Congrats to Liz McManus

[Boss Croker]

Fair play to Liz McManus. She has exposed the hypocrisy of Bertie Ahern and Ff over the 1916 commemoration. Bertie is falling over himself to commemorate Irish men who died in British uniforms on the Somme. If he's consistent, he should do the same for the Dub Fusiliers and the oul lads in the Georgius Rex who were killed on the streets of Dublin. Most of the GR were over weight rugby alickadoos from the Wanderers Club who couldn't kick straight, let alone fire straight.

Bertie wants 'inclusive' and Liz is giving it to him.

BTW, commemorating police and civilians who died in 1916 doesn't mean commemorating the Black and Tans. 1916 had no mandate from the people. But the War of Independence had the democratic backing of the 1918 election and the first Dáil in 1919. Therefore, Crown forces who died in that were belligerents in an international conflict and should not be commemorated

[smiffy]

Can you provide a link to what you're talking about? It's hard to respond either for or against Liz McManus if we don't know what it is she's supposed to have said.

[Pidge]

Therefore, Crown forces who died in that were belligerents in an international conflict and should not be commemorated

Why not? I quite like the idea of commemorating all sides in a conflict. It's a good statement for a (at least, superficially) neutral country to make.

[cyberianpan]

Therefore, Crown forces who died in that were belligerents in an international conflict and should not be commemorated

Why not? I quite like the idea of commemorating all sides in a conflict. It's a good statement for a (at least, superficially) neutral country to make.

Yup if you're gonna glorify death & war let's have it all !

[Catalpa]

Fair play to Liz McManus. She has exposed the hypocrisy of Bertie Ahern and Ff over the 1916 commemoration. Bertie is falling over himself to commemorate Irish men who died in British uniforms on the Somme. If he's consistent, he should do the same for the Dub Fusiliers and the oul lads in the Georgius Rex who were killed on the streets of Dublin. Most of the GR were over weight rugby alickadoos from the Wanderers Club who couldn't kick straight, let alone fire straight.

Bertie wants 'inclusive' and Liz is giving it to him.

BTW, commemorating police and civilians who died in 1916 doesn't mean commemorating the Black and Tans. 1916 had no mandate from the people. But the War of Independence had the democratic backing of the 1918 election and the first Dáil in 1919. Therefore, Crown forces who died in that were belligerents in an international conflict and should not be commemorated

First:

I fully support celebrating and commemorating men who took part in the Easter Rising fighting for Ireland's Freedom. If as part of that we recall all the people who were killed then so be it.

As for the Somme we can commemorate but not celebrate such useless slaughter of mostly young mens lives.

However the GR's have been portrayed as harmless old duffers who walked into a murderous ambush on Haddington Road.

This is not so! They had just completed a route march back from Ticknock and to do that they would have has to have been very fit men indeed.

As a result of this attack by Republican forces the GRs scattered and they were not used by the British for the duration of the Rising.

Thus the attack on them was a legitimate Act of War.

[georgedillon]

I have always noticed that the rather absurd glorifiers of WW One never express any sympathy or remorse for the 50,000 (just a guess) Germans, Hungarians, Turks etc. that the Irish mercenaries killed. As another rough guess, this would represent about 200 times the numbers of deaths caused by the Volunteers and Citizen Army in 1916.

Nor have I ever understood why (a minority of) Irishmen thought it was a good idea to travel many hundreds of miles from their homes in order to try to kill Hungarians, Turks, Austrians etc. I certainly have never seen why this bloodlust should be glorified by us almost a century later.

McManus is a liar in claiming that the Labour Party was the party of Connolly. It wasn't, Connolly's party was the ISRP. The Irish Labour Party was never the party of Connolly.
GD

[georgedillon]

PS:
I forget to mention that the Labour Party site now has a version in Latvian (which is more comprehensive than the pitiful few lines of the Irish language version of the site).

But was I found interesting is that Latvians are told that the name of the party's current leader is Patas Rabitas.
GD

[Justin]

Suppose Bertie leaves it open in comemorating a military event without the politics for others to come back with other military events without the politics....never mind I'm sure both Liz and Bertie are agreed that they wouldn't touch the politics of 1916 with a barge pole.

[Boss Croker]

Can you provide a link to what you're talking about? It's hard to respond either for or against Liz McManus if we don't know what it is she's supposed to have said.

'Morning Ireland' on Wed morning. You'll get it on the RTE web site. She was in a debate with Senator Doctor Martin Mansergh, renowned author of 'The Spirit of the Nation - the Collected Speeches of Charles J Haughey'. Dr Mansergh's other (unpublished) tome is 'The Collected Restaurant and Dry Cleaning Bill of CJ Haughey'.

[hiding behind a poster]

I have always noticed that the rather absurd glorifiers of WW One never express any sympathy or remorse for the 50,000 (just a guess) Germans, Hungarians, Turks etc. that the Irish mercenaries killed. As another rough guess, this would represent about 200 times the numbers of deaths caused by the Volunteers and Citizen Army in 1916.

Nor have I ever understood why (a minority of) Irishmen thought it was a good idea to travel many hundreds of miles from their homes in order to try to kill Hungarians, Turks, Austrians etc. I certainly have never seen why this bloodlust should be glorified by us almost a century later.

McManus is a liar in claiming that the Labour Party was the party of Connolly. It wasn't, Connolly's party was the ISRP. The Irish Labour Party was never the party of Connolly.
GD

Nobody's talking about glorifying it - what people are talking about is commemorating it - there's a big difference. And the very fact that Irishmen were killed abroad, whether in the (probably mistaken) belief that they were advancing their own country's cause, or simply in order to feed their families, is tragic and deserving of commemoration.