[Woodhead]

They were just warming up for the seal hunt

[kenmore]

My daughter in law is from Belfast and her parents fled N.Ireland because their's was a mixed marriage. They lived through blood Sunday and years of racism and unrest. In the past 5 or so years things seemed to be settling down. There is great fear now that its heating up. Soccer in Europe is an important sport and winning is everything. I think that the game may be part of the rage, but there is a smoldering hate between Catholics and Protestants that continues.

[ShepherdsDog]

$1:

They lived through blood Sunday and years of racism and unrest

It wasn't racism you tool. It was sectarianism. For a term that you're so closely identified with, you really should learn to understand it and use it properly.

[EyeBrock]

kenmore kenmore:

My daughter in law is from Belfast and her parents fled N.Ireland because their's was a mixed marriage. They lived through blood Sunday and years of racism and unrest. In the past 5 or so years things seemed to be settling down. There is great fear now that its heating up. Soccer in Europe is an important sport and winning is everything. I think that the game may be part of the rage, but there is a smoldering hate between Catholics and Protestants that continues.

ken, you are bang on with this. I remember my Gran telling me how people would leave their lights on in Dublin during the 1940 blitz on the UK so that the Germans would know they had gone too far and go back and bomb England.

There were many more little snippets of hatred I was told about during my youth. The hatred is about the only thing that is well balanced in both Catholic and Protestant communities.

The Scottish angle of sectarian hatred is something I was introduced to in the military and is very weird.

[Lemmy]

My parents are Scottish. When I was 8 or 9, my dad took my brother and I to a Hearts-Hibs match at Tynecastle. At some point, all the Hearts fans started tossing their beers and pies down on the Hibs fans in the lower deck. Of course, being 8 or 9, I joined in the fun. Mom asked how the game was. We told her we threw our food on the Catholics. "That's nice, dear." she said.

Years later, when my dad was taking me to Guelph to start university, he saw the Church of Our Lady (massive Catholic church & the tallest structure in Guelph) and started going on about the "fucking Catholics, put their kirks on the highest goddamn hill so they can be closer to God".

My dad's an intelligent man and an educated man who'd been living in Canada for 30 years by that point. But he holds on to those old sectarian hatreds. I wonder if it's any less pervasive now than when my parents grew up in the 50s & 60s.

[EyeBrock]

I don't think anything has and will change in Scotland, NI or Eire lemmy.

[ShepherdsDog]

Actually the Catholics and the small Protestant minority in Eire get along quite well. Members of the Church of Ireland(Anglicans) have been PM and President on several occasion in Eire, and hold a fair bit of political and economic power in the country.

[EyeBrock]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Actually the Catholics and the small Protestant minority in Eire get along quite well. Members of the Church of Ireland(Anglicans) have been PM and President on several occasion in Eire, and hold a fair bit of political and economic power in the country.

I had heard that in Dublin. North of the border is well different and there is a very active anti Ulster/Brit sentiment in Dublin and Cork.

[ShepherdsDog]

The Southerners had a vote a few years back, and the overwhelming majority voted to end any and all claims on Ulster. Do you really want to invite a fractious lot like that into a stable society? At the first sign of trouble or disagreement they start shooting and bombing any and everyone. Ulster has always been a pain in the ass for the rest of Ireland.

[commanderkai]

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

And vice-versa mate. I'm from Irish Catholic parents but I know that bigotry works both ways.

True, but maybe I should have been more specific about the British government and their actions in North Ireland. Don't get me wrong, I don't defend anybody. I know both sides hated eachother, in both the UK and Ireland itself