It's all politics!

I was just looking over some photos from Paris. 

I went to Paris in October 2010 and I was very impressed by the Louvre and its interior. I began thinking that, while the rich pricks were enjoying this offensive opulence, people were starving on the street. And then I thought of the French Revolution; why it happened, and its effects. And I realised something… I realised the reason why the English didn’t have a similar Revolution. [Warning: Take it easy, it’s a blog, not book]

The English didn’t have their own ‘French Revolution’ because they had been properly brainwashed. In fact, brainwashing was the key to the Norman’s conquest of Britain. How else would such a foreign influence be able to enforce its dominance and rule WITHOUT convincing the people that they were serving a native, if not inherently local and natural, government? The Normans convinced the Anglo-Saxons that their new rulers were rulers of England; England, the home of the Anglo-Saxons, and hence their paternal figures. Once they were convinced, the Welsh and Scottish were next.

This time, they worked off the concept of an island nation. Britishness became the new unifying concept to plug in order to get these two Celtic nations to fight for this German/French hybrid. And the Normans just continued this methodology until, now, a disproportionately high fraction of the world unconsciously follow their ‘British’ tradition.

Thankfully, us Irish never accepted their proposal. It just didn’t make sense to us. Well most of us. And most of us, despite the cruel centuries, prevailed. Brainwashing and propaganda isn’t natural. And when you encounter it, you know it. The Germans knew it. If not during ‘those’ years, then definitely after WWII.

It just goes to show ya…

Peer pressure is not just restricted to your youth.  

I didn’t say ‘no’!

Ah Northern Ireland. She’s rarely mentioned without the big T. Gerry Adams, Ian Paisley are two other names rarely not spoken about. Sinn Féin, DUP, UVF, IRA – what’s with all these names and what the heck do they all mean? Heck what does ‘Northern Ireland’ even mean (this question will have even more significance if you ask it just after asking a native what the name of the country is – ‘Norn Iron’)?

Ya see, ‘Northern Ireland’ and ‘Southern Ireland’ are misnomers. ‘Southern Ireland’, i.e. The Republic of Ireland, when distinguished from ‘Northern Ireland’, contains most of the island including all of the west. So shouldn’t it be called ‘South Western Ireland’? Well, I then just think of the province of Munster, and you’ll also be leaving behind my sweet county of Donegal.

 Ah Donegal, now there’s strange, yet artistic and inspiring aunt that you seldom see. (Yes, still more about names:) In Irish, it’s officially called Dún na nGall, but it’s older more suitable (as Dún na nGall originally referred to simply one settlement) name is Tír Chonaill, the Land of Conall. Anyway, Donegal is Ireland’s most northern county. But it’s not a Northern county. What?! Yes, strangely, the most northerly county in Ireland is actually ‘in the South’. If you’re not Irish, that’s a surprising and frustrating idiom.

On a similar note, the most easterly county, Co. Down, is actually in The North as well. Ah, come on! This is causing too much trouble! Can’t we rename things? Ok, we’ll call ‘The South’, ‘The Republic’. And we’ll call ‘The North’…

‘The Plantation’? ‘The Six Counties’? Yeh, that seems suitable but it’s not much of a name for a country, now is it? “Well, then leave it as ‘Northern Ireland’, why don’t you?” Well, because we’ll be running into the same problems again. “Ok, then Ulster…”

This is my main grievance. ‘Ulster’ is, if I’m correct, what the Unionists call it. Paisley’s always recalled relentlessly saying ‘Ulster says ‘no’!’ In this context, the name ‘Ulster’ originates in the Ulster Plantation. ‘Ulster’, then, is the area or community of the Unionists, i.e. the descendents of those planters.

Woah, woah, woah! Stop! Right there! Stop! ‘Ulster’ has always been one of the four provinces of Ireland. Before partition in 1922, Ulster comprised of 9 counties. And the province of Ulster still does. Donegal is in Ulster. Monaghan is in Ulster. Cavan is in Ulster. Remember that! When people refer to Northern Ireland as ‘Ulster’, they neglect these three counties and offend them by either adding them onto Northern Ireland or excluding them from the ambit of the name ‘Ulster’. So then, the three counties live in liminality – not in any province at all. Unity by this, they are grouped as their own kind of province: ‘The Border Counties’.

No! My province isn’t ‘Borderland’ or anything like that. I live in Ulster and I want people, in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, to stop regarded the name ‘Ulster’ as a synonym for ‘Northern Ireland’.  Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are in The Republic…

And they didn’t say ‘no!’