Unionists have branded the launch of a Jim Lynagh Winter School in Co Fermanagh as a sickening celebration of a legacy of IRA bloodshed and misery.
Lynagh – one of the terror group’s most ruthless figures – was killed during the ambush on Loughgall RUC station in 1987.
Adverts have appeared online for an event named in his honour, which appears to be organised by the Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum.
According to adverts, the event is scheduled to take place on Saturday at the former St Eugene's school near Lisnaskea.
It is billed as involving talks about “republicanism in the Tyrone, Fermanagh and the border counties, past, present and future” and “Palestine, Ireland and the Black and Tans: imperialism past, present and future”.
One states: “Be part of a powerful day of thought-provoking discussion, history and political reflection, rooted in the legacy of struggle and looking towards the future.”
News Catch Up – Friday 17th October
Lynagh was a senior figure in the IRA’s east Tyrone Brigade.
He was one of eight IRA men killed by the SAS as they were mounting a gun and bomb attack on Loughgall RUC station on May 8 1987.
Anthony Hughes, a civilian who was travelling through the village in a car at the time, was also shot dead.
Over the last three decades, Lynagh has become a celebrated figure in Irish republican circles.
Victor Warrington, a UUP councillor in Fermanagh, said this weekend’s event was “nothing short of disgraceful”.
“Hosting such an event in a disused primary school outside Lisnaskea is as cynical as it is offensive, turning what was once a place of learning into a lesson for terrorism,” he said.
“Jim Lynagh and his gang weren’t heroes, freedom fighters or patriots. They were unrepentant killers whose only legacy is one of bloodshed and misery.”
He added: “This so-called school is nothing more than an attempt to airbrush history and romanticise terrorism.
"It’s a propaganda exercise dressed up as education, and the people of south Fermanagh aren’t fooled.
“As someone born in Rosslea, I know full well what republican terrorism really meant for our communities. It wasn’t liberation they were after; it was annihilation. Their campaign was one of pure sectarian hatred, a calculated attempt at genocide against anyone who didn’t bow to their warped ideology.
“It’s sickening that in 2025, some still think it’s acceptable to glorify murderers and rewrite the past.
"No amount of spin will change the truth: these men were terrorists, not teachers, and the only lesson they leave behind is one of shame and destruction.”
The Fermanagh-South Tyrone TUV branch also condemned the event.
“Jim Lynagh was the face of evil and a sectarian murderer who killed not to save Ireland from the Brits but to destroy his Protestants neighbours," it said.
The Peadar O’Donnell Socialist Republican Forum was contacted.
Earlier this year the TUV lodged a formal complaint against a Sinn Fein council chair who was pictured attending a commemoration event for Jim Lynagh.
Eugene McConnell, the chair of Mid Ulster District Council, was pictured at the event standing behind a banner for ‘Oglach Jim Lynagh Cumann, Clogher’ in April.
At the time Sinn Fein said: “Everyone has the right to remember their dead with dignity and respect
by FabulousDirt9254
25 comments
Typical DUP, where was the outrage over the marches and memorial to the UVF terroist Wesley Somerville who played a massive role in the Glenanne murder gangs? They are linked to over a hundred deaths and loyalists in Moygashel celebrated this with hundreds in attendance while playing sectarian music to back it all up, unbelievable
Victor Warrington is a massive gobshite and should be ignored at every opportunity. This is the same man who regularly refers to Catholics as fenians on Facebook and makes derogatory comments about travellers, black people and Muslims.
Just google “Victor Warrington UUP racism” and you’ll see headline after headline of him referring to people with racial slurs.
The guy is a decrepit bastard, and the sooner he croaks it, the better.
Could it be possible that DUP bad but also naming schools after IRA men also bad in a different way?
When they opened the Martin Luther King schools, they said the same thing.
Cryers. Criers? Crærs?
Eta: my point was that this didn’t age well when they persecuted righteous victors of civil rights and humanity.
The criers are loyalists. As usual. Not to be confused with someone of protestant religion or your next-door neighbour.
My bad. I thought it was inferred.
I’d say anyone against this is more worried about people getting together to talk rationally about the future than the name of the place but hey….
Using lynagh name in parity with MLK is astonishingly stupid and disrespectful to MLK..you can rewrite history all you want but truth is truth despite what hatred you have been bathed in
Prob should knock this crap on the head tbh – needlessly divisive to call it that
Who gives a fuck? Really, truly, who gives a fuck?
Hyperdimensional whataboutery.
Queen Victoria oversaw genocidal man made famines in Ireland and India and there’s a fucking university, hospital and many streets named after her. I think the Loyalist indignation needs to cop the fuck on.
I thought the provos preached about leaving the past behind? Only when it suits them it seems!!
Aye but where was Warrington between the hours of ten and eight last night?
https://www.impartialreporter.com/news/25561375.police-probe-report-stolen-field-gate-fermanagh/
We love naming places after shitebags here but at a certain point its gotta stop. Whatever happened to just naming schools after the area they’re in
I was raised Catholic but I’m a product of a mixed marriage (Catholic/Protestant) and I have to say that all of these types of scenarios just suck the life and energy out of me. I despise the Shinners, DUP, TUV … and any other party that is divisive. It’s always themmuns and ussuns. If Nationalists say today is Tuesday then Loyalists will disagree and vice versa.
Bitterness is still a major part of life in NI and shame on anyone who feeds it.
I hate these kind of threads but love them too as you can see what kind of reprobates people really are in the comments.
Do we always have to accept what the Brits call a terrorist?
They don’t seem to accept it themselves about their own army
Not defending the naming of the things after IRA people. But coming from a community like it, I understand why it happens.
Fuck me there’s some proper scumbags coming out of the woodwork in this thread
Breaking news: Unionists whinging about something
And this is why we’re still divided. Dickheads on both sides still love to name things after Murderers. It’s sad stoneage crap.
Victor Warrington can get f#cked. Unionist don’t just not care if they antagonize nationalists, they actively try to and revel in it.
The British army murdered people but these same clowns on here crying about hurt feelings now will be wearing poppies soon enough, marching like fuck and pissing in gardens.
Im a republican and I’m not 1 bit ashamed of it . We won’t be forgetting our martyrs to save unionist feelings.
Does anyone remember when the Tories and unionists regarded Nelson Mandela as a terrorist?
http://opiniojuris.org/2024/08/09/symposium-on-unbroken-bond-tracing-the-ties-between-african-and-palestinian-anti-colonial-struggles-when-nelson-mandela-was-considered-a-terrorist-and-the-natural-alliance-between-south-afric/
I recall chatting to a retired Garda a few years back. I enquired as to where he was stationed. Monaghan town he replied. Me, ever alert to an opportunity for mischief, then remarked:
“That was some craic when they brought Jim Lynagh home”.
Putting his glass down he turned to me and said:
“Eoghan, Jim Lynagh was a hero. The people of Monaghan loved him”.
I think it’s absolutely fair to be against this.
Is it also fair to be against the various streets named after English nobility, military figures, monarchy and colonial figures with legacies of blood shed/misery? The statues of the figures?
Or is it only bad if it’s connected to Irish nationalism?
Surely, if you are against one you are against both and if not, you are probably hypocritically performing some mental gymnastics.
What would the newsletter and beltel report on if they were out scouring the country for events commemorating republicans and then asking unionists what they think of it?
So many Republicans showing themselves up in the comments. Can’t condemn something that is counterintuitive to a New Ireland without having to state how much you hate Unionists. Catch a grip.
Good job shit house who’s claiming whataboutry now🤣🤣 you talk some shite bai
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