A Terrifying Experience !

We’re living in dark times, indeed. I passed a group of terrorists in Derry last Saturday. The terrorists were gathered in a public area holding these terrorist signs. In general, they are beginning to gather on our streets and civic centres all over the place, it seems. It is so brazen. One woman in the group I saw was an obvious terrorist by the way she was gripping her placard and by her stance and demeanour. There’s no equivocation about it. It was so obvious she was a terrorist. They were seen standing in broad daylight holding placards, shouting slogans, and calling for the end to genocide in Gaza. What more evidence is needed in support of terrorist charges against them? They were clearly terrorists. I was traumatised by my experience. I found the experience personally distressing. Since then, I’ve been haunted by images of those signs and the slogans they bore – statements like “Stop the genocide in Gaza” and “UK complicit in genocide.” It was horrifying. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to walk in a public place again due to these horrifying events I witnessed. People should adhere to the rule of law. People should be obedient to the state and support the genocide in Gaza and if possible travel to Israel, join the IDF, get trained in military hardware, and slaughter a bunch of Palestinians – particularly, shooting children in the head and killing pregnant mothers is the preferred method – and feel proud that you’re a law-abiding citizen and thankful you’re not involved in terrorism like all the placard-wielding terrorists I witnessed in Derry last Saturday. Shame on them.

Louis Shawcross, Co. Down, N. Ireland (10.8.25)

Terrorism Act

In 2020, the Home Office reported that over 40,000 individuals were assessed by MI5 as posing some risk of re-engaging in terrorist activity. It can reasonably be assumed that most of them were – and still are – living in the UK. Given the timing of the data, it’s also fair to presume these individuals are genuine terrorism risks, not people holding placards that say, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” One would hope the 40,000 identified by MI5 are not people peacefully protesting against what they see as injustice in Gaza, but individuals who pose an actual threat to public safety. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it make more sense for British authorities to focus their efforts on arresting or deporting these genuinely dangerous individuals, rather than criminalising peaceful demonstrators? Alternatively, if Palestine Action supporters are genuinely considered a threat, why not let MI5 monitor them – just as they do with those 40,000 – until there is credible evidence of a real risk? I suspect, however, that MI5 has more pressing priorities than watching people who are passionate about peace and ending global violence, despite being labelled “terrorists” under the Terrorism Act 2000. Which raises a deeper question: who decides what constitutes terrorism today? Is it the UK Government? Is it the legal framework? Or is it pressure from external influences, such as the Israeli lobby, which may hold disproportionate sway over British policy?

Address for publication: Louis Shawcross, Co. Down.

Sir, – Basketball Ireland released a statement last Friday evening around its decision to compete in the upcoming FIBA EuroBasket Women 2027 qualifiers, which sees them play Israel away on November 18th.

In 2022 this same organisation refused to play its qualifiers against Belarus due to its opponents’ support of Russia in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

I struggle to understand how this organisation’s moral stance has changed so dramatically in the last three years.

Where is the consistency?

Let us not forget how impactful the sporting boycott of South Africa was in bringing down apartheid. – Yours, etc,

ROSS GARVEY,

Sandymount,

Dublin 4.

Ireland’s Sovereignty

         Sir, – The Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) rejects recent comments made by Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill regarding Irish sovereignty being somehow contained by the triple lock (“Michael Collins’s legacy honoured by sending Irish troops on peacekeeping missions, says Carroll MacNeill,” News, August 24th).

The triple lock does indeed require that Irish troop deployments have a United Nations mandate, but Article 25 of the United Nations Charter requires us as a member state to adhere to decisions of the UN Security Council and respect their binding nature in any event. Why is the Minister not advocating departure from the UN?

The triple lock is an exercise in sovereignty and, in particular, popular sovereignty. It is the Irish people who, in two referendums in 2002 and 2009, endorsed the triple lock. Unlike Britain, in Ireland sovereignty resides in the people not parliament. – Yours, etc,

Stephen Kelly,

Chairman, Peace and Neutrality Alliance,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin. p

Irish Times, 28.8.25

The sole reason for the UK’s RAF unarmed surveillance flights over Gaza is to search for hostages, both Israeli and British nationals, we are told.  As most of the former hostages were held underground, and those remaining are similarly situated presumably, it would seem the UK’s claims stretch the bounds of credibility.  

Given that the UK is still supplying F-35 parts to Israel and has granted over 300 arms export licences to Israel which are still active, it isn’t beyond the pale to believe these surveillance flights have a direct military role in target selection for bombing and relaying information to Israel on the success of these airstrikes. 

When we hear the IDF Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, say, “We will operate in additional areas and destroy all infrastructure above and below ground”, we can see that surveillance of the destroyed and still existing infrastructure could be very useful information to an army seeking to destroy everything.  

These may be speculations, but can we really believe the British Government whose role under Covid restrictions seemed to be to ‘frighten the pants off everyone’, rather than relay the scientific facts that were known at the time, or when they proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation while at the same time giving overt support to the new, post-coup administration in Syria led by the known terrorist, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who we’re told is the ‘former’ head of the terrorist group, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)?  And I haven’t even mentioned the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq!

 Louis Shawcross, Co. Down (28.6.25)