Stand-off in Portadown over Orange March.

True Aggie, and as I read on I find this fact

Just out of interest I looked up how long the service on the 1st July had been dedicated to the Fallen at the Battle of the Somme. The first service was held in 1917. The attendees at that service have therefore walked back via the Garvaghy Road, the main, and most convenient, road back to town from Drumcree for over 100 years. That road was a mixed road but, for safety reasons, the Protestants moved to areas which were predominantly Protestant when the Troubles broke out - as indeed did the Catholics. When the bullets and bombs started flying not unnaturally the attitudes on both sides hardened. Before the Troubles most people whatever their religious persuasion didn't bother too much about them. As often happens in these disputes it becomes a divide and rule seizure of power. That is true of most, if not all, countries. Perhaps we, as a species, are just not very good at accepting diversity

Devorgilla my mum's best friend was a Catholic. We didn't care about religion. Sadly she had to move when the troubles started. So sad how this country has changed.
The bombs and murders have hardened attitudes.
Politicians could help people move forward but they don't.
We need young forward looking people in power here.

It was strange they allowed the the Orange March, my grandson lives in NI there has been a lot of anti migrant violence that has inflamed local tension. Not directly involving loyalists but making tension worse and stirring up old prejudices.

I too am saddened by all this. I was always sceptical about “the peace”. The people of Northern Ireland, and Ireland in general, are warm and generous and deserve to be able to shed all this sectarian violence and get on with their lives, but it’s perpetuated by an older generation that can’t let go. This in turn appears still to colour the opinions of the younger generation, as was always the case. God help us all if the country was ever pitched back to the early seventies again.

Greyduster Extremists on bothh sides are essential criminal gangs that making too much money from their criminal enterpises to ever do anything to throw away old antagonisms.

Just what’s needed in the UK, the stoking of yet more division.
I despair of people sometimes.

MOnica I would like to think that it was just that, but it’s things like the recent case of a student transporting an explosive device across the border that brings out the sceptic in me. The Good Friday agreement and the “disarming” of the paramilitaries cast a rosy glow over the peace process. DH believed there were those who had cached their arms and were just waiting their time for the right trigger. I hope he was wrong.

nadateturbe, like you I grew up in a much more mixed society and my parents and grandparents never made any difference, believing in the 'live and let live' attitude. In our business, we employed people from 'both sides' as we fondly term it in NI, on equal terms.
When you think of political situations anywhere in the world those who want to keep power in their hands always try to keep the young on board by whatever means works. Sadly, it is usually by dividing them. Look at most demonstrations across the world where bitter divisions from the past still linger and you will see young on both sides. Meanwhile, we can but watch and wait.

Its still ongoing. Residents getting support from unionist neighbours. Sorry can't post much atm.

I admit I dont fully understand it,

but it seems to me it is too soon for the wounds to be able to heal. Trouble lies just under the surface.

A compromise would be best?

But I really don't think the marches should be allowed through the very key areas.

I agree the needful think is to get on and address those issues all care about, housing, care, education:

but why allow a deliberate attempt to stir up trouble ?

It can only increase divisions.