Philately Will Get You Anywhere!

A guest Post by Fitzjameshorse

A few days ago I was shocked to discover that dedicated philatalist Mr FJH had been out early purchasing some stamps featuring a former British prime minister, here is his response:

There was a “golden age” of the Postcard. Roughly 1900 to 1930. Postcards were effectively the Twitter of the Early Twentieth Century. I daresay most postcards that I have seen at Collectors Fairs have less than 140 characters in the text.
The thing about reading messages is that it can all seem a bit voyeuristic. But it seems that there were lots of spinster ladies who wrote postcards to each other of the “shall we meet for tea tomorrow?” type. Oddly a lot of postcards I have seen have been written to Royal Irish Contstabulary members to each other.
But this “golden age” of postcards coincides with major historic events. The Home Rule Crisis and the First World War. Indeed there are a lot of propaganda postcards featuring John Redmond and Edward Carson. And you may have seen some originals or copies in source material for GCSE and Leaving Cert courses.

In fact Propaganda Postcards made a re-appearance in the 1970s and 1980s. Most Belfast and Derry based republicans will have received Christmas mail, locally delivered with money going to Green Cross or whatever. A word of caution that some alleged “Provo” mail is actually produced philatelically for the American market. Likewise…most Sinn Féin or loyalist souvenir shops have postcards featuring hunger strikers or murals. “Official” prices tend to be inflated as American buyers seem to think they are much more rare than they actually are and indeed Belfast mural postcards are now on sale in mainstream souvenir shops in Belfast.

There was one fantastic bookshop…a lefty haven in Winetavern Street, Belfast in the 1980s. It even had a sign on the door “we reserve the right to refuse admission to people in uniform” and allegedly had a designated watcher from RUC Special Branch. It was not overtly “republican” (at least thats my recollection) but it had a lot of stuff about Central America, South Africa and general lefty stuff. “Leeds Postcards” published fantastic cards which were anti-conservative. I have a lot of them and thats the funny thing….I buy a postcard in the 1980s, little thinking that it might come in handy in 2014.

There is a lot of fun to be had in poking fun. For example in early 1990s I used British stamps of Royal Wedding (Lady Dis) to produce my own Royal Divorce souvenir. It should not have made its may to me postmarked on the day of John Majors announcement because I had vandalised…oops I mean a friend vandalised the stamps by using scissors to seperate Charlie and Di.
I was lucky to get that one.
Some time later I celebrated another wedding…Princess Horsewoman and some Navy Officer….it was low key in a Scottish church …I used stamps from her first marriage to the Horsey Man.
On that occasion Luck was definitely on my side. It went thru the sorting office in the usual way but was spotted and given a very clear dated postmark. Somebody inside the Post Office saw the funny side. Didnt Michael Collins work for the British Post Office?
I digress.
On occasions, there is an opportunity to create just a little mischief.
But earlier this month, the British Post Office issued a set of stamps to commemorate British Prime Ministers. …including Margaret Thatcher.
Some suitable postcards from the 1980s, Tnatcher stamps and a little creative text and we can have some fun See these two examples. “Greetings from Northern Ireland” and “Gotcha” (Belgrano) both safely delivered. There are other versions which are far too tasteless to be published here.
Of course there is an opportunity to use the Harold Wilson stamp. Didnt he make that “spongers” speech.

Of course …it is all very silly. But my intention is that these postcards are passed thru my family.

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Sometimes, it’s what you don’t say

Good evening,

This particular post is on it’s fourth rewrite. I’m trying to get my head around Mike “TV” Nesbitt and his Unionist unity conversion on the road to Dungannon.

Back in 2013 he had this to say on the subject (and please note the date on the article),

“I can’t imagine any circumstances where it would be good for the Ulster Unionist Party, good for the pro-union people of Northern Ireland or good for politics to have an electoral pact”

Last week he had this to say,

“That only makes more sense if you’re putting the UUP first and I made it clear that this is about the Union, this is about putting Unionism first, this is about the good of Northern Ireland.  Not that long ago three of them were in Unionist hands, today one is because the DUP lost East Belfast last time, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that on May 8th there will be no Unionist representing Belfast. So, it is a pro-Union deal to say we could see our way to supporting you to hold on in North Belfast and keep Sinn Fein out, if you’ll support us trying to get Sinn Fein out in Fermanagh”

So, It’s all about the “union” then? Ok. Mike wants to form an electoral pact with the DUP for the 2015  Westminster elections all of a sudden in two specific constituencies, North Belfast and Fermanagh, South Tyrone.

Has anyone else noticed that South Belfast was NOT mentioned last week?

I certainly did. I was most amused by that little sin of ommission. I wonder has Mike now given up on that particular “target” or perhaps he cannot see it’s value as a bargaining chip regarding his begging bowl approach to the DUP, not to mention his abandonment of egalitarian principles in favour of a return to Orange supremacist rule.

Let’s have a brief  look at the most marginal westminster parliamentary constituencies in terms of the electoral facts, at least according to the ever consistent Mike.

North Belfast:

The facts here are well documented. The only game in town is the competition between Nigel Dodds and Gerry Kelly. I was in attendance at Gerry’s selection announcement recently (as an observer) and I can assure you that Sinn Fein are confident here. Very confident. Of course if the UUP were to withdraw it should more or less guarantee Nigel the seat but would it?

I’m not so sure. 12.3% of the nationalist vote went to the SDLP at the last election and Gerry only needs half of that to get elected (6%). That is precisely the same as the intra nationalst swing that happened in Fermanagh when the Unionist block last attempted a “unity” candidate. I’ll be blogging in more detail in due course on this one.

Fermanagh South Tyrone

This is Mikes real target, the tightest win, by four votes, at the last election. That is despite nationalism not having any pacts or agreements and thus a split vote. Given the demographic trends and the reaction of the nationalist electorate to the last attempt at a unity candidate I would be of the opinion that unionism should bring it on. It will be a nail biting count night however.

The fact that the UUP has reverted to type and considers Unionist principles should take precedence over any others reveals the true nature of any further pronouncements regarding a “share future” agenda as does the DUP veto over any integrated education representation at Stormont yesterday.

Mikes UUP agenda is simple, it’s called the “King Canute was right all along” strategy.

 

The Queens University – semantics, sectarianism or substance?

(this article was also published on Slugger O’Toole)

As many of you may be aware, the Sinn Féin students at Queens University in Belfast have succeeded in gaining sufficient votes to trigger a “united Ireland Poll” among the student body. This matter seems to have energised parts of the mainstream media to an inordinate degree, particularly the Belfast Telegraph. Personally I am all for for radical student politics, there is a long, proud tradition of rebellious students being at the forefront of political change and anger at the status quo.
Give me that, rather than the Bullingdon club crowd currently bumbling their way through what is the the current incarnation of British party political ineptitude.
The election in Queens required a 600 vote mandate to go ahead, which, having been gained, now requires a vote of at least 10% of the student body for the result to stand. That means that of a 24,000 student body, at least 2.400 must vote. Voting is available online and a 50% plus 1 majority is sufficient to win.
There is a clear majority of nationalist background students attending Queens. On paper, the vote should be a shoo in. Is this about polarising views, dividing the student body, semantics, sectarianism or substance? What is the purpose?
I met today with Sean Fearon today, who is head of the SF branch in Queens and asked him those very questions.
The most obvious question for me was what the whole thing was designed to achieve. His response was that it was part of an overall movement to create momentum and debate towards an island wide vote in much the same way that the Scottish independence campaign grew organically at a grassroots level.
I asked him was he receiving advice, instructions or help at any level from his party.
He was adamant that he was receiving no material assistance from the party at all. I’ll let readers make up their own minds as to the unsaid part.
We moved onto the dynamics of the campaign. I made the point that the Scottish campaign ultimately revolved around personal economics which impact, for the most part, on the “senior” electoral demographic. Students, on the other hand, tend to be a little more idealistic. Ahem.
I wanted to know if there was a strategic economic plan, preferably backed up by independent respected economic opinion. Sean responded by referring to Dr Conor Patterson and Michael Burke who both spoke at a recent debate on the subject but I was unconvinced by his grasp of the importance of the subject.
With the vote taking place on the 28th of October, I asked what the campaign would involve.
Apparently there will be debates with the other student party groups within the university.
This may be a major problem.
The Unionist party organisations in the student body are currently trying to launch a counter referendum. The SDLP organisation in Queens views the referendum as “divisive and sectarian”.
I put that point to Sean.
“Is this not a polarising and divisive strategy?”
His answer was interesting and I’ll sum it up below if I may:
We are asking a question
We are happy to debate and discuss
We are happy for it to go to a vote
What, in the above, are others afraid of and why would they try to prevent any of it happening?

Better Together!

Good evening all,

I’ve just returned from a brief holiday in Italy. Sometimes geographical and cultural distance provides a degree of perspective, regarding matters at home, and we may return refreshed, invigorated, energised and ready to look at things anew, as it were.

I’ve had a wonderful time away. It was instructive in many ways. The Italians are a very “laid back” race in general. Trying to source a timetable for the various ferries, trains and buses involved was simply impossible. It was all sorted on the spot, at the time, in person.

I loved that.

In the same way that the new Guinness advertisement strikes me as the first really good one in a long time and genuinely makes me proud to be a Dub, the Italians are quietly proud of their culture, heritage and hospitality, but with a degree of humility.

There is no sense of hubris, superiority, supremacism or flag waving nonsense. Just quiet confidence in themselves.

I arrived back late last night and have been catching up on events here. We all know what MacMillan had to say regarding “Events”. I had more of a sense of the Churchillian “Dreary steeples”.

The, simply clueless, Theresa Villiers is doing something or other regarding parades, I’m not sure what. Slugger has appointed the “energetic” David (Fianna Fail) McCann as a “Deputy Editor”, God help us and my old mate Barton Creeth thinks it’s great setting up a food bank in South Belfast. Barton. We have memories of such things in Ireland, long memories. Food banks, though well intentioned, are an indictment of where we are in 2014.

While in Italy at a particularly beautiful setting over a few, post dinner, bottles of wine, we, Mrs Bangordub and myself, found ourselves in conversation with a lovely couple from Cheshire. We found common ground on many topics over a few hours.

Particularly when the Scottish Independence vote came up during the course of our chatter. They were of the opinion that we were “better together”. I, naturally, agreed.

I’m not sure they were expecting my perspective on the subject however. It never occurred to them, I suspect, that I was looking at things as an Irishman.