This is the usual line taken by those loyalists who urge us to lay claim to the title 'Irish'. Their main thrust is that the Irish and Irish Republicians in particular don't for some reason want us to say ''we are Irish''. I fail to understand this line of reasoning. Surely it would be in Irish republicans interest,if all unionists suddenly said ''right we are all Irish then'' They themselves have said the Ulster unionists should realise that they are Irish people and come into the fold. Some of the comments made by the Irish and Irish republicans bear this out......

The Point Of No Return ( The Strike Which Broke The British In Ulster) Robert Fisk.....Page 202
'Even Maire Drumm,the fearsome and omniscient Sinn Fein vice-president so hated by loyalists, said she knew how the Protestants felt. 'It made me sick,' she announced 'to hear an Englishman saying those things about Irishmen. (This was in reference to when Harold Wilson called the Ulster loyalists...'spongers')

GAA must 'reach out' to unionism Page last updated at 14:24 GMT, Tuesday, 1 April 2008 15:24 UK

Fermanagh GAA player and journalist Colm Bradley has said further steps should be taken to encourage unionists to play gaelic games.

The Ulster GAA Council started an initiative two years ago to entice more unionist participation in the sport but Bradley believes more can be done.
Bradley acknowledged that certain members of the unionist community "will never accept the GAA".
"You are never going to convert them no matter what you do.

"But I do believe (more can be done to entice others) and I'm talking about people who I know, who are of my age, who would call themselves unionist, who would also call themselves Irish.

JIM GIBNEY Sinn Fein...This sense of Catholic Irishness was, however, not limited to the geographical definition. Others within the focus groups defined Irishness in terms of the unique culture of Ireland's past, particularly its language and traditional music. None described their national identity as 'Ulster'.

Those Catholics who recognised the British-Irish identity of unionists also put particular emphasis on what they saw as the long-term potential to wean unionists away from a primary allegiance to Britain and replace it with a primary allegiance to Ireland. This was to be an evolutionary process, without coercion and utilising self-interest, accomplished via co-operation in north-south bodies.

Of course a lot of it is our own fault. Ask P.P., when he was here he interviewed a few of the boys some said they were northernirishmen.

Bur even so,we should still keep asserting our Ullishness/Britishness. See the ULSTER A NATION thread. It puts forward the reason why.

'Lynch had been one over by the influential civil servant Dr.T.K. Whitaker. Whitaker preached the need for slow, gradual, peaceful change,a breaking down of barriers between unionists and nationalists, Protestants and Catholics, and Lynch agreed.' page 264

'At the army council meeting that changed ira policy,there was another argument. The unionists would be bound to resist any attempt by Britain to disengage from Northern Ireland,but that resistance was likely to be fiercer if the deadline was short. A protracted process could draw the sting out of the situation and give unionists enough time to get used to the new circumstances and provide republicans with the space within to persuade them of the benefits of change.' page 393

This is part of what he wrote in Thursday's Irish News (Sept 23 2010)

I grew up in a devoutly Catholic family at a time when Catholics in the north did not exist as far as the union-flag-flying Protestant unionist state was concerned. This is long before John Hume,Gerry Adams,the Civil Rights Association and the IRA.

My parents gave me a political Catholic identity though their devotion to the Catholic Church in post-war Protestant Rathcoole. I went to Mass every Sunday,wore a shamrock to Mass on St Patrick's Day,visibly made my Communion and Confirmation and was a very public Catholic lad growing up.

In prison I read about the persecution of the Catholic people of this country by Protestant colonisers settled here by the English goverment. That is indisputable historical fact and it was that deeply sense of historical and personal persecution,from my upbringing that the anti-Catholic media jibes stirred in me and many other Irish Catholics.

The anti-Catholic media jibes he refers to were( he claims) by the mainland papers and protest groups. So it was wrong to protest about paedophila within the RC church and Ratzingers refusal to handle the complaints made by those who suffered abuse and indeed by some RC priests who were disgusted by the sexual predators in the RC system

So there you have it. The main thrust of the article was a defence of the RC church and its pope, with special emphasis being on Benedict. In the above excerpt he goes on about 'fact' yet does not mention the fact that before he became pope he was in charge of the Vatican department which dealt with child abuse allegations. However, he ignored these allegations and ordered a cover-up.

But my main concern that here is a man who talks about 'weaning Protestants away from their unionism' yet he attacks them and accuses them of all sorts of things. The usual stuff from the usual suspects. Many years ago I heard a remark on TV which said that some of the Irish suffer from a 'persecution complex'. It is something I have come to see myself over the years. Seamus Breathnach noticed this too, and said that when they are accused of some misdeed they turn it around and claim a persecution of their own. Its a smart ploy and one which has paid off handsomely for them over the years.

He kicks in again with the persecution bit,completely ignoring 1641,1688 and 1798. Of course it is always only the Irish Catholic who suffers in Gibney's world. But above all it his insistence on returning to the past when all the 'great and good' are urging us to ''forget the past and move forward''. And yes we have the obsequious on the Protestant loyalist side who are only too willing to do this while the RC republican won't.

The folk in the new enlarged Tiger's Bay were happy to join Fluters from an Orange band,wearing Tiger's Bay shoulder flashes,appeared on the cover of 'The Observer colour supplement just before the 1986 Twelfth of July demonstration. I found this picture pinned to walls in bars thoughout the Bay,sometimes sitting alongside UVF, black-bereted figures,heading Rolls of Honour. It would be a brave man that would walk though this place telling the people that they were Irish.

The March edition of the Orange Standard had the results of a poll which I assume they ran among Orangemen or maybe readers of the O.S. The poll asked 'Should St Patrick's Day Be A Holiday'. The result was as follows.....

For.........77%

Against.. 23%

Now I know most people will vote for a holiday,but still why did they see fit to run a poll on this particular subject. Why not a poll on Ulster Day as a holiday? Maybe they have, and I've missed it as I haven't seen every edition of the O.S. Between walking with the Hibs and now this I'm just wondering what sort of game the O.O. is playing. Is it all part of the sell-out.

The Queen goes to Eire and I think the next move will be a rejoining of the Commonwealth by Eire. The Prods will be overjoyed with this and feel comfortable within an all-ireland arrangement with the Queen as head of the Commonwealth and Ireland within that Commonwealth. After sometime when we are part of a U.I. there would be a withdrawal from the Commonwealth. All sound a bit 'pie in the sky'? Just look at Europe today and see how it is worked. If they could do it there,then this island would be easy-peasy.

An extra holiday is all it appears to some, just another nail in the coffin for our community. Our big day is the twelfth but lets face it, a small minority of Roman Catholics may genuinely come out to watch the parade but it is a loyalist event for our community, plain and simple. That’s not good enough, not very cross-community, so let’s promote St Patricks day, a day where everybody whither they be from the Protestant, Catholic or immigrant community, we can all celebrate together. What a wonderful piece of diversity.

In reality, just another part of the Irishisation of British Ulster.

Yes Paddy's Day will become the big one. Just taking the basic facts shows thats what will happen. To walk on the 12th you have to be in the Order or a band. Paddy's Day every and anyone can join in. The OO is getting smaller and smaller 35,000 members at the last count,down from 90,000. So we can see whats happening.

Yes the Irishisation of Ulster sums it up and it looks like we will be joining the list of past peoples and generations who have succumbed and became ''more Irish than the Irish'' were sucked into a green bog and came out speaking irish and wearing irish clothes''

Although thankfully we still have time to turn the tide so to speak, lets just hope our people start wakening up, all we can do is try and point them in the right direction.