Everything Ulster Gets Cultural
The Problem
Northern Ireland has a real image problem, that's hard to deny. Despite the recent revival in Ulster-Scots, it's saddening that there aren't too many decent songs around which deal specifically with Ulster or Northern Ireland, particularly what I'd consider folk songs. Of course there are Irish 'rebel' songs, which are well established throughout Ireland and America as parts of Irish culture. These songs, almost without exception, either bemoan perceived injustices of 200 years ago or more, or alternatively call Irishmen to arms to rebel against "800 years of British oppression" and other such predictable sentiments.
Anything You Can Do...
Since Republicans have their Fields of Athenrye, Soldier's Song, the Wearing of the Green, 4 Green Fields, Boys of the Old Brigade and so on to help keep them feeling anti-British and justifying violent action against them, it's little wonder that loyalists created their own songs, often to the same or similar tunes, and following the route of romanticising the murders and the "struggle".
Neither type of song does much to enhance Northern Ireland's image.
From my experiences as a teenager it appeared there wasn't going to be much in the way of song that I, as an Ulster-man, could be proud of. Something I could point to when asked about Northern Ireland to explain this little corner of the world. Obviously I'm not going to be pointing at any rebel songs full of bitterness and resentment or worse. Nor would I mention any of the loyalist songs I'd heard as a teenager, namely Here Lies a Soldier (of the UVF), Father's Advice (a YCV song) or the Billy Boys, lest I be associated with the sectarian drivel and hatred in them. That's not my culture.
Godwin's Law and The Republic's Role in World War 2
Perhaps it's evidence of Godwin's Law, but I made a reference (originally an inaccurate one - thanks Aonghus) to a Dublin statue of a celebrated Republican and a Nazi sympathiser, Sean Russel. It was something of an off-the-cuff remark in the thread about Sean Kelly's release. The thread soon took an off-topic, but quite interesting course charting through Fascism to Eire's role in World War 2.
Ballymena Internment Parade Restricted
The Friends of William Orr Republican Flute Band parade scheduled for 9th August in Ballymena will go ahead, but will do so under conditions set down by the Parades Commission following concerns raised by the unionist community in the town.
The full text of the determination is available from the Parades Commission website.
The most significant restriction is that on the route of the parade.
Troops Out
As pointed out earlier on EU and already blogged elsewhere the Romeo 12 watchtower in South Armagh's bandit country is being dismantled as I type. It seems little has changed for our Tony-appointed lord and master Peter Hain since his days in the "Troops Out" movement.
As this has been covered in detail I'll say no more than that while I fully support the normalisation of Ulster's landscape, in South Armagh as anywhere else, perhaps it would have been prudent to see if the IRA actually do "end the armed campaign" before making such a blind capitulation? Or perhaps condsider whether their buddies in the 'Real' IRA might avail of the opportunity to start a milkround-type tour of the local IRA bars? I'm not disputing the move, only it's timing.
But why bother protecting the lives of innocent people when there are terrorists to appease, eh Pete?
Responses to the IRA Statement
Well so far responses from senior politicians haven't been entirely unpredictable. The governments are practically throwing a party for Gerry and the Widowmakers, Peter Hain warns Unionists not to doubt the sincerity of his buddies in the IRA or else they're bad, bad people standing in the way of peace and questions are asked as to whether this means the IRA will finally accept the legitimate police service and allow them to get on with their jobs of protecting our communities.
The worst offence was probably continuous references by republicans to the "Sinn Fein peace strategy." WHAT THE HELL? It's damn easy to create a peace strategy when you're the one holding the guns!
You can't blame normal people for being sceptical. We've had 7 years of statements and promises from the IRA that have amounted to very little. In 1994 there was a "complete cessation" and within 3 years they were bombing Manchester.
Anyway, rant over, let's see what the powers that be had to say...
'Historic' IRA Statement "Ends Armed Campaign"
Yep folks, that moment you've all been waiting for. No, not lunchtime, I'm just finished thanks.
The provisional IRA have stated that they're ending the "armed campaign" (read terrorist bloodfest) that they forced on this country for 35 years. Isn't that nice?
It's not really news, since we've all known it was coming since Gerry Adams' election speech historic statement, but nonetheless expect reems of coverage on the evening news tonight.
"The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann [I think that translates literally as Army of Ireland - but they mean the IRA] has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign."
They were supposed to do this years ago, but better late than never. Now we've come to realise over the past few years that words from the IRA are often meaningless, so you'll forgive me if I wait for actions rather than words. No mention the photographs that the DUP wanted to see - that'll keep Big Ian happy anyway, an excuse to play for more time. Not that I blame him for being sceptical, we all know Sinn Fein's IRA have lied before and will likely lie again, just the photo was a bit of a red herring.
One thing I'll be interested to see is how much of a surge there is in membership of the "dissident" flavours of IRA. I can only urge loyalists not to give folk any excuse to join up. The IRA are, possibly rightly, worried about attacks on republican areas. Don't give the militant fringes in these areas an excuse to dominate or we'll all pay the price.
The full statement is on page 2.
Pages: 1 · 2
Sean Kelly Freed From Maghaberry
I just heard the headline on the UTV evening news but apparently he hasn't actually been acquitted of becoming re-involved in terrorism. According to the BBC Sean Kelly has been given "temporary release pending an application to the Sentence Review Commission" - effectively it seems he's out on bail.
The BBC's security editor Brian Rowan and the UTV report seem to believe the move is likely be a precusor to an IRA statement on its future tomorrow.
Update The NIO have confirmed that they are indeed that spineless and that Kelly was released as a pre-statement sop to the IRA
Meanwhile, Unionist politicians are said to be looking into whether or not it is legal for Sean Kelly to be released before his case is heard. It seems they think Secretary of State Peter Hain has overstepped his authority by making this latest sop to republicans.
If any of this is true, is it any wonder London is coming under attack? British government ministers in Northern Ireland letting themeselves be blackmailed by Irish terrorists sends a clear message to any other terrorists about the sort of response they'll get to their heinous attacks on the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland Should Keep Academic Selection
I have been saying this since Martin McGuinness introduced his plans to destroy Northern Ireland's schools. Today a comment in the Times echos my view (thanks to the Young Unionists for highlighting this)
Northern Ireland still selects by 11-plus and the results have been startling. The percentage of pupils gaining five GSCEs at good grades is ten points higher than in England. At A Level, too, schoolchildren in Northern Ireland outperform their English counterparts: 30 per cent of subjects taken were awarded an A grade last year, compared with 22 per cent in England.
It is indisputable that bright children, particularly from lower-income families, benefit from a grammar-school education.
The comment then touches, only lightly, on the advantage boys have when educated in a competitive environment than when treated with the liberal kid-gloves of the softly, softly, everyone's a winner approach so evident in today's schools. Failure is not something to remove from schools, as recently suggested by namby-pamby teachers who are more worried about how their pupils' failure reflects on them than they are concerned about the children.
Comprehensive education has failed Great Britain. This is a simple, indesputable fact. Why? The aim of abolishing grammar schools for comprehensives was to increase social mobility. A recent LSE report has proven that since this action was taken, comprehensive schools have reduced social mobility. Comprehensive education has failed. Ruth Kelly, the UK's Labour education minister, has as much as admitted this.
"The only parental ballot so far undertaken on grammar schools, in Ripon, produced a two-thirds majority in favour of retaining the system. A similar household survey in Northern Ireland found 64 per cent support for maintaining academic selection there - which makes the Government's action all the more disgraceful.
In two public consultations over the future of grammar schools, parents of 11-plus "failures" seem as keen on the system as those whose children are more able..."
Of course when Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, then education minister, didn't get the results he wanted, he promptly swept the results under the carpet and continued with his plan regardless of opposition. Lets be clear the household survey carried questions deliberately loaded to get McGuinness the answer he wanted, and he was still defeated. But, like a true fascist, he went on regardless of the people's wishes.
McGuinness's party are determined to rid Northern Ireland of academic excellence and replace it with across the board mediocrity. Remember these people want Northern Ireland to fail. I won't even start on their determination to replace this country's excellent grammar schools with Irish-language schools, where rabid republican parents can pass on their prejudices in a deliberately segregated eductional environment to their unsuspecting children.
This assault on Northern Ireland's education must not be allowed to continue. Please write to your MP, or email them through WriteToThem.com. It only takes 10 minutes to do your bit to save our grammar schools.
WTO Comes To "Belfast, Ireland, United Kingdom"
No doubt you're all as excited as I was, finding out that the WTO is to host it's 2005 summit, apparently the first to ever be held in the west, at the Waterfront in Belfast. No, not the World Trade Organisation, I am of course referring to the World Toilet Organisation
When Is A Terrorist Not A Terrorist?
Apparently when he's part of the (ever so cute and cuddly) IRA.
It's well and truly begun now. I understand that Tony Blair is under a lot of pressure and is possibly somewhat emotional with the tragic and evil events that have transpired in London lately, but he's beginning to take the piss when he starts glossing over the many atrocities of the IRA. Is Tony Blair the world's biggest hypocrite?
"I don't think you can compare the political demands of republicanism with the political demands of this terrorist ideology we're facing now," declared our Leader.
I beg to differ. What Tony is effectively saying is tha we can't compare the demand of Republicans to bend Ulster to their will and force 1 million Unionists into a Catholic, Gaelic nation with the demand of Islamofascists to bend the 'West' to their will and force x million free christian, jewish and secular states into a repressive nation of Islam?
Why can't we compare them Tony?
"I don't think the IRA would ever have set about trying to kill 3,000 people," he went on, seemingly growing madder (and more amnesic) by the second.
No Tony, they were nice enough to stop at 1,706 - and that doesn't include their buddies in the 'Real' IRA, the Continuity IRA and the INLA, nor does it include 89 victims of "non-specific republican groups." Oh yeah, and let's not forget that their ceasefire was more to do with being relatively well contained by the British security services than a sudden 'road to Damascus' conversion to respect for human life.
Tell the truth Tony. Could it be that the real reason you can't compare them is because most of the IRA's 1,706 victims were Northern Irish and not, with some exceptions, Londoners. Could it be that you're so damn determined to apologise for the murdering scumbags of the IRA that you're actually willing to spread their propaganda for them? In 20 years time you'll be explaining to us that the Al-Qaeda Islamofascists threatening the liberty of this country weren't really that bad after all. Sounds ridiculous? We'll see.
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