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Douglas Murray – Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Inquiry, Book Review
The aftermath of the Saville Inquiry into the events around Bloody Sunday has left me, and I suspect many others, with one enduring image: Prime Minister David Cameron’s apology in the House of Commons, where he says that the actions of the British Army were ‘unjustified and unjustifiable.’ But there’s a lot more to the [...] read our review » -
The Creative Class and Northern Ireland
As part of NICVA’s series of masterclasses from its Centre for Economic Empowerment project, there was a morning seminar on the topic of the “creative class” (as popularised by Richard Florida) and its applicability to Northern Ireland. The agenda was to: Explain Richard Florida’s idea of the “creative class” and the link between economic outcomes [...] read our review »
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A New Vision for the Catholic Church – Book Review
The oft-quoted verse from the book of Proverbs, ‘where there is no vision, the people perish,’ (chapter 29, verse 18) opens a new book by Gerry O’Hanlon, A New Vision for the Catholic Church: A View from Ireland (Columba Press, 2011). That verse could be considered an apt summary of the current state of the [...] read our review »
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Comment on No men, snowmen and clever devices
on 9 February 2010 at 6:16 am
Urbane people do not regard art, music, and literature as ‘claptrap’, they do not ‘drool’ over things that they love…
Exactly my point. You are seeking to project your personal undoubted urbanity onto a frontier tribe for whom the word is simply irrelevant. Dimmed and undimmed are often used metaphorically.
I wish you a pleasant night also.
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Comment on No men, snowmen and clever devices
on 9 February 2010 at 5:20 am
Marcionite,
We are always hearing about these catholic unionists. Could you tell why any person of a catholic and/or nationalist background would support union with a state that has sponsored murder gangs in this country, bombed Dublin and Monaghan, murdered Pat Finnucane and Rosemary Nelson, and run agents like Robin Jackson who murdered children in front of a mobile sweet van? If these people exist are they mentally deranged?
David Crookes,
Most Protestants in the north do not drool over British culture and British countryside and Jerusalem and all the other claptrap you are spouting for one simple reason: they see the British as much as an other as Irish nationalists do. They do not come from an urbane metropolitan society, they come from a frontier one. 2 more different things there cannot be.
Turgon,
I see that encroaching age has failed to dim your infantilism, and pathetic sectarian drivel.
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Comment on Picking on the Republic’s tax discs offenders?
on 8 December 2009 at 8:12 pm
This action by the PSNI was plainly illegal. She should sue them for every penny.
Dave, well done. Unfortunately most people here just do not understand the legal issues. There would also be the tendency to regard british law as extraterritorial in effect.
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Comment on What Slugger readers got right about our politician of the year…
on 1 December 2009 at 4:54 pm
Trimble admitted that he liked McGuinness as a person and Paisley, well we all know the story there… so McG has the ability to actually get on with people of differing political viewpoints. Hs comes across as reasonable. The fact the Robinson has been completely unable to form any type of personal relationship with him makes Robinson look bad. Yes indeed McG is sf’s secret weopon.
Despite the fact that you can recognise McG’s qualities your sheer partisanship Mick is becoming embarrassing at this stage. It is not clear to most people believe me that sf have been deeply obstructionist. They have taken all the difficult decisions and have not come up short. P and J and the ILA are both in the St Andrews list of commitments. Please remind us which commitments SF have failed to deliver on??????
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Comment on An overlooked part of Irish history
on 25 September 2009 at 9:37 pm
Garibaldy,
I understand that the WP did not embrace the BICO 2 nations theory. However could you tall us what exactly they did embrace in relation to the North? And what their position is now?
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Comment on Unionist Confidence
on 25 September 2009 at 4:47 pm
Comrade Stalin and Sean,
I’m glad to see i’m not the only one. I actually feel bad attacking Turgon sometimes but his partisanship to the point of violent extremism needs condemning and condemning loudly.
Turgon,
Like the way you picked up on “rhetorical device”.
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Comment on Unionist Confidence
on 24 September 2009 at 9:35 pm
“…as he gradually Lundified himself”.
This priceless comment in a piece about Unionist confidence!!!!!
In psycho-therapeutic terms Unionism is the patient who suffering paranoia, fear and anger, backs himself further and further into a wall of his own making.
In everyday terms Turgon you are the most despicable apologist for out and out Unionist bigotry and intransigence. Despicable because you evidently have the intelligence to see beyond all this self defeating nonsense but choose not to use it.
“and (possibly most challenging) have “massive outreach” to nationalists to persuade them of the need for and merit of such changes”.
You know full well that the only way that Nationalists will be persuaded of the merit of such changes would be large scale ethnic cleansing. Is that your agenda? As I have said before you faux pacifism is wafer thin and clearly a rhetorical device. You would be better off communing with your like on the PULSE site. The only thing that keeps you on here is your intellectual and social snobbery. And the fact that everyone is SOOOO nice to you. Once again I am happy to break ranks because you do not deserve niceness.
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Comment on Gaelic Athletic Association 1884 – 2009: 1 In Ulster…
on 21 July 2009 at 11:23 pm
JEB,
I agree that Irishmen supporting England against an Irish team is indeed even more disgusting than a self declared Irishman supporting England against an Irish team… er let’s read that again, they are both identical so my original point stands. Thanks for helping me clarify it. The IRFU have bent over backwards to accomodate northern unioniss by adding an extra anthem, flying provincial flag of ulster and encouraging supporters to wave green irfu flags rather than tricolours. Of course the IFA have done the same haven’t they? If both football teams are Irish then they should both be able to poach from the other, which was the situation up until the late 1950′s. That was recently resuggested but the IFA turned it down.
What about my point about joint GAA/OO evening, parades and OO lodges sponsoring Gaelic teams??
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Comment on Gaelic Athletic Association 1884 – 2009: 1 In Ulster…
on 21 July 2009 at 8:53 pm
a very simple and effective way to reconcile and unite the gaa and oo whilst not making the mistake of denuding one’s own traditions to the point of meaningless blandness would be joint parades, cultural evenings etc and inviting orange lodges to set up their own gaa teams, replete with names redolent of their history etc. Edward Carson’s GFC, Ease Belfast. Ulster Scots could be encouraged in addition to Irish so that these teams might have English and ULster Scots on their crests, or even Irish and Ulster Scots and no English (we all know how much the scots hate the English!!!)
I genuinely believe that this could work in the next 20 years or so and then we could see the glorious gaa summers of championship matches and the marching season in the north interract rather than stare mutely at eacthother.
JEB is so Irish by the way that he supports England when the play the ROI. Strange kind of Irishman. No Irish unionist of any type in past would have been that toadying. Some people will always be beyond reach.
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Comment on Gaelic Athletic Association 1884 – 2009: 1 In Ulster…
on 21 July 2009 at 8:44 pm
The fact that no UCUNF representative could even be bothered attending the funeral of a catholic beaten to death in a predominantly unionist town speaks volumes about the sincerity of its efforts to woo non-protestants to the unionist cause.
Hear hear. When i pointed this out to Seymour Major on his Tory Boy Story site he nearly died of shock, thus revealing an extraordinary level of blindness.articulation of policies seeking to respect the identities of both nationalist and unionist traditions on an equal footing
Should we not be trying to win over ulster protestants to the cause of independence from Britain, Chris, rather than just saying that both identities have an equal value? After all no matter what happens in the north, barring repartition and/or joint sovereignty, one of the traditions is always going to be inferior because it is not the tradition of the state it finds itself in. Barring culture, Irish nationalism is about Irish people governing themselves. There is no earthly reason why Ulster Protestants cannot be won over to that, a good number of them believe it already in their own way.
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