Shock…Horror….Disbelief…’Anti-British’ Larne Council refuse to erect loyalist bunting!
Orangemen in Larne have staged a protest outside Council buildings after the Council failed to erect (and pay for) red, white and blue bunting in the town. The DUP Mayor, Bobby McKee, cited equality laws as the reason why Larne Council has failed to erect the bunting. A Council spokesperson claimed they had asked the Order to seek funding for “cultural activities” which could have been used to pay for the bunting, which raises the intriguing prospect of Larne Council paying for green, white and orange bunting under cultural activities were it to be sought at some stage.
Its called equality legislation, we all have to live with it, even backwoods councillors in Larne. Just takes longer for it to sink in…
Nice pic shows about 0.0001% of the Larne Borough showing up with a particular concern about that bunting.
Rather a lame trolling mission Mr. Donelly you wallow in orgasmic glory at the refusal of the Larne council to provide bunting for one section of the community (and quite rightly so larne council)
Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.
DC,
It might be a nice pic but your maths are shocking your dismissive percentage would estimate the poplation of larne at approximately 350,000 that’s plainly wrong.
However you should note that it is approximately 35 persons involved in the protest, thats still more than Sinn Fein got at the last Finucane inquiry protest, more than Sinn Fein got at the last Irish language protest, more than Sinn Fein got at the Bush protest.
PS: at 35 it is still 182,999,965 less than Sinn Fein got for rich lawyers at Bloody Sunday and only half as many as Sinn Fein can squeeze into a toilet cubicle for the visually impaired
Of course they should not put up the French colors how would the Glensmen feel?
My own lodge pays for our bunting, as do the majority of other lodges across Northern Ireland. While this move by Larne council is disappointing, it is understandable when you take into account the wider context of equality legislation. At the end of the day, the councils have to act within the law.
The lodges in Larne should work together, pot some money and get bunting up each year to have the town looking well.
It must be my background from the West of the Bann but frankly I’m astonished that there’s Councils who actually supply and put up the Orange bunting.
Its not the job of the District Council to organise or run the 12th July any more than it is to organise a Feis (if that’s spelt right) and you can be sure that the ‘Orangemen’ who were protesting last night would be out again were that Council or any other to be involved in putting up bunting for that kind of event.
Unfortunately some Prods seem to be developing a MOPE complex and this is a prime example of it. Clearly the District Lodge organising the 12th in Larne can apply to the Community Festivals fund which could help provide the bunting – no doubt the Council has funding sources they could apply for – tourism etc which would also help. But simply to expect the ratepayer to automatically supply and pay for bunting is a bit outrageous in my opinion.
A bit of traditional Protestant self-reliance might be required here!
“loyalist bunting!” lol @ Chris Donnelly.
We are in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and N.Ireland, our national colours are red, white and blue. If anyone objects to those colours they can go fling there hook and live somewhere where they feel more at home.
If you you don’t like it , MOVE HOME
My understanding is that if the council opt to put up the red, white and blue bunting and later receive a request for green, white and gold bunting then they will have to oblige. The council has made the right decision. If those protesting wish to have the republican colours flying then they are going the right way about it.
It seems like a cheap and ill-thought out political gimmic.
If they are serious, and as Ally says, go and raise the money and erect the bunting yourself like the majority of other Orange lodges have to do.
We go and collect money from the local community to pay for the flags and bunting where I live; if we approached the local council for a grat, they’d soon tell us where to go, even if it was a Unionist controlled area, which it certainly isn’t!
How about Larne District pay for their own bunting? They’re a big District, they can surely afford it.
Parson
“How about Larne District pay for their own bunting? They’re a big District, they can surely afford it.”
That’s the ultimate irony with all of this. The only areas where Lodges could get the Council to pay for their bunting and put it up for them, are majority unionist areas in which surely you would expect the Orange Institution to be at its strongest and have enough members/supporters to do it themselves.
Meanwhile those Lodges in the West of the Province do it themselves, with less members and less money and a lot less whinging and expectations that everything should be done for them.
What really gets on my goat (geddit!) is that this attitude seems to pervade within the Orange Instituion at a senior level presently that one of the roles of the Order is simply to complain about things and pretend that the world used to be wonderful back “when I was a lad”. So much for 21st Century Orangeism.
Interested,
Well spoken! Where I live, we just get on and do the job ourselves, and I have to say, the village always looks really well by the time we’re finished. It all comes down a week or so after the 12th as well, apart from a few flags which stay up until the end of August.
We don’t need a grant from the Council or anyone else.
“Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.”
ha ha….ludicrous comparison Old Nick. The likes of yourself who continually proclaim that we all live in the ‘British Isles’ yet you will not support funding or even recognise Irish/Gaelic as one of the oldest languages in the ‘British Isles’. You display an ignorance of the culture and history the ‘British Isles’.
Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’….another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only. Remember the last census figures put the British Unionist community at 800,000 and odd, and the Irish Nationalist community at 700,000. There is not much of a difference for one community to call the shots as they did years ago. Those bad old days are gone.
BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.
“Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.”
ha ha….ludicrous comparison Old Nick. The likes of yourself who continually proclaim that we all live in the ‘British Isles’ yet you will not support funding or even recognise Irish/Gaelic as one of the oldest languages in the ‘British Isles’. You display an ignorance of the culture and history the ‘British Isles’.
Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’….another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only. Remember the last census figures put the British Unionist community at 800,000 and odd, and the Irish Nationalist community at 700,000. There is not much of a difference for one community to call the shots as they did years ago. Those bad old days are gone.
BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.
“Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.”
ha ha….ludicrous comparison Old Nick. The likes of yourself who continually proclaim that we all live in the ‘British Isles’ yet you will not support funding or even recognise Irish/Gaelic as one of the oldest languages in the ‘British Isles’. You display an ignorance of the culture and history the ‘British Isles’.
Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’….another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only. Remember the last census figures put the British Unionist community at 800,000 and odd, and the Irish Nationalist community at 700,000. There is not much of a difference for one community to call the shots as they did years ago. Those bad old days are gone.
BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.
[aside] The Devil, my Larne contacts tell me that a certain North Antrim developer – from that DUP mould – has intentions to build an ‘out-of-town’ shopping centre(?) in Larne borough. Might he be getting any help from the local MP?
“Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.”
Did you get that 3-for-1 offer in Larne, Greagoir?
But there is still something strangely comforting that despite credit crunches, soaring prices, years of “peace”, our new “government” and so on, nevertheless every morning somewhere in this pathetic excuse for a country/statelet/province (please delete whichever you feel is incorrect) an Orangeman gets up and wonders,
“what can I do today to make myself and my “culture” look even worse today than it did yesterday?”
Plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose
Are the 12th of July Celebrations, etc, considered official State holidays?
Casual Observer
I believe the 12th is a holiday declared by proclamation by the Secretary of State each year.
Most of the Unionist people I know are heading for the sun or Donegal this week. They have had enough and are embarrassed by these knuckledraggers and 17th century fundamentalists. Orangeism/Loyalism is dying the death of a 1000 self imposed cuts.The Orange Order/Loyalist paramiltary violence on the Springfield Road in 2005 was the final straw for many. The spokespersons put up by them to justify the trouble and blame everyone else were monosyllablic gum munchers who couldn’t string two words together. I remember watching them on the TV with a Protestant friend who was absolutely mortified and his father and grandfather were Orangemen. In years gone by the Tour of the North (Belfast) and Drumcree were BIG media spectacles with areas closed down for days and weeks. The Tour of the North slinked through North Belfast in an hour or two while Drumcree is a done deal, another march along the Garvaghy Road will NEVER happen again. The Order has an air of a sad old bunch of defeated veterans yearning for the ‘Good Old Days’ that will never come again. Even the wider Protestant community is starting to see that. Go to George Best airport, Aldergrove and the ports any day this week. The Unionist community is on an Exodus leaving the bigoted remnants behind in their bitter, myopic, pathetic, wee world. These cave dwellers should get a life or even better considering they seem to have ALL the time in the world to protest and take to the streets, get a job.
lurig:
‘knuckledraggers and 17th century fundamentalists’
interesting analysis. most historical consensus would suggest that this 17th century movement is associated with trends toward parliamentary democracy in rejection of roman catholic absolutism; an embrace of enlightenment principles and rejection of romanticism and mysticism; a cornerstone of mordern democratic and libertarian western values and a rejection of narrow ‘big’ church and state intervention in individual freedoms.
So dick, Cromwell was a ‘parliamentary democrat’? The English people couldn’t wait to bring the monarchy back after a taste of Cromwell’s spartan democracy. Must have been all those Protestant retailers who rebelled after he banned Christmas! Didn’t they dig him up and put him on trial after his death for beheading Charles I? The ‘Orange Order’ = ‘a cornerstone of modern democratic and libertarian western values’? HA! HA! HA! HA! At least you gave me a laugh there. ‘Narrow big church and state intervention in individual freedoms’ he says as The Church of England declares open war on itself over gays/woman bishops & the British government introduces the Frankenstein age with embryo research. You do jest don’t you……………….don’t you?
Hi Greagoir,
I agree with you that Irish is one of the British Isle’s oldest languages and it should be treasured. I also know that in the past Ulster Prods played a leading role in saving it. And that certain Orange Lodges have Irish on their banners. However, through the efforts of the likes of Chris Donnelly the language has become a devisive, sectarian issue. I know that sounds mental. How can a language be sectarian? But, remember Isreali/Palestinian flags fly in NI on a catholic/prod basis even tho’ there are practically no catholic/prods in Israel. So, unfortunately it isn’t “ludicrous” to compare funding for the language for that of bunting.
Hi Lurig,
You mentioned jesting to Dick above. Having read your post 20 above, were you jesting at calling anyone else bigotted after that tirade?
Have you had a really bad day or something?
Why would Ulster Prods play a leading role in saving Gaelic in Scotland. Whats that all about!
“If you you don’t like it , MOVE HOME”
Posted by Ulsters my homeland on Jul 08, 2008 @ 12:51 PM
What a stupid comment to make. Are you really that thick? We are home dim wit! There is no community in norn Iron, there are two communities. The nationalist community makes up just under half the population of the north and basically all the population of the south. You’ll find if anyone needs to move home it certainly isn’t the nationalist community. However I won’t go down that road. We all share this space and unionism can’t and won’t get away with the stuff it used to in the past when we had the infamous “Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people”, gerrymandering and croppies lie down mentality. We haven’t gone away you know, nor do we intend to. Indeed if anything we are growing stronger in numbers and confidence. People from my community are out studying for third level education, whilst people from your community are out beating drums and burning tyres! No shipyards and jobs for the boys anymore. My how the tables have turned. We know who we are, where we are and where we are going whilst you and you’re ilk stumble around searching hopelessly for an identity. Come back to me in 20 years when all the top jobs in this place are run by nationalists whilst Unionists complain about social and economic deprivation on their way to collect their dole, which will incidentally be paid out to them in Euros.
Indeed no Congal. Pray do tell what was bigoted OR factually incorrect about my post? FACT is many ordinary Prods are sick of the July 12 nonsense and can’t wait to get away from it. Now you may want to adapt the 3 monkeys SEE NO, HEAR NO AND SPEAK NO EVIL about the Orange Order but others see it differently as undoubtedly it’s dying on it’s arse. The only ones who stay around at this time are the diehards and farmers. Donegal & Dublin are crammed with Wendy’s & Ians from North Down and South & East Belfast, just ask any hotelier. The Orange Order is an anachronism that one almost, but not quite, feels sorry for. How far has the ‘mighty’ Portadown District Orange Lodge fallen when they are reduced to begging the residents of Garvaghy Road for talks? It was quite pathetic on Sunday but this quasi paramilitary organisation has brought ALL bad publicity and humiliation on itself. It is a sad, beaten, tattered, bunch of old men harking after the Good Oul’ apartheid days when Seamus and Nuala knew their place. In reality it should just fold up it’s tent, put away it’s collars and banners AND wither away in shame. It was the usual suspects in Larne, the same types that protested against Mary McAleese in Coleraine, the chapel at Harryville and against the children of Holy Cross.
Congal
“I agree with you that Irish is one of the British Isle’s oldest languages and it should be treasured.”
Self-evident isn’t it? You’re in a minority within your community though,
“I also know that in the past Ulster Prods played a leading role in saving it.”
They did indeed, thank ‘evans guv. They did this in times where the militant Republican of their day used Gaelic too. That didn’t stop them.
” However, through the efforts of the likes of Chris Donnelly the language has become a devisive, sectarian issue. I know that sounds mental. How can a language be sectarian?”
The Red Hand of Uládh. Nationalists still embrace it despite it being a loyalist fetish. Can’t Unionists behave similarly wrt Gaelic?
Nevin,
What that certain supermarket happen to have branding with the same colours as certain bunting which isn’t being funded by a certain council which a certain MP doesn’t sit on?
Judging by some comments I will probably have to dust down my copy of Animal Farm…
Hi Lurig,
Here’s a few of the comments you made…
“knuckledraggers”
“17th century fundamentalists”
“monosyllablic gum munchers”
“couldn’t string two words together”
“sad old bunch”
“bigoted remnants”
“bitter, myopic, pathetic”
“cave dwellers”
“get a life”
“get a job”
Again, are you jesting?
Hi Cowboy,
“The Red Hand of Uládh. Nationalists still embrace it despite it being a loyalist fetish. Can’t Unionists behave similarly wrt Gaelic?”
I think we should. I think it should be introduced into state schools. It would also give Unionist kids access to first hand material relating to early Irish history which could have interesting consequences. That’ll take a while tho’.
“The Red Hand of Uládh. Nationalists still embrace it despite it being a loyalist fetish. Can’t Unionists behave similarly wrt Gaelic? “
Somewhat over simplified I think (as much as I would dearly love it to be true). The “sectarian Red Hand” is still rejected by many nationalists. FFS I had to change an avatar on a forum recently after some wanknut claimed it was a “UDA symbol”. And look happened to Zoe Salmon after that Scottish fascist got stuck in.
Sorry it’s OT… call it a pet peeve.
dick swett,
Extreme-late 18th century. Founded 1795.
Founded as a reconstituted version of the mainly-Church of Ireland “Peep O’Day Boys” following the “Battle of the Diamond” in answer to the alliace between the mainly-Roman Catholic “Defenders” and mainly-Presbyterian “United Irishmen”.
All of the above were militant secret societies.
(You appear to be confusing the Orange Order with the Glorious Revolution/Revolution of 1688.)
“Somewhat over simplified I think (as much as I would dearly love it to be true). The “sectarian Red Hand” is still rejected by many nationalists. FFS I had to change an avatar on a forum recently after some wanknut claimed it was a “UDA symbol”. And look happened to Zoe Salmon after that Scottish fascist got stuck in.”
I’d say the vast majority of Nationalists would be happy wearing a item of clothing with the Red Hand on it.
It’s always presented on it’s own, open palmed and sans attached motto. I’d suggest it’s this fetishization and corruption of the original that repels some nationalists.
If your Red hand was clenched then the guy had a point but none if it wasn’t.
The whole Zoe Salmon thing was blown out of proportion but she has also drawn the whole of Ireland covered in a Union Jack so she has previous, so to speak, and this allowed her motives to be questioned.
Hi Congal
” think we should. I think it should be introduced into state schools. It would also give Unionist kids access to first hand material relating to early Irish history which could have interesting consequences. That’ll take a while tho’.”
That’d be excellent. What do you think some of the consequences could be?
“I’d say the vast majority of Nationalists would be happy wearing a item of clothing with the Red Hand on it.”
Eh? What sort a’ Clady maun are you Sir?
The Red Hand has been hijacked, hijacked I tells ye, by Tyronians!!!
I would rather go naked than people thinking I was from Tyrone. NAKED!!!!!
“Eh? What sort a’ Clady maun are you Sir?”
An exiled one, maybe that explains it!
“I would rather go naked than people thinking I was from Tyrone. NAKED!!!!!”
You’re not a Monaghan judge are ye?
Ah sure, we’re half-Donegal in Clady anyhow
I wonder how many years it will take will all these stupid parades and marches either a) no longer take place, or b.) no longer bring so much drama from the distant path
Surely there are other problems in NI without worrying about your local council not helping to fund your celebration of a battle fought over 300 years ago that wasn’t exactly Waterloo or the Bulge to begin with.
earman
If nationalists went outside when a March passed by and waved, smiling, looking happy; what would happen?
Go home UMH? The Irish people that you tell to go home have been in this part of Ireland for thousands of years! How long have your ancestors been in Ulster? A few hundred years? How can we go home if we’ve been here all along!!;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zöe_Salmon
Leave her alone.
She is hirsuitically-challenged (As well as centurially as the article makes clear).
…but she is hot.
Sure if you like that tall skinny blonde look
I know, my taste just sucks….
Thank God I checked Page 2 – I was about to post in the same list as Congal.
So much for “a shared future”. This thread is very much reminding me of the labels pinned on every Prod when the President was heckled in Milburn.
Shockingly bad display here on both sides of the house…
Ulster’s My Homeland, you need to rethink your approach when you write things like “move home”. Frankly, speaking as a Prod myself, you let the whole side down.
Clady, I was about to ask if you were from Tyrone yourself (until reading the following comment) because I simply can’t believe your claim about the “vast majority of Nationalists”. Tyrone-folk maybe. Maybe it’s an east-west thing, but the ones I know wouldn’t countenance it.
(BTW the icon I was referring to was open-palmed but had the 6-pointed star – I thought it was marginally less ‘political’ than the NI flag (complete with crown) but apparently I was wrong as this was what they suggested using instead!!)
“The whole Zoe Salmon thing was blown out of proportion but she has also drawn the whole of Ireland covered in a Union Jack so she has previous, so to speak, and this allowed her motives to be questioned. “
Actually she chose a picture (drawn by a 7 or 8 year old girl IIRC) featuring the oh-so-offensive iconography as the winner of a kids art competition.
I suppose after all that I should commment on the topic at hand. The problem is it’s a non-story. Yes, Orangemen MOPE (what’s new?). Just another chance for CD to point and laugh at those silly Prods making themselves look foolish.
Greagoir O Frainclin
“[i]Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’….another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only.”[/i]
They can profess to be whatever the hell they like, it still doesn’t change the matter. They are in the union of Great Britian and N.Ireland (whether they like it or not) and the national colours are red, white and blue. If they don’t like it, they can live somewhere else. You wouldn’t oppose buntings going up in the national colours in any other country, so don’t do it here!
[i]BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.”[/i]
Not in British N.Ireland. If you really want to live where the colours of Irish nationalism are displayed in any legitimate sense, go to the Republic and stop living in some wee fantasy world in N.Ireland, for this is British soil and will remain so, Tally-Ho!
Quagmire
“[i]You’ll find if anyone needs to move home it certainly isn’t the nationalist community.”[/i]
At home my ass!
“[i]However I won’t go down that road.[/i]
Why not? Is it because Irish Nationalists never were an historic part of Ulster? Is it because Irish Nationalism is a modern fantasy stuck in a Brian Boru time machine?
“[i]We all share this space and unionism can’t and won’t get away with the stuff it used to in the past when we had the infamous “Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people”, gerrymandering and croppies lie down mentality.”[/i]
If you want to share the space, accept the space for what it is, British (red, white and blue)?
“[i]We haven’t gone away you know, nor do we intend to. Indeed if anything we are growing stronger in numbers and confidence. People from my community are out studying for third level education, whilst people from your community are out beating drums and burning tyres! “[/i]
Typical patronising Irish.
“[i]No shipyards and jobs for the boys anymore. My how the tables have turned. We know who we are, where we are and where we are going whilst you and you’re ilk stumble around searching hopelessly for an identity.”[/i]
You must be the only nation to be so confident about your roots. What else do you expect from a lifetime of making up myths and legends to support your identity. Your identity is built on myth and lies.
For those of you who hadn’t noticed Umh is a troll.
Who’d have thought that Larne council would stand accused of appeasing Fenians on the 12th of July?
Is it April Fools’ Day?
Capricorn
“[i]Go home UMH? The Irish people that you tell to go home have been in this part of Ireland for thousands of years! How long have your ancestors been in Ulster? A few hundred years? How can we go home if we’ve been here all along!!;)[/i]
You Irish are so gullible, it’s really unbelievable. You seem to think the whole island was united before the English arrived and what’s more unbelievable you seem to think everyone was Irish before that, lol.
Before the Pope gave ‘your’ island to the English, was it the common hiberni who were the Irish? or maybe it was the noble Scots who were the Irish?. What if you go back further, were the Priteni (Cruithni, in old Irish), were they the real Irish?
“[i]For those of you who hadn’t noticed Umh is a troll. “[/i]
Surely you can do better than that picador?