I was listening to the Nolan show yesterday and I thought I’d heard it all. David McNarry, now a UKIP man, was explaining how immigrants would have to lead upright lives if they wished to stay in our little state. When Nolan pressed him about this McNarry was adamant. Should a Polish doctor, say, be deported? “Yes”. For even a traffic violation? “Yes”. If he overshoots his 30 minutes parking? “Yes”. To give the man credit, McNarry gave all his “Yes”s in deadpan, unperturbed tones. But that was all you could say for his views. UKIP later in the day tried to row back by saying it was all Nolan’s fault for trivializing things – something like that. The truth is, McNarry dug himself a very deep pit and then, on live radio, jumped into it.
But my belief that I’d heard it all was short-lived. Because at the time I hadn’t heard the DUP’s Adrian McQuillan. He’s from Garvagh, and when a number of traveller families moved into the area, Mr McQuillan urged people to lock up their property. Unlike McNarry, though, McQuillan wasn’t backing down. “All I was doing was giving a warning. If you can’t warn people what’s this coming to? I don’t apologise for saying it and I will not be”. So the John Wayne school of social interaction, then: never apologise, never explain.
You could, of course, say that McQuillan was entitled to warn his fellow-Garvaghians, since it’s true that travellers don’t have the highest reputation in terms of respecting other people’s property. But that’s a bit like someone from the deep South warning his fellow-whites to lock up their daughters because some African-Americans had just come to town. Because a prejudice is common doesn’t justify reaching for it.
The job of a public representative is not to slip into the comfort of a well-worn prejudice, it’s to challenge that prejudice and lead people to a more rational, respectful view of others. Both McNarry and McQuillan crashed at the first fence on that one.
But while you’d assume such words would damage both politicians irreparably, the awful truth is that it may not. Both men may have decided it would be worth taking the flak from bleeding-heart quarters if their words got through to their backwoodsmen: “By God, that McNarry/McQuillan boy, he’s not afraid to tell the truth about them damn lazy, thieving immigrants/travellers!” What is flak from a liberal elite if you can increase your chances that the knuckle-draggers will put their No 1 beside the UKIP/DUP party come election day?
As Ledru-Rollin is reputed to have said a couple of centuries ago: ‘There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader”.
Scare-eee.
The horror of it is that I fully expect David McNarry to come out with a statement like this latest one . He need not row back and apologise to me .It’s is exactly who he is ….what it says on the tin and all that . He ‘s been like that for so many years that it is fully expected. Let’s face it ,Mr McNarry is not the intelligent chap’s choice.He’s thre especially for the rednecks to buy. He’s another version of that other auld buffer Ken Maginnis or Major Kenneth Wiggins Maginnis, Baron Maginnis of Drumglass(!)…or Lord Whatever he calls himself now. Another rock-headed bugger with his feet in the fifteenth century. Had he been on his mettle he would have jousted back with a jab at Mr Nolan’s own record of waiving parking tickets ….never mind the poor about to be hypothetically deported, Pakistani surgeon. Apparently the Big Lad could paper a room with his own collection of parking tickets and makes no bones about it . At least that used to be his attitude in the past .That might have opened the conversation up to a little light comedy.I’ve said before , a sense of humour and a notion of the absurd goes a very long way in Norneverland . There is always plenty of comedic material to be getting on with but the likes of McNarry appear to have had a humour bypass and no sense of proportion. It’s UKIP innit?
“As Ledru-Rollin is reputed to have said a couple of centuries ago: ‘There go the people. I must follow them, for I am their leader”.
It is said that the quotation is probably apocryphal. Be that as it may, however, Mr McNarry has already stated he will not stand in the next election. According to Roosevelt,
“It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead and find no one there.”
The majority of people remain sceptical about what passes for politics in this part of the world, with justification. Mr Cameron, however, is fighting back. He states,
“There is nothing wrong with being wealthy…”
Really? Corruption in political life remains rife as waiting lists in hospitals grow longer. There is ample evidence about poor health outcomes associated with delays in diagnosis and treatment. There is a crisis in the health service at present. It would be much worse without the input from health care professionals from various parts of the world who choose to work in this time warp. Perhaps it is time to include health warnings with election literature.
The DUP’s positioning is cute though. Resolutely right wing so they don’t lose votes to the TUV or UKIP, a slightly more cheery presentation from Arlene, let Mike play the liberal at the UUP, but form a unionist alliance to keep out the real liberal lundies when it matters.
“All I was doing was giving a warning,if you can’t warn people what’s this coming to”?
This is a very true statement,spot on 100% so I’m giving a warning that there are people out there that listen to the likes of these two who just love to have someone to hate.
Old habits die hard.
Unfortunately Dopey Dave McNarry has rowed back somewhat, or his party has done it on his behalf, from his original statement.
Because one comment from him ‘we have to take back our country’ I would have wholeheartedly supported.
If ‘we have to take back our country’, then somebody must have taken it from us!
Oh yes, the Brits did 800 years ago, and Irish people have been trying for all that time to regain it.
So if Dopey Dave and UKIP were prepared to help us ‘take back our country’ from the Brits, we would succeed in no time at all.
Regarding Adrian McQuillan’s outrageous racist outburst, have I missed Arlene Foster (his boss) coming on radio and tv to condemn his statement and affirm that it was not DUP policy to be anti-traveller?
Has any journalist even asked her for her views on Adrian’s views – if not, why not?
Just heard a gentleman on Talkback talking about travelling “the country from Portavogie to Ballymena.”
“Gach éan mar a adhbha.” mar a dúirt Myles na gCopaleen.
As I said before ,when the chips are down you could not put a cigarette paper between DUP, UUP, TUV, UKIP in terms of right wingness!
Predge, pledge
The taking of the pledge was once marked in the Free Southern Stateen, Esteemed Blogmeister, by the wearing of the Pioneer Pin but this is a practice which has all but disappeared ever since the Enlightenment was ushered in by The Unionist Times and its broadcasting wing, RTE.
Indeed, one had actually thought it had completely vanished in this the Era of Inclusivity, not least since the retirement of the mighty Micheal O Muircheartaigh, till one caught sight of Jarlath Burns on the Sunday Game panel two nights ago and there, on his left lapel, sure enough, was the badge of the Sacred Heart.
In fact the only custom, the all too visible custom, which continues to mark our Roman heritage has been the not totally unrelated one of the (gulp) vomitorium. One has but to stroll around the cobblestoned lanes of Temple Bar the night after, any and every night after. Warily.
The other symbol once worn on the left lapel of the jacket which has disappeared, Do Do style, down here south of the Black Sow’s Dyke, is the Fainne. Designed to symbolize that the wearer was a fluent speaker of the Leprechaun, pledged to speaking in same to anyone so disposed.
Oddly, enough, it is another Nordie who appears to be the last man walking down here with a Fainne in his left lapel. That would be Gearoid Mac Adaimh, the same man about whose political wellbeing the homogeneous hackitariat are so solicitous, they wish him to unburden himself of his onerous public responsibilities, and as soon as possible, like say, the day before yesterday, so they do.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that, say, Gay Byrne was neither disposed to take the hand of or to speak the language of Leprechaunland on the famous first time Gerry Adams (for it is also he !) was an honoured guest on the Loot, Loot Show. One could detect that indisposition by the looks of the host in the direction of the guest.They spoke of a metaphorical mahogany gas pipe being wielded with an unspoken desire, that of wanting to whack the Fall Guy all the way back to the Falls.
It might be the time is ripe, EB, for folk in the FSS to pluck up the courage to take the Predge. Their prejudice could be symbolized by wearing a badge on the left lapel of their jacket. All in the interests of transparency and equality in this, the E-age, transgender transparency. So, what manner of badge?
But first, the reason one is excluding Norneverland in this suggestion is because, as one understands it, one wears one’s prejudices up there on one’s metaphorical sleeve; in the expression of one’s face, the tone of one’s voice, the cut of one’s gib. No one is ever left in any doubt, by all accounts, as to where one stand or what one squares up to in no nonsense Norneverland.
Not so easy down here in the sloothery South. Where it is the custom of the inhabitants to play their cards close to the chest, breast, and all the rest. This is particularly true of the megalomaniacal yet evenhanded megastars in the mono media.
Where one could be watching and listening , say, Pat ‘Canny’ Kenny, or the discreet Dame Dosh Finucane or even the prim Mimsy O’Call-again or the fawning Yawnya Lawlor or the good Woodman in the Wideawake Hat himself for ages on end and never, EVER guess what their political predge was, if any. Not even in a mill-on years (Noonanpseak).
So,in the immortal words of the delectable Dame Edna, what manner of badge, Madge ?
Something even along the lines of the Fainne ?. Perhaps, one could take a leaf from the pages of Dineen, the supreme guru in these matters. Page 417, in fact, in which he defines ‘Fainne’ as :
-a ring, a pig-ring; a halo; a circle.
Now, as the second definition, the one suggestive of parlour games, is the one which obviously pertains to the Fainne, there can also be no argument but that the third meaning is the appropriate one in this second, sainted instance.
But, what halo-shaped badge with the teeniest orange tint ?
Why, a Britvic bottle top.
What else, a mhic ?
In the left lapel of a jacket/ jackette ?
-‘You’ll love it to Bitz’.
Anti-Traveller sentiment is maybe the last acceptable prejudice in our society, though that is debatable. Of course sectarianism is still ripe but its rare for a Unionist politician to go out and openly bash Catholics today (and get a flood of votes in return) compared to the 1960’s or 1970’s but that’s not to say they don’t bash Catholics in private. Since Catholics are becoming the majority its understandable why many DUP politicians would choose to direct their hate towards Travellers instead of the “taigs”, lets look back at what some Unionist politicians said in the recent and distant past:
“Its a very valuable return to reality” – Sammy Wilson, DUP, on the 1993 “Plan” drawn up by the UDA to ethnically cleanse Catholics and hold many hostage, with hints of the possibility of genocide.
“There will never be a Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast” – Sammy Wilson. That worked out well, didn’t it Sammy?……
“Our message to the perverts who voted for them [Sinn Féin] is that they will not get anything through this council” – Sammy Wilson, DUP. Sammy showing when he was Mayor that Belfast was a city for all….
“5,000 sub human animals” – Sammy Wilson, DUP, on voters who elected a Sinn Fein member to City Hall.
“Taigs don’t pay rates” – Sammy Wilson, DUP. This was said in the year 2000 to the Irish Times.
“They are poofs. I don’t care if they are ratepayers. As far as I am concerned they are perverts” – Sammy Wilson on Gay people in 1992.
“Would this council be prepared to congratulate all those who have done a good job on two sides of the border?” – Sammy Wilson praising Loyalist paramilitary murder of a Sinn Fein member…
“”Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners” – Ian Paisley, DUP founder, at a loyalist rally in 1968 following attacks on Catholic homes
“They breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin” – Ian Paisley talking about Catholics at a loyalist rally in 1969.
“This Romish man of sin is now in hell!” – Ian Paisley on the death of Pope John XXIII
“The harsh reality is is that 1/3 of all Catholics support the IRA or are in the IRA” – John Taylor, deputy UUP Leader. – I read this in Susan McKays: Northern Protestants.
“99% of Roman Catholics are disloyal. Men should only hire Protestant Lads and Lassies. I wouldn’t have a Roman Catholic about the place” – Sir Basil Brooke, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, promoting discrimination against Catholics at the 12th July celebrations.
“There is not one person in our cabinet that disagrees with our Prime Minister” – Unionist cabinet member, in reply to criticism of Sir Basil’s promotion of discrimination against Catholics.
“Loyalists have a duty to employ only Loyal lads and lassies. I’m saying this so you know you have your Prime Minister behind you” – Sir Basil Brooke, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
“It is very difficult to explain to Protestants that if you give a Catholic a good job and a good house that they will begin to live like Protestants. They will refuse to have 18 children, they will live with due consideration and kindness despite the nature of their Church…..” – Terence O’Neill, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. This quote shows the way many Protestants believed Catholics were subhuman and lived like animals, which the likes of Paisley and many other’s preached for a very long time…..
These are just a few quotes by Unionist politicians through the years. As you can see McNarry & McQuillan are just continuing the tradition and unfortunately saying disgraceful things is still a vote winner amongst the Unionist electorate.