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THERE ARE AN estimated 5,300 bodies of American soldiers in North Korea – and now Pyongyang wants Washington to come get them.
The North Korean government announced today that it will start moving the bodies, left there from the Korean War of 1950-1953, “en masse”.
The announcement is seen as an attempt to pressure the US into coming to collect their dead. A resumption of the US effort to account for all of their dead and missing would mean much-needed cash for the impoverished North.
The United States suspended efforts to recover the remains of thousands of U.S. soldiers who died during the Korean War because of the North’s plans to launch a long-range rocket in 2012.
The US at the time was just starting the process of resuming excavation work that had been suspended in 2005 when Washington said security arrangements for its personnel working in the North were insufficient.
North Korean would have received millions for supporting the work.
Around 8,000 Americans are listed as missing from the war, 5,300 of those in the North.
An unidentified North Korean military official said in a dispatch that the remains are “left here and there uncared and carried away en masse” because of building projects, land reorganisation and flood damage.
Analyst Chang Yong Seok at Seoul National University told the Associated Press that the North’s statement appears aimed at applying pressure to US politicians and officials ahead of November elections to resume the recovery project, which could give the North a way to get foreign currency and improved ties with Washington.
The North has been seeking closer ties with the US administration to try to secure investment in their economy. Despite being five times bigger than Ireland, its GDP is less than a quarter.
With reporting from the Associated Press
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Why are some people so against their Irishness? Its the native language of Ireland. You never have to use it after school if you don’t want to. Why would you feel the need to limit anyone else who wants to use it?
@Keyser Söze: And they’re the same people who would fight tooth and nail for the rights of people who have no ties to Ireland. They’re woke internationalists who hate Irish nationalism and want to do away with borders, in case it makes the foreigners feel uneasy. They think someone from Timbuktu has as much right to live here as the native Irish.
@Staker Wallace: There you go, associating the language with an exclusive nationalism/nativism and too dull-witted to see that this is part of the problem.
@Keyser Söze: Nobody is limiting anyone who wants to use it. Quite the opposite. You have to do it whether you like it or not. What annoys me the most is not even that. It’s that after making many people use up hours per week of their schooling time on it they walk out the door at the end barely able to string a sentence together. The least you would hope after all of that is to be able to speak it. It is pretend learning. We spend a lot of time and money on it for very little in the end.
@Staker Wallace: ah I see the isolationists are in quickly with their comments
@SYaxJ2Ts: Straight in again after Brendan again, I see. Wombleman now for the throuple.
@John Moore: well said
@Keyser Söze: “You never have to use it after school if you don’t want to”. Why have to learn it at school if you didn’t want to? Maybe it is time there were schools where Irish was an optional subject in schools as opposed to Gael Scoileanna. Love of Ireland is not the prerogative of Irish speakers. Speaking Irish will add nothing to the welfare of the community.
@Staker Wallace: I’m just curious about lads like you banging the auld nationalist drum… How have/do you serve your country…? Your profile pic is cute and all that, and I’m sure your Eire32 tat took a few sessions.. but what meaningful contribution do you make to your country.. speak up now so the people down the back can hear you…
@Staker Wallace: Calm Down ,Remember the Europeans went uninvited to quite a few countries!
@Brian: The clue is in your last sentence – we spoke up and got louder and louder, to the point where now most of the native Irish don’t agree with government immigration policy. Varadkar, being a self-serving sleeveen, sees the writing on the wall, hence the government’s increasingly hard line on the bogus cohort of asylum seekers coming here.
Also, SF were shown up to be at odds with their voter base on the issue. How’s McDonald gonna square that circle?
Did anyone seriously think we were gonna let 8 centuries of fighting invasions go down the toilet that easily?
@Staker Wallace:
@Keyser Söze: Irishness is many things. Irish people are a mix of Gaels, Vikings, Normans, Anglo-Saxons, not to mention recent additions to the gene pool through immigration. All these groups contributed to Irish culture over time to make it was it is today. A big part of that is English. We are an English speaking people, a very small minority speak Irish natively. Our English is unique, influenced by Irish e.g. to give out to somebody. The real tell is that most people who do speak Irish do so with English sounds like when you hear gaelsoil kids speaking with a very American twang. It’s a sign of maturity and confidence to accept who we are.
@Staker Wallace: would you like waffles with your waffle? So you can’t actually say how you in any way positively contribute towards your country other than spouting BS .. get a job for yourself..
@Staker Wallace: it’s a call to the flag, not a birthright. The lads at the GPO were literally “oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past”
Not falling for racist bullsh*t was literally read out at the GPO by Padraig Pearse. It’s this country’s 2nd Amendment.
@C J Flahertian: “Hordes” and a “swarm of locusts“, “boys of the bull-dog breed” and “Brit-Huns”.
“Ireland is in the throes of a new invasion. But whereas all other invasions have been invasions of fighting men, this last invasion is an invasion of men who have declined to fight.
Since the passing of the military service law and its coming into force in England this country has been flooded daily with fresh hordes of English and Scotch, who have run away from military service in their own country and settled down like a swarm of locusts upon Ireland.”
“No work in Ireland for Irishmen, lots of work in Ireland for Brit-Huns – every ship that goes to England carrying away Irish men to jobs in England; every ship that comes to Ireland carrying over Brit-Huns to jobs in Ireland. Was ever a nation so beset?”
– James Connolly, 1916.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
@Staker Wallace: Tomás Ó Rosinson has spoken or rather cut and paste some wholly unrelated historical socialist republican quotes, maithiú.
Brian Dowling!!! My god is that how low we have got?
@Johnny frankson: I’m afraid so and Ivan Yates isn’t a hair better than him.
@Johnny frankson: z list celebrity winner of a reality show and failed politician and former bankrupt businessman state that because they never learnt Gaeilge and don’t like the sound of it, it should not be taught. Yep, makes perfect sense.
@Johnny frankson: stop it Frank . He’s expecting a baby. How dare you !!!!!
@Mayo seem to be the football equivalent of Waterfo: . Yates says there needs to be an adult conversation about the Irish language. An adult conversation about anything would be difficult to have if Yeats were included in it . Is he still drawing down his handsome TD and ministerial pensions? In early 2011 it was reported that he received €79,073 in pensions the previous year. By the time he was 50 he had received over €240,000 in pension payments. That was 13 years ago. How much has he received since then? He is very vocal on a lot of issues. He is very quiet about his pension payments.
@Johnny frankson: The problem here is that Virgin Media hires unprofessional people to front programmes to save money. rt The while thing is Mickey Mouse stuff. Switch channels
I’m ashamed with myself I can’t speak our native language fluently. Like my old school reports, could do better.
Seoige said “nobody from the 6 o’clock show reached out to see how she’s doing”
Wow, just wow, what a fxxxing snowflake !
@Ciaran: absolutely. That’s a mental response from her.
@Ciaran: they should cancel Ivan Yates over this …… ooh wait ….
@Ted Daly: maybe she should focal off.
Yates…another mouthpiece full of bull…and dowling another.
@Jb Walshe: and an abysmal show,
Absolute mountain out a molehill. And I say that as an Irish speaker. Gaslighting, my hoop.
@ecrowley ecrowley: I agree. Why should anyone need to ask Sile how she was doing? I speak Irish, but I don’t need to be asked how I’m doing, just because someone belittled my native language.
@Patrick MC Dermott: Quite correct. The world continues to be mad.
Attention seeking eejits a lot of them.
I don’t speak the language but why take a dump on it when you receive a pension from a State that deems it, in its own Constitution, the first language, along with English?
As for the air hostess, the less said the better.
@AnthonyK: Because it costs a fortune duplicating everything into a more or less dead language and forcing it on kids who could be using the time learning something that will be of value to them and the economy when they leave school. How many people in this country only speak Irish? A handful at most. That almost everyone in the country speaks English has been one of the main reasons we attracted so much dfi over the decades. If you want to speak or learn Irish that’s fine but it should be optional and we shouldn’t have to waste so much taxpayers money keeping it on permanent life support.
@Richard Keogh: póg mo hon
@Richard Keogh: Richard for Taoiseach
@Gregory C Donoghue: . No it isn’t.
A wee bit precious isn’t she? “Diss the language, diss the guest!”
Now, if he’d called her Sile SegaMegaDrive, then that would have been a diss.
@Benny Colreavy: ‘diss’…lol. Where’s she from? 1980s USA. Yo, bum rush the show! The Segovia family are no asset to Ireland
@Alan: Rugadh agus tógadh í sa Spidéal i gceartlár Ghaeltacht Chonamara. Is cainteoir dúchais í. Aontaím go hiomlàn lena cuid tuairimí. You’ re some clown yourself
I would like to be a presenter on the Six O’clock Show, but I am neither gay nor black
Dowling – a spanner.
Yates – failed politician & business man.
Yate x Fine Gael enough said
Born in Co Wexford and now in NZ have been teaching my grandson some Gaelic so he is aware of his Irish heritage. I spent time down in the Gaeltacht in Co Cork and was much better for it. My cousin Colm Ó Murchadha, until his untimely death in 1939 did much for the promotion of the language including introducing modern Gaelic. He was Clerk of the Dáil. My grandson also has Maori heritage and therefore we use Maori in everyday use. Language defines our heritage. BTW first time commenting.
Get better presenters
Yates= west brit
People who get so hung up about a language are not right in the head imo
I think we should encourage the language but I agree with Yates to an extent, it might be better value to get rid of the compulsory aspect and with the money saved pay for every child to stay in the Gaeltacht for 6 months(not just rich kids). What we have now is tokenism as it’s clearly not working.
We’ve to be all so woke and accepting of all the various ‘ways’ of life these days but our own language is disrespected by those two f.o.o.ls and your man doubles down on his previous days behaviour and takes the piss again. Arrogant B
@Niall Murphy: Good comment. You put it much better than I could. Amadáns the pair of them.
@Niall Murphy: correct. It’s our native language if you want to use it. If not, ok but not as these two odious items do. Talentless in the extreme, far too much coverage has gone to their heads
Apparently there is a lower rate of Alzheimer’s/Dementia in people who speak the Irish language. Cuimhne
@Philip Gallagher: Possibly but a much higher rate of ‘pain in the hole’ syndrome.
@Philip Gallagher: That’s because very few people speak Irish!
The sense of entitlement and passive aggressive tactics of Ms Seoige is a trademark behaviour of the Irish language zealots whom indulge themselves in false narratives that the defunct language is widely spoken throughout the country.It is patently clear that the census self declarations are wildly exaggerated out of some misguided attempt at national identity.
The vanity project of the self entitled perpetuates the myth that the Irish language holds any level of influence and ensures its supporters of preferential treatment and financial reward at the taxpayers expense. This is no more so demonstrated by the inordinate amount of money some €31 million spend each year on the TG4 dalliance.
@Coldfilter Coldfilter:
@Coldfilter Coldfilter: Well said’
Flogging a dead horse with that language, time to let go and time to take it out of schools
Can’t stand it. The language. Turn down the sound if it’s on.
I completely understand people’s struggle with Irish. However it is OUR language and our culture. (Like any language) There are phrases and words in Irish that do not exist in others, it is part of our heritage and ‘Irishness’. It is not a ‘dead language’. If you consider yourself Irish and cannot speak it or understand it, you are missing out on a real part of our culture end of. Have you met many Spaniards that cannot speak Spanish? Would you consider a Spaniard less of a Spaniard if he spoke just English? I cannot speak Irish well btw but it is something I plan to change. If it was spoken all the time in school, we’d all be able to speak it. It’s a shambles the way it is taught, but it’s even more pathetic the way some people talk about it
@James McSherry: English is more a part of our culture. We speak a unique dialect of English, native to Ireland. Everyone speaks it. It is our mother tongue by anyone’s definition. Many parts of this country were majority English speaking for many hundreds of years – before the French spoke what we today call French! It developed organically and was influenced by Irish speech patterns and idoms. Culture is shaped by a country’s actual history not by some alternative version of history we wished happended. Irish is also a part of our culure but most of us don’t speak it. And shock horror, some people just aren’t interested in learning a difficult dead language. Some people do and good for them.
@James McSherry: If I saw a Spaniard speaking fluent English I’d be impressed because I know they must have learnt it as a foreign language.
@Tom D: All fair points Tom and I don’t really disagree with anything you said. I don’t like referring to Irish is a dead language though, I think that really does it a disservice, just my opinion. We certainly do speak a dialect of English and have many great variations on how we do so. I love English, always have. However, I do think we are missing that cultural identity of truly speaking the original native language. Language (Irish or English) is part of what truly makes the culture ‘us’. I don’t really think we are less Irish for speaking English, but a different form of Irish. I think the certain myopic view of Irish as being worthless etc is a sad expression of where our Irishness is though. I am naturally pulled towards the Irish language, others may not be, that’s fine. Actively wishing to consign it to the garbage can of history is another matter altogether
Making the language compulsory in school is not the way to foster its growth. The department of education should have learned by now that you cant force a nation of stubborn, strong-willed people like the Irish do anything. We need to be plomassed and convinced its our own idea. The neegative attitude towards Irish stems from this. Its also traceable to the proposal to nominate europes official languages when the republican party in power failed to include Irish as an official language until public pressure forced their hand.
Dowling, Yates , Seoige ( the younger) and the Irish language – they all are in my room 101
Good man, Ivan. Calling it out for what it is. Nothing more than a ‘hobby’ language for the ‘more Irish than thou’ zealots. As for twisted knickers Seoige and her faux outrage.. oh please.. spare me.
Here we go again…….
When people listen to the likes of Brian dowling or Ivan yeates and take them serious ,you need to start asking yourself , have I had a reality check lately
I’m not surprised with Yates comment. He is totally consumed with self interest. He stayed in politics while Minister, then departed for “greener” pastures until he failed and then blamed the banks and everybody who held him accountable.
His comments on issues are like himself, bloated.
English language comment, showing English attitudes to second language learning, justified by the kind of English miser values that England used to rule here.
Ivan can hump off to England.
Truth hurts really..
colonised minds
Irish should be a choice for everyone.
But it’s been pushed on us.I can hardly get a Cartoon for my Grandkids at 8am that is not in Irish
so I tune into Tiny Pop channel.
Was in Donegal lately and could hardly find my way , as all the local road signs are in Irish only, which isn’t very clever from a tourist point of view.
It makes me quite sad that I never had the ear for languages or a teacher that could crack the teaching style a lot of us needed to pick up Irish. I was so bad, I knownlive in Scotland and try to use DuoLingo to pick up some phrases…. Still waiting on the little boy who ways to eat an apple AND drink a glass of milk to ask for my help
I love some things about B Dowling but I don’t like the way he acted here. It’s internalised oppression or rejection of our culture stemming from colonialism. Frantz Fanon theorised this in the early 50s. It should be a must read for school students.
@Carmel Odwyer: He’s insufferable.
Shameless queen
@Damien O’Sullivan: he does grate on me I have to say. I try to understand him but he’s seems so shallow and seems to care only about clothes and makeup. Each to their own but it annoys me how so many people like this get to be on tv. I don’t agree with the “Queen” statement if it’s meant in a bad way though. He just promotes and sees value in material things and seems to have no substance but I only judgr by what I see. Our culture is being left behind because of this americanised bs we are drip fed through virgin media and the likes. It makes a good argument for RTE & TG4 I dare say. Don’t kill me for saying that!
Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan…
Going
Going
Gan!
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