Remember, remember the Fifth of November

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I've just calculated how long it is since I last posted on my still new Live Journal and so I thought I'd better make some sort of effort....

Some thoughts for your evening.

1. Jamie Oliver is an annoying kitchen gimp. (Just saw his Sainsbury advert. Gag)
2. Richard Madeley of Richard & Judy might as well just save us all the bother and change his name to Alan Partridge.
3. Alan Partridge is back! Hurrah.
4. Anyone not British probably has no idea what I'm talking about. How I envy you.

Well, the well-known Ranter is back. I've tried very hard not to rant and to be tolerant of Russell Crowe, but the fact is, today in Britain is Bonfire Night. AKA Guy Fawkes night. Now most people will just use this as an excuse just to naff about with Catherine Wheels and rockets and burn any rubbish accumulated since last Nov. 5.

Although I hope that the local people building their bonfire the other day have taken that plastic chair off the top. Unless they want to kill everyone with fumes.

But the fact is, I can't get down with Bonfire Night. Funnily enough, this Catholic girl doesn't find anything entertaining about the execution of Catholics. Whatever the real truth behind the Gunpowder Plot, the fact is that Guy Fawkes and his twelve mates felt that they had little choice but to blow up King James I (James 6 of Scotland) and Parliament. I'm sure that some of the thirteen involved had other reasons, but the fact is that if there had not been gross intolerance to and oppression of Catholicism since Henry VIII split from Rome (with a short break for Mary, who turned it around and killed Protestants instead) the plot would never have been put into action.

After the plot was (thankfully) foiled, people in England burned effigies of Guy Fawkes on bonfires as some sort of celebration. Hmm. If you were wondering, the main conspirators were hung, drawn and quartered in Jan 1606. And if you've seen Braveheart, you'll know what that involves.

I have no problem with people celebrating the way in which the plot was foiled. I don't agree with Fawkes and the conspirators and their violent plan because I don't think it would've done anything but kill people and cause yet further misery. But the fact is, 397 years later, we still celebrate the killing of people because they were Catholic.

After the Civil War of This Septic Isle, in 1649 Oliver Cromwell massacred Irish Catholics in Dublin, Drogheda and Wexford. Not because they were Irish but because he was a fanatical puritan and didn't see the deaths of papists as any big deal.

Last week, a Catholic man in Belfast was crucified and beaten so badly his father didn't recognise him. He was left to die. Firemen cut him down but he arrived at hospital still nailed to the wood.

How far we've all come.

Yes, I appreciate that the Guy Fawkes situation is different to the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' (Although 'war' really is a more appropriate word). But the fact is, over on this side of the Irish Sea, we're so uppity about how Belfast people should just forget their sectarian ways, their religious differences. Yet tonight we celebrate the death of a man because he was Catholic.

I don't care about what religion people are. I don't care. I'll treat a Catholic the same way as I would a Protestant, a Jew, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian. It's not what we are that matters, but who we are.

And to all you British out there: If it weren't for that grotesquely overweight, gluttonous, greedy, adulterous wastrel of a king known as King Henry VIII wanting his own way, you might all be Catholic. :-)

Disclaimer: I don't mean offence to anyone at all. Just pointing out a few issues I have with tonight's festivities.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I've just calculated how long it is since I last posted on my still new Live Journal and so I thought I'd better make some sort of effort....

Some thoughts for your evening.

1. Jamie Oliver is an annoying kitchen gimp. (Just saw his Sainsbury advert. Gag)
2. Richard Madeley of Richard & Judy might as well just save us all the bother and change his name to Alan Partridge.
3. Alan Partridge is back! Hurrah.
4. Anyone not British probably has no idea what I'm talking about. How I envy you.

Well, the well-known Ranter is back. I've tried very hard not to rant and to be tolerant of Russell Crowe, but the fact is, today in Britain is Bonfire Night. AKA Guy Fawkes night. Now most people will just use this as an excuse just to naff about with Catherine Wheels and rockets and burn any rubbish accumulated since last Nov. 5.

Although I hope that the local people building their bonfire the other day have taken that plastic chair off the top. Unless they want to kill everyone with fumes.

But the fact is, I can't get down with Bonfire Night. Funnily enough, this Catholic girl doesn't find anything entertaining about the execution of Catholics. Whatever the real truth behind the Gunpowder Plot, the fact is that Guy Fawkes and his twelve mates felt that they had little choice but to blow up King James I (James 6 of Scotland) and Parliament. I'm sure that some of the thirteen involved had other reasons, but the fact is that if there had not been gross intolerance to and oppression of Catholicism since Henry VIII split from Rome (with a short break for Mary, who turned it around and killed Protestants instead) the plot would never have been put into action.

After the plot was (thankfully) foiled, people in England burned effigies of Guy Fawkes on bonfires as some sort of celebration. Hmm. If you were wondering, the main conspirators were hung, drawn and quartered in Jan 1606. And if you've seen Braveheart, you'll know what that involves.

I have no problem with people celebrating the way in which the plot was foiled. I don't agree with Fawkes and the conspirators and their violent plan because I don't think it would've done anything but kill people and cause yet further misery. But the fact is, 397 years later, we still celebrate the killing of people because they were Catholic.

After the Civil War of This Septic Isle, in 1649 Oliver Cromwell massacred Irish Catholics in Dublin, Drogheda and Wexford. Not because they were Irish but because he was a fanatical puritan and didn't see the deaths of papists as any big deal.

Last week, a Catholic man in Belfast was crucified and beaten so badly his father didn't recognise him. He was left to die. Firemen cut him down but he arrived at hospital still nailed to the wood.

How far we've all come.

Yes, I appreciate that the Guy Fawkes situation is different to the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' (Although 'war' really is a more appropriate word). But the fact is, over on this side of the Irish Sea, we're so uppity about how Belfast people should just forget their sectarian ways, their religious differences. Yet tonight we celebrate the death of a man because he was Catholic.

I don't care about what religion people are. I don't care. I'll treat a Catholic the same way as I would a Protestant, a Jew, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian. It's not what we are that matters, but who we are.

And to all you British out there: If it weren't for that grotesquely overweight, gluttonous, greedy, adulterous wastrel of a king known as King Henry VIII wanting his own way, you might all be Catholic. :-)

Disclaimer: I don't mean offence to anyone at all. Just pointing out a few issues I have with tonight's festivities.