“It’s not who you are underneath but what you do that defines you” Rachel from Batman Begins…

New addition to the list Doug, welcome to my views on the world, it initially was meant to be a forum where an idea or an event is put forward and any comments are made as and when you feel it necessary, the latter part of the sequence of events does not seem to be happening too much, but should you feel the need to respond to anything written here, please go to www.mondaymail.blogspot.com (definitely a generation X kid) or alternatively drop me an email. If at anytime you find this to be a waste of valuable inbox space (and I know how tight Standard Bank is on inbox space) please let me know and I will remove you or you could give me ideas on how to improve it.

Good morning all, I am very pleased that my misfortunes that I wrote about last week brought you great pleasure, for some reason I didn’t get any commentary on the main part of my email…

Hows this? Last week I am parking off about to catch a fat zzzz but in the process I am channel surfing to find the ideal channel to doze off to, Channel 72 wasn’t an option cos they were showing those damn Hom(i)es, anyway I managed to end up on Oprah and the first thing I heard was “He just not that into you”, hmmm interesting, lets listen… There is this guy, married (unhappily I assume) he has written a book about the tell tale signs that a guy is playing a woman. WHAT A FOOL!! Can he just not stay married, live in his lovely house with the picket fence in the burbs, drive his beige Volvo station wagon, and leave well alone. The id iot is just forking up the game of the players!! Women aren’t stupid, he says nothing new, we all know the signs, but when a guy says it and puts it in black and white, well all hopes are dispelled. That bootie call that hoped one day she would be the one….she gone, that lass you kept on the hook cos you just weren’t there yet, poof…gone!! I dunno!

Anyway the idea for this weekends email comes thanks to a good man (ladies…a great man ;-)) who goes by the name of Sean Rule. Sinn Fein, IRA, Northern Ireland, fighting deaths, Catholics v Protestants? What’s it all about? It took up most of the news time when I was growing up (along with the Middle east conflict). Well I did a bit of digging and here is what I came up with…

This fighting in Northern Ireland is not something that just sprung up. It’s a conflict that seems to have lasted for hundreds of years. From the literature I have read the fighting dates back to sometime in 1200’s. This fighting intensified in the 14th/15th century when the English created “The Pale” a big circle around Dublin which the English controlled, what this meant is that parts of Ireland were controlled by the English. Clearly this wasn’t kosher, I mean imagine u r living in your house and someone decides to come pitch a tent in your back yard…I don’t think you would be going out to his/her tent and offering them some soup and bread?! Anyway to complicate matters even more, during this time the Irish had more than one ‘king’ who controlled different areas of Ireland. To some extent, they worked together to fight against English rule, they even had the Spanish Armada coming to Ireland to lend a hand but the might of the English was just insurmountable and this resulted in the ‘Kings’ fleeing Ireland to mainland Europe.

King James was in control of Ireland at that time..1600. The English lords were on a mission to take over all the church lands in England, but the Catholics opposed this, King James was a Catholic and he opposed this too, clearly his tenor as king didn’t last too long and he was deposed and replaced by William of Orange a protestant from the Netherlands. As you can imagine, the Irish people were firmly behind their deposed king and the fighting continued…possibly the beginning of the classification of the conflict as a religious one. James and William met at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. William was victorious. Following this was the Battle of Limerick in which William was once again victorious. Ireland was under his rule. The protestant (English) power remained, Irish (catholic) oppression remained, worsened even…

After William came Oliver Cromwell, known by many as a monster because he would torture anyone who disagreed with him. From 1690 to 1790 nothing too exciting happened in the land in terms of conflict and uprising. In 1790 there were a number of uprisings that were intended to liberate Ireland from English rule…unlucky. England remained. During this time, the protestants in the North East part of Ireland flourished as a result of the industrial revolution, but the more conservative catholics in the south were ‘left behind’ farming and carrying on as normal. As a result of this, those in the North enjoyed their flourishing way of life and thus opposed Irish rule. In 1916, the Easter Sunday Uprising, a couple of irish patriots took over the General Post Office in Dublin and declared Ireland an independent country, for their efforts they were tried and hanged. Also in 1916, the IRA was formed, an army formed to fight against English rule. Between 1918 and 1921, England sent the Black and Tans to Ireland to suppress the IRA.

All these protests and uprising resulted in the formation of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in 1921. Ireland is made up of 4 counties, Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught (with Ulster being the northern most part). Northern Ireland was made up of 6 counties in Ulster, the other 3 namely Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal as well as Munster, Leinster and Connaugth made up the Republic of Ireland. Happy days and sad days blended in one. For many years many people fought…many lost their lives…for this beast called independence from England and that day had come, yet it was a bittersweet victory because, the land was still divided and not all of the land was liberated. This would pose a problem in time to come.

The Irish people in the area felt marginalized by the Englis in Northern Ireland, they felt their human rights were being infringed upon and inline with the civil rights movement in America. The movement spanned a period between 1963 and 1969, but on the 5th October 1968 the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (formed in 1967) staged its second march in Londonderry, a march which was banned by the minister of home affairs because it was deemed to be a political front of the IRA. It carried on. They marchers met the might of the law, protesters were beaten, police brutality was caught on camera and aired to the world. The police’s credibility faded. In the summer of 69, the unrest had deepened, riots erupted in Belfast, 5 catholics were killed and 1 protestant, troops were deployed but too few to do anything, that night many catholic homes were burnt in Bombay street.

Many more skirmishes occurred in the period following this, but I will draw your attention to Sunday, 30th Jan 1972, known by many as bloody Sunday. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association had organized an illegal march to oppose internment (detention) without trial. The IRA gave assurance that it would be a peaceful event. 10000 people descended on Creggan Estate to proceed to Guildhall Square in the centre of the city…the authorities thought No. They barricaded the entrance to the square, orders were to arrest as many of the rioters as possible, permission was requested at 4:07pm at 4:10pm the army opened fire on unarmed civilians, 30 minutes later 14 dead 13 injured. Ofcourse the authorities maintained they had been fired upon first. This event was also dubbed another Sharpville. An inquiry into the event was ordered by Tony Blair in 1998 exactly 26 years to the day, on the grounds of compelling new evidence. Bloody Sunday provided a catalyst for the recruitment of IRA supporters and the bombings ensued. In May 1972, the unionist parliament that governed Northern Ireland sat for the last time direct rule from Westminster was instituted, the English weren’t going nowhere, Catholics were more bleak. More unrest and violence until 1999 when the Northern Ireland Executive set up by the Belfast agreement took over the government. Direct rule was once again imposed between Feb and My 2000 cos of the difficulties over decommissioning… I guess that’s where it leaves us now. There seems to be some degree of peace in the area, either that or the media people have gotten bored of covering the conflict. Lets hope it stays like this.

If you didn’t know well now u know.

Birthdays this week

25th Elmar and Poms
26th Gina
27th Mike Rea and Courtney
28th Folks 32nd anniversary, Jele, Reidar,
29th Sheya,
30th Eddie T. O. Maravanyika and Will Lee

“it’s the province of kn owledge to speak, it’s the privilege of wisdom to listen” Christine Lane

Maximum respect and a good weekend