I know the Brandywell area of Derry well. When I was a boarder in St Columb’s we used to stand at the edge of a kind of mini-cliff and look down into the Brandywell when Derry City were playing. At weekends, we’d walk through the Brandywell area in twos with our Gaelic football gear, all the way out to a playing field in Termonbacca. It was a journey I always liked, (i) because it gave us the chance of an illicit smoke at the end of the journey; (ii) because you could peer into the houses you passed by and get glimpses of people in front rooms, in hallways, standing in the doorway, living domestic lives that our institution blocked us from.
So I inclined an ear this morning when I heard Jonathan Bell of the DUP on Good Morning Six Counties /Good Morning Ulster telling me that the SDLP were being sectarian over the Brandywell. How so? Because a billboard was erected urging young people to join the RAF. The SDLP has declared it insensitive and urged that it be removed. A relative of William Nash, killed at the age of 19 on Bloody Sunday, spoke passionately about her indignation that an advertisement for the British armed forces should be erected so close to her home. Jonathan Bell insisted that this is part of the UK and it was wrong to deny young people from the Brandywell area the opportunity for employment.
Jonathan is truly a laugh, there’s no denying. In the past he has been a vigorous opponent of a Bill of Rights for this tormented little corner. He’s also on record as denouncing golf clubs here as havens of sectarian attitudes; he later apologised for his “clumsy use of language”. To now portray SDLP objections to British armed forces advertising in an area where fourteen people were shot dead by the British armed forces is something more than clumsy. Tell you what, Jonathan. Let’s try the shoe on the other foot, shall we?
Take the Irish army. A fairly innocuous organisation, you’ll agree. To the best of my knowledge it hasn’t killed a unionist or harmed one in any way for at least a hundred years – maybe ever. So how would it be, Jonathan, if a hoarding urging young unionist men and women to join the Irish army were to be erected somewhere in your constituency – say, Newtownards? Would you say your constituents would be happy with that? Would you?
you can’t fix stupid … or hypocriticaL. Maybe someone should put a billboard about a united Ireland in his backyard, imagine the caterwalls
Radio Ulster Morning Six team knew exactly what type of response they would get when they interviewed Jonathon Bell. A case of the news media creating its own news!
I have often found that many of those who profess such admiration for the British armed forces never rallied to their banner if it involved any real danger.Apart from the UDR or the cops which was a cushy number 99 percent of the time,I know of very few unionist politicians who were actually “in the heat of battle” to any extent.My late father told me that a protestant neighbour and friend often hailed Dev for preventing conscription during ww2.Ironically this profoundly decent man spawned a son who got into Unionist politics and demanded all out war against republicans on a daily basis.Had conscription been enforced,(he didn’t happen to volounteer by the way) and he had actually experienced the battlefield ,his utterings might have been treated more seriously
Why would anybody complain if the Irish Army advertised here as Michael C said few people would volunteer to join any army to dangerous by half and the money is poor!
I listened to Bell on the radio and it was the most depressing interview I have heard in a long time. Does he actually believe the things he is saying? If so, there is absolutely no hope of Unionists ever understanding the views of their Nationalist neighbours. He was parroting the old Paisley maxim of `there are no Nationalist areas of northern Ireland`. Depressing or what?
Jude,why are you surprised at Jonathan Bell?He has form in this area.Of course you may remember that he wasn’t the only one to make remarks about golf clubs .I seem to remember that Martina Anderson (when she and Jonathan were junior ministers)made comments about sectarianism in such clubs.The strange thing about the whole furore was the Sinn Fein dog that didn’t bark! Isn’t it rare when it’s left to the S D L P to make the running on this?
The SDLP will have to do a lot more barking if they are ever to recover from backing Jimbos anti ex prisoner bill!
Are you proposing that citizens have the right to be “unoffended” at all times? Won’t that be difficult should an UI occur?