# Shameful display of Nazi symbol in Co. Sligo



## PMU (9 Sep 2013)

I was in Co Sligo last week and on the road around Mullaghmore there is a modern monument, done up to look like a standing stone, with Ogham script on one side and in the centre a Christian cross with a swastika in its centre.  

  Now I know the swastika was originally an ancient Sanscrit good luck symbol and was even used by some ancient Christians, but in the modern world the swastika is a Nazi symbol and associating it with the Christian cross, as in this monument, just has the effect of sanitizing it.  


  Now it’s probable that whoever knocked up this monument put in the swastika from some politically correct but ultimately misguided attempt at inclusiveness, equality etc. but it’s just wrong.  Nazi symbols should forever invoke the horrors of genocide, racism and antisemitism that the Nazis brought on the world. Any country with moral values would never have allowed this monument to be erected and would insist that the Nazi symbol be removed from it immediately.


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## T McGibney (9 Sep 2013)

Is it this, or a replica?:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/readi...cal-landscape/the-wakeman-drawings/cliffoney/


> The most noticeable element of the cross - which is greatly weathered  today and difficult to make out - is the occurrence of a swastika on  the upper part. The swastika was the symbol of St Bridget and today some  of the Bridget's crosses made from rushes take the form of a fylfot,  another word for the swastika.
> Until the Nazis used this symbol from the 1920s, the swastika was used  by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun,  strength, and good luck.
> 
> Even in the early twentieth century, the swastika was still a symbol  with positive connotations. During World War I, the swastika could even  be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division.


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## Sunny (9 Sep 2013)

So because the Nazis hijacked an ancient symbol for their own agenda, everything bearing the symbol today should be covered up or destroyed???? That's ridiculous. 

I thought I was going to read something about Nazi flags or anti Semitic graffiti or something. Think you have lost perspective on what is insulting or not. I doubt the Jewish people are offended when Irish children make St. Bridget  crosses in school.


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## TarfHead (10 Sep 2013)

Sunny said:


> So because the Nazis hijacked an ancient symbol for their own agenda, everything bearing the symbol today should be covered up or destroyed???? That's ridiculous.


 
+1

The swastika symbol is used decoratively in many buildings in Dublin, some of them with great historical significance that pre-dates 1930s Germany.


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## Purple (10 Sep 2013)

TarfHead said:


> +1
> 
> The swastika symbol is used decoratively in many buildings in Dublin, some of them with great historical significance that pre-dates 1930s Germany.



Like the Swastika Laundry.


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## TarfHead (10 Sep 2013)

Purple said:


> Like the Swastika Laundry.


 
There's little, if any, remnants of that business.  I remember some class of smoke chimney with their logo over the Dodder at Ballsbridge. The chimney seems to still be there but subsumed into a modern building.

Next time you're in College Green, take a look at the underside of the portico of the old Irish Parliament building. There's more of the same on other buildings around the City centre.


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## Purple (10 Sep 2013)

TarfHead said:


> There's little, if any, remnants of that business.  I remember some class of smoke chimney with their logo over the Dodder at Ballsbridge. The chimney seems to still be there but subsumed into a modern building.


I remember the swastika on the chimney and I'm not that old.


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## blueband (10 Sep 2013)

I can remember that too.  I think you are getting upset about noting really...and we didn't even take sides in WW2 anyway.


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## terrontress (10 Sep 2013)

In Kyoto, the visitor's map has a swastika for each Buddhist temple or monument. I think it is great to see the symbol used with its original intention.

Use it as a symbol of peace, love, strength and take it back off the murderers.


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## PMU (11 Sep 2013)

T McGibney said:


> Is it this, or a replica?:
> 
> http://www.askaboutireland.ie/readi...cal-landscape/the-wakeman-drawings/cliffoney/



 Yes.  That’s it.

  But it’s fanciful at the least to suggest that the St Brigid’s cross is some sort of early Christian or even Tuatha De Danann swastika.  And even if it were, so what?  As I said in my initial post the swastika was used in the past by the early Christians.  And how it was used or what it symbolized in the distant past is not the issue.

  We are not now living in the past. In the modern world the swastika is a Nazi symbol; a symbol of intolerance and of man’s inhumanity to man.  It’s public display is insensitive, to say the least.


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## Laramie (12 Sep 2013)

PMU said:


> Yes.  That’s it.
> 
> But it’s fanciful at the least to suggest that the St Brigid’s cross is some sort of early Christian or even Tuatha De Danann swastika.  And even if it were, so what?  As I said in my initial post the swastika was used in the past by the early Christians.  And how it was used or what it symbolized in the distant past is not the issue.



If you think of it as an ancient symbol then I think you can get pass it's more modern usage.
Every Larry Dunne I meet I don't see as the other Larry Dunne. It may flash in to my mind for a second but then the intelligent side of my brain kicks in.


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## T McGibney (12 Sep 2013)

PMU said:


> Yes.  That’s it.
> 
> But it’s fanciful at the least to suggest that the St Brigid’s cross is some sort of early Christian or even Tuatha De Danann swastika.  And even if it were, so what?  As I said in my initial post the swastika was used in the past by the early Christians.  And how it was used or what it symbolized in the distant past is not the issue.
> 
> We are not now living in the past. In the modern world the swastika is a Nazi symbol; a symbol of intolerance and of man’s inhumanity to man.  It’s public display is insensitive, to say the least.



So you now want to desecrate an 8th century monument to remove a symbol that was abused in a different context in the 20th century? That, in my view, would be a scandalous act of historic & cultural vandalism.


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## mandelbrot (12 Sep 2013)

PMU said:


> Yes. That’s it.
> 
> But it’s fanciful at the least to suggest that the St Brigid’s cross is some sort of early Christian or even Tuatha De Danann swastika. And even if it were, so what? As I said in my initial post the swastika was used in the past by the early Christians. And how it was used or what it symbolized in the distant past is not the issue.
> 
> *We are not now living in the past*. In the modern world the swastika is a Nazi symbol; a symbol of intolerance and of man’s inhumanity to man. It’s public display is insensitive, to say the least.


 
Correct, so maybe you should heed your own words, since you seem to be stuck in the 1930's-1940's!


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## Sunny (12 Sep 2013)

PMU said:


> Yes.  That’s it.
> 
> But it’s fanciful at the least to suggest that the St Brigid’s cross is some sort of early Christian or even Tuatha De Danann swastika.  And even if it were, so what?  As I said in my initial post the swastika was used in the past by the early Christians.  And how it was used or what it symbolized in the distant past is not the issue.
> 
> We are not now living in the past. In the modern world the swastika is a Nazi symbol; a symbol of intolerance and of man’s inhumanity to man.  It’s public display is insensitive, to say the least.



There are numerous examples of things like this. I really can't see how you would find it offensive. Check out what outfits some people wear in Valencia and other parts of Spain at Easter. Remind you of anything?


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## mandelbrot (12 Sep 2013)

Sunny said:


> There are numerous examples of things like this. I really can't see how you would find it offensive. Check out what outfits some people wear in Valencia and other parts of Spain at Easter. Remind you of anything?



Just in case anyone else, like me, didn't know what Sunny's referring to, I'll spare you a Google:
http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1889483_1865369,00.html


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## Purple (12 Sep 2013)

blueband said:


> I can remember that too.  I think you are getting upset about noting really...and we didn't even take sides in WW2 anyway.



I'm not upset about it.


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## blueband (12 Sep 2013)

that post was directed at the OP purple, sorry for any confusion


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## GDUFFY (14 Sep 2013)

OP , By your logic people in Ireland should be offended by any symbol of the English Monarchy being displayed anywhere ! because of past crimes committed by the English crown and its servant armies , while some people subscribed to this before ,I think the Irish people have grown up and moved with the times and stopped living in the past.


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