I took this video during the fantastic Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast in August this year. ☘️🪉 This is the Ireland which most people here now want. People from every background having fun together. Our best days lie ahead...

The wonderful Sally Rooney eloquently explaining earlier this year, why it is so important to make our voices heard in support of the Palestinian people. 🇵🇸✊ @sally_rooney #sallyrooney

OPINION PIECE; 🪉🇮🇪 The message that went out all around the World in the past few weeks was about the dignity, bravery & entirely peaceful struggle by the residents of Garvaghy Road. It won the hearts & minds of many people far beyond these shores.🪉 This week has seen a typically disgraceful attempt by Unionist politicians (and also some elements within the local media) to try & demonise that wonderful community of Garvaghy Road and also all of the people from across Ireland who came to support them. In some ways that is not surprising. A light has now been shone very brightly on to both the Orange Order & the regressive behaviour of many individuals within political Unionism here. This week Loyalists responded by attacking a memorial to five innocent Catholics who were brutally murdered on the Lower Ormeau Road. They have also filed a new application to march down that Road again in a few weeks time. Loyalists have also continued their "culture war" by attacking Irish and dual signage street signs in the city of Belfast. The lack of condemnation of these attacks by significant figures within political Unionism is frankly staggering... The same politicians who regularly preach about "unlawful protests" and "lawbreaking", but who remain totally silent about attacks on Nationalist communities. There is also a very growing anger within the broader Nationalist community here about one very prominent local broadcaster who is afforded a daily platform on both radio and television to whip up tensions. He offers a daily platform to the most extreme voices within Unionism/Loyalism and it has now reached a point where it is simply no longer tenable. It is time that BBCNI were investigated and held fully accountable for allowing a presenter (funded by taxpayers), to platform unelected individuals, some of whom, have openly declared their intention to both wreck the institutions & perpetuate a "culture war". Those individuals represent a very clear danger to the entire peace process. The Nationalist Community have behaved impeccably throughout the past few weeks. The peaceful resistance at Garvaghy Road was acheived with music and camaraderie. A victory for civil right & human dignity was won by entirely peaceful protests. 🇮🇪 🪉✊ Stand together against sectarianism, stand together against the lies of Unionist politicians & agitators and make your voice heard about the media bias which corrupts our airwaves on a daily basis. 🇮🇪 ✊ 🟢 NO SECOND CLASS CITIZENS 🟢 NO GOING BACK....

Exactly two weeks ago today, thousands of people on the Garvaghy Road delivered a message loud and clear to the Orange Order, to the DUP, and to the British Government: 🪉🇮🇪 🟢 NO SECTARIAN MARCHES 🟢 NO SECOND CLASS CITIZENS 🟢 NO GOING BACK...

The DUP are currently on a media campaign of gaslighting & demonising the peaceful residents of Garvaghy Road. This is all to deflect from the sentencing today of their paedophile, Child Rapist former Leader Jeffrey Donaldson. The next time that the DUP talk about a "lawful parade", let's not forget the human cost of their lawful parades" in the 1990's. 🟢 NO SECTARIAN HATE MARCHES 🟢 NO GOING BACK

GARVAGHY ROAD - UPDATE - DAY 14 (SATURDAY). - 🪉🇮🇪 🔘 "Freedom lies in being bold." - Robert Frost. And bold they were... For the last two weeks, a small little community in a place called Garvaghy Road, in County Armagh, Ireland, took a stand for their own freedom. 🪉🇮🇪 For their right to live free from harrasment... For their right to live free from the pain of the past... For their right to have a future for their children & grandchildren... Just after 8 O'Clock last night, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, the 68 year old fearless leader of the Garvaghy Road Residents Association, stood on a chair in a Hall packed to the rafters with hundreds of people. He announced that the Secretary of State had just called him to say that he was banning the Orange Parade from going down Garvaghy Road... The cheers were deafening. There were also tears... Young & old, cried and laughed and hugged each other... A moment never to be forgotten... 🪉 🔘 This was a seminal moment in modern Irish history. This was a victory for justice. A victory that has also possibly changed the future of this part of Ireland...🇮🇪 🔘 This was a campaign that went around the Globe. It united the entire Irish community in countries near & far... Marches, protests, messages of solidarity... even prayers... 🪉🇮🇪 🔘 The reaction was stark and contrasting. Breandan spoke to the media with dignity & respect. He did not speak of victory, instead he spoke of healing and he remembered all the innocent victims of the past. 🔘Unionists imploded with anger & rage. They turned on each other. There were no conciliatory words... They have filed a motion for an emergency judicial review of the Secretary of State's decision to be held in Belfast High court this morning. Their race is run however... 🔘 There are so many people to thank that I will need to do a seperate post on it. And I will... I will try and mention every one contributed from every corner of society and every corner of the Globe... When the Irish speak, the World listens.... 🇮🇪 I will finish with just one person for now though. As we all celebrated here in the North last night, Michelle O'Neill our First Minister had just arrived in Dublin. She was to be interviewed on the Late, Late Show on RTE Television. Far away from all of the people on the Garvaghy Road that she had stood beside in the middle of the night as they blocked a road in the name of justice. Unable to hug the people that she had fought for... She had risked the wrath of both the media and Unionist politicians here in the past 2 weeks. She had defied the threat of criminal action. She stood against 'the law' in the name of true justice - moral justice.. The people will not forget... I wil post further details on events that happen today at the Court & elsewhere... Victory to the risen people.... ✊🇮🇪