I nearly fell off my chair whilst reading the Irish News this morning. The front page splashed on these comments from UDA emperor Jackie McDonald:
A leading loyalist last night blamed far right BNP and Combat 18 supporters for a spate of attacks on Romanian families who have been forced to flee their homes in Belfast.
UDA leader Jackie McDonald, who denied that loyalist paramilitaries were connected to violence against Romanians living in the south of the city, said he believed the attackers came from outside the area.
Well, the question there is which area. They came from outside the university area, yeah. But it’s accepted by most people that they came from the Village, an area where Jackie has some influence.
And he warned the BNP against trying to recruit young men in loyalist areas of south Belfast amid reports that the right-wing group was planning to stage a rally in the Sandy Row area this weekend.
McDonald, who has offered to support the Romanians, said the attacks had to be “condemned outright”.
“There can be no justification for it but there is no way the UDA was involved and it is dangerous to attach these attacks to loyalist paramilitary groups,” he said.
It seems that what is exercising Hard Bap is the possibility that the UDA’s good name might be besmirched by commentators linking it with the BNP. Which sort of says something about Nick Griffin’s push for respectability.
Inside the paper is Newton Emerson’s column, much of which is a dig at the Socialist Party, although it’s a relatively good-natured dig. But what I wanted to quote was Newt’s opening:
It is difficult to know how anyone can be a British patriot and a Nazi, given how British patriotism is defined by the defeat of the Nazis. It is particularly difficult to know how anyone can be a south Belfast loyalist and a Nazi, given the loyalist propensity for decking south Belfast in Israeli flags. But however grotesque, stupid and violent the cause or effect, you can guarantee that some people will try to exploit it.
UPRG spokesman Frankie Gallagher, for example, reckons neo-Nazis would not be attacking Roma families if he was properly funded to take youth groups to Poland. Yes, Frankie wants to take the Nazis into Poland. Will they be packing their Israeli flags for that?
Ah yes, the wonders of the UDA’s political thought. I’m sure some conflict resolution money could be found for this valuable work…
Garibaldy said,
June 19, 2009 at 12:35 am
Now we know what happened Jose Mourinho’s old coat.
entdinglichung said,
June 19, 2009 at 8:06 am
I can remember from a Searchlight copy from1995 or 1996 that Combat 18, BNP and supporters of the UDA marched together for Rememberance Sunday in London
Ferenka Fred said,
June 19, 2009 at 11:19 am
Eddie Whicker used to be the contact man for that sort of thing. There’s a British Ulster Alliance mural in the Fountain estate in Derry (where the UDA would be the local paramilitaries). The BUA was a fascist operation. The Derry UDA mag had an article bemoaning desegregation in American schools a few years ago, along with an appeal for Loyalists not to associate with Israel, because the Jews were enemies of Ulster. You getting the picture?
Ciarán said,
June 19, 2009 at 10:37 pm
The UDA is also interested in getting involved in the decommissioning business, provided the price is right. So much for big Jackie’s claims about them being “the people’s guns”.
Danny said,
June 19, 2009 at 10:57 pm
This is interesting too, lets stop colluding with the notion that there is something called ‘sectarianism’ when what we are talking about is racism
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8109359.stm
Fellow Traveller said,
June 20, 2009 at 1:48 pm
It is difficult to know how anyone can be a British patriot and a Nazi…
It was possible prior to September 3 1939. (George Orwell, as you no doubt know, repeatedly emphasized that prior to that point British communists could be simultaneously anti-British and anti-Nazi and found themselves after it faced with the difficulty of having to support an imperialist power against a fascist one). Adolf frequently spoke of his admiration for the British Empire and his wish for fraternal relations between its and the German people. No doubt patriotic Brits who admire Adolf view Britain’s opposition to him as a plot of International Jewry (citing the demise of the Empire in the post-war period as its ultimate objective – British Palestine becomes Israel).
However, it doesn’t explain those who adopt a pro-Nazi, pro-Zionist stance today. I suppose they could argue that they don’t want Jews here, they want them over there. Now the Jews have got their own nation-state, they’ve no reason to remain in ours. Nationalism has always tended toward autarky – the idea of each people confining itself to its historic soil and tending its own garden with limited traffic between peoples. Extreme German nationalists at the beginning of the 19th century exemplify this thinking (one even proposed growing a huge primeval forest between Germany and France to keep the two separate). However, it developed into a more expansionist outlook over time.
ejh said,
June 21, 2009 at 9:13 am
During the appeal, Mr Findlay argued that a football match was “an organised breach of the peace”
Hah, that’s fantastic.