Erudite readers will have no difficulty discerning the inspiration for the title of this piece.
Those are the words of a reluctant warrior.
If you haven’t, then Curious Journey is a treasure of oral history.
It was updated and re-printed last year, and I was proud to have a hand in helping with the new introduction.
As these words blink to life, General Tom Barry is surveying the terrain in this study in Dún na nGall.
My grandmother standing proudly beside him in 1966 on the 50th anniversary of the Rising.
This picture reminds me of the human cost of conflict.
A century ago, Britain left us with no alternative.
Dear reader, this is how I view the events unfolding in Gaza.
I’m finding it increasingly difficult these days to be exercised by the culture wars of Planet Fitba while there is a genocide underway in the Middle East.
Anyone who was surprised at the festival of racist nativism at Hampden at the weekend was either visiting Fair Caledonia for the first time or is part of the problem.
It’s all there in plain sight, just like the smiling officials.
As Alex Salmond once observed on Al Jazeera, “woven into the fabric of the nation”.
Despite the geographical proximity, there are many differences between Britain and Ireland.
The contrast between our elected head of state and the current member of the Saxe-Coburg Gotha family is too stark to ignore.
Uachtarán na hÉireann is in place because we, the Irish people, voted for that person.
I’m personally delighted with the incumbent.
Mícheál Dónal Ó hUigínn is the real deal in every sense of the word.
He respects the boundaries of his constitutional position while having a moral compass of his own.
Meanwhile, the Brits seem fatally attracted to celebrity feudalism.
Today, their poster child for consanguinity was the star turn in a Life of Brian pageant.
Britain is, in many ways, the original author of what is unfolding in the Middle East.
The Balfour Declaration and Sykes Pichot was Perfidious Albion writ large.
In the words of Sir Ronald Henry Amherst Storrs, the military governor of Palestine, the state of Israel was envisioned as
“little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”.
Quite so…
Over 700 ex-Black and Tans ended up in the Palestine Police.
Any discussion of the Middle East moras that doesn’t factor in British imperial machinations is to indulge in historical amnesia.
For the avoidance of doubt, if you find yourself on the opposite side of the argument from Madiba Nelson Mandela, then take a moment.
In many ways, the Zionist state is now having to deal with their own Inkatha.
In Langley, they call such unforeseen shitshows “blowback”.
The IDF is now forced to go down in the “Gaza Metro” and close with an enemy they did so much to cultivate.
This deadly labyrinth beneath the biggest ghetto on the planet is another layer to the hellscape that has been 75 years in the making.
The beauty of sport is that it is a great distraction from the troubles and travails of life.
My team are playing tonight in the Champions League, yet my darkened mind remains bleak.
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Good comment. I do feel for Voters in England, but unfortunately it’s also true they have mostly been the architects of this situation re voting, Brexit and all.
Planters, the problem across five centuries and two seas, yet still westminster’s whigs get away with no reparations from their central bank.
Every time the Brits are allowed to draw lines on maps,it never ends well.
The media lies, the truth is out there but you have to dig, a bit like a tunnel
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
Malcolm X
Disgusting what hamas did plain and simple there is no argument about that. Isreal was always going to retaliate but what they are doing in retaliation is nothing short of inhuman they don’t give a dam about who they are killing children baby’s woman innocents thousands killed for every one hamas terrorist hit. The Jews have been committing murder and war crimes against the Palestinians for decades . I’m ashamed to be part of united kingdom I’m scottish not a brit but I’m still ashamed of my government who are complicit in this by standing by and doing nothing about killing so many innocent people . As for the United States they are jyst as bad and are paying for every single bomb dropped on these poor souls .
Both UK parties tories and Labour should be utterly ashamed like I am .
God bless the Palestinians and I hope one day those Israeli bastards get what they ultimately deserve . They are scum .
Did it ever occur that behind the propaganda,260 Palestinians were already dead before the Hamas attacks,or that Israel had thousands of men , women and CHILDREN in prison as ‘hostages’, or that 8000 Palestinians had already died?, who was retaliating again?.
Every pile of rubble will produce another freedom fighter & there’s alot of rubble.That’s why this cycle of violence will just continue around & around like a spinning bicycle wheel.
The UK government(I use that very loosely)are just a bunch of Zionist supporting,gutless right wingers who care for nothing north of the Watford Gap.
The opposition is lead by a Human Rights Lawyer(stop sniggering)who wants to continue with the genocide & like the Tories,another Zionist lover.
So,don’t expect any will from Westminster at least,to push for an immediate ceasefire.
Hailing from Manchester,I don’t even have the option at the next General Election,of voting for a viable 3rd option like in Scotland(i.e SNP).
British politics is now like some former Soviet-era backwater,but with less choice.We’re absolutely f*cked.