Added: 1 year ago
From: Derektrotter08
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  • Stephenson's book, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, is a cracking read.

    But it must be read with caution.

    This is an Englishman "adopting" Irishness.

    Intriguing.

  • Stephenson (MacStiofain) was English, not Irish. His mother claimed to be from Belfast, but she was born and bred in London, England.

    

  • @TerrySleeper English and head of the IRA. Something a little wrong with your logic don't you think.

  • @22grena - no, my logic is sound. Stephenson pretended to be Irish, he really did.

    You're right to point out, though, that it IS weird than an Englishman should lead the IRA - which is the very point that I was making.

    Thanks for your contribution.

  • @TerrySleeper Typical Englishman. Empathy seems to be something not in your DNA. Many English people cannot put thermselves into the shoes of other people. There are exceptions of course like Lawrence of Arabia but the English thought he was very eccentric. If he believes he is Irish he is Irish .It simple. Just like you. BTW his mother was born in protestant east Belfast. Being a Protestant Republican is not an oxymoron.

  • @22grena - no. I shall ignore the "typical Englishman" racist slur.

    "If he believes he is Irish he is Irish"? Really? If I believe I am a Chinaman am I a Chinaman? You are not being serious.

    His mother was not born in Belfast, but in London. Check it out.

    And I never said that a Protestant could not be a Republican. Remember Wolfe Tone?

    His "eccentricity", as you call it, well - the English (of which he was undoubtedly one) are a nation of them!

    But he was not Irish.

    Get it?

  • @TerrySleeper Haha are you enjoying the fantasy of being a victim of racial abuse you clown. You havnt the slightest idea what that really feels like do you? I'm afraid you don't get it but I think thats because you like a lot of English people cannot get your head around the idea that someone born in England would not want to be English.

  • @22grena - "SM's inplacable sense of Irishness was - tragically or comically - an ultimately deluded one. In 1972, after spending many weeks in the public archives, The Sunday Telegraph journalist Ivan Rowan discovered that John Stephenson was one-eighth Irish at best. Although his mother Lillian had claimed to be from Belfast, the records showed that she was born and bred in Bethnal Green, with just one Irish grandmother in her family tree." - Times obituary on John Stephenson.

    'Nuff said.

  • @TerrySleeper Mr Sleeper. This is a matter of contention. What is it to be Irish. Was James Connelly Irish. Was De Valera Irish. It takes an intellectual and emotional belief, which he had. Now his mothers family were Irish therefore she was irish and therefore he was part Irish and fully if brought up that way.Just because the English lose their identity when they go abroad doesnt mean others do.

  • @22grena - A cynical reply would be that if I have an emotional belief to be a Chinaman I would in fact be a Chinaman. But I doubt that anyone would take that line of argument seriously.

    De Valera identified himself with his "Irish"-side as Bob Marley (half-white) did with his his Jamaican side. This is a moot point, I agree.

    As for losing one's ID when one goes "abroad": Stepehnson never went "abroad". He was English, with an English father and an English mother.

  • @TerrySleeper But his mother was not English, that is the point and why he was what he was. You are being too English in your thinking. I often think the English people have a lower emphathy than others. I think its because of thereducation system which has been so very anglo centric.

  • @22grena - his mother, born & bred in Bethnal Green, with only one Irish grandparent, was incontestably English.

    However you slice it, the Provos top man in the early 70s was an Englishman.

    What is so wrong with that?

  • @TerrySleeper

    No, its worse than that, all of MacStiofain's grandparents were English born! He wouldn't have even been eligible for the Irish soccer team! One of his great-grandparents may have been an Ulster Protestant and born in Ireland but there's no evidence. His Cockney mother was a crypto-Catholic High Church Anglican who sent him to an Catholic school in North London. He grew up with the London Irish, working with Irish on the building sites, and socialising with them in Irish clubs.

  • @wallacepearse - er . . . . right.

    I think.

  • @TerrySleeper

    Nothing wrong at all, since he was probably the best leader the IRA would have for some time. He was also non-sectarian (perhaps owing to his Protestant ancestry) unlike his successor Seamus Twomey.

  • Heroes every last one of them. God better save the queen when she comes to the republic this year....

  • Strange looking at all these spies in the same room. Up the MI6, I mean IRA.

  • The birthplace of a man's mother does not determine his nationality.

    Be serious.

  • @TerrySleeper Che Guevara was not Cuban

  • @mossy121c - yes, he was Bolivian.

    There's nothing wrong with Stephenson being English, it's just that a lot of people are not aware of it.

    The assumption would be that he was Irish.

    But he wasn't.

    He was English.

    Point of information, that's all.

    Not a big deal . . . .

  • Seán MacStíofán is the one talking, Daithí O'Conaill, Seamus Twomey and Martin McGuinness are also present. O'Conaill is on the left of the shot with Twomey the one wearing sunglasses

  • Do you have any Ruairi O Bradaigh video speeches

  • Which one is Daithi Ó Conaill

  • @Sh012222 imnear sure hes the cool looking bloke at 7 seconds

  • Comment removed

  • @Sh012222 I always say "the one that looks like John Cleese" :)

  • John Stephenson wasn't even Irish.

  • @TerrySleeper define irish he is irish anyone who is and was disaffected by British rule now and before 1921 emigrants and their offspring are irish .

  • @TerrySleeper Seán MacStíofán's mother was Irish therefore he was Irish!! he may have been born in London but he's Irish as proven by the actions he took in the PIRA

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