Shooting of police officer in NI

[Chickenkeev]

I've been listening to news of this all morning on the radio (rte). I was horrified to hear about it and that police are working mainly on the theory that dissident republicans are responsible. I was quite surprised (stunned if I'm honest) that it doesn't seemed to have appeared on any threads on MN, that I can see anyway. Surely it's of national importance to the UK as well as here?

That stood out to me too. Imagine being so selfless that despite having been shot your first thought is to protect others.
I’m not in Ireland but it’s been on the news all day at work. It’s terrifying.

I’m in England, it’s been on the news all day.

Absolutely terrifying, the poor man and the kids who witnessed it, it’s awful.

I first heard about this terrible incident on 6 Music this afternoon and I've just watched a report on the BBC 10 O'Clock news.
It's just so awful. There aren't enough words to sum up how I feel. My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by this.

@Eyerollcentral oh I know, that’s why I put it in inverted commas. I shouldn’t have said it at all though, so I apologise.

I'm from NI but living in Oz, I saw this on the world news last night. Its just appalling, I hope he makes a full recovery and they throw the book at the culprits. its the last thing that NI needs, and I really hope the situation doesn't escalate.

I was waiting for a person to bring in the whole island of Ireland thing 🙄🙄.......as you said.....a bit off topic but hey we are all entitled to an opinion. 🤷‍♀️

It’s not an opinion. It’s a statement of fact. GB is not the mainland of Ireland.

I was shocked to hear the school principal say that up to 25 of his pupils were at the scene. That's only one school and the level of trauma must be terrifying.

And the gunmen achieved the sum of fuck all. Their senseless and futile act won't change a thing and nor it should. These types of acts should be consigned to history and not repeated in this day and age.

I think these things shouldn't be consigned to history though. I'm early 40s and i vividly remember watching the UTV news back in the day which was essentially a list of people who'd been randomly shot/killed. There's some phrase, those who forget history are destined to repeat it. Or something like that. I just can't believe this has happened, it's gone right back to the 80s. I remember an ad on telly that was advertising the police 'secret' number, it featured a dad being shot in front of his little boy, the song was Cats in the Cradle by Cat Stevens. That has stayed with me through all these years.

It's especially shocking for me in a very small personal way as my daughter is only recently back from something called the Peace Proms, a wonderful all island singing competition, the original idea was bringing kids together through music. She's 11 and tbh knows nothing about the North. To her it's history as much as 1916 is. I don't knkw what to say to her, my aunt lives up there. I really can't believe people don't care on here, more worried about parking spaces and people in queues etc.

I wasn't advocating that history should be erased or forgotten and neither it should. The point I was making was that violence like this has no place in society. I'm from Scotland and was taken aback by your description of a public information ad regarding a shooting. And to think idiots in Scotland of both persuasion were sending money for the cause. Bigoted fools.

Apologies, i didn't mean to 'accuse'. I'm just so horrified by this and confused and terrified that it seems not to be of any import to people on here. Has everyone forgotten?

TW for violence this is the ad i was talkimg about
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www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rtape

I care. It’s awful. It was on my mind all day yesterday. Just so shocking

It is. I'm really shocked that it has passed without comment on the main pages here. I just watched the full ad that i posted earlier and it's so scary and traumatising. And i never lived there. So i really can't believe that people are so blase about it.

English. It's been covered in news here but doesn't seem to be too news. It should be. This could have big consequences in triggering regular sectarian violence again. We can't go back to that.

I don't mean to be rude but you ARE back there. That's why it's so terrifying. I can't countènace this. People went through so much to leave this behind.

This is beyond awful. It makes me realise that every time I teach NI literature, (and feel both shocked and slightly cautiously delighted I have to give a potted history of the Troubles to students), I’m always still superstitiously afraid to make any definitive statement about them ‘ending’ around the GFA. Because of the potential for this, exacerbated by the clusterfuck stupidity of Brexit.

In the 1980s I worked with a man from NI whose uncle ran a football club for boys from both communities . He was locking up the clubhouse and was shot and killed in very similar circumstances. I had hoped we had moved on from this senseless violence.

@Chickenkeev

I'm Irish. It's deeply shocking and a horrific crime.

However, I disagree that we are 'back there'. We don't know yet who carried out the attack, but it's not indicative of a return to sectarian violence. Equally, while it has absolutely been covered in the British media, I don't think it's overly indicative there isn't a MN thread elsewhere. There is here.

There's equally very few threads that comment on the ongoing lack of an Assembly for instance, which is a shocking & troubling matter that should be of concern.

It was the top story on the BBC website last night.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot. (Scotland).

It will change the lives of the boys that were around him.

What’s shocked me is the age of those arrested - 38, 45, 47yo. WTF. That’s not young hotheads. That’s men who might have children the same age as the football players being coached. Absolutely evil planning an execution like that.

But no-one will hide or shield criminals who behave like that. Even crooks will think that was fucking nasty and give up anyone connected.

Hear hear.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this attempted murder. The victim, his family and all the kids/adults who witnessed this callous and cowardly act.
I remember when this sort of incident was commonplace and cannot imagine what it was like to live in NI at that time.
I sincerely hope that we never see it again but I’m not confident that things are settled.