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The following headline appeared on the local BBC news site on Monday 22nd April, 2024.

 Joe McCann: Attorney general orders fresh inquest into Official IRA man’s death

The shooting of Joe McCann, fifty-two years ago this month, has been at the centre of an ongoing campaign by Republicans to have his death declared as murder.

This latest chapter in that controversy has stirred afresh for me memories of events some 58 years ago when providence placed me in the company of Joe McCann every day for three months.

I have written about that time before and this latest development prompts me to mount again the article I wrote back in 2016.

I am once again moved to ponder the merciful providence of God that brings men under the sound of the gospel and the all too common reaction of sinners to that mercy!

Below is the 2016 article I wrote on Joe McCann.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster
24th April, 2024

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Joe McCann, IRA gunman, and his three months under the gospel

by Rev Ivan Foster

The death of IRA man, Joe McCann, is once again in the news. Attempts are being made to put on trial those soldiers who were involved in the firefight when Joe McCann was shot by paratroopers. McCann (24) was commander of the Official IRA’s third Belfast battalion. In February 1972, McCann was involved in the attempted assassination of Ulster Unionist politician John Taylor. He was regarded by the security forces as a dangerous terrorist. McCann was shot by soldiers in disputed circumstances in Joy Street in the Markets area, close to his home, on April 15, 1972. One of the men, Soldier C, is a grandfather from Hampshire, England, who served with distinction for 23 years. “How can this be justice?” he asked. “It is a disgrace. I was doing my duty in Northern Ireland, trying to protect the public and keep the peace. Now I am being thrown to the wolves.”

I had a close association with Joe in the Crumlin Road Jail for three months in 1966. Most Free Presbyterians will, I hope, know that Dr Ian Paisley, Rev John Wylie and I, a second year student at the Free Presbyterian Theological Hall, spent 90 days in prison as a result of being prosecuted for our part in a protest against the ecumenism of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland on 6th June 1966. (more…)

The folly of the DUP in going back in to Stormont and, by so doing, re-activating the means whereby the enemies of righteousness that are the political parties in Ulster (with the exception of the one member of the Traditional Unionist View party, Jim Allister, who sits there) were able to push their evil agenda for the future generation in Ulster, was clearly demonstrated yesterday in a debate on a motion calling on the Education Minister to support ‘compulsory, standardised, inclusive, high-quality, evidence-based and age-appropriate relationships and sexuality education’ (RSE) in schools.

The motion was passed by the Assembly. The DUP may have opposed the motion — though it must be noted that there appears to have been no reference to God’s Word and the moral standards of behaviour and lifestyle which He has ordained and thereby there was a failing to set forth the true and only real basis of opposition to the evil supported by the motion.

In truth, despite their feeble opposition, the DUP made such a debate and such a decision possible in the Assembly by their RETURNING to Stormont and that on the basis of their deceitful claim that they had won the argument on the implementing of a border in the Irish sea (the reason for their withdrawal) which excluded Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom!

We are still excluded from the UK and the DUP won no victory at all despite their repeated claims of such! A recent report in the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ had the following statement: “Consignments of fresh seafood are being either impounded or sent back to Scotland at Belfast port thanks to the Protocol.”

So much for the DUP’s victory. What a party of lies and chicanery it is! (more…)

“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat,” 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

The Word of God presents a plan for life that is perfectly complete and ahead of the shifting sands of man’s social innovations and novelties.

The headline: “Benefits to be axed after a year on the dole to stop it becoming a ‘lifestyle choice’, Prime Minister announces” is but the declaring of a long-required response, though falling far short of what is needed, in the face of a social ill whereby schemers and scammers are provided with a comfortable ‘workless’ lifestyle by the Government at the expense of those who do work and pay taxes!

‘Skiving’ is nothing new. The excuses given range from the ‘cunningly ingenuous’ to the ‘lame brained’.

One trade union official, Paul Embery, is reported as offering the following stupid reason why some are right not seek work and instead live at the expense of others. “Many Britons are dissuaded from working due to its “mundane drudgery”. (See here)

There used to be a programme on the BBC radio, many years ago, called ‘Workers Playtime’.  It was transmitted by the BBC between 1941 and 1964. It was intended originally as a morale-booster for industrial workers during World War II.

Now it seems that ‘playtime without any work’ is what many demand!

Another such BBC radio programme was ‘Music While You Work’. It was a daytime radio programme of continuous music broadcast in the United Kingdom twice daily on workdays from 23 June 1940 until 29 September 1967.

Both of these broadcasting ventures were in order to aid workers often engaged in the most tedious of labours, especially during wartime and the subsequent demanding years of scarcity.

However, today sees the increasing notion that is held by some that they have a right to live and be entitled to a totally frivolous life at the expense of their neighbours!

From the words of our text it is obvious that it is not a new notion. The maxim that Paul quotes is founded upon an obvious truth   and is in accordance with the great law under which our Creator has placed us. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Genesis 3:19.

That law in the circumstances was benevolent, and it should be our aim to carry it out in reference to ourselves and to others. The law here laid down by the apostle extends to all who are able to work for a living but who will not do it, and binds us not to contribute to their support if they will not labour for it.

What Paul was instituting was a rule whereby the local Church should not offer support to those who could but would not work and earn a living. Instead they were happy to live off the ‘charity’ of others. That which the apostle so succinctly states as a law originating with God is poorly imitated by politicians in an effort to save public money at a time of austerity. The prime minister and those who support him are not moved by a desire to institute biblical morality! No, most likely unwittingly they are recognising the simple logical common sense of that which has its origins in heaven!

SUCCEED

Sadly, I do not think it will prove successful. The attitude of heart and mind that produces such selfish laziness is born within each person. It is an instinct of our depraved nature. Paul was teaching those who were but until recently, Grecian heathens. There was not the welfare provisions of today from which they could sponge. However, that did not stop some sitting all day in the sunshine at a street corner and begging of passers by. Most likely there were those who ‘advertised’ their needs either by mimicking illness or injury or exaggerating any physical complaint they may have had.

I will never forget my experience in downtown Nairobi when beggars of every form swarmed around me and those I was with. I later learned that oftentimes some of the dreadful injuries and deformities were evidently self-inflicted in order to promote pity on the part of those passing by!

I would have thought that employment was an easier route to obtaining food and clothing! (more…)