"Filthy Rich Taigs" (Not my terminology, btw)

[Uladh]

I didn't know lord's was flooded?

[GalwayBayBoy]

Cusack's article read like a bad David McWilliams parody.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

So why do an awful lot of people in the "26 counties", as Sinn Fein and many Northern Catholics continue to refer to the Republic, still believe the myth about Catholics being "oppressed" in the North? Many people still adhere to the strange belief that the Taigs are the "most oppressed people ever", a kind of northwest European version of the Palestinians: people who have to "struggle".

The most salient point of the article, the very point he is trying to rebutt, is the one that lacks any credibility and no evidence is offered  How many (and who) think that people are being oppressed?  Is "MOPERY" an Irish/Nationalist-only trait?  Cusack offers some soft evidence: unnamed business men (chuckling away), rich lists from magazines, imaginary lines in Donegal and selective use of election results.    I haven't checked all the "facts" used but in my past experience of this publication I have found such "facts" to be nothing of the sort.

I find his analysis of crime in West Belfast very odd indeed.  No doubt as an elected representative Gerry Adams can and should contribute to solving a problem.  However, anti-social behaviour is not unique to West Belfast or Northern Ireland.  First and foremost you expect local policing to be at the forefront of tackling such issues.  However unintended (I suspect) on his part, Cusack is adding grist to the mill of those who say the police are failing republican communities.

Personally I have damn-all time for Sinn Féin and their brand of politics, however I hope that they have truly turned a corner.  I feel however that others (like Cusack) actually harbour a hope that republicans go back to their old ways, just so they can be proved right.

No doubt Sinn Fein (probably due to their socialist outlook) are more popular in working-class areas.  That is true in the republic too.  That doesn't necessarily mean that Sinn Féin are the reason these areas are working class or impoverished.  Also aside from Adams' holiday home and Kelly's Belfast home, I have don't know where any Shinners representatives live (salubrious or otherwise)

I'd be interested to know which nails are hit on the head here.

/Jim.

[red hander]

I live in west belfast and IMO the real reason for the rise in crime is because the PSNI...   ...are a shower of useless b**tards.

So it's the PSNI who are murdering and terrorising people in thier homes, joyriding cars and dealing drugs, then...

I see.

No, they're so crap at their jobs that when people report murders, people being terrorised in their homes, joyriding and drug dealing, it takes them so long to tear themselves away from the chinese takeaway that the culprits aren't caught, and are so emboldened by the pathetic response of the rozzers that it just encourages them to carry on with their law-breaking

[saffron]

Can anybody explain the constant attacks by that paper on Northen Nationalists - is there a reason for it?

Cusack is a complete joke on the North - I've read articles that were just absolute tabloid rubbish but yet he is allowed free rein to motor on.

Every aspect of Northern Nationalist life is ridiculed by that paper and that is no exaggeration - you only need to look at the vitriolic attacks on Armagh the year they won.

O'Reilly seems genuinely interested in the North and made big donations to Queens so the reason for this is beyond me.

[Yes I Would]

Cusack, Harris, O Connor & Co are all a bit too predictable at this stage.

[stibhan]

Article is full of unsubstantiated pish. St Malachy's has about 1 person per year going to oxbridge, and more than a few MCCs on the Malone Road that I know would be more republican than a lot of people I've met from West Belfast.

[lynchbhoy]

cusack may not be capable of accurate journalism , but he is in the ha'penny place when compared to a real anti taig 'writer' like yer man graig in the 'times on sunday'.

he is on a one man don quixote-esque mission to tell everyone that the ira are still fighting some war and so on

I wonder where he says this war actually is, as after reading the headline of his piece , my interest wanes after the first sentence to then go read more accurate things like the horroscopes!

[his holiness nb]

Being a southerner I dont get the paper, like you oppressed nordies  
However if that article is anything to go by, it seems like the daily sun for Unionists. Of course thats just a guess based on one article.

Poorly written stuff with no substance, obviously written to either wind one side up, or play to the lowest common denominator on the other side.
Not worthy of further comment or debate to be quite honest. I dont think it was meant as a serious article at all, so shouldnt be taken seriously.

On a side note, from a southerner, I wasnt of the opinion that catholics were currently being "oppressed" in the North. But thats just me.

[Lar Naparka]

If what Cusack wrote can be taken as fact, I see a case of history repeating itself.
I'm referring to Michael Davitt and the Irish Land League and the period in question was the late 1800s.
I assume there no need to go into this in detail but Davitt was the prime mover and shaker behind the League in its struggle to gain wrest ownership of the land from the landlords of the day and have it transferred to their tenants.
His oft quoted assessment was that: "the land question can be definitely settled only by making the cultivators of the soil proprietors." (That's some mouthful!)
At any rate, Davitt and the league were to be successful and, beginning with the Land Act in 1881, a series of laws was passed, gradually transferring the land from the landlords to the tenants.
That should have been that, as the old saying puts it but Davitt was to get an awful shock!
Once the tenants who had been oppressed and downtrodden got a foot onto the property ladder they dropped all interest in his dreams of a new political order and concentrated on matters of a more earthly nature. 
They wanted to get as rich as possible and as soon as possible.
Poor Davitt was to refer to this disappointment many times in his later career.
If Jim Cusack is to be beloved, I'd imagine that Gerry Adams must be feeling the same as Davitt did. Maybe the Nationalist masses get greedy when they get their hands on loads of dosh and concentrate on matching and surpassing the lifestyles of their neighbours.
Maybe Cusack's article was a load of verbal bull manure.
Did Jim_Murphy_74 got it right instead?

The most salient point of the article, the very point he is trying to rebutt, is the one that lacks any credibility and no evidence is offered  How many (and who) think that people are being oppressed?  Is "MOPERY" an Irish/Nationalist-only trait?  Cusack offers some soft evidence: unnamed business men (chuckling away), rich lists from magazines, imaginary lines in Donegal and selective use of election results.    I haven't checked all the "facts" used but in my past experience of this publication I have found such "facts" to be nothing of the sort.

[full back]

Poorly written stuff with no substance, obviously written to either wind one side up, or play to the lowest common denominator on the other side.

Spot on holy man.
The highlighted part would be very apt for the people reading & posting this drivel

[haranguerer]

That's curious, because if he was being sarcastic or satirical, or even merely out for a laugh, you'd wonder why he took the trouble to quote so much evidence, much of it statistical (Rich List, voting patterns, Education, demographics etc), which constitutes clear evidence to back his central thesis...

Thesis? Get real. This is just the ramblings of a lazy journalist, content in the knowledge that his readers are unlikely to be well enough informed to ridicule him.

[tyssam5]

"They fill up at the wine department, which saves them having to drink pints with the Gaelic-speaking yokels."

That is complete bullshit. I love a nice pint with the Donegal locals, have even invited a few to my garden parties on occasion.

[ardmhachaabu]

Cusack is as simplistic as he is daft.  His article never even scratched the surface and wasn't ground-breaking with new information.  In fact, if anything, numerous people have done studies of the northern statelet in fewer words and made more sense.  I wonder when Cusack was north last and who exactly he is talking to.  Is it bar flies in the Bot ?

He tries to encapsulate so much in so few words and fails, miserably.

[smcafee]

Complete and utter shite to equate the wealth of a few upwardly mobile Fenians with the rest of the nationalist population ... typical Jim Cusack crap to blame everything on the Shinners.  I live in west belfast and IMO the real reason for the rise in crime is because the PSNI - and that english p***k of a chief constable who spends more time issuing writs against newspapers who dare question the level of his expenses than doing his job - are a shower of useless b**tards.

you support spin fein?

not surprised you want to see the brits back on the streets of west belfast.

jim cusack is a traitor for writing that shit.there are irish men and women living in occupied ireland that are still being denied human rights.