The Guardian have announced a third leak of the membership lists of the British National Party.
The lists are, of course, fairly easy to find on the internet, and thanks to the BNP's efficient use of Microsoft Excel, fairly easy to work with.
The lists show that in April this year there were at least 53 members of the BNP in Northern Ireland – some of whom were helpful enough to provide their full addresses. For those who did not provide their addresses, though, the postcodes that they did provide make it possible to do a reverse search to see where they live.
In general, the lists show exactly what anyone might expect to see – they read like a membership list of the DUP or the UUP – most of the people live in unionist areas, and have solidly 'Protestant' names: Aicken, Anderson, Armstrong, Bankhead, Baxter, Beattie, Beggs, Brown, and so on. There are no obvious public figures listed, and certainly no scandals about to break. There is no evidence of BNP support in nationalist areas (which is hardly a surprise), and outside of East Ulster they are thinner on the ground than Buddhists, with one member in Fermanagh, three in Derry, and three in Tyrone.
None of the BNP members appear to be very active politically – in fact, of those who could be easily identified by first name and address, none appear to have been active at all in the last dozen or so years. Hopefully that is how they will remain.
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15 comments:
'Hopefully that is how they will remain.'
Amen! Coleraine, Co. Derry was among the National Front's strongholds for much of the 70s and early 80s. There were high numbers of NF members and strong sales of fascist publications among the supporters of Coleraine FC. Sadly, Unionist politicians did nothing to face them down. In fact, they allowed the NF to use the town hall for a rally, leading to a counter demonstration. One Unionist councillor, when asked to comment on the controversy, offered the opinion that the counter-demonstators outside the town hall were a more 'foreign presence' than the NF within. I suppose he was referring to the banners of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Sad, but not suprising.
Roy Garland in a recent Irish News column said there was a UUP member in the early 1970's who was a English middle-class Roman Catholic. And he once led a loyalist march up the Shankill Road.
Mass immigration was the greatest mistake in British history. They should have listened to Enoch Powell. This is independent of Northern Ireland.
Just browsing the BNP list now.
There's Mr Devlin from County Down I spy. Oh look it's also Declan Mooney from Antrim and there's wee Frankie McMullan too. Reilly! what has you here? Probably to see Mrs Farley no doubt.
So, I guess there could be a few Catholics on here. Did you just fail to see these in your enthusiasm to create your own propaganda.
"Bob Hillard was a Church of Ireland pastor;
From Killarney across the Pyrenees ho came.
From Derry came a brave young Christian Brother.
Side by side they fought and died in Spain.
Many Irishmen heard the call of Franco.
Joined Hitler and Mussolini too.
Propaganda from the pulpit and newspapers
Helped O'Duffy to enlist his crew.
The word came from Maynooth: 'Support the Fascists.'
The men of cloth failed yet again
When the bishops blessed the blueshirts in Dun Laoghaire
As they sailed beneath the swastika to Spain."
Whilst there is much bigotry in the protestant community there is also a tolerance and belief in freedom such as my parents taught me. We don't brag about it, spray it on walls or enforce it with a gun. But should the moment come we will stand up to defend the weak against any fascist tide, you included. We are proud of the 5th international brigade and of our fight against Nazi Germany.
What has been your contribution?
Anonymous,
Re 'Just browsing ... ' comment above.
I did not say that there no Catholics on the list. I am well aware that Declan Mooney is likely to have been born a Catholic. What I said (and I stand over it) is that "most of the people live in unionist areas, and have solidly 'Protestant' names".
Yes, Reilly, Mooney, McMullan, McMurray, etc could be Catholic - but they could just as easily be Protestant (except for Mooney, unless he's a convert!). They live in solidly Protestant areas - that you can see from their postcodes. The rest of the bad bunch all have traditionally Protestant names - Gault, Weir, Hanna, Graham, Craig, Stewart, and so on.
Glad to say that there is no great story in this one. The BNP is not attracting Catholics any better than the other unionist parties.
Why should we be surprised at Protestants with Irish names? Aren't we used to Magennis, McCusker et al? What gets forgotten in the religious/ethnic debate is that some Irish Catholics converted to Protestantism, either out of conviction or for their own advancement. The Protestant/Planter and Catholic/Gael model is too simplistic by far.
Nordie - 'What gets forgotten in the religious/ethnic debate is that some Irish Catholics converted to Protestantism, either out of conviction or for their own advancement'
There were certainly converts, but mostly for quite a different reason than the ones you quote. The great majority of them came in the famine years and were known as 'soupers' as the offer of free soup was used as an incitement to change their brand of christianity. Not much of a decision when your children are starving to death. Would have done it myself.
Nordie Northsider,
You are quite right, of course. There are many Catholics with Scottish names (Adams, Hume, Fleming, Barr, etc) and many Protestants with (Gaelic) Irish names (Reilly, Keown, McCullagh, etc).
I have done some research on surnames, to look at the proportions of each political block that has names more typical of the other. Needless to say, the anglicisation of many Irish names made conclusions impossible, but it showed that there is a very high correlation between 'ethnic' origin and political choice. And very often when someone carries a surname more typical of the 'other side', he or she is given a very specificly 'tribal' first name. So ou might get, for instance, 'Trevor Reilly', or 'Billy McCullagh' on the Protestant side, and 'Gerry Adams' or 'Sean Montgomery' on the Catholic side. It's not a precise science, of course - there are hundreds of exceptions, but it is certainly interesting to see how the 'name game' works.
That's all true, Horseman. Anglicisation played havoc with Irish names. Some of the attempts to Anglicise names were nothing short of bizarre. The geneologist Edward McLysaght produced a list of names from the 17th to 19th centuries. It contains: Bogus, Brothel, Dudd, Farty, Heresy, Hoore, Horror, Jealous, Judas, Junk, Marriage, Mingy, Queery, Rape, Rotten, Sex, Shivers, Slush, Spirrits, Thrownaway and Twaddle. Some of those are identifable, Ó Fatharta for Farty, for example. Nigel Dodds should recognise where 'Dudd' came from. Very apt it is too.
By the way, what's your take on the latest population projection for NI: 1.8m by 2010?
Kieran Devlin is a English born Catholic.
The Billy Boys a loyalist tune about Billy Fullerton a leader of a Glasgow Razor Gang. Billy Fullerton was a British Fascist.
Nick Griffin's daughter lives in Comber County Down and helps run the BNP membership callcentre according to the Sunday World.
22 percent of British voters would consider voting BNP according to a recent opinion poll conducted for the News Of The World newspaper.
The Ulster BNP is not about Loyalism or Nationalism its about us trying to hold on to our country. A Country that has come through the troubles and is now under attack from immigrants. Dont you see whats happening here. Dont you care. We have 56,000 unemployed, we have 35,000 of our people waiting on the social housing register. We cant get our children into the nurseries where we want, because priorty is given over to those on benefits who cannot speak English and thats just a small amount of what is going on. WE have long waiting listing for health services because there is no money but the NHS can afford translation lines for people who come here and dont bother to learn the English language. Do some research and find our for yourselves if you care to take the time. Get your facts straight and maybe you could check this out.
www.godsavenorthernireland/blogspot.com its for all of us not just loyalists.
Wake up before its too late.
Oh and you are right Ulster is Doomed if we dont all stand together and do something now.
Before long it will be like Birmingham and Bradford. With political correctness gone mad.
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