Upcoming Events

Donegal | Anti-War / Imperialism

no events match your query!

New Events

Donegal

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker
A bird's eye view of the vineyard

offsite link Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb

offsite link The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog.? We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).?

offsite link What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are

offsite link Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of

offsite link The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by

The Saker >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Staff at ?100 Million Alan Turing Institute Attack ?Chaotic? Management Amid Diversity Row Sun Dec 22, 2024 19:00 | Richard Eldred
Staff at the ?100 million Alan Turing Institute have erupted in protest over a diversity row, accusing leadership of "tokenistic" hiring and sparking fears that the organisation's credibility is at risk.
The post Staff at ?100 Million Alan Turing Institute Attack ?Chaotic? Management Amid Diversity Row appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link ?Our Irish Leaders Have Contributed to Hatred Against Jews? Sun Dec 22, 2024 17:00 | Richard Eldred
Ireland's Chief Rabbi has blasted the country's leaders for fuelling antisemitism, leaving Jewish children hiding their identities and many others afraid to wear symbols of their faith.
The post ?Our Irish Leaders Have Contributed to Hatred Against Jews? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link ?Grocery Tax? to Hike Britons? Shopping Bills by ?56 in Labour Net Zero ?Inflation Boost? Sun Dec 22, 2024 15:00 | Richard Eldred
Labour's "grocery tax" is set to punish British families, slapping an extra ?56 onto their shopping bills and driving up inflation, all in the name of Net Zero.
The post ?Grocery Tax? to Hike Britons? Shopping Bills by ?56 in Labour Net Zero ?Inflation Boost? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Furious German Protesters Demand Mass Deportations Following Christmas Market Attack by Saudi Doctor... Sun Dec 22, 2024 13:00 | Richard Eldred
Over 1,000 protesters have flooded Magdeburg, demanding mass deportations after a Saudi psychiatrist killed five people and injured over 200 in a Christmas market attack.
The post Furious German Protesters Demand Mass Deportations Following Christmas Market Attack by Saudi Doctor, Leaving Five Dead Including a Nine Year-Old Boy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link NHS Faces High Court Legal Fight Over Cross-Sex Hormones Prescribed to Boy Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:00 | Richard Eldred
A Brighton father is suing the NHS in a High Court showdown, claiming a GP's prescription of cross-sex hormones to his 16 year-old son defied Cass Review guidance and broke the rules.
The post NHS Faces High Court Legal Fight Over Cross-Sex Hormones Prescribed to Boy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Letter to Editor: Wear a White poppy

category donegal | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis author Sunday December 19, 2010 19:22author by Bill O'Brien Report this post to the editors

What follows is a letter written to the editor of the Donegal Democrat newspaper in November.

Letter to the Editor.

Wear a White Poppy

In Tuesday's the 9th of November’s Donegal Democrat, Paddy Harte was making his annual tribute to those who died in the First World War, I don't doubt he means well, but it is clearly time for a more balanced view. What comes across from Paddy is a glorification of war, and of course he's going to deny it is, but I'm sorry that is how I see it.

First let me deal with the way he deals with the history, he takes men who clearly fought for different ideas, and tries to put them all in the one camp, this is a disservice to all of them. May I deal with Tom Barry, he points out that Tom Barry was in the British Army since 1913, this is so; it was form his experiences and treatment by the officer board of that army that Tom Barry became disillusioned, came back to Ireland and fought the British Army for the rest of his life. In his autobiography he deals with his disillusionment, his youthfulness and the misguided politicians who sent them to war, that should be accepted by all, he knows that he was duped and gave himself no credits for being so.

Then Paddy tries to unite two brothers in death William Kent and Eamon Kent, Eamon was executed by those wearing British Army uniforms, he signed a document that gave thanks to our gallant allies in Europe, the same people that his brother William was fighting against. To put these two men together in this way is a disservice to the two of them. William Kent was killed for the King a year after his brother was executed by the King's men. Get off on stage Paddy and become real.

Paddy goes to Flanders every year, did he ever lay a wreath to our gallant allies in Europe? No. Did he ever lay a wreath to any of the 601 executed at dawn, especially the young Irishman executed for insubordination, one for not putting on his hat on. If you were Irish you had a 25% more chance of being executed for insubordination, desertion, ect, than a man from England, Scotland or Wales. Men from the two traditions were executed by a cruel officer class, for very little indeed. Anyone who was executed, was put in an unmarked grave, and their families at home got no pensions, they where left destitute. What does Paddy Harte have to say about that?

Paddy Harte said if Kevin Barry had been four years older he would have been in Khaki, how dare you Paddy Harte, he would have been in the 1916 rising. This young man, a student Doctor, was captured as a prisoner of war, badly treated and then executed. You cannot insult our glorious dead in this way, those who died in Flanders, could not lick his boots; that is no disrespected to those who died in Flanders, only to you Paddy Hart for the distortions. It is time to put a bit of respect, decency, balance and truthfulness into the whole topic. Those who went to Flanders were not answering Ireland's call; they were answering England's call and that of the King. The poor lads were duped.

Should we remember them, of course we should, but what should we not forget? We must never forget the perpetrators of the war, the British, the German, the Russian monarchists and capitalists. They sent a whole generation of European youth to their graves needlessly. The Germans and the Russians have no monarchies now, good, but the British have, and still send young men to die in needless war. Thankfully to the men and women of 1916 Ireland no longer has to do that.

The wearing of a white poppy would be fitting tribute to these people, the Red poppy is the poppy of the British Legion, and is to all British soldiers who died anywhere in the world, including Ireland. Should we honour the Black and Tans? No we should not, nor should we honour those who came after them, up to the present-day.

Finally I would like to deal with another aspect of the war; it was not a war for the freedom of smile nations. In 1915 Turkey, a peaceful, country was invaded, by two of the monarchists’ countries, Britain and Russia. Thousands died in Gallipoli,those sent there included 1000 Dublin Fusiliers, of whom only 12 survived. One of the survivors I knew and I worked with three of his sons, his name was John Whelan, he was a corporal and was credited with saving the other 11 lives, he was promoted on the battlefield to the rank of major, but when it came to him been demorped he was reduced to a sergeant, as he wasn't a commissioned officer in the first place. This is the class nature of the British Army to this day. They treat all working people shamefully.

author by Rory of the Hillspublication date Tue Dec 21, 2010 01:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Nice work.

Who is this Paddy Harte character??? Sounds like he could give Kevin Myers a run for his money.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:57author address author phone Report this post to the editors

..the history right, it was that great statesman churchilll set up the Gallipolli fiasco. but then he had a few feathers in his cap dont get mentioned in the rose-tinted jingoist hindsight. Early use of chemical weapons, Bomber Harris' carpet bombing of civilian targets that provoked the London blitz as a way to solidify national morale, continuous subversion of the new Irish state through collusion with entrenched privelged Unionism....et al..

Good movie countering the bullshit war propaganda was For King and Country, with Tom Courtney as one of the 'shot-at-dawn' shell-shocked psychological casualties. Dalton Trumbo ploughed the same furrow with his novel 'Johnny Got His Gun'. He was blacked in Holywood(where he was a screenwriter)for his services above and beyond the call of servile subservience to militarised nationalism. The book, about a soldier reduced to a feeding-tube by a shell in Flanders was published shortly before the outbreak of round two, and immediately banned(in the national interest).

Our own James Plunkett outlined the real forces that motivated the 'plucky Tommy' in his stinking trench in Strumpet City where he finishes the story with the beaten strikers of the 1913 lockout being forced to resort to the recruiting office to feed their women and kids. All across Europe and beyond the 'excess' labour units were fed to the cannons 'to preserve our way of life and our freedoms' for the long-globalised Tory classes. just as they are sent today to defend 'our western way of life'. As the old song said, 'when will we ever learn?'.

Identifying an enemy abroad has always been a good policy for consolidating tyranny. America even does it by the subtle stroke of sticking a Black Bush in the gap.

author by Knocknagowpublication date Tue Dec 21, 2010 21:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Rory of the Hills asked:
Who is this Paddy Harte character?

Paddy Harte is a former Fine Gael TD and Government Minister who represented Donegal North East in the Dail. He received an honorary OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 as a reward for his servility and boot-licking, even though he gets a minister’s and TD’s pension, paid for by the Irish taxpayer with borrowed money.

I agree with the letter to the Donegal Democrat. Millions of ordinary people butchered one another in WW1, in the interests of the various European ruling elites. To commemorate the dead on one side (without asking why they had to die) is a political act. People like Paddy Harte are glorifying militarism and imperialism and should be stripped of their Irish citizenship for accepting awards from foreign monarchs.

author by Paddy obrienpublication date Sun Nov 02, 2014 20:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Where in dublin can one buy a white poppy?

 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy