Irish-Americans outraged by Professor Douglas O. Smith using Marquette’s good name to dismiss anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland and the mindless slaughter of the Somme Battle (1916).
Posted By: July 09, 2018
Irish-Americans outraged by Professor Douglas O. Smith using Marquette’s good name to dismiss anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland and the mindless slaughter of the Somme Battle (1916).
CAPITOL HILL. Sunday, July 8, 2018— The Associate General Counsel at Marquette University has outraged Irish-Americans across the country by showing insensitivity, if not outright hostility, to the victims of anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland. In addition, he appears to take exception to any regrets about the awful slaughter of the Battle of the Somme, “one of the world’s bloodiest battles.”
Professor Douglas O. Smith has inexplicably dumped his own Marquette University into an Irish-American maelstrom by using Marquette’s email account to legally threaten a prominent Capitol Hill-based Irish human rights organization, headed by a Catholic priest. Smith sent the priest the following email on Saturday, July 7: “This is a formal request to remove me from all of your email lists. I will take the appropriate legal action if you fail to comply with this request.” Douglas O. Smith —douglas.smith@marquette.edu“
Fr. Sean McManus, President of the Irish National Caucus, provided the context of Professor Smith’s very odd behavior:” The Irish National Caucus is committed to nonviolence, unity, equality, justice and peace in Ireland. We support the Good Friday Agreement—and pending the reunification of Ireland— we advocate the building up of The Beloved Community in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, still under England’s control. Since I came from Northern Ireland in 1972, I have been lobbying the U.S. Congress to stand up for justice and peace in Ireland—with an end to all anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland.”
Fr. Mc Manus explained:”The Irish National Caucus regularly distributes to the Congress our Irish Congressional Briefings, which we also email to many thousand Irish-Americans. On Saturday, July 7, our Irish Congressional Briefing essentially consisted of an article by respected columnist for the Irish News of Belfast, Patrick Murphy, ‘War glorified instead of life-saving NHS.’ Saturday, July 7, 2018. (Full email and article below).
Mr. Murphy would be seen in Northern Ireland as a moderate. In this particular article, he deplores the sectarianism of the Orange Order and the slaughter of the Somme, which he describes as ‘one of the world’s bloodiest battles.’ And he adds: ‘The Somme dead were slaughtered as much by their own generals as the Germans, in defense of an empire which thrived on atrocities over the next 50 years. These included concentration camps in Kenya and Malaya, in which a total of two million civilians were held, the murder of up to 1,000 peaceful protesters in Amritsar, India and the torture of about 3,000 civilians in Cyprus…'”
Fr. Mc Manus continued:”I had no idea who Professor Smith was or how he got on our email blasts. We had never received any previous request from him to be removed from our emails and Irish Congressional Briefings. So, I have to presume that his extraordinary, over-the-top, response was provoked by the content of the particular email to which he was replying.
I am sure most Americans would agree with Mr. Murphy. And, surely, the Jesuit ethos of Marquette University ought to regard the article as reflecting its own values?
I am puzzled as to why Professor Smith should be so hostile and threatening. Surely, any reasonable person would have simply said: ‘Please remove me from your list.’ Why would he be so unreasonable and un-lawyerly while using (abusing) the University’s email account? Furthermore, wouldn’t one think that our deploring anti-Catholic discrimination and the slaughter of mindless war would reflect the Jesuit ethos of Marquette University?”
Fr. Mc Manus explained:” Since we went public yesterday with Attorney/Professor Smith’s extraordinary outburst, the Irish National Caucus has been inundated by emails and phone calls expressing shock at Smith’s bizarre conduct while using/abusing Marquette’s email account. By far the most common response is:’ Would Professor Smith use Marquette’s email account to legally threaten any other group: Jewish, Muslim, African-American, etc.?’ “
Fr. Mc Manus concluded:”I deplore racism/sectarianism in all its forms. I stand in solidarity with all in the United States who oppose anti-Balck racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism, or anti-Catholicism. I oppose every attempt to demean, marginalize or disrespect any group anywhere because I believe with the American Protestant Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann that,’In Biblical faith, the doing of justice is the primary expectation of God.’
I call on Marquette University to disassociate itself from Professor Smith’s threatening legal behavior.”
END.
CAPITOL HILL. Saturday, July 7, 2018 — The University email legal message from the Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, was ominous and threatening, and was meant to be:”This is a formal request to remove me from all of your email lists. I will take the appropriate legal action if you fail to comply with this request.” Douglas O. Smith —douglas.smith@marquette.edu
All the more serious because the author according to his own bio on the University website declares:”Douglas O. Smith // Business // Marquette University
www.marquette.edu/business/directory/douglas-smith.php @Marquette University – Milwaukee WI
Professor Smith has been a practicing business lawyer for 34 years, the last eight as Associate General Counsel at Marquette University.”
So, what provoked this Professor/attorney to use his University email address to threaten the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus with “appropriate legal action?”
Fr. Sean Mc Manus— President, Irish National Caucus — explained:”I have no idea who this guy is, or how he got on our email blasts. We had never received any previous request from him to be removed from our emails and Irish Congressional Briefings. So, I have to presume that his extraordinary, over-the-top, response was provoked by the content of the particular email to which he was replying. That email essentially consisted of an article by respected columnist for the Irish News of Belfast, Patrick Murphy,” War glorified instead of life-saving NHS.” Saturday, July 7, 2018. ( Full email and article below).
Fr. McManus continued:” Mr. Murphy is an erudite, literary man of gravitas. He would be very much seen in Northern Ireland as a moderate. In this particular article, Mr.Murphy deplores the sectarianism of the Orange Order and the slaughter of the Somme, which he describes as ‘one of the world’s bloodiest battles.’ And he adds:’The Somme dead were slaughtered as much by their own generals as the Germans, in defense of an empire which thrived on atrocities over the next 50 years. These included concentration camps in Kenya and Malaya, in which a total of two million civilians were held, the murder of up to 1,000 peaceful protesters in Amritsar, India and the torture of about 3,000 civilians in Cyprus…’
Fr. McManus concluded:”I am sure most Americans would agree with Mr. Murphy. And, surely, the Jesuit ethos of Marquette University ought to regard the article as reflecting its own values? I am puzzled as to why Professor Smith should be so hostile and threatening. Surely, any reasonable person would have simply said:’Please remove me from your list.’ Why would he be so unreasonable and un-lawyerly while using (abusing) the University’s email account?”
IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING
War glorified instead of life-saving NHS
“Although the Orange Order likes to depict its parades as a quaint custom, a bit like Irish Morris dancing, it practices the dominance of one set of religious beliefs over another-—even though it claims to stand for civil and religious liberty.
It is a sectarian organization, which influenced and even encouraged successive unionist administrations here in anti-Catholic discrimination….
Patrick Murphy. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, July 7, 2018
There was a huge parade in east Belfast on Monday evening, but none on Thursday. “How very uninteresting,” you say, “is that the best you can offer us this morning?”
We are just coming to the interesting bit. Monday’s parade was an Orange Order glorification of British forces fighting for the empire at the Somme, one of the world’s bloodiest battles.
Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the first patient being treated under the National Health Service. There were no celebratory parades (although the trades unions had a ‘Save the NHS’ march the previous week).
The beginning of the NHS, which saved millions of lives, is less important to us than a battle which cost over a million lives. Bevan, the Labour minister who introduced the NHS, described it as “the most civilised step any country had ever taken”.
The poet Wilfred Owen, who fought at the Somme, wrote of a soldier dying on a moving cart: “If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs”.
Despite that, we celebrated war on Monday and largely ignored medical advances on Thursday. So why have we developed such a shallow understanding of history and how have we allowed it to warp our social values and attitudes? The answer lies in sectarianism, social class and slovenly thinking.
Monday’s Orange parade in east Belfast was just one of several which celebrated the Boyne and, in some cases, the bloody Somme.
Although the Orange Order likes to depict its parades as a quaint custom, a bit like Irish Morris dancing, it practices the dominance of one set of religious beliefs over another – even though it claims to stand for civil and religious liberty.
It is a sectarian organisation, which influenced and even encouraged successive unionist administrations here in anti-Catholic discrimination.
Its glorification of the First World War appears similar to Karen Bradley’s belief that those at the Somme “gave their lives for our freedom” and Sinn Féin’s wreath at Belfast City Hall proclaiming its “proud and loving memory of the dead”.
The Somme dead were slaughtered as much by their own generals as the Germans, in defence of an empire which thrived on atrocities over the next 50 years. These included concentration camps in Kenya and Malaya, in which a total of two million civilians were held, the murder of up to 1,000 peaceful protesters in Amritsar, India and the torture of about 3,000 civilian in Cyprus. (And if I had time, I would mention the Black and Tans.)
Most appalling was Churchill’s starving four million Bengalis to death in 1943 by diverting their food to British soldiers. He later said: ” I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.”
So whether they knew it or not, those at the Somme fought and died for an evil and inhuman empire. Thus they are to be mourned as victims, not glorified as heroes.
The NHS, on the other hand, is an example of all that is good in our society (or was in the 1940s, when it began.) Oddly, its origins can be traced to the Somme.
The failure of the state to provide employment, housing and health facilities after World War I led to near revolution in Britain. Mindful of what happened in Russia, the Labour Party recognised that there would have to be significant improvements in social welfare to cater for the homecoming heroes after World War II.
The Conservative Party voted 21 times against the creation of the NHS in 1948 and, of course, unionists at Stormont (elected with the help of the Orange Order) unsuccessfully opposed all Labour’s welfare policies.
Doctors voted 10 to 1 against its introduction, so Bevan gave consultants the right to run their own private businesses alongside the NHS, even though public taxes fund their training.
As a result, those with money today can jump the NHS queues – hardly what Bevan had in mind, but an example of the social and economic inequality which the Orange Order appears not to notice.
And that’s where the slovenly thinking comes in. Wilfred Owen described the claim that it was sweet and honourable to die for your country as “The old Lie” (and we should know that here). Dying for a flag is pointless, because those in charge of society before the dying begins tend to be still in charge when the dying is done and they usually do very little dying themselves.
Glorifying war and ignoring people’s welfare is merely the perpetuation of what might be called fake history. There was a lot of it about this week.
