It would be better served, Gordon Brown, by a pro-British Irishman than by an Israel First, America Second excuse for a Briton.
In fact, it would be better served by absolutely anyone at all than by any Israel First, America Second excuse for a Briton, never mind the particularly appalling effort on offer.
Fine Gael or New Labour? The old pro-Treaties or the old Trots? No contest. None whatever.
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That Treaty was nearly a century ago.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course replaced by a Treaty in 1998 that Bruton was (like Reynolds and Ahern) very instrumental in producing.
I am very glad that you are now converted to supporting the Treaty.
It's where he comes from, aboriginally. Making him a lot more pro-British than Blair.
ReplyDeleteWell there you go sticking labels on people.
ReplyDeleteBLiar would label himself differently.
But more importantly John Bruton would not accept the definition.
Oh, I'm sure he would. I'm not saying he's anti-Irish. I'm saying that he favours close ties to Britain. Fine Gael does. And it certainly delivered them under him, insofar as they don't simply exist anyway.
ReplyDeleteBlair, on the other hand, really is anti-British. He doesn't like this country at all.
Did you see John and Edward's poppies on The X Factor?
ReplyDeleteThey may only be 18 (although even so), but their mentor, Louis Walsh, certainly isn't.
ReplyDeleteoh Owen Quigg the teen from Derry wore one last year.
ReplyDeleteits the Wogan/Val Doonican factor that to do well in England an Irishman must repudiate his History.
Uncle Toms.
Seriously I would be amazed if John Bruton a former Irish premier was "anti Irish". I intensely dislike Fine Gael but they are my fellow Irishmen.
And of course I also favour close ties to Britain. Some of my best friends are....etc etc.
Oddly, you're kind of right, but for the wrong reasons. Bruton's personal political heritage isn't with pro-treaty Sinn Fein, the old incarnation of Fine Gael. Rather, he seems himself as a descendant of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and used to have a portrait of John Redmond in his office when he was Taoiseach.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be wrong to call him pro-British, though, in that that suggests a special relationship. Rather, Bruton was highly suspicious of Sinn Fein, and feared that British dealings with them would alienate the Ulster Protestants, whose friendship he wanted, as invariably one of the key objectives for Irish politicians is a united Ireland. His attempts to keep the Unionists onside might be mistaken for a pro-British sensibility, but shouldn't be.
Don't get me wrong. He happily did business with Britain, but he did so with France and Germany too. I think that him having a portrait of Sean Lemass in his office points to that, Lemass having been tha Anti-treaty Fianna Failer who was determined that Ireland should join the EEC and, well, sign up to 'ever closer union' with our fellow Europeans.
For what it's worth, I'd hugely favour Bruton for the Council Presidency.
David Lindsay praises pro-treaty Michael Collins, a man whose anti-unionism makes Alex Salmond and even Gerry and Martin look like Land of Hope and Glory patriots. LOL.
ReplyDeleteOn shooting British agents:
"For me, my conscience is clear. It is no crime in wartime to destroy the spy and the informer. They destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin!"
"It'd be wrong to call him pro-British, though"
ReplyDeleteEveryone else did. And he was. Very.
"as invariably one of the key objectives for Irish politicians is a united Ireland"
Only because they know it'll never happen. When did any Fine Gael, Labour or even Fianna Fail figure of any real note ever so much as mention it?
"His attempts to keep the Unionists onside might be mistaken for a pro-British sensibility, but shouldn't be"
Everyone knows about Bruton. FG generally, but perhaps especially Bruton. How do you think he got that EU job in Washington?
"Michael Collins"
Dead before FG was ever set up (by British intelligence, which has run it ever since, same as the other two). Salmond? No one could be more Unionist than Salmond. He has recanted independence by making the SNP, like all three other parties in Scotland, like all four in Wales, and like all five in Northern Ireland, simply a ginger group for ever-higher spending from Westminster.
Funny, at the last election Fine Gael stuck up posters describing themselves as the "party of Michael Collins".
ReplyDeleteCumman na Gaedhal was led by W T Cosgrave who subsequently took over Fine Gael after O'Duffy's departure. Cosgrave of course was convicted and sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising - he of course served as first Irish PM.
But he was never actually put to death. And there was a reason for that.
ReplyDeleteHardline abomination of Collins and Fine Gael is correct in its own terms. As of Dev. As now of Adams and Maguinness. Can you see the pattern? What is it that they all do in the end? Learn the lesson well.
He was not executed because most people sentenced to death were not executed.
ReplyDeleteOnly the seven signatories of the proclamation, non-signatory commandants (except Dev due to his American links), Pearce's brother, John McBride (for his activities in the Boer War) and Coln Colbert were shot.
Cosgrave of course was one of the first Sinn Feinn MPs and he was in jail at the time of the election. Obviously in your view, M15/Special Branch (three of whose agents were working for Collins) were taking the long view of Cosgrave.
And they were right.
ReplyDeleteNot just about him, of course.
Sean Heuston did not command a batallion. He was a senior officer in Na Fianna. Neither did Michael O'Hanrahan (2nd in command in MacDonaghs 3rd Batallion)...although MacBride is often regarded as 2nd in Command as MacDonagh.
ReplyDeleteThomas Ceannt was not in the Dublin Rising.
Michael Mallin was 2nd in command of Irish Citizen Army under Connolly.
DeValera commanded a Batallion.
Its often assumed that Dev was saved due to his American citizenship but that was probably a lesser factor than the fact that the tide had already turned against "executions".