Much the same here in the states: The Man expects us just to shrug, too. A magazine emptied into the back of a dis-armed nurse on a Minneapolis street; woman killed in her car with a headshot, same winter: well, what're you gonna do? Thousands rounded up without warrants and held in warehouses? I dunno. A war waged upon a 2,500 year old civilization that has a different take on Abraham? I feel like I / we have swapped our agency for the excuse of The Shrug. Sorry to hear your story...
This piece nails the cognitive dissonance that has become Sinn Féin's signature move. It's one thing to chant "Free Palestine" from the safety of a Dublin podium or a Belfast mural wall—it costs nothing, earns social credit, and keeps the base energized. It's quite another to actually act on those principles when they collide with local jobs, planning applications, and the delicate dance of Stormont governance.
The seven abstentions on Mid Ulster Council say everything. Not a vote for the factory expansion—that would require owning the decision. Not a vote against it—that would require principle over pragmatism. Instead, the coward's path: abstention. Let the DUP carry the motion, let the SDLP and Independents carry the conscience, and let Sinn Féin carry on pretending they're somehow blameless.
Pearse Doherty's righteous fury in the Dáil about complicity in genocide is stirring stuff—until you remember his own party colleagues just ensured that components for the very jets doing the killing will keep flowing out of the Castledawson factory, slotting seamlessly into the global supply chain that feeds Lockheed Martin's U.S. assembly lines and, from there, Israel's air force. Mary Lou McDonald demands sanctions on Israel while her Northern counterparts ensure the supply chain stays intact. It's not even hypocrisy at this point—it's a studied division of labour: performance art in the Republic, quiet complicity in the North.
And the "jobs" defence? Please. We've heard that one before from every regime that ever chose profit over principle. The same logic could excuse building cluster munitions in Belfast if it kept the factory open. The moral architecture here is bankrupt: we're against the use of these machines for evil, but the manufacture is a regrettable economic necessity. How convenient that necessity always seems to align with the path of least resistance.
Sinn Féin likes to present itself as the conscience of Irish republicanism, the voice of the oppressed, the heir to a tradition of anti-imperialist struggle. But this episode reveals the uncomfortable truth: when push comes to shove, they're just another party of power, smiling and shrugging while the killing machinery hums along. The keffiyeh is a costume; the abstention is the reality.
And the irony? They once knew something about asymmetric warfare and the moral weight of bombs. Now they've traded that for ministerial cars and the quiet approval of the Americans. The revolution isn't televised—it's industrialised, and apparently, it's for sale.
Much the same here in the states: The Man expects us just to shrug, too. A magazine emptied into the back of a dis-armed nurse on a Minneapolis street; woman killed in her car with a headshot, same winter: well, what're you gonna do? Thousands rounded up without warrants and held in warehouses? I dunno. A war waged upon a 2,500 year old civilization that has a different take on Abraham? I feel like I / we have swapped our agency for the excuse of The Shrug. Sorry to hear your story...
Tim Long, Just Up the Hill from Lock 15
This piece nails the cognitive dissonance that has become Sinn Féin's signature move. It's one thing to chant "Free Palestine" from the safety of a Dublin podium or a Belfast mural wall—it costs nothing, earns social credit, and keeps the base energized. It's quite another to actually act on those principles when they collide with local jobs, planning applications, and the delicate dance of Stormont governance.
The seven abstentions on Mid Ulster Council say everything. Not a vote for the factory expansion—that would require owning the decision. Not a vote against it—that would require principle over pragmatism. Instead, the coward's path: abstention. Let the DUP carry the motion, let the SDLP and Independents carry the conscience, and let Sinn Féin carry on pretending they're somehow blameless.
Pearse Doherty's righteous fury in the Dáil about complicity in genocide is stirring stuff—until you remember his own party colleagues just ensured that components for the very jets doing the killing will keep flowing out of the Castledawson factory, slotting seamlessly into the global supply chain that feeds Lockheed Martin's U.S. assembly lines and, from there, Israel's air force. Mary Lou McDonald demands sanctions on Israel while her Northern counterparts ensure the supply chain stays intact. It's not even hypocrisy at this point—it's a studied division of labour: performance art in the Republic, quiet complicity in the North.
And the "jobs" defence? Please. We've heard that one before from every regime that ever chose profit over principle. The same logic could excuse building cluster munitions in Belfast if it kept the factory open. The moral architecture here is bankrupt: we're against the use of these machines for evil, but the manufacture is a regrettable economic necessity. How convenient that necessity always seems to align with the path of least resistance.
Sinn Féin likes to present itself as the conscience of Irish republicanism, the voice of the oppressed, the heir to a tradition of anti-imperialist struggle. But this episode reveals the uncomfortable truth: when push comes to shove, they're just another party of power, smiling and shrugging while the killing machinery hums along. The keffiyeh is a costume; the abstention is the reality.
And the irony? They once knew something about asymmetric warfare and the moral weight of bombs. Now they've traded that for ministerial cars and the quiet approval of the Americans. The revolution isn't televised—it's industrialised, and apparently, it's for sale.
Highly insightful
What a rant!