Anthony McIntyre 🏴‍☠️ The silent R, besides saving a lot of bother, can also deny many early risers the first ray of offence which they often scramble out of bed to catch just so that they can be offended for the rest of the day. 

Had the Crossmaglen woman at the heart of the latest Up The Ra controversy muted the R button when she posed for a selfie with Arlene Foster, she could easily have claimed she was just abbreviating Up The Arlene.

Of course, just about everybody apart from religious evangelicals - who tend to have a literal view of everything but common sense - would have sensed the subversiveness in the reworked slogan. Ms Foster would have looked pretty silly complaining about it on the grounds that the Crossmaglen woman really meant something else.

Up the Ra never offends me because I so readily see in it the chant of resistance during the H Block blanket protest. If others want to roar, as they sometimes do, Fuck the Ra, I am not going to seek a gagging order.

Did the Crossmaglen woman set out to cause deep offence to Arlene Foster by expressing an authentic fidelity to the organisation that tried to kill but fortuitously injured her father? Or was she pricking the inflated balloon of conceit and self-righteousness that has come to characterise much of how the past is remembered? She is maybe guilty of nothing more than seeing an opportunity for a laugh, homing in on Arlene the Arrogant and not Arlene the Aggrieved. Alternatively, she could have been praising the Ra that took out so many of the war crime regiment responsible for Bloody Sunday, or the South Armagh Ra that killed numerous armed men from a force that murdered local child Majella O'Hare. In a week that British service men who were culpable of mass murder during their war of terror from the skies against German civilians are being honoured and remembered, any expressions of horror at the IRA killing British paratroopers would have sounded churlish.

Recently, attempts were made to scandalise the Irish women's soccer team for celebrating its success with a rendition of Up The Ra. It is hard to imagine the women on that team all hailing from West Belfast's Ballymurphy, where locals take pride in the resistance mounted by IRA volunteers against the army that massacred civilians. Some of them are probably of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour Party stock, all parties where glorification of the Provisional IRA has experienced a long time systemic drought. But this is where the I have a right to be more offended than you lobby has brought us.  

The meaning associated with words is positional rather than fixed. It can and does evolve over time. Much like an atheist describing Maradona's 1986 World Cup goal against England as miraculous, Up the Ra for many no longer has the meaning imputed to it when first crafted.
 
A majority of people in Ireland believe that those who sing songs containing pro-IRA chants do not “mean to glorify the IRA”, according to a poll.

Civility has its place in public discourse but so too has coarseness. And that means telling Arlene Foster bluntly that she has yet to publicly renounce those elected representatives of the DUP who glorified the butchers of Bloody Sunday and called for them to be given medals.

The Crossmaglen woman in the eye of the latest storm should desist from her chant next time she meets Arlene Foster. The former First Minister suffered considerably when her father was shot. For that reason alone, in her presence is neither the time nor the place to shout up the Ra. In return, perhaps Arlene Foster could shout Fuck Soldier F. Nobody in Crossmaglen or Derry will be offended.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Up The A

Anthony McIntyre 🏴‍☠️ The silent R, besides saving a lot of bother, can also deny many early risers the first ray of offence which they often scramble out of bed to catch just so that they can be offended for the rest of the day. 

Had the Crossmaglen woman at the heart of the latest Up The Ra controversy muted the R button when she posed for a selfie with Arlene Foster, she could easily have claimed she was just abbreviating Up The Arlene.

Of course, just about everybody apart from religious evangelicals - who tend to have a literal view of everything but common sense - would have sensed the subversiveness in the reworked slogan. Ms Foster would have looked pretty silly complaining about it on the grounds that the Crossmaglen woman really meant something else.

Up the Ra never offends me because I so readily see in it the chant of resistance during the H Block blanket protest. If others want to roar, as they sometimes do, Fuck the Ra, I am not going to seek a gagging order.

Did the Crossmaglen woman set out to cause deep offence to Arlene Foster by expressing an authentic fidelity to the organisation that tried to kill but fortuitously injured her father? Or was she pricking the inflated balloon of conceit and self-righteousness that has come to characterise much of how the past is remembered? She is maybe guilty of nothing more than seeing an opportunity for a laugh, homing in on Arlene the Arrogant and not Arlene the Aggrieved. Alternatively, she could have been praising the Ra that took out so many of the war crime regiment responsible for Bloody Sunday, or the South Armagh Ra that killed numerous armed men from a force that murdered local child Majella O'Hare. In a week that British service men who were culpable of mass murder during their war of terror from the skies against German civilians are being honoured and remembered, any expressions of horror at the IRA killing British paratroopers would have sounded churlish.

Recently, attempts were made to scandalise the Irish women's soccer team for celebrating its success with a rendition of Up The Ra. It is hard to imagine the women on that team all hailing from West Belfast's Ballymurphy, where locals take pride in the resistance mounted by IRA volunteers against the army that massacred civilians. Some of them are probably of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Labour Party stock, all parties where glorification of the Provisional IRA has experienced a long time systemic drought. But this is where the I have a right to be more offended than you lobby has brought us.  

The meaning associated with words is positional rather than fixed. It can and does evolve over time. Much like an atheist describing Maradona's 1986 World Cup goal against England as miraculous, Up the Ra for many no longer has the meaning imputed to it when first crafted.
 
A majority of people in Ireland believe that those who sing songs containing pro-IRA chants do not “mean to glorify the IRA”, according to a poll.

Civility has its place in public discourse but so too has coarseness. And that means telling Arlene Foster bluntly that she has yet to publicly renounce those elected representatives of the DUP who glorified the butchers of Bloody Sunday and called for them to be given medals.

The Crossmaglen woman in the eye of the latest storm should desist from her chant next time she meets Arlene Foster. The former First Minister suffered considerably when her father was shot. For that reason alone, in her presence is neither the time nor the place to shout up the Ra. In return, perhaps Arlene Foster could shout Fuck Soldier F. Nobody in Crossmaglen or Derry will be offended.

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

18 comments:

  1. I think you are reading way to much into this. If I ask John Finucane for a selfie then shout Up the UFF. That makes me a cunt, nothing more, nothing less. What crimes the Finucane family may have done or what North Belfast PIRA did matters not a jot. I would still be a cunt.

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    1. You might have a point about me reading too much into it but haven't really explained why.

      More people are presumably aware of what happened to John's father than they would Arlene's. The issue for me is whether the Crossmaglen woman saw Arlene the victim whose father was fortunate to escape with his life, and which left her as an eight year old traumatised ever after, or Arlene the sanctimonious cow who is quite happy to give out about republican ditties but stay stum about the call by colleagues for war criminals to be awarded medals for their crimes.

      Up the UFF would be a very distinct statement in the Finucane case but it would be much different if a unionist from the Shankill was to pose for a selfie and sing Simply The Best. Nationalists and Mr Finucane might claim it is a UFF anthem. But we all know it is much wider than that

      Was the Crossmaglen woman winding up unionists and playing to the gallery of her friends or was she deliberately focusing on somebody she knew had suffered an attack on her dad?

      If it was the latter then it was inexcusable.

      The OTT reaction is in my view similar to nationalist whining after Gregory Campbell said Curry My Yogurt. FFS, we are all are adults and should stop sweating the trivial.

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  2. A majority of people in Ireland believe that those who sing songs containing pro-IRA chants do not “mean to glorify the IRA”, according to a poll.

    I would view the above in the same way that a poll said that people thought singing The Billy Boys is a bit of craic.

    “Up the UFF would be a very distinct statement in the Finucane case” as indeed is singing Up The ‘Ra is in front of Arlene Foster. She has recalled how her father after being shot crawled on all fours into the family house in full view her and mother. The IRA also bombed her school bus when she was a teenager. I would say that both these incidents are very distinct to her.

    Yes, Arlene is arrogant, sanctimonious, and holds some deeply reactionary social views , but if your actions make light of what she experienced and witnessed as a child, you are as Peter has quite rightly said, still a cunt.

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    1. I think objecting to poll data that does not conform to our beliefs or prejudices is a pretty widespread phenomenon. In the absence of an alternative poll, it is what we are left with.

      Your dissent from the data still leaves the hump of the soccer players to get over. How they believed they were consciously glorifying the IRA is left unexplained. If I recall, Peter offered what I think was a fair interpretation of what the players were doing.

      Up the Ra unlike up the UFF has been incorporated into a song about something other than the IRA. People who have no sympathy for the IRA will join the singalong chorus with scant regard for the words - unless we believe the Irish international soccer team all support and glorify the IRA.

      I have no opinion on whether Foster is sanctimonious. The Crossmaglen woman might have viewed her as such and might not even have been aware of her father, whose name I do not recall whereas Pat Finucane is a name I very much do.

      Up The Ra resonates with me strongly because it was a roar of defiance against a brutal prison regime. Standing naked in a cell screaming that into a governor's face is one of the more memorable aspects of the blanket protest. But it has its place. I would never countenance it being shouted at Arlene Foster or Anne Travers.

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  3. It's been a while since I read it, but The Hoods: Crime & Punishment in Belfast sprung to mind when reading this (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7t1nc)

    Some 'hoods' in West Belfast took to dubbing any authoritarian person or entity as "Provos" as well as individuals, totally unconnected with the IRA, as a "Provo" if they were strict, or authority types. A social worker could be described as a Provo, for example.

    The 'hoods' were obviously poking fun at the Provos as well as the social workers, teachers, and most likely cops that they described this way, but obviously knew it wasn't true.

    I think "up the 'RA" has become a rebel yell, with, as has been said, little to do with the actions of the IRA, beyond a perhaps misguided idea of rebellion.

    I dislike the term and its usage, but I wouldn't as quickly condeming the XMG woman for using Tiocfaidh ár lá.

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  4. I would like to apologise for my last post to every reader I'm truly sorry I was wrong and all I can do is apologise. Ive came across something and if right it answers a question than many suspected but could not prove.Its to do with the McBride principles proni_cent-1-16-13A_1987-05-11 is first download take note of date then NAI_TSCH-2017-10-1-1987-05-15 and take note last page of this pdf and date

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  5. "More people are presumably aware of what happened to John's father than they would Arlene's. The issue for me is whether the Crossmaglen woman saw Arlene the victim whose father was fortunate to escape with his life, and which left her as an eight year old traumatised ever after, or Arlene the sanctimonious cow..."
    Does it matter? To a victim of the IRA, then the ditty is as offensive as Up the UFF to a victim of loyalist terrorism. Arlene saw her father shot and was on a school bus that was bombed by the RA. You would need to be a right cunt to do what the Crossmageln girl did. If she did the same to Ann Travers would that be ok? Is one victim more deserving of civilty than another?

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    1. You seem to miss the point.

      It has to matter because it goes to conscious intent. Did the Crossmaglen woman know anything about Arlene Foster's personal history? If she did and decided to do it anyway, then your point stands. But if she didn't know . . .

      We should try and be civil regardless - and also to be sensitive to victims.

      If all victims are deserving of the same civility Foster might think about going to the graves of the Bloody Sunday victims, who unlike her father were killed, before she welcomes a belligerent cheerleader for massacre into the ranks. She has called on the Crossmaglen woman to visit her father's grave. This is what makes me think politics has a lot to do with it.

      Last time out there was nobody standing in her company who could possibly be accused of personally abusing her, yet she was calling for legislation to ban Oh Ah Up The Ra. She is still fighting a battle of legitimacy, seeking to legitimise the killers she supports and delegitimise the killers she does not support. Echos of Gerry Adams demands for half the truth.

      You will never find me mocking victims or standing over acts of desecration of floral tributes for the Paras at Narrowwater. Nor will you find me calling a spade a shovel when it comes to this one eyed view of the world.

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  6. Foster was the First Minister of our country so I expect she knew about her. If she didn't ,then she could have at least apologised. Even if she didn't know, who the actual fuck asks for a selfie with a politician and sings Up the RA?

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    1. you might be right about what she knew. But we do not know. And it is much easier to be aware of people whose loved one was killed rather than injured.

      The type of person who asks for a selfie with a politician viewed as a total hypocrite by that person is the type of person who gets Nigel Farage to sing Ooh Ah up the Ra. It can be done to annoy them rather than abuse them, but inappropriate if the person knows that the politician had a personal history.

      If it was sang to Boris, I don't think you would be too worried about it. Had somebody sang to Thatcher Up The Argies, same thing. Some of us would see humour in it and others would claim offence.

      But the bottom line is, disagree with victims' interpretation as much as you wish but don't be firing gratuitous insults at them for being victims.

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  7. AM, you are missing the point. Why do you not accept that chanting Up the Ra is offensive to a larger section of this society, one which is deeply divided? Yes, this woman may have known nothing Arlene Fosters personal history, but she certainly knew exactly who she was and acting totally inappropriately. Bit like posing with Michelle O'Neill and bursting into the Billy Boys. Legitimising those who kill is not unique to either side here. It's a merry- go-round which is best not mounted.

    It turns out the woman in question is a school counsellor. She was obviously on the Prosecco and a heavy dose of irony in the night in question.

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    1. I do accept that it is offensive but also hold to the view that the right to offend is much stronger than any right to silence. Many people claim offence as a means to shut others up. Legitimising state terrorism that occurred during the conflict is offensive to large sections of this society but that is hardly a reason to suppress the opinion of those who do legitimse it or call for legislation that would criminalise the expression of such opinion. Should Councilor Dean McCullough be prosecuted for glorifying bloody Sunday killers? A firm no is my response.

      If people want to say RUC Special Branch did a fine job, are we to censor that view? I don't believe so.

      People are allowed to act in a way that others find inappropriate. Gay Pride was long considered an inappropriate way to act. The more important question is if the behaviour is abusive not inappropriate.

      Legitimising those who kill is a time honoured practice the world over. The war criminals of RAF Bomber Command were widely legitimised in recent days while people dissenting by refusing to wear the poppy face the usual hounding from what has been termed poppy fascism.

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  8. She repeatedly poked the sleeping bear of nationalism and then cried whenever it bit her. Her glass house must be in quite a state by now. Coupled with her going into the House of Lords and her new career as a commentator, I view this incident as a two fingered salute: childish and immature, yes, but quite satisfying. In some ways, she reminds me of the SNP minister Humza Yosaf who recently reported an email from a constituent (calling Yosaf a racist piece of shit) as a racially aggravated crime: any dissent will be turned around and framed as personal attack.
    Politicians hold public office and are (supposed to be) accountable to the people, who will use their voices to articulate their like/dislike of said politician. Sometimes this will be in the form of mockery (such as this case). Sometimes this will involve vile comments/actions (Blair getting handed a pair of bloody surgical gloves after shaking hands with Adams).

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  9. Anthony,

    'I have no opinion on whether Foster is sanctimonious. The Crossmaglen woman might have viewed her as such and might not even have been aware of her father, whose name I do not recall whereas Pat Finucane is a name I very much do.'

    This seems to me to be the crux of the current 'Up The Ra'
    phenomenon, the mechanics of which I recall you explaining succinctly in relation to the Barry McElduff controversy some years previously.

    ' People may be sectarian without even knowing it. We can hardy finger point as few of us manage to rise above the ground we stand on. We are so caught up in the atrocities inflicted on our "own" community that we completely overlook what the "other" community sustained. It is not that we know their fate and are indifferent to it, but that we relegate it in terms of emotional and cultural significance. We treat it as something that we simply have no call to remember. It is not war crimes per se that enrage us, just war crimes that happen to our community.Them and us, as strong as it ever was.'

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    1. Robert - good to see you making an appearance.
      Not much has changed, has it? I was thinking back myself to the McElduff incident as a result of this brouhaha. There is something to the old quip that no pessimist on the North was ever proved wrong.

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  10. A friend on reading this piece sent the following link.



    It works for me

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  11. His meditation on homophobia is enlightening as well: https://youtu.be/6xxiK6Z4eXs?t=95

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