Well done Belfast. Rioting over a flag. Merry Xmas to you!!

[narmour]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20589957

Yet again, a minority of idiots have made the headlines and made our city look like it is populated by Neanderthals. This is a non issue which makes us all look rediculous. It makes me embarrassed to call myself Northern Irish sometimes.

 

[Frogfurlong]

This is a non issue which makes us all look rediculous. It makes me embarrassed to call myself Northern Irish sometimes.

It does not make YOU look rediculous, it makes the morons who have rioted look rediculous.
Never feel embarrassed to call yourself Northern Irish. These idiots have won if you do.

 

[Wendy1971]

:clap: Well said carl

 

[calumscott]

This is a non issue which makes us all look rediculous. It makes me embarrassed to call myself Northern Irish sometimes.

It does not make YOU look rediculous, it makes the morons who have rioted look rediculous.
Never feel embarrassed to call yourself Northern Irish. These idiots have won if you do.

Spot on! Yes it's a disgrace, yes I can understand why you could feel like that, but really there is no need.

The vast majority of the thinking public know full-well that there is a small (simple) minded yob minority at work here and the overwhelming majority of Northern Irish are decent, friendly, inclusive, and peace loving souls...

...like you.

(although I have met a couple of the minority in the past - f**k me they're scary people...)

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Plenty of idiots over here....

BB

 

[narmour]

This is a non issue which makes us all look rediculous. It makes me embarrassed to call myself Northern Irish sometimes.

It does not make YOU look rediculous, it makes the morons who have rioted look rediculous.
Never feel embarrassed to call yourself Northern Irish. These idiots have won if you do.

Spot on! Yes it's a disgrace, yes I can understand why you could feel like that, but really there is no need.

The vast majority of the thinking public know full-well that there is a small (simple) minded yob minority at work here and the overwhelming majority of Northern Irish are decent, friendly, inclusive, and peace loving souls...

...like you.

(although I have met a couple of the minority in the past - f**k me they're scary people...)

If only that were the case for the rest of the world. So many times I have received emails from American or Australian friends asking if I'm safe when there is a small but highly publicised riot going on. The message that gets out to the rest of the world is that Belfast is literally destroying itself, and it should be treated as dangerous. We rely on American tourism over here, and these incidents do nothing for our reputation as a safe tourist destination. In the rest of the UK there seems to be a bit more sanity about how these incidents are covered in the media, and the average resident of Great Britain can see them for what they are. But I worry about the damage these idiots are doing to our economy, especially during a peak tourist season. Whilst these riots were going on, there was a Continental market full of tourists on the other side of the City Hall. I don't kow if any damage was done to the stalls, but I would be surprised if many of the foreign stall holders (who pay Belfast City Council handsomely for the privelege to sell there) are wondering whether to bother next year.

 

[Gayle]

Reading that article, all I could do was laugh. No, riots are not funny, but the minds of some people are. How can it be a "provocation" when it doesn't take very much to provoke such people whose only reaction is to throw bricks and burning bottles? And prominent politicians think we have to pander to those people, in place of democracy, because of threat of violent retailation. Dear me. At least it's never shocking.

I quite like this bit:

"If that had been 1,000 or more republicans out there they would not have left it that they were able to come into the back of city hall."

Condemning the police force with "you're lucky loyalists aren't as good at rioting than republicans" :lol:

As for tourism, many people I've met who've been here on holiday have been disappointed by the lack of "events" going on at the time, apparently it's part of the fun :lol:

 

[wezil]

Arrr democarcy! great idea till someone does something someone else dosn't like!!

 

[mike383838]

Not to be political but I found this on you-tube and reminded me that N.Ireland is not dissimilar from the conflict in the middle east. Whoever cry's and screams the most gets their way. Lets hope someone eventually will have a bit of sense, get into power, and stop using the naughty step and discipline the child properly by taking all its toys away for a long time. I hate the way the press always find the interviewees with the least amount of intelligence to give their opinion, thankfully the world has some intelligence and knows an arse from an elbow. The "smart ones" brought their kids with them to riot, and then complained to the police when they got hurt, reminded me of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbdnu_R9G40

 

[wezil]

Isreal was born from conflict! Check out the Stern gang or more correctly Irgun Zvia Leumi on google! Talk about calling the pot calling the kettle black in Isreal

 

[mike383838]

In Belfast they put the kids on the front line, pushed them up to the doors and threw the bricks over their heads at the police. Fanatics will always be fanatics, lets just make sure we don't put them in charge on either side. :grin: I hate politics, but it surrounds us here unfortunately.

 

[mifune]

lol, a can of worms!

but to be fair, i think most countries in the U.K. would have rioting if their national flag was refused to flown over public buildings voted in by a minority of opinion in the country.

personally, it's just a flag, why bother taking it down if its going to cause this trouble?

once/if the country ever has enough support to be united ireland or seperate country altogether, will that flag be voted down from public offices too?

personally , im happy to see the flag of our country <union jack> being flown otherwise whats the point of having a flag at all? but its still only a flag, cloth with colors.

anyway, as the Indians used to say, its just soil, you cant own it.

and things will be just as rubbish whatever you call this country , whatever politicians you vote in or whatever little flag you want to fly.


anyway, may i humbly request this thread locked, northern ireland threads can get a bit .... um.....riotous!!! :lol:

brew beer, it takes the pain away!! :

 

[jonewer]

I think the person who really ended up looking like a fool was the guy punching the armoured landy..... erm... I think thats hurting you a not inconsiderable amount more than its hurting the armoured landy, pal! :lol:

 

[Mark1964]

Plenty of idiots over here....

BB

Yes and i work with them :lol:

 

[mike383838]

“Those Protestants…up to no good as usual”.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[narmour]

What makes me laugh is that this decision has actually brought us in line with the rest of the UK. It is by no means the norm to fly the union flag 365 days a year anywhere, Belfast city council just did it as a two fingered salute to the nationalist community as a show of 'strength' in the bad old days of the bigoted unionist bear pit in the city hall. They must be smarting now they've lost their wee old boys club. Interestingly, Lisburn town council also voted to fly the union flag 365 days a year. During the same session they also voted against a motion to build social housing in a predominantly catholic area, with councillors openly stating that they would facilitate 'fenians' coming into their area over their dead bodies. So it's pretty obvious that the union flag could be seen as a negative symbol with so many sinister connotations.

I think mifune, you may be guilty of over trivialising the matter. If the flag hadn't been seen as so devisive for years then go for it, fly it over the city hall. It's so much more than just a piece of cloth in this country and I'm surprised you can't see that since you live here yourself. It's an emblem of devision which a significant proportion of the population take exception to. And so the vote went ahead the way it did. That's democracy. Like it or not, without it, there would be no change.

Personally it doesn't offend me but I sure as hell don't see it's removal as a bad thing. If it offends some people, take it down. Simple.

Rant over.