Archive for the ‘Unionism’ Category
Book Launch – Ireland in the World Order, written by Maurice Coakley – Thursday September 20, 7.00pm, Teachers’ Club 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1
Invitation to a Dublin launch of a new book :
Ireland in the World Order, written by Maurice Coakley
Maurice Coakley focuses on key elements that contributed to Ireland’s development, examining its bloody and violent incorporation into the British state, its refusal to embrace the Protestant Reformation and failure to industrialise in the 19th century. Coakley considers the crucial question of why Ireland’s national identity has come to rest on a mass movement for independence.
Andy Storey will launch the book
Details :
Thursday September 20, 7.00pm, in the
Teachers’ Club 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin 1
Feel free to bring a friend
Ireland in the World Order examines Ireland’s development from the medieval to the modern era, comparing its unique trajectory with that of England, Scotland and Wales.
Maurice Coakley focuses on key elements that contributed to Ireland’s development, examining its bloody and violent incorporation into the British state, its refusal to embrace the Protestant Reformation and failure to industrialise in the 19th century. Coakley considers the crucial question of why Ireland’s national identity has come to rest on a mass movement for independence.
Cutting through many of the myths – imperialist and nationalist – which have obscured the real reasons for Ireland’s course of development, Ireland in the World Order provides a new perspective for students and academics of Irish history.
About The Author
Maurice Coakley lectures in the Journalism and Media Studies faculty of Griffith College, Dublin.
More information at this link :
Ireland in the World Order – by Maurice Coakley
Lord Ken Maginnis of Fermanagh Resigns from Ulster Unionist Party Because of a “Ladder of Bestiality”
Lord Maginnis, a former Fermanagh Unionist MP, has walked out of the Ulster Unionist Party after a row about his anti-gay prejudices. His public comments included a baffling reference to a “ladder of bestiality” – we are in the dark on whether Ken ascends or descends this stairway? Perhaps the pictorial guide will aid us all (thanks to Liam McQuaid).
Bernadette McAliskey Interview – Not Much Has Changed in Northern Ireland
http://m.midulstermail.co.uk/news/local/progress-yes-change-bernadette-devlin-mcaliskey-1-4177025 This is a very sharp interview – highly recommended.
Orange Parades – Tension and Trouble on the Way in Belfast – 90 Miles Away Dublin Senators Hear Seán O’Casey was an Orange Lodger
As we approach July 12 and the Marching Season intensifies we can offer two opposing perspectives on the Orange Order.
Drew Nelson, Grand Master of the Order, addressed the Seanad (Senate) in Leinster House for the the first time, and – in the spirit of the peace process – the politicians grovelled.
World by Storm discusses the occasion on the Cedar Lounge Site, noting the unfortunate late dramatist Seán O’Casey has been posthumously claimed by the Orange Order. No sources are offered for Nelson’s curious history tit-bit, but Cedar Lounge readers have discovered two biographers, Desmond Greaves and Christopher Murray, who say the direct opposite.
Link :
Orange Grand Master Drew Nelson Puts a Sash on Seán O’Casey
Ninety miles away the Orange Order looks different.
We recommend this article by Pádraig Mac Coitir of Éirigí who warns us about events unfolding in Ardoyne, North Belfast :
“It is also striking that in north Belfast, a sinister alliance between the Orange Order, unionist parties (including Stormont ministers such as Nigel Dodds and Peter Robinson) and unionist paramilitaries is re-emerging to ensure that the Order is permitted to trample over the rights of the people in Ardoyne.
“Although the Parades Commission only imposed minimal restrictions on the Orange Order’s march past Ardoyne, any move by the Commission to make further concessions to the Order at the behest of this unholy alliance will be viewed by many as cave-in to the bully-boys and cudgel carriers.”
Link :
Mac Coitir urges vigilance as sinister Unionist alliance re-emerges over Ardoyne
Update 1 :
Readers might like this :
Link :
Jim Larkin and the Irish Citizen Army – National Library of Ireland
This wonderful collection includes the following :
Report on a visit by the Irish Citizen Army to Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin). The signatory Sean Ó Cathasaigh was the playwright Sean O’Casey, who was secretary for a period. (Ms. 15,673/2).
Violent Legacy of Irish Troubles, British Double-Standards – Boston College Row Revisited
Ed Moloney’s Irish Echo Editorial (an Irish-American Newspaper) on the Boston tapes controversy is required reading for all people genuinely interested in dealing with the violent legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles (1969-1998, signing of the Good Friday Agreement).
Two key quotes :
Number 1 :But the war has now ended, peace reigns and there is a desperate need for dealing with the past in a way that solidifies that peace and ensures an untroubled future.
The British have chosen a way that does the opposite. The Boston College subpoenas symbolize an approach to this issue based on revenge and the view that alleged combatants in that war should be dragged before the courts, convicted and jailed.
Number 2 :
There will be those, of course, who will say that if Gerry Adams did order Jean McConville’s “disappearance” then he deserves to be prosecuted. In a normal society, one ruled by a normal government, that would be a difficult argument to answer. But Northern Ireland is not, even with the peace process, a normal society and nowhere is this more evident than in the administration of justice.
The plain, undeniable fact is that there are double standards in the way justice is doled out in Northern Ireland.
Read, Circulate, and Act.
Slowly, but inexorably, the penny is dropping, both here in the United States as well as back in Ireland.
The Boston College subpoenas seeking access to oral history interviews with former IRA activists on behalf of the police in Northern Ireland are about the dumbest things that have ever happened in the long relationship between the United States, Britain and Ireland.
The difficulty is not how to describe why they are so dumb, but in counting the ways in which they are so dumb.
First of all, this is not the way in which to heal a conflict like that in the North of Ireland.
Over 3,000 people died and tens of thousands were scarred, physically and mentally, by a war that was undoubtedly one of the longest and most violent, if not the most violent in Irish history.
But the…
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Belfast to Boston Via Afghanistan
Eamonn McCann has written a fascinating account of former Royal Ulster Constabulary Officers who urged a legal assault on the Boston Archive in order to settle old scores :
Norman Baxter’s Long Crusade
Well worth reading :
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/13/norman-baxters-long-crusade/
Mr Baxter was part of the police team that unsuccessfully investigated the 1998 Omagh Bombing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8356020.stm
Boston College has undermined all researchers and journalists who rely on confidential sources – Liam Clarke Article
A huge amount has been written about the Boston College Saga – and there is plenty more to come – but Liam Clarke sums up the central issues very well
His full article is here :
We need full open and honest debate on the troubles – that cannot happen when the state uses its power to prosecute people for actions they took during the 1969-98 Northern Ireland war which ended with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The state is biased and will never – taking the most blatant example – prosecute the people responsible for the murder of fourteen unarmed demonstrators in Derry on Bloody Sunday at the end of January 1972.
The Saville Inquiry Found British Paratroopers Guilty of Murdering 14 Innocent Civilians - Nobody Prosecuted
Ed Moloney offers the example of Patrick McCullough :
http://thebrokenelbow.com/2012/01/16/no-subpoenas-for-patrick-mccullough/
“Be Patient and Never Give up the Struggle” An interview with Tommy McKearney
International Viewpoint has published a stimulating interview with Tommy McKearney,
http://www.tommymckearney.com/Site/Blog/Blog.html
Tommy McKearney - A Patient Revolutionary Socialist
We hope soon to carry a review of Tommy’s recently published book
Goodbye Armalite, Hello Ballot Box?
Tommy welcomes the United Left Alliance Project :
Q: In late 2010 the United Left Alliance came together to contest the February 2011 general elections in Ireland, winning five seats. What is you assessment of the ULA?
TM: The ULA is a positive and progressive development. The fact that organizations of the left have come together at any time is good and that these groups are doing so at this time of capitalist crisis is heartening and encouraging. The ULA has also given some needed visibility to the left through its articulate and high-profile spokespersons such as Richard Boyd Barrett and Joe Higgins.
Asked about Ed Moloney’s “Voices From the Grave” and the British state attack on the Boston College Belfast Project, Tommy says : Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 