Poppy Watch

[Eamonnca1]

Look you are missing the point. I am not denying that NI is a part of the UK. As part of the UK it can still be different and reflect the national allegience of both communities. I am saying that the acceptance of all this British symbolism by catholics is evedence that Peter Robinson is right nationalism is dead and we are all embracing Britishness.

Well I disagree.  Rumours of nationalism's death have been greatly exaggerated.  John Hume, a man for whom I have the utmost respect, once talked about something he called "post nationalism" but I think he was a bit out of touch. I'm not sure what you mean by "acceptance" of British symbolism.  I don't see any sign of nationalists running out and buying union jacks or celebrating royal weddings any time soon, but at the same time it's nice to see that we're a bit more mature about symbols than the Jamie Bryson crowd.  We don't throw a hissy fit at the sight of a union flag, which is more than can be said for the other side's reaction to the tricolour which is still like a red rag to a bull.

We might be a bit more tolerant of Britishness than the other crowd is of Irishness, but that doesn't mean we're turning into bowler-hatted "jolly-good-show" cricketers en masse.

[Myles Na G.]

Spoke to a republican from Gobnascale in Derry yesterday, he was taken aback when i said to him that the only difference between him and someone in England was accent.
He spends all his spare time reading red top rags, supporting Man Utd and slagging off bogball/GAA etc.

He hasnt a word of Irish, has never played nor watched GAA and doesnt know one end of an Uileann pipe from another, so to me he was just a beaten republican happy to follow everthing british and back SF up on their quest to further cement us into the UK.
His republicanism was based on a tribal/ghetto politics of the 70s/80s and no real understanding of what Irish Culture or heritage is reallty about.
Accept it lads we are beaten and outfoxed by the oul emeny again.

Is this 'someone in England' a Morris-Dancing, tea drinking, bulldog-walking, cricket watching, lip stiffening, oft gardening green grocer?

Or does the narrow stereotype apply only to the fíor Gael?

In my view you differentiate peoples by language,culture and ethnicity. On two of them he is just the same as our friends across the water. I dont know enough about his lineage to comment on the other.

Your views illustrate the narrowness and exclusivity of Irish republicanism. In so doing, you also illustrate why it has never achieved any of its objectives and never will. So you have to like Gaelic sports to be a real Irishman / woman? Does the same apply to Australians and their code of football? Are all those Aussie rugby and cricket players just great big frauds? And we have to enjoy traditional music too if we want to be considered Irish? And speak Irish, you say? Complete rubbish, of course, but typical of tight-arsed republicans. There's a letter held in the Kilmainham museum written by Pearse. In it, he decries W.B Yeats as a 3rd rate poet. What was it about Yeats that annoyed him? The fact that he wrote in English rather than Irish. Mad, mad, mad.

So your using his view of national republicanism to represent all Irish Republicanism. And your complaining about his narrowness.

You couldn't make it up!!

Ah, but he usually does...

The GAA Board's very own Greek chorus. 

[michaelg]

Spoke to a republican from Gobnascale in Derry yesterday, he was taken aback when i said to him that the only difference between him and someone in England was accent.
He spends all his spare time reading red top rags, supporting Man Utd and slagging off bogball/GAA etc.

He hasnt a word of Irish, has never played nor watched GAA and doesnt know one end of an Uileann pipe from another, so to me he was just a beaten republican happy to follow everthing british and back SF up on their quest to further cement us into the UK.
His republicanism was based on a tribal/ghetto politics of the 70s/80s and no real understanding of what Irish Culture or heritage is reallty about.
Accept it lads we are beaten and outfoxed by the oul emeny again.

Is this 'someone in England' a Morris-Dancing, tea drinking, bulldog-walking, cricket watching, lip stiffening, oft gardening green grocer?

Or does the narrow stereotype apply only to the fíor Gael?

In my view you differentiate peoples by language,culture and ethnicity. On two of them he is just the same as our friends across the water. I dont know enough about his lineage to comment on the other.

So John Hume and Gerry Adams, with their lowland Scots names, are not true Irishmen?

[rosnarun]

Look you are missing the point. I am not denying that NI is a part of the UK. As part of the UK it can still be different and reflect the national allegience of both communities. I am saying that the acceptance of all this British symbolism by catholics is evedence that Peter Robinson is right nationalism is dead and we are all embracing Britishness.

Well I disagree.  Rumours of nationalism's death have been greatly exaggerated.  John Hume, a man for whom I have the utmost respect, once talked about something he called "post nationalism" but I think he was a bit out of touch. I'm not sure what you mean by "acceptance" of British symbolism.  I don't see any sign of nationalists running out and buying union jacks or celebrating royal weddings any time soon, but at the same time it's nice to see that we're a bit more mature about symbols than the Jamie Bryson crowd.  We don't throw a hissy fit at the sight of a union flag, which is more than can be said for the other side's reaction to the tricolour which is still like a red rag to a bull.

We might be a bit more tolerant of Britishness than the other crowd is of Irishness, but that doesn't mean we're turning into bowler-hatted "jolly-good-show" cricketers en masse.

if a nationalist were to wear a poppy , fly the union flag or celebrate a royal wedding then he would no longer be a national is or a republican for that matter ; Irish or otherwise

[muppet]

Look you are missing the point. I am not denying that NI is a part of the UK. As part of the UK it can still be different and reflect the national allegience of both communities. I am saying that the acceptance of all this British symbolism by catholics is evedence that Peter Robinson is right nationalism is dead and we are all embracing Britishness.

Well I disagree.  Rumours of nationalism's death have been greatly exaggerated.  John Hume, a man for whom I have the utmost respect, once talked about something he called "post nationalism" but I think he was a bit out of touch. I'm not sure what you mean by "acceptance" of British symbolism.  I don't see any sign of nationalists running out and buying union jacks or celebrating royal weddings any time soon, but at the same time it's nice to see that we're a bit more mature about symbols than the Jamie Bryson crowd.  We don't throw a hissy fit at the sight of a union flag, which is more than can be said for the other side's reaction to the tricolour which is still like a red rag to a bull.

We might be a bit more tolerant of Britishness than the other crowd is of Irishness, but that doesn't mean we're turning into bowler-hatted "jolly-good-show" cricketers en masse.

if a nationalist were to wear a poppy , fly the union flag or celebrate a royal wedding then he would no longer be a national is or a republican for that matter ; Irish or otherwise

Unless of course he wanted to be.

[Eamonnca1]

I find it a bit tiresome when people try to define Irishness in terms of how "non British" people can be. Neighbouring countries, particularly small ones, are always going to have a few cultural overlaps, especially if they speak the same language. Frankly I think that if anyone is concerned about Ireland losing a sense of national identity then I'd argue that resurrecting the Irish language as a daily widely-spoken tongue would be a good way to secure it.

[Applesisapples]

Look you are missing the point. I am not denying that NI is a part of the UK. As part of the UK it can still be different and reflect the national allegience of both communities. I am saying that the acceptance of all this British symbolism by catholics is evedence that Peter Robinson is right nationalism is dead and we are all embracing Britishness.

Well I disagree.  Rumours of nationalism's death have been greatly exaggerated.  John Hume, a man for whom I have the utmost respect, once talked about something he called "post nationalism" but I think he was a bit out of touch. I'm not sure what you mean by "acceptance" of British symbolism.  I don't see any sign of nationalists running out and buying union jacks or celebrating royal weddings any time soon, but at the same time it's nice to see that we're a bit more mature about symbols than the Jamie Bryson crowd.  We don't throw a hissy fit at the sight of a union flag, which is more than can be said for the other side's reaction to the tricolour which is still like a red rag to a bull.

We might be a bit more tolerant of Britishness than the other crowd is of Irishness, but that doesn't mean we're turning into bowler-hatted "jolly-good-show" cricketers en masse.

emmm, I hope you are right.

[RealSpiritof98]

Not too long ago at my place of work a 'report' went up on the wall detailing an employee's 3 month transfer to India, needless to say it was taken down after 1 day because of complaints about the Indian flag ie. the colour of Green White and Orange. Absolutely dumbfounded me. Many unionists are going to cling to everything british they can get, and i for one have no problem with that. Its hard for Liberal Unionists to hear but up until fairly recently in this statelet they were allow to walk over any nationalist and ist hard for many of them to come to terms that they now have to share this place with ''them ums''.

[Eamonnca1]

The sheer bitterness on the other side is a sight to behold. Remember the controversy a few years ago about a fake reindeer in a shopping centre wearing a scarf in the traditional green and red Christmas colours? The colourblind idiots thought the red looked a little too close to orange for their liking, their imagination filled in the white, and the outrage flowed.

A ladies Gaelic football club prompted complaints when doing fundraising bag-packing work in Tesco's. Ladies football isn't governed by the GAA but it's guilty by association as far as those morons are concerned.

I sometimes wonder at what's going on in their heads that makes them so bitter, there's probably a book in that.

That's why I'm a bit queasy about the anti-British stuff that sometimes comes up on our side. The last thing we should be doing is looking like equivalents to Jamie Bwyson and Wilheim Frazer.

[BennyCake]

When people have ruled the roost for generations, lording it over Catholics in every way imaginable, then it's gonna be very difficult for these people to suddenly realise that they are now equals to these Catholics they stamped on for so long. The union fleg protests are the perfect example.

[michaelg]

The sheer bitterness on the other side is a sight to behold. Remember the controversy a few years ago about a fake reindeer in a shopping centre wearing a scarf in the traditional green and red Christmas colours? The colourblind idiots thought the red looked a little too close to orange for their liking, their imagination filled in the white, and the outrage flowed.

A ladies Gaelic football club prompted complaints when doing fundraising bag-packing work in Tesco's. Ladies football isn't governed by the GAA but it's guilty by association as far as those morons are concerned.

I sometimes wonder at what's going on in their heads that makes them so bitter, there's probably a book in that.

That's why I'm a bit queasy about the anti-British stuff that sometimes comes up on our side. The last thing we should be doing is looking like equivalents to Jamie Bwyson and Wilheim Frazer.

Hate to burst your bubble, but bitterness is a two way street.  "The anti-British stuff that sometimes comes up on our side".  If you read some of the posts on this board, I would say it is more than sometimes.

[Farrandeelin]

The sheer bitterness on the other side is a sight to behold. Remember the controversy a few years ago about a fake reindeer in a shopping centre wearing a scarf in the traditional green and red Christmas colours? The colourblind idiots thought the red looked a little too close to orange for their liking, their imagination filled in the white, and the outrage flowed.

A ladies Gaelic football club prompted complaints when doing fundraising bag-packing work in Tesco's. Ladies football isn't governed by the GAA but it's guilty by association as far as those morons are concerned.

I sometimes wonder at what's going on in their heads that makes them so bitter, there's probably a book in that.

That's why I'm a bit queasy about the anti-British stuff that sometimes comes up on our side. The last thing we should be doing is looking like equivalents to Jamie Bwyson and Wilheim Frazer.

Hate to burst your bubble, but bitterness is a two way street.  "The anti-British stuff that sometimes comes up on our side".  If you read some of the posts on this board, I would say it is more than sometimes.

Why though does it crop up 'more than sometimes?'

[armaghniac]

Why though does it crop up 'more than sometimes?'

Perhaps some dislike of a people who've been beating you up for almost 900 years is understandable. Sticks and stones and all that.

[Myles Na G.]

Why though does it crop up 'more than sometimes?'

Perhaps some dislike of a people who've been beating you up for almost 900 years is understandable. Sticks and stones and all that.

Are you 900 years old? If not, why are you claiming that someone has been beating you up for that length of time? Seriously, what connection do you have with people who lived centuries ago? Grow up, ffs.

[armaghniac]

Seriously, what connection do you have with people who lived centuries ago? Grow up, ffs.

Well if people can claim they are "British" because of these people coming here centuries ago then perhaps it is they, rather than me, who should grow up.