The Queen She'll Come To Call On Us

It's not an argument - it's one (of many) reasons why I believe there is still bitterness towards Brits and Prods. Sheikh, I'm sure you live in a nice circle with reasoned and reasonable people, but to think there is no more anti-british feelings in Ireland is wide of the mark imho.
 
Hamm said:
It's not an argument - it's one (of many) reasons why I believe there is still bitterness towards Brits and Prods. Sheikh, I'm sure you live in a nice circle with reasoned and reasonable people, but to think there is no more anti-british feelings in Ireland is wide of the mark imho.
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Do you honestly believe there is widespread bitterness towards Protestants in Ireland in the 21st century, Hamm?

Granted it still exists in certain pockets, but it is no more prominent than the occasional patronizing attitude towards the Irish that still exists in parts of England.
 
I would say the GAA is a modernizing force at playing level-as is junior level soccer.They both offer a way of genuine integration and acceptance into Irish society for the children of thousands of immigrants.
 
trackside528 said:
Do you honestly believe there is widespread bitterness towards Protestants in Ireland in the 21st century, Hamm?

Granted it still exists in certain pockets, but it is no more prominent than the occasional patronizing attitude towards the Irish that still exists in parts of England.
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It exists a lot more than what you say happens in England (I never ever see that). I also never said it was widespread.
 
This visit by the Queen to Ireland has obviously sparked an 'intellectual' debate, which must be good. My feeling is this has become such a issue about land on both sides that people are conveniently trying to forget the ideas that fundmentally seperated them in the first place. That is a good thing if true peace is one the agenda, but not when you have policemen being blown up, and the threat of more terror in the future.

If politics was just about land Adolf Hitler wouldn't have tryed to gas a whole race of people while taking over the world 60 years ago. The queen should catagorically not go over, or if she does not in the republic. Do not be a braveheart in the face of people who want to derail the peace process, there is no point if there are people that have no intention of listening as there are now, it only comes across as arrogance or complacency on her part.

McGuinness and Adams have told her to stay at home, surely that says it all.
 
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Hamm said:
Maybe the English up North are funny?!
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:lol:

In all seriousness I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression that that sort of attitude exists within anything other than a tiny majority of the people I have come across in England. Most (particularly Northern women actually) are dead on.

I just think you are over-estimating both the extent and depth of anti-British feeling that exists in Ireland in this day and age.
 
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Marble said:
This visit by the Queen to Ireland has obviously sparked an 'intellectual' debate, which must be good. My feeling is this has become such a issue about land on both sides that people are conveniently trying to forget the ideas that fundmentally seperated them in the first place. That is a good thing if true peace is one the agenda, but not when you have policemen being blown up, and the threat of more terror in the future.

If politics was just about land Adolf Hitler wouldn't have tryed to gas a whole race of people while taking over the world 60 years ago. The queen should catagorically not go over, or if she does not in the republic. Do not be a braveheart in the face on people who want to derail the peace process, there is no point if there are people that have no intention of listening as there are now, it only comes across as arrogance or complacency on her part.

McGuinness and Adams have told her to stay at home, surely that says it all.
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That's too intellectual for me, come again.

The Queen was invited by the State and she has accepted the invitation.
She will be welcomed by the vast majority.
 
Well if it makes no sense to you maybe it wasn't supposed to.

I'm just a layperson giving an opiinon, and am no expert on Irish history, as we wasn't taught that in the secondary school I went to in London!
 
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Good article. I was alittle against the visit as it would appear to be a bit like dragging Angela Merkel round the east end and Coventry Cathedral, but its seems to be as much about how the GAA has progressed and acknowledging that
 
If the GAA has progressed so much, why did Ireland need to build a second stadium to play rugby and football when it has one of the 3 biggest European stadiums already there?
 
Surely that's a bit like asking what the point was in doing up Wembley when England could just have played in Twickenham?

The GAA is a separate organisation to the IRFU/FAI and gaelic and hurling are separate sports to rugby and football; amateur sports they may be but why should they have to share a stadium. I don't see how that has anything to do with notions of 'progress.'

As for the organisation as a whole it will always be, by its very nature, parochial and to a large extent bound up with 'parish pump' politics - something which has its positives and negatives. On the whole, however, I think it is to be commended for taking some real steps towards modernisation in spite of the objections of some of its members (my old man included!).
 
Tell me then, how was it when the GAA were asked about playing football and rugby there? It was hardly a walk in the park.

England as a country and the volume of people that support those sports justifys having separate national stadia - Ireland does not (in a million years). 400m because those in the GAA were too backward to accomodate 'english' sports is not the sign of a progressive organisation to me. Fintan has his facts wrong (again).
 
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I didn't follow the ins and outs of the whole thing closely, but neither the FAI nor the IRFU had any desire to move into Croke Park permanently:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/cr...-option-for-international-matches-454272.html

Of course it wasn't a walk in the park to get the GAA to open up Croke Park (you'd be very stupidly ignoring an awful lot of history to suggest it would ever have been), but the fact that the majority of the members supported allowing the ground to remain open certainly is not the sign of a backward organisation to me.

All of this of course ignoring the fact that the atmosphere inside Croke Park for football matches was little short of diabolical due to the distance from the action.
 
Hamm said:
If the GAA has progressed so much, why did Ireland need to build a second stadium to play rugby and football when it has one of the 3 biggest European stadiums already there?
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I would be fairly certain that the IRFU and FAI wanted their own stadium.The three organizations sharing on a long term basis just wouldn't work.
 
I heard she was visiting the national stud and thought, " I don't remember her ringing me....."

I am totally against this visit. She has ruined my three ball for next Wednesday by taking my mate who is a gaurd away for protection...what's worse is I would have been a shoe in for the money over 18 holes.
 
Huge security, Whole M50 closed for periods, Dublin Zoo closed !, every guard in the Country involved in the security (bonus 3 day period for all you burglars out there)
every man hole in the Dublin City has been checked.

There have been a lot of suspect devices dealt with in Dublin recently. Stokes Father and the rest of those continuity cocksuckers have been lifted by the guards for 'chats' .

When is David Cameron coming over ? Is it at the same time. Obama coming soon too. Euro going down the toilet with us steering the ship. Love to know whats going on behind closed doors. A very intriguing time in Irish History.
 
Have to think there's more to these visits than 'Hello, how's the family'.
Expensive business but expense we need to take I think.

The Security forces are well up to the job, plenty of practice and only a handful of of home grown basket cases that need to be watched but I wonder might it be seen as an opportunity for extremists of a different persuasion.
 
Very timely series starting on BBC2 tonight at 7.00-8.00 pm, five hours in the series, by Fergal Keane. The Story of Ireland - Part 1, The Age of Invasions. No, not that nasty Mr Cromwell - it's the Vikings, presented as resourceful settlers and traders rather than barbarous marauders (now that was the nasty Mr Cromwell); details of the impact of Christianity, monasticism, and the emergence of early literature.

We learned feckall about Irish history at my British school in Africa, apart from a few sentences about the Famine, and the jackboot of Cromwell's troops. Even that didn't amount to much more than 'resistance was crushed', and on we went to a litany of English monarchs and their glorious victories, rah-rah. So, I look forward to five hours of potted history, infilling what I should've been taught 50 years ago.
 
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