“FOR GOD?–AND ULSTER?”
Young Jason Burke, recently entered a very interesting article concerning our Loyalist Working Class Culture. As one of the old Volunteers of the early seventies, I was very interested in reading the opinions of one of the young men, on whom our countries political and geographical future depends.
Possibly it is a sign of the times, hopefully it was unintentional youthful inexperience, but in listing his four main components of our Culture, Jason neglected to include the main cornerstone and rock, upon which the unshakable foundations of our Loyalist Working Class Culture has been constructed.
I am of course referring to our Protestant Faith and the sincerely sworn oath of our Fore-Fathers, “For God and Ulster”.
To our Fore-Fathers this Sacred Oath, was much more than mere words on a badge or a casual throw away drunken slogan and those of us today who casually, carelessly, and unthinkingly misuse this Sacred Oath, do so at our Countries peril.
The long troubled history of the Nation of Israel, should be a perfect lesson for us all on just how dramatically a Nations fortunes can rise or plummet, as a result of its peoples sincerity or lack of sincerity, with regard to our Creator.
During the past conflict, many of us who originally proudly proclaimed, “For God and Ulster,” slowly but surely excluded God from the equation, as we sought to repay indiscriminate sectarian terrorism, with an even greater dose of indiscriminate sectarian terrorism.
Slowly but surely in defence of the democratic right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide their own future and despite our original sincerity, we foolishly, gradually abandoned the moral high ground in the pursuit of, the satisfaction of revenge.
The end result of this distancing of ourselves from God was that, most of us eventually ended up in Long Kesh or dead.
With greatest respect to young Jason and Davy Ervines dear Wife, I sincerely believe that it is not a return to the culture of obsolete, totally useless languages, such as Irish and Ulster Scots, that our young people need.
I believe that what is required, is a sincere return to the basic Cultural Foundations of, our Protestant Faith and the sincerity of the Sacred Sworn Oath of our Fore-Fathers, “For God and Ulster.”
The totally useless, obsolete Irish language, has long been used by the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic education boards, as a means of deliberate legalised discrimination, to deny Protestant teachers employment in Roman Catholic Schools, while at the same time Roman Catholic teachers have been able to seek and receive employment, throughout the entire education system.
I have absolutely no objection to anyone learning Irish or Ulster Scots at their own expense, in their own time, however I believe that, obsolete totally useless languages, train-spotting, tiddly winks and blow-football, should not be unwillingly subsidised by the vast majority of taxpaying non-participants.
Jason rightly points out that Irish was once a part of upper-class Protestant Culture, at a time when the vast majority of the Protestant Working Class, were unable to write in either English or Irish. It was however never a part of Loyalist Working Class Culture.
In reality the return of the Irish Language is about as culturally desirable to Working Loyalists, as a return to sitting with frozen clinkers in a leaking outside toilet in the back yard, on a freezing cold winters night with a damp ink-smudged page of the Belfast Telegraph for a toilet roll.
Personally I have absolutely no desire for the return of either.
Charlie Freel.