Got this notice a few days ago from David Vance who is on the panel of a TUV public meeting in Albertbridge Road Orange Hall tomorrow night (29th January)… Speakers will include the Party President, William Ross, Party Leader Jim Allister and political commentator David Vance. Don’t know about Willie Ross, but Allister and David will no doubt put on good show… Could be good steam.. I am presuming all are welcome..
How has Ulster unionism arrived at where it is today – fractured and uncertain, yet dominated electorally by the DUP, a party that tells us it offers unionists sure footing in uncertain times? In his latest book, Ulster’s Last Stand? Reconstructing Unionism after the Peace Process (Irish Academic Press, 2010), Prof. James McAuley from the [...] read our review »
Short answer: very little, other than he enjoyed the environs of Hillsborough Castle, enjoyed working with the local politicians, and has Gerry Adams to thank for Bobby his dog. Peter Mandelson’s book The Third Man has captured media headlines in recent weeks as the Times serialised the most juicy bits. But what did he have [...] read our review »
Good to see they’ve chosen a neutral venue to maximise the diversity of those attending!
Also good to see they’ve no time on their press release – so they’re really making it easy for folk to attend.
Ah… almost as good as cabaret night down at the Knee-breakers.
How this brings back the 70′s to me! Just give me a Bacardi and Coke and I will float away on a sea of nostalgia
Pity they cant get Willie McCrea in singing The Old Wooden Cross as the warm up act …. still you never know these days
Fondue will be served.
This is the Hall of District N06 which is the biggest distict in Ireland.
If the TUV manage to sway the opinion and possibly get the support of this lodge Pete’s seat may not be such a sure thing after all.
Will the Ballymacarrett Defenders flute band be providing a musical interlude during the show?
How do I get there, do I take the bus to Hogwarts then head to Gryffindor hall.
I’d love to go. Will there be simultaneous Irish language translation facilities?
‘How do I get there’ – tacapall
Easy. Go straight up the Albertbridge Road, until you get to the Orange Hall. Then, you travel back in time by about 30 years….
I think they used that hall in the drama ‘A ball room of romance’.
Con a nationalist going there would not be wise, so hope you are kidding. They’d spot a nationalist a mile away, with our eyebrows too close together and all that….you’d be the only one sitting down when they play the Queen.
Will Trevor Collins be there?
Is he still a TUV member?
Scarecrow?
Me a nationalist?
But isn’t that what the TUV is, a ‘nationalist’ party, just of a different hue!
Con HA HA, let us know how you get on, twitter it for us will ya, willie is a great oul chanter, his melodious voice will lift your spirits but there’ll be no devils butter milk – not even tea and wee buns sitting on hard straight backed chairs for a couple of hours is a great way to spend Friday nights. I’ll be thinking of you when I’m down the snug..
Is it likely that we will see wee jeffery at this meeting then?
Scarey though it may seem, such a meeting will atract a crowd of devotee. I’d be amazed if Peter Robinson in the current situation could fill a telepine box in East Belfast.
While we all can laugh, Allister is playing to an audience that will bring down the DUP
The old 80/20 applies once more than 20% of your support base goes you’re finished and on all recent outings the TUV have taken al least 20% of the DUP core – ergo the DUP are finished.
The TUV might be mad, bad and ugly but they will damage the DUP and the recent debacle at Hillsborough with the inevitable compromise – with an irish language act etc will see them well set for the inevitable elections
I’d love to go but I have an appointment to eat my own leg that evening.
This middle class, guilty Protestant/nationalist sneering would be called racist in politically correct circles.
‘when the blind lead the blind they shall both fall into a ditch ‘
where is turgon when he’s needed ?
There are no birds in last years nest but more than a few quare eggs in this year’s nest
But there are few if any birds who wish to return to the nest of 30 years ago! At least one hopes so !
Good try, Framer, (Heh!) but I don’t feel guilty and the terms ‘TUV’ and ‘political correctness’ don’t strike me as a match made in heaven!
Would Sumptuary law be in place, I wouldn’t want to upset the rules of etiquette.
From the TUV Goebellian agenda ,
‘Peter Robinson is the architect of the present empowerment of republicanism through Stormont, yet back in 1979 he won East Belfast by characterising Bill Craig as a weakling!’
Once upon a time there was a weak Captain O’Neill and he was made to give way to a stronger Chichester Clark but he proved even weaker and the baton was passed to the ‘strong’ Brian Faulkner .
Then the obtuse Molyneaux took up the reins for 20 years of blowing in the wind and was followed by the ex Vanguardian and top toughie David Trimble who just was’nt tough enough to block the truly ultra super unionist Rev Ian Paisley, the never ever never man who lasted but a year before being shunted into retirement to make way for the now truly even tougher Clontibret invader Peter Robinson who has now been shunted off stage by his matrimonial convolutions .
So after that long line of Unionist male macho heroes ( oh I forgot Reg Empey ) the baton has now been passed to a female woman of the opposite sex and a mother of three .
And so now this gobdaw Jim Allister expects that somehow he is not as the rest of men as in the above listing . That he will throw SF and the nationalists out of Stormont and that light and freedom for prods and everlasting orangeshine will glow again through the grey or should that be blue skies of Ulster ??
It’s just horseshite with Vance added for that extra smell of putrefaction and idiocy combined
!
Not to worry – some lemmings will always pitch up . They after all genetically programmed to leap off a cliff . well as long as their leader leaps first I guess we should’nt be too upset !
What to wear for the meeting? My recycled anti Glazer green & yellow Manchester United shirt perhaps?
The problem with old-fashioned unionist culture
It’s hard to understand what is going on behind all the words that we hear, but it does appear that a deal on policing and justice is being held up by the DUP’s obsession with parades. Let me point out a number of facts.
First, those who march in parades every year comprise a very small fraction of the unionist population of Northern Ireland.
Secondly, the unvociferous majority of the unionist population is revolted to see a small vociferous tail wagging the elected political dog.
Thirdly, whereas Hitler was courageous enough to deal with the SA, the unionist political dog is not presently courageous enough to deal with its own unelected tail.
Finally, unionism needs to develop an urbane cultural literacy. It was notable in the recent expenses scandal that no unionist politician was accused of using taxpayer’s money to buy a work of serious literature. At the end of the eighteenth century Belfast was known as ‘the Athens of Ireland’, but during my lifetime unionists have been content to flaunt their culture by declaring that De Valera had a canary up the leg of his drawers.
The sub-plebeian culture of modern unionism, which delights in vulgar materialism and percussive noise, is inimical to civilized concord. Wherever people take pride in refusing to read books, bone-headed hatred will flourish.
I think you’re all still getting ahead of yourselves by worrying about etiquette and dress code. If they won’t say when it is, no one will turn up unless you’re already attached to the TUV grapevine.
It’s 8pm, Alan.
Thanks for the post, Mick.
Thanks David.
PS Mick
All are welcome.
That’s great news David — by ‘all are welcome’ I’m assuming you’ve shifted the meeting to a more neutral venue?
Gerry
Mick asked a question, I answered. Move along like a good boy.
Answering my question a bit too taxing for you David?
Just to put this in context, the only orange hall most people in NI (including many Unionists) have ever set foot in is the one in the Folk Museum.
If ‘all are welcome’ would a more neutral venue such as a hotel not be more likely to gain you a wider audience?
Gerry
If unionists are unhappy to enter an Orange Hall then that is going to have to be a risk we take. I do understand your point and it is fair enough but we are where we are and as best I understand no one is required to wear a Sash.
Hope to see you there.
gerry lvs castro
The TUV are NOT I repeat NOT looking for Catholic or Fenian votes. Vance’s hypocritical answer of ‘All are welcome ‘ should be seen for what it is . His usual pack of lies !!
ALL in Vance’s mind means Orange . Best leave the TUV to addressing their own private gathering of Orang Utangs ;( They have nothing to offer Northern Ireland except a discredited past and a more sectarian future .
David,
Maybe you should meet in the Templemore Avenue baths around the corner? Your dear leader could do a “Putin” and show off his “hardman” of Unionism torso…
If ever there was an opportunity for supporters of the GFA and the StAA to send a signal to the TUV it’s tomorrow evening, inside and outside that organge hall. The headline tomorrow evening should read: ‘TUV Meeting Disrupted by Calls for Reason and Tolerance’
Vance and the rest get away with so much because too much politics has been reduced to a spectacle. And as Guy Debord observed, ‘the spectacle is the guardian of sleep’.
David Crookes ,
‘unionism needs to develop an urbane cultural literacy. ‘
Haven’t they got the BOOK . If it was good enough for the 17th century surely it’s good enough for the 21st century ?
‘At the end of the eighteenth century Belfast was known as ‘the Athens of Ireland’,’
That was then . Now it’s the denizen of idiots who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and that evolution is a world conspiracy dreamt up by an atheistic Englishman and condoned by the Whore of Babylon and all those intellectuals in the universities ;(
Progress is nowhere guaranteed and regression to mass idiocy and ignorance is not impossible
Gosh darn it I’ve got nothing on tomorrow night…. might stick pins in my eyes instead though, just to keep the boredom at bay.
“Don’t know about Willie Ross, but Allister and David will no doubt put on good show”
Ahhh Mick you show your ignorance there – if you’re going for the floorshow then Ross is the man to catch. You’ll get a history lesson the first Home Rull Bill and how that was Robinson’s fault then followed by how those soft-lads once prevented his Da from burning down Dungiven – and he’s never forgiven them for it.
Perhaps Willie will even explain his Damascus Road conversion to power-sharing. Last time I heard him speak on the issue he wasn’t convinced that nationalists had any place in Government. He’ll have ‘em harking back for some good old fashioned unionism in no time. By that I mean his role as MP for East Londonderry who made some unionist predecessors who lived in Hertfordshire look like they were positively busy in their home constituency back in Ulster.
While he isn’t pro power-sharing at least he believed in equality. He ignored all his constituents equally and treated most of them with the same amount of contempt. If someone goads him sufficiently I’d take bets he’ll pull a PPW out on them!!!
Vance & Allister will be nowt compared to the Rossmeister. It’ll just be a lot of personal abuse dressed up as opposition to treachery.
Maybe Vancie will be giving the people a report back on the Lugan by-election and the excellent qualities of the candidate they fielded there.
Jimbo Allister can then take up the collection on behalf of the “Free Torrens Knight Trust” which has been established to work for paramilitaries – providing they’ve faked a religious experience whilst in the clink to cover up their woman-beating tendences.
Should be a real riot.
@greenflag #8 ‘The TUV are NOT I repeat NOT looking for Catholic or Fenian votes.’
They’re obviously not looking for non OO supporting Unionist votes either — and there are plenty of those to be had.
Very short-sighted though disarmingly honest TUV venue choosing here. Talk about hand-picking your electorate…
Actually until quite recently, the Orange Lodge at Wallace Avenue in Lisburn staged a collectors fair (stamps, postcards, militaria) which I could not help notice attracted members of both communities.
Sadly not all seem to have behaved appropriately as guests.
I noticed a very tasteless (and distinctly disloyal” graffiti in the toilets.
Do quasi terrorist meetings like this in sectarian cess pits not breach diversity laws and regulations? Is the Orange Order offering similar facilities to people from other backgrounds, Catholics for example? Why does the Labour government not hound them the way they hound Catholic schools?
Open your doors, not your mouths.
Let me get this straight – the OO, under the guise of ‘the Unionist people’, have the DUP lobbying for their own narrow interests over at Hillsborough whilst at the same time, are providing facilities to the TUV who are accusing the DUP of selling out ‘the Unionist people’ over at Hillsborough. And they say Cameron’s opportunistic.
Plenty of Orange Halls host blood transfusion sessions and similar ‘cross community’ events.
I think Gerry your attitude is like those southern politicians who would not attend President Douglas Hyde’s funeral in a Protestant church.
Afraid to find the devil is human?
Is the Orange Order offering similar facilities to people from other backgrounds, Catholics for example? Why does the Labour government not hound them the way they hound Catholic schools?
Posted by Paddy on Jan 28, 2010 @ 05:36 PM
Perhaps they seen what happened when the Orange Hall on Whitewell Road opened it’s doors to cross community line dancing once a week.
Petrol bombs, break-ins, stoning, bottles thrown, cars being damaged, sectarian graffiti, pensioners being physically and verbally abused and death threats on a weekly basis from the local population.
Crookes
You are right.
What strikes you most about them all is their sheer banality and normality…they are yes-men, intellectually mediocre, links in a chain of crassness.
And that’s their plus points ….
FitzjamesHorse and Framer – It’s a tricky balance. Stamp fairs, blood transfusion sessions and even cross-community dances in country areas are very non-political and non-threatening.
A political party holding a single party meeting sends a different message. It’s association by diffusion in amongst the banners and memorabilia.
I’m sure it’s financially attractive for the Orange Hall to be let out, but to some extent it will be *perceived* as tying their colours to the TUV flag pole.
(Mick – can you update the post to say 8pm? The TUV press release hasn’t yet been updated – and they haven’t answered my questions posted through their website contact page – but it has only been a few hours, so I’ll let them away without having a 24 hour operation!)
Will Jeffrey Donaldson be there? Im beginning to worry about wee Jeffrey – has anyone seen him lately?
west belfast,
Will Jeffrey Donaldson be there? Im beginning to worry about wee Jeffrey – has anyone seen him lately?
Been catching up on his Xmas dvds I guess.
I’m sure it’s financially attractive for the Orange Hall to be let out, but to some extent it will be *perceived* as tying their colours to the TUV flag pole
Alan,
Are you sure it’s been rented out and not just “lent” for the evening? Depending on the events of tomorrow could turn out to be excellent timing although there are enough discontents in EB presently to fill it whatever the result at Stormont.
west belfast
Will Jeffrey Donaldson be there? Im beginning to worry about wee Jeffrey – has anyone seen him lately?
He was out at the meeting of Lisburn City Council on Monday night (including Edwin Poots who was seen reading Slugger at one point in the evening) …
I’m sure a journalist will pick up the phone and ask either party tomorrow in case there’s a story in there
Thanks Alan – puts to bed (excuse the pun) that he was in hiding.
Hello Pootsy – you’re our favourite DUP minister (honest!)
Gerry Lvs castro – “If ‘all are welcome’ would a more neutral venue such as a hotel not be more likely to gain you a wider audience?”
Nationalist parties don’t seem to mind using GAA facilities, even though they are happy to be linked with Republican terrorists guilty of murder.