So Richard Armitage wasn’t being sarcastic, for those who wondered
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Alas, he wasn’t. It’s very likely that Scotland will seek a second referendum to break away from the UK, as they voted to stay in Europe. Meanwhile the petition to demand a second EU referendum as the margin was very narrow is gaining signatures at a rate of around 100,000 per hour – now at over 1.7 million.
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No, I think some people meant that his support for that petition was sarcastic. I don’t think anyone thinks that the possibility of an imminent UK breakup is a sarcastic reference. That said, this is kind of a weird comment. He must not know much Irish history. “Nurtured” is an odd word to choose in that context.
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Maybe he knows more Irish history than we give him credit for? I see a reunited Ireland as highly unlikely.
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Me, too (although it’s equally a conundrum for me how they will now begin to police a border that is now an EU border), but calling the relationships in the EU nurtured over centuries beggars belief. I don’t think the Welsh or the Scots feel nurtured either, but there was just a huge 1916 anniversary. And then the Troubles. I suspect you know more about this than I do, of course. I just think it’s an odd word to choose.
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Well, we had a similar situation to that years ago, before the peace process. I can remember the times when there was a border in place. And it was similar to the borders I remember in Europe, a place where you had to stop and show your passport. Ok, with the added presence of heavily armed soldiers back then – it was by the end of the ‘troubles’.
“nurtured over centuries” was a rather naive way of putting it (hello WWI+WWII), but well, let’s assume he was overstating it for the purpose of his argument. And it fits his general agitation for nurturing kindness… Benefit of the doubt.
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per Fintan O’Toole: “What will now happen is not that the old border will come back. It’s much worse than that. The old border marked the line between neighbouring polities that had a common travel area and an intimate, if often fraught, relationship. It was a customs barrier. The new border will be the most westerly land frontier of a vast entity of more than 400 million people, and it will be an immigration (as well as a customs) barrier. [paragraph]
It will, if the Brexiters’ demands to take back control of immigration to the UK are meant seriously, have to be heavily policed to keep EU migrants who have lawfully entered the Republic from moving into the UK. And it will run between Newry and Dundalk, between Letterkenny and Derry. The Dublin-Belfast train will have to stop for passport controls. (Given that the border could not be secured with army watchtowers during the Troubles, it is not at all clear how this policing operation will work.)”
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Tbh, while I actually think that O’Toole wrote three fantastic pieces, this particular bit I found slightly overstated. Immigration control, yes, but a) I doubt they are going to build a fence and b) the Irish government is already in talks on securing some sort of extra agreement with the UK. Not that I approve of special terms, but that’s the reality here in these isles that are connected to each other in a historically fraught way.
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OK …
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I dunno. He did some work for RTE (or so his resume used to say), and he made recent reference to working or living in Ireland, which could refer to that or to his recent sojourn. Armitage leads with the feelings, but it must be pointed out, with his feelings.
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Totally leads with feelings. And somewhat spontaneously, too. (I can’t shake the feeling that he does not really heed his own advice when it comes to Social Media expression.)
re. RTE work – I have seen that on his resume (“The Den” – which is an RTE kids’ programme), and I have scoured the (publicly accessible) RTE archives for that, but no joy. Working in Ireland – well, Pilgrimage, and George Gently before that. Probably has a number of friends here (Orla Brady?). I also remember him saying somewhere that he watched the first of the LotR trilogy in Dublin way back in 2001.
Just in general – I suspect that British people are not really that well-versed in Irish history. It’s just that small neighbouring island which has been the cause of much trouble over the last century…
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I’m a little surprised. Maybe it’s only b/c of the Irish immigration here, but it’s a pretty standard school lesson. Potato famine, British starved the Irish, so Irish hate the British, and wasn’t it lucky for us all that they ended up here, faith and begorra. (being a little silly now — that surely wasn’t the sentiment in the 19th century). Then if you take a little more history in college you learn at least superficially about the Tudors and the Reformation. And 1916.
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From what I have heard from English friends, Ireland doesn’t feature much in history lessons in school there. But maybe there are some British readers here who can enlighten us?
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Good to see he speaks his mind and doesn’t delete. (Maybe he feels more comfortable and confident talking UK-related issues?)
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I think it’s hard to say. For a very long time he said nothing at all about political issues beyond things that are widely agreed upon (help the homeless). In 2013 he made his first really political comment ever. And then he needed really a year on Twitter before he started making political comments. I think it’s a more general shift toward being willing to say these ethings.
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Well, maybe it is because he feels ‘more deeply/more frustrated” about this? A ‘closer to home’ kinda thing, you know?
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I dunno. He was pretty emphatic about Trump / walls. I’m not saying he doesn’t care about the UK, just that the general shift to speaking openly about these things is more pronounced to me as observer than the fact that he is now talking about the UK. There were plenty of UK issues he could have spoken out about over the years, but in fact, his first political statement in 2013 was about the US government shut down.
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I applaud him for being publicly passionate – and sticking to his opinions. We’ve seen too many deletes.
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I’ve been thinking all day, so when will these be deleted? That would be really rough on me, anyway.
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You needn’t worry, I think. Not this time around. OTOH, who’s to know; he doesn’t listen to me anyway😉
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