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Everyone is tired of it. What I find patronising is that people just think the situation grew up in a bubble while dismissing that Britain is the architect of what is happening in Northern Ireland. I do think the situation has improved greatly since the GFA but Britain supported the Protestant status quo in Northern Ireland for generations. People forget that Northern Ireland is a part of the UK.
The problem is that what happens in Northern Ireland will affect all of Ireland and not just Britain.
I personally think that English/British (excl. Northern Irish of course) people in general don't care enough about Northern Ireland and the majority of them would be happy to be rid of it.
I recently watched a documentary where a former IRA man said part of what he and other members woke up to was "that when Northern Ireland was dying of pneumonia in terms of bombs and violence, nobody cares. But when there is a sneeze on London, the whole world looks on".
It was clear by what he said that most people around the world don't know, care about, or understand what NI is all about.
But let Britain be in the news, everyone pay attention.
His reference was of course related to the bombing campaign the IRA engaged in on mainland Britain.
But now of course when Britain decided to leave the EU and had NI be the primary sticking point, many people now want to understand more about NI than they ever cared to before.
Many a Yank comes to me (knowing my interest in NI politics) asking how NI can be the deciding factor in how Britain is going to break with the EU, or if it will be scuttled as a result.
It also has more news sources (whether Roscoe deems them worthy or not) talking about a unified Ireland, that otherwise would never carry such a subject for lack of interest.
Yes factually IRA strength is down but it continues from the IRA to Provisional IRA to a couple of other competing IRA idiots! That corner would one can assume disappear in the unlikely matter of forcing Ulster into the Republic. My feeling however that long standing Unionists would not feel too confident and one must also remember the political attitude of the SF?IRA mentality is very leftist. One consolation is that lot will never be a government in Dublin as there are enough grey cells in the South to ensure that is a pipe dream. Just because the SF/IRA lot keep publicly yakking about how unity is round the corner is a load of cobblers. As much hope of that as me kissing the Pope's hand!!
I recently watched a documentary where a former IRA man said part of what he and other members woke up to was "that when Northern Ireland was dying of pneumonia in terms of bombs and violence, nobody cares. But when there is a sneeze on London, the whole world looks on".
It was clear by what he said that most people around the world don't know, care about, or understand what NI is all about.
But let Britain be in the news, everyone pay attention.
His reference was of course related to the bombing campaign the IRA engaged in on mainland Britain.
But now of course when Britain decided to leave the EU and had NI be the primary sticking point, many people now want to understand more about NI than they ever cared to before.
Many a Yank comes to me (knowing my interest in NI politics) asking how NI can be the deciding factor in how Britain is going to break with the EU, or if it will be scuttled as a result.
It also has more news sources (whether Roscoe deems them worthy or not) talking about a unified Ireland, that otherwise would never carry such a subject for lack of interest.
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Yes it's ironic. There is more on about Northern Ireland now than I can ever remember. Australia has very little news about Ireland either north or south (bar the gay marriage referendum and abortion) and you would think the only country to exist in Europe is England and I do mean England because you basically wouldn't know Scotland or Wales existed. In fact Wales is not on the radar at all. At least you do hear things about Ireland and Scotland infrequently.
With Brexit though there has been quite a bit in the press about Northern Ireland and there was a very good program on TV here a couple of week's ago about Northern Ireland and the consequences of Brexit. Quite an in depth program with interviews from both sides i.e. Catholics and Protestants so Brexit is giving Northern Ireland a bigger profile because of the border situation.
Without the direct assistance of British security forces, such a "resistance" will be laughable.
Yes agree. If the public voted for reunification and Britain was out it would be a futile resistance. People that didn't want reunification would have to either leave or accept the inevitable. Anyway reunification won't happen unless there is a significant majority. I think if there is a Custom's Union and no visible border no will want to change anything. DUP are crazy if they don't acknowledge what most Northern Irish want and that is no border. A hard border is going to push a lot of people to think about the economy and the future of Northern Ireland which is after all on the island of Ireland. Having a hard border on the island is going to alienate a lot of people on both sides of the border.
Anyone that doesn't acknowledge this is being blind to the situation.
Yes agree. If the public voted for reunification and Britain was out it would be a futile resistance. People that didn't want reunification would have to either leave or accept the inevitable. Anyway reunification won't happen unless there is a significant majority. I think if there is a Custom's Union and no visible border no will want to change anything. DUP are crazy if they don't acknowledge what most Northern Irish want and that is no border. A hard border is going to push a lot of people to think about the economy and the future of Northern Ireland which is after all on the island of Ireland. Having a hard border on the island is going to alienate a lot of people on both sides of the border.
Anyone that doesn't acknowledge this is being blind to the situation.
Two questions on this.
Why would there need to be a "significant majority" who voted for it, verses say a small majority to make it happen?
I do not recall any specific threshold other than a simple majority, thus a 50% + one vote would in theory be all that was needed. Granted that would likely trigger recounts looking for any invalid votes to upend either side that won by such a slim majority.
Second, the potential resistance of the Loyalists might be violent, but as I asked a few posts ago, I am having trouble envisioning who they would attack and with what reasoning?
Yes factually IRA strength is down but it continues from the IRA to Provisional IRA to a couple of other competing IRA idiots! That corner would one can assume disappear in the unlikely matter of forcing Ulster into the Republic. My feeling however that long standing Unionists would not feel too confident and one must also remember the political attitude of the SF?IRA mentality is very leftist. One consolation is that lot will never be a government in Dublin as there are enough grey cells in the South to ensure that is a pipe dream. Just because the SF/IRA lot keep publicly yakking about how unity is round the corner is a load of cobblers. As much hope of that as me kissing the Pope's hand!!
I guess much of your post revolves around who you presently consider the IRA as there are groups who use the moniker/acronym, but they are hardly the Provo's who retired.
Both Adams and McGuinness (when he was alive) condemned the actions of the dissident Republican groups, regardless of what they called themselves.
As to the leftist agenda of SF, assuming NI became part of the Ireland, their political influence would be massively diluted. Presently they are the #2 dog in NI and #1 with the Nationalist community(assuming Stormont ever gets up and running again).
However even with greater representation in the Dail their present platform does not seem to have great appeal in Ireland as a whole.
So I would assume Fianna Fail & Fine Gael would quickly move to consolidate power. Even though FG seems more aligned with SF with their liberal politics than FF, they loath them and refused a coalition with SF even to stay in power.
Obviously FF is 180 from SF in their political platform, other than a United Ireland of course.
The irony is that groups like the UUP or DUP might be able to form a coalition with FF for political power greater than SF in Ireland. That would be an interesting marriage of convenience.
Note a kind of understandable assessment there Vector1 however I would till be against unification of north and south.
And it goes back thousands of years. Seems even then they did not want unification.
Ulster,too, has its defensive wall. Described on maps as the Dane's Cast, it begins in the east near Scarva on the Down-Armagh border; the next, section known as the Dorsey, stands at Drummill Bridge in south Armagh;it continues into Monaghan near Muckno Lake, where it is known as either the Worm Ditch or the Black Pig's Dyke; and further short stretches extend though Cavan and Fermanagh to Donegal Bay.
A tradition survives that it was ploughed up by the tusks of an enchanted black boar; archaeologists, however, have proved this great linear earthwork to have been a series of massive defences, not continuous, but guarding the routeways into Ulster between the bogs, loughs and drumlins. The Dorsey - from doirse meaning doors or gates - is double-banked and double-ditched, being a full eight metres from the top of the largest rampart to the bottom of its parallel ditch. Here a bulldozer uncovered a palisade made of hewn oak posts driven into a shallow trench across a bog and reinforced with props and horizontal boards.
Michael G.L. Baillie, the paleoecologist from Queen'a University Belfast who pioneered the art of dating by matching oak tree growth rings, not only demonstrated that the timber for the palisade had been felled in 95 BC but also that the central post of a great ritual structure on Navan Fort had been cut down in the same year
And as I pointed out a wee while back the South detracted that thing in their Constitution claiming Ulster. Showed sense and increased intelligence but the SF/IRA mob are a bad lot.
My only disappointment with Ulster is that being a lifelong railway fan that it is the worst place in GB's four places for railway destruction. Once had 800 odd miles and now not much over 200 and one line suspended but kep although hoping to have it back!
ps. I have built the NIR in the computer world of rail sims including the Enterprise Express route to Dublin. If want to see it Ulsterman let me know (biggest rail sim done for island so far)!
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