General Chat

Recent worrying incidents up yonder being reported in the media.

I'm sure they are nothing to do with a certain fellow not paying a visit.

Waiting for Godot ?

Samuel was the last of the Prophets. Samuel anointed Saul and David

and in I Sa 28.7 a dead Samuel was resurrected by the witch of Endor.

My Father and my Grand Father's name was Samuel.

It's not English, it's in the Old Testament.

There is still a lot of hatered over there and I can’t get my head around a lot of it, for one my mum was very close to her niece in Derry but when my niece had a little boy over here Mum my cousin asked what he was called and Mum said samuel she was told we would never call a boy that it a English name I just can’t believe that

My Father 1918-1990 was born and raised north Belfast. He left Belfast 1940
following the deaths of his parents. Joined Wimpey, worked for them in England
for the rest of his life.

I think it did begin with the religious divide, David.

Of course the fact that some men in Northern Ireland had two votes at one time did not help.

I, personally, couldn't care less about it. In my family we have many Protestant-Catholic marriages - it's probably part of the territory we lived in - known as the capital of Ireland when I was younger: Liverpool.

One of my rellies threw out the RC Priest when he came around asking why they had no more children.

Strangely, though, I was gobsmacked when I discovered, as a girl, that some of the Irish-descended people in north-east England carried on with that particular brand of hatred. David, you may well know them as Londonderry men who came across to work the mines.

It's an odd world we live in when people learn to marry only 'their own kind' and it' is not confined to Catholics and Protestants. we can see it in Jewish, Islam and many other religions.

I hate it vehemently because it is so divisive and often soul-destroying for the children of such blinkered parents.

James Young summed it up in his poem The Papish and the Prod

https://youtu.be/pk9V55_cPSg

A funny little story sorry if I’ve told it before my dad was in the fleet air arm and in 46-47 was stationed in Derry where I believe ferry airport now is Mum had left home and worked in a local cafe in Derry city and that’s where they met, they soon decided to get married but Mum being a catholic and dad a c/e her mother and brothers would have none of it so the took the big step of deciding to come over England dad would stay with his parents and Mum would stay down the road with their friends. The told no one because it would get back to family and they would stop them, anyway on the morning they went to the train station to get the train to Belfast and my granny was on the station to stop Mum from leaving but she still got the train and went later one of her older brothers who was working in Scotland sent her money not to marry dad I asked what she don with money and she replied I spent and you knew I marrieds your dad they married in the Catholic Church and my English grandad gave her away
They had 36 years together before dad died Mum has been a widow for nearly 33 years and is now 95

The religious divide in NI is lamentable. At the back of the division is politics.
Successive PM's since the 60's have regrettably failed to to quash the ugly
demonstrations that accompany the July marches. An entire generation has grown up
knowing no different :-(

Drogheda was a staple, it held the cocket.

Linda is quite right - Northern Ireland does not include all of the six counties of Ulster otherwise there would not have been an Orange majority even in 1918.

It was not the docks of Derry which were vital to the Allied war effort but the location of Derry itself. The anti-submarine effort was run from underground bunkers near the city. The USA was in charge. Dublin closed its eyes and ears to the allies use of air and naval space in Donegal.

"Fields of Athenry - Paddy Reilly

By a lonely prison wall,
I heard a young girl calling
Michael they have taken you away,
For you stole Trevelyn's corn
So the young might see the morn,
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay
Low lie, The Fields Of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing,
It's so lonely round the Fields of Athenry
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
'Nothing matters Mary, when you're free'
Against the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they brought me down
Now its lonely round the Fields of Athenry
By a lonely harbour wall
She watched the last star falling
As the prison ship sailed out against the sky
Sure she'll live in hope and pray
For her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely round the Fields Of Athenry"

When the treaty was drawn up in 1918 the Scottish presybterians signed that they were the majority wanting take over the six counties but of course they were not the majority it was the catholics but the British government did not do anything about it and of course in 1922 Ireland became two country’s when the north became six counties. Derry became very important to us in WW2 because of the docks.

My mum was born in Donegal but during the was lived in Derry I think they must have moved there long before the was because she’s told me that has children they used go and watch the orange marches and there was no trouble

Sinn Fein deny that they have ever been responsible for terrorism hence G.A. and others can claim to be innocent. It is much the same with such people as Arlene Foster's late father.

They say that the dark deeds were committed by "others" over whom Ulster politicians may have "some" influence ... This charade has been the basis of getting to the Good Friday agreement in the first place and of course Blair's infamous indemnity letters.

Messy civil wars and insurgencies usually end up with bad men in positions of power and influence while good men push up daisies. So it has been since before Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and destroyed the Roman Republic. In the case of Ireland of course it was the River Boyne.

May is desperate to keep the DUP onside as without them she would be without a Commons majority when it matters. In doing so she is risking much higher stakes.

But I would have thought that would have to go through the European Court.

Not cut and paste.
Is Bob capable of a joined up argument rather than a half dozen words of sarcasm?
If I have given anybody the impression that Dublin is in the UK and/or wishes to leave the EU just try harder there is nothing between the lines.

Quite why the Tories are so desperate the please the Unionists I have never understood.

https://www.google.com/search?q=madame+george+lyrics&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b

I don't think that was said Maggie :-S

Surely Dublin as a member of the EU can veto whatever it sees fit

Surely Dublin isn't going to leave the EU? It's not in the UK.

What I've never been able to understand is how he can persistently deny

membership of an organisation he was until recently President of .

Blimey, another cut and paste article!