Protestant outrage over Irish president's Nazi comparison

[Scurrilous]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1538&ncid=721&e=6&u=/afp/20050128/wl_uk_afp/nirelandirelandracismjews

<snip>

"Furore has erupted over remarks by Mary McAleese, President of the Irish Republic, that young Northern Irish Protestants had been raised to hate Roman Catholics in the way young Nazis had been programmed to hate Jews.

Speaking on Irish radio in Dublin Thursday, McAleese said: "The Nazis gave their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred of Catholics, in the same way that people give their children an outrageous and irrational hatred of those who are of different colour."

McAleese, a devout Catholic who grew up in Northern Ireland, was speaking on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. Her remarks about the estranged religious communities in the British province provoked Protestant rage.


Ian Paisley Junior, son of the firebrand leader of the same name who heads the strongest Northern Irish Protestant political party, accused McAleese of "spewing hatred of the Protestant community."
"Her comments are completely irrational and designed to insult the integrity of the Protestant community and damn an entire generation of Protestant people," said Paisley junior, a deputy of his father's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)."

[Larkspur]

1. Mary is right and how is the Orange Order's March through Catholic

neighborhoods during July in remembrance of Protestant military victories over Catholics not a prototype of what the KKK did to blacks in America and Nazis did to Jews before they sent them off to concentration camps?

I expect Mary to be pressured to resign so as to salve the egos of the Paisley's and their ilk.

[davidinalameda]

2. Ian Paisley is pretty damn close to being a Nazi

he's hard-core anti-Catholic

he's allied with Bob Jones University--the one who just recently allowed inter-racial dating

Paisley has been rumored to support the Protestant terrorists in Northern Ireland

all in all, pretty accurate comparison

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Paisley
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/1678/ian.html

[Inland]

7. Allied with Bob Jones University! OMG! You mean, the same

BJU that holds the official debate for the republican presidential primary every year! That Paisley IS an asshole nutbag!

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Johnyawl]

6. Exacxtly right, Toots

Both sides of that street look pretty much the same to me.

[w4rma]

9. On the surface, I disagree. This article has very little context to go on

Context to show which side is promoting the hate of the other. One is saying the other is acting like Nazis (in the way they teach hate) towards the Catholics. The other is saying that they are "spewing hatred of the Protestant community" by saying that they are promoting hate.

Paisley (the "Protestant" spokesperson), from posts above, appears to have ties to Bob Jones, which is a major strike against him as Bob Jones is a proven supporter of hate towards different people.

I don't know anything about McAleese, beyond what this article says.

Actually, trying to dissect this article is kinda interesting since I know very little about what is going on inside that country. It is a good way to try to put yourself in the shoes of a regular politically naive American when looking at American news, concerning Democrats, and how statements can appear to regular Americans when they have little context to go on.

[Maeve]

14. No, more like how Jews hated Nazis

Catholics have in the North been forbidden to hold rallies, locked out of jobs and housing, faced riots to "keep them in their place", interred without charges, trial or recourse on grounds of "suspicion"---discriminated against and harrassed. Not in the distant past, either, but within her lifetime.

[noonwitch]

17. Catholic children in the north were getting stones thrown at them on the

way to school, a few years ago. Both sides have a lot of hatred toward each other, I wouldn't single out the blame to one side at this point in history, because it does no good.

I would compare the situation to the Isreali-Palestinean one in that you have a situation that once was about occupation of a land, but it is now way to far into the history to "ship one side back to where they came from".

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Truth hurts, don't it. n/t

[Inland]

5. In truth, Irish prot children raised like Irish protestants, not Nazis.

This particular religious and class schism has existed for four hundred years. There was an irrational hatred before the Nazis, after the Nazis; there was plenty of hate to go around, and there is a lot less today than there was.

Why compare to Nazis?

[emad]

8. McAleese row over Nazi comments

BBC


Mary McAleese is at the centre of a row after claiming Northern Ireland children were taught to hate Catholics in the same way Nazis despised Jews.

The Irish president made the comments on RTE radio before attending ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation.

The DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr said her comments were irrational and insulting.

The president's spokesperson said her comments were "never intended to single out" Protestants in Northern Ireland.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4214263.stm

[Chimpeach]

10. Nazi = taboo

Any time you compare a group of people in general terms to the Nazis....expect a backlash. Shame on her.

Why not focus on constructive ways to solve this age-old problem?

[Guns Aximbo]

11. The TRUTH is painfull sometimes.

Maybe this debate will open everyone eyes.

[Karenina]

12. She speaks the truth.

Now, KILL HER before she multiplies. :SIGH:

[KissMeKate]

13. the truth hurts.

Maybe they should stop teaching hatred to their children? just a suggestion Ku klux Paisley.

[Itchinjim]

15. Fuck Paisley.

And his piece of shit old man too.

[bpj1962]

16. Northern Ireland

My grandfather fought in the war of Independence and if he was still alive he would completely agree with Mary McAleese. Ian Paisley and his gang think that they are English when in fact the name of the country is Northern Ireland not Southern Britain. If Ulster was to be unified with the rest of Ireland the DUP would lose its relevancy and he would have to flee to England.

[Tyler Durden]

18. As a person with two dead Irish Protestant relatives in Ulster:

I say Fuck ANYONE who wants to continue playing this Religion card, be it McAleese OR Paisley, but when there are currently efforts to ease the troubles, ESPECIALLY Fuck McAleese for stirring the pot, whether deserved or no.

This is how innocents get shot or blown up.

[Joe Chi Minh]

20. Self-deleted.

Sorry. Didn't see your post.

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Self-deleted.