Orange marches belfast

night all- I can’t find my glasses and have been relying on predictive text so apologies for any typos! - my head is now sore.

You were in Belfast! What did you expect? The peace walls are still up FFS. Most of Belfast has a high predominance of working class people who love either loyalism or Republicanism. I can assume you if you headed to west Belfast at Easter it is much of the same just a different flag.
And believe me- it isn’t going to change any time soon for a myriad of reasons I am too exhausted now to debate.

That’s an awful experience you had. You have been very unlucky in meeting lots of horrible people.

ive gotten a fair bit myself - Feinian scum, Taig, papist etc, was told in one workplace to change my name if I wanted to stay there - that was years ago mind you. It’s just wrong no matter what side it’s on. my Ballymena friends family often ask me how life is with the rebels! I don’t take offence to that as there is none meant.

I want better for my kids though - I want opportunities here and for NI to be attractive to outsiders who will invest and see us for the great people we are and no a few numb nuts in uniforms banging on about how great they are compare to the other side.

Yes, in my experience most absolutely would. They'd go to the wake too.

OP you do seem very (wilfully?) naive about NI for someone whose parents are from here.

NI has made massive strides since the GFA as a society - the NI my children are growing up in is very different to the one my DH grew up in. That change has been comprehensive and quick.

That progress is only achieved by a delicate balance, and will not be helped in the slightest by removing the main annual cultural celebration for one side, no matter how unpalatable it may seem to those of us who don't participate.

It will take generations to move past sectarianism in NI, if it ever happens. A society doesn't just pop out of a bloody civil war straight to peace and harmony. It takes hard work and nuance and a lot of compromise, and you don't seem to appreciate that.

NI is fucking fabulous, and should be a lot prouder of itself than it tends to be for all it has achieved in recent years.

Would they go to their Catholic neighbours funeral if they were friendly with them?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l6dTMndNGOY&pp=ygUZcmVwdWJsaWNhbiBtYXJjaCBiZWxmYXN0IA%3D%3D

Republicans have bands and marches too. Theirs just celebrate the IRA. Lovely wee event to pop along too 🙄

But OP, it's a society still moving out of a recent conflict, one that is very much in living memory and continues to have real lasting consequences for many people.

This isn't Disneyland, designed purely for the enjoyment of visitors. It's a deeply complex community and to expect it to be perfect is daft. Much in the same way if you rocked up in Kosovo or Syria, any sane person would still expect there to be some issues there.

A few of the posts above remind me of a Texan acquaintance who was posted to the Glasgow office of his company 80/90s. His colleagues tried various versions of "Which fit di ye kick wi?" before finally realising he genuinely didn't have a clue what they were on about and gave him a desk exactly in the middle of the office, between the two "tribes"

It would be easier if you just told me tbh! 😂😂

Summertime I disagree. They are supposed to be regulated but then you have bands marching past chapels playing the famine song etc. my understanding was bands doing this would be heavily sanctioned but it would appear not to be the case.

with regards to the OO being a religious organisation- I think that is true of some lodges but others not at all. It’s lovely that yourself and your family enjoy that aspect. My friends dad and brothers are the most kindly people and their lodge promotes respect and tolerance. They are a Ballymena lodge - couldn’t meet nicer people. When I met them her dad got my to repeat my VERY Irish name until he could pronounce it properly. 😂 they to me live their religion

That is good to hear. Makes it more concerning + bizarre though that DD’s school (also in Belfast, very well known + diverse) chose to exclude that topic

They have them on 12th July in NW ….Liverppol and Southport ive seen them over the years

RTT.

That's untrue. My son who is at school in Belfast is studying the troubles currently for one if his GCSE history topics. I took him to Ulster museum to see the display as recommended by his teacher

She didn’t say there wasn’t bigotry or racism. And when did she say she lived in uk or did I miss something?

And can I say - attacking the OP for stating what she thinks isn’t helpful. Visitors don’t know - it’s like arriving in a city in Europe for a break to visit family and watching people in a band marching around shouting racist remarks and hiding it under a banner of celebrating their culture. She said what she and her husband experienced. She’s allowed. No need to be horrible to her.

I agree with what she has said. She is uneducated in this aspect of NI because she isnt from here. Doesn’t mean she can’t voice her opinion.

This.

There are absolutely no issues with bigotry or racism in England.

A country that's also had the benefit of not being colonised by a then world power, semi "uncolonised" ....and left as one of the world's "deeply divided societies".

One of the worst atrocities associated with 12th July was the murder of Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn on 12th July 1998. They were 10, 9 and 7 years old when they were burnt to death when UVF members petrol bombed their home. The firebombing took place at the height of tensions over the Orange parade passing through a Catholic area of Portadown.

All the parades in NI today.

Hi all I’m just going to weigh in here. I’m from a very republican area in Belfast - I went to school in the falls road all my school career. I agree with the OP - visitors judge us on what they see. Also Dunmurry is mixed but there have been several attempts to paint kerbs in recent years . It’s a dominance thing so it’s just wrong to say that OPs family just live in areas where this is the norm. A friend of mines family is affiliated with the OO and I can tell you his family are lovely people. They will openly tell you there is an undercurrent in lots of Belfast lodges of absolute hatred for RC and people of colour, gay people etc.

ive lived through the troubles, had my house raided by police, been caught in bomb scares, rioting etc, as OP said we can’t afford to keep living in the past - we need to move on. I don’t think matches of any sort should be allowed- republican or loyalist. Time to start new traditions

Which idyllic place in the uk are you looking down upon us from op ?

he saw blatant sectarianism whilst out for a walk

"Where's your girlfriend from?" (To my polish catholic boyfriend of the time) ... "X place" (known to be mostly protestant) .. "Oh, she's a fucking Hun!".

Young man in town centre bar asks me repeated questions about my name and where I'm from originally, I answer, he points down at my head from above and shouts "She's a Hun, we've got a Hun here!". My Austrian companion, who invited me out for drinks in his group, is non plussed and I have to explain to her.

My Polish bf is friendly to one of the few protestants working in his workplace (because the guy is kind and friendly to him), his work colleague says "don't give the time of day to him, he's a prod, they're all black bastards, you can't trust them".

My uni friend's Mum, when I'm trying to be polite & interested about her talking about her pilgrimmage trip to a place I hadn't heard of, calls me a "Wee Prod".

My uncle, before his family moved out of an area that was originally mixed but is now 99.9% catholic, was trapped as a child under a trolley and pissed on by boys who decided they hated him because he was a "prod".

The entire side (of a river) of our hometown was emptied of protestants .... With only one tiny enclave left near the city centre, because protestants didn't feel safe living there any more.

As a female, I didnt even get the worse of it .... Because mostly they would never beat up women, but it used to be unsafe for Protestant men to socialise in large parts of my hometown.

I have no idea why you are surprised about any sectarianism in NI.

You just seem naive, at best. Like most people who aren't from here.

No, I do not support these marches but you are not simply giving your opinion. You are implying that you know better than people that actually live here, which you very obviously do not. All of your comments scream absolute ignorance and naivety and I suggest you go and actually educate yourself before coming out with more ludicrous statements.

I hope this is soon a thing of the past in NI.

I hope so too but I don't see it happening any time soon.

I've been away for over 40 years, I just hated living in a society like that.