Comments on The Pensive Quill: Death is Death is Death

Frankie, I attended the funeral today in South Ar...

2013-04-11T21:07:59.777+01:00

Frankie,

I attended the funeral today in South Armagh. Jim was a solid republican and independent mind who did not simply give up his beliefs because somebody in leadership directed him to. His son was able to attend the funeral although the time given was grossly insufficient. Pat McNamee gave a fitting oration.

Veteran republican McAllister (68) dies after cancer battle

The last sentence reads like this.(change the names and it reads like a carbon copy of what I read about Marian Price wanting to say goodbye in private to her sister)

He [his son Turloch] has also been refused parole to attend the funeral in Cullyhanna tomorrow but the family's lawyer is seeking a judicial review of that decision.

And next week Thatcher get's a military funeral funded by the tax payer. Something is very wrong.

Marty That is truely sad to hear regarding Jim. A...

2013-04-10T21:43:46.270+01:00

Marty

That is truely sad to hear regarding Jim. A real pitty. God bless him and his family.

Margaret Thatcher the only person to fuck more min...

2013-04-10T16:50:31.495+01:00

Margaret Thatcher the only person to fuck more minors than Jimmy Savile and the catholic church

I have just read that Jim McAllister has passed aw...

2013-04-10T11:50:36.574+01:00

I have just read that Jim McAllister has passed away.Jim was a prominent spokesman for psf over the years,in the last few year Jim was to the forefront in seeking justice for the Quinn family whose son Paul was beaten to death by the pira,a regular contrbutor here on TPQ,Jim had a great sense of humour and was a staunch republican he will be missed.

Supremely well said, Mackers.

2013-04-09T17:16:25.230+01:00

Supremely well said, Mackers.

Mackers Those who moulded Thatcher, the likes of ...

2013-04-09T16:00:12.002+01:00

Mackers

Those who moulded Thatcher, the likes of Airey Neive and those who surrounded her in Government turned on her when she went from attacking individual sections of society like the miners to pasting the entirety of society with the despised pol tax. Perhaps a game of sums where as long as the oppressed were half or less than half it was safe for their jobs. The poll-tax tipped the scales completely and she was dumped pretty swiftly.

Fionnuala

Not a tear for the tens of thousands of miners who had followed their fathers and grandfathers down-t-pits...nor for the wives, communities and kids of any of the families on the recieving end of her policies for over a decade. BUT teary eyed leaving number 10 in November 1990. A wee tear was only ever shed for herself.

Is there not a word that describes people like that? I dont mean the 'C' word I mean a proper psychology term?

Marty

it most certainly is a FUNFERALL and not a funeral!!

Frankie, I'll forgive you that one because I a...

2013-04-09T14:31:08.655+01:00

Frankie,
I'll forgive you that one because I am in a very forgiving mood today. Us Blondes do alright and then get forgiven for our trespasses quicker than the average dumbo

I enjoyed watching Maggie's pre finale, all over the place and no doubt climbing walls and not knowing why!
She was cruel and lacked even the very basic grasp of empathy and sometimes that comes back.

Niall, I suppose a ‘what if question’ typically ...

2013-04-09T13:44:10.974+01:00

Niall,

I suppose a ‘what if question’ typically gets a ‘perhaps but’ answer.

I don’t believe the outcome would have been a great deal different. And consideration of it would need to evaluated in terms of who were the constraining influences she worked with. Despite her will power and ambition which had not waned throughout her premiership when it was time to go she was told to. And she was also picking up a hard line baton from Labour who had let two hunger strikers die in 1974 and 1976. Indeed during the hunger strike Don Concannon made an intrusion into Bobby Sands’ ward to tell him Labour supported the Tory policy. So the political mood of the governing class was to be inflexible. Had the political class been opposed to her stance she would have been cute enough not to face it down.

And as I pointed out she did switch lanes on the hunger strike. Even if we are not persuaded by O’Rawe’s line (and I am persuaded) the considerable concessions once the hunger strike ended – including the decisive one on clothes - are revealing.

My own speculative view is the difference between her and a possible alternative was more a matter of style rather than substance.

Should have said...How else are they going to pay ...

2013-04-09T13:39:17.664+01:00

Should have said...How else are they going to pay themselves (not just austerity).

Bookworn, Fionnuala, Helen..Even men have 'Blonde moment's'..

Marty, it's for the bankers to make a few quid...

2013-04-09T13:34:28.362+01:00

Marty, it's for the bankers to make a few quid (how else are they going to pay for austerity)...Just think about the advertising, TV time..Book's to be written...

WHY DID THEY EVEN CONSIDER A STATE FUN-FORALL FOR ...

2013-04-09T12:54:35.366+01:00

WHY DID THEY EVEN CONSIDER A STATE FUN-FORALL FOR THATCHER...SURELY IT SHOULD BE PRIVATISED

fenian McCartney was spared because of the ongoin...

2013-04-09T11:50:30.418+01:00

fenian

McCartney was spared because of the ongoing media self-censorship. If any journalist stops going with the flow of positive GFA/piss-process spin, even briefly, their jobs will be in that precarious geographic location of all jobs, a town called Jepardy.

Good for Brid Rodgers. Bit more of the same would be great.

The passing of Thatcher is bringing a great variet...

2013-04-09T11:15:23.586+01:00

The passing of Thatcher is bringing a great variety comments from so many people throughout the world, but probably none more so of interest are the comments of Irish people. Listening to the radio as I do it was one programme after another talking about the life and times of the past PM of Britain. After being saturated with so much news and also having my own thoughts on her I tried to collate all this information.
Firstly the people of England voted her into power 3 times plus making her the first woman PM
Because of the mandate given to her by the British people she set about breaking the will of what she termed the “bully boys” the NUM and the IRA which she done with great gusto. She was the first PM to set in train a process , The Anglo Irish Agreement were the demise and the surrender of weapons of a once powerful Provo IRA came to pass
Of all the comments I listened to I thought the TD for Louth Gerry Adams smacked mostly of jealousy.
He said she “caused great suffering” at this point my thought process stopped and laughter took over. Gerry would love to have been as powerful as her, imagine him being able to tell a whole population it’s his way or the highway, he sounded envious that he could only control a small percentage of the population
My own thoughts were that it’s a pity someone like her was not in power in Ireland over the past 10-15 years when we had Bertie, Brian Cowan and co raping our economy for their own greater good
If we had a choice of Bertie, Cowan, or Adams as leader, would someone like Thatcher not be a better choice

In the midst of all this whipping up of anti-Thatc...

2013-04-09T09:57:46.012+01:00

In the midst of all this whipping up of anti-Thatcher hysteria (and rightly so!!) it as good to see Bríd Rogers last night say on UTV Live that 'SF mainipulated the Hunger strikers'..Raymond McCartney seemed very taken aback by her comments and fortunately for him the discussion to another topic..

Will the OFMDFM have to attend next weeks funeral ...

2013-04-09T09:22:44.491+01:00

Will the OFMDFM have to attend next weeks funeral or will SF send a scapegoat to represent them?

Cf. Morrissey: ""Every move she made was...

2013-04-09T07:50:36.650+01:00

Cf. Morrissey: ""Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the Ivory Trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own Cabinet booted her out." One wonders if the bomb had hit its primary target how the "long war" might have fared.

Interesting piece, Anthony. I've been thinking...

2013-04-09T02:04:25.868+01:00

Interesting piece, Anthony. I've been thinking of a separate question tonight that your piece does't directly answer, but definitely sheds light on

My hypothetical was: If the British prime minister in 81 had not been Thatcher but *had* been A.N. Other leader of the Tory Party, would the outcome have been different?

I suppose my initial instinct had been that her character and her very being seemed so uncompromising that maybe even another Tory would have yielded more in search of a compromise deal.

But then you here bring up the O'Rawe stuff, which (without wanting to jump into that whole thing again) suggests she did, in fact, yield.

So maybe her approach would have been replicated by any other Tory leader of that time on the substance, even if others would not necessarily have used her particular tone?

Anyways, if you have time or inclination to address this, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

For the sake of clarity, I am asking as a private c
citizen (!), not as a reporter!

Fuck her, we celebrated for a few hours after the ...

2013-04-08T22:40:51.647+01:00

Fuck her, we celebrated for a few hours after the news broke. Then I got fed up, not worth caring about. As a few commentators on this blog said the media coverage has been pretty unbalanced.

Anthony, I like that quote from Salman Rushdie, plenty of hypocrites getting airtime mourning now. That's why I've turned off the news media.

Just thinking about all the lives she ruined now is making me upset, would rather not think about it.

Rory

Thank you

2013-04-08T22:08:52.890+01:00

Thank you

Reading the comments about Thatcher on the interne...

2013-04-08T21:41:56.824+01:00

Reading the comments about Thatcher on the internet today it struck me that when she went to war with Argentina she was the most unpopular PM in British history. She got a victory 8000 miles from home and went on to complete three terms in office on the wave of patriotic fervour the Falklands war created.

During her decade + in office she decimated all things British, electric, gas, telecom and govenment housing. Her government selling them all off on the cheap and and ministers invariably resigning their MP seats for positions on the board of directors of the new privatised companies. The coal, car, shipbuilding and manufacturing industries were decimated to wreck trade unionism. Entire mining communities were laid waste and have never recovered. Then she began importing cheap coal from Poland (eastern Europe) and Argentina! How patriotic for a woman ratchetting up the cold war and who went to war a few years previously over the Falklands.

It just seems to me in order to destroy and sell your own country you first need to get everyone all jingoistic and patriotic then you can do as you like. Did the SF leadership employ the same tactic post hungerstrike? Being in a solid position they did a u-turn on everything they ever stood for and still the muppets in SF are blinkered and hypnotized enough not to see where they are.

Funny old world. But there's one less cunt in it tonight. She'll be waiting for Gerry and Marty boy in due course, i'm sure they'll have plenty to chat about.

at a seance Michael Jackson appeared and started s...

2013-04-08T21:13:24.242+01:00

at a seance Michael Jackson appeared and started singing ;

She's Dead, she's Dead , She's Really , Really Dead , She's coming down , I've made her Bed.

I'm just thinking, If she had have been blown to bits in the Brighton Bomb , would things be different , would the war still be going on, would we have had our country united, but, then again, everything was left to Gerry and his army council, and , MI5. Will he be going to her funeral?, Martyboy has to go because he is one of the Royals now.

Have to disagree with you Anthony , She is stoking the fires down below.

Just seen the plans for Thatchers grave...beautifu...

2013-04-08T20:52:54.981+01:00

Just seen the plans for Thatchers grave...beautiful really..but I think they should have made the dancefloor bigger

I rang the BBC today after the one o clock news wa...

2013-04-08T20:51:10.471+01:00

I rang the BBC today after the one o clock news was extended to cover the death of that waste of space,after an hour of listening to groveling wannabes lamenting the demise of the woman "who saved Britain" and pissed at the lack of balance in this extended reporting,I could take no more it was either kick the tv or get on the phone,eventually a nicccee lady answered and when I asked would we be hearing from anybody from the republican or the mining communities who would be glad of a bit of good news ,the public broadcaster employee hung up..

O’Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands, Doherty and Ly...

2013-04-08T20:49:32.132+01:00

O’Hara, Hughes, McCreesh and Sands,
Doherty and Lynch;
McDonnell, Hurson, McElwee, Devine

Their memory is forever on my mind
Pictures of their faces in my eyes
My sorrow and grief will not subside
And my love for them I will not disguise