The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) is a farce. It always has been. It’s a bunch of (mainly old) men desperately clinging on to maintain a relevance in a society which has long rejected them.

It’s more than embarrassing to watch DUP ministers indulge the fantasies of this group, whose membership organisations have done more to impoverish, wreck and oppress the very communities they purport to represent.

There’s little doubt the loyalist paramilitary groups are fractured - but it’s not good paramilitaries versus bad paramilitaries because such a distinction doesn’t exist.

• Tom Kelly: It’s your SDLP now, Claire - seize the dayOpens in new window
• Paul Givan was ridiculously naive and unbelievably stupid to meet the LCC - Tom KellyOpens in new window
• Labour can’t keep calling for change, it needs to make it a reality - Tom KellyOpens in new window

The ageing leadership are losing their once vice-like grip and the young Turks knee deep in criminality are living in a fools paradise; parasites not patriots.

Patrick Murphy: Sinn Féin, the Michael McMonagle scandal and preservation of the popcorn........

© The Irish News