Prime minister’s plan to lift mood after Brexit is set to clash with anniversary of Irish civil war
It was meant to be a glimmer of positivity to unite a divided nation – a festival to celebrate the best of British, bring communities together and strengthen “our precious union”.
Yet Theresa May is being warned that her plan for a Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland risks doing the opposite. The planned 2022 event, announced at last year’s Conservative conference, was criticised as a headline-grabbing distraction. But May now faces concerns that the timing clashes with the centenary of Irish partition and the civil war. Arts industry figures in Northern Ireland and some of those involved in the peace process are also understood to have concerns. These worries are revealed in a report by the thinktank British Future, which examined the potential for arts and heritage to bring the nation together. The study calls on the festival to be delayed by at least three years.
What is now the Irish republic became the Irish Free State in 1922, while Northern Ireland remained part of the UK. A civil war erupted among Irish nationalists over the remaining links with Britain and raged for a year. Sunder Katwala, the report’s author, said: “Holding a festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 2022, on the centenary of Ireland’s partition and civil war, would be the worst possible timing. It is only likely to heighten tensions between communities – and that’s before we know Brexit’s implications for the border. Right across the UK, a festival so closely associated with Brexit may only reinforce divides when it could be bridging them.”
The anniversary of the Irish Civil War is an absolutely great and wondrous time to celebrate the unity of the UK and NI.
Because, quite obviously the Irish C W was at about the time that we got rid of those who didn’t want that unity.
The only thing that Treeza could do to lift our mood is resign.
Would it be true to say that the only time Ireland was united was as part of the UK? Or only in the last 4 or 5 centuries.
Oh, and if we couldn’t celebrate two hundred years since 18th June 1815, why would we do this piece of trivia?
“Prime minister’s plan to lift mood after Brexit”
What you mean after Brexit is cancelled – ‘cos that’s what you have been working towards, all along…
Civil war? What civil war? Irish Civil War? Nah. Never happened. Independence. Rainbows & leprechauns dancing in the streets. No civil war though. Not according to any Irish you might care to ask.
Although, bearing in mind what the Irish Civil War wasn’t fought over. Not the treaty agreements of severance with the UK, oh no.. Perhaps not a good idea booking celebrations.. The UK might be not having its own civil war over nothing remotely similar
Sunder Katwala – Irish? Cultural appropriation? Where were you when RoI, BBC, C4 etc were celebrating 100 years since Easter uprising, thus heightening tensions between communities? Sod off you anti-British leftie killjoy.
May can sod off too and hold it in Germany, nobody here wants to celebrate her treachery
Wake me up when we have minarchist government police and courts only, 100% land value tax with remainder handed out as basic income, balanced budget amendment, with ban all bank lending except capital development 0% overdrafts for capital development lending being the source of money growth.
Mark Francois warns PM May, “Perseverance is a virtue, but sheer obstinacy is NOT”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3t7XeRO1ok
.
Sir Bill Cash questions legality of #Brexit extension & whether PM broke Ministerial Code
“Sir Bill Cash MP has been asking this question for days now, but simply is not getting an answer.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzyPL9sYVs
The Irish Civil War turned out to be distinctly more destructive than the skirmishes that constituted the War of Independence.
Would it be fair to say that the ICW was between the green proto-fascists and the blue proto-fascists? Or is “fascist” too inaccurate for a bunch of reactionary, murderous Roman Catholic gangsters?
bis is correct.
A civil war is when some faction of the citizenry tries to wrest the government from the current holders.* See: Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War.
In the U.S., the ‘Civil War’ is a nom de journalist. It was a war for independence from the government, not an attempt to take over the government.
Similarly, the Irish Civil War was not a civil war at all.
Yet journalists think they are the finest kind.
*Looks like in Sudan, that government might be only a few hours old.
Gamecock
A civil war can be a war for independence from the government, or a war to take over the government. Both are civil wars:-
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war
“Similarly, the Irish Civil War was not a civil war at all.”
Then what was it?
Treason is an epically moronic cunt who thinks she is still here until 2022.
I was trying to make the point, Mr Gamecock, that the ICW is something no-one wants to talk about. Like the protestants who were burnt out of their homes & driven out of the Free State. Understandably, as the Irish given their own country, turned out to be no improvement on the Brits at oppressing the Irish..
But Irish history has always been largely a work of fiction. And they’re still making it.
An annual Brexit day would cheer me up.
But it has to happen first.
If you mean an annual scheduled Brexit day, Mrs May might well be up for that…