Heard on the radio this morning that Conor Murphy has instructed his staff not to say "Northern Ireland" when referring to the occupied six counties!
I see 'Londonderry' has become 'Derry' as well. I wonder will we see raids on the DUP Stormont offices in the wake of this latest leak.
Did you see in the wee brochure from Papa Doc last week that it's now called the Maze/Long Kesh regeneration programme.
I wonder when the blessed Beeb will start adopting some of this more conciliatory terminology. Poor old Conorrrr Bradford!
QuoteHeard on the radio this morning that Conor Murphy has instructed his staff not to say "Northern Ireland" when referring to the occupied six counties!
What are they going to call 'it' now?
Quote from: Billys Boots on May 21, 2007, 12:06:32 PM
QuoteHeard on the radio this morning that Conor Murphy has instructed his staff not to say "Northern Ireland" when referring to the occupied six counties!
What are they going to call 'it' now?
"here" :D
Murphy has just bate the balls of Campbell on Talkback. Turns out these instructions on terminology were to be applied in speeches or press releases written on Murphy's behalf.
This is all very bad new for the Hole in the Wall Gang who will have to find new jobs now.
Who needs satire when the politicians are doing it for themselves.
Quote"here"
So are OWC going to chant 'here, here' at their, ahem, gatherings?
Quote from: Donagh on May 21, 2007, 12:14:26 PM
Murphy has just bate the balls of Campbell on Talkback. Turns out these instructions on terminology were to be applied in speeches or press releases written on Murphy's behalf.
So he's using taxpayers money to get members of the
Northern Ireland Civil Service to write press releases for his department in the
Northern IrelandAssembly but they have to write 'here' or 'the North' (why is the North capitalized when it doesn't exist????). I thin kthe word he needs to learn is knob, as he obviously is one.
Using taxpayers money Sammy? Imagine!! He works for the Government
It's the job of a minister in any section of any government, to issue directives to the civil servants working in his departments regarding issues, policies, wording!
this is completely normal.
He can't let all the civil servants behind the scenes write his speeches, draft documents etc without him directing them in some way!
This is a story out of nothing
By the standards of, er, there, I'd say there was nothing 'hot' about this form of politics.
If I go up there, am I then officially "here" and if so, where have I just left? Or have I moved at all if I'm still "here" after I go?
if your not there, then your here ???
Quote from: Hardy on May 21, 2007, 05:59:38 PM
If I go up there, am I then officially "here" and if so, where have I just left? Or have I moved at all if I'm still "here" after I go?
For years, a 'long way' was akin to the length of a piece of string. But now we know it is the distance between Clare and Here, and the process of continental drift is making it longer day by day. Glad we cleared that up.
3,000 dead, thousands more maimed, imprisoned, exiled etc, and all so that Sinn Fein could establish the inalienable right of every true Gael to avoid having to use sorely offensive terms when dealing with Road Signs and Sewers and the like.
If Bobby Sands were alive today, I'd imagine the tears would we welling up inside him (that's if he hadn't pissed himself entirely, like I almost did ;))
Quote from: ExiledGael on May 21, 2007, 05:42:32 PM
Using taxpayers money Sammy? Imagine!! He works for the Government
Err he's using taxpayers money for his party political statements, not for government business.
Quote from: ExiledGael on May 21, 2007, 05:42:32 PM
It's the job of a minister in any section of any government, to issue directives to the civil servants working in his departments regarding issues, policies, wording!
100% correct and it is 100% not the job of a minister to use his civil servants to write party political speeches.
Quote from: ExiledGael on May 21, 2007, 05:42:32 PM
this is completely normal.
Is it?
Quote from: ExiledGael on May 21, 2007, 05:42:32 PM
He can't let all the civil servants behind the scenes write his speeches, draft documents etc without him directing them in some way!
See previous answer
Quote from: ExiledGael on May 21, 2007, 05:42:32 PM
This is a story out of nothing
It certainly is, because it will never happen.
Update:
I see Conor's now backtracked and said that he was mis-quoted and was just telling people the sort of language he'd be using, rather than expecting them to use it. ::) As I said earlier, what a knob. :D
Quote from: SammyG on May 21, 2007, 07:21:14 PM
Update:
I see Conor's now backtracked and said that he was mis-quoted and was just telling people the sort of language he'd be using, rather than expecting them to use it. ::) As I said earlier, what a knob. :D
Or perhaps someone pointed out that if a Civil Servant chose to ignore his diktat and continue to use what could hardly be termed "incorrect" terminology*, any attempt by Murphy to censure or discipline that Civil Servant might be very hard to justify in Court. You know, anti-discrimination laws, employment protection and all that... ::)
* -
Political Correctness per se not being a concept recognised by the Courts
He's 100% not using them to write party political speeches either!
It relates to documentation from his government department
I always thought Northern Ireland is everywhere above a straight line from Sligo to Dundalk Bay.
I mean, every country in the world has a northern bit, hasn't it?
Quoteevery country in the world has a northern bit, hasn't it?
Even South Africa. :-\
That's neither here nor there.
Sorry.
A mate who works in Queen's was telling me the other week that staff members received a 'Style Guide' from the university to be used in all correspondence with students and outside bodies. Apparently Queen's can be described as a UK university but staff members should bear in mind that as it was founded when Ireland was a single political entity, it is an Irish university. Instead of using the term 'British Isles' when referring to the islands of the North Atlantic, they should use "these islands" so as not to be contentious.
Quote from: Fiodoir Ard Mhacha on May 22, 2007, 08:34:05 AM
I always thought Northern Ireland is everywhere above a straight line from Sligo to Dundalk Bay.
No, that would be northern Ireland, or the north of Ireland, if you prefer. Northern Ireland (capital "N") is a proper noun which refers to the illegally occupied six county statelet etc
Quote from: Donagh on May 22, 2007, 11:58:28 AM
Apparently Queen's can be described as a UK university but staff members should bear in mind that as it was founded when Ireland was a single political entity, it is an Irish university.
Indeed. Of course, they might have added that this was the only time when Ireland was a "single political entity", seeing as it was an integral part of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland".
Surely Ireland hasn't been a single political entity since 1800. When was Queens founded?
Indeed QUB is an Irish university in a part of Ireland which is in the UK. The one thing it is not is British.
QuoteQueen's University Belfast has a record of academic achievement which stretches back more than 150 years.
Founded by Queen Victoria, the Queen's University in Ireland, was designed to be a non-denominational alternative to Trinity College Dublin which was controlled by the Anglican Church.
The University was made up of three Queen's Colleges - in Cork, Galway and Belfast. Although it was the first University in the north of Ireland, Queen's drew on a tradition of learning which goes back to 1810 and the foundation of the Belfast Academical Institution
Writing in the wake of Northern Ireland's 1-0 victory over England (Sept.05), when many Nationalists were apparently hoping that our historic oppressors England would beat their fellow Irishmen the sectarian bigots in the Stadium of Hate, Eamonn McCann made the following observation to explain this new-found appreciation of the residents of the neighbouring island in the archipelago:
"It's because some Nationalists are uneasy at their own acceptance of Northern Ireland that they feel they have to make a show of rhetorical opposition to it.
It is because, in practical terms, they have endorsed the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland State that they denounce symbolic representations of it all the more loudly"
Sums Conor Murphy up precisely, imo.
Still times have changed from when the RUC band played GSTQ at graduations. An "Irish university" located in "these islands", whatever next I wonder... :D
Quote from: Hardy on May 22, 2007, 12:20:49 PM
Surely Ireland hasn't been a single political entity since 1800. When was Queens founded?
I know we shouldn't really quote Wikipedia, but this seems reliable enough:
"The present university was first chartered as "Queen's College, Belfast" in 1845, when it was associated with the simultaneously founded Queen's College, Cork and Queen's College, Galway as part of the Queen's University of Ireland -- founded in 1845 to encourage higher education for Catholics and Presbyterians as a counterpart to the Trinity College, Dublin, then an Anglican institution -- and later the Royal University of Ireland (1880). The Irish Universities Act, 1908 dissolved the Royal University of Ireland and created two separate universities - the current National University of Ireland and the Queen's University of Belfast. At its opening in 1849 as a Queen's College, it had 23 professors and 343 students"( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_University_Belfast )
Quote from: Evil Genius on May 22, 2007, 12:12:11 PM
Quote from: Fiodoir Ard Mhacha on May 22, 2007, 08:34:05 AM
I always thought Northern Ireland is everywhere above a straight line from Sligo to Dundalk Bay.
No, that would be northern Ireland, or the north of Ireland, if you prefer. Northern Ireland (capital "N") is a proper noun which refers to the illegally occupied six county statelet etc
Err, thank you for that. It really should have been called North-Eastern Ireland, though.
Quote from: armaghniac on May 22, 2007, 12:21:20 PM
Indeed QUB is an Irish university in a part of Ireland which is in the UK. The one thing it is not is British.
I don't follow your logic, but can we agree that it is a Northern Irish University, then? Or would that be unacceptable to Conor Murphy and the like?
P.S. You do all accept that it is still correct to refer to it as "
Queen's University"? ;)
Quote from: Evil Genius on May 22, 2007, 12:32:07 PM
I don't follow your logic, but can we agree that it is a Northern Irish University, then? Or would that be unacceptable to Conor Murphy and the like?
Eh? Sure it's already agreed. Queen's are saying themselves they are an Irish university, not a British university and not a "Northern Irish" university (whatever that is).
Quote from: Donagh on May 22, 2007, 12:22:29 PM
Still times have changed from when the RUC band played GSTQ at graduations. An "Irish university" located in "these islands", whatever next I wonder... :D
Indeed, times have changed, Donagh. Personally, I'm happy with a trade-off whereby Unionists agree not to play GSTQ at a University Graduation ceremony once a year, in return for e.g. Sinn Feiners agreeing to help administer British Rule in Ireland, through the offices of a devolved Government at Stormont.
Anyhow, any comment on Eamonn McCann's observation which I quoted just beofre your post (above)?
Quote from: Billys Boots on May 22, 2007, 09:46:50 AM
Quoteevery country in the world has a northern bit, hasn't it?
Even South Africa. :-\
but not every place in the world has a northern bit :)
Quote from: Evil Genius on May 22, 2007, 12:40:28 PM
Anyhow, any comment on Eamonn McCann's observation which I quoted just beofre your post (above)?
Aye, do try to get out of Derry more often Eamonn - the world is passing you by...
Quote from: Donagh on May 22, 2007, 12:35:04 PM
Quote from: Evil Genius on May 22, 2007, 12:32:07 PM
I don't follow your logic, but can we agree that it is a Northern Irish University, then? Or would that be unacceptable to Conor Murphy and the like?
Eh? Sure it's already agreed. Queen's are saying themselves they are an Irish university, not a British university and not a "Northern Irish" university (whatever that is).
As an Irishman, I have no objection to the description of QUB as "an Irish University". And as a Unionist, neither could I object to the other designation which they allow, namely that of a being "a UK University" which by definition, also reflects their British status. Being located in Northern Ireland, the two are not contradictory.
Btw, a "Northern Irish university" is a university in Northern Ireland.
Quote from: Donagh on May 22, 2007, 12:44:10 PM
Quote from: Evil Genius on May 22, 2007, 12:40:28 PM
Anyhow, any comment on Eamonn McCann's observation which I quoted just beofre your post (above)?
Aye, do try to get out of Derry more often Eamonn - the world is passing you by...
Doesn't really address what he actually said. Another example of Donagh "playing the man, not the ball", eh?
Quote from: Gnevin on May 22, 2007, 12:42:07 PM
Quote from: Billys Boots on May 22, 2007, 09:46:50 AM
Quoteevery country in the world has a northern bit, hasn't it?
Even South Africa. :-\
but not every place in the world has a northern bit :)
Northern South Korea
Northern South Cyprus
Northern East Timor
Northern North-West Passage
Northern Western Australia
Northern New Zealand - North Island.
Does the South Pole have a northern bit? ;)
Quote from: Billys Boots on May 22, 2007, 01:10:18 PM
Does the South Pole have a northern bit? ;)
Yes. Known as the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, they're British, too. ;)
is that las malvinas you are talking about evil genius? another illegal occupation. never thought you could say they are in the south pole.
Quote from: behind the wire on May 22, 2007, 02:34:23 PM
is that las malvinas you are talking about evil genius? another illegal occupation. never thought you could say they are in the south pole.
"Las Malvinas", eh? Not even the original people who gave their name to it (i.e. from St.Malo) call it that, these days.
As for the "illegal occupation", I hope you enjoyed the recent 25th Anniversary Celebrations for the ending of that occupation and consequent ousting of the Fascist Dictator Galtieri, as I and the rest of my fellow Britons did! :D
And although technically, I guess the Falklands are not part of the continent in which the South Pole lies (Antartica), since all other land must, by definition, be North of there, I reckon closest inhabited land* to the South Pole may be the closest they have to a "Northern bit"!
* - Tierra del Fuego/Patagonia might be closer, but they belong to Argentina and Chile. Or one of them. Or the other.
Quote from: Fiodoir Ard Mhacha on May 22, 2007, 12:52:30 PM
Quote from: Gnevin on May 22, 2007, 12:42:07 PM
Quote from: Billys Boots on May 22, 2007, 09:46:50 AM
Quoteevery country in the world has a northern bit, hasn't it?
Even South Africa. :-\
but not every place in the world has a northern bit :)
Northern South Korea
Northern South Cyprus
Northern East Timor
Northern North-West Passage
Northern Western Australia
Northern New Zealand - North Island.
What's North of the exact North Pole? Nothing its all south :D