Northern Ireland Thread

Livvie said:
Good idea but I fear an Irish history thread would be just the same as this one. It's obviously too raw to be discussed without upsetting someone. I'm sorry if I did that. It wasn't my intention.
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Don't worry Livvie, no-one will be really offended by anything you have said I hope. If they were then they had seriously soft skin after growing up in NI. This type of thread needs to be really well moderated, but I think we have done a decent job so far.

philipb231190 said:
Homes evacuated after two bombs explode in Londonderry | Metro.co.uk

Derry....the City of Culture 2013!
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That's next year man, this year it's;

Derry....the City of cnuts 2012
 
Livvie said:
Good idea but I fear an Irish history thread would be just the same as this one. It's obviously too raw to be discussed without upsetting someone. I'm sorry if I did that. It wasn't my intention.
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Nah you're cool Livvie, I'm not at all upset. It was my mistake anyway, I misread what was being said and thought Protestants were being portrayed as religiously motivated. My fault entirely. No offence caused whatsoever, and my apologies for mistaking what you were saying. No harm done eh?
 
The Neviller said:
Nah you're cool Livvie, I'm not at all upset. It was my mistake anyway, I misread what was being said and thought Protestants were being portrayed as religiously motivated. My fault entirely. No offence caused whatsoever, and my apologies for mistaking what you were saying. No harm done eh?
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Thanks. :) My fault too.
 
The Neviller said:
Nah not really. You simply gave an opinion of something you've known from a distance, and an impression you got from the view you had of the situation. I took it as a generalisation, that was my fault.
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Oh, alright then. ;) ;)
 
Dont think it has to do with terrorism (more likely drugs), but my cousin was shot dead about an hour ago outside his mum's house. Just checking the Ulster news now on the radio to find out more.
 
I'm so sorry to hear that Badunk. I typed out a response but then deleted it because there aren't any words I can think of that don't sound pathetic next to something as horrendous as that.

All the best to you and your family.
 
Badunk said:
Dont think it has to do with terrorism (more likely drugs), but my cousin was shot dead about an hour ago outside his mum's house. Just checking the Ulster news now on the radio to find out more.
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God, Badunk - how awful for you and your family. So sorry.
 
Appreciate it, guys, but we werent close. Just feel sorry for my aunt coz she's a fantastic person. Shot 8 times on her doorstep from what I hear. Cant imagine what she's going through right now. He was her only child as well.
 
Badunk said:
Appreciate it, guys, but we werent close. Just feel sorry for my aunt coz she's a fantastic person. Shot 8 times on her doorstep from what I hear. Cant imagine what she's going through right now. He was her only child as well.
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All you can do is rally round her chara. Condolences to you and your family and I hope that your aunt can recover from the loss someday.
 
Thanks again. Must say, it's hit me harder this morning. Got family members on facebook defending his name, as it looks like there are quite a few people using the site to spread rumours and gossip about him. I dont know what exactly he has done to be murdered on his own mother's doorstep, but to be ghoulish and gloat about it is very sad indeed.
 
Badunk said:
Thanks again. Must say, it's hit me harder this morning. Got family members on facebook defending his name, as it looks like there are quite a few people using the site to spread rumours and gossip about him. I dont know what exactly he has done to be murdered on his own mother's doorstep, but to be ghoulish and gloat about it is very sad indeed.
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Mate some people are total cnuts, and at times like this they show their true colours. I can't imagine he done anything to warrant what happened to him, and I'm sure your aunt doesn't deserve to be going through what she's going through.

Don't get drawn into it though as you really don't want to wind up the cnuts who did this cowardly act.
 
Badunk said:
Thanks, mate.

My da just texted me and said a man and a woman have been arrested.
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Was on the radio news here, man and woman arrested. It's really sad mate, sincere condolences to the family. Said he was a father of a young child too, truly sickening.
 
Theres not really another thread to bump on this......

Nearly a year on from this dispicable act (read OP)......Hope Cacs and his incredibly brave family are doing ok in the circumstances. A disgusting crime that still makes me so angry.

RIP Constable Ronan Kerr
 
Cheers, mate. I'm the same: just can't believe it happened.

Turns out, Christopher may have been murdered because of a love triangle thing. It's not clear yet, but this woman (her surname's Valliday) was apparently hounding my cousin for years. Would often drive past the flat, beep her horn, shout his name and whatnot. She's married to a drug dealer. The drug dealer's family are something like the Maguires in Shamelss- a crime family who are a law unto themselves, basically. Anyway, she helped set Christopher up (police say there was 500 texts and phone calls from her in the hours leading up to the murder). Christopher was lured out of the flat, approached the car that the husband and wife were in, leaned in to talk to them and the husband emptied a full clip into him. Christopher lay dying, but had the sense to phone for an ambulance on his mobile and he told them who shot him. He died an hour later. The husband and wife were arrested very quickly (and his brother a few days later- he'd helped burn the getaway vehicle), and now we're just waiting for the wheels of justice. What scares us, is that this Valliday guy has killed two people before and got away with it coz the peelers botched the evidence (he even left his footprint in a pool of blood after slashing a guy). The suspicion is that he's some sort of tout and that the cops ballsed up the previous investigations on purpose to protect their man. All speculation, though. Let's just hope they all get what they deserve.

fecking unbelievable, though. For someone to be murdered over what may turn out to be an unrequited infatuation. Bonkers.
 
PJ said:
Peadar Heffron refused industrial injury compensation. Absolutely disgusting.

Had he turned a blind eye to a serious crime while on his way to work, would his bosses have accepted a "not on duty" defence?
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That is absolutely crazy. Mind numbing actually. God they will use any trick in the book.
 
Republican dissidents join forces to form a new IRA

Three of the four main dissident republican terror groups in Northern Ireland are to merge and reclaim the banner of the IRA, in a major escalation of attempts to destabilise power sharing.

The Real IRA has been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs, which has been running a violent vigilante campaign in Derry, and a loose coalition of independent armed republican groups – leaving only the Continuity IRA outside the group.

In a statement released to the Guardian, the new organisation claimed it had formed a "unified structure, under a single leadership". It said the organisation would be "subservient to the constitution of the Irish Republican Army".

This is the first time since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that a majority of the forces of dissident republicanism has coalesced.

Republican sources have told the Guardian that the new paramilitary force includes several hundred armed dissidents, including some former members of the now disbanded Provisional IRA who have been conducting a campaign of shooting and forcible exiling of men in Derry City, whom they accuse of drug dealing.

It also includes what the statement described as "non-conformist republicans" – smaller independent groups from Belfast and rural parts of Northern Ireland.

Republican Action Against Drugs and the Real IRA will now cease to exist, one source close to the dissidents said.

The new organisation is planning to intensify terror attacks on the security forces and other targets related to what it regards as symbols of the British presence, according to the source.

Such targets could include police stations, the regional headquarters of Ulster Bank and the UK City of Culture 2013 celebration in Derry – which the dissidents have described as "normalising British rule".

In its statement, the new group said: "In recent years the establishment of a free and independent Ireland has suffered setbacks due to the failure among the leadership of Irish nationalism and fractures within republicanism" – a reference to the divisions between hardline republicans opposed to the peace settlement and Sinn Féin which has followed a political strategy. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, was a leading figure in the Provisional IRA.

In a clear dig at Sinn Féin's participation in the power-sharing executive with unionists, the dissidents' statement said: "The Irish people have been sold a phoney peace, rubber-stamped by a token legislature in Stormont."

It said that the "necessity of armed struggle in pursuit of Irish freedom" against what it described as "the forces of the British crown" would only be avoided by the removal of the British military presence in Northern Ireland. It demanded "an internationally observed timescale that details the dismantling of British political interference in our country".

It also attacked the Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Paterson, over the arrest of several key republican figures, referring to him as an "overlord". "Non-conformist republicans are being subjected to harassment, arrest and violence by the forces of the British crown; others have been interned on the direction of an English overlord. It is Britain, not the IRA, which has chosen provocation and conflict."

It is understood that among the republicans who have joined the new organisation are those responsible for the murder in April 2011 of Constable Ronan Kerr, a Catholic recruit to the police service of Northern Ireland, and the terrorists who targeted Peadar Heffron, another Catholic police officer, who was seriously injured in January 2010 when a bomb exploded inside his car as he was driving to his police station.

The recruitment of Republican Action Against Drugs activists in Derry marks a major step up in the terror campaign in the city. Dozens of former Provisional IRA members have been involved in shooting and intimidating mainly young Catholic men whom they accuse of drug dealing in Derry.

Republican Action Against Drugs' campaign has become notorious around the world since an investigation by the Guardian earlier this year into the wave of shootings and forced expulsions in Northern Ireland's second city.

Republican factions

Until this week there were four separate violent groups opposed to Sinn Féin's peace strategy. As a result of this merger three republican terror groups have become one, reclaiming the banner of the IRA:

The Real IRA was formed out of a split within the Provisional IRA (PIRA) in 1997 and was responsible for the Omagh atrocity a year later.

Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) – a group comprising ex-PIRA members whose purpose was to run an armed vigilante campaign against drug dealers. It has agreed to coalesce with other anti-ceasefire republicans.

Independent republican factions – until now an amalgam of terror groups operating in Northern Ireland. They are sometimes referred to collectively as Óglaigh na hÉireann.

Continuity IRA, the fourth republican faction, remains wholly independent.

The adoption of the name IRA is an attempt by the dissident republicans to reclaim from history the title of the movement that dominated republican politics in the 20th century. Since the Irish war of independence there have been several mutations of the IRA from a mass movement of armed fighters in the 1918-1921 Anglo-Irish war to a small band of diehards who conducted the 1958-62 border campaign. Its use has withered since the peace agreement in 1998.
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Fairly interesting article and possible development.
 
Yeah but PJ, if they can get their act together under one banner, get some proper funding, get some serious organisation and discipline this could be a problem. If this group goes Ulster wide, they could gain a lot of grass roots support from the disenfranchised. Shit like this bothers me and I hope it's not the start of things to come.
 
Irwinwastheking said:
Yeah but PJ, if they can get their act together under one banner, get some proper funding, get some serious organisation and discipline this could be a problem. If this group goes Ulster wide, they could gain a lot of grass roots support from the disenfranchised. Shit like this bothers me and I hope it's not the start of things to come.
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Nah the US was the main source of funding for the IRA and since 9/11 that source has pretty much dried up. Sinn Fein can get money stateside but not these breakaway groups.
 
I hope you guys are right. A well organised small group can do a huge amount of damage with limited resources and a wrong mentality.
 
PJ said:
It seems the loyalists only support your "right to cultural expression" on the "queens highway" if you're a loyalist.

For any posters not au fait with the situation, the orange order spent all summer parading up and down the roads, sometimes even in places they were wanted, but one republican march in Belfast a few days ago has led two three nights of rioting orchestrated by the UDA who want the right to assembly to be held only by people carrying union flags (upside down).
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It is their land they were here first....wait
 
Oh, OK. I'd love to here a Unionist view on this then, just to see if there is another side to the coin. Where were they marching? Was it in a republican/nationalist area?
 
I find both groups finding the need to march as retarded. I couldn't care less about any of that shit anymore, it's old and tired. It will probably never change because entrenched views are passed on and on. I'm drunk as feck so I apologise if that doesn't make sense but both sides are holding our progress back. I've come to realise I couldn't give a shit if someone living here wants to classify themselves as Irish or British or Northern Irish. Or if they want to say Derry or Londonderry etc etc. None of it matters.
 
It's my area (New Lodge) that it's been happening in/around.

Wouldn't be an issue if people were respectful of each other.

But, even though I place most of the 'blame' for all this parades nonsense at the loyalists' door, it is still just a minority on both sides who are going out of their way to be offended and cause all the trouble.

Was on the phone to home tonight and apparently the police are round Yorkgate/Tiger's Bay end of the New Lodge tonight.
 
Badunk said:
It's my area (New Lodge) that it's been happening in/around.

Wouldn't be an issue if people were respectful of each other.

But, even though I place most of the 'blame' for all this parades nonsense at the loyalists' door, it is still just a minority on both sides who are going out of their way to be offended and cause all the trouble.

Was on the phone to home tonight and apparently the police are round Yorkgate/Tiger's Bay end of the New Lodge tonight.
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Did it not say there were about 200 on the loyalist side out last night?
 
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