Northern Ireland Thread

Apparently the mass disruption planned for tonight has been called off out of 'respect' for the royal family. You couldn't make this shit up.
 
Only trouble in Belfast seems to be at North Queen Street/Tigers Bay interface.

When I was leaving work there was plenty of police jeeps parked up round Boucher Road with more travelling along the Westlink toward that way getting ready for trouble at the Balls at the Falls.
 
Kinsella said:
I'd take the opposite view. I think Belfast could and should see substantial economic benefits from a united Ireland. It's crying out for the sort of foreign direct investment that has changed Dublin so much in the last 25 years or so, and it would very much be in this new government's interest to make it happen. At present Belfast is not in a position to compete at all. It would also be nice to see the brain drain stemmed, particularly of those young people from a unionist background who seem to leave NI for Britain at university age...never to return.



Ireland's biggest trade partner is the US. The UK is 4th.
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Yeah, the brain drain is real I remember when my friend group was that age basically anyone that went to England for Uni, stayed there.

I take your point about the other stuff, it's more than possible there could be a boom and that's the kinda argument that should be being made for it, I just struggle to see it

Me thinking the UK was higher in trade position than it is, is a clear example of my own personal experience being taken as gospel rather than actual data, huh you never think you do it yourself.
 
Lastwolf said:
Yeah, the brain drain is real I remember when my friend group was that age basically anyone that went to England for Uni, stayed there.

I take your point about the other stuff, it's more than possible there could be a boom and that's the kinda argument that should be being made for it, I just struggle to see it

Me thinking the UK was higher in trade position than it is, is a clear example of my own personal experience being taken as gospel rather than actual data, huh you never think you do it yourself.
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All my school friends went to England for Uni and none ever came back. So did my brother, uncle and two of my cousin's from the other side of the family. Impossible to blame them.

I went to Queens, but worked in North East England for 6 years after Uni and probably wouldn't have come back either if my partner didn't want to stay and look after her mum. I loved it, had a decent job, nobody gave a shit about religion and I got a local supporters club bus to Old Trafford all the time.

Keeping NI as a backwater keeps too many of our politicians in office.
 
Tiber said:
All my school friends went to England for Uni and none ever came back. So did my brother, uncle and two of my cousin's from the other side of the family. Impossible to blame them.

I went to Queens, but worked in North East England for 6 years after Uni and probably wouldn't have come back either if my partner didn't want to stay and look after her mum. I loved it, had a decent job, nobody gave a shit about religion and I got a local supporters club bus to Old Trafford all the time.

Keeping NI as a backwater keeps too many of our politicians in office.
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I went to Dundee in 95. Truth be told it was time to break out of my background. Easily 20% of my halls were from Northern Ireland. Not sure many went back, I certainly didnt though I had planned to for a couple of years. In the end I stopped going back even over holidays breaks except for Christmas.

I’d say not going back was a mix of fed up with politics, themuns versus usuns, and the fact my job opportunities were totally different. And a girl.
 
NotworkSte said:
I went to Dundee in 95. Truth be told it was time to break out of my background. Easily 20% of my halls were from Northern Ireland. Not sure many went back, I certainly didnt though I had planned to for a couple of years. In the end I stopped going back even over holidays breaks except for Christmas.

I’d say not going back was a mix of fed up with politics, themuns versus usuns, and the fact my job opportunities were totally different. And a girl.
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I once went to visit a friend in Newcastle and thought id accidentally arrived in Ballymoney.

NE England is a great place to live, it gets a bad rep but I loved it. Newcastle is obviously great but so are many of the smaller towns. But the girl I fell for was a farmer from the other side of NI, so home I went! Though thankfully we live in a town
 
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NotworkSte said:
I went to Dundee in 95. Truth be told it was time to break out of my background. Easily 20% of my halls were from Northern Ireland. Not sure many went back, I certainly didnt though I had planned to for a couple of years. In the end I stopped going back even over holidays breaks except for Christmas.

I’d say not going back was a mix of fed up with politics, themuns versus usuns, and the fact my job opportunities were totally different. And a girl.
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You know things are bad if Dundee seems like a good option.
 
Is all the problems got to do with religion? Would there still be so many problems if it was one religion? I mean either Catholic or Protestant?
 
Foxbatt said:
Is all the problems got to do with religion? Would there still be so many problems if it was one religion? I mean either Catholic or Protestant?
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It's complicated, but It's not like any of the people out throwing petrol bombs ever set foot in church.
 
Foxbatt said:
Is all the problems got to do with religion? Would there still be so many problems if it was one religion? I mean either Catholic or Protestant?
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Ultimately it’s a conflict between two distinct, competing national identities. However the origins of the conflict lie back in a time of fierce religious fervor which heavily informed how the two communities understood the nature of their cause. And so religion and national identity in Northern Ireland became entwined to a considerable degree, such that the conflict has sometimes been expressed and understood in religious terms.
 
Thank you. So the Northern Irish don't consider themselves as Irish? Is the accent very different from the north to the republic?
From what I know the religious differences are not that much even in abortion.
Would the catholics become a huge majority if they unite?
 
Foxbatt said:
Thank you. So the Northern Irish don't consider themselves as Irish? Is the accent very different from the north to the republic?
From what I know the religious differences are not that much even in abortion.
Would the catholics become a huge majority if they unite?
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In very simple terms - Northern Ireland is roughly divided equally between Protestants who largely identify as British/with the United Kingdom (Unionists) and Catholics who largely identify as Irish (Nationalists). There are several complicating elements to this basic outline which will have some readers of this post twitching, but that’s the broad dynamic at play. When the region was carved out in the early 1920s the demographic balance was considerably more in favor of the Unionists, but Catholic birth-rates since then have changed things.

The accent is distinct, but this is not unusual on the island, as accents vary a lot throughout.

The south is heavily (90+%) Catholic, but it’s not an issue as southern Protestants identify as Irish too. So in the event of a United Ireland, Unionists would go from holding an equal share in a UK territory with which they identify (and which they have historically dominated politically, legally, economically and culturally) to a minority in a state with which they do not identify at all.
 
2cents said:
In very simple terms - Northern Ireland is roughly divided equally between Protestants who largely identify as British/with the United Kingdom (Unionists) and Catholics who largely identify as Irish (Nationalists). There are several complicating elements to this basic outline which will have some readers of this post twitching, but that’s the broad dynamic at play. When the region was carved out in the early 1920s the demographic balance was considerably more in favor of the Unionists, but Catholic birth-rates since then have changed things.

The accent is distinct, but this is not unusual on the island, as accents vary a lot throughout.

The south is heavily (90+%) Catholic, but it’s not an issue as southern Protestants identify as Irish too. So in the event of a United Ireland, Unionists would go from holding an equal share in a UK territory with which they identify (and which they have historically dominated politically, legally, economically and culturally) to a minority in a state with which they do not identify at all.
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So at the end of the day it's all about influence and politics?
 
Foxbatt said:
So at the end of the day it's all about influence and politics?
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No I’d say that’s too broad/vague a diagnosis to have any real meaning, in this or any other case.

While the conflict may be compared against the dozens of other conflicts between competing ethnic and national peoples which emerged around the world with the decline of the old empires, it has a particular dynamic drawn from the historic trajectory and cultural heritage of our island. Without understanding those, it’s not really possible to fully grasp the nuances of Northern Ireland.
 
The home of a Syrian family has been attacked in Newry, County Down, in what police are treating as a hate crime.
The attack happened in Carlingford Park in the city in the early hours of Sunday.
PSNI Ch Insp Amanda Ford said a number of windows were smashed and graffiti was sprayed on the property at about 02:00 BST.
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Pure filth. Should never go unnoticed.
 
arnie_ni said:
Bomb found under the car of a police woman today
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It just shows how much these vermin lack in support and brains. It was a incendiary device placed next to the car, not even an under the car bomb, it was designed to explode and ignite a container of flammable liquid next to it, causing a fireball. Thankfully the woman had the nous to sense danger. You have to query the mindset of these fellas to think anyone let alone a member of the police would not be startled by a device next to their car. I don't know of these Derry dissidents, but I do know amongst my own community in Belfast and they are a bunch of drug dealing scumbags. They want to try to kill police members yet deal regularly with loyalists re drugs trade.All this will do is raise more tensions at a time when it's been as bad as it has been in years.I've told this story on here before, one of the dissidents in Belfast, a fella I know from my area, he was kneecapped during the troubles for being a drug dealing, car stealing, anti social cnut. Since the ceasefire he's had a road to damacus conversion to top dissident republican. Scumbags hiding behind an ideology in a vain attempt to legitimise themselves to the wider community, it hasn't and won't work.Give it a few months and these dissidents will be feuding amongst themselves again.
 
arnie_ni said:
So she was "trying" to do the right thing and the dup have voted her out more ot less?
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Yep. 75 percent of her MLAs have voted no confidence in her. Also Dodds met ROI officials when she shouldn't have so its all off the table now.
Her replacement will cause a shitshow
 
cyberman said:
For abstaining from the gay convsersion therapy vote. Classy as always
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It's late and maybe I'm being a bit thick.

So there was a vote to ban gay conversion therapy, Arlene abstained and the DUP support base are unhappy because she didn't vote against it?

Had no idea conversion therapy was still a thing here, but then I shouldn't be surprised any backward thing is still a thing here.
 
stevoc said:
It's late and maybe I'm being a bit thick.

So there was a vote to ban gay conversion therapy, Arlene abstained and the DUP support base are unhappy because she didn't vote against it?

Had no idea conversion therapy was still a thing here, but then I shouldn't be surprised any backward thing is still a thing here.
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It’s crazy isn’t it, goes against the values of the DUP apparently.

Ulster says NO kinda shit and Arlene has said yes. Makes you fear for whoever they replace her with, you can guarantee the bigotry will be upped a notch and tensions stoked ahead of marching season.
 
Nolan has big Jim on again, for about the 10,000th time. I think Poots will get the job and god help us all when he does - mind you... can he be any worse than Arlene?
 
stevoc said:
It's late and maybe I'm being a bit thick.

So there was a vote to ban gay conversion therapy, Arlene abstained and the DUP support base are unhappy because she didn't vote against it?

Had no idea conversion therapy was still a thing here, but then I shouldn't be surprised any backward thing is still a thing here.
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Its because they are scared of the TUV - they see their elderly support base possibly moving over and they are panicing so its pushing them even further to the right. What they should actually focus on is the younger people going to Alliance - that's what will sink them in the next decade.
 
Deery said:
It’s crazy isn’t it, goes against the values of the DUP apparently.

Ulster says NO kinda shit and Arlene has said yes. Makes you fear for whoever they replace her with, you can guarantee the bigotry will be upped a notch and tensions stoked ahead of marching season.
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Yeah this place is as nuts as it ever was. It's like every generation of the DUP try to out bitter the last.

balaks said:
Its because they are scared of the TUV - they see their elderly support base possibly moving over and they are panicing so its pushing them even further to the right. What they should actually focus on is the younger people going to Alliance - that's what will sink them in the next decade.
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I don't understand the DUP I mean we all know they're backward. But for years I've been thinking surely they see the changing demographics in NI and that with each generation more and more people have no interest in their bitter shite.

You would think if the Union is so important to them then they'd have been trying to move on some of the dinosaurs and become a bit more moderate to try to appeal to the middle voters with no strong connection. As that's who'll decide any possible future border poll, but no they just seem to double down and get more batshit crazy and bitter by the year. Their whole stance on Brexit from day one being a prime example.
 
balaks said:
Its because they are scared of the TUV - they see their elderly support base possibly moving over and they are panicing so its pushing them even further to the right. What they should actually focus on is the younger people going to Alliance - that's what will sink them in the next decade.
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Yep. A more hardline leader isn’t going to help them and is just accelerating their decline. People should be happy.
 
balaks said:
Nolan has big Jim on again, for about the 10,000th time. I think Poots will get the job and god help us all when he does - mind you... can he be any worse than Arlene?
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Oul Edwin a climate change denier, an evoultion denier and homophobe.
 
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