RIR to have homecoming parades?
The News Letter campaign to have a homecoming parade for the RIR seems to bearing some fruit with negotiations ongoing. The notion has also gained cross-party support in Westminster.
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Books
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A poem for the day – Launching the Whaler Juan Peron
A Belfast epic, and one of my oldest poems, the opener of my first collection, Grub. The gist of the story was found in Moss & Hume’s Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, 1861-1986, which tells how Eva Peron was due to launch a huge whaling vessel in Belfast, built [...] read our review » -
Turas, by Colin Neill – a story of strangers in a strange land
Colin Neill’s first novel Turas peeks into a world in which many Ulster Protestants feel uncomfortable. It’s 2020 and the Irish unification that unionists and loyalists confidently predicted would never happen has become a reality. President Adams is ensconced in Phoenix Park. The newsreader reported that … a short ceremony at Stormont had confirmed the [...] read our review »
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Round up of Tuesday’s Political Studies Association conference
If you want to get a flavour of the proceedings at the Political Studies Association conference on its opening day, then the Storify collation below will bring you some of the images, tweets and sounds of the day. Particular highlights included: the Opening Plenary with David Blunkett, Peter Riddell and Matthew Flinders; and the late [...] read our review »
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“The British army created more republicans by their behaviour than they ever imprisoned.”
This is very true and is very much the case.
To put it bluntly, the stuffy, biased, discriminate Unionist set-up in NI created the IRA, no matter how one tries to cap and cloak it!
IRA = the Provos in this case!
The IRA had almost disappeared!
The British Army are a bunch of susceptible young guys. Same elsewhere in the world. I’m not suscribing to the “no blame” culture. But don’t forget who gave the orders. Not just the officers.
It comes from the top.
In the late 1980′s my cousin and I were leaving my parents to Aldergrove on a trip to Australia. My cousin was wearing an Ireland RUGBY top with a small shamrock on it. We were stopped just outside the airport by the UDR who, when they seen the top, pulled us over and stripped the car down. No amount of reasonable debate or talk about my parents trip clicked with them. They were just full of bigoted hatred towards us and this a regiment with the Harp on it. I also had a bad experience with them in Ardglass in the mid 1980′s when we were at a party watching Live Aid. They stopped a crowd of us, young Nationalists, about a mile from the town and when they heard our names, told us they could shoot us in a ditch at the side ot the road and NOBODY would give a fuck because we were Taigs AND they would get away with it. They were a shower of hateful, bigoted, sectarian scumbags who should have been in front of an international court for their crimes.
LURIG
I’m from Downpatrick, and yes there were bigots in 3 UDR. Not all were like that, and 1 RIR are a different kettle of fish, as are the Irish Guards.
Don’t forget, 3 UDR suffered as well, not least Jimmy Cochrane.
OTT on your part.
Tell you a cracker Driftwood.
October, mid ‘80’s myself.[from WB], and some friends,[also from WB], go in a car to Lady Dixon park to, [unsuccessfully], pick some “mushies”.
Coming down the Upper Malone Rd we’re stopped by two jeeps of UDR men and questioned as to our identities, where we’re coming from what we’re doing etc.
On hearing our names and, particularly, our addresses we’re immediately put into the two jeeps two each with one of the UDR men driving the car we had to Lisburn Rd RUC station.
Myself and my friend get into the second jeep, and as we’re en route, one of the UDR men in the back with us very audibly cocks his SLR and says to us:
“It’s not your lucky day boys”
Oh how we laughed! , [in a hysterically terrified kinda way}.
Fair enough Driftwood. I am open minded enough to accept that you can’t tar EVERYONE with the same brush. I won’t say EVERY UDR member was a hate filled, sectarian bigot but I also think that there needs to be a full, independent investigation into the UDR and it’s links with Loyalist paramiltaries, especially the UVF. The Miami Showband, Reavey brothers massacre & UDR/UVF Glennane terrorist atrocities deserve no less. I also accept that RIR/Irish Guards issue is a different matter. Most of these guys were NOT involved in North of Ireland terrorism but others might say it was Iraqi/Afghanistan terrorism. If they want a parade let them march in their English garrison towns or medieval bigoted Reformation hellholes like Lisburn, Portadown or Ballymena. I CAN see a Belfast parade attracting protests AND rightly so!
Paul,
You were lucky you didn’t find any mushrooms. And even luckier you hadn’t eaten them.
LURIG
medieval bigoted Reformation hellholes
LOL
Were you educated by Jesuits by any chance!?
Indeed Picador, in the 2nd Inquisition they are 1,2 & 3 on the list. There WILL be NO easy interrogations this time around involving burning pokers, thumbscrews and racks. It will be serious the next time.
LOL
LURIG
‘I am open minded enough..’
LURIG
‘..to accept that you can’t tar EVERYONE with the same brush’
Yet you continue to do so, on almost every thread you post on.
LURIG
‘If they want a parade let them march in their English garrison towns or medieval bigoted Reformation hellholes like Lisburn, Portadown or Ballymena.’
Hmmm, for someone so keen on shouting accusations of bigotry you’re pretty fond naked sectarianism yourself aren’t you?
correction – ‘you’re pretty fond of naked sectarianism yourself aren’t you’
Revealing sectarianism by Lurig.
Interesting.
Picking up on an earlier post…
I was in Cuba several years ago and got talking to a Welsh guy in a bar. As it turns out he had served in the North in the British Army and during the discussion he showed me the scars from where he had been shot on two separate occassions , indeed the second time he was apparently lucky to survive.
What struck me was the guy bore no malice to those who did this and was of the attitude that he/the army should not have been there in the first place.
Interesting seeing supposed ‘Loyalists’ quoting Irish “Faugh A Ballagh” with a sense of pride……
medieval bigoted Reformation hellholes
Was it Ballymena that had the first DUP controlled council in the North?
Can the politico-religious views of the DUP be described as ‘medieval’, ‘bigoted’ or ‘Reformed’?
Certainly from some of the rhetoric which religious fundamentalists deploy against Catholicism you would swear that the religious wars of the 15th and 16th centuries were on-going. So that takes care of medieval and bigoted. Are they Reformed? Undoubtably. Which brings us to ‘hellhole’. If LURIG finds the idea of living in a place ruled by politico-fanatics with medieval, bigoted, Reformed ideas absolutely intolerable then ‘hellhole’ might be an appropriate choice of word, insulting perhaps to the people who hold these places dear, but opinion nonetheless.
Harryville, Drumcree anyone? Stoneyford?
LURIG
Context is important. Yes there were some bigots in the UDR. Mostly they were farmers sons looking a 2nd wage, same with RUC Reserve, But 1 and 2 RIR ( and the Irish Guards) are worldwide units of the Army. Including a fair amount of Roman Catholics. Afghanistan and Iraq are part of US foreign policy, where Tony Blair swallowed the Bush line. The squaddies, we’re here because we’re here because we’re here, shouldn’t be judged on such issues. Most are decent blokes doing a job most of us are too cowardly to carry out.
Paul McMahon
Mid 80′s it would have been an SA 80, not an SLR.
7/10 trialled the SA 80 in 1984.
And if a soldier had carried out what you say- court martial.
Methinks you doth protest too much.
UDR weren’t too bothered by magic mushies. Probably would have confiscated them. But in Newtownards, I appreciate the experience at a roadblock may have been different.
“Methinks you doth protest too much”
Meaning what Driftwood?
If you’re implying that you think I’m being dishonest then I’m sorry there’s nothing I can do to change that presumption. I recounted my experience of being detained by the UDR in south Belfas in the mid ’80′s which I found to be a frghtening experience, now, I’m aware that this experience is subjective but I challange you to put yourself in my position and, objectively, say that you wouldn’t have fealt the same.
As to your point re the SA80. It was an SLR, it is etched indelibly in my memory and it seems that the BBC would agree.
“The Royal Ordnance SA80 was introduced in 1986 to replace the ageing Self-Loading Rifle, which had been in service since the early 1960s”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/657127.stm
1 anecdotal experience is not enough to disparage an entire regiment, but it may have been a bad experience. Wasn’t suggested didn’t happen. My car was searched for 30 minutes in the rain because i made an off the cuff aside. I just laughed it off. And I’m being honest here. As no doubt were you.
Yes you’re right 1986.
Driftwood
this thread has had numerous “anecdotal” references to biggoted government forces threatening lives. Go read the Caine site about peoples expieriences in the troubles and then try and peddle your garbage
As for your court martial theory, if you arent court martialed for murdering unarmed civilians its highly unlikely you will be for cocking your rifle
Rather than engage in ad hominem “experiences” what happened 20 years ago has NO relevance to the context of 1RIR, 2RIR and The Irish Guards currently engaged in the war on terror abroad.
should have added “for all of us” at the end
‘Beyond that, there is something in the air in Iraq this summer.
In Baghdad, parks are filled every weekend with families playing and picnicking with their children. That was unthinkable only a year ago, when the first, barely visible signs of a turnaround emerged.
Now a moment has arrived for the Iraqis to try to take those positive threads and weave them into a lasting stability.’
You useful idiots who parrot the ‘illegal invasion’ bullshit are the dregs of modern society. I hope I live to see you off into obscurity.
Thank God we have fine men and women of all nationalities to put their lives on the line for the good of mankind. Even for scumbag lowlifes who would besmirch a soldiers memory like putting out a cigarette.
I think we can end this thread for a thank you to the RIR and Irish Guards, and those throughout the British Isles who fight for freedom elsewhere.
The British Army have always been at the forefront of empowering others to change the world to a better place. Long may it continue.
Driftwood mind telling me how exactly Iraq was threatening my freedom?
Also if you’ll allow me a little artistic licence, this…
‘The British Army have always been at the forefront of empowering others to change the world to a better place.’
Should read…
The British Army have always been at the forefront of subjugating others to change the world to a more hostile place.
Ah, our wee country’s obsession with parades again. You’d think we were North Korea with all this militaristic parading about just to feel good about our self-imposed lot in life.
Dr Strangelove
“What struck me was the guy bore no malice to those who did this and was of the attitude that he/the army should not have been there in the first place.”
That’s almost as good as Mick Hall’s reason for beleiving all prods are bad. Apparently a woman in a toilet in Tunisia told him.