Ye shan't have your liberty, do what ye will
As long as salt water is formed in the deep
A foot on the necks of the croppy we'll keep
And drink, as in bumpers past troubles we drown,
A health to the lads that made croppies lie down
Down, down, croppies lie down.
The Irish Peace process has encouraged Irish people to accept, to tolerate and to understand the Orange Order culture as practiced by hundreds of thousands of Orange men, since the creation of their sectarian state almost a hundred years ago. Heaven knows Irish people have tried for centuries to understand the planters and be patient with their culture, that seems to be based exclusively on prejudice, bigotry and “Croppie lie down” mentality. But the hatred is as overwhelming and simply unbearable to sensitive souls, as their massive bonfires and sectarian killing rituals drag on year after year. Their tactics are straight out of a KKK manual and they are now once again parading in KKK garb as above. This eternal marching chant, continues to rant through Irish streets, in several thousand marches annually.
They burn anything from thousands of effigies of his holiness, to anything remotely Celtic or green, to native property, accompanied by huge Lambeg drums with viriolic “hate speech,” which the British seem to selectively mentor or ignore while censoring the Irish. They scrawl vile racism on the Irish flag. They flaunt KKK slogans, such as, “Wee are not racist we just hate cotton picken N..”. which are paraded down Irish streets, while the vast majority of Irish people, are expected to accept and encourage this culture, for the sake of the Peace Process. Turn the other cheek they say but if you observe carefully, people from that part of Ireland, you will notice they are disfigured, from winding in their necks and talking out of the side of their mouths. A rude generalization you may exclaim but I have scrutinized them carefully firsthand.
This is not culture, it is simply pure hatred and bigotry, it has no place in a civilized Ireland from any quarter, including the resulting reactionary politics, which is far easier talk than walk, when it is marching down your streets for most of the year. So in this context, as Gary Hart is a very welcome envoy from the the US to people craving a solution, sits down to negotiate with these British mentored power brokers and ruling elite. However, let there be no illusions about what he is dealing with and let him honestly call them by their correct names in plain English rather than be seduced, by the rhetoric of the British gravy train of political careerists.
GARY HART 14 NOVEMBER 2014
I've been honoured to represent United States Secretary of State John Kerry on issues related to Northern Ireland. It is well-known that the current talks span a great number of issues from finance to parades, flags, and the past to implementation of previous agreements to restructuring political institutions. Given the wide array of group interests, fashioning any kind of comprehensive resolution of all these subjects, each one more dear to one group than another, is an immense challenge to those seeking negotiated solutions.
As we in America have done for more than two decades, we continue to try to be helpful. The United States Government does not bring a preconceived solution to the table. The citizens of Northern Ireland well know by now that we are an outside presence simply seeking to support these negotiations. Other than a peaceful and prosperous future for all the people of Northern Ireland, we have no agenda of our own.
Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the Republic of Ireland have been very welcoming to a continued US presence. They both understand that we have no political agenda of our own. The ability of the United States Government to add encouragement, ideas, and assistance is dependent on this collective trust among our governments and we will continue to build upon it.
After many years of public service at home and engagement in projects in nations around the world, I find a concern that virtually all human beings share - the love of our children and the hope for a better future for them. This is perhaps the most powerful common human instinct. We can build upon it.
All of us must appreciate this: we do not have to sacrifice the common good and the interests of future generations in order to maintain our identity. My nation, a nation of immigrants, did not demand that immigrant groups give up their cultures and histories in order to become American. But we have promoted the idea that all in America, regardless of their origin, had an interest in achieving a better common future as a nation.
The ghosts of the past must not be allowed to haunt the future of those yet unborn. Despite historic differences, I am struck by the intelligence and goodwill of all the party leaders I have met. Yes, they have their respective party agendas. But there is in each and all of them a desire to move beyond the past. It is not a question of whether; it is a question of how.
We in the United States can seek to encourage private investments, and thus employment opportunities, to Northern Ireland. But our success in that effort will require political stability and a functioning, problem-solving government operated by men and women of goodwill.
As a frequent visitor to Northern Ireland, I am finding citizens organising themselves around a common future, a future that will be better in every way for their children. Pursuing a sense of the common good requires us to place the interests of traditional politics at a distant second.
Northern Ireland's great poet, Seamus Heaney, once described a "republic of conscience" in which there were "no porters, no interpreter, no taxi". In this republic, he wrote, "you carried your own burden and very soon your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared". And as to public leaders, he said, they "must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep to atone for their presumption to hold office".
This republic is what Vaclav Havel called "a politics above politics". It is the realm where we must do what is right and not what is politically advantageous to us and our group.
As the years have passed - in my case many years - I have come to pay attention to the republic of conscience more than the republic of traditional politics. And in doing so I have found an increasing number of people shedding any notion of power in the form of creeping privilege and putting the common good above the presumptions of political office.
Perhaps if we all keep our eyes on the republic of conscience, a place where politics and power are kept in perspective and we atone for our presumption to hold office, those in Northern Ireland and those of us in America, can escape the worst of our past. A friend of mine once said that each of us is better than the worst thing we have ever done.
Americans must always be cautious in our interventions. We must always keep in mind that we killed hundreds of thousands of our own citizens in a bloody civil war. We are still atoning for our early history of slavery and that has not been easy. But each generation of Americans has produced a few citizens of the republic of conscience who have led us to higher things and who have urged us to keep our eyes on the stars.
So too with Northern Ireland. You have some remarkably capable and visionary leaders in office and in the public square. You have every right to be optimistic, to hope for a better future for your children, to say, in the words of Martin Luther King's memorable speech: "I have a dream today."
The people of America wish for you to achieve that dream and to be with you when it happens. As President Obama put it in his speech in June 2013 at the Waterfront Hall: "And you should know that so long as you are moving forward, America will always stand by you as you do."
They burn anything from thousands of effigies of his holiness, to anything remotely Celtic or green, to native property, accompanied by huge Lambeg drums with viriolic “hate speech,” which the British seem to selectively mentor or ignore while censoring the Irish. They scrawl vile racism on the Irish flag. They flaunt KKK slogans, such as, “Wee are not racist we just hate cotton picken N..”. which are paraded down Irish streets, while the vast majority of Irish people, are expected to accept and encourage this culture, for the sake of the Peace Process. Turn the other cheek they say but if you observe carefully, people from that part of Ireland, you will notice they are disfigured, from winding in their necks and talking out of the side of their mouths. A rude generalization you may exclaim but I have scrutinized them carefully firsthand.
This is not culture, it is simply pure hatred and bigotry, it has no place in a civilized Ireland from any quarter, including the resulting reactionary politics, which is far easier talk than walk, when it is marching down your streets for most of the year. So in this context, as Gary Hart is a very welcome envoy from the the US to people craving a solution, sits down to negotiate with these British mentored power brokers and ruling elite. However, let there be no illusions about what he is dealing with and let him honestly call them by their correct names in plain English rather than be seduced, by the rhetoric of the British gravy train of political careerists.
He is dealing with racists not a culture. He is dealing with hate speech not free speech. He is dealing with sectarian incitement to violence, not empty and harmless slogans.The sooner Gary Hart faces these realities, the better the odds, of Ireland avoiding a looming, sectarian, civil war. Denial of these hard facts, of what the Orange Order consider acceptable behavior, will simply lead us further down the road to the abyss. Like the Middle East Peace Process, the Irish version remains in eternal gridlock, because of the intransigence of supremacist ideology. It must be called out. The Orange Order bretheren of the KKK is not acceptable in the States why should it be in Ireland. Republicans in the States are permitted to bear arms for self-defence, while any republican in Ireland is deemed a terrorist who protects his home on such hate filled streets. Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate a military solution but in a sectarian state, where police walk in, and liquidate whole families, people are entitled to defend their flesh and blood.
Objective political analysts, that include the Unionist and British tradition, are slowly coming to the realization, that the only realistic road to a lasting peace is a Federal Ireland. London is tiring in a time of contrived austerity of it's 10 billion annual subsidy, to the non-viable, artificial 'statelet'. That is the trump card for any honest broker of substance to face down the Orange Order bullying and bluff. If Gary Hart himself cannot do the right thing and he does carry enough clout to do it, then the only realistic alternative for the ordinary people, who are being held hostage to this anomaly, is that the European Union starts to assume it's political and financial responsibilities, if the British continue with their hands off approach and continue to enable this Orange Order monstrosity, to ruin the lives of generations of Irish people to come.
Perhaps this writer has become cynical, with the amount of hot air, that has been expended around the Irish Peace Process, so I hope our American friends can forgive me, when I write, that searching through the US envoy's speech yesterday, around negotiations in Belfast currently, I can find nothing of substance, that offers hope that the monster of the Orange Order Veto will finally be faced down. I sincerely hope I am wrong and I would be happy to see any evidence from anyone, who can demonstrate it simply and clearly, that the US is truly being an honest broker of substance and prove my analysis incorrect. Meanwhile in such avoid, I remain a proponent of of moving on to a Federal solution, rather than remain stuck in the eternal, internal, problem of a sectarian contrived entity. Below is a copy of Gary Harts speech of yesterday, where he asks people to do the right thing. Mr Hart, with all due respect, I urge you, with all the resources that a reformed pacifist can command, to lead by example.
GARY HART 14 NOVEMBER 2014
I've been honoured to represent United States Secretary of State John Kerry on issues related to Northern Ireland. It is well-known that the current talks span a great number of issues from finance to parades, flags, and the past to implementation of previous agreements to restructuring political institutions. Given the wide array of group interests, fashioning any kind of comprehensive resolution of all these subjects, each one more dear to one group than another, is an immense challenge to those seeking negotiated solutions.
As we in America have done for more than two decades, we continue to try to be helpful. The United States Government does not bring a preconceived solution to the table. The citizens of Northern Ireland well know by now that we are an outside presence simply seeking to support these negotiations. Other than a peaceful and prosperous future for all the people of Northern Ireland, we have no agenda of our own.
Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the Republic of Ireland have been very welcoming to a continued US presence. They both understand that we have no political agenda of our own. The ability of the United States Government to add encouragement, ideas, and assistance is dependent on this collective trust among our governments and we will continue to build upon it.
After many years of public service at home and engagement in projects in nations around the world, I find a concern that virtually all human beings share - the love of our children and the hope for a better future for them. This is perhaps the most powerful common human instinct. We can build upon it.
All of us must appreciate this: we do not have to sacrifice the common good and the interests of future generations in order to maintain our identity. My nation, a nation of immigrants, did not demand that immigrant groups give up their cultures and histories in order to become American. But we have promoted the idea that all in America, regardless of their origin, had an interest in achieving a better common future as a nation.
The ghosts of the past must not be allowed to haunt the future of those yet unborn. Despite historic differences, I am struck by the intelligence and goodwill of all the party leaders I have met. Yes, they have their respective party agendas. But there is in each and all of them a desire to move beyond the past. It is not a question of whether; it is a question of how.
We in the United States can seek to encourage private investments, and thus employment opportunities, to Northern Ireland. But our success in that effort will require political stability and a functioning, problem-solving government operated by men and women of goodwill.
As a frequent visitor to Northern Ireland, I am finding citizens organising themselves around a common future, a future that will be better in every way for their children. Pursuing a sense of the common good requires us to place the interests of traditional politics at a distant second.
Northern Ireland's great poet, Seamus Heaney, once described a "republic of conscience" in which there were "no porters, no interpreter, no taxi". In this republic, he wrote, "you carried your own burden and very soon your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared". And as to public leaders, he said, they "must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep to atone for their presumption to hold office".
This republic is what Vaclav Havel called "a politics above politics". It is the realm where we must do what is right and not what is politically advantageous to us and our group.
As the years have passed - in my case many years - I have come to pay attention to the republic of conscience more than the republic of traditional politics. And in doing so I have found an increasing number of people shedding any notion of power in the form of creeping privilege and putting the common good above the presumptions of political office.
Perhaps if we all keep our eyes on the republic of conscience, a place where politics and power are kept in perspective and we atone for our presumption to hold office, those in Northern Ireland and those of us in America, can escape the worst of our past. A friend of mine once said that each of us is better than the worst thing we have ever done.
Americans must always be cautious in our interventions. We must always keep in mind that we killed hundreds of thousands of our own citizens in a bloody civil war. We are still atoning for our early history of slavery and that has not been easy. But each generation of Americans has produced a few citizens of the republic of conscience who have led us to higher things and who have urged us to keep our eyes on the stars.
So too with Northern Ireland. You have some remarkably capable and visionary leaders in office and in the public square. You have every right to be optimistic, to hope for a better future for your children, to say, in the words of Martin Luther King's memorable speech: "I have a dream today."
The people of America wish for you to achieve that dream and to be with you when it happens. As President Obama put it in his speech in June 2013 at the Waterfront Hall: "And you should know that so long as you are moving forward, America will always stand by you as you do."
Anonymous said... 
