3/13/14

Bigots heart bigots: PSNI join the NYC St. Patrick's Day parade.

The notoriously bigoted Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) are traveling to march in the notoriously bigoted NYC St. Patrick's Day parade this year. (They're marching with the Gardaí! It's all very enlightened.) Apparently their love of militarism and their right-wing zealotry are enough to unite them across the once-bitter divide of religion and nation. Mazel tov, they deserve each other.

It's telling to watch the NY Irish community's outrage boil up now. Some people see this is just an extension of the bigotry that Irish queer groups have been trying (often without much help) to challenge. Some really, truly never saw it coming. As the poem goes: "First they came for the communists..."

Guardian: New York St Patrick's Day parade to include Northern Irish police
(http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/13/new-york-st-patricks-day-parade-northern-irish-police)

First They Came...
Martin Niemoller
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

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