Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Shock…Horror….Disbelief…‘Anti-British’ Larne Council refuse to erect loyalist bunting!
Orangemen in Larne have staged a protest outside Council buildings after the Council failed to erect (and pay for) red, white and blue bunting in the town. The DUP Mayor, Bobby McKee, cited equality laws as the reason why Larne Council has failed to erect the bunting. A Council spokesperson claimed they had asked the Order to seek funding for “cultural activities” which could have been used to pay for the bunting, which raises the intriguing prospect of Larne Council paying for green, white and orange bunting under cultural activities were it to be sought at some stage.
Chris Donnelly @ 07:01 AM
Its called equality legislation, we all have to live with it, even backwoods councillors in Larne. Just takes longer for it to sink in…
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 09:30 AMNice pic shows about 0.0001% of the Larne Borough showing up with a particular concern about that bunting.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:03 AMRather a lame trolling mission Mr. Donelly you wallow in orgasmic glory at the refusal of the Larne council to provide bunting for one section of the community (and quite rightly so larne council)
Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.DC,
It might be a nice pic but your maths are shocking your dismissive percentage would estimate the poplation of larne at approximately 350,000 that’s plainly wrong.
However you should note that it is approximately 35 persons involved in the protest, thats still more than Sinn Fein got at the last Finucane inquiry protest, more than Sinn Fein got at the last Irish language protest, more than Sinn Fein got at the Bush protest.PS: at 35 it is still 182,999,965 less than Sinn Fein got for rich lawyers at Bloody Sunday and only half as many as Sinn Fein can squeeze into a toilet cubicle for the visually impaired
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:29 AMOf course they should not put up the French colors how would the Glensmen feel?
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:37 AMMy own lodge pays for our bunting, as do the majority of other lodges across Northern Ireland. While this move by Larne council is disappointing, it is understandable when you take into account the wider context of equality legislation. At the end of the day, the councils have to act within the law.
The lodges in Larne should work together, pot some money and get bunting up each year to have the town looking well.Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:39 AMIt must be my background from the West of the Bann but frankly I’m astonished that there’s Councils who actually supply and put up the Orange bunting.
Its not the job of the District Council to organise or run the 12th July any more than it is to organise a Feis (if that’s spelt right) and you can be sure that the ‘Orangemen’ who were protesting last night would be out again were that Council or any other to be involved in putting up bunting for that kind of event.
Unfortunately some Prods seem to be developing a MOPE complex and this is a prime example of it. Clearly the District Lodge organising the 12th in Larne can apply to the Community Festivals fund which could help provide the bunting - no doubt the Council has funding sources they could apply for - tourism etc which would also help. But simply to expect the ratepayer to automatically supply and pay for bunting is a bit outrageous in my opinion.
A bit of traditional Protestant self-reliance might be required here!
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:48 AM“loyalist bunting!” lol @ Chris Donnelly.
We are in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and N.Ireland, our national colours are red, white and blue. If anyone objects to those colours they can go fling there hook and live somewhere where they feel more at home.
If you you don’t like it , MOVE HOME
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:51 AMMy understanding is that if the council opt to put up the red, white and blue bunting and later receive a request for green, white and gold bunting then they will have to oblige. The council has made the right decision. If those protesting wish to have the republican colours flying then they are going the right way about it.
It seems like a cheap and ill-thought out political gimmic.
If they are serious, and as Ally says, go and raise the money and erect the bunting yourself like the majority of other Orange lodges have to do.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 10:52 AMWe go and collect money from the local community to pay for the flags and bunting where I live; if we approached the local council for a grat, they’d soon tell us where to go, even if it was a Unionist controlled area, which it certainly isn’t!
How about Larne District pay for their own bunting? They’re a big District, they can surely afford it.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:04 AMParson
“How about Larne District pay for their own bunting? They’re a big District, they can surely afford it.”That’s the ultimate irony with all of this. The only areas where Lodges could get the Council to pay for their bunting and put it up for them, are majority unionist areas in which surely you would expect the Orange Institution to be at its strongest and have enough members/supporters to do it themselves.
Meanwhile those Lodges in the West of the Province do it themselves, with less members and less money and a lot less whinging and expectations that everything should be done for them.
What really gets on my goat (geddit!) is that this attitude seems to pervade within the Orange Instituion at a senior level presently that one of the roles of the Order is simply to complain about things and pretend that the world used to be wonderful back “when I was a lad”. So much for 21st Century Orangeism.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:32 AMInterested,
Well spoken! Where I live, we just get on and do the job ourselves, and I have to say, the village always looks really well by the time we’re finished. It all comes down a week or so after the 12th as well, apart from a few flags which stay up until the end of August.
We don’t need a grant from the Council or anyone else.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:37 AM“Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.”
ha ha….ludicrous comparison Old Nick. The likes of yourself who continually proclaim that we all live in the ‘British Isles’ yet you will not support funding or even recognise Irish/Gaelic as one of the oldest languages in the ‘British Isles’. You display an ignorance of the culture and history the ‘British Isles’.
Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’....another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only. Remember the last census figures put the British Unionist community at 800,000 and odd, and the Irish Nationalist community at 700,000. There is not much of a difference for one community to call the shots as they did years ago. Those bad old days are gone.
BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:39 AM“Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.”
ha ha….ludicrous comparison Old Nick. The likes of yourself who continually proclaim that we all live in the ‘British Isles’ yet you will not support funding or even recognise Irish/Gaelic as one of the oldest languages in the ‘British Isles’. You display an ignorance of the culture and history the ‘British Isles’.
Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’....another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only. Remember the last census figures put the British Unionist community at 800,000 and odd, and the Irish Nationalist community at 700,000. There is not much of a difference for one community to call the shots as they did years ago. Those bad old days are gone.
BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:40 AM“Yet you squeal like a stuck pig if Stormont doesn’t provide money for the Irish language (one section of the community again) and in most peoples opinion also quite rightly so.”
ha ha….ludicrous comparison Old Nick. The likes of yourself who continually proclaim that we all live in the ‘British Isles’ yet you will not support funding or even recognise Irish/Gaelic as one of the oldest languages in the ‘British Isles’. You display an ignorance of the culture and history the ‘British Isles’.
Hey ‘Ulster is my homeland’....another display of ignorance. You and the like continually ignore that rather substantial number of people who live among you too in NI who profess to ‘Irish’ only. Remember the last census figures put the British Unionist community at 800,000 and odd, and the Irish Nationalist community at 700,000. There is not much of a difference for one community to call the shots as they did years ago. Those bad old days are gone.
BTW, it was right not to display the British bunting for the 12th. If this was the case then the colours and symbols of Irish Nationalism should be displayed on particular dates significant to Irish Nationalists.
Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:40 AM[aside] The Devil, my Larne contacts tell me that a certain North Antrim developer - from that DUP mould - has intentions to build an ‘out-of-town’ shopping centre(?) in Larne borough. Might he be getting any help from the local MP?
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:42 AM“Parity of esteem it’s called, so live with it.”
Did you get that 3-for-1 offer in Larne, Greagoir? :)
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:45 AMBut there is still something strangely comforting that despite credit crunches, soaring prices, years of “peace”, our new “government” and so on, nevertheless every morning somewhere in this pathetic excuse for a country/statelet/province (please delete whichever you feel is incorrect) an Orangeman gets up and wonders,
“what can I do today to make myself and my “culture” look even worse today than it did yesterday?”
Plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 11:48 AMAre the 12th of July Celebrations, etc, considered official State holidays?
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 01:09 PMCasual Observer
I believe the 12th is a holiday declared by proclamation by the Secretary of State each year.Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 01:19 PMMost of the Unionist people I know are heading for the sun or Donegal this week. They have had enough and are embarrassed by these knuckledraggers and 17th century fundamentalists. Orangeism/Loyalism is dying the death of a 1000 self imposed cuts.The Orange Order/Loyalist paramiltary violence on the Springfield Road in 2005 was the final straw for many. The spokespersons put up by them to justify the trouble and blame everyone else were monosyllablic gum munchers who couldn’t string two words together. I remember watching them on the TV with a Protestant friend who was absolutely mortified and his father and grandfather were Orangemen. In years gone by the Tour of the North (Belfast) and Drumcree were BIG media spectacles with areas closed down for days and weeks. The Tour of the North slinked through North Belfast in an hour or two while Drumcree is a done deal, another march along the Garvaghy Road will NEVER happen again. The Order has an air of a sad old bunch of defeated veterans yearning for the ‘Good Old Days’ that will never come again. Even the wider Protestant community is starting to see that. Go to George Best airport, Aldergrove and the ports any day this week. The Unionist community is on an Exodus leaving the bigoted remnants behind in their bitter, myopic, pathetic, wee world. These cave dwellers should get a life or even better considering they seem to have ALL the time in the world to protest and take to the streets, get a job.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 01:52 PMlurig:
‘knuckledraggers and 17th century fundamentalists’
interesting analysis. most historical consensus would suggest that this 17th century movement is associated with trends toward parliamentary democracy in rejection of roman catholic absolutism; an embrace of enlightenment principles and rejection of romanticism and mysticism; a cornerstone of mordern democratic and libertarian western values and a rejection of narrow ‘big’ church and state intervention in individual freedoms.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 02:09 PMSo dick, Cromwell was a ‘parliamentary democrat’? The English people couldn’t wait to bring the monarchy back after a taste of Cromwell’s spartan democracy. Must have been all those Protestant retailers who rebelled after he banned Christmas! Didn’t they dig him up and put him on trial after his death for beheading Charles I? The ‘Orange Order’ = ‘a cornerstone of modern democratic and libertarian western values’? HA! HA! HA! HA! At least you gave me a laugh there. ‘Narrow big church and state intervention in individual freedoms’ he says as The Church of England declares open war on itself over gays/woman bishops & the British government introduces the Frankenstein age with embryo research. You do jest don’t you…................don’t you?
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 02:41 PMHi Greagoir,
I agree with you that Irish is one of the British Isle’s oldest languages and it should be treasured. I also know that in the past Ulster Prods played a leading role in saving it. And that certain Orange Lodges have Irish on their banners. However, through the efforts of the likes of Chris Donnelly the language has become a devisive, sectarian issue. I know that sounds mental. How can a language be sectarian? But, remember Isreali/Palestinian flags fly in NI on a catholic/prod basis even tho’ there are practically no catholic/prods in Israel. So, unfortunately it isn’t “ludicrous” to compare funding for the language for that of bunting.
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 02:42 PMHi Lurig,
You mentioned jesting to Dick above. Having read your post 20 above, were you jesting at calling anyone else bigotted after that tirade?
Have you had a really bad day or something?
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 02:49 PMWhy would Ulster Prods play a leading role in saving Gaelic in Scotland. Whats that all about!
Posted by on Jul 08, 2008 @ 03:04 PM
