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Dark Rose

Okay, so, uh, under the idea of being Celtic Roots to rally people, and I quote:

"We are going to reinstate the monarchy. ... The O'Donnells were the last of the High Kings. You, Maeve, are the last in your line of O'Donnells. You wondered what we wanted you to do? We want you to be Queen. You are going to be crowned at Tara."

This is the point where the wheels feel like they're coming off too much. I can suspend disbelief for how Ireland's taken over but I can't suspend it to believe that in 1995, if Ireland was taken over, they'd rally behind a random girl from Donegal going "so I'm High Queen now" and the world will go "that sounds like a legit government" and than Irish academics & business moguls who are as Smart And With It as the book claims would come up with this while the UK nods along.

(Also at this time, Mary Robinson is president and quite popular, why not just fly HER out - or a fictional "Maria Robson" anyway - and use her as the rallying point?)
 
Cunning plan at foot to quietly bring in some Irish naval officers and 'arrange' for the country's main naval assets to be somewhere else when it goes up, and to smuggle the entire Rangers out on assumption their officers are junior and likely aren't under blackmail yet. And we're building to The Single Biggest SAS Mission Ever with US support on the Libyan hostage camp.

The montage of Queen Maeve being prepped in advance inadvertently damages the conceit, because this is very much British establishment control and stage management and marketing spin, you can tell me she has 'something' that men will rally behind but I'm not being shown it.
 
Why doesn't Britain just invade? I get that the book's logic is that the Irish would never accept a British invasion, but this logic falls apart pretty quickly. First of all, I'm certain that if given the choice between British intervention and being ruled by Palestinian invaders the Irish would choose Britain. At most you'd get some hardcore IRA guys collaborating with the PLO, followed by the vast majority of the Irish population deciding that the IRA are Quislings. More importantly, even by the book's own logic this excuse doesn't work, since the Irish are apparently willing to accept a resistance created by the British, staffed by the British, and headed by a Queen controlled by the British. Then again, the Irish are apparently too stupid to recognize a Palestinian takeover happening right under their noses, so maybe they're stupid enough to think the resistance is actually Irish-led.
 
Why doesn't Britain just invade? I get that the book's logic is that the Irish would never accept a British invasion, but this logic falls apart pretty quickly.

It does, but that's the logic at work regardless - there's talk of how the invaders plan to present this as "internal", but I'm not sure how that's going to work out when the balloon goes up. It feels it'd work better if the takeover becomes overt before all this happens, so Britain will have to work up to invading and needs to bolster internal resistance first. As is, we're told RAF is planning to paint some strike squadrons in Irish colours and 'loan' them to "Celt Force".

I did think the tanks-on-streets would be happening earlier than this, this is chapter eight now.
 
Why doesn't Britain just invade? I get that the book's logic is that the Irish would never accept a British invasion, but this logic falls apart pretty quickly. First of all, I'm certain that if given the choice between British intervention and being ruled by Palestinian invaders the Irish would choose Britain. At most you'd get some hardcore IRA guys collaborating with the PLO, followed by the vast majority of the Irish population deciding that the IRA are Quislings. More importantly, even by the book's own logic this excuse doesn't work, since the Irish are apparently willing to accept a resistance created by the British, staffed by the British, and headed by a Queen controlled by the British. Then again, the Irish are apparently too stupid to recognize a Palestinian takeover happening right under their noses, so maybe they're stupid enough to think the resistance is actually Irish-led.

That's actually one of the better points in the book - the UK invading, even to help Ireland, would be an utter diplomatic disaster for just about everyone. Very few people would believe what was actually happening, at least until the bad guys came onto the streets and took over; there would be a LOT of Irish resistance, targeted on the wrong side.

There might be some room for covert spoiling raids - hitting targets within Ireland, liberating people held under gunpoint - but even that would be risky.

Chris
 
I passed this to a friend in Ireland and her response to the O'Donnell part is to ask what about Daniel O'Donnell. That'd be a very different story!

And chapter eight opens with a resistance man seeing five jumbo jets in three hours coming in with full loads of men who don't go in through customs. Alerted, our Buachailli estimate eight thousand presumed-Libuan soldiers may have entered the country on the quiet over two nights to head for pre-prepared caches. Anglo-Irish response being "oh shit we're not ready" (this includes no 'friendly' on the UN Security Council and "for the Palestinians the bulk of the UN is bloody friendly", which seems irrelevant if they're seizing neutral countries with gunfire and Libya's waving its willy around). MI6 trying to disappear all the 'white list' famous people they want out, nice bit of telling the Cardinal of the church what's about to happen as they want him to stay as a symbolic figure & use the church as a bolster for resistance, and Irish embassies & consulates being quietly tipped off what's up and to get ready for a government-in-exile. (Though this means, again, you surely want to get the president out)

Sensible bit when a resistance commander, hearing it's definitely about to start, openly wonders if Britain's actually going to send enough help and if they're trained at all to fight professional soldiers. Which you would in that situation.

Now suddenly bombs are going off at factories and offices and mobs randomly attacking people and arson attacks, and people leaving "IRELAND FOR IRISH, FUCK OFF FOREIGNERS" messages to the press, which escalates to the point of the army being told to prepare to roll out to support the gardai, while the "New Irish Businessman's Association" mutter they'll have to use private security consultants and shut down the jobs until the violence stops - i.e. this is the 'false flag' to get tanks out fast, and the sudden job loss is the stick to get people to do as they're told. Mortgages and loans are suddenly being called in en masse as a frightener. "Garda" men are out in very obviously newly-painted armoured vehicles outside foreign-owned businesses. Meanwhile the SAS is trying to get as many resistance caches as possible prepped while the hostage raid goes on, and "Celt Force" just got told it's going in early and is lucky to have four weeks continued prep; Royal Navy preparing to blockade Ireland to cut off any further troop and kit arrivals. Random people also go "hey I can totally loot the high street during this" and compromised papers make sure you know this & Why Isn't The Government Doing Swift Action. A march-for-peace has violence caused by... someone.

This part, the gathering "fuck it's all on what can we do in time" is well done.

Actual quote in argument: "We haven't had a problem with Britain for seventy years. Look outside, Alan. That's your bloody Arabs causing all the trouble." I can buy an angry 1990s Irish guy saying one half of this.

The president suspends the Dail and brings in emergency powers, with compromised TD's voting it in - which really does seem another reason to 'disappear' the president. The faux-Garda seized the Irish Defence Force's bases and now hastily-painted Soviet/Arab kit is going around saying "WE ARE THE IRISH ARMY", while others now go into government buildings. Thousands are fleeing across the border, or on planes going anywhere, or taking boats out wherever - that part is a bit eerie after Kabul in August, closer to the bone than Lunnon-Wood probably meant.

(The UN has Arab diplomats going "want some cheap oil or less oil" so Russia goes "INTERNAL IRISH MATTER" as the US and UK go "look it's clearly an invasion". I really can't see Russia post-Chechen independence going "sure, nothing about this sort of thing is something that worries us". This part is where it seems odd Britain doesn't go "what's that, a troop movement, DON'T MIND IF WE BOMB" while massing tanks at the border since the "nah nah it's an Irish thing" excuse is, in universe, flimsy as fuck)

And a random Irish farmer blocks the road against some trucks. "The resistance had begun."
"Palestine financiers" sounds like a dig whistle for Jews. Except no he means actual Palestinians.

The New Irish Businessman's Association says the false-flag bombs are "anti-Semitic", and I thought of this post.
 
A race against time by the govt-in-exile to send Irish officers on UN missions to the UK before Dublin can recall them and 'disappear' anyone who might be useful.

And realistically, it's very quickly going wrong for the occupiers because soldiers are getting stuff thrown at them before mobs disperse and some soldiers are ending up in hospital (and people who cooperate or speak in favour are being attacked and, in four cases, murdered). The void of the Dail is filled by the "New Irish Patriot Council", "its make-up largely Palestinian" - the constant use of 'New Irish' for the occupation fronts, all now 'Irish citizens', feels like a reference to something from '95 I'm missing. One of the key Palestinian fighters is pissed the Libyans fired on angry students and could provoke something.

Now 30,000 soldiers are in Ireland as jets continue to arrive, what happened to the Royal Navy blockade mentioned, hurry up Britain.

Oh my fucking god, a Palestinian leader tells the British Ambassador that America won't do anything about Ireland: "They will not interfere in the politics of a third country, particularly a European country. Bush may have done. But this Democrat? I think not. There is no oil here and he won't aspire to a new world order that will only bring him body bags."

Now, Lunnon-Wood didn't know Clinton was going to sign off twice on USAF bombing in European countries or that he'd be majorly involved in the peace talks in Northern Ireland. That happened after he'd written it. But I know this, so it's very funny. (plus, it's AMERICA re IRELAND)
 
Now we're into the stuff! A child shot dead by an occupier for not listening! Rebels bombing convoys and the hotel where officers live, with the receptionist already spying for them! A patrol goes into North Side Dublin and not out again! The woman in love with an occupier kills him while he's left depressed that now he's the thing he hated! Internment camps! Navy officers sacrificing themselves to scuttle a ship so the enemy can't have it! Patriotic old songs from street musicians and symbols in pubs! Conflict among the occupation command! BBC World Service broadcasting across the border! YEAH!

All this makes the rebellion's agents going "YOU HEARD THE LEGEND A QUEEN MAEVE WILL ARRIVE IN OUR DARKEST HOUR" a bit of a weird outlier, I'm fairly sure the Irish population of '95 would've known if you were inventing an entire myth in the back of a pub. (The bulk of the UN going "ah that's an internal Irish matter WINK" does seem odd too - that many African states want an emboldended Gadaffi? - and France has been bought off by the Arab states, France, the French are happy to see an EU member-state overrun by a foreign invasion force and aren't going "the EU's our patch you knobheads")
 
Now we're into the stuff! A child shot dead by an occupier for not listening! Rebels bombing convoys and the hotel where officers live, with the receptionist already spying for them! A patrol goes into North Side Dublin and not out again! The woman in love with an occupier kills him while he's left depressed that now he's the thing he hated! Internment camps! Navy officers sacrificing themselves to scuttle a ship so the enemy can't have it! Patriotic old songs from street musicians and symbols in pubs! Conflict among the occupation command! BBC World Service broadcasting across the border! YEAH!

All this makes the rebellion's agents going "YOU HEARD THE LEGEND A QUEEN MAEVE WILL ARRIVE IN OUR DARKEST HOUR" a bit of a weird outlier, I'm fairly sure the Irish population of '95 would've known if you were inventing an entire myth in the back of a pub. (The bulk of the UN going "ah that's an internal Irish matter WINK" does seem odd too - that many African states want an emboldended Gadaffi? - and France has been bought off by the Arab states, France, the French are happy to see an EU member-state overrun by a foreign invasion force and aren't going "the EU's our patch you knobheads")
Another belief prevalent in techno-thrillers is that the UN are a bunch of liberal surrender monkeys, so of course they wouldn't get involved. From a Doyalist perspective the reason the UN isn't getting involved is probably that if they did the US would be the one coordinating everything and this book is aimed at a British audience who want to see Britain kick ass.
 
Lunnon-Wood's thought about the exile's financial fate, which is: bad, the punt has collapsed, so Britain has to step in to guarantee it. Rebel hits and Libyan counterstrikes go on while "Celt Force" continues to build.

It also gets very 90s as the US response to the OPEC states saying "all Arab nations will THROW AMERICA OUT if you interfere in Ireland" (I really can't buy the Arab states backing up Palestinians this much cos, well, they don't) is "AND WHO WILL MUZZLE SADDAM?" The answer, Russia, desperate to do something with its standing army to stop it biting them. Aha.

Also the RUC and Special Branch round up all senior IRA people (who they all know already and just let them be) and tell them to Step Off instead of getting involved, while the head of the Irish govt-in-exile says "we don't want you, we hate you". And I dunno, I think in this situation you probably would want the IRA to use some of those guns and bombs and knowledge down south.
 
The staged coronation of the 19-year-old puppet queen, but never mind that, a RN destroyer just engaged three blockade-running Libyan ships that has secret Exocets to fire AND ALSO TRANSPORTING TANKS WHICH ALSO FIRED AT THE BOAT

When you definitely know the difference between tanks and boats
 
"For the first time since the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944 a military force would go into battle with their pipers to the fore."

"Two entire bands would accompany Celt Force."

This is the sort of mad Celtic romanticism I want.

On tactical level, Celt Force will be going in 1/3rd of the size of the enemy if they go in and reliant on Chinook lift to "leapfrog" about, so they'll have to keep moving, which feels both plausible enough and also promises a lot of very exciting fight scenes.

Wait, and now things make little sense, because remember I said the President was quite popular in Ireland and you'd surely use her as a rallying point than a fake monarch? WELL THE PRESIDENT IS AT THE CORONATION CEREMONY AT TARA, THE RESISTANCE/BRITISH SMUGGLED HER PAST THE GUARDS, AND HER NAME IS MARY JOHNSON SO WE KNOW WHO SHE'S MEANT TO BE. Instead she's going to become a symbol by letting herself get interned. What??? ("Kiernan knew that interned they ["Mary Johnson" and the Cardinal of the church] could become symbols as powerful as the new queen herself", surely more powerful cos they're actually a thing people have heard of and this book has them needing to endorse Queen Maeve on a live broadcast)

There is a cunning strategic bit that the loudest, most daft-looking Irish diaspora people with old weapons are lighting bonfires and going "WOOOOO OLD CELT STUFF" loudly to confuse & unnerve the crap out of the Arab border guards and have the New Irish Patriotic Council continue to underestimate what might actually be coming their way. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are having trouble keep the Libyan officers in line, worried too many reprisal killings will screw them internationally.

Understated brutal bit as the collaborators being assaulted include women who had "formed relationships, however temporary and for whatever reason", specifically needing food.
 
Wait, and now things make little sense, because remember I said the President was quite popular in Ireland and you'd surely use her as a rallying point than a fake monarch? WELL THE PRESIDENT IS AT THE CORONATION CEREMONY AT TARA, THE RESISTANCE/BRITISH SMUGGLED HER PAST THE GUARDS, AND HER NAME IS MARY JOHNSON SO WE KNOW WHO SHE'S MEANT TO BE. Instead she's going to become a symbol by letting herself get interned. What??? ("Kiernan knew that interned they ["Mary Johnson" and the Cardinal of the church] could become symbols as powerful as the new queen herself", surely more powerful cos they're actually a thing people have heard of and this book has them needing to endorse Queen Maeve on a live broadcast)
Hang on wasn't the President getting the Dail to give the occupiers emergency powers earlier?
 
Hang on wasn't the President getting the Dail to give the occupiers emergency powers earlier?

Oh yeah. Somehow she went from being blackmailed (a thing involved abducted kids usually in this) to only having personal internment to face. Unless she was just rubberstamping what the taoiseach sent her way, in which case Britain really should've smuggled her out earlier.
 
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