An anti-immigration protest in Glasgow that turned violent last weekend attracted thousands of people. Those attending included loyalists from Northern Ireland with criminal convictions.
Far right organisation Knights Templar International, whose frontman Jim Dowson has a long history of involvement with extremist groups, is now supporting Scotland’s new wave of night patrols.
A string of central Glasgow properties are owned by a company belonging to the head of an investment firm behind a Russian shipping hub. Researchers say the port sustains Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
An anti-immigration protest in Glasgow that turned violent last weekend attracted thousands of people. Those attending included loyalists from Northern Ireland with criminal convictions.
A loyalist killer from Northern Ireland and a former member of the banned terror group the Ulster Volunteer Force attended an anti-immigration demonstration in Glasgow that turned violent.
Scotland’s first minister John Swinney and other politicians condemned the violence, which started in Glasgow Green and spread to the city centre.
Anti-racists gathered at Glasgow Green to oppose a demonstration by anti-immigration protesters. Clips on social media showed attendees performing Nazi salutes and mounted police drew batons to separate rival groups.
Those attending the protest included Glen Kane - on the left in the above photograph - from Northern Ireland who was jailed for nine years for being part of a mob which killed a Catholic man during a sectarian riot in 1992.
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He was in Glasgow last weekend with convicted armed robber and former Ulster Volunteer Force member Mark Sinclair, who calls himself ‘Freedom Dad’ on Youtube where he posts videos.
Kane, aka ‘Mr X’, is a former member of the racist British National Party. In June he appeared at Laganside Courthouse, Northern Ireland, on a race-hate charge. He denies the charge and the case is due to be heard in September.
Mark Sinclair was jailed for 18 years in 2003 for a series of bank robberies in Scotland. He had travelled over from his native Northern Ireland and targeted Clydebank branches in Troon, Stewarton and Dalbeattie, netting almost £13,000.
Sinclair, a Rangers football club fan, opposes multi-culturalism and says he regularly visits Glasgow. In a recent video posted while travelling by boat back to Northern Ireland, he said: “It was a bit of an eye opener for us in Northern Ireland to see Glasgow in such a state. It was spot the white man unfortunately and that’s the way it’s going and it’s not going to get any better.
“Nobody’s being removed and they’re going to be here to stay, and they’re going to have children, and their children are going to outbreed us, and Scottish people, especially Glasgow people, will be a minority,” he added. “This is where we’re at today. It’s facts, it’s not misinformation. We aren’t far right racists to love our country, to love our traditions, and to love our cultures, and not want to see changes.
Billy Briggs
“We’re not going to lie down and let these people, or the government destroy what we know as our culture and traditions in Ulster, Northern Ireland. The bottom line is we’re a white Christian country.”
Following the protest in Glasgow last Saturday, Sinclair posted a video claiming five people had travelled from Belfast, as well as others from Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and Hull.
He described the protest as “pretty eventful” and said “it was really dangerous coming into the demo” because a group called the Green Brigade, which supports Celtic football club, were there.
In the same clip, Kane accused anti-racists of causing trouble in Glasgow. He said police questioned and photographed him at the protest while he was kettled with other anti-immigration protestors. He also admitted being a former member of the BNP but denied being a far right leader in Scotland when this was put to him by Sinclair. “I just wanted to come over and observe the right wing,” he said. “I had a good day.”
Last June Sinclair attended anti-immigrant protest rallies in Dublin and Limerick.
Karin Goodwin
Ex-BNP member and loyalist preacher Jim Dowson was also in Glasgow during the weekend of the protest. The Ferret revealed yesterday he was helping to fundraise for Scottish “vigilante” patrol groups, who have been criticised for targeting migrants.
Hope not hate claimed both Kane and Sinclair are “well established members of the Northern Irish far right scene”, adding: “The events in Glasgow last weekend are evidence of a growing issue whereby overtly racialised rhetoric, including ethnonationalism and neo-Nazism, is becoming less taboo.”
Holly Bruce MSP, the Greens’ shadow cabinet secretary for social justice, said: “The violence and intimidation we saw in Glasgow at the weekend was appalling. The reported involvement of people with histories in loyalist paramilitarism, racist politics and serious violence is deeply alarming and cannot be dismissed as a ‘protest’.”
Sinclair has been asked to comment. We were unable to contact Kane.
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