There are a number of similarities and several differences between Alexis Tsipras, who has just won the Greece election, and Winston Churchill, the fiftieth anniversary of whose death was on Saturday.
1. Churchill and Tsipras were/are charismatic leaders and led/lead the defence of their country against Germany. (You did know that Germany now runs Europe, didn’t you?) On the other hand, Churchill fought in the Boer War, during which the British invented the concentration camp, which the Germans half a century later took to a new level of horror. Tsipras never had anything to do with concentration camps. Or the Boer War.
2. Churchill had five children, none of whom was called Ernesto. Tsipras, in contrast, has just two sons, the younger of whom has the middle name of Ernesto, in honour of Che Guevera.
3. Churchill was very fond of alcohol. He liked champagne, cognac, whisky, claret, port and hock. And the odd Martini. These he drank in the Cabinet War Rooms, Chequers, his bath, Blenheim Castle, the Ritz and the Savoy. There is no record of Tsipras even attempting to match this.
4. Churchill liked to tell a joke: ‘British bomber over Berlin, caught in the searchlights, flak coming up, one engine on fire, rear-gunner wounded. Irish pilot mutters “Thank God Dev kept us out of this war” ‘ That was after the WW2, of course. Ireland’s neutrality during the war was deeply resented by Churchill – great sense of humour, flawed understanding of Irish independence. Tsipras smiles a lot but doesn’t have a favourite joke, as far as we know. On the other hand, he expressed his dissent when Gerry Adams was arrested and questioned over a four-day period last year.
5. Churchill said ‘We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender’.Tsipras said ‘We don’t claim that there is plenty of money. Greek people are not asking for money. They are asking for work and the ability to make a living.’ There is a strong belief that Tsipras also said “Yahowahyaboyya!” (in Greek) on first hearing the results of the election.
6. Churchill influenced the history of Europe. So too, in all probability, will Tsipras.
Will who ever his name is be known in fifty years I don’t think so.
Will he get a state funeral I don’t think so.
Was he born in a palace (not a castle) no.
Is there any comparison I know no.
Will he be remembered with the same bitterness? Probably not.
The latter one first as nothing stands still. Congratulations to Mr Tsipras on securing an endorsement to challenge the sham of austerity policies. The clichés are in full flight in relation to, ‘former communists’, ‘the hard left’ and ‘radical policies’. One commentator said, “Mr Tsipras has a head full of nonsense but he will learn.” Seldom do we hear about the avarice and corruption of bankers and entrepreneurs who continue to live off gains from dubious financial practices.
Directors of charities may earn £180,000 + per annum, politicians and executives of public utilities earn similar salaries and may retire early with gold plated pensions. When public sector workers choose to withdraw their labour, there are howls of indignation about the bloated public sector. Is this fair in relation to nurses who work all sorts of unsocial hours, men who keep roads safe in freezing conditions and all other workers who do not withdraw labour until they have no other choice. Mr Tsipras is unlikely to lead thousands of people into battles they cannot win. People will not die in trench warfare. He will not interfere in the affairs of independent countries or attempt to redraw geographical boundaries. As in the case of Mr Churchill, the electorate will determine his tenure of office.
It’s not only between Winston Churchill and Alexis Tsipra that there are similarities and differences, Esteemed Blogmeister.
Take Churchill and Chesterfield. One similarity(of sorts) is that both spent time in the same big house in Dublin i.e., the Vice-Regal Lodge which now goes under the mysterious moniker of Arus an Uachtarain.
The difference (definite) here is that while War-mongering Winston dissed Dublin during the Churchill War in the 1940s, Lord Chesterfield opened wide the gates of the Phoenix Park to the Paddy Stinks and Mickey Muds of Dublin during his tenure there in the 1740’s
.As a rule, all reps of the Royal Ruler in the Reptile House at the Buckinghham Zoo belonged more in the Reptile H. in the zoological gardens in the Phoenix Park: Lord Chesterfield was an exception, even if only a partial one.
In truth, Phillo Stanhope (for it is also he!) was streets ahead of the rest.
Being in possession of a brain, for starters. Unlike, say, Lord Chinless of Smigworth who was in residence when the famous selfie pioneer, Fr.Francis Browne,SJ, cycled up there in 1920 on his High Nellie the night before his fellow Belvo boy, K. Barry was due to hang as high as Corduroy on washday. To plead, and plead in vain.
Another similarity (of sorts) is that while Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature Chesterfield was a far superior literary figure. His letters to his son, despite the latter being the issue of a dissimilar sex marriage, are a gem and are for the ages.
That is, the kind of peculiar marriage where,the daughter, if such, on reaching puberty does not cause a traffic jam of two outside the Necessary Room. It was Lord Chesterfield who gave that felicitous phrase for the jakes, currency.
Moving swiftly on, any one of Chesterfield’s letters was in a different class to the letter which students had to endure in the classrooms of the Murder Machine in the Free Southern Stateen: Dr. Johnson’s letter to Lord Chesterfield. This bewigged bowsy’s pedestrian letter blaggarded the good Lord for a generation of Irish students of Compulsory English.
Compulsory English is also the reason why Panti is not the only blissful thing on Liffeyside. Ignorance, of the Invicible variety, is is on a roll too. Being the reason why the bulk of sulking Dubliners still don’t realise that Phoenix is a warped version of the original Fionn Uisce, i.e., Clear Water. As placenamed puns go Phoenix is right up there. At least we are spared the mysterious moniker of ‘Pairc an Fhionn Uisce’.
All of which gives credence to the contention of F.O’Toole, aka, ‘The Man who makes their minds up for the Mindless’, and chief guru of the.D.O.P.E.s (Demonisers of Pearse’s Eireland) that leprechaun is a myth and so, it follows, that the revival of its lingua franca ought to be confined to the top shelf of Elfland.
Now that Bord Gais Eireann has been called ashore from the Celtic Sea to be replaced by Gas Network Ireland further credence is given to the rumour that a Bad Moon is about to rise over Arus an Uachtarain where a succession of Proud Marys have resided. And that the D.O.P.E.s are in buoyant mood for they see the Arus soon reverting to its original civilised shape: Vice Regal Lodge. Wow ! Let the Clear-water Revival continue. The Same-Lex Referendum is gathering pace.
Instead of re-inventing placenames in the ersatz erse (a favourite phrase of The Unionist Times) far,far better for the Paddy Stinks and Mickey Muds, according to the Fine Mind of Fintan, to get down on their knobbly knees to pay homage to St. Hubert for saving them from,erm, S.H.A.M.E during the Churchill War. The same Humanity Hubert for whom the uber-versatile Fintan is more than willing to act as posthumous butler.
To conclude with reference to Alexis Tsipras; a similarity may be seen between him and his economic adviser, Yanis Varoufakis. In that both have had links in the past with the (gulp) Shinners.Yes, the economically illiterate ones.
Which is why he ‘guested’ on RTE’s flagship show, Moaning Ireland, today.The better to chop him down to size. Alas, this Greek-speaker, who is ironically polished in the Q’s E.to a level the spoofers in that centre of excellence for Reptile Worship, RTE, cannot begin to imagine, proved teak-tough.
And effortlessly resisted with a natural age old, Aegean sophistication all efforts of the increasingly frantic junior woodman to hack him down to Donnybrook, Dublin 4 dimensions. Hilarious in a peculiarly Hellenic fashion, to hear the junior hack fail to hack it even as he floundered from Plan A to Plan B. And back again, hack style.
Even Tommy of the Famous Plan C Brothers couldn’t make it up.
One doubts somehow if the disarmingly incisive Yanis Varoukakis will be invited back in a hurry to the home of hubris.Such a pity the Head Woodman Mac Coille wasn’t on duty. Even the blunt-spoken ‘Je Suis Cathal’ (for it is he !) would have had to sharpen up his question asking axe a deal.
Either that or update his Grecian 2000.
Wasn`t Churchill chased out of the shipyard when he tried to convince the Unionists of the merits of home rule? He has a very dodgy record when it comes to Ireland old Winnie.
Yeah, AJ, somethin like that. But didn’t he get good go onyabhoyya on the Donegal Rd which more than made up for it? He had a bit of a soft spot for Irish home rule, bless him.
Forgive the pedantry Dr C but it’s worth noting that the man most oft credited with the concentration camp was born in Ballylongford, Co Kerry; Lord Kitchener.
I don’t think he lived there long but when one considers the vast number of people with tenuous Irish links that are allowed in to ‘the club’ then I feel it only fair that he be treated likewise.
Face it, had he cracked the code for cold fusion or found the cure for cancer and was Catholic Tim Pat Coogan would have him smugly listed amongst his chronicles of Irish achievements quicker than you could say “yes St Patrick was a Briton but sure what odds…”
Of course, there was the Iron Duke’s way of looking at it “to be born in a stable does not make one a horse…”
Well spotted as ever, AG. But it would be fair to say that he was a British general and that the fine form of confinement that he created was for the better advancement of British rule in Africa. I expect you’re right – most of us are quick to claim our heroes and disown our villains. Kitchener was indeed a villain.