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I think people from around the world who constantly shove their noses into Northern Irish politics, screaming and yelling that the Brits should leave the 6 counties ..should take a look at these figures..
35% of Northern Irish catholics want Northern Ireland to remain in the UK.
3% of Protestants want a United Ireland.
United Ireland .......is getting weaker and weaker in the North.
Our national anthem, God save the Queen, is going nowhere.
This is going to be a long post, in short you are right on.
Here's the deal. One has to remember that in 1776 only a small segment of the population were Patriots with the majority of Americans being either fence sitters or Loyalists. Over the centuries we have basically been raised around an entire series of myths regarding the American Revolution such as the British were evil, King George III was a tyrant, and the majority of Americans wanted independence. Add in the significant Irish-American population and you can see why so many Americans are so vocal in favor of a "united Ireland", Scottish independence, Bermuda independence, etc even though these things are supported only by a tiny segment of the overall population. Recent polls indicate that only about a 25% of the population support independence in Bermuda, and only about 30% in Scotland. Too most of my fellow Americans it dosent matter, all that matters is that they are ruled by the supposedly tyrannical British. We are raised on the myths of 1776 and have a tendency to think everyone else in the world feels the same way.
Im an Irish-American Catholic and I fully support the will of the people - that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom. Ditto for Gibraltar and the Falklands. I only wish they let the people of Hong Kong have a say in regards to their future via a referendum, of course then Hong Kong would have most likely voted to remain British, and the Chinese would still be whining about some lease that was signed half a century before the Commies took power and became invalid when Sun Yat Sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911.
Here's the deal. One has to remember that in 1776 only a small segment of the population were Patriots with the majority of Americans being either fence sitters or Loyalists.
I doubt that. The Patriots controlled local government in the vast majority of places that British troops didn't actually occupy and Patriot militias were numerous and ubiquitous. Had there been as many Tories and neutrals as some claim one would think there would've been places where local government would've been Tory without benefit of the King's troops.
Has anyone asked how many in the Republic actually want to reunify with a reluctant north? They seem to have their own financial problems right now. Which is a shame as I always assumed that as more power went to the EU and, the border would become less important. I expect it would also be incorrect to say Catholic = automatic support for leaving Britain.
The best way Sinn Fein could make cultural differences seem pointless would be to send out their young men and women with a glint in their eye, looking for Protestant partners. But then the politicians on both sides rely on conflict to maintain their support.
Has anyone asked how many in the Republic actually want to reunify with a reluctant north? They seem to have their own financial problems right now. Which is a shame as I always assumed that as more power went to the EU and, the border would become less important. I expect it would also be incorrect to say Catholic = automatic support for leaving Britain.
The best way Sinn Fein could make cultural differences seem pointless would be to send out their young men and women with a glint in their eye, looking for Protestant partners. But then the politicians on both sides rely on conflict to maintain their support.
Sinn Fein, are on their knees ever since Adams and McGuinness took oath to the Queen and became members of parliament
They are now classed as British Traitors..LOL
Just to show the mentality of some of the Nationalist community, Rory McIlroy who did Ulster proud in the recent Ryder cup has been slated for holding the defunct flag of Northern Ireland after his win.(the flag is linked to Loyalist terrorist, say the nationalist) yet the flag was carried proudly by Northern Irish athletes during the opening ceremony of the commonwealth games.
Rory is a Catholic from a middle class family that are Unionist. he stated that he owns a British passport and would represent the UK over Ireland.
This is going to be a long post, in short you are right on.
Here's the deal. One has to remember that in 1776 only a small segment of the population were Patriots with the majority of Americans being either fence sitters or Loyalists. Over the centuries we have basically been raised around an entire series of myths regarding the American Revolution such as the British were evil, King George III was a tyrant, and the majority of Americans wanted independence. Add in the significant Irish-American population and you can see why so many Americans are so vocal in favor of a "united Ireland", Scottish independence, Bermuda independence, etc even though these things are supported only by a tiny segment of the overall population. Recent polls indicate that only about a 25% of the population support independence in Bermuda, and only about 30% in Scotland. Too most of my fellow Americans it dosent matter, all that matters is that they are ruled by the supposedly tyrannical British. We are raised on the myths of 1776 and have a tendency to think everyone else in the world feels the same way.
Im an Irish-American Catholic and I fully support the will of the people - that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom. Ditto for Gibraltar and the Falklands. I only wish they let the people of Hong Kong have a say in regards to their future via a referendum, of course then Hong Kong would have most likely voted to remain British, and the Chinese would still be whining about some lease that was signed half a century before the Commies took power and became invalid when Sun Yat Sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911.
This Irish-American was unaware that any other Americans gave a damn about independence for Scotland let alone Bermuda!
And most don't give a crap about Ulster either. Except when our former Senators are asked to come in and settle it for them.
Recently I have been reading tons of books on Northern Ireland, basically all to do with "the troubles". Interesting reading, lots of viewpoints and partly the reason for the research is for some of the work I do with clients I have in regards to terrorism, IEDs, counter insurgency and operating by vehicles in those environments. Always interesting to learn from others.
In any case, I think what surprises me, is first the divide between Catholics and Protestants, considering both are "Christian". As a Christian myself, I just don't get the point of all these trivial differences or man made rules people come up with. I guess you could say I go with what the Bible says and not what other people make up along the way. So I understand some of the background of how all this came about but to me it ultimately makes no sense.
Another thing that is befuddling is how all the different groups violent or not, often fight turf wars over stupid stuff that happened decades or hundreds of years before. Time to move on folks.
The third thing that gets me is how many of these groups on both sides had support of local populations, yet these groups would plant bombs and even kill people on their own side.
Mostly the conclusion I came to is that the irish are like the palestinians and they've got the violins out about how poor and downtrodden they are to which of course they live off of welfare in many ways from the generosity of others.
So that's why if ever elected POTUS, one of the first things I aim to do is to nuke Ireland. One trident submarine should take care of it all in 30 minutes. No more whining, no more troubles, no more idiotic belfast murals, no more who shot john back in 1971?. No more saint patricks day either of which I think is one of the dumbest days around and a waste of space.
It will all be over quick and clean, all questions settled.
I grew up in a neighborhood (North Bronx/Yonkers/Mt.Vernon) where upon meeting someone for the first time, you would be asked where you parents or grandparents came from and what your religion is. Since most of the kids were of Irish and Italian descent, the only proper answer to the latter was Catholic, and not being Catholic, I got beat up over it (or at least had to run as if my life depended upon it) several times.
The funny thing was, it was the Italian kids who cared. Irish kids would ask and might call me a Prod but they were generally easy going about it despite the fact that the local Irish-American community was a bit over concerned, in my opinion, about the Troubles (The Bronx has a lot of murals, let me put it that way). This was back in the 80s for what it is worth.
The third thing that gets me is how many of these groups on both sides had support of local populations, yet these groups would plant bombs and even kill people on their own side.
.
The only people who planted a bomb and killed people from their own side was the IRA, Omagh bomb killed 21 people, most of them Catholics. also including, a women pregnant with twins and also it killed 9 innocent children.
yet these utter scum still have some support.
Loyalist terrorist have never planted a bomb to kill their own community.
Get your facts correct before you look for more reputation points..
oh, and nuke Ireland, you spout big words for a wee ..wanker.
Last edited by Portadown_Madman; 10-17-2010 at 03:32 PM..
The only people who planted a bomb and killed people from their own side was the IRA, Omagh bomb killed 21 people, most of them Catholics. also including, a women pregnant with twins and also it killed 9 innocent children.
yet these utter scum still have some support.
Loyalist terrorist have never planted a bomb to kill their own community.
Get your facts correct before you look for more reputation points..
oh, and nuke Ireland, you spout big words for a wee ..wanker.
Dunno, there are plenty of "loyalist" bombings in this list that killed civilians, unless you of course consider civilians enemy combatants?
Now I would definitely agree the PIRA is the worst of the bunch by far, but still bombing civilians is just that.
The nuke comment I was obviously being facetious, but it makes the point you might as well give everyone arms and let them duke it out and settle all their scores, so we can be done with it and move on.
I think the world is just tired of listening to the whole thing, time to let it go.
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and also it killed 9 innocent children.
