Ireland election 2016

[Nigel Irritable]

Is anti-welfare sentiment common in Ireland? I suppose if it is I shouldn't be surprised but I always sort of thought that Irish people, like say the Spanish, were on the whole more sensible about it than the English

As Idris says, it would depend very much on the social cohort. Varadkar is a prospective leader of the more right wing of the two large conservative parties and the kind of Fine Gaeler who really does wish in the quietness of his own heard that he lived in England so he could be a proper Tory. In any case the message of the tweet isn't quite British style sneering at people on welfare - it's a barely coherent insinuation that voting for Sinn Fein leads to poverty and economic disaster.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

It's on Castle St. in Castlebar.

Yo dude, I heard you like Castles, so. . .

Was Mayo always a black pit of reaction by comparison with other rural areas, or is its recent Blueshirtmania primarily a result of "up the local boy" country gobshitery?

 

[Buckaroo]

Is that a shop in darkest Mayo?

Darkest Mayo is very dark. A psychiatrist was bringing his son to the Gaeltacht school in Belmullet and said it was the most desolate place he'd ever seen. He said there wasn't even a tree to hang yourself from!

 

[Idris2002]

Was Mayo always a black pit of reaction by comparison with other rural areas, or is its recent Blueshirtmania primarily a result of "up the local boy" country gobshitery?

In P.Flynn's day the "up the local boy" factor swung things his way.

And I'm not surprised that a metrovincial such as yourself has forgotten Michael Davitt.

Believe it or not, there's a monument to a fallen International Brigade soldier at Dooeaga, on Achill island (just off the Mayo coast).

 

[krtek a houby]

... Varadkar is a prospective leader of the more right wing of the two large conservative parties and the kind of Fine Gaeler who really does wish in the quietness of his own heard that he lived in England so he could be a proper Tory...

I dunno; there's people who will never accept LV as being Irish because of his heritage. To suggest he wants to be English because of his politics... it's a bit like that "West Brit" schtick that some people use.

 

[Idris2002]

disappointed its window in one piece

I've known the woman that runs that shop a long time, so fuck off, I'm not breaking her window.

 

[Idris2002]

I dunno; there's people who will never accept LV as being Irish because of his heritage. To suggest he wants to be English because of his politics... it's a bit like that "West Brit" schtick that some people use.

Really? I've never, ever, heard anything like that.

Alan Shatter got anti-semitic hate mail over the years, but I don't think our local loons have the same shitty attitude to people from the Subcontinent.

 

[Pickman's model]

I've known the woman that runs that shop a long time, so fuck off, I'm not breaking her window.

fair enough. pity about the poster tho

 

[Nigel Irritable]

In P.Flynn's day the "up the local boy" factor swung things his way.

And I'm not surprised that a metrovincial such as yourself has forgotten Michael Davitt.

Believe it or not, there's a monument to a fallen International Brigade soldier at Dooeaga, on Achill island (just off the Mayo coast).

I wasn't thinking back as far as the 19th Century and Davitt. Agrarian radicalism has been nearly dead here since WW2. Fair point about Flynn though. So it's basically the same as you get in any other rural county with little in the way of an urban population, just with the added bad luck of having spawned a Fianna Fail bigwig and then a Fine Gael leader.

The island I've family connections to, Bere Island in West Cork, has a plaque to William Martin Murphy! You can't really get more reactionary than that, short of renaming the island's village (Rerrin) after Eoin O'Duffy.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Really? I've never, ever, heard anything like that.

Alan Shatter got anti-semitic hate mail over the years, but I don't think our local loons have the same shitty attitude to people from the Subcontinent.

Yeah, it's bollocks. Varadkar himself has pushed anti-immigrant shit in the past.

 

[Idris2002]

I wasn't thinking back as far as the 19th Century and Davitt. Agrarian radicalism has been nearly dead here since WW2. Fair point about Flynn though. So it's basically the same as you get in any other rural county with little in the way of an urban population, just with the added bad luck of having spawned a Fianna Fail bigwig and then a Fine Gael leader.

The island I've family connections to, Bere Island in West Cork, has a plaque to William Martin Murphy! You can't really get more reactionary than that, short of renaming the island's village (Rerrin) after Eoin O'Duffy.

Clement Attlee used to take his holidays in Old Head, down the road from Westport. I presume that was suggested to him by his cabinet colleague, Lord Lucan (father of the more famous murderer).

But why did the people of Bere put up a plaque to Murphy? Did he take his vacations there or something?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Clement Attlee used to take his holidays in Old Head, down the road from Westport. I presume that was suggested to him by his cabinet colleague, Lord Lucan (father of the more famous murderer).

But why did the people of Bere put up a plaque to Murphy? Did he take his vacations there or something?

His family were from there, though he was born just outside Castletownbere immediately opposite the island on the mainland.

This article about the plaque in the Examiner is an almost perfect encapsulation of the reactionary nature of Cork "nationalism" (parochialism): He may have been Ireland's most famous anti-union employer and a vicious enemy of the Dublin poor, but we have to look at his whole life rather than just one aspect of it. So the main thing to remember is that he made one man from these parts the managing director of Clerys and another the editor of the Irish Independent (incidentally he was the editor when the paper called for the execution of his bosses old enemy Connolly).

Honour for man who sparked 1913 Lockout

 

[Idris2002]

His family were from there, though he was born just outside Castletownbere immediately opposite the island on the mainland.

This article about the plaque in the Examiner is an almost perfect encapsulation of the reactionary nature of Cork "nationalism" (parochialism): He may have been Ireland's most famous anti-union employer and a vicious enemy of the Dublin poor, but we have to look at his whole life rather than just one aspect of it. So the main thing to remember is that he made one man from these parts the managing director of Clerys and another the editor of the Irish Independent (incidentally he was the editor when the paper called for the execution of his bosses old enemy Connolly).

Honour for man who sparked 1913 Lockout

Caaark, biy.

 

[Idris2002]

fair enough. pity about the poster tho

I do remember her being very "short sharp shock" after a couple of lads broke into the headmaster's office at the De La Salle college, and burned the two big ledgers containing the attendance rolls.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Caaark, biy.

If they could find a Cork connection for Ante Pavelic or Idi Amin they'd erect monuments to them too.

 

[Idris2002]

Yeah, it's bollocks. Varadkar himself has pushed anti-immigrant shit in the past.

And when did LV disgrace himself so?

 

[Idris2002]

If they could find a Cork connection for Ante Pavelic or Idi Amin they'd erect monuments to them too.

Challenge. Accepted.

Biy.

 

[Idris2002]

As Idris says, it would depend very much on the social cohort. Varadkar is a prospective leader of the more right wing of the two large conservative parties and the kind of Fine Gaeler who really does wish in the quietness of his own heard that he lived in England so he could be a proper Tory. In any case the message of the tweet isn't quite British style sneering at people on welfare - it's a barely coherent insinuation that voting for Sinn Fein leads to poverty and economic disaster.

 

[krtek a houby]

Yeah, it's bollocks. Varadkar himself has pushed anti-immigrant shit in the past.

Oh, I thought it was the other way round... ‘Inherently racist’ – Varadkar critical of signs of ‘Irishness’ on Dublin taxis

Growing racism keeps immigrants out of Irish politics - Independent.ie

Varadkar concerned by rise of anti-Islamic group Pegida

But you appear to be correct; his heritage doesn't seem to make any waves. My mistake.

Leo Varadkar: Could This Indian Man One Day Become Prime Minister Of Ireland?

"Meanwhile, the Irish electorate is likely far more worried about the state of its economy than the ethnic identity of its leading lawmakers. With the next general election not scheduled until spring of 2016, Varadkar has plenty of time to prepare for a possible future as the first Indian PM of Ireland."

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Back in 2008 Varadkar started mouthing off about voluntary repatriation. The fucking prick.

TD's proposal for jobless foreigners

 

[marty21]

Darkest Mayo is very dark. A psychiatrist was bringing his son to the Gaeltacht school in Belmullet and said it was the most desolate place he'd ever seen. He said there wasn't even a tree to hang yourself from!

I've been to darkest mayo and had a mighty time! Used to spend the summers there as a kid .

 

[Idris2002]

Back in 2008 Varadkar started mouthing off about voluntary repatriation. The fucking prick.

TD's proposal for jobless foreigners

Definite whiff of undergraduate debating societies in that letter.

Get used to it, all you at home, because he'll be Taoiseach soon enough.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Definite whiff of undergraduate debating societies in that letter.

Get used to it, all you at home, because he'll be Taoiseach soon enough.

Possibly, but as Richard Bruton discovered in 2010, while the urban Tory Boy debating society wing of Fine Gael may be smoother, more articulate and more entitled than the ranchers and yokels wing, the yokels still have the numbers. And while Varadkar goes down very well in Castleknock, I'd be less sure of his appeal in Two-Mile Borris.

 

[krtek a houby]

Back in 2008 Varadkar started mouthing off about voluntary repatriation. The fucking prick.

TD's proposal for jobless foreigners

I was not aware of that

 

[Nigel Irritable]

I was not aware of that

He's scum all the way through, without a single speck of human decency.

 

[krtek a houby]

He's scum all the way through, without a single speck of human decency.

I think, like many people, he probably has good and bad in him. Anyways, I can't vote no more & even if I could; I'd never vote FG.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

His most recent batch of posters just consist of the words "Leo" and "Courage".

 

[krtek a houby]

His most recent batch of posters just consist of the words "Leo" and "Courage".

 

[Nigel Irritable]

This picture here is a perfect demonstration of the dog-eat-dog, crawl over the corpses of your neighbours, nature of mainstream right wing Irish politics. What's going on is that one Fine Gael candidate has a large poster asking for number 1 votes and advocating that people in that particular part of the constituency then transfer in a particular order to his two party colleagues. However, just before polls open someone from one of his fellow Fine Gael candidates campaigns has come along and stuck a giant sticker over the poster reversing the order in which FG voters are asked to vote:

 

[krtek a houby]

Not surprising. However (and this is anecdotal, admittedly) but a mate of mine says she saw SF election material in the actual voting booths & reported it to the returning officer...