Northern Ireland is in more danger since Brexit

Thanks nadateturbe, I've just looked up the Springfield Road, just ten minutes drive away from my daughter's house. Stay safe.

Thanks. She'll be fine Shandy as long as she stays away from where its happening. So frightening for people no matter where they live or what their political views.
And when you don't live here its difficult not to worry about family.
I was woken by loud helicopters in the early hours. A sure sign something is happening.
What a country!

I was 3 years old when the troubles started here, it was all I knew growing up. I actually found a bomb in a biscuit tin that had been planted in a shoe shop I managed while I was hoovering! Faulty wiring was all that saved us.
We all couldn't get over the change here after the GFA, such a great place to live, it's beautiful. These young people who are now destroying this place now don't probably know why they are even rioting. They are listening to adults who are so full of hatred for "the other side" they don't care that they are ruining it for the rest of us who just want to live our lives in peace. It's so sad to see your town on the news and what the rest of the world is thinking of us, it's embarrassing.
The fallout of the huge IRA funeral and Brexit have put us back years and honestly I don't know where this will end as our politicians are no longer listened to here.

Alioop : You have said the young people are listening to adults
who are full of hatred for the "other side" That is what it is all about and that is where the division lies. Those young people
probably don't know why they are even rioting but many of them will get indoctrinated into the calls from the past so the sooner some strong measures are laid in place the better.
The IRA had a huge hold over operations over there and that was probably why the breaking of the Covid rules went unchallenged.
I have not been over to Belfast for years and at the moment am unsure whether to call my cousins over there to ask how they are. They were born there and lived through the troubles although in all the time the troubles went on my cousins never spoke of it and just carried on living as like you say most of the people just want peace.
I do hope that life in Belfast and surrounding areas can get back to normal after the great improvement the place had after the GFA was brought in surely people do not want to revert to the past.

Gosh Alioop your story brought back memories of many times having to vacate the workplace for bomb scares and being very nervous going back in again when given the all clear. We used to walk on the outside of pavements too in case a bomb shattered windows of shops. And we never left our curtains open at night. Scary times, we do not want to go back. I still have nightmares.

It seems to me that there is something utterly immoral about adult extremists inciting their own children or their neighbours'' children to commit acts of mindless violence, especially when they do it in the name of religion, whether they are Islamists or so-called Christians,.

nadateturbe me too, very dark days. I can't believe we have gone backwards, very upsetting. As kids, a day out in Belfast was getting searched as you went into every shop, maybe queuing at a till only to be told "everybody out there's a bomb on the premises". Sad to say we got used to it, but now I've got used to peace and want it to continue.

We've got used to peace, but it's a very fragile peace.

My work friend in the 80's was from Finaghy, she said she'd love for me to go with her when she visited her parents - but I'd have to be prepared to have my handbag searched, and I wouldn't be able to speak if we went to the pub. Scared me off, especially when she told me a bullet went through their living room window and lodged in the wall above the sofa. Her late Dad was an Orange Man.

I live in NI and love it and just about everyone who lives here. I was a young woman during the troubles of 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. In the 70s as I headed home from work a Bomb exploded in a shop as I waited at the bus stop. Somehow I was unhurt but badly shocked. The buses went off, it’s was dark. Pre mobile phones. I walked home 5 miles in the rain, crying. Two family members were blown up in separate incidents over the following Yeats. Limbs were lost.

After the peace that we have become used to I feel such sorrow. My heart is breaking at what is happening.

I voted against Brexit as did most of NI. We were afraid that NI would not have been treated well. And indeed we have not been treated well.
A pp said that some elements seem to think we are British. But we are British.

My last paragraph.....
**think they are British. But in NI we are all British.

Please excuse my typos.

Why do some who live in Northern Ireland hate anything Irish? Can’t get my head around that one.

vegansrock

Why do some who live in Northern Ireland hate anything Irish? Can’t get my head around that one.

Can you explain - anything Irish?

Does anyone know when the schools go back after Easter?
perhaps that might keep some of the 13/14 year olds off the streets at night if they have school to get up for.

My family on my fathers side were from N. Ireland I know some residents in N. Ireland say they are British but I call my cousins over there Irish. Northern Ireland is part of Ireland
so the people must be Irish.

Horrible memories Coolgran and Shandy.
I too have those.
If you didn't live here and experience it you have no idea.

3nanny6 that thought occurred to me today - about children getting back to school. I'm sure it's a contributing factor.

Yes it may be horrible memories and saying if you didn't live here and experience it you have no idea.
The thing is we did not have to live in N. Ireland to experience it I was just a teenager when the troubles started and we had to have all the bombs that were planted over in the U.K. supposedly by the IRA and it was terrible and many people died and it was by a sheer miracle that the GFA
happened so nobody wants to go back to that time.

The mistrust between Irish and English has simmered away for hundreds of years so I suppose it will always be there below the surface and with some justification. The skill for the politicians is to keep it where it always has been. Underground and unobtrusive so most people can just get on with their lives untouched.

vegansrock

Why do some who live in Northern Ireland hate anything Irish? Can’t get my head around that one.

Purely power, the Unionists hold the power and influence and they don’t want to share it. The so called Orange culture celebrating a battle hundreds of years ago is just so ridiculous

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom that why some call themselves British. Some others say they are Irish as they are from the island of Ireland. We have a border as you know vegansrock, that's were the trouble over the Brexit deal came in, we are one island split up just like is England, Scotland and Wales.
There are many old battles celebrated all around the world, including Northern Ireland in July. We celebrate St.Patricks Day, the Easter Rising, etc and they are nothing to to with so called "Orange" culture Katie 59, we celebrate different things like everyone else, St.Georges Day, St.Davids Day, etc.
Most of us do "share" N.Ireland happily, but there is a small minority that don't and it's sad, these kids fighting are from both sides of the divide now, but probably don't have a clue about any of the past and what it was like actually grow up in the troubles. Most of their parents and grandparents do though and to encourage these children to riot is unforgivable. The Unionists have all the power Katie 59, I really don't think so. We have Unionist and Sinn Fein as our minister and deputy minister at the top of politics here one "Orange" and one "Green" and the only thing they have ever agreed a little on was our fight with Covid, well until the IRA funeral with hundreds at it which went against all Covid guidelines and our Deputy Minister actually attended. Anyone else who had a funeral for a loved one on the same day or any other day couldn't even have some close family members attending theirs. The outcome of that huge funeral was one of the powder kegs that helped to start these riots. As in a previous post I hate to think that funeral and Brexit will be the downfall of The GFA.
We have had enough grief with Covid for over a year now like everyone else and now for this to happen it's just not right on the people here wanting just to enjoy their lives and live in peace.

3nanny6 I disagree with you, you do have to live there to experience it, the mainland bombs were a tiny, tiny fraction of what happened. When I visited my DH’s family in Belfast for the first time in 1999 my eyes were opened very wide. Part of that was that nothing in the English press ever touched on the day to day life. I had no idea what to expect and was scared.

Good post Alioop with a lot of truth.

Most of us just want to live in peace with our friends and neighbours and don't care what religion they are.

I think totally integrated education would be a good step forward for our children's sake.

Jaxjacky Sorry but I disagree with you as well, the mainland bombs were tiny by no means I will not name the ones on the mainland as there were so many and the death and injury to human beings was atrocious. One awful one was the bombing along Hyde Park (I think it was there) with soldiers and horses blown to pieces those bombs containing shrapnel and everything it was horrendous.
You are talking about 1999 when the worst of the troubles was coming to an end, I was talking about when the troubles were happening starting from 1970s up until 2000.
There was coverage of N. Ireland nearly everyday in U.K.
tabloids and there would be because the British troops were in N. Ireland to do there part although I have little respect for them after the Bloody Sunday massacre.
I better not get started even on all this mainly because I am not N. Irish I was born in U.K. My father was from Belfast but lived here in U.K and himself and his brother came to U.K after WW2 and worked and travelled to Belfast often to see the rest of his family. I feel appalled sometimes about the whole Belfast and N. Ireland mix of troubles my father was the most humblest, quietest, nicest man you would ever find and all my friends loved his accent although growing up with hearing him I never even noticed it one of my friends said even sometimes I sounded a bit like my dad perhaps I picked the accent up from him.
Great post from you Alioop.

You could discuss who is to blame until the cows come home. Have had this for years. Stressful. No point. Signing out.