Picture by Crausby
There was an interesting article in The Strabane Chronicle last week. It centred on a remark made on Facebook by the Mayor of Derry and Strabane, Eilisha McCallion. She was responding to attacks last week in which one councillor had his car set alight and another hand his windscreen smashed. The Mayor wrote “If the Brits can’t break us I doubt if they can”.
There was prompt exception taken to such talk by DUP Councillor Maurice Devenney, who thought the remark would offend people he represented. At the same time he joined the condemnation of attacks and welcomed “the journey Sinn/Féin IRA has been on…supporting the rule of law”. The Mayor apologised for anyone she might have offended and added: “But if we are talking about offensive language here then it would do you well Cllr Devenney not to say Sinn Féin and IRA in the same sentence.”
This, on the face of it, is a classic bit of tit-for-tat inter-party sniping. What would be interesting to know is the motivation behind the remarks. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the Mayor’s remarks were directed at people in her party Sinn Féin, given that it was Sinn Féin councillors’ cars that were damaged. What she forgot – or maybe didn’t care about – was that as Mayor she’s the representative of all the people in her constituency, not just those who support her. I figure in her concern to rally the spirits of Sinn Féin councillors she forgot that her statement suggested that ‘we’ might be seen as including DUP supporters, who wouldn’t have felt they should be included with those the Brits had tried to break.Councillor Devenney’s bit about Sinn Féin/IRA was an insult to the thousand of Sinn Féin members and supporters who weren’t even born during the time of the Troubles.
But actually it was a separate comment by independent councillor Paul Gallagher that impressed me most. He said that simple condemnation had “no value” and that there should be “active engagement” with the groups responsible in order to find a way forward.
Maith thú- well said, Councillor Gallagher. We can all slip so easily into the “Do you condemn that? I for one do!” line of argument. Politicians, especially Sinn Féin politicians, used to be be pressed to say they condemned this or that incident. To my shame I’ve done the same thing myself and it is truly a distraction and pointless. What changes if someone says they condemn a particular action? Indeed, the person who committed the action is probably confirmed in his/her stance. The reasons for the action are ignored and the pattern continues. We might not like the answers we get when we engage in proper dialogue and try to address the source issues, but it’s the only path worth taking. How often you can say “I condemn” proves nothing except you’re probably related to a parrot.
When we are talking about Derry and the politics of condemnation ,there seems to be a deafening silence from Unionist politicians on the death of Paul Mc Cauley.It seems to be the case that U D A elements were responsible for his murder in 2006 and apart from Daryl Proctor,no one as yet has been made amenable.Apart from Lord Hay(who no longer has to depend on loyalist votes) no elected Unionist politician has encouraged his community to assist the P S N I in apprehending the other criminals involved in the outrage.I’m willing to be corrected if such is not the case.
A point well worth making, Argie – maith thú – well done. It’s sometimes difficult to believe we live in a civilized society when our politicians can allow barbarism of that kind to go by without comment.
There have been clerical omissions also.
In the interests of fairness,I note that Cllr Mary Hamilton(Ulster Unionist) has commented in unequivocal terms on the B B C lunchtime news.
Had Paul Mc Cauley`s murder been carried out by Republicans the media would have been full of his pathetic hospital picture and we would have had regular updates on his condition. The hypocrisy of the BBC/UTV/RTE and various newspapers like the Belfast Telegraph is rank. I personally pay no heed to the fake outrage of the DUP over flags or insults to their `culture`, the fact is the twelfth of July `celebratopns` are what fuels the sectarian hatred of the black bastards who killed Paul. These are the very same type of bastards Gerry Adams was referring to so yes, they DO exist.
Language, please. Maybe time to read Dennis Herbstein’s book, ‘White Man, We Want To Talk To You’.
AJ
I don’t see exactly what you mean regarding the media? The story is featured prominently on the Beeb, UTV and the Telegraph.
I can’t think of an example of someone left in similar condition by republicans where the media provided regular updates over a period of years. Have you any in mind?
Gordon Wilson, Anne Travers, the McCartney sisters, Mairia Cahill, the McConvilles, all victims of Republican violence and all media darlings.
None of them were in the same situation.
What should the media have been reporting about his condition over those years?
What updates?
Well maybe that`s because Nationalists as a rule do not kick people to death? The simple fact is had the Derry gang been supporters of the IRA rather than of the UDA we would have seen programmes and articles about it, Jim Alister and co. would have been on tv condemning it. Sectarianism is worse among the Loyalist people but that`s not really surprising when the twelfth of July is held up as a `holiday`.
AJ
You say it is a simple fact, but you do not dispute the recent coverage of his death, nor do you highlight any events since the attack which have been omitted from media reporting.
I’m willing to believe your accusation of bias if you back it up.
Sectarianism, racism ageism and after
According to Gregory Campbell if an individual is 70+ and not permanently resident in Ireland, he/she has no right to express an opinion about the dysfunctional nature of what passes for government on this part of the island. He also dismissed the inquiry, ‘Violence and Civil Disturbances in Northern Ireland in 1969’, chaired by the Hon. Mr. Justice Scarman.
Could the condemnation have something to do with a reference to Mr Paisley?
7 2.15 “The name of Dr Paisley has been linked with these extremists. A major submission made on behalf of some who were represented before the Tribunal was to the effect that Dr Paisley by his actions and speeches must be held largely responsible for the disturbances.”
Totally agree Argenta disgraceful that more has not been done in this case
During the Thirty Years Dirty War in Norneverland, Esteemed Blogmeister, down here in the Free Southern Stateen we were globally recognised as the Command Post of Condemnation.
And because the reason for this was so obvious – being the Mother Lode of Moral Authority since time immemorial and in some instances, even earlier – we carried the fully deserved accolade with the reticence which is second nature to us, much is the way our Second National Language is.
No wine bar after-work drinkyypoos in Dublin 4 were complete without finishing up with a rousing but refined rendition of : ‘Castigation Once Again !’
One is happy to report that our Condemnatory Skill Set is like the insomnia of rust: it never sleeps.And is as alert as it ever was even since the cessation of hostilities north of the Black Sow’s Dyke. We thus find ourselves duty-bound to share that skill-set with those in Norneverand who are neophytes by comparison in this business of denunciation.
Take his item which was carried on RTE Radio 1 the other day: re. the publication of an exhaustive report on the horrors inflicted upon the innocent children of the Inuit tradition. Who were forcibly snatched from their family igloos, crammed into soulless and joyfree Workhouses for the Young and kneaded into the desired end-product: conforming Canadians.
That all this happened on the far side of the Atlantic and for the most part in the 19th Century did not for one moment in t., modify by one iota the heart-felt flak which was maintained in the stern, disapproving tone of voice adopted by the RTE reporter in question.
And which flak reached its acme at the very mention of the two initials which fully justified the lengthy report: R.C.
This is only as it should be. As it happened, a report was carried on the BBC on the same identical day to do with a (gasp). 100 page plus report on over 2,000 cases of Child Abuse carried by out by ministers of the Methodist Church in Holy England since 1950.
A report which was very properly Athloned by RTE. Which is contemporary jargon for ‘left alone’ or ‘bypassed’. Which led of course to some rumblings of discontent from the (yawn) usual predictable suspects. Who claim that I.M.R.O. has a strong case (even of a legal nature !) to take against the Methodist Church on behalf of the R.C.s
I.M.R.O. stands for Irish Music Rights Organisation and are so litigious they could easily boast, say, J. Delaney as their CEO. (And may well do, in the not too d. future). They guard the copyrights of musicians with all the doggedness of the rottweilers who used to man the Meath full back line. And rightly so.
Indeed, the musical element strikes a particularly resonant chord in this particular instance. John Wesley, the founding inspiration of Methodism was a noted musician and composer of innumerable hymns. (No coincidence either that the putative Biblical scholar Bob Dylan named one of his emblematic albums: John Wesley Harding).
Now, ‘Sweet Vale of AVOCA’ is a hymn which is fundamentally linked with the RC clergy, in general and with the Irish versh in particular: ‘A Victim Of Child Abuse’. And to witness this blatant disregard for the decencies of copyright by the musical Methodists is breathtaking if not breath controlling.
For a church which does not even encourage celibacy, to add this evocative hymn to their already extensive repertoire raised not a few eyebrows. And for RTE Radio to bypass this addition in its entirety flabbered the gast of galore listeners and watchers.
But this is to miss the big picture. Which is something which RTE Radio indubitably did not do. Rather than there being madness in their method, the opposite was the truth. They weighed both reports in their balanced manner and came down correctly and decisively in favour of the flavour of the day Canadian report.
Unlike, say, the Clinton Maximum Security Correctional Facility in Upstate New York (close to the Canadian border as it happens) RTE did the, erm, Math, no Sweat.
In their wise assessment, the horrors of the Maple Leaf story outnumbered the hideousness of the Methodist one on all counts: bell, book, and dandle.
Thirty years of denouncing the Dirty Year War was not all in vain, you know..
(For readers in Norneverland in need of a quick-fix Condemnation, just dial Condemnation Central aka The Free Southern Stateen whose country code is: 191418 ).
You ring the bell and win the cigar once more, Perkie…Maith thú and whatever the Erse for ‘stunning stuff’ is….
Fortuitously enough, Esteemed Blogmeister, there is a ready-made term in the Erse to hand, and one which RTE is currently not slow to use; indeed, even unto the point of overuse.
One is referring to L.E. Eithne which may be translated as either ‘Long Eireannach Eithne’ (The Irish Ship Eithne) or indeed, plain ‘stunning stuff’.
And truly the same good ship is indeed engaged in stunning acts of rescue. Of desperate migrants from their ramshackle boats and deflatable rubber dinghies in the beguiling but duplicitous Mediterranean, off the Coast of Libya. Before depositing them safely in Sicilian ports beneath the maternal gaze of Momma Montagna Etna.
This celebratory element of the Free Southern Stateen psyche is the other side of what may be termed the condemnatory coin. Which was most in evidence during the heady days of Italia 90 when ‘we’ won, if not not the World Cup itself, but rather something far, far more demanding and durable, the hearts of the watching world.
This was down to the exemplary displays of good sportsmanship of what we modestly describe as ‘the best fans in the world’. (Did one hear an echo of ‘bar none !’ ?).
The celebratory and self-laudatory tones of RTE at this moment in t., going forward, are such that they seem to be leading up to something akin to ….Italia 2015.
Should such pint-sized Italian and Sicilian ports as Taranto and Trapani, however, eventually balk at taking on board more quart-sized decantations of migrants then Momma Montagna Etna may well be liable to erupt and in a manner not necessarily maternal.
And Taranto and Trapatni may well morph into the port of Tarantino. Thus, unleshing the Resevoir Dogs of pulp fiction.
This in turn might lead the LE Eithne to adopt the rather reasonable tactic of changing tack and course alike, and heading for its home port of Cobh, that was Queenstown in the County of Cork. With its grateful cargo of human pariahs on board and the cheerleading wind of RTE at its back.
A note of caution might prudently be inserted here. While we in the FSS are in theory (our own at any rate) humanitarians of the first water this has not always turned out be be quite so when put to the test in, erm, practice.
The L.E. Eithne and its cargo might well not be extended the welcome with open arms they would indubitably deserve. In fact, a Cead Mile F of a different order might well await them.
Such as, for instance, another vessel which also, curiously enough, originally set sail from the Coast of Libya received in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy Tree. And which was intercepted rather than escorted off Helvick Head in the Gaelic Deise County of Viking Waterford.
That would have been the badship Claudia which played a cardinal role in the ongoing epic known as ‘Once upon a Time in West Britain’.
Another central character in this maritime melodrama was the pin-up Monasterboice boyo Patrick Sarsfield Donegan, TD, a product of the Castlerock oops Castleknock Studio star system. He it was who gave a kick up the transom (Erse for arse) to Claudia while simultaneously taking custody of its cargo of arms and pinioning the arms of illegal immigrant Uncle Joe behind his back.
West Brtiain, incidentally is also known as the Republic of Irony. Not least because it was eventually to morph much later into the, erm, Cahilliphate even while welcoming The Sleepless Beauty with open arms. Though from a different,erm political direction, it must be averred.
To conclude (1) on a further linguisitic note: T.D. is the Erse for ‘Thundering Disgrace’; and (2) on a further lingua-historical note: Eithne, after whom the L.E. was named with a champagne bottle (see above) was the daughter (not actually the niece) of Balor,
This one-eyed Fomorian was as devoted to singular vessels as, say, Delorean was to the art of gulling and also, adorable gull-doored autos.
Thus, while the Fomorian Gael turned a blind eye to Claudia the other John was unexpectedly reduced to tear-filled eyes with the chorus of ‘You’ll never beat the Nornirish’ ringing in his ears.
‘Gol’, pronounced ‘gull’ being, ar ndoigh, the Erse for ‘to weep’.
“Councillor Devenney’s bit about Sinn Féin/IRA was an insult to the thousand of Sinn Féin members and supporters who weren’t even born during the time of the Troubles. ”
Why ?
When unionists use this term, all they do is remind their voters their sharing power with the ra. It’s counterproductive from their viewpoint.
It’s also historically inaccurate but an insult ? Not to me.