AIBU - England couldn’t care less about Northern Ireland

[ThisThatTheOther]

Northern Ireland has seen a return to violence , petrol bombs etc every night for a week now. It’s dominated the headlines here in Ireland. People are worried as peace up north is so fragile. Listening to the radio yesterday an old advisor of Tony Blair was on to discuss. The radio host read out the top 8 listed stories on all main English sites and the violence of Northern Ireland didn’t even feature. It’s the top headline again in all major Irish publications this morning but not in English publications.

Just normal thuggery?

For fuck sake. These are people. I might disagree with their methods but it's high time The UK government done their bloody job. As pp say most people in NI are probably just going about their day but imagine that was your son and someone used a bloody water cannon on him? You can't physically stop him from going. You might even believe in the cause yourself.

This is so complex but this is our country and the breaking news is about bloody holidays it's disgusting.

@DdraigGoch

These are kids who weren't even born in 1998. In fact their parents were probably still at school. I highly doubt that your average 15 year old has any interest at all in Customs forms and trade barriers. This therefore sounds more like ordinary thuggery than anything else.

Of course they aren’t interested in customs forms and trade barriers! They are literally destroying their own communities because they feel they to don’t even have a future to care about as their communities are so deprived and neglected. They are being used by paramilitary groups and organised crime to exasperate these issues. And if you even paid attention Brexit is only a small part of these riots.

YANBU

There were a number of polls in recent years showing that English Tories were willing to have NI leave the Union in order to get their Brexit. They genuinely do not care.

YANBU. At least 52% did not care when it came to the Brexit vote in 2016.

Although the main terrorist groups ended what they termed 'military operations' in 1998, there have always been dissenters, and also some former terrorists or their sympathisers have turned to drug dealing and other organised crime.

@ThisThatTheOther

Thanks all for your responses. Sorry I worded my OP badly, I meant more the English machinery of government / media. There is no appetite to care or discuss what’s happening. There is no working government in northern Ireland at the moment. Westminster should be all over this trying to diffuse tensions. It’s not even the same as if there were riots in Bristol etc it’s far worse. Northern Ireland was a war zone within people’s lifetimes. There are serious divisions simmering underneath the surface and Brexit has brought them back to the fore. This should be the number one thing Westminster is concerned about. Things need to be stopped before they escalate further. The point the radio host made yesterday astounded me that it hadn’t even made the top 8 stories in all major publications.

Stop singling out the ‘English’. I’m English catholic and the one place i have encountered prejudice is among Scottish Protestants.

I think it’s possibly are generational thing. My husband and I (62 and 56, in England) are increasingly worried. Have been since the border checks issue several weeks ago.

Gosh I had no idea- I can't believe this isn't making headlines over here (England). I'm so sorry OP- for both what is happening in NI and also for the fact the English press are making no attempt to cover what is happening.

It seems this may be more an age thing. Those of us over 40 can remember the Troubles all too well, when we were reading very sad news from NI on a daily basis. (I remember also bombing campaigns in England during that time, when I was working in a department store in Oxford Street, being trained in checking for bombs on the shop floor every time it received a bomb warning and the West End being empty of shoppers, like a ghost town. Also, all the more serious bombings in England, such as Warrington).
It was obvious, once the EU demanded a border on Brexit that it would cause a problem. I am appalled that, in reality, it has been put between NI and the rest of UK. I am for Brexit and think if EU wanted a hard border, it was up to them to make it on the edge of the EU, ie between NI and ROI (a very porous border it would have been too, as impossible terrain). We didn't want one and should not have gone along with this. Most of all, I feel UK Government is hugely letting the people of NI down by following the ridiculous rules demanded by EU in the agreement when they are so clearly punitive to NI and unworkable. It was obviously going to ferment unrest.

I think every person in England (and the UK generally) cares very much indeed about the situation in Northern Ireland.

I could not disagree with this more!
I don't know how I'm still shocked at how little people in England actually know about NI, I think most adults actually don't even understand that it is part of the UK and I wish I was exaggerating.
After the Theresa May election I woke up to so many texts from English friends asking 'who are the DUP?'

I agree, but it's like all new, unless it starts to affect the masses its under reported

I am a daily listener to Radio 4, LBC and world service if awake at night. Ihave heard about the current problems in NI (rioting and import issues) since their onset. Lots of people nowadays don't seem to follow current events except on social meedya so seem to be less aware of what is going on and implications of events.

It was just discussed on This Morning that there was a lack of reporting on this, YANBU

NI was moving forward. Most moderate people refer to themselves as northern irish - it's a compromise between called british or irish.

BUT then Brexit happened. Ob they weren't going to put a border on the land and stir up Republicans so they stuck it in the sea and stirred up unionists instead. Being cynical there was going to be issues whatever they did.

The education is amazing here IF your bright BUT has statistically failed lower class protestant boys with bad outcomes for them. We are now seeing the fallout of this.

Ffs it still a system where there are catholic schools and other state schools basically for protestants. Even bloody teachers are trained separately in two colleges based on religion. Small number of Intergrated schools and shared education campuses so things are moving slowly forward.

It's just another blip.

The riots looks frightening to people in England but tbh its nothing much different year on year, except we had Brexit to stoke the flames.

NI is an amazing place. With brilliant people who have a hilariously dark sense of humour.

I'm english btw and now hounoury NI dweller

I’m an immigrant to Britain and I’m shocked by so little attention and so little analysis.

Last week my English husband asked me if I knew what was going on in NI. I started googling and it was hard to find detailed facts just vague mentions with no analysis.

It feels like we just get spoon fed what is convenient. Whether it is Brexit, or the pandemic. I’m really pretty annoyed.

The BBC is the worst. What’s the licence fee for?

@mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork

I am a daily listener to Radio 4, LBC and world service if awake at night. Ihave heard about the current problems in NI (rioting and import issues) since their onset. Lots of people nowadays don't seem to follow current events except on social meedya so seem to be less aware of what is going on and implications of events.

I think this is a very good point.

Realistically these are young people growing up in very deprived areas going to rubbish non integrated schools who are being fed the narrative the other side is getting special treatment their whole life and the terrorists during the Troubles are glorified. The legitimate anger about the funeral from the majority of both communities has been exploited by the uda who have been targeted by the police about drugs. There are communities from both sides who are so disaffected “recreational rioting” is a legitimate activity. I’ve lived in England for over 6 years now and I’ve had some breathtakingly ignorant questions about NI from people who are at top unis. Many of whom didn’t know Ireland was divided and not all in the UK.

@mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork
It was obvious, once the EU demanded a border on Brexit that it would cause a problem
When The UK was part of the EU it demanded trade borders between EU and nonEU nations. Now it has left the EU, the U.K. now expects the EU to change the rules the U.K. itself previously supported to make life more convenient for the UK - a non-member state. Do you not hear yourself how utterly ridiculous this is?

I didnt even realised NI existed until I met my husband. I only knew about the English in scotland due to films.

The grammars here offer the best results in the whole of the uk. However our secondary schools are so underfunded the outcomes for the less academic, sen, or kids who's parents dont care is shocking

The time for the English to care about the delicate issues in N.Ireland (which were a direct result of historical English inhumane profiteering and landgrab in a foreign land) was at the time of the Brexit vote. Too late for faux caring now from the Brexiters.

My grandad was from Belfast and even though my family are very English, we've always been very aware of Northern Ireland and followed and cared about what happens there. In discussions (or arguments!) about Brexit, some of my brexiteer friends said they didn't care about what happened in Northern Ireland they only cared that Brexit was what they thought was best for England. As far as I know, the GFA had brought about a fairly workable compromise solution to a problem that was created by British colonialism. For English people to vote in way that undermines that and fails to acknowledge that we have a responsibility to Northern Ireland is disgusting. For anyone that argues that this problem is the EU's fault because they didn't have to put a border in the Irish sea or on the island of Ireland is delusional. Of course the EU weren't going to allow the UK to entirely dictate the terms of brexit. It was never going to be acceptable for them to give us brexit but leave an open border where we could get goods into the EU without the customs checks that the EU are perfectly entitled to carry out on goods from outside.

It's not the EU's fault there's a border. The Tories were told over and over again that a 'softer' Brexit (e.g., EEA membership, customs union) would be better precisely because it was the best way to avoid having any border. But they did not care about Northern Ireland and went for a hard Brexit instead. This is on them.

The UK was happy to have hard borders around the EU when it meant limiting people or goods from non-EU countries, well now it's the same for them.

Reaping, meet sowing.

@skirk64

YABU, simply because I'm English, in England, and am well aware of the violence that is going on. It's on the BBC news, it's not being hidden away or ignored.

If it's getting less attention than people in NI think it should, maybe it's because we English have realised that people in the devolved nations mostly despise us, we are in a position where if we comment and get involved we are wrong but if we don't that's also wrong, so frankly, why bother?

The border in the Irish Sea or hard border between Ireland and NI were not an inevitable consequence of Brexit, they were a political decision by the EU and Irish and UK governments. Borders are avoidable - the EU insisted upon one. From what I've read though the current protests in NI mainly aren't about this, they are about the fact that police took no action against a mass turnout for an IRA funeral during lockdown, and because the police are targeting loyalist groups carrying out organised crime.

This. I was a remainder but am utterly fed up of the way people are being demonised just because they dare to vote differently. And for the record I’m English and am very much aware of what’s going on. It would also be nice if people could stop with the prejudice and xenophobia that allows them to state English media= English people. It bloody well doesn’t.

I used to work for an English bank. One lunchtime we were in the staff watching the lunchtime news when there had been an IRA bombing (can't recall which one). One of the Financial Advisors actually came out with "I don't know why the Irish can't keep it to themselves, why do they have to bring it over here"?

I opened my mouth to comment, then shut it again, realising she wasn't really interested. The ignorance of NI in England is shocking.

I do mean England, I have lived most of my life in Scotland and we are more aware of the issues, partly because the sectarianism unfortunately spills over here. I don't have enough experience of Wales to comment on how much is understood there.

Well said @Cam77 in both posts!
@Mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork your post blaming the EU for 'insisting' on a border that you didn't want & suggesting it should have been placed between Ireland (No such place as ROI by the way - another English construct) & NI is wilfully ignorant & would totally contravene the terms of the GFA - but as a Brexit supporter that's really not surprising!