The BBC Northern Ireland news website reported on the ‘performance’ of the Belfast rap (??) group ‘Kneecap’ at the Glastonbury ‘music’ gathering in Somerset, England.
The report reads:
“Belfast rap group Kneecap filled Glastonbury’s West Holts stage for a highly-charged performance that hit back at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with expletive-laden chants.
The Irish-language band have been in the headlines after rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying the flag of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah at a gig last year. He has denied the charge.
Last week, Sir Keir said Kneecap’s appearance at the festival was ‘not appropriate’.
On stage, the band thanked Glastonbury for keeping them on the bill and told the crowd the ‘prime minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play’.
Mr Ó hAnnaidh is on bail after a court hearing in London two weeks ago.
Towards the start of their set, the rapper – who was wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh – held his arms out to the crowd and announced, ‘Glastonbury, I am a free man!’
His bandmate Naoise Ó Cairealláin, who performs under the name Móglaí Bap, called the case “a trumped up terrorism charge”, adding that it was “not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system.”
He then implored fans to turn up to support Mr Ó hAnnaidh at his next court appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in August.
The event is an example of how the hierarchy of the British political system can be mocked in their heartland by those who ‘perform’ under the stage name of ‘Kneecap’, named after an IRA method of punishment meted out to those who break ranks with its murder campaign or are deemed to have in any way disparaged any of its leaders, they who should ever be ‘worshipped’ as heroes! The members of this ‘group’ also endorse Hamas and Hezbollah and, according to Piers Morgan, urge their fans to murder MPs!
The thousands of English fans were happy, it would appear, to support the mocking of their British Prime Minister and accept the attacks by Irish Republicans on ‘the British justice system’!
The INDEPENDENT newspaper reported that:—
“Police are assessing videos of comments made by Bob Vylan and Kneecap at Glastonbury to decide whether any offences may have been committed.
Rapper Bobby Vylan, of rap punk duo Bob Vylan, led crowds on the festival’s West Holts Stage in chants of: ‘Free, free Palestine’ and: ‘Death, death to the IDF’, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans ‘start a riot’ outside his bandmate’s upcoming court appearance.
In a post on social media, Avon and Somerset Police said: ‘We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon.’ ”
This punk duo is English! Yet they readily ally themselves with the IRA-glorifying trio from Belfast and vilify all things British!
Death Wish
This is in keeping with the general drive toward the destruction of the morale and culture of our society, which seems to be the present Government’s policy. Illegal immigrants, many of whom are criminals and prove this to be so by almost immediately committing the most heinous crimes on British citizens on arrival on our shores and getting arrested for their crimes, are quite literally ‘wined and dined’, at the expense of the British taxpayer, in hotels taken over in order to provide accommodation for them!
It is almost daily reported that there are areas on the mainland that have become ‘no-go areas’, to white citizens and the police. One headline ran as follows: ‘Tory MP Paul Scully claims there are ‘no-go’ areas in Birmingham and London.’
Another headline stated: ‘Eamonn Holmes says there are ‘no-go areas’ in UK . . .’
Yet another ran as follows: ‘Among the Mosques: Author’s study of Muslim Britain reveals a no-go area for white people, children ‘attacked for being white’, parents making families live under Taliban-like rules and women who can’t leave home without permission.’
Government sources and also ‘liberals and snowflakes’ deny that such areas exist but then, we here in Ulster, for years were told the same lie regarding certain areas into which police and soldiers had to be ferried by helicopter because it was to court death to attempt travelling into those areas by road!!!
Over the years, in sermons and articles, I sought to illustrate the prevailing policy of the British government in Northern Ireland in the face of the IRA murder campaign in this way: If a landlord has a tenant who has a legal tenancy agreement which makes it impossible for that tenant to be evicted, then he will adopt other means to accomplish his objective in getting rid of the unwanted occupant!
When there is a leak in the roof, the landlord ignores the request for repairs as long as he can. When a window is broken the tenant must put up with the cold draft as the landlord dithers about repairs. Should there be an infestation of vermin then the tenant must just endure the landlord’s excuse-making and procrastination! The tenant must ‘put up’ with such failures by the landlord to fulfil his legal obligations until life becomes unbearable and the tenant leaves!
Britain refused to move against the IRA, as its military were all too capable of doing, and wipe out the terrorist very quickly. They used the IRA to brow-beat Protestants and Unionists into concession after concession to Republican terrorists, until we have arrived at the position of an ‘IRA honouring’ bunch of Sinn Feiners now ensconced in Stormont and with the cowering Unionists, who once declared that ‘power-sharing with Sinn Fein/IRA would take place over their dead bodies’, in willing subservience to their rule!
I recall back in the 1980s, a policeman coming to my home to warn me that an attempt was going to made on my life by a South Armagh IRA unit. I was told where it might happen. I immediately asked him that if such detailed information was available, how was it that such intelligence was not used to utterly defeat the IRA. All I got by way of an answer was an unembarrassed shuffling of the feet of the policeman!
The information that the police had obtained was accurate to the last detail and I would have been murdered, except for the intervention of the Lord, I might add.
Short time later
It was but a few days later, on my way to Stormont, where I was serving as one of the members of the Stormont Assembly for Fermanagh/South Tyrone constituency, I observed a car overtaking me as I drove toward Belfast on the M1 motorway, close to the location where I was warned to watch out for anything suspicious. As it passed me, I saw it was occupied by two bearded men in brown boiler suits. I recognised the ‘uniform’ of the assassin. After a shooting, the boiler suit would be burned to destroy gunshot residue, etc. Such knowledge was part and parcel of every day life in Ulster during the ‘Troubles’!
When the vehicle passed me, I immediately overtook it and accelerated away, for I was driving a car capable of speed well over 100 mph. Within a few miles I decided to leave the motorway at Lisburn and use a back road into Belfast. As I did that, I immediately came up behind what I recognised as an armoured police car and which had Dr Ian Paisley as its passenger. I knew the police guards and they recognised my car and so I tailed them on the Hillhall Road to the A55, the Belvoir dual carriageway. As we arrived at the set of lights where the carriageway crossed the Ormeau Road, they were at ‘RED’. I stopped immediately behind the police car. Within seconds the car with the ‘boyos in brown boiler suits’ pulled up on the outside lane and stopped just at my driver’s door.
I immediately knew what was about to happen and readied myself for that event. However, providence was at work. The would-be assassins had quickly spotted the police car which, although unmarked, was still easily identified by the dark window glass which was bullet proof. Consequently, no move was made to shoot me but as soon as the lights changed to green, the car, a yellow Mazda, did a fast ‘u-turn’ and sped off down the carriageway in the direction from which they had just come. I was able to alert the police car and give the number plate of the Mazda and the police radio within seconds informed us that the car was travelling under false licence plates!
I travelled on the five miles to Parliament Buildings at Stormont and when I got there, I did what I always did when arriving. I went into my party’s rooms and got out my Bible to tread one of the chapters appointed by the Robert Murray M‘Cheyne’s Bible Reading Calendar. It was Psalm 118 that I read. I know the day that this incident took place for Psalm 118 is the appointed reading for June 21 each year. I believe strongly that it was forty years ago in 1985, but I cannot be absolutely sure.
I read the following in the verse 17 of that Psalm: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.”
I cannot possible describe my feelings as I read those words but I do still sense them afresh again on every June 21st as I read the words again, the same sense of joyful contentment and confidence in the Lord’s merciful watchcare, even after forty years!
I do not relate this incident for any other reason than to illustrate the degree of accurate intelligence that existed within the ranks of the security forces. Had it been acted upon, the IRA terror machine would have been destroyed in a very short time.
But instead of doing that, successive Westminster governments used the IRA as a means of breaking the will of the Unionist people in order that they might get rid of Northern Ireland. The desire to be rid of us was clearly stated in the record of 1970 Cabinet papers. The Belfast Telegraph of 2nd January 2001, reported that: ‘FURTHER Cabinet papers released in London and Dublin have revealed how precarious the position of Northern Ireland became as violence escalated in 1970. The Tory government under Edward Heath gave active consideration to pulling out of Ulster, leaving the region “to sink or swim as best it could”.
The policy pursued since the beginning of the ‘troubles’ in 1968, entailed the permitting of the cruel and callous murder of hundreds of men, woman and children by the IRA. Widows and widowers were condemned to sorrow and grieving. Children were callously orphaned and left without mothers or fathers. Ulster’s Protestant community was baptised in anguish, sorrow and pain in order that the British government might break the will of the loyal Protestant people and bring about a slow surrender to the murderous forces of Irish Republicanism. The dying embers of Ulster’s Unionism, smouldering in Stormont, is all that is left of a once stalwart and loyal community!
Of course, the British government traitors were aided in this evil treacherous back-stabbing by successive governments in Dublin and by the European Union and, on occasions, by US Presidents like John Kennedy and Joe Biden!
However, ‘the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small’! London will reap what it has sown. That is the promise, the decree of God! “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting,” Galatians 6:7-8.
The harvest of BETRAYAL that London governments sowed is ripening fast! A report by the Daily Mail (4.6.25) suggests that “the white British population will fall from 73% to 57% by 2050, becoming a minority by 2063. Some analysis indicates white British children may be a minority in primary schools between 2030 and 2035.”
It will be as it was with sinful, God-defying Israel long ago.
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD,” Judges 6:1-6.
In mercy God heard that cry and told them the reason for their misery and captivity.
“And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land; And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice,” Judges 6:7-10.
There followed a deliverance wrought under the leadership of Gideon. BUT we do not see any Gideon-like men around today! I believe the United Kingdom has come to that same state to which Judah came in the days of Jeremiah when the prophet was told by the Lord: “Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. Therefore pray not thou (Jeremiah) for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble,” Jeremiah 11:11-14.
“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil,” Proverbs 1:24-33.
But things are NOT DARK for the faithful believer. Like Noah and his family, they will be kept safe in God’s ark and be carried safely to the new world in which holiness reigns. The last line of that quote from Proverbs tells us this. “But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” We should observe what Peter said and see that we have a BRIGHT future! “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Peter 3:13.
The Lord will let rebellious man have his way and allow him to plunge onward and downward. That is how this age will end! BUT in the midst of that rebellion the Lord will preserve His faithful, believing remnant.
“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread,” Psalm 37:25.
“For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance,” Psalm 94:14.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness,” Isaiah 41:10.
The old chorus puts the matter well:
With Christ in the vessel,
We can smile at the storm;
Smile at the storm,
Smile at the storm.
With Christ in the vessel
We can smile at the storm
As we go sailing home
Believe it and rejoice as we await with patience the return of the Saviour.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)