'The Haunting Soldier' sculpture vandalised

weldoninhio · 22-11-2018 03:44PM

vonlars wrote: »

What makes you think it's a British soldier? 200,000 Irishmen fought in WWI. Should we forget them simply because of whose side they were on while fighting for peace?

As the old saying goes, fighting for peace is like fcuking for virginity.

Edgware · 22-11-2018 03:54PM

Conall Cernach wrote: »

A statue to a British soldier in the place of one of the key battlegrounds of the Easter Rising. Who thought it was a good idea to put it up there in the first place?

"key battleground" Thats where Markievitz ordered trenches to be dug being a military genius. All overlooked by three four storey buildings so it would like shooting fish in a barrel for the British

P_1 · 22-11-2018 03:54PM

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Vandalising Art is a disgrace, but what did people expect when a tribute to "The British Soldier" was placed on one of the 1916 battle sites over the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday?

I actually liked the installation myself but a little respect for our own history would have involved putting this piece on display in a less sensitive place at a less sensitive time.

What's next on the Agenda, sending the Iwo Jima memorial on tour to My Lai? Perhaps they can send this same memorial to Amritsar next year on 13 April and see how the Indians like it.

You do realise Bloody Sunday was in 1920 right?

CrankyHaus · 22-11-2018 03:56PM

P_1 wrote: »

You do realise Bloody Sunday was in 1920 right?

Fair point. Any response to rest of what I wrote?

RandomName2 · 22-11-2018 03:57PM

Edgware wrote: »

"key battleground" Thats where Markievitz ordered trenches to be dug being a military genius. All overlooked by three four storey buildings so it would like shooting fish in a barrel for the British

Don't you dare speak like that. Constant Markievitz gave up his life fighting in that park.

P_1 wrote: »

You do realise Bloody Sunday was in 1920 right?

It was actually in 1905

frosty123 · 22-11-2018 04:02PM

fryup wrote: »

don't you know its the "curried chips brigade"

you know the ones that hang out outside late night takeaways ... tracksuit wearing, celtic supporting, up the ra chanting, wolfe tones listening, low IQ toe-rags that unfortunately every town & city in this country has

No doubt they shout for man utd and liverpool too

But of course they're too thick to realise the irony

AudreyHepburn · 22-11-2018 04:07PM

I’d be very willing to bet that those responsible for this frankly childish act are the same fools that bleat on about the big bad British while wearing Premiership football jerseys without any real understanding of what they’re talking about.

There is a world of difference between celebrating the British Empire and commemorating the ordinary men who risk their lives in the trenches for a war none of them would have wanted and the sooner people understand and accept this the better.

The Irish men who went to war, like my Great Grandfather, deserve to be remembered.

P_1 · 22-11-2018 04:08PM

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Fair point. Any response to rest of what I wrote?

It's in front of the Fusiliers Arch. Like it or not, thousands of Dubs were sent to the slaughter in WW1. Seems a good spot to commemorate them in my eyes. Again the statue was for the regular working class who were sent to die,not to the elite scum who sent them

klaaaz · 22-11-2018 04:13PM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

I’d be very willing to bet that those responsible for this frankly childish act are the same fools that bleat on about the big bad British while wearing Premiership football jerseys without any real understanding of what they’re talking about.

Stereotype much? I find those that are in full support of the British military here tend to be of Unionist stock.
Anyway, the statue is likely to have been vandalised by antifa types as an act of protest, note the red paint symbolising red blood. They didn't throw green paint!!

Rory28 · 22-11-2018 04:17PM

klaaaz wrote: »

Stereotype much? I find those that are in full support of the British military here tend to be of Unionist stock.
Anyway, the statue is likely to have been vandalised by antifa types as an act of protest, note the red paint symbolising red blood. They didn't throw green paint!!

You don't have to fully support the British Army to have sympathies for those Irish who died. Merely have to sympathize with the individual.

Maybe the vandals were colourblind?

corner of hells · 22-11-2018 04:20PM

klaaaz wrote: »

Stereotype much? I find those that are in full support of the British military here tend to be of Unionist stock.
Anyway, the statue is likely to have been vandalised by antifa types as an act of protest, note the red paint symbolising red blood. They didn't throw green paint!!

I think you'll find most people are just disgusted at what's can only be described as vandalism rather than be described as "Unionist Stock" .

You'd wonder what the many tourists wandering by thought of what happened.

AudreyHepburn · 22-11-2018 04:23PM

klaaaz wrote: »

Stereotype much? I find those that are in full support of the British military here tend to be of Unionist stock.
Anyway, the statue is likely to have been vandalised by antifa types as an act of protest, note the red paint symbolising red blood. They didn't throw green paint!!

Yes it was a stereotype but I’m not the only one doing it and there is a reason for that. The vast majority of protests of this nature I have witnessed have been dominated by the type of individual I and others have described.

Any the end of the day any right thinking person, Unionist or Nationalist, would know what a childish and petty act this was and would never condone it.

Grayson · 22-11-2018 04:25PM

RandomName2 wrote: »

Don't you dare speak like that. Constant Markievitz gave up his life fighting in that park.

It was actually in 1905

Actually it was 1972

(We have to stop calling stuff bloody Sunday. It gets confusing after a hundred years or so)

klaaaz · 22-11-2018 04:44PM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

Yes it was a stereotype but I’m not the only one doing it and there is a reason for that. The vast majority of protests of this nature I have witnessed have been dominated by the type of individual I and others have described.

That doesn't make sense. There are many football supporters all over the world who support other countries football clubs, often belonging to the 'auld enemy'.
A Japanese person who supports a British football club does not automatically become British, likewise a British person eating Japanese food does not become Japanese by doing so. Same for a Japanese person supporting an American baseball club for example.
Most top British football clubs now have majority foreign players, lucky to see an English player playing for them. As said, stereotypes do not reflect reality.

CrankyHaus · 22-11-2018 04:53PM

P_1 wrote: »

It's in front of the Fusiliers Arch. Like it or not, thousands of Dubs were sent to the slaughter in WW1. Seems a good spot to commemorate them in my eyes.

It may be churlish to remove pre-independence monuments to the British Army, that is no argument to add new ones.

Incidentally Fusilier's Arch is a monument to those who fought in the Boer War, wherein the British Army forced the civilian Boer populace into concentration camps where 25,000 women and children died of disease and starvation.

P_1 wrote: »

Again the statue was for the regular working class who were sent to die,not to the elite scum who sent them

Do you have any source for this? Nothing I read about the installation mentioned the class of the soldier it represents.

What would have been so difficult about putting it in a different place and taking it down before the anniversary of Bloody Sunday?

storker · 22-11-2018 05:38PM

valoren wrote: »

Unfortunately, pond scum got infuriated by a memorial statue to the point of vandalizing it.

Probably because they, like some posters here, think that they get to decide what it represents for everybody. Some people just can't handle concepts like subjectivity and nuance.

Lefty Bicek · 22-11-2018 05:53PM

It's a pity that greater effort wasn't made to make it look less like a British Tommy.

Yet by a long measure that is exactly what it most resembles, as an Armistice piece.

I do detest vandalism, and discovered a few years ago that a relative is buried in France, 1917.

Nevertheless, this was on the cards.

Ah well, another chance to condemn what could only have been anticipated, and roll out the 'we are mature as a nation' narrative.

AudreyHepburn · 22-11-2018 05:54PM

Rory28 wrote: »

That is a fair point. They are remembered as heroes when in my opinion they were victims of an elite class that spared little thought for them at the time.

klaaaz wrote: »

That doesn't make sense. There are many football supporters all over the world who support other countries football clubs, often belonging to the 'auld enemy'.
A Japanese person who supports a British football club does not automatically become British, likewise a British person eating Japanese food does not become Japanese by doing so. Same for a Japanese person supporting an American baseball club for example.
Most top British football clubs now have majority foreign players, lucky to see an English player playing for them. As said, stereotypes do not reflect reality.

I never said it makes them British. I said they miss the irony of professing to hate all things British whilst simultaneously wearing English soccer jerseys.

RobertKK · 22-11-2018 05:59PM

I don't know why anyone would get so worked to the point they throw paint...in what in effect is a piece of metal.
I know it means something to some people, but I would argue to most people they don't care either way about the sculpture.

Gatling · 22-11-2018 06:03PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

In every empire's army, excuses can be made for the people who fought for it. Just as excuses can be made for People

Remind me about Jean mcConville you know the mother of 10 dragged out of her home likely tortured and executed by the men in the uniforms of black balaclavas and berets (true scum)

Should we commentate her with statue's and naming parks after her or are those privileges reserved for cowards

klaaaz · 22-11-2018 06:11PM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

I never said it makes them British. I said they miss the irony of professing to hate all things British whilst simultaneously wearing English soccer jerseys.

Don't think they hate all things British, they probably hate the British military establishment for what they did here. What's wrong with the English soccer jersey types and their fellow German fans when they follow a bunch of multi-national soccer players kicking a ball around?

irishgrover · 22-11-2018 06:15PM

Deleted User wrote: »

"Forget" - ah, if we aren't glorifying the footsoldiers of the British Empire by dedicating prominent positions in our public space to them and the "We fought for the rights of small nations" myths of their British imperial society then we are "forgetting" them. How very Royal British Legion of you.

Moreover, there are infinitely more worthy Irish-born people to commemorate than those who fought to defend the very same British Empire that held all of this country under its boot at the same time. Preposterous to commemorate those people.

If I were looking for people worthy of commemoration I'd start with commemorating all those who fought, century after century, for the freedom of this small country from the British colonial jackboot.

The above ****e really depresses me. So full of righteousness and indignation….and re-writing of history….. and ignoring reality and utter disrespect for the vast majority of Irish people, then and now..
the same mind-set of that unionist prick last week the tweeted about ROI fans in the Aviva having a flag with a “hooded terrorist” ….whereas in reality it was a Munster flag with the 3 crowns…..
…but when your views are so narrow and your mind so blinkered you really just see what you want to see, regardless of reality

klaaaz · 22-11-2018 06:15PM

Gatling wrote: »

Remind me about Jean mcConville you know the mother of 10 dragged out of her home likely tortured and executed by the men in the uniforms of black balaclavas and berets (true scum)

Should we commentate her with statue's and naming parks after her or are those privileges reserved for cowards

Remind us of the mother of 8 who was brutally shot dead by the British Army in the Ballymurphy massacre in 1971. Should we commemorate those "heroes" who murdered her with statues all over the place? Oh, how about we commemorate the cowards who murdered over a dozen innocent civilians on North King street in Dublin? Or maybe those who burnt down Cork city in 1921? Selective memory you have. :mad:

tritium · 22-11-2018 06:16PM

Rory28 wrote: »

That is a fair point. They are remembered as heroes when in my opinion they were victims of an elite class that spared little thought for them at the time.

Strangely forgotten in the year we’ve rushed to commemorate the centenary of votes for women, but the sacrifices of ordinary men in that war also led to the granting of votes to the 40%+ of men who didn’t have votes up for that point.

It may not have been their intention, but their sacrifices did more to bring social change and remove elements of the class system than almost anything else.

Yeah_Right · 22-11-2018 06:25PM

The mentality of people "protesting" the statue versus this way of thinking-

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

whisky_galore · 22-11-2018 06:25PM

The Whataboutery is strong in these ones.

Lefty Bicek · 22-11-2018 06:25PM

vonlars wrote: »

What makes you think it's a British soldier? 200,000 Irishmen fought in WWI. Should we forget them simply because of whose side they were on while fighting for peace?

It's without much doubt a British soldier.

We don't have to forget them. But should we remember them like that, in that specific place, just because they were victims of jingoism, or economic necessity ?

Lefty Bicek · 22-11-2018 06:28PM

Yeah_Right wrote: »

The mentality of people "protesting" the statue versus this way of thinking-

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

Sounds like it was written by a recruiting officer with a heart.

Melodramatic drivel, in other words.

Johnnycanyon · 22-11-2018 06:30PM

When I saw it being unvailed I wondered how long would it be before it was vandalized.. I don't condone violence but this did not surprise me.

theguzman · 22-11-2018 06:33PM

Johnnycanyon wrote: »

When I saw it being unvailed I wondered how long would it be before it was vandalized.. I don't condone violence but this did not surprise me.

I was thinking it might get stolen or cut up as it seemed to be made of copper.

'The Haunting Soldier' sculpture vandalised

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