Sunday, February 24, 2008
Ex-UUP councillor and army officer signs up to republican party…
THE Irish News reports it “likely” that businessman Harvey Bicker is the first ever unionist to join a republican party, after the former Ulster Unionist councillor from Down District confirmed to RTE that he had joined Fianna Fail. (Of course, serial defector Lord Ballyedmond has already been associated with both parties, before joining the UK’s Conservatives - perhaps businessmen’s first loyalty is to who is seen to be best for business.) A former military man, RTE reported that Bicker ‘said he felt the climate was now right to join Fianna Fáil as he was now spending a lot of time in the Republic influencing and networking on issues of reconciliation and military heritage. He said it was time for him to move into that environment and hopefully to represent the views of his community to people in that party.’ As FF begins to organise on an all-Ireland basis, the republican party seems to have found an ex-British Army soldier it can do business with. Will the move attract others? ElBlogador wonders if unionists are starting to recognise the benefits of a united Ireland.
Belfast Gonzo @ 03:39 PM
We do not mind doing business with other nations but do not want them to not covet our territory. We are happy to be a member of a major world power with one of the world’s leading economies and a permanent seat on the Security Council; Mr Bicker’s former fellow citizens are sick and totally fed up with this combined assault on our national sovereignty
I love how anyone who does this ignores the fact that at least 40+% of the population isn’t happy and are actually quite content with the erosion of sovereignty.
And “major world power”. Not that I’ve ever understood the appeal of that anyway, but hush.
Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 04:33 PM‘You may find this difficult to believe, but I had actually heard of them.’
What you heard must have been in passing otherwise you would not have made the comment here below .
‘I don’t think any of them were officers in the British Army though.’
Actually I never said they were !. They were however in one form or another Irish patriots who’s views ranged from greater access to English markets for Irish products (Molyneux 17th century ) to Wolfe Tones late 18th cntury ‘breaking the political connection with the source of Ireland’s misery’, to Davis’s 19th century Young Ireland nationalism .
‘so there is some precedent for changing allegiance to Republicanism. ‘
There is a precedent for soldiers (including officers) to change their political allegiance . Normally this takes place at the end of a war/conflict for obvious military discipline reasons . Changing allegiance in the middle of war is usually rewarded by firing squad if you find yourself captured by your former colleagues . This applies to all armies and as I said above soldiers are usually above all loyal to the army they fight with during a war .
Roger Casement was a brave man but his understanding of ‘soldiery’ was way off the mark when he tried to win over a couple of thousand Irish P.O.W’s in German prisoner of war camps . Many of those P.O.W’s later returned to Ireland after WW1 and enlisted in the Irish Free State Army -some even joined the post treaty IRA.
So being a former British soldier or officer does not disqualify anyone from joining FF or FG or Labour . I can understand why it might be a bridge too far for SF to accept such recruits in NI at this time .
There may be some forward looking people of unionist background within Northern Ireland who may have come around to the belief that it is in the best interests of the remaining unionist population in Northern Ireland to accomodate to the future in the overall interest of better and closer relations between Britain and the Republic.
That viewpoint may see longer term economic and political stability in all of Ireland as being a more secure deal than the present ‘shaky’ power sharing Assembly. You could I suppose call this viewpoint ‘Unselfish Unionism’ :) Perhaps Mr Harvey Bicker is just one of this new thinking brigade ?Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 05:02 PMWe are happy to be a member of a major world power with one of the world’s leading economies and a permanent seat on the Security Council
A permanent seat on the security council?? At the moment, you can’t even vote on the Lisbon treaty OR for which political party whom will run the whole of the UK. Does NI get a vote on that council, or do you normally go with whatever the English go with? (Do you even get asked??) The only major thing you have a vote in is the UK’s X-factor, and there seems to be more micks than prods in that these days anyway!!
One of the world leading economies?? Surely you mean that the south-east of England has one of the worlds leading economies. Getting approx £5,000m in subvention is hardly ‘being part’ of a leading economy.
If your security council seat were to dissappear tomorrow, how worse off would you be in your daily life? Maybe you should be worrying about the high reliability on the public sector within NI’s economy, rather than your security council seat!Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 05:17 PMSeems like Mr Bicker is not the only islander who believes that using one’s mind to think differently should not be feared in the ‘new’ Ireland .
From today’s Indo comes a case of an individual exercising his right to think for himself and make his life’s decisions accordingly .
‘A former Catholic priest has been appointed Church of Ireland Dean of Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral, a senior and high-profile post in Irish Anglicanism.
Dermot Dunne, currently archdeacon in the diocese of Ferns, becomes the cathedral’s first Dean since the 16th century Reformation to have received his theological education in a Catholic seminary.
The new Dean succeeds the Very Reverend Desmond Harman, who died last December.
His surprise appointment was announced yesterday during worship in Christ Church by the cathedral’s Precentor, Canon Adrian Empey, and he will be formally introduced today by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, at a news conference in the cathedral’s Chapter Room.
The Dean-elect will be accompanied by his wife, Celia, a member of the RTE choir, whom he met while studying psychotherapy in London. He resigned as a priest of the diocese of Cork and Ross to marry.
After applying for entry into the Anglican ministry, he completed his studies in a record one year, being dispensed from the normal three-year course on account of his previous BA Honours degree and diplomas in both theology and philosophy at at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the Catholic Church’s national seminary.
Account was also taken of his considerable pastoral experience while serving as a Catholic priest. He will be instituted into his new post in Christ Church on May 30.’
Wonder how long it would have taken him to become a Presbyterian Minister or a Methodist ?
Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 06:19 PMBut has he become a Unionist Greenflag??
Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 06:34 PMI think Emmet Dalton also won the Military Cross in WW1. However, the highest ranking officer in the BA to become a republican must surely be Major-General Eric Dorman O’Gowan, formerly Dorman-Smith. He was the military advisor to the IRA 1950-54.
Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 07:13 PMThe only reference to the state of ‘slavery ‘ is that re matrimonial union with a certain Celia:).
Whatever his politics he knows now who’s really the boss :(
His mother in law !
Posted by on Feb 25, 2008 @ 08:28 PMBravo Mr Bicker!
Mayoman
“That there is an appreciable number of middle-class prods that see beenfits in a UI. How many more will emerge as the mutual hatred disappears and pragmatism takes over??”
Indeed, as in any other group of people, the vast majority of people in the unionist tradition are reasonable, decent people who want the same thing anyone wants – peace, security, dignity and the best possible future for their children. The fact that the kind of republicanism we see south of the border, and best represented by Fianna Fáil, is obviously the best political route to all of this, is something that must surely be noticed within unionism. It is to be hoped that as time passes and mutual hatred, bitterness and suspicion are replaced with mutual respect, regard and indeed deepening co-operation, that the frozen logic of religion-based or tradition-based politics can seriously be challenged.
And the fact that Fianna Fáil is ahead of the game (and so far ahead of northern parties that it’s just not funny) will throw up interesting new developments in the future.Michael Shilliday
“His statement is strange. It almost sounds like he is a Unionist who wants to represent Unionist views from inside FF. Which is surely impossible – one would have thought that to join FF he would have had to sign up to their aims and objectives which I’m willing to bet are contradictory of Unionism.”Contradictory of dusty old unionist shibboleths, perhaps, but did you ever think that he wants to try and represent PEOPLE, rather than getting bogged down in dogma? Indeed your post is a great example of the kind of pedantic, navel-gazing, reactionary and sectarian (in the literal sense) thinking that he’s clearly trying to get away from. I guess he has decided that he’d rather be in a serious, grown-up party that is trying to build the best possible future – and happens to be a republican party – than staying in the grindingly defeatist, blinkered, soul-destroying Toytown of unionist politics.
Turgon
“Yes they might exist. However, I, as a middle class unionist with mainly middle class unionist friends have never heard this suggested. Clearly you and Walter Ellis and others know so many more unionists than I do; hence, I must just be wrong.”People would often surprise you. Your own views would be regarded within the unionist community as extreme. (I won’t say how they appear to a non-unionist!) Maybe your friends simply know you and would be loath to cause a scene by airing views that they probably think you would regard as treasonous? After all, the defining political characteristic of our self-respecting middle class types has been to insist (lyingly) that they have no interest in politics at all!
OC
“Michael Shilliday should be aware that FF’s stated aims and objects are very far removed from their overriding mission, to stay in power and to use power to feather their own nests. In that sense unionists of all hues and FF would be most comfortable bedfellows.”Yeah, those terrible gombeen men of Fianna Fáil, what have they ever done for Ireland? Apart from the Peace Process and the Celtic Tiger and generally turning the Republic into arguably the best place to live on the planet. Apart from that, what have they ever done?
My God, how badly we need a party as flawed as FF up here to save us from the purists!
Meanwhile Bonar Law, our resident soccer hooligan, as usual offers only jeers and insults. I’m sure your contribution has only reinforced Mr Bicker’s conclusion that unionism ain’t the future.
Posted by on Feb 26, 2008 @ 05:07 PM“Apart from that, what have they ever done?”
Well,they did arm the Provos.
Plus they have an inspiring track record of dodgy leaders that many a South American junta would reject as too grotesque bizarre , un believable, and the other one beginning with “u” that I can’t rememberAnd I think Turgon and I probably know more middle class Unionists than you, Billy, and our views are actually more rounded and moderate than many of them.
If you don’t believe us, cast your mind back to 1974, and 1985, not to mention the strong middle class support for the Drumcree protest. It’s just that most of the time they’re too nice to show their true feelingsPosted by on Feb 27, 2008 @ 10:12 AM“As for Harvey Bicker, the hardest pill to swallow is not that he is a Protestant, not that he is an ex-Unionist, but that he is an ex-British Army officer. I am certain that there are many on the Republican side who will feel that this is not exactly kosher. “
I don’t see why. In the early days of the conflict quite a few PIRA volunteers would have served in the British armed forces pre 1969. There’s also the precedent of John Turnley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Turnley an ex British army officer who was a leading figure in the National H Blocks Committee. So there are precedents.
Posted by on Feb 27, 2008 @ 11:55 AM
