What was Irelands lowest moment?

Hoop66

Grand Moff Tarkin wrote: »

...you put people into power who have no right and even less ability to represent the state first day and have an electorate who vote in the children and grand children of these chancers because they fixed the road or helped young Tommy Mac out with his court case...

This. A thousand times this.

As an "outsider", I'm constantly astonished at the way completely incompetent, corrupt arseholes are re-elected. That, and the way people re-elect a government that has shafted them because "I've always been a Fianna Fail man".

And as for resigning when you get caught out/are proved incompetent?

Death of Gerry Ryan

illdoit2morrow

Neil Horan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx1TDFV5Vhk

darlett

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

Neil Horan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx1TDFV5Vhk

That comes under offences commited by the clergy

Jaysus its appalling, hope he got a right slapping by the big man in the crowd the horrible clown

doyle61

The plantations. It was here that we Irish developed our inferiority complex (imo) about we were always the victim, about how we had to own land etc etc and it has never gone away. It was always bubbling below the surface. We had that complex in the famine; ye Britain ruled us but most of the death through starvation came from Irish landlords exporting food out of the country rather than helping the starving, not from laws from London condemning us to death.
It stayed with us after the war of independence and civil war with us subconsciously holding that victim card and not believing we were strong enough to govern ourselves and let the RC church take a hold on some of our most important institutions, schools, hospitals etc and rule our moral compass from the pulpit, again inferiority complex
In the past 10-15 years we've seen what that complex has done to our country. That need and want to own our own place has led to extreme greed by some people and they've bankrupted the country. I wanted my own house and it'll never be worth what I've played for it so I suppose I had that complex aswell.

Larbre34

A lot of this is around shameful episodes rather than memorable low points. Fair enough the clerical abuse scandals are a scar of the last 50 years but what moment encapsulates that?

Its easy to say in hindsight that electing or re-electing FF was a mistake but at the time it happened it was a high moment, for them anyway, and the electorate never had so much disposable income at the time, so not a low moment for many. The low moment would be when that first austerity budget was delivered, or Brian Lenihan coming home ashen faced and admitting we were so sh*gged and the bailout was happening with such onerous conditions.

Money and sovereignty is one thing, but Ireland's lowest moment without question was the afternoon of the Omagh Bomb. I can tell you precisely where i was, what the weather was like, the jarring shock of the news. As a moment, I cant think of one lower in my 40 years

Seaneh

Colash wrote: »

Drugs trafficking , money laundering , killings ., etc etc . It's all here

It's ****ing everywhere.

It's not half as bad here as it is in most European countries. Never mind the rest of the world.

FTA69

Grand Moff Tarkin wrote: »

Remember we kicked the English out and invited a bunch of skirt wearing freaks who answered to Rome to help run things and it is only since they lost their power have any great social changes been made for the better.

This notion that the church only came to prominence in the 1920s is flawed to be honest. The Catholic Church has had a massive influence in Irish society for centuries. "Official" type Catholicism developed in the 1800s with Paul Cullen who transformed the Irish church into a disciplined and over-arching body that was also extremely politically active. The Catholic Church controlled Irish national schools a good 40 years before independence. The Brits realised that alienating the vast majority of the Irish people and allying solely with a small Protestant ascendancy was untenable, as such they sought to ally with the Catholic middle-class, key amongst which was the church who consistantly opposed all revolutionary movements that emerged. It was an official British act which bestowed the education system to the Church.

Ireland wasn't some sort of secular state pre-1922.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Jedward...

/thread

Phill Ewinn

The day Irelands mother caught him masturbating. Sticky situation.

gobnaitolunacy

Also Maynooth College was established by the Crown in the 1790s, so priests needn't be swanning off to get educated on the Continent and coming back with revolutionary ideas. The RCC was a influential powerhouse in Ireland long before '22.

darragh16

mikemac1 wrote: »

Yep and then Sepp Blatter laughed about Ireland being the 33rd team

In fairness who didn't laugh at that?

Curly Judge

The Battle of Kinsale [1601] when we had the Spaniards inside, the Paddies outside and the Brits caught in the middle.
Somehow we nodded off, took our eye off the ball - probably due to drunkenness - and let a foreign army, riddled with disease, desertion and casualties break out and turn the tables on us.
As old Mr Haney from Green Acres would say, "We let ourselves in for a whole heap of trouble" that day and have been paying for it since!

Roger_007

OMG, MLOD, FFS.

homerjay2005

Bambi wrote: »

I'd imagine the ould famines were fairly low points.

exactly. while some of the other points mentioned are low moments, the famine is quite clearly the worst moment/period in the history of this country. nothing else comes close.

checkyabadself

Linda Martin "performing" Get Lucky.

Kirby92

One I feel strongly about that hasn't been mentioned....

Staying neutral in WW2.

DeValera offering condolences to the Nazi Germany Ambassador in Dublin after Hitler killed himself.

The way Irish soldiers who joined the British forces were treated after returning from WW2. The Starvation Order meant they were barred from state jobs, refused military pensions and faced with widespread discrimination by the general public.

Grand Moff Tarkin

FTA69 wrote: »

This notion that the church only came to prominence in the 1920s is flawed to be honest. The Catholic Church has had a massive influence in Irish society for centuries. "Official" type Catholicism developed in the 1800s with Paul Cullen who transformed the Irish church into a disciplined and over-arching body that was also extremely politically active. The Catholic Church controlled Irish national schools a good 40 years before independence. The Brits realised that alienating the vast majority of the Irish people and allying solely with a small Protestant ascendancy was untenable, as such they sought to ally with the Catholic middle-class, key amongst which was the church who consistantly opposed all revolutionary movements that emerged. It was an official British act which bestowed the education system to the Church.

Ireland wasn't some sort of secular state pre-1922.

Indeed well said and I won't disagree with any of the above but the point I was trying to make was that the nation was to quick to let the catholic church retain their powers for so long.

Dick phelan

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Jaysus some people really can't see beyond what was in the papers recently.

Ireland is in great shape at the moment relative to the totality of its history. Maybe 2001 was our nadir to date? But all things considered, this is a golden age for Ireland relatively speaking.

Famine, Cromwell, Penal Laws, Plantations, The War of Independence, early decades of the Free State and Catholic Church transgressions of the time - so much shameful history to choose from that involved people being killed or marginalised because of their religion or personal life choices. Williams and the Sunday World trying to sell their latest book off the back of an imaginary 'Gangland Crime Crisis' (Ireland is one of the safest countries in the world) pales in comparison and warrants no mention in this thread.

Agree totally also people saying the savita case, really our lowest moment dont think so there has been far far worse in ireland, the only recent ones i would really consider would be all the child abuse scandals murphy report ect and the day the IMF rolled into town i can honestly say that was the day i felt lowest about ireland

up for anything

Today, when it seems like 9 out of 10 Ireland's residents seem to find nothing good to say about the country and are quick to broadcast it yet slow to do anything about it.

PizzamanIRL

Thierry Henry the bastard.

Slutmonkey57b

Banning yore ma jokes on AH.

Sad days.

Death of Brian Boru

old hippy

When people went from embracing Thatcherism (which was bad enough) to the all out insanity of calling for sterilisation on AH.

I don't recognise Ireland anymore


Oh and the uberpats who take any criticism of the aul' sod as a personal insult

minotour

the day the music died...........

frank reynolds

crap kip that has always been full of everything that nobody wants.

ONeill2013

Curly Judge wrote: »

The Battle of Kinsale [1601] when we had the Spaniards inside, the Paddies outside and the Brits caught in the middle.
Somehow we nodded off, took our eye off the ball - probably due to drunkenness - and let a foreign army, riddled with disease, desertion and casualties break out and turn the tables on us.
As old Mr Haney from Green Acres would say, "We let ourselves in for a whole heap of trouble" that day and have been paying for it since!

A documentary I viewed recently blamed the loss on the fact that the Irish had no stirrups on their horses

Grand Moff Tarkin

Kirby92 wrote: »

One I feel strongly about that hasn't been mentioned....

Staying neutral in WW2.

DeValera offering condolences to the Nazi Germany Ambassador in Dublin after Hitler killed himself.

The way Irish soldiers who joined the British forces were treated after returning from WW2. The Starvation Order meant they were barred from state jobs, refused military pensions and faced with widespread discrimination by the general public.

Ireland was neutral in name only as the nation favoured the allies by sending any pilots who were shot down to the boarder where it was made easy for them to get back into the fight. Any Axis pilots or U- Boat crews who ended up here sat the rest of the war out. As for DeValera he was a small minded man who was never up to the task of leading a nation and it is really only now that people are starting to see that fact.

Now as you are on about the Irish soldiers who fought in WWII you have to remember any Irishman who left the Irish army was technically a deserter no matter how noble the cause was the truth of it is that they did leave Ireland in the emergency and had no right to expect anything when they returned home.

Irishmen who were not serving in the Irish armed forces and went to fight the Nazi's should be praised and it was of course wrong how they were treated when they returned.

Tipsy McSwagger

When you couldn't get a Wispa bar for love nor money.

downonthefarm

the day they brought in the euro
useless currency

up for anything

old hippy wrote: »

Oh and the uberpats who take any criticism of the aul' sod as a personal insult

I'm trying on the cap but it doesn't fit. :P

ColeTrain

downonthefarm wrote: »

the day they brought in the euro
useless currency

What's so useless about it?
I love my Euro.

KingOfFairview

Clannad, bono, Chris de burgh and Christy Moore on stage for self aid in 85

lufties

ColeTrain wrote: »

I wasn't old enough to fully understand it but heartbreaking stuff I'd imagine.

Losing to Spain in penalties at the 2002 WC was low.

watched that game in molly riordas in limerick, was so depressed when it was over

CrabRevolution

Our lowest moment is far fetched and for the moment only theoretical, but it may happen someday.

That moment is the moment when AH doesnt have about 5 threads bursting with people wanting to repeat the same old lines about how s**t they reckon the country to be.

When we finally learn to convert the smugness from the phrases 'only in ireland' and 'irish people are weak/stupid/sheep etc.' into energy, the world can forget about oil, gas, hydro etc. Because boards will have an utter mine of these phrases to power the world for the next quadrillion years.

Augmerson

Kirby92 wrote: »

Staying neutral in WW2.

Staying neutral in WWII was probably one of the few things Dev got right. Had we decided to join in between 1939 to 1940 we would certainly have been invaded. We would have suffered massive damage like the UK did and been unable to deal with it.

I'm no fan of Dev at all, but I think staying neutral was the right thing. At the time, very few knew of the concentration camps. It wasn't our making and wasn't our conflict and we would have been trounced to bits by Germany....and had Germany invaded us first, the UK would have invaded from the north, so that would have been us proper ****ed.

Augmerson

Sorry double post - Zig and Zag leaving for the Big Breakfast. That's when I knew at a tender age that the country wasn't worth a ****.

KingOfFairview

Augmerson wrote: »

Staying neutral in WWII was probably one of the few things Dev got right. Had we decided to join in between 1939 to 1940 we would certainly have been invaded. We would have suffered massive damage like the UK did and been unable to deal with it.

I'm no fan of Dev at all, but I think staying neutral was the right thing. At the time, very few knew of the concentration camps. It wasn't our making and wasn't our conflict and we would have been trounced to bits by Germany....and had Germany invaded us first, the UK would have invaded from the north, so that would have been us proper ****ed.

Germany couldn't have invaded us

gobnaitolunacy

Augmerson wrote: »

Sorry double post - Zig and Zag leaving for the Big Breakfast. That's when I knew at a tender age that the country wasn't worth a ****.

And now they come crawling back to present a sh*te bloopers show on Telly Eireann....

royster999

The day Oliver Cromwell set foot in the country.

Duckworth_Luas

downonthefarm wrote: »

the day they brought in the euro
useless currency

I bought chips at lunch time today with a €5 note.

Pretty useful I'd say.

If I'd try to pay with punts, US dollars or GB pounds they'd have told me to get out!

Curly Judge

A Bertie hat trick :

The Ash Wednesday he came into the Dail with the black stuff
plastered all over his forehead. [By Paddy the Plasterer?]

The day he appeared at the G8 wearing the yellow plastic
trousers.

The day he popped out of the drawer in the Sunday Times
advert.

gobnaitolunacy

KingOfFairview wrote: »

Germany couldn't have invaded us

The possibilty was looked at as a diversionary tactic and there was link ups with the IRA, but Jerry quickly found out the 'Boys' could barely tie their own shoelaces.

120_Minutes

When the country started to get money and it's people started to think that their ****e didnt stink.

Leftist

royster999 wrote: »

The day Oliver Cromwell set foot in the country.

I wonder if there are any other countries in europe that still bang on about **** that happened in the 1600s as if it's important. Desperate to be victims.

Worse single for the current state, was omagh. Or any number of capitulations to the church by the state.

Cromwell ffs.

Oh sure, it was the day the english turned up. Erins potatos weep for me. :rolleyes:

ColeTrain

Leftist wrote: »

I wonder if there are any other countries in europe that still bang on about **** that happened in the 1600s as if it's important. Desperate to be victims.

Worse single for the current state, was omagh. Or any number of capitulations to the church by the state.

Cromwell ffs.

Oh sure, it was the day the english turned up. Erins potatos weep for me. :rolleyes:

TBF It's a testament to Cromwell that he's still being mentioned today, an utter **** of a man.

kuntboy

Douchenozzle-extraordinaire Bryant Gumbel humiliating Irish people on Grafton St for NBC US Television.

Sepp Blatter laughing at our pathetic begging to be let in to the World Cup.

Bertie's yellow suit humiliating us in front of the World's major leaders.

Ballykissangel- The UK's retarded concept of us.

Leftist

ColeTrain wrote: »

TBF It's a testament to Cromwell that he's still being mentioned today, an utter **** of a man.

yeah, worse than hitler.

he was a drop in the ocean compared the sectarian atrocities on the continent at the same time, or the european expeditions to Africa and America.
He's remembered because nothing else happened for hundreds of years before or after and the potato gang need to blame some special event from stopping us being something we were never going to be.

Too many self pitying fiddle songs and inbred primary school teachers filling heads with sentimental bollox.

ColeTrain

Leftist wrote: »

yeah, worse than hitler.

he was a drop in the ocean compared the sectarian atrocities on the continent at the same time, or the european expeditions to Africa and America.
He's remembered because nothing else happened for hundreds of years before or after and the potato gang need to blame some special event from stopping us being something we were never going to be.

Too many self pitying fiddle songs and inbred primary school teachers filling heads with sentimental bollox.

Congrats on Godwinning the thread.

Cromwell murdered and pillaged his way through this country and you seem outraged that people occasionally bring this up? How dare we discuss Ireland's history.

enda1

Leftist wrote: »

I wonder if there are any other countries in europe that still bang on about **** that happened in the 1600s as if it's important. Desperate to be victims.

Worse single for the current state, was omagh. Or any number of capitulations to the church by the state.

Cromwell ffs.

Oh sure, it was the day the english turned up. Erins potatos weep for me. :rolleyes:

Pot, kettle, black?