Ian Paisley Junior Outraged At Lack Of Recent Tabloid Coverage
In a move destined to shock absolutely no-one in Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley Jr is
a) angry
b) offended
c) outraged
d) all of the above
by Tony Blair’s remarks about the Protestant Bigot. The gist of Blair’s outburst was aimed at Muslin extremists, but used a local analogy to spice things up:
“They are no more proper Muslims than the Protestant bigot who murders a Catholic in Northern Ireland is a proper Christian.
“But unfortunately, he’s still a Protestant bigot.
“To say his religion is irrelevant is both completely to misunderstand his motive and to refuse to face up to the strain of extremism within his religion that has given rise to it.”
Somehow, the outrage filter that exists in Paisley Jr’s head has picked up on this and amplified it into a mass insult of the entire Protestant population! Aided and abetted by “Friend of the DUP”, Reg Empey and former Presbyterian moderator Ken Newell, this formidable threesome have launched (seperate) attacks on Tony Blair on behalf of all Protestants. Hooray! Champions of the cause!
Is it possible that Tony Blair is speaking about a more distant period in (Northern) Ireland where the Catholic population were less well treated than they are now? I think so.
If Blair had launched an attack on ruthless Athiest murderers, I - as an Athiest - would not be offended. Because I am not a murderer. Therefore if I were a common-or-garden-Protestant, I would not be offended at the “Protestant Bigot” statement, because Tony Blair is patently not referring to me. Understand?
Now, if I was a Protestant bigot, or my father was a Protestant bigot, perhaps I’d be more pissed off. But let’s not blow the whole thing out of proportion, shall we?
I often wonder if Northern Irish politicians have anything in their vocabulary other than “outrage” over something or other
I didn’t take offence at the remark, although I suppose you’d expect that from an atheist (even a protestant atheist
)
You do have to wonder though how, after everything that went on after Mary McAleese’s Nazi comments, could Tony Blair not realise what he was doing when making such a blatantly partisan and one-sided comparison.
Did he just so happen to toss a coin and on that basis decide to insert “Protestant bigot” instead of “Catholic bigot”?
I don’t believe he did. I do believe that among figures like Blair and McAleese the prevailing view is that somehow it’s all “our” fault, and while they normally manage to uphold a pretence of neutrality, deep down they know who they blame and either can’t resist the odd jibe when they think they can get away with it, or let the mask slip.