I have mentioned Eoghan Harris before and wrote about how disgruntled he is about Sinn Fein’s success in the polls. However, irrespective of this growing support for SF, Harris still refuses to accept that the people have freely elected members of that party in free and fair elections in the north and in the south. Sinn Fein is a democratic party like any other. They put themselves forward for election. They put forward policies and ask people to vote for them on the basis of their policies and the important point which Mr Harris refuses to recognise, people come out without compulsion to vote for the SF candidates. They came within a whisker of the DUP at the last election in the North. It is believed they will return to Leinster House with an increased number of seats at the next election in the south.
In his column in the Indo every Sunday, Harris continues to moan and groan at this prospect –and he has taken to blaming RTE for the increase in their vote. Harris believes that the RTE interviewers are too soft with the SF people and anyway RTE has them on the radio and TV far too often. Mr Harris is clearly very vexed. It is not like the good old days when SF was banned from the RTE when Mr Harris and his reactionary friends got their way in RTE.
So poor Mr Harris is now very concerned, at the prospect of SF in power in the north and in the south. This would be a disaster he believes. What a sad man. This man does not accept the democratic process. What will he do when SF achieve power? Will he lead a rebellion to keep partition and maintain British sovereignty in a part of Ireland? Right wing fascists like Harris can always cause bother in any democracy. They can, I believe, provoke people to act violently and foment hatred and prejudice.
Harris and his mates held sway in RTE at the height of the troubles.The WP of which he was a leading idealogue infiltrated current affairs to such an extent that programmes like the notorious “today tonight” were allowed to portray a totally fictional account of the Northern situation.Mary McAleese was treated very badly by these people at the time and Harris hankers back to those “good old days”.Ironically he and his sidekicks virtually turned full circle from a curious version of “socialism” to full blown “neo con”.Their support for British imperialism was never compatable with left wing thinking and thankfully they have all found their natural political home,somewhere to the right of the now defunct PDs of McDowell and O’Malley.
There is no doubt that British Intelligence recruitment covers all aspects of society in Ireland, including journalism, if in fact, Harris is a journalist that is. Raises the question to whatextent was RTE and other Irish media infiltrated by them?
I am no fan of Harris but ‘right wing fascist’? Is that ok?
I might as well call Sinn Fein fascists then, what with their beloved leader with the alleged military background (how many years is it now?), authoritarianism and their links to the violent fascist movement PIRA.
Harris is no lover of SF for sure,but how is he a fascist?
When did he refuse to accept that;
‘the people have freely elected members of that party in free and fair elections in the north and in the south.’?
You have a point, Gio, have you ever heard of a left wing fascist?
gio – you are the lone voice of reason in this revisionist IRA fan site.
“gio – you are the lone voice of reason in this revisionist IRA fan site.”
Fine praise indeed; tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.
joe
You are too kind.
I doubt if many here will agree!
Get a room!!
Joe – don’t make insulting remarks about this blogsite except you can support them.
Jude
Out of curiosity what was the insulting part?
The accusation of revisionism or of being an IRA fan site.
There have been plenty of comments here in recent weeks of a positive nature about the IRA campaign.
There was a recent blog on the undefeated army of the IRA too which was clearly a n admiring piece with the usual murmers of agreement in the comments.
Your regular bloggers Donal Kennedy, Donal Lavery, Jessica Joe McVeigh, have all at various times sought to explain why the campaign of violence over 30 years was necessary or inevitable.
I am not sure if that falls under revisionism or IRA support or maybe both.
You yourself said Martin McGuinness had a ‘life well lived’.
I tried to ascertain if his activites in the IRA were part of living life well, but you did not answer.
I don’t think you are a fan of the IRA but many of your commenters clearly are.
I don’t think you are unequivocal at all about how you feel regarding the IRA campaign but that is your choice.
I am 100% certain that you will not clarify that issue for us.
Gio – I don’t know why I waste so much time on you. It must be your rascally charm…I suspect my accusation of abuse was because of your description of what you (and most right-wing ccmmentators on Irish affairs) call ‘PIRA’ as a ‘violent fascist organisation’. Since the ‘A’ stands for ‘Army’, it’d be a bit odd if they weren’t violent from time to time. But fascist? Don’t get it. Should the IRA volunteers have been elected? And you also refer to Sinn Féin as fascist. I know you’re responding to some parallel someone else drew, but it’d make more sense to argue the accuracy of that description rather than moving to name-call Sinn Féin and the IRA. As to “I am not sure if that falls under revisionism or IRA support or maybe both.” re the two Donals and others : accepting that the Troubles were inevitable indicates precisely nothing regarding one’s attitude to the IRA. If I believe that Brexit will be inevitably disastrous for our economy, that doesn’t mean I’m in favour of either Brexit or economic disaster – I’m simply making a judgement about a major social/economic/political matter. I’m sure you see that, gio, even if you don’t like admitting it.
As to being ‘a fan of the IRA’ – me or anyone else – I think that’s simply juvenile. ‘Fan’ suggests juvenile admiration/besotted with. So maybe try to keep your questions sensible and adult. This matter of ‘Are you a supporter of?’ harks back directly to the constant unionist refrain during the Troubles, and their modification of it to ‘Is the ceasefire permanent?’ ‘Will you say you’re sorry’ and other linguistic demands. I could say ‘I am not a supporter of the IRA’ and still be one, or I could say ‘I’m not a supporter of the IRA’ and be one. Why would you believe me in either case – and do you think unionists trusted the word of the IRA about permanence or anything else? No, it was just a linguistic cudgel they liked to wield until it got too heavy.
And of course there’ s also the matter of what ‘supporting’ means. Saying ‘Hooray!’? Feeling inwardly pleased? Acting as a look-out? Driving a getaway car? I think again you are aware that this kind of verbal play-acting is a waste of time. I’m sure the Donals and others can speak for themselves, but I’d say I can understand why Martin McGuinness joined the IRA. That doesn’t mean I’d have done the same – maybe I don’t approve of violence, maybe I’m a coward, maybe I’m a closet unionist. The point is, anyone who has even the most threadbare knowledge of Irish history, or even iIrish history in the twentieth century, should understand why Martin McGuinness and hundreds of others joined the IRA and other republican paramilitary groups. When McGuinness joined, I’m convinced he believed that was the right thing to do. And when he persuaded the IRA to commit to a ceasefire, I believe he was convinced that was the right thing to do. And when he made repeated efforts at reconciliation with unionists, I believe he was convinced that was the right thing to do. That’s what I mean by ‘a life well lived’ – he did what (in my opinion) he believed was the right thing to do, regardless of the consequences.
PS Gio – How about you answer a question – when are you or other anti-republican posters going to write a blog? You come on and criticise continually the work that others put up but you don’t show us what you can do. Don’t you think it’s time? After all, you won’t be revealing your identity, so you ‘ll be really really safe….
Jude
Thank you for the reply.
Is PIRA incorrect? It is used commonly to differentiate between that group and the earlier version.I did not realise it made me right wing!
You are right that I used ‘fascist’to make a point about the description of Eoghan Harris.
Did you think it reasonable? In what way is he a fascist?
The militant nationalists who tried to use violence to achieve their aims are much closer to fascist than Harris I would have said.
On the issue of being a fan site well those were Joe’s words not mine.
I merely pointed out that your regular bloggers are certainly defensive regarding the IRA and jessica for one is on record as supporting them.
You asked for some evidence and there it is
Your comments about McGuinness were clearly suggesting you thought he had a life well lived.
What he thought is not the issue. No doubt Margaret Thatcher thought she was doing the right thing when she ordered the sinking of the Belgrano for example.
Undoubtedly Hitler thought he was right too.
Were they lives well lived?
I was interested in your view about him not your view on what he thought of himself.
So were his activities in the IRA part of living life well or not? In your opinion?
Obruno, you fulfil a very necessary role. You keep a tight eye on the over egging of the puddings – a very necessary post. And there’s not a single poster can question your fairness and neutrality.
fiosrach
Yes its all true.
I am just glad that Joe McVeigh is turning his ire on journalists he happens to disagree with rather than naming vulnerable members of his parish and exposing them to persecution like he was doing a few months ago.
Have to disagree that Harris is a ‘right-wing fascist’. Harris is very much a creature of the left, I’m afraid.
He’s a classic example of left-wing authoritarianism. Remember, Harris is an actual, trained and experienced Marxist-Leninist activist. An actual communist. (No hyperbole being employed here.) His instincts are Stalinist.
Here we see him attacking RTÉ for its failure (in his eyes) to control the narrative. Evidence that, whatever ideological badge he’s claiming this week, he still thinks like the Soviet commissar he so wishes to be.
Harris’s obsessive, pathological hatred of Sinn Féin is typical of a kind of political sectarianism that is very common on the far left. Revolutionaries often reserve their deepest hatred not for the oppressor, but for other revolutionaries who are, in their minds, the wrong kind of revolutionary.
Harris’s hatred for SF guides everything he does, it’s his north star. It’s the one thing he has always been consistent about. He will happily jump into bed (and has done) with absolutely anyone, as long as they are enemies of SF.
Harris is not a fascist. He’s a communist. An actual one.
Harris has every right to feel disgruntled, as in his more active days he opted to go with the Stickies rather than the Provos! And where are the Stickies now?
But by making out he’s a hypocrite, Joe, I feel you’re being very unfair to ordinary decent hypocrites!