Queen in a fury over Nazi slur (she axes historic trip to Ireland)

[rainbow4321]

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=15131555&method=full&siteid=106694&headline=queen-in-a-fury-over-nazi-slur-name_page.html


THE Queen has pulled the plug on plans for an historic trip to Ireland after the country's President compared Protestants to Nazis.

Her Majesty is said to have told advisers that Mary McAleese's remarks were a "slap in the face".

And she was so offended by the claim that Protestant kids were taught to hate Catholics in the same way that Nazis hated Jews,that she scrapped the state visit.

It would have been the first time the Queen had visited Ireland. The tour was set to include Northern Ireland. A senior palace aide said: "She feels it was a gratuitous insult to her Protestant subjects in Ulster." President McAleese said she was devastated by the reaction which her remarks generated, and acknowledged she had been "clumsy"

[MichiganVote]

1. And who has the granson who dresses up as a Nazi? Oh, that would be the Q.

[MasonJar]

17. The young prince has apologized. Let it go; it was a poor choice

by a 19 year old. Were you perfect then? (glass houses and all) It is outrageous to insult protestants when the queen who is Anglican is coming to visit your country. However, since the Irish were totally opposed to a visit by Stump, I will always admire their good taste whatever they do. They also loved Bill Clinton.

[Pert_UK]

32. Sorry, no.....

Prince Harry chose to wear a Nazi costume during the runup to commemorations of the liberation of Auschwitz. He chose to wear that uniform to a "Colonials and Natives" party...which makes me think that he was champing at the bit to get the costume out, given that it has nothing to do with the theme of the party.

Also, whilst I love Ireland and the Irish people it might be worth remembering that during WWII Ireland remained neutral, and even sent official condolences to Germany when Hitler died.......Which means it's a bit rich when their president starts comparing Protestants to Nazis.

NB - I realise that she's apologised and believe that her words were just extremely ill-chosen, rather than deliberately antagonistic.

[RogueTrooper]

39. However

Irelend may have been officially neutral during WW2 it was a lot easier being British in Ireland than German. And don't forget the 350,000 Irishmen who signed up to fight for Britain.

[Pert_UK]

40. True indeed....it would be a crime to forget those brave Irishmen...

Didn't mean to do that - I'm well aware of their contribution and shouldn't have missed it out.....Shame their government didn't make the same commitment.

[Endangered Specie]

19. lol!

oh! the irony.

[Pithlet]

2. She has never been to Ireland?

I hope they mean she's never been there on an official state visit.

[Matilda]

11. The Queen has visited Northern Ireland a number of times,

but never before visited the Irish Republic. Anything that would
help to heal the divisions between north and south can only be
good.

Okay, Harry's a twit, but the comments coming from Ireland's top
official are stupid in the extreme, and she doesn't have the excuse
of youth either. The woman obviously knows as much about diplomacy
as Bush.

[jman0]

28. 'stupin id the extreme' ?

She told it like it IS.
Truth hurts.

[paineinthearse]

3. The Windsors have quite a history with Hitler....

[pacifictiger]

7. The fact that the current queen's

uncle met with Hitler caused a HUGE outrage in parliament and was one of the reasons he was forced to abdicate - the marriage issue to a divorcee Wallace Simpson was the convenient excuse. The Royal Family never forgave him (the queen mother blamed the extra stress of being King during the war for her husband's premature death) and was one of the reasons the former King became persona non grata with them afterwards.

[LiviaOlivia]

20. As do the Irish with Hitler

http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/ssvols.htm

[jman0]

29. wtf?

Your article states:


"There were no Irish units in the Waffen-SS or Wehrmacht, although there were Irish volunteers."
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/ssvols.htm

And that somehow is supposed to admonish Ireland, because 3 people joined ranks with the Germans? WTF

[Hekate]

34. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is what got Ireland

By the time of WW II Ireland had a centuries-long hatred of England. They had their reasons, okay?

Germany under Hitler was England's enemy. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." That kind of thinking can blind people to great evil, and there were Nazi sympathizers among the Irish. I don't know how widespread it was, but it was there.

Hekate

[jman0]

41. "..and there were Nazi sympathizers among the Irish"

O yeah?
Well there were a lot more nazi sympathizers among the British and Americans that's for sure.
And guess what, for every one "irish nazi sympathizer" there were probably 100 who actually fought against the nazis.

[RogueTrooper]

38. Please don't forget

that, during the second world war, 350,000 Irishmen joined the British armed forces to fight Hitler. They were heroes.

[pinto]

4. Oh go carve up a country..worked so well the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th time..n/t

[Algorem]

5. They don't need her crappin' up the place anyway.

[bin.dare]

6. McAleese has apologized profusely, what more does old bags want?

President apologises for hurt she caused Protestants
Mark Hennessy and Dan Keenan


The President, Mrs McAleese, has apologised for comments she made in a radio interview on Thursday morning during which she appeared to compare Northern Ireland Protestants to Nazis.

The President said last night she was "desperately sorry" for the hurt caused. She said it had never been her intention to lay all the blame for Northern Ireland sectarianism at the door of Protestants during her RTÉ Morning Ireland interview.

In Thursday morning's interview, Mrs McAleese said the Nazis had given "to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred, for example, of Catholics, in the same way that people give to their children an outrageous and irrational hatred of those who are of different colour and all of those things".

The remarks provoked criticism from the Democratic Unionist Party, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Orange Order, which yesterday scrapped plans to meet her in March.

Speaking from England last night, the President said: "What I said I undoubtedly said clumsily. I should have finished out the example and it would have been a much better interview had I done that. That was certainly my intention. It was never my intention going into it simply to blame one side of the community in Northern Ireland."

The apology was welcomed and accepted by unionist politicians and the Orange Order last night.

A spokesman for the Orange Order said it was "delighted she has apologies for her deeply unfortunate remarks made on Thursday".

Mr Michael McGimpsey, a former minister in the Executive, said: "This puts the matter to rest - the sooner we forget about it and get on with what needs to be done the better."

DUP Assembly member Ms Arlene Foster said it might take time to heal the hurt caused by Mrs McAleese's comments but added: "I'm happy she has apologised,"

The scale of the controversy appears to have been misjudged by the President and her advisers, who believed up to yesterday afternoon that it would run its course. Having decided that a public apology would have to be made, the President decided to do a number of radio interviews this morning. It was decided that this was not fast enough and interviews were arranged at short notice between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. last night.

During an interview on Today FM, Mrs McAleese accepted that the Orange Order had fairly criticised her failure to include both Catholics and Protestants. "That is what I should have done if my head had been screwed on properly and clearly I made a mistake for which I am desperately sorry," she said.

Speaking on RTÉ's Five Seven Live, she said she had tried to do much over the years "to try and show in every way that I can that we all have blame" for the sectarianism which exists.

Mrs McAleese is scheduled to hold another series of visits to Northern Ireland late next month, accompanied by her husband.

She went on: "I certainly hope that nothing that I have said will stop the march of peace and the march towards a culture of mutual respect. I was trying to encourage that culture of mutual respect."

She said she had been trying during her radio interview to push the message that intolerance and racism has to be fought in every generation.

"In trying to say that, I came across as putting the blame on one side of the community. That was entirely wrong. Having rectified that now, I hope as sincerely as I can, because I am so devastated because good people that I know that I really would not want in any shape or form to hurt - I am sure they were hurt by those words. I would want to take back that hurt... I did not intend to inflict on one side of the community the entire burden of responsibility, or blame."

She added: "Sectarianism is a shared problem. It is my fault for not saying that absolutely as clearly as I always do 110 times out of 111. This was 111 unfortunately."

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/0129/2149095238HM1LEAD.html

[Maeve]

8. Yes, they are delighted that she apologized

Gives them another chance to play the victim, a neat trick when you have most of the political power....

[KissMeKate]

9. who cares?The queen had not been to Ireland before-

let her stay away.

[natrat]

45. god save the queen, she aint no human being

she's a moron-clash

[CountAllVotes]

10. "clumsy" remarks they are the truth

and the truth hurts doesn't it queenie?

IRELAND FOR THE IRISH!

:kick:

[malaise]

13. Why did he apologize?

What the English did to the Irish was their first experiment in cruel and inhumane treatment - they produced the model that facilitated the exploitation of millions across the globe. F..k the queen, her heirs and successors.
She's lucky they were even thinking about letting her land in Ireland.

[CountAllVotes]

15. I don't think he should have apologized

If the shoe fits you wear it queenie! Your grandson is running around with a swastika on his arm and you wonder why this was said?



The only thing that seems to be a given is how to commit genocide against a people which is still going on today in Northern Ireland. All is not well and never will be "well" until Ireland is given back to the Irish!

To hell with the queen and her Nazi punk grandson. Shows what all of that inbreeding produces right straight down the line.

:kick:

[GainesT1958]

16. By "For the Irish"...

Do you mean for the Irish CATHOLICS, only?

B-)

[KissMeKate]

23. most of the protestants in NI dont call themselves Irish,

and its 94% catholic in the free Republic.

[mitchtv]

24. how about "those who consider themselves Irish"?

"English" should leave. I never buy Old Bushmills- bad hiring practices.Nothing quite like the truth to chaffe a hide.

[Spider Jerusalem]

35. Okay...

by that logic, one would assume you'd support giving Israel to the Palestinians?

[LizMoonstar]

12. Why is it

that it's ok to call someone a Nazi just because they're (nominally in this case) in power? Admittedly the royal family is not always the brightest, but how is this kind of discourse being defended out of anyone? If the queen had said the same thing about the Catholic Irish, she would have been shouted at, but when someone else says it, it's ok. I don't understand this.

This is just one of many times that I've seen here recently where everything has deteriorated into a bashing free-for-all hatefest. Usually it's one DUer against another. I'm a new member in terms of posting, and for all that I love what we are doing here, some days all the hate spewed here makes me want to leave and not come back. Seriously, how is hate helping us?

[Igel]

25. It doesn't help us.

But a lot of people can't get past their cynicism, or whatever else it is, and think it's fun to call people names and insult them (whether or not they actually deserve it). Ignore them. I didn't like that sort of person when I was a kid, and still don't many years later.

Choose your forums and threads wisely, and overlook stuff that's offensive.

[Hekate]

36. Welcome to DU, Liz Moonstar!

Igil's got it right. I've learned to (mostly) pass by threads that are too full of bile for my taste, and I've learned to avoid certain topics that are guaranteed flame-bait (like abortion).

Prince Harry is young and stupid, and all-too-obviously slept through his classes in the history of Britain -- you know, the part where the Nazis bombed the hell out of London and other parts of England. I understand his Dad, the Permanent Prince of Wales, took him to the woodshed on this matter and has arranged (ordered) a tour of Auschwitz for him during his next vacation.

So, welcome to DU and see you around!

Hekate

[impe]

53. Yeah

it's ok to bash protestants and compare them to nazi's but try doing that to any other religions and see what happens.

[AP]

14. The royal boy with the Nazi armband is not amused.

[roguevalley]

18. personally, she doesn't need to come, the old twit. Her family

has done enough to the Irish. My family in its entirety would still be there but for them.

[Lisa]

21. Queen misses an historic chance to smooth things over ...

She could have used the state visit as a chance to remind people that the only way to reach peace is by confronting those hateful old stereotypes. My guess is that the Protestants and Catholics who are working to build a new relationship between the South and the North have had to endure much worse than unpleasant words.

Plus -- it would have been a classic diplomatic move. Queen overlooks host's faux pas. (I know she can do this -- she's had the job for >50 years.) The Irish President would have been stunned and grateful (evidently she is embarrassed or she wouldn't have admitted she made a mistake there). I'll bet that she would never forget such a gracious gesture.

[DFLforever]

22. A terrible faux pas but perhaps Mary McAleese was thinking of her

girlhood school in No. Ireland. Some of you may remember the one, pictures of it were on TV worldwide in Sept. 2001. Little Catholic girls on their way to school had to run a gauntlet of screaming, bottle hurling Prot. parents displeased the girls were walking to Catholic school on 'Protestant' streets.

Tell me that's not hatred and that it's not passed on to their children.

More or less hatred than that felt by German kids toward little Jewish kids? How do you measure hatred in children?

[GetTheRightVote]

She is offended by teachings while Prince wears Nazi suit

this is just to rich for me

:kick:

[GetTheRightVote]

26. She is offended by teachings while Prince wears Nazi suit

this is just to rich for me

:kick:

[DFLforever]

27. Look at the up side of this diplomatic rumble

Maybe the Irish will be fortunate enough to never have a British monarch set foot in Ireland again.

[jman0]

30. we can only hope

Feck the Queen and her NAZI Orangemen in the North.

[aikido15]

31. Yep...

Briton stay out of Ireland! And get out of Iraq while your at it!

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

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

[jman0]

42. personal attacks against a poster are not allowed at DU btw.

[MadHound]

37. Truth hurts eh Liz?

Sorry, but McAleese's remarks, while not diplomatic, were the truth. Nothing like Orange Day celebrations to get the Protestants howling for blood. While things have been smoothed over in the past few years, with serious efforts at piece on both sides, the history is there and should be acknowleged. But the Queen apparently doesn't like such inconvienent truths uttered. Oh well, nothing like a powerless figurehead being royally pissed. Well Liz, looking out your grandson, might thou be protesting a bit too much?

[happynewyear]

43. good riddance!

Glad the old bag isn't coming to the Emerald Isle with the contamination that follows. She might try her holidays in Iraq where she can support the British troops might I suggest.

:kick:

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. Update: Sunday Mirror may be exaggerating (so, no change there)

President Mary McAleese will go ahead with a visit to Belfast in three-and-a-half weeks' time despite the controversy over her remarks about religious discrimination.
...
Meanwhile, reports that Buckingham Palace had called off an official trip to Ireland by the Queen in the wake of the President's "Nazi" comparisons were being denied in both London and Dublin yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Aras an Uachtarain said there had been no definitive plans made for the monarch to visit Ireland. An informal invitation had been extended on more than one occasion.

"The President has said that she would welcome a visit by the Queen. But the timing of such a visit would be a matter for the two Governments.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=606423

Sorry about the various quotes in the article from small-minded Protestant politicians looking to milk this further.

[happynewyear]

46. thanks for the "update"

or whatever it really is. Bottom line is the queen isn't going.

[Bridget Burke]

47. So, the Queen's visit had not been scheduled at all...

And various Unionists have their knickers in a twist. No news there....

[happynewyear]

48. Unionists have their knickers in a twist

lol!!! :D

[LoneDriver]

49. Good thing

If she shows up, they should give her a taste of what the English gave to Connolly, Pearse and countless others.

[hyphenate]

50. Isn't that newspaper

owned by Hollinger or Murdoch? I know one of them is a conservative rag.

[muriel_volestrangler]

51. No, the Mirror is a left wing tabloid

not always reliable, but it's definitely not a conservative mouthpiece.

[Tyler Durden]

52. As a person with Protestant relatives dead by and IRA bomb...

I will have to repeat my sentiment of a few days back.

The Troubles are EVERYONE's fault in Ireland, notwithstanding Irish on both sides of the Religious Fence being fully eligible to be called terrorists under the most "liberal" definition.

There's more than enough pot to call the kettle black over there, but as a future member of the British Commonwealth of nations, may I say...

SOD OFF.