When Nelson Mandela first visited Ireland he rattled the humbugs and Pharisees by refusing to condemn the Republicans. He knew, but they didn’t, that Irish Republicans had given training and technical help with the most successful sabotage operation carried out in South Africa. There was some symmetry there, for when Michael Stone murdered three and wounded about a hundred more mourners in Milltown Cemetery, his weapons had come from South Africa’s Bureau of State Security which had supplied them to British Security Forces which had donated them to their Loyalist cats’ paws.
Not quite symmetry, for the ANC’s sabotage spectacular did not and was not intended to cause death or injury. David Milliband is on record as having
admired the action. Perhaps he should now share his admiration for the ANC with admiration for the IRA. The late Kader Asmal of the ANC had contacted
Michael O’Riordan, veteran of The International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, who in turn contacted Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams, who had a word with some IRA friends who showed what could be achieved by international good will. Gerry Adams had an honoured place at Mandela’s funeral, above that of politicians,statesmen and royalty from outside Africa.
I mentioned a few days ago, how, on visiting Dublin in 1972, Muhammed Ali likened Ireland’s long struggle for freedom and justice to that of black people. And I mentioned how in the 1930s at the League of Nations Eamon de Valera championed the right of Ethiopia to the protection of that member, and how he was dismissed as a firebrand by Britain’s Anthony Eden. Marcus Garvey, who was inspired by the fact that Ethiopia, alone among African Nations, had never been conquered by Europeans, admired its Emperor Ras Tafari (aka Haile Selassie). But he also admired Eamon de Valera and Sinn Fein, and wrote in their support when Dev was in America in 1920.
Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) supported Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave Abolitionist who visited Ireland in 1845.But, contrary to the guff spouted by Ruth Dudley Edwards, he was not the first politically active Irish person to support the emancipation of black people.Nor the last either. Mary Ann McCracken (1770-1868) of Belfast was from her teens an anti-slavery campaigner and at the age of 89 when O’Connell was long dead and Abraham Lincoln a private citizen, she was distributing anti-slavery pamphlets at the Belfast Docks to emigrants bound for America.
In 1791 an ex-slave OLAUDO EQUINO lodged in Belfast with Samuel Neilson. In that same year the Sociery of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast. Neilson and Henry Joy McCracken and Thomas Russell, all anti-slavery champions, were United Irishmen. Henry Joy, sister of Mary Ann, was hanged at Belfast’s Corn Market in July 1798, and Thomas Russell at Downpatrick Jail in 1803, for their parts in distributing the struggle for national freedom and equality of citizenship.
And Samuel Nielson is buried in Ploughkeepsie NY. I visited his grave while helping Clan Na Geal research a book called The Last Post, which was about the Itish Patriots who ended up buried in the US. Wolfe Tones wife is buried in Greenwood Cemetary, Brooklyn, Thomas Addis Emmett buried in St Pauls, near Wall Street, etc, etc
There is so much to admire! Murders, kneecappings, covering up for rapists and paedophiles….are you airbrushing all that out; have your head in the sand; or think they were justified in their actions?
Then they surrendered and upheld Stormont and British rule.
Strange set of heroes Irish Republicans have….
mandela,huh…..was he not made lord bailiff of such n such,think hes over rated.
Nelson Mandela will be remembered forever amongst men and women of good will,
for his
Intelligence
Generosity of Spirit
Eloquence
Charm
Couragee
What will Billy be remembered for – an Empty Head, a missing backbone, an Empty Scrotum -not having the Balls to write his name?
whats the abuse for having an opinion,..is this tolerated because he blogs here jude.
If you received straight abuse, Billy, direct me to it and I’ll remove it.
Billy has his own heroes.They are “imaginary soldiers” who free Ireland every night on a bar stool and claim to be the “IRA” .They parade occasionally with their beer bellies sticking out of ill fitting uniforms and once in a blue moon when they attempt some sort of attack their bungling gets them caught.They then try to save their own skins by getting their solicitors to name others in court whilst their “supporters” on the outside steal money destined for prisoners.Meanwhile those who gave their all and have nothing to prove represent the Republican community via a massive electoral mandate.
heroes are for the picture house when you were a kid.maybe try the alcoholic or mentally ill line when somebody has a different opinion eh.
billy
I don’t agree with much you say but I agree we should be wary of making heroes.
Mandela in my view was an admirable man, but he was just a man with plenty of faults and we should be entitled to question the myth without being subject to ugly personal abuse as happened to you.
“Meanwhile those who gave their all and have nothing to prove represent the Republican community via a massive electoral mandate.”
Very well said Michael.
I wonder how they feel though?
The torrents of abuse they received from the southern establishment and its state media must hurt. If it upset me, I wonder how as you say “those who gave their all and have nothing to prove” might feel?
When their partners in government continuously throw insults, hold their noses and demonise them, ignoring the fact there was a conflict which they did not start and instead promoting the idea of a one sided terrorist campaign?
How must they feel when 18 years on from the GFA, the British state still covers up its past and continues its criminalisation policy towards our people, while only the select combatants with state clearance are protected regardless the atrocity they colluded in?
They are certainly better people than I am.