Nelson's Pillar

Eugene Norman wrote: »

Really?. Surely it's an accurate description of some posters who oppose Irish independence and would have preferred we stay in the union. Scottish unionists are called north Brits by the SNP.

Perhaps, but that's rarely the context in which the term is used. More often, you'll hear it used to describe people whose idea of Irishness is somehow seen as less than someone else's. Or people who don't spend enough time hating the British...or banging on about the occupation...or not holding a grievance over events that never even happened to them...or even...voicing an opinion that a monument might have been better left where it was.

Maryishere, there are numerous examples in modern times of people destroying the statues which people believed represented oppression (former soviet countries tearing down statues of Stalin etc.) The demolition of Nelsons column seems more akin to this.

Iwasfrozen, you are probably just baiting, but lets not pretend that the British empire was content with the majority population on the island of Ireland, nor that the majority of Irish people were content with being subjugated by the empire.


Surely you can see that Ireland was never truly integrated into the British empire, due to the majority Catholic population. If it had been, there would have been no need for the enactment of the penal laws, which destroyed the rights of this 'home nations' majority population, along with a few significant minorities.

Surely if Ireland was a genuine home nation, the majority of its citizens would have been treated with more respect than this by the empire?

The original planters became "more Irish than the Irish themselves".

storker wrote: »

Impressive alright, but whoever said it was too big might have had a point. It does look a bit...oversized for the location. The view must have been amazing, though.

Still, can you imagine those steps nowadays? Stinking of old piss and watch out for the used needles...

And the pigeon poop don't forget the pigeon poop

maryishere wrote: »

Does not take much bravery to plant a bomb in a civilian street. The 400 Dubliners who served with Nelson and who helped defend these islands against Continental forces: now they were brave. And men to be admired for what they achieved, against the forces of nature and against foreign agressive powers.

Fellas who plant a bomb in a civilian street and run off and hide under a rock somewhere are not admirable, whither than st be O'Connell st, Enniskillen or Warrington.

As was said by a previous poster, lets do a civilian casualty count. Who do you think killed more the Ira or the British empire?

maryishere wrote: »

Does not take much bravery to plant a bomb in a civilian street. The 400 Dubliners who served with Nelson and who helped defend these islands against Continental forces: now they were brave. And men to be admired for what they achieved, against the forces of nature and against foreign agressive powers.

Fellas who plant a bomb in a civilian street and run off and hide under a rock somewhere are not admirable, whither than st be O'Connell st, Enniskillen or Warrington.

Well why don't you campaign to have a statue of these men? It might be more appropriate than Nelson.

storker wrote: »

Impressive alright, but whoever said it was too big might have had a point. It does look a bit...oversized for the location. The view must have been amazing, though.

Still, can you imagine those steps nowadays? Stinking of old piss and watch out for the used needles...

In the good old days we beat the junkies off the street.

Seriously though if there was a fee to climb the pillar we could lock it at night and guard it during day.

Sweetemotion wrote: »

As was said by a previous poster, lets do a civilian casualty count. Who do you think killed more the Ira or the British empire?

For such a comparison to have any meaning, though, you'd need to take into account the difference in numbers between British Imperial forces and Republican forces in order to arrive at a figure of average civilians killed per "soldier". Given that those numbers must have fluctuated a great deal over the course of the history of the British Empire and over the course of the Rising/War of Independence/Troubles, such a comparison would be extremely difficult.