Profile for IrelandNorth
Ciaran is an integrally informed heterodox Christian in his mid-50's, with postgraduate/graduate/undergraduate qualifications in Addiction Studies/Psychoanalytic Studies/Counselling and Psychotherapy re[tro]spectively. He adores the bhakti yoga of Krishna Das.
Latest comments from IrelandNorth (see all)
IrelandNorth has commented 34 times (0 in the last month).
Advertise
-
Books
-
A poem for the day – Launching the Whaler Juan Peron
A Belfast epic, and one of my oldest poems, the opener of my first collection, Grub. The gist of the story was found in Moss & Hume’s Shipbuilders to the World: 125 Years of Harland and Wolff, Belfast, 1861-1986, which tells how Eva Peron was due to launch a huge whaling vessel in Belfast, built [...] read our review » -
Do Words Matter?: Book Review of Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution – Debating Peace in Northern Ireland
I share many of the concerns of Andy Pollak, whose recent post ‘My Response to the Slugger Begrudgers’ zeroed in on the ‘relentless flow of negativity’ of some Slugger commentators. Pollak’s post was largely concerned with the medium of the blog. Indeed, I think the anonymity of the online world encourages extreme discourse and allows [...] read our review »
-
“You can see Newton’s mind at work…”
To add to the open access treasure trove at the Royal Society, Cambridge University Library is putting online some of its collection of books, maps, manuscripts and journals. We have called the first phase of our work on the Cambridge Digital Library the Foundations Project, which runs from mid-2010 to mid-2013 and has been made possible [...] read our review »
-
Comment on The UK comprises four nations not two and its history is a lot more complicated than many seem to appreciate
on 22 February 2012 at 11:07 am
Revisionist history and designer propagandistic press and media keep citizens (and subjects) in a state of false consciousness. Elections and referenda are subjectively reported are hardly free or fair. Printed media massage public opinion with seemingly interminable opinion polls to manufacture the appropriate consent. Repeated surveys do not represent pubic opinion. They represent the opinions the political establishment want the public to have. It seems we have not only cafeteria Catholics, but now delicatessen democrats.
Go to comment
Comment on The UK comprises four nations not two and its history is a lot more complicated than many seem to appreciate
on 22 February 2012 at 10:48 am
An impediment to progress in the constitutional relationship between these islands is a species called homo-imperialis from the home counties of old Anglo-Saxonia. The English-British ruling class just can’t get past the egocentric-enthnocentrism of their ethnocentic egotism. As their first and last colony, they just can’t let go of Ireland, or any part thereof. The fact that they never removed the Saint Patick’s Cross (of Nationalist Ireland) from the Union flag after it elected to leave the Union is indicative of this. Why else retain the emblem of an absent member. Why continue calling formations of ones armed forces the ‘Irish’ this that and the other. Why else retain the harp (a symbol conferred upon a codified Ireland by Henry VIII as its cultural emblem), after she has long since left. And if the sun never sets on the British Empire, why do they say in their Rembrance Day Ceremonies: “At the going down of the sun and at its coming up, we shall remember them.”
Go to comment
Comment on The UK comprises four nations not two and its history is a lot more complicated than many seem to appreciate
on 22 February 2012 at 10:26 am
‘Nationalism’ is not peculiar to the Irish variant thereof, though its use in a British/Irish idiom would tend to infer such. There is after all Scottish, Welsh and, dare one say it, English nationalisms. Indeed, a combination of English, Welsh, Scottish and northern[ised]-Irish ‘unionist’ nationalisms make up a macro- or generic British nationalism, a hybridised variant which constituted the imperial project that counterbalanced its Germanic comparator in National ‘Socialism’ (an ideological oxymoron to internationalists). The acid test of true unionism is – was it democratically conceived, or was it a gunshot constitutional wedding.
Go to comment
Comment on The UK comprises four nations not two and its history is a lot more complicated than many seem to appreciate
on 8 February 2012 at 1:48 pm
Cheers, Nevin. Appreciate the promp/comprehensive response. Material for a conference, I propose. The devil is in the details, it appears. The probability that partition was agreed prior to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921/’22 is surely democratically dubious, given that the Union was of Great Britain and Ireland as a whole, and not any neo-provincial part thereof. Did Sinn Fein not receive an all island majority for cessession. And if op-out clauses exist for all such Constitutional changes, could this not be an argument for re-partition?
Go to comment
Comment on The UK comprises four nations not two and its history is a lot more complicated than many seem to appreciate
on 8 February 2012 at 12:09 pm
Unionism is all fine and dandy, if it is voluntary. Alas, in the case of Ireland/Northern Ireland, such was not the case. Essentially bribing the Lairds of Scotland to subvert the democratic process, followed shortly thereafter by deja vu with Ireland’s landowning gentry to vote their national parliament into extinction is a poor form of unionism, or democracy for that matter. Therefore, Ulster unionism seeks to perpetuate a democratic fraud by perpetuating the link with the United Kingdom of Great Britain (UKGB), (i.e. England & Wales and Scotland). A Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) therefore, is a contradiction in terms.
Go to comment
Comment on The UK comprises four nations not two and its history is a lot more complicated than many seem to appreciate
on 6 February 2012 at 2:02 pm
The concept of unionism is not restricted to England & Wales and Scotland. Or Great Britain and Ireland for that matter. There is of course the United States of America (USA). The former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR/CCCP). More contemporaniously, the European Union (EU). What matters is whether the type of unionism is voluntary of coerced. Democratic or imposed. And a union between Great Britian and Ireland (or any part thereof) doesn’t have to be Anglo-centric. A pan-Celtic alliance between Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall (and Brittainy?) might well replace classical Anglo-hegemony. The St. Patrick’s Cross wasn’t removed from the union flag after Ireland ceceeded from the Act of Union, 1800/’01, an undemocratic piece of constitutional legislation. A case of England denying the fact symbolically.
Go to comment
Comment on What will it take to make Scotland fit for independence?
on 20 January 2012 at 1:42 pm
If Scotland opts for independence followed by Wales shortly thereafter, how sustainable will a Union be between England and Northern Ireland? The recently convened British-Irish Council showcased a post partition paradigm being pursued by Great Britian and Ireland. Question is, will the English be able to handle a post UK reinvented Commonwealth scenario. More importantly still, will Ulster unionism generically be able to handle all Ireland power sharing as an amicable compromise to the Troubles.
Go to comment
Comment on Time for a Constitutional review that takes the Irish public into its confidence
on 16 December 2011 at 2:03 pm
I would be circumspect about the true motivation of the political establishment in what is euphemistically referred to as “the south”. Something disturbs me about the Irish. I fear there is a recessive colonial or imperial gene in their historio-biological makeup which causes them to sleep-walk into another union, after waking-up from the nightmare of another. There is credible argument that both Nice’s and Lisbon’s were an Act of Union par deux. How many Irishmen does it take to adopt a dodgy euro-treaty? Very few!
Go to comment
Comment on Does Tory eurosceptics’ nationalism boost UK breakup chances?
on 16 December 2011 at 1:55 pm
Undoubtedly! After 800 yrs. of colonialism, unre-constructed English nationalists will actually ensure the destruction of their enforced union on others. The only salvation for those who subscribe to a more democractic and progressive paradigm of true unionism is to embrace a united states arrangement, bolstered by a democratised Commonwealth of Nations. A less Anglo-Centric arrangement would counterbalance EU hegemony. An in this, a reunited Ireland is indispensable. Tiocfaidh ar la!
Go to comment
Comment on Donaldson calls for DUP-led pan-UK unionist movement #dupconf
on 14 December 2011 at 1:59 pm
As a Leinster-Irish (Green) Unionist, (i.e. a United Irelander), it’s exasperating to see Messrs. Donaldson & Assocs. running around the United Kingdom of Great Britain (UKGB) desperatelly trying to resusitate an imperial British unionist paradigm which has evidently lost favour with Whitehall mandarins. This quasi-erotic fantasy is doomed to failure in an incresaingly democratised world, where imperialism is rightly seen as politically primative and defunct. Be a real unionist, Jeffrey & Co. Love Ireland & the Irish!
Go to comment