Jack Cole

🔴Yesterday Heather Humphreys told she stopped attending Orange parades ‘when the Toubles started..I didn’t go after that’. In 2014 (blue) at an Orange Parade, organisers told me she attended ‘most years’. Department: ‘when her diary allows’. ⁦#Aras2025

WATCH: Gript Media has obtained new footage of the stabbing of a Garda in Dublin earlier this week, in which the assailant can be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" as he commences the attack.

@PierceDargan_ @RathdownYFG @EliByrne01 @JudeThomas435 @Jurley2002 You didn't hang around long Pierce, gone in your Mercedes benz quicker than simon harris fleeing a supermarket

A full house in The Golden Ball-2024 for the Charity Pub Quiz Night in support of the Children's Health Foundation. A huge well done to the organisers and everyone who has come to support such a good cause! #Local #Charity #Night

Glasgow - see yis in the Barrowlands tonight for the first of 2 sold out shows 🔥

Jo Jo Dullard’s family pleaded with a Fine Gael justice minister more than 25 years ago to help sanction a search of a farm gardaí sealed off yesterday after the arrest of its owner – a deceased ex-Fine Gael politician’s son – on suspicion of her murder. ontheditch.com/son-of-ex-seni…

Diarmuid O'Neill was gunned down in a hail of bullets while unarmed in a police raid on his flat in Hammersmith, London 28 years ago today. As he lay dying they refused him medical help He was the last IRA Volunteer to die on active service against the British presence in Ireland

@BelTel He certainly looks fat enough to be a uda boss

A UDA boss has been left with a broken leg after being battered by rival loyalists at a band parade in Ballymena. Watch ➡️ tinyurl.com/3yn6jhd8

Thank you for your service Leo Varadkar

@GCraughwell @IsraelinIreland Amazed that a former member of the defence forces pats Her Excelency so hard on the back given how her nation bankrolled Major Hadad and his army to kill so many Irish members of UNIFIL.

I’ve considered how I’ve responded to these people, and I often don’t. But due to the context they’ve created, undoubtedly their presence has made me more angry, aggressive and combative. That’s not to say I am a political liberal wanting to hug the world, I am not. That which I tweet and contribute is a true reflection of my views and I stand over all of it: but I do, in recent days, ask myself whether those views can, at times, be more productively expressed/packaged in a way more suited to reasoned debate and discussion, rather than as a ‘shot fired’ in the sewer of hate created by toxic trolls. I should say that whilst, in my view, unionists/loyalists are by far subjected to the worst of this treatment, it is also true that others from other communities are also victims of this kind of treatment and, maybe, they too are subconsciously influenced in their contributions and made angry and aggressive by the toxic whirlwind created by the abuse perpetually directed at them online. Why have I written this short post? Well, because I think self reflection is important. And, I think the same issue I have self-identified as being relevant to myself, is also applicable to a lot of others- unionists/loyalists, nationalist/republican and non-aligned contributors. There are also sections of the media it must be said who have also allowed their editorial judgment to be influenced by the toxicity of Twitter (or X as it now is) and have pursued headlines which aren’t fair or genuine ‘journalism’, but which act as click-bait and a dog-whistle for the toxic Twitter mob to drive traffic to their website. Perhaps some may wish to also reflect upon this and whether they can also do better. Incase anyone is confused, this is not some kind of Damascus conversation. As alluded to, my views are entirely unaltered. They are as strong as ever. But what is altered is my view /as to the value of Twitter, and how it negatively impacts the quality of debate and discussion, and indeed- as I have candidly accepted- how as a consequence of being subjected to relentless trolling/abuse campaigns, it can make people- whilst contributing online- become more angry, aggressive and- at times- make engagements come across in a counter productive way. So, I think all those of us- from all backgrounds- who engage in debate & discussion for the right reasons ought to do better. To be aware that, as with me and Sean Murray, there is a self-loathing mob of clowns who have nothing of substance to offer other than jeering and whipping up hate from the sidelines for their own entertainment given most of them have no life outside of social media. If me, of all people, can find a way to be more constructive and measured (and, I am going to try), then can’t we all? End/

🚨 Has Twitter forced us all to show the worst of ourselves? In recent weeks, given I’ve had plenty of time with being sick, I’ve devoted some time to (in a self reflective way) thinking about Twitter and the nature of how I (and indeed all of us who genuinely are on here in our own names engaging for the right reasons) engage on the platform. I’m not entirely sure what sparked such a deep dive into thinking about the issue, but a rather pointed question from the person I trust most in the world along the lines of: “why is your Twitter persona so divorced from the reality of who you are or even your other written work/contributions on media?”. That caused me to think about why that is. For example; why when writing a reasoned article, for example, for the Newsletter is there a disconnect between that and my expression on Twitter, or when engaging with people privately and debating issues (including people from nationalist/republican backgrounds) do they engage with me, and me with them, differently than we do in the febrile atmosphere of Twitter? Previously myself and the republican Sean Murray had exchanged a series of detailed articles in a public debate on legacy. This was a robust debate, but it was a good one of substance in an environment of reasoned argument being set out in 1,000 word articles. Last year, we reignited the same debate one morning on Twitter. Within an hour it had descended into an offer to fight each other (I know, what on earth?) which eventually lead to an arrangement to have a fight in the boxing ring. We run into each other shortly thereafter and went for a coffee. We both looked at each other, suddenly realised we are grown men and collectively questioned what on earth we were doing? Sean said something that struck me: “I don’t know about you, but I am not a circus performer there for other people’s entertainment”. He was right. The two of us, who are as politically opposed as is possible to be, were going to get into a boxing ring to fight not over our political differences, not because of any personal animosity, not because either of us actually wanted to: but for the entertainment of clowns on social media. As the person I referred to at the start who prompted my thinking in recent weeks texted me that morning: “two hours ago you and Sean Murray were arguing about legacy, I’ve just logged back on and now youse are offering fair digs. What are you both playing at?” In hindsight, I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps Twitter has made all those of us who genuinely engage more angry and aggressive in our engagements, because of the toxic atmosphere on the platform largely created by the armies of anonymous abusive trolls who- I suppose even if we don’t realise it- have an impact in so far as the context they create for discussions, contributions and debates to take place. In thinking about this over recent days, I am certainly as guilty as anyone. Whilst I rarely even read the deluge of orchestrated abusive tweets from the army of trolls anymore, it’s hard not to be aware of their presence constantly poking, demeaning, deriding and doing so from their anonymous cover. They do not need to engage with the substance of points raised, indeed such an approach is- in the land of the troll- to be deprecated. Rather, it is ‘playing the man’ which brings the greatest rewards amongst the land of the trolls. There is, unless they cross over into the criminal or civil law, little consequence for their actions. The vast majority are sitting in their box-room in pee stained underpants, essentially trolling others as a form of therapy for their own self loathing. Twitter provides them with not only a mask to hide their own self-perceived inadequacies, but also an ability to project their own insecurities and anger onto others. They can create an image of themselves as to who they want to be, rather than who they are. 1/

@GardaTraffic How about doing something about the open drug dealing and crack use behind stephens green luas stop - ne'er a garda to be seen

Gardaí carried out multi-agency inspections of horse drawn carriages in the city along with officials from Dublin City Council and the Departments of Agriculture and Social Protection 2 arrests were made for intoxicated driving as well as offences under the Control of Horses Act

Wrong, disgraceful and disgusting. Consistency is important - if it’s wrong for IRA terrorists it wrong for UVF terrorists.

@BelTel Would this be the Gary Middleton quoted in your article posing in front of a parachute regiment banner

A video of Derry City fans’ pro-IRA chants in a pub after the team’s European qualifier match last week is like “sticking two fingers up” at the families of the terror group’s victims, an MLA has said. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football…

@little_pengelly Did you see the uvf banner theybwere carrying?

Another angle, but an important one. Art 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights protects the right to public expression of identity and culture, and to do so unimpeded. This is an agreed Commission parade in line with those basic human rights. A core human right.

@Billy74282082 @CalmDownPlzzz Not the only thing in the band flying high as it turns out

@BelTel Only works where they are in the small minority so they actually have to restrain their visceral taig hatred in order to be tolerated

A former Assistant Chief Constable has said lingering sectarianism around the Twelfth can be phased out – pointing to how the parading issue has been largely resolved in Londonderry. belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-…

@Place_of_Zen @buff_egan @bigbear122511 A uvf banner carrying, black and tan wearing sectarian band marching through a Catholic town assault a local and he was being provocative? You're some dopey wanker

@buff_egan @bigbear122511 He was crossing the road back and forth during the parade trying to incite trouble. The w⚓️. Provoking it then claiming to be a victim. I’m embarrassed to be part of the GAA if that’s his behaviour

A Irish man wearing a Ballycastle hurling Top in his own town that’s 75% Catholic is attacked by a Bunch of Orange savages. Big men with all their mates around them. Culture my Arse🍊 Scum of The Earth OUT OUT OUT. twitter.com/CalmDownPlzzz/…

@Glen_Colt @buff_egan by being a taig? Fcuk off cnut

@buff_egan The guy in the GAA top was asking for trouble. W⚓