Slugger is looking for new (mostly Unionist) bloggers…
Slugger was a one man band until the summer of 2003. The first summer we had less than 100 readers, so I left for the wilds of Donegal with nary a backward glance. The second year, when we had acquired over a thousand readers on a daily basis, it seemed we had created a demand that was worth finding a way to continue to fulfill. Not wishing to impose a demand for a substitute Mick Fealty, I put out a call for bloggers from a mix of backgrounds. It was conscious decision on my part since it seemed to me that Slugger’s appeal from the start that it culled the best journalism from across the piste…But we have always struggled to recruit and keep bloggers from the Unionist tradition (for some reason, nationalists have always seem more willing to ‘share’ their opinion on politics here). With the departure of Fair Deal for pastures new, we have a major space going for someone who is mainstream unionist opinion.
I have a queue of nationalists who want to blog on Slugger, but no unionists. I’ve had to put some of their kind offers on hold until such times as we can address the primary imbalance in the blogging team. If you’d like to like to get involved, {encode=”mick.fealty@gmail.com” title=”just send me an email”} with a two or three sample pieces on any given subject regarding NI, GB or Europe…
On a related matter, we’re keen to pull in people who can give us a strong local perspective on Scottish, Welsh and European politics too.
I’m not particularly worried about impartiality, so much as the quality of analysis. One of things I know our readers value more than anything else is the multiplicity of views they can read in the one space. If you think you can help push Slugger develop its potential in responsibly holding the various democratic institutions to account, then {encode=”mick.fealty@gmail.com” title=”don’t hesitate to get in touch”}…
Comrade Stalin,
“There’s nobody else to do it.”
Huh? You mean Britain is going to cut them loose at last?
Mick,
I hate to drag in a personal hobby horse, but is there any chance of getting a blogger who blogs on the economy from a left perspective. Virtually all the blogs on the economy here are from a right wing perspective. Mark did a fine job of raising many left issues, but he stuck primarily to political rather than economic matters.
“I have a queue of nationalists who want to blog on Slugger, but no unionists.”
Hmmmm.
Tell us more about your methodology. I am a unionist in the sense that my cultural compass points much more towards London than Dublin, however I am emotionally a nationalist, I know what song I am singing when England play Ireland. My vote goes mostly to Naomi.
Oh and the word union is two edged -
http://www.bectu.org.uk/home
“…the north has none of the real powers of a normal state.”
….so what….we never intended to acquire them, that’s for power mad republicans
” you engage with us, or you will sink.”
….yeah but that cuts 2 ways and at the moment we are doing it on terms we are very happy with
Slugger is basically crap now. Sometimes most of the day goes by without a new post. Things have settled down here and slugger is looking to broaden out but its input locally is not just drying up but being presented in a very dry way. The commetariat are jeuvenile, most of the commetariat who were aware of the indepth issues here have gone along with the big news stories, on to pastures new. Anything slugger would publish on Scotland Wales, England and Irish republic is covered elsewhere, and what is taking the place of good insight from bloggers is copy and paste from other blogs like mack from politics.ie etc, pete repeating bbc stuff, only B Walker and Mick have insight where they can write opiniated pieces that are worth a read at least. A read that isn’t shinner bashing (think rusty and pete)
All the threads are populated by the same commentators, who are mostly juevenile and like sparring over silly stuff. Good fun in moderation, but useless really. These threads used to be a great read, now days go by before I’d even think of having a look here.
Comrade Stalin
Listen, starting off from a view point that unionism is redundant and illegal and oppresive and fascist ect. ect. ect. is really futile.
Northern Ireland exists it is internationally recognised as a province within the UK, unionists exist as well and are normal everyday folk in the same way nationalists are, these points need to be remembered when having a debate. Unionists on these threads generally recogise that an United Ireland is a genuine aspiration and an argument up for genuine and interesting debate, now if the large number of nationalists on these threads get over the “sectarian, unjust, illegal, corrupt, immoral, oppresive, orange, catholic hating, evil statelet” and other such crap, we might just get a reasonable debate one day.
Coming from an angle that unionism shouldn´t exist is ridiculous, delusional and immature.
DoctorWho,
“if the large number of nationalists on these threads get over the “sectarian, unjust, illegal, corrupt, immoral, oppresive, orange, catholic hating, evil statelet” and other such crap, we might just get a reasonable debate one day.”
Hold on. If the Nationalists “get over” the above then there can’t possibly be a debate because we’ll all agree, and live for ever and ever together in a lovely big stripy tent.
The blogger Fair-Deal is a great loss to this site, while he clearly took the DUP whip he was never afraid to put down posters from his own “tribe”. On one occasion he red-carded me and although I felt he was unjustified, it did show how serious he was in proviking genuine debate on these threads.
Unfortuantely nationalist bloggers like Chris and kensei, lol, tend to encourage the less desirable elements within nationalism that visit this site.
If you check out the comments of the poster fin on the “Junior McCrum” thread you will see what I mean.
Slugger is in danger of becoming a site where some narrow-minded republicans visit just to air sick views and horrendous generalisations of themmuns.
Big Maggie
Of course you wouldn´t prove my point or anything.
If the title of a thread is “is ni an evil sectarian statelet”, then by all means come on and argue that point. However if the title of a thread was “the assembley moving forward” do we really need nationalists starting from the angle that the assembley shouldn´t be there in the first place because “themmuns stole my forefathers land” and other such bollox etc etc.
Doc,
Agree with re Fair deal.Is several long blogs at the time of St.Andrews were excellent,intellectual in force, and honest.Turgon has a similar array of characteristics…..funny, both of them were against the Dup doing the deal.
Mick….
You might get more Unionists on board if you enforced the ‘play ball not man’ rule, when Unionists/Protestants/Loyalists are seriously libelled on Slugger…..the most recent, Armagh DUP Councillor, Junior McCrum and Willie Fraser on a regular basis.
Otherwise, most Unionist bloggers prefer to use ATW [www.atangledweb.squarespace.com], which has a range of political viewpoints from around the world, not just NI / Republic.
Guest,
Thank you for the compliment.
I am unsure why unionists do not want to (or want to keep on) blogging but it is not an easy hobby.
Blogging is actually really very hard work. Doing a simple reporting piece is fairly easy; trying to do an analysis of a single event let alone a complex issue is, however, vastly more difficult and I at any rate find it very time consuming. As an example a typical two page blog from me (too long I know) probably requires 1-2 hours to write, leaving aside the time I spent thinking about the issues beforehand.
An additional problem on slugger is that one gets endless brick bats thrown. Even now I actually find the withering attacks etc. hurtful at times. I am in no way looking for sympathy but I suspect it might put people off when they are denounced as bigots etc. for whatever they had to say, the more so if they had spend two hours carefully crafting what they thought was a well argued piece.
Of course that is the good thing about blogging, that anyone can reply and cut down the blogger: that danger is itself slightly exciting. However, sometimes when it is just simplistic name calling it is pretty draining. Another thing I find irritating is attacks on style of writing. If you write a lot (such as blogging) to attack the style is actually in some ways more hurtful than attacks on content.
One final thing I might mention is that In NI most people are brought up to be fairly reticent. To ask to blog on this web site would require a lot of courage and self confidence (I would never have asked to blog: I was was asked). As such might I suggest that people nominate possible candidates to Mick.
The main reason the history of the northern statelet is important, is because away from the microphone, the overwhelming majority of unionists still stand four square behind it. It is worse than that, they refuse to even concede others have the right to point out what they regard as unionism shortfalls, as witnessed by the torrent of abuse in this thread. Not a single word of which dealt with the issue I raised about the B specials etc.
Could the reason so few unionists are willing to engage in debate about how the northern state came into existence; and the history of its first 50 years, be because it is almost impossible to defend on a moral or democratic level; and how leading unionists love the high moral ground.
Finally just to be clear, when I wrote,
“Unionism needs to understand there is no comfy 1950s corner they can retreat into, you engage with us, or you will sink.”
The ‘we’ I’m referring to are the people who live in the rest of the UK, people like me, a great many of whom still see northern unionism as a nasty, sectarian brand of right wing nationalism that they want no part of.
Take the way loyalists and unionists have over reacted on this thread, with posts about Slugger being a front for SF because people like me expressed their distaste for northern unionism.
Never mind over the last month this blog has had countless comments and a number of threads that could in all fairness to Slugger be regarded as being critical of SF. Nothing wrong with that, it is how we move forward through argument and debate.
Mickhall,
I suspect one of the problem in engaging is that people like you denounce unionists in such blanket terms. You seem to see working class unionists as suffering from false conciousness and as I seem to remember you dislike middle class unionists because you once met a unionist doctor on holiday in Africa and disliked him.
In the comment above you state “northern unionism as a nasty, sectarian brand of right wing nationalism.”
Unsurprisingly such remarks from you make your position difficult to take seriously. Tell me how many unionists do you know well? (does that doctor on holiday count as you knowing him well?).
You tar all unionists with one brush and then find it surprising that they have difficulty engaging.
Added to that is the simple fact that you denounce the B specials yet your denunciation of the IRA is completely absent; then you deny that you are a supporter of or cheerleader for the IRA.
“As an example a typical two page blog from me (too long I know) probably requires 1-2 hours to write, leaving aside the time I spent thinking about the issues beforehand.” – Turgon
I’m impressed. A post of a similar size would take me 5 to 10 (at most 15 if I had to fetch links) minutes to write. That, however, comes complete with typos and no forethought and usually takes the form of a rant.
Your blogs are usually well-written, insightful, honest, and often challenging. I also like your dry humour. You do get a lot of abuse from posters of both designations (but mostly from one), and it is obvious that some of it causes some level of upset. Unlike me, you’re too refined to return the serve harder than the hit, so you don’t enjoy the abuse as an opportunity for a creative putdown.
I’m not convinced, despite all the effort that folks put into their blogs and Mick’s carefully dropped assurances that policy-makers are reading, that anyone’s opinion matters a damn in NI’s abnormal ‘democracy’ where agendas, policies, and political institutions are determined by powers that you do not directly elect. Those that you do directly elect only have limited power to determine policies that are rarely debated, i.e. local issues.
I think that if you use these Blogs to shape your own opinions rather than to shape other peoples’ opinions that you have found a good use for them, but other than that, you haven’t.
Mick Hall
“Take the way loyalists and unionists have over reacted on this thread, with posts about Slugger being a front for SF because people like me expressed their distaste for northern unionism.”
Can you point where anyone has stated that Slugger is a front for Sinn Fein.
By all means argue the historical significance of Northern Ireland if indeed there is a thread in relation to that topic, but to argue that point on a thread which Sluggers chief has blogged and aknowleged that unionists are under represented on Slugger, is plain daft.
Many Unionists have moved forward with regard to republicanism, while I feel repugnance at the sectarian armed struggle orchestrated by PIRA and Provisional Sinn Fein, I certainly recognise they have moved forward, and im not going to address each blog from an historical point of view.
Mick sometimes you need to put your own views to one side and engage from a position that you are currently in. Sinn Fein have accepted the legitimacy of Northern Ireland, so therefore on a relevant thread I will start from that view point.
“people like me, a great many of whom still see northern unionism as a nasty, sectarian brand of right wing nationalism that they want no part of.”
The same could be said of Irish republicanism, furthermore the most probable party to form the next government in the UK certainly don´t agree with you as they will be fielding UCUNF candidates that will more and likely form the next govt.
Mick being a Unionist isn´t any less justifiable as being a Nationalist. That is the level playing field where we all need to play from.
DrWho
“Sinn Fein have accepted the legitimacy of Northern Ireland.” Not sure many Sinners would agree with your wording there.
I’m sure you appreciate that your starting point as I read it (apologies if I’m misreading) of “once you nationalists accept Nortern Ireland as legitimate, we can talk seriously” is to them the mirror image of what their accused of i.e “once you accept the six counties has been an abysmal disaster we can talk seriously.”
Mick Hall,
That’s why so many unionist politicians are hoping the IRA hasn’t gone away. Because the war allowed them to change the narrative to screaming about terrorism/lawbiding decent people of Ulster etc. etc. etc. and not discuss their own culpability for the troubles.
Dave,
Your post reminded me of Seamus Mallon’s old quip about Robert McCartney which went something to the tune of “we know he’s an intelligent man, because he tells us often enough”.
latcheeco
“I’m sure you appreciate that your starting point as I read it (apologies if I’m misreading) of “once you nationalists accept Nortern Ireland as legitimate, we can talk seriously” is to them the mirror image of what their accused of i.e “once you accept the six counties has been an abysmal disaster we can talk seriously.”
Can you point out where you take the quote from, it´s a bit strange that you kind of apologise in advance for misquoting me.
The Sinn Fein position on consent is clear via the GFA.
“That’s why so many unionist politicians are hoping the IRA hasn’t gone away. Because the war allowed them to change the narrative to screaming about terrorism/lawbiding decent people of Ulster etc. etc. etc. and not discuss their own culpability for the troubles.”
No, I think you find most Unionists do not want a return to the bad old days. Even someone like Ian Paisley shifted his position once the armed struggle came to an end, albeit when he was in a position of power himself. Furthermore admitting culpability for the troubles is not only limited to Unionists, a recognition from Sinn Fein that their sectarian murder campaign was wrong would go a long way to healing wounds.
Again though the rights and wrongs of aspirations are irrelevant, for instance remember where we were and where we are now.
Latcheeco I do not agree with your politics but I do not say you are wrong simply because you are a nationalist, unionist posters on this site deserve the same respect. Don´t they?
A simple idea – why not have more bloggers who are neither nationalist or unionist to cover more of the cultural side of things? And by “culture” I don’t just mean Orange marches or the Irish language – which I don’t have a problem with, but both can be controversial when hijacked for political reasons.
I would prefer more posts about the local (and where applicable national/international) arts scene – ie theatre, cinema, music, literature, art, comedy/satire, etc. I appreciate there are occasional posts about these topics, but IMHO this blog (which I accept is predominantly political) has an imbalance of politics over culture.
More reviews, for example of current plays/films/books would be very welcomne from my point of view.
CW
I agree, many of the festivals such as Cathedral Quarter etc. go unnoticed on Slugger.
Turgon,
I disagree with you on just about everything on here.
But I read between the lines. And your utterly commendable honesty suggests strongly to me that you and your ilk deserve better than to be part of the shenanigans that passes for politics in the rest of Ireland.
Declan O’Loan would be a good unionist blogger for you. His call on Rasharkin residents today to put their head down and accept the loyalist jamboree here next week is simply unbelievable. I’d say the SDLP has just lost a few hundred votes in this area because of it. O’Loan is very much conservative and the SDLP should really slap him on the wrists for this one. The SDLP calling for croppies to lie down will not do them any favours.
DrWho,
Apologies for the quotation marks; the words weren’t meant to be taken as a direct quote of what you said but a summing up of your position as I read it. Despite the grammatical/typing faux pas I still think that’s your position. You haven’t denied it.
I believe that nationalists freely admit that their hands aren’t clean and both sides believe they’re like the victim being asked to accept culpability for the rape. If we say the war was wrong (and unionist pacifism kills me) will you say Norn Irn was the failure that caused it? Many unionists refuse to see themselves as anything other than victims
Check out Allistair’s crowing when he trumpeted an alleged arms find last week. He represents a lot of unionists.
Nationalists believe without apology that the philosophy of unionism has been a divise blight and curse on their country and those who advocate it are wrong for doing so. Who knew?
But Unionist posters are treated generally well on Slugger, especially given what Nationalists have had to go through and put up with from them
As a unionist commentator on here I have always enjoyed Slugger in the past and when I saw this thread I thought it might be interesting.
Sorry Mick but having read and re-read it again, it has made me reflect on what I am doing here and why. As a result I am going to stop using this site.
Its totally dispiriting. While there are people on here whom I disagree with, I enjoy having a rational debate with them. But more and more the sheer nastiness and ‘won’t have a Prod about me tone’ has made me reflect on why I am wasting my time here.
It’s steadily turning into a narrow sectarian ghetto populated by a lot of republican bloggers with green tinted glasses and a few mad-dog Prods off their medication. Rational debate is often out the window. Playing the man, pointscoring and sheer nastiness is in. Coming here is like a day out in Portadown.
Frankly I have better things to do with life so I will leave you all to get on with it. Thanks for all the fish. Goodbye
Latcheeco
“Apologies for the quotation marks; the words weren’t meant to be taken as a direct quote of what you said but a summing up of your position as I read it.”
Why present them as a quote, furthermore it is not my position, you are not summing up you are mis-representing me. When people do this it´s difficult to engage with them and indeed take them seriously.
”
Many unionists refuse to see themselves as anything other than victims”
Consider this quote from yourself and then compare it to your last sentence.
“But Unionist posters are treated generally well on Slugger, especially given what Nationalists have had to go through and put up with from them
”
Oh you poor thing.
Loyal to the core,
“Otherwise, most Unionist bloggers prefer to use ATW [www.atangledweb.squarespace.com],”
If that’s true, what attracts them there? The xenophobia, the racism, the naked hatred of Irish Republicanism (Andy McCann), the Muslim-bashing, the homophobia, the ceaseless Obama-bashing?
“which has a range of political viewpoints from around the world, not just NI / Republic.”
Wide range? From around the world? Are we talking about the same ATW?
Turgon,
I agree with Dave on the quality of your posts but I was wondering what’s your personal motivation for blogging on here with the attendant inane comments and at times quite vicious abuse you in particuliar attract.
Do you actually enjoy (crafting the posts not the abuse!) it or do you look at it as more of a duty and responsibility? What bonus do you get from posting on Slugger that you wouldn’t get from running your own blog?
only asking
and what is taking the place of good insight from bloggers is copy and paste from other blogs like mack from politics.ie etc
Lol, politics.ie?
Are you sure?
This may come as a surprise, to the man himself, but I would like to see Driftwood on the panel. A unionist without the ‘earth is only 6000 yrs old’ magic beans stuff. Him or Harry. Libertarian maybe Mick, but slanted in favour of the union, and his crush on the British Armed forces and empire is quite endearing (as is Drift’s).
Plus Drift is a Likely Lads fan so he can’t be all bad
Doctor Who,
Thanks for the civilized tone of your last reply, so I will make it clear where I stand on unionism. In the UK context I regard Irish unionism as a reactionary political idea, it does not make it so, but it is my opinion. I have concluded this it because historically, unionism has almost always sided with the forces of reaction, whether in the social or political sphere.
Yet if you read my comments, including to this thread, I almost always try and prefix my critism of unionism with something like the following.
“Your behavior epitomizes what many people,’ often unfairly’ I’m sure, think about unionists.
and again,
I am sure at times ‘our viewpoint is one sided and often at a surface level.’
I cannot see, without completely changing my standpoint on unionism, how I can be fairer, I am pointing out here, there may be much more I can learn about unionism. Sadly it is my experience few middle class unionist are willing to take this opportunity up. Preferring like Turgon when the debate gets hot, to retreat back to into a ghetto mentality and occasionally return with insults and lies, without attempting to cover the issues which are raised.
My contempt for middle class unionism springs not from Irish republicanism but my socialism. The unionist leaderships have in the past, but especially since the North suffered major de-industrialization, treated working class unionist with absolute contempt.
One only need look at their arguments over grammar schools today or their willingness in the past to use organizations like the UVF/UDA; and then walk away with a nasty sneer of denial and without a backward glance.
These loyalist paramilitaries were OK to take the war to nationalist working class streets, or give Tremble and Paisley a bit of street cred, but when they outlived their usefulness the UU/DUP tops threw the rank and file to the wolves.
I agree completely with you when you write, “That Unionist isn´t any less justifiable as being a Nationalist. That is the level playing field where we all need to play from.”
That is exactly what I want, but I will not neuter my argument before I start as some unionist commenters here have demanded.
At times I have been fiercely critical of SF’s leadership, yet to their credit the best of them engage in debate. What they do not do is demand I cut out the critism before debate gets underway, as it sort of defeats the purpose.
As to the subject of this thread, I would like to see a working class loyalist blogger here, as they and the community they come from are the most marginalized section of northern society.
4.only asking
and what is taking the place of good insight from bloggers is copy and paste from other blogs like mack from politics.ie etc
Lol, politics.ie?
Are you sure?
Posted by Mack on Aug 15, 2009 @ 11:26 AM
Am I sure?
Pretty much, yeah. Infact very much….. almost word for word at times.
http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/socialism-for-rich-people-or-capitalism/
Ah Come on Now Mick H
No need to be that glum – sure who went in search of and gave the gay UDA death squad leader space to say that he is glad to be gay but had no regrets about what he did?
Answer Henry McDonald – from the republican Belfast markets
And who went in search of Jonny Adair the gay friendly but also unrepentant National Front member and ‘organizer of terrorism’ – why Dublin’s own Donal MacIntyre.
Both pieces were done without judgement or stereotyping both reporters just let both men tell it the way they wanted it to be told.
only asking
Pretty much, yeah. Infact very much….. almost word for word at times.
You are kidding? There was no copy and paste in that article at all. It’s entirely my own analysis of the FG proposals, which I rate as superior to NAMA as it doesn’t involve bailing out every single bank (i.e. will cost the tax payer less).
(Btw, p.ie is one of the sites I read less frequently, and is probably one of my least frequent source for ideas for blog entries.)
I don’t read Richard Bruton’s blog, and I came across a discussion of that entry (detailing the FG alternative) on p.ie, hence the hat tip (which is also a way of letting readers follow the discussion there). The analysis of the FG proposal was my own (the Libertarian take owing more to Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers that any commenter on p.ie).
Take a look at the blog entries I’ve done, apart from the one on the recession ending the vast bulk of any entry is my own analysis of what is going on.
Even the last two -
Rent seeking financial instituitions crippling the West?
Simon Johnson’s critiscm of Western financial instituitions. There’s a sentence or two included from his blog (on RGE monitor, hardly an Irish blog) the rest links what he says into Irish events.
http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/rent-seeking-financial-instituitions-crippling-the-west/
Dear Sarah – revisiting the hatchet job on Sarah Carey from a few months back, wrt to an analysis by another economist which verified what she said.
http://sluggerotoole.com/index.php/weblog/comments/dear-sarah/
Neither covered eleswhere in the Irish blogosphere AFAIK.
Never mind a reasonably detailed discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the Singaporean Health System, a comparison of service provision between NI and the South, a critique of the NILT survey etc.
DoctorWho,
Did you see that little wink at the end of the last sentence? A wee bit of reverse victimhood fun
Point taken on the quotes though. Apologies for cruelly injuring you further with more misrepresentation of unionism by nationalism. But that is how I read your position.
But all this wining from unionists posters (and feigned ennui from Mick who has himself thrived on the back of Slugger’s sectarianism and is indeed fishing for sectarian bait on this thread) about how complicated, misunderstood, disrespected, and bullied the poor unionists are, and how those mean nationalists just don’t get them and aren’t sophisticated and intellectual enough with their arguments and narrative because they don’t accept unionist perameters is good craic.
Mickhall: In the UK context I regard Irish unionism as a reactionary political idea, it does not make it so, but it is my opinion. I have concluded this it because historically, unionism has almost always sided with the forces of reaction, whether in the social or political sphere.
And yet you can’t blame unionism for the Republic typically being so far behind the European curve on contraception, abortion and divorce. Maybe it’s something in the water, here?
Mack I couldn’t be arsed going through your threads to prove a point, I’ve already demonstrated my point re politics .ie. Everytime I read your threads I can tell without the hat tip where they are from. If you can’t take the constructive riticism – fine.
only asking -
I can take constructive criticism, but accusing me of cutting and pasting blog entries from politics.ie (or from any other site), isn’t constructive criticism. I’m not bothered as to whether you like my posts, I just object to your scurrilous accusation of plagiarism.
“Unionism needs to understand there is no comfy 1950s corner they can retreat into, you engage with us, or you will sink”
Absolutely not– boycott you and your fellow travellers of murder gangs and bank robbers, despise the massive collusion of the catholic community which sheltered and supported the said murder gangs —=at the time whine about “stste collusion when in fact the state did fuck all until in the words of Danny Morrison “manners” were put on people.
The is a clear line between the actions of Haughey Blaney and Co and the Dublin Monaghan bombings. In the same way there are clear lines between many other events Shankill produced Greysteel– you reap what you sow.
N Ireland is being balkanised into exclusively Protestant and Roman catholic areas (nearly).
Suits me sunshine bring it on -don`t shop with , don`t socialise with,in short have fuck all to do with the supporters of catholic republican murder gangs ( which is at least 50% of the RC population going on voting trends)
What is need is resettlement of minority population to stop this nonsense– Rasharkin Prods out –Coleraine/Ballmoney R Catholics out? We can then ignore each other in safety.
Mack, itz coz u iz rite-wing.
“And yet you can’t blame unionism for the Republic typically being so far behind the European curve on contraception, abortion and divorce. Maybe it’s something in the water, here?
Posted by Reader ”
Reader
Yes your right, but as you know it has nothing to do with the water, it is down to the altarbar biting and gross hypocrisy of the southern political establishment, who believe if they are to get into power they must placate the Roman Catholic church.
Although, the unionist parties are hardly cheer leaders when it comes to a woman’s right to choose. Now are they?
Mick, have you ever considered asking David Vance to contribute to Slugger, his articles over on ATW often attract a lot of replies and many a good debate takes place as a result.
If you want a viewpoint from a less common type of unionist, ie. unionist from the mainland U.K., you could always invite his co-blogger Andrew McCann to do some work for slugger.
If you really are going for ‘balance’ Mick, why not go the whole hog and get some gender balance ie calls for women who are ‘unionists’?
Angry Rasharkin Resident
He has got some cheek asking the residents of rasharkin to not get annoyed about bands marching by. He probably watches them from his office as they march down William street. Though it could be worse, the same scum could be paintbombing your home during the week. Personally, I praise the man for showing the tolerance he has.
Mickhall: Now are they?
Oi! Pointing out the similarities was my job. You’re the one looking for conservative/liberal differences to hang a preference on. So, how about contraception, then?
oneill,
I am at a friends house but I thought I should answer your question.
I was really honoured to be asked to blog here and do still enjoy it. It is nice to reach a fairly large audiance and having to defend my views against the more reasonable critics helps refine and change them. At times of course the attacks are somewhat tiresome.
I still enjoy doing the blogs (actually I enjoy them a great deal). Sometimes you feel a bit obliged to produce something but usually it is just fun.
As to my own blog: well I am probably not sufficiently computer literate to set one up. Also I still feel much too honoured to have been asked by Mick to blog here and am too loyal to him to jump ship (he will probably eventually sack me for being too odd which would no doubt please some here). Maybe one day I will set up a religious blog but not for the meantime (I like Chris Gaskin’s new religious blog and have thought it something I might try).
‘you could always invite his co-blogger Andrew McCann to do some work for slugger. ‘
Yeah thats what Slugger needs an islamaphobic, gay hating, right wing nutjob who deletes other contributors threads and doesn’t allow comments on his own !
Any other pearls of wisdom William?
MickH, do you think the south adopting a sheen of uber-catholicism upon gaining its freedom would never have anything to do with the manner in which that religion was treated in the centuries previous by the bigger island to the east and its ‘reformed’ adherents who sought its demise in this green isle?
I just object to your scurrilous accusation of plagiarism.
Your words not mine. Perhaps we visit the same sites – your posts are very recognisable – get all offended if you like, its how it is.
15.Mack, itz coz u iz rite-wing.
Posted by Dave on Aug 15, 2009 @ 05:48 PM
ballex
only asking -
Against, all the standard advice, ya know, don’t feed the trolls (yes, you
). Your accusation would be relatively simple to prove, if ye weren’t talking shite.
Peace.