There has been worldwide interest in the Royal Wedding and it is certainly not surprising that RTE broadcast the event in the Irish Republic. They did it because there is a lot of interest in the British royal family, even in the Republic, and furthermore the programme was provided to them by the BBC.
Some republicans were clearly annoyed by this and one Sinn Fein TD, John Brady, who represents the constituency of Wicklow, made his view very clear with this tweet.
.At the age of 44 he is not one of the veterans of the republican movement and he is younger than his new party leader Mary Lou McDonald. He was only elected as a councillor in 2014 and then as a TD in 2016 and that was after electoral defeats in 2007 and 2011.
However there is a bitterness about his tweet and a very twisted understanding of history that says a lot. Indeed it probably shows usw what a lot of Sinn Feiners in the Republic actually think.
Declan Kearney MLA, the Sinn Fein chairman, has this programme of engagement with unionists and talks about a New Ireland built on 'national reconciliation' but beneath the honeyed words and the polished performance there is a a very different reality.
Moreover Sinn Fein can't keep up the pretence for long as we have seen with Barry McElduff, Mairtin O'Muilleoir, Martina Anderson and now John Brady. Even the language of 'raping Ireland', the choice of words, shows the depth of the bitterness.
With people like that representing Sinn Fein in the Dail and with leaders who continue to eulogise IRA murderers, Declan Kearney's carefully crafted narrative of 'national reconciliation' and a New Ireland with equality for all lacks any credibility
It would be interesting to see Rte viewing figures for the broadcast
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, a very good point.
ReplyDeleteYou're right Nelson, ignorant people like Brady need to understand that the raping and pillaging of Ireland is an integral part of unionists cultural heritage, and should be respected as such.
ReplyDeleteEamon, you have clearly imbibed too much of the 'most oppressed people ever' narrative. Your perspective on the history of Ireland is quite frankly poisonous and perverse.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that outlawing the religion of the majority of the inhabitants, mass confiscation of the land of the inhabitants, indentured servitude in the colonies, countless massacres and atrocities and the inability to sit in the Parliament of one’s own country due to being a “papist”, ( that parliament being by various laws, completely subservient to it’s English counterpart), I would imagine this would count as oppression, but I suppose I was wrong again.
ReplyDeleteThe history of Ireland is rather more complex than that. If we just look at the past few decades, John Brady's own party has a rather grubby history in that it has supported and eulogised a terrorist campaign that slaughtered Roman Catholics as well as Protestants. Of course if you want to go back a little further you might reflect on the collusion between the IRA and the Nazis, History is not the one-sided narrative you have concocted.
ReplyDeleteThe contention you proposed was that the Irish were not oppressed, I think I have sufficently proved that an incorrect statement, in spite of the “complexity” of Irish history. And you speak of slaughter, you should know that on one day, the English killed more people at Drogheda than died during the entire length of the troubles.
ReplyDeleteYou studiously avoid the violence and atrocities perpetrated by the Fenian Brotherhood, IRB and IRA etc, which makes this a pointless exchange. History is not the simple one-sided narrative you have adopted.
ReplyDelete