The plantation of the Ulster-Scots happened over 400 years ago, the Protestants of Northern Ireland today have no other land they can go back to, they have lived on the island of Ireland for generations now and are loyal to Britain because they have been persecuted in the past as a minority by the Catholic Irish, hence why the partition was established in the first place. Telling them to leave is akin to saying that Ashkenazi Jews should leave Israel because a few arab savages were there before them.
Yes, the British were brutal in their oppression of the Irish but it's history and the tables have turned, the Irish catholic republicans are akin to the arabs who will kill women and children to fight against the "occupation" of Ireland. Sinn Fein have even borrowed from the arabs in that they have declared a ficticious "ceasefire" to gain legitimacy and have greatly succeeded as Martin McGuinness has become deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.
The Catholic Irish are absolute believers in the PLO/Hamas Arab Muslim Nazi cause and the IRA train, supply weapons and have even fought with the arabs. A visit down both the Falls Road and Shankill Road areas of Belfast clearly shows who is the moral party in all of this, the former catholic area proudly display PLO/Hamas Arab Muslim Nazi flags and anti-Israel slogans painted on huge murals such as "Gaza, the world's biggest concentration camp" whilst the latter Protestant area flies Israeli flags off of lamp posts and out of windows. Luckily for the Protestants, unlike the Jews, Catholicism is not Islam.
I like and appreciate this post.
I'm largely ignorant about the whole Northen Ireland situation.
In the considerable time I've spent in Mideast chatrooms on AOL, I've noticed that alot of folks calling themselves Irish would come in and quite frequently they would take the side of the Arabs, spouting the usual anti-Israel propaganda. After reading this post, I think I have a better understanding of the situation, and the denomination of these folks.
While I'm sure that there are exceptions to the generalizations made in your post, and that the Catholic Irish of Northern Ireland aren't monolithic in their support for the Paleostinkians, I can now safely say that my sympathies rest with the Protestants in this continuing dispute.
Oft times, it's hard for someone not well versed on a subject to separate the truth from the propaganda that invariably arises when long standing conflicts are involved. Every once in a while, someone that is knowledgeable provides information that is simple and almost anecdotal, but that allows the less informed to sort through the propaganda and helps reveal the true nature of the combatants.
The information you posted regarding the Falls Road and Shankill Road areas did just that for me.
Instinctively, I never did like the IRA, and loathed their violence, but thought maybe their cause had validity. Now I feel more comfortable trusting my instinct that the IRA is a bunch of illegitimate terrorist thugs, just like the Paleostinkians they support.
Now if someone could explain the difference between Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians to me I might be able to make some sense of other conflicts....never mind, I really don't want to know.
Thank you, AussieJTFer.