Messages

That's the issue Jim (as you well know) it's not some missive from a bygone age, it's on the first page of the current official guide.

p.s. Totally agree with you and Poots (first time I've ever agreed with a DUPer must be going soft in my oul age) but I won't be holding my breath, as I don't see any evidence of these issues even being discussed nevermind acted on.

SammyG,

I know where it is and to be honest I don't really want to argue it out.  I don't see 3 paragraphs pre-pending the guide as anything of practical relevance. It's certainly not worth the outcry and terrabytes of data it appears to have generated over on OWC.   

I've acknowledged (ala Poots) what are the practical issues.  I haven't the energy to argue about when it might change.  All I say is that my experience is that the GAA only changes when it needs, not when it is necessarily right to.  So until the is a groundswell of opinion that rules are blocking people who are genuinely interested in being involved, rather than stones being thrown for stones sake it won't change.  However I don't think that day is as far away as people think. 

/Jim.

Young Battle Ax Shows Irish Fag Flag Proper Respect

That's a poor shade of orange really.  I'm not sure that is an Irish flag at all.  Anyhow it's highly offensive to our unionist brethern not to have the Union Jack being trampled too.

Bigots! Shame!

/Jim.

Thanks lads. Good post Jim and I agree with what you say.

All the same, we do unnecessarily bring a lot of nonsense down on ourselves with ould guff about "our race" in the constitution. This was unexceptional language in 1884, but it's a bit loaded these days.

I concur Hardy.  But it's jsut that, a bit of guff and the wailing and gnashing of teeth about racism is a lot of nonesense.  If Dr. Crokes letter was consigned to the history books it wouldn't impact on my enjoyment of Gaelic games at all.

/Jim.

Well Holiness,

I did advise you in the deleted thread where your foray would end up.  Any inkling of acknowledgement to anything the GAA do will be met with a diatribe about the ills of the GAA.  As I have also said some (even many) of the criticisms made are reasonable and need to be dealt with.  However if one tries to deflect any of the criticism, even the wilder ones, one is guilty of trying to deflect them all.  

Also it is not acceptable to look without the GAA for any contribution to these issues.  A massive point is now being made about the Rule 21 vote and how the 6 counties in NI bucked the trend in the vote.  Surely that points that something more than the GAA is at fault here.  Not entirely at fault mind, but is a reasonable proposition to look to see if the behaviour of the security forces had any influence on GAA members voting/thinking in NI.  The answer could indeed be no, but one shouldn't be shot down for asking the question.  

Equally Des Dalton writes a letter to the paper criticising the GAA and we have a leading light on OWC using this against the GAA. Surely if an organisation that was supposed within the clutches of extreme republicans is now incurring the wrath of these guys, it points to move in a different direction??? Now in OWC-land though, over there it's thrown out by the prosecution!  Q.E.D. your honour.

In my view Poots had it:  dump the anthem and no naming of clubs after protaganists from the Troubles.  I'd wouldn't object to that and would be interested to see how Northerners would feel.  

The rest of the stuff is crap been flung by people who loathe the GAA for being different and it's all the one to them anyhow.  For them the GAA will never get over it's history of being nationalistic.   As someone pointed out, such critics would be precluded from having anything to do with GAA for fear of being disloyal to their own tribe.

Politicised: yes, Racist: no, Curable: yes.

/Jim.

I had been holding off on reading that thread because it was long and I hadn't time. I was looking forward to it and no doubt would have added my tuppenceworth. Is it possible to undelete a thread?

Hardy,

It stemmed from His Holiness Nb sneaking behing enemy line and heading over to OWC to discuss issues GAA related.  He was appalled by accusation that the GAA was racist and threw it out here for discussion.   Essentially the charge was that Official Guide (and the name alone) refers to Gaels.   The Gaels were a race and a few OWC'ers were afraid that post-plantation that they might have a bit of Anglo-Saxon platlets flowing through the veins.  The reasonable and genuine feeling was that someone of non-pure Gaelic origin could be found out at the DNA testing stage outlined in the Official Guide.  When this arguement failed the focus shifted to the political exclusion of unionists and the normal nuggets were flung about. (Rule 21, furthering National Identity) At this His Holiness pulled the plug.

Just another day at the coalfront of community relations.

/Jim.

Staff at the British Embassy in Dublin have voted to mount strike action in a dispute over job cuts.

The workers, members of the Unite trade union, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

Up to 45 staff have been in dispute with the embassy since three workers were told earlier this month that they were being laid off.

They are now due to mount a one-day strike at the embassy on February 7.

/Jim.

[Pope denounced as 'anti-Christ' in radio fire and brimstone row]

From today's indo.....if plastic rosary beads offend these guys so much I hope they never get caught outside a stall in Knock!

Pope denounced as 'anti-Christ' in radio fire and brimstone row

By John Cooney
Wednesday January 23 2008


A new Messiah has risen to save the Protestant people of Ulster from the heretical snares of Rome and to keep the Pope, "the anti-Christ", out of the North.


An unholy row on yesterday's 'Joe Duffy show' began innocently enough, when the chief aide to Nigel Dodds, the North's Enterprise Minister, voiced his objections to the sale of Catholic rosary beads inside St Patrick's Cathedral, in Dublin.

Wallace Thompson challenged the Anglican Dean of St Patrick's, Dr Robert MacCarthy, for selling rosaries not sanctioned in Holy Scripture, in the cathedral gift shop.

The Dean explained that the beads were sold because the shop attracted visitors of all denominations, and revenue from the sales helped finance the cathedral's upkeep.

During an hour-long phone-in, Mr Thompson castigated these misguided papists for adhering to a corrupt church that demanded Protestant partners in a mixed marriage to surrender to their creed.

The temperature became as hot as the fires of hell when Mr Thompson pleaded with Irish Catholics to abandon their idolatrous prayer to the Virgin Mary.

Then Mr Thompson, speaking in a personal capacity, escalated his war of religions when he denounced the Pope as the anti-Christ and announced he would oppose plans to bring Benedict to the North.

"The Pope is the anti-Christ ... a lot of Protestants probably might not hold (that view) but it is still enshrined in the standards," he said.

"It is a strong statement to make, but in expressing those views I am not conflicting with the main teachings of the main churches," Mr Thompson thundered.

Oppose

The 54-year-old married father-of-three, who is a regular preacher across the North, and a member of the Independent Orange, went on to warn that true Protestants would totally oppose a papal visit.

SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly said Mr Thompson's fundamentalist language was a throwback to the North's troubled past.

"I don't think he has any right to deprive the people of the north, and in particular the Catholic population,of an opportunity to greet and meet their spiritual leader," she said.

Sinn Fein Assembly group leader, John O'Dowd, described Mr Thompson's comments as "deeply insulting to many, many people across this island".

Last night, a worldly wise DUP official was at pains to emphasise that Mr Thompson was not speaking in a political capacity.

- John Cooney

We wouldn't expect a Muslim or Jew to swear an oath on the Bible, so why should a republican not be excused from toasting a heredity monarch.

Probably because religious rights/views tend to be enshrine in rights legislation to a greater degree than political views.

If the guy is such a conscientious republican he might be better off not joining the army of a state that has a monarch as it's head.

/Jim.

Could this now be the case with the IFA?  No longer can anyone simply walk into any sports shop and buy a replica shirt - one must earn the right to wear the jersey and actually play for one of their representative teams.

Exactly if you can't produce an internet video of yourself and your buddies roasting the bejasus out of some young wan you have no business buying an OWC shirt.

/Jim.

Sanchez was seen in a top London hotel with John Delaney.

/Jim.

A blind eye turned to it by GAA authorities?  I'm not sure of the process but I don't think the GAA has any authority to reject a name of a club nor have I ever known them to (could be wrong there).  They named an airport after a chronic alocholic who beat his wife so I would imagine if you and I formed a club and called it after someone like that it would go ahead.  It's not up to me to name grounds or clubs, the people who build them do that. 

The only rule in relation to naming of clubs is that a club can't be named after a living person.  So EG is correct in that the GAA could expand this rule to cover other cases.  However I think that would only be treating the sympton rather than the real issue:  the people of Dungiven obviously think that Kevin Lynch is a character worth commemorating for them.  That is a wider issue than the GAA to be honest.  That said you can see where EG is coming from.

EG, it is worth pointing out though that the practice is not really that widespread.  I'm sure the average OWCer has them all ready to list off as examples and will confirm it is not a huge number by any means.  I'd probably be able to mention as many GAA-playing prods as there are grounds named in this fashion but that would be tokenism apparently!

/Jim

I cant remember too much of the details of this.
was it stew that was outed?
I certainly dont remember it being as sinister as it sounds, and it was removed ad the administrator in question was told not to do it again.

NiFan,

I'm dipping into my mind too so I can't be totally sure.  I recall the guys e-mail address containing his name and place of work.  The admin commented on how easy it was to catch them in such a case and made the invite.  I also recall the "offence" that warranted this being fairly minor.

As someone who uses his e-mail address for work I certainly don't want to have my address on the web (due to spammers) or have some crowd flaming me and filling my quota.

The response on this site at the time was that this admin was the owner and could do what he liked.  If that's the case fair enough but people should know the risk.


/Jim.

Why is there a risk that the admin would publish my email address? surely this has to be against some consumer rights and privacy laws?

Because it has happened before.  Posted some guys e-mail address, pointed out his name and place of work and suggested that people "knew what to do".

surely this has to be against some consumer rights and privacy laws?

No idea but I doubt it very much.

/Jim.

how do you get onto the owc page, i tried earlier and it says i need to register. I s there any way of getting on without registering.

You need to be a member or know someone who is a member. 

Don't use your e-mail address to register because there is a risk the admins will publish it.  That's why I can't join.

/Jim.

The trend is more than coincidental in my opinion and in NI that would stand any equality analysis and would be declared sectarian.

More than coincidental?? so the "policy" is now actually a "trend".  The fact is that anedoctally more catholics than protestant are tapped up (with of course the slight elephant in the room that some candidates are more likely to be receptive tha others) and we now have a sectarian policy.

Brilliant!

/Jim.