Thank you, George Chittick! In the past I have been critical of the Orange Order as an anti-Catholic organisation. Thanks to your recent comments as Belfast County Grand Master of the Orange Order, I can now add “anti-Irish language” to the list.
George, you see, believes learning Irish is a republican ruse. He wouldn’t put it in those terms (I don’t think) but he has warned that Protestants learning to speak the Irish language are playing into a republican agenda.
Mmm. Well, what about this, then, George. At the same time as the baying crowd were gathered outside the Skainos Centre the other night, inside there were two meetings going on. The first, by now familiar to everybody, was the discussion involving Pat Magee, who was the Brighton bomber (Press please note: that’s past tense. It is wrong to describe him as a bomber in the present tense. It’d be like describing Jeffrey Donaldson or Arlene Foster as being members of the UUP)…Where was I? Oh yes – Pat Magee and Jo Berry, whose father died in the blast, were at a meeting held in one room. In another room in the Centre, a second meeting was being held simultaneously. It was a class involving Linda Ervine, sister-in-law of the late David Ervine. She was conducting an Irish class which included at least two members of the DUP, along with other people from the East Belfast Protestant/unionist community.
Maybe it’s as well for George’s blood-pressure nobody told him about it.
There are a number of things that divide us here but the Irish language should not be one of them. Had it not been for the efforts of Presbyterians, the Irish language might well have been lost in this part of the country. To sad people like poor George, it’s a threat because it’s used by some republicans and so has been ‘politicized’. Would you get a grip on yourself, George? That’s like saying “I won’t learn German – Hitler spoke it” or “I won’t speak French because the Marquis de Sade used it”. Nobody can hi-jack a language or claim it as their exclusive territory. Languages don’t work like that. Mind you, you can try to eradicate a language, which is what happened with considerable success in Ireland. But thebeautiful, liberating language of Irish is there for the learning, and the more who choose to learn it, especially those who have been codded into boycotting it, the better.
To sum up, then: George, you’re an ass. You’ve shown yourself to have a mind as open as a steel trap. You’ve shown how the Orange Order remains consistent in its opposition to anything progressive (Catholic Emancipation, the Great Reform Act of 1832 – the list goes on). And you’ve shown that your political opponents don’t need to do anything to expose your dunder-headedness, other than keep quiet and smile.
Check this link and give yourself a laugh… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-26004137
I listened to George Chittick’s interview this morning on Sunday Sequence and the man did not come across as someone either happy or contented.
So much for the old saying “ingonance is bliss”!
Someone should have a word with his carer and make sure he doesn’t leave the house without proper medication
Ha ha Jude, just getting the significance of your spelling now! Good one!
I’ve said this before and i’ll say it again..
If George is right, its a big if but go with me… IF it has been politicised and taken away off, painted green, brainwashed to hate prods and given secret orders to strike down any loyal ulsterman who utters ‘Faugh a Ballagh’ or another of their favourite battlecries, then surely the way to blunt this dastardly republican advance is to learn the bloody thing?
Surely it will disarm ‘the enemy’ or at least deny them a weapon of propoganda, especially since of the history of the Language in semi-modern times… meeting one of those bogeymen in the street (assuming he’d know what one looks like) and saying something like Ní Thiocfaidh Bhur Lá would work better than instructing protestants to remain ignorant of their own history?
This is yet another instance of the unionist establishment being very short sighted and shooting themselves in the foot. Is there no room in Northern Ireland and no room in the UK to be proud of the Irish Language? Are Scots Gaelic speakers traitors and lundies?
Surely if it is okay for his Queen to fly over to meet Mary and speak it, then surely its safe for others.. I mean if the Head of State of his country, Matriarch of his Church (assuming he’s anglican) and head of the establishment he would presumably give his life to honor and obey can speak a couple of words then its not really going to hurt them.
As for the Dual-Language mandate, half of his lot struggle with English so they’re doubly f**ked.
Not that it is about jobs, speaking German or Mandarin is more likely to be a requirement than Irish, its not about grants.. its about keeping the working class loyalists down in their place and scared of the bogeyman, lest they put their heads over the fence and realise that their cousins in the rest of the island arent about to revolt and kill them all.
Why does the BBC give this asshole airtime?
It’s George Chidducks opinion everybody is allowed one.
If people want to learn a language that’s brilliant but to say Irish is a beautiful liberating language that’s a bit of a stretch the average female would prefere Spanish or Italian rather than Irish with a belfast brogue
; )
Neill
“the average female would prefer Spanish or Italian”
The average female maybe.
But the better than average female prefers to be courted ‘as gaeilge’
Jude do you feel it is significant that the Protestant Coalition website:-
1 – admonished the organisers of the reconciliation event at the Skainos Centre, and encouraging Loyalists to protest outside the centre on the night of the event,
2 – criticised Protestants who ran Irish classes in Loyalist areas, claiming they were putting money (in the form of grants) before the promotion of their own Protestant culture,
3 – flagged up and identified the teacher who was a Sinn Fein councillor and promoted a localised campaign to have people in the area have her removed from the school.
The website even referenced Hitler and WW2.
Is there any more evidence needed that Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was more correct that some people would Iike to admit when he claimed that the Orange Order, PUL and elements of the UVF were effectively one and the same in areas of Belfast?
Ryan
“IF it has been politicised and taken away off, painted green, brainwashed to hate prods and given secret orders to strike down any loyal ulsterman who utters ‘Faugh a Ballagh’ or another of their favourite battlecries, then surely the way to blunt this dastardly republican advance is to learn the bloody thing?”
I agree 100%.
If it is now a vehicle for nationalist intentions and objectives then they should jump on board and control it’s direction.
For example, if the ulster-Scots outfits REALLY cared about the Scottish heritage of people in Ulster (yes, I am including Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan) then they would create a Gal-oglaigh/Gallowglass segment.
That would bring Gaelic culture into the strange, surgically altered identity that they’ve invented at present.
With said Gaelic culture would be of course include languages and Antrim Gaelic was (I understand, please correct me if wrong) the stepping stone between Irish and Scottish Gaelic, according to ship-boy Adam it was identical to Arran Gaelic (and maybe even Galloway Gaelic).
So, they could enhance the Scottish-Irish/Ulster-Scots cultural links and have an influence on the direction of the Irish language up North.
Sound like a plan?
No, of course not,
There’s not enough no surrender.
BTW, on that note, apparently a number of the original apprentice boys at the Siege of Derry spoke Gaelic.
How things change…
“Bring in the clowns…”
.Where do we go with this nonsense? anyone of us who have had to deal with dementia among our beloved family members can see all the signs of mental breakdown and the slow slip into psychosis. Somehow our poor demented system is busily spewing up these characters like gaseous bubbles popping up in a swamp. This poor man joins among others the squealing demented old bat who hollered “No surrender!” as she railed at the closed doors of city hall.
All of them refugees from outtakes of the oft repeated comedic soap operas of the 1960s and 1970s such as Dad’s Army, On the Buses and Till Death Do Us Part. Interviewers know perfectly well what the are doing when they interview an old buffer like this. it’s entrtainment for us.Laughing at the gallows again. …throwing cabbages at the stocks.Learning to read is their only hope.As the boys at LAD would say…it just keeps on giving.
The funny thing is.; I was taught Irish, Latin, French and of course ,English Literature and English Language at school. I’m sorry i didn’t pay as much attention to all of them as I did to girls at the time. The hard facts is though that I never considered my Irish textbooks in the same league as say Orwell or Shakespeare. It didn’t grab my imagination and it was nowhere near as cool as French to my mind….Brigitte Bardot….come on!!! Like I’ve said before, like it or lump it…your choice.
Better not tell George Chittick that the official Bangor town coat of arms is in the Irish language – must be a staunch Irish Nationalist town then, by George Chittick’s logic.
Two things, every kid knows to learn the swear words and curses first when taking a language class, so maybe an intro course is enough. And have you tried teaching English grammar to today’s tech addled youth? It is not history you are up against, its ADD.
Good luck (buena suerte) on language number two. Been there, done that.