Stephen McCracken

Glen's of Antrim Highland Cow Experience is now open to guests. Just 10mins from Carnlough and 10mins from Broughshane. northofirelandtours.com

@paulfrewDUP Delivering a new tour this year for the Smithsonian, they are paying me to reckee the hikes next month. Can't wait, Glencoe - Etive, Skye - Cullin and Trotternish ranges etc.

Crib Goch !

#OTD in 1776 Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sence is published.

On this day in 1777 Rev Colonel Haslet is killed at the Battle of Princeton. Formerly of Ballykelly Presbyterian Church

@Coins_Kid Eet??

Dump eet I have bids at the GCBT for #bitcoin

@Greenwytch3 You could substitute Planter for sectarian or Protestant.

You just couldn’t make this pish up if you tried 🤷‍♂️ Mexican 🇲🇽 immigrant arrives in the occupied six counties joins a racist sectarian Planter death cult 👺 Starts lecturing folk about QUB being a cold house for Planters 😳😣 Unbelievable tramp

@StephenMcMurra7 Hi Stephen appologies for the delay. They should start promoting them this week. Antrim, Randalstown and Glengormly. I would recommend the Antrim one as it will be a good extra to the talk.

@Stephenmccrack4 I was at the excellent talk on Wednesday. You said there would be a guided tour around Antrim in November but it is not advertised on Newtownabbey Council website. How do we book it?

Wednesday evening I will be delivering a talk on the United Irishmen of Carnmoney. Image is AI Emmets Declaration pinned to the door of the Presbyterian Church in 1803 ordering all to rise. - antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk/events/2025/oc…

@SWOConnell The Rev John Haslet previously of Ballykelly PCI?

27 Oct 1776 White Plains, NY British advance guard skirmishes with Gen Alexander McDougall’s brigade, which is reinforced by Col John Haslet’s crack Delaware Regt. American defenders suffer 30 casualties. #RevWar #History #AmRev

@Seanofthesouth Well done. Did likewise up at Sentry Hill.

▪️Great to talk to ‘Catholic, Protestant, Dissenter and agnostic about our shared history & politics in North Belfast today. ‘We have more in common that unites us than divides us’

@RobLooseCannon 1st meeting was a few days before in Crown Tavern

Today in 1791 a small group of men gathered for the inaugural meeting of the Society of United Irishmen of Belfast. The rebels adopted a declaration and resolutions drafted by Theobald Wolfe Tone, a young Dublin barrister. Earlier that year, Tone had published An Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, a pamphlet that dared to say aloud what many whispered. That Ireland’s Catholics, “now for above a century in slavery,” deserved full emancipation. Tone, himself a Protestant, was an unlikely champion of Catholic rights. Yet he saw the sectarian divisions in Ireland as the deliberate work of England, a strategy to keep the country divided and submissive. Still, he did not disguise his own distaste for the authority of Rome, writing that emancipated Catholics would pay little heed to “the rusty and extinguished thunderbolts of the Vatican.” His aim was not to enthrone Catholicism but to dissolve the power of sectarianism itself. To make of Ireland a single political nation. Belfast in 1791 was fertile ground for such an idea. The town’s merchants, printers and craftsmen, many of them Presbyterians, were already steeped in the democratic fervour of the French Revolution and inspired by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. Among them were men like Henry Joy McCracken, a flax merchant and philanthropist, and Samuel Neilson, a fiery newspaper editor whose press would soon give voice to rebellion. At that first meeting, the society passed three resolutions that set out its creed with clarity and defiance. First, that “the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland.” Second, that “a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament is indispensable.” And third, that “no reform is practicable, efficacious, or just, which shall not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion.” From these resolutions a movement was born. Within weeks, a sister organisation, the Society of United Irishmen of Dublin, was established. At first, the United Irishmen worked openly, seeking parliamentary reform through peaceful and constitutional means. But the authorities watched with suspicion. By 1794, the Dublin society was ordered to disband. It re-emerged the following year as a secret, oath bound brotherhood. As repression deepened, so too did the radicalism of the movement. The United Irishmen forged an alliance with the Defenders, a Catholic agrarian group formed to resist attacks from the Protestant Peep o’ Day Boys. Tone, meanwhile, turned his eyes to France, seeking foreign arms to back Ireland’s rising discontent. What began in that Belfast meeting room as a call for unity and reform would, within seven years, ignite into rebellion.

Yesterday Alastair Donaghy and myself were delighted to host Survivors of Trauma Belfast group on a 1798 tour of Antrim. Stopping at Mallusk, Craigarogan, Dunadry and Antrim.

@little_pengelly 3 weeks ago represented NI in Tokyo World International Champs.

A huge congratulations to Kate O’Connor on her wonderful silver medal in the heptathlon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Katie was born in Newry and has represented both Northern Ireland and Ireland. Well done Katie 👏👏

@BelTel I had warned his employers last year when I tried to work with him....I even penned bullet point letter about the bad practices he was involved in. Gay Pride was a big issue for him amongst many others.

Exclusive | Belfast girls' school governor told female colleague at tourist body 'maybe you want to be raped' belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education… belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/education…

@ballinderryboo Excellent

@Stephenmccrack4 We'll see you there!!!!

Our next Ballymena tour is on the 18th. The last was sold out and was a brilliant evening. At 6pm on the 7th of June 98, Ballymena was declared a Republic and run by a Committee of Public Works for 5 days. eventbrite.co.uk/e/ballymena-an…

Battle of Antrim and Roddy McCorley tour delivered for Glen Men's Shed Derry. Was a brilliant addition to have an impromptu chat from Colum Scullion.

@NatGeo Journeys meets @scotgeologist in the Highlands of Scotland.

On this day, August 23rd, 1775, King George III issued the Proclamation of Rebellion, declaring the American colonies in open rebellion and escalating the path to war. This royal decree ignored colonial grievances, treating self-governance as treason. It united patriots in resistance, accelerating the Revolution. The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania highlights this colonial defiance, tying it to modern liberty struggles against overreaching authority. We stand against proclamations that suppress dissent, advocating for individual rights and limited government to prevent such tyranny.