There's an awful lot of remembering going on at the moment.
More than I can remember there being for this time of year.
And there's more to come in early November and, baby, this is just
the warm up, 2016 is approaching fast..
So far, this spring, summer and autumn we've remembered dead
terrorists (or volunteers or soldiers or murderers or whatever title you
prefer); we've remembered (as usual) bygone battles but forgotten who was
playing; who was on who's side and why the battles were even fought in the
first place (because of banks or because of themuns?).
We've remembered massacres and we've remembered those who
committed the massacres.
We've forgotten about the economy and sometimes who's in charge.
We've remembered dead rebels and butchered battalions.
But we've forgotten the true principles of what they all died for
(throwing stuff at police it ain't).
For the hell of it I've decided to see what I could commemorate
today, October the 25th.
So far, I could salute the following fallen:
The Battle of Agincourt
The charge of the light brigade during the Battle of Balaklava in
the Crimean War.
The 'liberation' (annexation/daylight robbery) of the Transvaal
The Bolshevik Revolution (depending on which calender you use)
Nelson Mandela's prison sentence
Out of the above list, I'm sure I could find some some reason for
solemn contemplation and reflection or just drunken revelry.
Everything is catered for: British Imperialist 'Glory'; the fightback
of the working classes; the galvanising of a world leader or even just a spot
of 'giving the froggies ten of the best'.
But I won't.
I do have an annoying French neighbour, and the temptation to
drunkenly recite "we band of brothers" prior to unleashing to a
volley from English longbows is great indeed.
But live and let live and all that jazz.
Now - garden-fence obsessed, irritating Frenchmen notwithstanding
- were I to use any of the aforementioned events as a reason for exhibiting
some sort celebration/commemoration, I would nonetheless take into
consideration the feelings and reactions of those around me before I started
toasting to the memory of Cecil Rhodes or the death of the oppressive yoke of
bourgeois (sic) imperialist tyranny.
If I had Afrikaner/Boer neighbours, I'd reconsider the flying of
Union flags and blasting out 'Land of Hope and Glory' to celebrate my country's
stealing of their (also stolen?) land, or if I were commemorating Mandela,
well, I'd be as sensitive as possible.
If my neighbours were from the former USSR, well, I'd dip my toe
in the proverbial vodka to see how such proceedings may go down.
(You'd be surprised; I have been bombarded with drunken fact-attack
as to why 'Uncle Joe' was a great and strong man courtesy of a Georgian family
that I lived with)
However, were I living next door to a veterans' retirement home,
namely one belonging to the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) I'd be straight
over there with a bottle of gin and a few Union Flags.
As with many things, commemoration is a right, but not necessarily
always 'right'.
There is (literally) a time and a place.
(A fitting place is the copied collection of 'The Books of the
Dead' in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. A small statue of a soldier standing
over a cabinet.
The cabinet contains books which record the names of every Irish
man killed in WWI.
On the panels there is an engraving "As gold in a furnace he
tried them")
But
is there always a need?
Remembrance and commemoration in Northern Ireland has also been
sat upon the great see-saw of themuns and our-uns; if the see-saw goes up and
themuns are on it, well, it is probably offensive to our-uns.
"Let's not investigate the matter but go with the flow!"
One of the many casualties of the sectarian see-saw is the poppy.
For the record, I wear one when I can.
I do anxiously feel like I'm a coward as I don't like to wear it
in nationalist areas but the truth is I'd happily take a beating for the poppy
(I'm not much to look at anyway, so it's not like it'll do my looks any harm)
but I don't like the idea of needlessly winding people up.
The great Northern Irish Matrix that we're born into won't permit
us to see the other side's point of view, so a proud bearer of a poppy can't
think why themuns would have any logical objection to commemorating young men
who were sacrificed to the great meat-grinder when the time came.
Likewise, some of themuns can't see beyond the blood-red of the
poppy itself and the sanguine attachment of memories and departed loved ones.
As usual neither side can (or rather 'will') see the view point of
the other.
For those of us who have chosen 'the red pill' and escaped the
Ulster Matrix (what a movie that would be!) this is yet another frustrating example of
the defiance of logic in our land.
Are you offending someone?
Well, then you don't HAVE to do it?
Or perhaps be a bit more discreet/sensitive?
Are you being an over sensitive and easily offended d*ck?
Then
perhaps back off and let the citizen remember, is it really going to ruin your
day if he/she wants to remember the dear departed?
I do wear a poppy with pride.
I do think of the hell that all those young men and women went
through, as needless as a lot of it was.
But I am in Australia for the time being.
The nearest victims of Bomber Command are quite some distance
away.
In Belfast, the victims of the British Army, the IRA and the
Loyalists are in the city centre every minute of every day.
Wear your poppy with pride by all means, but spare a thought for
those who see it as a gloat as opposed to a token of respect.
It's supposed to be a respectful symbol but people such as the
Protestant Coalition are helping to ensure that it can't be seen in this way.
This hijacking of the poppy has effectively shut many people of a
Catholic background out of the remembrance house.
Many Catholic men from Ireland took up arms for the Imperial Army
and were slaughtered.
But the way in which we handle the matter of remembrance in
Northern Ireland has relegated their memory to mere ghosts.
And Unionists are doing little to bring them back in from limbo.
As for the Shankill Bomber Begley's plaque and the public
commemoration?
I struggle with that one.
Whilst some people may see him as a soldier, at the time of his
butchery (or collateral damage as dead Protestants were known back then) Sinn
Fein had a very modest fan base so only a minority saw him as such.
Seeing corpses on the news with one's breakfast every other day
left a very sour aftertaste for most of us.
But, that being said, a soldier is how some in Ardoyne and indeed
throughout Ireland may see him.
However, unlike Bomber Command and their monument in London (the
popular choice of comparison) Begley's victims are within walking distance of
his memorial.
That commemoration alone may have extended the life span of those
nearby peace-walls by a generation, as did his actions.
Even longer if a tradition has become of it.
Is the commemoration really worth such a price?
We talk about the future yet focus on the past with great
intensity.
If these actions are defensible then why even speak of a future for
there quite clearly is none?
It is secondary to the past.
A past that none of us want to revisit and a past that has left
many of us angry.
Very f*****g angry.
You don't have to be a world-class shrink to know that bottling up
anger is bad but it is all we can do till 'carnival' season arrives and people
let off steam by throwing heavy things at the police.
It's time for society (not our politicians - hell no, they've been
found wanting bar a praiseworthy few) to think about the damage our defiant
pride and hunger for remembrance does to each other.
The see-saw goes up and down and every one of us feels that heavy
crashing judder when it's our turn to clumsily land.
BTW: Part way through this rant I came across this rant of a
similar theme: http://themeenisterspen.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/when-poppies-go-bad.html
Never before have I been so glad to see my work bested so
convincingly by another (it happens a lot, I'm just seldom okay with it).
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