Irish riots

Very stupid too. Worst time to riot is during winter time when ski masks are at their highest price.

Many a true word said in jest Crisp.

Dunno about ski-masks but I think a bloody great freeze / snow would have 99% of these herberts scuttling for home.

Always available for riots, never available for work.

I'm surprised at all your cynicism. Can tell ya that if they stopped flying Y Ddraig Goch in Wales to only show the Union Jack - there'd be a much similar response.
Wreckless of the council to ignore the views of Avast swathe of the commun1cants.

Ovalman

I'm guessing you've lived in Ulster all your life so can you tell me if you've noticed a general across-the-board rise in prosperity since the initiation of the Good Friday agreement?

I know it's hard to generalise and 'the poor will always be with us' but I'm just interested to see the whether there is, and the extent of, any peace dividend, from somone on the ground in the Province.

ye big dividing peace walls,the ignorance on northern ireland is shocking imo

City Hall should invest in a new flag. The Union flag on one side and blank on the other. Then the idiots from both sides can see whatever they want to see.

Northern Irish riots which sort of shows the naivity of many when they don't understand the problem.

All Unionism have seen is Sinn Fein get their own way. If an Orange march is 2 miles away then there's 5,000 of them out protesting at 6am. They've had Orange marches re-routed, every death at the hands of soldiers made into an inquiry (and then riot when it doesn't go their way), allowed to name children's playgrounds after murderers and basically got everything what they wanted and yet gave nothing in return. There's been no inquiries to the deaths at anyone at the hands of the IRA.

This flag protest was the tipping point that Unionism had to draw a line.

They've also attracted those with more sinister reasons. There are many with itchy trigger fingers that would love to bring the guns back onto the streets because they hate the other side so much. Some of the protests are held on interface areas just to antagonise the other side. As the Orange marches prove, it doesn't take much to annoy them.

The trouble on Saturday was caused by Nationalists but that wasn't reported (much) from the media. 2 units of police were sent in to the Nationalist area while 20 units of police with dogs and water cannons battered the protesters.

Look at things from the Unionists side and you will see everything British trying to be whittled away by Sinn Fein, a police force and government that tries to appease the Nationalists, a media that gives unfair reporting and you'll maybe understand things a bit better.

I live pretty close to these riots, I've never participated in any protest or riot but I do understand why they are angry. While I feel they have a point, it won't bring the flag back, the best way to make the point is by voting the party that caused this (Alliance) out of existence. It's causing nothing but more trouble. It's also costing millions to police as well as damage to tourism, businesses, jobs and infrastructure.

biggest load of bullcrap i have ever read, its like the flag has been replaced by the tricolour, this was a democratic decision by the council witch included unionists but as usual the unionist screamed there would be trouble and guess what trouble follows... some things/bigots never change.

You either want peace or you do not want peace, rioting over a flag tells me all I need to know. We  all laughed at muslims rioting over cartoons and now we see Irish/British causing havoc over a flag ffs Time to grow up and move on, the majority of people in mainland Britain do not give a **** about Northern Ireland except that it is costing them plenty of money to maintain....

Ovalman.
Joined: 29 Nov 02
Replies: 10769 09 Jan 13 16:57   
100% more prosperity since the Good Friday Agreement, this isn't about prosperity, this is about seeing your identity whittled away. 

No, I understand that but as a patronised mainlander, I'm just interested in understanding what's at stake here.

Hopefully the gardai are polishing there batons for the weekend.

First of all the decision to only fly the union jack on designated days was made to bring Belfast council into line with nearly all other councils and this decision was done by a democratic vote. Why should Belfast be any different to the many other councils in the north of ireland let alone england, scotland and wales. Councils with a nationalist majority have been happy to respect the culture of the unionst people by seeing the union jack flying on their council buildings for many years.

You would have to ask a unionist what the problem is. I can only guess they see Belfast city hall as a symbolic bastion of unionism. The problem is the same thing with orange marches in that unionist dont the roads as they used to and dont own city hall in belfast any longer either.

intresting thread.can i ask oval man one question.the union jack inflames half the population.the other half(roughly)want it flown.why should one side get their way or not,as the case may be.im a moderate living in the south and all i can see here is the beautiful city of belfast being decimated and knocked back 20yr.im sure its costing traders millions.cop on the lot of you
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Ovalman im glad to see that you have backtracked on this issue.....because every point you made was factually incorrect but you are right it is not just about a flag..the flag is actually being used as a convenience for loyalist mobs to do what they do best....the underlying problem here is that the majority of people who are out menacing our streets are not protesting about the union flag but infact they are protesting against catholics having equality in the 6 counties of ireland,for years the councils were dominated by unionist dragons who were hell bent on discriminating against the catholic communities,the problem now lies in that nationalist/republican through purely democratic means are elected and chairing councils throughout the 6 counties and making decisions for the benefit of both communities......the old chestnut comes to the fore again...unionists get noting....sinn fein get everything......boooohooooo.....poor us.....we are not allowed to fly our flag.....we are not allowed to march triumphantly through nationalist housing estates.....we are not allowed to play the sash outside a catholic church.....well i have news for ye ovalman....we are living in 2013 and the days of unionist domination and discrimination are over and the bully boy tactics being shown in belfast are showing the culprits up for what they are.....and now we have the ultra bigot from south armagh heading to dublin hell bent on causing another riot....if this is the man the unionist people choose to speak on their behalf then i would seriously worry will unionism ever rise out of the dark days and embrace equality and power sharing....

I actually agree with you Ovalman
it is a vey deep problem with no easy solution

5billion a year subsidy from London.

"well said" ? - completely dumb actually, only said as a wind-up I presume (hope)........but as I said, cancelled anyway.

Unionism, sometimes called loyalism, means wanting union with the United Kingdom, with the Queen as figurative head of state, and laws, tax and benefit rates set in London, and 18 MPs there ( who occasionally are sufficient to affect policy UK-wide depending on other factors such as the Con-Lab-LD split )

Republicanism, sometimes called nationalism, means rejecting the Queen as Head of State and wanting to be part of the island of Ireland as a whole. Republicans also seem to want segregated education systems for the 2 communities which doesn't seem to help. And the UK government in Westminster seems happy to pay for this.

At one time Ireland was a theocracy, where divorce was outlawed, and had much lower GDP per head than the UK, and people made jokes.
Now, it's very different, and the Irish make jokes about the UK letting women retire before they are 62, and our excessive spending on war.

Some people bring transubstantiation into it, and rejection of the Pope, but it's hard to be sure if they are really important deep down where it counts. But what does seem to matter is that there are 8 unionist MPs and notionally 8 nationalist MPs and 2 fence-sitters, and a small shift in voting patterns at the next election could mean that there is a mandate either for the whole province to leave the Union or for the counties of Fermanagh, Derry and Tyrone certainly.

Longer term, the demographics suggest that in a couple of decades the Republicans will outnumber the Unionists in the 18+ age group who have the vote, but there is also an increasing number of people who favour neither one cause or the other ( hence the 2 fence-sitters mentioned above ).

Abortion remains forbidden for practical purposes in all parts of the island of Ireland. Soft drug use and prostitution are also generally frowned upon, whereas in parts of mainland UK, they are almost compulsory, smiles. Not a place for the liberal, but the place is changing quickly.

agree Bongo

But how do you take away a peoples identity though..how would we like like it, if from tomorrow we were part of France
so we we are now French..so we have to live with it
The Loyalsists do not see themselves as part of the Irish republic...which I am afraid is what they are tbh

The only thing that can be done at the moment is to try and ensure peace..

If the Union Jack is put back...will the catholics riot
very delicate situation