Are you a friend of Hugo Duncan? Or maybe he’s your uncle? Either way, this is a day of great joy and glad tidings. The King of England has bestowed on humble Hugo an MBE.You’re probably thinking Hugo did this so people would be impressed by him, that they didn’t mind Hugo referring to himself as their uncle despite evidence to the contrary. No, no, no. Hugo wasn’t thinking of himself when the word came that King Charles had graciously bestowed this considerable honour on Hugo. Because the reason Hugo accepted was in memory of his mother: “It’s me saying ‘ma, we didn’t do too bad’.”
You will of course have spoilsports and naysayers claiming that this is bending the knee and cradling an imperial bauble that is a mixture of the pathetic laced with the bloody. Some people are like that. The late Benjamin Zephaniah reacted in that horrible negative way to the proposed royal honour: “Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire… Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought”.
The ungracious Zephaniah went on to talk about the British Empire and how it had mistreated his people for centuries, and so anything imperial stank in his nostrils. Mercifully we Irish have had no such experience with the British crown and empire – ours has been a loving, subservient and happy relationship down the decades.
And so Hugo, feel free. You are now a member of the imperialist set. You’ll be able to frame and hang your bauble – maybe even get an invite to a Buck House garden party. No wonder your ma would be proud.
Your Uncle Tom loves you.
Many of us respect an award from either the President of Ireland or the King. We know it is often a recognition of a person’s contribution to society. We know that our part of Ireland is a fusion of Irish people who love the Crown, Irish people who hate the Crown, and Irish people who live and let live or who do not give two shites. We try not to morph into that monstrous Joycean woman in Dubliners.
Hi K – thanks for your thoughts. Just one question: how would you rate the British Empire, of which Hugo is now a proud member?
The British Empire is thankfully all but gone. Well over a third of the officers and men who conquered it were Irish as were a fair number of the administrators and adventurers. Derry, the city of my childhood and generations of my maternal family, shirted it.
Now back to the award – it is about recognising service to the community. People are free to decline or accept.
so sad to hear this. Hugo Duncan was never a fantastic singer of songs in my humble opinion but give credit where it’s due he made a living from it. I was pleased to tune into his bantar on a radio show when I was visiting some northern county but this surprises me. I don’t know anything about his family or his mother but as an Irish Mammy myself I think she might have been proud enough without the bauble.
He’s a wee f…en Rat. The face of six county normalization, unfortunately there are many like them .
The “Monstrous Joycean woman in Dubliners” I Guess, was “Miss Ivors” in “THE DEAD”.
In real life she was Miss Kathleen Sheehy one of three daughters of an Irish Nationalist MP.
Hannah married Francis Skeffington who became the most prominent Feminist and Pacifist in
Ireland. On Easter Tuesday 1916 he sought to deter looters but was taken prisoner along with other
non-combatants and murdered on the orders of Captain Bowen Colthurst of Blarney Castle, promoted
that week on the authority of UK Prime Minister Asquith.
Hannah’s sister, Mary Sheehy married Tom Kettle MP, who was killed in September 1916 leading
a platoon of Royal Dublin Fusiliers in Flanders
Kathleen Sheehy who called the fellow a West Briton was the mother of Conor Cruise O’Brien.
In 1972 Conor and his wife in a “Concise History of Ireland” described the civilians murdered by
the paratroopers in Derry as “Rioters”.
Conor had morphed into the West Briton denounced by his mother, and a fellow traveller with
Bowen Colthurst.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr/Ms K. Williamson.
I will put what I care into my pipe or otherwise. Vive freedom of speech and conscience. No to cancel culture.
Years ago this little apologist for Britain got a phone call from the BBC (while he was driving). They had discovered that in his fairly recent past he had made an album of rebel songs. He got such a fright from the phone call that he got out of the car and vomited rings round him.
This is a story that he himself told to one of the local Sunday papers. I think it may have been The Sunday Life. So, I believe this says it all about Hugo Duncan.
All very well for those who have consciences
But some who profess to have moral compasses wouldn’t recognise one if it pricked them in the arse.
They are in the main paid handsomely occupying editorial and academic chairs.
That is no way to speak of Jude. But seriously, have I stumbled upon some Paisleyites denouncing a person they considered to be one of their own for being a supposed Lundy? Someone from Mars might struggle to tell the difference.
Perrsonally I wouldn’t accept any “decoration” from English crown…. That would be down a hatred of Protestant,/ Unionist rule in Northern Ireland engendered by the rottenness of gerrymandering sectarian bigotry and discrimination in my home village and county..
And the contempt and disrespect with which they treated their Catholic neighbours.. That went on for 50 years before the “troubles” …!!
That happened before I was born. I am sorry that you still see the world in terms of them and us. In my experience, most Catholics and Protestants are very decent people.
I am conflicted by the whole concept of awards from the British establishment. On the one hand I recognise how pathetic it is to see someone grovel for a gong (David Beckham) on the other it does make some people proud to receive one. I know of a Priest who received an award, a kindlier more holy man you could not find. Am I going to criticise him for accepting his medal? Am I heck. Everybody is different, so maybe it’s better to not rain on someone else’s parade?! (Unless it a an unwelcome coat trailing exercise…)
I think we should live and let live.
Hugo Duncan is probably a nice enough fellow.
It is not that he has no principles it is just that he has different principles than you.
Hugo Duncan is no different that the vast majority of people British, Irish, Catholic, Protestant or other. The vast majority would take an award to have their day in the limelight and be sipping tea and nibbling cake in Buckingham palace.
History is determined by a very small percentage of the population who feel strongly enough to speak out or act on their conscience. You can see these people across towns and cities in Ireland and elsewhere marching against the genocide in Palestine. They are only a tiny proportion of the population of the town they are marching in, a town whose population by enlarge will agree with the sentiments of the marchers but are much too busy shopping or washing the car to stand with those marchers of conscience.
Benjamin Zephaniah were he alive would have been standing beside those marchers calling for an end to apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine.
As a rule of thumb, if you are not prepared to take some action against the genocide in Palestine then you are probably the type that will accept an award from an establishment that turns a blind eye to the willful mass murder of men, women and children.
As I said at the outset, live and let live.
This isn’t just about getting a medal from the most pernicious empire in the known history of the world it’s also about the obnoxious truth that tax payers, or more especically BBC
licence payers are paying through the nose to actually listen to this idiot on the radio , I could say the same for ‘the biggest mouth in the country’. I am a musician myself and I’m sorry to say that when I have been in the unfortunate position of being in a BBC studio in the presence of the great man, touching the hem of his garment etc (sic), It wasn’t a case of I’m yer uncle Hugo it was a case of I’m a foul mouthed lout, and I run the show here. I was doing a piece with Gerry Anderson once ( anoher total idiot) when I heard him on the phone to the honchos down in Belfast which was all about him demanding more money, in a very insulting and crude manner,when it comes to foul language he could teach a sailor a thing or two. I have been round the country as a musician and I have heard it all. I have heard loutish crude and obscene talk in bars and venues but when it comes to yer your Uncle Hugo he deserves a medal for it.
This isn’t just about getting a medal from the most pernicious empire in the known history of the world it’s also about the obnoxious truth that tax payers, or more especically BBC
licence payers are paying through the nose to actually listen to this idiot on the radio , I could say the same for ‘the biggest mouth in the country’. I am a musician myself and I’m sorry to say that when I have been in the unfortunate position of being in a BBC studio in the presence of the great man, touching the hem of his garment etc (sic), It wasn’t a case of I’m yer uncle Hugo it was a case of I’m a foul mouthed lout, and I run the show here. I was doing a piece with Gerry Anderson once ( anoher total idiot) when I heard him on the phone to the honchos down in Belfast which was all about him demanding more money, in a very insulting and crude manner,when it comes to foul language he could teach a sailor a thing or two. I have been round the country as a musician and I have heard it all. I have heard loutish crude and obscene talk in bars and venues but when it comes to yer your Uncle Hugo he deserves a medal for it.
So, here’s what happened…
Jude posts a spiteful blog about some country musician/ radio presenter accepting an MBE.
He ignores all the others that are on the list and targets this guy.
He can explain why.
K Williamson rightly infers live and let live; not up to Jude to say whether it is his business whether Hugo Duncan accepts an MBE.
I read this and thought WTF.
Why is any of this relevant?
Some other guy piles on with a load of stuff about Joyce’s The Dead that is easily sourced on the internet. Some other lad hammered out a few posts in the wee small hours.
Why is any of this relevant?
Who cares about what Hugo Duncan does?
….unless you are fans of his that are disappointed.
Maybe that explains it.
Live and let others live, Jude.
From my perspective, Hugo’s radio show is crap.
If he wants to accept an MBE, that’s grand.
What’s it to you?
Why would anyone else care?
Why would you?