[FuckingRotter]

All over the news this week whilst I've been away have been the names of four men, two prison guards, two PSNI officers, murdered by so called "dissident" republicans.

Their names have been in the news because, in what is being described as a "hate crime" by the PSNI, British politicians, and various other talking heads, the four mens names were mounted atop bonfires lit in West Belfast on the 15th of August. According to one newspaper article I read, this date has long been a traditional catholic bonfire lighting date, although it didn't explain why, except to say that in recent years this date has been moved mostly to the 9th of August as we saw a few posts back.

Of course, mocking of people killed during the troubles really doesn't help matter, but consider this. Bonfire celebrations hold religious and social significance that long predate the arrival of Christianity in the British Isles, as I'm sure they do other parts of the world.

Burning in effigy has a long tradition too. I expect many readers know about Guy Fawkes night, the celebration of the foiling by catholics to blow up parliament and kill one of the (probably secretly catholic king James).

Then following on from this is the annual Guy Fawked parade in Lewes, on the south coast of England. Burning crosses are carried through the town, along with an effigy of the villain of the day. Past effigys have included Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Diego Maradonna. The villain is then cast on to a bonfire at the end of the parade and burnt.

Then there are other peculiarly English celebrations, Tar Barrel night also held on the 5th of November in Ottery St Mary in Devon, and the annual cheese rolling held on Brockworth Hill in Gloucestershire.

I may seem to be deviating, but these are all events that killjoys have sought to either ban, or to regulate and profit from.

Putting sectarian divisions aside, should we really be letting tiresome, over-sensitive, risk-averse politicos whose knee-jerk reaction to any thing even slightly risky or controversial spoil our fun? How is burning in effigy any sort of crime? Distasteful, possibly, but I'm sure nobody cries foul if Hitler or Mussolini is cast on the fire.