Flying The Oily Flag Of Disrespect

"What the government is planning will hugely change people's concept of the family. Nevertheless, marriage between a man and a woman will always remain the ideal environment in which to raise children."
- Cardinal Sean Brady.

By Charley Brady

We'll get back to the pontificating of Cardinal Brady later, but in the meantime... Where do you even start this week?

I always hope to be writing a happy column to you - you know, one that is filled with fluffy bunnies and hedgehogs that can talk and Mr. Toad who wants to be your friend, but real life just isn't like that, is it?

Real life is the only dude that was convicted for the Lockerbie Bombing.

But yeah, let him out of prison because he's suffering from prostate cancer. Do you think that I give a fiddler's about his cancer?

I'm in my fifties: I already know a fair bit about cancer.

I'll tell you what I do give a damn about: seeing the flag of Scotland flying in Libya. I do feel a lot of hurt for that atrocity.

Am I being mean? Am I not sharing in the world's pain?

Let me tell you about pain: Pain is when you see Gadaffi being rehabilitated because his country has - let's spell it out in black and white, boys and girls - OIL. Did you get that? Just in case you missed it - OIL!

If ever there was a deal done then it's this one.

I was born in Scotland and although I have spent over thirty years in Ireland it still hurt me to see the flag of my nation being flown there.

Yes, I know that there are a hell of a lot of unanswered questions with this one, but shady deals being done behind the back of the people and no statements at all coming from Britain's Prime Minister isn't the way to sort things.

Call me a racist if you must; call me a bigot if you must. But it hurt me.

I am neither of those things; but to see a supporter of the Irish Republican Army - and let's not forget that without Gadaffi's intervention their grubby war would have ended far sooner - fly the flag of Scotland while he has his moronic son greet the only man who has ever been convicted of that terrible crime, well it just turns my stomach.

A hero's welcome? For doing what, exactly?

Which brings me on to a connected piece.

A few weeks ago I asked if the loathsome creatures of Sinn Féin could go any lower.

Stupid question: of course they can and of course they have.

In Tyrone last week, to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the hunger strikes we had good old Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness along with leader to terrorist scum everywhere, Gerry ("look at the nice Armani suit I'm wearing this week") Adams presiding over a demonstration where youths as young as sixteen were all kitted out in their balaclavas and best- pressed camouflage gear for photographs where they re-enacted - albeit with toy guns, frighteningly realistic toy guns - some of the moves that the older morons had done years before.

I'm not blaming these kids. We all did stupid and reprehensible things when we were that age. I do, however, find it beyond contempt that two senior members of Sinn Féin/IRA were watching with approval as these young dopes went through their moves.

In this day and age do we really need to pass that baton on? It hardly needs to be added that Kerry T.D. Martin Ferris was there to also give his approval.

Mind you, what else would you expect from an unrepentant swine who only last week trundled himself out to greet a couple of cop-killers who were released here after serving a miserable ten years of a life sentence for murdering a man who was simply doing his job.

Sorry, I keep forgetting that I shouldn't use the word "murder" as these beauties had their crime reduced to manslaughter. As if pumping 15 bullets from an AK 47 into a seated man at point blank range could, in any sane world, be seen as "manslaughter".

This event, if you could dignify it with that word, was staged to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the illegal Na Fianna Eireann, the youth wing of the Irish Republican Murderous Bastards Army.

It obviously seemed like a good idea to some of the older guys to pass on the hatred that most of us are just trying to get over.

One old-time Republican put this ignorant display into context when he said: "Where's your condemnation? Surely glorification of the PIRA's armed campaign has no place in peace times."

Sinn Féin's answer from Barry McElduff? Well, it goes as follows: "We were remembering, not terrorists but inspirational, politically motivated Irish hunger strikers. Many young people are curious to know the story of these hunger strikers who laid down their lives for Irish freedom."

Irish freedom? As I light up a cigarette here it amuses me to think that in a bar now you are not even allowed to see the packet. They have to be covered up. Just in case it corrupts you, don't you know?

So in a country where we talk about human rights (well, Bono does) the elderly men and women who have worked all of their lives have to stand out in the rain to have a smoke, we still talk about Irish freedom won at the point of a gun. This all while the white collar criminals who have bled us dry will never see the inside of a cell.

So that's all right then. Let's keep going. Let the cycle never end, let the circle never be broken. What a sad and twisted legacy to leave for anyone, let alone your children.

Back to Cardinal Sean Brady. In the wake of the Ryan Report - and how quickly we forget! - into child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church you would think that the Church would keep its almighty gob shut about anything pertaining to the family. But no. Instead their flapping mouths are worse than ever as they continue to lecture us on how to live, what to eat, what air to breathe and what to wear of a Sunday.

They want respect, you see. I have as much respect for these frock-wearing lunatics as I have for the equally mad Muslims who think that the appropriate sentence for a woman who is caught drinking a glass of beer is to give her half a dozen lashes. In other words, no respect at all.

Brady says that the people of Ireland will have to choose to "stand clearly on the side of Christ or depart from Him."

This sounds ominously like an interview that I did with a mad Musie in Galway some years back when he claimed that under the flag of Islam, which he hoped to see flying here in the near future there would be segregation of the sexes on beaches, no nightclubs and even went as far as to say that these things would take a long time to happen but that they would happen.

Cardinal Brady is only one short step removed from this medieval thinking.

And let me nail my colours to the mast here, just in case anyone is in doubt.

The love between man and man or woman and woman is just as wonderful to see as the love between different sex couples.

It may not be to my taste but I know some same sex couples that have a far better relationship between them than many of the hideous marriages I've seen.

What I don't and never will understand is their need to adopt children. As one gay friend of mine says: "We were never meant to have children. For crying out loud, we don't have any bloody wombs for a start."

Can't argue with that, Shay. For the rest, I just say well done on finding real love in a world as crazy as this one.

And to Cardinal Brady, could I also say: "Sort your own house out first before you and your type lecture us ever again."

Just to wind things up, could I say to Taylor of Ohio: "I am really glad that my writing upsets you so much. At least you're reading it and taking the time to tell me how much you hate me. That's a hell of a lot better than apathy, isn't it? Mind you, I don't necessarily agree that I should be disembowelled and left to die painfully, but that's your opinion and I would always defend that."

May your God go with you and I hope to see you all again next week...

Same bat-time!

Same bat-channel!

You can reach Charley at chasbrady7@eircom.net