Wednesday, March 26, 2008

An ancient shipwreck floats into Cobh

Ian Paisley has accepted an invitation to be guest speaker at the Cobh & Harbour Chamber of Commerce’s 50th anniversary dinner.

Kathleen Gearey, chief executive of Cobh and Harbour Chamber of Commerce, said it had always been hoped to get a high-profile speaker for the chamber’s 50th anniversary.

She said the links between Cobh and Belfast were important, especially when it came to the Titanic. The ill-fated liner was constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, while Cobh was its last port of call before striking an iceberg with the loss of 1,595 lives.

Despite (or because of) attempting to alter its course, once The Titanic had hit its iceberg, it sunk almost immediately-now, I wonder what made them think of choosing Big Ian as their guest speaker?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish people would think twice before lauding Paisley as the man who made peace in Northern Ireland. He is the man who was largely responsible for 30 years of misery. The Cobh and Harbour Chamber of Commerce should be ashamed of itself.

And whatever Paisley was or is, he was never a unionist in the true sense of the word.

Anonymous said...

I agree, Paisley is responsible for a lot of hatred in Northern Ireland. He should not be invited to the Republic of Ireland so quickly.

O'Neill said...

He is the man who was largely responsible for 30 years of misery

I heard he might have had some help along the way from his new-found friends in SFIRA in creating that misery.

I agree, Paisley is responsible for a lot of hatred in Northern Ireland. He should not be invited to the Republic of Ireland so quickly.

Haven't you heard?
He might still rail against the Romanists every Sunday from the pulpit, but we can quietly sweep that under the carpet now that he's agreed that SF aren't such bad people...or that his powerlust overruled his principles.

Cobh can invite who they want I suppose, though I can think of better ways of spending my evening than sitting through an hour's rambling from that old fool.