When they dispensed with Unai Emeri last weekend, Spartak Moscow brought to an end an experiment to bring sophistication to their team. New caretaker manager, Valeriy Karpin, was manager immediately before Emeri, was also the man who appointed Emeri and stood over him as general manager of the club since moving from the dugout in the summer.
Karpin relies more on his strong, authoritative, personality than tactical innovation, which is likely to mean we face a more disciplined team in Glasgow next week that we faced in Moscow – there will be no brothel at the back.
My main concern is that the Kilmarnock/St Johnstone/Inverness tactics of defending solidly and taking their chances when going forward is perfectly suited for Karpin’s Spartak. Against Benfica and Barcelona at home, Neil Lennon played it tight and incredibly tight respectively, which proved to be excellent decisions. He has a huge call to make against Spartak, playing an adventurous game could leave us exposed.
This result is not to be taken for granted.
CQN Annual – perfect Christmas present
It was some comfort to see Celtic back on form last night, especially down the flanks, which were crucial in Moscow and could prove to be so again next week. Hopefully the knocks and strains which have hampered the squad in recent weeks are beginning to fade ahead of our Christmas Cup Final.
Fancy writing an article for the next edition of CQN Magazine, due out after the Spartak game? Get in touch, celticquicknews@gmail.com.
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petec04:21 on 30 November, 2012
>>>>>
Ah…..Kenny Everett, arch-Thatcherite, but so so funny.
pmsl
Parallel universes…..on the one hand..
BMCUW,
I wouldnt care less frankly, I know that I am not as does many others on the blog…
Obviously being the night shift its slow but the pettiness and poor choice of words.
Hail Hail
SPC
MIKI67
Zombie Nation?
WTF,you accusing me of being a hun or summat?
Kidding,mate-earworm sums it up perfectly.
As always,the Germans have a word for it-though they’ll never better Schadenfreude as far as I’m concerned….
BTW,INIQUITOUS IV and I had a wee discussion about bygone Stones days.
We digressed,as ever!
He put me onto a Clapton album,Just One Night,especially Blues Power.
You heard this one?
singapore celt, are you part of another tag team who criticise me but cant quite put their finger on it?
My Language???? Has it not been to your liking? Can you give me an example or are you just protecting your pal estadio? My launguage on this blog has been perfect. So lets not tell a lie on that score to protect your pal.
Prove me otherwise or GTF with your pal estadio.
I never came on here today to have a fight but estadio wanted one and you seem like you want to carry it forward. So, I’m not planning on going anywhere for a couple of hours, so lets have it.
And they say huns behave like huns FFS?
.
G’Day CQN..
Wee bit of Tech help Please..
IPhone4 can I get a Timestamp on Photos taken over a Year ago..
It seems to be able to tell me What l had for Brekky but alas no Timestamp..
Come on CQN you have Solved bigger Mysteries than this..
Thanks in Advance..
Summa
Ps.. Talking of Mysteries.. How is Free the Blantye 1 going.. Have they asked for a Ransom yet..?
Am Skint..;0)
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
04:30 on 30 November, 2012
Petec, you should stay out and focus on your music.
I’ve no beef with you whatsoever at all at all at all……..
:-)
____________________________________________________________
I have a problem when you claim I post a link, when I obviously didn’t post a link.
Explain it please, as it has always annoyed me.
Summa of Sammi….
04:46 on 30 November, 2012
Every penny counts.
£18.88 will secure the release, shurely…..
Bad news Spartak got rid of their Manager before this game, Spartak have exceptional players and one of the paciest teams on the planet. I just hope there are old grudges in that Dressing Room.
.
Just got a Text from My Mum..
Hi 001..
Sorry to interupt you at work in 40C heat but I’ve Just spoken to the Milkman.. He said Post 01:42 on that Blog thingy is Trending on Twitter in Glagow.. Doha and Stirling for some reason.. I have Not read it Yet but Seemingly everybody at Weightwatchers this morning was Talking about it.. Oh btw that’s the Milkman lost 2 Stone.. Just thought l would give You the heads up 001.. I know you hate to Miss stuff on that bloggy thingy..
Love Mum..
Ps.. As the Milkman jumped on the Float he Shouted back.. “I bet Your 001 will be Howling @ the Moon tonight..”
Pps.. Your no back with Her Fae Bothwell are You..?
Summa of Post..01:42ProbablyTheMostTalkedAboutPostInTheBlogsphereCSC
Petec, well you must have a problem that relly annoys you then. You posted a song one morning about an unborn child and how it’s “chances” would be based on religion.
It was a song about religion an more importantly aethiesm.
I liked it. You know I did because you posted it more than once.
Lets have it again.
HAW!
A CEILER GONOF RUST
Blinkin’ flip,tried to post a link for you at 0430
AND FORGOT THE LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s from Youchoob in that case,haha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOtpfansXqg
Hope I got it this time.
Summa of Sammi….
Posted earlier in the week so not sure you saw it.
I was in Melbourne last weekend for my first visit to that great city.
Really enjoyed it. Fantastic place.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
05:10 on 30 November, 2012
Petec, well you must have a problem that relly annoys you then. You posted a song one morning about an unborn child and how it’s “chances” would be based on religion.
It was a song about religion an more importantly aethiesm.
I liked it. You know I did because you posted it more than once.
Lets have it again.
HAW!
________________________________________________________
It is the date and time we are talking about here.
Can you give me, exact dates of when you emailed so many people about that track?
It isn’t rocket science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOtpfansXqg
Some excellent philvisrocketsciencereturns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY
Morning Celts, it’s the weekend have a good yin!
2 weeks to go.
Morning Celts, it’s the weekend have a good yin!
2 weeks left.
V
Hoooiooooooooops a double dunter.
Jings this new mobi is quick, get yir money on me for the podium today :>)
V
Jinky / 001 Bhoy
New ringtone is ………… The c’mon you buoys in Green chant, it’s a cracker!
V
I’m on a roll here
Glasgows green and white
———————————————————————–Glasgows green and white
—————————————Glasgows green and white
Estadio,
Hail Hail Bruv, WE ARE CELTIC and I love you as my brother.
Good Morning Vmhan and all.
Cold, dry and calm to light winds along the NW of
Engerlund Jobo!
Did I say happy Friday.
Morning Zybyszek and Petec.
V
A Ceiler Gonof Rust,
Sorry for the delay had work to do…..
For the record I have never met Estadio however I have met many other CQNérs and I can tell you now I am not looking for an argument…
In regards to yuor language go read your posts and tell me if the cursing is necessary whether abbreviated or not…..
Hail Hail
SPC
MICHAEL COLLINS’ OWN STORY ~
CHAPTER XVI
THE MISGUIDED ONES
” OUR arrival with the signed Treaty in Dublin, on a grey, cold December morning, was in a sense prophetic of what was to follow through all the bitter weeks of the Dail sessions. Here were no signs of jubilation. There was no one at the station to greet us. And yet the newspapers had acclaimed the Treaty as a triumph. Even the few people abroad at that early hour seemed strangely apathetic. Had our four months of hard work meant just nothing at all to the people whom we had tried to serve ? It appeared so.”
Collins spoke with an unaccustomed note of sadness in his voice. Although at this time he did not make reference to it, I recalled an earlier confidence of his the real ambition he hoped one day to realise. When I tell it, there should be no longer any doubt as to the kind of man this young, inspired Irishman was. He hated politics. He hated intrigue. He hated everything that was not constructive. What he wanted above anything else and I can say this because I have his word for it was to see his country awaken to the meaning of good citizenship and so permit him to lay down the heavy burden of being the leader of a people asleep and ignorant. And when that day came Collins hoped he might be able to set himself up in business a little business in which he could never have to be afraid of becoming rich !
That was a very real fear in Collins’ mind perhaps the only fear he ever knew. On two different occasions it became my duty to acquaint him with opportunities offered him by American interests through me. One of them involved his receiving a sum of money greater than the total of his life’s earnings to be paid to him for writing a series of articles for American publication. He agreed to write the articles BUT FLATLY REFUSED TO ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR THEM !
” Would you think of offering your President Harding payment for such a thing ? ” he asked soberly. Collins had no ” side,” but he was Chairman of the Provisional Government, and he held that any act unworthy of that office must reflect on the dignity of the Irish nation.
The other offer I presented to him called for his leaving the responsibilities of government to others and making a journey to the United States where a lecture tour had been tentatively arranged for him. He shook his big head emphatically. It was out of the question, he insisted. And when I explained to him that in six months of lecturing he could do more for Ireland’s cause in America than he could ever accomplish in any other way, he was still adamant in his refusal even to consider it. I asked him if he had any idea how much money he himself could earn by such a tour. The question seemed to strike him as very humorous. He grinned, and shook his head. I told him he would be the richer by at least a million dollars. ” That settles it,” he said with a chuckle. ” I’ll keep away from America. A million dollars would ruin a better man than I am ! ” And he meant it ! But returning to Collins’ story of the homecoming of the envoys.
” The lack of jubilation among the people, “he continued, ” was dispiriting enough, but it was nothing compared with the open hostility we faced in the Cabinet drawing room of the Mansion House. Awaiting us there were deValera, depressed, gaunt, solemn ; Stack, his eyes blazing, his fists tight clenched ; Brugha, the personification of venom ; Mme. Markievicz, more nearly hysterical and more vituperative than ever she was in any session of the Dail. These and others faced us, and one of the first words of greeting told us that we had made ourselves ‘ Partners of the Empire ‘ referring to the phrase used by the Lord Chancellor of England in felicitating Ireland.
” Before that first conference ended Griffith and I realised what we must expect from these men and women with whom all through the years we had fought the fight for Irish freedom. From colleagues they had suddenly changed into savage, relentless enemies. And yet, then as always ever since Griffith and I hoped against hope that we could persuade them of their error. IT IS ALL VERY WELL FOR CRITICS OF THE POLICY WHICH GRIFFITH AND I ADOPTED TO DECLARE THAT THE MENACE THIS MISGUIDED MINORITY CONSTITUTED SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MET BY KID-GLOVE METHODS BUT THE IRISH PEOPLE NEEDED. AND STILL NEED ABOVE ANY OTHER, ONE THING UNITY AND UNITY IS NOT TO BE ACHIEVED BY KILLING ALL THOSE WHOSE OPINIONS MAKE UNITY IMPOSSIBLE. HARMONY does not spring FROM MURDER. THERE ARE FEW MEN IN THE WORLD WHOM YOU CAN BRING TO YOUR POINT OF VIEW BY KNOCKING THEM DOWN.
” Griffith and I held that the Treaty healed an age-old tragedy, the first act of which was played in Dublin in 1172, when Henry II. of England compelled Ireland’s tribal kings to swear fealty to him. But the little group of men and women facing us in the Mansion House held a different opinion. They told us and for the most part they were sincere that the Treaty we had signed was the most infamous document any Irishman ever signed ; that every martyr’s widow, and most of the army leaders, considered we were guilty of treason. It was they at first who held the floor, and had their say. But finally I had my chance.
” ‘ In signing this Treaty/ I told them, ‘ we have laid the foundation of peace and friendship with the people at our side. What I have signed I shall stand over in the belief that, if it brings Ireland no other blessing, the ending of the conflict of centuries is the finest thing that ever happened for the Irish people.’
” This I told them, but it served to lessen their hostility not at all. Stack, I remember especially, was incensed because Griffith had ‘ forgotten ‘ the meaning of Sinn Fein which he mistranslated as ‘ Ourselves Alone.’ Neither Griffith nor I made answer to this charge nor, indeed, to any of the charges. Unexpected as was this vitriolic condemnation of us, and as little prepared for it as we were, we both grasped the essential point that recriminations were useless and worse than useless.
” De Valera showed us a telegraphed appeal to the Irish people sent from London that morning by Art O’Brien, head of the Irish Self-Determination League. ‘ Be not misled into thanksgiving without cause,’ the telegram read. ‘ Complete sovereignty is a claim which no nation can forgo. And until it is met in our case we of the Irish race cannot and will not rejoice.’ This was, at any rate, less vicious in tone than the rest, and we quickly made it plain that we expected no acclamation of joy that might properly follow a national triumph. We asked and wanted no throwing up of hats, no fervid demonstrations of any kind. We did ask and did want calm, deliberate, FAIR consideration of the results of our labours in London.
” Of the 121 members of Dail Eireann, 112 were veterans of the war and men who had served at least one term in an English jail. Many of them have been arrested and imprisoned three and even five times. A few have served prison terms as many as nine times. And to these Teachtai of the Dail we submitted the Treaty with its oath of allegiance, ‘ That I will be faithful to His Majesty King George, his heirs and successors by law.’ We knew how hard it was going to be for these men, who had suffered so much at the hands of England, to take that oath. BUT WHO IS GOING TO SAY THAT THEIR DIFFICULTY IS ANY MORE PAINFUL THAN OURS ?
” I talked with these men, and tried my best to reason with them. The world knows the result. A majority of seven in Dail Eireann brought the Treaty into being. But the minority left me in no doubt as to where I stood in their estimation. Few of them chose to say it openly, but all of them held that I was not the same man who told the young Volunteers at Rathfarnham that ‘ Irish freedom is coming because of the men who have died and because of the men who are still prepared to die.’ I was the same man. I am the same man. And I say now what I said at Rathfarnham, with the difference that now I say Irish freedom HAS come !
” Of course, the Dail discovered that there was a serious split in the Cabinet at the first of the secret sessions in December. de Valera had just motored back from the West. Brugha was on hand fresh from an inspection of the army that had taken him all over Ireland. Both were convinced that the vast majority of the people would support them in any move they made. And, for a few days, this was a fact undoubtedly. The people still hailed de Valera as their leader. They applauded him when he told them, ‘ We have counted the cost, and we shall not quail even though the full price of our freedom has to be paid.’ Brave words, truly ! Applauded certainly ! But sanity was yet to prevail.
” Brugha told us in one of the secret sessions that we had fallen to the magic of Lloyd George. Mme. Markievicz held us in scorn because we had proved ourselves incapable of matching swords with ‘ the Welsh wizard.’ de Valera referred to his own fears fears that led him to abstain from taking part in the negotiations. He admitted his fear that he might succumb to the British Prime Minister’s cunning, and then, apparently on the verge of tears, declared that this is what had happened to us. The man who had taken the measure of Woodrow Wilson and Georges Clemenceau had outwitted us. This is what De Valera told the Teachtai. IT WAS NOT THUS.
” The truth, as I have tried to make it plain, is that Lloyd George was well informed. The militarists in Whitehall were pressing for an immediate onslaught by sea and land. They believed and many of them still believe that the late Lord Salisbury spoke accurately when he said that ‘ the Irish are no more fitted for self-government than the Hottentots.’ What Ireland needed declared these advocates of ruthlessness was twenty years of resolute government ! Lloyd George did not believe this. I repeat : he was well informed. He knew we had organised on a national scale and could count on 3,000,000 men, women and children to do their part of the task of fighting the British armed forces in guerilla warfare. He knew the British garrison in Ireland, all told, numbered 150,000 men. He knew what it would mean to conquer the Irish people. He did not want to have to do it.
” Lloyd George knew that the Terror had failed ; that it had been not only been a non deterrent but had actually swelled the patriotic fervour of the youth of Ireland. He knew that the morning they hanged young Kevin Barry 550 young men of Dublin enrolled themselves in the army ! He knew that we were smuggling arms and ammunition into Ireland throughout the truce. He knew we were recruiting and drilling. He knew our ramifications were world wide. There were evidences of this close at hand. The raids for machine guns on Chelsea and Windsor Barracks were such evidences. The Irish Office in Whitehall had proof that as much as five pounds had been paid for a high-explosive detonator and five times as much for a service revolver ! The British Prime Minister had accurate information as to the intended recipients of the 600 ’45 calibre Colt automatics discovered on the docks in Hoboken ! He knew the planned destination of the 355 Ibs. of T.N.T. seized in the home of a coal-miner in Newcastle.
” But he knew more than this. He knew that Ireland’s freedom was absolutely dependent on the goodwill of Britain. He made us know it ! He made us see the common sense of entering into friendly relations a course dictated, if by nothing else, by the instinct of self-preservation. He put clearly before us the indisputable fact that our economic interests are identical. It was our task to convince our people that these were the facts.
” To many Irishmen the Treaty had come as a crushing disappointment. There is no gainsaying it. They had believed that in some magical way we of the delegation would be able to make possible the rebirth and regeneration of the Gaelic State on a stupendous scale. Anything less than this seemed impossible to accept. Yet we could not for ever live in dreamland. The reality of the situation had to be made plain from Cashel down to Kerry. Griffith voiced the urgent need of unity on the part of ‘ all sections of the Irish nation in raising the structure and shaping the destiny of our new Free State.’ And already the people began to understand.
” De Valera at first insisted that the Treaty would never be accepted by the people. He declared that ‘ the terms of this Agreement are in violent conflict with the wishes of the majority of this nation.’ But little by little he began to realise that this was not the case. Whereupon he sponsored the remarkable policy of saving the people from themselves by preventing their expressing their will ! To me it would have been a criminal act to refuse to allow the Irish nation to give its opinion as to whether it would accept this settlement or resume hostilities. But in the initial stages of the fight within the Cabinet De Valera and his followers seemed capable of making a plebiscite impossible.
” Our difficulty then as it is still was to make plain to the people that the task of making a noble Irish Ireland lies in the people themselves. It cannot be stated too often that our people for hundreds of years have been subjected to the denationalising influence of Anglicisation. The task before us, having got rid of the British, is to get rid of the remaining influences to de-Anglicise ourselves. There are many among us who still hanker after English ways, and any thoughtlessness, any carelessness, will tend to keep things on the old lines the inevitable danger of the proximity of the two nations.
“It is no restriction nor limitation in the Treaty that will prevent our nation from becoming great and potent. The presence of a representative of the British Crown depending upon us for his resources cannot prevent us from doing that. The words of a document as to what our status is cannot prevent us from doing that. . . . One thing only can prevent us and that is disunion among ourselves. Can we not concentrate and unite not on the negative but on the positive task of making a real Ireland, distinctive from Britain a nation of our own ? The only way to get rid of the British contamination and the evils of corrupt materialism is to secure a united Ireland intent on democratic ways, to make our free Ireland a fact, and not to keep it for ever in dreamland as something that will never come true, and which has no practical effect or reality except as giving rise to everlasting fighting and destruction. Destructive conflict seems almost to have become the end itself in the minds of some some who appear almost to be unheeding and unmindful of what the real end is.
” In those early days of the year we clung hopefully to the belief that our political opponents must sooner or later cease their opposition and accept the will of the people, which was daily becoming more and more overwhelmingly in favour of the Treaty. At that time Ireland was perhaps the only country in Europe which had living hopes of a better civilisation. We had an unparalleled opportunity of making good. Much was within our grasp. Who could lay a finger on our liberties ? If any power menaced us we were in a stronger position than ever before to repel the aggressor. We had reached the starting-point from which to advance and use our liberties to make Ireland a shining light in a dark world, to reconstruct our ancient civilisation on modern lines, to avoid the errors, the miseries, the dangers into which other nations with their false civilisations have fallen.
” The only way to build the nation solid and Irish is to affect the dissenting elements in a friendly national way by attraction, not by compulsion, making themselves feel welcomed into the Irish nation in which they can join and become absorbed as, long ago, the Geraldines and the de Burgos became absorbed. The old Unionists, Home Rulers, Devolutionists and now the uncompromising Republicans we had to have them all, and we tried to winthem all. We are still at it. If with each passing week our efforts seem to be more and more futile if the soul-destroying pessimism which is gradually settling down over our people cannot be dissipated at least it will not be because those of us enlisted in the cause of an Irish Ireland have not used every means in our power to put an end to internecine conflict.
” The English Die-Hards said to Mr. Lloyd George and his Cabinet, ‘ You have surrendered.’ Our own Die-Hards say to us, ‘ You have surrendered.’ There is a simple test. Those who are left in possession of the battlefield have won.
” Yes we had won. We had won our freedom, next we had to consolidate our gains to prove ourselves worthy of the victory. And as the weeks lengthened into months and our opponents became ever more bitter and more extreme, we began ourselves to wonder if in the end the Irish people in order to be able to live in peace would consent to remain in dreamland, to be led by dreamers ! We wondered, but we did not cease doing our best to prevent this national tragedy. We have not ceased and we shall not cease. The fight must go on until it is won. It will go on until law and order have been established in every square mile of the 26 counties. To that we have dedicated ourselves.”
Brrrrrrrrr.
Cold in ML5 this morning.
Have the Huns got an Xmas DVD out this year? Only ask from sheer devilment…………
MICHAEL COLLINS’ OWN STORY ~
CHAPTER XVII
DISHONEST TACTICS
” THERE were 1,200 of us in the internment camp. Almost every man of the lot had done his share in digging the tunnel through which a few of us would be able to make our escape. By mutual agreement this number was fixed at thirty. If a greater number attempted it the escape would be foredoomed to failure. The point was how to nominate the lucky thirty. Every one of us knew in his heart that our return to the army meant more to Ireland than that of any other man ! That was only human, of course. The selection was not safely to be left in our hands. Only some one less self-interested ought to name the thirty.
” Among ourselves we discussed our various leaders to find one upon whose judgement we could all rely. Brugha, as titular head of the army, was objectionable to many of us. De Valera likewise was voted down. Finally, Collins was proposed. Not one man of the 1,200 had any objections to him. And so we left our fate in his hands. We did it because we had implicit trust in him.”
This little story was told me several months after the signing of the Treaty by Desmond Fitzgerald. I tell it here to make clear the wonderful hold Collins had on all classes of Irishmen. In their eyes he was the embodiment of honesty and fair dealing. But in the case of De Valera there was also a kind of blind faith on the part of hundreds of thousands of Irish people which accounted for his very real power in Dail Eireann. They are a simple people, the Irish. They must have an object of devotion. And once a national hero has won their affection, it is neither easy nor wise to attempt to disillusionise them. And this fact must be borne in mind while considering Collins’ steadfast refusal to tell the Irish people what he himself had discovered THAT DE VALERA’S ” IDEALISM ” WAS NOT GENUINE.
” The unnatural campaign of destruction being waged by the uncompromising Republicans,” Collins said at one of our last conferences, ” had its beginnings in the bitter fight in the early sessions of the Dail. For a long time I struggled with myself to keep from believing the evidence of my own eyes and ears, but finally I had to realise that the man we had made President of the Republic was capable of resorting to dishonest methods. Griffith came to this conclusion before I did, but in the end we were both of one mind. Also we saw eye to eye as to the inadvisability of making this deplorable fact known among the people. No good end was to be served by such a course. We felt that we were strong enough within the Dail itself to remove De Valera as a potent factor of disruption. But now the time has come to establish the grave charge I have made.
” De Valera would not head the delegation that went to London. Every member of the Cabinet and every Teachtai of Dail Eireann wanted him to conduct the Treaty negotiations, and many of us pleaded with him not to remain behind. But he was immovable. The reason he gave was twofold. First, he said, it was beneath his dignity, as President of the Irish Republic, to leave his country ; and, second, he could not afford to put himself in a position in which he might do his nation irreparable harm by a chance word across the conference table. He insisted his value to the Irish people would be greatest by remaining in Dublin, and from that distance guiding us in our task.
“I for one accepted what he said as being his sincere belief, although I differed from him. But when he persisted in forcing us to present to the British delegation Document No. 2 after we had told him time and again that it meant the breaking off of the negotiations a doubt of his sincerity began to form in my mind. Subsequent developments have removed that doubt. There is no longer any doubt about it. De Valera was animated by only one purpose the collapse of the negotiations to be effected by our stubborn unreasonableness !
” De Valera’s alternative contained very little that was not in the Treaty, and little that England could have objected to, but for that very reason our insistence on its supplanting the Treaty merited the unequivocal refusal our insistence met. Besides that, De Valera’s document was lost in its construction. In the application of its details we should have been constantly faced with conflicting interpretations leading to inevitable discordance. But such considerations meant nothing to De Valera. HE NEITHER EXPECTED NOR WANTED HIS ALTERNATIVE ACCEPTED !
” He stated that England had never kept a treaty, and would not keep this Treaty. He used this argument in support of his contention that his Document No. 2 should have been forced upon the British Government. Yet a blind man can see the fallacy of such an argument. England, said De Valera in effect, would not keep the Treaty which she had signed and would keep a treaty she had not signed ! The truth is that De Valera, under the malignant influence of Childers, had reached that point of paranoia at which persecutory delusions become fixed. He would effect the ruin of his own country before he would admit that peace and friendship between Ireland and England were possible. AND YET HE IS THE MAN WHO ACCEPTED IN THE NAME OF THE IRISH PEOPLE THE ENGLISH INVITATION TO FIND A WAY FOR THE TWO NATIONS TO LIVE SIDE BY SIDE IN AMITY. I SAY AND I CHOOSE MY WORDS DELIBERATELY THAT HIS ACCEPTANCE OF THAT INVITATION WAS A DISHONEST ACT.
” Of course it has been abundantly established that Document No. 2 was not of De Valera’s authorship, to begin with. And it is fact that cannot be controverted that De Valera claimed its authorship. It is relatively unimportant, but it is an added proof of my charge. As to the differences between the Treaty and this alternative, such as there are, they all bespeak the dishonesty of purpose of their author. There is, for instance, the definite stipulation in Document No. 2 for Britain’s ratification of the alternative. And hand in hand with that fact is De Valera’s vehement protest against the British conferring on us of the rights and powers of the Treaty. That is not honest.
” Under certain clauses of the alternative Ireland is committed to an association so vague that it might afford grounds for claims by Britain which might give her an opportunity to press for control in Irish affairs as ‘ common concerns,’ and to use or to threaten to use force. The Irish people would never have agreed to commit themselves to anything so vague. We know that there are many things which the States of the British Commonwealth can afford to regard as ‘ common concerns ‘ which we could not afford so to regard one of the disadvantages of geographical propinquity. We had to find some form of association which would safeguard us as far as we could be safeguarded in somewhat the same degree as the 3,000 miles of ocean safeguard Canada.
” De Valera knew when he accepted the British Prime Minister’s invitation to discuss ‘ association with the British Commonwealth ‘ that that meant association of a different kind from that of mere alliance of isolated nations. For him to have suggested otherwise was dishonest. More than that, the association of the Treaty is less equivocal than the association proposed in Document No. 2. The external association mentioned in Document No. 2 had neither the honesty of complete isolation a questionable advantage in these days of warring nationalities when it is not too easy for a small nation to stand rigidly alone nor the strength of free partnership satisfying the different partners. Such external association was not practical politics.
” De Valera and Childers laboured long over the framing of an oath which they knew had to be incorporated in any agreement that would be acceptable to Britain. Their first essay read as follows :
” ‘ That for the purposes of the association Ireland shall recognise His Britannic Majesty as head of the association.’
Here merely is recognition as precise as that given in the Treaty but it met with such disapproval that De Valera and Childers shelved it in favour of another, namely :
” ‘ I do swear to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of Ireland and to the Treaty of Association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth of Nations and to recognise the King of Great Britain as head of the associated States.’
This alternative oath was discussed by the Dail for many long, weary days in private sessions. De Valera attempted to explain that the King of Great Britain might fairly be regarded as a managing director a mere name in common usage these days when industrial concerns are amalgamating and entering into agreements. The King of Great Britain would thus occupy the same relative position towards the associated States as a managing director occupies towards associated businesses. Now a managing director is one who manages and directs. Whatever the practical value of royal prerogatives, no modern democratic nation is managed and directed by one ruler. This talk of a managing director was as nonsensical as it was dishonest.
” Throughout the Childers document there are dangerous friction spots which obviously were to be avoided by any one with Ireland’s interests at heart. Ireland, being the weaker nation, could not fail to suffer if a misleading clause had to be interpreted. As for the defence clauses, I have already told how De Valera and Childers gave way to England on the only point that really mattered, agreement not to build submarines. It will not do for them to say submarines would be of no use to us. Childers, with his experience in the Royal Navy, knows better. I cannot believe that De Valera is so ignorant as not to know better.
IF HE BELIEVES WHAT I HAVE TOLD HIM MORE THAN ONCE, HE DOES KNOW BETTER !
” But without going into tiresome details I want to state again that from beginning to end this document is for the most part a repetition of the Treaty WITH ONLY SUCH SLIGHT VERBAL ALTERATIONS AS NO ONE BUT A FACTIONIST, LOOKING FOR MEANS OF MAKING MISCHIEF, WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT WORTH WHILE TO HAVE RISKED WRECKING THE TREATY FOR.
“As an improvement on the Treaty, Document No. 2 is not honest. It may be more dictatorial in language, but it does not contain in principle a great ‘ reconciliation with Irish national aspirations.’ It merely sought to attach a fresh label to the same parcel, or, rather, a label written of purpose illegibly in the hope of making believe that the parcel was other than it is.
” What is this idealism that is supposed to be animating De Valera and his followers ? Without attempting to answer that question, let me point to its proven consequences. We are back in slavery ! At the very moment that we had been lifted out of the worst slough of destitution these idealists began their senseless, wicked campaign, the underlying purpose of which is to destroy us as a nation ! We were turning our eyes towards the light of liberty, and beginning to lift our heads as Irish men and Irish women, with a land of our own, and with traditions and hopes of which no nation need feel ashamed and then from East to West, from North to South, a handful of desperate madmen brought down upon the people all the wicked anguish of fratricidal strife ! They have done and are still doing their best to prove true the degrading lie that what is English is respectable, and what is Irish is low and mean !
BUT THEY WILL NEVER SUCCEED IN THAT.
” Let a world who stands by now and expresses scorn of a people who permit outrages to be practised upon them by a negligible minority understand that this is not fair to the Irish people. Let the world remember that there have been only brief intervals between long periods of starvation periods in which we could reflect upon our condition and awaken to the cause of our miseries. The presence of the English had deprived us of life and liberty. An infamous machine was destroying us. Now that it has gone, the ravaging effects remain. National consciousness is not an overnight growth. Of patriotic fervour there is no lack, but a people must be schooled for generations to know how effectively to put their patriotism to practical ends.
” The history of 700 years must be reversed before we shall know the meaning of national freedom. And first of all we must acquire the habit of standing together. Already to a large degree the advantages of the Treaty have been irretrievably lost. Our very national life is being threatened by this continued disunion. The country is too small to stand a big cleavage in the national ranks. The opposition as represented by De Valera and his Irregulars has already proved nearly fatal to the national interests. If De Valera succeeds in his opposition, he will undoubtedly destroy the nation as a whole. BUT DE VALERA WILL NOT SUCCEED ! THAT IS THE ONE EVENTUALITY AND PERHAPS THE ONLY ONE WHICH WILL NEVER HAPPEN SO LONG AS THERE REMAIN ALIVE SANE IRISHMEN.
” When, during the Terror, England issued the order I have already referred to, making it a criminal offence for an Irishman to be in possession of arms, it was held to be a deathblow to our fight for freedom. Yet Coady we are faced with a greater misfortune disunity among ourselves. Until now I have refrained from speaking plainly about those men who are leading the nation into black chaos but nothing less than the brutal truth will serve now.
” More than once in Ireland’s history has an Irish army been betrayed by Irishmen. Once, for instance, the Volunteers were betrayed by Grattan who, when it suited his purpose, spoke of them as ‘ an armed rabble.’ The old saying that the only real lesson of history is that the lessons of history are never learned, is peculiarly applicable to some of the Irish people Coady. If De Valera has his way, the Irish army of Coady will be rendered useless, as were the armies of 1652, 1691 and 1782. BUT DE VALERA WILL NOT HAVE HIS WAY. THE NATIONAL ARMY IS THE PEOPLE’S ARMY, AND IT WILL BRING THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY MOST DESIRE ABIDING PEACE.
” Finally, let there be no doubt anywhere that the vast majority of responsible opinion in Ireland is absolutely against De Valera and his followers. See what the bishops of Ireland said at a general meeting, held in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, April 26, 1922 :
‘ The condition of the country is a subject of the deepest distress and humiliation. On the great national question of the Treaty every Irishman is entitled to his own opinion, subject to truth and responsibility to God. It is a national question to be settled by the national will and ascertained by an election. It is painful to have to use the language of condemnation, but principles are being openly defended which are in fundamental conflict with the law of God. The army as a whole, and still more a part of the army, has no moral right to declare itself independent of all civil authority in the country. Such a claim is subversive of all civil liberty. The army more than any other order in society, from the nature of its institution, is the servant of the nation’s government. . . .
” ‘ We appeal in the name of God, of Ireland and of all national dignity to the leaders on both sides, civil and military, to meet again, to remember old fellowship in danger and suffering, and if they cannot agree upon the main question to agree upon two things at all events that the use of the revolver must cease, and the elections, the national expression of self-determination, be allowed to be held free from all violence.’
” To this appeal Griffith and I responded whole heartedly. The result is known by the world. The Military Executive that was set up in the Four Courts was the answer of the extremists who clung to De Valera’s idealistic (!) pronouncement that Ireland was theirs ‘ for the taking ‘ clung to it as greedy vultures cling to a carcass. The die was cast. It was now only a question of weeks, perhaps days, before the people’s army would have to go forth and defend the people’s rights. It was heart-sickening. But the fact remained.”
So has anyone solved the mystery of our missing BT, should I page the Oracle?
V
Perhaps old BT has been Zombied, is there a cure for partially smitten Zombies?
Vmhan
Bt reported in late last night… Aparrently been out drinking alkyhawl with estadio ritchie abd wdh.
Im sure he will say the beverages were medicinal
Apparently i cant spell
GOod morning all and a Big Happy Friday from a cold and frosty East Kilbride. And, for some, a pay day to boot. Woo-hoo!
.
VMhan..
Been talking to Ryan today he is Down in Melbourne for work Next week.. Gonna stay at Mine..
So catch the Spartak game..;0)
Summa
OH and another thing – Happy St Andrew’s Day!
Moonhowlers to the fore last night ….assisted by EN on the wind up
Never understood why some folk get themselves so agitated about blog BS