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Books
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Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland
This morning’s Sunday Sequence featured a substantial debate (about 35 minutes into the recorded programme) on a new book,Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press 2011), written by sociologists John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney. The debate was framed in an opening vignette by presenter William Crawley in uncompromising terms, [...] read our review » -
The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul of [...] read our review »
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“Unionism Decayed 1997-2007″ by David Vance: book review
I initially wrote this when the book was first published three years ago; whilst certain elements of it now sound dated, its basic premise that the period of 1997-2007 was a period of irreversible decay for Northern Irish Unionism can still be argued as a valid opinion. My own feeling is that it did indeed [...] read our review »
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“Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams paid a brief and meaningless visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”
Gene’s not wrong..
The comments are good. I think Mr Dinner is a shinner.
“In my experience, preconditions can only serve as an excuse for lack of progress in negotiations,” Adams said.
I wonder if that includes the precondition of a commitment to exclusively democratic means as a way of achieving political aspirations?
So what then do the contributors here think is the nature of Hamas, Fatah and the Hezbullah.
These are all movements which seek to destroy Israel. I can take you through their written constitutions and statements of their leaders to show this.
If Jo is reading this. Did you make a comparision to the IRA terrorist war against protestant people in the north of Ireland and to the Jewish struggle for self-determination. I just wonder how you can do that, even if I accept you did it indirectly.
Put it like this Jo. Did the Jewish people have the right to wage the 1948 to 49 war when Israel was attacked by many Arab armies?
HAMAS, ETA, AL-QAIDA, PIRA, LTTE (TAMIL TIGERS), FARC, HIZBALLAH, KHMER ROUGE
Birds of a feather…?
I do not wish to be misunderstood and my above comment may indeed do so.
I believe that the Irish struggle against Britain which ended in the 1916 Rebellion and the ensuing war for independence up until 1921 was very progressive.
The problem lay in the attitude of republicanism towards the Protestant people of the North.
There are those in Ireland who during the recent 1916 Rebellion celebrations were really saying the 1916 Rebellion was not progressive and I want no part of that. It was extremely progressive.
Hamas I see as a real anti-Semitic, and brutal movement as is Hezbullah. But Abbas and Fatah is no different.
The problem as I see it is that the Palestinian issue was skilfully sold in countries like Ireland, using issues such as the Deir Yassin massacre, which was a hoax, a massacre simply did not take place in that village.
Sinn Fein is a very anti-Israel movement. That draws them close to Hamas and Hezbullah. They are not alone in Ireland.