Your poor girlfriend. Invest in some pet carriers, and bring all the animals and the little girl to your house next year.
No burnt out cars blocking the road? Consider yourself lucky.
It amazes me that more people don’t die from smoke inhalation…I mean they put tyres, old sofas and Og knows what on the bonfires. “Toxic” wouldn’t begin to describe the fumes that must come off those things.
Is displaying a Union Jack in a window (no matter how tiny) still necessary to avoid trouble in those estates?
I totally agree, being made a prisoner in your own home and blasted with “the Sash” at 3am by scary drunken people, and knowing there is absolutely NOTHING you can do about it is not a nice thing.
It’s not as if it’s just the 11th and 12th though. The bands start practising from mid May onwards. There’s nothing like a full brass band marching past your door at 10pm, blattering out “kick the pope” music to make you feel proud.
Better yet, my girlfriend (or Lady Friend, a Big Lebowski reference she doesn’t like to be referred by) has applied for a move to a quieter part of the estate or a completely different estate if possible.
My sister’s boyfriend works with the council’s refuse collection department. He gets a lot of calls from people complaining about bonfires near their house that are basically ignored. Neither the police or the council will take them down, probably to avoid any flare ups of violence which is understandable in a way.
Lady Friend has an end house on a terrace, usually a prime spot for a mural. But she just politely asked some youths who wanted to use the end of the house not to paint it and they obliged, which seemed strange but fortunate to me. It would be a shame if they did that to her house, completely devoid of anything sectarian and with a style of her own that I love.
So no trouble despite her refusal to fly flags or put pictures of Queen Elizabeth II in her window.
I remember on the way over to Lady Friend’s a few days before the 12th there was a minor march through the south of the city. Despite the fact that they were marching from one Loyalist area to another through an area of shops, someone still found time to declare that they wanted “NO POPE!” :rolleyes:
Do you know that mural of Bobby Sands on the Lower Ormeau has been replaced by one that says something like:
“How can (something something…I forget this bit, I’m not good at physics) explain the origin of the Universe?”
It’s one of the ones visible from the Ormeau Embankment. It’s a bit metaphysical for my taste, but it’s showing some progress.
I sometimes cycle down alongside the Lagan towards Maysfield and noticed it a few times but I didn’t realise it replaced Bobby Sands!
There are some odd little paintings on the support columns for the M3 overpass on the way into Belfast on the M2. No idea where they came from or what they’re supposed to represent, but one looks like silhouettes of cattle from above
I was surprised to discover to what extent the sectarianism exists in Scotland - my girlfriend lives near Glasgow, and while I knew about the Rangers / Celtic divide, and even a bit about the religious differences between the two sides, I was taken aback by the news that they have Orange marches there.
To the best of my knowledge, there’s no organisations such as the IRA and UDA there, but the violence and hatred between the people on each side is unbelievable (well, to an outsider). Wearing the wrong colour in the wrong part of town can get you killed - particularly after a football match.
For the recent marches, my girlfriend tells me that the kerbstones along the highstreet of her town were painted individually red, white, blue, red, white, blue for about a mile. There’s no burned out cars, to the best of my knowledge, but I get the impression most of the scottish marches go through Loyalist areas anyway.
I struggle to think of anything I deplore, despise and disapprove of more than sectarianism (over any divide).
We’re an artistic bunch in norn irn, not just murals, but kerbstones, lamp-posts and pretty much any piece of pavement furniture will get painted in certain areas. At least it lets you know what answers to give when anyone asks you certain questions on that road!
Can I also re-iterate, that while there are some elements in Northern Ireland that are pretty awful, most people are not the raging bigots you would imagine,and it’s actually a nice place both to visit and to live!
My SIL and her hubby live out in the country and there are some really awful, tattered looking Union Flags that fly at the end of their lane. Every year two 90something year old farmers climb a rickety ladder to put them up. This leaves SIL and her husband in a dilemma. Should they offer to help the old boys, to stop one of them getting killed, even though they don’t agree with the flags? So far they’ve just offered them a cup of tea and a sit down to recover afterwards, rather than any help with the flags.
I don’t know how to react to that. Do I say, “Aw, that’s sweet of them,” or do I shudder at everything people have been saying here and offer to help you all find jobs and places to live in the States? Not even our most crime-riddled ghettos are so nasty that the gangs can organize violent parades.
They have them in Canada too. There are pictures online somewhere of Orange marchers in Canada wearing feather head pieces instead of the traditionally Northern Irish bowler hats
dropzone-irishfella and I are moving back to Belfast when I graduate.
Although I like Dublin, it’s just too big and too busy. I miss my home, my family and my friends.
It’s not perfect, but it is actually an alright place to live. Good schools, lots of nice countryside, friendly people, a real sense of community, affordable housing, lots of positive stuff.
Also, if you’ve grown up there, some of the stranger, scarier stuff is just SOP, and the total oddness of it doesn’t strike you as much as it would someone who was just visiting.
If you have a bit of money and can choose where you live, it’s no worse than any other part of the world. Unfortunately I know Pushkin’s girlfriend doesn’t have that luxury.
I’ll still be taking my annual hoilday over the twelfth though.
(sigh) The world is blessed having people who are willing, through their works or even just their good example, to make their little corner of it an island of calm and sanity rather than running to the easiest refuge. I wish all of you Northerners the best of luck.
Me, I’d be out of there in a heartbeat. ( of nervous support while I add Pushkin, Lady Friend, and the irishes to my prayer list)
(thinking a bit) Then again, I know better than to wear orange in Chicago on St Patrick’s Day. Not that I’m likely to get “crucified” :eek: but some things are just dumb. I guess we all make accomodations to the insanity of others.
The Orange Order has actually been fairly influential in Canada, and has claimed as members three Prime Ministers, as well as the man who wrote the first Canadian national anthem.
Well Dublin is a significantly bigger city than Belfast so it is more likely that harder drugs would take hold there (it’s also a larger port and significantly wealthier). The terrorists also kepts heroin out because it suited their political agenda. The IRA have made massive inroads into the Dublin crime scene to the extent where they currently act as a mafia/overlord type of organization. The recent bankraid (38 million or so) in the North was seen as a retirement fund for older IRA members.
Sadly, the IRA et al have always been involved with criminal activities they just used the terrorist offenses to mask it.
I am, however, grateful that the current terrorists who bombed London are no where near as sophisticated in bomb making as the IRA are.
The south of the city around the university (where I live) is relatively free of sectarianism. You just have to put up with the students every thursday night staging their own mini twelfths. But at least you know if they vomit over your doorstep, it wasn’t because of your race, creed or colour but because they’re away from home for the first time and have found the joys of Buckfast tonic wine
Lochdale-the Dublin heroin boom started in the 80s, well before the Celtic Tiger. The two cities are only 2 hours drive from each other, so it wasn’t just economics or distance that kept the heroin out.
Pushkin- I don’t envy you, especially if you live in the Holy Land or off the Lisburn Road. Buckfast is about the only alcoholic beverage I won’t touch…those poor monks didn’t have a clue what they were unleashing!
there’s a hell of a lot of assumptions concerning the bank raid in this thread, but not alot of fact.
I’d certainly suspect a republican involvement, but not necessarily the most obvious choices. Especially since there was alleged links to “the striker” and apparently some of the money turned up in Croatia.
It all happened at a very oppertune time for alot of people. the “castlereagh break in” had been quietly swept under the carpet, the Stormont spyring evidence (one CD-rom, BTW) returned to it’s owner and all charges dropped. there wasn’t much to keep the anti-agreement parties in bunting and outrage.
and up pops a £20 million bank raid.
the notes discovered in Cork have been taken away for “forensic testing” many months ago. the one guy w2ho was caught with sterling hidden in the Daz boxes (he should have used Surf, if the laundry failed Lever Bros. would give him his money back) was charged with membership of the RIRA.
so far, the only evidence to link the bank roberry to the IRA is Hugh Orde and Michael McDowell. Aye, right.
I’m well aware of that but Dublin was more prosperous than Belfast even in the 80’s (absent the security force money). Also, Dublin is a larger city with bigger city problems. The provisionals kept heroin out because it suited their political ends at the time. Even now, direct dealing in hard drugs is frowned upon by the terrorists.
But do they actually, still, believe that their criminal activities will somehow advance the political goal of uniting NI with the ROI (or, alternatively, of keeping NI within the UK forever)?
A life of luxury, to fund any political campaigns, increasing the powerbase, bribery, handouts to supporters, the usual things people with an agenda want money for.
of nervous support while I add Pushkin, Lady Friend, and the irishes to my prayer list)