Rememberance Sunday
Paul has blogged today about looking for appropriate literature for Rememberance Sunday, and coming across a live performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.
As I read the excerpt he printed, I remembered hearing or seeing this performance somewhere before: the descending guitar arpeggios, the militaristic snare drum and above it all Bono taking to task the misguided fools who believed that it was alright to kill for some romantic notion of Irish unity.
I’ve had enough of Irish Americans who haven’t been back to their country in 20 or 30 years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home.
And the glory of the revolution.
And the glory of dying for the revolution.
FUCK THE REVOLUTION!
Even in retrospect, that speech gave me the chills. More than any national anthem, more than any hymn or prayer or statement, it sums up for me the stupidity of people whose national identity and politics define them, and excuses all sorts of attrocities against other human beings.
Read the rest of the excerpt at the Northern Irish Magyar.
That war was a mistake as all wars are. The war we have been put through wasn’t necessary. The ways of democracy was not closed off when the republicans teuned to the bomb and the bullet.
The Sunningdale Agreement of 1995,accepted the principle of consent. There would no constitutional change without the consent of the majority. Given that, and given the Irish Government’s move away from seeing the conflict as a colonial one, it was increasingly difficult for republicans to argue that the block to their ambitions was the British Government and not Northern Ireland Unionists. That reality, and the fact that they faced military stalemate, eventually encouraged some of them to begin to think of a different way forward.
The 1985 Agreement did not solve everything. Twenty years later we have two divided communities. But by setting up a framework of cooperation
between the two Governments it challenged both Unionists and Nationalists to think of working together instead of against each other.
Was never a fan of Bono or pop stars getting involved in politics generally, but can’t help feel that he hit the nail on the head with that one.
If you want to see the performance you just need to rent their film “Rattle & Hum”.
“Was never a fan of Bono or pop stars getting involved in politics generally”
May as well use one’s fame for good Beano. You or me won’t be invited to speak at a Labour Party Conference or get in to see the Pope or get to talk to Bush … Bono on the other hand …