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What you want to say – 14th February, 2018 February 14, 2018

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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As always, following on Dr. X’s suggestion, it’s all yours, “announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose”, feel free.

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1. Polly. - February 14, 2018

Happy Valentine’s Day, all you old socialists 🙂

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WorldbyStorm - February 14, 2018

And likewise – that’s really nice. Needless to say some don’t recognize such a bourgeois construct! 🙂

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Joe - February 14, 2018

Here, less of the ageism. What about the youth section – EWI and Liberius? 🙂

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EWI - February 14, 2018

Duly celebrated, of course. Saw BLACK PANTHER last night with L, and liked it, though I know that certain main themes are going to only resonate fully with people of African background.

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GW - February 15, 2018

Being a rough undead contemporary of St. Val, I was chuffed to see his scapula being given pride of place in Prague.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - February 19, 2018

Historically, puir owld Val was pre-bourgeois, victim oa dictatorial slaver regime.
For what its’s worth, I still enjoyed his day with my Valentine,

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2. Laochra Uladh - February 14, 2018

Hello all, “Laochra Uladh” here; as readers might have noticed I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from the blog. Looks like I have a lot to catch up on with the deaths of Liam Sutcliffe, Oliver McCaul (a great friend of the blog, RIP) and others, Mick Ryan’s book, etc. (I take a break and Mick Ryan finally writes a book. . .go figure)

The reason is, I’ve been focusing my working energy on a book of my own, which might be of
interest to some on here. It’s a photo book about life along the Trans-Siberian
Railway, available as a ebook. You can read more and see excerpts here:

http://www.blurb.com/b?ebook=638486

Moscow et al get the news, but this looks at life for the rest of Russia. People ask what siberia is like, and I love watching their expression when I say its warm green and sunny!
And for Soviet history buffs, there’s quite a few monuments to the Bolsheviks and Great Patriotic War (they’re everywhere- you’re in the middle of endless tundra and suddenly a monument shows up).

There’s a blog too with some articles that wouldn’t fit the decorum of the book: backonthetssr.wordpress.com.

Now that that’s finished, hoping to get back into things.

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WorldbyStorm - February 14, 2018

Looks very very interesting.

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GW - February 16, 2018

Hm – very tempting – I’d like to make that trip some time. Preferably with someone who has good Russian.

Vostok tours (I think that’s the name – on Pappelplatz) do trips – but the person who shares my bank account has veto rights. 😦 Being stuck in a train with a bunch of tankers could be fun. Or a nightmare.

Perhaps I can get my political patron, that hunk of man-god Vlad the Magnificent, to sponsor me. If I can just up my propaganda output to meet the targets…

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GW - February 16, 2018

Is the ebook DRMed? My free software setup struggles with Adobe shite and the like, and the effort involved in stripping the DRM often discourages purchase.

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3. CL - February 14, 2018

“The State has succeeded in overturning a judge’s declaration that buildings and sites on and around Dublin’s Moore Street are a 1916 Rising battlefield site comprising a national monument.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/court-rules-moore-street-buildings-are-not-1916-national-monument-1.3391827

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4. Alibaba - February 14, 2018

‘Pupils in State-run secondary schools are to be given the option of opting out of religious instruction and studying alternative subjects on an annual basis.’

But here comes another but:

‘The new rules will not, however, affect voluntary secondary schools which are mostly owned or controlled by religious bodies.’

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/state-run-secondary-school-pupils-may-opt-out-of-religion-classes-1.3391353

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WorldbyStorm - February 14, 2018

Never realised how useful the word(?) pshaw is until I just read that about the caveat. Wow. Just wow.

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5. EWI - February 15, 2018

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/priebus-warning-trump-of-sessions-almost-resigning

The headline is misleading – apparently Sessions did resign, but panicking, more experienced WH staff convinced Trump that disaster would follow if he accepted it.

I predicted from the start that ‘Russia’ would plague Trump, and am glad to see it continuing.

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CL - February 16, 2018

‘Thirteen Russians have been charged with interfering in the US 2016 election, in a major development in the FBI investigation….
They engaged in operations primarily to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43092085

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6. Aonrud ⚘ - February 15, 2018

I moved the Left Archive site over to https recently. It used to be that you had to buy certificates from a cert company (largely useless but profitable middlemen), manually set it up, renew it annually etc. Now it’s free, and all done automatically via an open standard, with Let’s Encrypt and open source software.

Apparently the web went from 46% encrypted to 67% in the last year, so fair dues to them.

For the sake of privacy and security, it’s good to see some progress in the infrastructure of the web.

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GW - February 15, 2018

Letsencrypt rules, rulz I tell you! Been using it since it came out.

The whole SSL certificate sales nonsense was, as you note, almost entirely a middle man rentier playground.

And this month Letsencrypt will be offering wild-card certificates.

Sometime about the middle of this year non-HTTPS sites will be marked as insecure on many browsers.

Gnashing and wailing of teeth in NSA/GCHQ-land! Well at least an exasperated sigh.

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Aonrud ⚘ - February 15, 2018

It’s great isn’t it? A rare open initiative that had a widespread and immediate impact. (Admittedly the archive is quite late to join in. Blame my reticence about moving it to an upgraded server and spending all day chasing bugs…)

Isn’t Chrome already flagging http? I thought it was, but I haven’t checked due to the permanent layer of tinfoil between me and anything Google 😉

UK policy on encryption is an odd business. Encryption is fine, as long as it has a hole in it that we can access… but isn’t a security issue that others could exploit, thereby rendering the whole exercise useless… It’s a bit like their Shroedinger’s border policy for NI – either willfully self-contradictory or just plain confused.

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7. EWI - February 16, 2018

‘Opinion: the demonisation of the pharmaceutical industry is both cynical and intellectually lazy’

https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0214/940672-is-it-time-to-give-big-pharma-a-big-break/

RTÉ, breaking the brave stories which no-one else will tell.

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EWI - February 16, 2018
8. EWI - February 16, 2018

Speaking of Trump and BS ‘infrastructure investment’:

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2018/0216/941116-govt-project-2040-plan/

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9. ar scáth a chéile - February 16, 2018

Query to CLR’s LOI Cognoscenti. Bohs website saying tickets for Rovers match tonight sold out . What’s the chances of turning up and getting in -2 adults , 3 kids.?

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ar scáth a chéile - February 16, 2018

Zero I now gather – apart from illegal entry . Looks like the slightly less glamorous Shels v Galway friendly for north side city association football tonight.

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Joe - February 16, 2018

Bohs Rovers has been sold out for a fortnight. They should open the terraces. Bring back real football, and real fights.

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10. Alibaba - February 16, 2018

‘Sinn Féin claims papers show power-sharing deal was struck’.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/15/publish-northern-ireland-power-sharing-talks-urges-labour?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=264253&subid=25252872&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

What does the DUP do better than anybody else?

It says No.

The only difference now is that it tends to say it at the last moment.

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Jim Monaghan - February 16, 2018

I think everyone is underestimating the depth and extent of Loyalist bigotry. She could not deliver her party.

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Alibaba - February 16, 2018

I agree. It’s interesting to see how the ultra bigots could pull the plug on her.

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WorldbyStorm - February 16, 2018

Actually not even Loyalist, this seems widespread across unionism.

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CL - February 16, 2018

‘Another glum truth is that the terms of Northern Ireland politics have been unhelpfully reset by two actions for which responsibility lies squarely with the Conservative party in London. The first of these is Brexit,..The second is the pact between the Tories and the DUP, which undermines the British government’s role as a co-guarantor with Ireland of the power-sharing agreements of 1998.’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/15/the-guardian-view-on-northern-ireland-talks-collapsing-the-lost-language-of-power-sharing

‘Direct rule, in one form or another, will now be introduced
to administer this failed political entity.
How much input will Dublin have? Varadkar has said that “no Irish government will ever again leave northern nationalists behind”. Will FG and SF cooperate on Ni and on Brexit? This will have implications for future political developments in the South.

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11. roddy - February 16, 2018

Not only could she not deliver the bigots of the DUP ,but the UUP and TUV were waiting in the long grass should she “sell out”.It really maddens me to hear the UUP described as “moderates” especially by southerners who would need to live up here for a while.

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Gerryboy - February 16, 2018

Is an Irish language Act the real sticking point, or is it a symbol obscuring deeper things behind it? In the republic, the general public is bemused by the Cúpla Focal token role of the language in public life.

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WorldbyStorm - February 16, 2018

Agreed roddy. The so called moderates actually stirred matters up (ie what the UUP were saying).

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Joe - February 16, 2018

“In the republic, the general public is bemused by the Cúpla Focal token role of the language in public life.”

It’s funny isn’t it? We’ve had Irish as an official language, backed and promoted by the state since independence. The State trying to promote the speaking of Irish, keep the Gaeltachts alive and all that.
And in all that time, Irish has continued to decline as a living, community language. To the point where the last generation of true native speakers has been born. In another generation there will be no part of the country where Irish is a living community language.

So is there anyone in the pro-Irish language community in the north arguing against passing a law that ‘promotes and protects’ Irish on the basis of ‘look what happened to Irish when it was promoted and protected by the state down south’?

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WorldbyStorm - February 16, 2018

I think through one huge problem for Irish in the South was that it is near enough impossible for government alone to revive it though support is absolutely necessary There’s a a great book on the revival attempts which argues that one huge hurdle was simple democracy, that in a democratic polity it is very difficult to force people to adopt a language (and it also compared matters to Germany under the Nazi’s where an effort was made but failed to adopt blackletter as the ‘traditional’ type on newspapers etc. If it’s going to fail there then chances are cultural changes are very very difficult to implement). There have to be other dynamics in play. Some are economic, others cultural, etc. For example gaelscoileanna are fascinating and both need those other dynamics and some state support. And they seem to succeed at least in part, though agreed re community language aspect. Perhaps new communities will develop now in new ways.

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WorldbyStorm - February 16, 2018

Or let’s put it a different way, for all the bemusement I suspect if there was an effort to stop the state from using even the cupla focal there’d be an absolute outcry. Or removing bilingual roadsigns, or removing funding from TG4 etc, etc.

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Joe - February 16, 2018

Ah yeah there’s many the thesis to be written on the ambivalent attitudes to Irish among Irish people. Support for state support for the language but don’t ask me to speak it. Polls show a majority support it as it is now kind of – compulsory in schools, bilingual signs, cúpla focal in speeches and when accepting the Sam Maguire (we’re working on Stephen Cluxton :).
But there’s also a significant minority who are quite hostile – waste of money, beaten into me, hated it always.
And then all the people who’ve said to me down the years that they’d love to brush up their cúpla focal.

And then it has always been used by political groups and for political reasons down the years. I read a history of the IRA in which one ex-volunteer remarked sarcastically about another effort to re-energise the movement during some doldrum years – “We got orders that the movement was to take over Conradh na Gaeilge – again.” But of course not just the republican movement, all the political parties as and when it sounded like a good idea.

Níor shiúil mise ar son na teanga ariamh. Tá mo mhanadh féin agam – Beatha teanga í a labhairt, bás teanga í a dhéanamh ‘oifigiúil’.

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - February 19, 2018

Anyone who doubts this should look at what these moderates do to those who try to put forward a relatively enlightened pro-union view. Alliance’ attempts at non-ascendancy unionism has been blocked by the big-Us. at every turn, the culmination being their ganging up to defeat Naomi Long in Belfast East. For now Silvia Hermon is safe on the Gold Coast, but when she goes….?

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12. roddy - February 16, 2018

The language act is an equality test. McGuinness bent over backwards to reach out to unionism and received absolutely nothing in return.

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Gerryboy - February 16, 2018

I don’t doubt your sincerity, roddy, but as Joe in response to my query above notes, all the legislation in the Republic – grants, Radio na Gaeltachta, TG4 and state help to the popular Gaelscoileanna – have done sweet all since the 1920s to expand the daily speaking of Irish or to halt the decline in the so-called Gaeltacht. Don’t Sinn Fein realise in the north that seeking ‘equality of status’ for Gaelic is not going to make the language expand in common daily use?

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WorldbyStorm - February 16, 2018

Is that the issue though? I’d have thought basic fairness and a willingness to assist culture(s) within the North would be reason enough to do so.

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ar scáth a chéile - February 16, 2018

RnaG , TG4 were won from a reluctant sometimes hostile state which has long since ditched serious commitment to supporting the language. They have made a difference and help sustain some sort of language community. For all the understandable doom and gloom about the decline of Irish, given the dominance of English, surely unprecedented in the history of languages, maybe it’s surprising that Irish is still a living language at all.

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Michael Carley - February 17, 2018

Kiberd quotes somebody who said the epitaph of Irish has been written many times, but only ever in English.

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13. roddy - February 16, 2018

SF,SDLP,PBP,Alliance and Greens ALL support an Irish language act.It is opposed by Unionist bigots who when they were in sole control of the North actually interned people without trial for promoting the language.Apolitical people were interned alongside Republicans for having the temerity to show enthusiasm for the language.

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14. Starkadder - February 16, 2018

“There’s a a great book on the revival attempts which argues that one huge hurdle was simple democracy, that in a democratic polity it is very difficult to force people to adopt a language.”

The autocrat Atatürk was able to compel the Turks to adopt a Latin-based alphabet instead of the old Arabic script.

” for all the bemusement I suspect if there was an effort to stop the state from using even the cupla focal there’d be an absolute outcry. Or removing bilingual roadsigns, or removing funding from TG4 etc, etc.”

I’ve often wondered if the reason proposals to downgrade the compulsory Irish policy in schools (last tried by Enda Kenny) don’t get anywhere is that while the majority of people in Ireland don’t speak the Irish language, they feel it is worthwhile to support the language. Hence the vague murmurs of approval for TG4, Raidió na Gaeltachta, etc.

I do recall working with a English woman who was living in Ireland. Once,she asked me “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but why does your government spend so much money promoting the Irish language when almost nobody seems to speak it?” I replied it was an important part of our culture and that there were large communities of Irish-speakers in both rural and urban areas, and that seemed to gratify her.

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WorldbyStorm - February 16, 2018

“I’ve often wondered if the reason proposals to downgrade the compulsory Irish policy in schools (last tried by Enda Kenny) don’t get anywhere is that while the majority of people in Ireland don’t speak the Irish language, they feel it is worthwhile to support the language. Hence the vague murmurs of approval for TG4, Raidió na Gaeltachta, etc.”

I think that’s it precisely.

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15. Starkadder - February 16, 2018

“Apolitical people were interned alongside Republicans for having the temerity to show enthusiasm for the language.”

Interesting-I’ve never heard of people in Northern Ireland being interned for showing “enthusiasm for the language”. Do you have a source for this?

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16. roddy - February 17, 2018

Life experience is my “source”.Even the Brits will now admit that many interned in 71 had no connection to the IRA.I knew elderly men who were interned prior to that who were avid Irish speakers with no interest in armed struggle.

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Starkadder - February 17, 2018

But what exactly happened? You said people in NI were specifically interned for showing “enthusiasm for the language.”

So where these people interned for speaking Irish to RUC or army officiers [which I wouldn’t put past the RUC], or after the authorities saw they had Irish language names, or something else?

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Joe - February 17, 2018

Creid nó ná creid… I was actually picked up by the RUC in the early eighties. While in the car they asked me my name and I gave it to them. The officer then asked me ‘what’s that in English’ and I gave him an English version of it but also told him that the original name I gave him is my name on all official documentation and they wouldn’t find me under any other name. It didn’t seem to bother him one bit and they let me out of the car and on my way a little while later [Of course that was probably after they’d run my details through the system and got the ok about me from MI6, the KGB, the North Koreans and the South Africans, and OIRA GHQ].

That last bit in brackets is a joke in homage to the hilarious 5000 OIRA machine guns thread.

But the first bit is 100% true. They picked me up while I was hitching down to Dublin from Belfast – but I was hitching on a motorway, so they brought me twenty miles down the road and let me out somewhere where it was legal to hitch.

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EWI - February 17, 2018

That last bit in brackets is a joke in homage to the hilarious 5000 OIRA machine guns thread.

As I was saying at my Freemason meeting just the other day, you’re a funny guy.

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17. Starkadder - February 17, 2018

Robert Mueller charges 13 Russians with interfering in the US election to help Trump :

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/16/robert-mueller-russians-charged-election

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CL - February 17, 2018

‘Speaking at a news conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said there was no allegation that any American was “a knowing participant in this illegal activity” nor was it alleged that the meddling altered the election outcome….
“They engaged in operations primarily to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43092085

‘In the past, Trump has cast doubt on Russian meddling, regularly calling it a “hoax” despite widespread agreement in the American intelligence community. But on Friday he and the White House acknowledged the efforts, said they predated his campaign, claimed they did not affect the election and said his campaign was not involved.’
time.com/5163273/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-2016-presidential-election/

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CL - February 17, 2018

Better link maybe:
http://time.com/5163273/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-2016-presidential-election/

After these indictments it will be almost politically impossible for Trump to fire Mueller and Rosenstein.

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18. roddy - February 17, 2018

organising Irish language classes for example would have been enough.

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Joe - February 17, 2018

Deacair é sin a chreidiúint. Aon fhianaise, aon chruthú agat a Ruairí?

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19. Joe - February 17, 2018

And as we talk of bad things done to Irish language speakers in the north, ná déanaimís dearmad ar an bhfear seo https://www.irishtimes.com/news/police-officer-critically-injured-by-car-bomb-1.1266596

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WorldbyStorm - February 17, 2018

That’s a very interesting example, one would think that even just honoring his experience alone might make dup-ers think twice. I’m more convinced than ever that , sadly, we are now in a phase that because things are going to change and possibly fairly fast there will be more dig in by the dup etc on a range of matters.

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yourcousin - February 17, 2018

Joe,
Just throwing this out here somewhere on this thread.

What is your hope for the Irish language?

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Joe - February 18, 2018

Hope? Janey, I don’t know yc. I like talking Irish and I like reading it and especially Irish folklore.
But, like, the world keeps on spinning. Languages die. As the world gets smaller and dominant languages become more dominant, more and more languages will die. That’s just the way it is.
I’d love it if Irish survived as a real, community living language in the last remaining Gaeltachts – but it won’t. It just won’t. It’ll survive in the Irish speaking milieu in urban areas as it is now. Which is a kind of half-life survival but if people want to go with that, let them, let us.

So my hope would be that the rich Gaelic heritage in song and story of the Irish language will still be treasured. And that Irish won’t be used as a political football.
And that Stephen Cluxton will stumble over a very badly pronounced cúpla focal when he lifts the Sam Maguire for the fourth time in a row next August.

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yourcousin - February 19, 2018

Joe, I’ve written two responses to you this weekend and have found both unworthy of posting. Give me some time to see what I can craft on a computer as opposed to my phone and I’ll get back to you (not that the computer response will be better per se).

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Joe - February 19, 2018

Cheers, yc. Bail ó Dhia ar an obair! God’s blessing on the work!

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20. Michael Carley - February 17, 2018

Ru Paul more culturally sensitive than the Grauniad:
https://mobile.twitter.com/RuPaul/status/964518113160019968

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WorldbyStorm - February 17, 2018

Cool.

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Fergal - February 17, 2018

Ru Paul should get an invite to the DUP’s next conference…

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Michael Carley - February 19, 2018

And the reference to the Guardian is to this:

The darker truth here is that Sinn Féin has chosen to weaponise the language question for political ends, less to protect a minority than to antagonise unionists. Unionists have duly been antagonised. The Gaelic language is the main tongue of a mere 0.2% of the Northern Ireland population. Around 10% claim to understand it to some degree (perhaps just a few phrases). But Sinn Féin does not do things accidentally. Its proposals have become a weapon of tribalism in communities where identity politics always looms large and divisively. Fears that Irish may be made compulsory in schools, that a language qualification might become a job requirement and that street signs would be made bilingual are not all well grounded. But some are. Bilingual road signs, for instance, would take the issue into every street in Northern Ireland, with pointless provocative effect.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/15/the-guardian-view-on-northern-ireland-talks-collapsing-the-lost-language-of-power-sharing

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21. CL - February 17, 2018

The Irish language has been dying for almost 200 years; it will still be dying 200 years from now.

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Jim Monaghan - February 17, 2018

UNIONIST OPPOSITION TO IRISH IS BASE COLONIALISM. STOP PRETENDING OTHERWISE
February 15, 2018 Current Affairs, Politics 19 comments
Since the United Kingdom’s violent imposition of partition in the early 1920s, the pro-union leaders of the Six Counties have been engaged in a rearguard action to save the last remnant of the UK’s former colonial state on the island of Ireland. All internal or external attempts to reform the disputed region, to establish parity of esteem between its two communities, between nationalists and unionists, has been fought tooth and nail by the representatives of “loyalism”. From the bloody reaction to the Irish civil rights movement in the late 1960s to the hysterical rhetoric against the country’s native language and culture in the 2010s, pro-union politics has proved itself incapable of voluntary change or revision. All the successes we have witnessed over the years, from the Fall of the Stormont Parliament in 1972 to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, came through the sustained application of military, political and diplomatic force against the loyalist bloc. https://ansionnachfionn.com/2018/02/15/unionist-opposition-to-irish-is-base-colonialism-stop-pretending-otherwise/

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22. CL - February 17, 2018

‘”At the Ard Fheis I was setting out things that I believe passionately in things like social progress, social justice , shared prosperity. A new Ireland. And for me to utter the words ‘tiocfaidh ár lá’ refers absolutely to that vision of a new Ireland.
And I know for some people that sounds like a harking to the past, for me it absolutely is not,
I’m a new leader of Sinn Fein and it’s about the future, it’s about moving to the future. It’s about building a new Ireland and that is what I am about and that was what my speech was about – including the last utterances.”-Mary Lou McDonald.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/mcdonald-says-tiocfaidh-r-l-speech-sign-off-not-a-harking-back-to-the-past-36613058.html

“Perhaps it is purely coincidence that the Sinn Fein online bookshop is currently sold out of the ‘Tiochfaidh Ar La’ badges it stocks.
There is no coincidence however in the choice to shape those words on the badge in the image of an Armalite rifle.” -Arlene Foster.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/arlene-foster-i-want-devolution-back-but-sinn-fein-cannot-be-permitted-to-hold-us-all-to-ransom-36612319.html

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yourcousin - February 17, 2018

I thought that maybe since this was a left wing site this quote from Foster might be worthy of further examination rather than the armalite one,

“it is for the Secretary of State to ensure that Northern Ireland is no longer held to ransom, with public services suffering as a result”.

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WorldbyStorm - February 17, 2018

Yeah, she tacks leftish when she finds it expedient.

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CL - February 17, 2018

The DUP has a working class base,-although its not exclusively such-and at times acts in their interest.

‘Party propping up May’s minority government breaks with Tories for first time since election deal, voting to increase NHS workers’ pay and scrap tuition fee rise’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/13/dup-plans-to-vote-with-labour-on-nhs-pay-and-tuition-fees

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Daniel Rayner O'Connor - February 19, 2018

Don’t all populist bigots?

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CL - February 19, 2018

‘AN online shop controlled by Sinn Fein has pulled IRA-themed goods off sale.
T-shirts saying ‘Sniper at Work’ and ‘IRA Undefeated Army’ have been ditched from the website.’
https://www.thesun.ie/news/2200457/online-shop-controlled-by-sinn-fein-pulls-ira-themed-t-shirts-saying-sniper-at-work-and-ira-undefeated-army/

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23. CL - February 18, 2018

“Edward Bunting is being remembered by some ground-breaking young Irish and Ulster-Scots musicians.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-43087894

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24. CL - February 18, 2018

‘“Michelle and I will be telling the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister it is the responsibility of the two governments to implement the agreements on legacy and an Irish Language Act and to provide for marriage equality.’ MLMcD.
http://www.sinnfein.ie/contents/48286

‘ the endgame: direct rule, with or without a green tinge…

‘The latest saga means the old adage of Northern Ireland being a failed political entity remains uncomfortably close to reality.’
Professor Jon Tonge.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/latest-fiasco-has-proved-that-2006-agreement-was-nothing-of-the-sort-36605818.html

The Sinn Fein statement assumes joint authority which does not exist.

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CL - February 18, 2018

Meanwhile preparations are underway to commemorate the Good Friday Agreement on its 20th anniversary.
The event in NYC is strictly tiocfaidh armani and will be held at the Metropolitan Club founded by J.P. Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Tickets are $500.
http://www.metropolitanclubnyc.org/House-Rules

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/20-years-of-peace-conference-and-keynote-luncheon-tickets-42674200683

In Belfast the event will be held at Queens University in April and is sponsored by the British Council, the soft power branch of Her Majesty’s Foreign Office.
There is some doubt at this time as to whether the Clintons will show up given the current NI impasse.
The many contributions of Bill and Hillary Clinton to politics can be read here.
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-clintonism/

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25. CL - February 20, 2018

‘The statistics on the state of mental health in the region show that since the peace deal about 4,500 suicides were registered in the region.
An estimated 3,600 people died in shootings, bombings and other killings during the Troubles.’
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/20/northern-ireland-suicides-troubles-death-toll

‘Northern Ireland’s mental health service is being “starved” of funding as a result of the absence of the Northern Executive and Assembly, campaigners have said….
Head of the Civil Service David Sterling has said his officials needed policy directions from ministers before spending decisions could be taken as part of certainty about the overall budget for Northern Ireland..
Northern Secretary Karen Bradley is under pressure to address issues like setting a budget and rates bill and is due to update Parliament on Tuesday.’
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/northern-ireland-s-mental-health-service-starved-of-funding-1.3398120

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26. Paddy Healy - February 20, 2018

Eviction of Homeowners, Farmers and Business people being outsourced to foreign unregulated vultures by government!

HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS CRISIS


Dodgy Donohoe misleads by saying PTSB “does not need government permission” but he omits the fact that government can stop the sale it at any time because it owns the bank.!!
We drove the battering ram out of Tipperary before-we will do it again if necessary!

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27. CL - February 20, 2018

‘Ireland’s deputy prime minister has condemned the Labour MP Kate Hoey for “reckless” and “irresponsible” remarks after she declared that the Good Friday agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland 20 years ago, was “unsustainable”.’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/feb/20/ireland-kate-hoey-good-friday-agreement-remarks

‘TÁNAISTE SIMON COVENEY is travelling to New York and Washington today where it’s expected he will brief US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the Northern Ireland peace process.’
http://www.thejournal.ie/simon-coveney-trump-administration-rex-tillerson-northern-ireland-3861315-Feb2018/

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CL - February 20, 2018

‘Former Northern Ireland Secretary Lord Hain called Hoey’s intervention a “reckless slur”, claiming she and other Eurosceptics were using the political deadlock to set the political agenda on leaving the Customs Union – a move which many fear could lead to a hard border in Northern Ireland…..
“The reckless slurs of Brextremists like Daniel Hannan, Owen Paterson and Kate Hoey against the Good Friday Agreement show they are willing to sacrifice almost anything on the altar of a hard Brexit.
“Rather than engage with the inherent contradictions in their position of maintaining an open border in Ireland whilst also leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union, fanatics like Hannan, Paterson and Hoey instead say we should tear up the agreement underpinning peace in Northern Ireland, just so they can have their way on Brexit.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hoey-good-friday-agreement_uk_5a8adf6de4b00bc49f46c3ac

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28. Michael Carley - February 20, 2018

Corbyn is coming out fighting against the Tory press claiming he was in the pay of a Czech spy. This seems relevant:

Many factors have contributed to this astonishing state of affairs. But here is one which has attracted little commentary. The Bennites are the only faction of either main political party not to have been compromised by two damaging tendencies in British politics: deference to the United States, and complicity with the right-wing press.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/01/bennites-revenge-how-jeremy-corbyn-and-his-allies-survived-political-exile

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WorldbyStorm - February 20, 2018

Oddly enough I’ve a post on this later this evening, but I find it bizarre the sheer lack of political knowledge displayed by those making the charge against Corbyn given his clear political position which was as far as I can make out non-orthodox Marxist. I’ve heard he was sympathetic to some of the Trotskyist groups early on. The idea he’d be in cahoots with Czech spies is absurd.

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