‘Easter 1916’ – ‘All changed, changed utterly; A terrible beauty is born’: The words leading to a rebuke the BBC dare not utter

When President Biden arrived in Ireland on his way to the G7 Summit, he quoted the poem ‘Easter 1916’, by W B Yeats, remembering the brutality of the UK in Ireland, in an emotional address.

By the time he got to England things had become colder, much colder. This from Alain Tolhurst in politics Home sums it up well:

If hopes were not already dashed that Biden would side with London, then an eye-catching story in The Times on Thursday morning, just hours before he was due to meet Johnson in Carbis Bay, finished the job.

It revealed America had issued a stinging rebuke accusing the UK of imperilling the Good Friday Agreement, with senior representative Yael Lempert sending a “demarche”, a rarely-used formal diplomatic message.

Sources in the administration tried to row back, briefing heavily that what was being said behind the scenes was no different to what was being said in public, and there were no “threats or ultimatums” being doled out.

But The Times stood by their story and in any case the damage was done, the first-ever in-person meeting between the two men overshadowed by claims of inflaming tensions and putting at risk the Good Friday Agreement, of which America is a guarantor.

Indeed, impossible to deny that this demarche (Lempert’s first to UK) was ordered by the White House as a means of conveying just how aggravated Biden personally is by government conduct on NI – this, from the Whitehall memo of the meeting, is how it was put to Lord Frost. 

In truth it was long in the making, as US politicians and senior Irish-American figures have had months of detailed talks with groups in Northern Ireland about the protocol.

It has also been seen as another victory for Ireland’s secret soft power, and their understanding of how to harness the might of the European Union and America to their benefit on Brexit.

Two years before the UK even voted to exit the EU the Irish government had been working on Brexit strategies, with officials cornering British counterparts at summits to find out what would happen if Leave won. The Theresa May years were subsequently characterised by Irish diplomats outmanoeuvring the UK on Brexit. 

Last month Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney held meetings at Shannon Airport with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, where they “reaffirmed their commitment to protecting the gains of the Good Friday Agreement for all communities in Northern Ireland.”

By contrast, the UK government only announced this week that it is sending an official to Washington for three months to communicate its position on the protocol to US policymakers.

Despite repeated suggestions in recent years Ireland’s interests would be sidelined, the EU has shown it is willing to go to the mattresses over the single market and how it relates to the border, and with a committed hibernophile in the Oval Office, they have America’s support too.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGkXmcLLcTWWjnzPxCNVqvjGksv

The BBC, as before with many of Johnson’s fumbles, including the thousands dead from his Covid strategy, has always taken his side or looked the other way:

Even, in a desperate attempt to undermine Biden’s identification with Ireland:

Still ahead in the polls, Johnson has the BBC to thank for at least some of that.

11 thoughts on “‘Easter 1916’ – ‘All changed, changed utterly; A terrible beauty is born’: The words leading to a rebuke the BBC dare not utter”

  1. Biden is well acquainted with regards UK
    historical dealings in Ireland
    Such as
    1.Banning Catholic worship
    2.Ensuring only wealthy protestants had any real power
    3 Cromwell that name alone sends shivers down any Irish spine
    4.Famine
    5.Forced emigration
    6.The Black and Tans
    7..Excucution of Easter Rising combatants
    8.Weasel actions and words when Independence was unavoidable
    9.Ensuring a Unionist Majority in NI until
    Forced to temporary take back control to Westminster
    10.Collusion with Loyalist groups with Ulster police and MI5 in killings and bombings
    11 UK now cornered and trapped by EU withdrawal agreement
    So in conclusion Biden knows full well that he can NEVER EVER trust the UK on any matters pertaining to the Island of Ireland
    And Boris , ABC ( BBC ) and all associated with the British establishment know this is very much the enigma they now find themselves in
    With no sane or honorable way out other that buckle and yield to what they have signed upto with the EU and the GFA
    From a military point of view UK has no alternative but to eat humble pie and run the white flag up the pole as they awake from their delusional slumber and confront reality

    Liked by 9 people

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    1. From a less militaristic perspective, the Boris Hunger Games are over re Ireland.

      The media may even have half of England convinced the EU is this source of the problem, but it matters not a damn to the rest of the world, and the sooner the Torygraph, Daily Smail and TalkRadio stop these obtuse propaganda games the sooner things can get back to the Brexit they insisted upon and signed up to.

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  2. As far as I understand things, British nationalism is a learned social pathology that grounds identity in irrational ideology which conflicts with empirical reality (Britain is not one nation). IMHO, one of the main reasons this regressive form of nationalism has had such a hold on the minds of Scots, is that folks don’t like to admit they been conned into believing material fantasies.

    The Concept of Representation in Contemporary Democratic Theory
    https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.053006.190533

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  3. Let’s hope this leads to the deployment of US troops to police the removal of the British from the island of Ireland and the peaceful return of the occupied territory to Eire – whilst the ‘British’ aircraft carriers mope off the coast like the expensive corks that they are.

    Then repeat the process in Scotland – they’d be most welcome.

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    2. We’re bobbing along on the crest of a wave……………………

      Wont be long till Joe sends them off to the China sea, as a wee provocation—-you always send the daft, fat boy to give cheek to the class bully—then you all run away!

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  5. Home Rule for Ireland was repeatedly voted down, put aside and sneeringly dismissed by Westminster. The London periodicals cast the Irish as dumb, loutish beats of the field.

    This went on for decades until the Irish electorate voted out the constitutional parties and voted in Sinn Fein instead.

    The rest is painful history, which Joe Biden appears to know, but Boris and his English nationalist party have forgotten.
    And Scotland is being treated much the same right now.

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  8. The Irish did not have the vote. Universal Suffrage 1928. If they had waited 5 years they could have vote for Home Rule/Independence. Illegal Partition 1923. They were denied the vote in Belfast in the 1960’s. Bernadette Devlin. The Catholic’s were denied rights to public housing and public jobs. Masonics. The handshake etc. Illegal discrimination.

    There was a Home Rule Bill due to be passed two weeks after 1st WW broke out. It was suspended. There was a strong Irish Land League fighting for land ownership rights. There was a massive Home Rule movement in the 19C. Led by Protestant Landowner. Charles Stuart Parnell. The Irish catholics had no rights. They were forbidden to carry a sword (defence) or own a horse (transport). They were treated badly. Famine was not relieved. They were cleared from the land and had to emigrate to US etc. Same in Scotland.

    Biden’s mother was Irish. Ireland could vote to reunite. Demographically. The DUP are losing support. A Law unto themselves. They break UK Law.

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