Mr Beattie had to fight for his political career after historical tweets from him surfaced earlier this week — including racist terms and offensive remarks about Muslims.
He was also hammered over numerous misogynistic remarks about women he made online which emerged in the fall-out from him making a crass joke involving DUP veteran Edwin Poots and his wife.
The ex-soldier has apologised for all of his offensive posts, but Sunday Life can reveal that when he was reflecting on his military past, he labelled abuse directed at him by bosses as “just plain nasty” .
Ironically he declared that he expected more from those in leadership — and compared his own case to modern-day Islamophobia.
Mr Beattie (56) said: “To begin with, training at the Junior Soldiers Battalion had been pretty much as I had expected. Lots of shouting, lots of standing about, lots more shouting, endless lessons on the self-loading rifle, still more shouting, tuition on field-craft, and as much drill as a man could take.
“But this other side of military life quickly started to emerge, something as depressing as it was disgusting. Bullying and, in my case and that of the only other Irish recruit in the camp, racism.
“Most of those charged with our care and development were great; however, a handful were just plain nasty. They should have been people I looked up to, respected.
“Their professionalism should have reassured me that joining the Army was the right decision. I should have wanted to emulate them. Instead I despised them with a vengeance.”
Mr Beattie detailed in his book An Ordinary Soldier how he first suffered physical abuse meted out at camp as a young squaddie and that his “tormentor” left him in tears
The dad-of-two said that he and another solider from Northern Ireland were singled out for abuse because of where they were from.
He explained: “We found ourselves repeatedly at odds with those around us. Our ‘crime’ was our background. It wasn’t what we did, or didn’t do, that made us targets; it was who we were. Irishmen.
“No matter that we were Protestants and not Catholics. No matter that we came from Ulster and not the Republic. No matter that we wore the same uniform as everyone else.
“Most of those in my platoon took to calling me Paddy. It wasn’t a term of endearment, but a slur on my heritage, a reference to the ‘Irish boggies’, ‘murdering b*****ds’, ‘backward f**kwits’ who dared join the British Army.
“On the mainland it seemed that anyone from the wrong side of the Irish Sea was viewed with something between suspicion and hatred.
“Perhaps we were the Muslims of our day — condemned by the broadest of labels; misunderstood by a wary public and a spiteful military.
“The endless slights and ridicule cut to the heart of who I was and whenever another recruit called me Paddy it would lead to a scrap.
“It took a while but they eventually got the message — my name was Doug. DOUG. However, there were some confrontations I had to turn away from.
“Despite the provocation I avoided the almost irresistible temptation to pick a fight with the NCOs (officers) who tried to make my life a misery. To them I remained Paddy.
“These were bitter, small-minded men who were bullies in the Army, and had probably been bullies outside the Army.”
Before entering politics, Mr Beattie was a career soldier who had joined up at 16 and rose to the rank of Captain, leading men on tours of Iraq and Afghanistan with the Royal Irish Regiment and winning a Military Cross for bravery.
He kept his job as Ulster Unionist Party leader despite the furore over his Twitter comments after he received the support of his party’s MLAs and officers. Mr Beattie said the tweets were “pretty horrific” and he was “deeply ashamed and embarrassed” by them but denied he was a racist or a misogynist and has “apologised for what I had done”.
The posts emerged after Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife on Saturday night.
*David O’Dornan*
January 30 2022
Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the day 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment shot 26 unarmed British civilians during a protest march against internment without trial, murdering thirteen that day. This not be long after the same regiment was involved [murdering nine British civilians the previous year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballymurphy_massacre).
Beatie would have been about four to five years old around the time of both those incidents so by the time he joined the British army would have been ~twelve years after them.
must be frustrating when the insults you’d usually dish out are used against yourself.
Poor timing given the day.
The ranks of the army are notorious for ‘banter’ that oversteps the mark and bullying. NCO’s are ‘orrible bastards but they make soldiers out of recruits and keep the lads in line.
It’s doubtlessly horrible for this man to have experienced. Race and nationality are a different thing. Not that it matters but was it racism?
Anti Irish sentiment is sadly almost a forces tradition – odd as despite the painful history there there’s also several ‘Irish’ regiments in the army.
None of what happened to him was right.
None of it excuses his own history of racism.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Interesting timing considering he was recently called out for making racist and misogynistic comments himself.
6 comments
Under-fire [Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie](https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/topics/doug-beattie-40675672/) said that he was the victim of “depressing” and “disgusting” racism when he was in the Army.
Mr Beattie had to fight for his political career after historical tweets from him surfaced earlier this week — including racist terms and offensive remarks about Muslims.
He was also hammered over numerous misogynistic remarks about women he made online which emerged in the fall-out from him making a crass joke involving DUP veteran Edwin Poots and his wife.
The ex-soldier has apologised for all of his offensive posts, but Sunday Life can reveal that when he was reflecting on his military past, he labelled abuse directed at him by bosses as “just plain nasty” .
Ironically he declared that he expected more from those in leadership — and compared his own case to modern-day Islamophobia.
Mr Beattie (56) said: “To begin with, training at the Junior Soldiers Battalion had been pretty much as I had expected. Lots of shouting, lots of standing about, lots more shouting, endless lessons on the self-loading rifle, still more shouting, tuition on field-craft, and as much drill as a man could take.
“But this other side of military life quickly started to emerge, something as depressing as it was disgusting. Bullying and, in my case and that of the only other Irish recruit in the camp, racism.
“Most of those charged with our care and development were great; however, a handful were just plain nasty. They should have been people I looked up to, respected.
“Their professionalism should have reassured me that joining the Army was the right decision. I should have wanted to emulate them. Instead I despised them with a vengeance.”
Mr Beattie detailed in his book An Ordinary Soldier how he first suffered physical abuse meted out at camp as a young squaddie and that his “tormentor” left him in tears
The dad-of-two said that he and another solider from Northern Ireland were singled out for abuse because of where they were from.
He explained: “We found ourselves repeatedly at odds with those around us. Our ‘crime’ was our background. It wasn’t what we did, or didn’t do, that made us targets; it was who we were. Irishmen.
“No matter that we were Protestants and not Catholics. No matter that we came from Ulster and not the Republic. No matter that we wore the same uniform as everyone else.
“Most of those in my platoon took to calling me Paddy. It wasn’t a term of endearment, but a slur on my heritage, a reference to the ‘Irish boggies’, ‘murdering b*****ds’, ‘backward f**kwits’ who dared join the British Army.
“On the mainland it seemed that anyone from the wrong side of the Irish Sea was viewed with something between suspicion and hatred.
“Perhaps we were the Muslims of our day — condemned by the broadest of labels; misunderstood by a wary public and a spiteful military.
“The endless slights and ridicule cut to the heart of who I was and whenever another recruit called me Paddy it would lead to a scrap.
“It took a while but they eventually got the message — my name was Doug. DOUG. However, there were some confrontations I had to turn away from.
“Despite the provocation I avoided the almost irresistible temptation to pick a fight with the NCOs (officers) who tried to make my life a misery. To them I remained Paddy.
“These were bitter, small-minded men who were bullies in the Army, and had probably been bullies outside the Army.”
Before entering politics, Mr Beattie was a career soldier who had joined up at 16 and rose to the rank of Captain, leading men on tours of Iraq and Afghanistan with the Royal Irish Regiment and winning a Military Cross for bravery.
He kept his job as Ulster Unionist Party leader despite the furore over his Twitter comments after he received the support of his party’s MLAs and officers. Mr Beattie said the tweets were “pretty horrific” and he was “deeply ashamed and embarrassed” by them but denied he was a racist or a misogynist and has “apologised for what I had done”.
The posts emerged after Mr Beattie apologised for tweeting a joke about former DUP leader Edwin Poots and his wife on Saturday night.
*David O’Dornan*
January 30 2022
Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the day 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment shot 26 unarmed British civilians during a protest march against internment without trial, murdering thirteen that day. This not be long after the same regiment was involved [murdering nine British civilians the previous year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballymurphy_massacre).
Beatie would have been about four to five years old around the time of both those incidents so by the time he joined the British army would have been ~twelve years after them.
Something to think about.
* Beattie’s joke about Poots: https://i.imgur.com/pAYqT3I.png
It’s a terrible joke, but I can’t believe it justifies [defamation proceedings](https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2022/01/25/news/uup-leader-doug-beattie-was-on-cusp-of-quitting-in-fallout-from-twitter-storm-2570039/).
* [Beattie’s misogynistic tweets from 2011 – 2013 are awful](https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/revealed-history-doug-beatties-casually-22852772) – worse in my opinion.
must be frustrating when the insults you’d usually dish out are used against yourself.
Poor timing given the day.
The ranks of the army are notorious for ‘banter’ that oversteps the mark and bullying. NCO’s are ‘orrible bastards but they make soldiers out of recruits and keep the lads in line.
It’s doubtlessly horrible for this man to have experienced. Race and nationality are a different thing. Not that it matters but was it racism?
Anti Irish sentiment is sadly almost a forces tradition – odd as despite the painful history there there’s also several ‘Irish’ regiments in the army.
None of what happened to him was right.
None of it excuses his own history of racism.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Interesting timing considering he was recently called out for making racist and misogynistic comments himself.