Nouveau Facist Chic in Ireland

Read an interesting article in the Sunday blurbs today about yet another Republican splinter group - Éirigí, which is dissatisfied with Sinn Fein's apparent negligence on their core ideal of uniting Ireland (hope that never happens in my lifetime, unless Downing Street writes an open cheque to cover the consequences).

Éirigí, A collection of poorly-dressed, thuggish, semi-literate (if the erroneous second fada in their banner is anything to go by) skangers, most of whom have probably never worked a single day in their lives, but would do very well if protest-marching ever becomes an Olympic sport.

Adolf lends his support to Éirigí.

"Rise Up!". Another high-profile supporter gives his unequivocal backing to the good folks in Éirigí.

de Valera has very valid and grave concerns that the maidens in Éirigí may not be 'comely' enough:- "Surely they should be at home warming their husbands' slippers, or finding a single-sex crossroads to dance at, after a good mass?"

A Nation Once Again! Here's a cheque for 5 trillion. It should last about 2 years while you backwards, inbred, sectarian scum tear each other apart. Now go away, and never darken our doors again...

We'll never go away, you know...

Éirigí, for now, seem to be a fairly harmless bunch of skanger scumbags (they only number 1,000 approx.), mostly based in border areas and certain parts of Dublin through which you would only walk at your own risk. They include in their ranks a certain Dominic 'Óg' McGlinchey, son of the lengendary psychotic INLA criminal and mass-murderer, Dominic 'Mad Dog' McGlinchey.

Anyhoo, think I came across one of their marches recently in town and their pronounced thuggery and sick fervour reminded me of an incident from years back...

I was walking up Grafton street with a couple of friends and we accidentally stopped close to a Youth Defence protest (which were, unfortunately quite common at the time), where they were displaying images of aborted foetuses. One of my mates happened to laugh at an unrelated joke and was quickly surrounded by the nut-case protesters, asking what he thought was funny about the 'murder of the unborn'.

Mentalist, militant jesus-freaks 'Youth Defence' and their ilk, block the roads.

We told them to f*ck off and were quickly surrounded by their 'paid security', half a dozen big thugs, who were, we found out later, hardcore Sinn Fein and INLA 'activists' from the Thomas Street/Coombe/Dolphin's Barn area. Thankfully, there were police nearby, or we would have probably have been eating through straws and racing in wheel chairs for several months...
I have some other stories on Youth Defence from over the years, but will save them for another post...

I guess my point is that there is a certain truth in the aphorism that 'Birds of a Feather Stick Together'.