Are you mad as hell this morning? Just about fed up with the world of officialdom and its holier-than-thou pose? Well, get ready to get mad as hell again. Maybe madder.
Because it seems the British army was lying to us during the Troubles. Can you imagine? The News Letter, of all organs, recently carried a report based on just-released files.
It seems a British army helicopter crashed in 1978. A top British army officer on board was killed : Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Corden-Lloyd. A Gazelle helicopter was pursuing an IRA unit near Jonesborough. The IRA unit fired at the helicopter, it tried to avoid the fire and fell out of the sky.
Within hours the IRA released a statement saying it had downed the aircraft. The British army denied this had happened: “Lt Col Corden-Lloyd was killed in a flying accident – repeat, a flying accident – while engaged in operations over South Armagh.” Under a Freedom of Information request, the facts have been released from the National Archives: the helicopter was indeed downed while trying to evade IRA gunfire. Lt Col Corden-Lloyd was awarded a posthumous Military Cross.
When the Ministry of Defence was approached about these new facts, they were nothing if not consistent: “We have nothing more to add to the air accident investigation.” So they lied at the time and even when contrary evidence is produced, they go on lying.
No wonder right-thinking people are shocked when Gerry Adams says he wasn’t in the IRA.
I remember Lloyd; he was a Greenjacket. He used to swan around Andersontown like he was John Wayne. Where other soldiers would cling to the hedges, Llyod sauntered up the middle of the road with a pistol at his hip. Seems it all caught up with him in the end. Ah well, at least he got a medal for it.
And now for something completely different…
It is time to draw a line and move on given the recent visit to Dublin Castle by the British Secretary for Defence. A ‘ground-breaking’ deal has been signed which will enable the Irish Army to train the British Army in ‘Peace Keeping’.
I would say this might raise an eyebrow or two over HM governments explanation of the Chinookcrash?
I remember when the incident happened, I had no doubt whatsoever the IRA caused the chopper to crash, seems I was right after all. Anyone who believes the fairy tales spun by the NIO or British military probably believes in Santa Claus.
Santa Claus is of course a real person, just in case there are any children reading this.
Corden-Lloyd was commissioned into the 10th Princess Mary’s Own Gurkha Rifles, later transferring to the Royal Green Jackets. He was subsequently seconded to the SAS.[2] In 1971, Corden-Lloyd took part in Operation Demetrius. He was awarded the Military Cross for distinguished service in Northern Ireland in 1972, although at the time the details of his action were not published for security reasons.[3] He became commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets in 1976. That same year he was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (military).[4]
Taken from Wikipedia.
hoboroad
I can take it that he wasn’t awarded the Military Cross posthumously, but rather he got a posthumous mention in dispatches? Thanks for clearing that up. Did it mention anything about him sauntering up the middle of the road in Andersonstown with the big iron on his hip? Why are these lying bastards lying to us? Again!
Your text today, Esteemed Blogmeister, is such that it makes one wonder if the whole concept of the Black Pig’s Dyke is not one big white porkie concocted by those divide and conquer types who would prefer that we weren’t, erm, Better Together.
As today’s text demonstrates, related topics are dominating the chattering classes on both side of the ‘border’: choppers.
First up, down here in the Free Southern Stateen we had our very own straight-talking brave-hearted Minister of Health courageously talking frankly, openly and honestly about, yes, his chopper. In a word, he went public on his pubic affairs. Although, as he continually reminded us over the course of a harrowing hour on prime time wireless, he is a private person.
Which made his gallantry in coming clean about his non-attraction to the gals all the more intrepid. After all, the gals make up 51% of the electorate, as those Mata Haris of stats, the Dworkin Class never let the minority,men, forget.
Dr. V, MD was blessed with his hostess who held his beef-quota all through what cannot have been an easy outing on that notorious hotbed of homophobes, RTE. Could this have been Miriam O’Call-again’s finest ever hour? At least, this week, in anyway.
The response from the twitterati has been overwhelmingly p for positive. Kudos from Lesbos. Giving rise to the expectation that the Abbey Theatre will soon stage a mature, modern-day Ireland versh of ‘Anthony and Leopatra’:
‘Age cannot wither him nor custom stale his infinite variety’.
The same stage where P. Bliss was invited to shake his booty at the ignoramuses of the old, zipped-up Eireland last year: ‘the finest oration on this stage since W.B. Yeats, working the late shift, ate the faces off those anal-retentive prudes who objected to the use of the word ‘late’, or was it, ‘shft’ in ‘The Playgirl of the Western World’ panted Una Mullally-Cat of The Unionist Times.
The same freedom of expressionist Una incidentally, who recently wished for the silencing of the Shinnersffor the coming year in the same,identical liberal pages.
Una duce, una voce.
Curiously enough, both W.B. Yeats and The Ministry of Defence in their time issued statements about gazelles. In the case of the poet:
‘Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle’.
Although Ms. Panti Bliss is justifiably renowned for his and her silk kimonos in bars belonging to the chain ‘The Maggoty Faggot’, it was a different member of Les Girls who inspired those lines: Eva Gore-Booth, to name but two.
In the case of the M.O.D. it was a different Gazelle which prompted their latest porkie. ‘Zey have some form in zis department’, as a certain horrible Corporal Hitler might have confirmed. And it wasn’t only about choppers the MOD were adept at telling whoppers about.(cf ‘They lied about Cordin-Lloyd’).
Like the time in 1934, when, after successfully pulling the wool over the eyes of Sir Anthony Eden who had been talking through his trademark silk brimmed, black felt Homburg, der Fuhrer (for it ist he !) exulted to his fawn-coloured friends, even as he clapped his hands and slapped his thighs like a schoolboy: ‘Great fellows, ze Englanders ! Even when zey lie zey do it on a magnificent scale, not a bit like ze niggardly French’.
Colonel Bogey was one of the great Spin Doctors of the Ministry of Defence during the Fifties, not least in the Christian Brother Schools of the Free Southern Stateen, and one suspects, north of the Black Pig’s Dyke, if such in fact exists.
Conor Cruise O’Brien, who was Colonel Bogey’s locum tenens as Spin Doctor of the FSS during the Seventies, was passionately concerned to undo with telling effect the untold damage the Quack Doctors of the CBS had caused the impressionable schoolboys in their care.By washing their brains in the fierce bloodymindedness of PH Pearse.
CCOB, never having attended a CBS school, was, ni ga a ra, an expert on same. While Gilbert and Sullivan annual productions predominated the classroom it was in the schoolyards, the very area which CCOB overlooked, where the greatest musical impact was made.
For that was Colonel Bogey’s domain. Every CBS schoolboy of that era – and even Perkie’s inner urchin was not immune – firmly believed that when it came to Herr Hitler’s helicopter hanger he was one less in that department. Something similar applied to Herr Himmler. Or as Colonel Bogey or indeed, Lt. Col Lloyd would put it: whereas normal men are blessed with ‘a General and two Colonels’ an abnormality like Onkel Dolf could only boast of a staff consisting of ‘ a General and one Colonel’.
As a schoolboy belief, this was par for the course in the era of Colonel Bogey. One wonders why CCO’B, the Goebbels of the FSS, was so fixated on this very topic. Could it have been – Donner und Blitzen ! – that CCOB was more like Goebbels than has hitherto been imagined?
Mein Gott ! Perhaps best not go there.
Verboten !
” when it came to Herr Hitler’s helicopter hanger he was one less in that department” – Perkie, as Holden Caulfield might have said: you slay me!
Jude, a chara,
I discovered a similar cover-up of a Fusilier’s suicide in archives a while back and, before I wrote an article, I contacted author, Ken Wharton, who maintains a list of British soldiers killed during the conflict. He served here too as you probably know.
The official number of BA killed is just over 760 but Ken’s list runs to 1334 souls.
Road accidents here and in Germany were an old favourite pretext…
Regards,
C
I takes to a gentleman once who just happened to be on the ground near Jonesboro that day and he says the same thing! Had a feeling all along!
Jude, this is consistent with British Government / army policy in the North since the troubles and further afield – for decades the British have lied about involvement in events such as Bloody Sunday, collusion, murder of Pat Finucane etc, having to eventually “come clean on their dirty war.” This is in no way a surprise or a shock – it simply adds to the long list of British manipulation and atrocities perpertrated in the North. What’s frightening is the lies and atrocities committed by the British that have went unpunished and have even been justified by numerous governments … No doubt as time progresses and historical records are made available, much more lies will be exposed … “When those who make the law, break the law, in the name of the law … There is no law.”
I cannot understand Jude, why you are surprised/annoyed at the British army and government telling lies – that is what they do.
Could you let me know the first time they tell the truth – that would be news – but don’t hold your breath waiting!
They would not known the truth if it hit them between the eyes
Have to say Perkin that I never once heard Colonel Bogey sung in our schoolyard.Our songs tended to reflect conflicts closer to home in terms of both time and geography.However they were no less crude ,one favourite informing members of her majesty’s forces where they “could stick their rubber bullets”!
A song sung during my time at primary school in the 1960s was :
“Holy Moses I am dying
Just a word before I go
Put King Billy on a table
And stick a poker up his:
Holy Moses I am Dying …”
Repeat, ad nauseam
Our version was the tamer ‘Put the cat upon the fender/ And drive the poker up…’ etc. So much for animal rights…
Your version was pure Antrim Road. Mine was the Falls Road version.
Michael C, a chara,
In the words of the superbly acute song by Shel Silverstein and Denis Locorriere:
‘I’ve got a couple more years on you, bro, that’s all
I’ve had more chances to fly and (oops) more places to fall
Not that I’m wiser it’s only that
I’ve spent more time with my back to the wall
I’ve got a couple more years on you,bro, that’s all’.
Beir gach bua agus beannacht !
Man once said,
Q. “how can you tell if a British politician is lying”?
A. If you can see his lips moving!
Perkin, I totally agree with you that a generation before me would have been more au fait with “Colonel Bogey.However while I never heard it performed in our school yard,I do recall it being performed once in the more convivial surroundings of the street corner of our local village.Around the late 60’s and early 70’s there arrived a must have accessory for the younger motorist called “musical horns”.They played a variety of tunes including “john Browns body, an Italian tune called something like “la coucherata” and “Colonel Bogey”.Every “flash Harry” in the locality had a set fitted to their souped up Fords,Minis and even in onecase a Hillman Hunter! One evening a gang of us “young cubs” headed to the village to purchase our rations of “penny chews” (etc) and to then stand at the corner for a while.”Standing at the corner” was an activity practiced by a much older element than ourselves ,was frowned upon by more gentile citizens but allowed us to give the impression that we were “hard men”! After a while the “flashest” Harry of them all came up the street in a GT Cortina and as he passed two of what Dev would have called”comely maidens” ,he let rip with “Colonel Bogey”.We all laughed and then one of our group who would have been labelled “old fashioned” (meaning he knew far too much about “the wrong sort of things”) began to sing an out of tune but totally uncensored version of the afore mentioned Colonel.There was a stunned silence before one of my “Amigos” who had a reputation for being much more “holy” than the rest of us finally uttered “hi ,that boy would’nt need to blow them horns goin by the chapel” !