Comments by "Taint ABird" (@taintabird23) on "Channel 4 News"
channel.
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
@quiteamazingtoo The British government refused to stop exports of food leaving Ireland, as it was wedded to the Laissez Faire economic system. In the summer of 1846 the UK government successfully fed 3 million people in the west of Ireland, cheaply and efficiently. At the first sight of a new potato crop, they declared the famine over and withdrew the aid. When that crop failed, the refused provide further assistance, and instructed the Irish poor law system to deal with the problem. The Irish Poor law system was simply unable to cope. The British knew this because of a report from 1838 which stated that any large scale distress in Ireland would leave the Poor Law system overwhelmed.
As for the common heritage, those who were died in the famine or had to emigrate because of it were Irish speaking, with a different culture, customs and to those who ruled them. They did not speak English. Any common heritage exists because the Irish gave up theirs.
If you want to understand Ireland, even modern Ireland, you need to understand the famine. Sadly, it is not taught in British schools.
3
-
@ A Westenholz
No, Brexit is not like that all
If you go out for a pack of cigarettes you know where you are going, how long it will take and when you will be back. Coming back is an intention. You will know how much the cigarettes cost and how you will get there. You have, in fact, a rudimentary plan.
Brexit characterized by the complete absence of a plan.
Instead you have an inarticulate England nationalism, taking the whole of the UK off on a mystery tour to an imagined pleasant land called Brexit, without a map, food, agreed means of transport or money. Instead it is simply equipped with the faith that it will all be alright and you will get there - if everyone just believes hard enough.
In the end UK just finds itself lost and simply has to come home, the way you came - and they will find the door open at the EU, once they realise their limitations and stop acting up.
That's Brexit.
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
@ Kojii Naz
I am a historian by profession and have an understanding as to the current thinking in relation to Historiography. I have a number of points for you to consider, some of which may be difficult.
First of all Brexit has highlighted the widespread ignorance of Ireland in the UK. This has come as a great shock as, while Irish nationalism has evolved and matured, no national self-examination has ever taken place in the UK - specifically among the English. In Ireland we somehow assumed that there was a genuine shift in attitudes as Ireland, Irish culture and Irish people were increasingly portrayed in positive terms. It appears this was just a veneer.
Secondly, Brexit has also exposed the extent to which there is a crisis of identity in the UK, or should I say, among the English. The English have never come to terms with their place in the world post-empire, have never come to terms with the legacy of their empire in any truly balanced way.
Thirdly, the way history is studied has changed. In the past, history was written by the winner from their own point of view. Ulster Unionists, for example believe that there was nothing in Ulster until their colony was established and they brought modernity to the place; these days it is understood that there is another perspective, that of the person who experienced the colonisation and those of a native Irish identity would be aware of a different experience of the same events. Many English people, are unprepared and too insecure in their 'national skin' to come face to face with an alternative perspective.
Such attitudes reveal a lack of understanding of the nature and effects of colonial conquest and rule. There is insufficient education,about the realities of empire. Historical analysis of empire has also tended to evaluate the British empire either “neutrally”, or offer a triumphalist narrative that pointing out the benefits of empire for the British while ignoring its devastating impact on the peoples whose lands were taken, cultures transformed, and economic well-being was decimated.
Does this narrative sound familiar?: while the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Belgians and Germans exploited and abused, the British empire brought ideas of protection for lesser races and fostered their incremental development. With British tutelage colonised peoples could become, eventually, as competent, as knowledgeable, as “civilised” as Britain itself. These platitudes have been repeated time and again – they are still at the heart of most popular representations of the British Empire in my experience.
And don't get me started on romanticism around the Second World War!
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
3
-
@anneclarke3905 With respect, for me, your post seems to be rather incoherent. It makes no sense.
The UK voted to leave the EU, and that includes its trade deals. It cannot follow surely that the decision to exclude Northern Ireland from EU trade deals is 'punishment' for the UKs vote to leave...because the UK voted leave, it was what it wanted even if Northern Ireland voted to remain. Northern Ireland is still part of the UK. Would the Unionists not feel that they were being 'pushed' into a united Ireland against their will if they were included in EU Trade deals and Britain was not? After all, the Irish government wanted NI to remain in EU trade deals too and I remember that being said when NI was allowed to remain in the customs union.
The UK voted to leave, Brexiters tell us, because they did not need the EU. I don't understand why Brexiters voted to leave the EU and then expected to be able to have all the things they liked about it, and then claim 'punishment' if they don't get it. When humans behave like that we consider them to be spoiled, don't we? You don't like unelected people who run the EU, but you want to benefit from the parts of their work that you like. I can't understand that.
It is also difficult for me to see how the EU 'weaponised' the border issue when Brexiters had no response to the problem to begin with. [It seems to me now that the assumption was that Dublin would leave the EU with the UK, because there is a widespread belief among Brexiters that the Republic totally depends on the UK economically. This only occurred to me recently and I think this is the root of the problem. The understanding of the Republics economy among British based Brexiters is about 50 years out of date.] In frustration, the Brexiters decided it was being 'weaponised' against Brexit. It was an explanation for the failure of the EU to come to heel as the Brexiters assumed they would and it is hugely regrettable - they cannot accept their miscalculation.
It is difficult for me to see how keeping NI out of EU trade deals is pushing for a united Ireland when it is keeping the NI in UK trade deals only. Do you understand what I mean? It seems to me that the biggest threat to NI remaining in the UK comes from the Tory party and the SNP. The Tory party could possibly have tried to discard NI in order to get Brexit but for the GFA is preventing them from doing so and we know from how the Tories treated the DUP and from polls within the membership of the party that they don't really care about NI or Scotland. Brexit has also raised the prospect of the Scottish leaving the UK in a referendum in a few years time. None of us on this island, north or south, seem to have any control on what is going on in Britain. It's not about us, for once!
As for the security at the border, I assume this has to do with COVID-19? It is obviously a temporary thing and not permanent as Brexit is.
Brexit is bad for all of us. You and I voted in a referendum to bring peace to this island back in 1998 and everything was working out fine. The Queen came to visit Dublin and Cork in 2011, I wasn't all that interested in the historic relevance of it, but I was surprised when I actually found the visit really moving. There were excellent relations North and South, East and West. We in the south have evolved and changed to become a more inclusive country, being more inclusive of the British part of our history and being more questioning of the sacred cows of our culture. In the south we evolved to embrace a civic nationalism rather than the binary type of nationalism that fuels Brexit and are all the more confident for it. Then Brexit happened and we in the south discovered that no such changes were happening among the English outside London. They know nothing about us, north or south, and care even less. That was a genuine shock down here I can tell you, it was like being thrust into a cold shower.
Anyway, here is hoping that the outcome of the negotiations are not too severe for any of us and that we can make the best of a bad situation, whatever the outcome.
3
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2
-
2