Gordon Lyons and the horrors of the Feile

Gordon Lyons,DUP MLA, is a big,open -hearted man. Listen to this:

“While the Fleadh brought people together in a spirit of celebration that was open and welcoming, Féile has too often featured elements that divide and offend. Public tributes to convicted terrorists and the platforming of those who glorify a campaign of violence have no place in genuine cultural celebration. Victims and their families deserve better than selective silence or romanticisation of the past. The contrast with the positive events in East Belfast and across the city during the Fleadh could not be clearer.”

And there was me, going to Feile talks and debates and book launches, under the impression it was a huge, varied success. But I obviously missed some things that divided and offended.

So Gordon: that campaign of violence glorification: which event did that? I mean, if I say “I’ll meet you on Friday” that’s a different matter from saying  “I’ll glorify you on Friday.” Glorification would  involve lines of marching men, aggressive and thundering music, lyrics that make it clear whose side we’re on. And who won’t be allowed to be party of our organisation, even if they wished to be..  Excluding people like Catholics….But here – wait a minute. You didn’t have to give your religious faith or that of your spouse before taking part in the Feile, do you? In fact, I distinctly remember Gregory Campbell, Eoghan Harris, Ruth Dudley Edwards and others strongly opposed to republicanism getting a seat at the Feile table where they could pronounce their views.

As for that terrorism thing  – did you. Know that George Washington was a terrorist? And Nelson Mandela? It must have slipped Gordon’s mind that,while horrible incidents were engaged in on occasion by the IRA, they did not set out explicitly  to terrorise the PUL community. But I’m sure you’ve heard, Gordon, of “Yabba dabba doo, Any Taig will do”? And I hope your handlers haven’t held you back from reading Lethal Allies, , which documents in forensic detail the  120+ innocent Catholics who were killed by the Glennane gang, ably assisted by. the forces of law and order. Slippery old thing, that terrorism charge, Gordon.

As fpr ‘selective silence’ and ‘romanticisation of the past’, isn’t the silence from DUP politicians as to what they knew about  former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson just a bit selective? And wouldn’t all those wreaths laid yearly at cenotaphs, all those poppies in all those lapels, all those bonfires and marches and speeches every  Twelfth – wouldn’t that be glorifying the past? Just a teensy bit, Gordon?

Sigmund Freud had a theory called Projection. It involved the  practice of not being able to accept some defect in oneself, and so you project it  onto other people.

I suggest you sit down after breakfast tomorrow, Gordon, and give it a  good old think. You’ll be glad you did.

I sugg