Unionist. Tech/Sci-Fi geek. C64, Amiga, Raspberry Pi,Linux. Video Analytics & CCTV. Ulster-Scots. Lived in West Germany, Essex, Scotland & Ulster.
Mid-Ulster / County Tyrone
Joined October 2008
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Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Ulster Unionist Windsor Framework Spokesperson Dr Steve Aiken OBE MLA has criticised the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee after it agreed its inquiry report on the EU’s new Union Customs Code, which will apply in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework. Dr Aiken, a member of the Committee, said Alliance and Sinn Féin members had voted against taking action despite clear advice that the new code differs significantly from the regulation it replaces.
Dr Steve Aiken OBE MLA said:
“Today the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee rubber-stamped its inquiry report on Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, which establishes the new Union Customs Code. This introduces the most fundamental change to customs rules and regulations across the EU and, thanks to the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland. It will add significant cost, force companies to introduce additional digital systems, hand power to an EU digital customs super-agency (which we are going to be paying for), introduce the automatic adoption of rules and regulations, and build further barriers across the Irish Sea.
“Despite the very clear advice the Committee received that this replacement EU act differs significantly in content and scope from the regulation it replaced, the Alliance and Sinn Féin members voted against taking action to safeguard our constituents. Further, because of the Committee’s skewed membership, the final report will say there will be no significant impact on everyday life in Northern Ireland, despite clear evidence that there will be.
“Indeed, because of the Committee’s ‘rules’, we cannot even publish a dissenting opinion so that the business community in Northern Ireland can see that not every MLA is a slavish and unquestioning follower of EU diktats.
“To call this a travesty of process is an understatement. Despite the clearest advice on the impact the UCC will have – on every business and every consumer, on strengthening the Irish Sea border, and on further diverting and disrupting trade with our biggest market, our own country – Alliance and Sinn Féin have yet again put their ‘Brexit’ purity above the good of our people.
“Kafka, a European author, would have understood the absurd position in which Northern Ireland has been placed; it is a pity that this misnamed, completely incurious and vestigial committee cannot see the same thing. If the Assembly is looking for obvious savings, getting rid of this farce of a committee would be a good start.”
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Northern Ireland protocol
Robert McCartney KC: DUP must be clear that only full equal citizenship with rest of UK is enough | Belfast News Letter newsletter.co.uk/news/opinio…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
There was no reason for the Protocol. Even an EU committee suggested Mutual Enforcement but Irish government saw the advantages of dividing NI from GB in trade and the EU saw it as a way of punishing the UK for leaving and the UK government was hopeless in its negotiations. But the Windsor Franework is unsustainable as both Reform and The Conservatives now agree that it is.
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Patrick Stewart, the legendary British actor best known for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the long-running "Star Trek" TV series, has died. He was 86. cnn.it/3WzbMHy
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
I really can’t fathom someone like this who hates democratically-elected EU & US governments but never has a bad word to say about autocratic Russia. Sadly, he’s not the only one on this platform that has bought the Kremlin line on Ukraine. I am retiring from this exchange but will always give the benefit of the doubt to the world’s democracies.
'banal, meaningless slogans'
Western democracies just wiped out 00s of 000s of children in Gaza. So yes, I do hate the US and EU (governments). That's the reasonable response to support of genocide. In my name
50 yrs and you don't seem too clued in
ituc-csi.org/ukraine-ituc-co…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Taking away opportunity for those who might want it purely because…….the Brits.
Any wonder why people lose hope in Northern Ireland.
BBC News - Derry/Strabane council withdraws support for future jobs fairs featuring British Army
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6x2…
Presumably referring to the Northern Ireland Protocol Windsor Framework...a much better basis for collapsing the Assembly - a constitutional obscenity.
Carla Lockhart says a “half-way house” leaving Michelle O’Neill as FM insults voters & she must be removed from office. The MP accuses DUP of misleading its base before. "To my shame, I publicly went along with it, but I'm not prepared to do it anymore".
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Carla Lockhart says a “half-way house” leaving Michelle O’Neill as FM insults voters & she must be removed from office. The MP accuses DUP of misleading its base before. "To my shame, I publicly went along with it, but I'm not prepared to do it anymore".
belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Military History - Douglas Ricardo Beattie MC - Royal Irish Regiment ☘️🇬🇧
Taken from another platform.🙏
Doug Beattie was born in 1965 on a military base in Hampshire, the son of a warrant officer in the Royal Ulster Rifles. The family followed his father’s postings until Doug was ten, when they settled in Portadown, County Armagh. There were six children. His mother died young, and his father, by then serving with the Ulster Defence Regiment, raised them.
At sixteen, in 1982, Doug joined the Royal Irish Rangers. After training with the Junior Soldiers Battalion in Taunton he was posted to the 2nd Battalion in Wavell Barracks, Berlin, where his duties included guarding Spandau prison, then home to Rudolf Hess. The Rangers became the Royal Irish Regiment in 1992, and over the years that followed he served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq.
In Northern Ireland he was commended by the General Officer for his actions at Derryard permanent vehicle checkpoint in Fermanagh, the site of an IRA attack in December 1989 that killed two soldiers. In Bosnia his contribution to peacekeeping earned him the NATO Meritorious Service Medal.
By 2003 he was Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, serving in Iraq under Colonel Tim Collins. After the invasion he confronted a mob single handed and stopped them from lynching supporters of Saddam Hussein. It earned him the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery. He later served as an instructor at Sandhurst, and in 2005 he was commissioned from the ranks as a captain.
In September 2006, aged forty, Captain Beattie was sent to Helmand Province as part of an Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team. The task was to help Afghan forces retake Garmsir, a strategically important town held by the Taliban. His role was meant to be that of a mentor to the Afghan National Police, and the operation was expected to last forty eight hours.
From the opening moments of the battle it was clear that he could not advise from the back. He stayed in Garmsir for almost two weeks, fighting at close quarters, and at times he was one of only three men facing the enemy. In the end the operation failed. With support from senior commanders not forthcoming, he and the two other remaining British servicemen were forced to withdraw. For his bravery in those two weeks he was awarded the Military Cross.
He went back to Afghanistan twice more, and left the regular army in 2009 after twenty seven years, though he carried on serving in the reserves. He wrote about Garmsir in his first book, An Ordinary Soldier, published in 2008 and a bestseller, and drew on his later tour for Task Force Helmand. After his military career he moved into public life in Northern Ireland.
He began writing as a way of explaining to his wife and children what he had seen and done. He still describes himself as an ordinary soldier.
#BritishHistory #afghanistanwar #WarHistory #BritishMilitary #education 🙏
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Garvaghy Road: a manufactured political crisis by unionist and British opponents of progress - @DeclanKearneySF
anphoblacht.com/contents/288…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Didn't Gavin recently justify not pulling the DFM because it shouldn't just be FM who faces the "consequences"? Surely this option is contradicting his own stance on the subject? 🤷♂️
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
What a pathetic and out of touch idea - DUP would assuage unionist anger by refusing to be photographed with O’Neill, but carry on as usual behind closed doors! The DUP must think unionists are very stupid if they’d accept that as ‘profound consequences’.
Get off your knees Gavin and get her out.
Still having some issues with this account so please feel free to follow
@Kilsally_Redux
or over on BlueSky
@kilsally.bsky.social
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Shocking neglect and abuse of retired Lt Col Stephen Maguire DCM SAS, a natural born leader of men who spent 40 years in service to his country, and his son's long fight for justice. Please share Ben's post widely: "My father, Retired Lt Col Stephen Maguire DCM SAS, is a man who spent nearly 40 years in dedicated service to this country, serving from 1970 until 2009. He is a natural leader, a decorated soldier, to those who served with him. However, he has been completely abandoned and betrayed by the very system he gave everything to.
I am fighting for justice for my father. This struggle is a mirror of my own life; my own journey marked by the negligence of MPs, charities, and veteran services which led me to the absolute rock bottom of homelessness as a veteran myself. I know exactly what it is like to be discarded by the people who promised to provide support.
After years of fighting, we finally have a pathway toward the right care, but the damage is already done. The sheer scale of the failings along the way has crippled a man who likely only suffered from PTSD. What should have been a manageable recovery became a total collapse because of institutional incompetence.
This isn't a failure of one person or one office it is a systemic rot. For too long, the UK government, regardless of which side of the fence they sit on, has played a political game with the lives of our veterans. Whether it is Labour or the Conservatives, the result is the same: service men are treated as assets when they are useful and as liabilities the moment they are broken. We are told our sacrifices are "remembered," but the reality is that once the uniform comes off, the care vanishes.
We sought help for my dad, worried about PTSD and dementia resulting from his service. Through the SAS Association and Veterans’ Aid, he was referred to various healthcare facilities. Instead of professional care, he found negligence from these referrals.
In the last few years alone, he has been through multiple institutions that have failed him. We've dealt with incorrect diagnoses, doctors who tried to push him out of their care because he was "too difficult," and the removal of life-saving medication that led to him being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He was sedated and left to decline without specialist care. His PTSD was completely ignored, and his medical history was dismissed. In one instance, he was admitted to the hospital due to low sodium caused by the excessive use of anti-psychotic medication.
The most infuriating part is the silence from the top. MPs have explicitly ignored this situation and failed to act for a Lt Col in 22 SAS. The "Military Covenant" is nothing more than a piece of paper used for photo opportunities while men like my father are left to rot.
The system has failed. The NHS has failed. Veteran charities have failed. From the MOD passing the buck to the medical incompetence of the facilities, my father has been abandoned like thousands of others.
I am posting this because we need accountability. It is not enough to simply "help" now; there must be justice for the way he was treated. My father spent four decades looking after his men and serving at the highest level for the United Kingdom; it is a national disgrace that the government failed to look after him and many like him.
Do not listen to the rhetoric the government continues to push. As this is an example of what happens after 40 years of dedicated service.
Please share this. We need the people in power to answer for this. We need leaders who actually lead, not politicians who just talk."
facebook.com/story.php?story…
bobshepherdauthor.com/2023/1…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Win a bottle of ‘Irish Lion’ Blair Mayne Whiskey and limited-edition print by war artists Kev Wills - COMPETITION CLOSING SOON damienlewisspecialforcesclub…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Thanks to Steve A for the message: "Having just finished The Italian job literally 2 days ago this book stopped me in my tracks in Sainsbury’s!! Can’t wait to get going on it.' Great stuff - enjoy!
geni.us/BehindEnemyLines
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Read my interview with WW2 hero John Eskdale (part two), 102 years old and still going strong! Having survived the catastrophic sinking of HMS Charybdis, John went on to serve in one of the most secretive units of WW2: damienlewisspecialforcesclub…
Kilsally (Coill Sailí) retweeted
Unsurprisingly, a partisan Irish govt - whose support for the rule of law in N. Ireland is conditional - is now trying to hijack the reform of NI's institutions. No doubt its agenda is to strip away minority protections now that unionists form the minority.gov.ie/en/department-of-the-…
