Ballymena

My username is probably a bit misleading, I was living there when I set up this account, but am English and we live in England, although my husband is from ROI. But yes Bushmills does feel quite old fashioned, and not in a cute oldy worldy way.

We have friends who moved back after living in UK for decades, and they say 'it's like we never left'. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your perspective I guess.

They love a good riot in NI. Doesn't matter whether it's about race or religion. Summer doesn't just bring marching season in NI, it also brings fire bombing season.

Has any women ever felt safer and magically immune to rape because idiotic mobs chose violence?

Yep - heard from several people that both sides of the community are in attendance at these (especially the protests before the violence begins)

Sad that hate brings people together. You would think the people here would recognise what its like to be victimized due to your religion/race/nationality etc and be able to sympathise

Really? I stand corrected. So we finally have a cause uniting loyalist and republican thugs. It's just unfortunate that it's racism.

Yes, there were deaths in Ballymena attributed to republicans.

According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheTroublesinBallymena there were 11 murders in and around Ballymena during the troubles. Of those, 8 were committed by loyalists, 3 by republicans.

Edited to remove my assumption that it was only local scum rioting in Ballymena.

Another thread was removed for some reason.

There weren’t any deleted posts afaik. Anyway better to discuss what’s going on rather than remove it all.

There is bad on both sides in NI, you are correct on that one.

The violence is coming from both sides in this instance. People are travelling from all over to these areas to riot.

Ironically, violence brings both sides together, whilst also tearing them apart. Go figure.

You are right of course - I wanted to edit to say “Nationalism or Unionism”. I am pretty sure that deaths in Ballymena were attributed to both sides.

But the point stands: eejits disguising their love of violence as justified in the name of a supposed higher cause.

I think you mean Unionism or Loyalism rather than Republicanism or Nationalism, given the make up of Ballymena.

And yes, the vigilantes will be drawn from the same demographic.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I am not suggesting republicans/nationalists were not involved in sectarian murders and would not be involved in racist unrest.

This. It is becoming more common and will continue to do so. I can’t see a time in the very near future that a riot kicks off every time a non- white/national is accused of a serious crime.

I do think uncontrolled migration has fuelled this. The “general public” don’t always fully understand the nuances of such situations and many will react with violence sadly.

This is nothing new for Ballymena; I'm old enough to remember what happened at Harryville.

NI is not a good place for non white people to settle. I’ll leave it at that.

We all know the type.

Driving near the "protests", the average age in the crowds was 15-16 years of age. All dressed in pjs or tracksuits with a can of Stella in their hand, treating it like a social night out with their friends.

Older adults bringing their kids along for the festivities! 🫣

Even if I wanted to "protest", I am far too busy working until 6pm and getting my child ready for bed to partake in any of that.

Maybe if they had jobs or took parenting seriously, they wouldnt be making fools of themselves

@ellie09me too, and I totally agree with you. There was a “peace protest” in the town nearest to my home - Carrickfergus - last night. Grim. Always the same ones - tracksuit wearers who only take from the Government, not contribute.

I live half an hour from Ballymena, but it’s where my office is.

The entire place is a shambles. It’s a pity because it should be a beautiful part of the world.

I live in NI, about 20 mins outside of Belfast and 30 mins from Ballymena, and I can tell you now that most locals are appalled by the violence.

It is misdirected anger. They are angry at the government, but instead of articulating themselves correctly or protesting at Stormont, they ruin their own towns and target innocent people to get a reaction.

Most of the rioters are teenagers or very young adults. They know nothing about the world and aren't interested in educating themselves further because their parents encourage it also.

I also dont agree with the level of immigration. I also think if any immigrant or asylum seeker etc commits a crime, they should be deported back to their home countries.

Thats not to say I am also ignoring the fact that local men commit more of these crimes.

However, local men are our problem, as they are British Citizens. Therefore, I was no issues with tax money spent on trials, court etc to get justice. However, when we are paying costs to convict immigrants instead of just deporting them back and getting their home country to foot the bill, thats where I have the problem.

This should apply to British Citizens who immigrants abroad to other countries also.

The police have next to no power to control these either. I was blocked from driving down my road last night by local people dressed in bavaclavas whilst the police sat in their car at the corner drinking a Tim Hortons coffee.

@Bushmillsbabe I’m originally from Bushmills and it’s definitely not forward thinking. I agree that outside of the big cities/towns NI is still very old-fashioned in their thinking.

Small villages in Ireland are no more "old-fashioned" than small villages in the UK.

Quite a lot of Ireland is, outside the big towns and cities. My husbands family come from a small village in ROI and going there feels like stepping back in time. My daughter said to my MIL, 'Grandma why is Ireland so old fashioned' , that was not taken well! And my Irish in laws moan about immigrants all the time, whilst living in England 😂

There are serious racist attacks in NI regularly, it's not a good place if you're not white. And there's a very deep-run contingent of apologists/deniers who will swear blind none of it is happening when it's been there for a very long time. My midwife tried to tell me I wasn't racially attacked at one point when I told her about an incident. She said "we don't have anything like that here."
Yes, Maeve, you do.
Until people actually accept that this shit is still going down nothing will change.

The community is selective in who they protest against. No rioting against Davy Tweed, William Wilkinson, Brian Duffin, all who were elected councillors in Ballymena. Wonder why 🤔. BTW William Wilkinson is very active in the local community, helping victims, supporting voluntary groups etc. They know of his crimes 🤮

I'm not defending their actions. I also think it's still a pretty horrific crime for two 14 year olds to be committing and there are bound to have been signs ahead of this that should have been intervened on. I think it's very easy and comfortable for us to simply label people evil when they do something like this but that's because it takes away any accountability from the community around them that didn't intervene or react to warning signs or pass on concerns. Ultimately responsibility lies with the boys in question, but where were their parents/guardians/support services/schools etc.

Summer in NI is rioting season. Doesn’t always get much coverage but it happens. Ime NI really is incredibly backwards once you get away from the obvious tourist areas.