matthew smyth

Lá fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh! 🇵🇸 🇮🇪 🫒 ☘️ 💚♥️ 📷 Janeymackdesign

Hello, there 👋 Have you heard David Lammy MP and Sarah Sackman MP talking about people stealing bottles of whisky and swiping mobile telephones as examples of people who should not get jury trials? Well. I’d like to tell you a story. 🪡 🧵

Trump would have to do something really bad, like spray paint a plane, before Starmer will condemn him.

Anyone wanting to know what Soldier F did should watch this. It seems plenty of Unionist and British politicians haven’t even bothered to read the findings of the Saville Inquiry. youtu.be/XmMxstef4jk?si…

A chairde Gael. Vótáil Connolly 💚🤍🧡

The Saville report concluded that those killed on Bloody Sunday posed no threat to the British army. They were innocent civilians murdered in an act of state violence. Their families and survivors have carried a weight of injustice that few of us will ever understand.

R V SOLDIER F - STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE FAMILY OF WILLIAM MCKINNEY Following the judgment delivered at Belfast Crown Court this morning, Mickey McKinney, brother of William McKinney said: “Today marks the end of the prosecution of Soldier F for the murder and attempted murder of the innocents on Bloody Sunday. “The families and wounded and our supporters leave this courthouse with an incredible sense of pride in our achievements. “Soldier F has been discharged from the defendant’s criminal dock, but it is one million miles away from being an honourable discharge. “Unlike his victims, there has been no declaration of Soldier F’s innocence. “Soldier F created 2 young widows on Bloody Sunday and he orphaned 12 children. And he deprived dozens of siblings of a loving brother. “The Bloody Sunday families do not lay the blame for today’s decision with the trial judge. “The blame lies firmly: - With the British state; - With the RUC who failed to investigate the murders on Bloody Sunday properly, or indeed at all; and - With the British Army who shielded and enabled its soldiers to continue to murder with impunity, and immunity, and also with the office of the then Director of Public Prosecutions who, with a nod and a wink, complicitly signed off on decisions not to prosecute in 1972 without even raising an eyebrow. “Most importantly however, responsibility lies with the thugs of Frank Kitson’s private army, the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment who opened fire, and those who directed and protected them. “Despite the heroism, steadfastness and dignity of the Bloody Sunday Families and Wounded, a coward walks free from the dock. “Not through the front door of this courthouse like every other vindicated, wrongly accused defendant proudly does, but instead, once his curtain has been pulled back for him, creeping out the back door. “The type of thug, who is well used to special treatment, well used to having important and powerful connections, with his police escort in tow, back over to hide in Palace Barracks, where it all began. “Thank you.”

I write as former Head of Maritime Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Alternate Head of UK Delegation to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Prepcom. 1) The flotilla is on the High Seas and not in Israel's 12 mile territorial sea. Israel has no jurisdiction. 2) The Israeli maritime blockade has been in place for 17 years and is an intrinsic part of the long term occupation found illegal in the ICJ advisory opinion 3) It is therefore not a short term measure in time of armed conflict as specified in the San Remo manual 4) In any event the San Remo rules explicitly state that humanitarian supplies may not be blockaded 5) The UN Commission of Inquiry has already determined that Israel is committing genocide. The blockade is plainly a part of the machinery of such genocide. For reasons 1 to 5 the Israeli attack on the flotilla is plainly illegal. 6) On the High Seas, the law applying on each ship is the law of its flag state. An attack by a state military warship on a vessel on the High Seas is an attack on the flag state of the vessel attacked. 7) Acts of illegal possession of vessels or abduction of crew on the High Seas should be pursued by each flag state as crimes within their domestic jurisdiction, not only in international law. 8) So the Metropolitan Police and DPP have an obligation to investigate and act over the abduction of persons from UK flagged vessels on the High Seas. This applies to each flag state mutatis mutandi. I hope you find this helpful.

“…those living in the North’s six counties are silenced in the election. Their continuing exclusion reduces them to nominal citizens” ~Justine McCarthy The Irish Times ☕️

"If anyone on this planet is guilty of terrorism, it's the British state." Kneecap's Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) delivers a speech to supporters outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, after the terrorism case against him was thrown out.

We expect smears & hostility but we’ll continue to call them out while building a campaign focused on what really matters - Protecting our neutrality, emergency action on housing, opposition to the genocide and a society that supports and cares for all.

Mo Chara spoke out against Israel’s genocide, for the people of Gaza, for a free Palestine. The charges were an attempt to shut him up, to silence protest. It failed. He’s free. Kneecap are not the story, Genocide is the story. Saoirse don Phalaistín!🇵🇸

All charges have been dropped against Kneecap’s Mo Chara. I strongly welcome this decision. These charges were part of a calculated attempt to silence those who stand up and speak out against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Kneecap have used their platform on stages across the world to expose this genocide, and it is the responsibility of all of us to continue speaking out and standing against injustice in Palestine.

I knew Douglas Murray’s article on Ireland was going to be bad but I am genuinely shocked at some of the comments on Irish people that were deemed fit to print in a major British paper

52 today. Israel has now murdered far more starving civilians queuing for food from their cruel "aid sites" than were killed on October 7th The policy is clear for all to see - make Gaza totally unliveable. Ethnic cleansing in real time. Supported by the US/UK/EU Fuck Israel

Commemorating a battle between an English king & his Dutch son-in-law & nephew in the 17th century by burning an Irish flag designed by French women in the 19th century, with the orange representing said Dutch prince’s supporters..

The opening lines to the Spectator’s latest anti-Irish rant; ‘The Irish problem has existed for centuries…’ Under Michael Gove, the publication has taken a significant anti-Irish slant. Gove, a staunch Unionist coming to terms with Britain’s diminishment since Brexit, also can’t seem to accept the basic facts of Britain’s record in Ireland No apology needed there Michael. Just an acknowledgment of fact The articles author Michael Henderson: - Diminishes Irish heritage - Links the Irish to alcohol (how original) - Smears Irish-Americans with racism - Sneakily implies the Irish are antisemitic (which is rich coming from the most antisemitic nation in Europe) Gove needs to accept a single fact - the best thing for British interests is Irish reunification. The two islands can finally build the relationship- even partnership - that neighbours should enjoy It starts with a United Ireland. Not Gove’s lean into cultural wars and age- old Hibernophobia. The British and Irish people are pals, not pawns Mikey

Breaking down the meaning behind Take A Sexy Picture Of Me with @grimmers. Common everyday cruelty that you see on a place like Instagram is born of commerce and who falls inside and outside the world of commercial, marketable attractiveness.

For those obsessing about Glastonbury maybe focus on the real issue. A genocide being live streamed on our phone screens as the world watches on