Sometimes I don’t know whether to throw myself on the ground and roll around laughing, or make a fist and punch it through the nearest wall.
On Wednesday night Timothy Gaston was elected deputy Mayor of the new supercouncil Mid and East Antrim. Timothy is a member of the TUV party. His fellow councillors politely lined up to congratulate him on his new position and have their pictures taken with him. One of those was a young teacher and fellow-councillor by the name of Patrice Hardy. She’s a Shinner and I’m going to go out on a limb and guess she doesn’t share many of Timothy’s political ideas. But she stepped forward to congratulate him, same as everyone else, and get her picture taken with him, same as everybody else.
Uh-uh. Timothy was having none of that. Maybe because he’s a candidate for the Westminster election or maybe because that’s how he sees civilised interaction among political opponents, Timothy refused to say cheese with Patrice. His stated reason? “Sinn Féin remains a party which glorifies in murder and terrorism. Other unionists have abandoned their previous stance on Republicans. I have not and I will continue to view them as unfit for office”.
Ms Hardy is twenty-four years old. That means she was born in 1991. To the best of my knowledge the IRA was firm in its policy of turning away volunteers who were three years or younger. In fact Ms Hardy had just reached the age of reason – seven years old – when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
But hey. Timothy and the TUV stand firm. Nothing has changed. No ground will be given and no selfies allowed. Now, Virginia – now can you see why I’m tempted to fall to the floor or puncture the wall? At this rate, we should arrive at reconciliation around the year 2020. Thanks, Timothy. You’re a brick.
Can we have photographs of Ms Hardy every day from here on in ??
Jude, your spelling leaves a lot to be desired.
‘Timothy, you’re a brick’ should be spelt with a ‘p’!
Now, now, Sherdy – I’d find someone carrying a brick more offensive than…You know the rest.
There’s also the fact that nearly all Unionist factions glorify the mass slaughter of WW1, especially the militarily pointless killing on the Somme.
Reconciliation Jude it will take a little longer than a decade or two to forget the bombing the murder etc do you believe that people in the unionist community have to take to their chests the community were this came from…or the catholic community can forgive the community from whence the loyalist terrorists come from?
Reconciliation if it comes will be slow and gradual you will be long dead and I will be a very old man before the wounds are sealed sadly
I think I agree with your last sentence, neill. But I think the Catholic community, by and large, has forgiven the atrocities they’ve been subjected to, and not just by loyalist terrorists as you put it. Unfortunately it takes two to tango….
It’s definitely not cricket Dr C, I’m certainly at odds with many aspects of the SF (and the TUV too BTW) but I’d like to think I wouldn’t be so outright discourteous in the line of civic function (they ALL at the end of the day elected representatives and public servants).
A pretty poor show methinks.
Ah dear sweet Jemima!!! .If they had even a modicum of wit they’d have some idea how to behave socially.Witless , childish and ultimately boorish behaviour should have no place in society.The poor man has simply made a bloody arse of himself which means he ‘s really not fit to serve the entire community.
PS I missed a necessary ‘are’ in that last sentence, “they ALL at the end of the day ‘are’ elected representatives and …..”
Back to school for me…
Ignorant,I’ll mammered bigot who is clearly unfit for office.
It doesn’t bother his selective conscious when his leader shares platforms with Billy Hutchinson a convicted sectarian murderer.
No more pretending to like/tolerate the Taigs. Everything out in the open. This is the new transparent way of governing in the dying years of the Raj.
RTE’s in the grip of the Dworkin Class
Most of whom look like Mamma Cass
But no coke and barardi
Will be A-ok for SFHardy
Not by the broadc’s of the lardy ass.
i’ve gotta say Mighty Perk ,that although Mama Cass had the better vocals, I always had a teenage hankering for Mama Michelle’s skinnier bones.
PS No mench yet from RTE’s T. Gorman on T. Gaston’s non-handshake with an elected wench..
Perhaps, the normally Amanpour-garrulous Tommy G was shocked into silence by Timmy G’s boorinshness?
TG for the innate decency of Tommy G. Oops, Tomm.ie G.
PPS T. Gorman is not, repeat NOT, a spin d. for the SDLP.
Oh dear ! he is a prick.!!!…. not a brick ….. I hope that was a typo Jules…. Freudian slip of the fingers ! Everyone in council is an elected represtentative…. end of…!!! His snub is fuelled by bigorty and intolerance…we all have to work with people we dont agree with but we do it … it makes us the better person !!!
The curious thing with the unionist attitude to political violence is that their heroes of yore – Carson, Craig et al – invented it when the Ulster Volunteers were formed in 1912 & guns imported to thwart the expressed wishes of their parliament On Home rule.
The Ulster unionists were so successful that they inspired the formation of the Irish volunteers & the Easter rising.
It was the success of unionists in changing government policy that inspired Irish republicans to try the same strategy.
There would be no Northern Ireland without the political violence used or threatened by the founding fathers.
You really couldn’t make this shit up. Sadly for all of us, it seems that professionalism, decency, common courtesy and plain old-fashioned ‘good manners’ are anathema to the bulk of our Unionist politicians.
Whether that’s DUP politicians ignoring their Sinn Féin counterparts in the halls of Stormont or the likes of Wee Timmy Gaston behaving as he did on the night of his inauguration. I often wonder what happens in Stormont when a DUPer meets a Shinner in the lift or in the toilets? Do they pretend that there’s nobody there? Do they huff and puff and turn a purpley shade of scarlet? What if a Shinner holds a door open for a DUPer? Do they say ‘Thank You’?
What do these people think the future holds? Are we all suddenly going to come around to their way of thinking? Is the demographic change merely an illusion? Perhaps they have a secret lab in which they are developing special IVF treatments that only work on Protestants over the age of 60. Who knows?
Again, this also ties in with voting patterns and more specifically, voter apathy. You may not vote, but you can be damn sure your 70 year old Protestant neighbour will. Increased voter apathy actually plays into the hands of these bigots. The more people vote for them, the more unlikely they are to change. I live in hope that one day the likes of Mr Garston will see the error of his ways. He must have been dragged up, that lad.
And THAT is exactly what qualifies him as a bigot!
I wonder where the Christian ideal of “Love thy neighbour” gets lost in it all, never mind the obvious bad manners that are displayed here . The people yapping about Christian morality are the same people with no sense of forgiveness.There is an obvious hypocrisy in that.As has been pointed out , this is a young woman with nothing to do with the physical force politics that have been indulged in since the days of Home Rule.
There was a definitive cut-off point where the troops went home, the arms were dumped and army bases were dismantled . That was a long time ago. That seems to have escaped some of these political boors. Then again, they are probably trying to appeal to a “Christian” rump out there who don’t know what Christianity actually entails.
And there was me thinking that Gaston was a good christian fellow. Obviously he is not lead by the teachings of the Bible.