Politcal Correctness From Unionism ... No Thanks

Sean Mallory thinks Joe Brolly has got Unionist political correctness in it on one and that little else needs said.

Why we don’t need Unionism's political correctness!


Just over 20 years ago, the people of Slaughtneil decided to create a community strategy covering all aspects of life. Social cohesion and Irish identity were the foundation stones.
So they quickly established the first rural Bunscoil outside the Gaeltacht areas. They now have a flourishing Bunscoil and Gaelscoil. Everyone under 21 is fluent and an increasing number of the older ones use their native tongue.


To spearhead the community's move towards self-sufficiency, they founded the Carntogher Community Association, the twin brother of the GAA club. They have their own purpose-built theatre. They run their own community post office. They are about to receive planning permission for a wind farm which will provide all the energy needs of the parish. They have purchased the ancient Carn woodland and a sprawling farm.

The Carn is now used by them as an amenity, with its beautiful woodland trails. An English family with Slaughtneil roots has been brought in to manage the farm for the benefit of the locals.
Every night there are classes in Irish, computer studies, French, Spanish - the works. Go down there at any time and you will see the children wandering about with hurls in their hands, chatting in Irish, playing music or dancing. Moves are afoot to classify Slaughtneil as an official Gaeltacht area. Their chairman, Seán McGuigan, who is prone to shedding a tear when Slaughtneil win big matches (he has taken to buying Kleenex in bulk), will tell you that their success on the field is merely a by-product of community cohesion off it.

They are loyal, generous people, with a peerless sense of place and identity. During the hunger strikes of 1981, they famously withdrew from all club competitions as a mark of solidarity. How could they play our games while their neighbours were suffering so badly?

The whole point of their community strategy is to create a bulwark against the bland, consumer world most people live in. A world where our identity is created by advertisers and products. The rest of the planet supports multi-national corporations like Manchester United or Chelsea or Real Madrid, where support is a one-way street and being a supporter means nothing more than being a consumer of the brand.

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17 comments:

  1. Powerful piece by Joe Brolly - it is amazing how some people react to being oppressed and belittled for centuries by trying to suck up and get approval from their abusers - there has always been a lot of people, particularly in the south, who get all giddy when some English person of "note", or someone on the BBC praises something Irish - the same people who invest a lot of time trying to show how embarrassed at anything that smacks of Irish culture. Now the GAA wants to try and impress people who are never going to reciprocate, never going to respect anything Irish but will take delight in another example of people sucking up to them and take advantage of another batch of useful idiots. Where does it end?

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  2. Unionists will never show any respect to nationalists and Irish culture. As far as they are concerned we only exist for them to lord it over. The myth that they are Irish needs to be put to bed. They are not. DUP/SF have been confirmed as an old - boy self interest network after today as well. When you read that article by Joe Brolly and see what communities have survived and moved forward after, it is amazing. It is incredible that those 'without sin'during the entirety of the troubles, the DUP, are being propped up now by SF. This article is an inspiration. Politically, I think now that the 'pish-process' is well bedded in and secure, communities are going to need to look to themselves for genuine representation moving forward. Those in Stormont are nothing but a collection of shameless scammers. A pantomime for the optics and SF are merely lime-green unionists.

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  3. Wouldn't go to a GAA match for fear of being lynched! Wasn't there a story a few years ago of a prod who tried to play and got intimidated out? Point the sectarian stick is hypocritical when your own house isn't in order.

    Unionists feel the Irish Language was hijacked and politicized by the shinners, hence the distrust of it, and that is an absolute crying shame.

    Larry, I am a Unionist and Irish. Who I vote for politically does not represent my ethnicity.

    I'm 80% ethnic Irish by the way, just found out by that Ancestry DNA thing.

    How'd ye like dem apples?

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  4. Steve R

    80% cuts no ice. The other 20% obviously over rules the rest. Sounds familiar!

    Stormont is corrupt and as far as the DUP seems to be concerned just an exercise in the one party state self serving routine. Politics in general is beyond repair as it is at present. Christine Le Gard of the IMF has just been found guilty of financial irregularities involving £400,000,000 (sound familiar?) and is to face ZERO punishment. Banks and political criminality. Public representatives obviously feel public finance is their own. Unionism and the loyalty to the half crown has been at the same carry on since day one. Roll on the French Presidential election. A little nationalism should help focus things properly.

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  5. The cream rises to the top Larry!

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  6. Steve R

    We BOTH know you don't want me to respond with the obvious here. lol
    Hope yer all set for a megga Xmas 'down-thunder'.

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  7. Sean Mallory says

    Steve R,

    Your comment illustrates what Brolly is alluding to in his article.

    Here's the thing Steve .... Unionism in any form has no idea of being Irish, understanding Irish ID or what it means or any aspect of it ... you're too British to grasp it!

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  8. Steve
    Apparently you have to be a catholic, gaelic, English hater to qualify as Irish. Apparently there is only one true type of Irishman. Well according to the backwoodsmen round here anyway.

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  9. Being unashamedly and unreservedly Irish and not deferring to another nation for self gain/advantage over your neighbours, I suppose could be part of it.

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  10. Peter,

    That's definitely what it feels like, along with anti-prod!

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  11. Sean,

    Enlighten me please. What IS being Irish, understanding Irish ID what it means or any aspect?

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  12. Larry,

    Too hot, my pasty white legs will scare the locals away. Odd down here, Christmas is the start of their summer holidays so all the kids are off, and EVERYBODY goes to the beach.

    What's appalling though is that they DO NOT DO TURKEY ON CHRISTMAS DAY!

    HERESY!

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  13. Steve R

    WHAT!!? No Turkey n Christmas Day? Strewth... ten times worse than terrible.
    Nothing anti Prod re the national territory issue. My wife isn't an RC.
    How do you like that wee apple? lol

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  14. "Being unashamedly and unreservedly Irish and not deferring to another nation for self gain/advantage over your neighbours" ah, so you are the arbiter of Irishness, Larry? Stay off the drink lad, yer talking shit again.

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  15. Culture, whether in community or whether in an organisation, isn't much more than a conscious or unconscious agreement of 'how things are done around here'. That some behave as 'little Englanders' and that others try to fulfil Dev's vision of comely maidens dancing at the crossroads are merely abberations or outliers on the normal range of deviations.

    As an outlier Slaughtneil is far removed from the norm. Joe with his rousing rhetoric yet again winds himself and others up.

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  16. Peter

    I think you could do with a drink. You come across vexed and irritated. Did you feel particularly...or even remotely Irish... while driving around in a UDR land-rover for a living? Please share with us how that worked.

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  17. Larry,

    Not surprised, you don't even seem RC to me but maybe by token?

    Big juju man in sky not my thing but to each their own.

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