A frustrated 'Leave the EU' voter. Keep X Tidy. Retweets are not necessarily an endorsement. No to Windsor Framework/Irish Sea Border. Disenfranchised Unionist.
County Down, Northern Ireland
Joined October 2019
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Ards Brexit retweeted
Make him famous! Hate-filled sectarian bigot in Cookstown hates white Protestants but loves migrants. Share everywhere. Thoughts?
☘️ Join & Petition Link: linktr.ee/niallmcconnell1
Ards Brexit retweeted
Thank you, @RupertLowe10, for raising awareness of this outrageous two-tier system.
The British public deserves to know exactly who this government is letting in and who it’s keeping out.
Let’s see if the @ukhomeoffice will grow a pair and care to comment.
I invited @EvaVlaar to Britain to attend a Restore Britain event - the Home Office has not allowed that to happen. My thoughts on a dark day for free speech in our country...
Ards Brexit retweeted
Whether we agree with the OO position on Drumcree or not, the sight of every nationalist on the island rowing in behind McKenna & Co was a really opener.
Not one “moderate” nationalist suggested moving the counter protest on to the footpath for 10 minutes, that’s all it needed
🚨 I’ve Heard This Before 🚨
I’ve read Peter Shirlow’s latest piece. He’s finally saying out loud what a lot of us have watched for years. When the pro-unity crowd are actually forced to answer serious questions instead of recycling slogans, the argument starts to fall apart. Some of them then walk away, claim we refused to engage, and go back to safer company. That pattern is not new. What’s different is that even academic observers are now admitting it has hardened pro-Union opinion.
I’ll say it plainly. Unionists have never been afraid of the debate. What we refuse to do is accept the starting position that Irish unity is the moral default and that staying in the United Kingdom somehow needs special justification. When the conversation moves from emotion to reality — the economy, identity, security, public services, and what people here actually want — the gaps in the unity case become obvious.
Shirlow is right that some of these campaigners preferred the echo chamber. They found out that proper engagement exposes weaknesses they would rather not deal with. Their response wasn’t to improve the argument. It was to leave the room and rewrite the story as one of unionist obstruction. That’s not debate. That’s running away and then complaining about the result.
The Taoiseach’s new initiative is being sold as an opening on equal terms. We’ve heard versions of that line before. “Parity of esteem” has too often meant nationalists set the rules of the conversation while we’re expected to turn up and be grateful for the invitation. Real parity would mean accepting that the Union is a legitimate, majority-supported position in Northern Ireland and that those of us who defend it don’t have to justify our existence to Dublin or to people who treat the border as a temporary inconvenience.
There is no duty on us to treat every new southern initiative as a gift. Engagement is not the same as legitimising a process that already has its preferred destination. If the Taoiseach genuinely wants rigorous analysis of all options, including the continuation and strengthening of the Union, then that analysis cannot start from the assumption that unity is the progressive or inevitable outcome. Anything less is just better-packaged pressure.
The pro-Union case doesn’t need permission. It stands on consent, identity, economic reality and the right of people in Northern Ireland to remain British. Those who find that inconvenient have spent years trying to talk past it or shout over it. When forced into proper exchange, some prefer the exit.
I don’t need validation from the other side. But I do welcome the scrutiny. The more the unity argument is tested in open debate, the clearer its difficulties become. We should keep making our case without apology. Those who can’t stand the heat are free to leave the room. The rest of us aren’t going anywhere.
#IrishUnity #PeterShirlow #Unionism #ConstitutionalDebate #PUL #NorthernIreland
Ards Brexit retweeted
You speak English perfectly well, we see you.
Performative nonsense. Wise up and stop wasting police time.
Ards Brexit retweeted
Dan Buckley messages me: "Hi Damien. A chance chat with an acquaintance of mine told me about his Grandfather, who he claimed was SAS and was involved in an incident at Les Ormes in France. His medals apparently got lost, and I felt badly about that - I am ex military. A tiny bit of research showed an amazing story of one of the SAS originals, and his citation for his MC(!) signed by both Mayne and Montgomery. I took it upon myself to have a display case of replicas made, with photo and citation, for him, his family and primarily his Mother, whose memory is not as it used to be. I hope this minor karma credit that I have applied for is of interest. The man wrote a book ‘These Men are Dangerous’ - a ripping read." Great effort, Dan. We remember them.
Ards Brexit retweeted
It is blatantly obvious any sf/ira spokespersons being interviewed have been rehearsed & programmed, supremacy, no going back, not now not ever. If their core support base can't see thru that, then they are buttoned up the back. Administrating British Rule, comfier in the U.K.
Ards Brexit retweeted
In January the UK revoked my ETA days after I criticised Keir Starmer, declaring me “not conducive to the public good.”
I’ve now been invited by MP @RupertLowe10 to come speak at a @RestoreBritain and the Home Office is stalling my visa application, effectively denying me entry again.
France just banned our @SaveEuropeAct cofounder @MartinSellner_ indefinitely as a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat” to public order. Same thing: no conviction, no trial.
This is a dangerous trend of two-tier enforcement: restricting the movement of law-abiding European patriots who criticize mass migration, while third-world migrants enter, claim benefits, and even gain citizenship.
The British public deserves to know about it, and the only politician prepared to do something about it is Rupert Lowe.
Ards Brexit retweeted
Well said. Time that the National Trust has a spotlight shone on its policies and attitude to the countryside and farming
The biggest farmer in Britain is a charity with 5 million members, and it is spending their subscriptions on taking the farming off its own land.
Every activist reaches for the same line. British agriculture has been swallowed by corporations, faceless Big Ag, the family farm long gone. The Trust's own accounts answer that. The National Trust owns about 620,000 acres, more than Dyson, more than the Crown, more than any company in the country, and around 1,300 tenant families pay it rent to farm them. It is the largest landlord of working farms in Britain. Big Ag here is a charity that sells scones.
Last year it announced a nature plan with a target area covering nearly all the land it owns, which means nearly all the land those families work. The Tenant Farmers Association called it removing land from the farmed estate unnecessarily for rewilding, and that is as close to a swearword as the TFA gets in print.
The land it is planning for was not bought. It was given, by people with conditions. Beatrix Potter left the Trust the biggest gift of farmland it ever received on the written instruction that the farms stayed working farms and the Herdwicks stayed on their fells, hefted to their own ground, the flock passing with the tenancy. Those sheep are still up there because a tenancy agreement keeps them there. Thin the stock on a Lakeland fell in the name of nature and you are overturning the will of the woman who gave you the fell.
So if you pay the £8 a month for the car park, the tearoom and the sense that something is being looked after, understand what the direct debit is funding this decade. A plan to replace the thing you walk past with the view of it.
The corporation you were warned about has a membership card and a gift shop.
Ards Brexit retweeted
(1) I get nationalist supremacists think the law doesn’t apply to them, but it does; (2) the parade was not retrospectively banned (either Peadar doesn’t understand this, or he is deliberately misleading), in fact the original determination was **CONFIRMED**. The ‘ban’ was only for that notification, and was only prospective (ie that specific notification could no longer be given effect). And the reason that came about because of the threat of disorder, including use of firearms, by the Garvaghy mob of PIRA, dissidents, common criminals & others. This is mob Peadar stands with.
Ards Brexit retweeted
SINN FÉIN WHITEWASHING MOST FOUL.
Nationalists,,,,, imagine if Michael Stone, who is of the same age and era as Ian Milne, committing similar crimes, both imprisoned for murder, was chosen as the DUP's candidate in South Belfast.
Ian Milne was a Provisional IRA member in South Derry who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of UDR soldier James Speer. After his release under the Good Friday Agreement, he became a Sinn Féin councillor and later represented Mid Ulster at Stormont.
* IRA years. Milne operated in South Derry alongside Francis Hughes and Dominic McGlinchey. In a 2006 interview with An Phoblacht, he described escaping from Portlaoise Prison and being arrested in Lurgan in 1977. The interview gives his own account of those years. Milne’s interview.
* The murder of James Speer. Speer was shot dead on 9 November 1976 while working at his car repair business in Desertmartin, County Londonderry. Milne received a life sentence in 1977. In 2017, Speer’s family brought a civil action against Milne over the killing. I couldn’t verify the outcome of that action.
* Political career. Milne chaired Magherafelt District Council. In April 2013, Sinn Féin selected him to fill the Mid Ulster Assembly seat vacated by Francie Molloy. He had previously stood in the constituency in 2011 and received 2,635 first-preference votes. He left the Assembly on 3 December 2018.
Ards Brexit retweeted
Read @JimAllister article calling out this customs border legislation on 22 October for @ParlMagazine '...the Government had apparently thought that in the run up to 20 November, everyone’s attention will be distracted on what will be spun as fixes for the Irish Sea border, and that people will forget that the Irish Sea border is first and foremost a customs border.
It is in this context that EU Regulation 2026/2108 has arrived.' bit.ly/3UGCmxR
🚨NEW Stormont Brake: Assembly Speaker @edwinpootsmla has written to Secretary of State Sir @RhonddaBryant.
⬇️⬇️
Ards Brexit retweeted
BREAKING: Young Bob called jumped by a group of Islamists during a street debate in the UK.
Is this what a democracy looks like?
Ards Brexit retweeted
Damning criticism of the NI Conversion Bill from Dennis.
It could crinalise parents, children, employers...anyone who doesn't agree with gender ideology. The public have rejected it in committee stage consultation overwhelmingly.
We call again for it to be scrapped!
Ards Brexit retweeted
FULL VIDEO
A Cambridge educator attacks me.
Students throw a bottle of water at me and attempt to STEAL my equipment.
Others openly mock the death of Charlie Kirk.
This was, by far, the most VIOLENT campus debate event I have ever held.
Ards Brexit retweeted
I suspect current members of the IRA not seeking to bring harm to anybody are the same IRA members involved in the murders of Robert McCartney, Paul Quinn, Jock Davison and Kevin McGuigan.
Ards Brexit retweeted
‘Current members of the PIRA’. Time to bring it all down for good.
Northern Ireland’s police chief has said current members of the Provisional IRA are not seeking to bring harm to society.
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
Ards Brexit retweeted
𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗨𝗨𝗣 · 𝗧𝗨𝗩 · 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿-𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗨𝗞 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Yesterday MLAs triggered the Stormont Brake over the application to Northern Ireland of the EU's new Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) 2026/2108. The new code redefines the terms of the customs border that has cut the UK in two.
This is only the second time the Stormont Brake mechanism has been triggered.
Today Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows MLA and TUV leader Jim Allister KC MP issued statements, together with Peter Summerton, Chair of the Inter-Trade UK Business Association (ITUKBA).
Jon Burrows MLA, Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said:
“The Ulster Unionist Party has been raising very real concerns about the negative consequences of the EU’s new Union Customs Code for well over a year. That is why we are working with other unionists to pull the Stormont Brake.
“At the recent meeting of the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee, members received very clear advice that the Union Customs Code is a significant change to the existing rules and regulations. That is an understatement. The new code, which Northern Ireland will be regulated by, fundamentally deepens the divergence between ourselves and the rest of our nation.
“It will mean substantially more bureaucracy, more regulation, new digital labelling and much more. We were also told that within our part of the United Kingdom, EU customs law now has primacy. This does no one any good, and that is why the Ulster Unionist Party is calling on the Secretary of State and the UK Government to operate the Stormont Brake and support Northern Ireland businesses.”
Jim Allister KC MP, Leader of the TUV, said:
“It is absolutely right that all unionists come together to pull the brake on EU Regulation 2026/2108. This legislation does not simply continue the customs border. It makes the border more disruptive in a way that will have a permanent negative effect that is likely to persist.
“In this context it is extraordinary to witness the UK Government simultaneously telling the people of GB that it is imperative to move the SPS border between GB and other countries to assist trade, even as it welcomes the renewed division of the United Kingdom by an international customs border cutting our country in two. This is an intolerable situation that cannot be allowed to continue.”
Peter Summerton, Chair of the Inter-Trade UK Business Association, said:
“The impact of imposing a customs border within a domestic supply chain under EU Regulation 2013/952 inevitably caused significant constraints on the supply chain between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Department for the Economy has acknowledged and reported on this. Many businesses have simply ceased trading with Northern Ireland.
“The new Customs Code applied in EU Regulation 2016/2108 is plainly worse. It will lead to a further deterioration in GB–NI trade and increase trade diversion, distorting natural commercial activity. This is the opposite of the stated intention of the Windsor Framework, so it is essential that the assurances given to business in the Framework are enacted.
“The Secretary of State must apply the brake to prevent further distortion to the market. Effective trading between GB and NI is in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland, and ITUKBA calls on all elected representatives to support the application of the safeguards.”
The notification to pull the Brake has been lodged with the Assembly Speaker, who must now send it to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State then decides whether the legal conditions for applying the Brake have been met.
Ards Brexit retweeted
There must be regulatory issues with the law society for Mr Finucane.
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane, Pat Sheehan MLA, and Councillor Natasha Brennan have all received letters relating to the peaceful protest at Garvaghy Road.
Sinn Féin is proud to have stood with the Garvaghy Road community to protect 28 years of peace and progress.
Standing up for what is right is always the right thing to do.
The days of treating nationalists as second class citizens are gone.
There is no going back.
Not now. Not ever.