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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

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Twisted Love - Fine Gael and the British Queen

category dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Friday September 03, 2010 09:49author by Phoblacht - Royal Free Zone Report this post to the editors

Blueshirts dismiss the victims of Brtish state violence

As speculation mounts about a visit by the British Queen to the twenty six counties, Fine Gael has sunk to a new low, dismissing the victims of British state violence and mocking those who dare to question the appropriateness of a Windsor visit.
King Billy of Ballymun
King Billy of Ballymun

At 7pm next Monday night éirígí is set to hold a protest outside of City Hall against the proposed state visit by the British Queen. Inside of City Hall the good councillors are going to debate a motion opposing the Elizabeth Windsor road trip. In advance of that debate many people have taken the opportunity to lobby the elected representatives to support the motion. All very normal you might think. But the response of Fine Gael to this lobbying has been far from normal. Leading the charge has been Councillor 'King Billy' Tormey, Fine Gael's very own defender of all things British and royal.

In his rush to defend the British monarchy the representative for Ballymun gleefully belittles the thousands of Irish citizens who have lost their lives at the hands of the British state. King Billy, it would seem, has little concern for those who were blown to bits by British bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, or for the fate of his fellow councillor, Eddie Fullerton, who was shot to death by a British death squad, or for solicitors Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane who also murdered by British death squads, or for the children who lives were snuffed out by plastic bullets. The list goes on and on.

Whatever about the victims of the British state in Ireland you might expect the people of Iraq and Afghanistan might receive some sympathy from King Billy. But you would be wrong. The millions who have been murdered, injured and displaced by Britain's latest imperial adventures matter little to Windsor's apologist. Their fate is of no importance. The Commander in Chief of those same armed forces that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan should be welcomed as a friend and ally on the streets of Dublin. Below are just some of King Billy's statements on the proposed visit by the British Queen - bizarre, offensive and true to form - the leader of the Fine Gael group on Dublin City Council does not disappoint.

From King Billy's own blog the responses that he has sent to those who have lobbied him:

Dear Mr Scullion,

May I respond with this,

“That this City Council notes the number of unreconstructed nuts in Ireland whose olfactory organs are so damaged that they are incapable of smelling the roses, thus condemning themselves to fighting ancient wars when a truce has been called and the whole world has passed on.

Then came the Great War: Every institution, almost, in the world was strained. Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed. The position of countries has been violently altered. The modes of thought of men, the whole outlook on affairs, the grouping of parties, all have en countered violent and tremendous changes in the deluge of the world. But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their quarrel is one of the few institutions that has been unaltered in the cataclysm which has swept the world. (1922 Churchill)

Here I live in a world set in train by the Coal and Steel Community where Germans and French,Hungarians and Romanians, Poles and Germans, Irish and English can share sovereignty in the common good.

And I wake up and see Eirigi and fellow-travellers and feel sad. Yes,”Sad” that Ireland can produce such people of low self-esteem that they have to be against something; such low self-esteem that somehow the Queen of England, granddaugher of German immigrants can cause such a reaction. These peopls should follow the comedy of Prince Philip the Greek, Prince Charles of Private Eye and have a good laugh.

The lyrics “When will they ever learn” Apply.
Dr Bill Tormey Dublin City Councillor and European Integrationist
Fine Gael

LINK: http://www.billtormey.ie/2010/08/19/%e2%80%98i-am-writi...ty-s/

Dear Ms McAuley,

Is your letter serious or is it a parody of absurdity? “Malone dies”, “Sam Beckett died”, Flann O’Brien was not too sure if he was Myles O’Nolan or at swim two birds, Brendan Behan knew a few “Quare fellas”, Oscar Wilde wanted it both ways, Martin McGuinness was in the IRA he says, Gerry Adams was not, he says. Gay Byrne is noy gay but David Norris famously is. Killian Forde is a nationalist. Killian Forde is a socialist but Killian Forde is no way a national socialist. Does the extra e in Ford mean that Killian is posh? Does the sirname “Ellis” mean that Dessie is an English import? Brian Friel threatened to make Philadelphia but got stuck taking Ryanair. No passport – get lost!

When a head of state visits another country, normal civilities are extended. I am comfortable to let the English decide on their own governance. The grant of free money from London to Belfast is huge. The Downing Street Declaration should be read by irridentists like you if you are serious.

Meanwhile Dublin says No and Bill says No! to people like you.

Keep taking the tablets

Sir William (k)night of Ballymun.

Keeper of the Northwest Flame

http://www.billtormey.ie/2010/08/16/opposition-to-briti...isit/

To another emailer King Billy writes,

Dear Ms Masterson
I suggest that you have an English name.
Freddie Mercury is dead
Read my website
billtormey.ie

As if the emails were not enough King Billy has now decided to put some questions to the City Manager about the British Queen. At September's council meeting he has asked the manager to answer the following questions. This is NOT a joke:

COUNCILLOR BILL TORMEY
(a) Can the city manager assure the elected members that the fog of the war has been lifted from the streets of Dublin in the light of concerns set out below? (b) Has the manger any plans to test the low self-esteem of citizenry who are afraid of the impact on the minds and hearts of our pure republican population of the presence of a Head of State whose only qualification is based on the name of her father? (c) Does the manager agree that this whole issue should be forwarded to Gerry Stembridge for recycling? (d) Does this sort of garbage fulfil the criteria for incineration? (e) Has the manger any idea of the length of time likely to answer the conundrum “When will they ever learn?” as set out below?

If ever there was a doubt about where the loyalty of Fine Gael really lay that doubt has been comprehensively put to bed by the slavish, cap tipping King Billy of Balllymun. One wonders what the people of Ballymun would think of King Billy's support for all things British. For those who do care about the British occupations of Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan the protest will begin at 7pm on Monday outside of City Hall.

author by Celia Spublication date Fri Sep 03, 2010 14:22author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Tormey's example (in responding as he does to the concerns expressed to him above) once again proves that the 'West Brit' (yes, 'West Brit') forelock tipping mentality as exemplified by FG is alive and well in Ireland.

Some food for thought below from James Connolly speaking almost 100 years ago re: the coming visit of British King George V.

Do the same arguments apply? Methinks that they do.

I'm sure Councillor Tormey too would have branded Connolly an "unreconstructed nut".

Likewise I'm sure Connolly would have expected nothing else from a Redmondite (posthumous apologies to John Redmond)

James Connolly on the Visit of British King George V to Ireland in 1911:

Fellow-Workers,

As you are aware from reading the daily and weekly newspapers, we are about to be blessed with a visit from King George V.

Knowing from previous experience of Royal Visits, as well as from the Coronation orgies of the past few weeks, that the occasion will be utilised to make propaganda on behalf of royalty and aristocracy against the oncoming forces of democracy and National freedom, we desire to place before you some few reasons why you should unanimously refuse to countenance this visit, or to recognise it by your presence at its attendant processions or demonstrations. We appeal to you as workers, speaking to workers, whether your work be that of the brain or of the hand – manual or mental toil – it is of you and your children we are thinking; it is your cause we wish to safeguard and foster.

The future of the working class requires that all political and social positions should be open to all men and women; that all privileges of birth or wealth be abolished, and that every man or woman born into this land should have an equal opportunity to attain to the proudest position in the land. The Socialist demands that the only birthright necessary to qualify for public office should be the birthright of our common humanity.

Believing as we do that there is nothing on earth more sacred than humanity, we deny all allegiance to this institution of royalty, and hence we can only regard the visit of the King as adding fresh fuel to the fire of hatred with which we regard the plundering institutions of which he is the representative. Let the capitalist and landlord class flock to exalt him; he is theirs; in him they see embodied the idea of caste and class; they glorify him and exalt his importance that they might familiarise the public mind with the conception of political inequality, knowing well that a people mentally poisoned by the adulation of royalty can never attain to that spirit of self-reliant democracy necessary for the attainment of social freedom. The mind accustomed to political kings can easily be reconciled to social kings – capitalist kings of the workshop, the mill, the railway, the ships and the docks. Thus coronation and king's visits are by our astute never-sleeping masters made into huge Imperialist propagandist campaigns in favour of political and social schemes against democracy. But if our masters and rulers are sleepless in their schemes against us, so we, rebels against their rule, must never sleep in our appeal to our fellows to maintain as publicly our belief in the dignity of our class – in the ultimate sovereignty of those who labour.

What is monarchy? From whence does it derive its sanction? What has been its gift to humanity? Monarchy is a survival of the tyranny imposed by the hand of greed and treachery upon the human race in the darkest and most ignorant days of our history. It derives its only sanction from the sword of the marauder, and the helplessness of the producer, and its gifts to humanity are unknown, save as they can be measured in the pernicious examples of triumphant and shameless iniquities.

Every class in society save royalty, and especially British royalty, has through some of its members contributed something to the elevation of the race. But neither in science, nor in art, nor in literature, nor in exploration, nor in mechanical invention, nor in humanising of laws, nor in any sphere of human activity has a representative of British royalty helped forward the moral, intellectual or material improvement of mankind. But that royal family has opposed every forward move, fought every reform, persecuted every patriot, and intrigued against every good cause. Slandering every friend of the people, it has befriended every oppressor. Eulogised today by misguided clerics, it has been notorious in history for the revolting nature of its crimes. Murder, treachery, adultery, incest, theft, perjury – every crime known to man has been committed by some one or other of the race of monarchs from whom King George is proud to trace his descent.

We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes.

Fellow-workers, stand by the dignity of your class. All these parading royalties, all this insolent aristocracy, all these grovelling, dirt-eating capitalist traitors, all these are but signs of disease in any social state - diseases which a royal visit brings to a head and spews in all its nastiness before our horrified eyes. But as the recognition of the disease is the first stage towards its cure, so that we may rid our social state of its political and social diseases, we must recognise the elements of corruption. Hence, in bringing them all together and exposing their unity, even a royal visit may help us to understand and understanding, help us to know how to destroy the royal, aristocratic and capitalistic classes who live upon our labour. Their workshops, their lands, their mills, their factories, their ships, their railways must be voted into our hands who alone use them, public ownership must take the place of capitalist ownership, social democracy replace political and social inequality, the sovereignty of labour must supersede and destroy the sovereignty of birth and the monarchy of capitalism.

Ours be the task to enlighten the ignorant among our class, to dissipate and destroy the political and social superstitions of the enslaved masses and to hasten the coming day when, in the words of Joseph Brenan, the fearless patriot of '48, all the world will maintain:

'The Right Divine of Labour
To be first of earthly things;
That the Thinker and the Worker
Are Manhood's only Kings.

author by Gerpublication date Sat Sep 04, 2010 21:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

He clearly has a few screws lose but that does not excuse his lack of respect for the victims of British death squads around the world.

author by A.Tomáspublication date Sun Sep 05, 2010 00:08author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Jeepers, this prick seems to have vomitted out some Colonel myarse nonsense.

 
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