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danielsmoran has commented 1,171 times (17 in the last month).
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Books
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Patrick McGinley’s ‘That Unearthly Valley: A Donegal Childhood’: Book Review
Tweet In Bogmail and Foggage, Patrick McGinley sent up the Irish (could he or it be otherwise?) murder mystery genre. He scooped dollops of encyclopaedic wit and mordant satire into these entertainments. A later saga proved more somber and meditative, the Black and Tan War ending as The Lost Soldier’s Song, while The Trick of [...] read our review »
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Spare us a phoney row about racism, we’ve got enough on
Tweet A silly media row about racism just had to figure in the riots’ post mortem. Was the Tudor history expert David Starkey racist on Newsnight when he said: The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate [...] read our review »
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…if University education were universally available and availed of, the country would collapse in one generation
Tweet The words of Brian O’Nolan, variously Brian Ó Nualláin, Myles na gCopaleen, Myles na Gopaleen and, of course, Flann O’Brien. That O’Nolan was referencing his own dissolute student days at UCD only mildly distracts from the prophetic undertone of his words: I paid no attention whatsoever to books or study and regarded lectures as [...] read our review »
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Comment on The PUL Community and the Peace Process: An Audit
on 22 May 2013 at 11:06 am
Blue Hammer[4.11] I don’t think that an attitude of ‘Orangies lie down’ by nationalists would be any more legitimate than the croppies version from the PUL side and neither do I believe the PULs would be railroaded into a UI as CNRs know that would be counterproductive to their own interest, which would be a stable UI. I expect there will continue to be Orange marches in such a UI and whether they will include contentious ones will depend on the attitude and approach of the OO since the CNRs will no longer have anything to protest about in that scenario.
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Comment on The PUL Community and the Peace Process: An Audit
on 21 May 2013 at 12:57 pm
‘….but if handled correctly by everyone….’ Therein lie a multitude of sins [of omission]. The past 40 years demostrate the odds against that happening are long but not winding. What McDonald says about there not being a Protestant Ulster, would never be heard from unionist politicians as they still hark after the pre 1968 status quo.
but privately realise the truth opf what McDonald said. But then he and his fellows who made the speeches are preaching to the converted which is futile. The one deterrent to catholics not voting for a UI eventually wasn’t mentioned, that is the Orange summer marches which the unionist parties insist should be able to flaunt their sectarian hatred while expecting no risk of a UI YES vote. They persist in the old ‘croppies lie down ‘ mindset, assuming catholics will vote for the union for their own selfish reasons so no toning down of the hate parades is needed.
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Comment on Challenges for Protestants in “Dealing with the Past”
on 20 May 2013 at 9:23 am
Alan in Belfast It’s easy to see where the fear comes from in political unionism even though the north is safe in the union, as their electorate is ageing and apathetic so they know the law off diminishing returns is already kicking in, but this doesn’t explain fear in unionists generally as they have no power to lose. The flag protests seem to boil down to , not an attack on their culture but anger at restrictions on their freedom to rub the fenians noses in it
They seem to be motivated by pure hate against catholics and this pre-dates the troubles. Robinson claimed in a speech that the troubles created the divisions here but he ‘s wrong, the sectarianism was around since the Orange Order came into existence at the close of the 18th century and will never be eradicated while orangeism exists, even after NI ceases to exist…
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Comment on OFMdFM panic move was “like a funding application where the Secretary of State had cracked the whip”
on 18 May 2013 at 2:56 pm
MF[3.33] Talking about Brian, around the time I first came upon slugger and started posting in early ’09,Feeney suggested that in an agreed all ireland, Dublin would carve up Ulster to give unionists back their majority by creating two ulsters, over nationalists heads and I don’t think it’s too far fetched as there’s less sympathy down their with nationalists than unionists.
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Comment on OFMdFM panic move was “like a funding application where the Secretary of State had cracked the whip”
on 17 May 2013 at 12:41 pm
Corrected, Mick. McBride isn’t one for pulling punches. He summed them up well. His paper though has front page comfort blanket from the census to reassure themselves that they’ve nothing to worry about from catholics catching up, but they and the Tele are missing the point on purpose, in that the reassurance about catholic voting in a border poll is little comfort to the DUP and the others that their electrate is ageing and they won’t inherit any of those catholic votes when needed.
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Comment on OFMdFM panic move was “like a funding application where the Secretary of State had cracked the whip”
on 16 May 2013 at 7:49 pm
GavBelfast Sam McBride has a nice dig at Marty/Peter in the last paragraph , ‘if you weren’t doing it just for the optics’
It’s iric that all of them up there are just going through the motions as they know well they have been sent to maintain the ground they mutually have to protect without botheringh about competent administration which they’re useless at anyway.Most aren’t fit to run a parish council.
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Comment on “creating consistency between each of the devolved institutions across the United Kingdom”
on 14 May 2013 at 12:09 pm
All this is rendered redundanat by Robinsons implied threat to democracy in a recent speech to party conference in which he used the phrase about the council acting on the changed Belfast demographics to wit ‘If it aint broke, don’t fix it’, in code for, don’t take avote using the new voting margins , that we unionists wouldn’t like or we will bring trouble on the streets, via 40,000 leaflets. That tells you robinson was putting down an early marker for when the catholic majority comes into practice. His contempt for democracy is exposed for all to see.
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Comment on UTV Insight: Collusion and some of its innocent victims…
on 10 May 2013 at 11:49 am
socaire[11.19] The US example is a useful point for comparison with NI as the same demographic time bomb is waiting in the wings to go off as is the case here. The WASP fraternity in the Republican Party sees the next 30-40 years bleakly as unionism here. Whites in the US will be eclipsed by a sum total of those who number as minorities now, and around the same time, planters descendents in NI will find themselves in similar state. They are in the unpalatable position of choosing between supporting Britain’s colonial status by saying all the colonised natives in the world are terrorists for using murder and pillage as their colonisers did, or, claiming Britain had a right to do the same simply because unionists benefitted. Change is coming and they don’t like it one bit but will have to lump it when it comes.
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Comment on UTV Insight: Collusion and some of its innocent victims…
on 9 May 2013 at 7:23 pm
sonofstrongbow [2.56]I should have been more precise as I meant Unionist politicians are loathe to admit state crimes, seen most recently in their reaction to revelations about Thatcher. They forgave her as they had nowhere else to go without giving satisfaction to nationalists.
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Comment on UTV Insight: Collusion and some of its innocent victims…
on 9 May 2013 at 1:05 pm
Mick Fealty[6.45] There’s no way unionists would even acknowledge wrongs by the State never mind actively try to bring about their exposure since that would give succour to ‘themmuns’ and that would never do. This is their abiding raison d’ete, to give not an inch to catholics, nationalists, never mind republicans. Peter Robinson claimed, just before the BBC council vote, in a speech to the voting fodder, that the troubles caused the division in NI society, but he well kn ows that existed thanks to the Orange Order a long time before NI existed. The Nolan debate on the Maze shows, if it were needed that this entity will never achieve a healthy politic as long as it exists. It’s too far gone.
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