http://www.openunionism.com/a-time-for-patriots-no-time-for-rebels/
Here's to a charitable + peaceful response in keeping with the Advent/Christmas spirit!
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| Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland |
Monday, December 10, 2012
On the Road AGAIN......
with another guest post for "Open Unionism"! This time we're talking about, patriots, rebels, and ill-tempered commenters thrown in for good measure. Plus, the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of British history seem to be playing a role in how the Brits see themselves. Check it out:
http://www.openunionism.com/a-time-for-patriots-no-time-for-rebels/
Here's to a charitable + peaceful response in keeping with the Advent/Christmas spirit!
http://www.openunionism.com/a-time-for-patriots-no-time-for-rebels/
Here's to a charitable + peaceful response in keeping with the Advent/Christmas spirit!
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"Anti-democratic, neo-fascist, religious fanatic" --gosh, Pearl, he called you everything except an old meanie. I guess his 6th grade teacher didn't have any homewok for him tonight.
ReplyDelete- Mack in Texas
Hi, Mack,
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, that Scottish Nationalist "quote" was actually a compilation of a number of ill-tempered comments posted by angry independence advocates. I was using it as a broad, fictionalized example of the way they sometimes behave. However, it is perfectly true that I have been called "anti-democratic", "neo-fascist", and "a religious fanatic" by them in the past!
God Bless,
Pearl
What? You haven't burned down an orphanage yet? Kicked Tiny Tim's little crutch out from under him? :)
ReplyDeleteHi Pearl,
ReplyDeleteThought I'd wander over seeing as I was invited. :-)
The comment above caused a double-take though, although I presume it was posted out of a lack of knowledge.
Just to clarify, after the Irish Free State split from the rest of the UK (in 1921) it promptly descended into Civil War. These are always nasty of course, and I'm afraid that as part of its policy of "ethnic cleansing" the IRA evicted around 100 children from the two protestant orphanages in Clifden in 1922, burning the buildings down. (The Royal Navy had to send in a warship to rescue the children).
It is incidents like the above along with the famously long memories on both sides that make Northern Ireland such an intractable problem. One that England then gets dragged into.
By the way, the reason for my "intriguing" user name is that it's my name. My real name. My surname to be precise. A very old English surname, Anglo-Saxon in origin, and from when people were given names because they had attributes associated with the animals in question. For example the surname "Fox" is associated with cunning. The surname "Wildgoose" was associated with wariness, because Geese were used as guard animals - and of course famously saved Rome at one point.
God Bless,
David
Hi!
ReplyDelete@Mack: No, no! I'm not that much of a juvenile dilinquent! Tiny Tim is on my good list!;-)
@David: Welcome to the blog! I'm so glad you dropped by to check things out :-) Feel free to browse....I've got loads of stuff on here, including film reviews, journal entries, historical essays, etc! You name it, and it's probably on here!
Yes, I got the double-take and deleted the first one when I realized they were the same!
It is truly tragic about the ongoing strife in (Northern) Ireland. What seems to have started out as a religious conflict has morphed into something very sectarian in nature that doesn't show any signs of evaporating. Just recently, the shooting in Londonderry and the riots in Belfast have heightened things.
Ah, thanks for giving me the history of your name! But pray tell...When was Rome saved by geese? I've never heard of that story! I'm afraid my extent of water fowl lore extends to Jemima Puddle-duck ;-)Just as another tid-bit, by surname is Italian for a crossbowman!
My I ask, are you a part of any particular religion?
God Bless,
Pearl
According to Livy, there was a sneak night attack on Rome in 390 BC but the defenders were warned by the sudden cackling of geese and so were able to beat off the attack. This started an annual tradition of carrying a golden goose into Rome to commemorate the event.
ReplyDeleteAs for my religious background, it is Church of England, i.e. "Anglo-Catholic". If you're a Latin-rite Roman Catholic then you'd probably feel fairly "at home" in what we call a "High Church" setting.
Unfortunately I think that the Church of England has badly lost its way. The previous Archbishop of Canterbury was a particularly dreadful specimen. A Welshman who publicly objected to the Church of England using the English flag because it was a Christian symbol and we were now a multi-cultural state, and who even publicly defended the use of Islamic Sharia Law. In other words, he clearly did not believe in the universal truth of the religious teachings of the Church he was supposed to be leading. And so for that reason I would support your goal of re-evangelising our respective nations!
Dear Pearl and Wildgoose,
ReplyDeleteThat is so sad -- St. George is, yes, the patron saint of England, and also of Greece, Portugal, and other nations and causes, but of course there is no exclusion; St. George prays for all of us.
- Mack in Texas
@Wildgoose: Wow! What an interesting story about the geese of Rome and their contribution to the war effort ;-) That sort of reminds me of how the thistle became the symbol of Scotland. According to legend, Vikings were sneaking up on a Scottish camp, but one of them happened to step on a thistle bare-footed, alerting the Scots, and saving the day for them!
ReplyDeleteI do know quite a bit about the "Anglo-Catholics", and really admire your traditions that are so similar to Latin Rite Catholics. In fact, I've read some High Anglican material that sounds amazingly Catholic in tone! For example, they sometimes will pray the rosary, show marian devotion, keep the calendar of saints, deeply reverence confession and communion, etc.
It is terribly depressing that the UK has declined in Christianity so drastically. Your last archibishop of Canterbury sounds like a good embodiment of a pretty general problem: namely, moral and religious degeneration.
The Church of England particularly seems to be getting watered down. In fact, that's why quite a few Anglicans joined the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham under the wing of the Holy See. Have you ever heard of that movement?
@Mack: It is really sad about St. George being virtually forgotten. Really, even here is America, St. George should get as much air-time as St. Patrick. After all, we were English colonies to begin with. Well, Maryland was at least. I can't speak for the wild west....;-)
God Bless,
Pearl of Tyburn