Ireland was never united

It was written in 1913:

"The Celtic Church no doubt had its golden age. It produced saints and men of learning. It sent out its missionaries to the heathen beyond the seas. So famous were its schools that students came to them from distant lands. But centuries before the Normans appeared in Ireland the salt had lost its savour. The Celtic Church had sunk into being a mere appendage of the wild tribes it had once tried to tame. The chiefs of one tribe would sack the colleges and shrines of another tribe as freely as they would sack any of their other possessions. For instance, the annals tell us that in the year 1100 the men of the south made a raid into Connaught and burned many churches; in 1113 Munster tribe burned many churches in Meath, one of them being full of people; in 1128 the septs of Leitrim and Cavan plundered and slew the retinue of the Bishop of Armagh; in the same year the men of Tyrone raided Down and a great number of people suffered martyrdom; four years later Kildare was invaded by raiders from Wexford, the church was burnt and many men slain; and so on with dreary monotony. Bishops and abbots fought in the incessant tribal wars as keenly as laymen. Worse still, it was not infrequent for one band of clergy to make war on another. In the ninth century, Phelim, who claimed to be both Bishop and King of Leinster, ravaged Ulster and murdered its monks and clergy. In the eleventh century the annals give an account of a fierce battle between the Bishop of Armagh and the Bishop of Clonard. Nor did time work any improvement; we read of bloody conflicts between abbots and bishops as late as the middle of the fifteenth century. What influence for good could such a church have had upon the mass of the people?"

Edward Carson was a life long Irish man

Cartoon by Ian Knox

Edward Carson rose in the Lords on December 3 1929 and made a number of points about the Irish Free State and the Privy Council, the legal forum the nascent Irish state sought to do away with. Interestingly he called the Anglo-Irish Treaty the “Treaty of surrender and betrayal”. On the matter of his identity, he said:

Talk not walk, facts not flags - Making the "unremittingly" and "unrelentingly positive" case for the union

Scottish unionists campaigning for a "No" vote won't be waving the Union flag, (because it's associated with extremists) but will be bigging up the Union and Great Britain by looking at the economic and social facts and figures. 

If only our ever-so brutish, sorry I mean British, disLoyalists would take one second to look at the actual facts and the actual figures, the actual census data, poll data, the back of our currency and they would soon see that the Union is stronger than ever. No-one is chipping away at their British identity but those who say their is a "holy war" and a nazi-style assault against "the protestant-unionist-loyalist people".

David Cameron has frequently said that the Union will be won by making the "unremittingly positive" case. In an interview with BBC News, the Prime Minister David Cameron said:

"That’s my whole argument, which is go back to the big picture, and I think this family of nations is better off together. Not just is better off in the United Kingdom, but we in the rest of the United Kingdom think we’re better off with Scotland that we want you to stay. That argument is one that is unremittingly positive about the success of this family of nations and how we should keep this family together. 

I choose to make a positive argument just as I choose to make a positive argument about the defence jobs in Scotland, and financial services jobs here in Scotland, about jobs in oil and gas. We’re better off, Scotland’s better off, we’re all better off if we have the backing of the United Kingdom, a top-ten economy, behind these great industries."

He has even used the term, "unrelentingly positive". Henry McDonald wrote:

Ian Knox - Unionists aren't going to save the Union by shoving flags down people's throats

To mark the end of his December 2013 exhibition, 'Lifelines and Deadlines', Ian Knox spoke about his work and life with a local film maker. At the end (48m30s) Ian Knox shared a profound and deeply relevant insight about unionism and Northern Ireland's union with Great Britain. He said:

"As a political cartoonist, there's no defined criteria for what one does and what actually a political cartoon is. I think I tend to the school of dealing with realpolitik. That is the interests, the real motives of why people act. I always found it very strange as to why sections of unionism seem to perpetually want to shove the Union Jack down the throats of those who don't regard it as their flag. The big truth which unionism doesn't seem to want to talk about, let alone face up to, is the fact that when a border poll does come, it's going to be Catholic votes that decide on the constitutional position. Not Protestant ones. We know which way the prods are going to vote. But if the prods want a substantial number of, nationalists stroke Catholics, to vote to stay as part of Britain, they have to be nice to them; they're not going to do it by shoving flags down their throats."

Video in full here.

Other posts on Ian Knox. Slideshow of Ian Knox riding his Penny Farthing here. Ian Knox riding his Penny Farthing during the Giro 2014 here. Ian Knox and friends on their Penny Farthings for the Hume/Dunlop anniversary cycle here. Ian Knox speaking with the Detail here. Chatting with Michael Smiley here. My blog post on Ian Knox's cartoons of loyalists and republicans, here. Ian Knox and I drawing together in the Black Box, Belfast in 2013 here. Ian Knox and I drawing at McHugh's, Belfast here. My coverage of Ian Knox's December 2013 exhibition, 'Lifelines and Deadlines' here. A selection of photos of Ian Knox at work here. My article here on why an Ian Knox prize to encourage satire and political cartooning like the Herb Block foundation in America which rewards and encourages future talent. A notice about my joint exhibition with Ian Knox on Slugger O'Toole is here.

Loyalist violence weakens the argument for Northern Ireland remaining in the Union, Ctd

Former editor of the Belfast Telegraph Jack Sayers

(Updated below)

Alf McCreary recalled what his editor at the Belfast Telegraph Jack Sayers said of Unionist extremism in a leading article in that paper on 5 November 1968: Jack Sayers said:

"The threat to Northern Ireland’s future is not… the IRA or even Nationalism. It comes from Protestant Ulstermen who will not allow themselves to be liberated from the delusion that every Roman Catholic is their enemy."

Alf McCreary himself said in 1976: "I want a society where we will have politics & not a sectarian pantomime."

My previous post in the series here. On loyalism's phantom fear here.

UPDATE:

Ian Paisley's son, Kyle Paisley said in an interview with the News Letter:

"However, neither should loyalists use the flag issue as an excuse to stir up sectarian strife, or to attack the PSNI, to the delight of dissident republicans."