Mr Brolly then went on to say that not only are Protestants supporting mass murder in Gaza, but that they “champion it with such relish”.
Author and former SDLP figure Mairia Cahill called this a “sweeping sectarian statement,” while fellow writer Ruth Dudley Edwards called it “utterly disgusting”.
When these comments were put to Mr Brolly, he said his remark had been a response to the fact that “the DUP uniformly, Glasgow Rangers, the unionist trolls that berate me on Twitter etc appear to back Israel’s absolute right to do whatever it wants to do”.
Mr Brolly also made comments about DUP peer Lord Weir personally, claiming that the peer had “opposed an end to massacres and slaughter in the North” – a comment which the senior DUP figure says are defamatory and may lead to legal action.
The reasoning behind this remark was that, alongside 43% of all Protestants who voted at the time, Lord Weir had opposed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Lord Weir called the comment “scurrilous and insulting”.
Mr Brolly stressed in response that the 1998 deal had slashed the amount of blood being shed, and that only way out of a cycle of violence like the Troubles or Israel-Palestine is “an honest peace process” and “not taking sides”.
Mr Brolly is a former GAA sportsman turned commentator, and is also a barrister. His Twitter account has 215,000 followers.
The whole saga began with a post by Lord Weir about the weekend’s pro-Palestine demonstrations in Northern Ireland.
Here is how that unfolded.
On Saturday night, Lord Weir wrote: “I wonder how many speeches at Pro Palestinian rallies contained explicit condemnation of the murderous pogrom carried by Hamas on 7th October and referred to them as terrorists? I think I can guess.”
Mr Brolly replied: “Peter, if you support the mass murder of a defenceless people, just say so. At least be honest about it. It is interesting that the DUP politicians uniformly support this genocide. Me? All human life is sacred.”
Weir: “And how is that answering the question?”
Brolly: “Peter is a Lord. He opposed the NI peace agreement. He opposed an end to massacres and slaughter in the North. Which is his right.”
Weir: “I think you will find a suggestion that I opposed an end to slaughter and massacres in Northern Ireland both wrong and defamatory, and really you should withdraw.”
Brolly: “Really? You trenchantly opposed the Good Friday Agreement which has saved countless precious human lives. You strongly criticised Lord Trimble’s signing of the peace agreement. You abandoned the UUP for the DUP, who have never signed up to the GFA.”
Aside from the row with Lord Weir, Joe Brolly later went on to post another message in response to a tweet from a loyalist about Hamas siphoning off civilian aid.
Mr Brolly tweeted: “Why do Ulster Scot Protestants support genocide? The mass murder of men, women and children? Why do they champion it with such relish – crush, erase, eradicate, destroy? 8,000 murdered already. How many dead kids is enough? 10,000? 100,000? 500,000?”
Lord Weir later told the News Letter he is considering his options over the alleged defamation, calling the comments “scurrilous and quite insulting… I’ve always opposed violence”.
“Clearly any allegation, any suggestion that I – in any way – opposed the end to murder or slaughter is utterly wrong, and I think he should be withdrawing that remark,” Lord Weir said.
And if he doesn’t?
“Well, I’ll have to consider whatever options are available within that… I think that public discourse should be at a respectful and honest manner, and I think it is clear he has made an allegation that’s clearly without foundation on that basis on it.
“I’m not putting a particular timeframe in relation to that. I’ll consider options and there are a range of things that can be done on that basis. We shall see. I haven’t decided precisely what the best route in relation to that on it is.
“Even at this late stage, I think if Mr Brolly were to retract I think that at least would be some level of acknowledgement that what he’d done is wrong.
“This is not two people having a row in a coffee shop where the only people to hear it are the two of them… this is something very much in the public domain.”
by IPlayFifaOnSemiPro
19 comments
Rest of article (too long for the post itself):
Over 1,400 people – largely civilians – are understood to have been killed in Israel during Hamas’ incursion on October 7, with at least 212 people taken hostage according to the UN.
It has proven much harder to get reliable figures in Gaza, partly because the health system in the territory is under Hamas control.
Citing those health authorities, the UN said last Tuesday that the death toll had passed 5,000, with 62% of those dead being women and children.
Gazan health authorities issued an update on Friday saying that the Gazan death toll had surpassed 7,300.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated last Tuesday that perhaps 1,000 or so people were missing in Gaza, presumed buried in the rubble of flattened neighbourhoods.
As well as the bombing, Gaza – whose borders are tightly controlled by Israel – is running out of fuel and drinking water.
OCHA has kept a running tally of the number of people killed in Israel/Palestine from 2008 up to just before the most recent violence.
It stood at 6,407 Palestinians (3,803 civilians), and 308 Israelis (177 civilians) – to which all the fatalities above can now be added, pushing the total well into five figures.
When questioned about the comments he had made on Twitter, Mr Brolly told the News Letter today: “Lord Weir trenchantly opposed the peace process which has saved countless precious human lives.
“I was remarking on the fact that the DUP uniformly, Glasgow Rangers, the unionist trolls that berate me on Twitter etc appear to back Israel’s absolute right to do whatever it wants to do.
“My overall point is this is not a video game. Glasgow Celtic unthinkingly supporting Palestine, Rangers unthinkingly supporting Israel is depressing. All human life is precious.
“Thirty years ago we had the Shankill bomb atrocity, destroying so many innocent lives. Then Greysteel.
“We were trapped in a cycle of violence and despair. Then, because people of good conscience and courage (Lord Trimble, John Hume, Bill Clinton, etc) acted with integrity and with respect for all sides, we had a peace process that has become a model for peace everywhere.
“The atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza are not a game.
“Precious human lives are being destroyed. We know from our grim experience that the only way to resolve this is an honest peace process. Not taking sides.
“I think of the words of Gary Murray, whose beautiful sister Leanne was only 13 years old when the IRA murdered her in the Shankill bomb. He said: ‘I’m so glad no more people are being hurt. That other families don’t have to go through what we went through’.”
Joe Brolly….just a slabber slabbering.
> “Peter is a Lord. He opposed the NI peace agreement. He opposed an end to massacres and slaughter in the North. Which is his right.”
This is dickish, and implicitly stretching an already-broken analogy… but it’s contextualised.
Hence, I _doubt_ Weir’d win on defamation. It’s clear what Brolly is saying and it’s true.
However, saying a non-defamatory statement is defamatory could easily be considered defamatory. Weir’d need to watch his (dirty, cunting) back for the countersuit if he does file.
I’m now left wondering what the full context was for the statement in the headline too. I’d guess it’s something similar, where the context clearly limits the statement… albeit maybe still a dickish statement.
Also in the News Letter
[Presbyterian minister tells Belfast rally: ‘Inshallah Palestine will be free from the river to the sea!’](https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/presbyterian-minister-tells-belfast-rally-inshallah-palestine-will-be-free-from-the-river-to-the-sea-4389777)
Joe is not wrong. And anyone with even a brief understanding of NI and Palestine and the Brits of it all shows that. As does their hysterical reaction to being called out on it as above.
Starting a petition for Joe to donate another kidney so we don’t need to see his shite anymore.
What a dumbass thing to say, sectarian twat
Reposting Brolly’s tweets is the best quality writing seen in the Newsletter recently.
Brolly going for the most explosive angle as usual – maximise media attention.
I don’t think it’s fair to say Unionists outright support genocide, but there is a historical context that colours their view. They are a group that exists as a result of colonisation, and thus are sympathetic to other groups with a similar backstory. The reverse is true of nationalists – a historically oppressed people, who thus naturally identify with other similar groups.
Anyone who does not agree with him supports genocide. Brolly is a deluded fool and a bigot who would gladly hand Isreal and Palestine to a terrorist government.
All them years cheerleading the PIRA has messed wee brollys head up.
It’s a fair point. You can add to the Unionist group any right wing group. They’re always on the side of the oppressor in everything..
Old Joe loves the attention so he does.
Saw the tweet and thought he’d gone a bit far adding ‘Protestant’ in. The man is seriously wound up about Gaza though, his podcast this past few weeks has been vitriolic.
Uckkk. Enough of the fake outrage from the SDLP. Why are they still a thing?
Brolly is wholly out of order here. Utter sectarian bollocks.
I demand he come round my house and put my toaster away as penance.
Joe Brolly seems to either be losing the plot, or thinking he can monetise all the sectarian hatred he can still hoover up in NI.
I can’t stand Brolly as a columnist, I couldn’t stand him as a pundit. And when I’ve met him, I couldn’t stand him. However, he’s employing a form of hyperbolic rhetoric here which should be obvious to anyone, and even more obvious to anyone who has listened to his podcast or is familiar with him.
If we split NI into two roughly equal halves the people who are (generally) supporting Israel at the minute come, overwhelmingly, from a Protestant / Unionist background. The people who are sympathetic to the Palestinian civilians who are being being blown to bits, and who are nothing more than “collateral damage” in Israel’s offensive to wipe out Hamas tend to be, overwhelmingly, from a Catholic, Nationalist background.
Now you can alter the language and play around with the phrasing but the general gist holds true.
In brolly’s opinion (and I agree with him) the Israeli state is now perpetrating genocidal ethnic cleansing against innocent Palestinian civilians. They are using the vile, and unjustifiable Hamas attack as a green light to perpetrate that genocide.
Brolly is using rhetorical framing. He writes; *”Why do Ulster Scot Protestants support genocide? The mass murder of men, women and children? Why do they champion it with such relish – crush, erase, eradicate, destroy? 8,000 murdered already. How many dead kids is enough? 10,000? 100,000? 500,000?”*
It’s a version of the “not everyone who voted for Trump/Brexit was a racist but all racists voted for Trump/Brexit”. The point isn’t to infer, imply or accuse all “Ulster Scots Protestants” of supporting genocide in Gaza. It’s to ask why those who support Israeli military genocide in Gaza are overwhelmingly from that demographic.
And incidentally, his podcast is essential listening an a much needed voice in the discourse of the island. An Irish Nationalist from the North with actual lived experience of the troubles an understanding of the historical context, someone with money, reputation and influence who can’t simply be crushed with the threat of legal action from any offended Unionist shit-stirrer, and someone who is articulate and intelligent.
That is a sectarian remark. If anyone else made a similar outburst they’d lose their job.
Joe brolly could write all he knows about Palestine on a stamp. If he moved there he’d get jihadid