Acts of ‘tourrorism’ on Falls Road…
THE Andytown News reports that “Protestant students” from the Northern Regional College on a sightseeing bus launched attacks on a Bobby Sands mural and memorial garden on the Falls Road. After an angry confrontation with the locals, the driver managed to get the flag-waving students back to the city centre before things spiralled out of control. But the next day, when the double-decker bus was carrying ‘normal’ tourists into west Belfast, it was the subject of what looks like a revenge attack. The net result is that the city sightseeing tours up the Falls have stopped, and quite a few tourists will be heading home with a less than wonderful impression of Belfast.
Thanks for the compliment Dave. However, I’m baffled if you’ve been reading my posts regularly and thought I was a fan of imperialism of any sort. After all, I regularly laud the USSR and the communist movement for its contribution to anti-imperialism worldwide. And I’ve harped on this WWI theme before, including lauding the Workers’ Party councillors in Waterford who demanded a statue commemorating all the victims of imperialism rather than the 15 year old from there who won the Victoria Cross or whatever it was. This contrasts strongly with nearly every other party in Ireland. This rush to embrace WWI as a good thing because both nationalists and unionists rushed to fight an imperialist war disgusts me almost as much as the argument I criticised above.
I can only assume that you have mistaken my deployment of republican principles as outlined by Tone and Connolly to criticize sectarianism from all quarters for some type of pro-establishment position. So maybe it’s clearer now to you where I’m coming from and there might yet be hope for us all
Good to hear garibaldy, we all need to criticize imperialism, racism, bigotry from all sides in Ireland, both nationalisms (irish and 6county/british). I take your general point about WW1 being a criminal war caused by nasty imperialist colonialists (british,french,german etc).
I’d be very careful lauding the USSR and especially that evil bastard Stalin. After all didn’t the Soviet Union have an empire which included the Baltics, Ukraine and Eastern Europe? Most of the peoples who were killed there or who were deported did not deserve this. It could be argued that socialism in the USSR was more like totalitarianism and imperialism. I’m sure you’re a well read man, so I may be pissing against the wind in recommending Arthur Koestler’s brilliant novel “Darkness at Noon” on the betrayal of the revolution.
Anyway, that’s for another day, as someone wittily mentioned earlier, how dare anyone bring in international geopolitics into a debate about sectarianism in the North East of Ireland.
So because of the actions of the British [i]after[/i]WW2 the sacrifices of soldiers British and Irish from this island should be ignored? That seems to be the gist of what you are saying. Where can one buy one of these white poppy’s, what charity do they support?
Pounder,
WWI itself is the target of most of my ire due to its imperialist nature. WWII is different. Actions after WWI are more in line with the First than the Second World War. So the sacrifices of most of the soldiers from this island were deeply flawed. Not only were they a colossal waste of their lives, but their sacrifices were part of a campaign to oppress other peoples. That needs to be remembered, but is not part of the Red Poppy idea at all.
And the reality is most of the money goes to people who were engaged in anti-democratic campaigns against native populations. I think commemorating the tragedy of the wars and of their slaughter should be separate from donating money that will go to people who have done and are doing reprehensible things.
As for the white poppies, which are designed to symbolise peace. Here is a link from the people who seem to produce them, though I would have always associated them mostly with the Quakers and their work for peace. Their is a section on the site about where the money goes. They certainly used to be sold in NI. Don’t know about now, though they can be bought online.
http://www.ppu.org.uk/whitepoppy/index.html
Thanks for the information. Some interesting reading to say the least.