One of my favourite films is "The Life of Brian". Possibly my favourite scene is the one where the Popular front for the liberation of Palestine are discussing the effects of the Roman occupation.
Last night, as I bopped away to the great Northern Irish punk rock band, Stiff Little Fingers, in the esteemed company of former Manchester City manager and current England manager, Stuart Pearce at the Kentish Town Forum, I pondered the latest statement from one of Barnet Council's top Tory Councillors, who's name escapes me. It seems that a Tory "think tank" (is that rhyming slang) in Barnet have decided to amend Tory policy. Norman Tebbit said that people should get on their bike and look for work. In a deliberately racist policy change, there is now an exemption to this policy for those of Irish descent. One statement from the Tory "Policy Review And Targets" team on the subject says “This is a commuter who comes over from Ireland looking for work that should frankly stay put in Ireland.
Watching SLF bash out stormer after stormer, my mind wondered back to John Cleese question in that great scene. As the Irish are one group in society who it is still quite clearly OK to abuse in a racist fashion, I thought I'd apply the Romans test to them. What have the Irish ever done for us? Well here's my top 20 list (in no particular order).
1. Built the rail network - teams of travelling navvies getting on their bike
2. Built the road network - teams of travelling navvies getting on their bike again
3. Built most of the buildings in the coutry- teams of travelling navvies getting on their bike again
4. Invented Guinness
5. Invented Bushmills
6. The Pogues
7. Stiff Little Fingers
8. Staffed the NHS - nurses coming over from Ireland
9. Live Aid - Bob Geldolf's brainchild
10. The Irish Regiments of the British Army - who my Grandfather left Dublin to join to fight the Germans in 1914
11. The Irish Horse Racing Industry
12. Irish footballers such as George Best, Liam Brady, Stephen Ireland - I could go on forever !
13. Barry McGuigan
14. Dave Allen
15. Ryanair
16. Ernest Shackleton
17. Father Ted
18. Shorts Aircraft
19. George Boole (inventor of Boolean Algebra)
20. Francis Beaufort (inventor of the Beaufort scale)
This isn't a definative list. It's just the first 20 things that came to mind. If I'd bothered to Google I'd probably have a completely different list. These are just the things which I could think of that made my life better in some way shape or form.
I'm proud of my Irish ancestry. I'm proud of my Grandfather and his comrade's sacrifice in the First world war (and many other conflicts) for Great Britain and it's people. I never met my Grandad, he died in 1948, from the effects of being gassed in the trenches, from which he never recovered. My dad used to tell me a story about my Grandpa and how he dealt with Racist abuse.
Dad was having a drink with him (my dad was an Aussie Bomber Pilot) during the second world war. Grandpa was at the bar when an English Army officer barged in front of him at the bar. When my little old Grandpa objected, the officer said "Irish scum". My father was just about to intervene, when my Grandpa grabbed the officer and said "Listen sonny, I served in the trenches for the British Army, under British Officers such as your good self. One thing I can guarantee you is that if the IRA fought the British for one thousand years, they would never kill as many fine British soldiers as the officers corps of the British Army did in the trenches, now learn some manners and let an old man buy a drink in peace". The officer backed away in shame.
I've no time for any sort of racism myself. I'll always stand up for the guy who's getting a kicking. We all have a decision to make do we condemn or condone racism, bullying and victimisation. What side are you on?
My message to Tory "Policy Review And Targets" team - Where would we be without the Irish?
Rog, are you surprised? Anti-irish racism in this country has always been a convienient safety valve to allow people to express their racist views. And we Irish are expected to take it because we are meant to have a sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up in Ireland in the 1970s night after night I could watch comedians telling Irish jokes on British TV and when I moved to London in the 80s I took abuse from people whenever there was an IRA bomb in London. Back then you kept your head down and said nothing in those days.
I worked in Canary Wharf when the IRA bomb went off in 1996. On the Monday when I returned to work my manager said to me "I'm surprised you had the nerve to show your face here today!" I told him no uncertain terms what I thought of that comment and reported the incident to HR. I was wasting my time. You see, we're meant to have a sense of humour and just take it. I was told that my boss was understandably upset and that the incident couldn't be racist.
I resigned.
The incident did have some good because it set me off to running my own business, but I guess the point I'm making here is that Coleman clearly doesn't think he's making a racist comment, but he is.
Had he made that remark in Ireland he would have been fined under our own anti-racism legislation that protects the travelling folk from Colemans blatantly racist nonsense.
Should we expect higher standards from our public representatives? YES. Does Coleman offer that?
NO.
Richard,
ReplyDeleteThe biggest problem is that whilst you are quite capable of standing up for yourself and turning a problem to your advantage, many people can't or are too scared.
That is why the point must be made that this is unacceptable.
The modus operandi of these bigots is to find excuses to justify their behaviour. If there is a particular problem in a particular area they will use this as petrol to start fires. It's a shame that councillors from mainstream parties seek to use this to bolster their own shoddy poll ratings.