Aoife Heaney ([email protected])
Sun, 02 Aug 1998 10:31:13 PDT
I've been watching this debate for a while now and I just though I'd
add a few of my opinions if that's ok. Now don't get too mad or
anything.... ;-)
Liz said
>And why shoulnd't they? The IRA supports Sinn Fein, and have also
>supported the drive towards an unarmed (nonviolent) resolution to the
>conflict. You're forgetting that the IRA have supported the peace
process
>all along, and have played a key role in making it work. So why
shouldn't
>some of us continue to support the IRA?
The IRA may have called a ceasefire, but as I'm sure you're aware,
they still continue to carry out brutal punishment beatings which in
one recent instance left a man dead. Can you honestly say that it is
okay to support an organisation which would do such a thing when
supposedly on cessation? I'm sure you heard what they did - shooting
him in the legs and then ripping out the nearest phone so that his
agony was prolonged - eventually resulting in him bleeding to death of
course. It's always the case that while organisations are on supposed
"ceasefire" that the number of punishment beatings increase. I seem
to recall that a few years ago the IRA used the front of the DAAD force
to excuse this kind of violence.
And from what I have read of this debate I get the impression that you
have a
certain respect for the IRA (please correct me if I'm wong). But this I
have to
disagree with. The IRA has an almost mafia-like prescence here- people
who
step out of line (whatever that line may be) are dealt with through
punishment
beatings. They are not heros who have been driving to find an unarmed
resolution
to this conflict. And the idea that the IRA are some sort of protectors
of the nationalist
community against the injustice of the british is ridiculous. The
nationalist community
has suffered just as much from being under the "protection" of the IRA
as from the british.
>Naw, I still think the tickets should have been up for grabs to anyone
who
>could get to 'em! If they wanted to restrict the audience to people of
a
>certain age, all they had to do was make a would-be buyers produce a
valid
>ID showing their birthdate! I know that they wanted to restrict the
>audience to first-time voters and all that, but I still see way too
much
>of the control-freak aspect of Northern Ireland "moderate" politics at
>play here. Anything that can't be controlled or contained is
considered a
>threat until proven otherwise, etc.
Well I didn't get a ticket myself but from what I understand, they
weren't all that
hard to get. Tickets were distributed to certain schools yes (15 were
given to
my school), but there were other ways of getting them. And they were'nt
distributed
to six formers exclusively, my friend (who's 16) got a ticket - granted
she is best friends
with John Hume's grandaughter! ;-)
I just missed out on getting one - I couldn't persuade my maths teacher
(John Hume's
son-in-law) to get me one! Dammit!
>I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the concert wasn't broadcast
on
>TV or radio, was it? (I'd figure that if it was, I'd have heard of the
>bootlegs by now!) If not, why not? After all, here is a
"star-studded"
>event taking place in support of a supposedly historic election, and,
>what, it can't get shown on BBC-NI or UTV? On the radio?
As far as I know it hasn't been broadcast. But from the footage I saw,
it
seems to have been recorded properly- so hopefully they'll broadcast it
in
the future, and WIRE will be the first to know if they do! I do remember
that
U2 played "One" at the concert and the version was used in an SDLP
political broadcast during the run-up to the referendum - I didn't tape
it though....DAMMIT!!!
Anyway, off the subject of N.Ireland. If the rumours of the new album
being
somewhere between War and UF (I think that's what I heard) are
true...will
anyone else be disappointed?? I mean, I loved Pop, I loved the new
direction
they were taking. Ah well, any U2 is good U2, right?
Another thing... has anyone got any cool Adam quotes? And also if anyone
has a pic of Adam as Betty Dalton I'd love it for my web page.
thanx muchly
Aoife
********************************************************************
"As usual, we're out of step with what everyone else is doing," said
Edge. "If you ever want to find out what's going on, look at what we're
doing and it's going to be the opposite of it. In the middle of the
materialistic '80s, here was this ascetic bunch standing in the desert
singing songs,and now, when America is in the middle of a conservative,
grim phase, we're sailing on a 40-foot lemon through the middle of it
all."
~ Edge The Great
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