I can't speak of other fans, but I've generally not paid much attention to it because a) I haven't seen anyone outside of you bring it up and b) despite being in the Commonwealth, I know very little about the whole Britain vs. Ireland ordeal - so that will limit how much I can speak on the topic. But I've been reading up a bit on this tonight spurred by you.
Age might have something to do with it although it's been in several publications on/off since 2000, so wasn't really a secret.
At least it piqued your interest enough to have a look into it.
Not exactly, no.
The official name of the Republic of Ireland is Ireland as stated in their written constitution. And that has been independent proper since 1949 (previously had dominion status).
What Lennon and McCartney were supporting was to blatantly ignore the democratic will of the vast majority of the population of Northern Ireland and.......demand a united Ireland.
Absolutely no way could that have happened in an age of democracy as we understand it today.
It really boils down to surrendering to the Provisionals as though they had popular support which they never actually had.
Completely ridiculous and stupid set of demands!
That really doesn't quite follow as a lot of people in Liverpool with Catholic and Protestant descent from Ulster certainly didn't support the Provos or a united Ireland.
More accurate to say it was mixed.
That's not to say that there weren't Scousers who actively suppprted the Provos, shamefully. Labour's John McDonnell was one.
By and large, those in Liverpool who did support the IRA were quite ignorant of the realities in Ulster and of history. See, in one breath they would denounce the Nazis and support the IRA in the next!
There are well established links between the IRA and the Nazis.
By the same token, it does not follow that a Catholic supported both the Provos and a united Ireland. I'm descended from and related to the Monaghans, Mills, O'Neills, O'Reillys and the Sloweys - all Gaelic originated surnames. Despise the Provos and not a supporter of a united Ireland. Just one member of my family is, but the rest are not.
That song demonstrates McCartney had no real grasp of the realities of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
For instance, "Give Ireland back to the Irish, don't make them take it away" is ridiculous. The "them" here are the Provos who never stood a cat's chance in hell of doing that with or without the British Army!
Essentially, undemocratic since Northern Ireland has never been London's to give away.
"Make Ireland Irish today" is another one - Macca obviously didn't understandthat the conflict in Northern Ireland was literally about nationality.
Hadn't a clue the Provos believed they could literally bomb the rest of us into a united Ireland. Their terrorist campaign ultimately led most of us to reject Irish as our nationality. We usually refer to ourselves as Ulster folk, British and Northern Irish which is not the same thing as Irish. Northern Irish is what's referred to as a partitionist identity in that it simply doesn't extend to the rest of the island.
Lyrically, it's a badly written song and he should be embarrassed by it.
Such protests were staged by Irish Republicanism in Great Britain in an attempt to turn the British public against Ulster Unionists and demand the British Army be withdrawn. They ultimately failed to do this to our relief.
Such a withdrawal would have left Northern Ireland in a civil war which the presence of the British Army had prevented. Unlike Lebanon, Northern Ireland never descended into civil war.
Again, Lennon was unable to conceive of this aspect.
The Red Mole magazine Lennon was holding? Well, they were Provo supporters.
By the way, the soldiers weren't all from England. A good chunk of them were local Ulstermen and women - my Ulster Grandfather was one.
This is doublespeak and pretty routine for all who supported these terrorists. Being more direct could get you arrested.
Lennon didn't really struggle, especially when we consider his lyrics which were even worse than McCartney's.
Lennon also was oblivious to the fact that the Provos successfully infiltrated the "Irish Civil Rights" organisation as early as 1968. That organisation was actually called Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association aka NICRA.
Too long to get into, but the organisers of these marches were well aware of it leading to deliberate confrontation and of having very little concern for the safety of their own marchers.
It was Provisional as the Officials were defeated around this time by the Security Forces.
It was the Provos Lennon was meeting in New York, not the Stickies aka Officials.
No, they didn't donate royalties to NICRA.
It was to NORAID they donated royalties to which the UK and Irish Governments were very, very clear was a Provisional IRA front.
It was mainly the Irish Government who urged the US Government to take down NORAID. The UK Government felt it would be counterproductive for them to take the lead given Irish-America's insane romanticism of old Ireland and the Provos.
The FBI concluded NORAID was a front for the Provos.
‘Every aspect of the INAC operation seems to make it apparent that it and its principal (NAC) are supporters of the Provisional wing of the IRA’.And the FBI added:
‘It would seem that if it were to be ascertained that the official position of Britain and Ireland is as enunciated by Irish Minister of Justice, Desmond O’Malley and if the NAC there is branded as an IRA front an approach to interdicting the flow of funds could be made by invalidating the registration of INAC and invoking the neutrality laws of the United States.’Yoko can deny it all she likes and pretend that NORAID was about giving money to help "women, child and those in need" all she likes. But it doesn't alter the reality that NORAID was giving money to the Provos which then used it to buy weapons.
Not a single penny was going to Nationalist, Unionist or Loyalist families either. It was all 100% Republicanism and mostly for weapons.
Indeed, Lennon's aunt Mimi was absolutely furious with him over this one.
In "The Luck Of The Irish", Lennon shows a crazy lack of understanding of the history as a whole. For a start, the Troubles wasn't rooted in centuries worth of conflict and framing it that way literally encouraged more terrorism. Still does.
This verse is bonkers:
"Why the hell are the English there anyway?
As they kill with God on their side
Blame it all on the kids and the I.R.A.
As the bastards commit genocide
Aye, aye
Genocide"Here, Lennon is a self-hating Anglophobe, thinks it's about religion rather than nationality and thinks the Provos never used children as "soldiers". Strangely, Lennon ignores the fact that Scottish, Welsh and, yes, Irish soldiers from the ROI were part of the British Army in Northern Ireland in addition to the Ulster folk.
Then he ends up on another planet by calling the Troubles "genocide"! Little did Lennon know that the Republicans he was supporting were responsible for a whopping 60% of all deaths! Security Forces just 9% which was mostly terrorists.
In "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", he's also racist towards the Protestants and this verse is plain nuts:
"Repatriate to Britain
All of you who call it home
Leave Ireland to the Irish
Not for London or for Rome!"Meanwhile, the bloody Provos were calling us "Irishmen who don't know they're Irish" at the time!
Repatriate a people who are also indigenous to Northern Ireland whose families have lived there for hundreds of years? Many of them with Catholic ancestry too?
Ridiculous, racist nonsense. His set of lyrics are much worse than McCartney's.
U2's Bono had more sense than either Lennon and McCartney on writing songs around the Troubles. Instead of taking a pro-Republican, pro-IRA line, he took a more neutral one. Even condemned Irish-America's support for the Provos which earned Bono a death threat.
No, Lennon and McCartney should have left well alone. Especially Lennon!
His popularity nosedived in the UK when he did and he kept those views to himself for the rest of his life. Given the level of involvement in supporting Republicanism which believes in physical force as a core part of its ideology, support for Red Mole and funding of NORAID, it's very unlikely Lennon changed his views after 1972.
That also came from the Provos - Gerry O'Hare, specifically. Although he knew Lennon was pretty confused about what was actually going on in the Troubles, he felt Lennon was committed to the Republican "cause".
"There was nobody bigger than the Beatles, and John Lennon was espousing his working-class values. We [the IRA] were thinking, "This is brilliant, how did he get away with it?"The concert would have happened had Lennon not been afraid of not being allowed back into the United States.
It wasn't in Ireland which means the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland is a separate country and part of the UK which the army had an obligation to defend against domestic terrorism. Lennon had no business in this, especially since he didn't have the first clue about it.
It was also quite hypocrital of Lennon to protest internment since the Irish Republic had successfully previously used internment to crush the IRA in their territory. Misguided individuals like Lennon and Amnesty (co-founded by IRA Chief Of Staff Sean MacBride) made this difficult as did other factors. And yet the Provos were almost at the point of defeat as early as the early 1970s. International interference as a result of Provo manipulation effectively saved them.
Indeed, Lennon did more than partake in a peaceful protest in support of the Provos. Today, he'd be arrested under legislation relating to the glorification/support of terrorist organisations.
Misguided, naive, stupid and plenty more to go with that.