“On The Runs”….Again

Posted on January 13, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

So Tony B Liar is summoned before the Greater England Parliament committee to give evidence about those “On The Run” letters.
This was all supposed to be secret.
Then there was the unfortunate business when John Downey appeared in a London court and his solicitors produced a letter saying he wasnt wanted by the Law.
And as it turns out, a lot of people have such letters. All signed by the Brits saying they are not on a wanted list. The On The Runs returned home.

It was all a big secret. Because of course there is “no amnesty” for the IRA. It is of course all Semantics. In order to get and keep Sinn Féin-IRA into the Peace Process the letters were deemed necessary. Indeed probably also necessary for the IRA to persuade its own hawks that the British had granted an amnesty.
Ten years ago, the British had effectively decided that they could not put their faith in the moderate unionists (UUP) and the moderate nationalists (SDLP) to really deliver long term Peace. Maybe they were right. But what is certain is that the Brits were already working on undermining UUP and SDLP and boosting DUP and Sinn Féin.

Five things.
Sinn Féin needed their Amnesty…the On The Run letters.
And DUP did not want to know what was going on.
And the Brits needed to keep UUP and SDLP in the dark.
UUP and SDLP had their suspicions of course. As Mark Durkan of SDLP has put it …”a dirty war and a dirty peace”.
And the old Royal Ulster Constabulary and British forces have also got an undisclosed Amnesty.

Thats how it is.
It all went wrong when the dirty little secret was revealed in a London Court.

But lets be honest. We are all adults here. Are we really surprised? Thats how these things work.
Of course SDLP are absolutely right to highlight it. It verifies their narrative that Tony Blair is an unprincipled bastard.

What about the Victims?
Well several victims were in the committee room in the English House of Commons to hear Blair. And they didnt like it.
But of course they were only SOME victims…they were victims of “republican terrorism”
But there are a lot of victims of British terrorists (RUC and Army) who will never get Justice either.

But Victims will never get Justice.
It is the price we paid when we voted YES to the Good Friday Agreement.
We kidded ourselves that Victims would get Justice (whatever that is) some time in the Future.
They were sold out…by us all.

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“A Muslim Walks Into A Bar….”

Posted on January 12, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

I am already sick of that ridiculous “Je Suis Charlie” hashtag. It is meaningless. I am also sick to death of candle-lit vigils and I am sick of the “creatives” waving their pencils like it actually means something.
Before last week, I had never heard of Charlie Hendo. I was pretty happy about that.
I am a bit of a philistine so French arty-farty people are not my cup of over-priced coffee. Nor am I big fan of lazy anti-clericalism or snarkily abusing the things that people hold dear…including Religion (ANY religion).
If you want to be snarky….stick to the Internet. Its the best place to be snarky.

But it seems to me that a hashtag and a pencil are ineffective.
If you really want to piss off Islamist extremists …then #amuslimwalksintoabar….would be more effective.
I dont know if there is a joke that begins “A Muslim walks into a bar….” But there should be one.
So make up your own punch line.

So….mine.
A Muslim walks into a bar where he meets his Jewish friend and they have a beer and a ham sandwich…and have a great time”

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Roadmap To A United Ireland

Posted on January 12, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Very odd thread on Slugger O’Toole, where Deputy Editor Doctor Who (David McCann) muses on Irish unity from the centre -right republicanism of Fianna Fáil. He wonders how the economic case for unity can be made (to northern unionists). Sinn Féin and SDLP are nationalist/republican but obviously on the left of northern politics.

Doctor McCann is close to the thinking of Fianna Fáil, the discredited southen party, which calls itself the “Republican Party”. Yes thats the Party who installed the Catholic Church as the de-facto monarchy of Ireland. And gave Irish sovreignty to European bankers in 2008.

Fianna Fáil is hardly republican or nationalist.

Yet this is not that odd. While Ireland is nominally a republic, it is or was a monarchy. Meanwhile Greater England (aka the United Kingdom) is nominally a monarchy but is effectively a republic. The Whig Settlement of 1688 ensures that.

Doctor McCann attended the SDLP Annual Conference just two months ago. It would be surprising if he missed the motion which called on the Party to set up a “Think Tank” to formulate a policy on Irish Unity…the working title being a road map to Irish Unity.
I would be surprised if Doctor McCann …a political analyst …is unaware that the first steps of this internal debate are already under way.

And yet Doctor McCann’s understanding of SDLP is somewhat askew. On the eve of the South Belfast Convention (autumn 2013) to nominate a successor to Conall McDevitt MLA, Doctor McCann told us that Claire Hanna would likely win but there might be a surge of support for Fearghal McKinney.
As it turned out…and to absolutely no surprise to any SDLP member…Fearghal won comfortably.

Which makes me curious as to the timing of the Slugger thread.
Is David McCann ahead of the curve or behind the curve?

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It’s The Dog We Republicans Claim!

Posted on January 11, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

So What is the National Dog of Ireland?

I should point out that I am not really a “dog” person. I am a “cat” person. The current FitzjamesCat is Keano (13) a black male (well he was a male).
But we now have a resident black labrador/collie. FitzjamesDog is Smokey who is 7 years old.
FitzjamesCat and FitzjamesDog rarely see each other and do not particuarly like each other.

While I have usually little time for Dogs…too much hard work. I am tempted to be a dog owner. So I am trying to think of a breed that my reflects my personality and political outlook.

So we are talking about an Irish Wolfhound, Irish Setter, Irish Terrier, Glen of Imaal Terrier or Kerry Blue (Irish Blue).
The Wolfhound is NOT the National Dog. I was at the funeral of a leading IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party) member about twelve years ago. At St Peters Cathedral and Milltown Cemetry in Belfast, one of the leading mourners was his Irish Wolfhound.
I wondered if the leading politician in the congregation, Tony Gregory TD was thinking that the Wolfhound is not exactly a Socialist kinda dog. It is the dog of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy…and only a millionaire could afford one. A Wolfhound has the advantage of being very unlikely to bite children. And the disadvantage of be-friending home invaders.
I like the look of the Irish Setter. Elegant…handsome even. As indeed am I. I do live near Lough Neagh and no doubt a Setter would like that. But deep down I distrust people (and dogs!) who know how to swim.
Irish Terrier…well I like that but the Terrier is at heart a working dog. And no real member of the FitzjamesHorse family has ever done an honest days work in his/her life. And I am not going to be judged by a Dog!
Glen of Imaal Terrier…I amm not convinced its an Irish breed. Elizabethan mercenaries brought its forerunner to Wicklow. The Glen of Imaal Terrier is actually a West Briton. I would not feed a mongrel like them. But at least a visit to the vet would ensure they dont breed.

Which leaves the Kerry Blue.
“It takes a fightin’ man to own a fightin’ dog”.
But the Kerry Blue has a bad reputation.
The bark is worse than the bite maybe?
And it has a political pedigree.
Michael Collins had a prize-winning Kerry Blue called “Convict 224”.
But is the Kerry Blue a “republican” dog or is it literally a “Blue Shirt”?

A delicate political choice but I opt for the Kerry Blue.
The only FitzjamesHorse family member who was a dog owner was Uncle Jackie.
The dog was called Pluto. A clever dog he could find his way from his house in the Lower Falls to my Grannys House at Beechmount…a distance of about a mile.
Actually a very clever dog…because he went by bus.
His name was officially “Pluto” but my Granny called him “Leather Arse”…which my father thought was a very bad example to my pre-school self.
But I am with Michael Collins and my Granny…a Kerry Blue called Leather Arse.

And a big shout out to “Apollo” the other FJH labrador, living with #2 Son and Daughter-in-Law.

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Je Suis Charlie?

Posted on January 7, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

The horrible murders in Paris today are beyond belief.
The French journalists who held up signs “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) absolutely did the right thing, identifying with their murdered collegues.
But the spectacle of this heart-felt tribute becoming just another “hash tag” on so-called social media.
I hope the killers are soon caught.It is in the best interests of the large Muslim community in France.

I think its possible to condemn these murders and be uneasy about the large number of Muslims who are killed on a daily basis in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Mali, Algeria, Libya, Pakistan etc. Many of course innocent and at the hands of fellow Muslims. And many innocent at the hands of “The West”.
Is it simply a matter of Freedom of Speech (unfunny cartoons) and Political Correctness (avoiding offending the Muslim population).
It is not a simple choice.
“Political Correctness” is a debased term.
But it should be possible to exercise Freedom of Speech AND have good manners.

Lets be frank here.
There are a lot of factors. There is a post-imperialist legacy and the Muslim minorities and social exclusion in France and Britain means those old imperial powers are no longer homogenous societies.
Journalists love stories about Journalists. Especially anything that makes them look heroic. So the Media will fall over the selves to associate themselves with the French journos.
Nobody will ask hard questions about forefign policy.
And nobody will be reflecting that the “West” is very selective about the despots in the Middle East. Some are allies. Some are enemies.
“Je Suis Charlie” only disguises the Hypocrisy.

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So Ched Evans…Convicted Rapist

Posted on January 7, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

My American readers will not know this story.
Ched Evans is a 26 year old footballer who has played for Wales. He should now be at the peak of his career but he has recently been released from prison having served two and a half years of a five year sentence for Rape.
Evans insists he is innocent. That the Sex with a 19 year old woman in a hotel room was consensual. The woman alleged …and it was accepted in court….that she was too drunk to wittingly give consent.

Ched Evans is not an unusual footballer. Scouted by Manchester Citys youth system, he made his way thru the “youth teams”. Signing professional, he was around the edge of their successful Premiership team but it was clear that he was never going to make the grade at that Premiership or European level. He was loaned to lesser clubs in lower divisions and eventually left Manchester City to join Sheffield United.
So far…so normal.
At Sheffield United, his career got a boost.
He was (probably) earning in the region of £10,000 per week. He became a regular in the Wales international team and scoring enough goals at a lower level to suggest that he could make a return to Premiership football (the highest level in England) with an average Premiership club.
Again…so far…so normal.
It is often the case in Football that players have to take one step back to take two steps forward.

And then it all went wrong in a Welsh seaside town. Facts are disputed. But suffice to say it involves two professional footballers, one young woman, one hotel room….and a rape allegation. Based on the young womans inability to knowingly consent.
Both players were charged. And prosecuted in court.
Ched Evans was found guilty.
His fellow professional footballer was acquitted. For the record, the second player feels that Evans is innocent.

So Ched Evans is aentenced to five years in prison. And released after two and a half years. His debt to Society paid. Or is it?

Ched Evans believes he is innocent of the Rape conviction.
His partner/girlfriend believes him.
So does her father.
Her father is a millionaire.
There is a campaign to appeal the conviction.
But Appeals take time.
And the career of a professional footballer is a short one.
As it turns out …the career of Ched Evans might already be over.
The only correct legal way…so far as I know…to describe Ched Evans is “convicted rapist” but that will look harsh if his appeal succeeds.

Evans wasnt to play football again. Sheffield United seemed anxious to re-sign him. But they under-estimated Media hostility and the reaction of their fans. Fans were in fact divided. But mostly they did not want a convicted rapist wearing the team colours. Importantly , the celebrity supporters were an important factor. Charley Webster is a TV presenter. She is involved in a charity which highlights domestic abuse against women. Jessica Ennis is an Olympic Gold medalist and has a stand named for her at Sheffield Uniteds ground. When she insisted that her name be removed if Sheffield United re-signed Evans, it was obvious that Sheffield United had miscalculated.

So Sheffield United dont sign Ched Evans. It seemed that Hartlepool United were interested but they too were scared off by the adverse publicity.

Now Oldham Athletic have agreed personal terms. The Sponsor …a local manufacturer of gutters (sic) is not happy. But thats not likely to concern Oldham Athletic. Seemingly the millionaire father of Evans girlfriend will underwite the losses. Allegedly Evans will play for minimal wage of a professional footballer….£400 per week.

But how will fans react?

Not just fans of Oldham Athletic. Not just their average crowd of 5,000. Or the 25,000 who signed the petition calling on Oldham not to sign him. “Away” football fans are not noted to be over-sympatheic to players with perceived weaknesses. It could be very easy to get under the skin of Ched Evans.

Getting a  girl drunk and having sex with her may only be a recognised “crime” for a comparatively short period of time. Hard to believe that forty odd years ago, it was considered “normal”.

Which reminds me of the Norn Iron footballer….a local “hero” who had sex with his conquests while his team mates watched from the closets. Classy?

 

 

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Can Sex Offenders Ever Be Re-Habilitated?

Posted on January 7, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Can Sex Offenders Ever Be Re-Habilitated?
Maybe it is the wrong question.
Maybe I should ask if Sex Offenders can ever be “totally” re-habilitated?
Or maybe I should ask should we even try to re-habilitate Sex Offenders?

If we accept that at least one fifth of woman will be abused during their lifetime and while accepting that many men will be repeat offenders, it follows from unreported crime that a considerable number of men are unprosecuted or unconvicted sex offenders. Many men held in public esteem should be in jail.
Yesterday I made the point that everyone knows someone who has been abused. The balance of probability is that everyone (perhaps unknowingly) has or has had a sex offender in a social circle.

Of course “sex offender” is a open to a wide interpretation.
We may or may not like the notion of degrees of “sex offender” but the Law makes the definitions for us. The notion of a Sex Offenders Register is really only two decades old. Some offenders are designated as low risk and perhaps required to sign it for a period instead of a custodial sentence. Others are designated as high risk and might be ordered to sign it for the rest of their lives, even after a long custodial sentence.

People are NOT sent to prison TO BE punished. They are sent to prison AS a punishment.
It is not Victorian age.
The punishment is loss of liberty…nobody in Britain or Ireland is working on a chain gang and if you have actually “fought the law and the law won”, you will not be “breaking rocks in the hot sun”.

Most people hold the view that Prison should be civilised. Most Europeans are horrified at the documentaries we get to aee on prison life in the United States. The regime is too brutal for our European tastes. Only the most right-wing of British tabloids perpetuate the myth that prison is a long holiday.

We do however officially think that Prison is about Confinement, Reparation, Education and…Re-habilitation. Certainly there are success stories. There are stories of prisoners who can barely read or write, visit the prison library and emerge with a PhD and a best-selling novel. But these are exceptions.  Realistically ….Rehabilitation is Lip Service.

It is all very well to say that “time has been served”. Or that the “debt to society has been paid”.

“Going Straight” is not easy. Certainly a jailed teacher, who has defrauded a local charity is unemployable …as a teacher. A taxi driver convicted of drunk driving is unemployable…as a taxi driver.

And just about everyone is unemployable…if a sex offence is involved.

And yet some sex offenders dont need rehabilitation. Take Jonathan King, pop star from the 1960s, entertainment guru, TV presenter from the 1980s. A convicted paedophile, he still protests his innocence. Not very convincingly. But he is too rich to need re-habilitated.

Likewise Gary Glitter, pop star from the 1970s and convicted sex offender in England and Vietnam. The BBC may never show a clip of him (or Jonathan King) in retro TV pop music programmes but he can live off his royalties for the rest of his life.

Likewise celebrities like Max Clifford, Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris….all recently jailed for historic sexual abuse going back to the 1960s will come out….their reputations in tatters of course….to resume a lifestyle of luxury. They need no Rehabilitaion.

But arguably rank and file sex offenders need re-habilitaion. After all an unsettled offender is a repeat offender. Unpopular as it is to say it, it is in the better interests of Society that sex offenders are monitored and re-habilitated.

I was recently talking to a Probation Officer who is in near despair about the inadequate resourcing of monitoring offenders. At high profile level, some offenders are given new identities and closely monitored. Probation Officers live in near dread of one of their clients going “off the grid. Necessarily the work opportunities available to convicted rapists are few. It helps that a man has a trade…plumber, electrician, who can actually set up a small business often with parental help, distant from home.

The tarrif for Sexual Offence …more so than any other offence…is potentially a lifetime of Unemployment. Is it deserved? Or is the Taxpayer willing to pay a lifetime of welfare benefit prrhaps in exchange  for permenant tagging.

But part of the problem with sex offenders is that they grow old. The balance of probability is that in Old Peoples Homes, some of the (now) elderly residents were offenders or paedophiles in their youthful days. Is there a right to know?

Can we even go further? Would it be safer for Society if serious sex offenders lived in gated communities, with limited access to the “outside” world.

 

 

 

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Sexual Abuse Of Women Is a Crime Against Us All.

Posted on January 6, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Can I start off with a few facts.
I have ONE wife.
I had ONE Mother.
I had TWO Grandmothers.
I have ONE sister.
I had NINE Aunts.
I have/had NINE Female Cousins
I have TWO Daughters in Law
I have/had TWO Granddaughters.
I have FOURTEEN Neices
I have at least TWO Great-Neices.

Is that a total of FORTY THREE Female Relatives that I know or have known.
Additionally my best Friend is female. And there are probably another TEN women I consider friends.
Throw in former colleagues etc….I certainly consider that I have cared for and in some cases loved upwards of SEVENTY family and friends.
You could probably do the same formula and I would be surprised if you had a total that was less than FIFTY.
Yet there is another startling statistic that says about one-fifth of women suffer sexual or physical abuse in their life.
So how does that statistic look for me….one fifth of say SEVENTY is FOURTEEN.
Possibly before I was born, women I loved suffered abuse.
Possibly long after I am dead, women I loved will suffer abuse.
Indeed you and I certainly know women who have been abused because some have confided in us.

We do of course live in 2015. Times change. We tell ourselves that we are more understanding about such things now.
I am not so sure.
Of course, I could hide behind a jokey cliché and say that I dont understand women. And certainly it can be complicated.
But when Helen Reddy belted out the anthem “I Am Woman”, she included the words “….still a long way to go before I make my brother understand”.
At least half of all men are DECENT men.
But I am not sure that the problem of sexual abuse can ever be dealt with until it is accepted as a MANS ISSUE or a PEOPLE ISSUE.
Because thats surely how Civil Rights works.
Racism, Anti Semitism and Islamophobia are not just crimes against Black, Jewish or Muslim people. They are crimes against all of us.

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Believing (Some) Victims Of Abuse?

Posted on January 3, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Disappointingly, there is still no mention on Slugger O’Toole that “Prince Andrew” has been mentioned in New York Courts in a civil action involving under-age sex.
You might say…whats the connexion to Norn Iron?
And I would say that the not so Grand Old Duke of York is Colonel in Chief of the “Royal Irish Rifles” which now includes the discredited Ulster Defence Regiment, which many nationalists would regard as a loyalist paramiltary organisation responsible for the murder of many innocent people.
Would this interest Slugger O’Toole.
Well….quite properly in my view ….Slugger has raised questions about Sinn Féins handling of sexual abuse allegations made by a young West Belfast woman.
Let me state,without hesitation that I believe these allegations to be true. Further, Sinn Féins subsequent behaviour has been appalling. They have circled the wagons and attempted to damage the reputation of the young woman.

As I have said Slugger (and mainstream media) quite properly asks the questions. Less properly they ask the questions ad nauseam and give the impression of conducting a vendetta against SF in general and Gerry Adams in particular actually damages the case they try to make.
That Gerry Adams is resistant to any form of embarrassment on this issue and many others and clearly evasive and incredible and no doubt backed by an unofficial guarantee of immunity to protect the Peace Process…is all I suspect true.

But “Prince Andrew” (“aka the Duke of York” as the Court Papers describe him) is at least unwise to have er unwittingly been the friend of a paedophile….a billionaire paedophile…and even more unwise to er unwittingly still been a friend after the billionaire paedophile was convicted of procuring a 14 year old girl for the purposes of prostitution. Andy was very wise to sever the friendship when er this was made known to him.

Buckingham Palace was quick to dismiss any allegation of impropriety. A young woman bringing a civil action suggests an underage laison with Andy. Lawyers call her a liar.
She might well be.
But a tip of the hat to former teenage party girl (from the 1960s Profumo Scandal) Mandy Rice Davis, who died last month “he would say that, wouldnt he?”
And surely the mantra emerging in recent year or so in cities such as Rotherham, Rochdale….or institutions as diverse as the BBC or the Catholic Church….is that institutions look to their own survival and disregard the children who are victims of abuse.
In 1977, a former Tory Whip explained the role of the secret Whips Office. Tim Fortesque said that the object was to befriend and help Tory back bench MPs who found themselves isolated and in trouble….for example over “small boys”.
Circling the wagons.
Of course…it is too easy for Republicans and Nationalists to smirk at the discomfort of Royalty…especially when everyone is innocent and merely tainted by “association”.
Likewise too easy for anti-Republican message boards to smirk at the discomfort of Sinn Féin …especially when everyone is innocent and merely tainted by “association”.
And it is shameful when the root problem is the sexual abuse of young women and children.
But Droight de Seigneur is as relevant now as ever.

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Randy Andy?

Posted on January 2, 2015 by fitzjameshorse

Whats all this about “Prince” Andrew of the British Royal Family being mentioned in New York Law Courts. Something about him and an “underage sex slave”. It sounds like the kinda thing we read about on Slugger O’Toole. Those guys love an underage sex scandal. So I look forward to endless threads to enlighten me.
Id do it myself but Mick, Sheldon and Dimbleby do it so much better.

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