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Books
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Graphic portrayals: Northern Ireland, graphic novels and the peace process
Tweet 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 [...] read our review »
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A flexible library service for the 21st century?
Tweet Following Alan’s piece on libraries, I picked this ‘advertorial’ from Google plus this evening… about how a US county library system is cutting costs and improving flexibility in their free at the point of delivery services by enabling the whole library service act as a functioning unit as opposed to the one discrete library… read our review » -
The First Shades of God (Jamie Bryson): unremarkable theology, but an insight into the mind of the protest-organiser
Tweet Jamie Bryson has come to prominence recently as one of the leaders of the flag protests across Northern Ireland. As Chris Donnelly pointed out in his post (and was echoed later in the Belfast Telegraph), Jamie Bryson is a well known loyalist in North Down where he unsuccessfully stood at the council elections under [...] read our review »
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 20 January 2012 at 4:52 pm
Liberia joined the war in January 1944, Paraguay, Ecuador, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia in February 1945. Turkey was I think later. Chile and Argentina were March 1945.
Paddy,
Then the Free State would have been in illustrious company. None of them, of course, were in a position earlier to play a decisive part in the war. The Free State was. (Battle of the Atlantic)
I strongly suspect that the Free World, Monarchies and all, would have noticed if the Free State had belatedly done the right thing.
Italy has never been an Ally of Ireland in any conflict I can think of.
You are right of course. I was getting mixed up with the Vatican. They, along with Ireland, played a big part in aiding and abetting the escape of Nazi war criminals after the war.
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 19 January 2012 at 10:38 pm
Andrew,
I think it was reflective of the virulent hatred of the British that was being encouraged at the time. The people who went to war had stepped outside the boundaries of the tribe and were punished accordingly.
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 19 January 2012 at 9:25 pm
So saying that Ireland acted on principle in the period 1944-5 is not praise: just an explanation. Having decided to be neutral when it was in Ireland’s vital interests so to be, it was decided to stay neutral when this was no longer the case.
Paddy,
Perhaps because to have declared war in 1944, when it was clear that the allies were going to win, would have made them look even worse in the eyes of the free world than they already did. A bit like their Italian friends in 1940.
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 19 January 2012 at 8:09 am
Actually, France tried every which way to avoid their pledge to defend Poland, making multiple pleas to Britain to find ways to avoid war.
Brian,
But Britain went to war with Nazi Germany and clearly you cannot set aside your bigoted hatred for even one second to praise them for that. Instead you root around looking for excuses to puit them down. As if the channel would have saved them. Unbelievable.
Thank God the rest of the free world does not view history through Irish republican blinkers.
But anyway, your point is well taken. Where was Britain’s ‘bravery and principle’ when they bargained away much of Europe to a totalitarian regime every bit as savage as Hitler’s?
Are you suggesting that the UK should have gone to war with the USSR in 1945? Really? Do you think Ireland or indeed anyone would have joined them in liberating eastern Europe?
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 19 January 2012 at 8:04 am
Political entities do not evince bravery
Paddy,
If that is the case then why did you feel the need to state that “Bravery and principle have no part in the foreign policy of a nation: it is a matter of whether a particular action is in the nation’s interest.”
If political entities do not evince bravery then what point were you trying to make?
Can you also explain please why you think that the Free State was ‘acting on principle’ by sitting out of the war in 1944 (when it would have faced absolutely no risk whatsoever), but you extend no such praise to the UK for going to war in 1939 (when it faced total annihalation)despite being totally unprepared.
Have your green tinted glasses totally blinded you to reality?
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 18 January 2012 at 10:46 pm
sliabthingy,
Your efforts at being even handed seem to leave you with the annoying habit of being consistently wrong. The Polish did not charge German tanks with cavalry. That is a myth. The Japanese guy you so evenhandedly admire was a mass murdering butcher. That is a fact.
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 18 January 2012 at 10:31 pm
sliabthingy,
You are wrong on all counts, but rather than bore everyone by going through it all again let me just concentrate on one.
There is footage of them fighting the tanks.
If you can produce genuine footage of Polish cavalry charging German tanks then I will vote Sinn Fein, or whatever other xenophobic nationalist party you choose, for the remainder of my days.
Over to you.
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Comment on Ireland vindictive treatment of soldiers who ‘deserted’ peace for war…
on 18 January 2012 at 10:27 pm
Bravery and principle have no part in the foreign policy of a nation: it is a matter of whether a particular action is in the nation’s interest.
Paddy,
Yet Britain acted on both bravery and principle in 1939 and continued to do so in 1940 when they faced almost certain defeat.
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Comment on Newt hears echoes of Lawrence in PSNI probe of sectarian attack; UUP mixed messages exposed
on 18 January 2012 at 10:23 pm
It would appear that the ‘attempted murder’ has been downgraded to assault by three school boys.
It seems that there was a slight spot of exaggeration after all.
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Comment on Further to Morrison’s attempted revisionism
on 17 January 2012 at 10:27 pm
Louise Devine is now demanding an urgent meeting with Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and other key republicans who ran the hunger-strike from the outside.
“I want answers. I’m asking them to meet me face-to-face. They owe me that at the very least,” she told the Sunday World.
“I was just five-years-old when I watched my daddy die in agony in a H-Block slum.
“I sat on his bed and he couldn’t even see me and my brother because he was blind. I remember the tears running down his face as we left him for the last time.”
The Devines are the first family of a dead hunger-striker to denounce the Sinn Féin leadership following recent revelations.
“There’s now a mountain of evidence backing Richard O’Rawe’s claim that the British made an offer effectively granting four of the prisoners’ five demands and that this offer was accepted by the IRA’s prison leadership but rejected by the outside leadership,” Louise says.
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/breen/arts2012/jan15_hungers-strikers_daughter_blasts_SF___SBreen_Sunday-World.php
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