I have often wondered how we would have behaved if we had been an imperial power.I believe that with the signing of the good friday agreement we should ask the brittish if we could run either england/scotland/wales as an act of good faith on our behalf in case that we have to bale them out over nothern ireland.I realise that from an economic point of view i am a few years too late but they are also having economic problems.
we were part of an imperial power and played our part in everything it did, for better or for worse. prehaps we should be apologising to the colonies?
honest to God....
"Great minds talk about ideas; mediocre minds talk about events; small minds talk about people"
certainly many irish people of all backrounds have exploited the brittish empire and i am sure have much to be ashamed about and hopefully some positives[i am racking my brains here]Originally Posted by Alliance
we were part of an imperial power and played our part in everything it did, for better or for worse. prehaps we should be apologising to the colonies?
honest to God....
The notion is ridiculous. We were colonised by an imperial power, subjugated through terror, war and occupation. We fought and won our freedom from those diseased in their brains with dark visions of dominance, enslavement and power - our national focus was therefore different to theirs or those like them. Our cultural predilection was drawn more naturally toward liberation and freedom from abusive power rather than to be slavishly supportive of it (as in the diseased societies where such cruelty was celebrated).
But there are those simple ones who seem to be visited with strange dreams, romanticised versions of the 'glory' of evil and murderous dominance of another population. Strange indeed.
Grow spuds and be true to yourself...
Absolutely, our soldiers and civil servants were as prominent all over the empire as the Scots and Welsh. After all we (republic of Ireland) were part of the united kingdom until we left in 1922.we were part of an imperial power and played our part in everything it did, for better or for worse. prehaps we should be apologising to the colonies?
honest to God....
When an Empire wrecks your country and forces its population to work for it to feed their own, they arnt voluntarily part of that Empire but one of its many conquests of greed.
Irish men had to fight for an English king because if they didnt they would face worse.
If these people were such a willing part of the Empire then why didnt they get a vote or have acess to their own Irish land?
The British Empire is nothing to glorify, neither was its slave and sex trade, its greedy destruction of foreign lands and the death it caused.
Simple as that, anyone who thinks it is something to be proud of should go and join one of those neo-nazi cults who also enjoy glorifying evil.
You wont find an Irish man who wants their country to be an Imperial power, why would a country want to shame itself in such a way?
Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers.
The notion that Ireland was in the vanguard for the creation and maintenance of the British empire is entirely laughable. 95%+ of its population was improverished and politically disenfranchised. While the largely imported ruling class may have done their bit for the empire, the ordinary citizen was reduced to joining the empire's army out of dire economic necessity. The Irish involvement is the army is probably its greatest contribution but a contribution borne out by economic survival. In fact, the ordinary people of England, Scotland and Wales fared not much better out of the old empire. And the natives of the empire had to wait well into the 20th century to shake off the terrible effects of the empire - Ireland included.
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. (B. de Jouvenel)
The Royal Irish Regiment (formerly 18th Regiment of Foot); The Connaught Rangers (formerly 88th Regiment of Foot and 94th Regiment of Foot); The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (formerly 100th Regiment of Foot and 109th Regiment of Foot); The Royal Munster Fusiliers (formerly 101st Regiment of Foot and 104th Regiment of Foot); and The Royal Dublin Fusiliers (formerly 102nd Regiment of Foot and 103rd Regiment of Foot).
350,000 Irishmen volunteered for service during WW1 in addition to the 50,000 Irishmen already serving in the regular army and reserve at the outbreak of the war. Most of the southern Irish Catholics served in the five regiments mentioned above. However it should be noted many Irishmen served in British Regiments (including the Tyneside, Liverpool and London Irish Battalions). What drove such a large body of men to sign up and fight in the army of foreign country? There is no simple answer but a combination of unemployment, idealism and adventure probably accounted for most of the enlistment.
That’s an awful lot of men who volunteered to fight for an Empire that we were supposed to despise.
From watching British history programmes you would think that the British Empire was like Trócaire!
The last one i watched ( i needed a good laugh ) comapred Oliver Cromwell to Moses coming down the mountain with the commandments.
I didnt know whether to bust out laughing or get pissed off.
The worrying thing is that people willingly believe every word of these 'documentaries', Irish and British.
Most of them completely exculde any wrong doings.
They usually look at things froma very pro-country stealing British biast angle.
The English didnt invade Ireland and impoverish its people, apparently the 'Gloriuos' soldiers came under attack from savage apes while wondering through a British Isle.
Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers.
Were they fighting for the British Empire, or did they want to do a couple of years take the money from them and get themselves a place in life?
I recently met someone from a very republican area who is going to do 2 years in the British army so that he can buy a house,( they should be cheap enough by then) theyre coming from the republic too.
The same person would be the first person to be out throwing bricks at them if they came into his area, but when theres no jobs the army will be used by people to get money.
This doesnt mean they are in favour of British rule of their empire.
Some Irish men would gladly take money from them, but dont think that this is any more than a job oppertunity.
Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers.
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