Greening The North - One Post Box @ a Time!
national |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report 
Tuesday September 02, 2008 00:58
by Peint Fliuch - Ógra Shinn Féin
osfnational at yahoo dot ie
Over the past number of weeks, Ógra Shinn Féin have initiated a campaign to paint northern post boxes back to their rightful shade of green.
Over 100 postboxes are now 'greened', with the youth movement claiming that many nationally minded young people have joined the campaign since it was launched.
The campaign is intended to promote national pride in people and areas across the north, with a green post box a very visable sign that we live in Ireland.
It is a simple campaign that everyone can practically get involved and play a part in, 'a practical manifestation' of the All Ireland agenda, and a vibrant anti partition action.
ÓSF have called on all young Irish people, to get their bucket of green gloss, take up the campaign, and ensure the further 'greening of the north!!'
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8James Connolly once said something to the effect that if you painted all the post boxes in Ireland green it would make no difference unless you changed the economic system (i.e. abolish capitalism). I don't think he would ever have envisaged someone trying to paint them green just to make a triumphalist point while those behind the campaign sit comfortably in a capitalist government in Stormont. The Provos are part of the establishment now but every so often they have to do something ridiculous to prove how green they are to their grassroots. Pathetic.
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that quote comes from a play dramatising the discussion between Connolly and Pearse which brought him over to the IRB and its rising in the run up to easter.
Nobody said our aims are to only have green post boxes, dont be so ridiculous but this campaign offers a good vissible opportunity for young republicans to get out there and make the country theirs. Naysayers and begrudgers comments are worthless.
It does not matter about the colour, the colour is an innocent representation. The letter boxes, unfortunately for them, still have the British Imperialist Crown impressed boldly on them and that is far more symbolic and disconcerting to me than the colour. I would love to see all symbols of the British Imperialist Crown removed permanently from all four provinces.
On my way to work, I pass by several green An Post letterboxes but, the thing that annoys me most is the leftover British Imperialist Crown’s head boldly protruding out from the green, like it got left behind in the patriotic rush to paint it green. Also, it is very disheartening to also see the 'Royal Mail' bags still being used by An Post to collect the post from the letterboxes. It’s unbelievable that An Post still uses the British Royal Mail bags in the GPO of all places, where so many Irish Volunteers sacrificed their lives to remove British imperialism and all its symbols, but there you have it, there's no respect - sin scéal brónach eile!
if you see something you know to be wrong, and you do nothing about it, are you not then complicit in the wrong? Or to put it another way- buy a file and get working on the postboxes!
This is a good idea, but I would like to see OSF trying to persuade Adams & Co. not to support water charges and the privatisation of public amenities. It seems a bit daft painting post boxes while your senior party pushes neo-liberal policies.
if you want to have any influence on Sinn Féin policy there is a simple way- join Sinn Féin. If you don't want to do that, then take on the water charges yourself through your own political organisation. This hurler on the ditch foolishness of RSF is getting you nowhere.
All the post boxes in Britain and Ireland were green until 1874, when they were repainted to make them more obvious. If the British repainted their post boxes green in a fit of nostalgia, would OSF want to paint these post boxes pink or yellow?
Will this stunt move any person now committed to the union with Britain towards an all-Ireland position, or will it harden their feelings against Irish unity? Answer that honestly and try to square it with the phrase 'it would be wrong to make any change in the status of Northern Ireland save with the consent of a majority of its people' which SF (rightly) signed up to in 1998.
Brilliant , brilliant , well done all! Yes keep painting those damn boxes green and dont mind the begrudgers. I have to agree with the above poster that we here in the south still have to suffer the indignity of ER poking her head out of the side of the post boxes even to this day and what the hell is all that about? Still, I suppose we have better things to be spending our money on, like a shiny new spire in O' Connell St! Groan....
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