02.05.07
Celtic and Christian or Not?
Clarification time:
So there we were all annoyed that the OFFENDING term had been removed from the Fine Gael website. See link here. HOWEVER having been informed otherwise, I checked further and indeed Celtic and Christian does still appear when one scrolls further down the document for the “full text of speech”.
So, is all forgiven?
Well only a bit. I’d still like to know if the original press release had the C&C in the executive summary. If it didn’t, all DEFINITELY forgiven and humblest apologies for casting aspersion. If not….weeeeelll…
Update: OK OK OK. Mark and I have put our virtual little heads together and we think the benefit of the doubt maybe conferred upon the Blueshirts. He has checked caches etc and THANK GOD! C&C not in the summary but we think may never have been in the summary. DEEPEST apologies to FG. Sheeesh, putting two versions of the same speech in the same document makes life very difficult for the pedant.
GUBU » Fine Gael said,
February 5, 2007 at 2:35 pm
[...] Turns out C&C not removed, just em, obscured….see here for [...]
Mark Waters said,
February 5, 2007 at 3:00 pm
I never read the full speech. I copied-and-pasted from the summary. It was definitely changed.
I wonder if Google cache or the Wayback Machine has the original? I don’t have time to go hunting now.
Mark Waters said,
February 5, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Although now that I read it again I am open to correction. I’m mighty confused by the two versions. The summary seems to misquote him.
ben said,
February 5, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I’d just like to get one of these fools to say what they MEAN by Celtic. Celtic in a genetic sense? Is Fine Gael a party that defines its constituency on the basis of ancestry or ethnicity? Well, that’s what you’ve always been accused of, so if the cap fits, go and fight for Franco. Celtic in a linguistic sense? After all your anti-Irish-language maundering? Celtic in the Glasgow Celtic or Donegal Celtic sense? I don’t think that’s what the Blueshirts mean.
It’s a term totally bereft of any political meaning, and using it in a political context in order to create division and exclusion doesn’t exactly entice me to vote Fine Gael. It makes you look like hateful fools who are trying to play a populist card and proving to be really, really bad at it.
Sarah said,
February 5, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Well why didn’t anyone get all snotty when we’d been banging on about the Celtic Tiger for the last 10 years? It was FINE when it meant something good, but when Enda uses it suddenly its a taboo term?
I agree the Celtic tag is bogus, but in popular terms it is interchangeable wtih Gaelic.
He meant it in the traditionally misunderstood sense – a wandering people who settled here with fair skin, blue eyes, etc
Get over it guys!
Ray said,
February 6, 2007 at 8:27 am
What on earth is the connection between the colour of your eyes and your understanding of immigration?
Describing the economy as ‘Celtic’, in an embarassing copy of the phrase ‘Asian Tiger’, is not exclusionary. ‘We are Celts’ carries the obvious implication that if you are not a Celt, you are not one of us. ‘We have fair skin and blue eyes’ is worse, not better!
ben said,
February 6, 2007 at 9:08 am
All Fine Gael is saying is that people who claim to be Irish but aren’t fair-skinned and blue-eyed should be viewed with suspicion.
Ray said,
February 6, 2007 at 10:44 am
But they don’t have to worry, as long as they can provide a letter testifying to their good character, signed by their parish priest.
Sarah said,
February 6, 2007 at 10:49 am
you boys would never get one of those
ben said,
February 6, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Only thing I’d ever want a priest to sign is a confession.