals to a thuggish, criminal element within Northern Irish society, who wields power with reckless abandon. These shadowy individuals have proven their psychotic and pathological credentials over many years of killing and torturous bloodshed. Levels of violence have been maintained in order to exert status and influence in communities for no other reason that naked self interest.

Spencer argues that the ultra violent tendencies within loyalism make one question the political direction and aspirations of loyalism as a movement. This is an important point when contrasted with the nationalist cause who carved out a niche for themselves in a peace time province, with clear political goals and a more pragmatic approach. Loyalism can be seen to offer little to the non bigot and is quite frankly a thorn in the side of the unionist movement.


Spencer, although very aware of the atrocities committed by loyalist paramilitaries, states that there has been little attempt to include them in the current political battlefield. He finds this paradoxical considering the monumental political contributions by loyalists during the Peace Process. Individuals like the late David Ervine, provided an educated and moderating influence within loyaliam that gave it respect across communities that had been hitherto missing. Ervine and others like Billy Hutchinson provided faces of deliberation that cast aside the mask of terror, and engaged in the politics of reconciliation. It is an inescapable fact that without their contribution, the Good Friday Agreement (1998) would have been an impossibility, and would have remained firmly in the political starting blocks.



Spencer feels that the main problem for contemporary loyalism is finding their feet in a post conflict province. Without the cohesion of a military campaign, many loyalists have turned inwards, embracing gangsterism. This has led to inevitable splits in the movement and horrific killings. It is obvious that following down this self destructive path will lead to political suicide, something that is a long way from the thinking of Ervine and Co.

Spencer makes a distinction between the two main factions within loyalism, the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) and UDA (Ulster Defence Association). As he states, the UDA in its modern form have channelled their energies into what he calls ‘Containment,’ with volunteers working in local communities and building up new grass roots support networks. This new face of loyalism can be seen in action with members like Billy Stoker, who has won a 6 million pounds revamp for his native ‘village’, in south Belfast. The UVF on the other hand, encouraged members to re-build their lives away from the struggle. Spencer refers to this as ‘Controlled dispersal.’


The future of loyalism is one filled with a smokescreen of ambiguity. Many members of the various factions feel disenfranchised and perceive the political endgame at Stormount as a let down for their cause. If this is the case all sides will have to reorganise and search for a collective voice, if the legacy David Ervine is to live on.


The Good Friday Agreement era was a golden time for the loyalist movement, but now they see themselves left on the fringes of the political wilderness. Plagued by illegal activity and self interested motives, loyalist’s continue to tarnish the image left by the ‘moderates’ a decade ago, dragging the movement back into the dark ages.

Spencer puts this down to lack of knowledge. He states, ‘There are serious deficiencies in educational attainment existing within loyalist communities.’ Contrast this with the thriving intellectual side of the republican movement, spurred on by its romantic notions of language and history. It seems then, it is time for loyalists to hit the books or as Spencer states, ‘criminality becomes an attractive proposition.’


The media come under some attack in this book for their portrayal of the loyalist movement. Spencer argues that the media’s fascination with ‘personalities’ and not the complexities of the process is cause for concern. Fixating on monsters like Jonny Adair, result in disaffected youth idolising their lifestyles, and missing the point of the loyalist cause. Loyalism will need to find a more mainstream direction or risk having miscreants personify loyalism itself.


In conclusion, Spencer states that the only way forward for loyalism is for those outside its parameters to engage with its most progressive representatives and to develop a strategy for the future. It this does not happen, the future looks bleak for the movement, seeing it sink deeper into political obscurity and risking throwing the country back into an unthinkable past.


Pikey