peoples views are coloured by the press and the images that are constantly flashed on tv, that is why people are afraid and will remain cautious about going north. If you look at how limerick is treated in the press and the image that people have of the place as opposed to ther reality it is easy to see how misconceptions can be formed.
Northern Ireland Troubles
- Thread starter thedaras
- Start date
You must not know Dublin too well so.
I agree, the crime stats back this up. Dublin is in my view the worst city in which I have ever lived. Even Baghdad had more charm for the 6 months I was there and felt safer than some spots in Dublin.
What rubbish.
What an insular, opinionated, small-minded, degeneratively dismissively deprecating response! Of course, I retain the height of respect for the person who made the response.
If you had ever been to Baghdad you would understand what I meant!
Call it what you want. Baghdad is a city under heavy military guard. They may not patrol the streets as they used to but they are waiting in the wings when the trouble flairs. Wait until all the troops pull out of Iraq and the militia retake their own localitys again. They know they cant out gun the U.S. & British army so they'll bide their time and then help themselves to the armour and weapons as soon as they're gone. U.S. & U.K. governments will harp on about power being handed over and mass troop withdrawls within the net few months but this is political spin. Foreign influenence and presence will always be in the shadows, similiar to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Statistics have shown and indeed news headlines boast Baghdads crime rate has significantly decreased but this must be taken in to context with the high level it was at and the presence of foreign occupational forces today.
Foreign security contractors operate with impugnity and face little if any repercussions for "protecting themselves".
Click the link for whats happening in Baghdad lately.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7930958.stm
Folks, I never said when I lived there so take it easy with the assumptions...and I'm aware of what's happening in the world...but thanks anyway.
I simply said that Baghdad had, in my view, more charm than Dublin and when you consider it's architecture, historical culture and the innate friendliness of the people it wouldn't be hard to see why. I also said that there are some spots in Dublin where I feel less safe than I did when I was in Baghdad. And for saying that I got what I considered to be an ignorant post from someone who didn't even have the courtesy to indicate if he had any knowledge of the country from having lived or visited.
Duke of Marmalade
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There is a large section of Northern unionists who are bitterly biggoted against everything papist and against the South in particular. There always was and indeed it is even stronger and more bitter today than it was at the height of the Troubles. The idea of Ian Paisley being First Minister was unthinkable to nationalists and moderate unionists alike until this peace thing broke out.
NI has been more sectarianly divided than ever in recent times. To hear some naive Southern commentators you would think that Belfast had become a latter day San Francisco 60's style love in. There is a mural in the loyalist Ballygomartin which reads "To hell with the Pope and Harrington". Anybody driving a southern reg car in the Shankill is extremely foolhardy.
The political violence has been assuaged by bringing the provos into government and these dissident groups are unlikely to ever gain any momentum especially as they will be starved of the oxygen supply from the Southern Irish establishment which was so instrumental in nurturing and sustaining the Provos.
NI has been more sectarianly divided than ever in recent times. To hear some naive Southern commentators you would think that Belfast had become a latter day San Francisco 60's style love in. There is a mural in the loyalist Ballygomartin which reads "To hell with the Pope and Harrington". Anybody driving a southern reg car in the Shankill is extremely foolhardy.
The political violence has been assuaged by bringing the provos into government and these dissident groups are unlikely to ever gain any momentum especially as they will be starved of the oxygen supply from the Southern Irish establishment which was so instrumental in nurturing and sustaining the Provos.
I have never been to Baghdad but I have been to numerous Arab cities in Africa and the Middle East and the one thing they have in common is massive inequality and an undercurrent of oppression.
I can say for sure that I found Dar Es Salaam more interesting than most cities and Nairobi, with it's increasingly Muslim influence, is also very charming but to suggest that Baghdad is now, or was when under a brutal dictator, a safer city than Dublin is just plain stupid.
I have been to dozens, if not hundreds, of cities. Most of them had their charm. Dublin is, in many ways, rather unremarkable as cities go but if it is "the worst city in which [you] have ever lived" then you have either lived in very few cities or in some rather exceptional ones.
If the latter is the case then kudos to you on your Palin-esque travels but it does not negate the fact that you are the one expressing rather simplistic and absolutist opinions to which the appropriate response was, and remains, “Rubbish”.
As a Northern Catholic I would have to say that this applies EXACTLY on the Nationalist side as well.
I know many people who get annoyed even at the sight of a Union Flag, Unionist politicans talking or Linfield playing football.
We are a sad country that is still riddled with sectarianism which will only improve when we integrate children in school from ages 4 or 5. As long as we continue to separate our schools, our living areas, and celebrate our differences nothing will ever change.
Lex Foutish
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So you were talking through your hat on that one, without knowledge.
You seem to be missing the massive inequality in your own fair Dublin.
I didn't suggest that, you just didn't understand...the comment was that I felt safer there "than some spots in Dublin." Meaning that there are places in Dublin where I have felt very unsafe and that's a comparative judgement.
So, the converse of your statement is that complicated and equivocating opinions are not rubbish. I think therefore that I'll stick with simple, honest, consistent and straighforward if that's the choice and I'll let you represent the twisting world of shifting opinion.
Good post RMCF.
Nothing is ever as simple as barstool/media opinion would have us believe.
I was brought up a northern (now lapsed) prod, parents COI/RC, moved from very unionist NI town to republic.
I have experienced and seen ignorance/hostility/fear/apathy/whatever from every side and corner. TBH, I sometimes tire of coming from this island at all.
So you comment was so subjective it was meaningless. Now I understand, thanks.
Your lack of personal insight is staggering. Are you a politician by any chance?
I agree completely, great post.
Duke of Marmalade
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It was sickening to read Suzanne Breen in the Sunday Tribune. She quoted several dissidents who defended the recent murders.
We should learn from Austria. They are determined to to ensure "never again". For example, Holocaust denial in that country carries a jail sentence. We should make apologists for political murder similarly subject to automatic jail.
We should learn from Austria. They are determined to to ensure "never again". For example, Holocaust denial in that country carries a jail sentence. We should make apologists for political murder similarly subject to automatic jail.