The Newsletter notes a couple of incidents where workers were allegedly told to remove poppies in the run up to Armistice day. Steven Moore who had been hired by EventSec to provide security at Queen’s Student Union was required to remove a poppy. Meanwhile a temporary worker at the Passport Office was also apparently told to remove her poppy.
Dr Gordon Gillespie, a researcher at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, gave a presentation on “Graphic Portrayals: Northern Ireland, Graphic Novels and the Peace Process”, at the Linen Hall Library. Gordon started with a clarification that he was going to talk about graphic novels/comic books, not cartoons, and material that was [...] read our review »
Northern Ireland’s peace process has been promoted as an international success story. The Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs has its Conflict Resolution Unit, which aims to disseminate the ‘lessons’ of the Northern Ireland peace process. And some of the prominent players in our peace process have travelled abroad to other troubled spots to share their [...] read our review »
Garibaldy,
Trying to put an idea out there and my personal view on poppy wearing.
I have said here before, appeals to defend ‘Catholic’ Belgium etc hold no truck with me. Though for many unionists I have learnt in recent weeks yhe religion of soldiers is significant somehow, I have yet to get my head round that but.
1. I dont care what religon they are because I disagree with religion.
and
2. The actions of the Belgians in the ‘Belgian’ Congo would rob me of all sympathy for them. Taste, medicine, etc.
earnan ,
‘your post had me laughing for a good minute.’
Laughing ? You have no sense of humour man . That was a serious proposal .
I omitted to include a poppy colour for atheists , humanists , agnostics and those who are somewhat sceptical of the benefits to be had from the mass slaughter of fellow human beings.
Humans are the only animal that has evolved to be able to kill at a distance . This skill /talent was caused by virtue of the ‘brains’ growth in size i’e a trebling, since Australopithecus Africanus/Mervyn Storey learned that using a stick or throwing a stone gave him a clear advantage over his competitors . Since ancient times the number of those killed in war has increased exponentially and correlates with the increase in distance to the rear of the battlefield that ‘war’ leaders find comfortable.
We have advanced so far now that a man sitting in an underground bunker somewhere on the globe could press the wrong /right button and wipe all of Northern Ireland off the face of the earth in a few minutes . Imagine no more poppies
Which reminds me of the old joke popular in the USSR of old , when a reception for Politburo members was being held deep underground at the Soviet General Staff headquarters . The politburo members were then given a tour of the secret underground room where various coloured buttons could be seen mounted on a large table. Suddenly a Marshal of the Soviet Air Force shouts out
‘Who pressed the white button, who pressed the white button ‘?
He is beside himself with rage when no one answers . He then downs another vodka , wipes the perspiration from his face and, with a casual wave of the hand says :
‘Well after all -who really cares about Albania ?’
‘since Australopithecus Africanus/Mervyn Storey’
The above juxtaposition is not to suggest in any way that Mr Storey is an any way a modern day stand in for Australopithecus Africanus in case feathers sorry poppies here are ruffled but is made out of deference to those who believe that we – humans – are not descended from Australopithecus Africanus but were created instead in the image of their God only 6,000 years ago.
‘Well after all -who really cares about Albania ?’
Norman Wisdom, for one
I just want to point out that when Prince Charles visted the War Commeration Ceremony in France and met President Sarkozy on Tuesday, neither of them, nor any of their entourage wore poppies, indicating that the poppy is purely a British symbol as such and not a universal symbol of remembering the dead of WWI. Therefore peoples reservations about wearing a poppy should be respected too as those who do wear a poppy!
BTW, the Battle of Verdun fought between the French and Germans was perhaps the most savage battles of WWI (even more so than the Somme) which lasted for weeks and saw the death of up to a quarter of a million troops and over a million injured!
“Derry people are culchies too.”
Hi Garibaldy, that’s a tasty lookin’ ear ye have there mucker.
meant to add “neither of them…Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, nor any of their entourage wore poppies”
Anyone who has went to Queens will remember the SU is a little self important Liberal clique, who will do anything to reinforce that sense of importance, QUB and the SU are suppossed to be neutral?,nonetheless I have seen many a Saint Patricks night in the bunatee the Irish Flag being waved about Republican songs everywhere, hardly a friendly place for a Prod, it certainly seems that Nationalist Culchies have put thier mark on it ‘the SU that is’.
I am a Nationalist,I choose not to wear a poppy because of my objection to senseless wars, but have no problem whatsoever with anyone who wishes too I would support them 100%,after all parity of esteem is exactly what it means.
The SU would be the first to support a Muslim if he-she felt they were being discriminated against, whats the differance?
Is it a appropriate for the security team at the SU to be wearing political emblems?
Why the need to fly the union jack at the rememberance gatherings in this part of the world? All we hear at the min is about how many Irishmen did this or how many Irishmen joined that. If everyones so keen to remember the Irishmen then either give their flags emblems equal footing or get rid of them.
The wearing of a poppy of remembrance woudlnt be half the issue it currently is if one half of the community didnt see the trappings as little more than an extension of orangefest and the other half didnt treat it as such.
ulsterior motive ,
‘The wearing of a poppy of remembrance woudlnt be half the issue it currently is if’
Somebody somewhere would just push da button
or pull the plug 
or better still both -simultaneously .
“The wearing of a poppy of remembrance woudlnt be half the issue it currently is if one half of the community didnt see the trappings as little more than an extension of orangefest and the other half didnt treat it as such.”
Well there is truth in that for the Battle of the Somme has become somewhat mythologised in Ulster by Unionists as a symbol of Unionists undying loyalty to the crown of England. (A ‘blood sacrifice’ similar to that of Pearse’s 1916 rebels). When it’s put in context it’s gesture of loyalty is somewhat diluted when one considers that there were just as many or even more Irish Nationalists who died in WWI for the English crown.
The Irish Volunteers – Home Rulers, Redmondites contribution to such an important international war should always be remembered too. That aspect of Irish history should never have been conveniently forgotton!
Regarding the poppy, it has become politicized; for it is not only the symbol to the memory of those who lost their lives in WWI, it has become a symbol for all the British war dead who have died in subsequent wars since, including the Iraq and Afghanistan today!
And as WWI was to be the war to end all wars, how wrong they were, for look at all the wars that have occured since involving the British Army! Maybe the poppy has become rather a subtle symbol to justify war involving the British in a way amid all the sentimentality and piety!
Here’s the last two parts of the song the “Green Fields of France” made famous by the Furey Brothers from Ballyfermot, Dublin who sang it on Top of the Pops…..sure war has happened again and again and again…(involving the British Army)
The sun’s shining down on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that’s still No Man’s Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.
And I can’t help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you “The Cause?”
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.
To me culchies start at Bellevue Bridge – right by the zoo funny enough.
Nah, anywhere past St. Gerard’s is “here be dragons” country.
GOF ;
‘Did you really believe them when they told you “The Cause?’
Yes most did at the time and many still do . The triumph of propaganda over reason and the consumate abilities of politicians , monarchs and leaders everywhere to persuade people to lay down their lives for their country has been a constant theme since humanity grouped itself into entities called States and tribes .
We can look ‘forward’ to another several rounds of mass slaughter in this new century brought about not by competing empires this time but by wars civil and uncivil on issues mostly to do with access to scarce resources , water , oil , food , jobs ,overpopulation . These wars will be fought both within and without the ‘nation state ‘.There are a growing number of Haiti’s, Somalia’s , Dharfur’s ,Madagascar’s , Zimbabwe’s , Bangla Desh’s etc etc in the world and there is no way that these countries can be lifted up to present First World living standards without world wide environmental collapse .Somalia IIRC has not had a Government worthy of the name since the 1990′s . They have obviously taken the neo conservative objective of small government to it’s ultimate conclusion . It must be a paradise according to the tenets of the neo con economists eh ?
Another beautiful song that deals with the utter waste of life that was WWI. It’s about boy soldier John Conson from Wexford.
I’ve seen some Unioinist websites treat this tragedy as some kind of blood sacrifice Cause célèbre instead of the anti-war song that it is.
I think that bumbeling Laird Lard had something to do with it’s writing, however, don’t let that put you off.
Just a day, another day beneath the Belgian sun
Past grave on grave, row on row until I see the name John Condon
carved in stone, the harp and crown, little crosses in the ground
and standing there, my silent prayer is for a boy who died a soldier
wee lad who’ll not grow old. Heroes that don’t come home
Here they lie in Belgian fields and Picardy
Just a recruit in soldier’s boots. from Ireland’s shores to here
this living hell. This Poelcapelle. Where young men fell like you, John Condon
and all around the harp and crown, the crosses in the ground
stand up in proof, the bitter truth, the waste of youth that lies forgotten
wee lad who’ll not grow old. Heroes that don’t come home
Here they lie in Belgian fields and Picardy
Now tell me John, before I go on. What did you come here for?
with Ireland’s bold, your life untold, 14 years old – to die a soldier?
and all around the harp and crown and crosses in the ground
what caused was served? So undeserved!
Heroes that don’t come home. Sing out for all their souls
here they lie in Belgian fields, and Picardy
Chris Donnelly
You are worried about UTV Logie getting a duffing at an Irish League football match for having it pointed out that he apparantly wasn’t wearing a poppy. Logie’s no dozzer he would be more concerned about getting a going over at a GAA game for wearing one on air. You pay your money and take your chance in this country!
I live in Canada.
I wear a poppy on Nov 11th to remind myself and others of the noble soldiers whose lives were callously used and abused by both Germany and Britain in the first world war.
I wear an Easter Lily at Easter to remember the dead soldiers from Ireland’s long and noble weary fight for independence.
Get over it.
They should let anyone wear either emblem, when and where they wish.
I look forward to seeing someone with a Lilly on BBC news at Easter. Then I will know we have made progress.
There are more important things to get cranky about.
Harry,
You can take the boy out of Derry…
Yer a wile man hi
Paul McMahon
I believe the boy soldier the song may relate to is 14 year old John Condon from a laneway just off Ballybricken in Waterford City.
Signed up because he wanted a good pair of boots the story goes.
Jimmy
“anyone who has went Queens” Feck the irony. I presume someone signed you in at the door.
Oops! “went to queens” double irony/drunken skut
Oops! “went to queens” double irony/drunken skut
Shows the benefits of a grammer (sic) school education.
snowjoke,
‘There are more important things to get cranky about.’
You might think that snowjoke but in Northern Ireland there is nothing more important than ‘symbols’ and their interpretation . It is what the place is , was, always has, and always will be about. It cannot be otherwise.
But there is hope of diversion on the horizon . I read now that Mr Adams in the USA has made a reference to the DUP as having a narrow , petty , small minded ‘Afrikaner’ wing . Admittedly not exactly a ‘nazi ‘ level epithet but it has currency and no doubt soon enough on slugger we’ll have the ‘droolers ‘ on both sides letting us know why this epithet is either accurate , very accurate , insulting , praiseworty , irrelevant etc etc .
Nobody of course will pay a blind bit of notice to the Afrikaners in all of this . The idea that said Afrikaner’s would be highly insulted by said comparison will not cause Adams or his opposite Unionist spokesmen any loss of sleep
a narrow , petty , small minded ‘Afrikaner’ wing .
I don’t know, Greenflag, when I was a lass I thought the Orange Free State was in Ulster :^)
Oops, my silly alterego was still in the browser memory. It’s me!
You are of course correct Ri Na D. Please excuse my error, [that's what happens when you type in haste].
“Derry people aren’t culchies, culchies start at Muff (or Coshquin, or Newbuildings or Gransha according to which gate the barbarians are assaulting). ”
EVERYONE outside Belfast lives in “the country” –its all one place you see. BELFAST (showing my age)was anywhere on a trolley bus route. Everyone not in Belfast is a Farmer and (mostly) milks cows.
Everyone from the country is an unsophisticated hick
No hassle Paul. As a Ballybricken man meself I felt obliged to reclaim wee John. Couldnt have him labelled a yellabelly.:-)
A 32-year-old man from Co Mayo has been killed while serving with British forces in Afghanistan.
Robert McKibben, from Carraignalorgan near Westport, died alongside fellow Marine Neil Dunstan after their vehicle was hit by an explosive device while they were on patrol in Helmand province.
His family issued a statement through the British Ministry of Defence saying they are ‘all extremely proud of our Robbie’.
‘He had very definite plans of how he wanted to live his life; he was always thoughtful, considerate and had an amazing sense of humour that touched so many lives. He was so full of life and was loved so much by his family and by all his friends.
‘Robbie has left a huge void in our hearts and he will never be forgotten.’
A spokesperson for the British forces in Helmand, Commander Paula Rowe, said the deaths were a tragic blow to the force.
Local priest Mícheál Mannion in Westport said the family and community were devastated by the news and Westport Town Council has expressed its deepest sympathy to the family.
He is one of a family of four and left Wesport when he was 18. He joined the Royal Marines at the age of 27 and, after completing Commando Training, joined J Company 42 Commando based in Plymouth. He was previously a member of the FCA (Irish Army reserve).
He is expected to be buried in Westport in the coming weeks’
RIP
big maggie ,
‘ my silly alterego was still in the browser memory. It’s me!
I’m reminded of the yarn between two culchies who recognise one another but can’t remember names on a street somewhere in Dublin and the one says to the other .
‘Ah shure tis yerself it is’ sez the one .
‘Ah shure tis yerself it is’ sez the other.
As they both take a closer look at each other they realise that yerself is not yerself .
‘Ah shure it’s neither of us’ sez the one
‘Ah shure we’re not ourselves at all all sez the other
Both shake heads and wander off
Robert McKibben – R.I.P.
“Per Mare Per Terram”
Jimmy
You think that the students’ union at QUB is “hardly a friendly place for a Prod”? Have you been there recently? I don’t know what it was like in your day, but right now you won’t find a sectarian atmosphere there. Fair enough, they do have events on for St. Patrick’s day, but I’ve never seen anybody (other than the polical parties) waving flags or singing “republican” songs – and anybody acting like a dick in the bars is likely to get turfed out. Why don’t you come down, on any night, and see for yourself?
You ask “The SU would be the first to support a Muslim if he-she felt they were being discriminated against, whats the differance?” There isn’t a difference – if anybody complained about that, the SU would have a responsibility to support them. Do you have a specific case of somebody being discriminated against by the SU?
Cheers.
Greenflag
LOL at the two culchies in Dublin!
big maggie ,
A yarn to remember for times when you may be inadvetently conflicted with an ‘identity’ crisis
In tsarist times in old Russia the life saving motto of the travelling jewish merchant was ‘incognito ergo sum ‘
This is not a condition which afflicts Greenflag ever, as he doesn’t have the imagination to have more than one name
Tomorrow the Haka men are in town and the men in Green are hoping for a win against the All Blacks a team that has never known defeat in Ireland since Munster bate them sometime in the last century
It’s about time we had some good news so I’ll predict a victory for the men in Green over the savages in Black by 21 to 13 
Time for an old Australian joke
Question :
‘What do you call a New Zealander with a goat under one arm and a sheep under the other ‘?
Answer :
‘Bi-sexual and /or hungry ‘
UMH ,
Good man .
LOL at Greenflag and his Aussie joke!
Anyone outside Dublin is a culchie.
Dr G.M Byrne
‘Anyone outside Dublin is a culchie. ‘
Yes and No . The insertion of ‘from ‘ before outside above would lend more accuracy to your bald statement as there are some of us Dubs who may reside just outside the Pale’s boundaries who do not consider ourselves worthy of the culchie ‘honorific’.
Then there are the ‘new’ people to consider. It seems hardly fair to call somebody who hails from Shanghai , Warsaw , Riga , Vilnius or Tallin or Rio de Janeiro or Lagos or London a ‘Culchie ‘ ?
Be that as it may today Ireland will again be relying on the Munster ‘culchies’ to do the needful at Croker against the New Zealanders .
Why is it Dublin people don’t understand they are culchies too? Don’t think we’ve forgotten them driving over the border to come to Argos and the like.
garibaldi ,
‘Don’t think we’ve forgotten them driving over the border to come to Argos and the like.’
Bet ye miss us eh well I’m sure Argos does
Nothing like the cling cling of the cash register to gladden the heart of the purveyors of ‘stuff’ eh ?
Not to worry with the pound on it’s way down the Jacks will be back sooner or later . We’re not known as the roving jacks for nuttin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVFpG1FAYBc
I am from outside Dublin and I am not a culchie. Now then no good ?Dukes might be