“The b word”? Well may you swoon, Virginia. That a leader of a political party in Ireland should refer to bigots and anti-gay proponents as (hands over ears, Virginia) bastards is indeed a shocking thing. Thankfully “bastard” is a word that I have never used and never will use.
John Major did. In June 1993 the British Prime Minister described three members of his Cabinet as “bastards”. It created a stir at the time, since it contrasted so sharply with Major’s nice-guy image. When he was asked about it in October last year, he expressed his regret this way: “Calling three of my colleagues, or a number of my colleagues, ‘bastards’ was absolutely unforgivable. My only excuse is that it was true”. Has the man no shame?
Gerry Adams hasn’t waited over twenty years to apologise for calling some DUP members “bastards”. He tweeted his regret: “I shouldn’t call bigots, racists or homophobes bastards. Mea culpa. But equality IS the only way 2 break them. & education and & end 2 sectarianism”.
Gregory Campbell didn’t just mock the Irish language and talk about wiping his backside with requests for an Irish Language Act. A day or two later he staunchly defended what he’d said. Je ne regrette rien. Gerry Adams called the bigots among the DUP ‘bastards’ ; within twenty-four hours he had apologised
Both men, of course, hope that their remarks will sow seeds that’ll emerge in votes six months down the line. The difference is that one man has used what some consider offensive – although not as we see a former British Prime minister – in pursuit of movement towards equality in this agonised corner of Ireland; then he apologised for using the term.The other man has used what couldn’t be construed as other than offensive terminology to attack the idea of equality via the Irish Language Act; he sees absolutely nothing wrong with his words.
So please. The difference between the two comments is obvious to all except the wilfully blind. To claim otherwise is to indulge in bullshit.
Gregory claims he was not referring to all Irish language speakers, Gerry claims he was not referring to all Unionists. Should we believe one claim and not the other?
This won’t damage SF support of course, but talk of breaking people and trojan horses hardly convinces floating voters (never mind Unionists) that they are welcome in the Republican movement.
Tempting to suspect these recent spats are all about providing cover for when the talks inevitably break down.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Adams has apologised. Campbell has not and glories in the fact he won’t. Doesn’t that count for anything.
But Adams cocked-up big time. He went and lost the moral high-ground in one fell swoop after Campbell dragged unionism through the gutter again and now we will have to listen to one side is as bad the other ad naseum in the run-up to the election. enter the stoops and the Alliance.
It’s Gerry’s fault.
When just about everyone is jabbing at Gregory Gerry stands up and covers him with his own body, f**k ! f**k! f**k! f**k! is just how I feel at the minute
Antonio
I have nothing but contempt for Gregory and his sneering. Gerry Adams did man up and apologise, though to be honest I’m not certain he needed to.
The trojan horse comment is slightly more worrying as it suggests that the equality agenda is no more than a tool for showing up the DUP and not a sincere end in itself
Look too at his talk of Michael Collins holding troublesome journalists at gunpoint. What are we to make of that?
It is one gaff after another and time for him to go.
A younger smarter SF free of the baggage of the past would not gift so much ammunition to the DUP.
Why is it, gio, that people who are opposed to republicanism are always very keen on telling them who should lead them? In my naivety I thought that was a matter for they themselves…
Siad Féin lol
Jude
I’m not opposed to republicanism, just the physical force variety once espoused by Sinn Fein. (Let’s kill our fellow Irishmen until they agree to what we want)
In addition as we are governed by Sinn Fein I don’t think it unreasonable for me a mere voter to express an opinion on its leadership
Who leads SF and the direction that leadership takes them has a direct bearing on the society I live in.
My thoughts on the ‘Collins’ joke’
The Irish Independent has reduced itself to a hysterical glorified tabloid as regards their coverage of Sinn Fein and Gerry Adams. Nobody in their right minds is going to suggest that journalists are not entitled to scrutinise politicians very closely and ask them very difficult questions. However, when a newspaper/propaganda sheet indulges in daily verbal onslaughts for years on one political party (sinn fein) and one individual (Gerry Adams) then people are entitled to start asking very difficult questions of them.
Their coverage on Sinn Fein is not journalism – it insults real journalists.
The Irish Independent is no longer a news paper it is now no better than a propaganda sheet – it is now no more balanced than An Phoblacht. They take everything out of context and they provide their readers with no historical understanding of the North and no contemporary understanding of the North.
Their message on Sinn Fein is thus – they are criminals and murderers and nothing else. Adams is a paedophile protector and is personally responsible for every single action they IRA ever undertook. No alternative viewpoint is allowed. There is no critical analysis of any other player’s role in the troubles. The British state was a benevolent arbitrator at all times. There is rarely even slight criticism of the D.U.P.
Adams made a joke and I laughed. He was pointing to the paralles between the Irish Independent then and now. During the war of independence this propaganda sheet supported the British. Collins sent his men into threaten the staff.
Nowadays they would tend to laud Michael Collins as the greatest man that ever lived. Adams’ very cleverly drew people’s attention to the fact that once upon a time the Irish independent had more sympathy with the British state than the Irish people. Perhaps more people will begin to ask if enough has changed as regard the Irish Independent over the last century because we can be quite sure very few people were aware that the nation’s favourite daily paper was once calling Collins’, the founder of the state, a murder.
As regard them describing it as a ‘veiled threat’ – pathetic! Absolutely pathetic !!!! because believe me Gerry Adams is not the only cynical & Machiavellian political activist in Ireland – north or south.
Antonio
Of course I don’t think Gerry is going to dig up his (alleged) armalite and storm the offices of the Independent. But as jokes go it was pretty poor taste, considering the recent history of many intimidating acts by his friends on people going about their business. So its not just the DUP that has a poor sense of humour.
When you take those remarks along with his tweeting some dubious poetry at the time of the Mairia Cahill affair, his lapses of memory about his brother, his strange relationship with his Teddy bear, it all looks to me like someone who would be better out of the public gaze.
he will step down after the 2016 election
Antonio
I assume that is the plan. How many more b******s will he make and how many skeletons will fall out of his cupboard in the next year and a half?
Better for SF if he went now, but the party don’t have the b***s to tell him.
I could think of a few more offensive terms to call Gregory and his ilk. The reality is that unionism as an ideology based on supremacy has many many bigots, racists and homophobes within its ranks. Sinn Fein has tried consistently to reach an accommodation based on mutual respect with the various unionist parties only for their efforts to be ignorantly dismissed with snearing contempt. Unionist politicians and their media cheerleaders will no doubt try and make political capital from Gerry’s “b” word. No matter, the republican/nationalist community can see clearly through their “outrage”. Keep her lit gerry, don’t let the bastards get you down !
So really, what you are saying, westofthebann, all Unionists are bastards.
Where did he say that William?
I am reminded of several instances in the recent past, when scum was used as a description for a nationalist party or thug was the word used to insult a rival unionist.
It’s fine to dish out curry my yoghurt but to be made to eat those words
no chance.
Do you remember years ago prior to Sinn Fein supporting the P.S.N.I we were greeted day in day out with Unionists politicians talking about ‘decontamination’ of Sinn Fein. that one was particularly infuriating
Hi Jude, I think the offensive word was “Equality”. The rest is just flannel.
‘ Oh! no Pope of Rome, no chapels to sadden my eyes, no nuns and no priests and no Rosary beads, every day is the July of July.To which I say a hearty Amen.’
Gregory Campbell sang the above during a Derry City Council meeting and when criticised by the ‘Derry Journal’ stated in a letter to that paper, ‘I cannot understand how this can be seen as a strident piece of anti- Catholicism, especially when one considers all the No Popery type phrases I have used down the past five years’.
Did I hear someone say Unionist are offended?
Once again, Gerry Adams finds himself in good clubable company, specifically a Billy Boy of sorts, though one over whose religious allegiance the shadow of doubt still hovers even unto this day, and a Lord of the Elizabeth R’s English to boot, to wit, one William Shakespeare, the noted playwright.
Here’s what he put in the mouth of Thersites (which can be found on all the relevant Websites): ‘I am a bastard too. I love bastards. I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed. bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard’.
Perhaps this is the origin of the sobriquet ‘Grizzly’, so lovingly bestowed on him by his abundant fans and fadmireres in the Fourth Estate. But perhaps we shall never know, if the homage being paid this very day to the memory of Thomas Bowdler by the Nuncle Toms in the Free Southern Stateen is anything to go by.
And then, of couse, more infamously, Edmund the Bastard in King Lear: ‘Why brand they us with ‘base’, with ‘baseness’, ‘bastardy’, ‘base’, ‘base’ ?
Even the bow wows in the street know that Thomas Bowdler was the medical doctor from 18th century Bath who doctored the text of the Swan of Avon and called it ‘The Family Shakespeare’. Out went the b-word here, snip, out went the f-word there, snap, next the c-word, snip snip, then, the w-word, snap, snap. Thus, was born the original pocket edition. Thanks to Tom the Vivisectionist 31.
It’s what happens when doctors see themselves as superior vets.
Oddly enough, not sure what it’s like north of the Black Pig’s Dyke, oops, Ditch (Dyke being ditch in Dutch and thus the preferred c. of word for the Outspan Unionist) but some b-words are in and some b-words are out, rather, on the southern side.
To illustrate what’s in, here’s a taste from Perkie’s inner poetaster:
The Other B-word
Oval in shape are all balls and vowels in Blackrock
Nice college of choice for all of posh an’ dosh stock
Although not all its alumni
Talk proper like Ms.Lumley
Sir Bob of Yobstown never balks at the v. odd b’ock.
Perhaps the most unfortunate collateral damage caused by the Enniskillen Expletive was to be heard on Morning Ireland when the Reluctant Resident Rotweiler who had patently wished to bow-wow Bowdlerise the toilet-roll role played by Londonderry’s loyal Lavatory Attendant was compelled to do so.
Balance, dear boy, balance. It can knock even the best of broadcasters off their equilibrium and land them on their b for bum.
Otherwise Cathal Mac Coille (for it is he !) would have been compelled to, erm, flush the latter down the t. bowl of oblivion with all the speed of a Flash Gordon. To see the Resident Rotweiller pulling the chain of censorship reminds Perkie of Wee Sommy Johnson’s comment: ‘Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to see it done at all’.
And there were some women broadcasters to be heard preaching this morning too on the wireless; were there some. As soon as they had finished shaving the bearded Sinn Fein they turned their scalpels to the ominous sound of leather being stropped, on an unikley target, ra-ther !
To wit, John Delaney, C.E.O. of the F.A.I. This is the acronym of course for that charitable association for the adoption of orphaned charlalans: Find an Irishman. Which is precisely what he was in the process of doing when he was caught on smartphone by the smarties of The Unionist Times and received a right good tut-tut-tuting for.
Which is, erm, a bowdlerized way of putting the b word so b-loved of Sir Bob. (see above).
The ony trouble of course is that the Irishman he found was one, Joe McDonnell. And in a ballad too. Of course, this is a name anathema in all polite circles of the Free Southern State which has been beating the Tom Kettle drum somewhat of late. And to such an extent indeed, that it is a name (JMcD) which has been rendered quite illegitimate to even mention it.
Even in the manner in which the C.E.O. of the F.A.I. deprived it of anything even remotely resembling a tune. While the generality are in agreement that J.D. has a neck not at all unlike a jockey’s b-word (one has but to glance at the long, nosebag face of him) there was no justification whatsoever in his doing a ‘Mister Ed’ on the ballad. Even Ed the B (see above) would hardly have stooped to such ra-ra-raucous behaviour.
One can only imagine what M. O’Neill, OBE, of Kilrea in the County Londonderry is thinking of his indiscreet paymaster general, even as he adjusts his thoughtful glasses in preparation for unleasing a word not normally heard in soccer, oops, footy circles, a b-word of more than two syllables.
-Bellicosity. Do try to curb your bellicosity, boss.
Unkind and bitter critics of the Bainisteoir in the Bib Bui / Manager in the Yellow Bib will decry this well-harnessed word of ‘criticism’ by virtue of his knowing which side his hay is buttered on, but Perkie the Perspicatious is not numbered amongst them. Though he will concede the following in fairneess and in the interest of the f-word:
– It only gives King Leer (the toilet roll magnate who has made his fortune from wiiping the floor with his Erse) further ammo to fill his arsenal with.
Expect him now to accuse J. Delaney of being the latest in a long faced line (Up Dev!) with ambitions to turn the Island of Ireland into another, erm, Easter 1916 Island.
Expect King Leer to liken the long faces of those southerns with ambish and ambush on their minds to those 887 extant monumental statues on the other Easter Island. And the kicker, the very yoghurt -currying kicker: it is no mere coincidence that the script of those Polynesian primitives was called ‘rongorongo’. Note the similarity with the leprechaun word for lingo classes: ranga. Rangaranga is every bit as wrong headed as it is long headed !’
Perkie’s inner eavesdropper looks forward to the smoke signals being exchanged between Big Chief Crooked Mouth and Big Chief Crooked Glen of TUT in the coming days.
Equality – A Legitimate Issue
It is said that Government loses its claim to legitimacy when it fails to fulfill its obligations.
The DUP deserve credit for raising the dysfunctional face of what passes for politics in the north of Ireland…again. Two specific issues were ignored by our elected representatives on Monday 24 November 2014. Staff in the Health Service withdrew their labour and research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Annual Report on Poverty and Inequality did not merit a mention.
Insecure, low-paid jobs are leaving record numbers of working families in poverty, with two-thirds of people who found work in the past year taking jobs for less than the living wage, according to the latest Annual Report. Nearly 1.4 million people are on controversial contracts that do not guarantee minimum hours, most of them in catering, accommodation, retail and administrative jobs. Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the foundation, said the report showed a real change in society over a relatively short period of time.
“We are concerned that the economic recovery we face will still have many people living in poverty. It is a risk, waste and cost we cannot afford: we will never reach our full economic potential with so many people struggling to make ends meet. A comprehensive strategy is needed to tackle poverty. It must tackle the root causes of poverty, such as low pay and the high cost of essentials.”
Tom MacInnes of the New Policy Institute, which carried out the research, said:
“…earnings and incomes are still lower than five years ago, and most people who moved from unemployment into work can only find a low-paid job. The government has focused its efforts on welfare reform, but tackling poverty needs a wider scope, covering the job market, the costs and security of housing and the quality of services for people on low incomes.”
The Trussell Trust has reported a 163% rise in food bank usage. More than 900,000 people visited food banks in 2013/14 with benefit delays or benefit changes reported as the primary reason for referral in 48% of cases…and the political Haass beens hope to hold the balance of power in anticipation of another Tory administration?
The word ‘Bastard’ should never have been used. I am going to tell you why! It means an illegitimate child. What has an illegitimate child got to do with this cat calling.
My Father was nor illegitimate in 1931 when there was great shame, in actual fact it was a catholic boy who made my grandmother pregnant. He never manned up, at this point I could call him a B.
My Father would tip the scales with one thousand GA on the other side. He was a Father in every sense of the word, and a brilliant husband, and Grandfather, and Greatgrandfather.
So do I be offended that GA uses the word so loosely yes I do.
I listened to the man on the William Crawley radio today, and I agreed with much of what he said. I also agreed with Martin yesterday, I don’t think GC has been very professional in his attitude toward the IL, I am sick to my back molars of the whole lot of them.
Ideally I would like to pack them like sardines onto a ship, and then torpedo it.
Back to the B word, there is a lot more B’s up the Shankill and Falls today than there was in my Father’s Day. Marriage is frown upon, while SF promotes this and that.
In my books there is either a right way or a wrong way, simple.
In this instance GA was wrong, he should stick to playing with his ducks.
Norma – you’ll note I’ve dumped a prior post by you. You should know by now I won’t accept undiluted abuse. No more, please
Jude and all : I’ve been able since to read the full text of the piece that the outcry is based on . Nowhere in it does Gerry Adams mention the unionist community . He obviously is venting his frustration at certain elements within the fundamentalist mad rump that lives within a very core of right wing unionism , but that may be too much to explain in a conversational reply.. Mr Broken Mouth , on the other hand makes no bones about his undoubted bigotry in his poorly scripted pantomime speech. Of course it went down very well with his braying audience of comedy- challenged supporters. they love a bit of low comedy and they apparently actually hate anything remotely Irish..There are no , ambiguities there ; apparently there are no laws against it either .In Norneverland you can hate your neighbours and disrespect the gay and muslim community too and never have to worry too much about it . They just hate outright and there are no sanctions against their hatred . They have no intention of doing politics either. There are no politics . They simply want to stymie thought and social progress …happy to live in a 1950’s of the mind.
Obviously the word “bastards” is not referring to them as illegitimate children .There are too many of those about now for it to have any sting anyway. No …the word “bastards” is being used to describe a particular kind of intransigent bigot that we are all being forced to deal with and who presumes that we wish to live with that anti-secular bigotry too. We don’t. I certainly don’t.I want to live by the same secular civic laws that they live by in the UK. When that is sorted out …should it take a trojan horse or a hobby horse , then we can talk about democracy and real politics.
Shame on you Jude, it seems to me you will defend GA no matter what he says or what he has been involved in. It is immaterial to me that he issued an apology of sorts, it is what he believed and he could not contain himself. The man is every much a bigot as Gregory Campbell, the difference is Campbell has only used words, Adams has used much more in the past.
Funny, sweet William – I don’t feel remotely ashamed. GA used a rude word in the course of an argument for equality and apologised; GC mocked the users of Irish, talked about using it as toilet paper and stands by every word…I think maybe you might think about shame yourself, sweet William, if you see those as equally balanced. Or maybe the aural version of Specsavers…
Of course you don’t feel ashamed if you have not been ashamed of his previous activities why should you be ashamed now?
Still if this is the type of Ireland you want god help us!
Sorry Neill, could you explain to me what you mean by “if this is the type of Ireland you want god help us!”
Thanks.
All this fuss over the word “bastard”. Look at all the mountain of words above this brief comment!
PS i JUST NOTICED THAT MY EMAIL ADDRESS ABOVE . . . should be randall.stephen.hall.com (missing the “a”)
The fuss, I think is caused, in this case by a word such as “BASTARD!” , briefly, revealing the “mechanism”, the inner workings, the dark seething humanity of politics, that generally isn’t seen
in such an openly aggressive way.
I think we should have “OPEN-NESS DAYS” where the politicians can just unpack their baggage and let rip. What a DVD box set that would make . . .