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11.17am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
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@AppleScruffJunior started this thread on 11 May 2014. Unfortunately, while deleting rogue posts, @Ahhh Girl accidentally deleted the thread.
Because my computer seems to cache pages for ages, I was able to put the thread back together. All original posts bar the two which AG was aiming to delete have been reposted by me taken from my cached copy of the page. The time and OP are at the top of each repost.
@Funny Paper @parlance - just so you know why your posts are now credited to me.
AppleScruffJunior said (5:59pm)
We all know John was a supporter of the IRA during The Troubles, but I read something which left me a bit "huh?" on the matter. John met with an IRA representative Gerry O' Hare in New York and he suggested that he would do a "concert for the working-class Northern Ireland Protestants".
Wait a second…"Protestants"? Surely if he supported the IRA, he would do a concert for the Catholics not the traditionally-unionist Protestants. Whether it was a blunder on John confusing his Christian-demoninations or whatever?
Anybody have any explanation as to why John said such a thing?
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
11.18am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Funny Paper said (6:54pm)
What year did John meet with that guy Gerry O'Hara?
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
11.20am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline AppleScruffJunior said (7:50pm)
Funny Paper said
What year did John meet with that guy Gerry O'Hara?
1972, I also spelt his name wrong (always proof-check kids!) it's O'Hare.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
11.22am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline parlance said (8:06pm)
AppleScruffJunior said
Wait a second…"Protestants"? Surely if he supported the IRA, he would do a concert for the Catholics not the traditionally-unionist Protestants. Whether it was a blunder on John confusing his Christian-demoninations or whatever?Anybody have any explanation as to why John said such a thing?
Could it be a misquote?
parlance
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
11.25am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Ron Nasty said (11:06pm)
@AppleScruffJunior
The interview with Gerry O'Hare took place with Irish journalist Johnny Rogan in the mid-00s (noughties). O'Hare had been the press officer for the 'Belfast Brigade' in the early '70s and claims a meeting was organised for him by Irish-American "Republican" Sympathisers in New York shortly after Bloody Sunday – so probably in late 1972.
Now, whether Rogan was behind misrepresenting O'Hare, or whether it was just too good a spin for the press on radical John in the early '70s to resist, O'Hare words do indeed seem to have been misrepresented. The basic of O'Hare's account was that Lennon suggested he may at some time be able to play a benefit for the Irish Republican movement, but his situation was too awkward with the US Government at the time for it to be organised soon.
O'Hare then went on to say, and the meaning of this is the bone of contention, as to whether Lennon didn't know what he was talking about, was confused about who he was talking to, or that what John said to O'Hare hasn't actually been reported in the way O'Hare answered the question. O'Hare recounts that he was unsure about how sincere John was but thought it was more than he just was getting swept along by the emotions.
He then went on to explain how he had told the Republican leadership back in Ireland, "The upshot of it was that he said he would love to do a concert, but if he did it he insisted on doing one in Belfast too. I got the impression that he was very anxious to do one for the Protestant community as well."
Isn't this typical John, wanting to be "in/out"? It was one thing to criticise the actions of the British Army on a Derry Sunday, another to make a statement that he was against the Northern Irish Loyalist communiity. His answer, if the American Government ever let him get into the position of actually doing the benefit in Dublin, was to say straight off that he'd be doing one in Belfast as well.
That to me is typical John… I'll play for both sides…
More here
The following people thank Ron Nasty for this post:
AppleScruffJunior"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
7.33pm
Members
18 March 2013
Offline Very interesting, cheers Ron. I also want that book now, blah so much to read- so little time
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7.57pm
1 November 2012
Offline I've never delved into the Irish issue much, but recently I did because of AppleScruff's question, and had occasion to read up a little on what American Republican (and Irish-American) Ronald Reagan thought and did about it (since as I noted in a previous post here many moons ago, one Lennon biographer who was his personal assistant during his last year intimated that John was warming up to Reagan in his last year). The upshot so far is that the Irish issue seems to be extraordinarily complex. The only thing I know for sure is the Politically Correct mantra: IRA good, British bad. This simple-minded mantra can then be applied in a wider focus (as, for example, with the Protestant Irish).
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