Latest news with #IanPaisley
BBC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
CBE for journalist Peter Taylor who reported on the Troubles
A former BBC Panorama journalist who spent decades reporting on the Troubles has been formally made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) at Windsor Taylor, 82, from Henley-on-Thames, said covering Bloody Sunday in his 20s as his first assignment in Northern Ireland inspired much of the work in his decades-long soldiers shot 13 civil rights protesters dead in Londonderry on 30 January 1972 and Mr Taylor said he felt guilty he "knew nothing, or very little" about the conflict at the time."I remember that day thinking I better start trying to find out, so I spent the past 50 years trying to do exactly that," he said. Mr Taylor earned the trust of major figures, including former IRA commander and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, whose funeral he was also invited to the memorial for Ian Paisley, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and first minister. Mr Taylor spent nearly a decade to get permission to make a documentary inside the notorious high-security Maze serving sentences for murder "and a whole series of dreadful atrocities" were jailed there, Mr Taylor conversations with them were conducted without prison officers' oversight. "In the end, when they saw the film they were glad that they had taken part because it gave a different view of the contribution that they were potentially prepared to make towards peace," he added."You know you've succeeded when you get that kind of reaction, when they're clearly expecting to take you to the cleaners for what you've done, and they say 'wasn't bad for a Brit'."Fewer programmes like Mr Taylor's are now made because of a lack of funding, he said."My worry is that public service broadcasting and the climate in which I grew up and learned my trade is under threat," he added."It needs finances. What we do, people like me try and do, is to help people understand and make political choices and pass judgments on these extremely difficult, complex issues." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
Belfast Telegraph
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Belfast Telegraph
Jeffery Dudgeon on the story of the NI Gay Rights Association and his doubts about ‘queer' activism today
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Jeffery Dudgeon was the public face of the gay rights movement in Northern Ireland. He was a prominent figure in the campaign again laws targeting homosexuals – a campaign which endured a vicious backlash in the shape of Ian Paisley's 'Save Ulster from sodomy' group. His victory in the campaign for decriminalisation has now been beautifully told in a short film from the BBC called 'Outlasting'. The piece was directed by Lewis Doherty. Both Mr Lewis and Mr Dudgeon joined Ciarán Dunbar on the BelTel.
Irish Examiner
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
OPW bans tour guides from wearing green or orange at site of the Battle of the Boyne
The Office of Public Works (OPW) has banned tour guides from wearing green or orange clothing at the site in Meath where the Protestant King William III defeated the Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne. The location is of particular significance to unionists, as William's victory in 1690 established Protestant dominance in Ireland, and is commemorated by the Orange Order with a series of marches on July 12 each year. The rule prohibiting guides from wearing green or orange at the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre is not contained in the official OPW Guide Handbook, which is supplied to guides and information officers at heritage sites. Instead, the directive is being communicated directly to new guides by a supervisor at the visitor centre after they have been hired, according to emails released under freedom of information laws. The instruction, which is believed to be aimed at respecting the sensitivities of both unionist and nationalist visitors, is not the only unusual dress code directive issued by the OPW to its guides. A section of the handbook dealing with clothing and uniform requirements specifies that 'nudity is prohibited at all sites'. Asked why it was considered necessary to include this in its dress code for new tour guides, the OPW declined to comment. The Battle of the Boyne visitor centre was developed following the allocation of €15 million of government funding in 2005. Last year, a further €10 million was provided for the centre under the Shared Island initiative. The site was famously chosen as the venue for Ian Paisley's (left) first official meeting as Stormont first minister with Bertie Ahern (right) in 2007 where he presented the DUP leader with a musket used in the battle. File picture: Collins The site was famously chosen as the venue for Ian Paisley's first official meeting as Stormont first minister with Bertie Ahern in 2007. The then-Taoiseach presented the DUP leader with a musket used in the Battle of the Boyne. An email titled 'Welcome aboard' sent by a supervisor to a newly hired seasonal guide last year contained details of the dress code for staff at the visitor centre. It prohibits items including army jackets and clothes that feature 'slogans, badges or emblems'. The email stated that 'green and orange are not permitted on site'. The OPW provides an annual allowance for guides where colour-coded clothing is mandated by local management. This is payable at a rate of €210 for permanent guides, and €100 for seasonal workers. The OPW declined to comment when asked about the prohibition of green and orange clothing at the Battle of the Boyne site. Read More Loyalist bonfire on site with asbestos lit despite warnings
Irish Independent
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
OPW bans green and orange colours from Battle of the Boyne site and tells staff they can't be nude
The location is of particular significance to Unionists, as William's victory in 1690 established Protestant dominance in Ireland, and is commemorated by the Orange Order with a series of marches on July 12 each year. The rule prohibiting guides from wearing green or orange at the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre is not contained in the official OPW Guide Handbook, which is supplied to guides and information officers at heritage sites. Instead, the directive is being communicated directly to new guides by a supervisor at the visitor centre after they have been hired, according to emails released under freedom of information laws. The instruction, which is believed to be aimed at respecting the sensitivities of both Unionist and Nationalist visitors, is not the only unusual dress-code directive issued by the OPW to its guides. A section of the handbook dealing with clothing and uniform requirements specifies that 'nudity is prohibited at all sites'. Asked why it was considered necessary to include this in its dress code for new tour guides, the OPW declined to comment. The Battle of the Boyne visitor centre was developed following the allocation of €15 million of government funding in 2005. Last year, a further €10 million was provided for the centre under the Shared Island initiative. The site was famously chosen as the venue for Ian Paisley's first official meeting as Stormont first minister with Bertie Ahern in 2007. The then-Taoiseach presented the DUP leader with a musket used in the Battle of the Boyne. An email titled 'Welcome aboard' sent by a supervisor to a newly hired seasonal guide last year contained details of the dress code for staff at the visitor centre. It prohibits items including army jackets and clothes that feature 'slogans, badges or emblems'. The email stated that 'green and orange are not permitted on site'. The OPW provides an annual allowance for guides where colour-coded clothing is mandated by local management. This is payable at a rate of €210 for permanent guides, and €100 for seasonal workers. The OPW declined to comment when asked about the prohibition of green and orange clothing at the Battle of the Boyne site.
The National
16-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
Working class solidarity the only answer to Ballymena riots
The hate-filled attacks on ethnic minorities and immigrants unleashed in this medium-sized town – population just over 30,000 – have spread to other towns and villages as nights go by, including Larne, Portadown, Coleraine and parts of Belfast and Derry cities. People who have settled in Ballymena, particularly since the 1990s ceasefires, cower in their homes, barricade front doors with sofas and hide in their bedrooms and attics as thugs break down those doors, smash windows and try to set fire to homes with children in them. Amid arson attacks and assaults on men, women and children, we see a grisly re-invention of the Biblical story of the Passover, in this former heartland of the late 'hellfire-and-damnation' sectarian leader the Rev Ian Paisley. In the book of Exodus, God allegedly is said to have told the Jews to smear their doors with the blood of a sacrificial lamb so he would 'pass over' their homes while smiting the Egyptians with his wrath, murdering their first born. READ MORE: Tories rage as Scottish primary head suggests Union flag is 'sectarian' In this real-life 2025 version, people who made Ballymena their home, with their kids making friends with the children of parents born locally, are posting national flags on their doors – sometimes British Union flags but accompanied by the flags of the Philippines, Bulgaria, Poland etc – trying to avoid being mistaken for being Romanian. This is because the latter were the primary targets, at least initially, of the hate-filled rioters. What led to Ballymena being projected on to the world's TV screens? The immediate background was the alleged sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl in the town and the arrest of two boys of Romanian background, also 14, who denied the allegation against them. An estimated 2500 people gathered in a peaceful protest at this vile sexual assault – but then a breakaway crowd of several hundred went on the rampage, launching arson attacks on homes and cars, smashing the doors and windows of the homes of immigrants and ethnic minorities. There was also prolonged rioting, with masonry and firebombs thrown at police officers. (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire) Whatever proportion of the initial crowd which gathered at the demonstration was there out of genuine concern at the inexcusable crime of sexual violence, vicious far-right forces used their substantial reach on social media to incite openly racist violence, particularly, but not exclusively, by young people. Underlying those immediate triggers is the worldwide phenomenon of decades of disappointment and betrayal by mainstream capitalist parties of what we've dubbed the 'extreme centre', who carry out neoliberal capitalist assaults on working-class communities, and the failure of the dominant leaderships of the mass organisations of the working class to adequately confront this with a fighting, inspiring socialist alternative, leading to the upsurge of far-right formations. We see that with the rise of Donald Trump in the US; the growth of far right and even fascist forces around the AFD in Germany and Marine Le Pen's French equivalent; and of course, the multi-millionaire and arch-Thatcherite Nigel Farage in Britain. Capitalist rule, regardless of party label, has failed working-class people worldwide and, in the absence of mass socialist forces, into the vacuum steps the evangels of red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalism, dressed up in populist slogans and ruthless racist scapegoating of immigrants and ethnic minorities. Northern Ireland is by no means immune from these trends. In the South Republic over the last few years, far-right forces literally wrapped up in the Irish tricolour and spouting an extreme version of Irish nationalism, have burnt down buildings housing asylum seekers – then put on their suits and tried to get elected to the Dail and local councils. Having been largely frustrated on that front – certainly at Dail level, although they got big votes and several councillors elected – they have now reverted to the politics of street violence. That's the case in big cities such as Dublin and Cork, but also in some of the border area's neighbouring towns in the north of Ireland, including Derry and Newry. Last August, during race-hate riots in Belfast, we saw the grotesque spectacle of far-right racist nationalists from Dublin, waving the Irish tricolour, joining forces with far-right racist loyalists hoisting the Union flag – a grisly embrace across the sectarian divide by two forms of the same reactionary forces. The far right in the North takes numerous forms, including openly fascist grouplets – and, it would appear in the case of the Ballymena riots, the South East Antrim UDA, the remnants of the previous mass loyalist paramilitary group. Ballymena was the first town in the North blighted by serious heroin addiction, making for lucrative trade for the UDA and others. It had a powerful industrial base, including big Michelin and Gallaher factories in the past, with strong union organisation. The local trade union movement was instrumental in organising united demonstrations of Protestant and Catholic workers against sectarian intimidation and killings during The Troubles and, more recently, Ballymena Trades Union Council countered far-right forces targeting migrant workers. In my youth, I had friends who were active in a vibrant Ballymena branch of the Young Socialists – young Protestants and Catholics together championing the cause of workers' unity and socialism. READ MORE: 'Scottish cringe' persists despite evidence of our distinctive culture But much of the industrial base in the town has been decimated, with Gallaher's and Michelin's factory closures about eight years ago, wiping out nearly 2000 jobs. This weakened the forces of the organised labour movement and lent itself to an atomisation of the working class, where vicious propagandists of the far-right can latch on to concerns and discontent and channel it towards brutal division and racism. Those who have incited and organised these attempted pogroms against Romanians and other ethnic minorities, in a town which didn't have a single asylum seeker funded in 2024, have absolutely no concern for the safety of women and girls. They are purely motivated by a desire to whip up division in the community. Violence against women, including sexual violence and rape, runs rampant across Northern Ireland – and the authorities fail to deal with it. It suffers the second-highest levels of femicide in Europe. In surveys, an astonishing 98% of women said they had suffered some form of gender-based violence in their lifetime. In that atmosphere, the cheap, deceitful slogan the far right have deployed in Ballymena and elsewhere, of 'keep our children safe', calling for demonstrations under the guise of 'concerned parents', undoubtedly chimes with the worries of decent working-class people. But the far-right instigators did nothing to demonstrate against the allegations of historical sexual offences against former Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson, nor claims of child sex abuse against Ballymena Traditional Unionist Voice councillor Davy Tweed in the 2010s. The one difference is the colour of the targets' skin. The far right have enlisted the services of rioters, including not just ideologically committed racists but also an element of alienated young people, who simply see this as an opportunity to have a go at PSNI officers. The immediate victims of this racist violence were ethnic minority and immigrant families – all of whom were either born in Ballymena or are legally recognised refugees, many of them working in local factories and agribusinesses. The wider losers are the broader working class, subjected to frenzied divisions and made all the weaker in their own self-defence against dilapidated housing conditions, cuts to services – including health; the North has the longest NHS waiting lists in the UK – and wages that are historically lower than in the rest of Britain for identical jobs. The most studiously buried history of the past 50-plus years in the North is that of several waves of united demonstrations and strike action by workers from all communities, against sectarian violence and deaths. At the height of tit-for-tat killings and bombings, workers across Northern Ireland came out on strike, staged rallies, drove back the paramilitaries and were instrumental in forcing sectarian politicians to reach the unstable institutional 'power-sharing' arrangements known as the Peace Process. Ballymena was one of the many towns and cities where those displays of workers' unity were staged – initiatives led by the cross-community trade union movement, the biggest civic organisation in the North, on most occasions under the pressure of socialist trade unionists who forced the hesitant leadership of the trade union officialdom to take action. That tradition of workers' unity in action is urgently required today to counter the attempted racist pogroms and to undercut the false appeal of the far right with a vision of socialist change – to win decent jobs, vastly improved public services, and high-quality housing for all, regardless of their creed, colour or country of birth. Encouraging beginnings of this counterforce to the rampaging racists have been organised over recent days. Trade unionists, community groups and socialists have staged counter-demos against the far-right in nearby Magherafelt, Derry, Belfast and elsewhere. (Image: Brian Lawless/PA Wire) Trade unionists and socialists in Scotland and beyond can and should assist those forces of working-class unity and help them combat the vile forces of the far right by advocating radical socialist change – a transfer of the wealth of Scotland, Britain and Ireland away from the millionaires to the millions, with the goal of socialism in these islands, where all citizens are treated as equals, living in peace and harmony. READ MORE: Scottish Winter Fuel Payments to match UK's after U-turn, John Swinney says The events of the past few days reinforce the beliefs I've held and fought for since my teens in County Fermanagh – for socialism not sectarianism; for action based on class not creed; for working-class unity in pursuit of a peaceful socialist future. The alternatives are all too ugly, as witnessed in last week's eruption of racist conflagration.
