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.

I don't think we can say the North of Ireland is the same country as England. That's ridiculous. And offensive to us Irish who had partition forced on us and were brutally colonised. The only country we are part of is Ireland

We're not talking about the North of Ireland (which accuratly describes Donegal) but Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
It is not part of the country of Ireland. It just isn't, and you know that. They are two completelt different countries with different laws, governments, currencies, systems.

Nothern Ireland is part of the UK. It is not part of the country called Ireland, it is on the island of Ireland. You know this.
A lot of people identify as Irish and have Irish passports, but that does not change the simple fact that Ireland is one country and Northern Ireland is not in it.

@luxxlisbon

The Bobby Storey funeral as a reason for the rioting is the biggest pile of BS I've ever heard. That was literally in JUNE and it somehow justifies petrol bombing in APRIL the following year? It doesn't even make sense.

The pps investigation into it was finished last week and announced there would be no prosecutions so it is part of it.

@AndromedaGal governments DID one together & a compassionate & intelligent arrangement was reached, that would be the GFA ..and it worked incredibly well for many years until........Brexit reared its head..

@AndromedaGal it’s not holding the English to account for colonial issues. This is happening right now this minute. The language is difficult so apologies to anyone I’ve offended saying ‘England’ I can’t say United Kingdom as Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.

Maybe I should have said Westminster and the U.K. mainstream media to be more accurate.

My point is the main news today is about covid and announcing holidays. Northern Ireland ships be absolutely dominating the press for the past week and Westminster should be making this their top priority. It is too important. We can’t see the return of the troubles.

I just don't see how this plays out without more violence. I do agree living in Scotland you do learn about it from family etc particularly in glasgow where sectarianism is still rife.

The UK as a nation is on a knife edge at the moment while politicians Sean around on their big salaries it's disgusting. I used to be proud of my country

Swan*

The media decides based on what they know the people will listen to. What will sell papers or get listeners/viewers. They don't just decide what they personally want to talk about!!

Not exactly true. The newspaper owners have a clear agenda. 99% of the populace could want a Labour government (as an example) but the Telegraph would not follow the public. As does the British establishment as a whole have it’s own agenda and the press/media is usually subservient to that.

@Rukaya

I don't think we can say the North of Ireland is the same country as England. That's ridiculous. And offensive to us Irish who had partition forced on us and were brutally colonised. The only country we are part of is Ireland

We're not talking about the North of Ireland (which accuratly describes Donegal) but Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
It is not part of the country of Ireland. It just isn't, and you know that. They are two completelt different countries with different laws, governments, currencies, systems.

Nothern Ireland is part of the UK. It is not part of the country called Ireland, it is on the island of Ireland. You know this.
A lot of people identify as Irish and have Irish passports, but that does not change the simple fact that Ireland is one country and Northern Ireland is not in it.

You know fine well what this poster means and by stating the absolute obvious “two different governments, currencies” etc you are simply antagonising.

I have lived in both Ireland and England.

Irish people are always going to care more about this, as it is on a shared landmass with them. The republic of Ireland is geographically closer to the situation,.

I am Irish, when I lived in Ireland I thought about Northern Ireland, as it was right there, it is hard to ignore it, when we share an island with it.

When I lived in England, I never gave N.Ireland a second thought. People in the U.K. have enough to be doing in their own lives.

Being Irish, I know very well that a lot more needs to be done by the UK and Northern Irish governments to stabilise Northern Ireland. It could never go on as it was. Most countries in Europe do not have a small portion that belongs to another country. This is going to continue to cause issues, the UK and N.Ireland Government need to put huge time and effort into helping Northern Ireland, seeing as the UK created Northern Ireland. I think that Breixt is now going to make the UK think more about N.Ireland and situation there

@UnreasonablyPissedOff

I agree with you and I don't dispute that Brexit was and is a massive massive problem here. But.........it's not the only problem. There are others, including a disillusioned generation of youths. They are rebelling because it's the only way they can make themselves heard in amongst the shit-storm created by all politicians involved (including the EU.) I feel so bad for them.

I honestly think many EU politicians simply don't realize just how complex the situation is in NI, the layers of political and civil unrest, the history. If anything, I think it's the EU who have shown just how "blind" they're prepared to by to NI's issues. But again, this is only one facet

Rukaya, partition was FORCED on people here. I don't like it, don't accept it and when the vote comes I shall be voting to end British colonisation and British rule in Ireland once and for all.

And don't tell me what to call the six counties where I have lived all my life. We are NOT a part of England and it's ridiculous and highly offensive to colonised people here to say we are.

Thank you Ohnana. So many people seem to think Irish people should just be silent about our colonisation and oppression.

@UhtredRagnarson

This therefore sounds more like ordinary thuggery than anything else.

Aye that’s all it is. Just normal, run of the mill thuggery you see in every large city every week.

Not every week (it comes in waves usually) but recreational rioting is a hobby for some people. Anywhere with some deprivation only needs some agitators to start pushing buttons.

@Sarahtrue11 well said and I agree on this This is going to continue to cause issues, the UK and N.Ireland Government need to put huge time and effort into helping Northern Ireland, seeing as the UK created Northern Ireland. I think that Breixt is now going to make the UK think more about N.Ireland and situation there

Much more needs to be done.
@AndromedaGal
what does this have to do with the EU though really? They didn’t ask the U.K. to leave the EU. Do you mean that if they realised the complexities they should have had the U.K. outside the EU but allowed them to do whatever they wanted re border?

Well you know what @DdraigGoch it isn’t normal for here. Not sure where you live but what is happening now in NI is not run of the mill thuggery.

Why would people in England care about Northern Ireland? The UK is a group of four very separate countries. And there is not a happy union between them all, we all know that.

Any time that I visit Scotland, people there have always told me that they do not feel connected to England in any way, that Scotland is its own country.

Similiarly, when I am in England, people have told me that they don't care about Northern Ireland.

Should we expect all four of the countries in the UK to care about each other? The UK is a soverign state, but the four countries within it, are countries in their own right. Most people are interested in what happens within their own country.

@AndromedaGal I'm not sure I get your point about the EU being blind to the NI situation? NI is part of the UK & the reason why there there's so much deprevitavtion there is surely because of lack of care, lack of investment, lack of will from Westminster? Not the EU?
The EU is rightfully upholding the GFA with regard to the issue with borders etc & now the EU has no jurisdiction in NI at all.

I totally agree with you regarding how sad it is to have youth so marginalised & uncared for that they no longer care & resort to violence. But NI has LONG been very very neglected by the UK itself

I don’t think most English people do care tbh, I’ve seen it on the news, but haven’t heard anyone talking about it. I will be honest, I don’t know much about the troubles, I was born in 1990, so was too young to understand what was really going on at the time in the 90s, it’s not taught in schools. I have very basic knowledge of it, and that’s probably more than most people my age.

I suppose I care about it in the same way I care about gang crime in London, I think it’s terrible, I think the government are ultimately responsible and need to do more, but most
people involved in that way of life (violence) are not innocent. I don’t sit up at night worrying about it, or spend time discussing it as it doesn’t really affect me and I have bigger things to worry about.

Why would people in England care about Northern Ireland?

The IRA blew up the Arndale Centre in Manchester in 1996 with one and a half tons of Semtex.

Have people forgotten?

This thread is depressing, the level of ignorance about NI makes me so sad and angry. I'm from NI, but got the hell out in 92. My family are still there though, so watching the news over the last few days has been horrible. I just hope no one gets killed, as it might just kick off the whole shit show again, and I don't want my friends and family to have to live like that again.

Talking out your arse there Rukaya. I'll also be voting to end British rule Phoenix, 1000 years of misery.

My big fear watching the scenes live last night was that one of the kids would attempt to get past the police line and force the police to apprehend them. All hell would have broken loose on those streets if that happened. There would be deaths.

On a side note, I lived in Northern Ireland for one year during the troubles. My parents moved there for work. I was 6.

I have read books about the troubles, and the authors wrote the same thing as what I thought. When they were a child in the troubles, they thought it was such an exciting place to be.

I felt the same! I was a young child and it was so exciting and interesting from a childs eyes. I felt that it was so exciting. I remember soldiers with guns being posted at every corner of the street. As a child I had no idea what side these soldiers were on, or where they were from, but I remember them being so friendly and lovely to the children. I remember some of those soldiers really looked like they were teenagers. They were very young men.

I remember checkpoints for cars. The soldiers would stop my parents car and ask where we were going.They would come over to the car with a very big gun. And there were spikes on the road, that they would let up and down, so you couldnt move the car forward or back until they said you could go. But seeing people with guns just became very normal, it was like "ah there is another young lad with a gun", just totally normal.

I was watching the show Derry girls, and there is a soldier that comes onto the school bus with a gun, and the girls just talk about how good looking he is. So true! You got used to everything. It all felt so exciting.

We then moved to the republic of Ireland, and I thought it was so boring there in comparison.

Of course as an adult, I know that terrible things happened, but as a child it was really so exciting and interesting.

The violence isn't anything to do with Brexit. It's to do with the handling of the Bobby Storey funeral.

They seem to argue/fight/kill about extremely petty things in NI. I mean a funeral wasn't prosecuted during covid since difficult to convict etc and so a bunch of people think that's a good enough reason to riot/cause destruction/mayhem and assault others.....

Seriously WHY