Bad Taste no. 23: Irish Freedom Fighters

The scan: sc-n72-nov-16-1978.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

This text was corrected by hand against the scan: the strip at the foot of page 14, which the machine reading did not see; image taken from the scan and its lettering transcribed (18 Oct 2026). Number 23 of Cormac's weekly Bad Taste strip: Irish Freedom Fighters.

page 14 of the scan

Five-panel cartoon strip in the style of an advertisement: British imperialism's dirty tricks department sells an aerosol of "Irish Freedom Fighters", a fictional IRA splinter group that lets SAS killings be blamed on a republican feud. — Cormac, "Bad Taste" no. 23, Socialist Challenge no. 72, 16 November 1978, page 14. From the Marxists Internet Archive scan.

The strip, panel by panel

1. BAD TASTE — #23 Cormac.

2. (A man in the street:) "If I.F.F.'s and An's were pots and pans there'd be no work for ...."

3. (A grinning salesman holds up a spray can labelled "Irish Freedom Fighter — a Brit product":) "British imperialism (dirty tricks dept.) brings you its latest & finest creation!"

4. (The can is sprayed over a figure.) "Take one totally fictional dissident group in the I.R.A. —" "A couple of stories by moronic and/or dishonest journalists."

5. "And now you're ready for some S.A.S. assassinations which can be attributed to an internal republican FEUD!!" (A glamorous woman:) "And remember .. IFF leaves no visible bloodstains on British hands!"