I note where that Venerable Organ (VO) The Irish News has finally got a response to a question. After eight months the Department of the Environment has conceded that the lighting of a Twelfth bonfire by Paul Givan near Augher, Co Tyrone, was, “in essence an offence”. They don’t say whether it is a legal offence or a cultural offence or an offence against civilized behaviour. The burning of tyres in a bonfire is a legal offence, but apparently there were no tyres in the Augher bonfire which the Minister for Communities lit, with much glee if we’re to judge by the photograph. And yes, Virginia, this is the same Paul Givan who snatched away, just before Stormont folded, the £50,000 bursary for Gaeltacht scholarships. A short time later, in the face of massive outcry, he restored the bursary. A man of steady principle.
But maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on the ex-Minister. He’s in good company. The UUP’s Danny Kinahan was pictured last Summer smiling broadly in front of a giant Eleventh Night as-yet-unlit bonfire, which was decorated with the Irish tricolour. He later, as you can see, proudly put it up on Twitter. Later, Mr Kinahan declared that the flag should have been removed before the picture was taken. See what he did there? Not that the flag should have been removed because it was the Irish tricolour, and thus the national flag of all Irish people, south and north of the border. No, the problem was the picture.
Is there anywhere in the world where the Minister for Communities cheerfully ignites a bonfire which is offensive to half the population yet utters not a word of apology? In fact, if reports are accurate, Mr Givan’s party leader, Arlene Foster, was in attendance at the Eleventh Night beauty also.
As to Mr Kinahan, the acceptable face of Ulster Unionism, when an effort was made to draw the attention of fellow-MPs to this offensive bonfire and Mr Kinahan’s involvement, the matter was brushed aside.
Yet you’ll find unionists who scratch their heads and ask “Arrogance? What arrogance?” We might as well face it: the Twelfth is a annual dividing force here, and every year unionist politicians faithfully associate themselves with the Eleventh Night bonfires and with the thousands of marching bands that are televised next day. Twenty years of reaching out the hand of friendship doesn’t seem to have had much impact on the bonfire-and-bands organisers, nor on the politicians who annually suck up to them.
By the way: when does the marching season start?
Many years ago I wrote to the OO suggesting that July celebrations could be modernised and brought into the 20th century, (yes it was that long ago) making a much more important festival and open to all.
I suggested beacons and barbecues instead of the current pollution; that if it was a celebration of “Protestant Ulster’s culture that it should include literary events, film events and, of course, plays written by Protestant authors.
Needless to say their response is still in the processing department.
PJ
As good as your ideas are I should point out that they’ve been in existence for decades, the smell of fried onions is a smell that takes me back to the 12th field even to this day and certainly different groups have barbeques.
As newsworthy as the stupid tyre-pyres are they completely eclipse these less offensive events and if the decent events are mentioned on the annual 12th coverage they are then automatically deemed ‘offensive’, so, ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’ it seems.
“that if it was a celebration of “Protestant Ulster’s culture that it should include literary events, film events and, of course, plays written by Protestant authors.”
Nice idea, but that isn’t the OO’s thing, it’s (ostensibly but clearly not enforced) about religion and unionism, everything else comes second place (unfortunately that includes self awareness).
Unionist politicians burning Irish flags or at least taking photos of it, deliberately taking away small funds for the Irish Language, supporting Orange demands to march by sectarian interfaces, etc how exactly is this meant to promote peace and reconciliation? its the politics of confrontation, attempted domination and conflict.
I read recently that Arlene Foster and Unionism has done far more for Irish Unity than Sinn Fein has and I have to agree with that. There are moderate Unionists who do acknowledge that its time to move on, the Stormont days of Old are long gone and that equality for all is the only way forward. I don’t agree with Loyalist Sophie Long on many issues but she is fair in her outlook when it comes to Republicans and Unionists but she is the latest victim of extremist Unionism. The moderates of Unionism have very little power and if they dare speak up they are hounded. I don’t think Mike Nesbitt was absolutely genuine in his outreach to nationalists, I think he could see the nationalist tide coming into view and sought to try his best to save the Union but he did become a moderate and he was rejected by the Unionist electorate for doing so.
The truth is without Peace and Reconciliation, the Union wont survive, it simply wont. There’s great irony in Unionism rejecting Reconciliation whilst in the process putting the Union they love so much in such danger.
History has taught us that moderate, progressive unionists who dare speak out are quickly hounded out.
True Michael. The term “Rotten Prods” is applied to many moderate Unionists, which originates from the Orange Order, I believe. Apparently the term was revived for those Protestants in the shipyards who opposed the discrimination and ethnic cleansing of Catholics from the work place. Needless to say, those Protestants were driven out along with the Catholics.
The British Government are very content to pander to extremist Unionists instead of standing up against their immoral demands, as Michelle O’Neill recently pointed out a few days ago when she said the British Government has to stop pandering to the DUP.
“I read recently that Arlene Foster and Unionism has done far more for Irish Unity than Sinn Fein has and I have to agree with that”
Me too Ryan, me too.
In any other normal/civilised society the Orange Orders and all the trappings of this so called “culture” would be banned.End off.Sick Counties aptly named.
I’m not a psychologist but It would appear that there are deep seated and troubled emotions running through the psyche of Unionism /Loyalism .They seem to be constantly re-enacting a local version of Dante’s Inferno for themselves. I carry no hatred in my heart for man nor beast , but I have seen at close quarters, the bulging eyes and demonic expressions and actions , of Unionism reserved for those tiny school children at Holy Cross School . The verbal bile and vitriol spewed on those innocents left an indelible scar on myself and many others…..the stuff of nightmares. I once watched a documentary about a group of, then, recently discovered Amazonian Indians. Although they had not seen ,nor warred with their neighbours in 70 years ,they constantly kept alive their palpable hatred for them…..the older generation had died out but the young were taught to hate people they didn’t even know and that was how they intended to keep it…..I think I’ve found a simile here . I can’t see an euphoric breakthrough here either…just Deje Vue ad infinitum.
“the bulging eyes and demonic expressions and actions , of Unionism reserved for those tiny school children at Holy Cross School”
I was exactly the same age as those kids when Holy Cross was going on Eolach. I only seen it on TV but it left an impression on me, exposing me to the hatred some people have for me and others because of who we are. You have to question the mere mentality of a people who gather to scream like wild men/women at young children going to school, to throw urine filled balloons and even blast bombs at them. It shows how deep the hatred goes within some in Unionism/Loyalism but also how unchecked it is by other people within their own community.
You know things are bad when Billy Hutchinson, a man who murdered 2 Catholic men going to work for simply being Catholic, said on TV that he was “ashamed today of being a Loyalist” by what he saw from those Unionists/Loyalists screaming abuse at crying children. I think he later retracted that statement. Even a Tory MP came and walked with the children to school to show his support for the families.
When interviewed the Unionists who were protesting against the kids claimed “they’re trying to take our houses”. When challenged on this by a puzzled reporter, they had no logical response, just more of the “its all them’uns fault” mentality. How kids or anyone can “steal” their homes is beyond me. It reminds me of what commentator Susan McKay said on Sunday Politics during the Twaddell Camp Protest when she visited the camp and found it all to be “quite pathetic really”, with every question replied to with rants about “Sinn Fein IRA Murderers and No Surrender”. Indeed during the flag protests there was demands from some to restart the Holy Cross dispute.
What is quite sickening today is some Unionists try to lay the blame for Holy Cross at the feet of the parents of the children. Yes, daring to take your children to school is such a despicable crime. Throwing blast bombs at catholic kids on the other hand? I guess that’s more “culture”…..
The blanket aversion of glaze-eyed gazes from the above inanities of Yunes North by the monomedia of Yunes South, Esteemed Blogmeister, is a Givan, oops, given.
What, however, one wonders, would be the reaction on Loyal Liffeyside if the bovver boot were on the other foot, the right one ?
NO MORE STIFF UPPER LIP IF….
If Rev. Father Danny on the village green
With chants obscene re Her Maj, d’ Queen
His dramatic Damascus
Conversh,‘d multitask us
To thump him with condemnations umpteen.
I just wonder why the Irish government are not adopting the same attitude over the north of Ireland as the Spanish government are adopting to the future of Gibraltar in the upcoming Brexit negotiations!
Economist David McWilliams has been asking the same question on his TV show Sherdy, especially given Brexit is a much, much more serious issue to the island of Ireland than a small rock like Gibraltar with a population of 30,000….
Thanks Ryan, read him sometimes online in the Indo, but didn’t know he has a TV show.
Yes, the good old “British Occupied Territories,” with their mix of the oppressed and the ‘Uncle Toms’ are a distasteful vestige of the disgusting British empire that once ruled over 180 formerly self determined nations and had the temerity to announce their WW1 engagement as, ‘in defence of small nations.’ Ha. Some nerve.
SF/SDLP and the other smaller non-unionist parties need to Internationlise the deep hatred and bigotry directed at the Catholic community in the North of Ireland and expose the British government in their role of aiding and abetting it.