Posts

Showing posts from November, 2017

Bono & Geldof Cultural Cringe

Image
Why do we hate Bono & Geldof? I have mentioned before in my blog that Ireland is suffering from National Stockholm syndrome and that there is an inferiority complex issue, no one illustrates my point more adequately than the much maligned and Irish hate figure Bob Geldof. Irish people get outraged at Geldof; his continual revisionism is downright offensive to some people. Geldof is an attention seeker, a side effect of dealing with a major inferiority complex, paradoxically people who suffer with an inferiority complex often times manifest symptoms of a superiority complex which would explain his arrogance. For me I think Bob Geldof exemplifies perfectly the phenomena known as “Cultural Cringe” Cultural Cringe is an internalised inferiority complex which causes people to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. Bob Geldof has certainly shown this in abundance. His handing back the freedom of Dublin, due to his outrage at sharing s

Edentubber 60th anniversary oration

Today, as in years past, we again gather to pay tribute to the memory of five republicans, who made the ultimate sacrifice here in Edentubber, as a result of a premature explosion on this lonely mountainside in the early hours of Monday, 11th November, 1957. While later tragedies would sadly eclipse it in number, at the time this would be the single biggest loss of life incurred by the IRA since the bitter counter-revolution of 1922 – 23.  A newspaper at the time, the Newry Reporter, would describe a sad and devastating scene in the aftermath of the explosion: “As the early morning mists cleared from the rocky defile abounding in that area, the grim gaunt evidence of the earlier hours was visible. The blast was heard over 5 miles away. Little remained of the building, but a heap of scattered rubble. A small portion of one wall was still standing. Wood splinters and masonry and parts of shattered furniture littered fields up to 150 yards away. Four Thompson sub-machine guns and am

Shampoppy!

Shampoppy! So having a casual look through Facebook, as you do on a cold Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but see the interest in Leo Varadkar and his sporting a glitzy Shampoppy in Leinster house today. For those of you who don’t know, the leader of the Freestate today donned on his lapel a red poppy which commemorates the British Army but to “paddy” it up a bit, it was surrounded by a Shamrock! Why is this alarming? Well for many people they still live in the days when even the Freestate wouldn’t be so obvious or offensive to the people of Ireland as to commemorate an Army that has murdered, tortured, harassed and mutilated its people. The idea floating about now is to try and rehabilitate the British army and to get the general public to accept a notion that “our men” died in its ranks and so, therefore, we should commemorate. Even PSF in later years have attended British Army commemorations and who can forget the image of Alex Maskey laying a wreath at a British Army ceno