irishgirl:
I agree with you. A lot of it comes down to perception.
All it would take is for people to realise this and the whole problem would go away.
For one reason or another, the two communities hate each other. But as far as I can see, a protestant is exactly the same as a catholic - they are both bi-pedal, organic creatures. All the rest is just perception.
TwistofFate:
Whilst socio-economics may also be a factor, the catholic prohibition on abortion and contraception is definitely a major cause.
I know enough catholics who come from large families to indicate this. One of my friends comes from a family of nine children.
Whilst most catholics have no problem with contraception, I think the majority of practising catholics would be reluctant to sanction abortion. Of course, I’m not saying that catholics never have abortions. I’m just saying that, for them, its not purely a medical or financial decision like it may be for protestants.
A practising catholic would have to go against her religion in order to have an abortion. Many do it, but it’s a tougher decision for them than it would be for many protestant girls. I recognise, of course, that it’s not an easy decision for anyone.
GaryKumquat and ruadh:
I said earlier that we can all come up with shocking isolated cases where the RUC can be seen to be at fault. And the cases you cite are, indeed, shocking. But dwelling on them won’t make them stop happening.
I’m not saying we should forget them. I’m saying we need to address the problem that brings such cases about.
In this case, we need to reform the RUC and we are doing.
The case of Bernard Griffin was just three years ago, as you say, ruadh. But I bet that during the course of the last three years, there have been hundreds of incidents where the police have intervened to help catholics. It’s just that these occasions don’t make the headlines.
In fact, I would suggest that cases such as the ones you mention are the exception rather than the norm.
I know people who have been beaten up by the police in England and the English coppers don’t even have the excuse of sectarianism to justify it.
The police force is composed of young testosterone filled males who aren’t afraid of a fight. Thats the nature of the job. All over the world people get beaten up by the police, its not a uniquely Irish problem.
Thankfully it’s much rarer in England and Ireland than it is in most other places in the world.
Its completely wrong, of course, whenever it happens and the culprits need to be rooted out and punished.
Since the RUC seem to close ranks so effectively when it involves them, the only solution is to reform the RUC in a major way.
But even this won’t solve the troubles.
The only way to do this is for a radical change to take place in peoples perceptions.
Basically people need to realise that there is, in fact, no problem, as I said in my first post.
Except for problems people make for themselves.
For example, Protestant X goes out tonight and throws a brick through a catholics window - a problem has been created which wouldn’t have been created if Protestant X had just stayed in and watched TV that night.
I think a lot of the worlds problems could be solved if people just chose to do “nothing” rather than “something”.
People seem to have this insatiable desire to “do something” all the time.