Up the Ra - Rubber Bandits

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A Note on "UP DA RA

We have been getting some feedback that UP DA RA is
offensive to Irish Republicans. I want to clear this matter up.
Up DA RA is a piece of satire. It Satirises armchairrepublicanism. It was written from the point of view of the type of eejit who is liable to have Tiocfaidh ar la tattooed on his arm while wearing a Manchester united Jersey. It was personally inspired by a gentleman I knew who spray painted C.I.R.A on a bus stop, believing that the acronym stood for Constitutional Irish Republican Army. The writing technique implemented inUP DA RA is known as The unreliable Narrator. This is a narrative mode used by the writer to best communicate the intended message. This unreliability canbe due to psychological instability, a powerful bias, a lack of knowledge, or even a deliberate attempt to deceive the reader or audience. Some lovely examples of this technique can be found in the song Rednecks by Randy Newman

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-W8WmkH...,

or in the satirical piece A modest proposal by Johnathan Swift.
http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/modest....

So if you listen to UP DA RA literally, without exploring its subtext then it is wide open for misinterpretation. As its author, I wrote the song for a 21st century audience who are very familiar with postmodern Irony. Also, any song whereby the narrator threatens to chase the Queen of England around a field with dog shit on the end of a golf club should generally be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, If you were walking down the road and a man who talks to himself and smells heavily of piss tells you that you can use old condoms as currency, would you then save all your used condoms and try and buy a jumper with them in River Island.?? Probably not, because the
mans view of society is unreliable.
Up DA RA is intended to educate through the use of humour, because humour is a damn fine way to get your message across to someone without shoving your views down their throat. If it means even one armchair republican picking up a history book and actually understanding why they call themselves Republican then the song is a success. I personally find the level of ignorance and lack of knowledge amongst some people who call themselves republican to be offensive. It is offensive to the memory of the Irish men and women who gave their lives for basic civil rights. Armchair republicans attach themselves to a romantic image of the I.R.A brandishing Kalashnikovs as a way of making themselves look and feel tough, when it suits them. They will loudly state how they hate the brits yet have no problem supporting English football or more commonly, mimicking every aspect of British chav culture and absorbing it into their identity. I also get a bit annoyed with the student types who wear Che Guevara T-shirts without having any real interest in socialism. The T-shirts just look cool, thats it. UP DA RA has received a positive response mostly, I take this as evidence that an awful lot of people are just as annoyed with armchair republicanism as I am, because its insincere, and insincerity is a particularly annoying human trait.

I support peaceful republicanism; I support all peaceful attempts to pursue justice where a community of any creed is downtrodden by an unfair and oppressive system. That includes Palestinians, the Travelling Community,and foreign nationals in Ireland. I am proud of my Irish history. My own grandfather was a member of the I.R.A in Tom Barrys flying column during the war of independence and he took a bullet for it too. However... while I understand my ancestral history of oppression and cruelty I have no interest in hanging on to hatred of the oppressor. If a child is born today, of English blood in London, I refuse to hold him responsible for the actions of his ancestors before he was born. So to anyone who thinks that we are being disrespectful to Republicanism? Well then you may as well call Edward Norton a Racist for the character he portrayed in American History X.

• Category

  Comedy

[dublinodonnell]

Jesus fucking Christ. It's FUCKING simple you FUCKING RETARDS: The song is just a piss take of arm-chair Nationalists and IRA supporters who don't have a clue. Straight satire. That's it. The fucking amount of comments below that don't get that is really worrying.

[rudibadlad]

Great wee tune, a piss-take on history nonetheless, but hey, punch the queen on the jaw, as a symbol, now thats fkn quality

[Gamer Bozz]

jeez let go man their only have a mental craic as all de irish pep worls it is just for de craic

[Sybetatrix Draenoreu]

Tiocfaidh ar la.



[Irish Republican Internet Defence Forces]

Eire Nua is infallible m8.

[nutter170]

Oh you mean the policy that has been largely rejected by most large parts of republicans, as it may give unionists to much sway in the northern sections.........Riiiiiiiiiigh­t.

[Irish Republican Internet Defence Forces]

Eire Nua provides for the Ulster-Scots with their own parliament ya tard.

[Irish Republican Internet Defence Forces]

That sounds like Sean O'Neill of Real Sinn Fein/RSF Limerick at the beginning.

[nutter170]

I said if a United Ireland happened, 10/20% of your population '' which would include the unionists from NI '' would make up your population and because your controlled fully by the EU you would have no choice but to listen and give in to the unionists views due to them being a minority in the country :) Its really not hard to work out. Unless your delusional and think the Unionists would just sit back and take it.

[downwithjedward]

you're right. the south don't want the north anymore, the north is a monetary black hole on the uk , and even gordon brown admitted it was a mistake to keep it. also no one in the south wants to rejoin the uk , you're talking out of your arse.