Ireland: Hain not sorry for his slavery apology ("Gov't obsessed with revisionist history")

Belfast Today ^ | February 16, 2007

[Stoat]

Hain not sorry for his slavery apology

 

The Northern Ireland Office has said Peter Hain will not be apologising for clouding the issue over Ulster's role in the slave trade.

The Secretary of State said his reason for attending an event in New York on Wednesday to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery was to apologise for "the role Wales and Northern Ireland played in the slave trade".


"We acknowledge that. We take responsibility for it and we now are going to try and at least say that that historical legacy must be recognised and we are sorry for it," said Mr Hain, who is Secretary of State for both Northern Ireland and Wales.
His apology came despite the fact that ports here were closed to slavery and citizens of Belfast blocked an attempt to establish a slaveship company in the city assembly's room in the 18th century.
A NIO spokesman said Mr Hain had gone on to acknowledge that ports in Northern Ireland were closed to slavery – and "that's all we'll be saying on the matter".
While some local businessmen did benefit from the slave trade, slavery, as politicians yesterday pointed out, went very much against the grain of the views of the vast majority of people here.
"If you look at slavery, Belfast and the people of Belfast were at the cutting edge of enlightened attitudes and there was no association between Northern Ireland and the slave trade," said the DUP's Sammy Wilson.
UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy said the Labour government were "obsessed with revisionist history" and that Mr Hain's latest apology had perhaps more to do with his plans to become Gordon Brown's number two.
Stuart Noble, Ulster development officer of Christian charity CARE, said it was all very well apologising for enslaving people over 200 years ago, but what about the here and now?
Mr Noble said "the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking" is more prevalent than the slavery experienced prior to the abolition of the shameful practice in 1807.
"While it's important that we recognise the awfulness of the slave trade and celebrate the achievements of the abolitionists, it's essential that we take this opportunity to tackle the modern slave trade – human trafficking," said Mr Noble.
"The UN calculates that there are more people enslaved today than 200 years ago and the Home Office suggests that there are 4,000 victims of human trafficking in the UK at any one time.
"Ninety-eight per cent of these hidden victims are women who have been forced into prostitution by gangs keen to make money off prostitution.
"In the last 10 years, the demand for prostitutes in the UK has doubled. This increase in demand has resulted in large numbers of women being trafficked into the UK."
Mr Noble said Northern Ireland was not exempt from the trade in people.
"Last year, commentators such as the Northern Ireland Women's Aid Forum and the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee indicated that trafficking was a substantial and growing problem in Northern Ireland.
"The Home Office calculated a 'conservative estimate' that suggested the total social and economic costs of trafficking for prostitution to be around £1 billion in 2003."
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that there are no plans by the British or Irish governments for a ceremony to mark the shooting of 14 civilians by British troops at Croke Park in 1920. England play Ireland at the venue for the first time ever in a rugby international next Saturday.

[Stoat]

Northern Ireland Office -- About the NIO - Biographies - Peter Hain MP

PETER HAIN MP

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Peter Hain MP was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in May 2005. He retains his responsibilities as Secretary of State for Wales.

Peter Hain was first elected as Member of Parliament for the Neath constituency in April 1991. Since 1997 he has held the post of Minister in the Welsh Office, Minister for Africa in the Foreign Office, Minister for Energy at the DTI and Minister for Europe at the Foreign Office. He was promoted to the Cabinet in October 2002 when he became Secretary of State for Wales. He became Leader of the House of Commons in June 2003 while retaining his position as Secretary for Wales.

Mr Hain achieved international prominence as a result of his work in the anti-apartheid movement. He played a leading role in the campaign to secure a 'Yes' vote in the 1997 devolution referendum in Wales. He is a former head of research with the Union of Communication Workers and a former chairman of the Tribune newspaper. He was made a Labour Whip in 1995.

Born in Nairobi and brought up in South Africa, Mr Hain was educated at Pretoria Boys High School, University of London and Sussex University.

Hain, Peter Aristotle Guardian Unlimited Politics

Peter Hain
Member of Parliament for Neath
Party: Labour

Secretary of state for Northern Ireland and Wales

Peter Hain says: On his proudest achievement in parliament since 1997: "Playing a key campaigning role in winning the referendum for a Welsh assembly and achieving a huge 30% swing from the crushing "no" vote in 1979."

(in Labour Activist, June 1980): "The left is now dominant in the party in a way that we have never been before; we don't control the party - yet - but we have to try to run it."



Others say: Martin Kettle, the Guardian: "Hain has always been something of a lone ranger, and his fame and flair win him enemies even among his colleagues, even today"
 

[Stoat]

His apology came despite the fact that ports here were closed to slavery and citizens of Belfast blocked an attempt to establish a slaveship company in the city assembly's room in the 18th century.

(edit)

"....there was no association between Northern Ireland and the slave trade," said the DUP's Sammy Wilson."
 

It's one thing to apologize for something that you've done; it's quite another to apologize for something that you didn't do....particularly when you're apologizing on behalf of other people and when history indicates that they are innocent.

The Left thrives on guilt and emotionalism, and whether the guilt is valid or not appears to be irrelevant in so very many cases.

Mr Noble said "the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking" is more prevalent than the slavery experienced prior to the abolition of the shameful practice in 1807.

I knew that the level of modern slavery was very bad, but I hadn't heard it put into this perspective before. 

<<<Listening to the remarkable silence on this issue from American race-hustlers and slavery banner-wavers such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Aren't England, Scotland, and the Irish Republic as complicit as Northern Ireland and Wales? They were all run by the same government.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

How come Wales and Northern Ireland have a single Secretary of State?

[Stoat]

Ireland Ping  :-)

[Verginius Rufus]

How come Wales and Northern Ireland have a single Secretary of State?

Because no married person would take the job?

[Verginius Rufus]

The government was the government of England which ruled over Wales and Ireland. Scotland was a separate country until the Act of Union in 1707. Individual Scots and Welshmen and maybe Irishmen may have been involved, but the Irish Catholics weren't much better off than slaves themselves--in fact I think some were enslaved and sent to the Caribbean for resisting English rule.

[Chode]

just exactly WHO was he apologizing too anyway... and who was there to accept it???

or is this just more political masturbation?

[Stoat]

just exactly WHO was he apologizing too anyway... and who was there to accept it???

The article doesn't go into such essential detail, unfortunately, and so we are left to use our imaginations, as it seems MP Hain also did when justifying this little soiree.

or is this just more political masturbation?

I'm guessing that the junket to New York with his entourage and all of the perks associated with it was more fun than he cared to refuse.  What does it matter that the stated reason for the trip is false when the Irish taxpayers can bankroll a series of extravagant dinners as well as an opportunity for him to ingratiate himself to the American Left?

just exactly WHO was he apologizing too anyway... and who was there to accept it???

The article doesn't go into such essential detail, unfortunately, and so we are left to use our imaginations, as it seems MP Hain also did when justifying this little soiree.

or is this just more political masturbation?

[Chode]

leftists the world over, same-same...as long as it's OTHER peoples money.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Thanks for the ping, Stoat! :)

I'm convinced Peter Hain (still) smokes weed!

Any apology from him concerning the fact he turns a blind eye to the paramilitaries' ongoing enslavement of their respective ghettos in NI?

Ireland Ping!

[Vicomte13]

"Aren't England, Scotland, and the Irish Republic as complicit as Northern Ireland and Wales? They were all run by the same government."

England and Scotland, sure, but the Irish Republic? It didn't exist then, and the government that did exist over what is now the Irish Republic was a government imposed from without that the Irish didn't want. So, no, the Irish Republic is in no sense whatever guilty of the slave trade, and nor are the Irish Catholic people, who were victims of the same Empire that victimized the African slaves during the same period. Not guilty.