Poppy Watch

[OakleafCounty]

The couple that started and still own Dunelm Mill are from Cardonagh Co Donegal to my knowledge.  Started off small, and  our a real success story.  One of very few if not the only home furnishing outlet that were expanding and opening new outlets during the recession.  I think I would forgive them the Union Jack cushions, most likely meant for stores in England etc.

Apologies for the detour, carry on:)

If there from Carn they should have the common sense not to advertise their 'Union Jack Range' over the tanoy in their Buncrana Road store. A bit of common sense like.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

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.

How did he react to that ?

He just signed up for an beginners class in Gaeilge at an cultúrlann

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

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.

[Rossfan]

There's an awful lot of Irish dancing in Great Britain. The dancers also speak English like we do. Does that make them Irish?

[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.

[trueblue1234]

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!!

[muppet]

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.

Here is a Japanese set dancing group:

Does that tick the cultural box making them 1/3 Irish?
Dá mbéach an teanga ar eolas acú freisin, an mbéach a dó as an trí acú ansin? (apologies to Gaeilgóirs - I am very rusty these days)

I don't think Irishness or any other nationality is so conveniently defined.

If a republican wants to support an English soccer team, so what? If he chooses to read English red-tops, I won't be joining him but it is his choice as a free man. If the Irish struggle was for only one thing, in my opinion, it is freedom. Not different restrictions.

[glens abu]

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.

Here is a Japanese set dancing group:

Does that tick the cultural box making them 1/3 Irish?
Dá mbéach an teanga ar eolas acú freisin, an mbéach a dó as an trí acú ansin? (apologies to Gaeilgóirs - I am very rusty these days)

I don't think Irishness or any other nationality is so conveniently defined.

If a republican wants to support an English soccer team, so what? If he chooses to read English red-tops, I won't be joining him but it is his choice as a free man. If the Irish struggle was for only one thing, in my opinion, it is freedom. Not different restrictions.

+1

[Knock Yer Mucker In]

It might be best to try and define what is Irish culture and separate it from republican, socialism etc politics

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

There's an awful lot of Irish dancing in Great Britain. The dancers also speak English like we do. Does that make them Irish?

Simple answer.No definately not. Youd need to tick another few boxes, then I might give them the "of irish descent" label.

[Ringfort]

I don't think the lad was saying you have to like all aspects of Irish culture - the gah, dancing, trad ceol etc etc - just simply that having a distinct culture is one of the major determinants of nationality.

On the advancing 'Britishness' in NI? I'm not from there myself so wouldn't be 100% qualified to comment but it appears to me in recent years more of an advancing 'northern irishness'. Like its becoming its own distinct identity. Diluted Britishness. Cementing of this new identity I feel is the biggest threat to nationalists all Ireland desires than any solidification of the Union.

[AZOffaly]

Rather than something you do or are interested define you as being Irish or not, surely what we are actually talking about are common characteristics of an Irish person. If you display several of these characteristics, you are likely to be an Irish person. If you display some of them, but not others, you may well be Irish. If you display none of them, you could still be Irish but you would be a sort of unique Irish person.

Some characteristics of Irishness

1. Interest in sport. All sport. Even racing flys.
2. Interest in the GAA.
3. Enjoyment of, or interest in, traditional or folk music.
4. Ability to speak a bit of Irish, or understand a bit of Irish.
5. A heightened sense of the ironic, or of sarcasm.
6. A major dash of rogueishness in your character.
etc
etc

Actually that would be an interesting thread. Define the characteristics of an Irish person. Some specific characteristics, like the ability to start a row in an empty room, are largely confined to the province of Ulster

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

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.

Some people have choose to define their Irishness solely through a hatred of britain without any consideration of what Irish culture is really about. It is that more than a desire to create all irish speaking, gaa loving traditional musicians folk which has been to the detriment of republicanism.
We must define what makes us different and for me those lines are sadly getting more blurred as time passes.

[Ringfort]

Number 1 would surely have to be an obsession with 'Irishness' itself. I don't think I know an Irish person who doesn't love to talk about ourselves, our place in the grand scheme of things, or the state of the country. In comparison to where I live in England, where its rare to meet someone with an opinion on anything to do with their country.

AZ - that list would be a start alright, but I immediately thought of my ould one who only ticks the language box there. Hates sport and trad ceol but is the most Irish obsessed introspective nationalist I know!

[red hander]

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...