Say My Name [Updated]

at

Um.

So, meeting this guy is OK?

Good to know.

Earlier…

Meanwhile….

Celtic Supreme Commander Michael D Higgins, President of Ireland Except For Small Bit At The Top, speaks to reporters in Rome, Italy

This afternoon.

Huh?

Earlier…

President Michael D Higgins

This morning.

Via RTÉ:

President Michael D Higgins has defended his decision not to attend a commemorative church service in Armagh next month and does not intend to revisit the decision, a spokesman has said.

He told reporters that what had started out as an invitation to a religious service had, in fact, become a political statement.

President Higgins said the title of the event made it inappropriate for him to attend as it marked the centenaries of the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland.

Mr Higgins said he had also been referred to as the President of the Republic of Ireland, when he was the President of Ireland.

President Higgins said he wished the service well and, in a reference to Queen Elizabeth, said there was no question of any snub intended to anybody.

President says it would be ‘inappropriate’ to attend Armagh event (RTE)

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Former Taoiseach John Bruton

Uh oh.

Via Irish Times:

Former Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton said Mr Higgins should attend the event and appeared not to have sought the advice of the Government as “he is obliged to do under the Constitution”.

Mr Bruton told BBC Radio Ulster on Friday morning: “If he had fulfilled his obligation under the Constitution, which is to take the advice of the Irish Government on this matter, they would have advised him that he ought to go.

“He seems to have some concern that it is in some way taking note of the existence of Northern Ireland as a separate entity.

“But the reality is that the Irish people in the Good Friday Agreement, which they voted on and approved in a referendum, accept the present wishes of the people of Northern Ireland to maintain the union, until that is changed.

“So, in accepting an invitation to an event which is simply marking the existence of Northern Ireland for 100 years, the President would have been acting in accordance with the wishes of the Irish people.”

Mr Bruton said “it appears he didn’t seek the advice of the Government which he is obliged to do under the Constitution”.

Coveney says ‘no clear advice’ given to President about NI religious service invitation (Irish Times)

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69 thoughts on “Say My Name [Updated]

  1. Gringo

    Fair play to Michael D. His instincts are always correct and anyway the DUP should not be given the credence they are getting from the media. Nice to see John Briton making a fool of himself again.

    1. Andrew

      Except for the fact that both you and President Higgins are wrong and John Bruton is right. This is a set back for long term solutions. Typical of the populist socialist.
      However the truth doesn’t matter anymore, so carry on

      1. scottser

        bruton is incorrect, there is no need to consult government. besides, the invitation sent doesn’t even recognise the president’s office correctly.

      2. george

        Andrew, you and John would have to go to court to argue that the President doesn’t have the authority to refuse an invitation. Good luck.

      3. realPolithicks

        What a load of nonsense, no Irish President would ever attend a service commemorating the partitioning of Ireland.

    2. RuilleBuille

      The DUP have for decades protested at every visit to the six counties by our Presidents.

      Never mind their refusal to attend the north/south body.

  2. Bitnboxy

    I agree 100% with Michael D. The title of the service is effectively an explicit endorsement of partition not to mention an invite issued to an office that is constitutionally non-existent. There is no such office of state with the title of “President of the Republic of Ireland”. Nor might I add does the entity “Irish Republic”, a term beloved of the “Democratic” Unionist Party, exist as a sovereign nation.

    If the DUP are seeking parity of esteem, they would be wise to revisit their cack-handed and resolutely partisan approach to Brexit, rowing in four square behind the most unhinged and cretinous of Brexiters, giving two-fingers to the will of the majority of voters in the portion of Ireland that is currently styled “Northern Ireland”.

    1. goldenbrown

      “If the DUP are seeking parity of esteem…”

      lol

      the words DUP and PARITY cannot be written in the same sentence ever, mutually exclusive, the word I think you’re looking for there is SUPREMACIST

      I wondered if you had the teeth but very nicely played Michael D

  3. paul

    Irish media unused to seeing a politician with a backbone.

    They addressed the invitation to the President of the ‘Republic of Ireland’ which is not his title. Deliberately trying to goad him and showing the DUP up as the shrieking lunatics that they are.

  4. GiggidyGoo

    Guffaw Bruton quivering with annoyance that our President declined an offer from FG/DUP to make a fool of himself. Frank Feighan must also be annoyed.

    Note to FG/DUP – there’s always time to change the addressee on the invite and insert the proper title. Then again, perhaps not.

    1. Bitnboxy

      FG/DUP – ROFL! You are as bad as any deranged DUPer low born mad auld GiggidyGums. And you doubtless look like them too. Alas but to quell your usual nonsense – borne of nothing more than your life malaise and blaming everyone but yourself for it – but Regina Doherty was very quick to distance herself from John Bruton’s stance on Claire Byrne earlier.

      Twit.

        1. Bitnboxy

          Guffaw! Something I said?

          Bit cranky after d’aul night shift -and at your age. Suits you though – perfect for ya Mr GGums.

          ;-p

          1. Bitnboxy

            Ah now, mad auld GiggidyGums loves a bitty of Bitnboxy! Really he does.

            Also, literally nobody cares. This site is well on the decline.

            Wind ups only way to go.

      1. goldenbrown

        Tubbs?

        lol sure she’d say mass if it meant being popular and getting the seat back

        who cares what she has to say?

    1. Bitnboxy

      +1 And Michael D has managed to unite all shades of political opinion in his stance. Aside from Bruton, the cuddly folks at Grift Youth Defence Media and the Iona “Institute”, there are few who disagree with Miggledy’s reasoning.

      “President of the Republic of Ireland” particularly insulting.

      Well played indeed.

  5. eamonn

    Respect his stance on this matter 100%.
    Does the d in dup stand for divisive or democratic, please remind me.
    If the queen of england wants to meet himself, she knows where to find him.

  6. Shitferbrains

    All grist to the unionist mill. Helping to get the NO vote out in any future referendum. A small modicum of violence should scare off the middle classes in the 26 and bingo the more things change the more they stay the same.

    1. V aka Frilly Keane

      I wouldn’t say she sees it as a snub
      her staff mebbe

      I’d say she’s mortified by that invite
      and furious her staff dragged her into that mess
      and dragged it all up
      and remind the World of the history of her Commonwealth and her Army

      And at a time when she may not get a chance to come back and do the cupla focal n’ all that around Croke Park

        1. Fergalito

          “He enters the political fray all the time pushing his various hobby-horses”

          What’s he supposed to do?

          What or whose hobby-horses should he, in his largely ceremonial role, be pushing?

          A minor tree-planting ceremony ! ROFL.

        2. Bitnboxy

          Lol. “Gargoyle” – what are the chances “Mick Costello” is himself aesthetically challenged? Pretty high I’d say. And I’ll bet he is a short-assed goon to boot. Always the same: true as night follows day.

          Queen Elizabeth was barely 5’2″ in her heyday with Margaret an inch shorter. She is well under that now at 95. Probably nearer Mick Costello’s height but then again such physical limitations are irrelevant if one spends most of one’s time in a basement or similar location.

          Chortle!

        3. V aka Frilly Keane

          psst Mick
          its no longer an event
          its another mess for the Palace

          And its World News that Uachtarán na hÉireann has had to tell the Brits that he is President of IRELAND

          Ah shur
          It lets us bring up Unity Poll, Brexit, and Unionist KnuckleDraggers

      1. ce

        “some bang o’ charger off this lad” – should be the secret phrase used for BS commenters to recognise each other in the real world…

      2. Poor oul divil

        All the same please take a moment to further review the circus sideshow act of bitnboxy/giggidy/qanonfire/ematty/kcavan/soq which has taken its place? Nature truly does abhor a vacuum

  7. wearnicehats

    Hate to go against the higgins love-in here but it’s a massive own goal and missed opportunity. I’m reminded of the hooha that surrounded Prince Phillip attending Hirohito’s funeral. The UK was up in arms but he turned it around completely by simply not bowing to the coffin. It was a simple gesture that, to the Japanese, spoke everything about the contempt he actually held for the man

    Higgins bottled this one and his quibbling over the name just makes him look a pedant.

      1. wearnicehats

        Acting like a teenager would be throwing a sulk and not going. Acting like an adult is using your position to highlight your disgust at the horrifying torture and ultimate deaths of 30,000 prisoners – deplorable actions that, by 1989, must people your age knew nothing about.

        Higgins had a platform to actually act like a President – he bottled it. Ireland should be ashamed of him

    1. Poor oul divil

      I agree
      Of course it’s all the usual blowhards on here and the usual execrable bloviated Mr Bruton weighing in on this – to pick sides- but the clever thing would have been to quietly accept the invitation and then call out the organisers on the day of the event itself.
      I don’t agree your point about Hirohito though.
      I can see how Philip looked at it as he has that old school way of behaving but I would not have gone in his shoes.

    1. yupyup

      Flimsy enough there Cian.
      Yesterday he declined to attend a commemorative service commemorating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of a supremacist state.
      Not separately, but tangled up in all of that, he was referred to as the President of the Republic of Ireland in the invite.

      1. Cian

        He can go/or not go the the event. But it shouldn’t have anything to do with the name on the invite.

        Although the latest update suggests he wasn’t referred to as the “President of the Republic of Ireland “in the invite. .

        The Italians definitely used that (see link above).

        1. yupyup

          The name on the invite thing was never given as THE reason though, as you have stated above in your imagined paraphrasing ?

          Do you think he should have accepted or not accepted the invite to go to the event?

          1. Cian

            He didn’t give a specific reason for not attending (that I am aware of).
            He choose to tell report that he had been referred to as the “President of the Republic of Ireland” which has subsequently been retracted.

            Why is he not going?

          2. GiggidyGoo

            I notice you Dodged the question ‘Do you think he should have accepted or not accepted the invite to go to the event?’

  8. Madam x

    This was a set up invitation. Had he gone he was in trouble Had he not gone he was in trouble. Donaldson is doing things cleverly these days unlike Poots or his predecessor. The winner here in Unionist eyes is Donaldson. However he’s still stifled in what he can do because of numbers. He will make grand statements but in effect can do nothing because if he calls an election now he will lose dramatically

  9. Bitnboxy

    Erm, the “event” is still one to commemorate the foundation of the entity currently known as “Northern Ireland” with a history of institutionalised bigotry and sectarianism against nearly half of its population. The title of this “event” is not politically neutral and Michael D. Higgins is in no position to even contemplate an acknowledgement of this artificial “province” and the division of our island.

    1. Poor oul divil

      We celebrate stuff here all the time and yet we’ve historically both imprisoned and eviscerated gays, unmarried mothers, children born outside of marriage, children born, children not born, many of the living and also many of the dead, travellers, women, asylum seekers, people living in the inner cities … or in Leitrim or Mayo

      You had a point?

  10. Cú Chulainn

    Northern Ireland is a failed sectarian state and in diplomatic terms the invitation was measured as an insult. Higgins is absolutely right.

  11. Verbatim

    The optics are pretty bad on this one, and the “name calling” title has been debunked.
    He should have gone with his wife Sabrina wearing a nice frock with a slogan written on the back “The Pope trumps the Queen” or some other subtle slogan, maybe, even, as gaeilge. Isn’t that how it’s done these days?
    Diplomatic solutions exist as well.

  12. Brughahaha

    MDH…. biggest sham in Irish politics since CJH….. feted by the Irish Oirish Times brigade and various other middle class wannabes who think his pompous language is some sort of sign of intellectualism ……… And consistently forgive him his constant glaring hypocrisies ……Its almost funny to see the adoration of such a glaring sham

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