Have you ever started reading something and, after a couple of paragraphs, wondered if it was a wind-up? Happened this week to me. Anthony McIntyre’s site – The Pensive Quill, posted a contribution from a group called – I’m not making this up – ‘No Royal Beacons at McArts Fort Cavehill Campaign Group’. (What a mouthful).
They have got themselves into a tizzy over Belfast City Council plans to light a beacon on the Cavehill as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. They claim the site is ‘intrinsically linked to the history and development of the struggle for Irish freedom….’ and these plans are ‘an insult to Republicanism’. They are calling for protests to resist these moves. I’m sure Theobold Wolfe Tone would be proud of their attempt, in his name, to prohibit a demonstration of Protestant culture. I think the real targets are SF and the DUP and their attempt, albeit fractured, to bring people together rather than divide them.
Also, McIntyre posted an article about Marian Price’s continued imprisonment following the dropping of charges against her and two others this week – the Judge was Barney McElholm (remember him from my post last week). To be fair to McIntyre it was a good post and highlighted an old trick used quite considerably in the 70’s to keep combatants of the streets – charge them and delay the trial as long as possible. Both sides suffered this abuse Anthony but you didn’t mention that. The problem with the post was that one of his regular respondents advocated the throwing of Nail Bombs at the PSNI – and this was allowed to stay. Somewhat surprised at that.
Speaking of morons posting on the Net. Martin McGuiness was quick to jump to the defence of James McClean after the young footballer decided to play for the Republic of Ireland instead of Northern Ireland. McClean was targeted by morons following his decision and forced to close his Twitter account. His comment that ‘Catholics don’t feel comfortable playing forNorthern Ireland’ probably didn’t help the situation – but is it true and if so how does he know? Has he spoken to them all? Gerry Armstrong, Martin O’Neill and a host of others have never said this. I think McClean’s real reason is he wants to play for a better team and hopes to get to the major Championships which have eludedNorthern Ireland. Later on in the week, Miriam O’Callaghan, RTE, admitted that she had suffered threats and intimidation on Twitter following an argument she had with McGuiness during the Irish Presidential Election. The difference in coverage of these stories has been incredible. I wonder why that is? Finally on this – Both the Sunday World and the Sunday Life this week go down the ‘moronic’ Twitter postings road – but if you want a more balanced piece of reporting go to Newton Emerson’s article in this weeks Sunday Times.
Could someone explain to me the point of Jenny Curran? Every week sees a story in the Sunday World surrounding this young woman – from ‘glass-walking’ to ‘keep fit’ to ‘circus gymnastics’ and so on. There is no doubt that she an attractive, articulate, fun-loving adventurer – but the truth is that she has led a very privileged life, financially supported by her Dad – Ed Curran, the Editor of the Belfast Telegraph. There are a lot of people, families and communities struggling today and this demonstration of ‘I’m having a fun time – supported by Mummy and Daddy’ behaviour gets a bit hard to accept. Jenny, go and work in communities that need help and try and keep your face out of the papers – bet you can’t!!!
