The suspect bomb in London.... but this comment really annoyed me. It feels vaguely racist and yet I am not sure it is..

[BreeVanDerCamp]

All options, including the Irish, are open at this stage," said the source.

No, but we don't have to pay them to watch TV, either.

I have to say something I am so incensed by this

my DH and his entire family grew up in Belfast, all their relatives are still there, I know tonnes of Belfast folk. I am southern Irish. The vast majority of both Northern and Southern Irish people DO NOT CONDONE VIOLENCE OF ANY SORT. I find this suggestion loathsome and the fact that people don't realise how racist certain comments on this thread are fills me with despair.

Oh, and BTW, I thought that comment on the BBC site was quite certainly racist. And that doesn't stop me being glad that nobody was killed.

Thank you Jean Genie.

I would offer you a drink, but that would be conforming to a stereotypical profile.

indeed

How about a slice of yucky malt loaf with some lashings of butter then?

rhubarb - saying that "the irish" considered a 5 year old boy a legitimate target is not "vaguely" racist. there is nothing, not one thing, vague about that at all. It's hideous. It's out and out racist. I don;t care if I am a middle Englander with different experiences I stand by that. However, having heard Palestinian children trot out similar racist comments that made me want to weep, I appreciate that fighting racism like that is a complex business that involves a whole lot more than people like me saying stuff like that.

Well I apologise if you all feel offended by his comments or mine.

I also feel sorry for DC, sorry that he has so much anger and has witnessed so much hate.

But I do feel that unless we start to try and understand why people make racist comments, we will never break down those barriers. Knee-jerk reactions will only compound biased opinions.

I agree, Rhubarb.

Understanding why isn't the same as allowing such remarks to be trotted out on here. And allowing them to stand is the same as condoning it.

I'm not even remotely Irish or connected to Ireland in any way, but I know how I'd feel if someone tarred me as a terrorist just because of my nationality.

it's what makes a person the way they are.

me too

[agree with Rhubarb's last comment, that is]

I don't understand why you still think I condone those remarks.

Any attempt at peacemaking is just going to be spat on I can see that.

I think Rhubarb said all that needs to be said, expat.

I reported that post, because it's derogatory towards an entire nation and I don't think that's in the spirit of MN at all.

I never insulted DC, who incidentally came out with his experience after making that post, but I don't see where allowing comments like that to stand is excusable.

I think that you are just trying to be humanist and sensitive Rhubarb and of course that is admirable but seeing as DC hasn't come back to defend his cowardly remarks I suspect that he cares less than you do.

I think to use the word irish instead of IRA or Irish paramilitary etc is stupid and lazy journalism and whilst may not have been meant as it has been taken used as it has been is racist. As expat rightly pointed out, if they'd said palestinian or afghan etc then there would have been a lot more said about it. When people stop associating entire nations with idiotic extremist terrorist groups, then maybe we can all stop arguing about what divides us and unite against all of these groups and stamp out a crime that effects all of us whether we've physically been in that toy shop, or tower block, plane or just sat on the other end of a phone desperately trying to locate a loved one. Just because you've been a witness to terroism, does not give you the right to be racist against one group of people. All you are doing then is becoming part of the problem instead of the solution. Sounding off like DC has simply makes him sound like the hate filled terrorists.

Has he apologised for making those remarks?

Or gone so far as to say, 'As an intelligent human being whose been around for 42, I've learned that not all Irish or Northern Irish people are terrorists'?

No, he's done what he always has: write bigotted and offensive remarks and then trotted off.

Sorry, but he's got a long history of doing this, too, and not just to Irish people.

And yes, that makes people see him in a different light.

Hear hear Counto10

Well, I am very sorry, expat, but I think you're being uncharitable. When I read dc's post, I just saw a little boy in pain, who became an adult, in pain.

I don't denigrate the Irish, never have done, never will. There was a situation, it lasted a long time, and people got hurt. The worst is over ... with the exception of organized gangs, which are the curse of all societies.

But if you wish to report his post, you're free to do so.

I have done. I also in the interests of fairness reported my comment re medication.

My comment which IMO was mild has been deleted and the original post remains.

I think you're getting some of dc's comments confused with mine, expat [hm]

I'm the one who's 42.

You also paraphrased me earlier on as if dc had said it. It doesn't amount to a whole hill of beans either way, but maybe if you go through it again

I think you're being ridiculous, Desi, because he came out with the toy shop story, it was WELL after he wrote that post.

I find is astonishing that this seems to be an excuse to spew racist, offensive remarks about an entire nation of people and everyone in it AND that they are all personally responsible for the terrorist violence some members of their nation perpetrated.

Some posters have a long, long history of spewing hatred, bigotry and racist comments.

There's just NO excuse for it.