Loyalists....ENJOY!

[Weedman]

"Loyalists" documentary based on the 1999 book by Peter Taylor (I have a copy)
this was made around the time of the "peace process", so some figures in this documentary, like Gusty Spence and Johnny White, have since either passed on or are no longer in politics.

http://youtu.be/-prWQCby1yk

http://youtu.be/dk9vqu_WHfM

http://youtu.be/qkjH9ZNWVfA


and this last one is just a short clip of Billy Wright (R.I.P), who is forever one of the most Loyal Sons of Ulster, along with great men such as Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, IMO.....the clip also has Mark Fulton too (R.I.P.)

Wright was set-up by the British government (and perhaps the UVF politicians too?) and was murdered by the INLA because he simply did not agree with the terms of the "peace process" and felt it did not have the best interests of the Northern Irish people in mind.

http://youtu.be/pG6jtrAYVIA

[Weedman]

The Mid-Ulster U.V.F.

[Celxon]

Drunk, you seem like a good guy to me, so I have to ask you something. Do you admire these guys? No offense, but I don't care for them or their blood brothers in the Irish Republican Army. I especially disdain Boston Irish who support terrorism. The same holds true for Protestant Unionists who try to rip off Southerners from the United States. Not to start an argument, but I don't like the IRA *or* the UVF. My respect goes to the people, from both regions, who changed things in a peaceful way. They're the true heroes.

[Weedman]

no I dont care for any terrorists who murder innocent people regardless of the reasons

But i do like watching stuff like this just to learn about it and the atmosphere of Northern Ireland in general.

I also watch stuff about the IRA and their history too
As an American/outsider I have the luxury of sort of being interested in all sides of the divide in Ireland and can be interested in or have sympathy for all views as well as see the hypocrisy of both views too.

[Celxon]

no I dont care for any terrorists who murder innocent people regardless of the reasons

But i do like watching stuff like this just to learn about it and the atmosphere of Northern Ireland in general.

I also watch stuff about the IRA and their history too
As an American/outsider I have the luxury of sort of being interested in all sides of the divide in Ireland and can be interested in or have sympathy for all views as well as see the hypocrisy of both views too.

@Drunk: They really are interesting. I like to listen to Irish rebel songs on You Tube and then read what people write about them. I'm probably on some kind of FBI or NSA watch list. The craziest thing was a video from one of the loyalists. It showed a painting of Lee and Jackson under a Confederate battle flag and an Ulster red hand (or something like that). It rubbed me the wrong way. They were both Confederates whose forebears fought the British for independence. They *certainly* weren't unionists! Get your politics out of our heritage and history, Ulsterman You Tube guy. If some Appalachian guys met some Irish guys in a bar in Dublin or Harlan, they'd whip out their....fiddles and play a session. I doubt you're going to recruit any folks who throw Saint Patrick's Day parades each year and whose daughters take Irish dance classes. That's a big thing in Georgia, and they have Irish gypsies down there too.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

Good thing someone fought for right of UK to open borders of ireland to mass immigration.

[Weedman]

@Drunk: They really are interesting. I like to listen to Irish rebel songs on You Tube and then read what people write about them. I'm probably on some kind of FBI or NSA watch list. The craziest thing was a video from one of the loyalists. It showed a painting of Lee and Jackson under a Confederate battle flag and an Ulster red hand (or something like that). It rubbed me the wrong way. They were both Confederates whose forebears fought the British for independence. They *certainly* weren't unionists! Get your politics out of our heritage and history, Ulsterman You Tube guy. If some Appalachian guys met some Irish guys in a bar in Dublin or Harlan, they'd whip out their....fiddles and play a session. I doubt you're going to recruit any folks who throw Saint Patrick's Day parades each year and whose daughters take Irish dance classes. That's a big thing in Georgia, and they have Irish gypsies down there too.

yeah , the history really gets mixed in with modern day politics unfortunately. I have seen many stuff where people from Appalachia and even music stars like Ricky Skaggs have done musical albums with Folks musicians from either Ireland or Scotland and there are so many books and stuff now about the Scotch-Irish legacy in America and how it came from Ulster, by authors from both sides of the Atlantic. There are murals of Andrew Jackson in modern day Northern Ireland too, as well as his place of birth being a museum there now. ( but he was instilled with a hatred for the British by his Ulster-Protestant mother)
It's a mix really. Like I said the modern politics gets mixed in with history and its not always accurate when people try to make claims from history to use as political propaganda today.

I can tell you for sure on the one hand there are many U.S.Southerners proud of their Scotch-Irish heritage but most could care less about the politics of Ireland or Ulster in reality. and again, as you say, many of those same people overlook the actual Irish Catholic settled areas of the American South, like southern Georgia or New Orleans. Many people form those places are mixed with both, Ulster-Protestant and Irish Catholic ancestry.

I just know back then, in the American South it didnt make a bit of difference at all to the settlers here and when Irish Catholics came to the South like in the famine era for example they were generally welcomed and integrated by the wider population who were in part made up originally from Protestants from Ulster.

People in America back then didnt care about any of that and it's stupid to assume that just because someone is interested in their Scotch-Irish heritage historically that they are also interested in the politics of Ireland itself.

you're right, most early Scotch-Irish settlers really could care less about it and most people in general in the South never cared about any politics going on in Ireland at any point in time.
It's 2 different countries with 2 different histories.

It's sad how some people corrupt it and try to make claims based in the past to further their political agenda now. No one in America of Scotch-Irish descent really has any claim to modern day Northern Ireland. culturally yes, historically yes, but politically? no, of course not.

They left that place nearly 300 years ago and havent cared much about since then, except maybe in a cultural concept.

I've also seen Oliver Cromwell's mural in pics of Northern Ireland, but in reality Cromwell hated and was very vile to most Presbyterians in Ireland/Ulster and many Ulster-Scots had to fight against him. Puritans hated anyone who wasnt a fellow Puritan be they Catholic, Anglican or some other Protestant dissenter.

So that is also a part of history thats been politically corrupted and falsely claimed by Unionists in Northern Ireland too, not to mention most of the members of the United Irishmen from Ulster were in fact Scots-Protestants and they fought for an Ireland independent of Great Britain in colonial times.

[Incal]

Sickening...

[Celxon]

Drunk, that was a terrific post. I might add that some pre-1800s Native Irish people settled in the Appalachians too. I think that this group (Native Irish) was the fourth or fifth largest European group during parts of the colonial era, although they were smaller than the English, Ulster Scottish, and Germans. I don't think that these people just vanished into thin air, and I don't think that they all formed unions with non-White people (former slaves, Native Americans).

[Graham]

All that stuff from both sides, has been a plague or a virus on our own culture. Hate it. Don't want some shitty Orange band marching through my street again. Or to see countless FTP or NIRA & IRA slogans on walls.