Jeffrey Donaldson is not impressed with the Irish government’s plans to offer a ‘centenarian’s bounty’ of £1,700 to anyone in Ireland reaching the age of 100. The DUP MP believes there is a political agenda at work, though his call for Dublin to be “more sensitive about unionist feelings” could be an early contender for MOPE comment of the year- how more sensitive can you get than to offer someone seventeen hundred pounds???
Extract from Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker: The Propaganda of Peace: The Role of Media and Culture in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. Bristol: Intellect Books. 2010. Political opponents Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness were confirmed as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of a new executive in May 2007, closing yet another chapter in [...] read our review »
John Laird (Lord Laird of Artigarvan) is unionism’s jester. His memoir A Struggle To Be Heard ” by a True Ulster Liberal” (from Slugger’s shop on Amazon here) might serve more as a heavy stocking filler than anybody’s idea of a main present. In it he wears the masks of comedy and tragedy to turn the [...] read our review »
Do you think if they made it £1690 he would be ok about it?
Belter!
When the pension was introduced in Ireland in ?1908 or thereabouts, there was a remarkable surge in the number of people who were 70 years old.
Lets see how many centenarians we can come up with!
If they want to give some senior citizen E2500 why get in the way? Perhaps we should consider it a gesture of good will and think how we could return the positive aspect?
Missfitz
I remember reading once that, after the public records building was burnt to the ground during the Irish civil war, people were granted new birth certificates by attesting as to when they were born.
That also resulted in a great increase in OAPs.
Is Mr. Donaldson for real?
Political agenda?
Is this a ploy by the ROI government so that the next time there is a border poll, all the centenarians will be so grateful that they will vote for a united Ireland. And that might tip the balance?
Funny comment Sohnlein.
Hardly compares to the peerages which certain other parliaments seem to be handing out to the right sort of pensioner!
I am surprised at Jeffrey, for I’d heard that he is very good in the charity field, especially to countries in Eastern Europe. Perhaps I heard wrong. But if he is charitable to others why not to old timers who reach 100?? It’s great for anyone to reach that age, what little time they have left they should have something with which to enjoy it.
Does the principle of consent means something or not? Northern Ireland is not the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ireland government.
All of us in NI have the choice of citizenship -British, Irish or both. If someone has chosen British then that choice should be respected whether the consequences are to their benefit or detriment.
However, a payment to a small number of vulnerable people is far from the best grounds for debating the practical application of broader political principles.
any country in the world can give me 1700 quid when I reach 100; in fact, I hope they all do.
“Does the principle of consent means something or not? Northern Ireland is not the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ireland government.
All of us in NI have the choice of citizenship -British, Irish or both. If someone has chosen British then that choice should be respected whether the consequences are to their benefit or detriment.”
Anyone who doesn’t want it is 100% free to decline. For fuck sake, if it only went to Irish Citzens then there would also be complaints.
Get a motherfucking grip.
Fair_deal,
you can consent to refuse the cash when you reach 100 if you want.
This is an offer to all the members of the Irish nation not just the citizens of the Irish State. You are perfectly free to ignore it as a member of the British nation but you have no right to take issue with gestures the Irish State makes to members of the Irish nation.
Northern Ireland is not the jurisdiction of the Republic of Ireland government.
Northern Ireland is not the jurisdiction of the US government either, but I don’t I don’t recall you ever getting on your Unionist high horse over International Fund for Ireland grants. At least try to display a semblance of consistency on these matters.
You don’t have to refuse it. The link says people outside the ROI have to apply.
I wonder if there’s any chance fair_deal would assign his to me. Unless the ROI also introduces free fags and beer. In which case I probably won’t need it.
But we UK citizens have it so much better. Now to add to the free TV licences for the over-75′s Chancellor Gordon Brown is considering pensions linked to average wages also for over-75′s.
What next I wonder? Free roller blades for over 80′s? Free Gangsta-rap i-Pod downloads for the over-90′s?
Aah, the delghts and benefits of UK citizenship. Brings a tear to my eye sometimes (well makes me want to weep most of the time actually).
FD,
You say
All of us in NI have the choice of citizenship -British, Irish or both. If someone has chosen British then that choice should be respected whether the consequences are to their benefit or detriment.
The story says
Its not an imposition on British centarians, they have the option of not claiming the cash. For Irish centarians in the north its surely welcome free cash for a limited number of people.
Big deal.
This story mainly shows how much time JD has on his hands. Wasted time, wasted print…like this matters.
Of course Jeffrey has a lot of time on his hands. He’s getting paid for doing nothing (don’t hear him whining about that), and there’s no way he’s getting anywhere near the reins of power in my party.
At first glance I was horrified by this story. I thought the Irish Government were offering bounty hunters £1700 to ‘take out’ pensioners if they got to 100. A centenarian bounty really isnt the best term to use. It may ease a little of the pensions crisis……
The Papish horror continues.
As my mom used to say:
1. Don’t trust anyone whose eyes are too close together.
2. The Devil makes work for idle hands.
What was the name of the country all those Irish centenarians were living in a century ago? Northern Ireland?
Snuff
I was wondering about that too, and like Jeffrey I was at a loose end today and looked it up.
It was a good laugh, and I think its the wrong term to use.
David
I’m surprised your mom didn’t mention the thing about looking a gift horse in the mouth.
And another thing: what’s all this ballocks about ” those born ‘on the island of Ireland’”?
Makes the place seem the size of Rathlin! It’s IN the island of Ireland, similarly “in Britain” not “on Britain”.
Who trains these people?
Missfitz
You misunderstand-
They’re giving each centenarian 1700 Mars Company chocolate bars. (those ones with the coconut).
David
You obviously haven’t seen Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”.
Sometimes the babies drop right out onto the floor.
replace ‘bounty’ with ‘reparations’ and Jeffry might be happier
Every sperm is sacred,
Every sperm is great,
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
I have a little budgie;
He is my very pal.
I take him walks in Britain;
I hope I always shall.
Lyric Maestro
Dec
“Northern Ireland is not the jurisdiction of the US government either, but I don’t I don’t recall you ever getting on your Unionist high horse over International Fund for Ireland grants.”
Then you have a very bad memory. Unionist politicians called for a boycott of the IFI and described it as blood money.
Mark
Fair enough – teach me for not reading the article to the end
David Michael
“What was the name of the country all those Irish centenarians were living in a century ago?”
They were born British citizens in the United Kingdom a century ago
. Irish citizens didn’t exist.
“what’s all this ballocks about “ those born ‘on the island of Ireland’”?”
Err because the jurisdiction of the government of Ireland and island of Ireland are two different units. This difference is what we have been arguing about since 1921.
Mr Mars
Thanks for that, a really good laugh!Things were getting very serious around here
fair_deal
I do think that 100 years ago a man living in either Belfast or Dublin would have considered his country to have been “Ireland”. The fact that it was part of a larger unit called the United Kingdom doesn’t take away from that. So why not reward him for having been born in Ireland and survived in Ireland for a century, despite Sellafield and the ultratoxic Irish Sea?
Re “the island of Ireland”: Politics aside, the argument stands. Both Belfast and Dublin are in the island of Ireland, in the same way that, say, Havana is in – not on – Cuba. Palma on the other hand could be said to be on Mallorca. It’s a question of magnitude.
Jeffrey should advise DUP-loving centenarians to apply for the cash and then give it as a donation to DUP funds or the OO. Never look a gift-horse in the gob Jeffrey.
It would be enough to make you want Big Ian to live to be 100……………. wouldn’t it?
JD is right, of course. This is a Presidential affair and the thought that the McAleeses didn’t understand the implications doesn’t wash.
But who can reasonably object, when it is voluntary? It is a clever enough move.
However JD is offended because it cuts across the concept of NI as part of the UK, and that of the ROI is a foreign country. I am sure the Germans wouldn’t offer the Danes centenary money, or the Spanish offer it to the Portuguese.
But of course, NI is not like Portugal or Denmark. It fails the test of being a nation. It fails the test of even being a province. And, failing these tests, JD’s protests have the ring of inauthenticity. Episodes such as this remind us that the constitutional position of NI is unfinished business.
Which, I am fairly sure, is the intention.
pid
To use your analogy perhaps a better comparison would be to wonder how the Poles would feel if the Germans made a similar gesture to people living in what was once Prussia?
But let’s ease up and just take this as a positive gesture something we can all look forward to receiving (or refusing) some day.
in a country (“in Ireland”)
on an island (“on the island of Ireland”)
Who trains these people who worry about who trains these people?
muppet, but then you can expect nothing less, all day twiddling his thumbs he has to say something now and then to earn his dosh
“Who trains these people who worry about who trains these people?”
No one’s worrying, gg. I’m simply sensitive to language, OK? Lots of people here are sensitive to stuff I couldn’t give a tinker’s toss about: flags for instance.
It irritates my sensitive language lover’s soul when people come out with “I should have went” or “I would be an Elvis fan”. What, I think at such moments, you’d be a fan if he weren’t dead?
I know. Anal retentive. But which of us hasn’t had an anus at one time or another?
Mars is bigger than Uranus
DM
“What was the name of the country all those Irish centenarians were living in a century ago? Northern Ireland”
er whisper it (it upsets the natives you see) the name of the country was wit for it– the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
“Mars is bigger than Uranus”
True. But does Marianne Faithfull know?
barnshee:
It’s the year 1906. A boat docks. An American sailor steps ashore, having braved an Atlantic crossing. He spots a local.
Sailor: “Say, buddy, what country is this, England?”
Local: “Ah now, sor, no. This would be the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.”
If it works for you, barnshee, who am I to say it’s ridiculous?
“To use your analogy perhaps a better comparison would be to wonder how the Poles would feel if the Germans made a similar gesture to people living in what was once Prussia? ”
I would think a better analogy would be pre 1990 the West German government offers a simliar payment to people born in Germany pre-1945, including East Germans.
In 1784, a french ballonist set off to cross the english channel. It got foggy and he dumped some ballast to see if he had reached England or Ireland.As he came out of the mist in sight of land he spotted a man working in a field. So, using his best english accent he shouted “exuse me sir, where am I?’
The reply was “begorrah, you can’t fool me; you’re up there in that balloon”.
pid on Northern Ireland “It fails the test of being a nation. It fails the test of even being a province.”
Nation is an ambiguous term. By the terms of its own constitution Ireland (the Republic) isn’t a nation, as Irish people living elsewhere are also part of “the nation”.
As for province, Northern Ireland is a province, it’s just so contiguous with the more commonly used, most recently defined Irish province of Ulster, but then again “Ulster” has also being a floating concept politically.
On the subject at hand it’s worth remembering that Northern Ireland isn’t unique here. If an Irish citizen has been living on the British mainland and reaches 100, they too can claim the money.
File this story under “nothing bigger to worry about”.
Keith M,
On the subject at hand it’s worth remembering that Northern Ireland isn’t unique here. If an Irish citizen has been living on the British mainland and reaches 100, they too can claim the money.
You just said that so that you could wind us all up by saying ‘British mainland’, didn’t you?
The bounty applies, so it seems, regardless of where in the whole world a centenarian happens to live – the USA, Australia, Upper Volta, you naame it.
I’m afraid I might push you on this one, Keith M. NI is not a province, NI is not Ulster. Ulster might be a floating concept politically, but geographically it’s borders are well-known. Stormont attempted to change the name of NI to Ulster in the Fifties and failed. Can people claim that Inishowen is not in Ulster?
If Ulster had been partitioned from the rest of Ireland, it would have a much stronger case for it’s separateness as a political entity. Ulster has a unique history, culture and dialect. But there were too many Catholics, so Ulster was partitioned. 3 counties are in the Republic, 6 in NI. And this partitioning of Ulster, in my opinion, de-legitimizes NI’s raison d’etre. It’s a state based on a sectarian headcount, and doesn’t deserve to survive. Ulster on the other hand….
pid “NI is not a province”.
I think you’ll find that it is. From dictionary.com; “A territory governed as an administrative or political unit of a country or empire.”
“NI is not Ulster.” I never said it was. In fact I pointed out that it wasn’t.
You seem to totally forget that the current definition of “Ulster” is a British creation. It is simply comtiguous with the nine counties, which were also a Britisjh invention.
Ulster (or Ulaid) prior to the arrival of the Normans was a very different shape.
“Ulster has a unique history, culture and dialect.” I’d dispute that there was anything exceptionally unique about “Ulster” history prior to the IFS leaving the U.K. Also historically I would also argue that there was a unique culture that somehow ended at the Armagh/ Louth or Donegal/Sligo boundaries.
“You just said that so that you could wind us all up by saying ‘British mainland’, didn’t you?
”
If I wanted to wind you up I would have said “Eastern part of the British Isles”
)
What a load of shite.
I think if it was brought forward to forty it would be much better, and I would quite gladly take money from whoever wants to give me some for a good piss up.
Anyway, what political agenda could there be for giving some old git 2,500 Euros?
I have now heard it all….
Good points, fairly put. Keith. There is a sharper cultural interface between Donegal and Sligo than Armagh and Louth, and I’m not referring to Tom Murphy’s house. I believe the old province of Oriel included parts of Cavan, Monaghan, Armagh and Louth. It’s music is promoted by Pádraigín ní Úllacháin. I seem to recall Briain Ó Sé commenting on a sharp difference in dialect at the Leitrim / Fermanagh border; in my own personal experience this is still true down Bundoran way. My point is (and I accept your corrections on the dictionary definition of a province)that NI was created in order to provide a protestant-majority state (that The IFS was created to provide a catholic-majority state is also true). Therefore, from a democratic point of view, it is fatally flawed. Majoritarian spokesmen such as Jeffrey Donaldson who decry the ‘interference’of a foreign state in NI’s affairs, as with the centenary money are being disingenuous. The ROI (and GB) are not foreign in NI. It is disputed territory. Since it was created the only issue at election time is it’s constitutional position. We have to sort that out and I think that a way forward might be in the promotion of Ulster as a political entity rather than NI. Anyone for a united Ulster?
“I’d dispute that there was anything exceptionally unique about “Ulster” history prior to the IFS leaving the U.K”
Ever had a glance at the Táin?