Upcoming Events

National | Miscellaneous

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

User Preferences

  • Language - en | ga
  • text size >>
  • make this your indymedia front page make this your indymedia front page

Blog Feeds

Cedar Lounge
For Lefties too Stubborn to Quit

offsite link Sometimes I feel like giving up? 00:58 Sun May 19, 2013 | WorldbyStorm

offsite link ?Most Banks Do Exactly What You Expect???We do Exactly What You Want? 15:11 Sat May 18, 2013 | irishelectionliterature

offsite link From the left to where?. 15:03 Sat May 18, 2013 | WorldbyStorm

offsite link Huh? What?s the Technical Group got to do with it? 13:00 Sat May 18, 2013 | WorldbyStorm

offsite link This Weekend I?ll Mostly Be Listening to? The Rain Parade 04:43 Sat May 18, 2013 | irishelectionliterature

Cedar Lounge >>

Dublin Opinion
Life should be full of strangeness, like a rich painting

offsite link In God?s Country 00:39 Mon May 13, 2013

offsite link Fishy Talks Galway, 13 May 2013 13:36 Sun May 12, 2013

offsite link The Indo: Think I Know The Choice I?d Make.. 17:22 Thu May 09, 2013

offsite link Alan Ahearne, Johnny Boy 13:24 Mon May 06, 2013

offsite link Who Benefits from Austerity? Mechanics Institute Limerick Summer School, 4 May 2013 23:59 Fri May 03, 2013

Dublin Opinion >>

Irish Left Review
Joined up thinking for the Irish Left

offsite link Framing ?The Gatekeepers? Fri May 17, 2013 17:46 | Raymond Deane

offsite link The May Issue of Socialist Voice is Out Now Fri May 17, 2013 17:14 | Communist Party of Ireland

offsite link Full-Sized Life Thu May 16, 2013 13:32 | Susan DuMars

offsite link Left MEPs to debate austerity and abortion rights in Dublin Wed May 15, 2013 13:53 | Irish Left Review

offsite link Action on X ? Protest May 18th Central Plaza, Dame St, Dublin 2, @ 4pm Tue May 14, 2013 17:59 | Irish Left Review

Irish Left Review >>

NAMA Wine Lake

offsite link Of the Week? Sat May 18, 2013 00:02 | namawinelake

offsite link Noonan denies IBRC legal fees loan approval to Paddy McKillen was in breach of E... Fri May 17, 2013 14:23 | namawinelake

offsite link Gayle Killilea Dunne asks to be added as notice party in Sean Dunne?s bankruptcy Fri May 17, 2013 12:30 | namawinelake

offsite link NAMA sues Maria Byrne and Graham Byrne in Dublin?s High Court Fri May 17, 2013 11:39 | namawinelake

offsite link Johnny Ronan finally wins a court case Thu May 16, 2013 15:43 | namawinelake

NAMA Wine Lake >>

MediaBite
A shot at bias in the media

offsite link Separating the News from the Noise Thu Apr 04, 2013 21:14

offsite link Blessed with nothing but good intentions Fri Feb 22, 2013 18:04

offsite link The Household Charge - How They Failed to Shape Our Perspectives Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:48

offsite link The web's political rainbow Wed Dec 07, 2011 09:47

offsite link The Forgotten Constituency: The Majority and The Irish Economic Crisis Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:49

MediaBite >>

The Intended Reconquest of Ireland

category national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis author Wednesday May 30, 2012 23:36author by Tom Stokes - Republic Day Ireland Report this post to the editors

From British Empire to EU Empire

There are fools who decry history as if it was irrelevant to the present or the future. Here is an extract from a piece my late father wrote in 1969 on the subject of the drive towards membership of the EEC, now the EU. Relevant? I certainly think it is, in the context of the vote we are going to cast, or not cast, or cast unwisely, on May 31st.

"In the Ireland of the sixties, things matter more than people. Christian and human values are uneconomic, and may as well be scrapped. The heroes now are the cranes, bulldozers and automated production lines. They enable labour forces to be reduced dramatically, cutting costs to the minimum. Those displaced may emigrate, or just stagnate - it's not important. We are in with the big boys now, and they are playing for keeps.

To get into the Common Market we are willing to barter our sovereignty. We hadn't got it long enough to get used to it anyway, but the fools who won it for us would have expected us to put a bit more value on it. They could have saved their lives if only they had a working knowledge of economics. We have put a price-tag on everything, now.

The French, who resist our entry into Europe must be mad. Our country is ripe for exploitation - our Government ready to stand down as an effective authority, so that big business can take over, or so it seems. Our mobile labour force is ready to be sent, as they've always been sent, wherever there's hewing of wood, or drawing of water to be done. The common bond is dissolved to prove how European we are. If we had any pride left, we'd swallow it, and yet the French still don't want us. What are we to do?

We must push harder. Tell them this is the Ireland of the soft sell, land of the evergreen sucker, The Misty Isle where fools are born one-a-minute ready to trade with all comers on any terms. We love glass beads, mirrors and cheap gold bricks, south-sea bubbles, bubble-car factories, aeroplane shadow-factories, Singer stamps, trading stamps, Free Trade Agreements, the lot.

This is a fair land, flowing with milk, and milk products. It's a con-man's paradise - we're dying to be taken in. This land was our land, it's going cheap.

Our economists are sporting types who go their way, casting our salmon to catch someone else's sprat, not without some little success. Our chaps land a big one sometimes, providing an occasion for backslapping and bouquet-tossing. Bouquet-tossing is becoming something of a national art-form, and it takes the harm out of long trips to distant sunny seminars where economists go to lecture and recuperate." Etc....

(by Pearse Stokes 1918-1987)

author by micheailinpublication date Thu May 31, 2012 03:22Report this post to the editors

Yes. Thanks for this. Your father was a wise man.

author by Gaelgoir.publication date Thu May 31, 2012 13:10Report this post to the editors

Danes still speak Danish.
Icelanders speak Icelandic .
Swedes speak Swedish.

The defeated Irish speak English.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Thu May 31, 2012 17:04Report this post to the editors

d'imigh an intinn leis an teanga.

HOLD YOUR TEANGA

WHEN I WAS YOUNG AND FULL OF HOPE
WONDERING HOW I'D MANAGE TO COPE
LONG BEFORE I TOOK TO DOPE
I ASKED MY POPPA WHAT WOULD I DO
WOULD I BE WEALTHY, WOULD I BE RICH
OR LIKE HIM END UP IN THE DITCH
CURSING LIFE AS A VICIOUS BITCH
HERE'S WHAT HE SAID TO ME

FOLLOW YOUR DADDY'S FOORSTEPS DOWN
SHUFFLE ALONG LIKE THE REST OF THE CLOWNS
SELDOM SEEN AND NEVER HEARD
TAKE WHATEVER YOUR BETTERS DOLE OUT
KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN RAISE NO SHOUT
GRAB THE ODD DAY WHENEVER YOU CAN
TAKE YOUR PITTANCE LIKE A MAN
LEARN YOUR PLACE NOT TO SPEAK
HOLD YOUR TONGUE, NOT A SQUEAK
BE QUEUEIN' OLD SON BE QUEUEIN'

THE ANSWER IS PLAIN TO SEE
YOU'LL END UP JUST LIKE ME
WHEREVER YOU'LL BE YOU'LL BE
STUCK IN THE GUTTER
UNABLE TO UTTER
A PROTEST OR WORD OF DISPUTE
WATCHING MERCEDES AND MINK-COATED LADIES
GIVING WAY TO YOUR BETTERS
AND THANKS FOR YOUR FETTERS
ON YOUR TONGUE MELT NO BUTTER
NOR MUMBLE NOR STUTTER
DETRACTION FROM RICH MAN'S REPUTE
BE QUEUEIN' OLD SON BE QUEUEIN'

JUST GET IN THE LINE TO FILL OUT YOUR TIME
SEEK NO REASON NOR RHYME
YOU KNOW HOW TO SIGN
OR BORROW ME COAT AND HEAD FOR THE BOAT
FOR THE TIDE MUST SOON RISE AS SURE AS THE LIES
THEY'RE STUFFING DOWN INTO OUR THROATS
BE QUEUEIN' OLD SON BE QUEUEIN'
WHEREVER WE'LL BE WE'LL BE
BE QUEUEIN' OLD SON BE QUEUEIN'.

Shay Mahoorem(Reminiscing on a Fifties Childhood, Volume 1, 1988).

author by average iqpublication date Sat Jun 02, 2012 16:43Report this post to the editors

I recently had a conversation with a medical friend of my family. I asked him why it was that Irish people could believe the weak and unconvincing arguaments being put forward by the YES camp. he pointed out that after years of listening to his patients give all kind of reasons for voting for various EU treaties the reasons varied from money to I heard it on tv I had to vote yes. They consistently refused his pleadings to even try to read any of these treaties for all sorts of reasons including the often used, there was too many pages in it!

He told me the real reason is that the IQ of the Irish people is very low by international standards. this has been confirmed in recent research. Interestingly he also believed the effects of high levels of flouride being added to the water supply had a bearing on thisbecause of its effects of parts of the brain. Unfortunately this is irreversible

author by anotherlambpublication date Sat Jun 02, 2012 17:19Report this post to the editors

I think an all out ban on alcohol would do ireland good,ive seen other countries were alcohol is banned and i think it could raise the national iq,as most irish people have their first experience of alcohol at a young age younger than thirteen,which is completely unacceptable.I believe myself if i didnt experience alcohol at such a young age i could have done better in exams as a young person..

author by James Connolly Sovietpublication date Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:43Report this post to the editors

I think it would be foolish to imagine that 800 years of genocide will not weaken the ethical and intellectual structure of any nation. The sad fact that for most of that 800 years, lacking a back bone was very much a survival advantage. Those Irish people who had a back bone were either murdered or forced into exile. But, for all that, there has always been a tiny minority who were willing to do what it takes to create and defend sovereignty. These people are normally reviled by the herd as "terrorists," "extremists," "criminals," etc. etc.

Between 1916 and 1922, these "criminals" did their worst, and forced even the Irish herd into a confrontation with the occupying power. However, once the herd realized that Irish sovereignty was not a gift from the English monarch, but something that we ourselves would have to create and defend - in blood and sacrifice - the Irish herd panicked, and, a little later, sighed a sigh of the greatest relief when the English monarch graciously allowed them back into the imperial fold as a "free state." The "criminals," of course, had to be put down, and so they were with all the brutality and spite that the slave mentality is always ready to unleash (on a weaker opponent.)

So, when the EU came along as a new Mother, the herd was overjoyed. They could give the finger to England at no cost. And this has been a wonderful boon to the 26 county herd. They can look at the occupied six counties in the same way as they look at border conflicts in Africa - something that has nothing to do with them - a British problem. And since they are no longer British, but European, it's not their business.

So, don't expect the herd to grow a back bone any time soon - back bones are expensive in energy - and they lead you into dangerous actions, like standing up.

author by Roman Italianpublication date Sun Jun 03, 2012 13:38Report this post to the editors

Even the Romans were not interested in conquering boring Dubliners.

author by An Draighneán Donnpublication date Mon Jun 04, 2012 17:20Report this post to the editors

Ireland had a wonderful civilization during the Roman empire, and did have right until the defeat at Kinsale in 1601. After that, everything has slowly been turning to shit. Once a country looses it's language, it is no longer really a country, it regresses to provincial status.

Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2013 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy