It’s funny the distaste and ignorance ( in the true sense of the word) of many unionists when it comes to matters regarding the south of Ireland. Who can ever forget Wendy Austin’s splendid comment about the occasion on which she “drove into Ireland”? Certainly many unionists have a soft spot for (and a holiday home in) Donegal; but equally there are many unionists who wouldn’t have a notion where Letterkenny is, much less Listowel. It’s true that the twenty-six counties is a different state; but shouldn’t that make it all the more interesting? And so convenient you could, um, drive into it.
Maybe it has something to do with the media. For years – and still to a great extent – you’ll search long and hard before you’d come on an article in any of our newspapers – even the VO – which dealt/deals with politics ‘down there’. If you watch the BBC’s Newsline 630, you’ll see that the twenty-six counties have been airbrushed out, so our own little stateen appears as a small island with a hole in the middle of it.
And listen to the way in which media references to Britain are made and the contrasting way in which references to the south are made. Take these two examples from a recent BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh news bulletin:
‘Two Green Party candidates who wanted to contest the Basingstoke constituency in Hampshire on a job share basis have had their nomination papers rejected by the returning officer. Sara Cope and Clare Phipps say neither of them would be able to serve as a full-time MP. The seat is currently held by Conservative former Culture Secretary Maria Miller.’
‘A man in his 40s from Castlerock has died after a crash involving a van and a truck on a motorway in the Republic. It happened on the MI near Monasterboice in County Louth at lunch-time yesterday.’
Spot the difference? In the first, it’s assumed you know that Hampshire is in England. In the second, you need to have explained to you that County Louth and Monasterboice are in the Republic. One’s a few miles down the road, the other requires a plane flight or ferry. But hey – that weird/not-on-the-map place to the south of us needs to have its existence/ bits explicitly sign-posted.
It’d be interesting to do a survey as to how many unionists have been to any part of the south, excluding Donegal and Dublin. Not just that: how many of them have been to Derry/Londonderry? Excluding Apprentice Boys , natch.
What a mess the Brits have made of this island, you know they have been around when you see that the most northerly part of the island,Malin head,is in the ‘south’
A 32 county Republic is the only solution to this historical mess,it’s going to take a while to convince the bigots though, hopefully one day we will have a true Republic as envisioned by Pearse and Connolly 99 years ago, and not the partitioned mess created by the brits and the freestaters.
“The blue skies of Ulster, will never compare to the the grey skies of the Irish Republic”…A quote from the Civil Rights activist Ian Paisley, probably after a visit to a meteorological centre. The goodly Doctor? Always was a deep thinker in matters of Science.
Sky News are the most irritating, listen to their weather forecast, ` It will be mainly sunny in England, Northern Ireland and The Republic`. Grrr!!
Sartorial semantics
While many of us express concerns about the emperor ‘s lack of clothing, RTÉ provided some food for thought in ‘The Road to the Rising’ during the past week. Dublin was shaken to its foundations in 1916, however, topics under discussion included Victorian underwear, cinema attendance in 1915 and the manner in which the Sherwood Foresters were welcomed to quell the insurrection in 1916. There was the sound of the obligatory brass band playing in the background as trivial details deflected attention from the colonial administration prevailing in 1916. Sherwood Forest may resonate in folklore with romantic ideas of Robin Hood robbing the rich to pay the poor while the reality in 2015 is that the Tories are robbing the poor to benefit themselves. Talking of robbers, the term Little John also brings back memories in Dublin.
I trust the latest batch of Tories to this part of the island will be suitably impressed with a recent offensive Facebook post. Last year children danced round bonfires with the initials, KAT on their foreheads. This week, an adult, associated with the Royal British Legion and a high profile supporter of the MP in Upper Bann demonstrated the fact that she is linguistically challenged with her reference to ‘taigs’ on social media.
Maybe it is safer for RTÉ to concentrate on Victorian underwear.
Jude, for most of us, Ireland is in our soul. And soul and land can not be disconnected. Or,for that matter, divided up. We have made our stand against oppression, and at a different level and by different means, we move on towards our objective. There will always be those who try to diminish us as a people: Cultural envy I say. I am no longer listening to the small talk anymore. I’m focused on the bigger picture.
As for media bias ? Lol
Wasn’t it Arlene Foster of the Monster Raving Loony Party who once claimed not to even know where Cork was? The same Arlene Foster who, when Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment refused an invitation from Tourism Ireland to involve the wee six in ‘The Gathering’ events a few years back? The same Gathering which delivered a €170 million boost to the Republic’s economy?
Making a slightly rough calculation, if the 26 made €170 million then the 6 could potentially have taken somewhere in the region of €40 million. Yet the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment chose to turn down this opportunity. I believe she felt that Northern Ireland was best marketed to tourists ‘in a UK context’.
Who, when visiting Windsor Castle has not thought to themselves ‘What shall we do tomorrow? I know, let’s visit the Bushmills Distillery.’
The Unionist politicians of Northern Ireland are idiots and bigots. Stop voting for them.
Well said RJC. Alas listening skills are lacking far and wide.
Prospective day-trippers from Norneverland, Esteemed Blogmeister, could do a lot worser (Hiberno English) than let Darby O’Gill Drive Thru’ DayTours do the driving for them.
He’ll tell them Cromwell won the battle of Clontarf
He’ll say the infamous Finn McCool was nothing but a dwarf;
He’ll claim the Giant’s Causeway had been in the Phoenix Park
And twas in Killarney’s Lakes that Noah built his ark !
And they would have to search long and hard, up and down, high and erm,low, wet and dry to find a point of entry more better (see Hiberno E. above) than the Ho Chi Monaghan trail itself.
For it is around these stony grey soiled fields that the Border (alleged) is defined by, erm, blurred lines. Curiously enough, Blurred Lines – the nite club hit of two years ago ! – was hauled before the Beak recently by the Marvin Gaye estate on a charge of being a Rip Off of ‘Gotta Give it Up’ by M.G.
The Beak found in favour of the plaintiff and against the plaintive defendant, Robin Thicke (sic).
Robin Thicke (sic), is right. Although ‘Blurred Lines’ is nothing like ‘Gotta Give it Up’ (in fact the former is far superior to the latter, as anyone with a half decent pair of cloth ears like PW can tell) he ought to have realised that,South of the Black Pig’s Dyke, the Gaye Estate is always in the right, not least when it is in the wrong, which is nearly always.
But this local bother ought not distract from the day trippers’ enjoyment. For on hand to greet them will be none other than the local MP and Chief Event Planner for Easter 2016, Madame Monoglot herself – one of their very own, as she never tires of reminding her loyal listeners on RTE in the Q’s English.
Nor should they be bothered by the outsized SF badge on the salmon pink lapel of the mirthful Madame Monoglot. It stands for Smiley Face. No bother,so.
And her smile will be even wider than the gaps which Dublin found/ will find in Monaghan’s defence last week/ tomorrow for she will have a Special Announcement to make to her kindred spirted visitors.
. (Perkie has been keeping half a cloth ear to the ground and so, can reveal all, without betraying any confidential agents).
It has to do with Easter 2016 and it arises out of the s for surrender word.. Now,while the day trippers are normally perceived to harbour certain congenital feelings of a negative nature where that s-word is concerned, once again they need have no misgivings.
For it wasn’t just any surrender,but THE surrender.
In which Pat ‘The Pyscopath’. Pearse, noncommissioned terr., threw in the blood-soaked towel at the polished j-boots of Major General William H.M. Lowe. A sight to put the yes into yesteryear’s surrender.
But it was neither of the pair of major players mentioned on which Madame Monoglot’s attention will be focused; but rather on one who had but a, erm, lowly gawk on part. None other the the son of the Major-General, Captain John Lowe who was also in Dublin on business, as it happened that Easter Week.
And this is where the plot really thickens. (a verb hard to avoid , see above).
For not only did John Lowe eventually fetch up subsequently in Hollywood (no, not that one, the, er, lowdown is twas the California version) to pursue a stellar career in B-Movies with the occasional call off the benches to participate in an A-movie by John Ford of this parish. (see below).
But, and here we come to the cause of the mile-wide smile of the face of Heather Humphreys (for it is she !) John Lowe climbed so high on the Hollywood ladder that he took none other than Madame Monoglot’s favourite movie star as his bride. His third of five, in true Hollywood fashion. (Hollywood, County Californication).
That would be, of course, Hedy Lamarr.
And because Heather heroine-worships Hedy and also, because she also wears the movie portfolio as part of her flowery ministerial headgear (by Philip Treacy) a, if not THE central component of the Centennial Commemorations/Celebrations/Confabulations in Easter 2016 will be a Motion Picture Retrospective.
Whose working title sis Hi, Lily ! Hi, Lowe !
Perkie’s inner fillum-buff could scarcely contain his Easter eggcitement that he spilled over into this luimneach as leipreachan:
Ni ga bheith craite faoi Hu-Ha 16 nios mo
Ni ga fiu breathnu nios isle na John Lowe
Nil bean nios fearr
Na – Hedy Lamarr
Chun Shay Bheatha Bhaile a scair ona oro.
And now, as promised, the name of that A-movie by John Ford which the other John, by name Lowe, acted in:
‘How Green was my Valet?’
The jarvey will be a leprechaun and he’ll have some magic power
He’ll tour them through t’Emerald Isle at a thousand miles an hour
A phantom horse will be between the shafts and no one will be surprised
For the jarvey will be a leprechaun and he’ll have them hypnotised !
And no valet comes much greener than that. Neither will any of the day trippers be surprised to discover that the phantom horese will be ….none other than ….but first put your red hands high and together for…….Shergar !
Perkie’s inner tourist statistician forecasts: no sooner will our daytrippers from Norneverland be down and back, than they’ll want to be Doonican !
And with the same, erm, Valet.
Working in England in the 1970s, I was told at two places of employment that other members of staff were also Irish – in one place, a lad who wouldn’t have been out of place in a Tartan gang, complete with a huge UVF Red Hand tattoo on his forearm; in the other, two ex-RUC men.
People on ‘the mainland’ see unionists as Irish – unionists might try and get their heads around that.
The different perspectives between our two ‘tribes’ on ‘the south’ are very interesting. I suppose it is inevitable when people grow up in such a divided society that very different perspectives develop on all manner of things.
I grew up in West Belfast and so everybody I grew up around was Irish. Everybody saw themselves as Irish and Dublin was the capital of our country and we lived in the North of the country etc etc.
So when I grew older and travelled further and went to University and met a lot more Unionists it initially struck me as very odd that they would describe people from the South as ‘the Irish’ and refer to it as ‘Ireland’ as though it was entirely foreign country. In fact they would call it just that ‘a foreign country’. I still find it rather peculiar nowadays even though I understand where they are coming from better than I would have as a youngster.
I still remember clearly how confused I was as a teenager when a friend from Lisburn referred to a mutual acquaintance from Kildare as ‘that Irish guy’.
An awful lot of Nationalists have relatives and close friends who live south of the border and so it is not just undesirable to view the south as a ‘foreign country’. In our minds it is a bit weird. My aunt Molly who was born and raised in Donegal is a foreigner from a foreign country, How peculiar.
But then Unionists in the North would for the most part not have family or close friends living south of the border and so it would come more naturally to them to view it as ‘foreign’..
What are you talking about, Antonio – sure I’ve just found out I married one of these foreigners. Worse still, I was born in Donegal so I suppose I’m a foreigner myself. Heeeelllllppp….
A couple of weeks ago everybody’s favourite ex-U.D.R Ulster Unionist Tom Elliot gave an interview to the Belfast Telegraph covering all the usual pre-election issue such as the infamous ‘scum of Sinn Fein’ line and dreary steeples and four votes between winning and losing etc.
At some point relations with the Republic came up in the interview and Elliot said ‘I want to have friendly relations with the Republic just like any other foreign country”. So yes according to Elliot your wife is a foreigner and you were born in a foreign country. Weird.
Well at least I know where I stand. Am I still entitled to vote here, I wonder??
This chimes with an experience I had during the week.
I was out at lunch time with a colleague when we bumped into a couple he knew from Newtownabbey.
I was treated to a conversation about getting the boat from Larne to “the mainland” (never head that term used outside of the telly!) and how terrible it was that the SNP was going to try to break the Union again. Though to be fair to the man from Newtownabbey, he said he wouldn’t fancy living beside Trident and he’d vote for Scottish independence but not for a united Ireland.
From their comments it was clear that they were not talking about the real Republic (in which I have lived and worked) but another Republic that exists only in the minds of certain Unionists. A Republic in which everyone was a pauper, with no social services.
I’d imagine that to this couple, and to many Unionists, conceptually, the Republic is literally as foreign as Spain. Maybe more foreign in that they’d expect to go to Spain and not get hassled for being an Ulster Protestant.
If to Unionists the Republic is totally foreign (and possibly hostile) how can Nationalists expect them to entertain the idea of a United Ireland?
Perhaps as Jude contented the blame for the “mental” border can be ascribed to institutions and media but I’d guess that the main reasons Unionist regard the Republic as being totally alien is due to the IRA campaign (rightly or wrongly) being perceived as being the authentic expression of Irishness. That is the Republic and its symbols are axiomatically hostile to Ulster Protestants and their culture.
As I see it, the only hope for a united Ireland is if Ulster Protestants come to see the Republic as being familiar and as much theirs as Nationalists do. The only hope for that if they go there and visit it for themselves.
There is an interesting thread on Politics.ie called “Protestants For A United Ireland?” started by the wonderfully named “Billy the Prod”. The first post is Billy the Prod describing his successful and eye opening first visit to Dublin.
Billy the Prod’s experience is mirrored by Unionist that I know who went South and came back if not exactly Nationalists certainly open to the idea that a united Ireland might not be the worst thing.
The secret weapon of Irish Nationalism: Irish people giving the sons of Ulster a warm welcome!
Much of that is very true Chunks I love going south fishing golf and entertainment second to none bar Northern Ireland….
The strange thing when I go down south I feel very welcome many of the people I speak down there are happen dealing with unionists because they are not needy.
As far as the south is concerned there is peace and the GFA has sorted out most of the problems but the bottom line is that most of the people I speak down there including business people are very happy with the status quo and are happy just acting as happy neighbours however they don’t want to pick up the tab for a united Ireland.
Neill,
If you have experienced such a nice welcome in the free state then you wouldn’t have a major ‘fear’ of a United ireland then? In a roundabout way you have promoted the idea of irish unification. I hope you relate to those unionists you know how welcome you feel as it could speed things up.
I don’t have a fear of a united Ireland never had never will doesn’t mean to say that I wish for there to be a united Ireland does it?
The problem with Unionism is its siege mentality that it has had for literally centuries and ultimately that will be its own undoing. With the Catholic/nationalist population becoming the majority and more and more Westminister/EU/Council seats being won by nationalists we can only expect more integration with the South, something which Unionists wont like but which they simply cant stop.
The media really can say and do some stupid things sometimes. Its usually the BBC that sometimes refers to Britain as “the mainland” but yet Louth or Monaghan is “the republic of Ireland”.
UTV was the same with their new TV company “UTV Ireland” which operates in the 26 counties. Instead of having 1 all island channel called “UTV Ireland” they have two separate entitles in “UTV Ireland” and just the usual “UTV” in the 6 counties. Its just stupid and silly and I’m sure it could’ve saved UTV some money/time by just having 1 all island channel called UTV Ireland.
But common sense always did seem in very short supply when it comes to the failed entity that is Northern Ireland, its very existence alone is proof of it …….
I am surprised that no-one here (not even the redoubtable Nell) has made the point that the Free State establishment is no less partitionist than the most ardent unionist. RTE is the prime offender. “A Cavan man was charged with the murder of a Northern Ireland woman…” ( county specified for one, jurisdiction for the other). I regularly watch the RTE rolling news channel; it displays photos submitted by viewers of beautiful Irish scenes from every one of the – 26 – counties . No Armagh, Antrim, Down, Derry Fermanagh or Tyrone amateur photographer need apply. Same story with the review of the local papers each Friday. The Derry Journal used feature but not after the Good Friday Agreement. I wrote to RTE to complain and got the usual automated bland brush-off. We used to have an All-Ireland schools’ choir competition, now it’s ‘all-Island’ Only a matter of time till we have all-Island football and hurling finals.Have we only recently discovered that Ireland is an Island?) When did you last hear the term ’32 counties of Ireland’ spoken by any media commentator or, indeed, politician? I could go on and on….
I was playing golf yesterday so I was busy!
Brian your first point is correct that is in inescapable fact perhaps people should take notice of that…
Ah dear Wendy Austin who when interviewing a lady at the time of the UWC strike asked the women. did she know where the loaf of bread she had just picked up came from.
The loaf in question not being from the wee six but by a baker called Pat was dutifully put back on the shelf.
a mad dog Antrim supporter had his house attacked by unionist terrorists on a number of occasions but on one just after Antrim beat Armagh, OW [orange wendy] while interviewing a peeler who said the UDA was responsible said “you have ruled out Armagh supporters”. Even the RUC man went quiet. AJ, hit it right with the weather joke. Sky news reported rain in north northern Ireland, three words when one would have sufficed .Iceland.A work colleague who was a “christian” and thought himself more progressive than his shankill bretheran, once asked me did i have a good holiday, i said” yes i never left the province and went to the most popular wee seaside
town on the north coast”
.” “Ah,” he said,” ye went to the port” [Portrush], “na ” i said, “i went to the bun [ Bundoran].
They’re not ALL the same e.g. the three East Belfast working-class Protestants I met in a south coast pub in July 2013.
“What brings you all the way down here?”
“We’re getting away from the Twelfth.”
The man who said that then added the only bigots he knew at home were those who had in fact never met a Catholic.
I don’t think the people are really divided on religious lines,most catholics I know couldn’t care about religion,they only go for the kids sake or at times like communion,confirmation, I think most people think it’s a load of nonsense,
the divide is on identity,British or Irish, I don’t blame the unionists for feeling British,that’s how they were reared, the fault for this country’s mess is British suppression of the Irish peoples right to their own country,Ulster was so rebellious they had to ‘plant’ the place and throw the native Irish off of their own land,and they describe the unionists as being bitter,if anyone has a right to be bitter it’s the people who were driven into the hills and bogs,coffin ships and mass famine ‘genocide’ graves.
How do you sort this mess out now? the GFA is nonsense too and what passes for a government in Stormont is a joke, what kind of democracy can’t have a change of government/opposition.
The six counties is a basket case,the ‘republic’ is a corrupt mess too at a political level,still divided mainly on civil war politics on two parties that are basically the same.
Sf to my mind are no more republican than FF or FG now,sitting in Stormont administrating British rule in Ireland,what the hell was the war/conflict/troubles for?
this place isn’t worth the lives of the brave men who fought and died for it.