Laughing at Layalism and remembering Orr

As we are all in lockdown land, I reckon that laughter is the best medicine this side of being vaccinated.

Of course, the best person to laugh at you is yourself.

Indeed, the inability to do that usually suggests some pre-existing condition.

Over the past few days, some cultural unfortunates in the Northeast of this country have been reacting badly to a bit of harmless craic from the Rebel County.

Thankfully Tadhg Hickey has taken their Ulsturr Scatch outrage in his stride.

 

Of course, his comedy produced a Pavlovian response from Layalists.

Admittedly, these are difficult times for the Sevco underclass in Narne Arne.

After all, if they’re not fully Bradaish, then what have they got left in their sad lives?

Yes, they’ve got Sevco, but like their madey up language and the shirt on their back it is also counterfeit.

The tragic thing is that they have become what their radical 18th-century ancestors detested.

It is an inconvenient fact for them, but it undeniable that Republicanism on this island starts in the North East among Presbyterians of Scottish heritage.

The first Irish Republican slogan on this island  was “Remember Orr!”

He was hanged in Carrickfergus on 14 October 1797, surrounded by a large military force.

Today that town is synonymous with Orangeism.

However, the town came out to honour the patriot as he died on the scaffold.

William Orr has not been forgotten by the historically aware in Ulster.

Orr’s kith and kin were fighting in the Continental Army against the British Crown, and he and his fellow United Irishmen were avidly following the developments in revolutionary regicide France.

This is a fine tradition to resurrect and reconnect with.

Instead, they have become the trailer trash of a dead empire.

They don’t like the Protocol because, crucially, it reminds them of their geographic location.

The reality is that Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol are joined ta the hip.

Just today, Simon Coveney reminds everyone that the latter is part of an international treaty.

 

Although the Ulsturr Scatch are focused on their own Bohemian freethinking corner of this island the entire Brexit shambles has, of course,  a broader context.

I have just finished this quite excellent work by Philip Stephens.

The tagline appealed to me as I had described Brexit here as a “slow-moving Suez crisis”.

He meticulously examines the disastrous conspiracy between British Prime Minister Anthony Eden and his French counterpart Guy Mollet in 1956 over the Suez Canal.

All authors appreciate feedback.

Stephens ends with the Brexit debacle and asks a question that is yet to be answered.

If it is the latter, then poor Sammy in Ulsturr is rather fekked if he wants to remain “Bradaish”.

I am particularly enjoying the own goal nature in all of this.

In Peter Geoghegan’s excellent “Democracy for sale”, he has a chapter o entitled “the DUP’s dark money”.

The thing is, not only did Snarlene’s party campaign for Brexit in 2016, but they were a conduit of funding for the Leave campaign.

Moreover, the money was spent in crucial places like Sunderland.

The rejection of  Backstop as proposed by Prime Minister May meant that something very like the Northern Ireland Protocol was inevitable.

Now, this…

I must admit that I burst out laughing.