Nuala

Jamie, you're some buachaill. The gift that keeps on giving, thank you..... BREAKING NEWS: Jamie Bryson has discovered that the police possess intelligence. Evacuate Stormont and somebody get the man a documentary series on Netflix. You've gone from “the PSNI has intelligence concerning the PIRA” to “the police are under republican influence and covering it up” faster than it usually takes you to comment on here about something FFS, Jamie. Intelligence isn't proof of operational control, and refusing to disclose sensitive information publicly isn't automatically evidence of a conspiracy. But here's where the comedy really starts. The PSNI also raised concerns about potential loyalist paramilitary violence around Drumcree. Yet strangely, that didn't trigger one of your keyboard meltdowns. Not a peep about loyalist influence. No demands to bulldoze Stormont. No emergency declaration that democracy has collapsed. Meanwhile, the UVF and UDA haven't exactly packed their bags and moved to Bundoran. Loyalist paramilitary gangs are still intimidating communities, dealing drugs, extorting businesses, and exercising gangster-style control over the very people they claim to defend. But sure, why worry about actual families living under paramilitary intimidation when you can spend another afternoon chasing the ghost of Gerry Adams around Stormont? And Jamie, here's the bit that really deserves its own comedy special. You spend half your waking life demanding that the Shinners answer for its historical relationship with the IRA, yet you've had your own well-publicised associations with loyalist figures and have previously defended the UVF as “counter-terrorists”. And how's the self-appointed role as loyalism's great saviour going? You told everyone that either the Orange Order would march down Garvaghy Road or the Executive would fall. Well, the Executive is still standing, the OO didn't get its march, and you're still on X announcing the collapse of civilisation every time somebody opens a court file. We can slowly see people within unionism starting to ask whether this constant sectarian bile is helping them or is it making unionism and the OO look increasingly incapable of accepting that other communities have rights. Because what exactly are you offering society? All you are offering is another grievance? Another history lesson from a book? Another thread explaining why everybody except Jamie Bryson is responsible for the latest crisis? I am sure in your head, you think you are saving Loyalism/unionism, but there's a perfectly reasonable question of whether your brand of endless rants is doing the Orange Order and wider unionism more damage than any nationalist protest ever could. And being the loudest fella in the room doesn't make you the voice of a community. Sometimes it just makes you the reason everybody else has a headache. Now, before the next BREAKING NEWS announcement, perhaps have a cup of tea, put the phone down, and remember that not every police document is the beginning of the fall of Stormont.

This needs to be called out. “Unionists and loyalists are going to have to be called to Portadown.” What exactly is that supposed to mean? You spend days describing nationalists as a dangerous “mob”, accuse the Chief Constable of surrendering, claim the police have lost control, and then tell your audience that loyalists are going to have to be called to Portadown to “protect” the community. That is extraordinarily reckless mobilisation rhetoric in the middle of an already volatile public-order situation. If a Sinn Féin representative announced that republicans were going to have to be “called” to an area to protect nationalists from a loyalist “mob”, you and your mate Moore would be screaming about incitement and demanding police action. Nobody should casually declare this a criminal offence, that is for the PSNI and ultimately the courts. But the authorities should certainly be paying attention to language apparently encouraging opposing groups to mobilise at the same flashpoint. You cannot spend all week preaching about the rule of law and then start sounding like you’re assembling your own crowd because you don’t like how the police are handling it. If you want calm, call for calm. Don’t call for loyalists to Portadown, although it will be interesting to see if your pals in the DUP and TUV welcome your “call to portadown”