as I walk down these streets

I go to a friends house as I am out of coffee and have no internet and such and of course they have a grand esspresso/ latte machine plus they generally kick ass and such, and we make our, or should I actually say my coffee and spark up a smoke.

She is bringing me up to date on all that has been going on in Kitchener since I have been gone and is telling me about the loss of three people from the heroine epedemic, how a friend of ours didn’t get an apartment due to the fact that the window overlooks the dumpster where the body of their friend was found, NAZIS handing out leaflets door to door on Nov. 11 and as we continue to discuss the current on the ground material reality I realise why it is now the hate crime capital and called the second worst place to move to etc.

She asks me if I have heard from a friend that we both know who she is concerned for, i told her I have not spoke to him in a bit and she is telling me that he looks right skinny and dodgy in his fb photos which may mean he’s back on the meth. We chat a bit more and I ask for a smoke for the road and start walking downtown.

I see some one bugging out on meth, a right fucked up tweaker, and as I continue to walk down King St. I see old friends with track marks huddling in a doorway to escape the cold, there eyes are glazed and its clear they are nodding off unaware of there surroundings. I meet my friend for a coffee at the commons and am literally asking myself what draws me to this city, why am I so invested in this city, am I just banging my head against the wall? Wasting my time and energy and like Sisyphus pushing a rock just to have it role down again?

I go to chat with some friends from out of town and we are are just talking what the agenda is for the work we set for ourselves for this coming year and he is like it must be amazing living there, the shit you guys do and can pull off as well as the support that you guys have, and I smirk and squish my eyes like what this person says is crazy, but he presses the point to me look at the community, where else can you walk down the street and just grab ten people at random and be like do you want to take over the minister of social services office and they are like sound and actually know what they are doing, where else do you have a situation where you have the level of political education that exists among street youth, where else do you have the sense of community and comradery that you do here. I reply that all this shit comes at a really high cost.

I go on my way and think about something i heard the other day, through damnation lies freedom. We are fucked, we have nothing really to lose and as such we are free. We can pull of crazy shit in defence of our rights because crisis creates necessity and necessity creates theory that leads to action. The contradictions are so apparent that there is no sandpapering them and you don’t have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing, The shitty conditions and lack of support from the state creates a vaccum that needs to be filled, it is clear that things cant go on the way they are going, and the combination of these material conditions is an explosive combination that allows those who are willing to act with analysis to actually have an impact and make real change and I guess that’s what draws my to Kitchener. Let others have there theory or discussions or pandering to the students, I will take Kitchener organizing any day because it is real, it is grimmy and you can catually impact change without compromising your principles or sandpapering the contradictions.

Conestoga College and other institutions of higher learning get flyered #JFTC2

Today three groups of three went to the various Universities and such, including Conestoga college to flyer around the case of The Craigavon Two. The reception at Conestoga College was really positive as over 200 flyers were handed out in a short period of time. We were then accosted by a security guard who told us we needed permission to flyer so we went with him to get said permission. The woman at the desk was friendly until she saw the flyers at which point her face changed and was like no. We thanked her for her time and continued to flyer at the mall across the street. Since we had seven flyers left and the last flyers are always the hardest to get rid of we put them on cars. This coming Wed. Students from Conestoga College are invited to learn more about this at The Queen Street Commons at Four.

Thoughts on the demo in solidarity with Ferguson today

i could write about the demonstration or the speakers or the march or the die in in front of the courthouse. I could my thoughts on the significance of the action or the two stupid racists that were harassing people. Instead im going to write about idealists and negative impact they have on the movement. Idealists see the world as they think it should be, they negate the reality as it presents itself and instead feel that THEIR ideas and world view is what the issue is. By doing this they ignore the material conditions that they confront and by doing this create this bubble of alienation where they have no idea what the story real is. This sort of worldview allows them to hold on to their privileged and hold onto whatever illusions they have because they see the world as they think it should be as opposed to what it is and by doing this are negating the experiences and reality’s of those who are forced to deal with things as are not as they should be. The reality is that cops shoot people and kill them, this is based on the racist system that we live in this system empowers people who benefit from this and n o matter of shock or white guilt or ohhh my god is going to change this. Until the material conditions that allow white supremacy to thrive change there will be many more deaths and no amount of refusing to see things as they are will change this. In other words the real block to change are not those who are actively perpetrating racist genocide as much as those who choose to be blind and ignore it so that they may not rock the boat or lose the privileged. The good germans who stood outside the gate of auschwitz and said nothing because the material conditions of the nazi genocide did not fit into there world outlook and did not have time to think so called negative thoughts

Home Home Again

After going through kkkanadian customs and such I was greeted by a friend who drove me to the subway station. It was really good to see a friendly face and the fact that they tossed me a wee bit of money to get on my feet was also good (the first thing i bought was of course smokes and coffee). Due to the heat at the airport we decided to leave and told other people not to meet us and that i was grand.

The past week I have been simply hanging out and trying to adapt myself to the present reality while not jumping into things right away. Yet despite this and my self imposed nerdome isolation reality has a way of sinking weather it be getting off the subway and seeing an ambulance and stretcher and cops picking up an od or fb msgs from friends in Kitchener telling me that all is not well, the isolation began to crack and it became obvious to me that this would not last.

When I was abroad all I could do was think of all the fucked up things in Kitchener from police to poverty to violence and how much I hate it, checking your fb or using a friends phone and dealing with crisis after crisis after crisis. What happened at Conestogo College the other day is a perfect example of this. The other night I was at a friends for most of the night due to the fact that someone threatened to kill her and then kill her kids (which she does not have) and has been told that she will never be safe in this neighborhood, we chatted about fascists visting peoples work places to intimidate them and who died since I left. The weather outside is freezing and due to the lack of shelters and the closing of the out of the cold program we are preparing for more people to die from exposure etc.

Yesterday when I was having a coffee my friend told me I looked totally exhausted and Im like fuck Kitchener, she replied but I live here and your glad to see me right, which of course I have acknowledged, still I am looking forward to going back to my apartment in Toronto, turning on the vampire diaries or Dr. Who and just nerding out.

Yet while i was sitting in bed trying to read Dragonlance, my mind was going a hundred miles a minute. Kitchener is a fucken shithole, yet it is because Kitchener is a shithole that we have a serious sense of community, that we defend our community and mobalize to solve each others problems. It is the shithollyness of Kitchener that produces the type of people who are willing to put there necks on the line no matter what cost. When people from Kitchener talk about our survival programs and political programs people are amazed as if there is something in the drinking water that creates amazing community but the reality is that the bleakness of Kitchener that forces people in a position where they must either choose to accept things as they are or work hard to change them. The bleakness economic crisis and repression actually creates the conditions that allow people to do what must be done to change things and in that process community is created. The more i thought about it the more i realised that the reason we can do the things in kitchener that we do is because we have popular support that comes not from books or such but rather from our direct reality.

I think about the people from Kitchener from my dad who hates politics but loves me enough to send me money that he does not have to have smokes and such on the emerald isle because I am his beloved son and his love for me is so unconditional that he will help me when I am down even though I am a political person and a heretical pelagianist .

I think about my neighbors who will drive all the way to toronto in a serious storm to make sure i get here for my radio show, or political meeting and think of all others in the community who will give anything to support each other even if they have nothing and realize this is what Kitchener is, a community that gets stepped on kicked around yet will get up and fight back leaving no one to fend for themselves.

Community is not something that grows on trees but rather is a direct result of marginalized people realizing that no one else will solve there problems therefor they must take social responsibility. As I am writing this and thinking about all the lessons I have learned on the emeralde Isle from the need to consolidate all anti colonialists under one banner to the need to find breathing space, to rejecting knee jerk reactions I am waiting for my neighbour to wake up so as we can have coffee (my fifth on an hour) chat, and conspire to build community.

What is Conestoga College Trying To Hide #JFTC2

Today at 9 am I was to speak at Conestoga College to a group of students about my activism. My one request was that beside myself a speaker from The North Of Ireland was to accompany me and speak(via phone) about the situation over there particularly about the case of the Craigavon Two. This was approved by the Prof. et al and a recording of myself and Packy Carty was made and played for the students. Today Angela Nelson a councilor from Lisburn, Belfast was suppose to join me and bring up the facts of this case. After being rung and told to show up one hour early I arrived at the campus to find out that this was not to be as a decision was taken at the highest level to not allow this to happened.

This decision is clearly an attempt to stop students from learning the reality of what is going on in the Occupied Six Counties, particularly around the case of the Craigavon Two which is a clear cut miscarriage of justice aimed to criminalize and demonize all those who would seek to engage in political discussion about an end to the Occupation. Why is Conestoga College, a place of learning co-towing to those who seek to stop the exchange of opinions and information? Why are they bowing down to those who seek to censor information from reaching the students whom they are suppose to be educating? Why is the only opinion that is allowed to reach the people of this territory the pro occupation home rule opinion. What is so dangerous about letting the students know that internment and miscarriage of justices are still happening in the occupied Six Counties? All students who have been denied this opportunity should be outraged that the powers that be feel that they should be spoon fed information and told what to hear and what not to hear. Colleges and universities should be places of learning not censorship and what happened this morning is a clear example of the later.

Swords Says No

AFter I got held by homeland security and then handed over and released to Irish Immigration, I did what anyone would do who has been held that long, rolled myself a cigarette grabbed a triple americano and headed to FB. It became clear to me due various random reason that I should get out of the airport despite the fact i put five euros in the fb machine. I hooked up with a comrade in Swords on fb, grabbed another coffee for the road and jumped into a cab to met this lad at his friends, where i was greeted with more coffee and smokes.

Those of you who have been lifted with me in the past know I am the most boring person inside but am as wired as a fox on twelve americanos when i get out, as I always tell myself in the back of my head that it’s too good to be true and any moment they will come back. This wee lad took full advantage of that one moment telling me to be calm and all will sort itself out and whenever I would go to can would kick on the door saying he was Guardia or PSNI or some other pigs giving me a heart attack only to crack up laughing at my reaction.

We headed to his house and his children were running all over the place having a great time speaking spanish and playing with my luggage. It was quite endearing and sweet to see them so happy counting in Irish and what not playing video games and such.

After the kids went to bed he called a friend over and after a bit more coffee and quite a few more smokes we started to chat serious politics. I show him my paper work and after we curse out the fuckers joking and what not we start talking about austerity imposed by the IMF and sanctioned by the free state. Both of my comrades were telling me the history of the housing estate, how one in every four homes is in two years arrears, the theft of the wealth by the bankers and how people are totally fed up. The current flash point around this being the water meters. For those of you that don’t know the current free state government is trying to extort the people of Ireland further to pay for the bailouts by taxing the one thing that all people need, WATER. The idea is that they will install these meters and tax people for the water that they consume despite the fact that the Irish people are already taxed for this and other services to the brim. The people of Ireland on mass are saying FUCK NO to this. Now when say people Im not talking about the SWP, or WSM or the alphabet soup that calls itself the left, Im talking about mothers and grandmothers and people who have never been to a protest in their life saying no they will refuse to pay. People who may not have the proper lingo and such but know that they are getting screwed over and understand that Peirce and Connelly did not die for this.

As we start looking at videos of these and I hear more it is quite clear that there is no way that the government will last until Christmas and if it does it will definitely putter until Easter when it will collapse and the ruling partys will go where they belong in the dust bins of history.

We chat some more and the more we talk the more clear it becomes that what the Free state has on its hands is a mass movement of ordinary people who are willing to engage in acts of civil disobedience because they are sick of being fleeced. With Christmas right around the corner and bills coming in, it was explained to me the contradictions will only intensify.

We eventually go to bed and as always I am having a hard time getting to sleep, revolution is in the air and all I can think is that Homeland security did me a favour keeping me one more day on the Emerald Isle and letting me see the cracks that will eventually lead to the demise of the free state

Thoughts on Gary Donnelly and the recent attempts to criminalize his politics

When I was down their the talk of the town was about the recent arrest of City Councilor, member of 32CSM, Community organizer and staunch Republican Garry Donnelly for painting a slogan against Internment. The talk within the bourgeoisie press over there is to strip him of his role as city councilor as well as stopping people like him from getting elected (in other words even at a local level if the Irish people decide to vote for someone who represents there interests this is a crime a must be stopped at once, how dare they get so uppity and vote for whom they choose) and as it stands for trying to get a msg out he is facing about 6 months in jail.

Despite popular support on the ground and revulsion from those I chatted to about this, it seems that the British Occupation is continuing this political persecution as an attempt to silence this man and the msg he is trying to get out. What I will attempt to do to those who do not follow what is going on there and are totally baffled about this is explain who I think he is and why he is being silenced. While I admit Mr. Donnelly is not my best friend and only chatted with him a few times I hope to explain my impressions of him and the work that he does and why the Brits would try to sabotage this.

The first time I met Gary, whom to me is a hero was at the Easter Commemoration last year in Derry. I knew who he was from chatting with other people as well as youtube videos, spotlight etc. From the work he does in the Creggan Community mobilizing people to solve the problems that the community is facing by working in the community itself to identify the problems and create solutions, particular with vulnerable sectors people thought I should have a wee chat . Those who know me know that when I am in awe of someone I start either ranting like an Idiot or sit quietly and say nothing. When the people from Belfast saw sitting meekly not chatting or asking any questions they were surprised because once you know me I never shut and were being like now is not the time to be shy. I sat at the CCC watching listening and admiring but said nothing as I drank coffee after coffee, he came up to me and made a comment about my army hat and Guevaraism and I gave a reply about my support for the Irish Struggle and the 32’s on the basis that in the era of conciliation true Republicans are rejecting this and still holding high their banner, though it probably sounded stupider then that.

After making a bit of a fool of myself we went on the march to the commemoration where he gave the key address. He proceeded to identify the social and political issues in the occupied six counties quoting the unemployment rates , pointed out the flaws in the Adams et al approach and than proceeded to throw down the gauntlet by asking the question what is their (adams et al) strategy, point out how they have no other strategy then the strategy of normalization he then proceeded to outline the true republican strategy which is to mobilize then men and woman of no property to solve their own problems and reject the failed model of conciliation.

Over the next few months I have chatted to him a few times about the work that he does, particularly in the Creggan Area with groups such as the Creggan Community Collective, finding solutions to the drugs problem to sorting out people who need furniture clothing etc. and have had him one my radio show once to discuss his election to city council and the significance of this as evidence that real Republicans do have the support of the community. Most recently I saw him in Derry at a public meeting and unfortunately only had a few moments to chat about the work that we are doing here, the work that they are doing there and solidarity and what not. As the armored cars drove by (quite a few in the short time to puff on a few smokes) and we chatted it my impressions of him were confirmed and the reason that the Brits see him as a threat were quite clear.

Donnelly is a salt of the earth guy whose politics are a reflection of the reality that he faces. As a member of the community and a Republican it is quite clear that he see that main contradiction in Ireland and the root of the problems from unemployment, to the drug scourge, policing poverty etc. stem from one thing and that thing is the British occupation. Still he does not stop there, from what I have seen he recognizes that just identifying the main contradiction and doing nothing is not the way forward and such engages in creating an alternative. Instead of relying on crumbs off of the masters table to deal with poverty drugs etc, he goes to the community and engages the community to create the alternative by relying on themselves and as such shows the community that the answer lies not in conciliating or looking to the colonizer for answer but rather to mobilize those of no property to solve their own [problems and by doing that rejecting the paradigm set up by the colonizer that the colonized must be passive and await for solutions as opposed to determining their own affairs. He is articulate charismatic and clearly has popular support.

In other words he is the total opposite of what the media portrays true republicans, he is not a mad man stuck in the past full of bloodlust and anger but rather someone who has taken it upon himself to look at the present conditions and engage which the reality as it presents itself.

This makes him a dangerous man and as such he must be silenced. His arrest and criminalization has nothing to do what it is alleged that he has done, but rather everything to do with silencing him and teaching people a lesson, which is if you dare to speak of an Irish Republic, if you dare challenge the brits or try to determine your own affairs you will targeted and neutralized. To the people who voted for him the msg they are trying to send is clear, you humiliated us by voting for someone we did not approve of, we will make sure this will never happened again, go home now and pretend everything is normal.
unfortunately for the British people of the caliber of Donnelly don’t take well to an illegal occupation telling them what to do, nor are the Irish people stupid enough to ignore one more attack on there political rights by an illegal occupation.

New Lodge

So im driving back from Craigavon and we are stopping for a coffee, and plus i needed some smokes and what not. My friend tells me this is not a place to talk politics so i shut up and we grab a coffee, and a pack of smokes called sovereign, which is actually kinda a joke given that these smokes are produced by the occupation and what not. I light a smoke, roll down the wimdow and we continue our discussion which is randomly talking about everything from pelagious vs. st. augustine, to the drug problem in Kitchener, to normalization etc.

We enter Belfast and start chatting about some of the work the community has been doing esp. around New Lodge and after we drop some lads off we enter New Lodge. The first thing that struck me was how beautiful and clean it was. My comrade start telling me how awhile back this place was full of needles, drug addicts, social violence and what not. He takes me to the grotto of Our Lady, which was full of weeds and overgrown and now was an amazing and clean and such. He tells me he will give me a few moments to do my voodoo, which was his way of poking fun at the contradiction between my dialectic materialist outlook and my belief in things such as the immaculate conception etc., I kneel down ask the virgin to keep me out of trouble or if do get into trouble that I get out of it quickly and say a few hail marys and I see my comrade chatting to a community resident who invites us up for a cup of tea.

He introduces me to his wife and his dogs and what not then he starts talking about the work they did to clean up the community and the role that the 32 s played in this. They start talking about getting a Christmas tree and such with the names of those who died in the struggle and such. I find out that the grotto was not damaged once during the height of the conflict, only to fall into disrepair and neglect until Republicans and members of the community came together and took social responsiblity. We chatted a bit more than we left.

Monday night I returned with my friends and saw the community getting together to pray the joyful mystery of the rosary. Older, members of the community coming out and practising their beliefs without fear of violence and anti social thuggery. I say a few more prayers to keep me out of serious trouble then I look at the mural and the clean up done by the community and the 32 s and such. This social project and community clean up was achieved without any conflict or violence or attacks on those led wayward as a result of the drug problem, who in many cases are themselves victims of the social conditions brought on by the betrayal of the struggle and movement by those now implementing cuts in Stormont and I keep on thinking to myself THIS IS WHAT THE MEDIA AND THE BRITS DONT WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW!!!!! It is the Republicans who are stepping forward and sorting out the problems that community is facing, NOT THE PSNI, NOR SF, NOR THEIR PUPPETS. It is the Republicans that are going to community finding out what the problems are and resolving these contradictions by going to the people and being part of the people.

In other words the Republican movement are the only ones solving these problems because they are creating what is new through pushing forward their vision of what a united Ireland will look like through creating the type of society they are fighting for and not waiting for some glorious moment to start. These people of the caliber of the 32’s and such are building a united Ireland not by spouting rhetoric or saying why everyone else is wrong but rather by identifying the obstacles that stand in their way and removing them through organizing the community and taking social responsibility.

This is what the media does not want you to know and why the border service and others will do what they can to silence the truth, which is that Republicanism is not something outside of the community or something from the past but rather Republicans are not only part of the community but in fact play a key role in the community as those who lead by example and are those who look at the present conditions and try to solve them never losing sight of the fact that the main contradiction is the colonialist occupation, yet not sitting around waiting for coloialism to magically disappear before they start creating the type of society that they want.

Where them Loyalist drums do beat

So im gonna write what i remember from the Emerald Isle over the next few days, as i could not get the stories out when i was down there, this here piece is about Ardoyne an Irish enclave surrounded by loyalist death squads, RUC and such.

Its about 7ish or so and its dark outside, as many of you know Im a heavy smoker and as the situation would arise I ran out of tobacco and really needed a smoke, the person I was staying with decided to go for a walk with me to get a pouch of tobacco, so we start walking to the spur I think its called, sort of like a corner store at the top of the hill that has a subway and what not, right close to the twaddel, which is a interface i think its called and is controlled by loyalists on the other side.

Given that the person I was staying with was a true Republican on the way to store we had to go and sort some people out and make sure that they were looked after. I put on my new kicks, the first pair of adidas I owned which the lads have given me, go outside and am bombarded by the sound of drums and what have you and I ask my friend if its the loyalists, which he says aye.

We go visit some people and make sure that they have food, and are doing ok and its really interesting to see the impact that living in the Ardoyne has on people. It is quite clear that decades of the conflict, which is not over, has severely caused trauma and has had a serious impact on everyone’s life. From the woman whose husbands have been snatched and interned by the brits, to the young lads facing severe harassment from the RUC, to the people living in an area surrounded by loyalist death quads that are still active, it is quite clear that the conflict has not only affected those interned murdered or brutalized but all strands of Irish society in what is refered to as part of the murder triangle.

We keep walking up the hill, chatting with people and all I can hear is the loyalists drums continuously beating as a reminder to all living in the area that they are surrounded on all sides by people whose core ideology is no diffrent then the klan, the ideology that they by the fact that they are loyalists are superior to Irish people and if the Irish “forget their place” they will be their to remind them.

Despite this my friend keeps on doing visits and sorting people out and in this i get to see that despite this, or maybe because of this, their is a serious sense of community and those that class themselves as legitimate Republicans are the ones sorting out and solving the problems that the community is facing. From conflict resolution, to taking care of the vulnerable segments of society, to helping a former comrade who has fallen on hard times it is the Republicans that are stepping up to the plate and taking social responsibility.

We finally get to the tops of the street and grab some smokes, and of course you can see the interface full of armored cars protecting and facilitating this racist attack on peoples right to exist. The so called police force look like something out of a bad star wars movie and no one in their right mind would class them as any sort of peace protectors as their cars and uniforms clearly show them for what they are an occupational force serving and protecting the interests of of the colonialist state and yet the drums still beat.

We go back and I have convinced my friend to watch walking dead which put the lad to sleep and gave me time to think and puff away making his house smell like a bad bar full of stale smoke and what have you, and the more I think I the more i start to sort out that it serves the interests of the state to hide all the positive community work done by Republicans. It serves their interests to silence these story’s of the community trauma and those who are stepping up to the plate to solve it. The state and media love the idea that Republicans are bloodthirsty monsters who are living in the past and only want to kill. They love the idea of dehumanizing these brave folks, for by dehumanizing them they can then attempt to discredit and neutralize them on a world stage. What is the biggest threat for them is the truth coming out that these Republicans are principled people and defenders and protectors of their community looking to solve the problems that they are confronted with and that the communitty knows and supports this and furthermore it is the colonialists that have introduced the gun into Irish politics. Still I am thinking about the sound of the drum, the sound that so many are use to, the sound that the loyalists claim is part of their culture but in reality is part of sectarianism funded and promoted by the British State.

Yet the problem is more complex as I learned from another comrade as he was giving me a ride. The sectarian violence promoted by the British state if one looks at it doesn’t benefit the loyalists in a practical way, it does not raise their standard of living, nor does it give them education or benefit them, but rather diverts from the real issue that they too have been left behind by their leaders who have taken the appeasement money and set up shop as drug dealers and thugs and that they have no future in a British state, and will also be thrown to the wolves when it suits the crown. The Brits don’t want them they are pawns to be discarded when they are no longer useful. At the moment their role is turn the conflict into a sectarian war, where the brits can try to make themselves look like “peacemakers” as opposed to occupiers which they are. This trap and provocation is not one that Republicans will ever fall in as they are guided by ideals and principles of community building and are engaging in a struggle for the right to determine their own destiny and as such are focused on one thing Sovereignty. This belief sustains them in the face of all of this and as such will eventually triumph.

Ohh its hard to speak your mind boys……in the promised land!!!

So i entered Dublin Airport, checked in my bags and what not, grabbed myself a triple americano and chained smoked three ciggys, I went on facebook, then started to go through customs, after going through a few places I ended up at US pre clearing, they ran my passport and told me to enter a room, there were three people other then me in there and they seemed to be getting through despite them having records or what not, so I felt grand, then I saw them bring in my luggage and mention a section of the code, which later turns out to be very relevant.

They called my name, and asked what I was doing in Ireland, to which I replied chatting with friends and having a craic, to which they asked if i have ever been arrested, to which I answered truthfully, they asked about the chocolate milk and conspiracy stuff then told me that I was denied entry under this section, which is not about criminal records but something much more insidious.

I asked for my luggage at that point and to get out but they told me that I was on U$ soil and as such homeland security was detaining me for questioning. I asked to call a lawyer but was denied this right. They put me in a wee little room, took my finger prints and mugshot. After that the lad said he was with homeland security and started to ask me various questions, all of which I answered no comment, except to state that this was political and I also gave a cheecky answer at some point in time. For the majority of this time I was denied the right to use the washroom except once , before the interrogation. They kept up ripping up the questions and asked them again, and though I was looking bored, as one should, I was like fuck, no one knows i’m here everyone thinks im flying back home, they can through me away and none would be wiser. Tghis little charade went on for quite some time, after which they were finally satisfied with boring me by asking the same stuff over and over.

Homeland security then began to go through my luggage photocopying and photographing everything, including my perscriptions medical history bus tickets etc. When they came to glasswork of Stalin that was given to me the guys face turned run and I couldn’t help but start laughing. They asked me then about why I have some of the tablets I have and the one guy was like let me guess no comment, to which I continued to try to hide a shit eating grin. After this they said I could either withdraw my request to enter or there would be more. Given the shitty conditions in which i was held and the fact that no one knew I was there I decided to withdraw the application, as the alternative would have been detention by homeland security for much longer, possibly even to bring me in front of an american judge (if it works the same there as here).

I was then handed over to the Irish immigration, which stated that I have two days to leave and sort out a way back home. They took my picture and released me. After this I looked at my passport and they wrote some wierd code which i still haven’t figured out what it means.

Given the way I was treated as soon as they ran my passport and such it became clear to me that this detention was not only political but a continuation of the attempts to get the truth out about what is going on in the Six Counties. This attempt has backfired on them as I spent the nioght chatting with community members from sword about the craic with the water etc. I will be writing all I learned over the next few days and resist this attempt to criminalize politics and silence the truth