DID JAMES CONNOLLY ever insult anyone for the language they spoke or for their ethnicity?
Not really. When standing for election for Dublin Corporation he had his election literature published in Yiddish, as well as in English. And he wrote in clear English.
Did Pearse or Thomas MacDonagh disparage English language or literature, or the Anglican Church or advocate the withdrawal of civil rights from anyone in the Republic they proclaimed and died for?
Not at all , nor did they advocate the burning of libraries.
The Carnegie Library in Cork was burned by British Crown Forces who had more in common with today’s Ukraine Regime and its revered predecessor Bandera than with democrats in any nation.
If I had been asked 15 months ago which head of government in the world I would most trust, I would have said Angela Merkel.
A few weeks ago she proclaimed herself a liar, who with other lying heads of government were architects of the Minsk agreement which they had no intention of honouring. They did it to fool Russia and build up Ukranian, Polish and other forces to destroy the nation which did most to liberate Europe from Fascism.
In 1952 the Soviet Union offered to withdraw its forces from Germany and to allow its reunification if its Neutrality was guaranteed. In 1955 the Soviets withdrew from Austria on similar conditions. It is now known that Austria became aligned with NATO and elected an unrepentant Nazi President.
In 1958 the Soviets wanted the destruction of all nuclear weapons in the world. In that year Ireland’s Frank Aiken, a co-creator of Peace in Ireland since 1923, started a ten year campaign which bore fruit in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and gave the world a 55 year respite from Nuclear War.
NATO and its megalomaniac dictators in the Pentagon, State Department, the White House, with their financial backers appear to relish blowing us all away.
I’m 81 years old and Actuaries might not bet on me being around to see my great-grandchildren.
But I fear for my current descendants, though I have been an optimist all my life.
By and large it is Nationalists who create and preserve countries, not Democrats.
You could argue that the birth of the Irish State has a lot of similarities to the current birth of the current Ukrainian regime.
Neither initiated by a democratic vote (1916 & Maidan Sq. rebellions) and both sought aid from the Germans to help fight their bigger, bullying neighbour.
If it had been the Blueshirts who had gained Independence for Ireland, then we’d probably have revered them too, so I don’t but into the Ukrainians being Nazi’s. I suspect that’s just an outworking of rejecting Russian communism.
Russia may have helped save us from the Nazi’s but really, what is the difference between them and Nazi’s? Both ideologies proposed by Socialists, methods of Totalitarian State control of populations. Both willing to and guilty of committing Genocide and every other crime against humanity, to further their aims. Both nationalistic and racist when it suits them (See how the ethnic minorities are treated in China and Russia) .
So who stepped in to save the Ukranians and other Eastern Europeans when Russia was allowed it’s sphere of influence? They have to do that themselves, just as we had to do and still need to do.
Are the Eastern Europeans to forever be reduced to abject poverty, through domination by Russia and it’s paranoid fear of invasion? Did we accept being England’s subjects, just because we were in their “sphere of influence”.
We have our own lives and destiny to pursue – just as everyone else does – free from their would be oppressors.