Mick Hall writing @ Organized Rage suggests that:

The priests who open every session of the UK and Irish parliaments with a prayer would be far better employed if they performed an exorcism.



Some of the 26 church of England bishops who are automatically granted a seat in the UK's second parliamentary chamber.

One of the great tragedies about post 1921 Ireland is how far to often they ape their former British masters. The British House of Commons begins the day’s business in the chamber with prayers for members of Parliament which last for approximately three minutes. Harmless foolery some might believe but this ridiculous charade is far from that as prayers are said by the Speaker’s Chaplain, who is always a Church of England priest.

Presumably MP's who adhere to the Catholic, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist religion or none, are in no need of a prayer. What is happening here is the Church of England marking it's space in a major state institution, much like a tom cat does when spraying its dominance in a back alley.

This is not the only democratic chamber in which the priests hold sway. Almost every UK Local Council session begins with a prayer from a Christian priest. If you consider the majority of the population do not subscribe to a Christian region you get some idea of just how out of date this type of mumbo-jumble is. It's bad enough 26 CoE Bishops are given an automatic seat in the House of Lord. Which in itself highlights what a mockney sorry excuse of a democracy this disunited Kingdom has become.

As Anthony McIntyre writes "why not sacrifice a goat." Myself, I would suggest as the British parliament is full of charlatans, crooks, and shysters, why not make the priest earn his coin and carry out an exorcism?

While AM is centring on the dominance of the Catholic church in Dáil Éireann, we shouldn't be smug because much the same nonsense is happening here in the British parliament at Westminster and our local councils. When will the people wake up and cry enough of such ruling class self interested twaddle?

Might As Well Perform An Exorcism

Mick Hall writing @ Organized Rage suggests that:

The priests who open every session of the UK and Irish parliaments with a prayer would be far better employed if they performed an exorcism.



Some of the 26 church of England bishops who are automatically granted a seat in the UK's second parliamentary chamber.

One of the great tragedies about post 1921 Ireland is how far to often they ape their former British masters. The British House of Commons begins the day’s business in the chamber with prayers for members of Parliament which last for approximately three minutes. Harmless foolery some might believe but this ridiculous charade is far from that as prayers are said by the Speaker’s Chaplain, who is always a Church of England priest.

Presumably MP's who adhere to the Catholic, Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist religion or none, are in no need of a prayer. What is happening here is the Church of England marking it's space in a major state institution, much like a tom cat does when spraying its dominance in a back alley.

This is not the only democratic chamber in which the priests hold sway. Almost every UK Local Council session begins with a prayer from a Christian priest. If you consider the majority of the population do not subscribe to a Christian region you get some idea of just how out of date this type of mumbo-jumble is. It's bad enough 26 CoE Bishops are given an automatic seat in the House of Lord. Which in itself highlights what a mockney sorry excuse of a democracy this disunited Kingdom has become.

As Anthony McIntyre writes "why not sacrifice a goat." Myself, I would suggest as the British parliament is full of charlatans, crooks, and shysters, why not make the priest earn his coin and carry out an exorcism?

While AM is centring on the dominance of the Catholic church in Dáil Éireann, we shouldn't be smug because much the same nonsense is happening here in the British parliament at Westminster and our local councils. When will the people wake up and cry enough of such ruling class self interested twaddle?

5 comments:

  1. I take it you guys have renounced the 1916 Proclamation too?

    We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God, Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

    Signed on behalf of the Provisional Government:
    THOMAS J. CLARKE
    SEAN Mac DIARMADA
    P. H. PEARSE
    JAMES CONNOLLY
    THOMAS MacDONAGH
    EAMONN CEANNT
    JOSEPH PLUNKETT

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  2. Whether the Republicanism of 1798 which was led by people who weren't of the Catholic faith and indeed were motivated by their own religion in their quest for a Republic to free the Irish Catholics of that time from the yoke of the Catholic Church or those of 1916 or those behind the egalitarian Fenian proclamation it is the substance that matters and the Republican values that run through the centuries like veins in rock not the religion.

    There are basic tenets involved and religion is mostly ancillary. The men and women of 1798 or those of 1916 were shaped by their time and religious belief systems were more common and more a matter of identity for people. These days I'd like to think all children of the planet would be cherished equally rather than just those of the nation but I can't go back and edit it. It wouldn't make sense it the context of that time although it makes sense now.

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  3. "These days I'd like to think all children of the planet would be cherished equally rather than just those of the nation but I can't go back and edit it. It wouldn't make sense it the context of that time although it makes sense now."


    Indeed, well said Simon. In the words of the Fenian maxim, ní bóna ná coróin (neither crown nor collar)

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  4. Waiting for the 3016 Proclamation

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  5. The former Republicans mentioned meant that no particular denomination would be favoured, but were certainly acknowledging God as the one from whom man gets his rights and to whom they are accountable. Just as the American Declaration of Independence acknowledges: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'

    As you say, these beliefs are no longer central to Republicanism. It might be more honest if aspiring republicans produced their new Proclamation, basing man's rights on whatever they think they derive from.

    ReplyDelete