Another installment of lies by the Sunday Worlds very own Jackanory Jim McDowell.

Jackanory Jim is stirring the pot once again with another ludicrous fabrication in this mornings Sunday rag.

Jim's latest rubbish report is another shot in the dark claiming that the UVF in the Village area of Belfast have been deliberately trying to raise tensions by erecting 'illegal' flags and emblems on lamp posts to coincide with the recent boxing events in Windsor Park.

In an article completely void of any fact or truth, Jackanory Jim is claiming that Colin Fulton, Village ACT representative has given 'orders' to erect the flags in time for an influx of fans from all backgrounds coming to watch the fight on Saturday night.

There are glaring inconsistencies in Jim's ill thought out spoof, the first being that the flags mentioned have been flying from June, as they always have been in and around that area at the same time every year.

The second being the legality of the flags in question, with Jim seeming to think that the flags are illegal.
Contrary to this, the flags are perfectly legal and are an integral part of pride, identity and remembrance in and around the Village and other mainly unionist areas.

Quoting his usual 'anonymous' source, Jim managed to find the only person in the Village offended by the flags, but of course, they didn't want to be identified........as usual.

We have to ask ourselves what Jim's motives are for fabricating another fanciful tale and what he will gain from trying to create tensions where there are none.

I suppose only he can answer that.........

THE LAST NIGHT OF THE PROVO PROMS 

Revellers at last night's climax of 'Feile' in Falls Park show no misapprehension of the true nature of the publicly funded event. 

The West Belfast Festival (Feile) came to a close last night with its traditional annual 'Rebel Night' at Falls Park, headlined by notorious Irish-American extremist hate group The Wolfetones and supported by Shebeen and Gary Og to name but a few. These hate groups performed to a crowd of 10,000 people performing songs containing lyrics littered with hate speech and audience singalongs such as "Fuck your Union Jack, we want our country back"
"And we will fight you for 800 (years) more." and "Ooh Ahh Up The Ra. The final lyric comes from a song called "The Celtic Symphony" penned by Irish American hate preachers The Wolfetones, bizarrely, as a tribute to Glasgow Celtic F. C., a British football club who play in the Scottish Premier League!

The Wolfetones are pictured below posing last night with prominent Republican Brendan 'Bik' McFarlane who was convicted and given a life sentence for his involvement in the Bayardo Bar massacre which was inflicted upon the Protestant people of the Shankill Road in West Belfast, resulting in the murder of five innocent Protestants and over fifty injured on the 13th August 1975. Forty three years to the day this article is being penned.

Also on the line up of this Belfast City Council funded concert were Shebeen who are best known for their rendition of a vile ditty called "The Fighting Men of Crossmaglen". This song is infamous in its glorification of IRA terrorists murdering British Army personnel in the South Armagh region of Northern Ireland, containing reprehensible lyrics like "at night you hear the bazookas roar, armalites are heard throughout the land"
and "the Ra will even Ireland's bloody score".

Gary Og who propped up the bill at this "festival of the people" has also appeared at the notorious "Rebel Sunday" night in the Rock Bar on the Falls Road where sectarian mass murderer Bik McFarlane has also appeared on the bill. Among Gary Og's back catalogue of hate is a song called "Say Hello To The Provos". Unfortunately there seems to be no verse describing what happened to the Provos when they said hello at Loughgall and Coagh!

As of time of writing there seems to be shock and surprise from the few media outlets reporting on this display of bigotry, hate and glorification of Republican murder gangs, as if it is a one off slur on the good name of an inclusive and non sectarian festival. A cursory glance at the history, let alone some local knowledge of this festival, would prove this is a regular occurance at "Feile an Phobail with appearances going back thirty years.

To gain a better understanding of the modus operandi of the festival we need to look back thirty years to 1988 and the IRA attempt to murder a Royal Marines band and holidaymakers in Gibraltar which was foiled by the swift and heroic intervention of the Special Air Service to neutralise the threat from three known dangerous terrorists, Danny McCann, Sean Savage and Mairead Farrell. When the news broke of the failure of the attempted mass murder, the IRA ordered mayhem on the streets to manufacture an image of outrage in West Belfast at the deaths of their three comrades. The resultant carnage caused by subsequent gun attacks (which left one IRA gunman dead)  hijacking and rioting created the total opposite as reactions of ordinary decent people of West Belfast ranged from apathy to outright anger as their communities once again resembled the burnt out aftermath of a war zone.

Mindful of political damage the growing ambivalence to violence on the streets could cause Sinn Fein, coupled with the dawning realisation that IRA operations had become so seriously compromised by security forces infiltration of the IRA, the strategists in Connolly House realised a new approach was needed to not only assuage loss of support for Sinn Fein but also to push the Republican movement in a new direction. A political direction which would lessen the embarrassment of defeat when the inevitable ceasefire would arrive. Out of this Feile An Phobail - The Festival of the People was born. Out went the annual internment bonfires (or so they hoped!) and serious rioting. In came a festival featuring myopic propaganda short films and amateurish plays along with community and sports events with a heavy Pro-Provo agenda (e.g. Mairead Farrell camogie tournament and Bobby Sands Cup football competition) along with rabble rousing 'rebel music' celebrations, masked (sic) by seemingly inclusive but decidedly loaded panel debates with invites accorded to members of the media and 'from a Unionist background' useful idiots to front these 'impartial' debates. The aim of the festival, then as now, was to push the Republican agenda, divert political discourse to the Republican wish list and latterly but sinisterly radicalise and brainwash future generations of young West Belfast Catholics into total acceptance and undying loyalty to the Republican cause. Central to this was (and is) the traditional last night of the Festival, an evening of ballads, rabble rousing bigotry and visceral hate designed to legitimise the murderous actions of the IRA, their legacy and the dehumanisation of everything and everyone British.

It may come as no surprise that 'Feile' is heavily reliant on the public funding it receives. Principle funders include Belfast City Council and Tourism Northern Ireland. Other funders include; Community Relations Council, National Lottery Fund and, unbelievably, Children in Need.  Questions must be demanded by the Unionist Community regarding future funding being allocated to this hate fest by these bodies and charities. Perhaps Children In Need would be better served diverting funding towards more suitable local groups such as victims groups containing members who were children when their fathers, mothers and loved ones were murdered by the very people lauded by those taking part in this event.

The silence is (as ever) deafening from the non-Unionist pact of political parties who make the annual habit of attacking and attempting to erode cultural community expression around Protestant and Unionist events such as Battle of the Somme commemorations, Eleventh Night and Twelfth of July celebrations. No better is expected from Sinn Fein and the SDLP but where is the condemnation from the so called middle of the road Alliance Party? Their Leader Naomi Long, Mr Naomi Long himself Michael Long and Emmet McDonough Brown are never shy of lambasting Unionist community cultural expression, so why the silence now?

Unionist Truth Forum call on all funders of this hate fest to withdraw funding immediately and redirect it to more wholesome and genuinely cross community initiatives and for all right thinking political parties to make their disgust heard by challenging future statutory public funding from Belfast City Council. It is the least all can do to prevent future hurt and insult suffered by the families and loved ones of the silent majority, the victims of Provisional IRA genocide.