For several hundred years the British, in one form or another, have been violently attempting to occupy and annex the island of Ireland or some part of it. In this they have largely failed. For several hundred years the Irish, in one form or another, have been violently resisting that attempted occupation and annexation. In this they have largely succeeded. Rational thought and analyses would suggest that the only proven method to end centuries of endemic warfare between the two neighbouring countries is for Britain to acknowledge its wrongdoing and bring its presence in Ireland to an end. If the British state is the primary cause of the conflict, then the primary solution to resolving the conflict lies in its removal. It might not be the immediate end of the violence but it would certainly be the beginning of the end. Yet we are told that the solution is actually to be found in the acceptance of a deeper, formally recognised occupation and annexation by Britain, if only confined to the north-eastern corner of Ireland. Furthermore, those Irish who inevitably resist that British policy must be defeated through draconian laws, imprisonment and bloodshed, and not just now but in perpetuity. If one definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result each time, then Britain’s continued colonial-era appropriation of territory in Ireland is the very definition of insanity.
The question is, why on earth is anyone but the British giving historically irrational and disproved policies, both political and military, any credence whatsoever? And why do some people continue to deny that the so-called “Dissident Republicans” are not just the problem but are the inescapable result of the problem?
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
yup, in spite of some break through during the revalations of false convictions of the birmingham six, english language media still follows the british colonial line.
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Reblogged this on da Zêna.
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The Brits still dominate the 26 counties and they have a pervasive economic and political agenda. Look at Fine Gael hiring Tory spin doctors for the last election and the promise of cutting the USC, that ploy of tax cuts won the election in the UK for them. The scare mongering of the political class in the South about Brexit is another example, all our exports mostly go to the UK, we sold of our merchant fleet years ago without much fuss. The deference shown by successive Irish politicians and parties to the British establishment is well documented . No wonder they will not hand over the occupied part of this country after all the people in the 1998 referendum got rid of the Constitutional clauses claiming the 6 counties, Tony Blair was better than Lloyd George in 1922 who threatened war while Tony was Mr. Nice Guy.
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John.. it’s not all bad news.
You have Ardmore shipping in County Cork.
So Okay the “real” owners are most likely New York Hedge funds. but still.
You have the Italian D’Amicco in Dublin.
There is ICG aka Irish Ferries.and EUCON container shipping to UK and Europe.
And Arklow Shipping have a large number of ships too. 40+ fleet. Ofc a lot of these are operated from the Netherlands these days.
http://www.ardmoreshipping.com/
http://www.damicoship.com/en-gb/business-area/dry-cargo
http://www.asl.ie/fleet/
other names like Bell Lines ( container ) and Irish Shipping ( general cargo ) and Dublin shipping 9 Bitumen tankers ) have sadly disappeared.
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As someone who actually lives in the six counties, I don’t feel either occupied or oppressed. There must be something wrong with me. As to the dissident republicans, they are the last remnant of an outmoded cult of violence and blood sacrifice, whom virtually nobody, even in the nationalist community, supports. If they weren’t so obnoxious I’d almost feel sorry for them.
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Which came first the chicken or the egg? In this case I think we can safely state that the British occupation gave birth to the Irish resistance. I’m not agreeing with the “Dissidents”, as I think the opinion piece indicates (and certainly my other writing strongly indicates), but you can see cause and effect without necessarily agreeing with the latter.
Yes, things are not as explicitly bad as twenty years ago, or to be more contemporary, the awful situation in Occupied Palestine, yet the same events keep occurring over and over. As long as Britain enforces its sovereignty on Ireland, or some part of Ireland, there will never be peace. Therefore take the British state, and its its territorial claims, out of the equation. As in the Twenty-Six Counties. QED.
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