Father horrified to see dead son's name on banner at loyalist bonfire

[Gabriel_Hurl]

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[GweylTah]

Well-said, Gabriel Hurl, it needed someone to bring us to our senses on this thread, no more from me on this issue.

[pintsofguinness]

I don't understand your post Gab.  Another emigrant turned lecturer.  The fact that you're embarrassed about where you come from says more about you than anyone else.

Imagine the nerve of us to complain about a young fellas name put on a bonfire.

Only threads on food and water from now on...

[Gabriel_Hurl]

I don't understand your post Gab.  Another emigrant turned lecturer.  The fact that you're embarrassed about where you come from says more about you than anyone else.

Imagine the nerve of us to complain about a young fellas name put on a bonfire.

Only threads on food and water from now on...

What's the fact that I'm an "emigrant" have to do with anything? Does that my opinion any less worthwhile?

Take a look at the post topics in Non-GAA - on the first page alone

3 about the 12th / 4 if you include this one
The Maze/Windsor Park issue - jeez, that's never been discussed before 
Flags on lamp-posts
Shoot to Kill

All with the same old bullshit being recycled in them - week after week



FWIW - I feel horrible for the man and family involved in this story - I really do

[pintsofguinness]

What's the fact that I'm an "emigrant" have to do with anything? Does that my opinion any less worthwhile?

No but it's not unusual for someone who's spent five minutes out of the country to come back with the type of nonsense you came out with. 
I haven't really commented on the threads you mention because the 12th has very little affect on me however it affects a lot of people and I can understand them talking about it.  Can't you? 

[Tony hawks]

As an aside i was reading irish league forums about this issue from someone who lives in the estate,there names being placed on the bonfire was an absolute disgrace,but you can understand a community which has been plagued with anto social elements will react this way,that doesnt make it right far from it,but at leat it gives you some understanding of the background of this affair.

[stephenite]

but you can understand a community which has been plagued with anto social elements will react this way,that doesnt make it right far from it,but at leat it gives you some understanding of the background of this affair.

No,I cannot understand it all. Absolutely nothing can justify this, least of all some socio-liberal bollocks like you've just spouted

[nifan]

Tony, burning some representation of the IRA or something would be in some way understandable, this was a teenage boy who had done nothing to annoy these people other  than be born a catholic.
There isnt always extenuating circumstances, some people are just scum.

[Fiodoir Ard Mhacha]

...burning some representation of the IRA or something would be in some way understandable..

Don't know what the 'or something' refers to. Eye for an eye and all that makes us all blind. I don't believe in burning any flags.

But then again, would it not be better to have NO flag at the top of these 'structures' - and instead have the whole 11th 'event' (?), whatever it is supposed to commemorate, regulated - the venue, content, crowd control etc.

This particular action was despicable - no excuses, or half-thought out justifications for it.

[nifan]

my point was rather that you could perhaps understand, if not agree with, the burning of a representation of the IRA or some other paramilitary organisation etc.

I do not agree with burning of the tricolour in anyway, and I think there is no excuse for this particular action-  which was my point.

[Fiodoir Ard Mhacha]

I don't know if I can understand. What would the burning of a representation of the IRA, or any other organisation, actually achieve? What does it say?

To me, it's no different than the burning of effigies/flags/books/records/leaflets by any fascist gathering in the past. Plus the action of flag or effigy burning, in this part of the world, simply attempts to justify the continuation of division.

[GweylTah]

I don't know if I can understand. What would the burning of a representation of the IRA, or any other organisation, actually achieve? What does it say?

To me, it's no different than the burning of effigies/flags/books/records/leaflets by any fascist gathering in the past. Plus the action of flag or effigy burning, in this part of the world, simply attempts to justify the continuation of division.

Hopefully the successful beacon at Stoneyford, a more hopeful symbol than a bonfire and safer and more environmentally friendly too, will have been noticed by other places and we will see a lot more of them next 11th Night.

[nifan]

FAM, I dont believe it achieves anything.
I am simply saying, the hatred of an organization such as the IRA can be understood, the hatred shown towards this boy cannot.

[Fiodoir Ard Mhacha]

nifan,

I guess in the same way that a hatred by some of the British army, UDR or the RUC can be understood.

Yet the (former?) political wing of the IRA have now entered government with loyalists so does this mean that those who erect tricolours on bonfires, with or without reference to the IRA, are completely out of step with the representatives they elect (if indeed they even vote) and therefore is the 11th night (and some aspects of the 12th) the last bastion of the dying breed of bigots who hate anything or anyone not of their own kind, regardless of political developments.

[nifan]

FAM, people attend the 11th night and the 12th for a variety of reasons- niot all of which are sinister.
I dont know if its the last bastion of a dying breed but some of the aspects surrounding it are pathetic and/or sick.