Following on from the emotions stirred up by the illness of Mrs T, another contraversial political figure has gone unmentioned, the Rev Paisley, who announced his retirement last week and did a very interesting interview on the Andrew Marr show yesterday morning, though perhaps some of you were nursing hangovers and didn’t watch it.
In typical fashion, he managed to avoid the truth about his real relationship with Sinn Fein, and, unfortunately, we were left non the wiser as to how he really felt about working with McGuiness, but I felt that the images of them in hysterics together sums it up.
I recall the bad old days in NI when the rhetoric being thrown about by both sides made you feel that it was impossible for the two ideaologies to ever go within a million miles each other, let alone sit together having a good laugh.
I know I’m skimming the surface here, the bitterness in NI must still run deep, no matter what they say, but it is not for me to comment on matters that I confess to not understanding, well I try to, I’ve lived with the situation most of my life.
The only effect it had on me was being constantly harrased by minders in pubs checking for bombs in the 70’s, it was a problem when you were a youth out for fun, but I did have Irish friends with whom I had a lot of sympathy for.
Having watched images of Paisley over the past year, he seems to be far removed from the arrogant, self righteous figure that was projected on to our screens during the ‘Troubles’, do people really change that much, I think not, even taking age into consideration.
C’mon chaps, lets get your thoughts.
Incidentally Mods, I thought that locking the Thatcher thread was an abuse of human rights, there were some good comments flying about there, and they were relevant to the original thread, not impressed.
By: Ren Frew - 10th March 2008 at 14:18
Yes, especially if you’re a fan of the ayatollahs (and others of a similar mindset) who condem someone to death/wish them ill because they don’t care for someone politically..or what they write, the cartoons they publish… :rolleyes:
Did any of my critics actually attempt to understand where I was coming from in that thread ? Anyhow… game over, let’s move on….;)
As for Ian Paisley, I was amazed at recent TV pictures of him and Martin McGuinness sitting side by side like old pals ‘down the boozer’. Is he going soft in his old age, or just winding down ahead of passing over the ‘family’ business to his son ? Whatever, he’s certainly a changed character from the one we became used to seeing in the 1970’s and 80’s when sectarianism, bigotry and violence were at their height in Northern Ireland.
I remember going on a school trip to Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park in 1981, when Pope John Paul II was on his UK visit. Ian Paisley and other unionist politicians had come over to picket the event, standing outside the park gates with their placards and banners condemning the catholic church and all it stood for. Unfortunately or not, Mr Paisley became synonomous with that kind of activity, especially in the Glasgow area which for many was/is a microcosm of the Northern Irish political/sectarian scene.
By: J Boyle - 10th March 2008 at 13:58
Incidentally Mods, I thought that locking the Thatcher thread was an abuse of human rights….
Yes, especially if you’re a fan of the ayatollahs (and others of a similar mindset) who condem someone to death/wish them ill because they don’t care for someone politically..or what they write, the cartoons they publish… :rolleyes:
By: Ren Frew - 10th March 2008 at 13:36
Incidentally Mods, I thought that locking the Thatcher thread was an abuse of human rights, there were some good comments flying about there, and they were relevant to the original thread, not impressed.
It’s gone now, oh well…:rolleyes:
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March 10, 2008 at 10:30 am