Mark Elliott

Fermanagh born & proud. My journey through the UK and Ireland led me to Co. Down. Pro-science & humanist. Shaped by roots, not defined by them.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@matthew_shanks1 @SorchaEastwood Maybe try addressing the detail in the tweet instead of the very predictable whataboutery.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@kyntvyxsinstan @bbuk_discord And there it is. You’ve gone from defending reclamation to using the word as an insult the moment someone disagrees with you. You’ve just demonstrated exactly why its history matters. Thanks for proving my point so spectacularly.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@kyntvyxsinstan @bbuk_discord I don’t. That’s rather the point. Try keeping up: I’m objecting to people insisting it’s no longer offensive just because they’ve reclaimed it. Your reading comprehension is clearly as selective as your empathy.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@bbuk_discord Gen Z doesn’t get to rewrite our experiences. 2/2

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@bbuk_discord A historically offensive slur doesn’t magically become inoffensive because activists decide to reclaim it. Activists have no greater authority to dictate what others find offensive, especially when many gay people have painful memories of it being used against them. 1/2

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@guapunzel @goandshite_ I’m sure you mean “scientific facts” and the facts are cultural cycles have no bearing on the season, it’s the season that has a bearing on the cultural cycle. Surely that’s obvious to you, like it is to everybody else.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@guapunzel @goandshite_ Wow, you really didn’t know this, Halloween doesn’t “kick-off fall”. In America, Fall/Autumn begins 22-23 September. 😂😂😂😂😂

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@guapunzel @goandshite_ Wow, so think that seasons start and end with a “feeling” for the season. 😂😂 Seasons are clearly defined by the position of the Earth relative to the Sun in our hemisphere. A hot day in Fall might “feel” like summer but it’s still Fall. I would have expected you to know that.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@guapunzel @goandshite_ Yeah, Americans go to a pumpkin patches at Halloween just to buy a pumpkin to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, four weeks later! It’s a Halloween tradition for them, a tradition you wouldn’t have were it not for the Celts. 😂😂

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@guapunzel @goandshite_ You wouldn’t have pumpkin patches for people to buy pumpkins to carve for Halloween if it wasn’t for Ireland and Scotland. That proves me point even more. Your point was, oh look at them copying our traditions, without any sense of the irony of your statement. 😂😂😂

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@guapunzel You’ve mistaken commercialising a tradition for cultural superiority. Halloween is rooted in Celtic tradition, with bonfires, folklore, trick or treating and carving lanterns. You commercialised our heritage; you didn’t improve it. 🎃

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@Dona21571Mc @seandebrun2 Fair correction — “joint authority” was too strong. I should have said enhanced British-Irish involvement through existing GFA mechanisms. But the wider point stands: prolonged collapse could increase pressure for exactly that.

[Henry Joy @DiscipleElland]

Leading local journalist Amanda Ferguson has publicly stated this morning that the "Driving Force" behind this current Drumcree Dispute "warrants more scrutiny".

She is referring of course to Jamie Bryson. For the past year or more Bryson has persuaded leading Unionist Party's - and the DUP (in particular) to embark on a course of action which has led us to this point.

There has never been a full-scale (and proper) journalistic investigation into Jamie Bryson. Who funds him? What exactly are his sources of income? What exactly are his links and access to the DUP and TUV? Does he have any links to Loyalist Paramiltaries? If so, what are they?

It is long overdue that the local Press/Media took a serious look at an individual who has had a very destabilising effect on the entire political process here. He is currently threatening an end to the Stormont Assembly.

Who will step forward and investigate? That is the question...

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@Dona21571Mc @seandebrun2 Why would you want to bring down the government and leave us with joint authority controlled from Westminster and Dublin, which is a distinct possibility, because a road was blocked? And why insist on marching this year? To deflect from the poor polling of the DUP!

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@Dona21571Mc @seandebrun2 I was speaking about the disproportionate voice the minority often has but let’s examine this current emphases. The political representatives of the OO are talking about bringing down Stormont so no government to focus on health, infrastructure etc. Sounds threatening to me.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@ArnoldCarton It’s all because of the latest opinion polls showing them losing votes in the wake of the Donaldson scandal. They are rallying the troops by opening old divisions, but to hell with the state of the NHS, infrastructure, the economy etc.

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@israelh8er At least they aren’t using paper plates!

[Mark Elliott @MjiElliott]

@larabirdsnp @theSNP @Plaid_Cymru @sinnfeinireland There is no First Minister for “the North of Ireland”. There is one of Northern Ireland though.