Six things we now know about Sunday's Castlederg commemoration
- When Arlene Foster speaks about leadership, she is of course talking about the abysmal failure of Sinn Féin to show leadership over the Castlederg republican parade. She is not talking about the brave leadership of the DUP, which has repeatedly denounced the violence of those who attacked the Lord Mayor in North Belfast, and has even gone so far as to heavily criticise those who would suggest the Lord Mayor had been warned not to go there.
- There is no equivalence between the Castlederg commemoration and that devoted annually in Coleraine to the memory of loyalist paramilitaries.
- There is no equivalence between the respectful 20 + loyal order parades which go through the centre of Castlederg each year and the planned republican commemoration.
- There is no equivalence between Sunday’s Castlederg commemoration and the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in that town, where the heroism of British armed forces down the ages and up to the present day is honoured.
- Martin McGuinness has failed the unionist community by his refusal to accept that there should be no commemoration of any kind anywhere of any republican dead. He has also failed the unionist community by not accepting that they have the right to hold commemorations of their dead anywhere, anytime of their choosing.
- Black is white.
Only 1 and 2 are valid.
ReplyDelete7. Martin McGuinness has failed the republican community by his refusal to attend the march.
ReplyDeletehad to laugh at Arlene's attempt on radio the other day to argue that Castlederg town centre is a shared space by using the Tyrone County Fleadh parade at the end of June as an example, as if the minority unionist community had some how allowed it to happen.
ReplyDeleteWhat Arlene failed to mention is that same Fleadh parade was responded to by unionism by bedecking the town with union flags a few days prior to the official opening of the fleadh and to top it all off it was officially objected to via a submission to the parades conmmission by an elected ulster unionist councillor.
Anonn 12:58 - Does that mean anyone not attending has likewise 'failed the republican community'? Wow. That's an awful lot of failures.
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:01 - That's an interesting thought but it'd be more interesting if you argued the case logically rather than making a statement and leaving it there.
ReplyDeleteMartin McGuinness isn't just anyone, Jude. But then, you know that.
ReplyDeleteAnon 15:13 - Then contact him - he's on Twitter - and ask him to explain himself. Or give him your opinion.
ReplyDeletePerfectly formed Blog Mr Collins, may I Re-Blog?
ReplyDeleteYour reply to Anon 15-13 seems to be a stock answer nowadays .Some posters might assume there is not a lot of difference between Martin and yourself on most issues.
ReplyDeleteBangordub - the pleasure is mine - reblog away...
ReplyDeleteBangordub - no need for the formalities - Dr Collins will do fine... ;
ReplyDelete:)
Anon 17:47 - I don't do stock answers, except to stock questions. And I can't be responsible for other people's assumptions. But since you mention it, yes, I would have similar view to the DFM on most issues. Not all but most.
ReplyDeleteI can see why, you sometimes talk through your backchannel whereas his backchannel occasionally talks through him:)
DeleteAnon 09:43 - I'm not quite sure what you're getting at but I have a suspicion you're attributing to me more importance than I have. I just scribble, I promise you.
ReplyDeleteYou occasionally talk crap IMHO, as do I. Not suggesting anything untoward, although even if you were signed up to ‘Mockingbird 2.0’ it wouldn’t annoy me. People are entitled to write what they want without overt or covert censorship. It isn’t the country we live in today, but it should be.
DeleteI would be the last person to pile on pressure to any scribbler. I am no judge of you, or anyone else for that matter. I just call it as I see it.
Re. Martin, his political career is incredible, that he was one of the links to the British through Brendan Duddy and Michael Oatley and now DFM is remarkable. The ‘Peace Process’ came to fruition through his connections combined with Ted Howell’s Boston connections. Whitey, Billy and Pat Nee, quite a cast of characters.
Like a lot of people I would have been very grateful to see an end to hostilities. It didn’t seem to happen. Sinn Fein morphed into a northern Fianna Fáil with secret agents (Dennis Donaldson, Freddie Scappaticci and good knows who else, nothing would surprise me anymore) and secret right-wing funding then tried to use the ‘peace process’ as a fascist straitjacket for anyone questioning the graft in the NI Assembly. So I am not currently a fan of Martin or his party or their journo tag-alongs with secret unnamed security sources. He lost the war and squandered the peace. I am supposed to worship him uncritically? SSDD (Same Stuff Different Dictator). I have no respect for what his party did with what little power they have. Greedy people wasted a genuine opportunity for real peace. Sad!
Jude;don't be so modest!You're a lot more than a scribbler.Why would a "mere scribbler" have been chosen to chair the Martin 4 President rally in Omagh?Clearly you must be a person that the Sinn Fein hierarchy feel they can trust.Why would they not!
DeleteAnon 13:48 - you can rest content - I'm signed up to nothing. I agree with the second clause of your first sentence, not so sure about the first... I'd like to know who the 'journo tag=alongs' are? In my experience Sinn Féin faces a relentless tide of criticism from the mainstream media. I think it does no harm to point out how there are other ways of looking at things. As for Martin McGuinness, I don't agree with everything he says or does but I do agree with a great deal of it. He has handled his role in Stormont with courage and skill. There aren't many politicians you can say that about
ReplyDeleteSome Nationalists or Republicans are Internationalists or Globalists. It is, of course, wrapped up in a friendly 'hug humanity' wrapper when it's anything but that.
DeleteYou yourself argued in, ’Sooner Blair Joins the Euro the Better’, 12/06/03 that, ‘most people here devoutly wish Tony would stop balancing and jump. Ask any businessman in Newry or Derry: a divided currency on an Island this side makes no sense.’
That isn’t Nationalism, it’s Internationalism disguised as Nationalism. To consolidate many currencies into one helps large companies play workers in various countries off one another, while getting preferential tax rates to encourage investment. The borderless trade helps reduce and simplify taxes for the already low or no taxpaying elites. I can see why paid off politicians and their media familiars like it, but how does that help workers trying to live?
Companies argue to reduce wages to that of China and India with hopes of an export market while the rich buy property inflating the price creating modern day wage slaves. We lurch toward serfdom more and more, but no-one challenges the narrative that globalism benefits everyone. How will people in Northern Ireland/Ireland compete in the digital economy when the cost of living in India is so much lower?
Nationalism or Republicanism would be naturally protectionist; Internationalism suggests we are all better in a deregulated free-for-all with a paid off political class. We aren’t!
Anon 11:54 - I assure, I've a lot to be modest about. As to being link-man at M McG's Omagh rally - I guess they asked me because I'm an Omagh man and I think Martin McGuinness would have made an outstanding president. I'd love to think I was a pivotal player in the political arena but I've a bit more sense.
ReplyDelete