Is there any end to the agony and heartlessness of the Middle East? The UN Secretary-General António Guterres attacked by Israel, because he dared to mention the historical context for that Hamas attack. Think a minute – doesn’t that sound a bit like what happened here during the Troubles?
Meanwhile Sir Keir Starmer, champion of the working class, echoes the one-sided support of Israel adopted by the Tories. Does a man with such flexible ‘principles’ deserve to be leading a major political party? Will his relative lack of sympathy for the thousands of Palestinians have an effect within his party?
Top Gear – don’t you just love it. A place where man and machine interact, where men can be boys, where people suffer life-long injuries. Isn’t it time the plug was pulled on this programme, however popular it may be?
Finally, a book is coming out this weekend. It’s called War, Peace and the Derry Journal. The author has had two long interviews on BBC and HIghland Radio, has had a feature in the Donegal Democrat, the Belfast Telegraph likewise. The author, need I add, is one Pat McArt. Buy his book now or be sorry…
Brilliant discussion as always Men. Well done.
Two comments
I’d love to read the book but I like many of your many viewers don’t live locally but overseas so how can I get a copy of the book.
About Gaza – Israel always wants to exert revenge if they are attacked by Hamas but perhaps Hamas themselves felt they were seeking revenge. Like how many of those Hamas men of October 7 were children in 2014 and watched Israeli air strikes bomb them out of their homes and killed their parents, brothers, sisters etc. and how many of the children being bombed now will end up as Hamas killers?
Question Time – Thursday 26 October 2023
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, in a recent statement said,
“…violence does not come in a vacuum but grows out of a long-standing conflict… .”
Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade demonstrated his ignorance of the conflict in Ireland when he made reference to the Irish Republican Army. According to Mr Reynolds,
“…They were terrorists, they were Nationalists…”
Mr Reynolds may wish to ignore the contemporary reality of partition. He may choose to ignore the legacy of the British Army, The RUC and the UDR in Ireland.
He might well ponder the words of Seamus Deane on the use of violence to pursue political ends.
“…the lamentations…come most loudly from those who have a well-established notoriety for that practice themselves – the British…They are not opposed to violence as such; they are opposed to violence directed against them. But they are perfectly happy to direct violence against their opponents… .”
Internment, the massacres in Ballymurphy, Springhill and Bloody Sunday in Derry spring to mind.
Reference:
Seamus Deane, Small World – Ireland 1798 – 2018 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), 259