To not get the hysteria over the DUP?

[dingit]

Cropping up on Facebook statuses today, photos with rainbows to stand against them.
I admit until last week I knew nothing about them. A quick look at their website does not show them to be homophobic, racist etc. And surely Teresa May has bigger worries than LGBT rights? They have 10 seats!
I'm not posting to be goady, I genuinely don't get it?

Radishal I begrudgingly give it to them (please don't say this in a Norn Iron accent, ]

I also don't think you can say Sinn Feinn have tried to move forward when instead of Martin McGuiness bowing out gracefully he decided to pull the pin on the entire assembly as his final act of politics.

@Syc4moreTrees I'm so sorry for your loss.

The USA got involved re NORAID.

NORAID were to fund raise for weapons, they had nothing to do with the peace process.

I don't vote for the SDLP and haven't for some years - I don't vote for them because of their stance on abortion. They would give the DUP a run for their money on their desire to limit women's rights. No one in my family votes for the SDLP anymore and we were brought up in a very SDLP proud household,my dad had something in his eye cried when Seamus Mallon won his seat in 1986 from Jim Nicholson. All our votes went to Sinn Fein, the odd one to Alliance and People Before Profit. I've daughters, nieces, sisters - the right to an abortion is the main issue when I decide who to vote for.

@Syc4moreTrees I don't think McGuiness was wrong to act in protest against the RHI scandal though, and I do think Foster should resign. But I do see your point. I think it's unlikely that Sinn Fein and the DUP can work together productively in their current form and both are equally responsible.

How could McGuiness have continued to power share with a woman who'd overseen the whole of the U.K. defrauded of £450m?

It's occurred to me that the GFA is 20 years old now but, it seems to me that understanding of NI politics, outside of NI, is stuck in a time warp.

And NORAID was funding from the USA, and that's why they got involved in the peace process.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAID

How could McGuiness have continued to power share with a woman who'd overseen the whole of the U.K. defrauded of £450m?

He didn't. He resigned. A few months later he died. He made peace with Ian Paisley Sr. So much so they were nicknamed the Chuckle Brothers.

implants That's why I decided on Alliance in the end. Even way back, I understood.

I got that Elendon, my question was rhetorical.

I'm off now, but I will say this. I believe the DUP like to have total dominance over the proceedings. It's almost in their DNA (albeit a 4000 year old DNA).

And NORAID was funding from the USA, and that's why they got involved in the peace proces

No. Noraid were, obviously American based but the reasons for the Clinton administration getting involved in the peace process were many and varied and not in the least related to NORAID.

Ok Silently

LGBTQ rights are human rights. Women's rights are human rights.

I believe AF should have stepped aside whilst RHI was investigated, I don't believe this had anything to do with MMcG resignation.

I also think the fact that she was able to work with a former IRA commander said a lot about her, the problem we have is that ego seems to play too great a role. I am increasingly clinical on the matter and don't honestly see that either DUP or SF are interested in working together, merely in playing titt for tatt and looking for the next opportunity to screw each other over.

I actually think Mike Nesbitt (UUP) as much as I find him a little irritating, took the last genuine stab at a collaborative process, only to be royally shafted by the SDLP. Middle ground politics has been killed by ambition in NI. If people want to keep the union they are instructed that there is only one way to do that.

Do any of you even know what happened 44 years ago today?

The forgotten murder of the innocents.

That happens to be an Ira killing but there were plenty on both sides.

Population wise we had the equivalent of a Manchester bombing every other day for 30 years

It's about time you woke up to what happened here for so long

I'm a catholic and my first ever vote at 18 was for the SDLP. I now wouldn't vote for them because of their stance on women's rights and marriage equality. I have voted alliance in the past and I now vote for Sinn Fein. They are the most progressive out of he main political parties, I do think they appear to have moved past sectarianism and I largely agree with their policies. However, I would say that a large proportion of northern Irish voters never look at policies, but only at the orange/green divide. My husband for example votes UUP, not because of any particular policies, simply because he's a unionist and he thinks they don't hate Catholics/gays etc as much as the DUP.

It was on my facebook feed sunny.
I can't believe that some people are so accepting of this situation.
I agree that this could cause instability and jeopardize GFA. I would be concerned whether it was Labour or Conservative getting into bed with a any of the NI parties.
Scary times.

Fab on mine too.

Im stunned that people have ignored what happened in their own country.

Imagine if I took that attitude over Manchester or London. id have no heart or empathy if I went oh well I didn't take it under my notice.

There's a pic on Facebook It is a fireman putting a body to a body bag. It's awful. And it's a bomb blast victim from Northern Ireland.

It makes me cry.

I am very worried about the Tory arrangement with the DUP making the political situation in NI worse. I am also very uneasy with the prospect of a party still mired in sectarianism, hard-line to the point of bigotry on women's reproductive rights, LGBT rights and more attaining greater legitimacy through entering into the arrangement. Tosay nothing of the corruption scandals that have plagued the party in recent years, without much in the way of consequences.

Extremely poor use of word "hysteria* op.
Do you have any idea where it comes from.
It was used to describe a nervous illness associated with women. Plato believed the uterus was like an animal moving around inside a woman's body causing all kinds of problems.
Anyway my thoughts are the victims of the troubles who died 44 Years ago today.
But upsetting the status quo in NI is fine though. As long as we have a Government.

In terms of today's anniversary, I really look forward to the day when we can remember all of the innocent (and not so innocent) lives lost on both sides without anyone trying to make political capital out them.

When we can recognition them for the personal tragedies they are and the historical lessons they should be, without anyone, on either side, holding them up as a reminder of why we need to hate and can never, ever trust those who's ancestors worshiped a God hardly any of us still believe in, in a different way to ourselves.