Slugger O'Toole

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Latest comments from PaddyReilly (see all)

PaddyReilly has commented 593 times (1 in the last month).

1. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 23 April 2012 at 9:33 am

   This thread has been thoroughly amusing, not least to see the “you dolt” insult repeated. I have to admit that I am the dolt to whom these words were spoken. The man who taught me German was a remarkable person, in that he seemed to combine every possible human failing with being a pious Catholic. His similarity to the the erstwhile Fuehrer of the nation whose language he taught, was remarked upon, by all. But he was efficient: the more unpleasant the instructor, the better my results, I’m afraid.

   The strange thing is that the United Ireland I am describing is really just a mirror image of Scotland. In Scotland there is a Presbyterian majority and a Catholic minority. The Catholic minority have no Catholic political parties, no desire for partition, and though largely immigrants, now consider themselves Scottish. Their intermarriage with non-Catholic Scots is constant and increasing: this means that the sectarianism of the past is now largely redundant, and purely an adjunct of soccer hooliganism. When they join the civil service, they are often posted to other parts of Scotland, where Catholics are less common. This highly desirable outcome though, when applied to Ireland, is condemned as Fascism. Curious.

   Kane’s sabre rattling Isn’t it very likely that there would be widespread unrest and tension, maybe even the emergence of a new anti-United Ireland terror organisation? needs a little clarification. What exactly will the NAUITO be trying to achieve? The end of Home Rule altogether? The restoration of 26/6 partition and the suspension of the rule of the majority? Or a repartition? But where? As far as I can tell most Unionist are opposed to repartition, probably because they realise they will lose out. Not having an achievable goal is a grave mistake. But as I have stated, technological advances make successful insurgencies much less likely, and the technology is still advancing.

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2. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 22 April 2012 at 1:16 pm

   Alex Kane’s remarks, on mature reflexion, come very close to incitement to commit civil unrest, and defy legitimate authority.

   “Why would anyone imagine that the unionists ‘trapped’ in the New Ireland would be sanguine about their fate? Isn’t it very likely that there would be widespread unrest and tension, maybe even the emergence of a new anti-United Ireland terror organisation?”

   As he is only talking about a future, hypothetical situation, we will have to let this go. But as he is detailing how, in a UI, the law might be broken, then my only debating tactic is to list how, in a UI, it might, hypothetically, be enforced.

   surrender now Britishers, und alle gehen gut für Sie

   This is not how I view the matter. I think we are dealing with some fractious youth in a school gang. The “Britischer” tag indicates that the troublemakers have, in their own imagination, promoted themselves to representatives of the glorious British Empire single-handedly defeating the Nazis. Too many Christmas broadcasts of “The Great Escape”, I would say.

   Under the ECHR, it is not possible to compel a section of the populace to uproot and move to a different area.

   Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.

   But if you are employed by the state, or dependant on handouts from the state, then the state may send you where it wants: unless you can think of an alternative way of making a living. The vulnerability of the Northern Ireland Unionist Population is that such an unusually high percentage of them are employed by the state. Any planned denationalisation will have to be held off till things quieten down. Until then, the Craggy Island sanction will be in place.

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3. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 22 April 2012 at 1:00 am

   have you given any thought as to what the colours and symbols of the armbands the “first Dáil of a reunited Ireland” , will force these folk and other non irish to wear?.

   I understand what you are on about now. Firstly, I do not consider that people, born on the island of Ireland, with parents and probably grandparents born on the island of Ireland, are non-Irish. Almost nobody in the world does. There was a BBC television programme about Mr Ferguson, the tractor manufacturer recently: it detailed his upbringing in Ireland, in County Down, showed thatched cottages with peat-burning fires, but never once did it assert that County Down was in the UK and not part of Ireland at all: that’s not actually how outsiders see it.

   I am not sure how they themselves define themselves. There are some children from the Belfast Gaeltacht whose parents converted from Catholicism to JWism, but not from Irish speaking to (exclusive) English speaking: I think they would say they were Irish.

   Secondly these people were not being singled out as in any way inimical to the Irish nation; on the contrary, if 30,000 or so more (Protestant) people converted to being JWs, Reformed Presbyterians or Brethren, then any Unionist majority would disappear immediately, because none of them vote.

   Thirdly you can keep up all the Hitler salutes and drawn on moustaches you want, it is my job to keep order in this school and I will not tolerate disruption: whatever means are necessary to prevent it will be taken. I am sorry if the other children have been chanting “Special Needs” when you enter the building, I will speak to them about it, we have a zero tolerance of bullying policy, but you certainly need help with your grammar and spelling.

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4. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 21 April 2012 at 9:55 pm

   What`s the Irish for Arbeit mach (sic) frei

   There are several ways you could say it: I would suggest Is ón saothar a thagas an saoirse. Work is of course the curse of the rioting classes. It is understood in the USA that your company can transfer you from Washington D.C. to Washington State, if it wants: should you refuse to go, you will be sacked. Here in Europe, movement of labour, across boundaries, is very nearly the first principle of the Common Market. In Ireland it is generally understood that if you are unsatisfactory in your work you will be transferred to Craggy Island. It’s a hard old world.

   Put it this way. I am headmaster of a large comprehensive school, St Patrick’s. It has four blocks, North South East and West. Quite a lot of the children in the North Block are extremely disruptive. Now I could expel them, but the County Council discourages this, and it says nothing for my adminstrative skills: I could bring in security personnel and reduce class size, but this would waste resources.

   A particularly obnoxious red-headed orphan, called Hand, comes to my office and threatens me that he and his cronies are going to bring teaching in part of the North Block to a halt. I look at him severely and say, “If you so much as think of doing that, Hand, I will move you to a special needs class in the South Block and you will have to travel home in the disabled children’s bus.”. He blanches: I know I have got him: travelling in the mong mobile, as they call it, is social death to boys in his coterie, and his friends would very soon forget him if he was in a different class.

   So breaking up the troublemakers does seem to be a good idea. I think I shall try it: I don’t care if this leads to ‘ADOLF REILLY’ graffiti on the school walls.

   Also, the 3rd person singular present of ‘machen’ is ‘macht’, ‘Mach’ is the imperative! Write it out 10 times, you dolt.

   have you given any thought as to what the colours and symbols of the armbands the “first Dáil of a reunited Ireland” , will force these folk and other non irish to wear?.

   No. I was not aware that Dáil deputies wore armbands. Perhaps you are thinking of the Reichstag?

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5. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 21 April 2012 at 11:49 am

   Refusing to sign on is a new one for me, and I worked for the D.H.S.S. for several years. I never heard of it. If you stop signing on, then you’re not unemployed, and not our problem any more. For a while (U.K.) claimants had a right to sign on in any office they wanted to, but I think that has been withdrawn. If you don’t sign on, then the options are starving, working (including drug-dealing) begging and stealing. Probably wouldn’t leave that much time for bridge-blowing.

   Home-schooling has always been a permissible option, as is the formation of schools for religious sects, such as the Brethren. The state does not need to be involved.

   I think we need to consider the effect of modern technology on attempted insurgencies. With a cctv on every lamp-post, civil breakdown is a lot harder to achieve. It’s just as well the RA stopped when they did, that sort of carry-on would be impossible nowadays. The one technological innovation which must come into being before any major constitutional change takes place is the installation of tracking devices on every motor vehicle. This is already technologically feasible- it is one of the effects of satnav, but satnav is not yet compulsory: though numberplate recognition is, I think, quite advanced. So one imagines that in any future state, using a car to commit crimes will be difficult to impossible.

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6. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 21 April 2012 at 12:26 am

   the banana republic cant pay the bills

   Do I detect a slight partisan bias in the phraseology here? The solution to not being able to pay the bills is simple. You keep a separate NI pound, and devalue it till you can afford to pay the bills. That way everyone gets their wages, but no-one (except for those whose income comes from outside) can afford to go on holiday anywhere but Northern Ireland, unless it’s a working holiday. Even a day-trip to Dublin needs saving up for.

   some young unemployed/unhappy non irish nats…. resort to violence…in places like larne

   Yes this is the motive behind the great Sinn Féin switcheroo. Basically it works likes this. You turn up to sign on in Limerick and find you are given your last payment, but you have been employed as a (state-funded) part-time security guard in Larne, on the same wage, accommodation provided in barracks. Similar folk in Larne find they have been appointed bean-counters in Limerick. This process continues until the number of Republican feral youth in any potential insurgency area outnumber the Unionist feral youth by a factor of of 2 to 1. (Research in England indicates that the unemployed are the backbone of any riot, which without them could not happen.)

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7. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 20 April 2012 at 7:51 pm

   ‘goading’ and ‘throwing down a challenge’ seem to me to be the same activity, and the former description has the merit of being shorter.

   Childers was English: born in Mayfair, schooled at United Services, University of Cambridge, anti-Home Rule debater, Boer War Veteran, parliamentary candidate for Devonport, mentioned in dispatches World War I, served 1914-1918. His late conversion to the cause of Irish Independance, though welcome, probably should not have been used as the excuse for yet another military and political career. His opponents emphasized his Englishness: De Valera thought very highly of him.

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8. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 20 April 2012 at 3:49 pm

   Nationalists argued for power sharing

   The characteristic of a Nationalist is, surely, that he believes in a free independent Nation? Nationalists were persuaded to compromise with power sharing, rather than argued for it themselves. It’s all a matter of percentages really: in the current situation, where there appear to be 19 Nationalists for every 21 Unionists, government would be impossible without the inclusion of both parties. In a situation where one party exceeds 90%, making government dependendant on the approval of the others is undemocratic. They have the right to vote, the right to practice their religion, all the other rights in the European Convention on Human Rights: beyond that we cannot go.

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9. Comment on Sinn Fein’s idea of rapprochement “is a brick-cold exercise in reinvention, re-positioning and re-writing of the past”
   on 20 April 2012 at 2:04 pm

   In addition to Alex Kane, someone called “Red Lion” is complaining that no-one has actually described a United Ireland, and then when someone is goaded into doing so, immediately comes back with a United Ireland designed by him.

   If Unionists today negotiate a United Ireland, then it will have the appropriate Unionist stamp that they are looking for. If they push the matter right to the end of the line, and wait till they are outnumbered by SF & SDLP, (and I have total confidence that they will), then it is SF & SDLP that the Oireachtas will be negotiating with and it is they who will call the shots.

   So this then is the nature of a united Ireland: that Unionists have no input into government whatsoever. Alex Kane’s question regarding party politics is a classic of stupidity:- I have yet to hear a pro-United Irelander move beyond the mythology and ballad and onto the much more difficult turf of explaining what a United Ireland would look like…..what the party political make-up would be and so on and so on?

   You will get no information on party politics of a future, hypothetical United Ireland because that is up to the (future, hypothetical) electorate. Who could have predicted the current political party distribution of either Ireland, North or South, before both entities came into being?

   But if it’s speculation you want, I can supply that. In the first Dáil of a reunited Ireland, Unionists do not score particularly well. Unionists are currently only 11% of the All-Ireland electorate: by the time a United Ireland is possible, it will probably be less, perhaps only 9%. This yields substantially less of the seats, perhaps only 5%. Now in a multi-party, coalition based system, that can often be enough to hold the whole country to ransom, but Unionists in an all-Ireland system are like the fat dwarfish boy that nobody wants in their basketball team.

   Finally, in a desperate last push to gain/retain power, Fine Gael enters into negotiation with them. But their coalition demands are so outrageous- basically they want to reverse Irish Independence- that the negotiations break down. The result is that the opposing coalition, in which Sinn Féin plays a leading role, comes into power and remains so for quite a while. Former UUP members quietly join Fine Gael.

   SF institutes a policy of making sure that Northern Protestants in public employ are more evenly distributed across the country. As a result, half of Northern former Unionists are now resident in the Dublin region, where they have no hope of electing a TD, and in the North East their numbers are even further depleted. SF makes sure that the constituency size and seat distribution does not favour Unionists, and confirms legislation stating that British Passport holders may not vote in Dáil elections. At the next election Unionists are reduced to an unimpressive rump of one or two TDs.

   There is a surge in membership of religious sects which forbid voting: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Brethren, Reformed Presbyterians. Many former TUV and DUP members refuse to recognize the state at all: it is a branch of Satan. On the other hand, much of the C of I has turned into Anglican Rite Catholics, and most of the Presbyterians have gone non-subscribing. Over half of marriages involving a Protestant are to a Catholic.

   The Unionist Party moves into a warehouse in East Belfast, where it shares secretarial facilities with the Lord’s Day Observance Society, the Flat Earth Society, the Polish Goverment in Exile and Dirk Gently, Private Detective. The younger generation realise that forming political parties based around when your ancestors arrived in the land of Ireland is a complete loser and participate in ordinary politics which concentrates on the distribution of wealth, the rights of property, the level of taxation, the creation of jobs, concern for the environment, etc.

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10. Comment on Sinn Fein’s seven goals towards unification?
    on 16 April 2012 at 6:52 am

    All of the inner city areas of South Belfast have changed dramatically in the last ten years.

    Well then Ryan you have answered your own point. The Protestant Working Class of Belfast are not going to arise en masse and reverse Nationalist Council gains because they are in full flight to greener pastures. The low turnout of these districts is due to the fact that their residents are partially transients (i.e. students) partially not eligible to vote and partially not interested in local matters. Some eastern Europeans may appear on the register because they are EU citizens and can vote in EU elections, but probably don’t bother.

    So we look forward to a Belfast in which the Majority is Nationalist and votes, and the rest are Alliance, foreigners who are not particularly interested and a diminishing rump of increasingly elderly Unionists. Surprisingly, this is a formula for a more successful society than the exclusively native-born mixture of the 60s and 70s.

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