Margaret Ward

Grateful to the wonderful Feile an Phobail for the invitation to speak on Rebel Women of Belfast. A great audience, including relatives of some of the women. Past and present are very close & opportunities to talk about the difficulties of the past so important.

Fintan Ward Hillyard. 5 August 1985 - 16 December 2014. It would have been your 40th birthday today, beautiful man. “Time does not bring relief…I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him in the shrinking of the tide.” (Edna St Vincent Millay)

Brother of murder victim dies week after PSNI apology Eugene Thompson, the brother of Paul 'Topper' Thompson who was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1994 with suspected state collusion has died, just days after receiving an apology from the PSNI.

Yet more evidence of WM govt controlling the past in NI: closing formal routes to justice, preventing info on state collusion being shared with victims’ families, while spending extravagantly on discredited official history. Families, like Paul Thompson’s, deserve better. www.rte.ie/news/regiona...

‘Handala’ was illegally boarded by Israel military in international waters, around 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza.

Before interception the 21 crew made this statement: if attacked they will join the global hunger strike for Gaza.

Starvation in Gaza is destroying communities – and will leave generational scars Health and societal ramifications of extreme hunger will reverberate long after the war is over

“All these traumas are the reason why the Irish took almost 150 years before they could memorialise what they experienced in the 1840s. Those who inflict starvation are aware of this, they know that what they’re doing is actually dismantling a society.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

His gentleness.
I could weep.

And Israel will claim this as Hamas propaganda? Is the world waiting for more people to die?! And then there will be no more witnesses…

Sans intervention immédiate, les derniers reporters de Gaza vont mourir 21 juillet 2025 L'AFP travaille avec une pigiste texte, trois photographes et six pigistes vidéo dans la Bande de Gaza depuis le départ de ses journalistes staff courant 2024. Avec quelques autres, ils sont aujourd'hui les seuls à rapporter ce qu'il se passe dans la Bande de Gaza. La presse internationale est interdite d'entrer dans ce territoire depuis près de deux ans. Nous refusons de les voir mourir. L'un deux, Bashar, collabore pour l'AFP depuis 2010, d'abord comme fixeur, ensuite comme photographe pigiste, et depuis 2024 comme principal photographe. Samedi 19 juillet, il est parvenu à poster un message sur Facebook: « Je n'ai plus la force de travailler pour les médias. Mon corps est maigre et je ne peux plus travailler ». Bashar, 30 ans, travaille et vit dans des conditions égales à celles de tous les Gazaouis, allant d'un camp de réfugiés à un autre camp au gré des bombardements israéliens. Depuis plus d'un an il vit dans le dénuement le plus total et travaille en prenant d'énormes risques pour sa vie. L'hygiène est pour lui un problème majeur, avec des périodes de maladies intestinales sévères. Bashar vit depuis février dans les ruines de sa maison de Gaza City avec sa mère, ses quatre frères et sœurs et la famille d'un de ses frères. Leur maison est vide de tout aménagement et confort, à part quelques coussins. Dimanche matin, il a rapporté que son frère aîné était « tombé, à cause de la faim ». Même si ces journalistes reçoivent un salaire mensuel de l'AFP, il n'y a rien à acheter ou alors à des prix totalement exorbitants. Le système bancaire a disparu, et ceux qui pratiquent le change entre les comptes bancaires en ligne et l'argent liquide prennent une commission de près de 40%. L'AFP n'a plus la possibilité d'avoir un véhicule et encore moins de l'essence pour permettre à ses journalistes de se déplacer pour leurs reportages. Circuler en voiture équivaut de toutes les façons à pre…

🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.

They are out of energy and they are starving to death.

I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.

🧵

Michael Farrell He resigned from a European Human Rights Body after 15 years, the eminent Irish lawyer Michael Farrell explains why due to the ECRI'S failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Listen. Eminent human rights lawyer Michael Farrell on why he resigned from the ECRI, European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, due to its silence on apartheid Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. European institutions are truly complicit. #GazaGenocide
www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Birding highlight of the year.
One of the best birds in County Antrim.
Corncrake calling on Rathlin Island.
Also Puffins. 128 for County Antrim this year.
#birds

I’m delighted to read a review of Rebel Women in Fortnight. Many thanks to @hayleybrabazon.bsky.social for her thoughtful and perceptive comments.

'Defend the Right to Protest' rally to take place in Derry's Guildhall Rally in protest at British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's proscription of Palestine Action

🚨 BREAKING - Civil Disobedience in Derry this Saturday.

In opposition to the "biggest threat to civil liberties here since the civil rights movement was battered off the streets close on 60 years ago" - veteran civil rights activist Eamonn McCann

Full: www.derrynow.com/news/local-n...

1. Yesterday, 86 people were arrested in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action."
They are the opposite of terrorists. They were protesting *against* terrorism. 🧵

On the way to the shops with my grandsons. May they always love and support each other. I’m very conscious of all the children unable to do such a simple thing as they face the horrors of war & genocide.

Moving the Population in Gaza is a Manifest War Crime We wrote this essay to fulfill our human, conscientious, and civic duty, as Israelis – and as Zionists – who have expertise in areas related to the IDF’s order.

This objective is not about temporary concentration and … the purported goal of “defeating Hamas,” but rather concentration and evacuation as an objective in and of itself.

www.justsecurity.org/116459/israe...

Just received news that 27 people have been arrested in Parliament Square under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action".
This is real police state behaviour.

Great to be returning to our wonderful Feile in August - hope to see some of you at 1pm on the 8th when I’ll be talking about some amazing Belfast women.

Palestine Action (PA) will be proscribed at midnight under the Terrorism Act first introduced in 1974 - ‘Temporary Provisions’ in brackets! ‘Draconian’ and ‘unprecedented in peacetime’ (Roy Jenkins). 50 years on, anyone belonging to or supporting PA will be punishable by up to 14 years. Shameful.

😅😅

A picture of violence: The 27 women killed in four years In at least 20 of the 27 deaths, the killers - or the suspects in their killings - were well-known to the women.

A picture of violence @ItaDungan

27 women killed since 2020 in Northern Ireland as young pregnant mother Sarah Montgomery latest name to be added to devastating roll call. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Son of Bono?? Good for him. Wonder what his dad thinks? 🤔

British aid workers 'died from blast wounds' in Gaza - inquest James Kirby, James Henderson and John Chapman were killed in an air strike on 1 April.

The IDF killed three British aid workers last year.
The UK refuses to investigate Israel for killing its citizens but will investigate British people for cursing the IDF
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How times change - and not for the better! #freePalestine

In less than 2 weeks there will be bonfires all over the North with 'kill all taigs' on them. Along with effigies of politicians on them. No one will be prosecuted for this. I doubt Starmer will even talk about it.

So Palestine Action will be proscribed under terrorism laws, but government refuses to hold public inquiry despite court order into murder of GAA official, Sean Brown by terrorists some of whom were believed to be state agents. Look out for the Advan today.

A great, eloquent speech by John Gray, emphasising the urgency of restoration of the Assembly Rooms, which requires movement by Belfast City Council. So many exciting possibilities for the building, all enhancing Belfast’s future as a city.

It was a pleasure and an honour to launch After the Train and to have @belfasttelegraph.co.uk reproduce my speech. Do look out for this in the bookshops! 💪

Brilliant film, saw it in Just Books when it came out. Would love to see it again.

Escorting Danish friends around Crumlin Road Gaol today. History of suffragettes in the jail woefully inaccurate, wish they had consulted historians, but good to see Rebel Women in the bookshop @btpbooks.bsky.social