It was hard not to feel for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with his toe curling Freudian slip at the D-Day commemoration.
His reference to “Obama beach” was sadly emblematic of the way in which the UK’s role in the liberation of Europe has been written out of the celluloid historical record.
From being disappeared by Hollywood from the naval intelligence war that cracked the enigma codes to the D-Day landings.
Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” manages one mention of the British contribution to the biggest amphibious landing in history.
It is one line of script that has Tom Hanks character stating at British general Montgomery is “overrated”.
For the record the British and Canadian troops totalled 75,000 troops while the USA contributed 57,000.
The attempt by President Sarkosy to style D-Day as a Franco-American triumph is beyond contempt as is the failure to invite the British head of state.
Much is made of the landings at Obama beach because it was a bloody disaster.
The British and Canadian landings at Gold, Sword and Juno went as perfectly to plan as such things could.
The British airborne and glider operations were textbook especially the brilliant operation to secure the legendary Pegasus Bridge. The US airborne, by contrast, troops were scattered all over the Normandy countryside.
Overall D-Day was brilliant planned and courageously executed.
What is important about D-Day for the British is that 6th June 1944 was the last day in history that Britain really mattered.
Once safely landed on the continent the power of the USA was increasingly asserted over the British.
Eisenhower’s’ slapping down of Montgomery in favour of Patten has been well documented.
After D-Day it was the US army and the Red army who would be the main players in the destruction of the Third Reich.

65 years later the USA’s power has grown and the importance of Britain on the world stage has decreased with each passing decade.
Britain still wants to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the USA it is just that they are no longer able to.

Kevin Myer’s recent piece on the senior coalition military officers in Afghanistan probably says more about the contrasting fortunes of the D-Day allies than anything else.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/grin-at-british-ineptitude–if-you-like-but-this-is-not-funny-the-taliban-are-serious-about-this-war-1743340.html

The American Lt General Stanley McChrystal is all business with a Special Forces background and three university degrees.
His British number two is Major General Barney White-Spunner, an old Etonian who is a member of the Blues and Royals. He edits a horsey magazine and his wife is called “Moo”.
Before Afghanistan our Barney was the top man in Basra, Iraq.
When he took command of the British garrison there British troops were in harms way from the Shia militias.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8QQVYy7UH0
Shortly after this video was recorded Barney boy, two weeks into his command the Blues and Royals chap showed real leadership qualities by heading for the ski slopes.

The Shia militias, of course, ran the British, out of Basra.
The British left their base in the town as part of a shameful deal with the Mehdi army.
Safely in Basra airbase Al-Sadr’s men butchered at least twenty women for crimes against Islam while the British cowered in the airbase.
Iraq’s second city was eventually re-taken from the Mehdi army by the Iraqi army and, you guessed it, the US Marine Corps.
As the fighting raged in the streets of Basra the British “provided over watch.”
Today in Afghanistan it is rumoured that the British are preparing to pull out of Helmand province within the next year.
The US is preparing to put 20,000 troops in Helmand-more than double the current British deployment.
The Americans still hold the British SAS and in the Paras in high regard but that is little more than 2,000 within and army of 100,000.
In 2009 Great Britain sends its young men into war poorly equipped.
The US soldiers had a nickname for their British comrades in Iraq “the borrowers.”
There is a book waiting to be written about the equipment scandals currently afflicting the modern British army.
British soldiers die because they are in flimsy vehicles. The Americans are in huge beasts (MRAPs) that are impervious to Taleban roadside bombs.

Within twenty years the British army will be comparable to that of Denmark or Sweden. Small professional and perfectly adequate for national security.
The days of the British Tommy winning glory in far off fields is coming to an end.
I n an attempt to state to the world that Britannia is still on the waves, if no longer able to rule them, the UK will splurge most of its defence budget on two aircraft carriers.
Remembering D-Day matters for the British because it is a reminder that, like the has been boxer, they used to be somebody.
On “Obama beach” the bumbling British Prime Minister let slip that the Westminster political class realise that they know that Britain no longer matters on the global stage anymore.

Does discrimination in employment against Irish people exist in Britain today?
The Irish in Britain of a certain age can recall in-your-face job discrimination. The West of Scotland of my boyhood was full of anecdotes about major employers from Shipyards to banks who didn’t employ anyone from the Irish community.
However the plural of “anecdote” is not “evidence”.
My new view on encountering the question that started this article would be an emphatic “no”.
Moreover the answer would have been “no” for at least several decades.
If someone claims that there is some structural discrimination going on in this day and age in a modern democracy within the EU then I need evidence.
I really do.
I need numbers.
I was recently challenged in my Pollyanna view of fair employment in Britain by looking at what is, perhaps, the last place where an Irish passport is a bar to employment.
I was contacted by through my website by a reader who stated, as an assertion, that Rangers football club had not in his living memory-ever signed a Republic of Ireland player.
I started out as a sceptic on this, which is always a healthy starting point for a journalist on any issue.
It was once said by, I think Walter Cronkite, the veteran American news reporter, that journalists must remain sceptical so that the public doesn’t become cynical.

So I decided, in as much as I was able, to look at the players who had represented the world famous Glasgow club in the last fifteen years.
This is an arbitrary timescale for sure, but it seemed appropriate.
It was post Maurice Johnstone (1989) and five years into the tenure of Sir David Murray, the current owner of Rangers.
What I found was that players from 46 countries (excluding Scotland) had been in the Rangers first team squad since 1994.
These 46 flags are of countries from every populated continent on the planet.
It would be a reasonable cross section of humanity as represented at the United Nations.
However there was one surprising omission. In the last 15 years Rangers football club have not had a single player, either full international, or Under 21 from the Republic of Ireland.
Since the year 2000 every other Scottish Premier League (SPL) has had an ROI international in their ranks.
Since the year 2000 every current English Premiership club has had a full Republic of Ireland international.
Every Championship club in England has had a full Republic of Ireland internationalist since the year 2000 apart from Bristol City and Doncaster.
However these two clubs have had Republic of Ireland under 21 internationalists since the turn of the millennium.
Also thirty-three clubs from the leagues below the top 2 divisions in England have had full Irish internationalists since the year 2000.
Therefore over 100 English clubs have either had a full Ireland or under 21 internationalist in the last 10 years, not just an Irish citizen, but a Republic of Ireland internationalist.
This doesn’t constitute evidence of anti-Irish discrimination.
There could be other explanations for the absence of ROI players from the Ibrox home dressing room.

Perhaps the managers at Rangers over these past 15 years just didn’t fancy any ROI players?
Such things are possible.
Since Alex McLeish became manager of Birmingham City just over a year ago he has signed two full Irish internationalists in Lee Carsley and today Stephen Carr and has also in January signed Keith Fahey who was playing the League of Ireland and who has represented Ireland up to under 21′s.
The delighted McLeish stated on signing Carsley that he had admired him for a long time.
The current Rangers manager had signed Carsley in 2002 when Walter Smith had been the manager of Everton.
Carsley had been available on a free transfer last summer when Smith was back at Rangers for a second stint.
Any structural discrimination it is very hard to prove until someone is a whistleblower.
I rather doubt that Scotland’s whistleblowers will be of any help with this issue.
Ex-Rangers manager Dick Advocaat now is in charge at Zenit St.Petersberg very frankly stated that he couldn’t sign a black player because the supporters of the Russian club would not tolerate such a signing.
It was a shocking revelation of the state of racism among the Zenit supporters.
However the Dutchman is, in my opinion, to be commended for his frankness.

When Advocaat was in charge of Rangers the “little general” had the light blues playing an expansive, classy game, which required the deployment of two wingers.
One of the best in the business at the time was Blackburn Rovers Damien Duff.
There is little doubt that Rangers could have paid the transfer fee and met Duff’s personal terms.
Duff went to Chelsea when Rangers paid the Stamford Bridge club £12 million for Tore Andre Flo.
Perhaps Advocaat just didn’t think that Duff was a good enough player for his Rangers team.
However there is the behaviour of a section of the Rangers supporters towards Irish players.
The racist abuse of Aidan McGeady and James McCarthy are explained by the fact that they are Scots born who “turned their backs on Scotland” by declaring for the Republic of Ireland.
In recent years several other ROI players have played at Ibrox Stadium, some of them in friendly matches.
Ian Harte, Robbie Keane were continually booed by Rangers fans in recent years.
Both these players are Irish born.
Perhaps the Rangers fans didn’t like their playing style?
Then consider Alan Thompson, a Celtic player with a habit of scoring vital goals against Rangers. He was sent off three times against Rangers at Ibrox for violent conduct. Interestingly the English midfielder was never booed by Rangers fans despite the fact that they had several genuine on field reasons for disliking him.
When Ireland was partitioned there was-for a time-two teams claiming to be “Ireland” and at least one Rangers player Alex Stephenson did play for an Ireland team.
Galway born Alex Craig played for Rangers and Ireland in the first decade of the 20th century.
However since there has been a definitive Republic of Ireland team I have not been able to discover a Rangers player who played his international football for the Republic of Ireland in the last forty or fifty years.
Certainly during the stewardship of Sir David Murray and his four mangers there have been no ROI players at full or U21 level who have taken the field of play for Rangers in a competitive match.
Is this important?
Modern football players are hardly the huddled masses of the Victorian era in urgent need of the factory act to protect them.
These talented young men are paid sums of money that the average person seems difficult to comprehend.
The concern we should have over this apparent inability for Rangers FC to find a suitable player who turns out for the Republic of Ireland is what that message it sends to Rangers supporters.
The old   unwritten, unstated policy that barred Catholics from playing for the club is certainly gone.
The Ibrox club have had, during Sir David Murray’s ownership of the club, a Catholic captain and a Catholic manager.
However anti-Irish racism seems, perhaps, to be the core emotional contract between Rangers football club and their loyalist supporters.

I contacted Ex-Republic of Ireland footballer and anti-racist expert Kieron Brady and put this question to him:

Q: Rangers have fielded players from 45 countries other than Scotland in their first team squad in the last 15 years.
Since the year 2000 RoI (either full international or U21) have played for every SPL club and all 92 English League clubs from season 2008/2009. Do these facts indicate that there may be a signing bar operating at Rangers regarding players who represent the RoI?
A: “It is very difficult to definitvely and conclusively say that such a policy, whether official or de facto, exists but given the persistent anti-Irish racism that emanates from a section of the support I think there is a validity in raising such a question as it could be argued by some that the club are operating a policy of conformity to those with such profound anti-Irish attitudes. The notion of conformity to racism is not a new phenomenon as Verona FC and Zenit St Petersburg have had to contend with similar problems in recent times.

Migratory patterns within football illustrate that Britain is the natural working environment for players who play for the Republic of Ireland or those who represent the Republic of Ireland but have been born elsewhere and the fact that all the major clubs have had the aforementioned players over the period of a generation or more with the exception of Rangers does point to an anomaly. When this anomaly is set against a backdrop of the racism against those of Irish origin then it only exacerbates the theory of a proscription on those players.

The most suitable recourse would be for the club to outline their position and offer clarity on this matter. In the 21st century the idea of a football player being effectively prohibited from representing a club because of his skin colour or country of origin or citizenship is preposterous and aside from the discriminatory practice in itself impacting on players it indirectly discriminates against supporters who do not hold such archaic and racist attitudes.”

Piara Powar, Director for Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion
campaign, looked at the facts regarding Rangers lack of players from the Republic of Ireland and said:

“There is no doubt that Glasgow Rangers have worked hard to distance the
club from the less savoury parts of its history.  The ‘Follow with
Pride’ campaign is a good example of this. But if the club wishes to counter any allegation of a bias against signing Republic of Ireland players, it should clarify that its policy is to sign players of any background, and better still, actively seek out young players from across Britain and Ireland in the future.”

Perhaps post Maurice Johnston Rangers are, indeed, “Bigger than bigotry”.
However will Rangers be finally able to rise above anti-Irish racism?
The somewhat ambivalent attitude of the club to the “Famine song” indicates, perhaps, an empathy with those who sing the anti-Irish song.
Until a player can proudly announce that his club and country are “Rangers and Republic of Ireland” then it is justified in remaining sceptical that the old Rangers hasn’t totally gone away.
Consider this when you look at the countries that Rangers football club have found players in over the past fifteen years.
Non Scottish Players to have played for Rangers Football Club in the last 15 years.
Algeria
Madjid Bougherra
Brahim Hemdani

Argentina
Claudio Caniggia

Australia
Dave Mitchell
Craig Moore
Kevin Muscat
Tony Vidmar

Belgium
Thomas Buffel

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Saša Papac

Brazil
Emerson

Canada
Colin Miller
Roberto Giacomo

Chile
Sebastian Rozental

Croatia
Dado Pršo

Cyprus
Georgos Efrem

Czech Republic
Libor Sionko

Denmark
Jan Bartram
Erik Bo Andersen
Brian Laudrup
Peter Løvenkrands
Jesper Christiansen

England
Terry Butcher
Paul Gascoigne
Mark Hateley
Trevor Steven
Gary Stevens
Mark Walters
Chris Woods
Michael Ball
Finland
Jonatan Johansson
Antti Niemi

France
Jean-Alain Boumsong
Stéphane Guivarc’h
Lionel Charbonnier
Lionel Leitzi

Gabon
Daniel Cousin

Georgia
Shota Arveladze
Zurab Khizanishvili
Germany
Jörg Albertz
Christian Nerlinger

Greece
Sotirios Kyrgiakos

Iceland
Arnar Grétarsson

Israel
Avi Cohen
Bonni G inzburg
Italy
Genarro Gatusso
Sergio Porrini
Lorenzo Amoruso
Paolo Vanoli

Jamaica
Marcus Gayle

Latvia
Arturs Vaiclus

Lithuania
Andrius Velička

Martinique
Jose Karl Pierre  Fanfan
Netherlands
Frank de Boer
Ronald de Boer
Pieter Huistra
Bert Konterman
Michael Mols
Arthur Numan
Fernando Ricksen
Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Peter van Vossen

Nigeria
Moses Ashikodi

Northern Ireland
Steven Davis
John McClelland
Jimmy Nicholl
Billy Simpson
Kyle Lafferty

Norway
Henning Berg
Tore André Flo
Stale Stensaas

Poland
Dariuz Adamczuk

Portugal
Nuno Capucho
Pedro Mendez
Romania
Daniel Prodan

Russia
Andrei Kanchelskis
Oleg Salenko

Serbia
Dragen Mladenovic

Slovakia
Filip Šebo

Spain
Nacho Novo
Aaron Niguez
South Africa
Johnny Hubbard
Don Kitchenbrand
Dean Furman

Sweden
Joachim Bjorklund
Örjan Persson
Robert Prytz
Karl Svensson
Jonas Thern

Trinidad & Tobago
Marvin Andrews
Russell Latapy

Tunisia
Hamed Namouchi

Turkey
Tugay Kerimoğlu

Ukraine
Oleg Kuznetsov
Alexei Mikhailichenko

United States
DaMarcus Beasley
Maurice Edu
Claudio Reyna

Wales
Andy Dibble

Yugoslavia
Gordan Petrić

Kevin McDaid has been laid to rest. His funeral, like all funerals, was an occasion of sadness, but this was complicated grief.
Complicated by the fact that Kevin was murdered.
The cortege stopped and was silent and still at the spot where Rangers supporters had repeatedly jumped on his head last Sunday as they celebrated their team’s league triumph by killing a taig.
Across the river the silence was broken as a loyalist band played the anthems of hate as the cortege stopped
Was this an utterly cruel coincidence or a calculated mark of disrespect?
Given the sickness that infects the protestant population of Coleraine you w not need to be a cynic to plump for the latter exp0lanations.
Chances are, with most things in life, it was merely cruel chance.
However one would have thought that the drum banging classes of Coleraine society would think that they should be keeping a low profile at the moment.
Not a bit of it.
As they say in the criminal fraternity the town of Coleraine has “form”.
Michael Clifford in the Sunday Tribune revealed:

“Back in the old days, a curfew bell used to ring through Coleraine nightly at 9pm. The bell tolled for the town’s Catholics, instructing them to return across the river Bann to their ghetto in Killowen. By the time the practice ended in 1954, the tolling had been relegated from instruction to tradition, but still held huge symbolic significance. The town council’s decision to discontinue the practice was informed by budgetary considerations, rather than any attempt at conciliation.”
http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/may/31/we-knew-this-was-coming/

When David Trimble accepted his Nobel Prize during his heyday at the centre of the Peace process he told an enthralled global audience that the unionist dominated Northern Ireland was a “cold house” for the catholic minority.
Although he was talking about “the province” generally I think that he could have been specifically considering places like Coleraine.
This week Coleraine was back in the local news in the North.
It was the official opening of the town hall-150 years after it was built.
This civic ceremony was either, like the loyalist band breaking the silence on the day of Kevin McDaid’s funeral, either highly unfortunate or a shabby attempt at some positive PR for the town.
It was a gushing piece of TV “journalism” a town criers in 19th century garb was shown doing his bell ringing “hear ye hear ye!” gig.
Of course when Coleraine had   a real chap doing that job for real it also had a curfew for Catholics.
It probably wasn’t the best week to be harking back to those days.
Councillor David Barbour was enthusiastic about the official opening saying:
“This is who we are!”
Not a single unionist politician saw fit to pay their respects to Kevin McDaid at his funeral, not even his MP.
Given the potential political importance of this murder one would have thought that Kevin’s MP would have been in attendance.
Gregory Campbell MP is the honourable member for East Londonderry, which contains Coleraine and, now, the remains of Kevin McDaid.
Gregory Campbell, of course, is a well-known Rangers supporter.
He attempted to divert media attention away from the racist and anti-Irish famine song late last year.
Of course the sickness that infects Coleraine isn’t a matter of religion simpliciter, Kevin’s widow Evelyn who was also beaten by the Rangers mob is a Protestant and local Sinn Fein councillor Billy Leonard is also from the protestant tradition.
Just as every white person in the Deep South didn’t approve of the Klan then many decent Protestant people in Coleraine don’t approve of what happened to Kevin McDaid.
Hopefully in time they will be heard above the baying Rangers mob that repeatedly jumped on Kevin McDaid’s head that Sunday.
There is, of course, another victim of that awful day in Coleraine.
Damien Fleming a neighbour and friend of Kevin McDaid is fighting for his life.
A registered disabled man he was the first to be set upon by the heroic mob of Rangers supporters that had spilled out of Scotts bar after the SPL trophy had been paraded around Tannadice.
His family released picture of Damien in his hospital bed.
http://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/Family-release-picture-of-victim.5328810.jp
Kevin McDaid’s widow Evelyn stated that the man who was the love of her life and a father to her boys would not have wanted any revenge for his murder.
Hopefully that call is heeded.
All that decent, right thinking people are asking for is that the law be applied fairly without fear or favour.
Ultimately there will come a time in the north of Ireland when the lynching of Taigs just like the lynching of blacks in the Deep South will become a thing of the past.
That requires the strict enforcement of the law and the deliberate dismantling of the belief system that affirmed the Rangers mob to spill out of Scotts bar that Sunday with murder in their delinquent minds.
That is why the text message story from the Sunday World is, if true, so explosive.
These lynch mobs, if they feel they have the tolerance of local law enforcement, will go and kill “Taigs” with impunity as the mood takes them.
So the policing angle is central. A stern looking Hugh Orde saying all the correct things to camera is of little benefit if his officers locally are colluding with their fellow rangers supporters to teach the Taigs a deadly lesson now and again.
If we get the policing right in the Sick Counties then the other strand in this strategy for public safety is to eliminate the cultural justification that the mobs of Rangers supporters who murdered Kevin McDaid felt they had when they attacked him and Damien Fleming.
To Rangers supporters in Scotland it may have passed them by that their world famous and highly successful football team has, in the last 40 years , had not a single player from the Republic of Ireland.
In towns like Portadown and Coleraine that incontestable fact, that their club doesn’t field any player from the Republic of Ireland, is a central part of an emotional contract.
It is the soccer equivalent of the act of settlement.
Among the taig murdering classes in the Sick Counties that perceived ban on players from the Republic of Ireland at Ibrox is what defines Rangers for them.
In that Coleraine worldview that makes Rangers unlike any other football club.
While Rangers continue to be able to be without a player from the Republic of Ireland then they are part of the problem when they could be a central part of the solution