Nelson Mandela .

It's still hard for me to imagine what life was like for the indigenous S Africans under apartheid -looking at some of the old newsreel leaves one gasping with disbelief.
What Mandela did during the struggle to dismantle this foul regime was noteworthy in itself but what he did afterwards revealed him to be a man of rare moral stature. He showed that even apparently intractable situations can be resolved and his legacy and example may well inspire people to solve some of the many other bloody conflicts still raging today.
I love the way that the S African are singing and dancing in celebration of his epic life and career although they will build in a day of prayerful reflection too.
The funeral obsequies should be compulsive viewing.

Someone on Liveline suggested that Ireland should be represented at Mandela's funeral by the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid workers who went on strike in the 80's. Great idea. Hopefully it can come to pass.

Someone should tell Reb that when the puppets in Dunnes Stores refused to handle Outspan oranges they eventually had to be replaced by Jaffa oranges,they never saw the irony.

Jumping the gun , wildman . Ascribing stuff to me which has no basis in fact .  The fact that I cared what was happening daily  in South Africa ( and USA  and Northern Ireland ) and marched a few times does not mean it was the only cause in which I believed .

Emigration from Ireland did not start in the fifties or sixties wildman , go back over 100 years before that when it was mass other than desultory emigration .

No idea why I would be described as a member of a priveleged elite , I went to University on foot of a University scholarship because I was academically clever and I lived at home so no expenses . Just a bus ride daily .

The members of the Anti Apartheid movement were unknown to me , but one man one vote and universal adult suffrage will always have resonance with me . How left wing intellectuals milking any state come into a Nelson Mandela thread I dont know .

Well if we're talking about the Irish delegation turning into a travelling bandwagoning roadshow -why not add in
Mr. G Adams T.D. -peacemaker extraordinaire and a man cut from the same cloth as Mandela.
I can see him doing a reading in Gaelic and telling the world that,actually,Nelson Mandela was never a member of  the ANC.

The milking of the state comes into it because all had state jobs,now all have massive state pensions.

There were little or no scholarships to university in the early sixties,doubt if you were on one and you can guarantee all on those balmy Wednesday afternoon marches were privileged then and are even more privileged now.

You also state you gave up your golf to go on the march,probably were a member of Portmarnock and again didnt get the irony.

I would love to hear was there ever a golf playing working class boy attending Trinity on an alleged scholarship.

Maybe it has escaped you wildman , but most posters on here know I have spent all but 2 years of my life in Northern Ireland . Trinity was banned for us Catholics when I went to Uni up here , and it was a mortal sin for anyone to be at a dance after midnight . Sometimes I think we ignore the motes in our own eyes .

If playing golf makes one elitist in your eyes so be it . I am still a memeber of said golf club , it is well populated by various religions and a complete spectrum of socio economic groupings . And in those student days my annual golf membership subscription to that club was £1.55 a YEAR . The then cost of 5 gallons of petrol . Hardly a deterrent to inclusivity . We played with balls we found , and my first clubs had wooden shafts . The golf club thing in my opinion ( outside of a few I could mention ) is partly based on a perspective of life I never shared --viz that I was not as good as anyone else .  I am , always have been , I will go anywhere , engage anyone in conversation or debate , its an old Irish tradition  , the craic . No tugging of forelocks here !

I knew you were from County Down but couldn't believe that a Catholic in Northern Ireland would march about Apartheid in a country thousands of miles away but gently acquiesce to the apartheid in his own statelet.

Someone paid for your education,it wasn't you yet there you were either golfing or going on fashionable marches.

Gently acquiesce to the apartheid in his own stalelet ? Guess you have never analysed anything from my posts , wildman .

I grew up with B-specials around every bend , clerics were a favourite target , among whom were many of my excellent teachers at school .  They had a tough time if travelling about .

You lads in the South had it easy compared with us , we had to fight tooth and nail for anything we got , including buying property if your face didn't fit . Taking a University scholarship which you had earned was a must , one of few level playing fields about  , the exam system was anonymous so we had a chance . The biggest single factor in the change in Northern Ireland after the second world war was the 1947 Education Act  , wildman , just to update your handle on history in this statelet .

I always factor in the fact I have never been stopped by a B special,never harassed by the RUC but the thought of a Northern Catholic marching against something going on miles away whilst doing nothing about his own situation is ludicrous to me.

Fashionable causes always get band wagon jumpers,no need for Independant thought there.

You may think people in the South had it easy but there was no free secondary education here,no free third level education when you were availing of both.

Mainwaring (Borneo): You both went to University, didn't you?

Wilson (Vubiant): You know, I can't help feeling, Sir, you've got a little bit of a chip on your shoulder about that.

Mainwaring (Borneo): There's no chip on my shoulder, Wilson. I'll tell you what there is on my shoulder, though: three pips, and don't you forget it.

Ludicrous ?  Implying I should have been Sean Southing as well as marching in anti apartheid demos  , wildman ? 

There are more ways of influencing people than direct violence , wildman . You can even influence people over a pint after a golf match if you have the necessary skill and right on your side .

Turning out twice a week for Gaelic football ( and training ) takes a fair bit of time .  Maybe being a full paid up  and active GAA person was the wrong route , wildman . But I cannot revisit history .

Did spend a lot of time politically active in the early seventies though , chaired a local political  branch until patience with authorities ran out .  Retreated to the golf course and GAA , plus changing the nappies ( Zorbit Reds and Napisan in those days , none of your disposables the softies now use ! ) .

Wildman is from Tipp, people that far south don't ignorant to the North and struggle people had for equality !

ye would know a lot about it fingers.....

John Hume pays tribute to Nelson Mandela

Nobel Laureate and former SDLP leader John Hume has paid tribute to Nelson Mandela who he said was a beacon for forgiveness and reconciliation who shone across the world.

Fri 6th December

Mr Hume said: “He not only stood against the injustice and inequality of apartheid, but rose above it and overcame it, leading his nation and his people on the road to freedom.

"Nelson Mandela was a strong supporter of the Irish peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, consistently promoting the need for inclusive dialogue, consultation and negotiation as opposed to confrontation and conflict.

"My thoughts and prayers are with Mr Mandela's family and the people of South Africa as they mourn the loss of an inspirational and courageous leader and a true peacemaker.”

bigmo     06 Dec 13 16:33 
Thousands of people gathering outside

Nelson Mandela House have just been

told to **** off by Del and Rodney.

japanese motor workers are in morning also..they hear nissan maindealer had passed on..

where did my winnie post go to?

For the Great Man :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEXuQlbbeH8

Can't understand how this man got so much adulation considering he was a wife beater and a ****-master. I must be missing something?

The Western leaders have to constantly show they are not racists so a black leader must be lionised.

Don't mention necklace killings you will spoil the party.

Look at the list of frauds on our delegation.
Eamon Gilmore
Mary Robinson
Joe Costello
Gerry Adams
Bono
Bob Geldof

Kind of says it all.

I'm sure Bono has already written U2s next American number one hit.

You can just picture him chanting and screaming to thousands of groveling Americans as he sings the chorus "MANDELA, NELSON MANDELA" as he points the mike at the crowd...

Joe Costello?? ffs.

No doubt he has the wife who slotted nicely into De Rossa's European seat out with him. after she filled the husband's seat on Dublin city council.

This country...

Joe Costello is the corpulent Labour minister who as you say got his wife in as a substitute MEP,his sister was appointed to the senate as a Taoiseach nominee at the insistence of Eamon Gilmore,another sister was made a judge.

A typical Labour family.

Gilmore was probably a member of the stickies yet he and that idiot Kenny think that asking Gerry Adams one million times was he a member of the IRA is a great political tool, the only tool is that tool Kenny.