C'mon Ireland, you know you want to...

As for Ireland and her awful abortion laws, you might find the comparison with Saudi Arabia a trifle over-stated.

Possibly. But I re-read the 'X case' episode again, and it made my blood boil.


This article gives a nice perspective on Irish nationalism, the identification of Miss X's body with the symbolical body of Ireland, the need to police the female body, and EU membership.
A Catholic Irish girl, taken away from Ireland and send overseas, 'England' murdering her baby, made possible by EU regulation - the episode is rife with symbolism, a stab in the heart of reactionary (and no longer emancipatory!) Irish nationalism.

Whether opportune in a charm offensive to sway Ireland into the yes-camp or not, I am perfectly consistent in who I side with, whether they be Saudi clerics, Iranian ayatollahs, or Irish priests: no patriarchal policing of the female body in the name of protection of this embodiment of the nation and of the moral hygiene of the religion.

Although I realise that in the case of Catholics, I will be a minority voice. I've said it several times in 'Evil Islam Supresses Women!' threads: we won't hear the right when it does not concern brown foreigners. So, me, I accuse you all of blatant hypocrisy and Islamophobia for not agreeing with me over Ireland's sovereignity. A sovereignity, that is better described as non-sovereignity. Because the abstract symbol of national sovereignity takes precedence here over concrete sovereignity over one's very body. Freedom is individual, not collective. Hence, I argue that it is in fact me who stands up for Irish freedom and sovereignity, and not the others.

I realise that your hyperbole is adopted for effect, but it is precisely that kind of hectoring from EU proponents that alienates this people, for whom stubborn resistance to outside imposition is almost a genetic trait.

Bully us, and we are your foes for several lifetimes. Charm us, and we're anybody's for a pint and a smoke.

I do not in the least bit expect that I endeared anybody to the EU over the past few weeks here. For this, one needs to be charming indeed, perhaps nuanced and considerate too. Me, my posts had all the charm and nuance of a charging rhinoceros.

I announced it at post 4000. Stubbornly singlesided in content and provocative in form for my next thousand posts. Why? Because when I write carefully crafted posts that weigh all the pros and cons of an argument, I get polite nods and everybody likes me. When I pick a side and stubbornly defend it with pigheaded disregard for nuance, everybody hates my guts but I get plenty of heated debate.

Confusion over what is meant as thought-provoking provocation, what is sheer buffoonery and what is serious, is entirely unintentional and the result of my own argumentative shortcomings. Live and learn, as they say. And one learns by trying something new, like experimentative posting styles.