The GAAW have gone too far.

AircraftTechie

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/content/index.php?aid=10190
Current Publication Date: 24/01/2008

Liam Mellows statue to go orange
By Kernan Andrews

The statue of Galway’s 1916 Rising leader Liam Mellows is to be clad in the notorious orange boiler suit worn by prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, as a protest against the US army’s use of Shannon Airport.

The boiler suit will be the most visible part of a protest/event organised by the Galway Alliance Against War which takes place this Saturday at 1.30pm. The event will mark the sixth anniversary of the opening of the US Guantanamo prison camp and the use of Shannon airport by CIA “special rendition” flights.

Rhuhel Ahmed, one of the Tipton Three, will address the meeting. Mr Ahmed was one of three young Britons who were kidnapped while attending a wedding in Pakistan, tortured, and sent to Guantanamo. The Galway Palestine Solidarity Group will also address the meeting on the situation in Gaza, and there will be a performances by the Elsafty sisters sean-nós singers.

However the decision to don the statue of one of Galway and Ireland’s most revered freedom fighters, will be seen as inappropriate and disrespectful to the man. GAAW spokesperson Niall Farrell says the action is anything but.

“Liam Mellows’ statue has almost become a museum piece only visited on Easter Sundays,” Mr Farrell told the Galway Advertiser. “We want to bring back to life the beliefs of Liam Mellows and use them to tackle the issues of today.

“The statue honours an anti-imperialist hero and his beliefs have been trodden upon by those who claim to be his followers. We are an anti-war group, we have anti-imperialist, and republican credentials. The 1916 Rising was about winning Ireland’s freedom, but it was also about opposing Ireland playing a part in an imperialist conflict, WWI. By getting Liam Mellows dressed in an orange boiler suit we are getting him once again to oppose Ireland playing a part in an imperialist conflict.”

By cloaking the statue in a Guantanamo boiler suit, is there a danger that the action may be seen as equating the actions of Liam Mellows with those of Al Qaeda?

“People don’t equate the orange boiler suit with terrorists, they equate it with the inhumanity of the US government towards people who have never been tried. Prisoners who have been kidnapped and tortured and held in a concentration camp,” says Mr Farrell. “Over the last number of months Irish people from all walks of life have been dressing up in orange suits to protest at the Fianna Fail/Green coalition’s collusion with Bush’s so-called ‘war on terror’. These are brave, principled people, taking a stand.

“Liam Mellows was that in his day, a brave, principled person. He opposed the superpower of his day. In the last letter to his mother, hours before his execution, he used the very term ‘Imperialist England’ as he urged that his brother Barney should ‘persevere until the wrong is righted and the shadow of shame is lifted from our country’.

If there is bad weather on Sunday, the Liam Mellows statue will be donned in the boilersuit as planned, but all speeches, music, and other aspects of the event will take place in Richardson’s pub, Eyre Square.


The cheek of these people, they make my blood boil, thats going too far in my book, How dare they even consider doing this it is terribly disrespectful:mad::mad::mad:

biko

AircraftTechie wrote: »

The cheek of these people, they make my blood boil, thats going too far in my book, How dare they even consider doing this it is terribly disrespectful:mad::mad::mad:

Could you elaborate a bit? Disrespectful to Liams memory? To the people that disagree with GAAW?

“Liam Mellows was that in his day, a brave, principled person. He opposed the superpower of his day. In the last letter to his mother, hours before his execution, he used the very term ‘Imperialist England’ as he urged that his brother Barney should ‘persevere until the wrong is righted and the shadow of shame is lifted from our country’.

I think Farrell has a "superpower" point but equating IRA vs England with US vs Arabs is pushing the envelope a bit imo.

sgthighway

So can I protest against this on Saturday? I think it is so wrong to use the Liam Mellows statue to make a point against the USA.

I can see trouble at this.

Proxy

Extremely bad form. A rather myopic view of what the statue stands for also. They're disrespecting some to prove their point. The statue is not a prop for such use.

skelliser

i dont get it? what has liam mellows got to do with guantanameo(sp)?

he fought in the rising, was arrested, imprisoned and executed for his "crimes", i may not agree with it being a crime but he did what he did. it wasnt like he was innocent or was never trialed or anything.

are they trying to equate the taleban with the old IRA? the leaders of the rising wanted a socialist democratic state something i doubt the taleban want.

i think its a disgrace to tarnish liam mellows with this rubbish. there should be a protest against this!
also is it not illegal to deface statutes?

Altar_Ego_Boy

Who gives a toss about this? No one pays any attention to the statue anyhow...theyre too busy to get to richardsons

po0k

They're referencing the spirit of Liam Mellows as a "Freedom Fighter" - and his (from a certain perspective) unjust imprisonment and execution by an imperialist power - with the USA's imperialist foreign policy today.
It doesn't have to be a perfect analogy, as long as it gets the point across that US foreign policy is reckless at best, and our government, little darling that they are, were held over a multinational barrel to allow rendition flights to stop over in Shannon. They - to my knowledge - were never inspected by customs.
Can you smell The Rapture children?

padraig71

I applaud the GAAW for protesting against Guantanamo, which is a disgrace by any reckoning. My only concern is that this form of protest may be counterproductive and alienate people from its worthy efforts.

I don't know much about Liam Mellowes, but if, as a previous poster writes, he was imprisoned after fighting the British, the analogy is not too close, since many of the people illegally held and tortured by the US (with the complicity of our 'neutral' government, let's not forget) were not even fighting the Americans, merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bass Cadet

Mellows would have no doubt agreed with the protest considering the history of the man and his ideals of fighting imperialism. I think as a man who dedicated his life to a democratic socialist all-ireland republic, the only problem he would have had is the erecting of a statue in his honour in the first place

biko

Perhaps he would have objected more to the colour of the suit than its purpose?

Redhairedguy

biko wrote: »

Perhaps he would have objected more to the colour of the suit than its purpose?

Haven't you heard? Orange is this year's new black.

Proxy

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Haven't you heard? Orange is this year's new black.

Quoted F'Truth, yo.

Steyr

Proxy wrote: »

Extremely bad form. A rather myopic view of what the statue stands for also. They're disrespecting some to prove their point. The statue is not a prop for such use.

well said.

vulcan57

AircraftTechie wrote: »

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/content/index.php?aid=10190
Current Publication Date: 24/01/2008

Rhuhel Ahmed, one of the Tipton Three, will address the meeting. Mr Ahmed was one of three young Britons who were kidnapped while attending a wedding in Pakistan, tortured, and sent to Guantanamo.

Arested in Afghanistan with a gun in his possession! Wedding in Pakistan? just a feeble excuse!

AircraftTechie wrote: »

there will be a performances by the Elsafty sisters sean-nós singers.

If that's not torture, god knows what is!

AircraftTechie wrote: »

The 1916 Rising was about winning Ireland’s freedom, but it was also about opposing Ireland playing a part in an imperialist conflict, WWI.

The war in Afghanistan is about winning the freedom of the Afghan people from the grip of the Taliban that use their country to front world wide terror, even on fellow muslims i might add.

Its a disgrace that this sort of thing will be allowed, who owns the statue? there must be some by-law about using statues in this manner, in fact it is a-kin to graffiti. I, unfortunately can't be there that day but lets hope there are a few that will be there to protest against this type of abuse of, what seems to be a public monument. Will be interesting to see how many of these go****es there will be there, my guess is well less than a hundred!

AircraftTechie

vulcan57 wrote: »

The war in Afghanistan is about winning the freedom of the Afghan people from the grip of the Taliban

Sir you mean those friendly men in black who torture and rape women and abuse their rights and who have not signed the Geneva Convention? Personally i feel to hell with the Taliban and Saddam, I would rather see a Terrorist or suspected Terrorist behind bars in Guantanamo, at least i know from latest reports and a certain movie released a while ago that they are treated fairly humanely there.

Robbo

Redhairedguy wrote: »

Haven't you heard? Orange is this year's new black.

He is curious orange.

I did a little research into this and managed to uncover a number of documents written by Mellowes during the civil war that not only declare George Bush beastly but also denounce the Air Show as a "pointless display of loud bangs and shiny machines, the kind of thing that would amuse a toddler for only a short period of time".


See? See how easy it is to foist opinions on the dead? Real easy.

But for anyone who doesn't know anything about the statue, it just looks like someone thought he'd get cold.

vulcan57

AircraftTechie wrote: »

Sir you mean those friendly men in black who torture and rape women and abuse their rights and who have not signed the Geneva Convention? Personally i feel to hell with the Taliban and Saddam, I would rather see a Terrorist or suspected Terrorist behind bars in Guantanamo, at least i know from latest reports and a certain movie released a while ago that they are treated fairly humanely there.

Think maybe wording was a little misleading there. Maybe I should be refering to Al Qaeda rather than Taliban, fingers moving faster than the brain! Totally agree with you on rather seeing a terrorist or suspected terrorised behind bars.

Bass Cadet

Funny thing is, most people giving out about 'disrespecting' the statue probably never even noticed it before or bothered to find out who Liam Mellows was...much the same as alot of the people trying to defend the protest :rolleyes:

sgthighway

Why can't they protest like normal people............

AircraftTechie

Bass Cadet wrote: »

Funny thing is, most people giving out about 'disrespecting' the statue probably never even noticed it before or bothered to find out who Liam Mellows was...much the same as alot of the people trying to defend the protest :rolleyes:

Yeah...well said considering we have a Barracks named after him in.......you guessed it......Galway City.

galwayrush

Liam Mellows, the Orangeman:rolleyes:

AircraftTechie

The GAAW remind me a lot of RSF in many ways. They have their own point of view and refuse to accept that their view is the exact opposite of the Majority. They feel that their activities will eventually convince the majority to see things their way, regardless of the difficulties their activities will cause, and the fact that each of their actions only serve to further alienate them from the majority.

david1two3

Bass Cadet wrote: »

Mellows would have no doubt agreed with the protest considering the history of the man and his ideals of fighting imperialism. I think as a man who dedicated his life to a democratic socialist all-ireland republic, the only problem he would have had is the erecting of a statue in his honour in the first place

Well said Bass, I think Liams orange Boyler suit might be appropriate after all as being tortured in Eyre square all these years without recognition of his suffering is akin to making stigmatists play darts on gud fry day(dont worry Im not sure either). Anyway orange men are not the only fruits.

SimpleSam06

These are the same shower of boobs who will protest anything going. Protestors for hire, as far as I can see. No matter what the cause du jour is, you'll see the same faces handing out flyers/free soup/bad rhetoric.

JoeRow

The GAAW are useless..

Are they here to raise awareness or controversy?

I'm gonna run into town for this and take some pics...

4zn76tysfajdxp

Silly hippies.

padraig71

AircraftTechie wrote: »

The GAAW remind me a lot of RSF in many ways. They have their own point of view and refuse to accept that their view is the exact opposite of the Majority.

I very much doubt that the GAAW think their view is held by the majority; if it were, they wouldn't need to protest, would they? Because the majority would have held the government to account for its craven support of a rogue regime in the USA.

The majority killed Jesus. The majority killed Socrates. The majority believed that the sun moved round the earth when the church was persecuting Galileo; it doesn't mean they were right.

SimpleSam06 wrote: »

These are the same shower of boobs who will protest anything going. Protestors for hire, as far as I can see. No matter what the cause du jour is, you'll see the same faces handing out flyers/free soup/bad rhetoric.

Yeah, why should those killjoys object to respectable activities such as false imprisonment, torture, illegal invasion of sovereign countries… In this best of all possible worlds, what's not to like?

/ Off to make a placard

4zn76tysfajdxp

padraig71 wrote: »

The majority killed Jesus.

They also released Barabbas who was trying to overthrow the Roman occupiers. You know, occupiers?

occupier (plural occupiers)

1. One who occupies, particularly with respect to a foreign government controlling the territory of another.

Ergo, you should be glad the majority killed Jesus. I know I am.

SimpleSam06

padraig71 wrote: »

Yeah, why should those killjoys object to respectable activities such as false imprisonment, torture, illegal invasion of sovereign countries… In this best of all possible worlds, what's not to like?

/ Off to make a placard

Those "killjoys" object to any and every damn thing. They don't care about prisoners or what have you, they just want to make noise. I think most of them are the mouldy old remnants of the socialist party or whatever those muppets were called, and they respect nothing, up to and including important local monuments, which they are planning to abuse for their own ends.

I mean whats next, will they waterboard the Oscar Wilde statue after levering him off his seat? And no, that was not a suggestion.

galvianlord

passing today and it looked like a load of old guys were standing around the base of the statue which meant that the anti war lefties wouldnt be able to get the suit on poor auld liam. dont know where they came from, SF or maybe Mellowes Hurling Club...but there were about 6 guards there to make sure there was no confrontation....hilarious!