International Women’s Day
Apparently it is International Women’s Day on 8th March. I want to suggest we have some sort of meeting to honour several women. Let us have a few examples. How about a very young woman (well girl actually) Michelle Baird? I suspect few will remember her name. I will, however, provide a link to jog memories. We could also have Jean McConville or Marie Wilson or a huge number of other names. In fact there are 139 names I could have included (women murdered by the IRA). SF MLA Jennifer McCann on the other hand has had a true brainwave. To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8th March she is trying to organise an event in the Long Gallery at Stormont. This event will be dedicated to IRA member Mairead Farrell.
Unsurprisingly this has created a storm of protest from the DUP and UUP. Nelson McCausland’s statement from the DUP web site describes the idea as ludicrous.
In true Sinn Fein PIRA style, they choose to honour a terrorist who was on a murder mission while ignoring all the women they murdered. While Big Ian is joking with the Butcher of the Bogside, perhaps he could ask him to tell Sinn Fein PIRA member Jennifer McCann to ‘wise up’.
My goodness turgie ol boy with your last few posts the mask seems to be slipping.I propose we take down carsons statue at storment and up one of Mo Mowlam a woman we can all admire.
‘Mrs McCann said that she did not intend to offend unionists, but nor did she expect them to back her plans.
“It’s not about agreeing,” she said. “I’m not asking anyone to agree with what I am doing, but I am saying they should respect it. Stormont is a shared space and that’s the way it has to be seen.
“We have a right to hold the celebration there. I would never, ever say to unionists or loyalists that they should or should not be doing something.” ‘
hmmm… ‘a shared space’… does that mean the original photo memorial to 12 dead can be restored at the Enniskillen Fire Station? Or like Enniskillen, will the celebration be removed/prohibited if an individual complains? I await the compelling sophistry (any references to Dresden this time) of arguments that the ‘celebration’ and Enniskillen memorials should be assessed by different, and seemingly, contradictory rules and considerations.
Leaving the celebratory aspects aside, some kind of memorial listing the names of all women killed as a result of the conflict, including Mairead Farrell, might be appropriate.
Then again, I’m a guy, so its just a suggestion
Must be another example of SF reaching out to Unionists and building bridges!
Turgon
…first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
You’d need to be careful where your going with this one. Taken to its logical conclusion, you would have to refrain from attending any commemorations or celebrations of British military history lest someone remind you of the thousands killed globally as a result of Britain’s many conflicts- I note WT’s ‘Dresden’ reference, but would add Amritsar and the Boer concentration camps and many more if pushed.
Come to think of it, by your logic, surely the Loyal Orders should be denied access to Stormont’s Long Gallery, given that many of their parades and gatherings are about commemorating British military victories, not least the Boyne, which heralded a prolonged period of subjugation for their catholic neighbours.
“Must be another example of SF reaching out to Unionists and building bridges”
Agh
Must the Mopery begin? Need I point out that bridge building requires two sides, and I assume you would support some form of unionist outreach to nationalists at a political level?
Mr. Donnelly,
“first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
I think you actually mean Luke 6:42: “Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”
and
“You’d need to be careful where your going with this one.”
Yes indeed I suppose I will have to oppose celebrations of the lives of Lenny Murphy, Torrens Knight and Michael Stone at Stormont. Funny I do not think the TUV nor any of the other unionist parties (with the highly dishonourable exception of the PUP) have any desire at all to celebrate any of those people.
Your party’s desire to celebrate this individual as part of International Women’s Day is of course particularly sickening but I am sure is timed so as to allow some pathetic MOPEry, if you are not allowed to hold the event, about how unionists are banning events to respect women’s rights. Not very clever but a tediously predictable example of bigotry dressed with an incredibly thin veneer of respectability allowing later MOPEry.
It’s simple coat trailing, Chris. I expected better.
Correct me if i’m wrong but this was Slugger’s single contribution to International Women’s day yesterday.
International Women’s day.Not on this site it wasn’t.
I’m proud to say my daughter was in the thick of it across the water, perhaps now she’ll do some work for her finals.
Sinn Fein’s Rita O’Hare should speak at this. She was caught trying to smuggle gelignite into proison. The gelignite was hidden in her vagina.