The crown forces' paronia about Fenian attacks reached new
heights when a suspicious-looking cardboard box was left outside
the Territorial Army's base in Bristol. Ever vigilant, the boys
of the TA, whose motto is ``Be the best,'' alerted the police, who
in turn, suspecting the `Ra, (of course) and called army bomb
disposal experts.
With nerves of steel, and commendable efficiency, the army
assessed the situation, then blew the box to bits. Searching
through the debris, looking for evidence of a bomb, they found
that the so-called suspect device was actually full of leaflets
on how to deal with suspicious looking packages. Nice one lads.
Be the best.
In July, the Royal Mail issued four stamps on the theme, ``All the
Queens horses,'' to celebrate the Queen's golden wedding
anniversary. One stamp in particular conveys the continuing royal
sense of `ownership' of Ireland by displaying an Irish grey
horse, who was acquired by the royals at the age of four and
named St. Patrick by the Queen. St. Patrick is used for state
occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament, when he pulls
the Irish State Coach which takes Liz to Parliament. (The Queen
has 34 carriage horses.)
Methinks that Liz, who recently said bye-bye to Hong Kong, is
afraid of losing the Six Counties and wants to show who the boss
is by re-affirming her sovereignty via a 20p stamp.
Belarussian officials have ordered a Minsk theatre to pospone a
premiere of Berthold Brecht's ``The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui,''
This was a classic anti-fascist satire written by the great
communist playwright and based on the rise of Hitler.
Dmitry Podberyozkov said a culture ministry official in Belarus,
whose President has been criticized for authoritarianism, had
ruled that the play was sub standard and postponed the premiere
from Friday to Tuesday. ``People from all over the world could
draw parallels with the current situation here, `` he said of the
play. President Alexander Lukashenko, who came to power in
Belarus in 1994, once told a German newspaper that Hitler
provided not a bad example of strong leadership.
Neil Forde breaks new ground this week, mentioning polo for the
first time in our sports column (page 14). I particularly enjoyed
Monday's Irish Times picture of Woodchester Bank supremo Craig
McKinney going arse over tip from his polo horse in Phoenix Park.
(Craig is one of the few owners of an Aston Martin in Ireland.)
He and other polo players would no doubt sympathise with the
plight of their fellow sportsmen in the British army. A few years
ago the British Ministry of Defence decided to merge the military
colleges of all three services (army, navy, air force) on one
site. The historic Royal Naval College at Greenwhich was the
chosen site.
The British Army objected, however, because it would mean losing
the polo grounds at Camberly/Sandhurst. The polo players had more
pull than the admirals so Camberley became the chosen site and
the Ministry decided to sell Greenwich.
Then Camberly was found unsuitable because of asbestos.
Rebuilding would cost more than four times what keeping Greenwich
would have. So now the British taxpayer is forking out £14
million for a temporary site at Bracknell - plus several more
millions for yet another site at Shrivenham in Wiltshire. And the
British Army still wants to hold on to Camberly at yet more
expense to the British public.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)