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IF YOU’VE FOLLOWED this column from its outset you’ll know its usual purpose is to pick apart a few of the stranger Irish news stories that unfold throughout the week.
Unfortunately, this laser-like focus can occasionally be wobbled by distracting events from across the Irish Sea, especially when the matter at hand concerns us in some way or another.
That’s what happened this week when the Home Secretary Suella Braverman penned a confused and confusing op-ed for The Times on Wednesday, decrying the pro-Palestinian marches planned across the United Kingdom on Armistice Day.
In the UK, Braverman’s editorial has put her job at risk and, at the time of writing, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is said to be actively considering firing her for the article’s suggestion that the Metropolitan Police express favouritism towards certain protestors, including pro-Palestinian protestors and Black Lives Matter protestors. The Met, for their part, have already requested that would-be demonstrators not hold any protests on Armistice Day.
Calling for harsher treatment of protestors is certainly disturbing, but it was not that argument alone which caught the eye of Irish readers. While making her point, Braverman made a deeply strange comparison, saying that the planned marches were “disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster.”
Braverman also said that the marches planned for Saturday “are an assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists — of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland”.
Now if you can’t work out what she meant by that, you’re not alone. Leo Varadkar had no clue what to say either.
“I can’t really interpret her comments. I’m not quite sure what she meant,” said the Taoiseach, clearly coming to the prudential conclusion that when somebody is weaving a web of utter nonsense, it is best to avoid getting wrapped up in it.
I, however, can’t help myself.
Because here is the thing: taken at face value, Braverman’s comments only seem to mean one thing. There is, quite simply, only one group famous for marching in Ulster. And they are very famous for it. You’ve probably heard of them. Often heralded by the haunting toot of a thousand flutes, a particular affinity for the colour orange.
And what makes Braverman’s remarks so odd is that this group of people are fiercely loyal to the flag and the state she represents. One might even call them… loyalists.
Such is the confusion over Braverman’s article that the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order has stated his intention to contact Braverman seeking clarification of what she meant. Unionism is a core tenet of both those who tend do the marching in the North of Ireland, as well as the Conservative Party, or to give them their full title: the Conservative and Unionist Party.
The suggestion that Braverman might have been equating the Orange Order to people whom she called “hate marchers” is therefore particularly surprising.
I welcome this statement from the Met Police. The hate marchers need to understand that decent British people have had enough of these displays of thuggish intimidation and extremism. https://t.co/yjJv8xqDZF
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) November 6, 2023
But unfortunately for Braverman, if that’s not what she meant, then what on earth did she mean?
The recent history of English politicians misspeaking or misunderstanding the cultural dynamics of Northern Ireland means that a Tory cabinet minister without even the foggiest notion of what takes place in the six counties is nothing new. Only Braverman herself knows what she was trying to get at, and one suspects that the confusion will only deepen when an explanation finally does surface.
It’s been that kind of week.
If you stood on the the Irish eastern coastline this week and looked across the water you’d practically be able to hear the circus music. But what else are we to expect of the playing field that produces figures like Suella Braverman and, of course, Boris Johnson.
Because this week we learned that that Boris Johnson, while Prime Minister during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, suggested going on live television to be injected with Covid.
‘Why?,’ you’re probably wondering.‘What could that have possibly achieved?,’ you may be asking. ‘I absolutely would have watched that with a glass of wine and a bucket of popcorn,’ I hear myself think. It’s impossible to avoid imagine what format this could have taken. Would he have been injected by a doctor or Richard Madeley? Would there have been a live studio audience? Why not just catch Covid the normal way, like the rest of us (including him, so badly that he ended up on a ventilator) all did?
While we’re doing Covid throwbacks… The family of Captain Sir Tom Moore, the ones whose Captain Tom Foundation is under investigation by the UK’s charity commission, were this week ordered by the Central Bedfordshire Council to demolish an unauthorised home spa they’d built in their back garden.
In case you’ve forgotten, Moore was a 99-year-old man who did 100 laps of his back garden during Covid in order to raise money for the NHS. Moore became a viral sensation and ended up raising £33million – earning him both a knighthood and honorary military promotion. He died in 2021 shortly after a family holiday to Barbados, paid for by British Airways.
After his death, his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore became CEO of the charity on a salary of £85,000 a year. In its first year the charity spent more on fundraising and management costs than on charitable donations, including payments to other companies owned by Hannah and her husband. The charity’s behaviour has resulted in an investigation, and Ingram-Moore said the charity is unlikely to exist for much longer.
And now, the feds are coming for the unauthorised spa.
How dare they? What did poor old Captain Sir Tom do all those laps of his garden for if not for it to one day become an unauthorised spa? Why did he spend his life serving his country if not for the right to install a spa of such mass that it is doing damage to a Bedfordshire building that is protected due to its historical significance? It’s an outrage.
They don’t have Joe Duffy in the UK, but if they did, I’d be calling in on their behalf. It’s a injustice, Joe. A disgrace. Another reminder, as if it were needed, of the importance of the right to protest. Nobody tell Suella.
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Great article. Well done! Completely sums up Braverman’s total ignorance of Northern Ireland politics and history. Sunak needs to sack her, sooner rather than later before she makes another gaff that she can’t back pedal out of.
@Deirdre Moffat: There’s a great ongoing comedy sketch in there about Tory ministers and NI. Oh the cluelessness! Garbled together impressions and memories of some footage on GB News is about the extent of it. You’d love to see them sit an exam. F and NG grades all the way! I honestly think there would be massive confusion and a tonne of wrong answers about the specific location and ‘bits we own’.
@SerotoninWars:
Supposedly a recent Tory NI Secretary didn’t know NI voters voted along religious lines until after she got the job.
Tory Grandee Bernard Jenkin quoted something that the “Northern Ireland Taoiseach Enda Kelly” had said, David Davies referred to an “internal border” between NI and our Republic…I’m sure people could add many more instances of their ignorance and disregard for the part of Ireland they control.
@Seamus Enright: It’s endless. One for the Carry Orange series! Although you can’t help thinking of the Little Britain sketches about the Tory MP who keeps getting caught up in compromising positions in public toilets. The floundering incoherent statements are cut from the same cloth!
@Deirdre Moffat: So, there isn’t a group that regularly marches in NI, especially through minority communities, in order to express their supremacy. Glad you cleared that up
@Thomas Sheridan: if you think that’s the crowd she was regarding to then you’ve no idea what your talking about! Nobody in the uk has ever heard of the UVF and nobody south of Glasgow has heard of the orange order.
@Martin Mongan: Well, I do think that – especially because the above article says exactly that.
Now, go back and have someone read the article to you more slowly, and you will realise who she is “regarding to”
@Thomas Sheridan: You have completely misunderstood my comment.
Braverman is unhinged but her agenda is very clear. In the midst of the current divisions she wants to draw a very clear line between Hindus and Muslims. Lest those far right bright sparks get them confused. Instead of facing down the scourge of racism and bigotry she is desperately trying to appeal to the far right and make sure ‘her people’ are firmly in favour with the Telegraph, Daily Mail, EDL and BNP types. This may work in the short term in some dumb ‘they’re with us’ type dynamic, but racists will still be racists and they’ll turn on you as soon as you’re a convenient scapegoat.
Hilarious to see Captain Tom’s daughter milking all that feel good jingoism to enrich herself. It’s almost as if the whole turbo-patriotism schtick is there to distract the little people while a select few get rich. I wonder where she got that idea from. She’s a Tory MP in waiting if ever there was one.
@SerotoninWars: She’s not a Hindu, She’s a Buddhist. I find it hard to believe too.
@Seamus Enright: Apologies you’re right. What I was angling at is that she’s from a Hindu background and despite her membership of the suspect Triratna sect, her demarcation lines are clear. She never sends out anything but the most negative of signals and messaging when it comes to Muslims. She goes out of her way to create a clear line of division with Muslims always on the wrong side of her far right, hyper patriotic ‘us and them’ nonsense.
@SerotoninWars: No worries. I do see your point. I’m not even clear about why she’s a Buddhist, her ancestors are either Hindu or Goan Christian (her birth name is Sue-Ellen Fernandes) and she’s supposedly a Buddhist by conviction which makes no sense at all considering she’s a hate-filled egomaniac.
@Seamus Enright: I think she’s married to a Jewish man too. This all sounds like a nice multicultural mix, moving past divisive tribal silliness, but instead it feels like new demarcation lines are being drawn.
In the UK it’s definitely along the lines of the left being tarred with anti-semitism which should rightly be called out where it exists, but the right seem to be coalescing around a new kind of ‘us and them’. Lots of grey area as the far right hate the same people as ever but for now some of them are even pretending to be on the side of LGBT rights! It’s utter nonsense but it’s part of the PR drive to gain more supporters and sympathisers. You see it with the Trump cult too. Unfortunately these people will be discarded and turned on as soon as they’re done being useful.
@Seamus Enright: She wrote on Twitter that she is married to an Israeli Zionist Jew, Rael Braverman and says she’s proud to have family members in the IDF. Her children are being reared in the Jewish tradition and she is proud to embrace Judaism.
@Dorothy Giselsson: Shame Judaism will never embrace her
I can interpret her comments. Like most politicians in the UK Braverman had zero idea about NI its history and what goes on there. She has heard snippets about marches and Orangemen but doesn’t even know what side they are on in ‘Ulster’ lol. As if any further proof were needed that Britain has just about zero interest in NI. Maybe the unionists/loyalists will one day come to accept that themselves.
@John Moore: John, most people on the south of the border have a poor understanding of the issues in the north, let alone English politicians.
Just shows you that just because a person is a politician does not mean they have any intelligence.
Look at our lot, say no more
Who had “Buddhist South Asian Woman becomes de facto leader of the British Hard Right” in 2023 Bingo?
The Times have to take full responsibility for publishing her ‘opinions’. No one can claim ignorance of her agenda and tactics and the newspaper’s editors have no excuses.
@Numinous20111: It’s news and clearly labelled as her words not altered by journalist or editor. Why should they not publish it? It’s not as though it was an editorial. It’s the, presumed approved, statement of a high government official.
They should, and probably have, also publish letters pointing out the agenda and cluelessness of it and statements by other high government officials.
@Jimmy Wallace: We know that now, but it seems likely that the Times editor would assume that it was since that’s the long standing policy.
She meant to rile up the far right not realising it’s the far right in the North who hold them. But she doesn’t care about them. She’s trying to create a power base in England
She has close family members in the Israeli attack forces and is using her position to push her own personal agenda. She has to go.
Positioning herself for party leadership. You can see why moderate Tories are worried. The appeal to the right wing of an already right wing party, if successful, will potentially leave a whole swathe of British voters with no representation. Farage backs her, the extremists in her own party back her but what of the rest and the views they hold? As Europe shifts to the right and democracy appears as a failed project, then the major worry has to be the possibility of links being forged between a new more extreme Tory party and the likes of orban, afd, le pen. And then Italy, Slovakia and others.
@Alan: I have more hope of being the next Tory leader than her
I’m sure the London police are more worried about far right violence than about pro Palestinian violence. I have watched a few peace marches and didn’t see any violent behavior. The far right think they are at a Millwall football match and act as they always do
Things could get ugly on the streets of London today.
Be interesting to see how these protesters behave themselves.
If they try to gain access to the Cenotaph or the Westminster Abbey Field of Remembrance then it will be obvious they are not ‘Peaceful’ and they will deserve the full wrath of the police.
@Tommy Haze: And what about the counter demonstrators? There’s at least a similar potential for violence from them. You’re parroting the Daily Fail and Suella Deville’s one sided jingoism. As I see it, there is more potential for state agent provocateurs, violent counter demonstrations and false flag operations this weekend than any supposed “desecration” of the cenotaph
@Tommy Haze: Tommy Robinson and his right wing street thu-gs have already started the fisticuffs. The vast majority of the people who are marching for the Palestinians and against Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign are fair minded British people with no violent intentions.
@Tommy Haze: It’s the right wing that will cause the trouble…The best slogan that they have come up with…would not even be given air time on the football terraces.
Has she ever been to Ireland ??
@: She has a house in Ballymac. I saw her in the centra buying spicy wedges a few weeks ago.
@Chris Thaunton: Lmao
Sunak might not sack her, it might even be what she wants as I’m sure she has her eyes on leadership, easier if she becomes a figurehead of some sort. Only she knows what she’s really up to. In other news, I have again failed to see any flags or banners at any of these pro Palestine marches calling for Hamas and all of it’s supporters to leave Gaza immediately and for the immediate release of all hostages. Not one. It’s very disappointing but it gradually isolates one thing and one thing only, and it’s not about caring for the people who live in Gaza. Also, just to add, at nearly every march or protest I have seen over the past few years, there’s usually been lots of the rainbow flags around, I’m sure everyone has noticed the stark absence of these from the current marching trend since the 7th Oct last. That says a lot. Eyes open people, the world is not what you’ve been told it is.
In her very convoluted way of making statements, I think she meant that pro Palestine marches are like pro terrorism, and in her ignorance, she was comparing sectarian violence to Unionist Marches, seeing as they were once so synonymous with violent protests to those marches. I would like to think that the marches are just pro Palestinian innocent people , pro peace, but they arent, are they. You cannot separate the Palestinian people from Hamas, which is an out and out terrorist organization, you just cant. They were elected by the Palestinian people. Thats like the IRA running for office and winning in a landslide victory. Hamas dont just want Palestine, they never just wanted to reclaim that part of Palestine, they want to wipe Israel off the map. Cant march for people with that ideology. Israel were bombarded with thousands of rockets in a matter of seconds. They have the absolute right to defend their own country.
@Pauline Gallagher: Of course it’s possible to separate the Palestinian people from Hamas. Half the population of Gaza are children. Are you saying these children deserve to die because they’re basically Hamas? Sounds to me like you can excuse the murder of children on the most flimsy of pretexts
@Pauline Gallagher: and Israel is actually currently wiping Gaza off the map. Complex isn’t it?
@Pauline Gallagher: terrible atrocities have been committed on both sides. To be fair Hamas fired first. Killed Israeli babies. Murder of the highest order. There is no excuse for the level of retaliation on the Palestinian people. A Palestinian baby died today on a ventilator from a bomb that landed on her ward.
Hamas and the Palestinian people will not look after the holy land like the Israeli people have. They will tear down ancient sites and expel everyone that they do not agree with should they take over the land of Israel.
In Limerick today a child was giving out literture on ending the Palestinian bombing. This has gone too far. When folks stop using children, maby then there will be peace.
@Sean: and what about the children Hamas have murdered?
@C O’H: the hospital footage at the start of the conflict has been proven to be from a Syrian hospital in 2016. Hamas have murdered children, and put their own women and children in harms way over and over and over again. By taking sides, ANY side, youre just bolstering the cause of each.
@Alan: They are at war. Palestine started it, this has ALWAYS been their war. Since even before the days of the PLO, Palestine have never, ever wanted Israel as their neighbors. They declared war on them, along with the neighboring Arab countries they day after the formed Israel in 1948. They had their land, it wasnt good enough, and they wanted every Jew dead. Hamas keep starting this sh*t, this is what happens.
@Pauline Gallagher: WAKEY WAKEY PAULINE READ MY COMMENT I WASN’T TAKING ANY SIDE. You sound like you are taking sides there by your comment. I discussed the murder of innocent children by all sides. It’s funny that you didn’t though. Don’t take sides now Pauline. Take your own advice.
@C O’H: Hamas did not fire first. This did not start on October 7th.
@Pauline Gallagher: Palestine was fine until Israel was imposed on them. They did not vote to have their land taken from them. Learn history.
@Pauline Gallagher: Everybody abhors and condemns Israeli children being murdered obviously. That is not in question. Why are you ignoring the children on the other side? Or worse still, why are you saying those children are basically Hamas?
@C O’H: You said Israelis murdered children. No mention of the fact that Hamas murdered children. And my other comment was to Alan, not you. Why dont you read your own comments and stop doing the literary version of SHOUTING at me? patronizing git.
@Mike smith: I have read the history. They had their land and it wasnt good enough for them. War started and after the Palestinian invasion, Israel reclaimed their land back, but seized the west bank and Gaza as well. Would not have happened if Palestine were so determined to get rid of Israel altogether. They attacked Israel the day after the formation of the country in May 1948. Israel captured Gaza strip and the West Bank 20 years later from Egypt, as they had occupied the land, not Palestine. Its very complicated but the simplification of this is that all the Arab countries wanted to get rid of the Jews, and after WW2, Jewish people were not wanted anywhere. If Palestine had been better neighbours, none of this would have started. And if you want to blame anyone, blame the UN, and the bats**t way they partitioned the land. All designed for the two to kill each other.
SF want to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court. Have they completely lost their marbles? This position that politicians in our country have against Israelis is stomach churning. I am disgusted that my taxes are paying these people’s salaries. Can we not see that the people who are controlling Gaza are barbaric savages and there are 10s of thousands of them plus hundreds of thousands more people in Gaza support the, They are a blight on humanity and must be eliminated, and unfortunately a lot of innocent are dying. The neighbouring countries in that region should be ashamed of themselves for not taking a strong stance against them, it demonstrates what they really want to too. Also, make no mistake, none of syria, Jordan, Egypt, turkey etc, none of them want anything to do with the people of Gaza. What did the eu do when Russia invaded Ukraine? we allowed the refugees to come to our countries to save their lives, because we have humanity. Open your eyes people, there is a fight going on under our eyes, and if allow it, evil will win, it already has half of you brainwashed.
@Chris Thaunton: the IDF should drop thousands of tons of rainbow flags on Gaza. That would show them!
@Chris Thaunton: Two wrongs do not make a right. There are no good guys in this conflict.
@Chris Thaunton: …and unfortunately a lot of innocent are… being murdered by the IDF 24/7. There, fixed it for you.
@Steve O’Hara Smith.: I hear you, but in this world, that’s naive thinking I’m afraid.
@Corey Dalton: Take your arro gance and go play elsewhere, you do not intimidate me.
@Corey Dalton: you fixed nothing, muppet. Hamas are terrorists, they have murdered innocent people including an Irish Israeli girl, have blood on their hands and wont be happy until all of Israel is blown to smithereens.
Whatever about her Ulster comments, the police reaction to the counter protesters today proves she is correct in accusing them of protest-bias
@GVR: Check the photos, it’s like a football match in Iran. Not a woman or child in sight. The new Taliban in full effect.
@GVR: funny how everyone is saying how dare she criticize the Met when just two years ago everyone condemned them after Sarah Everard.
So one of the anchors of 6 one news is suing a national newspaper? Classic!!
Protest last weekend in London went of peacefully. MET chief assessed the threat level based on that and their intelligence. The peace protest got the go-ahead.
All this week we’ve had politicians and commentators on the right stoking tension we’ve witnessed a call to arms to protect the cenotaph (basically a right wing dog whistle being used to bat for Israel) by a wide spectrum of the neo conservative right/fascists. From Douglas Murray (currently embedded with the IDF) to Farage to Tommy Robinson we see the same divisive rhetoric that is the cause of all war and music to the ears of the powerful elite who use the football hooligans like the Romans used armoured war dogs
She was spot on . As a soldier that was on the receiving end of it . It was pure hate.
@Jack Moss: “I hold it a Christian thing, as O’Donovan Rossa held it, to hate evil, to hate untruth, to hate oppression, and, hating them, to strive to overthrow them” You might want to familiarise yourself with the lad who spoke those words Seanie boy.
I have no doubt that you served proudly Jack. I understand your pride and I respect it. You’re commemorating your fallen comrades and that’s understandable but please don’t forget those who were brutalised and oppressed by the British army and don’t underestimate their hatred
@Sean: the hate existed in NI was stirred up by lies and propaganda . The people of Republican and loyalist ghettos where spoon fed hate by terrorist organisations . It’s how they kept control of their areas . The Irish where the British army . They have always played a part in the history of the army right from the bigining 340 yrs ago .
Enoch Powell’s “river of blood” speech is seen as prophetic by large numbers of those on the right who call him the “greatest PM we never had” and accordingly these people think along the lines of maintaining, in Powell’s famous words, “the whip hand”
I think we all know what she meant.
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