Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

I’m afraid that, once again, this piece resembles a ‘Quote of the Day’ which ‘Three Thousand Versts’ purports not to carry. The Ulster Political Research Group is a rather grand title for the UDA’s ‘advisory wing’. This repository of wisdom has defended Torrens Knight, the loyalist murderer, who was recently returned to prison after an assault on two sisters in Coleraine. You’ll remember that the brave soldier’s original conviction was for entering the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel where he and his colleagues proceeded, indiscriminately to gun down eight unarmed civilians who happened to be drinking there. The UPRG’s Ali Crawford commented , “As far as I am led to believe Torrens Knight has bothered no one in or around Coleraine since his early release up to the point where he has been found guilty, pending appeal of this alleged assault." Well good for him! Between his involvement in cold blooded murder and assaulting women Mr Knight has been a fine upstanding citizen! With du

‘When Tory politician William Hague referred to loyalists as ‘thugs’, my heart sank’, claims Roy Garland, in his weekly diatribe against ‘English’ Conservatives. ‘No group of people’ should, he contends, be dismissed in such a way. Not even, apparently, groups whose activities conform to the very definition of thuggery. First, I don’t believe that Garland’s ‘heart sank’ when the Foreign Secretary attacked loyalist paramilitaries. On the contrary, his communal instincts kicked in, ‘he’s having a go at ussuns as well as themmuns, what an opportunity’ (or words to that effect). Second, his latest article contains a heart rending tale of a nice young man who joined a paramilitary organisation and then began to change it. Indeed it is positively glowing on the topic of loyalist groups and their stout community work in general. What a load of twaddle! This is the same narrative, told from a different perspective, which we get from Republicans. Fine young men, compelled by extraordina