I see where the Deputy Mayor of Craigavon, Catherine Seeley, will not be taking part in official commemoration ceremonies today. This despite the fact that her grandfather was in the RAF and represented the British combined forces in a number of sports, that her great uncle was awarded the Cross of St George and was killed during WW1.
That’s a pity but I think I can see why. There must be thousands of nationalists and republicans whose grandfather or great-grandfather or other relative fought as part of the British army during WW1 and in many cases in WW2. Many of them died in the course of these conflicts. So it seems to me that Remembrance Sunday is one day which has the potential to bring all of us – unionist, nationalist, republican – together to remember the loss and sacrifice made during those wars, particularly WW1. So why don’t we? There are a number of reasons.
1. Remembrance Sunday commemorates/celebrates the loss of British armed forces personnel not just in World War One but in all conflicts. There are many nationalists and perhaps republicans here who would be happy to commemorate the loss of loved ones in the conflict that was WW1 but who would recoil from signifying their approval of the part played by British armed forces in many other theatres of conflict throughout the world, not least here in Ireland. If the day were exclusively reserved for commemoration of those who died in WWI, I suspect the ranks of those willing to attend services of commemoration would swell.
2. However, any such commemoration should be devoid of the militarism that accompanies ceremonies at present. The poppy itself is often linked to the blood shed by British armed forces, and there is at least a hint that this was a noble sacrifice worth making and worth remembering. The truth is that the First World War was an imperial war, fought between a power (Britain) who had a huge empire it intended to hold onto it, and another power (Germany) who had ambitions to develop its own empire and chafed at Britain’s efforts to block it. The ‘war to end all wars’ was a lie told to thousands of young men who paid for that lie with their lives.
3. The reasons that men joined the British army and fought in 1914 are many. Some, like the UVF members, fought it to show their loyalty to Britain. Others, like Redmond’s Irish Volunteers, fought it in the belief that it would bring Home Rule to Ireland (another lie). Others again joined because they saw it as an adventure that’d be over by Christmas. Others again because they needed a source of income from somewhere and the British army was one reliable source.
4. The poppy, blood-red in colour, is a poor symbol for the many lives lost. If history is to be of any use to us, we should learn from it. And as Peggy Seeger said on radio today – speaking of all wars – ‘the idiocy of war’ is not highlighted if we have World War One represented by something linked to the shedding of blood. The white poppy, in contrast, speaks a hundred times more sense, with its commitment to peace rather than celebration of war sacrifice.
5. Finally – what about the Germans? Germany lost tens of thousands of men too – men not unlike those who enlisted in the British ranks. They too left grieving widows, families, friends. They too were duped. Shouldn’t WW1 remembrance be about the bloody pain of slaughter on an industrial scale that cut off young lives on every side? And could we not remember our loved ones best by vowing never to be duped into such ugly, meaningless slaughter ever again?
If those organising today’s events could sit down and think about points like those above, it’s conceivable that Remembrance Day 2015 could look like a very different event, supported by an awful lot more people. But they won’t, of course. To deviate from the past would be seen as surrender and shameful. So on we go, with gun salutes and parading soldiers and blood-red poppies and commemoration of all the conflicts in which unfortunate British soldiers were sent to their death by fools and knaves who ruled them. As Pete Seeger asked: “Where have all the flowers gone?”
We know the answer and we should act on it.
Remembrance Sunday is as much about ‘commemorating’ future wars as past ones , ie ensuring a steady supply of cannon-fodder as ‘heroes’.
Dr C, would it be fair to add the ‘hijacking’ of the poppy by loyalist terrorists, bands and groups like the Protestant coalition to the list?
I’m sure you’ve read over on slugger about how this repels people.
Ghobsmacht, please advise me how the poppy has been hijacked by ‘loyalist terrorists, bands and groups like the Protestant coalition.’ Terrorists of any type are not welcome at any cenotaph, resulting in quite a lot of them having their own memorials. Perhaps you are getting mixed up with the way the Easter lily has been hijacked by republican terrorists.
Hi William, I certainly will offer some points that have aided the perception that the poppy is a ‘loyalist’ thing:
1/ A UVF (modern) mural with poppies placed by its side – http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/shankhill-estate-murals-shankhill-road-high-res-stock-photography/125219546
2/ A RHC sponsored poppy wreath – http://www.flickr.com/photos/20923094@N04/3041146982
3/ A memorial to UVF terrorists (i.e. 1970’s onwards)adorned by poppies – https://extramuralactivity.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/2014-09-10-ccoypoppies.jpg
4a/ Memorial to Billy Wright, leader of the LVF, adorned with poppies – http://www.politics.ie/forum/northern-ireland/199716-poppy-listening-your-wishes-3.html
4b/ A UDA memorial, adorned with poppies
4c/ A memorial to a UFF commander adorned with poppies
4d/ A UVF terrorist memorial adorned with poppies
4e/ A UVF terrorist memorial adorned with poppies
4f/ A RHC mural with poppy wreath (and ironically poor translation of said organisation’s Irish motto)
5/ UFF memorial badge (poppy edition) – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ISD-UYM-UDA-ULSTER-FREEDOM-FIGHTERS-LOYALIST-1690-RANGERS-POPPY-BADGE-/301370389165
So as you can see William there is plenty of public association between loyalism and the poppy.
Even if they have their own cenotaphs that does nothing to reduce the association.
I wasn’t getting mixed up with the lilly and republicans as it is very much a republican symbol used by republicans….
And why you would mention a republican symbol in a discussion about the abuse of a non-republican symbol is quite frankly baffling.
Do you do that in every debate you enter?
Do you always mention something that no one else is talking about or is perhaps irrelevant?
Just curious.
william – please do read
http://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/catholic-ex-servicemen-dont-count/
That should provide you with enough information to understand
1) how, over the past 96 odd years, the poppy has been hijacked by uber-Brits and
2) why catholic ex-service men and women and their families perceive this to be true.
If you don’t like what’s written in the post, feel free to check all the references which often provide first hand and eye witness evidence.
The post suggests using a green poppy for irish people who want to commemorate their ancestors who fell while serving in the british Armed Forces.
The white poppy is well known,
I understand there is now a purple poppy for fallen animals (particularly horses in WWI).
An anti-militarist group in Glasgow was promoting a black poppy this year.
So no limitations on choice of colour!!
I am sure you don’t think “if it’s not red, it doesn’t count”
I will never wear a poppy not only for the very valid reasons so well stated in this blog but also for the fact my Grandfather was left for dead in France in WW1,came home with a scar on his chest the size of my fist but it didn’t stop him from being burnt out of Bombay Street in 69 by a rabid loyalist mob.
That was his thanks for fighting for Brittian.
Your blog, as usual, is quite tedious in that it is on the same theme and is predictable. Yes, sure, let’s change the Remembrance services and parades to suit an anti British element within society. In fact, I would suggest that if you had your way, you would have the whole thing abolished. Is this the Ireland of the future that Unionists are to be a part of, the reality is that Republicans like yourself want all elements identifying us with the British removed.
Sweet William – in the name of the sweet Saviour would you not attribute motivation or wishes to me without any evidence for same. Sorry you find the blog tedious – why bother reading it, then? Simples. I simply don’t understand where you get this ‘anti-British’ bit from, or that I’d like to abolish remembrance. In fact, sweet William, how dare you. Like Catherine Seeley, like as I point out thousands of other nationalists/republicans, I have relatives who died in the First World War too. The Ireland of the future that I would hope for would be one where there was tolerance and freedom of expression and an absence of people who attribute things to others which in fact exist only in their own inflamed imaginations.
William Fay, Poppy Day was hijacked long ago by the Unionist community in N. Ireland. When I was a child, 60 years ago, my route to school involved being led across the road by the lollipop man who always made us wait on the traffic island formed by the war memorial, before leading us across to the other side. While waiting I sometimes read the names on the monument and wondered why they were mostly Catholic names while the Poppy Day commemorations were a Protestant event, attended by prominent Protestant townsmen who had managed to avoid service in either war. I knew several Catholic veterans of both world wars who did not attend because, as one of them put it, “It’s not for us”. Another explained, “The back streets did the fighting while the front streets stayed safe at home.”
A little inclusivity, even at this late date, would be fairness, not an invitation to terrorists.
@ William – “Your blog, as usual, is quite tedious….”
May i ask you William, why, ‘as usual’ – you keep returning with more or less the same tedious response? – I myself find, more or less, the views put forward by Jude etc. very pointed and worth reading – and on the whole, the responses (bar a couple) well worth giving thought to – Yet time after time after time – you return with an enormous (it very much seems), chip on your shoulders. I say this as someone who can see – and am old enough, and very much well-read enough to see both sides of the fence. Plus, my maternal Mother was Irish, my Father – English/British (call it what you will). Both died when i was a child, and i was adopted by an Aunt & Uncle – my henceforth new Parents again of mixed heritage – my new Dad fought in WW2 – imprisoned by the Japanese in a concentration camp (a British ‘invention’ if you didn’t already know) – and forced to work on the horrific Burma Railway. Also an Uncle who was in the Navy, and on a ship that was sunk by the Germans. Both thankfully survived.
Yet besides my Republican leanings – each year i honour – both in my own mind, the losses made by all sides, especially in WW2 (a completely different War to WW1) – and wear a Poppy, here in the South of Ireland, where i moved to from England some 14 years ago. It draws nary a glance – and no abuse whatsoever from anyone.
Why can you not see William, that the World has, and is, moving on? Just try and lose the hatred you seem to have – and finally put some thought into this Island becoming a much happier place.
Letting your anger etc. seethe at you for the rest of your life seems such a pointless and worthless exercise.
William
“Is this the Ireland of the future that Unionists are to be a part of, the reality is that Republicans like yourself want all elements identifying us with the British removed.”
IS there another Jude Collins website perhaps? For that’s never the impression I’ve received from Dr C, in fact, the crux of most of his arguments orbit around the idea that the accepted place of unionist culture should be an argument for an equal acceptance of nationalist culture.
So, if he were to argue for a removal of unionist culture he would be harming his own arguments
Do you actually read the blogs the whole way?
I would’nt read anything on slugger as it is nothing more than an anti SF hate fest only equalled by independent newspapers.The one reason for joining the Brits in 1914 that you omitted from your list Jude was the prospect of being able to kill without legal sanction.I once read a piece by an English historian who stated that quite a few who enlisted could’nt wait to get at it and relished the prospect of spilling blood.
Pathetic
michael c
Is this another South Derry poitin story?
small correction Jude
It was hundreds of thousands of Germans that died in world war 1 not tens of thousands
Fair enough, Antonio. Thanks for that. Though if hundreds of thousands died, then tens of thousands also died – but I take your point.
I’ve checked – thanks to your elbow-jog, Antonio – and there was somewhere between two and three million from the German Empire killed. The total from the British Empire was somewhere between one million and one-and-a-quarter million.
Wow even more than I thought. They did fight a war on two fronts so I suppose it’s not overly surprising their losses were so high
Sorry to be pernickety DR C, but does that include the Austro-Hungarian Empire?
No.
It has always struck me that (in Britain at least), most soldiers in the 2 world wars were conscripts. In other words, they were forced into it with the threat of prison. As such, those who died did not make the ‘ultimate sacrifice’, they had their lives stolen from them. They were the sacrifice, the imperialist governments were the ones doing the making. On top of keeping armies away from these commemmorations, why not keep heads of state and politicians away? Those who wage war from the comfort of their palaces and cabinet rooms should have no place in the remembrance of the poor people of all sides they send to their doom
interestingly Paul as is pointed out in the post I advised William to read, the stormont government of the time managed to prevent conscription in NI by claiming a large percentage of the population was “disloyal”.
Guess who the “disloyal” were?
That’s how the uber-Brits were excused from /got out of fighting for King and Country!!!
I’m on the same page as you Jude…bob Dylan said it like this :
Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side
Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/god-our-side#ixzz3Ia972iB1
For reasons which may well be obvious Perkin has always had a certain degree of deviation in the direction of the letter ‘P’ and with P for Poppy Day upon us (as it has been indeed for a period beyond the normal confines of 24 hours) he is feeling particularly deviant.
This year the P word most in vogue is P for Poignancy and so it was that the occasion in St. P for Patrick’s Cathedral reached a poignancy level almost as high as the p for the point of the spire itself. The proud-to-wear-a-poppy Perkie was proud as p for punch just to be p for present and to take his place in the p for pews with their elegantly carved insignia of Empire below the fading p for pendants of the Victuallers’ Association, aka, in the vernacular, the Butcher’s Apron.
As a gesture to the P word in vogue a group of madly g. madrigal singers was cobbled together especially for the Republic’s Remembrance Day Ceremony: the Poigs.
Their well-remembered repertoire ranged from ‘Boys from the County Hell’ to ‘A Pair of Brownnoses’ via ‘A Fairy Tale of New Hawks’ and most of the way to ‘The Irish Pushovers’. All these melancholic songs of man’s inhumanity to music were chanted by the Poigs in the manner snaggle-toothed yet solemn as befitted the reasonably sanctimonious nature of the occasion.
St. P. for Patrick’s, of course, is the former pied-a-terre of Dean Jonathan Swift and it was truly m. and just that a representative of the Liliputian, if not the Leprechaun community, was present. To wit, the Free Southern Stateen Cabinet Minister more commonly known by his affectionate nickname, ‘The Hovering Helicopter’. Alas even the prying eyes of Perkie could not pick him out, such was the crush of the crowd and the height of the pews. He hovers, blindfolded, but four feet nothing from the ground, hence the nickname.
Also present, and looking quite resplendent in a way peculiar to those who wage war from the crafty comfort of their brocaded armchairs (aka Warbeckmongers) was Field Marshal K. Myers, VC, the Marquis of Trenchfootstool. The Crown above the two crossed batons in a red field with a wreath of oak leaves in his epaulettes never looked finer and so became him as if he had been born thus, as is, say, an Abyssinian ass with a cross on his back.
The names of far away places with strange-sounding names carved so thoughtfully into the very fabric of the cathedral’s walls – such as Sebastopol and Khartoum and Omdurman – reminded one that it was Myers the Microprocessor who Alone (Myers of Me Fein) relieved them of their siege mentality in the Free Southern Stateen’s psyche..
During his fruitful term of duty/duties in The Unionist Times the spire-aspiring Myers single, mindedly and handedly, shouldered the Herculean burden of drawing up the litany of sainted names of those forgotten fellow-Irishmen who participated in the Great Donkey Derby 14-18. ‘Beastly tough’ as the burden-shoulderer is said to have modestly responded, when asked ‘but someone HAS to do it, if not HAAS’.
Little wonder he is now universally known as the Pop of Poppycock (which is in no way to be confused with Papal Bull). It is unclear if the Father of Fatuousness will now go one step further and detail the list of Horrid Huns who fell to longrange Irish guns in the donkey-eared years, 14-18.
Myers the Imparital (no Leicester bigot, he) has already done similar work, albeit on a markedly reduced scale, by listing the litany of those murdered by the shortrange guns of the IRA in NI and can even recite them, blindfolded. (See b-word above). A small step, certainly, but even the longest of fahrts (as Konfucious say in the tongue of the Hun) must start somewhere on the way to becoming the Fuhrer of Fatuousness.
His inheritor as scribe of ‘An Irishman’s Diary’ (AID) in The Unionist Times, aka, ‘this parish’, Frank McNally had a most p for poignant piece during the week on ‘Poppies and Croppies’. Frank is also the inheritor of the role of ‘Myles na Gopaleen’, that quirky quadruped of multiple names.
After reading Frank’s deft balancing act between the P for Poppies and the C for Croppies certain malcontents of a mischievous bent proposed a pseudonym – again of a quadruped provenance – for the current one who has inherited the AID’s mantle: Francis the Talking Mule.
Perkie, it hardly requires reiteration, is not p for present amongst that begrudging lot.
Quite the most touching moment in today’s performance of ‘A Midwinter’s Wet Dream’ by the strolling players in hempen homespun known as The Rude Mechanicals was the ceremonial carrying to the altar of a symbolic J.A.W. Bone of an Ass by the leading actor, the donkey-headed Bottom.
J.A.W., without doubt, is an anachronistic acronym for ‘Joxer and Whacker’ those generic Dubs of the Dublin Fusiliers who participated with such panache in the Passchendaele leg of the four legged Donkey Derby. Ypres would not have gone amiss, such was the profusion of poignant tears which fairly p for pelted down cheeks on all sides, both top and bottom, at this sober and stately moment.
A p for peculiarly Irish note was struck even before the solemn ceremony of commemoration had commenced when a Split in the FSS Chapter of the British Legion was announced. Not only would Tiny the official regimental wolfhound not be participating but his place would be taken by Baskerville the provisional regimental wolfhound as a last minute if not last post replacement. A split-second, you might say.
This Split was not without its own piquant consequences. Indeed during the most moving moment mentioned above a most peculiar noise was heard. Perkie, alert as ever to matters of a canine nature, as even the calebs in the street know, recognised the slurping sound immediately.
It emanated from the direction of Baskerville who had adopted a semi-recumbent posture at the foot of the p for Pulpit and gradually the low-decibel slurp grew in volume so that it finally filled the very immensity of the awesome interior of the Cathedral itself from gothic butts on pews to the flying buttresses themselves via stained glass windows and lace-like stonework: slurp…..slurP……sluRP……slURP……………..sLURP………………………..SLURP.
It was the unmistakeable sound of what one of Perkie’s remote yet strangely contemporaneous ancestors, name of Mycroft Warbeck, renowned as a breeder of Irish wolfhound in his day, coined, in deference to ladies in attendance, as the sound of…..’t.t-l’.
T for ‘testicular tongue-lashing’.
`Man`s inhumanity to music…` brilliant!
William in the interests of better community relations, I would like contentious parades abolished. I am referring to Protestant/Orange parades through mainly Catholic areas where they are not wanted and Catholic/Nationalist parades through mainly Protestant areas where they are not wanted. Could we agree on that?
I have come to the conclusion, I have nothing in common with the majority of the people who part take on this blog.
You are foreign and alien to me. What I hold dear yous hate. Things, and people yous hold dear, I detest.
I will wear my poppy, and I would defy any one to challenge me.
As my auld granny would have said, “it’s a pity your arse ws’t square, then you could shite coal brick”.
Such a load of hypocrites.
Norma.
Norma, we have nothing in common as far as allegiance goes….THAT`S why we have an attempt at shared/fair government at Stormont. Yes, the things you hold dear I detest and vice versa. I do however take issue with your charge of hypocrisy.
@ Norma – Once again Norma – It seems you have nothing in common with this blog, and the people who post upon it.
I seem to remember in recent weeks that you asked to be removed – and henceforth you were. Yet you’ve returned – still, as usual, posting some very abusive comments – that often make my jaw drop and some that i can neither make head nor tail of.
Could i suggest you simply find a blog that is more to your liking / point of view?
– Or is it just the fact that you seem to gain some enjoyment from posting such hate-filled vitriol as is your want?
As regarding my own background – if you so wish, you’ll find it in a reply i made to William a short while ago – and i suggest you have a think about my last paragraph to him.
Bitterness just eats away at a person’s soul.
The poppy appeal is a charity for the beloventment of ex service men/ women. Members of the army who murdered innocent men women and children through our troubles can benifit from this charity. Will keep my hands in my pocket. Again my family lost loved ones during the wars.
Remembrance Sunday is a tedious, militaristic piece of Bulldog Drummond imperialist clap trap. I loathe it with my very being, they stand there in hierarchial formation, the `Queen` her family, their relatives and sycophants. The British military with their big booming voices and jackboots parade up and down, not realising how offensive they are to Irish Nationalists. Any slight chance of me even considering this pantomine as anything other than the jingoistic farce it is disappears once they rope in all British army personnel, not just the poor suckers who died in 1914-1918. I am not British so all this theatre is totally lost on me, the Anglican Bishops. another relic of history, standing there calling down God`s blessing on these wonderful `peace keepers`. Give me strength. The sad thing about it is nobody in England even questions this nonsense. To do so would risk alienation and a ruined career. God forbid, I even saw the hideous visage of Nigel Dodds on the news, representing the last little colony of a once mighty empire. An empire built on the blood of thousands of working class men.
Jude, you made reference to research undertaken by the Glasgow University Media Group in a recent blog. We still have a long road to travel in order to secure ‘objectivity and balance” in the media. As a mark of respect, there will be a period of reflection at 11am on the 11th of November 2014. Perhaps the “militarists” might begin with a reflection on the killing of innocent people in Belfast in the 1960’s and the role of individuals in the so called military reaction force. Lest we forget, some of these individuals publicly admitted to murder and stated they would be prepared to murder again. Let us also remember individuals such as the late Samuel Devenney, deceased 16 July 1971. Files on his death are to remain secret until 2022? There is also the matter of an innocent man in Derry who remains in a persistent vegetative state following an unprovoked beating by (dis)loyalists. The sound of silence has been deafening on these and other deaths by those who have a mandate to uphold the law.
“When will they ever learn?”
Noble sentiments however it will never happen. The vast majority of British people are totally unaware of the crimes carried out by `their boys` over here and in other colonies.
Hi Jude, my own grandfather went off to the first world war for one reason only, according to family accounts. He had a big family to feed and could not get a job doing anything else! Loyalty to Britain never came into it. He never came home and died on November the 8th, 1918 at the age of 42. Strange as it may seem to some, I have never felt the urge to wear a poppy and I feel I can remember him in my own way, even though I never got to meet him.
I am sure there are genuine cases, and I respect that, but for the most part the ‘poppy’ has been hijacked by the unionist minority in Ireland for their own narrow sectarian ends mostly with the view to giving the ‘two fingers’ to themuns..Interestingly, from what I understand, during the second world war the six counties were allowed to opt out of conscription, while people in Britain had conscription ‘forced upon them’, perhaps someone can tell me why?
By the way, a word to Larry, I would be very interested in hearing some instances of ‘Catholic/Nationalist parades through mainly Protestant areas where they are not wanted’, as I cannot bring any to mind myself.
You are right there was no conscription during world war 2 in Northern Ireland but there was in Britain. Britain made a decision to try for conscription in all of Ireland during world war one but eventually opted against this course of action as the tide of public opinion was turning against the war in Ireland and the British feared the introduction of conscription would strengthen support for the separatist republicans at the time.
I would hazard a good guess that the ‘irish crisis’ of 1914-1922(as it was commonly referred to among British elites at the time) was still fresh in the minds of many British politicians at the time of world war two – which began only 21 years after the first world’s war’s end.
Of course the British would have been well warned by their junior Government in Northern Ireland about the ‘disloyal Catholics’ who could not be trusted with conscription.
Also the ship yards in Belfast were manufacturing necessary warships at the time so they would have figured Northern Ireland could best serve the war effort by working in the ship yards than joining the army. As we know the ship yards were the almost entirely made up of Protestant men at this time which partly accounts for why there were many more Catholics than Protestants serving in the British army during world war two.
James wrote:
“By the way, a word to Larry, I would be very interested in hearing some instances of ‘Catholic/Nationalist parades through mainly Protestant areas where they are not wanted’, as I cannot bring any to mind myself.”
So would i James as i can’t recall any either. I wanted William to think about that, but sadly when you draw matters like that to their (large proportion of Protestant/Unionist population) attention, they stick their fingers in their ears and refuse to listen.
REPLY
King Leopold’s bloom: the poppy
Dublin today went all soppy over the poppy
(Would all Congolese papers please copy)
Where gallant wee Belgium
Robbed some rubber gum
Showing rum talent for the art of hand-choppy.
I think “Dev” used some leverage with the Brits to stop conscription in the north.My late father often spoke of a unionist neighbour who credited “Dev” with saving his sons from conscription.Ironically one of these sons came to oppose his father’s friendships with his catholic neighbours and became a unionist bigot.He can be seen flaunting his poppy and leading remembrance parades to this day whilst he sat out of the war.
michael c
I thought it may have been Irish ports but it looks like yet another South Derry poitin story.
Aw, dry your eyes please.
Norma
Norma, you say: ‘I will wear my poppy, and I would defy any one to challenge me’. Can I put it to you that I, for one, could not care less if you wear a ‘poppy’ or not. As far as I am concerned it is a non event, but as a democrat I would defend totally your right to commemorate your dead in what ever way you see fit and if that involves wearing a ‘poppy’ then so be it. I would draw the line though at people, especially in the TV media, being forced to wear one, which is obviously happening and is making a joke out of the whole thing.
Another point Norma ‘Having nothing in common with most on this blog?’ It would be a quare old world if everyone thought the same. How do you think I feel when you or William and Neil post their views. I may not agree with them, but I respect their opinion and their right to have their say..
I am sick to my back molars, listening to you all. If it’s not OO its Flags or bands now poppies. Seems to me things have gone in reverse, we are now being scrutinised over things that are dear to us.
Well let me tell you something the British Army fed many of you all, and kept your children from starving. The BritishQueen did the same, right up to the immediate future.
Why don’t you all try and be a little more BRITISH, it would do you all a power of good. You are always winching about something, do you never get fed up.
You all benefited from BRITISH way of life, I think you are jealous of such a great nation.
By the way your 100 years centenary that is coming up, you could never put in a show like the Brits. I am convinced you are all just green with envy, you really admire them, and wish you could be more like them.
Norma.
At this point, Norma et al ..Ill just remind you of something written at the end of October , which only the Mighty Perkin ,Jude and Brian even noticed …..
Medic…..medic…..
It`s the unionists who are the pathetic imitators of all things English, their football team,unlike the Scots or the Welsh (who ARE actually British) can`t even use their own anthem. Wearing bowler hats on the twelfth, a day not even acknowledged by the English media unless it involves loyalists rioting (yawn…) they are like the drunk with his arm over someone`s shoulder, expressing their love and devotion to a totally disinterested person.
http://www.judecollins.com/2014/10/scarce-heard-amid-guns/
To show how fair minded we must be, we all feel obliged to mention our great uncles once removed who fought and died in a British uniform. (If it walks like a duck …………). The native Irish community,too, suffered. Very few of us have escaped the murderous attention of the British armed forces in Ireland in their various guises and disguises. But feel free to dip your hand in your pocket so that our local yeomanry can have R&R in their trailer camp on the North coast. I had an old relation who used to buy a poppy from the hawkers because she didn’t want to offend her Protestant neighbours. Now there’s cross community for you.
Pretzelllogic, you seem to be obsessed with south Derry poitin. I am pleased to inform you that Christmas orders are now being taken with the usual discount for bulk purchases.
michael c
Not at all. I get my stuff from Sligo. It’s your tendency for story telling that I find amusing. Even Jude the other day questioned your sobriety after you told us about the school affair regarding South Derry poitin.
If you think the poitin episode is a fabrication you obviously have never been south of glenshane.
michael c
Well it’s obvious I haven’t. I suspect if OW were alive today he would have claimed the South Derry poitin school scandal as his own work. I did like the octogenarian unionist poppy bigot quite a lot.
You see you dont believe the poitin story because you and I obviously inhabit different worlds.If I related the story to any of my neighbours they would not bat an eyelid or doubt it’s veracity at all.They would know that the area where the school was situated had a centuries old reputation for lawlessness and a healthy disregard for authority.They would know that to this day it’s inhabitants would regard a raid by “the cops” or “excise” men as a badge of honour and would admire them for holding this attitude.On the other hand you most likely inhabit a world where the only contact with the forces of law and order would be to report a lost cat.(” honestly officer I only left the conservatory door open for a second”! )
michael c
I can assure you, that particular Oglach was not an officer. Nor did he recover the cat.