A Federal Kingdom Fits the Bill
Fair Deal writing about the D.U.P. 20TH Nov writes: -
“ It will seek to shape the union by campaigning for a new constitutional settlement based on our cherished values of equal citizenship- a Federal U.K. with a written constitution and a Bill of Rights.”
What Fair Deal has in mind in a Federal U.K. is the constitutional set up in the Federal United States of America. In the United States there is a powerful central government ruling over subservient states with residual governmental powers. But would that model satisfy the people here. In Fair Deal’s Federal U.K. a powerful central government at Westminster would rule over a subservient N. Ireland with only residual powers. In that model the flag in N. Ireland would be the Union Jack but would that flag be acceptable on the Falls and Bogside? Again the anthem would b e –God Save the Queen—but would that be sung in the Nationalist community? In Fair Deal’s Federal U.K. the people would still be divided along sectarian lines.
There is however another Federal model. That is where a treaty or compact is entered into between two equal states. This model would yield a Federal Kingdom for these islands. The canvass to be worked on in this context is an all Ireland canvass. In this there would be a dual constitution, an unwritten constitution for G.B. as of now with a new written constitution for the nation of Ireland expressed in The National Government of Ireland Act. The Act would give among much else a flag, an anthem, a passport and a statement of rights as acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry as to the Protestants of Derry in a non-sectarian Ireland. Fair Deal should think again.
Michael Gillespie Derry
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Racism in These Islands
Racism in These Islands.
It could be that the British National Party has touched a raw nerve in the body of British and Irish politics. It is reckoned that the B.N.P. could obtain a vote of 22% in a British election. This issue has to do with a wide spread concern in working class areas due to an influx of new wave immigrants into their midst. There are those in Belfast and Derry who have been out protesting about the racism of the B.N.P. Such protestors should look at racism on their own Ulster doorstep first.
Is such fear of new wave immigration real or imaginary? The reality of the concern can be paralleled at home in Irish history. In the 16th century a people of different race, culture, religion and language came to Ireland in the plantation of Ulster. The whirlwind of this was reaped in the 20th century in a partitioned island, over 30 years of intercommunal (racist) violence and in the racist sectarian ghettoes of Belfast and Derry and elsewhere. This is the historic fruit of introducing an immigrant population into a country. But Irish history has another parallel. The Normans came to Ireland uninvited and settled here but in that case all was well in the long term because the Normans integrated with the native Irish and became “more Irish than the Irish themselves” This immigration was to the benefit of Ireland.
If the new wave immigrants to G.B. and Ireland become as British as the British themselves and as Irish as the Irish themselves then the migration will be of benefit to all. It would seem that the majority of new wave immigrants see themselves in that way. If however there are some who wish to live apart and separate from the indigenous people, as the Ulster planters opted to do, for the future health of these islands such people should be excluded.
Michael Gillespie. Derry
It could be that the British National Party has touched a raw nerve in the body of British and Irish politics. It is reckoned that the B.N.P. could obtain a vote of 22% in a British election. This issue has to do with a wide spread concern in working class areas due to an influx of new wave immigrants into their midst. There are those in Belfast and Derry who have been out protesting about the racism of the B.N.P. Such protestors should look at racism on their own Ulster doorstep first.
Is such fear of new wave immigration real or imaginary? The reality of the concern can be paralleled at home in Irish history. In the 16th century a people of different race, culture, religion and language came to Ireland in the plantation of Ulster. The whirlwind of this was reaped in the 20th century in a partitioned island, over 30 years of intercommunal (racist) violence and in the racist sectarian ghettoes of Belfast and Derry and elsewhere. This is the historic fruit of introducing an immigrant population into a country. But Irish history has another parallel. The Normans came to Ireland uninvited and settled here but in that case all was well in the long term because the Normans integrated with the native Irish and became “more Irish than the Irish themselves” This immigration was to the benefit of Ireland.
If the new wave immigrants to G.B. and Ireland become as British as the British themselves and as Irish as the Irish themselves then the migration will be of benefit to all. It would seem that the majority of new wave immigrants see themselves in that way. If however there are some who wish to live apart and separate from the indigenous people, as the Ulster planters opted to do, for the future health of these islands such people should be excluded.
Michael Gillespie. Derry
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Sir Reg/Mr Durkan
4 Rotherwood Drive Tel 028 71 285 807 Email macgil@hotmail.co.uk
Killfennan
L’Derry
N. Ireland
BT47 5SY
13/July/ 09
Dear Mr Durkan
I have taken courage and am making bold to write to you on a complex political theme; the theme is the reform of the United Kingdom Constitution as the only route out of the inherent violence of N. Ireland. The violence of this 12th prompts this.
I was formerly a teacher but I retired from that to devote my energies to work on the Irish problem and its solution. On that theme I have published a novel with Authorhouse titled THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE. I have a second novel coming out shortly on the same theme titled THE RAPE OF VIRGIN MUNCHINDUN where Munchindun is a fictional district in Tyrone. I also maintain an extensive blog on this theme on: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
This blog is read as far afield as California. My version of the National Government of Ireland Act, which is central to this letter, can be found in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE.
My political views in this writing are personal but the views are sincerely held. In terms of the politics of this island I am not a Nationalist, Republican or Union Jack Unionist. These are now past their use by date and should be disposed of, and replaced by the new improved concept of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn. In my reading of Irish political history initially Arthur Griffiths who founded Sinn Fein in 1904, wanted a government for Ireland with a dual monarchy. When this is examined in depth Early Sinn Fein was federal unionist and if Griffith’s initial ideas had been developed with patience and hadn’t been swept away by the sectarian violence of 1916 Ireland today would be united under the Crown, a nation similar to Canada. But that, I admit is an “if only” of Irish history. 1916 changed things but the changes were for the worse.
Two things have prompted me to write to you. As noted there is the upsurge in violence during the current 12th demonstrations. Windbags on the media and in the press have roundly condemned this but that is a waste of time. Violence is endemic in Northern Ireland. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can ask and answer the question ---“Why is this?”
My second reason for writing has to do with a quote of Sir Reg Empey taken from the Belfast Telegraph, which goes like this: -
“My parties role in the Belfast Agreement is to free this country from the shackles that tied us all to sectarian based head counts and mutual distrust.”
The sentiment is fine and is to be applauded but he doesn’t say how to achieve this. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can supply the know-how in freeing us from the shackles of sectarianism and mutual mistrust.
To grasp the know-how one must understand Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein’s analysis of the problem. That concept identifies sectarianism as the sickness of Ireland (all of it) and the cause of the sickness can be traced to the U.K. constitution. This constitution is flawed in that it is undemocratic and unwritten and because it lacks the support of all of the people of N. Ireland it is imposed militarily on those who object to it. A purpose of the 12th demonstrations is to ram the constitution down the throats of those who object to it and a significant body of people find U.K. constitution objectionable, to wit the De Brun vote in the recent European election. The Orange Order can throw up a smoke screen of Protestant cultural expression (whatever protestant culture is) but the people aren’t fooled. The flaunting of Union Jacks on the streets and the making of union speeches at the field demonstrate that Orange Parades are about the imposition of the U.K. constitution on those who object to it.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein rejects dogma in politics and embraces secularism, which replaces political dogma with reason, logic and observation. The adoption of secularism and the rejection of political dogma in Ireland is another prerequisite in finding a solution to the Irish Problem.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein puts forward as basic to the solution of the Irish Problem, the reform of U.K. constitution in the written National Government of Ireland Act. In this way the existing unwritten undemocratic constitution can be changed from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. As it is now constituted N. Ireland is unstable and prone to communal violence. It is observable that there are two heads of state involved, two conflicting national flags being flown, two conflicting national anthems being sung and two conflicting national passports being travelled on. The state thus constituted is a state at war with itself and in such a state violence is endemic. Such a state requires a new written constitution expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act as follows: -
(a) One head of state: the reformed Crown whose constitutional duties in all Ireland are defined and clearly stated in writing in the Act.
(b) One National Flag. In the case of the National Government of Ireland Act the national flag would be The Royal Flag of Ireland. This flag should be the existing Tricolour with the Red Cross of St Patrick imposed on the white central panel of the tricolour along with the Crown and harp symbols in blue and with a shamrock symbol. This flag should be defined in the Act as The Royal Flag of Ireland which is at one and the same time, the National Flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. The Union Jack should remain as the National Flag of Great Britain and be the symbol of The Federal Kingdom of Great Britain and the Sovereign Nation of Ireland. in Great Britain. Joining the two national flags together as one, is more sensible than trying to join Martin Mc Guinness and Peter Robinson together at the hip in the Assembly. These men symbolize irreconcilable constitutional positions and conflict. This is only one piece of the constitutional jigsaw. The version of the Act given in THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE runs to 20,000 words and attempts to deal with all aspects of life on this island.
©One National Anthem, which can be sung by all. There are many good songs in Ireland that would suit this.
(d)One National Passport written in Irish and English showing a picture of the Crown as head of state
(e) One central government in Dublin named Dail Eireann with legislative powers devolved to four Provincial Houses: -
The Ulster House
The Munster House
The Leinster House
The Connaugh House
All of that is part of the know-how of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein and in the National Government of Ireland Act a written constitution can be designed for Ireland that should be as acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry as to the Protestants of Derry. This is possible feasible and doable but to do it will require the restructuring of the political centre in Northern Ireland. In N. Ireland the political centre is fractured in three between the U.U.P. the S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party. A single central party should be set up under the banner of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. Such a party should take as its platform the reform of the U.K. constitution as outlined in this letter and have as its flag The Royal flag of Ireland. The party should make clear to all that it is united Ireland friendly, union friendly and Crown friendly. In that way the party is for all, is non-sectarian and crosses the communal divide.
I have also written to Ms Ruane minister for education not about politics: we are poles apart on politics but about education where we can communicate. The good lady gave me a written reply that was positive, well informed and at length In general she said her views on selection in education were not incompatible with mine. A copy of this article can be found at the blog address given at the beginning of this letter by scrolling down to page 3 to Selection at Eleven.
I would be most grateful if you would reply to this letter either by letter or by email in a positive informed and significant way. The views in this letter are sincerely put forward as the only way to a genuine peace in Ireland. The current so called peace is a bogus peace. You can show this letter to your colleagues in the party.
Yours Sincerely
Michael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc(Econ) DipEd D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Killfennan
L’Derry
N. Ireland
BT47 5SY
13/July/ 09
Dear Mr Durkan
I have taken courage and am making bold to write to you on a complex political theme; the theme is the reform of the United Kingdom Constitution as the only route out of the inherent violence of N. Ireland. The violence of this 12th prompts this.
I was formerly a teacher but I retired from that to devote my energies to work on the Irish problem and its solution. On that theme I have published a novel with Authorhouse titled THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE. I have a second novel coming out shortly on the same theme titled THE RAPE OF VIRGIN MUNCHINDUN where Munchindun is a fictional district in Tyrone. I also maintain an extensive blog on this theme on: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
This blog is read as far afield as California. My version of the National Government of Ireland Act, which is central to this letter, can be found in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE.
My political views in this writing are personal but the views are sincerely held. In terms of the politics of this island I am not a Nationalist, Republican or Union Jack Unionist. These are now past their use by date and should be disposed of, and replaced by the new improved concept of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn. In my reading of Irish political history initially Arthur Griffiths who founded Sinn Fein in 1904, wanted a government for Ireland with a dual monarchy. When this is examined in depth Early Sinn Fein was federal unionist and if Griffith’s initial ideas had been developed with patience and hadn’t been swept away by the sectarian violence of 1916 Ireland today would be united under the Crown, a nation similar to Canada. But that, I admit is an “if only” of Irish history. 1916 changed things but the changes were for the worse.
Two things have prompted me to write to you. As noted there is the upsurge in violence during the current 12th demonstrations. Windbags on the media and in the press have roundly condemned this but that is a waste of time. Violence is endemic in Northern Ireland. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can ask and answer the question ---“Why is this?”
My second reason for writing has to do with a quote of Sir Reg Empey taken from the Belfast Telegraph, which goes like this: -
“My parties role in the Belfast Agreement is to free this country from the shackles that tied us all to sectarian based head counts and mutual distrust.”
The sentiment is fine and is to be applauded but he doesn’t say how to achieve this. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can supply the know-how in freeing us from the shackles of sectarianism and mutual mistrust.
To grasp the know-how one must understand Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein’s analysis of the problem. That concept identifies sectarianism as the sickness of Ireland (all of it) and the cause of the sickness can be traced to the U.K. constitution. This constitution is flawed in that it is undemocratic and unwritten and because it lacks the support of all of the people of N. Ireland it is imposed militarily on those who object to it. A purpose of the 12th demonstrations is to ram the constitution down the throats of those who object to it and a significant body of people find U.K. constitution objectionable, to wit the De Brun vote in the recent European election. The Orange Order can throw up a smoke screen of Protestant cultural expression (whatever protestant culture is) but the people aren’t fooled. The flaunting of Union Jacks on the streets and the making of union speeches at the field demonstrate that Orange Parades are about the imposition of the U.K. constitution on those who object to it.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein rejects dogma in politics and embraces secularism, which replaces political dogma with reason, logic and observation. The adoption of secularism and the rejection of political dogma in Ireland is another prerequisite in finding a solution to the Irish Problem.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein puts forward as basic to the solution of the Irish Problem, the reform of U.K. constitution in the written National Government of Ireland Act. In this way the existing unwritten undemocratic constitution can be changed from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. As it is now constituted N. Ireland is unstable and prone to communal violence. It is observable that there are two heads of state involved, two conflicting national flags being flown, two conflicting national anthems being sung and two conflicting national passports being travelled on. The state thus constituted is a state at war with itself and in such a state violence is endemic. Such a state requires a new written constitution expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act as follows: -
(a) One head of state: the reformed Crown whose constitutional duties in all Ireland are defined and clearly stated in writing in the Act.
(b) One National Flag. In the case of the National Government of Ireland Act the national flag would be The Royal Flag of Ireland. This flag should be the existing Tricolour with the Red Cross of St Patrick imposed on the white central panel of the tricolour along with the Crown and harp symbols in blue and with a shamrock symbol. This flag should be defined in the Act as The Royal Flag of Ireland which is at one and the same time, the National Flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. The Union Jack should remain as the National Flag of Great Britain and be the symbol of The Federal Kingdom of Great Britain and the Sovereign Nation of Ireland. in Great Britain. Joining the two national flags together as one, is more sensible than trying to join Martin Mc Guinness and Peter Robinson together at the hip in the Assembly. These men symbolize irreconcilable constitutional positions and conflict. This is only one piece of the constitutional jigsaw. The version of the Act given in THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE runs to 20,000 words and attempts to deal with all aspects of life on this island.
©One National Anthem, which can be sung by all. There are many good songs in Ireland that would suit this.
(d)One National Passport written in Irish and English showing a picture of the Crown as head of state
(e) One central government in Dublin named Dail Eireann with legislative powers devolved to four Provincial Houses: -
The Ulster House
The Munster House
The Leinster House
The Connaugh House
All of that is part of the know-how of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein and in the National Government of Ireland Act a written constitution can be designed for Ireland that should be as acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry as to the Protestants of Derry. This is possible feasible and doable but to do it will require the restructuring of the political centre in Northern Ireland. In N. Ireland the political centre is fractured in three between the U.U.P. the S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party. A single central party should be set up under the banner of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. Such a party should take as its platform the reform of the U.K. constitution as outlined in this letter and have as its flag The Royal flag of Ireland. The party should make clear to all that it is united Ireland friendly, union friendly and Crown friendly. In that way the party is for all, is non-sectarian and crosses the communal divide.
I have also written to Ms Ruane minister for education not about politics: we are poles apart on politics but about education where we can communicate. The good lady gave me a written reply that was positive, well informed and at length In general she said her views on selection in education were not incompatible with mine. A copy of this article can be found at the blog address given at the beginning of this letter by scrolling down to page 3 to Selection at Eleven.
I would be most grateful if you would reply to this letter either by letter or by email in a positive informed and significant way. The views in this letter are sincerely put forward as the only way to a genuine peace in Ireland. The current so called peace is a bogus peace. You can show this letter to your colleagues in the party.
Yours Sincerely
Michael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc(Econ) DipEd D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Monday, 31 August 2009
Religion, Culture and the Constitution
Religion Culture and the Constitution.
It is clear that Orange parades are contentious in parts of the six counties/ N. Ireland. In catholic areas these parades are at least protested against and at most opposed with violence. Why is this? Is the root cause religion or culture or the constitution. Which?
Religion
If the Orange parades were simply about Protestantism and those taking part paraded with bibles alone then in such circumstances an eyebrow wouldn’t be raised. If the parades ended solely in the preaching of sermons full of biblical quotes and in the singing of robust revivalist hymns, the parades would go unnoticed. So since the parades are opposed sometimes with spitting, sometimes with violence, some thing more than Protestantism is being put on display.
Culture
It is currently fashionable for the Orange Order to claim that the parades are about the expression of Protestant culture. So what is culture and more especially Protestant culture? Culture is a slippery concept. Chairman Mao said the people move in culture as fish move in water. According to the dictionary culture in the broadest sense is the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns arts, beliefs, institutions and all other works of human thought characteristic of a community or a people. If however Orange Parades were simply socially transmitted behaviour patterns and seen as artistic expressions on banners and the upholding of beliefs and institutions Protestant culture would pass unnoticed. More particularly the popular view of culture is that it has to do with literature, art works, music, language, dance, folklore and legend. In all of that in what sense are Orange parades an expression of all works of thought in the Protestant community? What is Protestant literature? All there is, are the Weaver poets but for those who take poetry seriously those are local doggerel pieces and express a weak culture. So the Orangemen aren’t being stoned over poetry. Of course Ulster Scots claim Robert Burns as part of their culture but the culture expressed by Burns is not indigenous to Ulster but is apart from it. What then are the art works of the protestant community? There are folk murals painted on gable walls by folk artists. Again this art is the expression of a weak culture. What of music? There’s a slim volume of Orange songs but the songs are characteristic of Irish culture. What of language? Some Protestants claim they have a native tongue in Ulster Scots. This is part of the claim that N. Ireland is a nation but the people are split over both claims. A referendum to sort out whether Ulster Scots is a language or not would be useful. What of dance? Some Protestants adopt Scottish dance as their culture but if the Orangemen were dancing strath-speys on Royal Avenue in Belfast and if the Apprentice Boys were doing Highland Flings on Derry’s walls no one would give a damn The Orange Order demonstrations are about much more than that. What of folklore and mythology? There’s Irish folklore but no Ulster Scots folklore. There are those who connect N. Ireland with the legendary Finn Mc Cool but Finn belongs to Irish legend. The upshot of this evaluation of protestant culture is that it is weak in nature but if the Orange parades were solely about culture no hair would be turned on anyone’s head. So why the violent bitter reaction connected with such parades?
The Constitution.
To get to the root of this question one must examine U.K. constitution. The problem here is that Protestantism and the constitution have been intertwined since the battle of the Boyne. The U.K. constitution is unwritten and proceeds by historic precedent, historic practice and convention. The battle of the Boyne is part of the historic precedent of U.K. constitution and from that has arisen the notion of a protestant ascendancy and protestant ruling class. In that way church and state in U.K. constitution isn’t separate and apart but are closely interwoven so in effect U.K. constitution gives a protestant state for a protestant people. While U.K. constitution may be no longer be seen that way in secular Great Britain this view of the constitution is alive and seen as valid in Protestant Ireland. While this is unwritten it is intuitively felt in Ireland. For that reason U.K. constitution has understandably been rejected by Catholic Ireland and clung to by Protestant Ireland. Because of this U.K. constitution has a violent history in Ireland. This constitutional conflict is still observable today in the streets of Belfast and Derry Orange parades nowadays are an assertion of the Protestant ascendancy mentality built into U.K. constitution. The Protestant ascendancy notion was copper fastened in Ireland in the1801 Act of Union. Thereafter protestant Ireland hijacked the protestant Crown so that in Ireland the Crown is seen as a Crown for Protestants. This is the situation in present day N. Ireland where the Queen on state visits to N. Ireland is confined to protestant districts. Catholic districts are no-go areas for the Queen but on state occasions a handful of tame Catholics are brought into the Queen’s presence to gloss the matter over.
To resolve this deep-seated problem of the U.K. constitution in Ireland church and state will have to be separated. While the intertwining of church and state in Great Britain doesn’t present a problem because there church and state go hand in glove in the established Protestant church (the Church of England is the Tory party at prayer); in Ireland it does present a serious problem in that the vast majority of the people are Catholic. In Ireland in U.K. constitution church and state will have to separate. This can be done in a specific written Irish constitution for Ireland, namely The National Government of Ireland Act. In this Act the Crown should be defined as Christian as far as Ireland is concerned and neutral in relation to the denominational churches. In doing this the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would need to change to The Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa depending upon ones perception of these islands.
The National Government of Ireland would require much more and should cover life in Ireland and the history thereof. A version of the national Government of Ireland can be found in the book THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE---published by Authorhouse and it will give a good idea of what the Act would require. In the Act the battle of the Boyne and the Orange Order would still remain as a centrepiece of the new Federal Kingdom Constitution. The Orange Order would need reform in this manner: -
(1) The Order should become the Royal Orange Order of Ireland.
(2) Each member would take an oath to be loyal to the Crown, to uphold civil and religious liberty, to be Christian in belief, religious practice, moral outlook, behaviour and in speech.
(3)The expectation that each member would adopt an ecumenical spirit.
(4)The 12th July t o be declared a National Holiday in Ireland.
(5)Freedom of access to Irish territory in all its aspects.
A detailed development of this reform can be found in the book –THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE—article 10 The Orange Order Page 231
It is clear that Orange parades are contentious in parts of the six counties/ N. Ireland. In catholic areas these parades are at least protested against and at most opposed with violence. Why is this? Is the root cause religion or culture or the constitution. Which?
Religion
If the Orange parades were simply about Protestantism and those taking part paraded with bibles alone then in such circumstances an eyebrow wouldn’t be raised. If the parades ended solely in the preaching of sermons full of biblical quotes and in the singing of robust revivalist hymns, the parades would go unnoticed. So since the parades are opposed sometimes with spitting, sometimes with violence, some thing more than Protestantism is being put on display.
Culture
It is currently fashionable for the Orange Order to claim that the parades are about the expression of Protestant culture. So what is culture and more especially Protestant culture? Culture is a slippery concept. Chairman Mao said the people move in culture as fish move in water. According to the dictionary culture in the broadest sense is the totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns arts, beliefs, institutions and all other works of human thought characteristic of a community or a people. If however Orange Parades were simply socially transmitted behaviour patterns and seen as artistic expressions on banners and the upholding of beliefs and institutions Protestant culture would pass unnoticed. More particularly the popular view of culture is that it has to do with literature, art works, music, language, dance, folklore and legend. In all of that in what sense are Orange parades an expression of all works of thought in the Protestant community? What is Protestant literature? All there is, are the Weaver poets but for those who take poetry seriously those are local doggerel pieces and express a weak culture. So the Orangemen aren’t being stoned over poetry. Of course Ulster Scots claim Robert Burns as part of their culture but the culture expressed by Burns is not indigenous to Ulster but is apart from it. What then are the art works of the protestant community? There are folk murals painted on gable walls by folk artists. Again this art is the expression of a weak culture. What of music? There’s a slim volume of Orange songs but the songs are characteristic of Irish culture. What of language? Some Protestants claim they have a native tongue in Ulster Scots. This is part of the claim that N. Ireland is a nation but the people are split over both claims. A referendum to sort out whether Ulster Scots is a language or not would be useful. What of dance? Some Protestants adopt Scottish dance as their culture but if the Orangemen were dancing strath-speys on Royal Avenue in Belfast and if the Apprentice Boys were doing Highland Flings on Derry’s walls no one would give a damn The Orange Order demonstrations are about much more than that. What of folklore and mythology? There’s Irish folklore but no Ulster Scots folklore. There are those who connect N. Ireland with the legendary Finn Mc Cool but Finn belongs to Irish legend. The upshot of this evaluation of protestant culture is that it is weak in nature but if the Orange parades were solely about culture no hair would be turned on anyone’s head. So why the violent bitter reaction connected with such parades?
The Constitution.
To get to the root of this question one must examine U.K. constitution. The problem here is that Protestantism and the constitution have been intertwined since the battle of the Boyne. The U.K. constitution is unwritten and proceeds by historic precedent, historic practice and convention. The battle of the Boyne is part of the historic precedent of U.K. constitution and from that has arisen the notion of a protestant ascendancy and protestant ruling class. In that way church and state in U.K. constitution isn’t separate and apart but are closely interwoven so in effect U.K. constitution gives a protestant state for a protestant people. While U.K. constitution may be no longer be seen that way in secular Great Britain this view of the constitution is alive and seen as valid in Protestant Ireland. While this is unwritten it is intuitively felt in Ireland. For that reason U.K. constitution has understandably been rejected by Catholic Ireland and clung to by Protestant Ireland. Because of this U.K. constitution has a violent history in Ireland. This constitutional conflict is still observable today in the streets of Belfast and Derry Orange parades nowadays are an assertion of the Protestant ascendancy mentality built into U.K. constitution. The Protestant ascendancy notion was copper fastened in Ireland in the1801 Act of Union. Thereafter protestant Ireland hijacked the protestant Crown so that in Ireland the Crown is seen as a Crown for Protestants. This is the situation in present day N. Ireland where the Queen on state visits to N. Ireland is confined to protestant districts. Catholic districts are no-go areas for the Queen but on state occasions a handful of tame Catholics are brought into the Queen’s presence to gloss the matter over.
To resolve this deep-seated problem of the U.K. constitution in Ireland church and state will have to be separated. While the intertwining of church and state in Great Britain doesn’t present a problem because there church and state go hand in glove in the established Protestant church (the Church of England is the Tory party at prayer); in Ireland it does present a serious problem in that the vast majority of the people are Catholic. In Ireland in U.K. constitution church and state will have to separate. This can be done in a specific written Irish constitution for Ireland, namely The National Government of Ireland Act. In this Act the Crown should be defined as Christian as far as Ireland is concerned and neutral in relation to the denominational churches. In doing this the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would need to change to The Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa depending upon ones perception of these islands.
The National Government of Ireland would require much more and should cover life in Ireland and the history thereof. A version of the national Government of Ireland can be found in the book THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE---published by Authorhouse and it will give a good idea of what the Act would require. In the Act the battle of the Boyne and the Orange Order would still remain as a centrepiece of the new Federal Kingdom Constitution. The Orange Order would need reform in this manner: -
(1) The Order should become the Royal Orange Order of Ireland.
(2) Each member would take an oath to be loyal to the Crown, to uphold civil and religious liberty, to be Christian in belief, religious practice, moral outlook, behaviour and in speech.
(3)The expectation that each member would adopt an ecumenical spirit.
(4)The 12th July t o be declared a National Holiday in Ireland.
(5)Freedom of access to Irish territory in all its aspects.
A detailed development of this reform can be found in the book –THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE—article 10 The Orange Order Page 231
Mark Durkan and a United Ireland
4 Rotherwood Drive Tel 71285807 Email macgil@hotmail.co.uk
Kilfennan
L’Derry
BT47 5SY
13/08/09
Dear Mr Durkan
I thank you for your reply to my letter and for bringing to my attention your policy document A United Ireland and the Agreement, which I have read carefully. M y first impression of the document is that it bears no relationship to the Ireland in which I live. The document says that the S.D.L.P. is 100% for a United Ireland and is 100% for the Good Friday Agreement. These are fine words but they spring from Republican dogma about a united Ireland but Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein disavows dogma as the curse of Irish Politics and puts in its place secularism, which operates on reason logic and observation.
On observation what has followed from the Good Friday Agreement? There is now a Right Wing Union Jack Unionist Assembly at Stormont propped up by Republican/Nationalist people. Sectarianism is now institutionalized and partition copper fastened. In Belfast and Derry the people sulk behind peace walls flying a sectarian Union Jack on the one hand and flying a sectarian Irish Tricolour on the other. Kerbs are painted red white and blue by some and green white and orange by others. This actual world is absent from the S.D.L.P. document on a United Ireland. For Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein this observed world is irrational and illogical and needs change. These circumstances in the cities can only be changed with a new genuinely Irish constitution expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act which will give symbols and emblems acceptable to all, namely loyalists and others. That vision of unity is clear. The S.D.L.P. see unity in Ireland through a glass darkly.
You highlight the following: -
We seek a united Ireland that is confident pluralist and non-sectarian. One that can find the magnanimity to offer a home to those who are Irish but also to those among us who are British. One that is not afraid of differing identities and allegiances. One that will respect and protect them all.
And Also
The right to identify ones self as British or Irish
I say with respect that all of this is dangerous nonsense The S.D.L.P. and many others misunderstand pluralism Correctly understood a pluralist society or state is one made up of many religions. There is no difficulty with that. America is a prime example, so is Germany but I can’t think of any stable democracy in the world that is made up of many identities. From the melting pot in America the citizen emerges with a single identity American. The S.D.L.P. recognition of a spurious right to recognise oneself as either British or Irish would perpetuate sectarianism in Ireland and would build instability into the country just as the six counties /N. Ireland is now unstable with a dual identity.
In this the S.D.L.P. lacks insight into the nature and sensitivity of being British just as Right Wing Union Jack Unionism lacks insight into the nature and sensitivity of being Irish. In your document you say the S.D.L.P is the party of true Republicanism. In that statement is written the death sentence of an S.D.L.P. UNITED Ireland. The sap of being British is the right to be loyal to the Crown so how can that right be recognised in an S.D.L.P. Republic? Loyalty to the Crown is the sine qua non of being a unionist as well so how can a unionist exist in a United Ireland proposed by a Republican S.D.L.P.? In a Republic the right to be loyal to the Crown would be suppressed just as loyalty to the Crown has been suppressed in the 26 county Republic. Because of that loyalist Ireland in the South voted against the state with their feet by walking out until Protestant loyalists on the banks of the Shannon are nowadays as scarce and rare as Sioux Indians are on the banks of the Mississippi. On the other hand Catholics in the six counties increased and multiplied under the Crown.
Unlike the S.D.L. P. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein has a vision of a new united Ireland in which there is no inconsistency in being loyal to the reformed Crown and in being Irish. In Ireland the right of loyalty to the reformed Crown would be freely expressed in a Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland And Great Britain. It should be noted that loyalty would be to a reformed Crown not a BRITISH Crown. To ask the Irish to be loyal to a British Crown would be an historic inconsistency. The necessary reforms of the Crown are examined in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE (Authorhouse). In the National Government of Ireland Act all on the Island would be defined as Irish citizens but the sap of loyalty would still rise in the historic trunk of loyalist Ireland and surge into its traditional branches so that in a united Ireland, Loyalist Ireland would flourish increase and multiply.
To look at loyalty in a human way as a secularist using reason logic and observation, it can be observed that loyalty is a praiseworthy worthwhile human attribute be it loyalty to wife, husband, family, friend, company, church, country, or the Crown. Because loyalty is a human attribute its free expression is a human right. Loyalty to the Crown goes with out mention in the S.D.L.P. document a United Ireland and because of that the document is seriously flawed. This blind spot in the vision of the S.D.L.P. wounds the historic psyche of Protestant Ireland and thus wounded, Protestant Ireland will avoid unity.
The S.D.L.P. document talks of an Irish constitution. What does an Irish constitution mean to the S.D.L.P.? Is it a code for a Republican constitution in which Irishness and Republicanism are intertwined and loyalism is excluded like the 1937 constitution? The National Government of Ireland Act is a genuinely written Irish Constitution giving equal recognition to both Irish Ireland and Loyalist Ireland. Its full content can be found in the novel mentioned previously.
The S.D.L.P. states that in their United Ireland there would still be Unionists. These unionists Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein calls Right Wing Union Jack Unionists to distinguish them from Royal Flag of Ireland unionists, as is Federal Unionism. So in a S.D.L.P. united Ireland these union Jack Unionists would fly the Union Jack while others would fly the Republican Irish Tricolour. In such a United Ireland sectarianism would be writ large and civil strife would be endemic. Has the S.D.L.P. got s policy document on the eradication of sectarianism? In a United Ireland with the Irish constitution, The National Government of Ireland Act, sectarianism would wither away and die out.
Federal Unionism- Early Sinn Fein states clearly it is union friendly. In principle there is no objection to a union between these islands just as there can be no objection in principle to a union between European Nations. What can be objected to is the implementation and maintenance of such a union? If the 1801 Act of Union had been implemented democratically according to the wishes of the Irish People there would never have been a problem with the union. It is recognised that democracy wasn’t in place in the Ireland of the time. Instead the Union was implemented by chicanery deceit and corruption and imposed and maintained militarily. Such a union is unacceptable and was right fully opposed. In 1922 the Act of Union was again imposed militarily on those who didn’t want it and objected to it. The Union was challenged in the Civil Rights Movement and that movement altered the nature of Union Jack Unionism but Civil Rights became infected with the dogma of sectarian catholic 1916 uprising. This dogma infects the thinking of The S.D.L.P. The secularist Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein maintains and rightly so that the U.K. constitution which has been rejected by the vast majority of the people of this Island and by a significant body of people in the six counties/N. Ireland, needs to be replaced by the Federal Kingdom expressed in the Irish constitution, The National Government of Ireland Act, which will give an Irish Constitution acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry and to the Protestants of Derry.
The S.D.L.P. also lay great stress on a majority in the six counties/N Ireland. It is accepted by the S.D.L.P. that N. Ireland can remain within the U.K .for as long as the Majority so wish. When analysed that means that the U.K. constitution will remain for as long as the majority so wish. But this deception should be nailed in Ireland. For a constitution to be democratic it has to enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people not a marginal majority, as is the case in N. Ireland. Suppose in the U.S.A. the constitution was supported by the white community but was opposed by the black community. Suppose this set-up resulted in the flying of the Stars and Stripes for whites and The Hammer and the Sickle for blacks with an Anthem for whites and an anthem for blacks, with a passport for whites and a passport for blacks, with a first president for whites in the Oval Office and a deputy first President for blacks also in the Oval Office, the U.S.A. would be torn with civil strife and the United States would fall apart. But that constitutional set-up is in place in the Six counties so it is small wonder there are walls in the cities and sectarian strife in the streets despite the Good Friday Agreement.
It is also mentioned in the S.D.L.P. document that Late Sinn Fein accepts Union Jack Unionism’s consent and assent to a United Ireland. That day will only come when Right Wing Union Jack Unionism converts en masse to Republicanism and does an historic volte-face and disavows the Crown.
A regional Parliament is also recognised at Stormont. Why should Ulster be given special treatment in Ireland? Why not devolve power from the central government in Dublin to assemblies in the capitals of the four Irish provinces and bring the democratic legislative process as close to the grass roots as possible.
Finally the S.D.L.P. makes no mention of the presence of a British garrison in Ireland That presence is now accepted by the S.D.L.P. and Late Sinn Fein. The presence is not acceptable to Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein but it has the Know-how to deal with the problem. If the National Government of Ireland Act were in place in Ireland then it would be a Constitutional Imperative that the British garrison leave Ireland and take the Union Jack with them, the Union Jack being replaced by The Royal Flag of Ireland the design of the flag being described in my original letter. This is a complex military matter; the full complexity is dealt with in THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE (Authorhouse) and can be found in article 9 page 223
All of this requires that the U.U.P., The S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party form a central coalition as Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. In that way these three parties would cease to be small fish in three small ponds but would become large fish in one large United Ireland pond. In such a United Ireland, Irish Ireland and Loyalist Ireland would live happily together with a single Irish identity and with the children of each tradition cherished equally in a Federal Kingdom where Catholic Protestant and Dissenter are united in the name of Irishman under the Crown. . The Government of Ireland Act partitioned the island only the National Government of Ireland Act can unite it
With Regards Michael Gillespie
Kilfennan
L’Derry
BT47 5SY
13/08/09
Dear Mr Durkan
I thank you for your reply to my letter and for bringing to my attention your policy document A United Ireland and the Agreement, which I have read carefully. M y first impression of the document is that it bears no relationship to the Ireland in which I live. The document says that the S.D.L.P. is 100% for a United Ireland and is 100% for the Good Friday Agreement. These are fine words but they spring from Republican dogma about a united Ireland but Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein disavows dogma as the curse of Irish Politics and puts in its place secularism, which operates on reason logic and observation.
On observation what has followed from the Good Friday Agreement? There is now a Right Wing Union Jack Unionist Assembly at Stormont propped up by Republican/Nationalist people. Sectarianism is now institutionalized and partition copper fastened. In Belfast and Derry the people sulk behind peace walls flying a sectarian Union Jack on the one hand and flying a sectarian Irish Tricolour on the other. Kerbs are painted red white and blue by some and green white and orange by others. This actual world is absent from the S.D.L.P. document on a United Ireland. For Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein this observed world is irrational and illogical and needs change. These circumstances in the cities can only be changed with a new genuinely Irish constitution expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act which will give symbols and emblems acceptable to all, namely loyalists and others. That vision of unity is clear. The S.D.L.P. see unity in Ireland through a glass darkly.
You highlight the following: -
We seek a united Ireland that is confident pluralist and non-sectarian. One that can find the magnanimity to offer a home to those who are Irish but also to those among us who are British. One that is not afraid of differing identities and allegiances. One that will respect and protect them all.
And Also
The right to identify ones self as British or Irish
I say with respect that all of this is dangerous nonsense The S.D.L.P. and many others misunderstand pluralism Correctly understood a pluralist society or state is one made up of many religions. There is no difficulty with that. America is a prime example, so is Germany but I can’t think of any stable democracy in the world that is made up of many identities. From the melting pot in America the citizen emerges with a single identity American. The S.D.L.P. recognition of a spurious right to recognise oneself as either British or Irish would perpetuate sectarianism in Ireland and would build instability into the country just as the six counties /N. Ireland is now unstable with a dual identity.
In this the S.D.L.P. lacks insight into the nature and sensitivity of being British just as Right Wing Union Jack Unionism lacks insight into the nature and sensitivity of being Irish. In your document you say the S.D.L.P is the party of true Republicanism. In that statement is written the death sentence of an S.D.L.P. UNITED Ireland. The sap of being British is the right to be loyal to the Crown so how can that right be recognised in an S.D.L.P. Republic? Loyalty to the Crown is the sine qua non of being a unionist as well so how can a unionist exist in a United Ireland proposed by a Republican S.D.L.P.? In a Republic the right to be loyal to the Crown would be suppressed just as loyalty to the Crown has been suppressed in the 26 county Republic. Because of that loyalist Ireland in the South voted against the state with their feet by walking out until Protestant loyalists on the banks of the Shannon are nowadays as scarce and rare as Sioux Indians are on the banks of the Mississippi. On the other hand Catholics in the six counties increased and multiplied under the Crown.
Unlike the S.D.L. P. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein has a vision of a new united Ireland in which there is no inconsistency in being loyal to the reformed Crown and in being Irish. In Ireland the right of loyalty to the reformed Crown would be freely expressed in a Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland And Great Britain. It should be noted that loyalty would be to a reformed Crown not a BRITISH Crown. To ask the Irish to be loyal to a British Crown would be an historic inconsistency. The necessary reforms of the Crown are examined in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE (Authorhouse). In the National Government of Ireland Act all on the Island would be defined as Irish citizens but the sap of loyalty would still rise in the historic trunk of loyalist Ireland and surge into its traditional branches so that in a united Ireland, Loyalist Ireland would flourish increase and multiply.
To look at loyalty in a human way as a secularist using reason logic and observation, it can be observed that loyalty is a praiseworthy worthwhile human attribute be it loyalty to wife, husband, family, friend, company, church, country, or the Crown. Because loyalty is a human attribute its free expression is a human right. Loyalty to the Crown goes with out mention in the S.D.L.P. document a United Ireland and because of that the document is seriously flawed. This blind spot in the vision of the S.D.L.P. wounds the historic psyche of Protestant Ireland and thus wounded, Protestant Ireland will avoid unity.
The S.D.L.P. document talks of an Irish constitution. What does an Irish constitution mean to the S.D.L.P.? Is it a code for a Republican constitution in which Irishness and Republicanism are intertwined and loyalism is excluded like the 1937 constitution? The National Government of Ireland Act is a genuinely written Irish Constitution giving equal recognition to both Irish Ireland and Loyalist Ireland. Its full content can be found in the novel mentioned previously.
The S.D.L.P. states that in their United Ireland there would still be Unionists. These unionists Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein calls Right Wing Union Jack Unionists to distinguish them from Royal Flag of Ireland unionists, as is Federal Unionism. So in a S.D.L.P. united Ireland these union Jack Unionists would fly the Union Jack while others would fly the Republican Irish Tricolour. In such a United Ireland sectarianism would be writ large and civil strife would be endemic. Has the S.D.L.P. got s policy document on the eradication of sectarianism? In a United Ireland with the Irish constitution, The National Government of Ireland Act, sectarianism would wither away and die out.
Federal Unionism- Early Sinn Fein states clearly it is union friendly. In principle there is no objection to a union between these islands just as there can be no objection in principle to a union between European Nations. What can be objected to is the implementation and maintenance of such a union? If the 1801 Act of Union had been implemented democratically according to the wishes of the Irish People there would never have been a problem with the union. It is recognised that democracy wasn’t in place in the Ireland of the time. Instead the Union was implemented by chicanery deceit and corruption and imposed and maintained militarily. Such a union is unacceptable and was right fully opposed. In 1922 the Act of Union was again imposed militarily on those who didn’t want it and objected to it. The Union was challenged in the Civil Rights Movement and that movement altered the nature of Union Jack Unionism but Civil Rights became infected with the dogma of sectarian catholic 1916 uprising. This dogma infects the thinking of The S.D.L.P. The secularist Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein maintains and rightly so that the U.K. constitution which has been rejected by the vast majority of the people of this Island and by a significant body of people in the six counties/N. Ireland, needs to be replaced by the Federal Kingdom expressed in the Irish constitution, The National Government of Ireland Act, which will give an Irish Constitution acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry and to the Protestants of Derry.
The S.D.L.P. also lay great stress on a majority in the six counties/N Ireland. It is accepted by the S.D.L.P. that N. Ireland can remain within the U.K .for as long as the Majority so wish. When analysed that means that the U.K. constitution will remain for as long as the majority so wish. But this deception should be nailed in Ireland. For a constitution to be democratic it has to enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people not a marginal majority, as is the case in N. Ireland. Suppose in the U.S.A. the constitution was supported by the white community but was opposed by the black community. Suppose this set-up resulted in the flying of the Stars and Stripes for whites and The Hammer and the Sickle for blacks with an Anthem for whites and an anthem for blacks, with a passport for whites and a passport for blacks, with a first president for whites in the Oval Office and a deputy first President for blacks also in the Oval Office, the U.S.A. would be torn with civil strife and the United States would fall apart. But that constitutional set-up is in place in the Six counties so it is small wonder there are walls in the cities and sectarian strife in the streets despite the Good Friday Agreement.
It is also mentioned in the S.D.L.P. document that Late Sinn Fein accepts Union Jack Unionism’s consent and assent to a United Ireland. That day will only come when Right Wing Union Jack Unionism converts en masse to Republicanism and does an historic volte-face and disavows the Crown.
A regional Parliament is also recognised at Stormont. Why should Ulster be given special treatment in Ireland? Why not devolve power from the central government in Dublin to assemblies in the capitals of the four Irish provinces and bring the democratic legislative process as close to the grass roots as possible.
Finally the S.D.L.P. makes no mention of the presence of a British garrison in Ireland That presence is now accepted by the S.D.L.P. and Late Sinn Fein. The presence is not acceptable to Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein but it has the Know-how to deal with the problem. If the National Government of Ireland Act were in place in Ireland then it would be a Constitutional Imperative that the British garrison leave Ireland and take the Union Jack with them, the Union Jack being replaced by The Royal Flag of Ireland the design of the flag being described in my original letter. This is a complex military matter; the full complexity is dealt with in THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE (Authorhouse) and can be found in article 9 page 223
All of this requires that the U.U.P., The S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party form a central coalition as Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. In that way these three parties would cease to be small fish in three small ponds but would become large fish in one large United Ireland pond. In such a United Ireland, Irish Ireland and Loyalist Ireland would live happily together with a single Irish identity and with the children of each tradition cherished equally in a Federal Kingdom where Catholic Protestant and Dissenter are united in the name of Irishman under the Crown. . The Government of Ireland Act partitioned the island only the National Government of Ireland Act can unite it
With Regards Michael Gillespie
Monday, 20 July 2009
Blame the Constitution not the Rioters
Blame the Constitution not the Rioters
IN his letter July 18 Mr Stevenson adopts the blinkered viewpoint that for him and people in general all that matters in a country is the bread and butter economy, to paraphrase his position. As a Christian economist I would bring this quote to Mr Stevenson’s attention: -
Not by bread alone does man live but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4
This suggests to me there is higher spiritual order in the life of the individual than bread and butter economics. An individual’s belly isn’t the whole person, as the adherents of a consumer, debt driven, obesity ridden, socio-economy would have us believe.
With that in mind I would point out to Mr Stevenson that in any state there is a higher order than the economy. It is the constitution. A state constitution that has the support of all of the people is a pre-condition for a stable peaceful state that will enjoy vital economic growth and wealth creation. This is missing in the six county/ N. Ireland state. There the state constitution has only the support of some of the people but not all. There are two conflicting heads of state involved two conflicting national flags and anthems, with two conflicting national passports. Such a state is constituted, as being at war with itself so it is not surprising that hotheaded youths in Ardoyne will resort to warlike acts. For Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein these misguided individuals cannot be written off as mindless thugs as the press does but are seen as the tragic victims of an unwritten, undemocratic, imposed and indefensible six county/ N. Ireland state constitution. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can supply an answer. It is the reform of the United Kingdom constitution to the written Federal Kingdom constitution. The know-how for this is set out in the Blog: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
The know-how to change the United Kingdom to a Federal Kingdom will require the political centre in N. Ireland to unite into a single central party under the banner of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. The political centre in N. Ireland is fractured in three into the U.U.P., the S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party. These three parties should form a single party as indicated. This new central party should take as its platform the reform of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland into the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa depending on whether one is speaking from an Irish or British perspective. This reform should be expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act. The central party should make clear to all that it is United Ireland friendly, Union and Crown friendly. In this way the new central party Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein will be a party for all and is non-sectarian.
In such a reformed Federal kingdom in relation to Ireland expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act there would be: -
(a) One Head of State – a reformed Crown whose constitutional duties in all Ireland would be defined and stated clearly in writing in the Act.
(b) One national flag in Ireland---the Royal Flag of Ireland. This should be a redesign of the existing tricolour with the Red Cross of St Patrick imposed on the white central panel of the Tricolour along with a Crown and harp emblems in blue. At the bottom of the central panel there should be a shamrock in outline. This flag should be defined in the Act as being, at one and the same time, the National flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. The Union Jack would be defined in the Act as the national flag of Great Britain and the symbol of Great Britain and the Sovereign Nation of Ireland. This is only a small piece in the jigsaw of the Act. A fully developed version of the Act can be found in the novel ---THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE--- Published by Authorhouse and available at Amazon Books. This version of the Act runs to over 20,000 words and is an attempt to cover all aspects of life in Ireland Joining the flags together as a composite is more sensible than attempting to join Peter Robinson and Martin Mc Guinness at the hip at Stormont; these men stand for division and violence in Ireland and their coalition at Stormont is a constitutional absurdity.
© One National Anthem, which can be sung by all. There are many fine songs in Ireland, any one of which would suit this.
(d) One National passport written in Irish and English showing a picture of the Crown as Head of State.
(e) One National Central Government in Dublin called Dail Eireann with legislative power devolved to four Provincial Houses: -
(1) The House of Ulster.
(2) The House of Munster.
(3) The House of Leinster.
(4) The House of Connaugh.
The main problem to be faced in all of this is the reality that Ireland is bedevilled with rigid political doctrinal mindsets. If a Federal Kingdom is to be put in place these doctrinal mindsets will have to be replaced with secular politics. Secular politics are grounded in reason, logic and observation. To eradicate rigid mindsets that are frozen in belief about personalities of bygone times will be a difficult uphill struggle. Mind sets that embody Tone and Pearse on the one hand and King William at the Boyne, the U.V.F. at the Somme and Craig, Carson and the Ulster Covenant on the other,. are deeply embedded in the Irish psyche and will be difficult to uproot but this will have to be undertaken if a Federal Kingdom of peace harmony and reconciliation is to be realized. This rigid doctrinaire belief can be a preamble to violence.
But even so it is still possible to design a Federal Kingdom constitution for all Ireland, which should be as acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry as to the Protestants of Derry and in that way a peaceful stable United Ireland arrived at in which Catholic Protestant and Dissenter are united as Irishmen. The Government of Ireland Act partitioned the Island only the National Government of Ireland Act can reunite the island
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
IN his letter July 18 Mr Stevenson adopts the blinkered viewpoint that for him and people in general all that matters in a country is the bread and butter economy, to paraphrase his position. As a Christian economist I would bring this quote to Mr Stevenson’s attention: -
Not by bread alone does man live but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4
This suggests to me there is higher spiritual order in the life of the individual than bread and butter economics. An individual’s belly isn’t the whole person, as the adherents of a consumer, debt driven, obesity ridden, socio-economy would have us believe.
With that in mind I would point out to Mr Stevenson that in any state there is a higher order than the economy. It is the constitution. A state constitution that has the support of all of the people is a pre-condition for a stable peaceful state that will enjoy vital economic growth and wealth creation. This is missing in the six county/ N. Ireland state. There the state constitution has only the support of some of the people but not all. There are two conflicting heads of state involved two conflicting national flags and anthems, with two conflicting national passports. Such a state is constituted, as being at war with itself so it is not surprising that hotheaded youths in Ardoyne will resort to warlike acts. For Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein these misguided individuals cannot be written off as mindless thugs as the press does but are seen as the tragic victims of an unwritten, undemocratic, imposed and indefensible six county/ N. Ireland state constitution. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein can supply an answer. It is the reform of the United Kingdom constitution to the written Federal Kingdom constitution. The know-how for this is set out in the Blog: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
The know-how to change the United Kingdom to a Federal Kingdom will require the political centre in N. Ireland to unite into a single central party under the banner of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein. The political centre in N. Ireland is fractured in three into the U.U.P., the S.D.L.P. and the Alliance Party. These three parties should form a single party as indicated. This new central party should take as its platform the reform of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland into the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa depending on whether one is speaking from an Irish or British perspective. This reform should be expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act. The central party should make clear to all that it is United Ireland friendly, Union and Crown friendly. In this way the new central party Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein will be a party for all and is non-sectarian.
In such a reformed Federal kingdom in relation to Ireland expressed in the National Government of Ireland Act there would be: -
(a) One Head of State – a reformed Crown whose constitutional duties in all Ireland would be defined and stated clearly in writing in the Act.
(b) One national flag in Ireland---the Royal Flag of Ireland. This should be a redesign of the existing tricolour with the Red Cross of St Patrick imposed on the white central panel of the Tricolour along with a Crown and harp emblems in blue. At the bottom of the central panel there should be a shamrock in outline. This flag should be defined in the Act as being, at one and the same time, the National flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. The Union Jack would be defined in the Act as the national flag of Great Britain and the symbol of Great Britain and the Sovereign Nation of Ireland. This is only a small piece in the jigsaw of the Act. A fully developed version of the Act can be found in the novel ---THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE--- Published by Authorhouse and available at Amazon Books. This version of the Act runs to over 20,000 words and is an attempt to cover all aspects of life in Ireland Joining the flags together as a composite is more sensible than attempting to join Peter Robinson and Martin Mc Guinness at the hip at Stormont; these men stand for division and violence in Ireland and their coalition at Stormont is a constitutional absurdity.
© One National Anthem, which can be sung by all. There are many fine songs in Ireland, any one of which would suit this.
(d) One National passport written in Irish and English showing a picture of the Crown as Head of State.
(e) One National Central Government in Dublin called Dail Eireann with legislative power devolved to four Provincial Houses: -
(1) The House of Ulster.
(2) The House of Munster.
(3) The House of Leinster.
(4) The House of Connaugh.
The main problem to be faced in all of this is the reality that Ireland is bedevilled with rigid political doctrinal mindsets. If a Federal Kingdom is to be put in place these doctrinal mindsets will have to be replaced with secular politics. Secular politics are grounded in reason, logic and observation. To eradicate rigid mindsets that are frozen in belief about personalities of bygone times will be a difficult uphill struggle. Mind sets that embody Tone and Pearse on the one hand and King William at the Boyne, the U.V.F. at the Somme and Craig, Carson and the Ulster Covenant on the other,. are deeply embedded in the Irish psyche and will be difficult to uproot but this will have to be undertaken if a Federal Kingdom of peace harmony and reconciliation is to be realized. This rigid doctrinaire belief can be a preamble to violence.
But even so it is still possible to design a Federal Kingdom constitution for all Ireland, which should be as acceptable to the Catholics of Kerry as to the Protestants of Derry and in that way a peaceful stable United Ireland arrived at in which Catholic Protestant and Dissenter are united as Irishmen. The Government of Ireland Act partitioned the Island only the National Government of Ireland Act can reunite the island
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Friday, 10 July 2009
The Orangefest on the Shankill
The Orangefest on the Shankill
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein has read in the press that the purpose of the Orangefest on the Shankill is to make the 12th of July parades more inclusive. What does inclusive mean? Inclusive of what? Does it mean in the future Catholics will be out on the Twelfth waving Union Jacks and singing—God Save the Queen? Or could it mean the Orangemen will be out waving Tricolours and singing Amhran na bhFiain. Any one with half a brain knows that neither scenario will ever happen so what does Inclusive mean?
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn sees clearly that the sectarian problem typified by the Twelfth demonstrations springs from the nature of the U.K. constitution. This constitution is unwritten undemocratic and imposed and the Orange marches are part of the imposition of this constitution on those who don’t want it. That is how this unwritten constitution works. Hence the inherent violence connected with Orange parades. The Orangefest fools no one. Those who object to the U.K. constitution are having it rammed down their throats by the Orange Order.
The only way the Orange Parades can be made genuinely inclusive and peaceful and acceptable to all is by reforming the U.K. constitution in relation to Ireland as envisaged in the Blog: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
Scroll down to page 2 of-- Martin and the Orange Order-- and also c.f. the version of the National Government of Ireland Act given in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE, published by Authorhouse in Article 10 the Orange Order page 231
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein has read in the press that the purpose of the Orangefest on the Shankill is to make the 12th of July parades more inclusive. What does inclusive mean? Inclusive of what? Does it mean in the future Catholics will be out on the Twelfth waving Union Jacks and singing—God Save the Queen? Or could it mean the Orangemen will be out waving Tricolours and singing Amhran na bhFiain. Any one with half a brain knows that neither scenario will ever happen so what does Inclusive mean?
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn sees clearly that the sectarian problem typified by the Twelfth demonstrations springs from the nature of the U.K. constitution. This constitution is unwritten undemocratic and imposed and the Orange marches are part of the imposition of this constitution on those who don’t want it. That is how this unwritten constitution works. Hence the inherent violence connected with Orange parades. The Orangefest fools no one. Those who object to the U.K. constitution are having it rammed down their throats by the Orange Order.
The only way the Orange Parades can be made genuinely inclusive and peaceful and acceptable to all is by reforming the U.K. constitution in relation to Ireland as envisaged in the Blog: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
Scroll down to page 2 of-- Martin and the Orange Order-- and also c.f. the version of the National Government of Ireland Act given in the novel THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE, published by Authorhouse in Article 10 the Orange Order page 231
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Mr Doibhilin is Dispirited
Mr O Doibhilin is dispirited.
Mr O Doibhilin in his letter to the press feels that since Nelson Mc Causland(the culture minister in the assembly) is Oxford educated he should be open minded, free from prejudice and bias when it comes to Irish culture. Mr O Doibhilin fails to understand the weighting educationalists give to schooling in the formation of person, character, attitude and mentality in the individual.
According to the thinking of educationists, in the formation of the individual, family background is given a weighting of 60, the community background is given a weighting of 30 and education and schooling are weighted as 10. So Mr Mc Causland’s Oxford education is neither here nor there. It is his family and community background that matters in the formation of Mr Mc Causland’s mentality.
These weightings are borne out in my own experience. Many years ago when I was a student in Belfast students came up to Queens from Republican/ Nationalist backgrounds carrying with them a baggage of prejudice and bias. In Queen’s they joined Republican/Nationalist clubs and societies and had their bias and prejudice reinforced. They went down from Queens with their family and communal prejudice intact and strengthened. On the other hand students from a Union Jack Unionist family and community background went up to Queen’s with a different baggage of bias and prejudice joined Union Jack Unionist clubs and societies and went down from the university with their bias and prejudice intact and reinforced This is the only realistic verdict to be passed on education in the six counties/N. Ireland. Change will only come from the new unbiased thinking of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein not from Oxford or Q.U.B. Ireland needs new thinking, which can be found in the blog www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
Mi9chael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc(Econ) Dip.Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Mr O Doibhilin in his letter to the press feels that since Nelson Mc Causland(the culture minister in the assembly) is Oxford educated he should be open minded, free from prejudice and bias when it comes to Irish culture. Mr O Doibhilin fails to understand the weighting educationalists give to schooling in the formation of person, character, attitude and mentality in the individual.
According to the thinking of educationists, in the formation of the individual, family background is given a weighting of 60, the community background is given a weighting of 30 and education and schooling are weighted as 10. So Mr Mc Causland’s Oxford education is neither here nor there. It is his family and community background that matters in the formation of Mr Mc Causland’s mentality.
These weightings are borne out in my own experience. Many years ago when I was a student in Belfast students came up to Queens from Republican/ Nationalist backgrounds carrying with them a baggage of prejudice and bias. In Queen’s they joined Republican/Nationalist clubs and societies and had their bias and prejudice reinforced. They went down from Queens with their family and communal prejudice intact and strengthened. On the other hand students from a Union Jack Unionist family and community background went up to Queen’s with a different baggage of bias and prejudice joined Union Jack Unionist clubs and societies and went down from the university with their bias and prejudice intact and reinforced This is the only realistic verdict to be passed on education in the six counties/N. Ireland. Change will only come from the new unbiased thinking of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein not from Oxford or Q.U.B. Ireland needs new thinking, which can be found in the blog www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
Mi9chael Gillespie B.Ed B.Sc(Econ) Dip.Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Monday, 6 July 2009
The Ascendancy
The Ascendancy
Reflecting on the Irish problem as I often do, it seems to me that the existence of the protestant ascendancy in Ireland is at the root of this historic problem. The protestant ascendancy in Ireland rose to prominence and power in Ireland at the battle of the Boyne where the protestant King William defeated the catholic King James. In Ireland the protestant minority community became the ruling class as of right and ruled a defeated penalized catholic majority. This convention was retained in the 1801 Act of Union and thereafter the will of the protestant minority was what mattered while the will of the catholic majority was of little consequence.
With the setting up of the Northern Ireland six county statelet whose constitution was the unwritten imposed 1801 constitution, protestant ascendancy rule continued in the six counties and the state was kept constitutionally stable by the suppression of the catholic minority identity. I can recall living in West Belfast prior to the upsurge of the civil rights campaign in a new housing development whose inhabitants were 50/50 catholic/protestant. Relationships in the estate were excellent even though a few Union Jacks appeared on the Twelfth of July at the marching season but a display of the Irish Tricolour couldn’t be considered, as the police wouldn’t tolerate it. Indeed there are those who date the beginning of the troubles to a protestant protest led by Ian Paisley, against the display of an Irish Tricolour in a shop window in the catholic Lower Falls. My reading of the civil Rights Movement is that historically it mounted a challenge to Protestant ascendancy rule in the six counties and had the reforms envisaged by Terence O Neill been implemented with the backing of Ian Paisley there wouldn’t have been violence in the six county state. In later times Ian has made the magnanimous concession that in Northern Ireland Catholics can have anything they want and so they can, provided they don’t want rid of an unwritten imposed undemocratic U.K. constitution and don’t demand a catholic as first minister. However The Civil Rights Movement was hijacked by Republicans and corrupted by Republican violence and atrocity.
While there is now a bogus peace in the six counties since the Assembly was set up yet there remains an under-belly of violent discord in sectarian clashes in the streets of Derry between Catholic and Protestant youths, in the defacing of Orange and G.A.A. halls and in the continued existence of dissident Republican groups, namely the Real and Continuity I.R.A. to say northing of the peace walls in Belfast. Still in this analysis, this violence and discord will persist as long as an imposed unwritten undemocratic constitution remains in place in the six counties. The impact of this constitutional set-up is a clash of wills between the marginal Protestant majority and a significant Catholic minority. This clash of wills is expressed in the painting of kerbstones red, white and blue, and green, white and orange and in the flying of disparate conflicting flags. In this dichotomy the two communities sulk in mutual resentment behind peace walls in Belfast and in Derry in a bogus peace.. In the Assembly defeated Republicans sit in collaboration with a diametrically opposed Party, Right Wing Union Jack Unionism who have still to come to terms with the new reality that the days of the ascendancy are now over, but these are being propped up by Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies of and the implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Late Sinn Fein first used brute force but that effort was defeated; now they resort to political stealth but the destruction of the union remains their sole aim. But Late Sinn Fein must accept the cold reality that the only strategic rout to an all Ireland Republic is by the Protestant minority in Ireland converting en masse to Republicanism, a conversion that will not happen now or never since the central plank of Protestant culture is loyalty to the Crown. That said the Protestant loyalist community must also face the cold reality that since the days of the protestant ascendancy are over, the unwritten imposed U.K. constitution that goes with the ascendancy notion, has collapsed and is finished. There was a strong whiff of ascendancy rule about Ian Paisley and this whiff lingers with the D.U.P. and as long as this remains there will be Republicans to oppose it. There is also a strong whiff of ascendancy in the mentality of the Orange Order in the clash of communal wills at Garvaghey Road. The British cut the Provisional head off the I.R.A. monster but like the Lernean Hydra of old, the decapitated I.R.A. monster sprouted two new heads, The Real and Continuity I.R.A.
If this horror scenario is to be avoided in the six county state, then the people there will have to think again and anew about their constitutional future. New thinking will need a new party, which should be a united Ireland friendly, and the union and Kingdom friendly party. Such a party can be Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein, which should promote a new concept of a Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain in a National Government of Ireland Act. This Act should synthesise Unionism and Nationalism and in so doing draw up institutions and symbols, in a written constitution, which is acceptable to all, be they Catholic Protestant or Dissenter. In this way a genuinely peaceful united Ireland can be realized within a Federal Kingdom dimension.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Reflecting on the Irish problem as I often do, it seems to me that the existence of the protestant ascendancy in Ireland is at the root of this historic problem. The protestant ascendancy in Ireland rose to prominence and power in Ireland at the battle of the Boyne where the protestant King William defeated the catholic King James. In Ireland the protestant minority community became the ruling class as of right and ruled a defeated penalized catholic majority. This convention was retained in the 1801 Act of Union and thereafter the will of the protestant minority was what mattered while the will of the catholic majority was of little consequence.
With the setting up of the Northern Ireland six county statelet whose constitution was the unwritten imposed 1801 constitution, protestant ascendancy rule continued in the six counties and the state was kept constitutionally stable by the suppression of the catholic minority identity. I can recall living in West Belfast prior to the upsurge of the civil rights campaign in a new housing development whose inhabitants were 50/50 catholic/protestant. Relationships in the estate were excellent even though a few Union Jacks appeared on the Twelfth of July at the marching season but a display of the Irish Tricolour couldn’t be considered, as the police wouldn’t tolerate it. Indeed there are those who date the beginning of the troubles to a protestant protest led by Ian Paisley, against the display of an Irish Tricolour in a shop window in the catholic Lower Falls. My reading of the civil Rights Movement is that historically it mounted a challenge to Protestant ascendancy rule in the six counties and had the reforms envisaged by Terence O Neill been implemented with the backing of Ian Paisley there wouldn’t have been violence in the six county state. In later times Ian has made the magnanimous concession that in Northern Ireland Catholics can have anything they want and so they can, provided they don’t want rid of an unwritten imposed undemocratic U.K. constitution and don’t demand a catholic as first minister. However The Civil Rights Movement was hijacked by Republicans and corrupted by Republican violence and atrocity.
While there is now a bogus peace in the six counties since the Assembly was set up yet there remains an under-belly of violent discord in sectarian clashes in the streets of Derry between Catholic and Protestant youths, in the defacing of Orange and G.A.A. halls and in the continued existence of dissident Republican groups, namely the Real and Continuity I.R.A. to say northing of the peace walls in Belfast. Still in this analysis, this violence and discord will persist as long as an imposed unwritten undemocratic constitution remains in place in the six counties. The impact of this constitutional set-up is a clash of wills between the marginal Protestant majority and a significant Catholic minority. This clash of wills is expressed in the painting of kerbstones red, white and blue, and green, white and orange and in the flying of disparate conflicting flags. In this dichotomy the two communities sulk in mutual resentment behind peace walls in Belfast and in Derry in a bogus peace.. In the Assembly defeated Republicans sit in collaboration with a diametrically opposed Party, Right Wing Union Jack Unionism who have still to come to terms with the new reality that the days of the ascendancy are now over, but these are being propped up by Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies of and the implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Late Sinn Fein first used brute force but that effort was defeated; now they resort to political stealth but the destruction of the union remains their sole aim. But Late Sinn Fein must accept the cold reality that the only strategic rout to an all Ireland Republic is by the Protestant minority in Ireland converting en masse to Republicanism, a conversion that will not happen now or never since the central plank of Protestant culture is loyalty to the Crown. That said the Protestant loyalist community must also face the cold reality that since the days of the protestant ascendancy are over, the unwritten imposed U.K. constitution that goes with the ascendancy notion, has collapsed and is finished. There was a strong whiff of ascendancy rule about Ian Paisley and this whiff lingers with the D.U.P. and as long as this remains there will be Republicans to oppose it. There is also a strong whiff of ascendancy in the mentality of the Orange Order in the clash of communal wills at Garvaghey Road. The British cut the Provisional head off the I.R.A. monster but like the Lernean Hydra of old, the decapitated I.R.A. monster sprouted two new heads, The Real and Continuity I.R.A.
If this horror scenario is to be avoided in the six county state, then the people there will have to think again and anew about their constitutional future. New thinking will need a new party, which should be a united Ireland friendly, and the union and Kingdom friendly party. Such a party can be Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein, which should promote a new concept of a Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain in a National Government of Ireland Act. This Act should synthesise Unionism and Nationalism and in so doing draw up institutions and symbols, in a written constitution, which is acceptable to all, be they Catholic Protestant or Dissenter. In this way a genuinely peaceful united Ireland can be realized within a Federal Kingdom dimension.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Saturday, 4 July 2009
When is a war over?
When is a War over?
Federal Unionism reads with scepticism the current hype in the press about arm’s decommissioning and the peace process. For the unionist establishment parties and the press, everything in the garden is now rosy because the war is over but when is a war over?
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein obstinately maintains that the historic roots of discord and violence in Ireland past and present, lie in the constitution. If correctly observed, the six-counties/ N. Ireland is now constituted as being at war. There are two heads of state involved, two national flags being flown, two national anthems being sung and two national conflicting passports being travelled on. As well, the citizens of Belfast and Derry have barricaded themselves behind walls with kerbs painted in conflicting national colours. The war mentality persists in the constitution and is expressed in the murders at Mazareen and in Craigavon and in other diverse sectarian killings. The peace processes is phoney and fake.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein holds that a true genuine peace can only be found in a united Ireland context. To achieve this the U.K. constitution, which is undemocratic unwritten and imposed militarily, will have to be changed and replaced by a written democratic constitution which is acceptable to all on the Island. In this way the Island can be democratically constituted as united within a Federal Kingdom context as the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. That is the only way Ireland can be made constitutionally stable, united and genuinely at peace. C.F. www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Federal Unionism reads with scepticism the current hype in the press about arm’s decommissioning and the peace process. For the unionist establishment parties and the press, everything in the garden is now rosy because the war is over but when is a war over?
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein obstinately maintains that the historic roots of discord and violence in Ireland past and present, lie in the constitution. If correctly observed, the six-counties/ N. Ireland is now constituted as being at war. There are two heads of state involved, two national flags being flown, two national anthems being sung and two national conflicting passports being travelled on. As well, the citizens of Belfast and Derry have barricaded themselves behind walls with kerbs painted in conflicting national colours. The war mentality persists in the constitution and is expressed in the murders at Mazareen and in Craigavon and in other diverse sectarian killings. The peace processes is phoney and fake.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein holds that a true genuine peace can only be found in a united Ireland context. To achieve this the U.K. constitution, which is undemocratic unwritten and imposed militarily, will have to be changed and replaced by a written democratic constitution which is acceptable to all on the Island. In this way the Island can be democratically constituted as united within a Federal Kingdom context as the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. That is the only way Ireland can be made constitutionally stable, united and genuinely at peace. C.F. www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Friday, 3 July 2009
Is Esther Rantzen anti-Irish
Is the English woman Esther Rantzen anti-Irish?
The English woman Esther Rantzen is of the opinion that the people here are addicted to violence. This is a new variation by Esther on the old stage–Irish image of the fighting Irish. But do we deserve this image?
It is true the people here fought each other to a standstill over a period of 34 years. During that time there was an element in England who wrote that off, as characteristic of the Irish and these English would say they expected nothing else from the Irish but fighting.
It is indubitable that if the English had stayed out of Ireland violence on the island would have been at a minimum but if the English were at loggerheads over the constitution as the people here are, there would be wide spread violence in England as in the English Civil War. Our violence isn’t addictive; it is a product of our history of which the English are a part and carry much of the blame, past and present.A So Esther a more charitable and understanding view of the Irish would be in order.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
The English woman Esther Rantzen is of the opinion that the people here are addicted to violence. This is a new variation by Esther on the old stage–Irish image of the fighting Irish. But do we deserve this image?
It is true the people here fought each other to a standstill over a period of 34 years. During that time there was an element in England who wrote that off, as characteristic of the Irish and these English would say they expected nothing else from the Irish but fighting.
It is indubitable that if the English had stayed out of Ireland violence on the island would have been at a minimum but if the English were at loggerheads over the constitution as the people here are, there would be wide spread violence in England as in the English Civil War. Our violence isn’t addictive; it is a product of our history of which the English are a part and carry much of the blame, past and present.A So Esther a more charitable and understanding view of the Irish would be in order.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Adams and a United Ireland
Adams and a United Ireland
The correspondent Jane Enwright writes with an air of pique about Mr Adams’ assertion that Irish America holds the key to a united Ireland. Ms Enwright fails to understand politics in general and Irish politics in particular. The curse of Irish politics is that it is dogma-driven but Ms Enwright should note that President Bush was a dogma-driven American politician so dogmatic politics is not unique to Ireland. The dogmatic politics of Mr Adams relies on the use of hurrah words and statements and boo words and statements. For an audience of Irish Republican Americans a united Ireland is an hurrah term which Mr Adams hasn’t thought through but when repeated often enough it will draw in sectarian votes in support. On the other hand if the boo term a United Kingdom is repeated often enough with derision in Republican circles sectarian votes will roll in in support. To look at the unionist side The United Kingdom is an hurrah term and if repeated often by Peter Robinson sectarian votes will be cast in abundance. However if the boo term a United Ireland is repeated often with derision in unionist ranks, a rich reward of sectarian votes will follow.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein yearns for the day in Ireland when secular politics relying on reason logic and observation will replace this form of dogmatic politics. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein sees clearly that the only way Republicans can bring about a united Ireland is by having Protestant Ireland convert en masse to Republicanism but such a volte face is highly unlikely seeing that the central aspect of the Irish protestant psyche is loyalty to the Crown. But to look at the other side of the coin for as long as there is a military imposed U.K constitution in the six counties for so long will the peace process be phoney and a violent opposition will remain.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein is loyalist and Crown friendly and is also a united Ireland friendly for no other reason than that that approach to Ireland is morally right. To maintain division in Ireland is morally wrong. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein points to a new united Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context in the blog –
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
It is of special importance that this blog be brought to the attention of Jane Enwright, as she should find it instructive about Ireland.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Adams and a United Ireland
Jane Enwright takes exception to Mr Adams’ assertion that Irish America holds the key to a united Ireland. A united Ireland is a complex constitutional matter but a united Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context is developed in full in the blog: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
This blog should be brought to the attention of Jane Enwright.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
The correspondent Jane Enwright writes with an air of pique about Mr Adams’ assertion that Irish America holds the key to a united Ireland. Ms Enwright fails to understand politics in general and Irish politics in particular. The curse of Irish politics is that it is dogma-driven but Ms Enwright should note that President Bush was a dogma-driven American politician so dogmatic politics is not unique to Ireland. The dogmatic politics of Mr Adams relies on the use of hurrah words and statements and boo words and statements. For an audience of Irish Republican Americans a united Ireland is an hurrah term which Mr Adams hasn’t thought through but when repeated often enough it will draw in sectarian votes in support. On the other hand if the boo term a United Kingdom is repeated often enough with derision in Republican circles sectarian votes will roll in in support. To look at the unionist side The United Kingdom is an hurrah term and if repeated often by Peter Robinson sectarian votes will be cast in abundance. However if the boo term a United Ireland is repeated often with derision in unionist ranks, a rich reward of sectarian votes will follow.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein yearns for the day in Ireland when secular politics relying on reason logic and observation will replace this form of dogmatic politics. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein sees clearly that the only way Republicans can bring about a united Ireland is by having Protestant Ireland convert en masse to Republicanism but such a volte face is highly unlikely seeing that the central aspect of the Irish protestant psyche is loyalty to the Crown. But to look at the other side of the coin for as long as there is a military imposed U.K constitution in the six counties for so long will the peace process be phoney and a violent opposition will remain.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein is loyalist and Crown friendly and is also a united Ireland friendly for no other reason than that that approach to Ireland is morally right. To maintain division in Ireland is morally wrong. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein points to a new united Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context in the blog –
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
It is of special importance that this blog be brought to the attention of Jane Enwright, as she should find it instructive about Ireland.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Adams and a United Ireland
Jane Enwright takes exception to Mr Adams’ assertion that Irish America holds the key to a united Ireland. A united Ireland is a complex constitutional matter but a united Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context is developed in full in the blog: -
www.blogstoday.co.uk/irishproblemsolved.blog
This blog should be brought to the attention of Jane Enwright.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein Derry
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Are the Six Counties a Nation?
Are the six counties / N. Ireland a nation?
According to current unionist political dogma the U.K. is made up of four nations, England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. But does the dogma that N. Ireland is a nation stand-up to secularist scrutiny. This dogma is passionately held in some quarters but passionately disputed in others. A secular defence can be made for England, ~Scotland and Wales being nations even if Scotland seems to be taking the path to Independence. A secularist may ask what does independence mean for the Scots and in what form will it take. Will the form be a Republic of Scotland?
A secularist disavows dogma especially political dogma but sees reason logic and observation as the basis of political analysis and discussion. For a secularist, nationhood has nothing to do with ethnicity, genes, religion, skin colour, language o r territory but is bound up with the constitution of the place which the people adhere to. What makes Germany, France, Spain Italy and the U.S.A. et al nations, is that these places have a constitution accepted by the overwhelming mass of the people. For Europe to become a nation will require a European constitution. This has been attempted democratically but the constitution was democratically defeated. Currently the Lisbon Treaty is being smuggled in by an undemocratic back door.
For a secularist who relies on reason logic and observation a case for N. Ireland being a nation cannot be made. It has an unwritten imposed undemocratic constitution, which doesn’t enjoy the overwhelming support of the people of the place. It is observable in post civil rights N. Ireland that there are two heads of state involved, two national flags been flown, two national anthems being sung with two national passports being travelled on while in Derry and Belfast the two communities sulk behind peace walls with kerbs painted red white and blue on the one hand and green white and orange on the other. So the six county/ N. Ireland place is not a nation as on observation the people are in deep disagreement over the constitution.
But if N. Ireland as a nation falls down on observation does it stand up in logic? It is fashionable by some in the six counties to call themselves Northern Irish. Since I live in Derry I could call myself Northern Irish but if I do what does that make the people of Inisowen and Malin Town? Are they not Northern Irish as well? So the constitutional name of the six counties-- Northern Ireland--- doesn’t stand up in logic thus for a secularist the constitutional name of the six counties has to be rejected. In logic the six counties can only be called the six counties So N. Ireland isn’t a nation either in observation or in logic. The only conclusion a secularist can arrive at is that U.K. constitution is unreasonable in Ireland in that it is imposed militarily on a part of the island against the majority wishes of the entire island inhabitants and against the wishes of a significant sector of the population in that part of the island in which U.K. constitution is militarily imposed. For a secularist the constitutional set up here is unreasonable, illogical and is rejected on the grounds of observation but on top of all that U.K. constitution has been discredited when dogma-driven Right Wing Union Jack Unionism set up shop with dogma-driven Republican terrorists of Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein.
At this juncture this analysis might sound like a gift to dogma-driven Republican terrorists. This is not so. Secularists recognise Loyalty to the Crown as reasonable, logical and observable. Loyalty is a praiseworthy laudable human attribute be it loyalty to Crown, country, church, organization, or friend. Because of this loyalty is acceptable as logical and reasonable. Loyalty to the Crown is also observable as a reality in Ireland. It can be seen when expressed on the streets of the six counties; thus loyalty to the Crown should be seen being freely expressed in Ireland (in all of it not a bit of it) and should not be repressed and trampled underfoot as it would be in a Republic. So a secularist is loyalist and Crown friendly. What this analysis points to irrefutably is the need of U.K. Constitutional reform in relation to Ireland. . Secular Federal; Unionism –Early Sinn Fein sees this as achievable in the National Government of Ireland Act which will define a new relationship between Ireland and Great Britain as the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland Great Britain or vice versa.
If the version of THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND ACT given in the novel THE WAY IRELASND OUGHT TO BE published by Authorhouse, is looked at it will be found in Article 22 Page 266 of the novel that the people of this island should be given the opportunity of voting in a referendum to decide on the future of Ireland either as: -
(a) A Sovereign Nation of Ireland within a Federal Kingdom.
Or
(b) A Republic of Ireland with the 1937 constitution.
The votes in the 6 and 26 counties should be counted separately. If a significant majority in both territories vote for a Sovereign Nation then the island is united as a Sovereign Nation within a Federal Kingdom If a significant majority vote for a Republic in both territories then the island is united as a Republic. If a significant majority in the 6 counties vote for a Sovereign Nation and a significant majority in the 26 counties vote for a Republic then the island will remain partitioned. In that case Westminster should pass a bill defining the Federal Kingdom as the Federal Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland whose written constitution is the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND ACT That is the closest the six counties can be brought to as a nation constitutionally.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
According to current unionist political dogma the U.K. is made up of four nations, England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland. But does the dogma that N. Ireland is a nation stand-up to secularist scrutiny. This dogma is passionately held in some quarters but passionately disputed in others. A secular defence can be made for England, ~Scotland and Wales being nations even if Scotland seems to be taking the path to Independence. A secularist may ask what does independence mean for the Scots and in what form will it take. Will the form be a Republic of Scotland?
A secularist disavows dogma especially political dogma but sees reason logic and observation as the basis of political analysis and discussion. For a secularist, nationhood has nothing to do with ethnicity, genes, religion, skin colour, language o r territory but is bound up with the constitution of the place which the people adhere to. What makes Germany, France, Spain Italy and the U.S.A. et al nations, is that these places have a constitution accepted by the overwhelming mass of the people. For Europe to become a nation will require a European constitution. This has been attempted democratically but the constitution was democratically defeated. Currently the Lisbon Treaty is being smuggled in by an undemocratic back door.
For a secularist who relies on reason logic and observation a case for N. Ireland being a nation cannot be made. It has an unwritten imposed undemocratic constitution, which doesn’t enjoy the overwhelming support of the people of the place. It is observable in post civil rights N. Ireland that there are two heads of state involved, two national flags been flown, two national anthems being sung with two national passports being travelled on while in Derry and Belfast the two communities sulk behind peace walls with kerbs painted red white and blue on the one hand and green white and orange on the other. So the six county/ N. Ireland place is not a nation as on observation the people are in deep disagreement over the constitution.
But if N. Ireland as a nation falls down on observation does it stand up in logic? It is fashionable by some in the six counties to call themselves Northern Irish. Since I live in Derry I could call myself Northern Irish but if I do what does that make the people of Inisowen and Malin Town? Are they not Northern Irish as well? So the constitutional name of the six counties-- Northern Ireland--- doesn’t stand up in logic thus for a secularist the constitutional name of the six counties has to be rejected. In logic the six counties can only be called the six counties So N. Ireland isn’t a nation either in observation or in logic. The only conclusion a secularist can arrive at is that U.K. constitution is unreasonable in Ireland in that it is imposed militarily on a part of the island against the majority wishes of the entire island inhabitants and against the wishes of a significant sector of the population in that part of the island in which U.K. constitution is militarily imposed. For a secularist the constitutional set up here is unreasonable, illogical and is rejected on the grounds of observation but on top of all that U.K. constitution has been discredited when dogma-driven Right Wing Union Jack Unionism set up shop with dogma-driven Republican terrorists of Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein.
At this juncture this analysis might sound like a gift to dogma-driven Republican terrorists. This is not so. Secularists recognise Loyalty to the Crown as reasonable, logical and observable. Loyalty is a praiseworthy laudable human attribute be it loyalty to Crown, country, church, organization, or friend. Because of this loyalty is acceptable as logical and reasonable. Loyalty to the Crown is also observable as a reality in Ireland. It can be seen when expressed on the streets of the six counties; thus loyalty to the Crown should be seen being freely expressed in Ireland (in all of it not a bit of it) and should not be repressed and trampled underfoot as it would be in a Republic. So a secularist is loyalist and Crown friendly. What this analysis points to irrefutably is the need of U.K. Constitutional reform in relation to Ireland. . Secular Federal; Unionism –Early Sinn Fein sees this as achievable in the National Government of Ireland Act which will define a new relationship between Ireland and Great Britain as the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland Great Britain or vice versa.
If the version of THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND ACT given in the novel THE WAY IRELASND OUGHT TO BE published by Authorhouse, is looked at it will be found in Article 22 Page 266 of the novel that the people of this island should be given the opportunity of voting in a referendum to decide on the future of Ireland either as: -
(a) A Sovereign Nation of Ireland within a Federal Kingdom.
Or
(b) A Republic of Ireland with the 1937 constitution.
The votes in the 6 and 26 counties should be counted separately. If a significant majority in both territories vote for a Sovereign Nation then the island is united as a Sovereign Nation within a Federal Kingdom If a significant majority vote for a Republic in both territories then the island is united as a Republic. If a significant majority in the 6 counties vote for a Sovereign Nation and a significant majority in the 26 counties vote for a Republic then the island will remain partitioned. In that case Westminster should pass a bill defining the Federal Kingdom as the Federal Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland whose written constitution is the NATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND ACT That is the closest the six counties can be brought to as a nation constitutionally.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Thursday, 25 June 2009
The Loyalist Village and the Romanians
The Loyalist Village and the Romanians
The intimidation of the Romanian migrant workers out of the Village in South Belfast has been widely reported on the media. Hands are now being thrown up in horror at the thought. Such hypocrisy! What would be the fate of an Irish speaking family, were they to set up house in the Village, the Sandy Row, or the Shankill? I leave the reader to answer the question. By the same token what would the fate of an Ulster Scots speaking family wearing a sash were they to set-up home in the Falls or in the Bogside.I leave the question unanswered.
While hands are being thrown up in horror about Romanians, the above is taken as the norm in Ireland because the Irish are sectarian. Since it is now being said that Romanians should be free to live in the Village, it should also be said that Irish Catholics should be free to live in the Village The Sandy Row or the Shankill and as well, why shouldn’t loyalists be free to live in the Falls or in the Bogside. That is the logic of the situation but that logic doesn’t hold in the six counties/ N.Ireland as is evident in the peace walls in Derry and Belfast.
However the issue of Romanians living in Belfast has a wider European dimension. This has to do with the unregulated movement of workers across Europe. The movement of workers is subject to a free laizze faire market where demand for labour sucks in an unregulated supply of labour and in this free-for-all the weak are pushed to the wall. This should be replaced by a managed demand and supply of labour. This should be replaced with managed labour market. It should be the function of a European government to classify where and by how much labour is in demand due to labour scarcity in the host country Based on these facts the government should recruit labour from Europe by issuing work permits to European workers ensuring there is adequate acceptable housing in supply along with adequate provision of social services in the host country. If the labour market is managed in this way a loyalist Village debacle in Belfast can be avoided and the sale of the Big Issue will be made obsolete.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
The intimidation of the Romanian migrant workers out of the Village in South Belfast has been widely reported on the media. Hands are now being thrown up in horror at the thought. Such hypocrisy! What would be the fate of an Irish speaking family, were they to set up house in the Village, the Sandy Row, or the Shankill? I leave the reader to answer the question. By the same token what would the fate of an Ulster Scots speaking family wearing a sash were they to set-up home in the Falls or in the Bogside.I leave the question unanswered.
While hands are being thrown up in horror about Romanians, the above is taken as the norm in Ireland because the Irish are sectarian. Since it is now being said that Romanians should be free to live in the Village, it should also be said that Irish Catholics should be free to live in the Village The Sandy Row or the Shankill and as well, why shouldn’t loyalists be free to live in the Falls or in the Bogside. That is the logic of the situation but that logic doesn’t hold in the six counties/ N.Ireland as is evident in the peace walls in Derry and Belfast.
However the issue of Romanians living in Belfast has a wider European dimension. This has to do with the unregulated movement of workers across Europe. The movement of workers is subject to a free laizze faire market where demand for labour sucks in an unregulated supply of labour and in this free-for-all the weak are pushed to the wall. This should be replaced by a managed demand and supply of labour. This should be replaced with managed labour market. It should be the function of a European government to classify where and by how much labour is in demand due to labour scarcity in the host country Based on these facts the government should recruit labour from Europe by issuing work permits to European workers ensuring there is adequate acceptable housing in supply along with adequate provision of social services in the host country. If the labour market is managed in this way a loyalist Village debacle in Belfast can be avoided and the sale of the Big Issue will be made obsolete.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Martin and the Orange Order
Recently I read a piece in the Belfast Telegraph where Martin Magennis called on the Orange Order to stop parading through Catholic areas. The Orange in response said it was their intention to make their parades family friendly outings and that Martin’s comments were unhelpful.
And so this dreary old argument goes on and on into the 21st century and the Telegraph is still making a story out of it. Churchill wrote about the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone rising from the deluge and Churchill is disgusted that the integrity of the quarrel is still maintained in spite of the cataclysm that has swept the world.
More recently I heard a report on the radio of a man travelling abroad who was asked
“ Where are you from?”
“ Ireland”
“ North or South?”
“ North”
“ Ah! You’re a protestant”
The ancient quarrel is no longer just dreary it is now a sick joke internationally. It is true to say sectarianism is the mental sickness of the Irish.
But is there no way out of all of that? Federal Unionism-Early Sinn maintains sincerely that there is. In that analysis the nature of this Ancient dispute is bound up with the U.K. Constitution which now needs reform in The National Government of Ireland Act which in turn will transform the United Kingdom of Great Britain and N. Ireland into the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. If the National Government of Ireland Act were in place in the whole of Ireland then the Orange Order could parade up the Falls, into the Bogside and Crossmaglen but also they could parade down O’ Connell Street in Dublin, in Cork and in Galway and in Times Square on St Patrick’s Day displaying the picture of the Queen on a banner and flying not the Union Jack but the Federal Kingdom symbol –the Royal Flag of Ireland. An impossibility you might exclaim! Not at all. With the National Government of Ireland Act all things are possible and nothing is impossible, see the novel –THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE—Article Ten page 231 published by Authorhouse
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Recently I read a piece in the Belfast Telegraph where Martin Magennis called on the Orange Order to stop parading through Catholic areas. The Orange in response said it was their intention to make their parades family friendly outings and that Martin’s comments were unhelpful.
And so this dreary old argument goes on and on into the 21st century and the Telegraph is still making a story out of it. Churchill wrote about the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone rising from the deluge and Churchill is disgusted that the integrity of the quarrel is still maintained in spite of the cataclysm that has swept the world.
More recently I heard a report on the radio of a man travelling abroad who was asked
“ Where are you from?”
“ Ireland”
“ North or South?”
“ North”
“ Ah! You’re a protestant”
The ancient quarrel is no longer just dreary it is now a sick joke internationally. It is true to say sectarianism is the mental sickness of the Irish.
But is there no way out of all of that? Federal Unionism-Early Sinn maintains sincerely that there is. In that analysis the nature of this Ancient dispute is bound up with the U.K. Constitution which now needs reform in The National Government of Ireland Act which in turn will transform the United Kingdom of Great Britain and N. Ireland into the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. If the National Government of Ireland Act were in place in the whole of Ireland then the Orange Order could parade up the Falls, into the Bogside and Crossmaglen but also they could parade down O’ Connell Street in Dublin, in Cork and in Galway and in Times Square on St Patrick’s Day displaying the picture of the Queen on a banner and flying not the Union Jack but the Federal Kingdom symbol –the Royal Flag of Ireland. An impossibility you might exclaim! Not at all. With the National Government of Ireland Act all things are possible and nothing is impossible, see the novel –THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE—Article Ten page 231 published by Authorhouse
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Friday, 12 June 2009
Constitutional Decay in the Six Counties
Evidence of Constitutional Decay in the Six Counties/ Northern Ireland
From the evidence of the recent European elections it is clear that Right Wing Union Jack Unionism is in disarray due to the decay of the constitution in this part of the country. Constitutionally there are two heads of State involved, two flags being flown, two national anthems being sung and two conflicting passports travelled on. A state thus constituted is in decay, is inherently unstable, is prone to strife and will not endure.
There is a myopic longing in same quarters of Right Wing Union Jack Unionism for a return to traditional unionism---“the good old days of unionism”—when there was one head of state, The Crown, one flag, The Union Jack, a protestant parliament for a protestant people, and one anthem, God Save the Queen. In those days the Nationalist community was kept down and in place by an armed B-Specials and R.U.C. In this way the unwritten undemocratic constitution was kept stable by being imposed but it has to be recognised that traditional unionism and its unwritten imposed U.K. constitution were shattered with the rise of Civil Rights. The—“good old days”—are gone forever
The route is now open for a late Sinn Fein first minister to emerge at Stormont. However is such a constitutional outcome acceptable to that majority in the six-counties/Northern Ireland who have any sense of morality in their being? Late Sinn Fein condoned and connived at the attempted overthrow of the U.K. constitution here by the obscenity of violence, by brute force and atrocity. That attempt was rightly defeated.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein points to a better way. That political concept is Ireland and Irish friendly, Irish unity friendly, democracy friendly, union friendly and Crown friendly. That concept advocates that the decayed U.K. constitution be replaced by a new written constitution of the reformed union of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain realized in the National Government of Ireland Act. In this way from Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein, a new Irish friendly Unionism along with a new union friendly Irish Nationalism will emerge, and from this will sprout the green shoots of new Ireland out of the decayed, remains of Right Wing Union Jack Unionism and its discredited U.K. Constitution.
Michael Gillespie Derry
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
From the evidence of the recent European elections it is clear that Right Wing Union Jack Unionism is in disarray due to the decay of the constitution in this part of the country. Constitutionally there are two heads of State involved, two flags being flown, two national anthems being sung and two conflicting passports travelled on. A state thus constituted is in decay, is inherently unstable, is prone to strife and will not endure.
There is a myopic longing in same quarters of Right Wing Union Jack Unionism for a return to traditional unionism---“the good old days of unionism”—when there was one head of state, The Crown, one flag, The Union Jack, a protestant parliament for a protestant people, and one anthem, God Save the Queen. In those days the Nationalist community was kept down and in place by an armed B-Specials and R.U.C. In this way the unwritten undemocratic constitution was kept stable by being imposed but it has to be recognised that traditional unionism and its unwritten imposed U.K. constitution were shattered with the rise of Civil Rights. The—“good old days”—are gone forever
The route is now open for a late Sinn Fein first minister to emerge at Stormont. However is such a constitutional outcome acceptable to that majority in the six-counties/Northern Ireland who have any sense of morality in their being? Late Sinn Fein condoned and connived at the attempted overthrow of the U.K. constitution here by the obscenity of violence, by brute force and atrocity. That attempt was rightly defeated.
Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein points to a better way. That political concept is Ireland and Irish friendly, Irish unity friendly, democracy friendly, union friendly and Crown friendly. That concept advocates that the decayed U.K. constitution be replaced by a new written constitution of the reformed union of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain realized in the National Government of Ireland Act. In this way from Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein, a new Irish friendly Unionism along with a new union friendly Irish Nationalism will emerge, and from this will sprout the green shoots of new Ireland out of the decayed, remains of Right Wing Union Jack Unionism and its discredited U.K. Constitution.
Michael Gillespie Derry
Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
The Ascendancy
The Ascendancy
Reflecting on the Irish problem as I often do, it seems to me that the existence of the protestant ascendancy in Ireland is at the root of this historic problem. The protestant ascendancy in Ireland rose to prominence and power in Ireland at the battle of the Boyne where the protestant King William defeated the catholic King James. In Ireland the protestant minority community became the ruling class as of right and ruled a defeated penalized catholic majority. This convention was retained in the 1801 Act of Union and thereafter the will of the protestant minority was what mattered while the will of the catholic majority was of little consequence.
With the setting up of the Northern Ireland six county statelet whose constitution was the unwritten imposed 1801 constitution, protestant ascendancy rule continued in the six counties and the state was kept constitutionally stable by the suppression of the catholic minority identity. I can recall living in West Belfast prior to the upsurge of the civil rights campaign in a new housing development whose inhabitants were 50/50 catholic/protestant. Relationships in the estate were excellent even though a few Union Jacks appeared on the Twelfth of July at the marching season but a display of the Irish Tricolour couldn’t be considered, as the police wouldn’t tolerate it. Indeed there are those who date the beginning of the troubles to a protestant protest led by Ian Paisley, against the display of an Irish Tricolour in a shop window in the catholic Lower Falls. My reading of the civil Rights Movement is that historically it mounted a challenge to Protestant ascendancy rule in the six counties and had the reforms envisaged by Terence O Neill been implemented with the backing of Ian Paisley there wouldn’t have been violence in the six county state. In later times Ian has made the magnanimous concession that in Northern Ireland Catholics can have anything they want and so they can, provided they don’t want rid of an unwritten imposed undemocratic U.K. constitution and don’t demand a catholic as first minister. However The Civil Rights Movement was hijacked by Republicans and corrupted by Republican violence and atrocity.
While there is now a bogus peace in the six counties since the Assembly was set up yet there remains an under-belly of violent discord in sectarian clashes in the streets of Derry between Catholic and Protestant youths, in the defacing of Orange and G.A.A. halls and in the continued existence of dissident Republican groups, namely the Real and Continuity I.R.A. to say northing of the peace walls in Belfast. Still in this analysis, this violence and discord will persist as long as an imposed unwritten undemocratic constitution remains in place in the six counties. The impact of this constitutional set-up is a clash of wills between the marginal Protestant majority and a significant Catholic minority. This clash of wills is expressed in the painting of kerbstones red, white and blue, and green, white and orange and in the flying of disparate conflicting flags. In this dichotomy the two communities sulk in mutual resentment behind peace walls in Belfast and in Derry in a bogus peace.. In the Assembly defeated Republicans sit in collaboration with a diametrically opposed Party, Right Wing Union Jack Unionism who have still to come to terms with the new reality that the days of the ascendancy are now over, but these are being propped up by Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies of and the implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Late Sinn Fein first used brute force but that effort was defeated; now they resort to political stealth but the destruction of the union remains their sole aim. But Late Sinn Fein must accept the cold reality that the only strategic rout to an all Ireland Republic is by the Protestant minority in Ireland converting en masse to Republicanism, a conversion that will not happen now or never since the central plank of Protestant culture is loyalty to the Crown. That said the Protestant loyalist community must also face the cold reality that since the days of the protestant ascendancy are over, the unwritten imposed U.K. constitution that goes with the ascendancy notion, has collapsed and is finished. There was a strong whiff of ascendancy rule about Ian Paisley and this whiff lingers with the D.U.P. and as long as this remains there will be Republicans to oppose it. There is also a strong whiff of ascendancy in the mentality of the Orange Order in the clash of communal wills at Garvaghey Road. The British cut the Provisional head off the I.R.A. monster but like the Lernean Hydra of old, the decapitated I.R.A. monster sprouted two new heads, The Real and Continuity I.R.A.
If this horror scenario is to be avoided in the six county state, then the people there will have to think again and anew about their constitutional future. New thinking will need a new party, which should be a united Ireland friendly, and the union and Kingdom friendly party. Such a party can be Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein, which should promote a new concept of a Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain in a National Government of Ireland Act. This Act should synthesise Unionism and Nationalism and in so doing draw up institutions and symbols, in a written constitution, which is acceptable to all, be they Catholic Protestant or Dissenter. In this way a genuinely peaceful united Ireland can be realized within a Federal Kingdom dimension.
Reflecting on the Irish problem as I often do, it seems to me that the existence of the protestant ascendancy in Ireland is at the root of this historic problem. The protestant ascendancy in Ireland rose to prominence and power in Ireland at the battle of the Boyne where the protestant King William defeated the catholic King James. In Ireland the protestant minority community became the ruling class as of right and ruled a defeated penalized catholic majority. This convention was retained in the 1801 Act of Union and thereafter the will of the protestant minority was what mattered while the will of the catholic majority was of little consequence.
With the setting up of the Northern Ireland six county statelet whose constitution was the unwritten imposed 1801 constitution, protestant ascendancy rule continued in the six counties and the state was kept constitutionally stable by the suppression of the catholic minority identity. I can recall living in West Belfast prior to the upsurge of the civil rights campaign in a new housing development whose inhabitants were 50/50 catholic/protestant. Relationships in the estate were excellent even though a few Union Jacks appeared on the Twelfth of July at the marching season but a display of the Irish Tricolour couldn’t be considered, as the police wouldn’t tolerate it. Indeed there are those who date the beginning of the troubles to a protestant protest led by Ian Paisley, against the display of an Irish Tricolour in a shop window in the catholic Lower Falls. My reading of the civil Rights Movement is that historically it mounted a challenge to Protestant ascendancy rule in the six counties and had the reforms envisaged by Terence O Neill been implemented with the backing of Ian Paisley there wouldn’t have been violence in the six county state. In later times Ian has made the magnanimous concession that in Northern Ireland Catholics can have anything they want and so they can, provided they don’t want rid of an unwritten imposed undemocratic U.K. constitution and don’t demand a catholic as first minister. However The Civil Rights Movement was hijacked by Republicans and corrupted by Republican violence and atrocity.
While there is now a bogus peace in the six counties since the Assembly was set up yet there remains an under-belly of violent discord in sectarian clashes in the streets of Derry between Catholic and Protestant youths, in the defacing of Orange and G.A.A. halls and in the continued existence of dissident Republican groups, namely the Real and Continuity I.R.A. to say northing of the peace walls in Belfast. Still in this analysis, this violence and discord will persist as long as an imposed unwritten undemocratic constitution remains in place in the six counties. The impact of this constitutional set-up is a clash of wills between the marginal Protestant majority and a significant Catholic minority. This clash of wills is expressed in the painting of kerbstones red, white and blue, and green, white and orange and in the flying of disparate conflicting flags. In this dichotomy the two communities sulk in mutual resentment behind peace walls in Belfast and in Derry in a bogus peace.. In the Assembly defeated Republicans sit in collaboration with a diametrically opposed Party, Right Wing Union Jack Unionism who have still to come to terms with the new reality that the days of the ascendancy are now over, but these are being propped up by Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies of and the implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Late Sinn Fein first used brute force but that effort was defeated; now they resort to political stealth but the destruction of the union remains their sole aim. But Late Sinn Fein must accept the cold reality that the only strategic rout to an all Ireland Republic is by the Protestant minority in Ireland converting en masse to Republicanism, a conversion that will not happen now or never since the central plank of Protestant culture is loyalty to the Crown. That said the Protestant loyalist community must also face the cold reality that since the days of the protestant ascendancy are over, the unwritten imposed U.K. constitution that goes with the ascendancy notion, has collapsed and is finished. There was a strong whiff of ascendancy rule about Ian Paisley and this whiff lingers with the D.U.P. and as long as this remains there will be Republicans to oppose it. There is also a strong whiff of ascendancy in the mentality of the Orange Order in the clash of communal wills at Garvaghey Road. The British cut the Provisional head off the I.R.A. monster but like the Lernean Hydra of old, the decapitated I.R.A. monster sprouted two new heads, The Real and Continuity I.R.A.
If this horror scenario is to be avoided in the six county state, then the people there will have to think again and anew about their constitutional future. New thinking will need a new party, which should be a united Ireland friendly, and the union and Kingdom friendly party. Such a party can be Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein, which should promote a new concept of a Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain in a National Government of Ireland Act. This Act should synthesise Unionism and Nationalism and in so doing draw up institutions and symbols, in a written constitution, which is acceptable to all, be they Catholic Protestant or Dissenter. In this way a genuinely peaceful united Ireland can be realized within a Federal Kingdom dimension.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Introducing Irish Unionism
Introducing Irish Unionism
It has been a long-standing tradition in Ireland that to be a Unionist one had to be British. This notion has bedevilled relations between these two Islands for centuries. It is the contention of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein that to resolve the Irish problem unionism will have to change from Britishness to Irishness.
For this change to be realized the Crown would have to be reformed in relation to Ireland. The Irish will never do a U –turn in their history and revert to loyalty to a British Crown. However Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein contends that the Irish can return to loyalty to a reformed Crown with out doing an historical U-turn.
In principle a union between these islands is acceptable since the islands have a close historical connection especially having to do with the Crown, provided that such a union is democratically acceptable to the people. Had such a union been established in 1801 the history of the United Kingdom would have been a happy one free from discord, but being imposed and favouring the protestant ascendancy the United Kingdom was doomed to violence discord and failure. The United Kingdom remains military imposed in the six counties and has engendered violence and will end in failure. Right Wing Union Jack Unionism have betrayed the idea of the union in their collaboration in the Assembly with Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies and implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein holds that the idea of a new union is good in principle but that such a new unionism can only be realized in Irishness not in Britishness. Irish Unionism can be accepted by those in Ireland who are Irish to the core but who find no inconsistency in being loyal to a reformed Crown. For those Protestants in Ireland who cling to Britishness in the forlorn hope that the ascendancy can be preserved need to wake up to the cold fact that while the day of the ascendancy is now over, the notion of the union can be retained in the concept of a Federal Kingdom.
To establish a Federal Kingdom in these islands will require a written constitution for Ireland. This will require that the National Government of Ireland Act be written. This Act should give a written democratically acceptable constitution for the Federal Kingdom of The Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. For a constitution to be democratic it must enjoy the overwhelming support of all of the people. This overwhelming support for the constitution is absent in the six counties. There the constitution has only the support of a marginal majority. In effect the six county constitution is imposed by a marginal majority on a resentful minority and maintained by an armed militarily garrison. This unwritten undemocratic constitution is then rammed down the throats of the minority by a public posturing by the Orange Order on the Twelfth of July and by the Apprentice Boys in Derry in August. That is how an unwritten constitution operates. Were such demonstrations solely religious in Nature they would be acceptable but since they are the expression of an imposed constitution they should not be found in a democratic state. This constitutional conflict is evident on the Garvaghy Road. The resolution of this historic conflict lies in the promotion of the Irish Unionism of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein with a written constitution for all Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context, the constitution being acceptable to all, be it the Catholics of Kerry or the Protestants of Derry. Irish Unionism in the National Government of Ireland Act can remove the walls of sectarian division in Belfast and make the painting of kerbstones red white and blue or green white and orange a thing of the past. It can transform fortress police stations into freely accessible democratic buildings open to an accepting population but above all else Irish Unionism can rid all of Ireland of its national sickness, sectarianism In all of this neither Catholic or Protestant have anything to fear but fear itself.
It was the constitutional claim of the late Brian Faulkner that Northern Ireland is the same as Yorkshire. There is an attempt by the British Establishment to treat the six counties, as the same as Yorkshire, since the Assembly was put in place but the dogs in the street know that to be a fallacy. The people of Yorkshire aren’t disputing the constitution and that dispute makes the six counties different and unique in these Islands but the Irish Unionism of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein recognises the unique nature of the six counties and knows how to resolve it.
Michael Gillespie B.Ed BSc ( Econ) Dip. Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
It has been a long-standing tradition in Ireland that to be a Unionist one had to be British. This notion has bedevilled relations between these two Islands for centuries. It is the contention of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein that to resolve the Irish problem unionism will have to change from Britishness to Irishness.
For this change to be realized the Crown would have to be reformed in relation to Ireland. The Irish will never do a U –turn in their history and revert to loyalty to a British Crown. However Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein contends that the Irish can return to loyalty to a reformed Crown with out doing an historical U-turn.
In principle a union between these islands is acceptable since the islands have a close historical connection especially having to do with the Crown, provided that such a union is democratically acceptable to the people. Had such a union been established in 1801 the history of the United Kingdom would have been a happy one free from discord, but being imposed and favouring the protestant ascendancy the United Kingdom was doomed to violence discord and failure. The United Kingdom remains military imposed in the six counties and has engendered violence and will end in failure. Right Wing Union Jack Unionism have betrayed the idea of the union in their collaboration in the Assembly with Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies and implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein holds that the idea of a new union is good in principle but that such a new unionism can only be realized in Irishness not in Britishness. Irish Unionism can be accepted by those in Ireland who are Irish to the core but who find no inconsistency in being loyal to a reformed Crown. For those Protestants in Ireland who cling to Britishness in the forlorn hope that the ascendancy can be preserved need to wake up to the cold fact that while the day of the ascendancy is now over, the notion of the union can be retained in the concept of a Federal Kingdom.
To establish a Federal Kingdom in these islands will require a written constitution for Ireland. This will require that the National Government of Ireland Act be written. This Act should give a written democratically acceptable constitution for the Federal Kingdom of The Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. For a constitution to be democratic it must enjoy the overwhelming support of all of the people. This overwhelming support for the constitution is absent in the six counties. There the constitution has only the support of a marginal majority. In effect the six county constitution is imposed by a marginal majority on a resentful minority and maintained by an armed militarily garrison. This unwritten undemocratic constitution is then rammed down the throats of the minority by a public posturing by the Orange Order on the Twelfth of July and by the Apprentice Boys in Derry in August. That is how an unwritten constitution operates. Were such demonstrations solely religious in Nature they would be acceptable but since they are the expression of an imposed constitution they should not be found in a democratic state. This constitutional conflict is evident on the Garvaghy Road. The resolution of this historic conflict lies in the promotion of the Irish Unionism of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein with a written constitution for all Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context, the constitution being acceptable to all, be it the Catholics of Kerry or the Protestants of Derry. Irish Unionism in the National Government of Ireland Act can remove the walls of sectarian division in Belfast and make the painting of kerbstones red white and blue or green white and orange a thing of the past. It can transform fortress police stations into freely accessible democratic buildings open to an accepting population but above all else Irish Unionism can rid all of Ireland of its national sickness, sectarianism In all of this neither Catholic or Protestant have anything to fear but fear itself.
It was the constitutional claim of the late Brian Faulkner that Northern Ireland is the same as Yorkshire. There is an attempt by the British Establishment to treat the six counties, as the same as Yorkshire, since the Assembly was put in place but the dogs in the street know that to be a fallacy. The people of Yorkshire aren’t disputing the constitution and that dispute makes the six counties different and unique in these Islands but the Irish Unionism of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein recognises the unique nature of the six counties and knows how to resolve it.
Michael Gillespie B.Ed BSc ( Econ) Dip. Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Friday, 15 May 2009
A Cairde
A Chairde
Ta athas mor orm a bheith ag an posadh Orlagh agus Ronan. Is mian liom adh mor a bheith orthu i rith a saol le cheile. Ba mhaith liom failte a chur riomh Orlagh anois a dtainig si isteach an clann Mac Giolla Easbuig. Ta me ag suil gurb cuma le Orlagh an t-anim, Bean Mac Giolla Easbuig. Is bean og gleoithe i agus bhi adh mor ar Ronan ar an la a bhuail se leithe.
Cuirfidh me comhairle ar mo mhac Ronan faoi posadh. Fuair me seanfhocail Gaelach faoi posadh i leabhar Gaelach. Is mian liom Ronan cluas gear a thabhairt le seo. I dtus baire:-
On la a bposfaid tu, beidh do croi i do bheal agus do lamh i do phoca.
Agus annsin:-
Bionn a dteanga in a bpoca ag na mna go bposann siad.
Dearfainn go ndearfaid Orlagh ---Nil ann ach amaidi.
Leabroaidh me daoibh in mBearla anios
Ta athas mor orm a bheith ag an posadh Orlagh agus Ronan. Is mian liom adh mor a bheith orthu i rith a saol le cheile. Ba mhaith liom failte a chur riomh Orlagh anois a dtainig si isteach an clann Mac Giolla Easbuig. Ta me ag suil gurb cuma le Orlagh an t-anim, Bean Mac Giolla Easbuig. Is bean og gleoithe i agus bhi adh mor ar Ronan ar an la a bhuail se leithe.
Cuirfidh me comhairle ar mo mhac Ronan faoi posadh. Fuair me seanfhocail Gaelach faoi posadh i leabhar Gaelach. Is mian liom Ronan cluas gear a thabhairt le seo. I dtus baire:-
On la a bposfaid tu, beidh do croi i do bheal agus do lamh i do phoca.
Agus annsin:-
Bionn a dteanga in a bpoca ag na mna go bposann siad.
Dearfainn go ndearfaid Orlagh ---Nil ann ach amaidi.
Leabroaidh me daoibh in mBearla anios
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Flags Shit On
Flags Shit On
Sir Hugh Orde has caused a stir recently in deploying under cover British military on the streets of Ulster to counteract the threat of violence from Republican dissidents. In doing so the British Sir Hugh has learnt nothing or forgotten nothing about Ireland. For 800 years the British, especially the English, have employed a brute force military solution to the Irish problem. Sir Hugh continues unabated in that tradition knowing full well that the brute force British / English solution has achieved nothing in Ireland except to rouse anti- British / English sentiment and hatred among the Irish.
That is of course half of the story. The other half of the story is the use of brute force violence by Republicans to over throw the U.K. constitution, which is imposed and undemocratic. The brute force of the Republican PI.R.A. failed to achieve this and ended in a constitutionally obscene Assembly constituted as joint rule by a neo- Marxist Late Sinn Fein and by an extremist Right Wing Union Jack Unionism. A state thus constituted cannot stand.
The constitutionally obscenity of the assembly can be examined in the defilement of the flags associated with Stormont. There is the Irish Tricolour. That flag has been shit upon by P.I.R.A. in the atrocities and criminality of Enniskillen, La Môn, Omagh, the disappeared, and the unnamed who have been dumped on roadsides after being shot in the head. But the Irish Tricolour was further defiled by being urinated on by Late Sinn Fein in their political support of the atrocities and criminality of P.I.R.A. After having defiled the Irish tricolour Late Sinn Fein, having been defeated militarily in their attempt overthrow the U.K. constitution by force, now sit in government at Stormont grinning from ear to ear as they feel their wallets saying they have now wiped their arse clean and are as fresh and clean as a daisy and the defilement of the national flag can be forgotten. But since the tricolour has been shit on in one part of the island it has been shit on in the whole island and is now unclean everywhere. As this is being written the Tricolour is shit upon once again at Mazarine in Antrim in the murder of unarmed soldiers and civilians, the soldiers being shot as they lay wounded on the ground
That is only half the story. The Union Jack has also been shit upon in its history. The parachute regiment shit on the flag on Bloody Sunday in Derry when they gunned down unarmed civilians and the British Establishment colluded in the defilement of their flag by not having the soldiers who carried out the Derry atrocity court marshalled. The Union Jack was also shit upon by the R.U.C. when they battoned a legitimate Civil Rights march off the streets and into the ground in Derry. Furthermore the Union Jack was shit upon and defiled by the U.D.A./U.V.F in their murder of innocent Catholic civilians. The Right Wing Unionist Establishment also relieved themselves on the Union Jack in their silence in condemning U.D.A./U.V.F. atrocities and the criminality of the Parachute Regiment in Derry. Since the Union Jack has been defiled in one part of the U.K. it is defiled dishonoured and shit on in every part of the U.K.
While one can describe the defilement that the U.K. and the Irish constitution are now in, it begs the desperate question---What can be done about all of that? To get at a starting point it has to be realized that that an imposed unwritten undemocratic U.K. constitution is in place in the six counties and is the root cause of unrest and violence in a part of Ireland. The current U.K. constitution was imposed undemocratically on all the Irish in 1801 and despite consistent efforts to have something done about it in the 19th century it remained imposed undemocratic and in place. This situation of frustration erupted in the violence of 1916 by misguided sectarian Republican zealots. There followed a bloody feud between the I.R.A. and the Black Tans. In this feud the I.R.A. in atrocity outrage and criminality shit upon the Irish Tricolour. Ultimately Republicans shit upon the Tricolour in the murder of Michael Collins. The other half of the story was of atrocity out rage and criminality carried out by the Black and Tans and again in this campaign the Union Jack was shit upon.
Federal Unionism Early Sinn Fein points to a route out of all of this constitutional mess. Since the two existing national flags are no longer worthy to be touched by human hand. Federal Unionism- Early Sinn Fein has created a new national flag for Ireland, which is at one and the same time the national flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. It should be called The Royal Flag of Ireland. To make that flag a reality in Ireland will require the enactment of the National Government of Ireland Act. This Act would become the written constitution of all Ireland within a Federal Kingdom context. . The Irish problem would then be resolved and the Island reunited.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist –Early Sinn Fein
Sir Hugh Orde has caused a stir recently in deploying under cover British military on the streets of Ulster to counteract the threat of violence from Republican dissidents. In doing so the British Sir Hugh has learnt nothing or forgotten nothing about Ireland. For 800 years the British, especially the English, have employed a brute force military solution to the Irish problem. Sir Hugh continues unabated in that tradition knowing full well that the brute force British / English solution has achieved nothing in Ireland except to rouse anti- British / English sentiment and hatred among the Irish.
That is of course half of the story. The other half of the story is the use of brute force violence by Republicans to over throw the U.K. constitution, which is imposed and undemocratic. The brute force of the Republican PI.R.A. failed to achieve this and ended in a constitutionally obscene Assembly constituted as joint rule by a neo- Marxist Late Sinn Fein and by an extremist Right Wing Union Jack Unionism. A state thus constituted cannot stand.
The constitutionally obscenity of the assembly can be examined in the defilement of the flags associated with Stormont. There is the Irish Tricolour. That flag has been shit upon by P.I.R.A. in the atrocities and criminality of Enniskillen, La Môn, Omagh, the disappeared, and the unnamed who have been dumped on roadsides after being shot in the head. But the Irish Tricolour was further defiled by being urinated on by Late Sinn Fein in their political support of the atrocities and criminality of P.I.R.A. After having defiled the Irish tricolour Late Sinn Fein, having been defeated militarily in their attempt overthrow the U.K. constitution by force, now sit in government at Stormont grinning from ear to ear as they feel their wallets saying they have now wiped their arse clean and are as fresh and clean as a daisy and the defilement of the national flag can be forgotten. But since the tricolour has been shit on in one part of the island it has been shit on in the whole island and is now unclean everywhere. As this is being written the Tricolour is shit upon once again at Mazarine in Antrim in the murder of unarmed soldiers and civilians, the soldiers being shot as they lay wounded on the ground
That is only half the story. The Union Jack has also been shit upon in its history. The parachute regiment shit on the flag on Bloody Sunday in Derry when they gunned down unarmed civilians and the British Establishment colluded in the defilement of their flag by not having the soldiers who carried out the Derry atrocity court marshalled. The Union Jack was also shit upon by the R.U.C. when they battoned a legitimate Civil Rights march off the streets and into the ground in Derry. Furthermore the Union Jack was shit upon and defiled by the U.D.A./U.V.F in their murder of innocent Catholic civilians. The Right Wing Unionist Establishment also relieved themselves on the Union Jack in their silence in condemning U.D.A./U.V.F. atrocities and the criminality of the Parachute Regiment in Derry. Since the Union Jack has been defiled in one part of the U.K. it is defiled dishonoured and shit on in every part of the U.K.
While one can describe the defilement that the U.K. and the Irish constitution are now in, it begs the desperate question---What can be done about all of that? To get at a starting point it has to be realized that that an imposed unwritten undemocratic U.K. constitution is in place in the six counties and is the root cause of unrest and violence in a part of Ireland. The current U.K. constitution was imposed undemocratically on all the Irish in 1801 and despite consistent efforts to have something done about it in the 19th century it remained imposed undemocratic and in place. This situation of frustration erupted in the violence of 1916 by misguided sectarian Republican zealots. There followed a bloody feud between the I.R.A. and the Black Tans. In this feud the I.R.A. in atrocity outrage and criminality shit upon the Irish Tricolour. Ultimately Republicans shit upon the Tricolour in the murder of Michael Collins. The other half of the story was of atrocity out rage and criminality carried out by the Black and Tans and again in this campaign the Union Jack was shit upon.
Federal Unionism Early Sinn Fein points to a route out of all of this constitutional mess. Since the two existing national flags are no longer worthy to be touched by human hand. Federal Unionism- Early Sinn Fein has created a new national flag for Ireland, which is at one and the same time the national flag of Ireland and the symbol of the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. It should be called The Royal Flag of Ireland. To make that flag a reality in Ireland will require the enactment of the National Government of Ireland Act. This Act would become the written constitution of all Ireland within a Federal Kingdom context. . The Irish problem would then be resolved and the Island reunited.
Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist –Early Sinn Fein
Saturday, 7 March 2009
VSelection at Eleven
Explanatory Note
In this article the following terms are used: -
(1) Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein. This is the political party led by Gerry Adams.
(2) Right Wing Union Jack Unionism. This is an umbrella term covering The Official Unionist Party The Democratic Party and The Alliance Party.
In my reading of Irish political history the only political movement that catches my imagination and takes my fancy is Early Sinn Fein. This Sinn Fein espoused a government for Ireland with a dual monarchy. Regrettably that worthwhile idea was swept aside by the violence of Republican 1916. In my opinion if the early ideas of Griffiths had been worked upon, developed and thought through, Ireland today would be a Sovereign United Nation under the Crown a nation like Canada. For that reason I belong to, or support no Political party in Ireland but adhere to my own private personal politics of Federal Unionism – Early Sinn Fein. A development of this can be found in my novel ---THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE – Published by Authorhouse and in my blog www.solvingtheirishproblem.blogspot.com.
Selection
I first met up with selection at eleven in an official capacity during the Harold Wilson administration in the seventies when the British Government was proposing the abolition of selection at eleven. At that time I was president of the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation in Belfast and dealing with selection at eleven became part of my union remit. At that time I maintained, as I do now, that selection is a sine qua non of the educational process but what remains to be decided is, at what age should selection take place, how should selection be carried out and who should do the selecting.
The age of eleven for selection is quite arbitrary. Following the 1948 Education Act the age for selection was taken to be eleven At that time school leaving age was 14 so it was decided that the duration of education in the new secondary modern schools should be three years so the age of transfer was taken to be eleven. While this age of transfer is quite arbitrary it is now taken as sacred and is carved in stone by the backwoodsmen and women in Right Wing Union Jack Unionism. At the time of the Wilson government I maintained then as I do now, that children shouldn’t be divided into sheep and goats by the state but should be free to select themselves as pupils are capable of doing given they are being educated within an educational system which allows this freedom.
At the time of the Wilson administration there were two options on the table for the reform of education and the abolition of the eleven plus: -
(1) Neighbourhood Comprehensive Schools.
(2) A three-tier system of schools made up of Primary Schools, Middle schools and sixth Form Departments.
I backed the abolition of the eleven plus but at he same time I was sceptical of neighbourhood comprehensives and in stead I backed the introduction of a three tier system of schooling. However in Northern Ireland selection was maintained
due to the strength of a powerful grammar school lobby but even so the three tier non selective system of education was adopted in Craigavon where it still remains and works successfully.
In hindsight it is clear that the choice of neighbourhood comprehensives by Old Labour was a mistake. Old Labour was incensed by the social inequalities of the system where children from working class backgrounds fared poorly in the eleven plus and children from middle class backgrounds did well. Looked at in a shallow way by Old Labour it seemed that this educational anomaly could be resolved by having all children educated under the one roof. This shallow thinking proved false. Since some comprehensives were situated in working class districts in time these comprehensives became known as bog standard with low standards of educational attainment along with acute disciplinary problems. On the other hand comprehensives in the leafy suburbs did well the school population being middleclass and maintained high standards of academic excellence with a good disciplinary code. In those neighbourhood comprehensives where the school population is of mixed class, pupils from middleclass backgrounds carry off the prizes on prize giving day.. The reason for all of this is due to the relative value of importance which middleclass and working families give to education.
Selection at eleven is still going strong in London. I have three grandchildren growing up in London and they don’t go to the neighbourhood comprehensive as it is reputed to have syringes in the playground and condoms in the corridor along with low academic standards. Instead my grandchildren go to a school, which their parents consider to have high academic standards and a healthy moral code. But to get into these schools my grandchildren had to sit an entrance examination and a place in the school is in high demand and difficult to obtain.
I am giving this thumbnail sketch of education in England to emphasise that in my thinking the decision by Old Labour to introduce neighbourhood comprehensives was a mistake, and a disaster and has done nothing eliminate the social inequality in schooling it intended to eliminate. My impression of the thinking of Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein is that these backwoodsmen and women are back in the days of Old Labour and are hell-bent on introducing some thing into the six counties, which has been demonstrated to be an unmitigated disaster in England.
The problem of selection in education is complex and complicated. I cannot give an off-the-peg solution, ready made, to the problem where one size fits all which seems to be the claim coming from Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein. What I can do is to draw up and ideal system of education in which teachers and educationists would be in a position to tackle the attainment inequalities that exist on the ground.
I have already noted and I repeat that selection is a sine qua non of education and what remain at issue is who should do the selecting, how it should be done and at what age. In my opinion pupils should be allowed to select themselves with out the interference of the state. Margaret Thatcher took as her campaign slogan that the Tories would roll back the state. The backwoods men and women of Right Wing Union Jack Unionism should take a leaf out of Margaret’s book and roll back the state out of the lives of children and set them free to select themselves which they are perfectly capable of doing, given the are educated in a schooling system that allows such freedom.
I can attempt to give an educational system, which allows such freedom, but to do so I must return to the second option placed on the table at the time of Harold Wilson’s Government. This is a three tier system of schooling comprising a primary sector, a middle school sector and a sixth form sector. In such a system there would be no selection by the state but the primary school sector would transfer unselected to the local community middle school at eleven, which in practical terms would be the existing secondary or grammar school. In these schools the middle school; would be divided into a junior middle school for pupils under the age of 14 and a senior middle school for pupils b between the ages of 14 to16 In the junior school the management of class room learning should be the same as that which now exists in the primary school where the classes are divided into class settings to cater for slow and fast learners, the settings selection being made according to the teacher’s perceived educational needs of the individual pupil. So the same style of teaching would be practiced in both the primary and junior middle school.
Selection in the middle school would occur at the age of 14 and the school population would be selected into three streams or three houses.
(a) Pupils with strong academic potential
(b) Pupils with less academic potential.
(c) Pupils with the least academic potential.
This selection would be decided by an individual educational profile of educational attainment beginning early in primary education, the assessment being continuous up to the end of Junior Middle School. Using this criteria the individual pupil would encouraged to make a career choice assisted by the careers teaching staff in consultation with the parents and each pupil should be allotted a particular house appropriate to his/her individual needs, in the perception of the teaching staff in consultation with the parents.
It should be noted that the structure of the senior middle school is similar to the schooling structure in Germany. In Germany there is a triple school structure: -
(1) The Gymnasium leading to a university education.
(2) The Realschule leading to a technical or business education.
(3)The Hauptscule for the least academically able leading to vocational education
In Germany these three structures of education take place in separate schools. In the model under consideration for Northern Ireland, the three structures of education would take place in the same school under the one roof. The pupils would be free to select themselves in the school they attend and wouldn’t be selected into sheep and goats by the state at too early an age. In this way each pupil would get an education that is appropriate to his/her individual and career needs.
The top department in the school would be the sixth form department. Those who wish to remain at school after Senior. Middle School would do so depending upon their performance in a state examination such as the G.C.S E.
A Curriculum for the School Outlined
The aim and purpose of the curriculum should be, to have teachers teach and have pupils acquire useful knowledge. This can be achieved through the teaching of: -
(a) Know- that knowledge.
(b) Know-how knowledge
The difference between the two can be illustrated in this way. Know-that knowledge about a car would be that a car has at least three wheels, is a certain colour, needs to be taxed and insured. Know-how about a car is knowing how to drive it, or knowing how to fix it when it breaks down. Know-that learning, particularly at school, is acquired by rote learning. It is the know-that learning of the three Rs where the number facts, spelling and the rules of grammar are committed to memory. Traditionally schools have taught know-that knowledge exclusively but this form of knowledge has only limited use such as in memory recall in Pub and T.V. quizzes like Master Mind and University Challenge or The Weakest Link There was movement in education to stop the teaching of know-that knowledge completely as it was claimed it stifled creativity in the pupils. Head bangers in education expounded this. There was a reaction to this by employers who complained they were taking on new young staff that couldn’t add, read a simple note or write a simple note.
Know-how learning is acquired by being taught by person with expert knowledge and is internalized by practice. As noted learning how to drive a car is know-how knowledge and the knowledge is acquired by being taught by a person with expertise and internalized by practice. Know-how is also bound up with learning procedures. When a learner driver knows how to proceed along a highway without making mistakes then that person is educated as far as driving is concerned. When a surgeon knows how to proceed in doing an operation without making mistakes such a surgeon is educated as far as surgery is concerned. When a bricklayer knows how to proceed without mistakes in building a wall that doesn’t fall down, such a bricklayer is educated as far as building a wall is concerned.
The learning of know-how knowledge is strongly recommended by present day educationalists because this knowledge, unlike know-that, is useful. This form of knowledge should begin in the primary school and develop in an ever-widening spiral u p through the middle school to the sixth form. Know-how can begin in primary school by having the pupil investigate-- how to send an email, how to write a letter of thanks to grandmother for a birthday gift, how to do a classroom project on the old ruins of an old workhouse in the vicinity, how does a nail rust in water As noted know-how should be taught in an ever widening spiral up the school to sixth form with know-that still being taught in the middle school where this teaching is deemed necessary in the perception of the class room teacher At the end of compulsory schooling at sixteen the school should turn out a population that is literate, numerate and with sense of know-howness. At the sixth form learning should be d exclusively about know- how, the pupils learning how to proceed in the traditional disciplines of the curriculum under expert tuition and with an abundance of practice. Sport is a curricular underlier in that this discipline should be enjoyed and shared by all and played collectively, irrespective of academic talent.
All of this may sound somewhat up in the air so I will try to bring this matter to bring this matter to earth by looking schooling in Belfast. When I was president of the I.N.T.O. in Belfast at the time of Harold Wilson when the abolition of the eleven plus was first muted I was doing research at the Faculty of Education in Queen’s into numeracy level in the Belfast Inner city schools at the end of Primary schooling. To do that pupils were set a test of know-that knowledge and know-how knowledge in Mathematics which was completed by a ll final year pupils in the following schools: -
(a) The Shankill controlled schools
(b)The Lower Falls maintained schools
(c)The Donegall Pass controlled schools.
(d)The Markets maintained schools
The pupils were evaluated for
(1) Basic numeracy
(2) Overall numeracy
The criteria for evaluating basic numeracy was pupil ability to do very simple know-that in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It was found that over one third of the final year school population could not do these basic mathematical operations and were rated innumerate. When these findings were rigorously tested for statistical significance it was found there was no significant difference between the four school populations. I have heard Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein make the nonsensical claim on the T.V that the poor educational standards on the Shankill can be improved by the introduction of Comprehensives but why single out the Shankill when the standards of education are equally poor in both the Controlled and Maintained sector? In singling out the Shankill Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein is blatantly sectarian.
The finding for overall numeracy in this research demonstrated that in a test of overall numeracy know-how, pupils in the Inner City attending Controlled Schools significantly out performed pupils in the Inner City attending Maintained Schools. There is other research at The Faculty of Education Q.U.B, which supports that. How ever there are swings and roundabouts in all of this. There is other research at Queen’s, which demonstrates that pupils in Maintained Schools out perform pupils in Controlled Schools in verbal ability.
Had this research had been carried out in the leafy suburbs of Malone in Belfast it would have been found that the pupils there would have outperformed the pupils in the Inner-City in attainment in mathematical knowledge. This is not unique to Belfast. This educational anomaly is found in every city in Ireland, in Great Britain, in European Cities and in the cities of North America. This problem faced Old Labour and they opted for Neighbourhood Comprehensives as a solution but the Comprehensive option has failed in Great Britain. This educational problem is now being faced in the Assembly at Stormont and now the cowboys and cowgirls of Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein are propounding a failed Old Labour solution to the problem while the cowboys and cowgirls of right Wing Union Jack Unionism are hell bent in retaining the anomaly by the use of the obsolete philosophy of Old Toryism. Tony Blair recognised the defective nature of education in Great Britain in his slogan Education, Education, Education and New Labour tried to rectify the matter by having the state invade the classroom by telling the teachers what to teach and how to teach it and by over testing pupils throughout their school career. This has backfired and made matters worse In recent survey of Primary Schooling in England carried out by Cambridge, the effects of New Labour reforms is to drive the primary schools back to the teaching of the three Rs i.e. know-that, to the exclusion of know-how.
Know-how, Economic Growth and the Creation of Wealth
In the 20th century Milton Freidman the American Laizze Faire economist put forward the philosophy that wealth can be created by freeing up the money market and let it rip without restraint; in this way wealth will grow forever. Ronald Regan in the Reaganomics of a trickle down economy adopted this philosophy. This influenced the free marketer Margaret Thatcher --- (You can’t buck the market) and the Friedman philosophy was taken up in turn by Tony Blair’s New Labour ---- New Labour is the best party the Conservatives have ever had--- (Margaret Thatcher). Finally Friedman’s philosophy influenced Fianna Fail and a free money market was let rip in the Celtic Tiger. Friedman’s monetarism has proved to be a tragic disaster worldwide. With the collapse of Friedman economic philosophy the right wing in America has collapsed and now there are dark mutterings in Republican circles about the introduction of European socialism into America by Barack Obama
In my understanding of economics there are four conditions necessary for a state to enjoy economic growth and create wealth: -
(a) The state should be stable with a written constitution, which has the overwhelming support on the vast majority of the people.
(b) The people should be highly literate.
(c) The people should be highly numerate.
(d) The people should have a high degree of Know-howfulness.
Know-how in America is highly rated. Americans are proud of and boastful of American know-how. American know-how put a man on the moon and in the 20th century American know-how pushed the American economy to the top of the economic heap in world terms and made America the richest state in the world. But the importance of Know-how in economic growth and wealth creation can be illustrated closer to home in Ulster. In thelate19th/ early20th century Eastern Ulster enjoyed economic growth and wealth in the Know-how of linen production and shipbuilding. Indigenous know- how made Ulster a world leader in linen and ship production. This know-how is regrettably now obsolete due to a world slump in demand for linen and in shipping, due to the cost of supply and a change in demand for ships.
In my under standing of economics a state should specialise in that aspect of its economy in which it holds a relative advantage. The Irish economy holds a relative advantage in agriculture and food production This aspect of the economy requires specialist Know-how and Irish know-how in this economic specialisation can be developed by having Know- how taught in schools from an early age and into the universities in the faculties of food science, of business science, veterinary science agricultural science and the science of forestry. These faculties are related to a specialist Irish economy in food production and efforts should be made to attract the best talent from around Ireland and around the world to teach and do research. These faculties should concentrate in turning out a graduate population that is know-how driven in food science, in business science, in the science of forestry and agriculture and in veterinary science. There should also be established local business and agricultural colleges to develop the know-how of those who work at the coalface of farming and food production
In my understanding of economics, the true dynamic of economic growth and wealth is the indigenous know-how of the population, which can be nurtured and developed through education. The Irish economy will never put a man on the moon or a space probe on Mars or will it ever be top of the economic heap in world terms. What is a feasible economic goal for the Irish is to put a plate of high quality wholesome competitively priced food on every table on planet earth. In the past the indigenous know-how of the Ulster people made linen and ships world market leaders. Why not in the future make Irish food a world market leader driven by Irish with indigenous know-how nurtured and developed through education?
There is the belief afloat that an Irish economy can be built with international capital such as computers and pharmaceuticals. The problem with international capital is that it is foot loose and fancy free and will pack its bags and fly by night to any spot on the planet where profit can be maximized e.g. Dell’s flight from Limerick. To develop a stable economy in Ireland an indigenous base will have to be found. The only international capital the government should encourage is capital that is in Ireland for the long haul. Short-term international capital is economically destabilizing
Equality in Schooling
In equality in schooling a fundamental question has to be asked--- How best to school a future dustman? The grammar schools know how best to school a future doctor and have that down to a fine art. When it comes to the schooling of a future dustman the grammar schools don’t want to know. This question remains unanswered in education but if schooling is to be universal and equal the intellectual resources of the Faculties of Education, of the Colleges of Education and of the teachers themselves, must be brought to bear on this fundamental question and an answer found. But if schooling is to be universal and equal both the financial and psychic resources of the school must be distributed equally among the school population in general and especially among the three houses of varying academic ability in the senior middle school. By psychic resources I mean the talent, the care, the attention, the commitment, interest, dedication and affection of the teaching staff. The equal distribution of psychic resources in the school is especially important to the pupils who belong in the house of the least academically able. If this is done the psychic resources of the school should ensure that these pupils leave school with feeling of high self-esteem and of social worth and with high hopes. This could prove to be a corrective to antisocial and outlandish behaviour, teenage drunkenness drug abuse and suicide. However if pupils leave school to join a dole or emigrate schooling is wasted. In the distribution of state resources to schools, the state should positively discriminate in favour of those schools situated in deprived areas, especially in favour of primary schools in deprived areas The schooling of children with special needs is best done in special schools by teachers with specialized teaching skills and dedication. In the allocation of state resources to such schools positive discrimination in favour of these should operate. When a system of schooling as is envisaged in this paper is in place, then schooling will be universal, equal and sociably acceptable.
Note to the Bishops
The Bishops may feel that a moral; and spiritual dimension to the curriculum is missing. This isn’t so. A moral and spiritual dimension may be developed in the school and in the individual by the teaching of the curricular discipline Christianity. Like all other curricular disciplines, the curricular discipline Christianity should be taught as know –that and know-how. While this aspect of the curriculum is not a strength of mine, what comes to mind is the know-that of internalizing prayers by rote the know–that of the Trinity, the internalizing of the know-that of the bible by listening to or reading stories from the bible. Know- how could be taught by exploring such questions as -----How to be a good / son / daughter/ pupil/ worker / mother/ father/ citizen / girl friend/ boyfriend. How does one worship God? How does one follow Jesus? How was the world created? How should I live my life? The Churches are in a better position than I am to elaborate how Christianity can be best taught as Know-that and Know-how.
Michael Gillespie B Ed. BSc (Econ) Dip Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
Explanatory Note
In this article the following terms are used: -
(1) Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein. This is the political party led by Gerry Adams.
(2) Right Wing Union Jack Unionism. This is an umbrella term covering The Official Unionist Party The Democratic Party and The Alliance Party.
In my reading of Irish political history the only political movement that catches my imagination and takes my fancy is Early Sinn Fein. This Sinn Fein espoused a government for Ireland with a dual monarchy. Regrettably that worthwhile idea was swept aside by the violence of Republican 1916. In my opinion if the early ideas of Griffiths had been worked upon, developed and thought through, Ireland today would be a Sovereign United Nation under the Crown a nation like Canada. For that reason I belong to, or support no Political party in Ireland but adhere to my own private personal politics of Federal Unionism – Early Sinn Fein. A development of this can be found in my novel ---THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE – Published by Authorhouse and in my blog www.solvingtheirishproblem.blogspot.com.
Selection
I first met up with selection at eleven in an official capacity during the Harold Wilson administration in the seventies when the British Government was proposing the abolition of selection at eleven. At that time I was president of the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation in Belfast and dealing with selection at eleven became part of my union remit. At that time I maintained, as I do now, that selection is a sine qua non of the educational process but what remains to be decided is, at what age should selection take place, how should selection be carried out and who should do the selecting.
The age of eleven for selection is quite arbitrary. Following the 1948 Education Act the age for selection was taken to be eleven At that time school leaving age was 14 so it was decided that the duration of education in the new secondary modern schools should be three years so the age of transfer was taken to be eleven. While this age of transfer is quite arbitrary it is now taken as sacred and is carved in stone by the backwoodsmen and women in Right Wing Union Jack Unionism. At the time of the Wilson government I maintained then as I do now, that children shouldn’t be divided into sheep and goats by the state but should be free to select themselves as pupils are capable of doing given they are being educated within an educational system which allows this freedom.
At the time of the Wilson administration there were two options on the table for the reform of education and the abolition of the eleven plus: -
(1) Neighbourhood Comprehensive Schools.
(2) A three-tier system of schools made up of Primary Schools, Middle schools and sixth Form Departments.
I backed the abolition of the eleven plus but at he same time I was sceptical of neighbourhood comprehensives and in stead I backed the introduction of a three tier system of schooling. However in Northern Ireland selection was maintained
due to the strength of a powerful grammar school lobby but even so the three tier non selective system of education was adopted in Craigavon where it still remains and works successfully.
In hindsight it is clear that the choice of neighbourhood comprehensives by Old Labour was a mistake. Old Labour was incensed by the social inequalities of the system where children from working class backgrounds fared poorly in the eleven plus and children from middle class backgrounds did well. Looked at in a shallow way by Old Labour it seemed that this educational anomaly could be resolved by having all children educated under the one roof. This shallow thinking proved false. Since some comprehensives were situated in working class districts in time these comprehensives became known as bog standard with low standards of educational attainment along with acute disciplinary problems. On the other hand comprehensives in the leafy suburbs did well the school population being middleclass and maintained high standards of academic excellence with a good disciplinary code. In those neighbourhood comprehensives where the school population is of mixed class, pupils from middleclass backgrounds carry off the prizes on prize giving day.. The reason for all of this is due to the relative value of importance which middleclass and working families give to education.
Selection at eleven is still going strong in London. I have three grandchildren growing up in London and they don’t go to the neighbourhood comprehensive as it is reputed to have syringes in the playground and condoms in the corridor along with low academic standards. Instead my grandchildren go to a school, which their parents consider to have high academic standards and a healthy moral code. But to get into these schools my grandchildren had to sit an entrance examination and a place in the school is in high demand and difficult to obtain.
I am giving this thumbnail sketch of education in England to emphasise that in my thinking the decision by Old Labour to introduce neighbourhood comprehensives was a mistake, and a disaster and has done nothing eliminate the social inequality in schooling it intended to eliminate. My impression of the thinking of Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein is that these backwoodsmen and women are back in the days of Old Labour and are hell-bent on introducing some thing into the six counties, which has been demonstrated to be an unmitigated disaster in England.
The problem of selection in education is complex and complicated. I cannot give an off-the-peg solution, ready made, to the problem where one size fits all which seems to be the claim coming from Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein. What I can do is to draw up and ideal system of education in which teachers and educationists would be in a position to tackle the attainment inequalities that exist on the ground.
I have already noted and I repeat that selection is a sine qua non of education and what remain at issue is who should do the selecting, how it should be done and at what age. In my opinion pupils should be allowed to select themselves with out the interference of the state. Margaret Thatcher took as her campaign slogan that the Tories would roll back the state. The backwoods men and women of Right Wing Union Jack Unionism should take a leaf out of Margaret’s book and roll back the state out of the lives of children and set them free to select themselves which they are perfectly capable of doing, given the are educated in a schooling system that allows such freedom.
I can attempt to give an educational system, which allows such freedom, but to do so I must return to the second option placed on the table at the time of Harold Wilson’s Government. This is a three tier system of schooling comprising a primary sector, a middle school sector and a sixth form sector. In such a system there would be no selection by the state but the primary school sector would transfer unselected to the local community middle school at eleven, which in practical terms would be the existing secondary or grammar school. In these schools the middle school; would be divided into a junior middle school for pupils under the age of 14 and a senior middle school for pupils b between the ages of 14 to16 In the junior school the management of class room learning should be the same as that which now exists in the primary school where the classes are divided into class settings to cater for slow and fast learners, the settings selection being made according to the teacher’s perceived educational needs of the individual pupil. So the same style of teaching would be practiced in both the primary and junior middle school.
Selection in the middle school would occur at the age of 14 and the school population would be selected into three streams or three houses.
(a) Pupils with strong academic potential
(b) Pupils with less academic potential.
(c) Pupils with the least academic potential.
This selection would be decided by an individual educational profile of educational attainment beginning early in primary education, the assessment being continuous up to the end of Junior Middle School. Using this criteria the individual pupil would encouraged to make a career choice assisted by the careers teaching staff in consultation with the parents and each pupil should be allotted a particular house appropriate to his/her individual needs, in the perception of the teaching staff in consultation with the parents.
It should be noted that the structure of the senior middle school is similar to the schooling structure in Germany. In Germany there is a triple school structure: -
(1) The Gymnasium leading to a university education.
(2) The Realschule leading to a technical or business education.
(3)The Hauptscule for the least academically able leading to vocational education
In Germany these three structures of education take place in separate schools. In the model under consideration for Northern Ireland, the three structures of education would take place in the same school under the one roof. The pupils would be free to select themselves in the school they attend and wouldn’t be selected into sheep and goats by the state at too early an age. In this way each pupil would get an education that is appropriate to his/her individual and career needs.
The top department in the school would be the sixth form department. Those who wish to remain at school after Senior. Middle School would do so depending upon their performance in a state examination such as the G.C.S E.
A Curriculum for the School Outlined
The aim and purpose of the curriculum should be, to have teachers teach and have pupils acquire useful knowledge. This can be achieved through the teaching of: -
(a) Know- that knowledge.
(b) Know-how knowledge
The difference between the two can be illustrated in this way. Know-that knowledge about a car would be that a car has at least three wheels, is a certain colour, needs to be taxed and insured. Know-how about a car is knowing how to drive it, or knowing how to fix it when it breaks down. Know-that learning, particularly at school, is acquired by rote learning. It is the know-that learning of the three Rs where the number facts, spelling and the rules of grammar are committed to memory. Traditionally schools have taught know-that knowledge exclusively but this form of knowledge has only limited use such as in memory recall in Pub and T.V. quizzes like Master Mind and University Challenge or The Weakest Link There was movement in education to stop the teaching of know-that knowledge completely as it was claimed it stifled creativity in the pupils. Head bangers in education expounded this. There was a reaction to this by employers who complained they were taking on new young staff that couldn’t add, read a simple note or write a simple note.
Know-how learning is acquired by being taught by person with expert knowledge and is internalized by practice. As noted learning how to drive a car is know-how knowledge and the knowledge is acquired by being taught by a person with expertise and internalized by practice. Know-how is also bound up with learning procedures. When a learner driver knows how to proceed along a highway without making mistakes then that person is educated as far as driving is concerned. When a surgeon knows how to proceed in doing an operation without making mistakes such a surgeon is educated as far as surgery is concerned. When a bricklayer knows how to proceed without mistakes in building a wall that doesn’t fall down, such a bricklayer is educated as far as building a wall is concerned.
The learning of know-how knowledge is strongly recommended by present day educationalists because this knowledge, unlike know-that, is useful. This form of knowledge should begin in the primary school and develop in an ever-widening spiral u p through the middle school to the sixth form. Know-how can begin in primary school by having the pupil investigate-- how to send an email, how to write a letter of thanks to grandmother for a birthday gift, how to do a classroom project on the old ruins of an old workhouse in the vicinity, how does a nail rust in water As noted know-how should be taught in an ever widening spiral up the school to sixth form with know-that still being taught in the middle school where this teaching is deemed necessary in the perception of the class room teacher At the end of compulsory schooling at sixteen the school should turn out a population that is literate, numerate and with sense of know-howness. At the sixth form learning should be d exclusively about know- how, the pupils learning how to proceed in the traditional disciplines of the curriculum under expert tuition and with an abundance of practice. Sport is a curricular underlier in that this discipline should be enjoyed and shared by all and played collectively, irrespective of academic talent.
All of this may sound somewhat up in the air so I will try to bring this matter to bring this matter to earth by looking schooling in Belfast. When I was president of the I.N.T.O. in Belfast at the time of Harold Wilson when the abolition of the eleven plus was first muted I was doing research at the Faculty of Education in Queen’s into numeracy level in the Belfast Inner city schools at the end of Primary schooling. To do that pupils were set a test of know-that knowledge and know-how knowledge in Mathematics which was completed by a ll final year pupils in the following schools: -
(a) The Shankill controlled schools
(b)The Lower Falls maintained schools
(c)The Donegall Pass controlled schools.
(d)The Markets maintained schools
The pupils were evaluated for
(1) Basic numeracy
(2) Overall numeracy
The criteria for evaluating basic numeracy was pupil ability to do very simple know-that in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It was found that over one third of the final year school population could not do these basic mathematical operations and were rated innumerate. When these findings were rigorously tested for statistical significance it was found there was no significant difference between the four school populations. I have heard Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein make the nonsensical claim on the T.V that the poor educational standards on the Shankill can be improved by the introduction of Comprehensives but why single out the Shankill when the standards of education are equally poor in both the Controlled and Maintained sector? In singling out the Shankill Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein is blatantly sectarian.
The finding for overall numeracy in this research demonstrated that in a test of overall numeracy know-how, pupils in the Inner City attending Controlled Schools significantly out performed pupils in the Inner City attending Maintained Schools. There is other research at The Faculty of Education Q.U.B, which supports that. How ever there are swings and roundabouts in all of this. There is other research at Queen’s, which demonstrates that pupils in Maintained Schools out perform pupils in Controlled Schools in verbal ability.
Had this research had been carried out in the leafy suburbs of Malone in Belfast it would have been found that the pupils there would have outperformed the pupils in the Inner-City in attainment in mathematical knowledge. This is not unique to Belfast. This educational anomaly is found in every city in Ireland, in Great Britain, in European Cities and in the cities of North America. This problem faced Old Labour and they opted for Neighbourhood Comprehensives as a solution but the Comprehensive option has failed in Great Britain. This educational problem is now being faced in the Assembly at Stormont and now the cowboys and cowgirls of Neo-Marxist Late Sinn Fein are propounding a failed Old Labour solution to the problem while the cowboys and cowgirls of right Wing Union Jack Unionism are hell bent in retaining the anomaly by the use of the obsolete philosophy of Old Toryism. Tony Blair recognised the defective nature of education in Great Britain in his slogan Education, Education, Education and New Labour tried to rectify the matter by having the state invade the classroom by telling the teachers what to teach and how to teach it and by over testing pupils throughout their school career. This has backfired and made matters worse In recent survey of Primary Schooling in England carried out by Cambridge, the effects of New Labour reforms is to drive the primary schools back to the teaching of the three Rs i.e. know-that, to the exclusion of know-how.
Know-how, Economic Growth and the Creation of Wealth
In the 20th century Milton Freidman the American Laizze Faire economist put forward the philosophy that wealth can be created by freeing up the money market and let it rip without restraint; in this way wealth will grow forever. Ronald Regan in the Reaganomics of a trickle down economy adopted this philosophy. This influenced the free marketer Margaret Thatcher --- (You can’t buck the market) and the Friedman philosophy was taken up in turn by Tony Blair’s New Labour ---- New Labour is the best party the Conservatives have ever had--- (Margaret Thatcher). Finally Friedman’s philosophy influenced Fianna Fail and a free money market was let rip in the Celtic Tiger. Friedman’s monetarism has proved to be a tragic disaster worldwide. With the collapse of Friedman economic philosophy the right wing in America has collapsed and now there are dark mutterings in Republican circles about the introduction of European socialism into America by Barack Obama
In my understanding of economics there are four conditions necessary for a state to enjoy economic growth and create wealth: -
(a) The state should be stable with a written constitution, which has the overwhelming support on the vast majority of the people.
(b) The people should be highly literate.
(c) The people should be highly numerate.
(d) The people should have a high degree of Know-howfulness.
Know-how in America is highly rated. Americans are proud of and boastful of American know-how. American know-how put a man on the moon and in the 20th century American know-how pushed the American economy to the top of the economic heap in world terms and made America the richest state in the world. But the importance of Know-how in economic growth and wealth creation can be illustrated closer to home in Ulster. In thelate19th/ early20th century Eastern Ulster enjoyed economic growth and wealth in the Know-how of linen production and shipbuilding. Indigenous know- how made Ulster a world leader in linen and ship production. This know-how is regrettably now obsolete due to a world slump in demand for linen and in shipping, due to the cost of supply and a change in demand for ships.
In my under standing of economics a state should specialise in that aspect of its economy in which it holds a relative advantage. The Irish economy holds a relative advantage in agriculture and food production This aspect of the economy requires specialist Know-how and Irish know-how in this economic specialisation can be developed by having Know- how taught in schools from an early age and into the universities in the faculties of food science, of business science, veterinary science agricultural science and the science of forestry. These faculties are related to a specialist Irish economy in food production and efforts should be made to attract the best talent from around Ireland and around the world to teach and do research. These faculties should concentrate in turning out a graduate population that is know-how driven in food science, in business science, in the science of forestry and agriculture and in veterinary science. There should also be established local business and agricultural colleges to develop the know-how of those who work at the coalface of farming and food production
In my understanding of economics, the true dynamic of economic growth and wealth is the indigenous know-how of the population, which can be nurtured and developed through education. The Irish economy will never put a man on the moon or a space probe on Mars or will it ever be top of the economic heap in world terms. What is a feasible economic goal for the Irish is to put a plate of high quality wholesome competitively priced food on every table on planet earth. In the past the indigenous know-how of the Ulster people made linen and ships world market leaders. Why not in the future make Irish food a world market leader driven by Irish with indigenous know-how nurtured and developed through education?
There is the belief afloat that an Irish economy can be built with international capital such as computers and pharmaceuticals. The problem with international capital is that it is foot loose and fancy free and will pack its bags and fly by night to any spot on the planet where profit can be maximized e.g. Dell’s flight from Limerick. To develop a stable economy in Ireland an indigenous base will have to be found. The only international capital the government should encourage is capital that is in Ireland for the long haul. Short-term international capital is economically destabilizing
Equality in Schooling
In equality in schooling a fundamental question has to be asked--- How best to school a future dustman? The grammar schools know how best to school a future doctor and have that down to a fine art. When it comes to the schooling of a future dustman the grammar schools don’t want to know. This question remains unanswered in education but if schooling is to be universal and equal the intellectual resources of the Faculties of Education, of the Colleges of Education and of the teachers themselves, must be brought to bear on this fundamental question and an answer found. But if schooling is to be universal and equal both the financial and psychic resources of the school must be distributed equally among the school population in general and especially among the three houses of varying academic ability in the senior middle school. By psychic resources I mean the talent, the care, the attention, the commitment, interest, dedication and affection of the teaching staff. The equal distribution of psychic resources in the school is especially important to the pupils who belong in the house of the least academically able. If this is done the psychic resources of the school should ensure that these pupils leave school with feeling of high self-esteem and of social worth and with high hopes. This could prove to be a corrective to antisocial and outlandish behaviour, teenage drunkenness drug abuse and suicide. However if pupils leave school to join a dole or emigrate schooling is wasted. In the distribution of state resources to schools, the state should positively discriminate in favour of those schools situated in deprived areas, especially in favour of primary schools in deprived areas The schooling of children with special needs is best done in special schools by teachers with specialized teaching skills and dedication. In the allocation of state resources to such schools positive discrimination in favour of these should operate. When a system of schooling as is envisaged in this paper is in place, then schooling will be universal, equal and sociably acceptable.
Note to the Bishops
The Bishops may feel that a moral; and spiritual dimension to the curriculum is missing. This isn’t so. A moral and spiritual dimension may be developed in the school and in the individual by the teaching of the curricular discipline Christianity. Like all other curricular disciplines, the curricular discipline Christianity should be taught as know –that and know-how. While this aspect of the curriculum is not a strength of mine, what comes to mind is the know-that of internalizing prayers by rote the know–that of the Trinity, the internalizing of the know-that of the bible by listening to or reading stories from the bible. Know- how could be taught by exploring such questions as -----How to be a good / son / daughter/ pupil/ worker / mother/ father/ citizen / girl friend/ boyfriend. How does one worship God? How does one follow Jesus? How was the world created? How should I live my life? The Churches are in a better position than I am to elaborate how Christianity can be best taught as Know-that and Know-how.
Michael Gillespie B Ed. BSc (Econ) Dip Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)
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