Ulster Protestant Coalition’s Submission to Dr Haass: “It is imperative that . . .”

Dr Haass at work

Former UK prime minister Sir John Major

has said he has no sympathy for loyalists who

claim the political process is eroding their British identity.

“I think it’s a phantom fear,” he said.

Will Dr Haass agree?
He is probably wading through the submission from the Ulster Protestant Coalition (almost 10,000 members, who proclaim “our voice will be heard” )

Let’s look at what they want.
NB Disclaimer: all punctuation, grammar, ambiguities and errors in syntax are they’re (there, thar?) own a loan

The 16-page letter to Dr Haass opens with The Flag
OUR NATIONAL FLAG IS NOT NEGOTIABLE. (There caps)


Comment. Halt right there, Dr Haass
“We as a community group, will not agree to our nation’s flag being negotiated away, there are no monies, promises of investment or forums that will be agreeable”
UPC advice to Dr Haass: Wear your national flag on your lapel on a daily basis
Comment: How come you never thought of this, Dr Haass? This will really help you resolve the issues in Northern Ireland.

The Past
A long tirade against Noraid’s roll in gun-running (denied by Noraid) and Mr Michael Flannery (acquitted in a US court in 1982).
Comment:Here’s a picture of their argument.

The US “government fully allowed this organisation to operate unrestricted and through there fundraising aided and abet it in the murder of incident civilians”
Another long tirade about Senator Ted Kennedy

Comment: All this is really going to endear them to Dr Haass, USA citizen and diplomat
Tirade about the 1970s Arms Trial etc, with claims that the Irish Govt formed, armed and used the PIRA for financial profit. Report cited which “what not penned by the UPV. But it demonstrates the involvement of the Irish State and Irish business and need to be recognised and resolved within this process”
Comment: Good luck with understanding that Dr Haass

On history
“Observing history is like looking upon a painting from a great Impressionist master. It is only when one step’s back and views the whole blend of colour that it’s true form can be understood”
Comment: They no there/they’re/ thar art history

On the Civil Rights movement
The Civil Rights plan was, as Emanon McCann (Q.anyone ever heard of him/her?) related it “a simple one” – “a conscious, if unspoken, strategy was to provoke the police into over-reaction and thus spark off mass reaction against the authorities”
Comment: It was all Themmuns fault, a dastardly unspoken and unwritten strategy. Work away, Dr Haass, with no evidence of anything but the mindset of the UPC.

The UPC want a series of “official public apologises”
From Martin McGuiness

To the families of all victims and all those who served within the British Army, UDR, RUC, NI Prison Service, Garda, Irish Prison Service
From the US Government

“that have publically allowed member of congress to openly support a terrorist organisation, namely PIRA”
From the Irish Government

For the roll played in supporting PIRA and other Republican terrorist group
UPC also want a full public inquiry “to establish the exact roll of Dublin in the Troubles and a process of evaluating how much remuneration should be paid to Dublin’s victims in Northern Ireland’s killing times”
Comment:I am getting curious about this “roll” myself. What service did the unfortunate people of Dublin do to deserve a payment of money, salary or bonus? Just be in the wrong place at the wrong time? And what about the Monaghan victims? Sorry you don’t count

Our Culture
Comment:By no means original work from the UPC. Compare and contrast http://www.docstoc.com/docs/163697542/Hass_Letter__Public_
with the Orange order Website

http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/parading#.UqohO9LuIl8
The 12th is described as a “cultural extravaganza”
Comment: Talk about self-deluded. They should all read https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/northern-ireland-how-much-do-your-obsessions-cost
To justify Orange Order parades the UPC cite other parades – St Patrick’s Day in Dublin and New York, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, 4th July in the USA and Bastille Day in France
Comment: They don’t seem to grasp the difference between a 1 day parade once a year and 3,000-odd parades in 6 months, with 500 on the 12th alone. Let’s hope Dr Haass has a good maths teacher on his team!!
They want their Lodges and bands to be allowed to parade on the Queen’s Highway
Comment: A stretch of isolated road could conceivably be renamed the “Queen’s Highway” and they could parade up and down it to their heart’s content

They also want the hospital and prison towers at Long Kesh/The Maze

to be demolished because they don’t want the peace centre there. It can go in the Titanic Quarter or the Old Crumlin Road Courthouse

Comment: I do wish the UPC would try and keep up! The hospital and part of the H-Blocks are currently listed buildings, and would remain as part of the proposed site redevelopment. The Courthouse is a Grade B+ listed building.Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland

is planning to spend £12 million on re-roofing and basic refurbishment of the ground and first floors for a combination of uses such as office space, performance space or cafe, parking etc.

They insist Sinn Fein promote peace and development at interfaces while it is imperative the Protestant community and its culture is respected.
Comment: The day is long past when the UPC can tell Sinn Fein or anyone else what they have to do. Imperatives no longer exist. The Empire is long gone. Respect has to be gained. Talk about self-deluded and self-inflated. But we knew that, didn’t we?

https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/royal-black-preceptory-appear-great-because-they-say-they-are/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9250759/Sir-John-Major-to-receive-prestigious-award-from-Emperor-of-Japan.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25125299
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/163697542/Hass_Letter__Public_
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-25357756?
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/new-northern-ireland-flag-is-not-an-option-loyalists-tell-richard-haass-29831735.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Prison_Maze
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/lifeline-for-belfasts-crumbling-crumlin-road-courthouse-29775005.html
http://victims.org.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/6091456/Ted-Kennedy-obituary.html
http://blogs.qub.ac.uk/compromiseafterconflict/2013/05/31/the-prison-that-is-imprisoning-us-all/
http://paddys-wagon.blogspot.it/2012/03/brave-beautiful-belfast.html

Catholic Ex-Servicemen Don’t Count

In Northern Ireland Unionism/Loyalism is built on the political myths and symbols of Protestantism and Britishness i.e.they are anti-Catholic


realised in the early 1920s that it was an offence simply to be born Catholic in NI.

Summer 1920: Over 8,000 Catholic workers were expelled from the shipyard, nearly all the engineering works, most of the large factories, warehouses, shops and concerns of every kind. Scarcely one of them has since been allowed to return

NB 1,225 of the expelled were ex-service men.

NI was a “cold house” for Catholics with relentless use of the past as a political weapon to browbeat them even more.

In the mind of Ulster Unionists/Loyalists

Catholics are assumed to be hostile to the institutions of the Union (disloyal). All Catholics are suspect, irrespective of their status or achievements. The state’s core values of Protestantism and Britishness defined them as outsiders.

Catholics were ‘the enemy within’ and were seen as posing a security problem. They were offered citizenship in the new state but only on terms which made them second-class citizens.

Irishmen in WWI

1914: Irishmen joined the British Army in very large numbers.
206,000 Irishmen served in the British forces during WWI
*58,000 were already enlisted in the British Regular Army or Navy
*24,000 originated from the Redmondite National Volunteers
*80,000 were mostly urban poor, hoping for a pay rise and the chance to learn a trade.
*Some 26,000 recruits came directly from the 1912 Ulster Volunteers – the unionist militia.

UNIONIST MYTH: Remember! Only the UVF fought in WWI and deserves to be commemorated

The poppy has long been the preserve of the unionist/loyalist community and is seen by many as a political symbol and a symbol of Britishness representing support for the British Army.

After WW1: Unionists/Loyalists and Catholic ex-servicemen
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/demobbed-soldiers
1918: When young Catholic men were demobbed

and sent home to Belfast they found worse enemies than the Germans waiting for them
1921: Catholic ex-servicemen had to leave Craigavon Military Hospital near Belfast and seek treatment elsewhere after they received

containing threats from Loyalists
Loyalists murdered Malachy Halfpenny,

wounded twice and gassed during the war,

together with 3 other young Catholic men.

Mr Halfpenny’s multilated body was dumped far from where he lived
catholic Mrs Kerr, widow,

received a plaque and a letter from King George V commemorating her husband

Some hours later a Loyalist mob attacked

and wrecked her house in Vere St
1922: Loyalists evicted Patrick O’Hare,

home on leave from the Connaught Rangers, from his house in Urney St, making his family of young children homeless
Joseph Walshe (39), who had served in the Middle East, was battered to death in bed with a sledgehammer

along with 6 other Catholics in the Arnon St massacre by policemen from Brown Sq Constabulary Barracks

His seven-year-old son Michael was shot and died from his wounds the next day. Another son, Frank (14), was shot in the thigh but survived.
1935: Charles Tierney, a British Army Reservist was beaten up,

spent 3 months in hospital and had his house wrecked and burnt out

1939-45 WW2 and Ulster’s War Effort

Alone in the UK, the British Government decided against conscription in Northern ireland

because the Stormont Parliament told them a large minority did not regard themselves as British.

1940: A senior civil servant from the War Cabinet assessed the contribution Northern Ireland was making or could make to the war effort. He reported a general lack of concern, indifference on the part of the Ni government, technical stagnation in the principal industries particularly shipbuilding, engineering and linen which had remained as they had been in the 19th century
1945: James Magennis VC

could not get a job because Ulster Loyalists “were reluctant to employ Roman Catholics“.

Mr Magennis moved to Huddersfield where he became an honoured citizen
1999: Long after he had died, and more than 50 years after he won the VC, a monument was finally erected in his honour at Belfast City hall

Too little, too late
1977: Elderly Canon Hugh Murphy CBE, Chaplin to the Royal Navy Reserve during WWII,

member of the British Legion, parish priest in Ahoghill, was invited to conduct the Remembrance day service in Ballymena.

The Paisleyite chairman of the Town Council “refused to take part in any service at which a Roman catholic priest was officiating”
1978: Canon Murphy was kidnapped by a Loyalist gang

and held hostage because the IRA had abducted a member of the RUC
Johnny McNabb,

a Catholic serving in the Irish Guards when the Troubles erupted in Northern Ireland, was repeatedly the subject of interrogation for suspected terrorist activity.
On one occasion he was interrogated for seven hours by paratroopers in Bessbrook after he inadvertently ended up in Crossmaglen.Police officers in London detained him for two days while they questioned him in relation to bombings in the capital in the 1970s.
If Catholics, Republicans and nationalists do not honour our non-Unionist Irish dead who will?

Next year if you want to recognize our ancestors who joined the British Army during WW1 or at any other time for whatever reason (poverty, Home Rule, adventure, etc) and who died or were injured,

Wear a green poppy

Republicanism and Loyalty in Ireland, Andrew Boyd
http://archive.org/stream/factsfiguresofbe00kenn/factsfiguresofbe00kenn_djvu.txt
http://www.theirishstory.com/2012/11/12/opinion-remembering-world-war-i-in-ireland/#.UoPOjnAyIQN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMahon_murders
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/historic-day-as-sinn-fein-mayor-attends-armistice-day-ceremony-in-belfast-29743016.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unionism_in_Ireland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnon_Street_Massacre
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/sectarian/brewer.htm
http://screever.org/category/manchester-2/
http://idlespeculations-terryprest.blogspot.it/2012/03/images-of-british-catholicism-during.html
http://www.etsy.com/listing/109121139/green-poppy-hair-flower
http://british-soldier-diary-cjst.blogspot.it/
http://www.wattpad.com/story/7259996-anonymous-letters
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/20/orwell-wigan-pier-75-years
http://www.freewebs.com/ulster-volunteer-force-1912-2007/apps/photos/photo?photoid=65997784
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/c%C3%B6penick/interesting/
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/loyalist-flag-protesters-storm-carrickfergus-council-meeting-as-police-are-attacked-in-belfast-29006297.html
http://myfbcovers.com/facebook-cover/quotes-sayings/you-could-do-better
http://www.impartialreporter.com/news/roundup/articles/2013/11/16/403051-catholic-member-of-irish-guards-recalls-repeated-interrogation/?
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/galleries/news/remembrance-sunday-2013-enda-kenny-theresa-villiers-and-dame-mary-peters-lay-wreaths-at-solemn-services-across-northern-ireland-29742044.html
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=2&cid=169&frid=22&seccatid=169&eid=79426

Loyalist Paramilitaries – Protestant death squads (2)

What are the main Loyalist paramilitary organisations?
1) Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Aliases Used: Protestant Action Group, Protestant Action Force

The UVF claimed its main aim was to fight the IRA. It was formed with the express intention of executing “mercilessly and without hesitation” known IRA men.

Although it did kill a small number of IRA volunteers, it’s main target was Catholic civilians.

It was started in 1966 by ex-British soldier Gusty Spence to counter rising nationalist sentiment centred on the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising

and to halt any introduction of equality legislation for Catholics.

The organisation was named in memory of Ulstermen who, in 1912, had signed the Covenant opposing Home Rule for Ireland and had then fought in WWI.

The name also served to confuse the issue of the Loyalists’ aim which they stated was to defend the Protestant community from attack and protect Northern Ireland’s union with Britain.

Their first three victims, a Protestant woman and two Catholic men, had no connections with the IRA. It was the murder of 18-year old Peter Ward,

the third victim, which brought the UVF and its leader Gusty Spence to public attention. Spence was convicted of Ward’s murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The UVF was responsible for some of the worst mass murders that occurred during the Troubles, including







All of these attacks were aimed at Catholic civilians who had no involvement with Republican Organisations.

Here’s what the BBC says about the UVF today, several years after they announced they were on ceasefire

2) Ulster Defence Association (UDA)Aliases Used: Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF)

Formed in 1971 with its main aim to “defend loyalist areas from attack” the UDA remained a legal organisation until the 1990s. On 3 July 1972 their plans to erect barriers between the Catholic Springfield area and the Protestant Shankill led to 8,000 masked men, many armed with cudgels, confronting 250 British troops.

Catholics regarded the peaceful resolution of the incident and the ease with which the UDA could paralyse the city with massive demonstrations as evidence that the British government was adopting a more conciliatory approach to loyalists.
One MoD official

in November 1972 remarked that “an important function of the UDA is to channel into a constructive and disciplined direction Protestant energies which might otherwise become disruptive”.
Another confidential British Army briefing paper – “not to be passed [around] in writing below battalion level” –stated: “Operations against UDA should be directed against their criminal extremist elements whilst making every endeavour to maintain good relations with law abiding citizens in the organisation. Contact should be maintained at company commander level with the UDA.”
The UDA’s biggest and most successful operation was the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council strike

that forced the power-sharing Executive to resign. The UDA also played a supportive role in the 1977 United Unionist Action Council strike but declined to support Ian Paisley’s Day of Action protest and his Third Force in 1981.
The UDA simply targeted Catholic civilians

and indulged in bouts of internal feuding. The group was responsible for mass murder including the Greysteel Massacre,

the Castlerock Killings and the Milltown Massacre

By the late 1980s and early 1990’s the UDA really ramped up its murderous activities and that ordinary Catholics were their main targets. They assassinated Catholics listed on leaked intelligence files.

Their murder record is an indictment of the collusion that occurred between some elements of the RUC and the loyalist paramilitaries. They killed some 197 civilians, 12 political activists, 11 republican paramilitaries, 37 loyalists, thirty of whom were in the UDA and 3 members of the security forces.
Collusion?

The UDA confirmed it was given assistance by the British Security forces. A number of UDA leaders including Brian Nelson, Ken Barrett and William Stobie were exposed as British Agents This led to the Stevens Inquiry and the conviction of Brian Nelson, an army spy within the UDA, and raised the spectre of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the security forces.

In 1992 the then Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew proscribed it as it became increasingly clear to security forces that its members were carrying out killings but using the name of Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) as a cover.

The UFF’s campaign of violence began in the early 1970s, under the leadership of the UDA’s first commander Andy Tyrie, and continued throughout the Troubles.

The peak of the UFF’s armed campaign took place in the early 1990s under Johnny Adair’s ruthless leadership of the Lower Shankill 2nd Battalion, C Company.

3) Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF)

formed in 1996 by Billy Wright

and the mid-Ulster brigade of the UVF which had been stood down by the leadership for carrying out killings during the ceasefire. The group was formed during the 1996 Drumcree Crisis

in which Orangemen and Loyalists were prevented by the RUC and British Army from marching through a nationalist area of Portadown, the Garvaghy Road.
At roughly 4.30am on the morning of Sunday 12 July 1998 three young Catholic boys (Jason, Mark and Richard Quinn, aged 8, 9 and 10 years old) were burned to death when their Ballymoney home was fire-bombed by Loyalists in a sectarian attack.

The LVF shot dead a Catholic civilian “in support of the Orangemen”.


The group was responsible for a string of sectarian murders before disintegrating in December 1997 when it’s leader, Billy Wright, was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) inside a maximum security prison.

In response to the killing, LVF units attacked a number of Catholic owned bars, killing one man and wounding three others.

The LVF continues to be involved in widescale drug dealing, extortion, burglary and organized crime

4) Red Hand Commando

Formed in Belfast in 1972 the RHC was initially an independent organisation but later worked closely with the UVF sharing weapons and information but with a separate command structure.
The organisation was involved in mainly random sectarian attacks on Catholics.

The group have been responsible for 13 deaths. 12 of those killed were civilians while one was an RHC member

5)Red Hand Defenders (RHD)


http://www.docstoc.com/docs/44526861/RHDppt—RED-HAND-DEFENDERS
Formed in Belfast in 1998 by ex-members of the UDA and LVF, the RHD was supportive of the Orange Order during the Drumcree crisis and claimed responsibility for a blast-bomb attack which killed an RUC officer in September 1998.

It claimed responsibility for the 1999 murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson.

The RHD has been responsible for 10 deaths which included 6 civilians, 3 UDA members and an RUC officer.

http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/engb/judicial%20decisions/life%20sentence%20tariff%20rulings/documents/2008%20nilst%205/j_j_2008nilst5.htm
http://www.stakeholdergroup.com/opinion/uda-was-more-robbing-hoods-than-robin-hood/
http://www.thekidswindow.co.uk/News/Jewellery.htm
http://springtimeofnations.blogspot.it/
http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/6706
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/oct/11/army-softer-line-loyalists-files
http://www.academia.edu/239148/Duck_or_Rabbit_The_Value_Systems_of_Loyalist_Paramilitaries_in_Northern_Ireland_DRAFT
http://www.cfr.org/terrorist-organizations-and-networks/northern-ireland-loyalist-paramilitaries-uk-extremists/p9274
http://www.laywhispers.com/45/post/2012/09/my-week-by-turlough-quinn-13-sept-2012.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/817986.stm
http://irishconflict.webs.com/loyalistparamilitary.htm
http://loyalistinterface2.webs.com/udauff.htm
http://loyalistinterface2.webs.com/uvf.htm
http://oreaddaily.blogspot.it/2010/06/dont-take-your-eyes-off-loyalist.html
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/parade/develop.htm
http://josephbastardo.blogspot.it/2009/03/shankill-butchers-o-valencia_02.html
http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/23442
http://www.carolecgood.com/deceptionenvygreed.htm
http://www.caj.org.uk/contents/1111
http://www.ppu.org.uk/peacematters/pm2000/pm2000_33.html
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/sep/14/billy-wright-murder-incompetence-conspiracy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6618583.stm
http://nationalist.offtopic.su/viewtopic.php?id=13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Defence_Association
http://www.derrydaily.net/2013/10/28/greysteel-massacre-grieving-community-prepares-to-mark-20th-anniversary-of-trick-or-treat-murders/
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/your-chance-to-win-a-painting-by-a-sectarian-serial-killer/
https://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_99/europe.html
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/oct/15/northern-ireland-loyalist-shootings-loughinisland

Loyalist Paramilitaries – Protestant death squads (1)

Background and Raison d’etre

Loyalist paramilitary organisations originated in the 1960s and 1970s as vigilante groups in Protestant areas.
“They stood around the fires at night on the street corners looking after areas and then they formed themselves into a paramilitary organisation but they were all there for the right reasons”.

“When it was formed obviously people had been in the British Army and that is where the structure was formed from. That was when leaders just came to the fore and they did whatever they had to do with great pride within their communities to form themselves into a paramilitary organisation that everybody was proud of: the community, the people, their families, even the security forces were begrudgingly accepting that there were a well organised outfit”.(UDABrigadier, North Belfast, 2005)

What were “the right reasons”?
Loyalists claimed that the IRA, nationalist political parties, the Gaelic Athletic Association, Irish language speakers and Catholics comprised a “pan-nationalist front”

and as such they were all legitimate targets.

They swiftly developed into terrorist organisations. They were responsible for almost 1,000 deaths during the conflict. The overwhelming majority of their victims were innocent civilians who were killed and sometimes tortured because they were Catholics.

Loyalist groups funded their activities through protection rackets, robberies, counterfeit goods and were widely involved in drug dealing although most groups maintained that they were anti-drugs. Young Protestant men from Ulster’s most downtrodden neighbourhoods make up the core membership of loyalist paramilitary groups, which are effectively pro-state terrorist organizations

Collusion?

The British Army knowingly enforced an anti-terrorist policy based on religious discrimination during the early years of Northern Ireland’s Troubles, according to files unearthed in the National Archives.

Ministry of Defence memos from the early 70s reveal for the first time that senior officials acknowledged that “Protestant terrorists” were not being interned on the same basis as members of the IRA. IRA suspects could be served with interim custody orders and interned without trial.

Military arrest instructions did not, however, specify that senior members of the UVF or other loyalist paramilitary groups should be arrested over similar suspicions.

“The policy does not therefore provide for the arrest of Protestant terrorists except with the object of bringing criminal charges,” the MoD review admitted. “Protestants are not, as the policy stands, arrested with a view to their being made subject to interim custody orders and brought before the commissioners.

Accusations that the government pursued repressive security measures against republican paramilitaries while adopting a softer line against loyalist gunmen and bombers fuelled sectarian resentment for many years

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/6706
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/oct/11/army-softer-line-loyalists-files
http://www.academia.edu/239148/Duck_or_Rabbit_The_Value_Systems_of_Loyalist_Paramilitaries_in_Northern_Ireland_DRAFT
http://josephbastardo.blogspot.it/2009/03/shankill-butchers-o-valencia_02.html

What are Loyalists loyal to?

‘Loyalists are basically loyal to the Crown; to the British way of life; I think that is the concept of our Britishness – the freedom to be who we are and what we are and say what we want, when we want”.

“Being loyal – we are loyal to the Crown.’(O, UVF, Tyrone, 2005)

“Our basic strength and definition of our loyalty include a whole lot of other things that make up our Protestant culture, our heritage, and our way of life; whether that is our Loyal Orders,

(Do they knight themselves in a self-knighting ceremony?)
marching cultures,

flute bands,

supporting Rangers,

Lambeg drumming,

“our Ulster Scots connection, or our basic sense of identity of being Ulstermen but being within the broader British Isle context within the Union. All of those things come together to make up what we are loyal to.(A, UVF, Co. Antrim)
“That is our culture, the Orange Order”.

“My motto would be that we are still defenders of the faith and the Protestant community”.(X, UDA, Belfast, 2005)

Their core assumption is that the only alternative to Ulster Loyalist dominance is Ulster Loyalist defeat and humiliation

http://www.academia.edu/239148/Duck_or_Rabbit_The_Value_Systems_of_Loyalist_Paramilitaries_in_Northern_Ireland_DRAFT
http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/23442
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/royal-black-preceptory-appear-great-because-they-say-they-are/

Peter Robinson’s speeches

While you were off line Mr Robinson made two major speeches

Two speeches in two days! He must be getting ready for his Christmas holiday at his house in Florida,

He’d better watch out – Eric Leigh-Pink is forecasting a hurricane and disastrous floods there!
He seems to have heeded Eric’s warning. Him and his wife Iris are now selling their luxurious Florida holiday home for almost half a million dollars.
What did he say anyway in these two famous speeches?
He says he’s convinced that “a shared and united society in Northern Ireland is the only way forward for all of us”.

He’s right. That’s what the people voted for in the Good Friday Agreement. Unionist parties, Loyalists and Loyal Orders have put very little effort into making these good intentions a reality on the ground. It’s all


Haven’t you got the message yet? It’s the

for sectarianism and triumphalist Loyalism

Very few people believe Mr Robinson. We’re getting mixed messages from him.
Why do you say that? Maybe he’s just saying “Get me

His heart isn’t in these speeches.
He certainly hasn’t been leading by example over the past 12 months. Remember all the leaflets the DUP distributed over the Flag issue?

That started off all the protests.

The DUP support the Twadell Civil Rights camp

and the Twadell Initiative,

That certainly died an early death

He said our Britishness wasn’t being chipped away

Even though he admitted outsiders might try – and from time to time succeed – in limiting our cultural expression in a specific place or manner
Who are these “outsiders”
He suggested the nationalists

They’re not outsiders. Nationalists and Republicans are part of the community.
Maybe the Parades Commission?
They’re a legally constituted body
Some government? Perhaps Westminster

is putting some pressure on him to toe the British government’s line?
The British, Irish and American governments are all involved in the peace arrangements – They’re not outsiders
Maybe he was referring to Mr Haass. I don’t know but it’s very worrying

Richard Haass will certainly be noting these developments
He needs to realise the “Not an inch” mentality

is alive and well. About 50% of Unionist MLAs are in the Loyal Orders

and if the OO don’t get exactly what they want out of the Haass talks –

to do whatever they want, whenever they want, whereever they want . . . .

There has to be

a better alternative to an Orange Order controlled Stormont Assembly. What else did Mr Robinson say?
In the unlikely event that Stormont collapsed there would be an upsurge in paramilitary violence.

“it would leave a void which every malign force would seek to exploit and profit from,” he said

“Paramilitary organisations which are presently contained would be reinforced and bracing themselves for an opening to wage terror”

Threats and fear-mongering.

There’s no reason to suppose that will happen
The

can call on British police forces for extra support as they have already done this year and the

will fully collaborate with them in maintaining law and order.
And if the Stormont Assembly is

because as it stands it’s hardly fit for purpose, a new administration will be set up immediately
Probably interim Joint Sovreignty

With two Secretaries of State

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24572892
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20317461
http://www.talkceltic.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3293547
http://worldpredictions.wordpress.com/
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/shed-siege-mentality-urges-robinson-29672093.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1019/481345-adams-robinson/?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24584058
http://www.artyoo.net/data/pages-e/curatorial.html?la=en
http://eaglecountytimes.com/2011/10/30/fear-mongering-by-ballot-issue-5a-proponents/
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-affordable-care-act-a-timeline-from-healthcare-gov
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g187791-d318146-r175106140-Casa_Banzo-Rome_Lazio.html
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/peter-and-iris-robinsons-florida-mansion-on-market-for-500000-29705146.html

The Party’s Over

Our lovely SOS

has warned us on more than one occasion
“The truth is we don’t have as many resources as might have been available in times past”

“Any mechanisms for dealing with the past must have regard to the fiscal position in which the UK government finds itself as a result of the deficit”


“on the Assembly’s stalled bid to implement welfare reforms, with failure to introduce the legislation set to be a very expensive choice”.

“if they choose not to then, yes, unfortunately that does mean that it would have an impact on the block grant.”
“Funding of social security benefits in Northern Ireland is provided from the Treasury.

If Northern Ireland does not progress welfare reform, this could lead to adjustment to the NI Block.”

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury,

made it clear that if the Stormont Executive do not implement relevant welfare reforms by January 2014, the Northern Ireland block will be adjusted.

Her Majesty’s Treasury provided over £5 billion of funding in 2012-13 to cover the cost of social security spending in Northern Ireland.

That funding is in addition to the Northern Ireland block grant and is provided on the basis that there is parity between the social security systems in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK

Any delay in passing the Welfare Reform Bill will increase the costs to the Treasury and the UK Government is entitled to recover those costs through an adjustment to the Northern Ireland block grant.

He made it clear that the costs are potentially huge and Northern Ireland can’t afford them,

Estimated costs for the delays incurred this year are some £5 million per month, up to £200 million per year by 2017-18.

Our lovely SOS

said “The idea that British identity and culture can be defended by people who wrap themselves in the union flag and attack police officers with bricks and blast bombs and ceremonial swords is grotesque,”

“rioting

is completely counter-productive to any cause that its participants claim to espouse”.

http://www.u.tv/News/Flag-rioting-is-grotesque-Villiers/a9fe8ea6-90cf-43cf-ae12-ae7404112b3c
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/keeping-northern-ireland-on-a-steady-footing
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/assembly-warned-over-welfare-reform-29558667.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24300064
http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/Northern_Ireland_country_spending.html
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?id=2013-09-09.6.129
http://tw-world64.blogspot.it/2013/02/world-64-journey-to-end-game.html
http://www.generazioneitalia.it/tag/crisi/
http://jimscaminodesantiago.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/my-484-mile-walk-clock-is-ticking/
http://www.ozvpm.com/2012/06/03/sa-budget-cuts-affect-the-office-for-volunteers/
http://aclatterofthelaw.com/2010/06/
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/west-australian-struggle-to-pay-fines/story-e6frg13u-1226109319741

“Twaddell Initiative”

You’ll never believe the good news. The Orange Order


has offered talks with Ardoyne residents to resolve the dispute over the march

The ‘Twaddell Initiative’ promises full and open dialogue with nationalist residents

But only after Orangmen

complete the last leg of a contentious loyalist march in Ardoyne.

In other words , “you’re not going to talk to ‘Taigs’ unless you finish your march!”

On 12 July, the legal Parades Commission made a decision as is their job.

They blocked the march along a stretch of road separating loyalist and nationalist communities.
After the march was stopped .

44 police officers were injured during three nights of rioting

For the 2013 parades the Order wouldn’t talk to residents and this parade was banned.
Don’t you remember the Orange Quadrille?

But the Orngeman replied “Too far, too far!” and gave a look askance —
Said he thanked Residents kindly, but he would not join the dance.
In response to the “Twadell Initiative” the Parades Commission said

to the Unionists and the Orders.It publicly deconstructs how it was first heard of the “Initiative” from the media.

It dismissed the grounds for a late application, commented on failure to abide by its ruling for the 12th July parade and continued breaches of its determinations.

What brought about this “generous” offer anyway? Hamza Abù?

The autumn’s coming in

and the Twadell Civil Rights Camp

is feeling the cold and wants to up sticks?

No, the Haass talks

The Orange statement:

“We are also conscious that the issue of parades, flags and the past are to be the subject of intensive and ongoing political discussion. We wish to contribute to a positive atmosphere for the Haass talks and assist them to reach a successful conclusion.”

Caught with your pants down eh?
The DUP leader Rt. Hon.

Peter Robinson MLA said:
The Parades Commission has failed to give due recognition to the dialogue in July this year and in previous years. The commitment and foresight of the offer of dialogue for 2014 is to be welcomed. Now they have the opportunity to do so.

The onus is now upon nationalism

to show leadership and to respond positively to this genuine attempt to reach accommodation. They must face down the elements in their community who wish to drag Northern Ireland back.

The act of sharing a main arterial route for a few minutes would boost community relations in North Belfast significantly and generate a positive atmosphere for the Haass process.”
so what he’s shouting is ” help! help! Get me

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24323673?

Click to access the-ligoniel-combine-05-10-13-det.pdf

http://www.mydup.com/news/article/dup-leader-responds-to-the-twaddell-initiative-announcement?
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/orangemen-offer-parade-row-talks-29619208.html#idc-cover
http://livebydesignnotbydefault.co.uk/live-by-design-not-by-default/
http://www.onmoneymaking.com/caught-with-your-pants-down-7-ways-to-regain-your-dignity.html
http://essentialeducator.org/?p=5440
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/the-orange-quadrille/

No Pope Here – Never, ever, ever

Did you see the news? In Stormont assembly the other day Mr Robinson accused Mr Allister of “secretly” selling land to republicans in Co Fermanagh.

Mr Robinson added that it was “particularly sad that a member of the family wanted to buy the land and was turned down because the family decided to sell it to a republican”.

We’ve in a pretty pickle now when a good, upstanding Loyalist Protestant sells land to Catholics.
What are you talking about?
We’ve have always tried to prevent Protestant land and houses being sold to Catholics.

 

If someone did it the family would be sanctioned by the community

How?
You know, friendly advice and if that didn’t work threats.

Then there were the ‘gatekeeper’ auctioneers. That’s when solicitors and estate agents withdraw land from sale if a buyer of the correct faith is not found.

Why? Surely the land should be sold to whoever offers the most?
The decision isn’t necessarily that of the man selling the farm. The pressure would come from those around him – fellow Protestants who would pull out all the stops to buy it themselves, rather than let it go to a Roman Catholic

You don’t understand anything. As far back as 1959 a resolution from Portglenone district in County Antrim was tabled at the Orange Order’s Central Committee ,
What did it say? ‘
Any member of the Order who in future sells or in any manner whatsoever disposes of his farm house or other property to a RC [Catholic] should be expelled from the Order’

That soon put Protestants off the idea of seeking to sell our land to the highest bidder:

In fact few families actually sold their land. Many rented it out

This land is our land and we are culturally the rightful proprietors,

Catholics are indiginous people in Ireland. Why can’t they buy the land if they can afford it?
I said we had a cultural right. Did you know that as far back as 1938 the Orange Order, developed a ‘Land Fund’ to purchase land for us Protestants. It exists to this day. It was for many years administered from the Orange Order’s headquarters.

Where did it start?
Fermanagh but it was soon copied elsewhere
Why Fermanagh?
There was a fairly even mix of Catholics and Protestants.The Ulster Land and Property Company distributed an information pack to Orangemen. Its literature says it exists to acquire land and property for the benefit of the Orange institution, and thereby the Protestant people.
But the BBC said the Orange Order has denied any formal links with a company which aims to help its members to buy land because of concerns it could “fall into nationalist hands”.

The logo on the top of the company’s presentation pack says: “Ulster is being sold – let us buy it“.

So you’re saying there’s an ‘unwritten rule’ among Protestant farmers that they should avoid selling land to Catholics because to do so would be, in Protestant eyes, to cede part of Northern Ireland to the South.


“If this is the focus of unionists to score points over one another it is clearly espousing a sectarian agenda,” said Sean Lynch,Sinn Féin MLA for Fermanagh-South Tyrone.

We don’t want themmuns encroaching into Protestant neighbourhoods.

Look at Belfast. ‘Gusty’ Spence, who re-formed the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)

into the first latter-day Protestant paramilitary in 1966, justified early UVF atrocities, arguing that these were needed to ‘hold the line‘

in Protestant areas against Catholic incursion
So you are saying the symbol of ‘losing’ a street to the ‘other side’ fused territory and demography in inner-city Belfast, where Protestant paramilitaries were already active.

Have you ever heard of FEAR?
Anybody who ever lived in Northern Ireland knows about fear.
I mean F E A R. Fear Encouraged Abandoning Roots. Arlene Foster is our leader.

FEAR employed a community worker to trace the families who abandoned their homes. And it applied to the European Union for financial assistance in helping families reclaim uncultivated land and restore old farmhouses. Over five years ending in 1999 the EU hopes to spend 1.5 billion ($2.3 billion) in the Irish border region. FEAR wants some of this money to be used to help people return home. Founder Foster argues that “if we could get even some of these people back on their land, it would be worthwhile.”

 

References and Pics

http://ansionnachfionn.com/tag/peter-robinson/
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/land-sale-to-catholics-row-sparks-stormont-crackdown-29607684.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/peter-robinson-in-row-over-sale-of-land-to-catholics-1.1538818

Click to access 1-Dominant-Ethnicity-demography-and-conflict_revision-Dec2010.pdf

http://www.u.tv/News/Robinson-and-Allister-clash-at-Stormont/4198370f-180a-4f24-9c3b-8241d746341a
http://www.u.tv/News/Apology-sought-by-land-row-family/17fb2027-85f7-4c7f-a583-e5cf4b44d92c
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/2897169.stm
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jan/11/profile-arlene-foster-northern-ireland
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/living-with-it-their-farms-straddle-north-and-south-their-activities-are-monitored-by-security-towers-that-listen-and-look-but-people-who-live-on-the-border-would-rather-stay-than-go-corrected-1437556.html
http://cgge.aag.org/NationalIdentity1e/CaseStudy2_Landscapes_Oct09/CaseStudy2_Landscapes_Oct09_print.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/1997/0923/092397.intl.intl.4.html
Spoliation Sanctions: The Tide is Turning, Goliath is Smiling
http://flickriver.com/photos/albert_foolmoon/3490100948/
http://rivcoach.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/news-promised-land-1250-587-bc-up-date/
http://www.deviantart.com/morelikethis/collections/375460959