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NI(northern Ireland) troubles again??


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i am writing once again, this time to steve, i hope that it does not escalate to the hardship and heights of the past troubles in northern ireland, but i do honestly believe that the troubles starting again is inevitable.

 

OmaLurch17

 

That will only happen if the people of NI let it and dont shop these terrorists. as for your statement "if it was upto me, i wouldn't have the terrorism and acts of war" since when is terrorism War??

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Many a true word Kyje; and in 20 years a plebicite to re-unite with Eire would be a feasable reality; not that it really matters anymore in the context of real power being held by Brussels in any case! :shock: That's why the Nationalist nonesence of a "united" Ireland is now meaningless, unless, they plan to withdraw from the EU at the same time! :wink: Meanwhile, what is our Government doing to "breed out" sectarianism - nothing, rather than making ALL schools secular and of mixed faith, where each can learn that the other is human too, and much more interested in their economic wellbeing than the religious bigotry of the past - we've got a Government that wants to build more "faith" schools over here, ensuring that we'll have religious divides in the future. :twisted:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Arrogantly elbows everyone else out of the way and smugly proclaims himself the real expert, sorry, just an quiet bloke who like everyone else has his little bit to say.

 

:wink:

 

 

OK. The dissidents have been getting stronger and winning over many disilluisoned Provos who never wanted change. But, significantly, the guys arrested are teens who don't know the consequences of such violence and therefore do not know what the price is for doing such activity.

 

(Loyalist backlash being an example.)

 

And yet the killings, in spite of my awareness of things brewing under the surface, came as a surprise, not least due to the fact that I've had my head down thinking about anything BUT the Irish Problem. (Yawn, been there, done that.)

 

I'm too busy debating theology on other sites, developing my fourth Doctor Who/Smallville crossover (called Insect Wars), despairing of my poor quality fundraising for the charitable work I hope to do in London (an increasingly forlorn hope), researching this and that, trying to learn languages, and dealing with the difficulties of being out of work again. (Job interview tomorrow though!)

 

My analysis? The Troubles ARE over, but the Irish Problem remains. The 1914 Conundrum has been long solved, the whole problem of reconciling NI being in the UK with an institutionalised Irish Dimension, Decommissioning, no red herring, finally, sort of solved, though I would have preferred the weapons to have been junked. not sealed. The main sticking point now is policing. It's the whole business of Sinn Fein's influence on the Policing Board. One, the Shinners' approving of a civil authority like the PSNI instead of the PIRA. The other, the DUP wanting to armtwist Sinn Fein into fully approving of the PSNI and not manipulating them, as well as wanting to keep ex-terrorists and current ones off the Board- but a new Republican generation. (Ie continue to elbow Sinn Fein into becoming the new SDLP.)

 

I see Obbs is still banging the tired drum about faith schools. Integrated schooling is getting more prominent, and I was always more in favour it this anyway. (The community geography in Belfast makes this awkward, though.) Only Catholics really go to faith schools. Prods do not, but to state schools. (Plus, Obbs, and I know you never get this, but there is a perception that the Loyalists are more 'sectarian' than the Republicans, who are more 'nationalistic', but the Loyalists come from State schools and the Republicans from faith schools. Personally, though, I think this the Prods are more sectarian claim is a myth.)

 

Now observe this of our young friend from Northern Ireland. Are his views religiously motivated, ie by actual religious dogma? Nope. His dogma is nationalistic, he wants a United Ireland, and a specifically non-sectarian one, though he says he does not want a forced one, yet says if the Troubles are fully back he will support them. Also note he regards Adams and McGuinness as 'traitors', showing some degree of hardline thinking insofar as he seems to want unification speedily, whereas gradually Adams and McGuinness pragmatically switched to United Ireland by Evolution (politically, not biologically, don't get excited Obbs! :P ), not Revolution.

 

Will the Catholics outnumber the Protestants? Perhaps, very likely, and yet some studies suggest they will fall just short. And it;s acknowledged that a mere 51% of Catholics will make a changeover still very difficult! (My suggestion is in such a scenario that joint rule is still not the best way as someone has to have a final say, I go for a temporary supervised independence within a UK and Irish Republic federally tied. If we can create a United

Northern Ireland first, then a United Ireland as an all-Ireland Republic could work. However, there are problems. Economically the Republic and dee North are two completely different economic units. Adding NI would drag it down. Also, can an all-Ireland resist power-hungry terrorists?

 

That's why this generation is the best opportunity to unite the people in their minds and day to day living.

 

The biggest priority is that the people of Ireland and Britain be united in their purpose for peace and partnership. In that way if the time for an all-Ireland Republic does finally come, it will work rather than be a complete waste of time, money and blood.

 

(Which is why the English dream of instant British withdrawal could never work either. The time when there was any real danger of British withdrawal, foolishly threatening to let these islands fall into a whirlpool from which it could never get out, was in the 1974 period, a time long gone.)

 

I see the dissident murders as being in the context of similar events in the years between the end of the First Troubles in 1922 and the beginning of the Second Troubles in 1968, such as the 1932 and 1935 riots, the IRA' mainland bombing campaign of 1939-40, the IRA's Second World War campaign, and the IRA's Border Campaign of 1956-62.

 

But be warned, and I am so very sorry, but it is known that the Real IRA have a big bomb prepared somewhere in England. We don't know where, and the race is on to find out in time.

 

Nothing else to say, except get my head down now and get on with my self-imposed schedule.

 

PS I forgot to mention that the Loyalists have made a response- apparently moves are being made by them to finally decommission their weapons. They seem to have finally learned that this is precisely what the Real IRA (who murdered the soldiers) and the Continuity IRA (who murdered the cop)- they want the Loyalists to retaliate.

 

PPS Take note that I do expect a possible future Third Troubles, but not until I am old, though if the way things are going are followed through, they can be prevented (the Second Troubles occurred due to Northern Catholics being left out of the loop in the 1920-22 negotiations; something which simply cannot happen anymore). 2016 will be a key year when we can finally say the Second Troubles truly ended. (We love our anniversaries over here- 1916 is resonant with Republicans for the Easter Rising and with Loyalists for the Battle of the Somme. It's no coincidence that the 50th anniversary of these events was used by the older terrorists to lure the youngsters who knew not the 1920s violence into making moves that led to the Second Troubles. 1966 was definitely not a good year for that.) Funny thing is, there is a roughly 40 year gap between each period of major trouble. 1798- 1840s- 1886 riots (though there were bad ones in 1872)- 1914-22 crisis- 1968-1998. That is NOT a coincidence. The in-between generations know the trouble is not worth it, but the following generation knows nothing of the consequences, while the old reactionary bigoted farts from two generations earlier twist the minds of the generation below the one below them in turn. Right, that's me DEFINITELY finished! NOT ANOTHER WORD!

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Hi G-man, I went to your blog for a look before posting here. My cousin went to Presbyterian Seminary in Monmouth, Illinois and while he was a young minister (now nearing 80) a rich man in Chicago wanted to construct a monument to himself (not how it was described but what I deduced) and enlisted my cousin's help. Later, my cousin expressed tremendous anger at himself for being gullible and thinking a well known Christian would go back on his word.

 

You won't understand this joke since you are still single, but we have a saying: since the dawn of mankind there has only been one perfect man on this earth, and that was your wife's previous husband. Sorry, whenever I think about perfect men or even Christian men I can't get those words out of my mind. I've had 3 wives, a Shinto, a Buddhist, and a Roman Catholic.

 

In my Sunday School days there was a verse that says 'you cannot serve both God and Mannon.' I suspect there are more worshipers of Mannon than there are of God in today's earth, despite the self labels we use re: religion.

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