• About

"We in coming days may be"

~ How the future may unfold

"We in coming days may be"

Monthly Archives: July 2012

A Death in the Family

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments


Today, the award winning blog, Rangerstaxcase, posted its last blog. It feels like a death in the family, almost. The achievements of this blog were groundbreaking and profound.

I won’t attempt here to cover all the details of what the anonymously hosted site revealed but, in my view, what started out as an attempt to do the job that mainstream journalists should have been doing over the previous ten years or so became something truly magical and very human.

It brought together all shades of Scottish footballing opinion and it stood for something which should matter to all of us. Values, Morality and Truth.

The Site gained official recognition winning the Orwell prize, it was extensively quoted both Nationally and Internationally. It exposed the parochialism and croneyism of the local press (with honourable exceptions) but most of all it brought about change.

The, still unfinished, saga of what was Rangers FC, who played yesterday in the obscure Ramsdens Cup against lowly Brechin City of the fourth tier of Scottish football, was largely predicted and chronicled on this blog.

It’s greatest achievement and, I hope, lasting epitaph was to bring together all shades of true Scottish football fans in common cause opposing corruption, sharp practice and the abuse of position.

It will be missed, but its legacy will endure.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Let the Games Begin !

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments


C’mon Team Ireland

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Press Bar

27 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in History

≈ 5 Comments


Some time ago I had access to the Press bar. I also got into the Members bar, not to mention the various restaurants, Coffee stations, Reception rooms, Meeting rooms, Staff canteens, Lifts, Corridors, Nooks, Crannies, Smoking corners and general hangouts where people tend to talk in a big building. Lucky Me!

I heard more gossip in an hour than Corrie or Eastenders could have come up with in six months. I witnessed laughs between sworn (Public) enemies, I witnessed fear and loathing expressed in swift glances as well as vicious verbal swipes, I saw unlikely friendships made and I saw the best and the worst of Human Nature.

I saw, in essence, how this place was trying to find its feet.

The Building was Stormont.

My Favourite place was always the Press Bar, tiny, in the basement, never entirely cosy but always alert and fun. Always busy, Coffee on tap, stronger stuff if needed, usually later, snacks, bites and platters, but most of all, gossip.

At the time it was an unwritten rule that Politicians could not enter the Press Bar. I am told that has changed.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

BBCNI Sportsbeat

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments


With news that RTE is finally becoming available on Freeview in NI from mid October, I thought some of you may appreciate the RTE “Apres Match” view of BBC NI Sports coverage….. Comments very welcome!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Mixed up Marriages Part 2

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Demographics

≈ 10 Comments


The Results of the 2011 Marriages survey have just been released. I have included the 1991 results so that the trends over a 20 year period may be seen. Below are the actual percentage figures along with a representative graph.

Year RC Protestant & Other Civil
1991 38.9 45.7 15.4
2000 38.0 36.8 25.2
2001 37.2 37.0 25.8
2002 37.2 35.0 27.8
2003 36.6 35.9 27.5
2004 35.8 32.7 31.5
2005 37.4 35.2 27.4
2006 36.7 33.7 29.6
2007 37.1 33.5 29.4
2008 37.6 33.4 29.0
2009 37.2 33.4 29.4
2010 35.5 33.7 30.8
2011 34.4 32.9 32.7

So, we can, perhaps, draw the following conclusions:

  • “RC” Marriage rates are clearly falling during the past 2 years after a largely stable period from 1991 to 2009. Down by 4.5% over the entire period of which 3.6% was in the last 10 years.
  • “Protestant and Other” Marriage rates have fallen by 12.8% over the entire period of which 3.9% was in the last 10 years.
  • Civil Marriages are clearly on a sustained upward trend increasing by 17.3% over 20 years and 7.5% over the last 10.

The key to understanding these statistics therefore, lies in the answer to how many of these Civil Marriages are actually residual RC and likely to be nationalist inclined voters.

With the increased level of secularisation over recent years, increasing Divorce levels (Where RC divorcees wish to remarry but cannot do so in a religious service) and the general decline in influence of the RC Church (evidenced by declining church attendance) I believe a substantial proportion of these Civil marriages are, in fact, residual nationalists.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

An ex Soldier of the Great War

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments


If I had been been born a good few years earlier, I might have lived through the events of the War of Independence as did many of my Family. I still have a copy of Tom Barry‘s biography, “Guerilla Days in Ireland”, given to me when I was a teenager.

Below is the trailer for the new stageplay based on that book. I can’t wait!

Tickets and tour info are HERE

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Mixed up Marriages

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Demographics

≈ 4 Comments


Next week sees the publication of the 2011 Marriages Report from the Registrar General. I thought that in advance of its publication I would take a look at recent trends and provide a context prior to the release. Naturally, Horseman has previously examined this subject in some depth here up to and including 2008.

This is his Chart below:

As may be seen there has been a clear trend with Catholic Marriages overtaking Protestant Marriages about 1998 as well as a dramatic increase in Civil marriages over the entire period.

My own Chart below looks at the period 2000 to 2010 using the same source material

 

As may be seen above there has been a steady increase in Civil Marriages and a decrease in Protestant ones, while Catholic Marriages have remained pretty steady over the period. I have included a trend line to enable clearer analysis.

I will blog again on this when the 2011 figures are announced next week.

note: I apologise for the somewhat clumsy presentation of the chart, I am working on this and hope to rectify ASAP, BD (Link to Full page is HERE)

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Poetic License

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments


I have been asked by a few readers where I came by the title of my little (wee, in the vernacular) Blog. It’s extracted from one of my favourite poems by probably Irelands greatest Poet. So please, kick off your shoes, pour a glass of whatever it is you prefer, sit back in your favourite chair and savour every word.

Below is the full poem by WB Yeats, I would welcome any thoughts….

UNDER BEN BULBEN
I
Swear by what the sages spoke
Round the Mareotic Lake
That the Witch of Atlas knew,
Spoke and set the cocks a-crow.

Swear by those horsemen, by those women
Complexion and form prove superhuman,
That pale, long-visaged company
That air in immortality
Completeness of their passions won;
Now they ride the wintry dawn
Where Ben Bulben sets the scene.

Here’s the gist of what they mean.

II
Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,
A brief parting from those dear
Is the worst man has to fear.
Though grave-diggers’ toil is long,
Sharp their spades, their muscles strong.
They but thrust their buried men
Back in the human mind again.

III
You that Mitchel’s prayer have heard,
“Send war in our time, O Lord!”
Know that when all words are said
And a man is fighting mad,
Something drops from eyes long blind,
He completes his partial mind,
For an instant stands at ease,
Laughs aloud, his heart at peace.
Even the wisest man grows tense
With some sort of violence
Before he can accomplish fate,
Know his work or choose his mate.

IV
Poet and sculptor, do the work,
Nor let the modish painter shirk
What his great forefathers did.
Bring the soul of man to God,
Make him fill the cradles right.

Measurement began our might:
Forms a stark Egyptian thought,
Forms that gentler Phidias wrought.

Michael Angelo left a proof
On the Sistine Chapel roof,
Where but half-awakened Adam
Can disturb globe-trotting Madam
Till her bowels are in heat,
Proof that there’s a purpose set
Before the secret working mind:
Profane perfection of mankind.

Quattrocento put in paint
On backgrounds for a God or Saint
Gardens where a soul’s at ease;
Where everything that meets the eye,
Flowers and grass and cloudless sky,
Resemble forms that are or seem
When sleepers wake and yet still dream.
And when it’s vanished still declare,
With only bed and bedstead there,
That heavens had opened.
Gyres run on;
When that greater dream had gone
Calvert and Wilson, Blake and Claude,
Prepared a rest for the people of God,
Palmer’s phrase, but after that
Confusion fell upon our thought.

V
Irish poets, learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers’ randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into the clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.

VI
Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient Cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase,
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
Sept. 4, 1938
1939

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Song for Nelson McCauseland…

17 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment


This is by one of my Favourite Bands, Flogging Molly. Give it about 40 seconds…..It’s different, trust me.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Census 2011 The Voting Enigma

16 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by bangordub in Demographics

≈ 15 Comments


I have spent a couple of hours number crunching the newly released Census data and already a few things are becoming apparent.

Below is a chart detailing a direct comparison with the previous Census based solely on age at 5 year gaps. It is apparent that people are living much longer, great news! It is highly unlikely that the population increases above the age of 40 can be explained by inward migration alone.

Rather than go into huge detail at each point of comparison, I believe the figures may well explain one fact which has puzzled me quite a bit over the last few years.

Why has the Nationalist vote remained at around the 44% mark if they are rising as a proportion of the population?

Assuming that:

  • 55% of Children of schoolgoing age are Catholic (DOENI) 2011/2012
  • In 2001 at all ages below 27, Catholics were in a Majority (37 today)
  • Therefore it is likely that at all ages below 37 Catholics are in a majority or at least on parity with non Catholics. (Hat tip to Enda)
  • Catholics are statistically much more likely to vote for a Nationalist party.

It is obvious to me that the reason for the stabilisation of the voting ratios is therefore that above the age of 40, where Non Nationalists are likely to still retain a slim majority, the life expectancy rates have increased substantially. This is also the cohort that is statistically much more likely to vote.

Of course, improved life expectancy applies to everyone, regardless of who they vote for. I would therefore expect the Nationalist vote to resume its upward trend in the next round of elections, hence the wonderful “Outreach” policies being talked about by, eh, the likes of Nelson McCauselands party.

2011 Actual 2001 Actual Difference
Aged 0-4 124,400.00 115,238.00 9,162.00
Aged 5-9 111,300.00 123,050.00 -11,750.00
Aged 10-14 119,000.00 132,664.00 -13,664.00
Aged 15-19 126,200.00 129,201.00 -3,001.00
Aged 20-24 126,000.00 109,385.00 16,615.00
Aged 25-29 124,100.00 114,704.00 9,396.00
Aged 30-34 119,800.00 127,517.00 -7,717.00
Aged 35-39 122,300.00 129,639.00 -7,339.00
Aged 40-44 131,800.00 117,335.00 14,465.00
Aged 45-49 131,600.00 102,464.00 29,136.00
Aged 50-54 116,900.00 98,426.00 18,474.00
Aged 55-59 99,300.00 88,732.00 10,568.00
Aged 60-64 94,300.00 73,587.00 20,713.00
Aged 65-69 82,100.00 65,341.00 16,759.00
Aged 70-74 63,500.00 57,852.00 5,648.00
Aged 75-79 50,400.00 46,542.00 3,858.00
Aged 80-84 36,400.00 30,289.00 6,111.00
Aged 85-89 21,200.00 16,116.00 5,084.00
Aged 90 and over 10,200.00 7,185.00 3,015.00

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Readers Thoughts

Antain Mac Lochlainn… on Recent Polls, Results, Demogra…
Feckitt on Recent Polls, Results, Demogra…
PaulG on Recent Polls, Results, Demogra…
PaulG on The Border Poll
PaulG on Recent Polls, Results, Demogra…
Gaygael on Recent Polls, Results, Demogra…

Recent Posts

  • Recent Polls, Results, Demographics and 2022 election implications
  • Endgame approaches
  • The Border Poll
  • What if? – Assembly Election 2020
  • Final Westminster Polling

Archives

  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Categories

  • Demographics
  • General
  • History
  • Norther Politics
  • Northern Politics
  • Southern Politics
  • Uncategorized
  • Wildlife

Blogroll

  • Amgobsmacked !
  • An Sionnach Fionn
  • Barton Creeth
  • Benmadigan
  • Endgame in Ulster
  • Footballcliches
  • Hoboroads Politcal Highway
  • Jude Collins
  • Keeping an eye on the Czar of Russia
  • Slugger O'Toole
  • Ulsters Doomed

Archives

Blog Stats

  • 667,315 hits
July 2012
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Jun   Aug »

Bangordub on Twitter

My Tweets

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: