Northern Ireland – going retrograde

Edwin Poots, who believes the earth was created by God in about 4,000 BC is the newly elected leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. From the Paisleyite wing of the DUP he was instrumental in toppling Arlene Foster over social issues including her support for a ban on gay conversion therapy.  Poots is a fundamentalist Christian with the usual panoply of antediluvian views. Though he was also angry at the Brexit deal and threatens to undermine the Northern Ireland protocol – though quite how isn’t clear. He has said he won’t take the position of First Minster.

 He is a divisive choice at a time when Northern Ireland is clinging on to peace amid fears of a return to violence and is unlikely to form the same kind of working relationship with Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein and current deputy first minister, as Ian Paisley did with Martin McGuinness after many years of bitter hostility.

Poots, 27 May 1965, Lisburn, is Sun, Jupiter Venus in Gemini with an explosive collection of Uranus Pluto Mars in Virgo opposition Saturn in Pisces. His Mercury in unbudgeable Taurus is in a slippery (delusional) opposition to Neptune, trine Mars Pluto Uranus and sextile Saturn – so not your ideal negotiator or mediator. He’s on a confidence roll this year and throughout 2022, though running into obstacles as well.

  His relationship with Northern Ireland is volatile and inflammatory with a composite Mars Uranus square Sun Mercury and trine Pluto. The Eclipses in May and December will rattle it up considerably.  His relationship with the EU is also at daggers drawn this year and next.

 His Gemini Sun is conjunct Boris Johnson’s short-fused Mars so it won’t be an amiable combination.

  His relationship with Michelle O’Neill, 10 Jan 1977, is fraught, power-struggling and not likely to lead to co-operation.

  Words defy me – Ian Paisley was bad enough with his anti-Christ ravings but this?  Beyond thought.

See previous posts on Good Friday – 8 April 2021

5th March and 2 February 2021.  

28 thoughts on “Northern Ireland – going retrograde

  1. Triskit I’ve never heard of the Quiverfill Protestant movement (I’m going to look them up) but if they are anything like the orange order supporting loyalists here then dear god I can imagine how bitter (not forgetting “Christian”) they are and for that I feel for your community having to suffer them.. here in n. Ireland things are definitely being whipped up again by unionists.. be it brexit (which the majority of unionists voted for.. or their cry that brexit breaks the gfa.. which some of them didn’t vote for).. I know people have always said religion is the cause of all problems but I think they are wrong.. governments are the problem in every single place and I hope the ones that get power and incite problems in every other country get karma on each of their souls.

    • Not to say that governments and the people in them can’t overreach, but the church, too, can function as a de facto government—e.g. Holy Roman Empire, Islamic caliphate. The church better serves the people by providing spiritual care and staying out of worldly power games.

  2. Paisley himself has an interesting birth chart. Moon at 24 Capricorn conjunct South Node, which has been triggered by the Saturn conjunct Pluto transit in Capricorn. Moon in Cap in a frictive square to Chiron in Aries, which suggests an unhealable wound to his Protestant identity. Mars and Jupiter in Aquarius say “activist” to me, and his Jupiter opposes Neptune in Leo—his identity, whatever else he could have been besides an activist, something more personal to him—is shrouded in a Neptunian fog. Very watery and emotional chart with very little earth. Saturn retrograde in Scorpio, compelled to keep digging at a festering wound. Uranus in wide conjunct to Mercury could account for his oratory skills connected to a “spiritual” purpose. As a believer in past lives, I’d say he’s been here before as an Orangeman. No birth time available, sadly, but a retrograde Saturn, if in the 8th, would be an especially heavy load of karma in this lifetime carried over from past lives.

  3. A contributory factor to the peace in Northern Ireland came from two housewives fed up/enraged by the violence who started a spontaneous movement. The first march had 200, the next brought 10,000 Protestant and Catholic women together, and within weeks 35,000 were on the streets of Belfast petitioning for peace. The two leaders got the Nobel Prize in 1977 – and it did take years after that before it subsided. But its an indication that ordinary people just want to get on with their lives.

    • 100% correct Marjorie every mother here has always wanted the best for their children but.. and I hate saying but as if I’m trying to take away what I previously wrote.. one side was raised that they didn’t need any education as they were the majority and always would be, so they didn’t see the need to waste time on education as their religion would guarantee the best jobs.. other side was treated like lepers and if they got a job would have to “prove” they could fit in.. sadly this is reality here in n. Ireland.. its definitely nowhere near what it was but it still goes on.. because of the treatment over the years catholics were taught to educate and keep educating their children.. I was born in the falls road in Belfast from not much and I have a few children.. all my children managed to get into grammar schools and I can proudly say not 1 of my children have ever ever got involved in the (bloody petty shyte) that sadly loyalist children are to this day raised in.. sorry for ranting everyone.

      • Not to worry, bre. In the US, there exist large pockets of “believers” who maintain that only thru prayer (and monetary donations to the collection basket of your choice) will problems be solved by unseen omnipotents. Much like the GOP and Trump.

        Faith is a good thing, however, like a warm blanket when the weather changes for the worse.

  4. The trouble is that people cannot distinguish between faith and religion. Get rid of religion and let people follow their own personal calling whatever that may be without interference from priests of any sort Let churches and mosques be quiet places of contemplation for whoever needs them. Without compulsion or discrimination . We shouild all be free to follow our own personal star But because of interference from men who see religion as a source of power and a platform to air their own political views and foist them on society under the guise of religion it will never happen

  5. I was brought up Protestant (Presbyterian) in Glasgow which was pretty anti-Catholic in those days. But I always had a special dislike of the kind of fundamentalist Protestantism which was to the forefront in Northern Ireland – it always reminded me of the pro-apartheid Dutch Reform Church in South Africa. I wasn’t too enamoured of the arrogant priesthood which had a stranglehold on the south either – or the Vatican anywhere.
    And that dreadful Celtic trait of remembering the long distant past as if it was yesterday – William of Orange for heaven’s sake was 1690 – more than four hundred years back. And the other side are no better – I remember once being welcomed by a very nice RC priest to a spiritual retreat in Southern Ireland who actually managed to sound aggrieved about Henry V111.
    If you banished religion – and more so as someone remarked if you had tossed the leaders on both sides into a hot air balloon and cut the rope, there would have been peace a good deal sooner. Ordinary people just want to get on with their lives.

    • ‘That dreadful Celtic trait…” Indeed, Marjorie and I speak as someone with Scots heritage on my father’s side (one branch of the family were Jacobites, but we’ve somehow managed to let that go and move on!). I have an Irish friend who will rant endlessly about Oliver Cromwell and is still bemoaning ‘comrades’ being sent to Van Diemens Land by the British. Then there’s the plethora of Sectarian folk songs. Of course, there’s always been that bardic oral tradition of recording and romanticising the past in Celtic culture, of passing on history to the next generation. But these days I think most people just want to move on and live a peaceful life.

    • at this stage I’m tired of religion and I’m tired of people blaming jesus/god.. why can’t us as humans just decide we all follow 1 God and learn to live together instead of thinking 1 culture is better than others

  6. I was not an Ian Paisley fan either but if I was a protestant living in fear in Northern Ireland, it would be important to know that there was someone that had my back.

    You have to remember that there were many wrongs on both sides, each as despicable as the other. Fundalmentalism isn’t limited to just one side, which makes resolving the situation almost impossible.

    But the real achievement of the Stormont Agreement belongs to all the people of Northern Ireland and Eire, and not to the politicians and terrorists / freedom fighters . Because it is ultimately them that made it work. Hopefully it will be them that continues the process, despite the problems between the EU and the UK

  7. Yikes, another Gemini! I suppose the gift of the gab and the ability to take any position makes them natural politicians – if not necessarily good leaders.

  8. These fundamentalist wack-jobs amaze me with with their total certainty about how the Earth formed etc, and their hypotheses derived without benefit of instrumentation, or even thought, since most of this planet’s inhabitants are not, never were, and never will be, Christians. Christianity is a minority religion at best. This endless focus on these peripheral nutcases is just proof how Euro- and white- centric everything still is. I grew up a Hindu, and while I am not religious, looking at all this from the outside makes me laugh.

  9. In the 70s I met quite a few people from both sides of the divide and they were without doubt warm and lovely people. But that side only presented itself on neutral ground. Because your loyalty was determined by your religion and where you lived. I would say that most lived in fear and wanted better for their children.
    Whatever your viewpoint concerning brexit or the protocol established by the EU and the Uk, most want peace. I think allowing the
    North and South to trade without interference from the EU and the UK is probably the best course of action that can be taken. And if that means that the UK and the EU lose income from what would be a VAT free zone, so be it.

  10. Thank you, Marjorie. I notice Poots has a ‘Mystic Rectangle’ formation. (I’ve also learned that the type he has is known as ‘Lucifer’s rectangle’ – planets must be in Taurus/Virgo/Scorpio/Pisces). And wow – such mutable energy and all those angry oppositions. I’ve known quite a few people with that Virgo stellium opposition Saturn in Pisces and it’s a bit like being around a potentially explosive volcano – lots and lots of tension and simmering anger. Would a Mystic rectangle contain or make that energy easier to express?

  11. Well let’s hope he is so ridiculous that he turns voters away, and allows more moderate and kinder political parties to succeed.

  12. Well Annoyed from Ulster, as an Irish Catholic descendent of a grandfather who left Londonderry for a better go in life in New Zealand. Ian Paisley’s obnoxious rants at Northern Ireland Catholics did nothing for me as a young school girl.

  13. I have to confess, I am a long time reader of yours but your comments on the late Ian Paisley leave me furious. It is all well and good for you to sit where you are, having most likely never set foot in Ulster, preaching your opinions about other people and calling them names and criticisms but unless you lived there, under the repuican tyranny, I believe you have no right ti say who or what was bad and what wasn’t, from Ulster’s political past. You don’t know what the people faced. I do. I know what it is like to be evacuated from places whilst oht shopping. I know what it is like to almost get caught up in a republican terror attack. You may think what you like about Paisley, but he was anything but how you described him. He was just what was needed at the time.

    I am not saying Poots does not have some baffling ideas about the earth and its previous inhabitants but maybe he is just what is needed at this time and you can’t judge a man until he has actually done something to be judged by. He has barely been in the job 24 hours. There are some serious issues that need to be resolved for the Unionist people in Ulster and commeth the hour, commeth the man. Only time will tell if Poots is that man.

    • When I was still a fundamentalist Christian (a long time ago), I had the dubious “honor” of hearing Rev. Ian Paisley preach a few times at Bob Jones University here in the U.S. What an angry, bitter, unpleasant man he seemed to be, which certainly did nothing to make me sympathetic to his cause. Back in the day, the Protestant fundies in the U.S. were dead-on convinced that Catholics were idolaters and heretics; more recently, they’ve become strange bedfellows in promoting right-wing ideologies here. Paisley’s strident anti-Catholic sentiments would seem rather out of place here in evangelical-land now, were he still living.

    • I am also a long time reader and felt the need to reply to your statement, Marjorie has clean hands on the issues of n.ireland and was certainly not preaching on her opinion of Ian Paisley, but the nerve of you to claim she was is ironic,Ian paisley the preacher was a bitter nasty man nearly all of his life towards catholics (the world and their dogs know this) you only need to google his name to see how nasty a person he was ,statements regarding the catholic community like “they breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin” ,this from a man who claimed to be a christian..like many unionist politicians here in n.Ireland they are only christian when it suits them. I also had a giggle at you saying you have lived under a republican tyranny (lol) unionists gerrymandered this province for years and still to this day manipulate Protestants (especially the dup..ians old party until they stabbed him in the back ) using the threat of if you don’t vote for us then sf will be in charge..no doubt poots will also use the same dog whistle now he’s the leader.Poots is old time loyalism with the mindset of wrtp (we are the people) and would be more than happy to go back in time ,they don’t want a shared future unless it’s one were unionists are in charge..poots as well as paisley have never been what we need here and hopefully parties like the alliance and uup gain from him in next year’s elections.The only thing I will agree with you on is unionists do have some serious issues that need resolving ,first and foremost should be education for young Protestants in working class areas instead of flags ,parades and bonfires the sooner young Protestants are taught that education is the best thing for their future the sooner n.Ireland will turn its back on bitter parties like the dup.

      • Ironically, the Quiverfull Protestant movement here in the U.S. has made “breeding like rabbits” a cornerstone of their religion. And while the Duggar family of TV show fame says they are not associated with Quiverfull, they are fundamentalist Protestants. Many families I observed while I was still in the fundamentalist Christian milieu, in fact, had many children, as they believed it was their duty to God to “go forth and multiply.” So, I’d say to Paisley, if he were still around, “pot, meet kettle.”

  14. In times of uncertainty and turmoil, people will grasp at anything for security. One wonders if Pleadians and inhabiters of comets are the next political rage… 😉

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