Someone from the 32 County Sovereignty Movement was on Newsnight last night. He'd better make the most of his moment in the limelight.
The Irish Labour Party in its present form (venerating the memory of James Connolly but sharing almost none of his objectives) is an obvious creature of British intelligence, heavily funded by unions that exist throughout these islands. And that's just official funding. Fine Gael and, if anything even more so, Fianna Fáil are not even takeovers early on, as in the Labour case. I think we can all see who was behind a merger in 1933 of the Blueshirts, Cumann na nGaedheal and the National Centre Party, complete with a commitment to Commonwealth membership, albeit for a United Ireland as the ultimate aim. Never mind a 1926 secession from Sinn Féin itself, which went on to hang the IRA. You see, there is always a price.
After all, as with the SDLP, who else has ever really paid for them? They have been free to develop and pursue very different policies, although it must be said that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, at least, have shown extremely little inclination to do so. But "British governments by proxy", as Sinn Féin has always, not alleged, but stated as an observable fact? You don't say! That was clearly what people wanted, and it clearly still is. Certainly, the "proxy" bit was and is as important as the "British" bit. But even so.
The cake has now been iced by the putting of Sinn Féin itself on the payroll. Despite not attending the House, its MPs have homes in London at British public expense, presumably for the cultural and recreational facilities. Who knows what other cash is sloshing about? Who are the proxies now? And there is always a price. Last night's interviewee was a dead man talking.
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Oh theres a lot of cash sloshing around. and I suppose I am a beneficiary of a tiny share of it as I work for a "Community Group" which is funded by the Govt.
ReplyDeleteThe really good thing about this is that the Govt wants to give us even more money and we have run out of ideas.
"Use it lose it". Or a form of Danegelt?
The largesse of Disability Living Allowance is a case in point ......17% in Norn Iron get it and 3% in London apparently.
The old myth of Terence O'Neill, John Taylor and otheres was that if you give Catholics jobs and houses they will become "pro union" as you might say.
Alas the opposite is the reality. And we only have to look to History. The 19th century began with Catholics in favour of Act of Union and Presbyterians against it. I could of course send you a 4,000 word essay on why but suffice to say that Catholic Emancipation, free education, franchise reform and land reform actually emboldened Irish Nationalism rather than weaken it. Likewise the "reforms" in Norn Iron in the 1970s.
Like Ive said the CIRA/RIRA have guns. But they are incredibly stupid. Like the Officer Commanding in Derry who masked and uniformed threatened Sinn Féin members but as he has the squeakiest voice in Derry, the mask was actually useless. Well what can we expect. The guy is only 19 and probably building a new life for himself in England.
The first General Secretary of the SDLP kindly recommended by the TUC was in fact an MI5 agent. Allegedly.
Er, it was Fine Gael who declared southern Ireland (a de facto republic since 1935 and especially after the promulgation of the 1937 constitution) formally a republic under the terms of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 on Easter Monday 1949 and withdrew it from the Commonwealth.
ReplyDeletePro-commonwealth?
"The first General Secretary of the SDLP kindly recommended by the TUC was in fact an MI5 agent. Allegedly."
ReplyDeleteNo surprise there, then.
Similarly, Sinn Fein never tired of stating the obvious about who had created the Irish Labour Party in its present form, who had engineered the secession from itself in the form of Fianna Fail, and who had been behind the merger that created Fine Gael. But the obvious as what it was. And now, Sinn Fein is in the same position. It will soon be required to do to the dissidents what Dev was required to do to the IRA. That was the deal then, and that will be the deal in the very near future.
The Aberdonian, the original Fine Gael platform included Commonwealth membership, which at the time had to mean keeping the monarch as Head of State. There is more than talk of the first point, though obviously not of the second, if Fine Gael wins the next election, of which there is every sign.
The original Liberal platform under Gladstone was for low taxation but the Liberal Democrats have hardly stuck to it. Or the Liberals arguably under Lloyd George come to think of it.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly does the Republic have to gain from Comnmonwealth membership?
Also if Fine Gael was so pro-monarchy, why did it contest the presidential election in 1945?
Well it should be no surprise to you as I mentioned it before.
ReplyDeleteSF has always tried a few tricks to deal with the Irish Labour Party. Red scare stuff mostly. The present leader of the Labour Party (Gilmore) is ex-Democratic Left (née Workers Party).
And a likehood is that FG-Labour (the latter doing well in polls) will form next Govt.
Dont hold your breath on the "Commonwealth". Personally as a Republican I could accept membership (its risible nonsense anyway) as a fig leaf to help unionism down the Dublin Road.
Either way it will all work out nicely.
I never said that it was pro-monarchy. I said that it was pro-Commonwealth. And anyway, if there's a Presidential Election to contest, then there's a Presidential Election to contest.
ReplyDeleteWhat does anyone "gain" from Commonwealth membership? Although the cultural ties can be very real, of course. But "gaining" isn't really the point of it. What would Scotland "gain"? Yet the SNP is committed to Commonwealth membership. Insofar as it is still committed to independence at all.
It was the 1980s Radical Right, funded and directed from Pretoria, that hated the Commonwealth. Still does, in fact.