Conference tallis::celt

    
    
    	I wonder if the Boston Herald will have any info ??
    
    
    
    	Watch channel 7 in Boston tonight at 6:00 p.m.
    	(They have a film-crew traveling along with Kennedy)

                          
    
    
    	keVin
    

    
    	What the heck is Joe Kennedy doing in Belfast sticking his nose
    into the affairs of the Irish people, anyway?  What a B.S. artist
    he is, just like the rest of his clan in Massachusetts!  Did he
    think that as an Almighty Kennedy he would be exempt from having
    his vehicle checked out by the Brits?  Nice guy, to be showing up
    shortly after two British soldiers were crucified and shot like
    dogs by savages, and then lecturing a British soldier with a film
    crew at his side.  Nothing like stirring people up worse than they
    already are, for political benefit.  Even the great Teddy tried
    to blow this one off today, "ahh, just a minah insahdent they-ah,
    no reason to blow this out of pruh-porshun,..."
    	The only conceivable reason for Joe to be there messing around
    with a film crew, is to look good back home with the Irish-American
    constituency. A true politician:  looks good by making someone else
    look bad, whatever the consequences...And it serves no good purpose
    for the Irish people who have to live there after Joe flies home.
    
    		Dave

    Leaprechauns know better.
    
    Re .2
    Joe Kennedy and his clan are Americans of Irish extraction. They
    take a positive interest in Ireland. THe Irish people welcome it.
    That is SUFFICIENT reason for Joe Kennedy being there.
    As to his motives, I respect them. I hope they work.
    The British were "coat-trailing" and showing who is master. It is
    this British overlordism that spawns the IRA. The IRA are actually
    created by the British presence not the reason for it.
    We Irish have become immune to being stopped with rifles pointed
    at us. We don't like it and many of us have died from it.
    Joe Kennedy did not like it and he was CORRECT.
    
    As for your B.S about the two crucified soldiers. THey were murdered
    by Irish at the funeral of an Irishman who was murdered by a British
    loyalist, while attending the funerals of other Irish murdered by
    British security forces in Gibralter.
    The Gibralter incident could have been avioded by arresting the
    suspects (they were unarmed) and 8 lives would have been saved.
    THe first six who died were unarmed Irish people and the last two
    were armed British soldiers  ---- ALL 8 DIED LIKE DOGS, and all
    because the first 3 were butchered like vermin. You are ill informed
    and you are biassed and even bad-mouthed. I hope you are not rabid,
    and that you don't have to come to N.I.
    
    Snake says Joe was correct, and he got to the bottom line quicker
    than any other politician before him, --- this man has some talent.
    

    Your last responses on this have just been jokes, Snake. How you
    can possibly say that Joe Kennedy, an American politician promoting
    himself and his career in a foreign country, as other Kennedy
    politicians have elsewhere, was in his own country and then call
    people ill-informed for having a different opinion to you indicates
    that you're cracking up.
    
    And another way the Gibraltar incident could have been avoided was
    by not planning the slaughter of innocent people in the first place.
    But then I forgot, you're biased.
    
    Phillip, seeking the man at the heart of the Snake

    Leaprechauns see it differently.
    
    The Kennedy's quite apart from their politics and their wealth,
    have as a family taken a strong interest in Ireland. They tell
    their kids about this country, and they send them over here on
    vacations to keep in touch with their heritage. They TRY to 
    maintain their links and unless the Kennedy children are supreme
    political animals also then this is MORE than opportunism.
       The Kennedys try to look for solutions and political catalysts
    and I welcome that. I would say that Joe Kennedy has far more value
    to add to Ireland than the British soldier who struts the streets
    of Belfast maintaining an injustice.
    
    
    Snake will reply.
    

    Re .2:
    
    What the heck are BRITISH SOLDIERS doing in Belfast sticking their
    noses into the affairs of the Irish people, anyway?
    
    Brits don't have to be B.S. artists - after all, "might makes right"
    doesn't it?  They're just like the rest of their clan in England!
    Did that soldier think that just because he was an almighty BRIT
    he would be exempt from anyone questioning HIS presence in a country
    where he has no business being?  Not too bright a soldier, to be
    showing up shortly after two British soldiers were crucified and
    shot like dogs (poor analogy to our canine friends) by a people
    who have had it with "outsiders" who don't know when they have
    overstayed their welcome.  Imagine the audacity of Joe Kennedy -
    lecturing a Brit for swearing at a priest!  WE all know that swearing
    is the proper way to adress a priest!  Nothing like a Brit continuing
    to stir people up worse than they already are, for political benefit.
    However, I must admit that their "political benefit" from this type
    of British behavior has long since passed them by.
    
    The Brits tried it with us 200 years ago, and we sent them packing.
    I think that's what the Irish are trying to do now.  I can't blame
    them either.  If any country should be sympathetic to what the Irish
    are going through, it should be the United States.  Or, are our
    memories of the "redcoats" strictly in books for historical reasons
    and not to "reflect" upon occasionally?
    
    			Barb (no, I'm not Irish) Kinney
    

    There's the man! Yippee!
    
    I don't see that Joe Kennedy has added any value to Ireland by
    engineering a bit of television for himself - nothing has changed
    as a result of his heroic exchange of arguments; not even all the
    Americans here and elsewhere (either in person or quoted) are saying
    the British should withdraw from Ireland cause a soldier argued
    with a Kennedy, and in Britain and Ireland the same is true. It's
    a bit of cheap publicity, not worth hitching your bike to.
    
    As for the need to protect Catholic priests from rude words like
    "Sod off", it's naive to pretend they are innocents. I remember
    serving at Mass once as an altar-boy, when we came off the altar
    into the sacristy the priest slipped off the step down into the
    room. "Shit!" he said.
    
    They, like "poor squaddies", are men.
    
    Phillip

    The BRITS must and shopul get pout of N.I. before they suffer any
    more causalties and cause more potitical embarrassment to the BRIT
    DICTATORSHIP.
    
    The Kennedys have always been revered in Ireland because they have
    never forgotten their roots and the reason they had to leave their
    land and country. This has to be admired as so many people when
    they rise in fame and fortune forget their roots and the fight they
    had in the new lands to be excepted and to make their fortunes.
    The Kennedys had to put up with the Brits who stayed in America
    and who considered them as Paddies, but they fought and won in a
    way that is admirable.
    
    As a child I remember J.F. Kennedy coming to Ireland and you have
    never seen so many people who came out to see him, people could
    touch him, there was not the same security measures taken as are
    taken now a days. I remember waiting on the corner of Abbey Street
    and O'Connell Street with my mother to see him pass, it gives me
    great pleasure to say this as despite what is said about this man,
    he was indeed great and probably one of the best presidents of the
    U.S.A., the first Catholic president and a second generation Irishman.
    This in itself was historical. He loved the country of his father
    and forefathers and was not afraid to show this.
    
    The Kennedys have shown that they are not mere politicians pretending
    to be Irish for the sake of getting Irish votes in the U.S.A. but
    a family that has made good in the U.S.A. but that has not forgotten
    that they are Irish (in spirit if not by birht), be it second or third 
    generation, the love the land that their forefatchers HAD to leave
    due to BRIT OPPRESSION and OCCUPATION. Now they are trying to help
    the country their forfathers left to be what it always was before
    the BRITS, one country.
    
    Get off the stage about this publicity, the Brit soldier reminds
    me of the attitude of the BLACK and TANS in the 20's, they were
    the lowest of the low and generally the BRITS on the streets of
    N.I. are the lowest of the low.
    
    I spent 17 hours in Royal Avenue barracks once courtesy of a IGNORANT
    Brit soldier who stopped me and asked me where I was going. I worked
    as a Sales Executive for a French multinational and I was going
    to an exhibition, I had some display boards in the boot of my car
    and the soldier asked me what the items on the display board were,
    one thing happed to be a time switch and when I told hm this, he
    shouted to another soldier to come over saying "We have a suspected
    terrorist here", I replied "What does a F***** terrorist look like
    then", next minute I knew, I was off to Royal Avenue barracks, they
    did not need to keep me 17 hours in a little room or to question
    me for 3 hours, it was a simple matter of contacting my company
    and the Irish police, but no, the IGNORANT Brits thought it was
    funny and that it would worry me to keep me for 17 hours, thats
    why I have so much respect for them, my ass I do, they are the lowest
    of the low, and one of them demonstrated this to a respected American
    politician and showed his good upbring in front of a priest and
    camera crew.
    
    The Kennedys have more right to be in Ireland than the Brits, it
    must have brought back stories to Joe, stories he was told by his
    father and grandfather of what the Brits did to their family and
    to the people of Ireland.

    Ren� (Tiocadh ar l�)
   
    
     

    Leaprechauns know otherwise.
    
    The thousands who turned out for Joe in Newry yesterday think that
    Joe added value. That is enough reason for him being there.
    Joe Kennedy got annoyed when the "poor squaddie" called the priest
    "a fucking traitor", when the boot (trunk to the yanks) of the car
    was opened fast enough. Joe Kennedy was entitled to feel aggrieved
    about that remark. Irish people are sick of taking that shit from
    the British and their lackeys, Joe Kennedy's reaction to it was
    understandable, and quiet proper. Its a terrible pity that TV was
    there as the event would have even more value if it was not hyped,
    so that the "political opportunism" charge could not be levelled.
    
    I repeat the Joe Kennedy has EXPOSED the real reason for British
    occupation of part of Ireland for Americans and not for an Irish
    audience. THe British are upset (especially the gutter press), their
    reaction speaks volumes for the truth that he exposed. THey are
    upset because he stripped off the veneer and found DIRT - British
    DIRT. If he had not they would not have reacted like they did.
    
    I'm sniggering at these knees jerking.
    
    Snake likes it when the hard truth bites home. Britain's involvment
    in this country of mine is illogical, immoral and unjust - period.
    

    RE: .2  by MCIS2::HARDY
                                 
    >    What the heck is Joe Kennedy doing in Belfast sticking his nose
    >    into the affairs of the Irish people, anyway? 
    
    Joe Kennedy is a Representative in Congress of the same U.S. Government
    that is giving millions of dollars in aid to Belfast and Northern
    Ireland.  I think we have every right to send our people on a
    fact-finding mission to evaluate how that money is being used. 
    
    By the way, I think Snake's comment about being immune to challenges
    by brit [sic] patrols was mistaken, in that he probably meant inured.
    
	    immune = You got no right to stop ME.
        
	    inured = I no longer give a shit    	        

    Good on ye, Snake boy!!!!
    
    Pat Manning

    
    
    
    	re. 7
    
    
    	Maybe Joe thought the soldier was refering to a "Sod Off Shotgun"
    
    
    
    
    
    	keVin
    

    RE. 12
    
       Doubtfull Kevin.  Joe is a good Catholic as most of us are. 
    He didn't like hearing some ignoramus calling a priest a name like
    that.  I feel that if in the same situation I would have done the
    same regardless of what the consequences might have been.  Irish
    have their pride!
    
    I'm sure though that if it were anybody else who got into a situation
    with a British soldier they would have had a very different experience
    cameras or no cameras.
    
    By the way,  Boston television did not show any footage of the event.
    At least WBZ didn't.
    
    
    Hearing these stories just makes me more angry!!
    
    
    When I was 14 years old I sent a letter to Margaret Thatcher pleading
    for an end.  Nice jesture,  got no response.
    
    Bryan

    I don't agree with you, Snake, that it was a "terrible pity" that
    the TV cameras were there - it was a piece of electioneering and
    publicity seeking. It's no coincidence when politicians go round
    trailed by reporters - and I see no difference between Joe Kennedy's
    visit to Ireland and Teddy Kennedy going to South Africa. That
    situation has not changed one bit since then - except for the worse.
    Hitching a cart to his horse is opportunistic, and I don't believe
    a man who supports the death penalty and the US bombing of Libya
    is a worthy horse to attach a cart to.
    
    British soldiers may be seen as the lowest of the low in Rene's
    eyes - and I find that both understandable and depressing, having
    read here and elsewhere about his experiences. 
    
    In case anyone should think I want to see Britain staying in Northern
    Ireland - I don't, but I argue here and in E-F and in G_B for what
    I hope is an attitude of understanding and humanity. Slagging off
    the British, venerating priests, whatever it is - that doesn't seem
    to me to help anyone. I have known enough priests and soldiers
    (including ones who've been in Northern Ireland) to know they are
    neither the lowest of the low, or the elect of God, they're just
    men with a job to do.
    
    In the paper I read Joe Kennedy was given very little coverage,
    as he was on Radio 4 and Channel 4. The gutter press may howl and
    bark (though how they have the time to stop praising Thatcher and
    showing pictures of half-naked women I don't know), but the Sun
    is not the voice of Britain (despite its massive sales - people
    buy it for other reasons than its political stance.) - in the way
    that the vitriole we see here from time to time is not the voice
    of Ireland.
    
    Phillip

    Leaprechauns note the similarity.
    
    The "Irish Emigrant" made a very significant point in relation to
    Joe Kennedy's visit.
    
    The howling media in Britain echoes that reaction by the Isreali
    press against a certain British politician who visited Isreal
    recently.
       Its very interesting to see the British press sing Hosannas,
    in praise of this British politician words in Israel, yet the same
    press goes ape when a US politician says the same thing in N.I.
    Knee-jerk   knee-jerk, knee-jerk.
    
    If the British soldiers saw that the press were scurrying after
    Joe, why then did they stop his car, or are you going to tell me
    that Joe asked them to so that he could stage an incident. ???????
    
    Wiping Irish faces in the mud is a favourite pastime of the Birtish
    security forces, and they couldn't resist this opportunity either.
    
    Snake says thank you Joe.
    

    RE: .14  "electioneering"
    
    Not so.  Joe Kennedy is not currently in a campaign for re-election
    and has not made up his mind whether or not he'll run for re-election
    when his term is completed a couple of years from now.
    
    

    What "howling media"? When the Foreign Office minister went to Israel
    there was massive coverage, with editorials all over the place and
    interviews and all kinds of coverage. What was there in that most
    liberal of British papers - the Guardian? I had to look hard to
    find a small report! There was a brief mention of three incidents
    involving Joe Kennedy on national TV news. I am in the fortuante
    position of not having seen the Sun, but compare a recent editorial
    which suggested that Prince Charles should resign his job cause
    he thinks too much, resign in favour of his thickie brother Edward.
    If you take that seriously then your wide of your British mark again.
    
    If I remember right, your original point, Snake, is that this incident
    will help the Irish situation by exposing it. But who are the people
    whose minds need to be changed? The Unionists like Paisley, the
    ordinary people of Northern Ireland whose voice we rarely hear in
    these kinds of discussions (Cf the guys who appeared in E-F, said
    a few telling things and then disappeared again to read only) and
    the British Unionists - which is basically Thatcher and the other
    leading Tories. The ordinary people of Ireland will take JK's visit
    in various ways - but it's not going to teach them anything they
    didn't know already. The bigoted Protestants will just be further
    entrenched in their position, and the Tories will ignore it as trivial,
    which is how it's perceived here - I am the only person in the 200
    who work in Welwyn who seems interested in it, and most Britains
    don't give any thought to Ireland until either a soldier is killed
    or something enormously violent happens to civilians. 
    
    Now if lots of Americans have their eyes opened by Joe Kennedy (and
    looks as if most of them, including his uncle, couldn't care less),
    and they manage to get their Government to put pressure on Thatcher
    to do something - what do you think her reponse will be? The woman
    is prepared to allow people to starve to death rather than give
    in totheir demands, she will engineer wars to further her career
    and sink ships to scupper peace chances, she will go off to Turkey
    and not kick shit out of them over human rights. Do you really think
    the response would be anything other than, er, dismissive (now there's
    a polite way to put it?) 
    
    The nearest the IRA came to achieving progress in Northern Ireland
    was when they bombed the Tory Party Conference in Brighton - but
    they missed the chance/target. Now that the Government has been
    successful with a policy I've seen described as the "Ulsterisation"
    of the violence, the problems are even more remote than before to
    the people who elected her. Thatcher doesn't listen - not to
    anything, be it reasoned arguments, threats or pleas. 
    
    For Joe Kennedy to achieve anything in Northern Ireland he will
    need to convince people like the ones I have worked and studied
    with who consider themselves British, and want to stay British.
    There is no point in calling them names like we've seen in various
    discussions, and no point in killing them. They need to be persuaded
    that the situation must change, and many ordinary, decent people
    in Northern Ireland don't believe that. They're not "Brits" or
    "Willies" or bigots - they are Irish people who don't share the
    opinions we see her, who don't express their own opinions because
    most of us don't have a medium to do that or the desire to - they
    just want to live their lives where they are and how they are.
    
    (What happened to this subject in E_F? Did it ever get there, or
    just die a death of apathy - the latter I think)
    
    Phillip
    

    RE: .17  "allow people to starve to death"
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    That is what the English government and absentee landlords did during
    the Irish potato-blight famines of the 1840s. 
                     
    
    
    
    

    Mike Barnicle's article in the Tuesday 12 April edition of the Boston
    Globe hit the nail right on the head as far as the Joe Kennedy in
    Ireland bickering with one of Maggie's grunts goes.
    
    Well at least one reporter in Boston so far has the guts to write
    what he feels about this lively topic.  Keep it up Mike!!
    
    Bryan

    
    
    
    	The Boston Globe article was one of the best I have seen.
    
    	If anyone has yesterdays paper, the article is well worth reading.
    	(but it's too long for me to attempt to input all of it here)
                       
    
    	Mike Barnicle says Prince Charles is the worlds best dressed
    	welfare recipient, and that "Chuck" makes Ronald Reagan look like
    	a workaholic compared to himself, who as we all know has no last
        name and therefore can not get a real job.  :=)
    
    
    
    	keVin
    
                                                             
    
    
    	

    I am an Irish Catholic living a Church of England guy from Northern
    Ireland, we also live in England.
    
    I spent three years travelling up and down to N.I. and I never had
    any problems with the British Soldiers and I can also tell you from
    staying up there that the majority of the trouble in N.I. comes
    from too many people making money out of it and too many unemployed
    people being influenced by them.
    
    I certainly don't agree with any of the killings up there be the Irish
    people or British people doing a job.

    RE: .21
    
    Question:  This may seem a bit niave but, In what ways are people
    capitalizing on the troubles in N.I.? Who is doing it?  Are there
    some people who are making it out to be worse than it actually is
    at the expense of others lives and livlihoods?
    
    
    Bryan

       I thought all of you might like to read the following article.
    It was written in response to the miriad of Brit smear-rags, (a.k.a. 
    British daily newspapers) that tout the party-line of Thatcher
    regarding the recent visit of Joe Kennedy to the north of Ireland.
       
       It seems more and more Yanks aren't buying that S.O.S. (same old
    S***) from the Brit propaganda mills. Enjoy! 
    (Also posted to Euro_Forum Note 34.)
    
    
                         SPARE ME, YOU ROYALISTS

                           by Mike Barnicle
                         (Boston Globe 4/12/88)                 


	Off the editorial reaction to Joe Kennedy's trip last week to 
Ireland you'd think he had urinated on the queen's slippers with her in 
them.  All he did was tell a bit of the truth.

	As a result, he was stomped on by British papers located in 
London as well as by a British paper located in Boston and run from New 
York by R. Murdoch, who would do absolutely anything to get a wave or a 
nod of recognition from Prince Charles, the world's best-dressed welfare 
client. Some people are easy.

	The British propaganda mill went into overdrive against Kennedy 
because of an exchange he had with one of the occupation troops in 
Northern Ireland.  Soldiers stopped a car Kennedy was in to search it for 
explosives, an event as common there as mist.  An argument began when 
Kennedy asked the soldier not to employ the F-word with a priest present.  
The trooper suggested that Kennedy go back to his own country so the 
congressman said:  "Why don't you go back to yours."

	That is really a statement, not a question.  And it's a statement 
more and more people who are the slightest bit interested in the peace, 
security and future of all of Ireland have been - or ought to be - making 
more often.  

	But it caused great offense among the Royal Cheerleader squad.  
If England gives up the north of Ireland, the empire would be reduced to 
a couple of cold, stone houses with ancient heating systems, a few sets 
of bone china and some faded pictures of the Queen-Mum with a glass in 
her hand.

	Well, good Lord, what would young Chuck's future be then?  You 
think he wants to end up hanging around the castle all day and jamming 
with Diana over her clothing allowance?

	What would he do if he couldn't some day play the King game?  The 
poor guy is barely potty-trained.  He sure couldn't go out and get honest 
work because he doesn't even have a last name.

	It's a struggle for him to do his present job.  Here's his daily 
schedule:  1. Wake up.  2. Draw a breath.  3. Put on some ludicrous 
costume.  4. Nod and pose.  5. Have a biscuit.  6. Go back to bed.  He 
makes Reagan look like a workaholic.

	Now, by uttering something Irish-American politicians should have 
been saying for years, Joe Kennedy upset the natural course of things.  
The American government must never point to the truth when it comes to 
Northern Ireland.  

	And the truth is that the British Army is today the principal 
source and cause of violence in that sad land.  Take them out of the 
picture and the IRA's recruitment efforts would stumble and falter.

	For years, the English have condoned, championed and accepted 
military death squads run by London with Margaret Thatcher's knowledge 
and acquiesence.  If Ireland had sand dunes like the Middle East, or palm 
trees like Central America, liberals everywhere would be shrieking in 
anguish over its blood-soaked politics.  

	What do you think the reaction would have been if Joe Kennedy had 
traveled to Afghanistan andd suggested to a Russian soldier that he go 
back to Moscow and soak his head in hot vodka?  What would the editorial 
writers have written had he attacked the gunmen of the PLO - one more 
army - or the assassins who stalk Nicaragua or El Salvador?

	All the big thinkers break out in hives when our soldiers go to 
Honduras.  People start tearing their hair out and screaming, "Oh, no, 
another Vietnam."

	But whenever Northern Ireland pops up on the screen, the cop-out 
is that it's merely another religious war; those hump-Irish, the 
Catholics against the Protestants, and who cares?  
	
	Ignored always is England's brutal and vicious scorched-earth 
history in that country.  Over the years, a series of prime ministers and 
dozens of parliaments have attempted to starve the people, steal their 
language, jail or kill their leaders, destroy any educational system, 
make their economy completely dependent on England and their future 
nonexistent.  

	Ireland does not need more martyrs.  It needs more people who are 
unafraid to tell this shrew, this Thatcher woman, that it's wrong, 
incredibly counterproductive and unbelievably foolish to keep on trying 
to put out a fire with gasoline.  

	Yet, give them their due, the English are champions when it comes 
to peddling their propaganda.  For decades, they have cowed the Congress 
and the vast majority of the Irish here into thinking both British 
soldiers and government are peackeepers.  

	Well, they're not.  They are occupation forces, clinging to the 
last vestiges of an empire that London politicians, simply out of false 
pride, refuse to relinquish a grip on.

	Joe Kennedy just stated the obvious.  That's because, unlike a 
lot of the other Irish in America, he has no desire to be knighted as 
footman to the Queen.  


                               **********

    
    
    	Gee, what a great article!  Mike Barnicle writes about as well
    as he talks, which is to say, not very well at all.  That ignorant
    sap has been running off at the mouth for years from his priviledged
    position as a Boston Globe columnist and television commentator.
    The Boston Globe doesn't have much of an axe to grind here, do they?
    Not much, they don't.  The Boston media crowd, fawning jackals that
    they are, have been touting the so-called Kennedy/Camelot charisma
    for a couple of generations now, and it's been wearing pretty thin.
    	Mr. Barnicle fancies himself an expert on just about every issue
    that comes down the pike, but in the by-now standard rhetoric of
    one of our most vociferous conference participants, he hasn't got
    a "bull's notion" of what he is talking about, whether in regard
    to the British Empire or the Royal family.  He and Joe are hardly
    fit to be footmen to the Queen or Mrs. Thatcher; they'd have their
    mental gymnastics cut out for them just cleaning out the Queen's
    stables, but at least they'd be working with the same material they've
    been handing out to us for years.
    	O.K., Rene, Snake, et. al, fire away, I'm expecting a few volleys
    on this one...                                                       
    
    			Regards,
    
    			Dave

    re .24  
    
    Oh, look - One of the "Hardy Boys" straying into the Celt file
    for a spot of Irish bashing. Then he ends his note by trying to bait
    Snake, Rene, or any reader to fire a salvo or two. YAWN.
    
    If you didn't like the article Barnicle wrote, pal, just hit "next
    unseen" and spare us all from any more of your tripe. Of course,
    if any fellow Irish noters want to take on Mr Hardy in an "intellectual
    combat", I suggest you First go and have a lobotomy performed - I'd
    hate to see anyone attack an *unarmed* hardy boy!
    
    A little note of Thanks to TOPDOC::AHERN for your banner, (360.10)
    in response to Hardy's drivel! You sure have his number, Dennis!
    
    Cheers!

    Well as you said Joe, not worht replying to a latecho of the empire.
    Maybe the queen will give hime a job, as the defender of the people
    who live off the welfare state, mainly the royal family.
    
    Ren� loves when the hardy boy talks drivel and never takes the blinkers
    off.

    Leaprechauns like a challenge.
    
    Re . Mr. Hardy's piece,
    
    I won't be replying.
    
    Snakes don't go for fish in a barell.
    

    I can't make any comment on Dave Hardy's opinion of the Boston Globe
    and its attitude to the Kennedys over the years. One thing which
    is disturbing about the reception he got is that all his detractors
    want to do is line up, scream and shout at him and indulge in childish
    tossing. Joe Drotter, in Euro_Forum some time ago, wanted to start
    people thinking about a solution to the Irish problem - but how
    does all the invective help people think?
    
    Anyway, as a confirmed anti-Royalist, I think the Globe article
    is quite funny in its attack on Prince Charles (even if it is
    irrelevant and uninformed), but its the wrong target - he was more
    on target, I believe, attacking Thatcher - the existence of the
    royal family and the appalling attitude shown to them in British
    papers is neither here nor there as far as Ireland is concerned.
    (Those who know Ben Elton might have appreciated this weeks's Friday
    Night Live, in which he showed the hypocrisy and idiocy of the British
    gutter press by his story of what they were saying when Sarah Ferguson
    was about to marry Prince Andrew - "What a big arse she's got!"
    Oh, sorry ma'am, of course we respect you as a leader of this
    country...Both the royals and the gutter press deserve evryone's
    scorn - but does someone who just happens to think differently to
    you?)
    
    Phillip
    

    Just browsing...
    
      Almost two years and a number of "encounters" with the
    Hardy-creature later, his replies in this note don't surprise me
    one iota. 
    
      Typical of your standard uninformed American blather.