A Tangled Web

Feeney Watch - 09.09.04



Ulster's very own wise old sage of bigotsville is again in fine invective fettle this week. His latest 'analysis' revolves around attacks on David Trimble (fair enough!) and attacks on the supposedly unique racist mentality of Unionists, garnished with a few misplaced assumptions.



First off, he attacks David Trimble for his speech in 2002 condemning the Irish Republic as a 'pathetic, sectarian, mono-ethnic, mono-cultural state.' Of the four derogatory comments, only the third one alluding to mono-ethnicity in incorrect. Here are the facts to back up the majority of Trimble's comments:



1. 'Pathetic' - we are talking about a country which has only recently started to enter the mainstream in terms of economic growth. For years, the Republic solved its economic inadequacies by shovelling its unemployed labour off to Britain and the United States. Two hundred bricks in a pile do not make a house. Similarly, a recent trend of economic growth does not equal a successful state - especially when 3/4 of the industrial base in that country is foreign owned, and thus especially susceptible to the long-term fluctuations of the global economy. With the exception of the last few years, the economy and infrastructure of the Republic has indeed been pathetic.



2. 'Sectarian' - it goes without saying. The Republic is highly intolerant of Ulster's British population, taking a blatantly partisan approach to Northern Ireland issues. The populace could not even tolerate a small Orange parade in the centre of Dublin four years ago. It held an illegal claim to British territory and harboured terrorists who were often on the run after committing appalling atrocities. I do not even have to include the Protestant exodus after partition; the absence of Union Flags in public places; and the anecdotal vitriol experienced by Southerners who wish to sport Poppies on Remembrance Sunday as examples to further my point.



3. 'Mono-cultural' - the Irish seems to believe that having different ethnic groups in a country makes it multi-cultural. Poppycock! The quintessence of multi-culturalism comes from the involvement and participation of ethnic minorities in a country's politics, media, television, sports and cultural events. To what extent does that exist in the Republic? I'll tell you: it doesn't!!



Bigoted Bri then suggests that racism is the overwhelming preserve of Unionists. Using the PSNI Chief Constable as a means to back up your argument cuts little ice, I'm afraid: particularly when that same Chief Constable has just tossed 800 police reservists on to the proverbial scrapheap. Racist attacks are a preserve of pig-ignorant people, of whatever religious persuasion. It funny though how BB resurrects the old nonsense about nationalist districts bursting at the seems with people, whilst Unionist areas suffer from demographic flight. Someone should tell BB that the days of Ulster Catholic families having 800 children on the advice of their celibate clergy are long over. If Unionist areas have vacant properties, I suggest BB turns his attention to the systematic expulsion of Unionist families through republican intolerance. A tour around the Torrens estate or Cluan Place might jog his thinking.



He moves on to discuss Unionist notions of 'racial superiority'. I don't really think Unionists think of their superiority in terms of race. However, given that Unionists do not vote en masse for terrorist proxies, they certainly maintain superiority on the moralistic front, eh Bri!! As to the assaults on immigrants in Dublin, it might have something to do with the fact that so many Irish want to preserve their 'pathetic, sectarian, mono-cultural' state. Now there IS a thought!!!