Fashion is being used to fight sectarianism among fans (click here)
12:00AM Sunday July 31, 2005
By Kerre Woodham (click title to entry)
During World War I, a chap called Howard Elliott toured the length and breadth of New Zealand, attempting to gather support for his fledgling group, the Protestant Political Association. The group had no policies as such. What its members sought to do was whip up the fear and uncertainty that existed during wartime into prejudice against Catholics which the group would then translate into political power. Elliott's speeches seldom varied. At each meeting the crowd was told Catholics were pro-German, the Pope was in league with the Kaiser, Catholic teaching clergy were getting preferential treatment while state-school teachers were being sent to the front, and that all Irish immigrants were Fenians and anti-British who simply couldn't be trusted. Spice up the speech with some near-pornographic tales of the goings-on in convents, and you can see why the Reverend Elliott drew a crowd....
