JAMIE Bryson takes issue with The Irish News in what he alleges is bias in focusing on “asserted wrongs” by the unionist/loyalist community while being reluctant to address behaviour at nationalist events like Féile an Phobail. In fact there have been some insightful reflections on the matter from within this newspaper – among them columnists like Patrick Murphy, who describes as “delusional” those chanting “Ooh, ah, up the ‘RA”; and Leona O’Neill, who expresses criticism of people “celebrating and glorifying their own side’s history and quirks”.
The ‘perceived indiscretions’ Mr Bryson refers to include the burning of toxic material, tricolours, non-unionist political posters and a (albeit fake) police vehicle, drunkenness and unruly behaviour, and recently a march to the lower Ormeau Road as part of anti-immigration ‘protests’ where the ‘high five’ gesture was made to residents, referring to the Sean Graham bookmaker’s massacre.
In engaging in the unhelpful rhetoric of ‘whataboutery’, he then berates the west Belfast festival for its alleged pro-nationalist stance. But regarding his defensive comments about the Coleraine Football Club incident – “people can let off steam, amongst their own community, and those who have chosen to be there” – can this not equally be applied to attendees of Féile an Phobail?
Incredulously, Mr Bryson states that “I’ve given many speeches at loyalist events, and quite often much of what I have said wouldn’t necessarily be what I would say publicly. And there’s nothing wrong with that”. Really?
In essence what he is implying is he feels it’s perfectly fine to say anything he wants to his ‘followers’ and as long as it doesn’t get into the public domain then “there’s nothing wrong with that”.
One is reminded here of the American journalist who several years ago asked a female Trump supporter about him unknowingly being recorded making derogatory and misogynistic comments about women. She replied that if he’d known he was being taped he wouldn’t have said those things.
Here we have a further example of Mr Bryson sounding off before engaging his brain, in another deluded attempt to appear intelligent, articulate and reasoned.
Abraham Lincoln once said that “sometimes it is better to remain silent and be thought of as a fool than open one’s mouth to speak and in doing so remove all doubt”. Jamie Bryson would do well to heed this.
