Robin Livingstone

CATHOLIC-KILLERS AND NAZI MASS MURDERERS: The Rangers banners that don't make the headlines

ARMED Forces Day tomorrow at Ibrox, home of Rangers FC, will see the usual militaristic celebrations, which in the past have included British soldiers abseiling from the stand with the match ball, parade drilling on the pitch and gun salutes being fired from the centre circle. But as another round of unionist fury erupts in the local media – this time over a Bik McFarlane tribute at Celtic Park and an abusive Rangers’ fans banner response presented as ‘hitting back’ – Robin Livingstone has questions. Will SS banners paying tribute to the Nazi elite force that slaughtered captive British soldiers be displayed by Rangers fans again? Or will they be kept diplomatically folded? Will tributes to Catholic-slashers from history be displayed on banners again, or just merely sung? And, perhaps most intriguingly, if there are any such displays, will the Loyal Ulster media’s new-found indignation about Scottish football banners be extended to Ibrox...? BANNERS at Celtic Park on Tuesday evening paying tribute to the late republican Bik McFarlane, who was buried earlier that day, provoked a predictable round of fury among unionist politicians and commentators.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Faux funeral rows are going to get more common

THE death and burial of Bik McFarlane was the signal for another round of unionist hand-wringing about death and memorialising. Bik was, we were told, the most heinous and evil IRA man since the last IRA man that died. Expressing solidarity with his family, acknowledging long years of friendship, remembering his role in the conflict – all of these things, we were further told, are a vile insult not only to victims of the IRA, but to the very concepts of peace and justice.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Congratulations, Rich, you’ve lost

‘BBC News NI picks up three RTS NI awards’.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Saying Clonoe out loud isn’t so easy

A LOT of republicans will be either uncomfortable or disgusted when I say I can fully understand why unionism is generally appalled at the verdict by a Coroner that the shooting to death of three IRA men in a church car park in Clonoe in 1992 was unjustified.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Trump told us who he was and we didn't believe him

IN a roiling ocean of misinformation and nonsense, the human mind can only navigate by way of small pointers; it manages to keep itself afloat by clinging on to the nearest of the bobbing buoys. Or at least mine does.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: The BBC's new Gaza fireside mystery

THE English love a good mystery. From Agatha Christie to PD James, From Midsomer Murders to Death in Paradise, there’s perhaps no other nation on the planet so enthralled by the lure of a stabbing in the billiards room, a poisoning at the dinner table, or a shooting in the library.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Joe won’t be coming back any time soon

YOUR starter for ten: Who said the following:

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Help, Naomi – I don’t understand the British Army Covenant

THE Armed Forces Covenant, which our city has just signed up to via the casting vote of Alliance Lord Mayor Micky Murray, is a short enough document, as you can see for yourself lower down. But for the TL/DR generation, it holds that members of the British armed forces should be accorded “special consideration” as and when the occasion demands.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: The lonely death of a BBC headline

THE story on the BBC News website on July 16 last year was headlined ‘The lonely death of Gaza man with Down’s syndrome’. The bland and determinedly neutral 10-word sentence is gone now, replaced with another by the BBC after a torrent of objections, most from readers familiar with the story who rightly felt that the headline came nowhere near to reflecting the dark and horrific truth of the killing that the headlined referenced. But other objections came from people shocked to the point of disbelief that a news outlet which misses no opportunity to trumpet its trustworthiness would suck the life – and death – out of a story with a thoroughness that would make an IDF spokesperson gasp in admiration.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Starmer: Grand plan or sheer stupidity?

EITHER Keir Starmer’s the worst Prime Minister ever to have stood up in the Commons or he’s playing a game of 3D chess so fiendishly calculating that we’re going to wake up one morning and he’ll be President of the Galactic Federation.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Education Authority gets some creative thinking

DUP Education Minister Paul Givan has appointed his DUP colleague Mervyn Gibson Chairman of the Education Authority. Not surprisingly, questions are being asked about the part-time appointment, which pays a chunky £50k to £60k a year for three days work per week.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Jamie Bryson's problem is he struggles with his greatest asset

I’M pretty sure that if I tell you that I propose to say something nice about Jamie Bryson you’d suspect that whatever I say will come loaded with qualifiers and yes-buts. And you’d be right. But Interflora doesn’t snip the thorns off its roses before sending out deliveries and when you put the bouquet in that crystal vase on the coffee table, the flowers are still what’s important. So here goes.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Ulster flag row is itself a powerful symbol

I DON’T like the union jack much.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: East Belfast murals show the Falls the way to go

DUP leader Gavin Robinson has scored a remarkable victory with the removal of pro-Palestine graffiti from an RVH wall fronting the Falls Road. Fair enough, more pro-Palestine graffiti immediately went up, along with a ‘F**k the DUP’ message for good luck.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: It's a Prod thing – why Trump worship doesn't interest the bead-rattlers

I THINK it’s fair to say that Trump veneration in this little corner of Paradise is a determinedly Protestant Thing. It’s perhaps not the done thing to mention it, but it’s just how it is.

NIFL Premiership: Cliftonville face several cup finals in bid to secure top-half finish

Boxing: Nottingham holds no fear for Cacace as May 10 fight with Wood confirmed

NIFL Premiership: Reds lose ground in race for top six

Allianz Hurling League: Antrim's away woes continue with Offaly defeat

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Trump told us who he was and we didn't believe him

SQUINTER: Battle lines are drawn in the war of the football pitch paint

GERRY ADAMS: Simon Harris is stating the bleedin' obvious

DÚLRA: Our Aaron’s hooked on a new natural high

Robin Livingstone

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