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Showing posts with label Irish Language Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish Language Act. Show all posts
An Irish Language Act - whether as ‘stand alone’ legislation, or part of a cultural package, seems to rattle political Unionism. But, as political commentator Dr John Coulter contends, the solution to spiking Sinn Fein’s guns lies with the various Presbyterian denominations in Ireland.

Pog Mo Thoin! That’s my blunt message to many folk from the pro-Union community who are bitterly opposed to an Irish Language Act as they have fallen headlong into Sinn Fein’s trap.

In recent years, we’ve heard many’s a speech and read many’s a statement urging the Protestant Unionist Loyalist community to give the Irish language a ‘wide bearth’ culturally as the speaking of traditional Gaelic has been portrayed as some form of increasing ‘republicanisation’ of Northern Ireland.

In making and using the Irish language a cultural weapon, Sinn Fein has completely airbrushed the vital role which one of the island’s largest Protestant denominations has made to the development of the language - and indeed, saving it from cultural oblivion in earlier centuries.

Even at times, the exclusively Protestant Orange Order has warned Unionists against learning the Irish language - even though the institution once hosted a traditional large banner with Gaelic emblazoned on it.

In such cases, the Orange Order’s anti-Gaelic rant really does make its leadership look like a headless chicken in terms of responsible political guidance for the loyalist community.

Maybe the current memory is slipping of Grand Lodge of Ireland - the Order’s ruling body, but does it remember a Belfast lodge known as Ireland’s Heritage which existed in the 1970s?

Or perhaps Grand Lodge has forgotten the role played by one of Ireland’s largest Protestant denominations, the Presbyterians, in speaking and protecting the language when English colonists wanted it eradicated during the 18th century?

One point I will concede to Grand Lodge; Sinn Fein has used the Irish language as a political weapon against Unionists in the same way Sinn Féin has tried to hijack our island’s patron saint, Patrick.

Sinn Fein needs to remember that St Patrick brought Christianity – not militant republican socialism – to Ireland.

Unionists must stop making fools of themselves in combatting Sinn Féin’s grip on the Irish language by trying to promote a broad County Antrim accent and north Antrim dialect as the Ulster Scots language.

Ulster Scots campaigners may have succeeded in getting the European Union pre-Brexit to recognise this dialect as a minority language in Europe.

I grew up in north Antrim; I spoke the Ulster Scots accent through primary and secondary school until it vanished after a good dose of expensive elocution lessons.

As a former member of the Orange and Black orders, who donned the sashes for more than two decades, I am proud to say – as a Protestant of Unionist and Presbyterian descent – that I am learning Irish.

I am an unrepentant Radical Right-wing Unionist, but my love of the Irish language does not make me want to vote Sinn Féin in the slightest bit.

Republicans would speak Irish in my presence, knowing I was a Unionist, but thinking this was their way of making fun of me. They shut up when I answered them in Irish!

Imagine how republicans must laugh hysterically at Unionists who talk away in that Ulster Scots lingo. Unionists must adopt the maxim – if you can’t beat them, join them!

Sinn Féin has even out-gunned the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party as the nationalist champion of the Irish language.

You don't hear of many republicans queuing to join Ulster Scots ‘language’ classes. The Orange Order leadership is correct when he talks about a republican agenda.

Sinn Féin has cleverly mastered the art of hood-winking Unionists into thinking that if republicans promote it, then it must be bad for Protestants.

Presbyterians were speaking Irish as their mother tongue generations before Sinn Féin emerged in 1905.

The solution is for the various elements which comprise Irish Presbyterianism - mainstream, Non-Sub-Scribing, Evangelical, Reformed, and even the church formed by the late former Stormont First Minister, the fundamentalist Free Presbyterian, to organise Irish language classes for their flocks.

Once the republican movement sees Presbyterianism - and the other two dozen and more Protestant denominations and the many independent Christian fellowships - embrace the Irish language, Sinn Fein will drop demands for such an act like a very hot potato.

If Presbyterianism adopted its cultural history and rich links with the Irish language, Sinn Fein would no longer be able to use Gaelic as a political ‘red line’ to guarantee the continuation of power-sharing devolution at Stormont.

Perhaps I will see my dream become a reality one day – a senior Orangeman give the traditional 12 July speech, known as the Twelfth, from the platform in Irish.

In the meantime, I’m off to class. Care to join me the PUL community? 

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. 

How To Cure Sinn Fein’s Demands For An Irish Language Act - Give It A Dose Of Radical Presbyterianism!

While recent weeks have witnessed the civil war within the DUP, Political Commentator Dr John Coulter analyses the Sinn Fein agenda of asking Westminster for assistance.

As the Democratic Unionists continue their surprisingly very public implosion with Stormont Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots’ reign as leader becoming not just the shortest in the party’s 50-year history, but one of the shortest of any political party on the island of Ireland, it seems that Sinn Fein’s Westminster agenda is conveniently slipping under the radar.

At first sight, Unionists have a point that Secretary of State Brandon Lewis agreeing to introduce legislation via Westminster at the behest of Sinn Fein for an Irish Language Act looks like republican blackmail.

Unionists - who want to remain part of the UK - want the Westminster Government to politically ‘butt out’ of what they consider to be devolved matters in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein, on the other hand, which ultimately wants to take Northern Ireland out of the Union, seems to be consistently looking to Westminster to get its Irish Language Act. In short, where would republicans be without the help of the British Government on this issue?

But Sinn Fein’s tactics of using Westminster to politically ‘hoodwink’ Unionism over the culture and language legislation in the middle of a pandemic should come as no surprise.

The British intelligence community’s infiltration of the republican movement has come a very long way since the disastrous internment raids mainly on nationalist areas half a century ago in 1971 when the British security forces acted on clearly outdated information.

In 2021, given the number of agents, informants, touts and spies which British intelligence has secreted within the republican movement, the question could be posed - who is really running that movement?

Indeed, any Unionist who still believes the Provisional IRA has disbanded and the IRA’s ruling Army Council has ‘gone away, you know’ is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Key question - how much of Sinn Fein strategy is being at least influenced, at best dictated by British intelligence’s legion of agents within the republican movement?

Look at how that manipulation has developed since 1971. In the early Seventies, Sinn Fein was nothing more than a social club to remember and commemorate the Irish Volunteers of the failed Dublin Easter Rising of 1916, or indeed, the failed Border campaign of 1956-62.

In spite of the Provos’ so-called ‘long war’ strategy, the British intelligence community quickly learned from its internment debacle and developed its network of agents inside the republican movement.

The British intelligence community’s own ‘long war’ was to use its agents to convince the IRA’s Army Council that terrorism would not work and a political strategy was the only way forward, perhaps to enable the British Foreign Office to achieve its long-term goal, which was to rid England of one of its most expensive final colonies - Northern Ireland.

It must not be forgotten that Arthur Griffith, who founded Sinn Fein in 1905, did not see his fledging movement as a diehard republican outfit. Canadian-style dominion status was the ultimate aim of the original Sinn Fein.

The violent drive in becoming an apologist for terrorism only emerged when British general, Bloody Maxwell, decided to have the 1916 Rising leaders executed by firing squad.

Given that many Dublin Catholics physically spat and verbally abused the Rising participants as they were marched into captivity, the Westminster Government should have ordered Maxwell to simply give them jail terms and tell so-called republicans to ‘grow up’, given that in 1916, many Irish nationalists were fighting for the Empire in the trenches of the Great War.

All the executions served was to turn a bunch of troublesome rebels into global Irish martyrs and propelled Sinn Fein into a Westminster General Election landslide in 1918 when Sinn Fein won over 70 of the 105 Irish Commons seats on offer.

Indeed, was the use of the Black and Tans during the War of Independence the best way to quell the IRA campaign?

While abstentionism has always been at the heart of Sinn Fein’s strategy, that took a dramatic U-turn in 1986 when the movement voted to drop this policy towards the Dail in Dublin and take their seats.

It would be more than a dozen years later when Sinn Fein dropped its abstentionism of Stormont and took its Assembly seats in 1998. Now only the House of Commons boycott remains, given that Sinn Fein takes its seats in every forum to which it has been elected.

Again, given the increasing number of so-called ‘draft dodgers’ emerging as elected representatives at all levels - namely people who have never served an apprenticeship in the Provisional IRA.

In the Republic, suspicion of Sinn Fein remains high among the political establishment, prompting the two main rival parties which have ruled in Leinster House for decades to form an historic pact to keep Sinn Fein out of power.

Indeed, setting aside this pact, the only reason Sinn Fein is not in power following the most recent Dail General Election was simply that the party did not run enough candidates - a mistake the ruling IRA Army Council will not allow the Sinn Fein element of the republican movement to repeat.

Realising this, constitutional Southern nationalist politicians and moderate Northern Unionists have been in talks to see how the Sinn Fein bandwagon can be combated across the entire island. In short, is it possible to create an agreed island without the influence of the ‘Shinners’?

While the DUP indulges in political self-destruction, is the plan of British intelligence to use this legion of agents to get Sinn Fein to evolve into a modern-day version of the now defunct constitutional republican Irish Independence Party, once fronted by a Protestant ex-British Army officer?

If British intelligence can ‘persuade’ Sinn Fein to increasingly rely on the interventions of the Westminster Government, how long before a deal emerges whereby Sinn Fein MPs take their Commons seats like the Scottish and Welsh nationalists?

Irish politics may recently be the art of the crazy and brinkmanship, but it can also be - if past deals between Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness are taken as a benchmark - the art of the impossible. 

Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter
Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. 

Has Sinn Fein Become The Most Pro-British Party In Ireland?

Dixie Elliot ✒ In the 2006 Saint Andrew’s Agreement talks the British government promised to pass an Irish Language Act at Westminster.

Sinn Féin wanted it to be devolved to Stormont.

The following year in 2007, Edwin Poots told the Sinn Féiners up in Stormont that it wasn't getting past him.
 
Ten years pass and there's barely a mention of the Irish Language Act from Sinn Féin.

January 2017 and Sinn Féin demands that Arlene Foster steps aside as First Minister until after the RHI Inquiry.

Arlene Foster refuses to step aside so Martin McGuinness is forced to resign as Deputy First Minister.

Sinn Féin announced that there would be no return to the status quo without an Irish Language Act.

A three year stand off ensued before Sinn Féin were forced to crawl back into the status quo empty-handed.

June 2021: Sinn Féin calls the Tories... "Er Boris, could you legislate for that Irish Language Act at Westminster?"


"We said we'd legislate for an Irish Language Act in Westminster back in 2006... where have you been since then?"

"Tied up in Stormont but that doesn't include the three years we weren't in Stormont because of the Irish Language Act."

"OK then, you did help us out with Welfare Reform."

"Could you consider a border poll sometime soon as well?"

"You Want More!"



Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

Sinn Féin Are Hailing This As A Victory

Unionists should box clever and outflank Sinn Fein by throwing their weight behind an Irish Language Act. That’s the contentious New Year resolution which commentator Dr John Coulter urges Unionism to take in 2021.

Even if Ireland can solve the coronavirus pandemic, overcome the challenges of Brexit, an Irish Language Act at Stormont could still be a sticking point for future progress at the Northern Ireland Assembly.

It has become abundantly clear that one of the obstacles preventing the smooth running of the power-sharing Executive at Stormont is the issue of a stand-alone Irish Language Act - viewed as one of Sinn Fein’s key policies.

With arguments already emerging over how to commemorate the centenary of the founding of Northern Ireland in 1921, Sinn Fein could ‘up the ante’ by relaunching demands for the Irish Language Act.

Tactically, Unionism can outflank Sinn Fein by fully embracing such an act. On first reading of the previous sentence, it might seem that someone like myself, who comes from an evangelical Presbyterian, Ulster Unionist, and Loyal Order family background, has jumped ship to Naomi Long’s ultra liberal Alliance Party roller coaster.

However, Unionism needs to fully understand the new long war which republicanism has implemented in its bid to achieve a 32-county, all-Ireland, democratic socialist republic as demanded by the 1916 Easter Rising Proclamation.

Mainstream republicanism is no longer indulging in a violent terrorist campaign, but since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 is attempting to implement a cultural dismantling of Unionism.

First, it was the parades disputes under the excuse that nationalists now lived along the routes of traditional Loyal Order marches. This plan was intended to drive a wedge between the Unionist middle class and the Loyal Orders.

Mainstream republicanism fully understood that since the Home Rule crisis of the early 20th century, and especially since 1905 and the formation of the Ulster Unionist Council, the Loyal Orders - and especially the Orange - was the cultural cement which held the various elements of the Unionist family together.

In an Orange lodge, the rich aristocratic Unionist businessman could sit beside the cash-strapped, working class loyalist and call each other ‘brother’. The Loyal Orders, especially the Orange and the senior Royal Black Institution, were the vehicles of political communication between the various elements of Unionism in Ireland.

The seeds of the breaking of that bond were sown at Drumcree in Portadown following the rioting which erupted when Orangemen were finally prevented from marching along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in the town on their return journey from their Somme battle commemoration service in Drumcree Parish Church in 1997. The parade had been forced through in 1995 and 1996.

The sight of Orangemen clashing with the police caused serious unease between the Orange Order and the Unionist middle class. That unease became an open rift in the following year, weeks after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the referenda to support that Agreement, and the initial elections to the new Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998.

During July 1998, three Catholic Quinn brothers died in an arson attack on their home in Ballymoney in the heartland of Dr Ian Paisley’s North Antrim constituency.

Three senior Orange clerical chaplains - one of them my own late father (Rev Dr Robert Coulter MBE) - issued an appeal for the Orangemen to leave Drumcree Hill as a mark of respect to the three dead brothers.

The result was a death threat to those three clerics from the Loyalist Volunteer Force - a breakaway, anti-Agreement terror gang formed by leading Portadown loyalist Billy Wright after his expulsion from the Mid Ulster UVF. Wright was shot dead by the INLA inside the Maze Prison in 1997.

Middle class Unionists were disgusted by the threats to the clerics and by scenes of confrontations between pro-Agreement Unionists and the vehemently anti-Agreement Orange pressure group, the Spirit of Drumcree. That rift became formal when the Ulster Unionist Party severed its connections with the Orange Order so that the Order was no longer entitled to send its delegates to the ruling Ulster Unionist Council.

The culture dismantling campaign was increased with targeting of traditional Eleventh Night loyalist bonfire locations. But the real push against pro-Unionist culture in Northern Ireland has been republicanism’s blatant hijacking of the Irish language.

Instead of attempting to retake or reclaim the Irish language from republicanism, Unionism attempted to enter the language battle by trying to develop Ulster-Scots as a minority European language.

However, for people like myself who grew up in rural County Antrim, Ulster-Scots is nothing more than a broad Ballymena accent! At best, in my honest comment, it is nothing more than a dialect, but not a separate language. No doubt, Ulster-Scots ‘linguists’ will be jumping down my throat at that suggestion.

It is equally abundantly clear that Unionism has been wrong-footed by republicanism over the Irish language, thereby convincing Unionism to ignore its rich heritage with that language.

Republicanism has already conveniently airbrushed out of history that it was radical Presbyterians who organised the United Irishmen’s rebellion of 1798. Likewise, Unionism seems to have equally conveniently overlooked the very significant fact that it was Irish Presbyterians who saved the Irish language from total extinction.

It is rather amazing, too, that the Orange Order’s ruling body, the Grand Lodge of Ireland, has expressed opposition to an Irish Language Act when some of the Loyal Order banners proudly displayed the Irish language.

Perhaps the most famous of these banners was Ireland’s Heritage from Belfast. However, because one of its members was William McGrath, who was convicted of sexual abuse of young boys in the Kincora Boys Home in east Belfast, the lodge has since been disbanded.

Given this rich Irish language heritage in the Loyal Orders and Unionism, how should they all react to a proposed Irish Language Act, even if Sinn Fein has made it one of republicanism’s red lines?

The solution is simple, yet practical. The Loyal Orders and Unionism should forget about trying to combat Sinn Fein with rebranding a ‘Ballymena accent’ (Ulster Scots) as an alternative language.

The Loyal Orders and Unionism should embrace the Irish language and apply for every penny of funding available to set up Irish language classes. The only reason Sinn Fein has made such a fuss of the Irish language is because it taunts Unionism.

Sinn Fein would drop demands for an Irish Language Act like a hot potato if every Orange lodge, Royal Black preceptory and Apprentice Boys club applied for funding to launch Irish language classes in their halls. By adopting the Irish language, Unionism and the Loyal Orders would defuse the Sinn Fein cultural cannon.

Unionism and the Loyal Orders have played smart when it comes to St Patrick’s Day and the Battle of the Somme commemorations. St Patrick’s Day in the past was perceived to be a nationalist festival, but Orange lodges have also used it as a parade and many Unionist branches organise Irish stew social evenings.

Likewise, both Unionism and the Loyal Orders have publicly acknowledged the role played by British regiments recruited overwhelmingly from Ireland’s nationalist community at the Somme, especially during the July 1st 1916 opening day.

In Orangeism, 1st July has become known as ‘The Mini Twelfth’, and Unionists need to break the mindset that only the 36th Ulster Division suffered terrible losses that day.

Perhaps the pro-Union community could also make a start in recognising the role of Protestant nationalists in Irish history and heritage.

In the meantime, a very Happy Christmas to all at The Pensive Quill and beyond. God bless and stay safe.

And stand by for my annual awards, Coulter’s Coveted Cock-Up Cups, which hopefully will be published on The Pensive Quill before we leave 2020. As usual, the competition for the Top Tit Trophy and Gobshite Cup is intensive!  

 Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter

 Listen to Dr John Coulter’s religious show, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning   around 9.30 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM, or listen online   at www.thisissunshine.com

Unionism’s New Year Resolution - Foghlaim Gaeilge!

Learn Irish and embrace an Act! That’s the radical advice from contentious political commentator, Dr John Coulter, to Unionists and members of the Protestant Loyal Orders and Churches. Here in his Fearless Flying Column today, he sets out his case.

From Rod To Whip

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