Since the 2018 Referendum to remove the Right to Life of Unborn Children, the once ‘Catholic’ party of Sinn Fein are now seen by many practicing Catholics within Ireland as being the antithesis of Catholicism. Led by Mary Lou McDonald in the South and Michelle O’Neill in the North, the party have abandoned any Catholic aspect of their identity, accepting Westminster Rule for the first time in their history by allowing London to impose abortion on Northern Ireland in 2020.
Despite claims at the time that Catholics would vote for the DUP in protest, that is unlikely, it seems as though until prolife parties like The National Party, Irish Freedom Party and Aontu make proper inroads in the North, that Catholics will be held hostage to voting for the anti Catholic party of Sinn Fein (though many voters on the ground are in denial about what their party has become).
How to explain Sinn Fein’s migration towards the worst of London’s cultural values? Essentially, they’ve abandoned Catholicism while making a god of their watered down gift shop version of Celtic FC Irishness. By losing their faith, they lost the distinguishing feature that illuminated and preserved their ethnic and cultural values. As a result, birth rates have plummeted and their culture will become increasingly exposed to becoming subsumed by larger and more dynamic societal trends, as evident in the comically bizarre George Floyd mural recently lauded by Sinn Fein in Belfast. Having focused on what they are opposed to for so long, i.e. England, they now have no idea what they are about other than power for power’s sake.
Movements for British Nationalism have invariably hit similar notes in the past. Enoch Powell (in)famously discussed the ‘Rivers of Blood’, his only fault being failing to accentuate the positives of British culture in balance that would ensure future votes and political action. People need the truth, but also direction for positive action. The British National Party had much success in the 2000s before running out of steam, ultimately paying the price for focusing excessively on what they opposed (Islam) rather than what they were advocating. Both Powell and the BNP were also broadly sympathetic towards Northern Irish Unionists, who saw Catholic Irish Nationalists as representative of those seeking to undermine Protestant British culture. This was a very narrow perspective, which failed to comprehend that the complex historical situation between Catholic and Protestant in Ireland and Great Britain. It failed to understand that Mass had been illegal until 1829, with Irish people massacred, jailed or enslaved for attending religious services in their own land. It failed to understand people like Fr. Michael Griffin, kidnapped and murdered by the Winston Churchill’s Black and Tans. It failed to understand the history of men like St. Oliver Plunkett, hung, drawn and quartered by the crown for their faith.
What it failed to understand most of all, was that England has forgotten the greatness of many of its own figures and locations through its accentuation of Protestant culture at the expense of Catholicism. St. Thomas More for example, a fascinating writer who went bravely to his death. There are many other great figures even from recent memory such as Evelyn Waugh, JRR Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton, who undoubtedly loved English culture and accentuated its beauty in their writings. By identifying Britain too much with the suicidal antics of World War I and World War II or even things such trivialities as football, English people have missed out on a vibrant and exciting part of their history, the Catholics who thrived as a Creative Minority amidst persecution, choosing to glorify and preserve the very country persecuting them.
Having accepted that many in Britain just didn’t ‘get’ Catholicism, we here at Catholic Arena were pleasantly surprised with an excellent, fair and dignified video from Vinny Sullivan’s Youtube Channel, entitled ‘Britain’s War on the Catholic Church’. The video is interesting because the individuals that made it are British Nationalists, though their intention is to recapture some of the aspects omitted from official histories.
The video description reads:
‘I am not a believing theist, but I am addressing historical accuracy & how it affects us today.. Feel free to leave your opinions & keep in mind these issues went on before the troubles of today's plights & are not an attempt to undermine, but instead bring our people together once more; Under the understanding that historical Lies; Are what have driven us apart. Think for yourself. My You tube is heavily shadow banned and it's stats destroyed, this video is on other platforms such as Telegram and will be on bitchute but please share and make others aware’.
Most of the comments under the Youtube video were positive, but there was one negative one that stood out:
‘These are Traditions from the Middle East , the fake God has nothing to do with Europeans . Our Viking ancestors fought tooth and nail to stop this invasion and destruction of our Native Spirtual ways . Christianity is Alien by definition to Europe and Europeans , why do you follow the Traditions of Middle Eastern Arabs and their Abrahamic religion and God ?’
This person is completely wrong. Had they knowledge of the British from History, they would know about people like Augustine, Bede and even St. Patrick. They would also know this quote from G.K Chesterton:
‘Neo-Pagans have sometimes forgotten; when they set out to do everything that the old pagans did, that the final thing the old pagans did was to get christened’.
England’s abortion rate, its large scale immigration rate and its glorification of the wars of the 20th Century leave it in a position that is ripe for revisiting its relationship with Catholicism, which in many incidences and locations, such as in Walsingham and Durham, contain many glorious and proud parts of their history. For Irish and British people, the relationship between say St. Patrick and the Irish or St. Columba and his missions to the Picts, represent a departure from the age old conflicts between monarchical and Republican tyrants and humble peasants.
With the Catholic population of England rising steadily, it is worth English Nationalists considering the fact that many such as Chesterton, Tolkien and Waugh maintained their love of England even through persecution and malignment. All were also far more committed to the preservation of the demographic and cultural nature of England than can be found in modern political groups in such as the British National Party and UKIP. France has had much the same experience, with Catholic Traditionalists forgiving the French Revolution, now existing as the sole guardians of French culture, as seen in the powerful figure of Catholic Marion Marachele compared to the secular equivalent of Marine Le Pen.
Although most who normally follow Reality Reports and Vinny Sullivan may disagree with some of our perspectives, we hope that they consider them and we compliment Vinny and Reality Reports on their excellent video and we look forward to future installments, which, as they say, are matter of fact and fair in how they approach the relationship between the elites and Catholics (who are often ordinary people). Catholics are not enemies of the peoples of Ireland and England, in fact, throughout History, we have often been the little people, the persecuted people, the people in hiding, the people maintaining links with the past (even, or especially, the native pagan elements). We hope and pray for the English people to maintain their identities and we think that Catholicism offers the avenue for cultural memory and preservation that many of them are seeking.
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