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Bush faces a hostile reception in Ireland
International Herald Tribune ^ | 6/26/04 | Elisabeth Bumiller/NYTimes

Posted on 06/25/2004 2:23:18 PM PDT by The Bandit

ENNIS, Ireland President George W. Bush was set to arrive at the heavily guarded Dromoland Castle in County Clare on Friday night as the authorities braced for what were expected to be large demonstrations across Ireland against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

In contrast to the jubilant welcomes accorded to Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy, Bush's reception was already developing as frosty, if not outright hostile. Widespread opposition to the Iraq war and revulsion at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal have turned a large portion of Irish popular opinion against him.

Big protests were expected in Dublin and in Shannon, where Air Force One was to land before Bush headed to the EU-U.S. summit at Dromoland Castle. Smaller protests were expected for the cities of Galway, Sligo, Waterford and Tralee in County Kerry.

"Fury and fear as town is turned into a fortress," said the headline in the Irish Examiner. The newspaper quoted the mayor of Shannon as saying that the town's residents were being made into potential targets for a terrorist attack.

Mary O'Rourke, leader of the Irish Senate, refused to attend a recent dinner in celebration of Bush's impending visit at the home of the American ambassador, James Kenny, out of objections to American prison policy at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and for going to war with Iraq, she said. . "Nobody denies we have an affinity with the United States, but that is a different matter from having an affinity with the president," O'Rourke said in the Irish Parliament this week.

But the centrist Irish Independent said in an editorial Friday that while Bush's trip would be the equivalent for the protesters of "a visit from the Devil Incarnate," the demonstrations "seem a bit out of touch."


(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...


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To: The Bandit
Irish nationalism has long been a witch's brew of mysticism, anti-Semitism, and radical left wing socialism.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party (main "nationalist" party in Northern Ireland).

The Workers Party (until 1982 Sinn Fein--The Workers Party, and until 1977 Sinn Fein; the old "official" Sinn Fein that was the political front of the now long-defunct "Official" Irish Republican Army).

Sinn Fein (Gerry Adams' organization, the front for the "Provisional" IRA).

Republican Sinn Fein (political front of the "Continuity" IRA).

The Thirty-Two County Sovereignty Movement (political front of the Real/True/Dissident/New IRA).

Irish Republican Socialist Movement (political front of the most radical of the Irish terrorists, the Irish National Liberation Army).

Workers Solidarity Movement (traditional Irish anarchist group).

Granted, this list doesn't include the two main Irish parties (Fine Gael and Fianna Fail) but neither of those parties is conservative in the American sense. In fact, Ireland doesn't seem to have any organized conservative movement at all.

I mention this only because Irish nationalism takes the place of Biblical Jewish nationalism for so many "palaeoconservatives" and Catholics as well, who sometimes like to point to the alleged "inherent radicalism" of the Jews. I intend no offense to the my friends among the Irish Freepers.

41 posted on 06/25/2004 2:57:13 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Malkhut HaShamayim `AKHSHAYV!!!)
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To: Stentor
What about it doesn't make sense? Obviously this is between the Presidents decorum and the way Ireland feels about his actions on terrorist war.

I'm an American, I'm glad we killed the terrorists, but I hope that when the day comes, I'm not killed because I happen to live in the same country as the terrorists! Or by mistake live right next door to the next "Bin Ladin"?

If Ireland doesn't want to be apart of this, or support our country, that's their God given right? They've been trying to prove that for over 200 years, they aren't push overs.

I know this doesn't make much sense, but I personnally, out of respect for their feelings, as a President, would of humbly left that country and tried to hold the senate meeting in another location.

Show grace and humility would have been better recieved by the Irish. It's in my blood, and I know that's what would've have made a huge impact on me!

I'm not too sure as of right now what we've ever done for Ireland in the past, besides opening our doors to their immigration needs, but have we ever stepped in and helped them tell England to get out? Did we ever fight for their freedoms? We fight for Korea, Vietnam, and all these countries that couldn't ever have done a thing for us, but the very people that run through-out the veins of millions of Americans, we didn't fight for them!

The moment they had to immigrate here for their lives, we should've sent men over to protect them from the Same Red Coats we conquered here!

How do you think you'd feel to a visit from an American President if you were an Irishman?

42 posted on 06/25/2004 2:57:46 PM PDT by CourtneyLeigh (Why can't all of America be Commonwealth?)
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To: The Bandit
In contrast to the jubilant welcomes accorded to Presidents Ronald Reagan...

Hey, Ms. Bumiller! Try reading your own paper for once:

Irish in an Anti-Reagan Mood for Visit
New York Times
June 1, 1984
By R.W. Apple Jr.

DUBLIN, May 31 -- President Reagan faces calculated snubs and hostile demonstrations as well as fonder greetings, during his three-day visit to Ireland beginning Friday.

Yup, more revisionist history from the Slimes.
43 posted on 06/25/2004 2:59:25 PM PDT by conservative in nyc
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To: CourtneyLeigh

Outside of Belfast & Dublin, we're talking about a land where 80% of the public has no running water or electricity. No wonder the south envies the north, and little wonder the UDA is so popular against the IRA/PLO.

English terrorists? Hah. The last thing Britain wants is a bunch of Irish neanderthals to support. Nothing has changed there in centuries. The IRA (and their offspring) should all be hunted down and exterminated one by one.


44 posted on 06/25/2004 2:59:36 PM PDT by datura (Battlefield justice is what our enemies deserve. If you win, you live. If you lose, you die.)
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To: The Bandit

Hmmm...

It seems the Irish have contracted the Spanish disease.

I'm surprised. I thought they valued their freedom, at least enough to thank us for preserving it for them.


45 posted on 06/25/2004 3:00:09 PM PDT by EternalHope (Boycott everything French forever. Including their vassal nations.)
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To: The Bandit
Ireland has sent some excellent troops to both Afghanistan and Iraq. Do not forget, however, it was American feminists with aid from the UN orgs which "purchased" "no fault divorce" for Ireland in the mid-90s. It quite literally tore the country into two.

Of course, were Ireland undergoing a HUMONGOUS Muslim immigration "situation", no doubts, there'd be many Irish Parliament voices praising and thanking President Bush. And why isn't there a huge "immigration" of Muslims to Ireland? Norway, Sweden, parts of Europe, England are suffering tremendously.. but not Ireland. ahem.

46 posted on 06/25/2004 3:02:08 PM PDT by Alia (California -- It's Groovy! Baby!)
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To: CourtneyLeigh

Oh My! You've brought out the "shaming stick", have you?


47 posted on 06/25/2004 3:03:13 PM PDT by Alia (California -- It's Groovy! Baby!)
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To: datura
we're talking about a land where 80% of the public has no running water or electricity. No wonder the south envies the north, and little wonder the UDA is so popular against the IRA/PLO. English terrorists? Hah. The last thing Britain wants is a bunch of Irish neanderthals to support. Nothing has changed there in centuries.

Well, England did invade and take over their quiet lifestyle? Just like they did the American Indians? So does that justify the American Indians being "ALLOWED" to live amongst their terrorists?

Plus, the Irish were tortured by the English(terrorists? is a new term to apply to what they were back then), they weren't allowed to do anything that reminded them of who they were. Their very dignity was stolen from them, like skinning a cat!

48 posted on 06/25/2004 3:03:57 PM PDT by CourtneyLeigh (Why can't all of America be Commonwealth?)
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To: CourtneyLeigh

"I'm not too sure as of right now what we've ever done for Ireland in the past, besides opening our doors to their immigration needs, but have we ever stepped in and helped them tell England to get out? Did we ever fight for their freedoms?"

Oh sure. Now blame us. The Irish mess has been going on for hundreds of years. Let's see, Rwanda, any and all mess in Africa, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and now Ireland. Just look at the mess the French dropped in our laps with Haiti.

Get a grip. Why didn't they ask the UN to settle it after all, Ireland has a vote don't they? And isn't that the European way? Call the UN. After all, the UN did such a job in Rwanda, didn't they?


49 posted on 06/25/2004 3:05:13 PM PDT by OpusatFR (Vote Kerry if you want to commit national suicide)
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To: The Bandit

bring the highlanders over from scotland for crowd control.


50 posted on 06/25/2004 3:05:16 PM PDT by alpha-8-25-02 (saved by GRACE and GRACE alone)
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To: The Bandit
Ho-hum. The left all over Europe has an ability to fill the streets with impassioned demonstrators pretty much anytime and for any reason. Bush is their target of hate du jour because (1) he did something of which they don't approve, (2) he won, and (3) there isn't a doggone thing they can do about it.

Let them rage. If they were in charge Saddam would still be feeding people into shredders.

51 posted on 06/25/2004 3:05:51 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: The Bandit

Politics.

Is there any doubt that if Clinton or Gore had launched a war in Afghanistan and then Iraq, even without the assist of France and Germany (who probably would have been against it anyway), the people of these nations would not be so hostile?

The 'unilateral' NATO war in Kosovo (and frankly, that was more 'unliateral' than the Iraqi campaign is) wasn't greeted with this much negativity, or at least, the negativity wasn't

And by and large, domestic critics of Clinton weren't employing anywhere near the hysterics that critics of Bush currently are.

The left, once again, are like insolent children. Ehat will it take to mature them? 30,000 dead in NYC? 60,000 thousand dead in London? 180,000 dead in coordinated worldwide WMD attacks? What?


52 posted on 06/25/2004 3:06:24 PM PDT by HitmanLV (I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
Irish nationalism has long been a witch's brew of mysticism, anti-Semitism, and radical left wing socialism.

I've heard Zionists fanatics think that of most of the countries on the planet. I guess if you could swallow such a lie about Ireland, you really do.

53 posted on 06/25/2004 3:07:08 PM PDT by eskimo
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To: datura
Outside of Belfast & Dublin, we're talking about a land where 80% of the public has no running water or electricity

Source?

The last thing Britain wants is a bunch of Irish neanderthals to support.

Bigot.

54 posted on 06/25/2004 3:08:27 PM PDT by sarcasm (Tancredo 2004)
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To: conserv13
I tend to agree. I think it was Frank Sinatra who said: "I feel bad for people who don't drink, when they get up in the morning that is the best they will feel all day"

Close. That would be Dean Martin.

55 posted on 06/25/2004 3:08:45 PM PDT by Snuffington
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To: eskimo; CourtneyLeigh

Will you guys cut me some slack? It is very difficult for you to hear the tone of my voice when I refer to my ancestors. I should have included a humor note to it. That is how I meant it to sound. Of course I am proud of my Irish/German heritage. I am just not proud of some of the people there. Are some of them Saddam supporters? Maybe. Are all of them? No. Lighten up and try to have a sense of humor, you might enjoy life a little more.


56 posted on 06/25/2004 3:09:21 PM PDT by Mark17
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To: OpusatFR
Trust the UN! HAH! I wouldn't trust the UN for my benefit, for anything. Such a controlling organization, settling it's claws softly into all major countries, moving in their troops, replacing American military training with that of UN training. We don't need A UNITED NATIONS, we have A UNITED STATES!

And just what prey tell would the UN even bother doing for IRELAND! The IRISH/SCOTTISH have needed someone to fight on their behalf before most of the UN men/women were even born!

57 posted on 06/25/2004 3:09:24 PM PDT by CourtneyLeigh (Why can't all of America be Commonwealth?)
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To: CourtneyLeigh

And I am kind of partial to the New American Standard Version myself.


58 posted on 06/25/2004 3:11:20 PM PDT by Mark17
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To: eskimo
I've heard Zionists fanatics think that of most of the countries on the planet. I guess if you could swallow such a lie about Ireland, you really do.

All I know is Jewish nationalism is in the Bible. No other nationalism is. So I assume the world's hatred for Jewish nationalism is the same as their hatred of the Bible.

If it ain't in Bible, it ain't worth gobshite, y'all.

59 posted on 06/25/2004 3:11:23 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Hinneh, mah tov umah na`im shevet 'achim gam-yachad!)
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To: The Bandit

From what I hear, Bush is handling it fine.


60 posted on 06/25/2004 3:11:57 PM PDT by gilliam
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