Profile for fitzjameshorse1745
Latest posts from fitzjameshorse1745 (see all)
fitzjameshorse1745 has posted 4 times (0 in the last month).
Victims and an Amnesty
Tweet From the UTV Report last night we are told that a Truth Commission is “actively back on the Agenda”. Its hard not to conclude that we are being softened up to be prepared for an announcement, the draft of which is possibly known in British and Irish Government circles and the Conflict Resolutionists (with [...] more »
So Why Do Nice People Vote Sinn Féin?
Tweet So why do nice people vote Sinn Féin? I suppose we should ask one. Take the case of a Sluggerite who describes himself on his profile as ……a socialist, republican, moderate and nationalist. And skeptical of Journalism and Conflict Resolution. He first voted as a 18 year old in West Belfast for Republican Labour and [...] more »
In the event of a tie……Alliance Party votes count as double.
Tweet I have a lot of time for the Alliance Party. Most people have. Forty years of non sectarianism is no mean achievement. Of course they have made mistakes. I think that the “re-designation” fiasco might well have been their biggest and just about every Alliance person I have ever met agrees. It was not [...] more »
Culture After Conflict: Between Remembrance and Reconciliation.
Tweet Ulster Museum 23rd March …Sponsored by Instiute of British-Irish Studies (IBIS) at UCD. Following closely on “Remembering the Future” a CRC event, IBIS held a related event at the Ulster Museum. There were about 200, mostly pre-registered, “attendees” but I noted that many of the well known names on the list did not actually [...] more »
Latest comments from fitzjameshorse1745 (see all)
fitzjameshorse1745 has commented 4,382 times (18 in the last month).
Comment on Ann Travers: “If had joined the IRA or a loyalist paramilitary and killed someone, I would be being listened to…”
on 21 May 2013 at 5:03 pm
I suppose there is a difference between being “heard” and being “listened to”.
I think she is factually wrong.
Ms Travers spoke well and convincingly at an Assembly Committee just last year.
And was on TV earlier this month on a UTV documentary about Collusion.
There is no single “type” of victim. But it certainly helps to be articulate. There are many more victims from the Protestant and Catholic working class (and I dont like my own terminology) who have a voice also….but suffer thru being inarticulate.
But they have been screaming their story for four decades…and really the problem here is not about victims having a voice…the problem is that people with influence never really wanted to listen over four decades.
People with influence now want to listen…or at least pretend to listen.
And yes the paramilitary types are organised enough to get an audience.
Ms Travers voice resonates with the “right people”.
Her sister was murdered in leafy South Belfast…
But I daresay she might think….entirely reasonably….that paramilitaries should not be listened to at all. I suspect she is wrong about that. But it is a view with which I have some sympathy.
Go to comment
Comment on 55 Hours Part Two: Monday 6 July 1981
on 15 May 2013 at 6:22 pm
A small but important point.
Fr Faul was never an official “prison chaplain”
That is a very precise designation and indeed a job in the Prison Service.
Other priests “attached” to Long Kesh because of security considerations. A Catholic priest is I understand limited to saying three Masses on a Sunday. And the Chaplain was actually a curate and/or “priest in residence” in a nearby parish.
The Prison authorities feared large gatherings and as a consequence priests without parish responsibilities ( notably from schools etc ) were recruited to say Mass in various locations. They had no official standing.
Go to comment
Comment on Increasing numbers of passengers let the train take the strain … apart from a 10 year decline on the Enterprise
on 14 May 2013 at 2:31 pm
As long as I avoid commuter trains, I actually enjoy travelling to Belfast. The fact that it is completely free helps.
But generally speaking its stress free. Although there is a 50-50 chance that I might have to stand on any train around 8am.
I am surprised that numbers on the Enterprise are down because I travelled a lot last year and mostly had to stand. To be honest most of the passengers were old folk. As I recall last year (dont know about this year) cross border rail service was completely free to people over 65. But last year the fare for being over 60 was just £20 return from I presume any station in the North.
I often find it convenient to travel for free to Belfast. And buy a return to Belfast and board the Enterprise there. That way I can always have a seat the whole way to Dublin.
I actually find the waiting area in Connolly Station to be a big improvement on the old standing in line alternative and of course if you turn up about 40 minutes before departure and sit near the departure gate, a seat is guaranteed.
Go to comment
Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
on 13 May 2013 at 4:58 pm
have we really got to the stage where Alliance Party members consider Arlene Foster who defected from UUP to DUP as “usually” Alliance-lite.
I think I read once that Carmel Hanna was so considered.
Go to comment
Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
on 13 May 2013 at 4:55 pm
Tmitch…
Im no fan of Faulkner. I should have made it clear that the UPNI was a breakaway from UUP and that Faulkner was a very unlikely convert to liberal unionism.
He had after all made his reputation as a hardliner.
Dickson and McLachlan had a better track record as liberals and were always semi detached members of the old Unionist Party.
Thats the parallel I was really seeking to make.
Go to comment
Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
on 13 May 2013 at 2:43 pm
Im inclined to agree with Granni Trixie and especially Framer.
From an Alliance perspective, the new party needs to be absorbed or strangled at birth.
But as an elderly gent, I am inclined to think of the old UPNI,the breakaway Faulkner led party. Peter McLachlan, Anne Dickson…nice people and McCrea and McCallister are basically in the same gene pool.
I still dont understand the delays. Negotiations with another Party or individuals? Or still some mediation by a “facilitator” ?Finance?…application for financial assistance still not dealt with by a benefactor.
Hard to imagine but certainly possible theres a long line of UUP defectors ready to be unveiled at the official launch or indeed other parties such as Alliance or SDLP.
Two MLAs is maybe enough to launch a political party but only if theres a recognisable group of publicly known people, who can give it substance…these people who have not been known in politics itself but rather on the fringes such as the “civic types”, journalists, academics, the chattering classes and even dare I say…bloggers.
Go to comment
Comment on Death of CSI: If we can’t have a strategy what about asking better questions?
on 12 May 2013 at 12:32 pm
FC,
Thanks for that.
On the point about USA and the integrated education system.
Kids in Atlanta recite the pledge of allegiance….despite the fact that their ancestors fought against that flag in the Civil War.
Kids in San Antonio recite it despite the fact that their ancestors might have fought for Mexico.
Kids in Detroit recite it despite the fact that their ancestors were bought and sold down the river…literally.
Kids in reservations in the Black Hills of Dakota recite it despite Wounded Knee.
USA is not just a melting pot of children who are descended from those who passed thru Ellis Island.
Thats Conflict Resolution….the total crushing of one group by another. Peace and resolving a Conflict only happens thatbway.
It cant happen as Conflict Resolutionists here would have it….social engineering without victory and defeat.
I certainly dont want my great grandchildren living as victims of the Manifest Destiny of LetsGetAlongerism.
Go to comment
Comment on Death of CSI: If we can’t have a strategy what about asking better questions?
on 11 May 2013 at 11:14 pm
I dont think its entirely about standards.
For much of the history of Norn Iron it has not been easy to be a “nationalist”.
Since 1998, it has never been easier.
The nationalist vote has never been higher. (Although some might claim its disconnected to what is reality). Nationalists and Republicans are in Stormont departments.
I dont think nationalists will be in a hurry to give that up to some people trying to create a homogenous society. Its as if people were saying ” now that we have conceded the point that you are now equal, can you please reciprocate by ceasing to be nationalists”
It doesnt work that way.
The essence of nationalism is to accentuate difference. To create and maintain a check list that says being Irish is different to be being British.
Education is one of those markers.
As Ive often said here I have tried various forms of education for my sons…including integrated secondary education and Irish-medium nursery…dictated at times by ethos, availability, geography or a combination.
At the times when we used Catholic education, it was frankly more about “identity” than religion.
Go to comment
Comment on Death of CSI: If we can’t have a strategy what about asking better questions?
on 11 May 2013 at 9:30 pm
As Im not a big fan of CSI anyway, the saving grace is that the latest exercise is minimalist and the DUP-SF just going thru the motions.
The fact that Bell and O’Dowd obviously hold the whole thing in contempt is to their credit. Less creditworthy is their arrogance.
Integrated Education is something which hardly exercises me at my age. But just two weeks ago, I heard a UUP MLA tell a very encouraging story about it. My own experience with one son was not good.
But surely thats the way it is with Education anyway. Its the school not the system.
But Integrated Education is something of a metropolitan, middle class obsession. To say that there is a groundswell of public opinion that is for it and 79% in favour of “some form” and that the political parties are not representing it is a strange argument.
If enough people who wanted it actually did vote for the fifth largest party which supports it, then I might understand it. As just two months ago only 1.3% of people in Mid Ulster actually voted that way….then the reasonable conclusion is that not enough people want it …enough.
I cant see why nationalist parties such as SF or SDLP are vilified for not being enthusiastic about it. Mike Nesbitt and Peter Robinson are on record as reaching out for Catholic votes and make soundings about reducing Catholic Education…is it not therefore resonable to say that the two are connected.
As was pointed out to me yesterday neither Nesbitt or Robinson seem enthused about the Irish language.
Nationalists are therefore right to be extremely wary of integrated education especially if its agenda is to create a homogenous society or a (passively) unionist society.
Turcaithe do not vote for Nollaig.
Go to comment
Comment on Death of CSI: If we can’t have a strategy what about asking better questions?
on 10 May 2013 at 4:06 pm
To be honest, I dont usually watch the View but there was a certain arrogance about Bell and O’ Dowd.
the good thing is that the nonsense they were talking has no chance of actually happening.
Go to comment