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| parkhead_rfb |
irish role in slavery markedIrish role in slavery is markedBy Arthur Strain BBC News The part played by people in Northern Ireland in the abolition and promotion of the slave trade is being marked. Shackles from Sierra Leone are part of the exhibit In pictures In Belfast's Linenhall Library rare documents and artefacts have gone on display as part of the Hidden Connections exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the African slave trade. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness opened the display on Tuesday, describing the trade as a "manifestation of racism and greed". Mr McGuinness said he found it hard to believe that slavery was ever acceptable and that it was significant to the history of Ireland. "There were many people who were involved, either as opponents of slavery or as traders with slave colonies," he said. "We need to face the fact that many Irish people became rich on the proceeds of black slavery." He said that today about 20m people remained in slavery or servitude and racism was still a problem for society. Part of Belfast's commercial and industrial advances were linked to trade with the slave economies of the West Indies. The founding president of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, Waddell Cunningham made a fortune from slavery and tried to set up a slave company in Belfast. He even had a plantation of his own in Dominica, which he renamed Belfast. His attempt to establish a slave trading company in Belfast in 1786 is documented in one of the exhibits in a copy of the Belfast Mercury. This was unsuccessful but the documents show that as well as opposing slavery, there were people from Ireland who went abroad and engaged in the slave trade. One part of the display features a bill of sale of a child named William to Ulsterman Samuel Ferguson, the cost of the boy was $245. Hidden Connections also features a number of speaking events running to the end of November. |
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| agentmancuso |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
And yet killing children was. A strange perspective. |
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| parkhead_rfb |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
i dont think martin has ever killed a child or openly stating he supports doing so. theres another thread for you to spout your s***e though so keep it in there, thanks. |
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| agentmancuso |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
He is a member of an organisation which supported doing just that. I don't recall him ever repudiating the use of terrorism. I'll follow your rank hypocrisy wherever it raises its grotesque head, thanks all the same. |
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| parkhead_rfb |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
he was actually a harsh critic of british terrorism in his country. he saw many teenagers shot on the streets of his town by british soldiers. |
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| agentmancuso |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
That's not criticising terroism, that's scoring tribal points. If someone known to be the head of a granny-mugging operation critisised some other granny-mugger would you take him seriously? Or would you think he was a manipulative scum-bag, relying on the pathetic naivety of his followers? |
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| parkhead_rfb |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
and would watching members of your town at a civil rights march shot dead by foreign troops not have any type of effect on your out look on the situation no? |
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| agentmancuso |
Re: irish role in slavery marked
As the troops were not considered foreign by the majority of the population, the claim is meaningless. In any case McGuiness was a senior IRA official before Bloody Sunday. If scum like him hadn't been killing people in the attempt to force their minority view-point down everyone's throat Bloody Sunday would never have happened. |
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| Cymro |
Anyone for a thread discussing slavery? | ||||||||||||
| parkhead_rfb |
that was the original intention. |
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| Cymro |
I know | ||||||||||||
| William_Cleland |
No the intention was a piece of sectarian propaganda aimed at suggesting the big bad Prods were responsible for the slave trade. While that is undoubtedly true to a certain extent it's worth bearing in mind that Roman Catholic countries like Spain and Portugal were also no strangers to the concept either and the Pope even divided Latin America between them so they could continue on their merry way in that regard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_Spanish_New_World_colonies Maybe Irish RCs would have had a slice of that action if there were more clear blue water between the islands of Ireland and Great Britian? They certainly have a bad enough a track record on racism if American history is examined closely to suggest it is possible:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Draft_Riots |
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| Cymro |
I realise lots of politics across the globe is steared by paranoia, but that William takes some beeting. I'd get that checked by a Doctor if I was you. I'm more than happy to criticise the actions of the PIRA but lets deal with facts here. McGuinness makes a statment about the past connections with slavery in Northern Ireland. These 'commemorations' have been taken place in Wales (Swansea), England and Scotland at the same time. No mention of religion or secterianism. Yet you manage to shoehorn the view it's an attack on Protestantism into it. There is no mention of 'blame it on the Proddies' in any of the articles. Come now William. Lets not lie to try and justify your stance eh? |
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| William_Cleland |
Whatever, Cymro. Keep reading The Guardian.  Like a typical Guardian reader you don't understand the mindset of these people because you have never experienced it first hand but you still feel qualified to sound off about it and pontificate to those who have.
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| parkhead_rfb |
a thread on slavery and you manage to rant about catholics doing it in spain. that pretty much sums you up mate, your religion fascination has nothing to do with irish republicans. mind you, you should actually be supportive of the spanish state given republican support for a free basque country and catalonia 
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| Cymro |
Oh the words of a man clutching at straws. First thing, don't read the Guardian. Can't be doing with newspapers in general to be honest. I prefer to deal with facts William. You see a person of sound mind would see that there was nothing 'secterian' in McGuinness' comments at all. Now I dare say that there is a lot a person can justifiably criticise McGuinness about. However, you choose to take a passage and make things up! We don't have to both agree with eachother. There are countless people on here and other messageboards I look at who I can happily disagree with. However, making things up as you go along is just pathetic. There was nothing secterian in the slightest in what McGuinness was saying. Maybe it's you that holds such secterian beliefs and are trying a way to justify your own stance? |
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| agentmancuso |
No. But it is rank hypocrisy all the same. |
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| Cymro |
Erm, not really. Had McGuinness criticised the role of violence and a means of trying to achieve a political aim then you could call that hypocritical. If the PIRA sold slaves as part of their armed campaign then you could claim it was hypocritical. However, while both are unwanted parts of 21st Century life I don't know how you can say it's hypocritical when clearly they are both different things. |
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| William_Cleland |
You should maybe keep your nose out of what you don't understand, cymro. You had no idea who the Stoops were for example but you still feel qualified to pass judgment on what the motivation of McGuiness and your chum "parkie" might have been for highlighting this slavery stuff. Think about that one a wee bit. If you actually knew anything about Ulster you would know that names like Waddell Cunningham and Samuel Ferguson absolutely scream "Protestant" so for people with an Ulster type of mentality nothing needs to be overtly stated in that regard. People from that sort of background tend to assume the reader would also instantly make that inference. | ||||||||||||
| Cymro |
Oh William, William, William. Is this you trying to warn me? I am interest in the subject therefore I will post what I like. I have made valid points proving I have some interest of the subject. The difference being dear William I don't lie about things. Unlike you.
Oh I'm sorry. How silly of me. I didn't know 1 term. Therefore I must be clueless on the whole subject 
I can read William. I am more that happy to argue with 'my chum' as you like to put it. I read what he says and descide on that if I agree with all, some or none of what he says. I will then post as I see fit. I read this article and had very little interest in the subject. The commemoration of the slave trade as been taking place across the UK over the last few months. I was in Liverpool a few weeks ago visiting the Albert Docks, they had a huge exhibition about Merseyside's links to the Slave Trade. Very good it was too. I am also aware of an exhibition taking place in Swansea which also had some links, and from looking at this site saw that the same thing was happeining in Glasgow. It is therefore not really odd that Belfast is seeing the same thing. I've noticed lots of articles mentioning some politician or other criticising the slave trade, Martin McGuinness is just the latest in a long line to jump on that particular bandwagon. However, it was then your daft comment which made me interested in this thread. When, despite no mention of religion, secterianism, Republic etc in the article you descided that this was an attack by McGuinness on Protestanism. You've not been able to base than on any evidence to link this particular article. At a member of a Presbyterian Church myself I'd have been fascinated had McGuinness used this oppotunity to attack Protestants directly or ignore any Catholic involvment in the slave trade at the expense of Protestantism. But there wasn't anything. The reason for this? Because it didn't exist.
Mhm, I have. As you can see I am just as convinced by your idiotness as I was at the beginning!
It's an article about Salvery William. Not naughtie Proddies, Slavery. That thing that came to an end 200 years ago. I couldn't give a flying f**k what denomination these guys followed. It's unimportant to those who take people as people unlike some (you?) who like to shoehorn religion into any argument in order to justify their own religious pettiness. Am I close? I'm not clued up on slavery, but as a person with half a brain (I'm told  ) I can bet within a few minutes on Google I could come up with a reason other than religion why Cunningham and Ferguson where mentioned.
Or people with a particularly big bag of chips on their shoulder maybe? Insidently why would the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland need to highlight the links between Portugal and Spain on the slavetrade in a celebration highlighting the end of the slave trade in the UK? Ooooh, they are all Catholic. I'm sure McGuinness has far more important things to be doing than highlighting the acts of those two countries. After all William, using your logic, people with any awareness of the situation would be able to work that out for themselves wouldn't they? Really William sort those chips out, polyfiller is good for getting rid of chips I gather. I prefer my chips with ketchup. |
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