Admitting you were wrong is not an easy thing. it’s holding your hands up to the world – well, that tiny portion of it which knows you exist – and saying “I did it my way and it stank”. Sometimes that elicits a surge of warmth and forgiveness: we all know that we’ve got it wrong at some point ourselves and we admire the courage of those who are prepared to come out and say they were at fault. Which means there should be more of it about, right? Wrong. Not in our public life. We’ve had a number of instances recently.
As the world and its mother knows by now, Pastor Jack McConnell doesn’t trust Muslims and sees their faith as spawned in hell. Will the good Pastor take that back? Not a word. There he stands, he can no other…Actually he can plenty of others but he chooses not to. Not an inch.
Peter Robinson declares that he doesn’t trust Muslims either, especially the ones that are blowing people up and killing them. Fair enough. No apology needed for that. We’re all in the same boat there, I think it’s safe to say.But then Peter had to go on and say that he would trust them to go down to the corner shop and get his messages. This at a time when he and Martin McGuinness are trying to woo trade with countries which have large Muslim populations. So wil Peter take it all back? Not a chance. Even though he’s as morally and politically wrong as he could be.
And then there’s Jolene Bunting. Ah, little Jolene. Political child of that nice woman Ruth Patterson in Belfast City Council, who would have loved to see the members of the republican parade in Castlederg sent to meet their Maker before their time. She apologied. I think. But somehow the result was not a rush of affection for her from those she wished ill; it was more a watchfulness for what her next outburst might be. Why is that, I wonder?
But back to Jolene. On 18 March 2011 Jolene wrote “I’m so sick of the poor Catholic b******* they make sick”. No, Virginia, I have no way of knowing if she referred tp ‘poor Cathoic b*******’ or ‘poor Catholic bastards’ . But my hunch is that she wrote ‘bastards’. People with those kinds of views tend not to be prissy in their phrasing, while the newspapers that quote them often tend to be afraid Auntie Nellie might pass out if she read the real word…Where was I? Oh yes: Jolene’s semi-literate bad-mouthing of Catholics. Jim Allister’s response was not to denounce his party member’s views but to demand of interviewer Tara Mills if she’d ever done anything she regretted when she was eighteen. Not a very logical response or even impressively anti-sectarian,but it did cleverly switch the spotlight from him as we all imagined what nice Tara might have said or done at eighteen. But Jolene herself? She’s apologised for saying it. Straight out. So why aren’t we feeling rush of affection for this young woman? Ah, that’s because she immediately after she added that she didn’t regret “the content” of what she had said three years ago. You got that? She regrets saying that poor Catholic bastards should take themselves down south, but she doesn’t regret the content. And then she says she was wrong to say ‘Catholics’ when she meant ‘republicans’. So if that hasn’t prompted a veritable gusher of love in you for Jolene, who now plans to use City Hall and not Facebook for the expression of her views, then I don’t know what will.
Pssst. Nothing to do with what we were talking about. But do you ever get the feeling that this is 1968?
Political unionism and modernity: a tragi-comedy of incompatibility.
Oh to be alive and Unionist in the days when lazy denigration and surly countenances were the currency of strength, and one could wallow in sectarian filth without the nosiness of social media. Oh, for pre-Troubles Northern Ireland when all was right with our wee country.
Modernity is a disgrace. True Unionists should demand that it stops forthwith, and withdraw from it, as they did the Haas proposals.
I think they alread have withdrawn. “not an inch” and No NO NO are still the order of the day. The galling fact to me is that media’s attention span is very short when it comes to Robinsons, and pattersons outrageous remarks yet they remain terminally focused on every word out of republican mouths.
The press needs top be called to the carpet for allowing this double standard to continue. truth is the first casualty of war and even peace
“A prosperous little state with a few solvable problems”. In the words (I believe) of the self-appointed Apologist/Apostle/Scribe of The Lost Tribe Of Israel.
Jolene, is a good indicator of Unionisn’s general swing to the Right. The TUV, PUP and the once measured UUP are all seeking to out-flank one another on the Right. Allistar is an odious Toad if ever such a poisonous bastard ever exists….The tail was wagging the dog for a while within Unionism, now however, with the Rise of TUV white trash fortunes, more of the dog is involved,- its Posterior…..though I cant help being too polite when I think of the Far right Hutchinson and Ruthless Adams and Alliatar…..the Dog’s Arse is more apt methinks
I meant Patterson, the Adams from the UDP I mixed up with Ruth….it is easy to get mixed up with Unionist reps names, as there are so many Arses among them.
Is there such a thing as ‘Moderate Unionism’?
Please don’t anyone take this as “prod bashing” which it most definitely isn’t, but Unionism as a political ideology is perhaps by its very nature something which resides on the Right of the political spectrum.
I’d like to believe that this is not the case, and indeed chucked a few votes the way of both NI21 and Alliance last week, but NI21 appear to be no more and Alliance seem now to be viewed as ‘Nationalist-Lite’ or ‘Lundys’ if you prefer. I wish people would stop attacking their offices. That can’t be much fun.
Well, RJC, there has historically been a strong bond between unionism and Orangeism, and the latter most definitely has always been on the right. Opposed to the emancipation of Catholics, opposed to the Great Reform Act of 1832, opposed to Home Rule – name a right-wing cause and Orangeism was in there. So it’s fair to say that unionism wasn’t exactly hard left over the decades…
Ah, I see – thank you. I must confess to being a little bit ignorant of the history of that august Order. When the good Jesuits were trying to teach me the old Stair in school, I’m afraid my mind was elsewhere and I gazed out of the window; my teenage head filled with dreams of pop music and girls. The important stuff.
Would I be correct in thinking that Ulster Unionism as a political ideology only really came into being around the time of the Ulster Covenant, the Third Home Rule Bill and the years following? Wasn’t there another political ideology that started to gain traction in Europe around the 1920s and 30s? You know the one…banners…marching…that shouty fella? Ach, the name escapes me. I really should have paid more attention in school.
An bhfuil céad agam dul go dtí an leithreas más é do thoil é?
RJC
Quite correct. the boyo whose name you’re struggling to remember is Eoin O’Duffy. Yeah they went out to Spain to prop up Franco and the Church and if I’m not mistaken helped kill a few Shankill Rd Republicans when they were out there. What I am sure of though is that they attacked the Shankill Rd contingent at Bodenstown. There’s a great photo of the Shankill men at Bodenstown in Frank Ryan’s biography. You can see them proud as punch standing up for Leftism but sadly shortly after the photo was taken they were attacked by the far right. In this case Irish Facists on home ground.
Thank you pretzellogic! I must confess that my knowledge of Irish history of the 1920s and 30s is sorely lacking. I was aware of the Fine Gael/Blueshirts links, but not in any great detail.
There’s a commentator on the dreaded Slugger site who goes by the name of ‘SeaanUiNeill’ – he’s incredibly good on this stuff, and puts his points across in a hugely entertaining and eloquent fashion. I find the links between Ulster Unionism and Fascism quite interesting, and incredibly telling.
RJC
Don’t go near that Slugger place whatever you do. Too many traffic lanes over there. Best to stay here where there’s a one way traffic system in place.
Haha – no fear of that! I sort of skim read bits of Slugger from time to time, but have never registered to post there and have no plans to. I enjoy playing with men too much to head over there and be treated like a child 🙂
I understand our First Minister is scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia soon. Will further travel broaden his mind or merely spread his narrow-mindedness over another part of the globe? What is happening to political ideas? In the wake of elections do we really need political mud slinging? It also takes the focus of the rise of Fascism, the concentration of wealth, poverty and inequality.
Iolar – we’re in the wake of one election but there’s another coming up next year, and another the year after that. No rest for the wicked, as the old saying goes…
Go raibh maith agat, however, some of the wicked may get elected.
The firebomb in Derry has managed to knock the bigots off the main headlines curiously enough. It makes me wonder the wisdom of these people and who indeed is pulling their strings. Peter the bigot now has the perfect opportunity to point out who the ‘real’ problem are in ‘northern Ireland’. Amaideacht.
It will probably be revealed in a few years time, British `intelligence` were behind the Dissidents. Whenever they needed something to put marrow in the Unionist spine they would let off a bomb or shoot at the PSNI.
The bigotry and racism shown by the preacher and the politician(s) is only to be expected. They profess allegiance to Britain (only when it suits them of course…) and Britain has a sectarian Head of State rule that forbids Catholics from becoming King/Queen, like some sort of Dungeons and Dragons/ Game Of Thrones fantasy land. In the twenty first century. With it`s nonsensical Lords, Ladies, Dukes and OBEs and such like, it is a wonder they don`t have a law turning frogs into princes, only Protestant frogs of course. I have fallen out with numerous English people over the years when they quite understandably condemned the Orange Order for it`s bigotry. They took umbrage at my telling them it was because of Britain`s outdated and equally bigoted anti Catholic laws of succession. Ignoramuses like Ruth Patterson or Jolene Bunting (you couldn`t make it up) are only like that because of the so called democracy across the water.
ANOTHER JUDE
The church of England is protestant, is it not logical that the head of that church would be protestant? Would you find it strange if it was suggested that the pope should be protestant or Buddhist?
The problem is not with who heads the Church of England. The problem is that the same person is head of state. Though why anyone would use a hereditary monarchy to find the head of state has always baffled me…
That`s another aspect that is quite ridiculous of course.
If it said the monarch and their consort had to be C of E I could understand that, fact is it says they must not be Papish. Not the same at all.
S***** F** C**
OK OK OK. I apologise profusely.
I don’t regret the content of the above, but the juxtaposition of the words may give the erroneous impression that I disdain mentally challenged obese bovine bipeds, but that would in principle be incorrect.
Yes Jude i do get the de javu 1968 feeling but lately its more like 1698