Chris: I wish I knew, but my knowledge of the alternatives on the ground are scant.
Xopher: to you and me he was making a fool of himself. To his supporters he was a hero, standing up to the antichrist. And his line-dancing Hapsburg minions.
Christopher: James White was a great friend of the Dublin science fiction convention, Ocotcon. My wife and I used to meet and chat with him every year. He was a big, gentle man with a lovely smile and a voice you could listen to for hours. It hasn't been the same without him.
Which reminds me of James White, who was from the North and wrote science fiction. He used to tell us that whenever a journalist asked him if he believed in little green men, he'd reply that yes he did, and in little orange men, too.
Chris
That's true of course. But then again...
I've been watching this conflict from the sidelines for my entire life, and like many of my generation I've developed a certain cynical detatchment about it. Every now and then, though, I'm brought up short by the stark reality of how isolated the Unionists must feel. Witness the relatively recent Holy Cross debacle: Catholic schoolgirls heckled by an angry mob as they made their way to school. Who the hell thinks that that's a form of protest that'll ever get them anywhere? It's a siege mentality. They seem to think the country is bristling with IRA gunmen who wany to throw Protestant children to wild packs of paedophile priests. (Well, that's what it seems like south of the border, sometimes.)
But who can bame them? They've been at the receiving end of one of the most successful sustained terrorist campaigns the world has ever seen, and they still seem to come off as the bad guys thanks to effective nationalist leaders like McGuinness and Adams, who are very canny politicians, as well as their own poor judgement in choosing leaders and in their trenchant actions and attitudes. (Is marching season nearly upon us again? Oh, Christ, thank God, not for a few months yet.)
They flock to Paisley, who not only loudly condemns all the right people, but who also administers to their souls and works for them on the ground. Even his worst enemy will admit that Paisley works like a demon for his constituents. On a national level, though, the man's an embarrassment, and if he refuses to reach some sort of accommodation with the agreement parties, he could be bloody dangerous.
In a straight out fight, though, he'd kick papal ass.
God, I remember that. Being a young Irishman I didn't know who to shout for. Imagine Cromwell fighting Torquemada and you get the historical and cultural resonance (for me, anyway.) Nowadays I just feel sorry for Paisley's constituents, not to mention everyone else in NI. They just never seemed to get a break, and with clowns like that representing one side and some of the best bloody terrorists in the world on the other, it's a friggin' miracle we ever got a peace process.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 5 |
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