Philatelic Fun

Posted on September 13, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I dont understand why philatelists have the reputation of being boring middle aged and even elderly men. Stamp Collectors are wild and crazy guys who do wild and crazy things. Political Propaganda has always featured on stamps and people have used unofficial stamps to make political points. Or just have fun.

Take these two examples.

 In December 1992, I was in London and it was already known that the marriage of “Prince Charles” was in trouble and there was speculation that a seperation was about to be announced. I went into Stanley Gibbons Stamp Shop in the Strand and bought the two stamps issued to commemorate the Wedding of Charles and Diana. “Royal Wedding” stamps are popular world-wide but obviously there was never going to be a stamp to commemorate the “Royal Seperation”. I thought it was an event that needed to be commemorated. When I flew home I cut the stamps in two with a horizontal cut on one stamp and a vertical cut on the other…..literally seperating the “Royals”. I put the stamps on an envelope and carried it around in Belfast for a couple of days…until John Major announced the seperation in the British House of Commons….when I ran outside and dropped the envelope in a post box. You might be able to make out the postmark “Belfast 10th December 1992”, the date of the seperation.

 During the same London trip, I bought the two stamps issued to mark the wedding of “Princess Anne” to Mark Phillips, some twenty years previously. It had been announced that Anne was marrying for a second time and as no second “Royal Wedding” stamp issue was planned, I decided….that as an ardent Republican, I should mark the happy event. So they got married on 12th December 1992, just two days after the seperation of Charles and Diana. I dropped the envelope in a Lurgan postbox. I thought it would be postmarked in the normal way….but after it went thru the machines, a member of staff noticed that it was a “special occasion” and as you can see actually hand-stamped the envelope to make it more clear.

For years I wondered whether the postman who did this….was a loyalist (who thought it was a tribute) or a republican (who saw it as sarcasm), although I speculated it was a republican as my address which is “blacked out” above was in a very nationalist village. I eventually discovered it was a fellow republican.

So never think that stamp collectors are boring. The long winter nights just fly by. We are cool and crazy guys.

 

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The Great Gold PostBox Controversy of 2012

Posted on September 13, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

As a stamp collector, I cant really work out why pre-emptive troll Pete Baker, over on Slugger O’Toole is getting so concerned about the Great Gold Post Box Non-Controversy.

Stamps have always been used as Propaganda.

The background to this is that athletes from Norn Iron are Irish or British…….and represent the Ireland (official name) team or the Great Britain (official name) team. Despite the best efforts of unionists and lets get alongerists referring to “Team Great Britain and Northern Ireland”….much to their annoyance Norn Iron doesnt actually exist. Which is actually quite ok with nationalists.

As a stamp collector, I am not a big fan of living people appearing on stamps. The first living person to appear on an Irish stamp ws Pope John Paul II, prior to his visit to Ireland in 1979. Since the 1990s it has become quite commonplace…..Seamus Heaney (poet), Brian Friel (dramatist), Joey and Robert Dunlop (motorcyclists), Paul O’Connell (Rugby Player), Van Morrison (singer) are just some examples. I am not at ease with it.

Apart from Royalty….I dont think that any living person appears on British stamps. I dont collect British stamps (so I just dont know) and the only non-Royals…..I can think of are the “Royal Wedding” stamps. In the cases of Sarah Ferguson, Mark Phillips and Diana Spencer…..that worked out really well didnt it?

It is a hostage to Fortune.

I was therefore quite surprised when the British Post Office announced it would issue a Gold Medal Winners stamp just 24 hours after a Gold Medal was won.

It was in fairness a fantastic feat……A compter image/template set up at three or four secure printing works and a fleet of Mail vans to take the newly printed stamps to several hundred post offices across England, Wales, Scotland and Norn Iron. Thats quite a feat……twenty nine times. And it was all done again for the Paralympics.

But like I say putting living people on stamps is a big risk. Witness Sarah Ferguson, Mark Phillips and Diana Spencer. Had Britain issued a set of stamps in 1975 to commemorate Great Glam Rock Superstars, it would have included Gary Glitter. ‘Nuff said………you see my point.

So twenty nine Olympic athletes (indeed more when you add Teams) is a huge hostage to Fortune. Especially when the stamps are produced so quickly. If any athlee had (say) failed a Drugs Test, well the potential for Scandal is just too great. Indeed even the long term potential in respect of non-sporting tabloid headlines is a risk.

So I was surprised that the British chose this route. And each Olympic Gold Medal winner was to get a Postbox painted Gold in their hometown.

As I said there were some Norn Iron athletes on the British team. And a little more on the Irish team.

Although the rowers from Coleraine went close (Silver and Bronze) nobody from Norn Iron won Gold for Britain. So nobody from Norn Iron gets to be on a British stamp. And no Gold post box in Coleraine. The unionists (and lets get alongerists) would have really gone triumphant with that (thru no fault of the athletes themselves). Of course had Paddy Barnes from North Belfast or Michael Conlan from West Belfast actually won a Gold Medal, every postbox in the nationalist parts of North and West Belfast would have been painted Gold…just to annoy the unionists. No permission would have been sought from the Post Office.

And the Belfast boxers went close (two Bronze) but obviously winning Gold for Ireland would not have entitled Belfast boxers to be on a BRITISH stamp.

Which brings us to the Paralympics. Most Norn Iron Paralympians were on the Irish team. Jason Smyth from Eglinton in County Derry won two Golds with two World Records in the 100 and 200 metres for the Visually Impaired. Michael McKillop from Glengormley in County Antrim won two Golds in 800 metres and 1500 metres. Bethany Firth a swimmer from Seaforde in County Down also won a Gold Medal. For Ireland.

Jason Smyth……a little tongue in cheek “tweeted” that he would like a gold Post Box. Many including myself re-tweeted it and the BRITISH Post Office has agreed to three “honoury” gold boxes in Eglinton, Glengormley and Seaforde.

Nationalists will look on this as a major victory. Such is the nature of life in Norn Iron. The principle that there is parity of esteem for people born in Norn Iron to act as Irish or British has been further established.

And Unionists wont really like it. Norn Iron’s three gold boxes are to honour athletes who represented Ireland.

 

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Thomas F Meagher

Posted on September 13, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Having blogged about Thomas D’Arcy McGee, it seems proper to mention Thomas F Meagher, if only because they were contempories who died within a very short time of each other.

Meagher was born in Waterford and was a member of the Young Ireland Movement. He is credited with designing the Irish National Flag although his original design (1848)  had the colours in the reverse order….ie Orange, White and Green. It of course remained unofficial until Independence 1922…but even within Irish Nationalist circles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was secondary to the Green Flag/Gold Harp. The Meagher Flag ….based on the French tricolour was as much “republican” as “nationalist”.

Meagher was sentenced to be hanged drawn and quartered for his part in the 1848 Rebellion but this was commuted to Transporation to Van Diemens Land/Tasmania. From there he made his way to New York City and became a leading figure in the Irish-American community. He remained an Irish nationalist.

Although he did not actually organise the Irish Brigade in the Union Army (American Civil War) he became the Brigades Commanding Officer.

After the Civil War, he became Governor of the Montana Territory.

Yet his death in 1867 remains a mystery. There was trouble with the Sioux and he was involved in negotiations between Republicans and Democrats. And he was believed by British and Canadian authorities to be involved in Irish nationalism a a time when many of Meagher’s former comrades in the Union were involved in Fenian Raids into Canada.

His body was never found…..the official version is that he fell overboard from a boat into the Missouri River at Fort Benton. His body was never found.

His Irish Brigade comrades certainly believed he was assassinated .By post Civil War factions? By British-Canadians?

Or perhaps his body WAS found. Some years later a bullet-ridden body was found ….seemingly well-preserved in a shallow grave beside the Missouri River. It was bought by a Travelling Freak Show and displayed as the body of a gunfighter and outlaw from the American West. The body later ended up in Australia. Was it Thomas F Meagher?

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Thomas D’Arcy McGee

Posted on September 13, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

I was in Carlingford, County Louth this week. Its a regular haunt for my family. And the birthplace of Thomas D’Arcy McGee.

 Before this monument was unveiled (in 1991 by Taoiseach Charles Haughey and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney) I had always assumed that McGee was from Wexford but in fact he spent his early childhood in Carlingford.

A strange historical figure. It is some years since I read about him but he was involved in propaganda supporting the 1848 Rebellion in Ireland and migrated to North America, essentially as I recall “border hopping” between United States and Canada where he settled just before the American Civil War.

He was a Fenian……but went “native” in Canada opposing the Fenian Border Raids in the years after the Civil War. He became pro-British and a Conservative politician in Canada. He was assassinated, allegedly by a Fenian called Whelan. There was a show trial and Whelan was publicly hanged. Still an air of controversy about who was to blame for his death.

Last week, I posted a piece about the American Civil War……and the Fenian involvement. A lot of years ago I read a lot of stuff about the Fenians in USA, Canada and Britain. It is a controversial and even murky story riddled with treachery, spying, framing innocent people…….and almost a bizarre story of an Irish Republican organisation based OUTSIDE Ireland………in United States, Canada and Britain. An organisation referred to in the Proclamation of 1916 as “our exiled children abroad”.

Often the problem with Irish History is that it is read as an academic study OR as a recreation. It means that unless you are actually in a “class” and have a genuine academic text, there is no filter which seperates genuine research from “folk history” or even propaganda.

Sometimes I think everything that I think I know about Fenianism is based on that “folk history” mentality which embarrasses me a little.

In the case of Jacobite History…….my filter is more developed. I can spot the credible book and I can spot the crude Stuart propaganda written even today by the lunatic fringe of “modern” Jacobites and “legitimists”.

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“What Kind Of Country…”?

Posted on September 12, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Earlier today, I likened the second Hillsborough Report to the second Bloody Sunday Report.

Surprisingly perhaps, I heard no mention of Bloody Sunday on TV News. Until tonight.

Tom Bradby at ITN News in a conversation with Mark austen, the ITN Anchor made the comparison. And interestingly he made it in the context of people perhaps wondering about the nature of the country they live in. He mentioned that he had had a similar conversation with Austen over Bloody Sunday…….and other miscarriages of Justice such as the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four.

In a sense it was unfortunate that these cases were all “Irish” as it might unbalance the narrative about miscarriages…..Stefan Kiszko, Sally Clark, The Cardiff Three, The Bridgewater Four, Barry George were also victims of miscarriages of justice but had no “Irish” significance. But in fairness Bradby was talking “off the cuff”.

What kind of country?      it can be expanded……bankers on inflated bonuses, politicians with dodgy expenses, journalists and phone hacking, going to war illegally on the basis of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

This is not an anti-British tirade. Far from it. The same “what kind of country? question can be asked about Ireland…..politicians, bankers, churchmen could be asked in Ireland. And has been.

And thats the odd thing about unionists and nationalists in Norn Iron. We cling to an unreal version of the nation (Britain or Ireland) with which we identify.

But do we really cling to an unreal version. The vast majority of British and Irish people are decent people. And historically Britain and Ireland as nations have done more good than harm (except possibly to each other). And for that matter…the vast majority of Norn Iron unionists and nationalists are decent people.

Tom Bradby is right to reflect that British people can ask this question tonight.

But the answer (as in the Irish situation) lies in the hands of the British people.

People must reclaim the true values of their nation……whether its Britain or Ireland makes no difference at al.

 

 

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Hillsborough

Posted on September 12, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

David Cameron has issued an apology to the relatives of the ninety-six Liverpool football fans who died in the Hillsborough (Sheffield) Stadium Disaster in 1989.

The apology is in relation to the original Report which seemed to “blame” the football fans and exonerate the Football Association, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and the Sheffield police and emergency services.

There seems a strange parallel between David Camerons apology to the Liverpool fans and his apology two years ago to the relatives of the fourteen people killed on Bloody Sunday 1972.

There is a pattern here. In 1972 and in 1989, British Governments set up enquiries to establish facts of two major tragedies. Widgery exonerated the British Paratroopers. Taylor exonerated the South Yorkshire Police and others.

Thanks to the persistence of relatives…..new and costly enquiries were set up…….and the appalling vista (thank you Lord Denning) is that the victims were routinely lied about and evidence tampered.

British Governments..probably all governments do not set enquiries to find the Truth. They set up enquiries to HIDE the Truth. Nobody will ever be held accountable for Bloody Sunday or Hillsborough. Which makes the appearance of “Lord” Charlie Falconer QC on the top table with the Hillsborough relatives hard to understand. Wasnt he a member of Tony B Liar’s Cabinet when the Hutton Enquiry into the dodgy dossier on Iraq was set up (2003)? Didnt that Enquiry exonerate the Government of fabricating weapons of mass destruction?

In twenty or thirty years a new Enquiry will find that Hutton was a travesty. And once again the British State will congratulate itself on getting Justice for the families of those bereaved thru illegal wars. Of course by then Tony B Liar will be a frail old man…..and a rich old man…..and will never be held accountable.

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Busy Busy

Posted on September 11, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Apologies for being behind with “comments”, mail etc………I have been really really busy.

One of the side effects of this Blog over past couple of months has been the increase in correspondence.

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Constituency Offices…#12 Caitriona Ruane MLA

Posted on September 10, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

 No specific mention of Caitriona Ruane Sinn Féin MLA for South Down but I am attributing this Warrenpoint office to her. A bit average looking…….but some bonus points for the Palestinian Flag.

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Constituency Offices….#11 Karen McKevitt MLA

Posted on September 10, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

 I have not posted any pics of Constituency Offices in a while. Not able to use my bus pass much during the school holidays but in Warrenpoint, County Down today. This is the office of Karen McKevitt SDLP MLA for South Down. Karen is the SDLP spokesperson on Culture, Art and Leisure.

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So Rory McIlroy Is British….

Posted on September 10, 2012 by fitzjameshorse

Well what did we expect. He is from Holywood for Gods sake and thats different from Cork. Some parts of Norn Iron are very different from Cork. Some places like Warrenpoint (where I was today) are not very different from Cork.

People here have an absolute right to live their Britishness, Irishness or (oddly) Both.

I am Irish. Rory McIlroy is British.

Obviously I am prepared to support Irish sportspeople. I cannot therefore support Rory McIlroy.

I dont measure my Irishness by animosity to any nation……despite the historical baggage, I like a number of British sports people…Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis, Paul Scholes. And there are some I just cannot like…….Chris Hoy for example.

I never cared much about Rory McIlroy anyway. And he easily joins Chris Hoy. Hopefully he wont even qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

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