Elizabeth in Ireland

[Alan Medic]

I must say I've felt really touched by Liz's visit to Ireland. Many here will slate the Monarchy and normally I'd be one of them. But this 85 year old lady has such great dignity and awareness that I believe she has had a profound influence of Anglo Irish relations. Somehow she has done something no strutting politician could ever have done. The English are no longer the auld enemy, but neighbours, and good one's at that. Somehow it feels like a line has been drawn in the sand. Thanks to her.

Bless you Lizzie!

PS Don't you just love Phil too?

[Townleygreen]

I agree. They have both done a fabulous job over there (and generally, in fact). Liz's gaelic was particularly impressive.

It fair warms the cockles of me heart.

[Brendan]

An inappropriate old racist who lives with his foot in his mouth, Prince Phillip practically is Irish.

[Alan Medic]

Well Bren(if I may be so familiar) which I know I may not, with foot and mouth, are we talking disease?

[huncamunca]

Would it be churlish to suggest that the Irish issue is due to the rapacious legacy in our Royal history ?

I would also like to add that using the adage regarding the sins of the fathers and or the debateable exploits of Cromwell is the wrong answer

[Laddy Muck]

Nice opening post Mr. Medic. Very nice indeed.

What touched me was that, she appeared (to me anyway) pleased to be amongst the people of Ireland - as though glad of the opportunity to finally bury a rusty old hatchet. It looked to me as though this wasn't just another of her royal engagments, but that she actually wanted to be there. She looked enormously sincere and happy, and as a result so did the majority of the locals.

A beautiful sight to behold if ever I saw one.

[Alan Medic]

Hunca you may well be correct in your first sentence. The solving of the Irish issue is a different thing.

In your second sentence you refer to yourself in the third person. I am no expert on grammer or spelling in any language so correct me if I am wrong. What da fuck are u sayin?

Edited to add 'or spelling'

[huncamunca]

resolved.

[Alan Medic]

800 years for 'resolved'.............what are u wearing?

[Huguenot]

Frankly I find the 'Irish Issue' dull and stupid.

Do these people in high density housing shooting each other in the knees for peddling temazepam reaaly think their lives are going to get any better because their welfare payments are coming from slightly closer?

No they don't. What they think is that the departure of social structures will leave them with a vacuum that they can populate with their own brand of tyranny.

They manipulate stupid and ideological people alike in the pursuit of that goal.

[Alan Medic]

Would you care to tranlate that into the language of the thick please?

[Huguenot]

No Alan Medic, you're not thick anyway. You're just hoping that if I say it twice in different ways it'll be easier to find fault with it. ;-)

[kellygirl]

it was pretty easy the first time

[Huguenot]

Ireland is a successful modern nation.

It has no more problems with genetic heritage, immigration or borders than anyone else does.

The Irish are richer than most, travel the world freely, capitalise on their cultural heritage and live more fulfilling and self-determining lives than most of the 6 billion people in the world.

There is no Irish 'issue'. Everything is bloody brilliant for the Irish.

Except that is for people who want to capitalise on history to pursue an agenda that only has a downside: it cannot make the Irish more successful than they are, it can only create a power vacuum to be populated by violence and tyranny.

The premise of that 'issue' is that some people 'own' something based on their bloodlines, that you can visit the sins of the parents upon the children. It's f*cking stupid, doesn't stand up under even the weakest scrutiny, and has no place in a modern world.

[kellygirl]

if the issue is 'dull and stupid' huguenot why don't you move on and find an issue you can say something interesting and intelligent about?

[Huguenot]

Because other people keep bringing it up and it's exasperating.

Particularly exasperating are the righteous, sanctimonius rich people who were never involved, have never been impacted by any 'Irish issue', have never done anything but benefit from being Irish, and have to enter into some tortuous exploration of their social network to find some weak justification for a bit of fist-pumping nationalism.

One of the most famous internet portals has over 40m people registered on the network who have their nationality registered as 'Irish'.

How annoying is that? They're clearly not - they've gained all the social benefits and opportunities that have been gifted them by another nation, and they're rude and ungracious enough to claim to be from somewhere else.

They probably don't even have an 'Irish' culture. They have something that was made up to print on the back of exported whiskey.

There's only 3.8 million people in Ireland. There's more people live in the West Midlands, and they don't have 'West Midlands' pubs all over the world, despite Burton producing some very fine ales.

As I said - pretty exasperating if the "Irish" diaspora start bringing up the 'Irish issue'. WTF would they know?

[Alan Medic]

What would you know about being Irish Huguenot?

[Huguenot]

Aha - there you go proving my point ;-)

Why does it matter, unless you plan to drag up the behaviour and activites of other people to give yourself an identity or a grudge?

It's an habit I don't value in any society; the activities and behaviour of other British, London or ED people past or present don't define me. Neither, despite Quids insistence, does my choice of newspaper.

Mind you, at least we don't have an 'ED Issue' as an excuse to inflict violence or control over others or campaign for ethnic and racial cleansing.

Get out there and be yourself.

[Alan Medic]

So you agree with the OP then?

[huncamunca]

Can we rename this thread " the Iriland thread where people who know fuck all about the situation can make sweeping and openly antagonistic statements "?

Thanks

[Alan Medic]

Not sure I could fit all that in. Do you want to abbreviate it?

[Huguenot]

Not trying to be antagonistic.

There is no antagonism in saying how successful Ireland is, and there is no antagonism in being disparaging of people who use history as an excuse to commit murderous crime. There is nothing antagonistic in pointing out that an awful lot of people claim Irish citizenship who couldn't possibly be Irish.

And it certainly isn't antagonistic to say that constant references to the 'Irish Issue' are exasperating.

That's the part of the issue about the 'Issue' huncamunca - people start spraying around violent terminology like 'antagonism' on behalf of other people.

Just like you did.

[Alan Medic]

Cheap joke though unless you have some weird definition of success.

Who does that?

To be an Irish citizen you need an Irish passport. To get an Irish passport is not that easy unless you are born in the country or one of your parents were.

[Huguenot]

"Cheap joke though unless you have some weird definition of success."

That's just another example of the completely inappropriate sense of grievance the Irish claim. They're not hard done by at all.

The last figures I've got for GDP per capita puts Ireland at $37,700 and UK at $32,800. That's post crash. That means everyone else suffered too!!!

You're all doing fine.

Yeah, Ireland needed a bailout, but that's essentially because the government lacked the will of leverage to enact sensible financial controls.

[kellygirl]

it sounds to me like deep down huguenot is jealous he's not irish...