I was bothered by Martin's decision to start this thread in which he asked people to refrain from using the slogan "tiocfaidh ár lá", by addressing us in the Irish language. It seemed to me that by choosing to make his complaint in Irish, he was charging the Irish speakers on the forum with responsibility for using this "triumphantalist" * slogan. As it happens, it is only on this subject that I have seen Martin write in Irish. I am one of a few contributors who sometimes writes in Irish in my Mudcat postings, and none of us has been discussing political matters in the Irish language. The use of a standard phrase is not necessarily an indication that the writer knows much of the language apart from the phrase; I certainly know people with very little Irish that like to use the phrase "tiocfaidh ár lá".

Later on in this thread, Martin includes a plea in Irish not to let the language be identified as being a language of the Irish Republican movement; as he rightly says, it's a language for anyone, of any persuasion. Perhaps that was his motive in writing in Irish in the first thread - to use the language to express a counter view to the republican movement.

*"Tiocfaidh ár lá" is a translation of "Our day will come". I put "triumphantalist" in quotation marks because in the context of Irish politics the word is more often used as a critical description of Orange Order parades.

Martin has helped many many Mudcatters with lyrics and song information. I hope he will not be long absent. And I hope he has a great time on his sailing trip next month.

I'm not adverse to SOME political discussion on Mudcat, but the Irish national question has recently spurned an excessive number of threads. I do know of another forum which is devoted to discussion of the peace process in N Ireland which I can recommend to Mudcatters: Irish Times forum which is part of the Path to Peace website