I remember laughing as Donald Trump, on his first go round, claiming the Bible was his favourite book, so much his favourite in fact, that he couldn’t pick out a single verse for discission. ‘The Bible means a lot to me,’ he said, with a presumably full heart, ‘but I don’t want to get into specifics.’ Back then, in the now Edenic early days of Trump’s first term, he seemed to be slightly uncomfortable in re-positioning of himself as a man of God – a multi-millionaire, nuke code owning follower of Jesus. Now, a few years on, Trump’s base has simmered in the heat of culture – and actual – wars and has been reduced to the most ardent evangelicals in the country. And Trump is definitely a Christian this time.

Now, in England, say, this pseudo-Damascene conversion of a leader would not have worked. And there’s a lovely irony to this: the religious monarchy of Britain being out-religioned by a Republic founded on the separation of Church and State. Perhaps the existence of an established church buffered England from what America is now experiencing, which is a seemingly unstoppable surge of Christian nationalism. In a strange way, the anaemic, seemingly ineffectual influence of the Anglican communion seems to have taken the power out of Tommy Robinson’s recent discovery of the New Testament. In the UK, Christianity, to borrow a phrase, ‘hasn’t gone away you know’, so its supposed reemergence in radical forms hasn’t really raised an eyebrow. Perhaps the solution to a rise in far-right religion is, paradoxically, more hereditary Bishops?

Last month in America, photos emerged from the Oval Office of President Trump at the centre of a prayer, his evangelical advisory board placing their hands on him as they blessed his leadership in the name of God. This was a few days into the Israel-American war on Iran and was intended to anoint the incursion as a divine act of a Christian nation. The laying on of hands, rooted in the Christian tradition and instigated by Christ himself, is a powerful religious practice in many denominations. Those present seemed to think the will of God was embodied in the wartime leadership of the 79-year-old President, though given the headlines prior to the invasion, I suspect his team were also glad of a new story to accompany Google searches of ‘Trump laying on of hands.’

The point is clear, however. Trump and his newly Catholic Vice-President are proudly leading a war-hungry government that is being explicitly justified in theological terms. ‘Religion’s back now, hotter than ever before,’ Trump said at the prayer breakfast, in his best Martin Luther impression. And on Monday, he posted ‘Praise be to Allah,’ as an accompaniment to his online threat to orchestrate a war crime. If there was social media in the Middle Ages, this is what would have been posted. Our mediums may have modernised, but human nature, it seems remains largely unchanged.

Pope Leo has got himself in trouble. On 9^th January he had the temerity to mention that ‘war is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.’ The Pentagon has, reportedly, threatened the Vatican, summoning Cardinal Christophe Pierre for a bollocking from Elbridge Colby, the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy. The Free Press reports that the Cardinal was told in no uncertain terms that the Church’s moral position ran against the grain of reality: the US, Colby said, ‘has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.’ On Easter Sunday the Pope said, that God does not listen to the prayers ‘of those who wage war.’ In response, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s Press Secretary opted for a history lesson, declaring America was ‘a nation founded, 250 years ago almost, on Judeo-Christian values.’ The re-positioning of the second comma might represent the truth more readily, one could argue.

Pew Research Centre reported in January this year that white evangelical Protestants remain some of Trump’s largest supporters. Over two thirds gave him a positive approval rating, though this is down a few points from the previous year. On the whole, though, they are immensely loyal to the President, a man who famously said he could ‘stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody’ and wouldn’t lose any voters. Now, as his appeal dwindles across many demographics, Trump is banking on the fact that he could drop bombs on another country and not lose white evangelicals. And he is largely right.

Threats of a scorched earth policy in Iran are supported by Trump’s religious base. Of course they are. But to some, this might seem like a contradiction – aren’t Christians meant to be stewards to Creation, after all? But to an old-fashioned American evangelical, a Protestant of the Billy Graham variety, this earth is not our home, we’re just passin’ through. If, for Christ to win, thousands of innocents must die and the planet burns, so be it. We are citizens of heaven on an inconvenient stopover on a sinful planet.

The final bitter irony is that old-fashioned evangelicalism is now finding an unlikely ideological alliance with the billionaire tech-bros. As Musk dreams of eternal life on distant planets and the wealthiest build their bunkers for the inevitable nuclear winter, we see Christian eschatology in another form. Here, too, the few will be saved. The first shall indeed be first and the last will, well, continue to vote against their own interests. And it is their own interests too. Indeed, how far does one’s pro-life theology have to atrophy before you find yourself making the case for a President who was found liable for sexual abuse, covered up a sex scandal with hush money and, as recently as February, gave orders which resulted in the blowing up a school, killing 160 innocent girls.

And yet white evangelicals continue to march to protect, ah yes, women and girls.

Evangelical Christianity is a life-denying subculture of Christianity. Every religion has one or two. It is a shame this one is running the world. Evangelicalism, with its simplistic view of the cosmos, is flourishing. For some as nostalgia, for younger men, as a new set of radical ideas set in motion by Charlie Kirk and Jordan Peterson. But its dangers remain the same. With their phobia of nuance and binary way of seeing, evangelicals can only offer conflict. It’s how simplistic worldviews flourish.

And we can’t trust the future of the planet to people who think it was built in six days.

The current Government in Dublin has built its Northern policy around the Shared Island Initiative. It claims that its approach is anchored in the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).  Certainly, on reading through that Agreement, it is difficult to understand how an entire Irish Government approach to the North could be based solely on this Initiative. There are lots of other parts to the GFA than North/South cooperation.

While very few would doubt the value of cross border projects, there is a timidness about this policy, which is unsettling. Even the name Shared Island seems to reflect a nervousness about using the name Ireland, although it is only the tiniest minority in the North that would have difficulty with using the title of a Shared Ireland.  However, the current administration would be nervous about any implication, however tiny, that there were political implications to its policy.

There is a suspicion among many Nationalists/Republicans and others that the Shared Island Initiative is an excuse for doing nothing to promote the cause of Irish Unity, something that the political parties, which make up the current Government, have in their founding ideals.  That suspicion was confirmed when the Minister for Public Expenditure and my local TD, Jack Chambers, made the bald statement that the Shared Island Initiative must not be used to promote Irish Unity, an extra-ordinary statement from an Irish Minister, involved in the expenditure of hundreds of millions of euros on the policy. His remarks are in stark contrast with those of Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar, who described his own personal commitment to “the great cause of Irish Unity” and even called on Irish America to become actively involved in that cause.

The difficulty for the current Taoiseach is that on the North, just like John Bruton, he appears to have no level of support inside that jurisdiction, as he and his closest Minister, Jack Chambers, can be accused of sounding like members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).  Without any real support inside the North, this greatly lessens the influence of Dublin to that of a supplicant, merely seeking only to influence British policy there, through formal diplomatic channels.

Even Ulster Unionist figures seem more open to discussing Irish Unity than the leader of the “Republican Party”, Fianna Fáil. The leader of the SDLP, Claire Hanna, wisely stated last month, “Crucially, this is not a conversation that can be deferred to some future constitutional moment”.  She is right, the time to move this forward is now.

If there is a change of administration at Westminster, and a new Farage/Badenock regime, then Dublin will be left without a rudder in the choppy seas of Northern politics.  A more strident, right wing Westminster Government is unlikely to listen to Dublin’s pleadings. The GFA might not even survive a hostile Government in London. That would be a recipe for turbulent times in Belfast.  The current Irish Government has nothing in place like the old Travellers’ system of contact and information work on the ground, which ran during the Reynolds, Ahern and Cowen administrations.

The Taoiseach needs to take into account that there are a lot more than hard line Unionists in Northern Ireland.  Everybody born in the North, as with the rest of Ireland, has the entitlement to Irish citizenship but it is highly probable that the vast bulk of those who exercise that right, are from the Nationalist community. It was David Trimble who requested that only those who wanted Irish citizenship there, became citizens. It would not be forced on those opposed to it. The Irish Government has a duty to cater for its own citizens, yet it is willfully ignoring their concerns. That is a failure of Government.

In reality, there is huge disappointment and even anger within my friends in the SDLP at the Taoiseach’s attitude to Irish Unity. He never misses an opportunity to dismiss the section of the Good Friday Agreement which provides a mechanism to bring about that objective.  He is constantly supported on this by the establishment leaning Irish Times. The SDLP was always close to the Irish Government but is now alienated by Martin’s embrace of anti-Nationalist elements.

When the current Taoiseach steps down and is replaced by the leader of Fine Gael, Simon Harris, there is unlikely to be an improvement. Harris made the infamous remark that he was of a generation more familiar with Berlin than Belfast. That may be true for some in the privileged south Dublin suburbs where he resides in Greystones, but given the level of cross border activity, it is not backed up by the facts.

There are different political groupings within the North, a broad Nationalist constituency, a broad Unionist constituency and a growing section of the population which does not strongly identify with either group. For Micheál Martin to concentrate exclusively on the Unionist minority is wrong and strategically a major error. It is similar to the line John Bruton followed, which led to puzzlement among Unionists. As I described in my book The Traveller’s Tale, David Trimble said that Bruton was well meaning to Unionists but useless, since he had no idea of the role of an Irish Government in the North.  Trimble was right and his description could be ascribed to Martin.

The question has to be asked as to how we arrived at a Fianna Fáil led administration being so hostile to Irish Unity. I have described the Taoiseach as having Sinn Féin derangement syndrome, but I fear that there may be a further complicating factor. There is also the very inconvenient fact that neither Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael have any members or support north of the border and re-unification would greatly jeopardize their prospects of continued domination of the Irish political scene. With a strongly declining support base inside the Republic, the addition of nearly 2m Northerners to the population would essentially finish their unbroken 100 years of a comfortable duopoly.

Therefore, the Taoiseach can appear to be active on the issue of the North through the Shared Island’s North South projects, in a manner similar to two friendly neighbouring states, but never to touch on the Constitutional issue. This despite the Constitutional imperative on the Irish Government to unify the people of Ireland, as outlined by the Supreme Court.

Therefore, I have to conclude that the Shared Island Initiative is being used as an excuse to avoid the prospect of a border poll.

Their perception that the world should be more grateful to America is clouding their thinking. Several times recently, Marco Rubio (see here) has talked about the idea of pulling American troops out of their bases across Europe because the Europeans had not supported America’s war against Iran.

He said, “We have spent billions and billions of dollars — trillions over the years, as Rubio notes — paying for the defence of Europe. That’s our role as a superpower. But American assistance, American help, America’s defensive capabilities, cannot come with no strings attached. It can’t mean we give you everything and you give us nothing. That isn’t fair.”

On April 1^st (an appropriate date) he argued: “If Europe won’t allow us to use the bases we man and fund for their defence when we need them, we ought to close them down and remove our troops from Europe”.

Is this a one-way process, where America is helping us, with no benefit to America?

Benefits

Let’s be clear, America does not maintain bases across Europe purely for our benefit. Even Marco Rubio accepts that having American bases across most of Europe allows the USA to project power across the world. The number of bases is significant – see table at the bottom for details.

There are nine US Airforce bases in the UK – at Lakenheath, Mildenhall, Alconbury, Molesworth, Croughton, Fairford and Menwith Hill. Fairford has been used to load bombs on B52 bombers heading to Iran. (See here) In addition to this, the U.S. Navy makes use of the Faslane (HMNB Clyde) base in Scotland.

Across the rest of Europe there are a significant number of American bases (75+), all of which allow America to exert power across the world. (Details at the bottom)

Costs

It would be wrong to pretend that America shoulders the entire cost of their foreign bases.

Under the 1973 Cost Sharing Arrangement (CSA) the USA does not pay direct, traditional rent for the land or infrastructure of its military bases in the UK (and similar rules apply across Europe).

As you would expect the US covers the operational and maintenance costs of the facilities it occupies but the UK provides the land and existing facilities rent-free.

The UK also typically funds external security and policing at these locations.

Additionally, US forces are granted significant tax privileges:

• they are not subject to standard commercial business rates.
• US service personnel and their families are exempt from paying council tax, whether they live in on-base housing or private off-base rentals.
• Goods and services imported for official use by US Visiting Forces are zero-rated for VAT and exempt from customs and excise duties.
• US military personnel stationed in the UK do not pay UK income tax on their earnings.

Additionally, when it comes to bases like Diego Garcia, the UK will pay an average of £101 million to Mauritius to lease the base for America.

Where is America Going?

Were all these bases to close, American power across the world would decline significantly. They would be giving up all the influence they sought to build over the past 100 years, allowing China and Russia to dominate most of the world outside Europe.

After closing their bases, the USA would still need to accommodate these 100,000 troops back in America – unless the US decided to make them redundant and significantly reduce the size of its military, but is that really an option?

Does America want to retreat from the rest of the world?

At the moment, no-one really knows. America has no sense of direction. Everyone, both inside America and outside, is merely waiting for the Trump nightmare to end on 20 January 2029. 

For those interested in more information on bases, see below:

UK Bases

1. RAF Lakenheath: The largest U.S. Air Force base in the UK; home to the 48th Fighter Wing (F-15s and F-35s).
2. RAF Mildenhall: A major air refueling and special operations hub; home to the 100th Air Refueling Wing.
3. RAF Alconbury: Part of the “Tri-Base Area,” primarily providing intelligence and support services.
4. RAF Molesworth: A center for military intelligence (U.S. European Command’s Joint Intelligence Operations Center).
5. RAF Croughton: A major global communications and command hub.
6. RAF Fairford: A standby “Forward Operating Location” used for strategic bombers (B-52, B-1, B-2).
7. RAF Menwith Hill: A major electronic monitoring and intelligence site (NSA facility).
8. RAF Welford: One of the largest ammunition compounds for the U.S. Air Force in Europe.
9. RAF Feltwell: Primarily used for housing, support services, and a radar tracking station.
10. RAF Blenheim Crescent (London): A small administrative site supporting U.S. Naval Forces Europe.

European Bases

The briefing document also highlights how the devolved administration is almost £1bn worse off in the current financial year due to a shortfall of £400m and the ending of the so-called stabilisation funding worth £520m that the Executive received after its restoration in February 2024.

The document draws comparisons between Stormont and the other devolved administrations in Stormont and Wales, particularly on the thorny topic of water charges

Both jurisdictions also have domestic water charges, which the briefing paper says has the potential to generate “approximately £307m annually” in Northern Ireland. It says that up to an additional £226m could be raised every year through the suite of income generating measures which the then secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris consulted on in 2023. The paper notes that no decisions have been taken on implementing the consulted measures and that “significant political opposition to several options – most notably domestic water charges – remains”.

The document is not wrong on the opposition to water charges, a poll last year in the Belfast Telegraph found that 95% of respondents were opposed to the introduction of either water charges OR prescription charges and no political party has wanted to risk the wrath of local voters by bringing them in. The assembly research paper goes on to list what it calls a “distinctive constellation of constraints”…

which include repeated Assembly suspensions, post-Brexit obligations under the Windsor Framework that limit fiscal autonomy in areas such as state aid and VAT, and a comparatively narrow private sector tax base characterised by higher economic inactivity and lower productivity relative to the rest of the UK.

The end result of which is that our local government is perpetually cash-strapped and seemingly unable to fund critical public utilities such as health, infrastructure and water utilities. The question posed to us as the public, who are suffering as our services fall apart, is what are we prepared to do to ensure those services are fit for purpose?

In the end, we get what we pay for.

“It’s the same language as the crusades of the Middle Ages. You know, we must stop the infidel, we must defeat the wicked,” said John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University who has written extensively ​about evangelicals and politics. “We’ve never seen anything like this in American history.”

The prominent evangelist Franklin Graham has praised the strikes ​on Iran in biblical terms and likened Trump to the ⁠biblical figure of Esther, a Jewish queen who, according to the Bible, was elevated by God to save her people from annihilation in ancient Persia, now modern-day Iran.

Ken Peters, leader of the Patriot Church in Tennessee, delivered that message to his congregation this past Sunday, voicing hope that the war would yield a “pro-Israel, pro-America Iran” — a comment that drew applause, according to a video recording the pro-Trump ​pastor shared with Reuters.

“We see Trump as a man of the world that God is using to help us,” Peters said in an interview, adding that he was supportive of framing ​the war in religious terms.
Hegseth in ⁠particular has used overtly religious language to frame the war. On Sunday, he likened the rescue of the U.S. airman inside Iran to the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

“A pilot reborn, all home and accounted for, a nation rejoicing,” he said. “God is good.”

Critics of the current American regime might point out that there’s not an ounce of actual Christianity in any of them. In fact, they seem to take the Ten Commandments as a challenge.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the Pentagon has even threatened the Pope himself:

Days after Pope Leo XIV delivered his State of the World speech, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s U.S. representative, to a closed-door Pentagon meeting for a bitter lecture.

“The United States,” Colby said, according to a blistering new report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy, a period in the 14th century in which the French monarchy bent the Catholic Church into submission, ordering an attack on Pope Boniface VIII that led to his downfall and subsequent death and forcing the papacy to relocate from Rome to Avignon, a region inside France.

The Trump administration had taken issue with the pope’s critique of its militaristic proclivities. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top Pentagon officials were particularly aggrieved by portions of Leo’s January 9 speech in which the pope argued that “a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,” and that “war is back in vogue, and a zeal for war is spreading.”

There are also reports that Pope Leo has refused to return to the US while Donald Trump remains president, a wise decision to be honest. I imagine the Swiss Guard is on high alert.

The pharmacy NSES is an important public-health disease-prevention service and is a key reason that N. Ireland has less prevalence of blood-borne viral infections compared to other regions with similar injection drug use. Recently, I have noticed a change in those who are requesting the service. The most common exchange now is steroid packs and the client is far from a stereotypical down-and-out drug addict rather it’s a trendy thirty-something just out of the gym, sporting a perma-tan and driving a top of the range BMW.

Once recreational drug injecting was the territory of the deeply depraved and highly addicted. Not anymore. People seem more than willing to give themselves a jab if promised a benefit. It might be those; wishing to experience the wonders of Vit B (cyanocobalamin), those gambling on the masculine merits of Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT), those simply needing a hurried tan or those wishing for the six-pack anabolic steroids promise and off course to get the “golden dose” out of the Mounjaro pen (more about the golden dose later).

I do wonder if we are experiencing a new craze of in-vogue-drugs in the wellness arena that are only effective when injected. Off course protein-based medicines mostly need injected. But let’s not forget that in addition to; fear, pain and discomfort, injecting brings many risks not least transmission of blood borne viral infection. Most Hep B infection is from bad injecting practice. So where is the role of the NSES in this new wellness medicine trend? Who does my needle and syringe exchange service cover in this mission creep?

Wolverine Stack Peptides

A few weeks back a client asked which needles he needed for his “amino acid cocktail” and if I could supply. He produced a small vial sealed at the top with a rubber bung and clasped at the rim by a metal surround; like the vials used for Covid19 vaccines. This vial, without any markings, labels or other form of identification or instructions, contained a whitish opaque liquid. This was his “amino acids cocktail” he confidently told me. I enquired if the injection was to be intra-muscular or sub-cutaneous. He didn’t know. Was it in-date, was it sterile?

He seemed a shy, sensible man probably in his mid-thirties and I politely asked where he got the vial. A friend at the gym sold it to him; his friend is an agent for this new fitness-aid which would; improve strength, prolong training stamina, aid recovery from injury and help him lose weight. But you don’t know what it is, I challenged. It’s an “amino acid cocktail” and everyone is using it, he retorted.

Perhaps noticing my reticene, his attitude became assertive; was I giving him the needles or not. He was very welcome to the needles and syringes, I said, but I was advising him not to inject it. He became confrontational. What would I know with all the toxic medicines I hand out daily, he shouted, and he stormed off.

It was an unsettling and unpromising start to my day and all I could do was to make a note that I needed to get a better understanding of this new area of wellness medicine.

Dr Google

A simple Google search brought me to a website, unpromisingly titled, the “Intelligent Pea”. On this platform, clients were gushingly enthusiastic about two amino acids they were using BPC-157 and TB-500. Asked if anyone had used these amino-acids one replied;

“Yes, I had fantastic results with BPC 157 and TB-500. I was feeling pretty hopeless with daily pain in both knees. I dealt with the pain and tried for multiple years with zero success. Pt, stem cell therapy, massage, supplements, rest, ice, flexibility training, nothing helped resolve it. Now I am building muscle again in the quads whereas before I just could not do anything even bodyweight without aggravating the issues.”

Positive indeed. And from a cursory view of other similar sites it seems, for a growing number of middle-aged men injectable peptides (amino-acids), these experimental compounds promising; rapid recovery, fat loss and muscle gain, are all the rage.

On my Google searches, I repeatedly came across the term “Bio Hack”. Bio Hack seems to suggest that these peptides somehow re-programme cells so that they respond in the way we wish they would. Unsurprisingly these peptides are not approved for human use as they lack basic clinical and safety testing.

The marketing techniques are straight out of the para-pharmaceutical/snake oil rule book. Advertisements consist of testimonials, influencer hype and the seductive promise of turning back time. These substances operate in a medical grey-zone, with unknown long-term risks, questionable manufacturing standards, and in some cases, life-threatening side-effects.

BPC-157 and T-500 have shown some promise in animal studies. BPC-157, first discovered in human gastric juice, is attracting attention since early animal studies suggested it may help repair damaged tissue throughout the body.

Studied on mice, rats, rabbits and dogs did not find serious side-effect and there is evidence of improved healing of tendons, teeth and the GI tract including the stomach, intestines, liver and pancreas.

They are thought to trigger several biological processes essential for healing. The compound appears to help cells to areas of damage, promotes the growth of new blood vessels that brings nutrients and oxygen.

It also helps protect cells from further harm by reducing inflammation. The combination of BPC-157 and TB-500 has earned the nickname “the Wolverine stack”, after the Marvel superhero famous for his rapid healing and his ability to regenerate injured body parts

The small number of human studies into these compounds offers inconclusive results. One study claimed that patients using BPC-157 had reduced knee-pain but the study lacked a control group. As knee-pain reduces over time naturally a control is essential.

While there’s no direct evidence linking compounds like BPC-157 or TB-500 to cancer, researchers emphasise that the long-term effects remain unknown because these substances have never undergone proper human trials. The World Anti-Doping Agency has banned these compounds, noting they lack approval from any health regulatory authority and are intended only as research tools.

These peptides represent a dangerous gamble with long-term health. The appeal is understandable but until proper human trials are conducted, users are essentially volunteering as test subjects in an uncontrolled experiment. My advice was correct it seems but abuse was the thanks I got for my efforts.

The Golden Dose

I, and my staff, are also experiencing even higher levels of abuse dealing with those trying to extract the Golden Dose from their Mounjaro pens. They are trying to access our NSES and demanding needles and syringes so they can use the remaining liquid. We are instructed by the Public Health Agency that the service is not to be used for this purpose. Some clients pathetically pretend to be diabetics and are out of needles and syringes, others claim the pen is broken and they can’t get the last one or two doses out, others just blatantly explain what they are doing. When we try to explain we can’t supply and that they should not be doing this they flip to overt aggression and some interestingly suggest that we don’t see the irony (or is it hyprocrisy) in what we are doing; denying good solid citizens like them needles when we are supplying to wastrel-junkies on heroin every day of the week.

Pharmacies selling the GLP-1s are already live to this trend and have in-store signage and web notices warning against attempts to extract the Golden Dose; it’s illegal to interfere with medical devices, there is a risk of underdosing with medical consequences, embolism is a possibility, and legal liability is lost, etc. This might be more to do with commercial expediency than patient safety but it’s helpful for me in making my argument to their clients.

The Golden Dose is a result of bad product design and thankfully Lilly have now agreed to redesign and reduce the amount of liquid needed to prime the device. This will happen next month; the sooner the better as I can’t take much more of this middle-class, sharp-elbowed, self-entitled abuse. Give me the old-fashioned drug addict any day!

Sources on Twitter are saying the 1o point plan is:

1) Security Guarantees: A binding guarantee that Iran will not be attacked again in the future.

2) Permanent Peace: A transition to a permanent end to the war, rather than a series of temporary ceasefires.

3) End to Strikes in Lebanon: An immediate halt to Israeli military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

4) Sanctions Relief: The lifting of all U.S. and international sanctions imposed on Iran.

5) Cessation of Regional Hostilities: A broader agreement to end all regional fighting against Iranian allies.

6) Opening the Strait of Hormuz: In exchange for the above, Iran agrees to lift its de facto blockade and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

7) Transit Fees: The introduction of a protocol for safe passage that includes a $2 million fee per ship transiting the waterway.

8) Revenue Sharing: Iran proposes splitting these transit fees with Oman, which sits across the strait.

9) Reconstruction Funding: Iran will use its share of the fees to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by U.S. and Israeli strikes, rather than demanding direct financial reparations.

10) Nuclear Enrichment Rights: Recognition of Iran’s right to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Number 7 is particularly interesting as experts think it could be a massive financial win for Iran

All in all it looks like a complete mess for the US and Isreal and a long term win for the Iranian regime

As well as the terrible loss of lives of Trumps folly the American taxpayer is on the hook for the billions this mess has caused. While infrastructure in the US crumbles they spend billions on the War machine. The MAGA movement is having a civil war with many of his previous supporters turning on Trump.

Ultimatly I think Trump will agree to any deal to get out of this mess and the Iranian regime will be the long-term victors.

A BBC report by Maria McCann on the VAT gap between Northern Ireland and the Republic makes points that are difficult to dismiss; until you stop and consider the powers Stormont already has and consistently fails to use. It brings to mind a paraphrase of Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “the politicians doth protest too much, methinks”

Hospitality: NI businesses losing out to ‘significantly cheaper’ bills across the border – BBC News

This is a pattern I have come to expect, a hospitality business closes, a headline appears, and within hours a politician is in front of a camera expressing deep concern about VAT; a tax set entirely by Westminster, over which Stormont has precisely zero control. It is a masterclass in the appearance of action without any of the inconvenience of actually doing anything. The cameras roll, the soundbites land, nothing changes, and the public is left believing their politicians are fighting for them when they are doing anything but.

The underlying grievance is legitimate, the UK does charge 20% VAT and the Irish Republic 13.5%, a gap set to widen further when the South’s rate for food-led hospitality falls to 9% this summer. Westminster should act. It won’t. But while Stormont politicians perform outrage over a solution they know will never come to pass,  the powers they already possess to address high overheads and rectify weak trading conditions in the hospitality sector remain untouched.

BUSINESS RATES

Business rates are an entirely devolved matter. The NI Executive sets mandatory reliefs without requiring a single nod from Westminster. Yet for decades, manufacturing and industrial properties have benefited from reliefs and incentives that reflect an unmistakable political preference for factories over hotels, cafes, pubs and restaurants. Both sectors create jobs; both contribute to the economy, hospitality supports over 70,000 jobs in Northern Ireland but it receives next to nothing in support. Manufacturing, which has been outperforming every other sector of the economy in recent years, receives everything. To a neutral observer, that is difficult one to explain and perhaps if the general public also know what was going on, they would react differently too, all that is needed is a rebalance to reflect current economic conditions, hardly rocket science.

PUB LICENSING

Northern Ireland’s licensing system is a relic. No new pub licences have been created for over a century, and surrendered licences are routinely snapped up by supermarkets rather than new operators. The micro-pubs, wine bars, and brewery tap rooms and even new pubs that have been quietly revitalising town centres across Britain cannot exist here. The kind of destination hospitality that makes a town worth visiting; that creates an evening economy, fills hotels, and supports the surrounding high street; depends on clusters of venues. Stormont controls licensing entirely and independent advisors to the Department of Communities have even recommended reforms to stimulate economic growth across NI, yet all the recommendations for reform of the sector were rejected by the Department of Communities.

TRANSPORT

Across Europe, ride-hailing apps have transformed night-time economies by giving people the freedom to go out without worrying about how they will get home. Studies suggest services like Uber generate over €650 million in additional annual revenue for the European night-time economy. Northern Ireland remains one of the few places on in the UK / Ireland where that option does not exist; Stormont has simply not modernised the taxi regulations it has full control over, but don’t take my word for it, just ask any pub or restaurant owner what most threatens their night-time trade, and the answer is rarely the dream of reduced VAT in the future, it is the reality of the now as the lack of availability of taxis stops customers from going out and getting home.

THE INDUSTRY BODY’S ROLE

Hospitality Ulster, which the BBC interviewed for its report, deserves scrutiny here too. This organisation has been among the most vocal opponents of the very licensing reforms that would allow new venues to open, encourage more competition, and bring town centres back to life. You cannot spend years blocking the liberalisation of your own industry and then demand public sympathy because that industry is shrinking.

The argument that VAT is killing hospitality sits awkwardly alongside a decades-long campaign to ensure that anyone wanting to open a new venue must pay up to £200,000 for a licence; a barrier that has protected incumbents while strangling the sector’s growth. Hospitality Ulster cannot have it both ways, and it should be called out for taking both sides of the argument.

THE REAL COST OF THE VAT GAP

None of this is to say the VAT disparity is trivial. An eleven-percentage-point gap with the Republic is the difference between a wedding booked in Fermanagh or Donegal; between a tour bus stopping in Derry or driving straight through. It deserves to be fixed. But accountability cuts in every direction.

Politicians who perform concern for the cameras while sitting on unused devolved powers are taking the public for fools and industry bodies who lobby against reform while crying crisis are doing exactly the same.

The problems facing Northern Ireland’s hospitality sector are real, however as I have just outlined, there are solutions that Stormont can implement now, if the politicians had the honesty to be straight with the public and the will to implement reforms.

A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

These are shocking comments by any standards. Increasingly frustrated by a war he launched that is clearly not going to plan, Trump has taken to making increasingly bellicose threats in an attempt to get the Iranian regime to capitulate. His threats to destroy critical Iranian civilian infrastructure has led to accusations that he is planning to commit war crimes, but that doesn’t concern Trump. He literally says so.

Trump has set a deadline of 8PM Eastern Standard Time tonight for Iran to capitulate.

I don’t entirely know what news I will wake up tomorrow morning but I sincerely don’t think Iran will give up, meaning the President faces a choice.

Will the United States under his leadership drop all pretense of moral superiority and indulge in the savagery and inhumanity we have come to associate with Vladimir Putin’s Russia? How will the United States’ western allies react if Trump not only crosses that red line but charges over it?

Or will Trump once again TACO and find another excuse to delay his threatened assault? So far his hand has been stayed by the potential consequences, just as he can unleash unbelievable devastation upon Iran, so too can Iran unleash unbelievable devastation upon the Gulf allies of the United States and not only deal a crippling blow to the global economy, but provoke an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

I am not going to guess what is going through his mind right now or his intent. While Trump has ignored every deadline he has set himself, the rhetoric he has employed may mean he himself feels he has no choice but to follow through. On the other hand, he may satisfy himself (if nobody else) that his threats have achieved something and find a way to back off bringing mass death and suffering to the peoples of the Middle East.

Update: So I write this just before I turn in and, thankfully, it seems Trump has taken the ladder offered to him by Pakistan

Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

It’s conditional on Iran reopening the Straits of Hormuz in the meantime (yet to be seen if that is in the offing) and it’s always possible he will change his mind in the coming hours but at the moment, it seems that once again his firebreathing rhetoric falls short of his willingness to act on it.

However, reunification appears stuck. Since 2022, the last 13 polls have averaged 58-42 in favour of remaining in the UK, excluding undecideds. The high point in the polls for reunification was in 2020-21, though still 54-46 pro-Remain. (Graph 1, below. I wrote an article for Slugger in February 2025 discussing poll data.)

There is no Catholic majority (i.e. greater than 50%) in any age group according to the 2021 census (see graph 2, below). Paradoxically, this demographic stalemate offers the perfect opportunity to build a radically transformed Ireland. Suppose there were a border poll in May 2026 and the result favoured reunification? We could conclude, on the basis of the 2021 census figures, that sizeable numbers of Protestants, non-Christians and atheists had voted for reunification. Such a state would be more stable than one achieved by only nationalist voters.

What can be done to energise non-nationalist voters into voting for reunification? There are two significant obstacles.

Firstly, while the vast majority of both Sinn Féin and SDLP politicians believe reunification would be a good thing, they are deeply divided on whether the Provisional IRA’s armed struggle was a just war. For non-nationalists, no such chasm exists: practically all such voters believe there was no justification for the IRA’s campaign of violence. This chasm plays out in local and Assembly elections where SDLP voters tend to transfer more to Alliance than to Sinn Féin.

Professor Richard Rose’s research in Northern Ireland in the sixties found that 20% of Protestants regarded themselves as Irish (see his book Governing Without Consensus). That figure is now only four percent, according to the 2021 census. Rose’s survey found that 43% of the total sample identified as Irish; in 2021 29% identified as Irish only, with a further four percent identifying as Irish plus another identity (such as British or Northern Irish). As the Catholic share of the North has increased, Irish identity has decreased (see graph 3, below).

The effects of republican violence – and continuing justification of it – seem to have embedded death, destruction and glorification of violence into Irish identity for huge numbers of non-nationalist voters. And this has made Irish identity repugnant to them. On Sunday, Mary Lou McDonald – in an Easter Rising commemoration speech at Arbour Hill – said that:

… the biggest barrier today to preparing and planning Irish unity is the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government.

Unity-agnostic and unity-hostile Northern voters might disagree, as they continue to disagree with Michelle O’Neill’s comments that I think at the time there was no alternative” (to armed struggle).

But these voters will decide whether reunification occurs.

For unionism, continued republican justification of IRA violence is the gift that keeps on giving. What need have they to counter pro-reunification arguments when such justification speaks volumes?

Secondly, the Irish government is opposed to a border poll in the short-term, believing it would fail given the opinion poll data. While northern nationalism is so fundamentally split on the legacy of separatist violence, it is hard to see Dublin getting involved in detailed planning for something it doesn’t think will succeed. A Sinn Féin-led government in the South is unlikely to achieve reunification while that party continues to justify armed struggle.

The effect of these two obstacles on Northern politics is significant. The January 2026 LucidTalk poll found that 71% of those sampled believed that the return of Stormont and the Executive has not had a positive impact on their lives. Stormont ministers have never been photographed together. We await, as if for Godot, the multi-year budget. Lough Neagh – the biggest sewer on these islands – continues to fester. Yet the devolved government’s abysmal performance has not prompted a sea-change in public opinion towards reunification.

In the 2023 local elections, when a Sinn Féin candidate was available for transfers (but an SDLP candidate was not), more Alliance votes were non-transferable than were transferred to Sinn Féin. A 2023 LucidTalk poll found non-communal voters disliked Sinn Féin more than any other party. It would appear that continued justification of the armed struggle is preventing pro-reunificationist sentiment building among non-nationalist voters.

However, there is some evidence that unity-agnostic and unity-hostile voters are less wary of reunification. i.e. that the possibility exists of building a pro-reunification majority.

Firstly, non-communal voters, as well as increasing their vote share, are also transferring to nationalist candidates (mostly SDLP) in greater numbers (see graph 4, below). I estimated in an article in Irish Studies in International Affairs (an ARINS / RIA journal) that about half of Alliance and Green Party transfers went to nationalists in the 2022 and 2023 elections. This is up from a quarter or so around 1998. This gives the ‘notional’ nationalist bloc almost 52% of the vote, roughly 11% more than when the Belfast Good Friday Agreement was signed.

Secondly, the 2024 ARINS/Irish Times survey (slides 20-23) shows that reconciliation has occurred between the vast majority of the people of Northern Ireland. An overwhelming majority (96%) of SF voters are reconciled to (either ‘not happy, but could live with it’ or ‘happily accept’) a border poll result in favour of remaining within the UK. A majority (60%) of both DUP and TUV voters are reconciled to a result in favour of reunification. When Micheál Martin says that reconciliation hasn’t yet been achieved, he’s wrong. Losers’ consent, on these figures, exists.

Another thought experiment: imagine a reunification campaign in the North where (a) an alliance of nationalist parties agreed that violence from their side was unjustified and unjustifiable, and (b) such a statement was gratefully accepted as genuine by many non-nationalist voters. It is likely that such a cathartic moment in Irish politics would increase support for reunification in the North, perhaps towards 50% (towards the percentage for the notional nationalist bloc). That would attract the interest of the Irish government, who would have to then formulate a coherent, visionary and pluralist reunification plan before the Secretary of State would call a border poll.

In 1994, the then-leader of the UUP, James Molyneaux, stated that the IRA ceasefire was the worst thing that has ever happened to us”, and that a “prolonged IRA ceasefire could be the most destabilising thing to happen to unionism since partition” (article by Ciarán Hartley of DCU, p.365). One could imagine a transformative statement from Sinn Féin on the legacy of republican violence (that enables transcendance of the cycles of violence and whataboutery), would also be destabilising for unionist reluctance to debate reunification.

Should Reform UK win the 2029 Westminster election, politics in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – all three of whom are likely to be led by secessionist First Ministers – will be hugely destabilised. A border poll may be foisted upon Northern Ireland without adequate preparation by both the northern nationalist parties and the Irish government. All the more reason to lay the groundwork now.

Perhaps the hardest psychological thing most of us will ever have to do is to rethink how we think about the twists and turns of our country’s past in order to bring our desired future closer. But it is a necessary task if we are, as Seamus Heaney wrote in his 1994 ceasefire poem, Tollund:

… to make a new beginning.
And make a go of it, alive and sinning,
Ourselves again, free-willed again, not bad.

As per the ‘Belfast Telegraph’ article by Niamh Campbell

The new regulations, which came into place on Monday, mean that people who experience a miscarriage are now entitled to up to two weeks’ leave and pay. This applies at any stage of pregnancy, whereas before, support was mainly for stillbirths after 24 weeks under parental bereavement laws, which remains the law across the rest of the UK.

The Belfast Telegraph article quotes Joanne Morgan of TinyLife (a local charity who support premature and sick babies, as well as their families) as saying

“I think this is long overdue…It is two weeks, which is not a very long period of time, but I think any period of time that enables parents to be able to kind of deal with the loss is definitely something that should be welcomed.”

The BBC report on the news highlights the story of several women such as Erin Sharkey and what she faced. In her interview, Erin explains what this change would have meant for her…

Within unionism, our UUP has strong ties to the military and values the deep security relationship between the UK and US. Similarly, the DUP celebrates the “Ulster-Scots” connection with America, with some DUP MPs having publicly supporting Donald Trump and viewing his “America First” populist approach as aligned with their own pro-sovereignty and Brexit-backing stances.

Such cross-Atlantic ties have a history. Those old enough to remember Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher will recall their friendship and their economic beliefs reinforced each other.

Reagan was an enemy of ‘big government’ believing that federal government was an obstacle to prosperity rather than its architect. In his inaugural address he claimed ‘Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ Reagan viewed regulation of big business as red tape that was strangling industry and believed in reducing taxes for the rich so that wealth could ‘trickle down’.

Similarly, Thatcher believed that Britain was being strangled by a bloated state, militant trade unions, and an inefficient welfare system. Like Reagan, she believed in reducing taxes and in ‘trickle-down economics.’ Perhaps even more than Reagan, Thatcher began a program of selling off a large number of publicly owned organisations. She sold British Telecom (BT), British Gas, the Water Companies, the Electricity companies, British Airways, the Ports (ABP), British Petroleum (BP), British Steel, Rolls Royce, Jaguar and many more. Those once-publicly-owned resources are now in private hands and all the money from those sales has been spent.

Will this Cross-Atlantic-Consensus Continue?

Two online items this week should prompt a rethink.

1)A YouGov poll saw 43 per cent of respondents backing a cooling of relations with Washington in favour of closer ties with the European Union. This is a major shift in public opinion, a 9 per cent jump compared to when the same question was posed in April last year.

Some of this change will be prompted by the Trump tariffs, and the doubling of energy prices caused by the Israeli/US attack on Iran.

2) Gary’s Economics released an excellent video on how to protect ourselves from the economic effects of the US attack on Iran.

In his video Gary tackles head on why more drilling in the North Sea will not solve our energy cost problem. Unlike Norway, we do not own the oil or gas that comes out of the North Sea and nor do we have a Sovereign Wealth Fund. The private companies that we license to drill in the North Sea, will own that oil or gas and sell it at the going rate on the open market. Yes, we can tax the companies to bring in money, but this will not bring down prices in the UK.

Gary points out that other seemingly easy options such as reducing the tax on fuel as advocated by parties like the UUP and DUP will be popular in the short term, but will be enormously expensive and can only be paid for by cutting expenditure elsewhere- ie short term gain for massive long-term pain.

More importantly, Gary focuses on the historic change that have happened across the world as a result of policies like Thatcherism and Reaganomics. Governments have sold off their stocks; they no longer hold enough wealth to protect their populations from economic shocks and have to borrow from the rich at times of crisis. This means either further debt or another bout of austerity, unless governments have the courage to properly tax the rich and tax the wealth of the rich.

To those of you who do not like the idea of taxation, the graph below will seem positive, rather than negative. In all countries listed, government wealth has gone down, while privately held wealth has increased – what could be wrong with that? Well, ask yourself, is that increase in private wealth obvious in your bank account?

The simple fact is that wealth inequality is growing significantly (see here) and is predicted to keep growing. Trickle down economics did not work, ‘selling the family silver’ by Thatcher made us feel wealthier for a short time, but in a finite world, if the very rich are getting even richer the prospect for the ordinary person looks very bleak.

Just two rules. Keep it civil and no man/woman playing.

So discuss what you like here, but no politics.

We were ten young men living in two rented, dreary, ramshackle semi detached houses in Kilnamanagh, a sprawling housing estate in Tallaght Co. Dublin. Tallaght, once a tiny village sprouted into a conurbation of housing developments, the corollary of a social engineering programme relocating up to 50,000 inner city residents. It had no leisure centre or recreational areas, completely devoid of essential municipal amenities. In short, it was a dump. We had to make our own entertainment, which was mainly drinking alcohol, drinking more alcohol followed by drinking even more alcohol whilst listening to music. I was the only teetotaller in both houses frequently bored with the inanity of the excess.

‘I think we should do the 10k run’ said Shaun the house lothario from Leitrim. He acquired this appellation based on his nocturnal activities in tandem with his aptitude for sourcing members of he opposite sex with his suave distingué. If he went to the local Spar for a pint of milk he would return without the milk but with the female shop assistant and disappear upstairs for the rest of the night. Apart from expending energy regularly via coitus the only calories he burned was reaching for the TV remote. His idea of a hundred crunches was a six pack of Tayto Crisps. Somewhat taken aback at his suggestion we all agreed that we would start training as soon as possible.

Considering that the race was only a fortnight away it was going to be a challenge. Well it was for me considering I was smoking 25 Major cigarettes a day which were the strongest tipped brand on the market as well as being two stone overweight from eating junk food. I couldn’t afford proper running shoes so I bought a pair of plimsolls for two quid. These were unsupported shoes that altar boys wore serving mass but nevertheless I went out running with them nightly to build up the miles. Some of the lads had all the proper gear as they were GAA stalwarts, well acquainted with exercise. Shaun’s training programme lasted as long as his last orgasm, retiring after one session, immersing himself in cans of Harp lager listening to a Chris Rea album, (left behind in his bedroom by his most recent conquest), aptly titled Wired to the Moon which the lothario certainly was.

We headed off early on the bus finding ourselves in the North Docklands area of the city outside Radio Nova studios. Without even a rain jacket to protect me from the inclement weather, I started the race in my altar boy shoes, borrowed shorts which were a size smaller and a Bisto Gravy T-shirt that I scrounged off a sales rep. At the halfway mark I thought I was going to die. I felt like a mobile ice cube as the rain bounced off me diluting the blood that was running down my legs, the shorts cutting into my thighs. There was an active volcano in my chest. I swore I’d never smoke again, but was determined to finish it, which I did in forty four minutes. Not an unfavourable outcome.

On our return to the house which had no heating system, we had to boil about twenty kettles of water for a communal bath. The lads tore into the lothario’s lager supply. Post race dining was copious amounts of spoiled Findus French Bread Pizza that we retrieved from a freezer breakdown in the supermarket that we were working in. Shaun’s latest conquest, Lan, a petite girl from Vietnam I recognised from the butchery counter challenged me to maintain the exercise momentum by entering the upcoming Dublin City Marathon which was scheduled for the October bank holiday weekend, six weeks away. Foolishly I agreed, despite my throbbing thighs, now smeared in Sudocrem and registered the next day.

On an old fashioned Bakelight phone I rang my brother Barney for advice, him being an accomplished sub three hour marathon runner well prepared for the event. He categorically told me under no circumstances could I run a marathon with only six weeks’ training, suggesting I compete in the marathon in Belfast the following May. Not easily daunted I totally ignored this advice informing him I was doing it regardless. He gave me loads of training tips and schedules, outlining dietary programmes, which I subsequently also ignored. I gave my last pack of Major to the lothario preferring herbal cigarettes to wean myself off the habit. They were absolutely revolting but I persevered. Fortunately I was given a decent pair of shorts from a GAA player to complement my Bisto T-shirt and altar boy shoes. Determined, I ran every night to the point of throwing up.

Barney rang to ask if could he stay in our house so we could travel to the event together. I agreed. He arrived the night before for some Harp and beans on toast. The next morning he was up like the proverbial lark requesting the important pre marathon breakfast. ‘What breakfast? Do we not get breakfast there before the race starts?’ I said in all naivety. He must have interpreted what I said as ‘our mother is dead’ as his Eburnean face, so drained of blood, assumed the countenance of Christopher Lee. ‘Then what have you got to eat before we go?’ ‘Nothing’ I candidly retorted. ‘You work in the second biggest supermarket in Dublin and you have no food in the entire house’. Then I remembered something. I presented him with a two litre tub of supermarket vanilla ice cream. He was incredulous. He must have thought it was a mass card as he started blessing himself. I thought he was going to weep. ‘Where’s your running gear?’ ‘ I’m wearing it’ ‘ you can’t run a marathon in gutties’ ‘I don’t have anything else’. In gut wrenching despair he went to the toilet. On his return I was close to finishing the entire two litres of ice cream. ‘Are you sure you don’t want any Barney as it will give you energy?’ He had moved from being dumbfounded, to nonplussed, to apoplectic, into a paroxysm of anger, practically dragging me out the door to get the bus.

He never spoke a word on the journey despite my enquiries as to what his estimated finishing time was. We disembarked near the start line going our separate ways as he was starting further up the line. Unbelievably, I was able to finish the race despite hitting the wall early at the Dolphin’s Barn stage of the race. I remember the leader of The Workers’ Party Tomàs Mac Giolla giving me a Mars bar as he thought I was about to collapse with exhaustion. Just beyond the finish line I saw Barney wrapped in a tinfoil cape, I declared my wooden plaque to him with my finishing time of 3.45. On the verge of tears he congratulated me but announced his time of 3.05 highlighting that he could have smashed three hours had he eaten some food. I left to get some water watching him bent over, head in his hands, as if sobbing, like Alexander the Great when he was told there were no more worlds to conquer.

Fiestas in Iberia have deep roots. Pre-Roman tribes celebrated seasonal cycles tied to agriculture and nature. The Romans brought structure, adding theatre, games and formal rituals. Christianity later absorbed much of this, reshaping pagan traditions around saints, the Virgin Mary and the liturgical calendar. You still see echoes of the old world. Bonfires on la noche de San Juan mark the summer solstice each June, now heavily regulated but clearly ancient in spirit.

By the Middle Ages, fiestas sat at the heart of community life. They often aligned with feast days and market days and included processions, music, dancing and shared meals. Over time, regions developed their own flavours. Bull-related events, parades and reenactments of historical or religious stories became localised traditions tied to towns and regions. In Andalusia, the legacy of Al-Andalus added further layers, shaping music, architecture and celebration, with some threads feeding into what we now recognise as flamenco.

Today, fiestas are part heritage, part spectacle and part economic engine. Events like La Tomatina, Las Fallas and San Fermín draw global attention and bring serious money into local economies.

There’s a slight paradox at play. Iberians are often seen as outgoing and expressive, but in day-to-day life they can be quite reserved. Fiestas act as a release valve. Alcohol flows, but visible drunkenness among locals is rare, and violence is strongly frowned upon. I remember my first fiesta as a 21-year-old in Guernica in 1988. Hundreds packed the streets, drinking openly, yet there was no aggression. Coming from Belfast, that struck me. It felt like a different social contract entirely.

That said, fiestas aren’t without risk. Large crowds attract pickpockets, and warnings about valuables are common, especially in San Fermín. There are also darker moments. Sexual assaults can occur in dense crowds, such as during the txupinazo, the official opening:

The 2016 La Manada case was a particularly horrific example that forced a wider reckoning.

There’s also the issue of animal cruelty. Historically, some fiestas involved disturbing practices. In Solsona, a donkey was once hoisted up a tower. In Lekeitio, participants competed to grab a live goose suspended above the harbour. I saw that myself in 1989. Today, both use substitutes rather than live animals. That progress hasn’t extended everywhere. In Pamplona, eight bulls still run each morning during San Fermín, ending in the bullring where they are killed as part of the spectacle.

Despite these tensions, fiestas remain central to Iberian life. They blend religion, history, food, music and community. They are a way to step outside routine, to gather, to perform identity, and to celebrate. For all their contradictions, they remain one of the clearest expressions of Iberian culture and its long, layered past.

What struck me was how unlike other Northern Irish towns it is in terms of being relatively free from vacant stores and from the other usual symptoms of commercial ill-health such as lots of cash only businesses (barbers, nail salons, kebab shops) and bookies, charity shops and vape shops.

It certainly has these but they are not obvious in their representation, indeed in contrast there’s lots of cafes and I mean quite top shelf affairs, not just Bob & Bert’s (which I visited – I have small children, B&B are more tolerant of crumb flinging toddlers than coffee guru type places) and numerous clothes shops, including a fantastic tailors on the Diamond and other small businesses taking up commercial space.

What with all the yoga pants-clad ladies walking around with expensive takeaway coffees, I had thought myself to be in a wealthy urban suburb of some city, not a town whose two chief annual events were once a May market that was besieged by fart-gas-armed teenagers and Dunamoney Flute Band’s annual band parade.

Even the alleyway to the bus station is lined with nice businesses.

Aside from the sad sight of the former cattle market and a site on Church Street (see link below) the town is quite free of derelict buildings unlike e.g. Newtownards or Downpatrick or Ballymoney.

So, I’ve been pondering all day (well, week now) as to why Magherafelt has not succumbed to the commercial canker that many (if not most) of NI’s larger towns have fallen to, especially as people often refer to Amazon as the major death blow to the high street, but Magherafelt is no less immune to Bezos Inc. than any other town.

It doesn’t have much of the supposed drivers of prosperity e.g. Industry and diversity, unlike neighbouring Cookstown or Dungannon, both of which are struggling to house their various engineering and manufacturing companies and are very diverse in terms of population.

Regarding industry, well, the sawmills are gone, the cattle market is closed, there’s maybe one clothes factory left but it’s very small and bespoke and it has no more industrial estates than any other place.

There’s cement plants by the Lough, but if they were fortune bringers then Antrim, Cookstown and Dungannon would also share the bounty too.

I will go through the suggestions as given by people who were forced to ponder this at my leisure.

Location Location Location – It is situated 40min from Belfast (depending on traffic) making it a good dorm town.

Yes, this IS true in its own right.

However, the 1hr commuter radius also includes Bangor, Newtownards, Larne, Carrickfergus, Dungannon, Ballymena, Antrim, Armagh, Lisburn, Downpatrick, Craigavon, Banbridge, Newry and numerous other larger towns (maybe Coleraine at a pinch) and they have varying degrees of High Street blight.

So, it can’t just be the commuter belt aspect.

And it’s definitely not a tourist area, that’s for sure – It has the Sperrins nearby and the Loughs Neagh and Beg, but none of these are hot tickets and again if they were then other neighbouring towns would be seeing similar rewards.

The Good Schools – Yes, St Mary’s and the Rainey Endowed have enviable reputations – but there are good schools in other commuter belt towns too – Armagh, Lisburn, Downpatrick, Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Ballyclare and Dungannon.

Civil Service Jobs – Maybe, but, what big town in NI doesn’t have a sizeable civil servant body?

Magherafelt has a hospital that provides numerous rear echelon services, whereas Antrim, Coleraine, Newry, Dungannon, Newry, Craigavon and Downpatrick have full blown hospitals (supposedly…) and there are other smaller hospitals in places like Lisburn.

It also has a fire station, a police station and a courthouse, as do most of the other big commuter belt towns.

So again, numerous places all sharing the same advantages, but with different results for only one place (I think).

Architecture? – Hard no – while it has not yet fallen for the ‘knock down everything and build apartments’ strategy, its architectural vernacular is relatively intact, but not awe inspiring.

I was in Newtownards the other day (week), the town suffers a lot from retail vacancies and derelict buildings, but it has a lot of nice buildings.

So, it’s not the cityscape that draws people and there are quite a few other towns with the makings of a nice townscape (for the time being, no doubt developers will see to their blandfication in due course).

So, perhaps then we should look for what Magherafelt does not have, or where it differs from its fellow box-tickers?

Out of town hyper markets – Magherafelt doesn’t have any supersized supermarkets.

It has a big Lidl and a wee Tesco at the outskirts of the town but no mammoth Asda, no huge Sainsburys-Argos-B&Q retail park, no Tesco Extra.

It has a small sized supermarket in the middle of the town (JC Stewarts) and a shopping centre that is within effortless walking distance of the town centre.

Nearly all of the aforementioned towns (Newry, Ballymena, Dungannon, Newtownards, Cookstown, Coleraine, Larne, Antrim, Downpatrick, Portadown…) have huge supermarkets and/or retail parks away from the town centre, and where they may have them ‘reasonably’ close to the centre (like Sainsbury’s in Ballymena) they are not conveniently close so as to warrant footfall for the town centre.

In fact, a friend of mine who used to run businesses in both Magherafelt and Ballymena told me that the former Magherafelt District council refused planning permission for numerous large supermarkets and de facto retail parks, in his opinion this spared the town from a commercial savaging.

However, since then Magherafelt council was absorbed into Mid Ulster Council. Does this mean that whatever force field is protecting it will fail as the minds that steered poor old Cookstown to its present awful state have their way?

Or can Magherafelt remain ‘unique’?

If so, how?

Well, let us examine more differences between the ‘Felt and the stragglers.

The Civil Service – aside from the council offices, most of Magherafelt’s government jobs are within walking distance of the town – the hospital, the social services (both on the same road), the schools – all a dander away from a café, shop or eatery.

Compare this to e.g. Downpatrick

The council offices – moved outside of the town

The hospital – moved outside of the town

The schools – either moved outside of the town or pupils are prohibited from entering the town at lunch time

(The powers that be seem determined to bring the ‘donut effect’ to Downpatrick, for whatever reason)

As it stands Downpatrick is full of cash only barber shops, cash only take-aways, cash only nail salons and charity shops, and the remaining small independent businesses lie in an uninsurable flood plain (that is further compounded by a raised height retail park that recently was given planning permission to be rebuilt on an EVEN BIGGER SCALE instead of being dismantled and turned into an overflow lough as common sense would recommend).

While we’re at it, let’s look at Antrim town –

Council offices – Outside of town centre

Benefits office – Sort of in the town, but not smack-bang.

Hypermarket – Inconvenient distance from the main street

Retail Park? – Oh my yes – off of a main road, containing everything you’d ever need so as to render the town centre unnecessary

Hospital – Located miles away from the town

Secondary Schools – Outside of the town

So, basically, there’s no need to go to town – Antrim town, from what I can see, has been given the North American urban treatment and is suffering a North American urban centre fate.

Newry

In the Simpsons there is a character known as Donny Don’t.

Basically the school children are encouraged to avoid repeating Donny’s mistakes. I personally consider Newry to be the Donny Don’t of Northern Irish towns.

It has everything for success and lifestyle – proximity to the 2 biggest urban centres on the island, an historic core with beautiful buildings, some nice eateries and pubs, a cathedral, parks, hills, a strong sense of community, canals, a train station, tremendous scenery on the door step.

Yet it’s a complete tip.

In the Netherlands this place would be paradise.

And again, it has more in common with Antrim than Magherafelt in terms of large commercial sites being sited away from the town centre – retail parks, supermarkets, council offices, hospital – all sited away from the town (apart from the retail park with the TK Maxx – but it has a wall of derelict buildings cutting it off from the canal side – an extremely baffling thing to do in planning terms).

We have all seen first-hand that supermarkets can be accommodated in town centre historic buildings e.g. Newcastle’s former Lidl or the former Tesco on Royal Avenue.

If the supermarkets were denied planning permission for out-of-town behemoths then at least one of them would’ve opened shop in the town centre thereby bringing people to the centre, rather than divert them away.

Cookstown

I remember Cookstown used to be thriving – in the 80’s!

East Tyrone was one of the most dangerous places for the British army in the 80’s and as such the main street was like a Cold War German border crossing.

Yet, I recall the markets and wealth of small shops.

I can honestly say that I have not spent a penny in Cookstown’s town centre since they built the retail park that is accessed through what used to be a terraced row and since the mega Asda was built.

And asking around it seems that Cookstown is not in great shape, and tbh it looks awful, they seem to hate their old buildings and would demolish them as soon as look at them.

Is Magherafelt bound for the same fate?

Well, why not?

Here is a property listing that, if accurate, would see an entire row of vernacular buildings flattened and replaced with, um, ‘Ecole de Cookville’ style of architecture (i.e. crap buildings).

https://www.propertypal.com/30-40-church-street-magherafelt/1062759

Likewise, the aforementioned boast of lack of a retail park in Magherafelt is corroding annually.

First there was a Lidl, then a Home Bargains arrived. And now there’s a McDonalds.

Throw a hypermarket in there and Magherafelt stands to go the way of Cookstown.

So, I wonder were there people in the former Magherafelt council who could see the consequences of retail parks and out of town hypermarkets?

Are they now a minority in the Mid Ulster council?

Is it not worth having a case study on Magherafelt and if we find that the reasons for its health are close to my barstool analysis, then, should we not find a way of reversing course on the other towns that have been hollowed out by the seductive paths that I have highlighted?

Is Magherafelt (and indeed Ballycastle) only one Hypermarket and one apartment block away from disaster?

Clearly the high street malaise is not inevitable, so let us find out from whence it flows and take it from there.

PS: While Kilkeel may not be thriving by Magherafelt terms, I will note that on one of the few occasions that I was there I went to the Asda – it however is situated on a main street and one can bimble in to town (which I duly did and spent more money there than I did in Asda – there’s a great fishmonger…)

The Constitution provides for a Council of State to aid and counsel the President on all matters on which the President may consult them. The circumstances when the President must consult the Council of State are specified in the Constitution.

The Taoiseach, Tániaste and other senior officials are automatically included on the Council but the President has the right to make several appointments of their own. Two of the appointments may stand out for slugger readers.

One is Professor Colin Harvey. As the Derry Journal article on this appointment says

The Derry man is a Professor of Human Rights Law in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, a Commissioner on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency…Prof. Harvey has been a vocal campaigner for Irish unity, for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and for an extension of the franchise in Presidential elections to Irish citizens in Derry and the North.

Professor Harvey’s advocacy for Irish reunification is best known through his involvement with the Ireland’s Future civic group. He has written extensively on the subject including for Slugger.

Joining him on the Council is fellow northerner and Irish Language activist Linda Ervine. As the BBC article on her appointment says

Ervine was born into a working-class Protestant family in east Belfast and is the manager of the first Irish language centre to be based in a loyalist area…Ervine is the founder of Scoil na Seolta, the first Integrated school to teach through the medium of Irish.

Linda Ervine’s tireless advocacy on behalf of the Irish language saw her awarded an MBE a few years ago in recognition of her efforts.

All seven of course appear to be exceptional individuals and all deserve congratulations on their appointment.

From the Guardian report on the topic…

Three nuns who escaped from a care home to return to their convent in a castle close to Salzburg where they had spent most of their lives are a step closer to being able to stay there, sources close to them say. Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita, who are in their early to late eighties, broke into their convent home in Elsbethen last September with the help of former pupils of the Catholic school at which they had taught and other supporters. Their case became a cause célèbre, attracting attention from around the world.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), a Vatican department in charge of religious discipline in the Catholic church, has yet to officially decide on the women’s fate and could still take months to do so. However, plans to bring them to Rome are thought to be a positive sign in the nuns’ favour, bringing the row about their future closer to a resolution. An aide close to the nuns told Austrian media that the Vatican was “in principle” in favour of giving the sisters the right to remain in their convent. However, its official ruling is still outstanding.

It’s not hard to imagine most people having sympathy with three elderly women desiring to live out the remainder of their days in what is clearly their home rather than being sent away against their will. Given the article suggests they will meet with Pope Leo himself during the visit, the Church has probably concluded they cannot win this argument in the court of public opinion and that a graceful acquiescence is in order.