Trinity College Dublin (left) and The Berlin Wall in the 1980s
This morning/afternoon.
Via University Times:
Trinity Ents has cancelled an upcoming event inspired by the fall of the Berlin wall after criticism that the tone of the event was insensitive.
Tuesday’s “Fall of the Wall” event was due to coincide with the 32nd anniversary of the Berlin wall coming down. A 1980s-themed “Pick-n-Mix” will now take place instead.
A statement on the Trinity Ents Instagram story said: “We have made the decision to change the theme for Tuesday’s event.”
“It came to our attention that this is a sensitive topic for many people, and that this theme was causing offence”, the statement said. “As an apolitical, student-run organisation, we never meant to cause offence, and apologise that we did.”
After Criticism, Trinity Ents Cancels Berlin Wall-Themed Event (David O’Connell, University Times)
Meanwhile…
After criticism from whom? The Stasi?
What is happening with students nowadays?@tcdalumni https://t.co/NAtxK0XTqS.
— Shrillsiren (@MikadoofJapan) November 8, 2021
Anyone?
recall bbc cancellin a comedy sketch about the famine as felt offensive. offensive to whom, everyone alive then would already be dead.
berlin wall stopped capitalism invading the east. gave communism a bad name that has kept us right wing politically. as nobody is brave to bring back proper socialism.
That’s what gave communism a bad name? Not Stalins genocide of 20 million Russians, Mao’s Chinese cultural revolution and bloody murders by mobs in the streets? I see!
Preposterous.
We can’t be heroes, not even for a day.
Oh Christ – i suppose people are offended by the anniversary of the fall of the wall too?
Will they cancel those commemorations? I doubt it
It’s sensitive to some people because of those who died trying to escape from the East to the West, those who were shot trying to escape. They should’ve realized that to many Germans it’s a tragic place.
Really? I’m living in Berlin nearly 5 years now and I have never heard any Berliners get sensitive over discussing the wall years. I mean, if someone’s family member died trying to flee, of course that’s a painful memory, but I have never seen any shutting down of discussions about the wall, or the Stasi. It does not happen on a cultural level here. They are actually open to discussing the worst parts of their history.
Maybe you should get out more.
+ 1961-1989
@Sara
You might be shocked to hear that in Berlin there is a whole tourist attraction based on the Wall and its history. It’s on Friedrichstrasse beside Checkpoint Charlie. Hardly a trigger warning for Germans living in that area, but maybe it is for you.
You missed the point. If you’ve any German friends, suggest that you have a party where half the people wear East German uniforms, and half the people West German uniforms. You might be educated by their responses.
“If you’ve any German friends”
Sara, the man lives in Germany I”m gonna bet he has more German friends then anyone here, but you’re continuing to tell him what Germans think.
How about admitting that you (maybe) got it wrong, it’s ok. It’s not a crime – be grand like.
Try it with me, “ye know Junkface, since you live in Germany you might have more experience than me and I could be wrong on this particular issue”
See, now doesn’t that feel better?
Unless you’re actually German of course, in which case I’M wrong. ;)
@Sara Such infantilism and lazy wokeness about dressing up. Says much for your cultural and political consciousness.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-49892553
Berlin Wall: ‘Germany was first reunited on the dancefloor’
Perhaps you missed the celebration when the Wall came down? The plenty of commemorations of the event since? There’s even a 100-mile ultra-marathon around where the wall once stood.
https://www.100meilen.de/
I for one will have the Hoff records out with my German friends.
From the link:
“In 2018, Ents collaborated with DU History and Trinity Visual Arts on a similar “Fall of the Wall” event. Attendees took an online personality test to be assigned to one of two groups, East Berlin and West Berlin.”
So clearly not an exploration of the historical/cultural/sociological – more a themed piss-up? Kinda like Prince Harry when he dressed up as one of his SS relatives? All great music eventually ends up defanged, siphoned through the supermarket tannoy perhaps. Historical events (even recent ones) go to the Trinity Ents Society to die, become devalued and lose any sense of usefulness in what they can tell us and what they can point to. Oh well …
Some great books and movies on this subject…dare I ask, will they be cancelled too?
In 1989 around this time of year I was in a small tutorial group that was part of Professor Aiden Clarke’s Truman to Kennedy course. We were studying the origins of the Cold War as the Cold War ended and it was mildly disconcerting given that the main incentive for choosing this course was that it was the only course in the department of Modern History that had any contemporary relevance. I wonder what would be the contemporary equivalent now? Is there a Trinity course on the origins of woke cancelation culture?