Sometimes it’s done with subtlety, sometimes with high-handed bluntness. The Labour Party’s National Executive Council has gone for the blunt thing.
Most of British politics has been sucking in its breath, wondering and envying the Labour Party for the 150,000 new party members who’ve signed up since BREXIT. Isn’t that amazing? A widening of active interest in politics, a broader base on which to make decisions about who is best equipped to lead the party.
But hold. Presumably working on the assumption that the bulk of these new recruits are Corbynistas, the NEC has announced that if you coughed up your £3 for membership inside the last six months, it’s no go, no right to vote. Except, that is, you want to prove yourself truly devoted to Labour and cough up another £25.
Now that’s what I call blunt. You can probably think of other, coarser names for it, and so can I. Was there ever a more obvious piece of discrimination? I’m not clear at the time of writing whether the 150,000 are in line to get their £3 back, but if I were in their shoes I’d sue for being parted from my money under false pretences.
Maybe the NEC believes that the massive number who joined prior to BREXIT will be more than enough to keep Corbyn in place, while at the same time allowing them, the NEC, to seem as though they are concerned to be balanced. Either way it stinks and I just hope as many applicants as possible cough up the £25 so they can vote, put Corbyn back as leader and keep it that way. Because it’s a very odd Labour Party if it says you can join us if you’ve got enough money.
The more subtle approach I found in the GPO in Dublin yesterday. They have a big collection of items and electronics, celebrating/commemorating Easter 1916. There was a series of little booths or corners where you could sit and view a range of informed commentators discussing aspects of the Rising. I caught one where Kevin Myers was explaining that partition was inevitable and that the signatories were really fighting for a three-province independent Ireland. I’m afraid I said a few choice words about Myers to a sweet young American couple who were seated watching. I suspect I may have startled them but I hope it helped them develop a wariness when listening to political commentators.
While the technical quality of the various visual displays, especially the photographs from the time, was excellent, I couldn’t help a nagging feeling that something was missing. For example, there was a photograph of Gay Byrne with Gerry Adams, under a heading about the development of RTÉ as the state broadcaster. Nothing, though, about the things Adams supported or the nature of the RTÉ ambush interview that Byrne set up for him.
It may not have been the place for it (I’m trying hard to be generous in my judgement, Virginia, so please stifle it), but I missed out on any detailed treatment of the north in this exhibition. It may have been there, but in the half-hour and more that I spent wandering around, I saw virtually no mention. The overall impression was of gallant men and women who had fought a virtuous fight, won freedom for their country, and were deserving of our gratitude.
Shouldn’t real republicans be mad as hell and say they’re not going to take it any more?
It’s starting to get through to you ,jude, that you were in the Free State, the 26 counties, and they seem happy enough with the situation. After all, a civil war was fought between Republican forces and an alliance of Free State and ex British demobbed troops. The anti Republican forces were beaten. That’s where we stand at present. Don’t be fooled by tricolours fluttering and bilingual signage. You are, for all intents and purposes, in the Isle of Man.
Sorry! The republicans were beaten.
Fiosrach.
Republicans have never been beaten !
Yes, fiosrach …slippsy….Ido that meslf sometimes !
Fiosrach
As the great Bruce Lee said: “You can only be defeated if you choose to give up”
Republicans have never given up.
I have to agree with you about Myers . He writes like a Tory with a wasp up his arse which he’s unable to scratch.If ever there was a competition for the man who could only play one tune over and over , you just might have a winner right there.As for no reportage on the north and northeners, well that’s easy enough .We simply don’t exist and have never really existed for quite some time.In much the same way that northern unionists don’t really exist for English people, we don’t exist for southerners either. we’ve been written out of the story or misinterpreted by the likes of Mr Myers. Ask a random English person who the First Minister of Norneverland is and you’ll get some funny answers.
Now Jeremy Corbyn appears to be one of the few honest and sensible politicians ever to grace the small-screen so why does that make him unelectable?Maybe you could ask that question again….”Now Jeremy Corbyn appears to be on……..”
This….. in a country that momentarily thought that Boris Johnston or that weasel Gove would be fine leadership material?!!!!! Are these people mad?!!! Let’s see now…Tony Blair got a stab at running the country for Labour and he took the country into a bloody war with Iraq. He was found guilty of being a bloody pushy nutjob ,in thrall to Alfred E. Bush who wanted to get even for daddy. Chilcot took seven years figuring this all out and publishing his findings last week.
Meanwhile Jeremy Corbyn had it figured out right away and said so …As did any of us with a brain.The exceptions were people like elements in our own DUP.
So who was on the right side of the debate then? …Why …it was Jeremy Corbyn, of course! That proves that in this case alone his judgement was on the money.The 150,000 people who recently joined the Labour Party think so too.
Great.story.jude
And.Sad.Jim.
A constitutional expert described recent political events as another “peasants’ revolt.”
Machiavellian attempts to remove Mr Corbyn’s name from the ballot paper indicate contempt for the democratic process held by adherents to the now shop soiled New Labour. In the wake of the report into the Hillsborough Disaster on 15 April 1989 perhaps it is best to let Labour supporters reach their own conclusions about what constitutes an effective leader.
Mr Myers perspective on partition ought to be considered in the context of his support for Peter Hart’s discredited fiction concerning events at Kilmichael in 1920.
Perhaps the American couple in Dublin might be interested to read comments made by Brigadier Crozier, commander of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, 1920. In his book, ‘Ireland Forever’ he wrote,
“In 1920 and 1921 the whole British cabinet should have been marched to the Tower in company with the chief of the imperial staff and there shot on account of what they permitted to be done in the King’s name and by authority of his uniform in Ireland.”
I wonder does mr myers believe that the ulster volunteers or any of their comrades throughout Ireland were aware that they were fighting for a three-province independent Ireland at the time?
The Republic of Ireland is a shithole unfit for our people, I wouldn’t vote to unite with it tomorrow.
The whole country needs major reform.
“Shouldn’t real republicans be mad as hell and say they’re not going to take it any more?”
I was mad initially, now I have accepted Ireland is divided far beyond the land borders. I still want a united single country, but the scum bags who run it currently and brought such shame on our nation wont be keeping their jobs when it happens.
Your reference, Esteemed Blogmeister, to the minimalist mention (excuse the exaggeration) to Norneverland in the GPO Exhibition was pre-echoed in a peculiar way on RTE this morning.
In a voice which emerged from the mouth of one, Dara Murphy, Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central, Minister of State for European Affairs. And a very fruity, self-congratulatory, grubber- kicking baritone it was too, peculiar to those jolly good fellows privileged to have been educated on Leeside in an oval-shaped establishment like, C.B.C .
C.B.C. , of course, stands for Christian Brother’s College as distinct from C.B.S. There is quite possibly an ocean of assumed social superiority in the second C of C.B.C.
Motoring along at a great lick altogether about the new Euro ambiance in which he now operates, involving as it does the rubbing of bespoke shoulders with 26 other ministers from the various European member states the Free Southern Stateen minister then mentioned how he had met Martin McGuinness last Sunday.
Like a shot, as if suddenly realising what he had just said, he hurriedly editorialised in the following way:
-That was the very first time I met the man in my life.
Eh?
Come again:
-That was the very first time I met the man in my life.
To appreciate the global-rated gratuitous nature of this remark perhaps it is worth mentioning that it was uttered in the tone of, say, a Cork driver who has just parked his merc in a space reserved for the Disabled on Grand Parade. And crucially, in the process, nabbed by a Maor Trachta/ Traffic Warden.
-That was the very first time I parked the car there in my life.
On a lower rung of the aluminium ladder of ambition, in his stellar climb from the political cellar, Dara Murphy was a T.B. before he became a T.D. In 2010 year he wore a chain around his neck and allowed himself to be led anywhere, i.e. he became a Teddy Bear, i.e, Lord Mayor of Cork.
Oddly enough, 90 years beforehand, two mere Shinners held that same post, though neither somehow managed to see out his term of office: Tomas McCurtain and Terence McSwiney. Neither of whom was exactly treated like a teddy bear by the lawful authorities of the time.
-From Bantry Bay
Up to Derry Quay
That is a phrase from a song which was popular in the 32 C of Ireland back in the Fabulous Fifties. It may have been, not 10 CC, but one of two stylish Foyleside tenors who popularised it: Micheal O Duffy and Patrick O Hagan.
It was, presumably, within the power, oops, gift of Lord Mayor of Cork, cuddly Dara O Brien to invite the Deputy First Minister of Norneverland to visit him in City Hall on the b. of his own l. Lee. The two cities, Cork and Derry being, after all, no more than a song line away (see above). Give or take an O’Duffy lilt or two.
So, how come no invite? Could it have been down to the ……beer?
Cork, like, is de home of Murphy’s Stout: with is dark brown body, boy, and its smooth creamy head. In other words:
-McGuinness might not be good for dis city’s teddy bear, like.
Speaking of darkness, Dara Murphy studied the black art of economics in UCC. Thus he is outstandingly if uniquely qualified to hold public office involving matters mainly economic. Having flunked his final exams he then proceeded, unabashed (a quality he shares with his scrum chums) to set up various catering companies.
All of these prospered temporarily before, sadly, permanently collapsing.
Google say: Dara Murphy TD compelled to cough up 35 thou euros to the Revenue Commissioners.
Which , while an impressive sum, by gum, is still a ways behind the record currently held by his fellow Fine Gael TD, Regina Doherty: 60 thou euros.
But then, Regina, Chief Whip and Queen of the Silver Collar, whose IT biz spectacularly went belly up, is ‘a better person for it’.
How do we know this? Because Lady Latex, no mean studio hopper herself , has told us so herself: interminably.
To conclude:
Kevin Myers as corner booth commentator?
Hmm.
Anyone for John Wayne Gacy in his trademark ‘Pogo the Clown’ outfit to host a birthday party for teenage boys on the South Side of Chicago ?
Badder than old P. Pearse and meaner than a junkyard dog.
“Which , while an impressive sum, by gum, is still a ways behind the record currently held by his fellow Fine Gael TD, Regina Doherty: 60 thou euros.
But then, Regina, Chief Whip and Queen of the Silver Collar, whose IT biz spectacularly went belly up, is ‘a better person for it’.” Sharp and shining as always, Perkin. Regina, not to be confused with Our Lady of Knock (Knock)…
PS
In 1893, the same year as Conradh na Gaeilge was founded, Esteemed Blogmeister, Josef Franz Wagner composed his most famous march: ‘Unter der Doppeladler ‘/ ‘Under the Double Eagle’. It was so catchy that John Philip Sousa himself and his band went on to record it no fewer than three times .
It was also taken up by the practitioners of country music in the U.S. of A. and gifted, nifty guitar pickers such as Chet Atkins made memorable recordings. There is no report that, say, super group U2 plan to add it to their repertoire. No doubt, if the Edge were ever tempted to do so, it would emerge as something along the lines of ‘Under the Pair of Plucked Chickens’.
One is reminded of it today as the contest for the leadership, as distinct from the liedership, of the Labour Party in the UK (?) intensifies. This is, of course, because, one of the challengers to Jeremy Corbyn is Angela Eagle.
She is not to be confused with another MP with who shares the same surname and birthday. That would be her identical twin sister, Maria. Angela is also married to another Maria, Maria Exall. Maria Eagle, however, is not married to another Angela, as she is, as she says herself, ‘straight’.
Both Eagle MP’s, Angela and Maria, are also tip-top chess players, much as the Williams sisters are crackers at the tennis. Maria Eagle is also a noted cricketer though there is no evidence that sis Angela was drawn to that ancient game. Which Jeremy C. might find easy to understand.
Both Eagles, Angela and Maria, liked to look upon themselves as being on the left wing. But of course a bird never flew on one such. Much less a pair of birds.
One is not certain if there are any eagles on Galtymore in County Tipperary. Back in the Fabulous Fifties, however, there used to be an Eagle in a cul-de-sac off Galtymore Road in Drimnagh, Dublin 12. One mentions this because the same cul-de-sac had an unsuspected connection with the Irish Labour Party.
The son of this Eagle family had a pet monkey and this zoological fact made him particularly popular among his classmates which included The Perkin at the time. One has fond memories of poking fun and other sticks at the pet monkey in his wire cage in the back garden shed of Chez Eagle.
Little did one realise at the time that five or six back gardens away lived a lady who had very strong connections with the icon of Labour Party. That was Nora Connolly-O Brien.
A truly doughty daughter of James, she remained unrepentedly defiant to the very end : she passed away in 1981 at the age of 88. A year or two before that one managed to finagle one’s way to her house for a cup of tea and a chat, , in the cul-de-sac off Galtymore Road.
Austerity is a word much in vogue at the moment and it might have been coined to describe the furnishings in the parlour of Chez Connolly-O Brien. The room did not immediately suggest itself as an obvious glossy setting for a celebrity interview for, say, Vogue magazine.
The parlour was dominated by a small framed photograph on the sideboard: the famed one of her father seated in front of a hedge, in a relaxed pose, with pen in waistcoat pocket and with his two hands resting on his left knee.
Although physically frail at the time, there was no corresponding diminution in Nora Connolly-O’Brien’s mental faculties. Her mind was as sharp as a hat pin and her choice of words when it came to such as James Larkin could only be described as ‘robust’. She spoke of him as she had last met him last week.
‘Robust’ however does not quite do justice to her reaction when one tentatively broached the name of another O’Brien, one Conor Cruise.
Although the apparatchiks of the Irish Labour party today dutifully genuflect before the statue of James Connolly one suspects that their hearts are with CC O B. Someday, they will inadvertently blurt out the wrong name.
That’s if there are any of them still around.
Let’s hope, for another JC’s sake, that ‘Under the Double Eagle’ does not prove as catchy this time round.
“No doubt, if the Edge were ever tempted to do so, it would emerge as something along the lines of ‘Under the Pair of Plucked Chickens’” Indeed, Perkin. But in the words of the great Chumbawamba: “You have to take your hat off to The Edge”…
I wonder would it be right for similarly gallant men and women to fight a virtuous fight in 2016 for a four-province independent Ireland?
If conflict does break out again over the border, I am becoming more and more convinced it should be fought on the streets of Dublin and throughout the 26 counties by republican men and women from all 32 counties determined to take back control of Ireland.
The rot has to stop.
“If conflict does break out again over the border”
I think conflict will break out again Jessica and it will be started by Loyalist paramilitaries. Why? Well I just don’t think Loyalists are going to sit back and calmly accept a democratic vote for a United Ireland. Why would they? They never accepted democracy in the past, why would they accept it today?
I’m not saying they will succeed in preventing Irish Unity, indeed I think the only thing they will succeed in is destroying their own communities, driving most of them to emigrate and leaving Unionism in the political wilderness.
Its not only Irish Unity that might spark Loyalists to start murdering again. I think as the demographics change and the influence on politics switches from Unionism to Republicanism, some Loyalists will foolishly try to stop this by the gun. Most people don’t realize how close we came to a restart of the troubles when the Loyalist flag protests were going on. Even something as trivial as a flag nearly caused mayhem.
I remember reading an article in 2013 about a young protestant, about 18 years old, phoning a taxi and then asking the taxi driver was he a Catholic. The Taxi driver refused to answer, so the protestant jumped out of the taxi and left. The taxi driver believed he had a gun. The protestant was basically trying to do a repeat of the Loyalist murders of Catholics in the 1990’s. The PSNI believed it was connected to the flag protests. Indeed many on those flag protests in 2013 were convicted of sectarian murders or had family who were, as highlighted by the Sunday World.
“I think conflict will break out again Jessica and it will be started by Loyalist paramilitaries. Why? Well I just don’t think Loyalists are going to s back and calmly accept a democratic vote for a United Ireland. Why would they? They never accepted democracy in the past, why would they accept it today? ”
I would be of a similar opinion Ryan.
“I’m not saying they will succeed in preventing Irish Unity, indeed I think the only thing they will succeed in is destroying their own communities, driving most of them to emigrate and leaving Unionism in the political wilderness. ”
They will do more than that. The next conflict will not be limited to the north however.
“They will do more than that. The next conflict will not be limited to the north however”
Are you suggesting there might be fighting in the South Jessica? I don’t see how since there’s next to zero loyalists down there now, unless you mean Loyalists will try to bomb Dublin again and repeat the massacre they did in the 1970’s.
People very often make the mistake of comparing Loyalist paramilitaries to Republican. They are not comparable, even the British said that. Loyalist paramilitaries were described by UDA Commander Jackie McDonald as a “Federation”. What he really meant but didn’t want to admit was that Loyalists are not disciplined and they form their break away factions and follow their own course. Billy Wright is a prime example in Mid Ulster. Loyalist paramilitaries are a collection of gangsters (as described by the British Army), not a true paramilitary. The over arch Loyalist Command finds it hard to control individual groups, unlike that of the IRA Army Council. Each Loyalist section can choose to obey or disobey orders as they wish, often leading to feuds.
The fact Loyalist paramilitaries still exist is due to the British Government running them. They know who all the top guys are, they are all agents. The Loyalists could’ve been shut down a long time ago but its the British Govt keeping them alive. Collusion is no illusion!
“Are you suggesting there might be fighting in the South Jessica? I don’t see how since there’s next to zero loyalists down there now, unless you mean Loyalists will try to bomb Dublin again and repeat the massacre they did in the 1970’s. ”
The war with loyalism and britain is over Ryan, the struggle is now with the southern establishment, and the people in the south will have to take sides if they think Ireland is a 26 county nation.
What right has Dublin to write northern citizens out of the constitution without our say?
Partition has disenfranchised Irish citizens living in 6 counties of Ireland. We can accept it, or we can refuse to accept it.
I mean civil war in Ireland, all of it.
Jude,
I can see how Irish Republicans feel angry about the behaviour of the 26 County political classes towards the North. We have been conveniently airbrushed from their authorised version of Irish History and they have many powerful advocates in the midia and in public life quite willing to continue the propagation of their fabrication.
Northern nationalists are amazed and slightly miffed when these people completely sidelined Northerners as if they are not Irish or do not exist but they have yet to see what exactly these people really think of them.
Regina Doherty FG with her comments that Nationalist victims of the troubles brought all the trouble on themselves gives us a slight flavour of what to expect if these people are really pushed or challenged on their views.
The vast majority of Southerners do not share the views of this political ilk who have carved out a very lucrative sideline for themselves and will react with an enlightening vitriol if the status quo is disturbed as it continues to be by Sinn Fein and the trouble makers from the North.
Very true, Pointis. I should add that the one person I chatted to in the GPO – a woman in her 60s, I would say – was as irate as I was about the attempt to convey the impression the Irish Question had been Answered…
Yes Jude,
Deep down even the most vehement anti-republicans in FF, FG and Labour know that they cannot wish the North away and it will always live to haunt them like the mother that has had her baby taken from her at birth and lives for the day she is reconciled with her child.
That lady you spoke to in the GPO knows it as well as most in the 26 counties and there is not a dam thing that those southern establishment politicians can do about it, Nature beats nurture!
“The vast majority of Southerners do not share the views of this political ilk who have carved out a very lucrative sideline for themselves and will react with an enlightening vitriol if the status quo is disturbed as it continues to be by Sinn Fein and the trouble makers from the North.”
That may well need to be tested.
I have just had about my fill of Dublin misrule of my country and I just might not be the only one to feel this way.
As I said during the commemorations for the Easter Rising earlier this year, the men and women who fought in the GPO and in other places would have been no where near the official Southern State commemoration in Dublin. They would have boycott it in disgust. Dan Keating, the last surviving member of the Tan War, boycott all state commemorations of 1916, refused a southern state pension all his life, refused 2,500 euros payment from the state for his 100th Birthday and called all southern state commemorations of 1916 as a “charade”. I 100% agree with him. That doesn’t mean to say that all the people of the South are like the Irish Government, I would say the opposite was mostly true. Indeed Dan Keating was a Kerry man but yet his politics was exactly the same as any West Belfast hard line republican.
The reality is if the men/women of 1916 were alive today they wouldn’t support any major political party (including SF), they most likely would support dissident republicans. Even Billy McKee, a founding member of the PIRA and now 95 years old, said in a recent article that if he was young again he’d be firmly on the side of dissident republicans but he also stated “I would drive for a United Ireland, by hook or by crook”, an apparent reference to Sinn Fein’s plan. (McKee and a few others singlehandedly drove back a Loyalist mob in 1970 who were intent on burning out Catholics in Ardoyne, 4 Loyalists were killed and McKee himself was seriously wounded but Ardoyne was spared).
Now I understand why many would feel uneasy about dissidents being the inheritors of 1916. No one wants violence. Of course violence doesn’t just come from dissident republicans. The Chief Constable has said Loyalists are still engaged in murder, intimidation, crime, drug dealing, etc but that doesn’t stop Theresa Villiers having her photo took with the UDA Commander of Bangor. That’s not to mention MI5 are still playing their games on our streets, the British Army may be gone but MI5 aren’t.
I don’t support dissidents, I support Sinn Fein’s current plan and I believe the current path we’re going down will inevitably lead to Irish Unity. In fact I think violence from Republicans would only hamper that process. But we would be a lot closer to Irish Unity if the Irish Government actually started to promote it and strove for it. This rewriting of history they are engaging in when it comes to 1916 and this mind set that believes the North doesn’t exist hampers efforts towards Irish Unity.
I think only when Sinn Fein are the Irish Government (and they will be, sooner or later) will the Irish Government aggressively push for Irish Unity in whatever way they can, whether its through integration of services/bodies North and South or someway else. As Billy McKee said “By Hook or by Crook”……
First of all, dissidents are arseholes. They wouldn’t have the brains to give themselves a headache.
Second, Irish Unity – what exactly is that?
If it is everyone joining together behind this current establishment, giving our sovereignty away to Europe and being no more than a number in an EU super state to be pawns of the US, then you can keep it.
I would rather go to war with Dublin and die trying to make this country the nation it should be than join it.
Which raises the question of what kind of nation you think it should be.
What is your vision, Jessica?
One that puts its people first and because its leaders put its people first, they can stand proudly at the commemorations of the events that led to the partial independence of our country which remains divided and not have to hang their heads in shame like our current caretaker chieftain.
A country that will not so easily cast aside one third of its population in pursuit of profits and comfortable lifestyles for the countries elite but do all in its power to unite all of our people and be fearless in pursuit of that unity, defying London, Brussels, Berlin and Washington if need be.
A country proud of our history, not ashamed of it, that will turn the aversiveness of our past into the prosperity of our future.
A country that will put Irish people first, that will listen to its people and understand that when they say they don’t want water charges they mean it and not defy them to appease their European masters.
A country that will invest in our future as an independent nation, to be self sufficient in energy, to build our own financial services industry, to establish our own currency even should that be pegged to sterling once again and to nurture and invest with confidence in our young peoples innovativeness, knowledge and technical ability.
A country prepared to cherish and protect all of its citizens equally and not sell out to cover up murderous actions from other states. One where Dublin will demand that MI5 gets its murderers out of Ireland and stop recruiting our young people on our streets as it does to this day, where it will demand an end to the cover up of British state collusion on grounds of national security, a country that will stand up for its people as would the USA or France and in return, to support our friends across the water above the EU or the USA.
To help them to form a new global trade relationship with eastern nations such as India, Russia, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada to name a few and to build a new relationship with Britain based on mutual respect and equality for the first time in our history.
I could go on, but the current direction sickens my stomach and should make us ashamed to allow these scumbags to represent the Irish people.
The Labour Party is locked in a battle royal at the moment which a quirk in there leadership electoral system has exposed.
Unlike the conservatives, it is possible for a Labour leader to command the support of only 20 MP’s yet still becoming leader on the back of who the general membership support.
It’s basic boiling down to who has primacy the political elites (MP’s) or the general membership.
While I feel Corbyn doesn’t have the broad appeal to win a general election, it is foolish of the MP’s to try and oust him against the wishes of the members. They will simply disenfranchise the new members and the shambles it’s going to be will do nothing that will convince people they are a party fit for government.
They would be better sticking with him till after a general election and if he is defeated as they expect his removal as leader would look more appropriate.
Scott, if the media decide Corbyn has the ‘broad appeal’ to win a general election then everyone will concur. I find it laughable that we are told Corbyn hasn’t got the X factor but Terry May has or indeed Michael Gove or indeed Angela eagle, pmsl!
Do you think he can win a general election WT?
I think he just doesn’t appeal to the middle England, over 50 voter which is so important to win an election.
Tony Blair for all his faults knew how to appeal to that voter.