Normality suspended to promote Normalisation

by Brian Boru Thu Mar 20, 2008 15:38

Media censoring Republican protests in Armagh
I note that very few of the mainstream media are making reference to the protests in Armagh today. Eirigi had one in Irish Street for an hour before moving on to the Market Place (in full view of CoI Cathedral) for around another hour where armoured landrovers and cops formed a cordon between the protest and the cathedral.

BBC, UTV and ITN all filmed the protests and also conducted a number of interviews. It remains to be seen if any of these clips are interviews will be broadcast. Perhaps, the powers that be have instructed news editorial teams to make no reference to the protests.

by brian boru too Thu Mar 20, 2008 22:53

She was handing out money to pensioners in a church. There was no military aspect to her visit.

The people in the North who regard themselves as British see her as their Queen, and as they have a right to their Britishness, just as much as I have a right to my Irishness, they are welcome to her.

We all voted for the Good Friday agreement which allowed for peaceful co-operation between British and Irish people and peaceful acceptance of British identity on this island.

If anything, successful royal visits bring the possibility of a United Ireland closer.

Standing around protesting and trying (unsuccessfully) to make a fuss does nothing to reassure Unionists that their identities and values would be secure in a United Ireland in the future.

by supporter Fri Mar 21, 2008 09:54

Fair play to éirígí for organising this.

It seriously exposes the blatant manipulation of the press by the powers that be and in a so called peaceful society?? i for one am watching closely what Éirígí is involved in and i have to say they have not put a foot wrong. obviously some of the more senior republicans that are going their way seem to think so too! people of credibilty with years of experience in the struggle are gravitating towards the most viable option for socialist republicans

also these comments about this crack pot, monarch representing people in ireland? how can any working class protestant or catholic, muslim or jew, hindu or buddhist have any affiliation with a woman who has never worked a day in her life and sits on wealth that could alleviate massive amounts of the social an economic ills that face her so called subjects?

get real, get with the 21st century and dont kid yourselves with this delusion that loyalism gets you a leg up. she wouldn't even piss on a working class protestant if they were on fire!!

Fair play to yous Éirígí. this is exactly what this country needs. a straight thinking, well organised, grassroots resurgence which casts the rhetoric and shitty arguments to the way side and gets out and challenges on the real issus without cow towing to the norm's of 'acceptable (paralysing) politics'

there are republicans watching and waiting comrades. éirígí abú

by James Hamilton Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:16

Is that Breandan MacCionnaith and Davy Hyland in some of those photos?
Looks like them. Did they join eirigi, anyone know what the story is there?
They are good republican activists of long standing credit, good to see they are still active.

by an spailpin fanach Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:39

yeah,

Brendan Mac Cionnaith, garvaghy road spokesperson, former sinn fein -delivered a speech at their function in Dublin there
David Highland - independant MLA former sinn fein is there too
Dominic mc glinchey of the mc glinchey family of south derry
A couple of high profile belfast republican ex prisoners, Alec Mc Crory and Rab jackson
Geraldine Dougan former MLA, sinn fein

And Bernard fox and Bernadette mc Aliskey have both spoken at events of theirs recently.

So they have former and current elected reps,high profile ex prisoners and hunger strikers and they dont seem short on young people either by the looks of it!

Obviously names are just names but i doubt if anyone in republican circles would refute the calibre of some of these people without it being politically motivated

Say what you want about éirígí but there is potential there for the first time in years of a real republican alternative and people like those mentioned above are noticing it and more importantly putting their name to it.

They dont get into the mud slinging of every other republican group who thinks that they are the 'true owners' of republicansm and all these heavy hitters who found it impossible to stop the rightward swing of sinn fein and see no validity in the hundred or so republican splinter groups see something different here.

interesting times ahead!

by Barry - 32 csm Fri Mar 21, 2008 19:50

"They dont get into the mud slinging of every other republican group who thinks that they are the 'true owners' of republicansm and all these heavy hitters who found it impossible to stop the rightward swing of sinn fein and see no validity in the hundred or so republican splinter groups see something different here. "

aye , right enough

by Stiana Fri Mar 21, 2008 21:01

A doddering old redundant woman, looked on with a mixture of pity and nostalgia by the British public, and viewed by a substantial number of Northern Ireland's citizens as their head of state came to Armagh to give out "Maundy Money." This is basically a recognition of services to Church and/or Community. Seems a bit extremist to jump on the "Republican" idea that she walked up the steps to St.Patrick's Cathedral over the corpses of any Catholics "her" army could round up. Sloshing a cocktail of native's blood and Buckfast around her ever-hungry maw, she used the ceremony to declare Ireland a thirty-two county colony of Britain, hereafter to be referred to as British-as-Finchley-land. The country ground to a halt as her British Army bodyguard got bored and started looking for any Catholic schoolgirls left in Armagh to rape, then shoot. Meanwhile RAF helicopters began spraying all the farmland surrounding the city with potato blight. GET A GRIP BOYS! "The unfortunate citizens of Armagh had to deal with traffic chaos and wholesale disruption in one of the largest operations mounted by the British police in Ireland in a number of years." Traffic disruption during any event in Armagh is a fact of life (Anyone remember what the place was like after the all-Ireland in 2002?), given the rubbish town planning and inadequate infrastructure to deal with heavy traffic. And the size of the police operation which disrupted our lives so? Yeah, more to do with a possible threat from Luddite hotheads still living in 1641 than a want to crush the native Gael under the Planter boot. Also, Éirigí, way to go making the concept of a United Ireland more attractive to Unionists.

by Séamus Tue Mar 25, 2008 04:04

And yet no-one is concerned with how working-class nationalists in the north might feel about traipsing the Brit Queen around the six counties as if she owned the place. I'm sure that's doing wonders for the new dispensation. (Not to mention her visit to the supposed 'Republic'.)

by lyncher - eire Tue Mar 25, 2008 13:21

well done to the eirgi men and women.
keep up the good work .
your numbers can only grow.
dont get your hands dirty their are other people their for that.