Patrick Murphy - the Irish News' resident cultural bigot (3)

A few days ago I posted in response to an article by Patrick Murphy in the Irish News.  Since then I came across an old article by the same writer, in which he made another attack on unionism and also attacked the Ulster-Scots language.

 

It would take more than one post to respond to what he said in that earlier article but my attention was drawn particularly to this section.  Indeed the editor of the Irish News thought it so important that he put it in large bold type at the centre of the article. 

Sinn Fein and the SDLP agreed to what was a cultural war crime - the creation of Ulster-Scots.  US scriptwriters invented the fictional language of Klingon to promote the Star Trek television series.  Ulster-Scots is Klingon with a Ballymena accent ...

Ach ye wudnae hae a gleed o wut.  There's mair nor yin leid in Ulster, and there's mair nor twa forbye!

 

In case you thought that the cultural bigotry espoused by Patrick Murphy was a temporary aberration, you can dispel that thought.  He was at it in 2009 and he is still at it in 2014.

 

It might have been hoped that in the period between 2009 and 2014 Patrick Murphy might have developed a better and more mature understanding of culture but sadly that has not been the case.  His cultural bigotry, which was there in 2009 is still there in 2014.

Psalm 23 in Ulster-Scots

Psalm 23, the Shepherd psalm, is one of the best known passages in the Bible. 

It was translated into Ulster-Scots, in metrical form, by Dr Philip Robinson, and Darren Gibson included the first few verses of this translation in his Ulster-Scots column in the NewsLetter on Saturday.
 

Tha Loard's ma herd, nae want's A'll hae.

He lays me doon tae bide.

In fiels o gress: he taks me safe,

Alang tha watter side.

 

Ma sowl he aye pits richt agane;

And gars me fur tae traik

Alang tha strecht, richt-leeving pad,

Jist fur his ain name's sake.

 

Tha mair A waak throu daith's dairk glen,

Yit A'll no fear ocht ill:

Fur thou art wi me an thy cruik

An staff, gies comfort still.

Sinn Fein object to new Rathcoole housing!

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is planning to build more houses in Rathcoole.  They have built a number of houses in the estate in recent years but their figures show that there is still a significant waiting list for Rathcoole.  It is a popular estate and last year there were 255 applicants in housing stress for the Rathcoole common landlord area.

As a result the NIHE plans to build 20 houses this year in Deerfin Park and Derrycoole Way and, 10 more in Iniscarn Way and Loughmoney Park the following year and a further 20 in the Derrycoole and Eastway area the year after that.  That makes a total of 50 new houses and that will go some way to meet the need.

However the building of social housing to meet some of the need in a unionist community has clearly angered Sinn Fein MLA Caral Ni Chuilin.

In the North Belfast News (10 May) she complained that the Housing Executive were building too many houses in Rathcoole.  That criticism is nasty, mean-spirited and sectarian.  In fact when the Housing Executive responded to her claims they pointed out that she had got her facts and figures wrong but then that is not unusual.  Sinn Fein seem to adopt the stance of 'never let the facts get in the way of Sinn Fein propaganda'.

She also attacked my statement that at the start of the year there were 1,994 Protestants on the waiting list in the North Belfast constituency and 1,988 Roman Catholics.  Those are the Housing Executive's own figures but because they weren't the sort of figures she wanted she rejected them.  Here again it is a case of  'never let the facts get in the way of Sinn Fein propaganda'.  For years they have talked about waiting lists and then when the real truth about waiting lists is explained they want to ignore them and move the argument on to something else.

That is why the DUP has been repeating the real facts about social housing in North Belfast.

I debated this issue during the week with Alex Maskey on the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster.  I was able to present the facts about waiting lists and waiting times but he seemed to have no interest in the facts.  He simply wanted to keep on repeating the republican mantra of discrimination.  Nevertheless it was a great opportunity to disseminate the facts to a province-wide audience and to expose the false propaganda of the SDLP and Sinn Fein.

Then next Tuesday my DUP colleagues William Humphrey and Paula Bradley will speak in an adjournment debate at Stormont, tabled by the DUP, on social housing in North Belfast.  After the other North Belfast MLAs have spoken, I will be able to respond at the end of the debate.  I look forward very much to that debate and a further opportunity to nail some of the myths and lies.

Patrick Murphy - the Irish News' resident cultural bigot (2)

In his column in the Irish News last Saturday (19 April) Patrick Murphy continued his habit of attacking unionism.  I was struck not only by the content of his attack but also by the manner of it.  He wrote in his usual nasty style, which seeks to demean, devalue and ridicule the target of his writing.  Moreover there was a smugness and arrogance about the article which was thoroughly distasteful.

The article was entitled 'Cultural unionism a recent invention' and in it he  said

It is hard to know where to find a definition of unionism.  There are no unionist works of philosophy, no fount of literature, no deep well of social and economic theory.

This statement was seen by the Irish News as so important that it was picked out and printed in large bold type in the centre of the page.

Patrick Murphy's core message was that unionists have never produced anything of value in the field of culture and here he takes culture in the broader sense that includes philosophy and social and economic theory as well as literature.

Now I am a unionist but I have other identities as well.  I am also British, which is my national identity, an Ulsterman, which is my regional identity, a Protestant, which is my religious identity, and an Ulster-Scot, which is my cultural or ethnic identity.  I can therefore identify with the cultural expressions of all these identities so here are some examples of what Ulstermen have done.

Ulster has also produced a number of great scientists, including Lord Kelvin, who was born in Belfast of an Ulster-Scots father and a Scottish mother.  He was one of the greatest scientists of his day and was also a Liberal Unionist who campaigned against home rule.

Francis Hutcheson was a great philosopher and an Ulster-Scot and was known as the 'Father of the Scottish Enlightenment'.  His radical ideas were taken across the Atlantic by another Ulster Presbyterian minister and helped to influence the American campaign for independence.

Viscount James Bryce, another Ulster-Scot, was born in Belfast.  He was a British academic, jurist and a noted historian. 

Ulster has produced a number of great hymnwriters, from the evangelical Protestant tradition.  When William Young Fullerton wrote 'I cannot tell why He whom angels worship', to the traditional tune of the Londonderry Air, he gave the world a truly beautiful hymn.

Dr Adam Clarke, another Ulsterman, was a great theologian of Methodism and the author of an excellent Bible commentary, which extends to six large volumes.

From time to time I write posts about aspects of Ulster heritage and culture and one reason for doing that is that it so much of that culture has been ignored by both academia and media.  As a result many Ulster folk know nothing about men such as Kelvin.  As a schoolboy and then as a university student I studied physics and regularly talked about Kelvin's laws of thermodynamics and 'degrees Kelvin' but I knew nothing about Kelvin's Ulster ancestry, his deep Christian faith or his Liberal Unionist opposition to home rule.

Back in 2003 Belfast bid, albeit unsuccessfully, to become the European Capital of Culture.  As a Belfast city councillor I was a member of the committee behind the bid and on one occasion we went on a bus up to the Ulster Museum.  As we were leaving and passing the entrance to Botanic Gardens one of the leading figures behind the bid pointed to the statue of Lord Kelvin and asked 'who is that?'  I was horrified that a well educated person, employed in the field of culture and seeking to promote the culture of Belfast did not even know who Lord Kelvin was!

The statue is still there in Botanic Gardens and there is an Ulster History Circle blue plaque at the site of his birthplace in Fisherwick Place but that is about as far as it goes.

Schoolchildren in Ulster still learn about the laws of thermodynamics, the absolute scale of temperature and degrees Kelvin, but does anyone actually mention that he was born in Belfast? 

Thankfully, not everyone has forgotten Kelvin.  He was a pioneer in the field of underwater trans-Atlantic telegraph cables and the promoters of the new telecommunications submarine cable connection between North America and Northern Ireland chose the appropriate name Project Kelvin. 

Ulster is a very small place but it has a rich cultural heritage that should be recognised, not ridiculed.

The atheists who attacked David Cameron, who are they?

The recent statement by David Cameron about Britain as a 'Christian country' attracted a sharp response in a public letter signed by fifty-five prominent people and printed in the Daily Telegraph.

 

There has been a lot of discussion and comment about his original statement but I want to focus on the response and in particular its fifty-five signatories.  Who are they an how did they come together so quickly to respond to Cameron?

The letter was organised by the president of the British Human Association and all but one of the signatories is a 'distinguished supporter' of the British Humanist Association.  It doesn't say that in the letter but on its website the British Humanist Association states that he organised the letter.  However it does not say that almost all the signatories have previously been honoured by them as 'distinguished supporters'.

 

Professor Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-born British scientist, an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  He is also the president of the British Humanist Association.

 

Philip Pullman is a prominent atheist, a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.  He is the author of a fictionalised biography of Jesus entitled The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ and once said, 'I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.'

  

Tim Minchin is a comedian, an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

Dr Simon Singh is a science writer and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  He is also an honorary associate of the Rationalist Association.

Ken Follett is a novelist, an avowed atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Dr Adam Rutherford is a scientific journalist, a committed atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

Sir John Sulston is a biologist, an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

Sir David Smith FRS is a botanist, an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Professor Jonathan Glover is a philosopher, an atheist and distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

Professor Anthony Grayling is an atheist, a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society. 

 

Nick Ross is a broadcaster and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

Virginia Ironside is a journalist, an atheist, an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

Professor Steven Rose has been described as a 'polemicist on the left'.  He is an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Natalie Haynes is a comedian and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Peter Tatchell is a militant homosexual activist, an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Human Association. 

Professor Raymond Tallis is a physician, philosopher and author and a distinguished support of the British Humanist Association.  He supports euthanasia.

Dr Iolo ap Gwynn FRMS is a scientist, mountaineer and distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Stephen Volk is an author and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Professor Steve Jones is a geneticist, broadcaster and distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Sir Terry Pratchett is an author, satirist and distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Dr Evan Harris is a former Liberal Democrat MP and an atheist.  He is vice-president of the British Humanist Association,  vice-president of the BHA-affiliated Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association and was patron of the Oxford Secular Society.

Dr Richard Bartle is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  He said, 'If there is a heaven, it's a far more miserable place than real life.'

Sian Berry is a Green Party campaigner and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  She contributed a chapter to The Atheist's Guide to Christmas and was a supporter of the Atheist Bus Campaign.

C J DE Mooi is an actor, chess player, homosexual rights campaigner and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Professor John A Lee is a pathologist, an atheist  and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Professor Richard Norman is a philosopher and a vice-president of the British Humanist Association.  He edited The Case for Secularism.

Zoe Margolis is a writer, a journalist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Joan Smith is a journalist, author and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  She is also an honorary associate of the Nationalist Secular Society.

Michael Gore is an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Derek McAuley is the chief officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.  This is an ultra-liberal organisation and we should not be misled by the word 'Christian' in the title.  The GAUFC website says, 'Unitarianism can include people who are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Pagan and Atheist'!

Lorraine Barratt is a former Welsh Labour politician, an atheist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Dr Susan Blackmore is a wrier, broadcaster and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  She also campaigns for drug legalisation.

Dr Harry Stopes-Roe is an atheist and a distinguished supporter and a vice-president of the British Humanist Association.

Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC is a lawyer and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Adele Anderson is an actress and singer and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Dr Helena Cronin is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association, an honorary associate of Rationalist International and of the Rationalist Association.  She has also campaigned for Charles Darwin's birthday to be a public holiday.

Professor Alice Roberts is an anatomist, broadcaster and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association. 

Professor Chris French is a psychologist, editor of The Skeptic and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Sir Tom Blundell is a scientist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  He co-signed a letter calling for Charles Darwin's birthday to be a public holiday.

 

Maureen Duffy is a poet, playwright, novelist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  She is a homosexual activist and was the first president of the Gay Humanist Group.

Baroness Whitaker is a Labour peer, an atheist and a vice-president and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Eric Lubbock, Lord Avebury, is a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  He is a Buddhist and Buddhism is a non-theistic religion.

Richard Herring is a writer and comedian and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Martin Rowson is a writer, cartoonist, a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.  His work has appeared in many newspapers including The Morning Star.

Tony Hawks is a comedian, musician and author and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Peter Cave is a philosopher and distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Diane Munday was a pioneer of legal abortion.  She is a director of the Rationalist Press Association and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Professor Norman MacLean is a biologist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Professor Sir Harold Kroto FRS is a chemist and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Sir Richard Dalton is a former diplomat and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Sir David Blatherwick is a diplomat, writer and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Michael Rubenstein is a writer, consultant and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.  He said, 'Equal rights and orthodox religion are not compatible.'

Polly Toynbee is a journalist, an atheist and vice president of the British Humanist Association.  She is also an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.

Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan is a Labour peer, an atheist, an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

Dan Snow is a television presenter and a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.

 

In the letter the signatories did not state that the letter was organised by the president of the British Humanist Association and that 54 of the 55 signatories are listed on the BHA website as 'distinguished supporters'. 

 

It is also interesting and alarming that not one of our newspapers pointed out the fact that 54 of the signatories were atheists.  For example:

The Daily Telegraph noted that the lead signatory is the president  of the British Humanist Association but simply described the signatories as '55 public figures from a range of political backgrounds'.

The BBC also noted that the lead signatory was the president of the British Humanist Association but like the Daily Telegraph did not report the relationship of 53 other signatories to the British Humanist Association.   

The Guardian referred to them as 'more than 50 prominent public figures including novelists, diplomats, Nobel prize winners and playwrights' but made no mention of the British Humanist Association. 

The Independent described the signatories as 'an alliance of public figures' but made no mention of the British Humanist Association at all.
The New York Times noted that the lead signatory was the president of the British Humanist Association and described one other signatory as a 'noted atheist' but made no mention of the fact that nearly every signatory has been recognised by the British Humanist Association as a 'distinguished supporter'.

So why were the mainstream media so reticent about saying it?  Did they not know?  Did they not research?  Did they not think it significant?  Did they just hide it?

The letter certainly draws our attention to the British Humanist Association, whose website lists those whom the association has invited to be 'distinguished supporters'.  It reads like a 'who's who' of the people who appear in the media day after day as commentators, contributors and participants in panel discussions.  It helps to explain the secular ethos which is so dominant in the media, especially in the BBC, and it helps to explains why Christians are generally marginalised.

The development of this 'distinguished supporters' list provides the British Humanist Association with a list of names, some of them fairly prominent, who can sign a letter as 'public figures'.  If the letter was signed by the secretary or the chairman of the British Humanist Association and signed in that capacity it would attract little attention.  They would be dismissed as simply another pressure group.  It was the omission of any reference to the British Humanist Association and the inclusion of so many names that gave this letter its credibility.

The 54 atheists who signed the letter are just some of the people who have been honoured by the British Humanist Association as 'distinguished supporters'.  There are quite a few others, including Professor Richard Dawkins.

Finally, the letter is really a reflection of the activities of an increasingly militant atheism in Britain today.  Christian churches and Christian believers would do well to take note!

Patrick Murphy - the Irish News' resident cultural bigot (1)



Dr Patrick Murphy
(from Irish News website)

I have met Dr Patrick Murphy on a number of occasions.  He was at one time director of the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, now the Belfast Metropolitan College.  More recently I met him when we were both contributors at the first D'Arcy McGee summer school in Carlingford. 

He is a very personable individual when you meet him but when he writes his weekly column in the Irish News he often displays an innate cultural bigotry and last Saturday (19 April) was no exception.  His core message was that 'unionism' has no 'cultural dimension' and he said: 

The argument that unionism has a cultural dimension is a recent invention.

 

Of course Murphy was unable to resist the temptation and he followed up this statement by saying:

One Ulster Scots word of the day this week was 'shap' meaning 'shop'.  That is not a language, it is just a Belfast accent.'

In fact the Scottish National Dictionary, which is a standard academic work on Scots, gives the Scots shap as the Scots form of the English shop.  It is not surprising that the two words are similar since English, Scots and Ulster-Scots are sister languages within the West Germanic family of languages.

 

The Scottish National Dictionary explains that the word comes from the Old Scots schap.  It also gives three examples of the use of the Scots word shap.  The first is from the Poems of Allan Ramsey (1728) and the second is from The Scots Magazine (1806). 




The ten-volume Scottish National Dictionary

Allan Ramsey was born in Lanarkshire and the Scots Magazine reference related to Dumfries, however, according to Patrick Murphy both examples were simply a 'Belfast accent'!

The third example in the Scottish National Dictionary is from Ulster and is from the book Ballymulcaghey, written by Mat Mulcaghey in 1928.  Mulcaghey was in fact the pen-name of the author Guy Wilson.

Of course it is probably too much to expect Patrick Murphy to refer to the Scottish National Dictionary before writing his column, even though it is available online.  It is much easier for him to pander to his cultural prejudice.  For Patrick Murphy prejudice is a great time saver.  It enables him to write his article and make his money without bothering to find out the facts.

For those such as Patrick Murphy who may not be familiar with the Scottish National Dictionary, it may be helpful to explain the background to the dictionary.  It was produced by the Scottish National Dictionary Association between 1931 and 1976 and comprises ten volumes.  The full ten volume set can be consulted in the Linen Hall Library or it can be accessed online as part of the Dictionary of the Scots Language.

This is not the first time that Patrick Murphy has shown this cultural prejudice against Ulster-Scots language and culture and it will probably not be the last but it says more about him than it does about either the language or the culture.

 

 

Illegal diesel businesses

According to newspaper reports Tommy Crossan was shot dead on Friday 'at the illegal diesel site he ran' off the Springfield Road in West Belfast. 

 

Crossan had once led the Continuity IRA and served six years in prison for a gun attack on a police station in Belfast.

 

The PSNI must now direct their efforts to apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice.  However the location of the murder raises several important questions for the PSNI.

 

(1) How was it that Tommy Crossan was able to run an illegal diesel business in the heart of our capital city.  Were the PSNI unaware of his activities?  Surely as someone who had a lengthy record of terrorism and criminality he was the sort of person the PSNI should be keeping under surveillance.  It seems that either the PSNI were not keeping him under surveillance or else they were turning a blind eye to the illegal diesel business.

 

(2) If there was an illegal diesel business on the Springfield Road, how many other illegal diesel businesses are there operating elsewhere in Belfast?

 

(3) What are the PSNI doing to bring this criminality to an end?

 

These questions certainly deserve answers and the Policing Board and the Justice Committee at Stormont are places where they can be asked.

 

Quite a number of diesel laundering businesses have been uncovered around the border with the Irish Republic but I have not heard as much about action against the outlets for the illegal diesel.