I was 10 years old when the pub bombs in Birmingham happened. I did not lose any friend or relative, there was no anti-Irishness in my house and all I remember is sadness at school the following day. I now feel that this incident plays a significant part in British politics, mainly because it has been forgotten while other cases receive continual attention, £50m has been spent on the Savile Enquiry and yet the Birmingham case remains unsolved. Whenever it receives any attention it is regarding the wrongful imprisonment of people and not the case itself. I feel that the British Government has sold the people of Birmingham up the river for tuppence but at the end of the day, we are only the kids of carworkers, so what should I expect.
"So fuck your Union Jack, we want our country back" the crowd shouts with their fists in the air at a Shebeen concert on youtube (search on "Go Home British Soldiers") and I am feeling an overwhelming anti-Britishness as I watch the people. Was this gig from 20 years ago? No, it was in the last year. The comments are a barrage of insults from people around the world calling each other fucking Huns and fucking Fenians, reading them did not offer me any meaningful insight into a complicated conflict, full of change and fluidity, that has extended 38 years.
Before continuing I would like to explain that I have always liked Irish people and, in some ways I even support the IRA but feel their methods were wrong. With every bomb that they planted I felt that they lost respect and that the sympathizers were as responsible as the activists in taking Irish people to a very dark place. I think that each fundraiser ensured that their people are locked in conflict for that little bit longer which is hardly empowering them. I feel it is now more important to look to the future and how people are going to live together in Britain and hope that it is harmonious but I fear that there will be quite an undercurrent and that one day we may see British people go underground. By that I do not mean the BNP, I mean ordinary British people waking up one morning and feeling that they have simply had enough.
What seems to be ignored is the opportunities that Britain has offered people for generations. Perhaps it was difficult for Irish people to move to Britain in the 1950s and live in the country of the oppressor. They were met with prejudice. However, today's story is very different and Irish people and people with Irish parentage have a lot of social power in this country, they hold senior positions, have multi-million pound businesses and they have worked for this and deserve it. I don't think that people should have reduced opportunities in Britain because they come from a country that we have had centuries of conflict with. It's the sense of anti-Britishness that I find upsetting.
The last general election was the first time in my life that I didn't vote. I can no longer understand our politicians and no matter what the public say, they continue to take us into war after war. We all know that wars are economic, it's a sad fact of life.
Irish history has been unfair but I no longer think that this is the case. I have visited Ireland three times in the last seven years and stayed in Cork, Dublin and Galway. Each time I enjoyed my stay and saw a prosperous society and a welcoming people. So where is all the negativity coming from? It doesn't seem to be the average Irish person, at least that is what I have found on the net. I met a man from Galway last year and he told me how he called out at a Shane MacGowan gig in Holland asking Shane to mention the people in the Ardoyne. Apparently there had been a four-day outbreak of violence that had not reached the newspapers and me and the Galway man discussed how the media in Britain had been suppressed in recent years and that we no longer hear about football hooliganism in the way that we used to, perhaps if a condition is not mentioned, it ceases to exist?
The Galway man and I met the other week in Birmingham and stayed at a hotel in the Irish Quarter. We were talking to somebody outside a hotel whose parents were from Donegal, people with Irish parents often seem to like to meet a "real" Irish person. The Galway man said that he would sing a rebel song later and I ignored his comment, although it must have gone into my psyche.
So I've been having a look around youtube, strange isn't it that I seek out the very stuff that I find offensive and perhaps I do look for political attitude. To date the British public have only been bombed by the IRA, or so we are led to believe, and I fear one day that this will also be the activity of the Protestant military groups of Northern Ireland. When looking at the pro-IRA videos on youtube I wonder if the BNP are behind these postings because I feel like I am being invited for afternoon tea with Nick Griffin. No thanks, anyway. They called it "The Dirty War" and it certainly was/is. We will never know the full facts or the plans of the people involved. From reading about the Birmingham Pub Bombs it was suggested that somebody leaving a factory in Witton had passed a comment to a friend warning them not to go into Birmingham that evening and this was overheard by a security guard. If this was true, why wasn't this information passed to the police, perhaps this is a bit harsh because we cannot take action on comments that we hear.
As I thought the situation through I wondered whether the police knew that the bombs were going to happen and let it happen in order to conjure up anti-IRA feeling in Britain. Perhaps this is a bit too much of an "out there" thought, but nevertheless it is a possibility, albeit one that sends a shiver down my spine.
What does the future bring? I don't want to live in a neo-Nazi society full of racial division. But it looks like that is what actually exists here. We are told on the TV that we are one of the most tolerant societies in the world, so why do people hate us, or appear to hate us, as they do. The British people are not the British Government and yet it is little old Joe Bloggs who takes it in the neck time after time. I went on the anti-war march in London a few years ago. You would think that having over a million people standing on your doorstep would be enough to make our Government listen. But alas no. We continue to go into wars. Al Qaida have their reasons for attacking Britain and America but they will never create the distaste that I have for the IRA. I do not go around hand-in-hand with Muslims (we seem to live parallel lives) but I do with the Irish. We live in a perverse world, when the Twin Towers were brought down I visualised a hand sticking out from the rubble with an IRA collection tin in it. How weird was that? Precisely.
I was not aware of the division in Scotland between Celtic and Rangers fans based on Catholicism and Protestantism. The nastiness running through youtube seems to be based a lot on this. So the Scottish hate the British too. I would like to see Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (if they want it) gain independence and make their own decisions. However, should that happen we may enter into trade wars, there could be strict entry into the country and the people will not be free to dip in and out of Britain as and when it suits them.
It is bizarre living in a society where I am beginning to feel in the minority and to be a minority amongst groups of people that appear to dislike or hate British people. Record numbers of British people are leaving these shores and the Government is not keen to let us know the true figures. Perhaps one day there will be a backlash in Britain, perhaps the Protestant groups of Belfast will attack Britain, perhaps the BNP will take power, perhaps the Scottish people will attack the British. Perhaps the Protestant groups of Belfast will form links with the BNP or perhaps they will form links with young Muslim men and fight the British Government. Who knows? But one thing that is for sure is that when it suits people to live in Britain they do, such as when there is high unemployment in their areas, and they are quick to take advantages of opportunities here. Britain is a great place to live. We are, relatively, free. Although we are somewhat of a Police State now. Should things change I hope the people who are filling youtube with vitriolic statements are prepared to take some responsibility in causing social unrest in the country.
Reading the comments though, the people throwing insults back and forth did not appear to be particularly articulate and perhaps unfairly I wondered if they were part of the Tits Out brigade. That could be how my mind worked with this image. Anyway, whether we are talking Tits Out or Brits Out can we please have a little order in the House and show Dick some respect.
