‘Type Irish Heritage into the search box…and click GO.’
Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, June 29th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: Alan Bairner, Birmingham Irish Heritage Group, birminghamirishclub, michael walsh, peter duffy, Studying Irish Sport
Michael Walsh, Chair of the Birmingham Irish Heritage Group has sent me another little write-up of their last event to whet your appetite for this Wednesday evening’s talk by Peter Duffy- The 1916 Uprising and War of Independence – A personal Journey of Discovery (action starts at 7pm in The Irish Club).
Red Hand of O’Gara
The June Event of the Birmingham Irish Heritage Group carried a title which did not do justice to the depth of the presentation given by Alan Bairner PhD. The subject “Studying Irish Sport” whilst interesting in it’s self to many, revealed much about the underlying clash of identity in North East Ireland.
Alan demonstrated much authority on the subject having spent many years there engaged in field research and lecturing. Anybody who missed this event lost the opportunity to hear a very professional speaker, who in addition had the talent to engage with the crowd. After a prolonged session of interesting questions and contributions from the floor, a halt had to be called as we had run out of time. However we do hope to have Alan back in the not to distant future.
Birmingham Irish Heritage events commence at 7 pm on the first Wednesday of each month, but this was the first to be held in a palatial listed building. Not just any listed building, but one that had been visited over a century ago, by no less a personage than Princess Helena Christian of Schleswig- Holstein. Now I would hazard a guess that Schleswig-Holstein is not a name that rings a bell with many of our readers, even those who are supporters of the Heritage Group and I readily forgive them for that.
Even if it did ring a bell at one time and they had forgotten, they are in good company. Lord Palmerston the British Politian who held high office for much of the nineteenth century, is on record as having said about the mind numbing complexities of the problem.
“Only three people understood the Schleswig-Holstein Question. The first was Albert, the Prince consort and he is dead. The second is a German professor, and he is in an asylum. And the third was myself — and I have forgotten it.”
This answer did not do any harm to Lord Palmerston, for shortly afterwards he won an election. So there is hope for Gordon Brown, and indeed for the Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen, if either of them were to comment in relation to the financial meltdown that there were only three men who had the answer to it and:
Regrettably the first man was dead. The second man has become quite mad. And the third is myself – and I have forgotten it.
However such extraordinary answers would not cut any ice with the crowd at the Heritage Group Event, if their keen questioning of this months speaker was any guide. There were questions and contributions from John MacIntyre, Patricia Naylon, Charlie Neylon, John Costello and several others whose names are regrettably unknown to me. They were several contributions from the crowd on rugby player O’Gara meeting Queen Elizabeth as part of the Lions Team.
Each received a thorough reply from Alan based on his long experience seeing first hand the feelings generated by the separate sports of opposing communities in the six counties. The debate would have gone on for much longer had we not run out of time, but likely it continued in the well appointed lounge afterwards. Those who missed this exciting event can watch it on film, on the internet at digbeth.org thanks to the support of the operator of the Digbeth is Good Blog, Nicky Getgood. Type Irish Heritage into the search box half way down the screen on the right hand side and click GO.
Regarding the headline of this report, the picture shows that O’Gara’s hands were in his pockets and the red was on the faces of the others, but much too long for a headline. Anyway why spoil a snappy headline, with a pedantic adherence to trivial facts. Is O’Gara on his way to joining the hate figure of the British media “Hand of God” Diego Maradona.
Michael Walsh 27th June 2009.
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