Shared Space Is The Worst Space

Posted on July 26, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

Earlier today, I heard one of my daughters-in- law ask my grandsons to “share” something. I dont even know what it was…a toy, a packet of sweets but I got the feeling that it was going to add badly. It always does.
Norn Iron is no different.
Adults tell the unruly Unionist and nationalist child that they must share the toys. And the children dont want to share.
Not least because there is a dispute about ownership of the toy.
The Unionist child wont share the toy with the nationalist child, who claims it was stolen from his toy box in the first place.
The Unionist child waves his certificate of ownership.
The Nationalist child is resentful. The certificate of ownership signed by nice uncles and aunties in London, Dublin and Washington emphasised “sharing”.
Few toys have been “shared”.

Shared Space is the Worst Space. It is offered up as a challenge and even an opportunity but it is not shared space at all. It is No Mans Land. A Demolitarized Zone.
In the 1960s nobody used the term “shared space” but I lived in a “mixed street” in West Belfast. To my right Catholic streets. To my left Protestant streets. In our street the kids got along and played fotball together.But necessarily there were compromises …protocols unspoken such as no ball games on a Sunday. But there was a bottom line ..that British flags flew from a handful of houses on the Twelfth and the RUC from the nearby barracks stood guard.
And thats the thing about “shared space”. it is tempting to think that communities will bring down barriers and voluntarily agree to a set of protocols to make shared space a reality.
But the whole thing is unermined when even those letsgetalongerists who call for it draw a line. Shared space is only acceptable for unionists and nationalists up to the point where ownership becomes an issue.
The bottom line is that we can “share” the space but only on the terms that the space is OWNED by unionists. And they dictate the terms.

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Sinn Fein, SDLP Undermining An Feile?

Posted on July 25, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

First of all an apology to Gaelic speakers. I am blogging from the ipad and have not yet mastered the “fada” (accent marks) and apologies if there are any spelling errors.

An Feile an Phobail…the Peoples Festival, the largest Arts Festival “in these islands”? Certainly the largest politically correct festival…it is 25 years this year.
Actually I am not certain that is correct. The Festival has its roots in the annual anti-internment rallies which took place in the years after August 1971 when it was almost inevitable that violence and deaths would occur. There would …at best…be self-inflicted nihilistic violence on the Falls Road.
Certainly there were attempts to turn that into something constructive.
I remember the Wolfe Tones in concert at St Thomas’ School and I recall being “coerced” by a Catholic priest from Sunderland into playing in a football match at St Aidans. That was about 1974.

Perhaps An Feile 1988-2013 ..An Feile 25 reflects “official” status.
But it does tend to airbrush out earlier efforts.
For anyone like myself trying to persuade American friends to visit Belfast, then mid July to mid August is ideal.
We can begin our Tour with the Twelfth and being equally repulsed and amused by the Orange Order. The discerning visitor can take in the “summer school” at QUB School of Irish Studies…three weeks of listening to letsgetalongerism for £1500 (with accomodation) followed by my nightly debunking of al that was said.
And then…an Feile….West Belfast at its best. MY West Belfast. MY Falls Road. “Right On” politically correct debates, exhibitions, music, comedy….my annual ration of culture and cupan tae agus ceapaire (tea and a sandwich) at An Culturlann.

Of course there have always been accusations that An Feile was a Provo Festival. Indeed Sinn Fein always denied it. And An Feiles credibility was enhanced when it was run by a former international tennis player from County Mayo….and then Caitriona Ruane joined Sinn Fein and became Minister for Education and she is still a MLA at Stormont.
I looked on that…not as evidence of a “Provo Front” but rather as evidence of Sinn Fein expanding its membership.

Yet…yesterday An Feile 2013 was launched at Conway Mill. And as I looked for promotional material to post on Facebook as an appetiser for my American friends, I found a clip of the launch on You Tube.
It is slightly uncomfortable viewing. It is of course produced by “Sinn Fein TV” and features speeches and sound bites from among others …Mairtin O’ Muilleoir, Paul Maskey MP, Gerry Adams TD, Caral Ni Chuilin MLA…Other Sinn Fein figures including former MEP Bairbre de Brun were prominent in the audience. Danny Morrison is the Director of An Feile.
Some points.
Mairtin is Mayor of Belfast and of course he is entitled to be there. Indeed he has a DUTY to be there. And that Chain of Office lends a degree of credibility.
Caral is Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure. She has a duty to be there.
Paul is MP for West Belfast. Duty.
Gerry Adams is TD for Louth and er…..well he is TD for Louth.

It WAS of course Sinn Fein TV. But I did not catch sight of any SDLP people. Where any invited? With two of the ten council seats in West Belfast, surely the councillors were invited to the launch. Surely the SDLP MLA on the Culture, Arts, Leisure Committee was invited.
But there was the uncomfortable feeling that having spent far too long denying POLITICAL involvement in An Feile, SF was happily embracing the notion that their fingerprints were all over it.
The “flagship” event of An Feile is “Belfast Talks Back”, a panel discussion and apparently this year it has a stellar line up of “Sinn Fein and DUP …and politicians from other parties” Would that include SDLP?
Parity of Esteem in Norn Iron context. But NOT in a West Belfast context.
Is it about marginalising SDLP?
The SDLP will actually be hosting an event at An Feile this year. I am not entirely sure whether SDLP is asserting itself (good) or marginalising itself (bad). The event will be about “Victims and Reconciliation”. At this point, I dont feel that I can talk about the membership of the panel…but it is uncomfortably unbalanced.

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Admiral William Brown

Posted on July 24, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

Foxford, County Mayo
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Most people will know the story of Admiral William Brown. Born in Foxford, County Mayo, he emigrated with his father to North America. Left destitute, aged nine, when his father died, he became a cabin boy on ships.
Captaining his own ship, while still a teenager, he was captured by the British during the Napoleonic Wars. He was then held in custody by the French. Fleeing to The German States, he worked his way back to England. And then on to South America, then under Spanish rule.
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There he led the Argentine Navy against the mightier Spanish Imperial Navy. His “navy” made up of many Irish, English and other nationalities. Having won independence for Argentina and indirectly other nations such as Chile, he came out of retirement to lead the Argentinian Navy against the Portuguese-Brazilian fleet, defeating them also.
image.

Brown donated much of his fortune to Irish Famine Relief.
With a memorial (pictured above), a small museum (pictured above) and a memorial hall, he is honoured in Foxford. He is of course a national hero in Argentina.
But perhaps the nicest memorial is the link between the primary(elementary) school in Foxford and an orphanage in Buenos Aires.

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The Nationalist Case Is Better Than The Unionist Case

Posted on July 23, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

One of the difficult things about being a Blogger is that some things occasionally happen which puts the committed Nationalist, Unionist and LetsGetalongerist on the back foot.
There are some things about which I dont like to blog.
The whole point of this “Keeping An Eye On The Czar of Russia” is to advance the cause of Republicanism, Socialism and Nationalism. But anything that shows up bad behaviour, error, incompetence, malice or division is necessarily something which makes me uncomfortable.
Anything that exposes bad behaviour, error, incompetence malice or division in LetsGetAlongerist or Unionist ranks …these are stories that I love.
Simply put…if I have a bad case to make….I dont blog about it. Tick “X” for No Publicity.
So why is there a perception that there are few unionist bloggers.
Why is there a perception that nationalists outnumber unionists in the Blogosphere?
Obviously there is an element of unionist paranoia.
But maybe its just a case that the unionist “case” is so much weaker than the “nationalist” case and few want to make the case.

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Alex For Europe?

Posted on July 23, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

It is surely getting to the stage where SDLP should be choosing the candidate for the European Elections in 2014. Will the Party Conference in November be the event at which the candidate is announced? Or will the candidate be chosen well ahead of that date?
Either way…the focus of Conference 2013 will be Europe.
As I blogged two months ago, Mark Durkan, the former Party Leader and currently MP for Foyle, is the favoured candidate of SDLP Youth.
But the two front runners seem to be Alex Attwod MLA and Colum Eastw ood MLA. That makes it interesting. Alex will soon be stepping down as Minister for Environment, to be replaced by Mark H Durkan. For the benefit of non-local readers, “Mark H” is the nephew of “Mark”.
While there will be a certain amount of jockeying for position within SDLP, the only relevant question is “who gets the most votes out?”. At best SDLP only has a slim chance of taking one of the three European seats available in Norn Iron.
The differences are geographical (Alex is in Belfast, Colum in Derry), emphasis (Colum is more “green” than Alex) but actually I think that the biggest difference is generational.
Colum Eastwood is around thirty and Alex is in his early fifties.
A reasonable question might be if this is one election too far for Alex and one election too early for Colum.
Losing with Alex might look like the Party is in decline. Yesterdays Men and Women.
Losing with Colum might look like the Party is on the rise.
Its about Perception. And laying down markers for Westminster 2015. And indeed Assembly 2016.
Colum, who attracted adverse letsgetalongerist publicity by attending the funeral of a dissident republican in Derry maybe wont do as well as Alex in South Belfast. Alex is a fierce and long-term critic of republican violence. He is unpopular with mainstream republican voters who are not likely to switch a vote from Sinn Fein. But that “soft republican” vote CAN be courted by Eastwood.
And Martina Anderson is a factor.
She is the current Sinn Fein MEP, co-opted to replace Bairbre de Brun, who is ill.
Also based in Derry, Martina Anderson and Colum Eastwood are old sparring partners. And rightly or wrongly, SDLP people believe he will do well against her. Martina, who has been convicted and imprisoned for her part in an IRA bombing campaign will be even less attractive than Colum in South Belfast.
Of course…a lot depends on who is backed by leading SDLP figures.
And the inevitable horse trading. And whether The promotion of “Mark H” to Environment is a factor in all this.
Conall McDevitt is Le Dauphin. He is the most likely person to replace Alasdair McDonnell as next Leader.
He does not “need” Europe and although likely to be closer to Alex, it would be wise if he stayed above the fray.
Alex can be a bit prickly. Or maybe, he is just prickly with me. But he is probably has the attributes to make a good MLA or Minister but doesnt quite have the precise attributes for a CANDIDATE.
This MIGHT be the Moment of Truth for SDLP.
Time for the veterans to step aside?

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Not The Nine O’Clock News: Woman Has Baby!

Posted on July 23, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

So congratulations to the happy couple. I think as a republican I can actually say that without doffing my cap and tugging my forelock.
It is ridiculous of course that the British Head of State is decided this way. That the “Royal Baby” will grow up to be King of England. I suppose that it is a good thing that it wasnt twins…I have seen “The Man In The Iron Mask”.
If the hereditary principle actually worked, England would have a great Football team….the children and grandchildren of Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and the rest of the World Cup winning team of 1966 would be in their national team.
Nobody seriously suggests that this would be a good way to select a football team and yet oddly it is seriously regarded as being a good way to select a Head of State.
England is a lucky country. In 1914-1918. In 1939-1945. And no Revolutions since 1688.
The great myth about British monarchy is the consistency…in actual fact the rules are made up as it goes along. Accomodations with History. One step ahead of the posse. From the “abdication” of James II to the “abdication” of Edward VIII. The latest wheeze of amending the law of succession so that a female child is regarded as equal is merely one step in a longer historic process.
“Prince” Charles talks about being the Defender of ALL FAITHS rather than THE FAITH. But the bar on a Catholic ascending the Throne is surely not something that can withstand scrutiny in the 21st century.
And what exactly is the theological basis that makes the King/Queen of England Supreme Head of the English Church.
As we know, Monarchy works best when it is in the Darkness. Shine a light on it and it is absurd.
Back in the 1960s the BBC and the Firm as the Royal Family calls itself …conspired to show the British Public a fly in the wall documentary series on the Windsors.
It made Huw Weldon a knight of the realm and the “Duke of Edinburgh” was congratulated on his foresight in bringing the Firm into the modern era.
The British Royal Family is NOT a Documentary.
It is a soap opera.
The Queen is played by an actress called Elizabeth Windsor. The Queen is politically nuetral but the actress is part od a conservative shire tweedy cousinage.
The kilt-wearing Duke of Edinburgh is actually a Greek- born German. Mel Gibson was a more convincing Scot in Braveheart.
Prince Charles is but a heartbeat away from being Supreme Governor of the Church of England…the fox hunting conservationalist. And a man who rather enjoyed too much “Droit de Seigneur” in his bachelor years with a ready supply of English Roses being offered.
And Princess Anne is the designated Scot, assigned the role of attending Scottish Rugby matches and failing to look po-faced during the singing of “Flower of Scotland”.

Of course Diana, The Queen of Hearts changed all that and the real Queen started to look like Helen Mirren. Having royally (literaly) screwed every gal from the shires, the only posh virgin left in England was a bit of a thicko. But at least she played the game….provided the Heir and Spare…William and Harry.
Reversing History..Edward VIII was a playboy and his brother George VI was a dullard….it is William who is the family man and Harry who is the playboy.
To be honest I think Harry has the better deal. He may never be King of England but he is amply compensated with a steady supply of hot and cold running women.
Dont mention Diana.
Dont mention “Its A Royal Knockout” and whatever happened to Stuart Hall?
The point now is that after the tabloid excesses the Media are now fully on board at re-building the tattered image of the Royal Family. The Queen gets to appear with James Bond. The Duke of Edinburgh isnt a nasty old racist…he is just the embarrasing old politically incorrect grandad at Christmas Dinner.
I used to think that the Royal Family was absurd but somehow suited the English character. Actually …I was wrong. Most THINKING English people realise that the past 48 hours has been absurd. A travesty. An embarrassment.
The crowds that celebrate ar really inadequate people who just want to be on TV.
“I came all the way from Northampton”
But actually those “royalists” are NOT typical.
The real English people see thru the nonsense…and are much too polite to do anything about it.

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Gluten Free…Nut Free

Posted on July 22, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

Heres an odd thing. Last week in Ballina, County Mayo, we bought a cake (victoria sponge since you ask) in a very nice Home Bakery. I am partial to nice pastry, especially flakey crust apple pie.
But the thing was that there was a sign saying the baking was “gluton free”. I askec Mrs FJH what this actually means and she told me.
A few hours later we were in a coffee shop in Knock, County Mayo…and there was another sign. “Gluton free”. I didnt want to embarras myself by asking what it meant but I suggested to Mrs FJH that it must be some kind “southern thing” as Id ever seen such a sign in the North. But Mrs FJH said they are “all over the place”.
And as three is the charm, we came home to an invitation to a function in aid of a charity where “gluton free bakery” will be available.
Not wanting Mrs FJH to explain it all to me again, I asked my daughter-in-law. and the strange thing is that my baby granddaughter is on a gluton-free diet.
Turns out Im just not very observant.
My sons are 29 and 27. Nobody had invented Gluton Free in those days. The big obsession was “nut allergy” (neither of my sons suffer).
But going back into the 1950s and 1960s I dont recall anybody knowing or caring about Nut Allergy.
Diet Coca Cola had not been invented.
Neither had E numbers. I have no idea what they are but a former co-worker was absolutely obsessed with E numbers.

And sometime around 1985, the Scientists invented Asthma.
Somehow 98.3% (I err on the side of caution) of children have Asthma…I dont recall it in the 1960s. Why do we have Asthma? Why do Farmers children rarely have Asthma?

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Cola Wars…Culture Wars

Posted on July 19, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

I obviously dont drink anything that involves the word “DIET” but I could not resist buying this bottle of DIET COKE.
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Like a lot of families with young children/grandchildren we are looking out for Coca Cola bottles with family names. Indeed my son has sent an email to Coca Cola as apparently they will issue bottles with unusual names. One of my grandchildren has an uncommon name.
The increasing “Irishness” of names over the course of my lifetime has been very interesting.
But the current Coca Cola campaign has thrown up this. Irish readers of the blog will know that “Saoirse” means “Freedom”.
This is a whole new front in the Culture Wars.
I hope Willie Frazer is on the case.

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Maybe The Statue Just Walked There….

Posted on July 17, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

Those of us of a certain age will be aware that Catholic religious statues and pictures sometimes are sometimes placed on Twelfth bonfires.
In the olden days like the 1950s and 1960s it was a common enough sight which had the desired effect of offending passing Catholics.
The difference in 2013 is that the ever-present camera-phone captures the annual acts of hatred like the placing of Irish, Polish and Palestinian flags on bonfires and of course the effigy of a recent (Catholic priest) suicide victim on a bonfire.
Thanks to Twitter, Facebook etc the images are posted online within minutes.
Indeed the hate-filled scumbags who place these icons on their bonfires are often the very ones who publicise their hatred.
The enduring images of 12th July 2013 is the effigy of Fr Matt Wallace on a bonfire at Rathcoole and a statue of the Virgin Mary on a bonfire in North Belfast.
Curiously the latter was handed into an Ardoyne priest and the tale of it journey to and from the bonfire has elicited a lot of comment.
In a curious post today, the Absentee Editor of another website refers to the priest who received the statue from “community workers” and a story in the Belfast Telegraph, the letsgetalongerist rag.
Its been a bad Twelfth for letsgetalongerists. The myth that Norn Iron is changing has been blown out of the water.

Back in the very bad old days the discredited Royal Ulster Constabulary had a richly deserved reputation for keeping an “open mind” and giving loyalist murderers the benefit of too much doubt. BBC and UTV would routinely report such cases and the phrase “the RUC are keeping an open mind” lost credibility with Catholics and Nationalists.
Sometimes things in Norn Iron are not exactly as they seem.
But in the vast majority of cases, they are exactly what they seem.
Raising and reporting UNREASONABLE doubt lets the hate-filled scumbags off the hook.
The case of the Virgin Mary on the bonfire is to most people a pretty obvious example of being exactly what it seems.
It was not a photo-shopped image.
Nor was the effigy of Fr Matt Wallace in Rathcoole.

The reputation of the RUC suffered in the 1970s by being overly “open minded”.
So did the BBC reputation.
A lot of the historic and expensive enquiries…Saville, McGurks Bar among them have shown that British and RUC briefings were slavishly endorsed by the BBC. The Truth was known at the time.
It does no credit to the Media that they were part of it all.
Indeed our problems with Historic Truth is in part due to the Media failing to stand up for the Truth decades ago.

The RUC and the Media lost all credibility in Catholic-Nationalist eyes by casting doubt on open and shut cases.
It even led to a tasteless joke.
“This morning the RUC discovered the body of a Catholic man on the (loyalist) Shankill Road. It had forty stab wounds and thirty gunshot wounds. The RUC have not ruled out an accident or suicide”.
A reputation is hard to win and easy to lose.

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Michael Davitt: Forgotten Hero?

Posted on July 16, 2013 by fitzjameshorse

Michael Davitt…Forgotten Hero (as the Andy Irvine song suggests)?
Am I recalling accurately that in school history, Michael Davitt was merely the footnote…the Land League man…in our history text books.
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Yet he was so much more. Born into Famine Years Ireland and migrating to Lancashire with his family to work in cotton mills as a child. Losing a hand in an industrial accident, becoming a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Imprisoned in England.
A Fenian. A Parnellite Member of Paraliament.
But the curious thing for me is that he is only given proper recognition in the past few years.
Never quite a real Parnellite, he was not totally embedded in Parliament.
And yet going into Parliament was enough to have him marginalised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Of course he died a good decade before the Easter Rising. Maybe he was too much of a socialist for post-independent Ireland. Maybe it was the English accent.
He ticks a lot of boxes as a national hero, without ever being put in a single box himself.

A few years ago I visited the Davitt Museum at the small village of Straide in County Mayo. Interesting piece of (almost) trivia that Michael Davitt had the honour of laying the first turf at Celtic Park in Glasgow.
Talking to a guide at the museum, I discovered that the most frequently asked question at the museum is “Do you know that a hand is missing from the statue outside?”
That perhaps reflects his marginalisation.
And sadly at the weekend, the museum was closed…and may not re-open due to funding issues.

Small museums and heritage centres…Battle of Aughrim site, Admiral William Brown Museum at Foxford, Boulavogue Centre, Glencolumcille Folk Museum…among them are vital for local economies and more so local pride.
All over Ireland, small villages have found a “hook” on which to hang a tourist industry. We would be a poorer culture without the Foynes Flying Boat Museum or the Palatine Centre at Rathkeale.

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