When does a dead-end settlement like Moygashel ever make the news other than this time of year, and for this exact reason? Now Macdara is not about to argue that one should cry over the fortunes of white settlers and give them what they want, far from it. He only wishes to ask the elites what the fuck they expect: as with the bloody settler states in North America or southern Oceania, we know enough to expect that a few centuries in, when violence is somewhat circumscribed (its goals having been accomplished), the people will look back fondly on a time when they could just take what they wanted. Interfere with a settler’s privilege and they will repeat what they know. Remember, threat is the baseline in a settler society; it is a given, the great fundamental. Violence is a tool always to hand, and regularly resorted to.

This year of course, the small Muslim population in the north east of Ireland, as well as other people of colour, must feel real fear, after the pogroms of June: what a sad state of affairs that in the year since Macdara wrote about Moygashel last, the single biggest piece of news from the Occupied Territories is a set of horrific race riots. The techniques perfected against Irish people were deployed against people of colour while the world wondered at the continuation of hate in “Northern Ireland”—they’re always at it!—and those who knew exactly what was going on talked about how hard it was to be certain as to what exactly was going on. How embarrassing then for the stewards of Partition and Occupation when an incident like Moygashel makes clear the racism of those installed by Empire to be racist.

Let us also note that former Colonist-in-Chief Jeffrey “Epstein” Donaldson has now been convicted. Firstly, the courage of those who were subject to the grossest acts of violence should be praised. Secondly, we should ask who knew what, and when, and assess what actions should be taken. Again, Macdara seems to be the only one pointing out that the Deputy First Minister of Part of Ireland is squatting in Donaldson’s seat: yes this woman too cowardly even to have stood for election was immediately gifted the seat of a paedophile rapist, and has shamelessly carried on occupying it through the entire process of his arrest and trial. This is the brazen behaviour of the settler: the least that can be said for her is that she certainly in that respect is an appropriate representative for her community—not to mention in her being the daughter of a Loyalist convicted of arms trafficking and terrorism-related conspiracy, who favoured apartheid not only in the north of Ireland, but also, as it happens, in South Africa.