Thank you Mr President

[capt_buzzard]

President Bush bans Irish Nationalist Republicans and Unionists from the St Patrick's Day celebrations at the Whitehouse. President Bush decided to bar the nationalist republicans because they have been linked to the Northern Ireland Bank raid robbery and other IRA crime. Also included in the ban are, all Unionists Parties of Ulster Northern Ireland and the SDLP.

Thank you Mr President

[Bill Sikes]

Originally Posted by Jives

Just so I'll understand, can you explain exactly why this decision was so bad?
Who are the Nationalist Republicans (in a nutshell) and what do they stand for?
Who are the Unionists and what's their crusade?
And who are the guys with just an ancronym for a name... the SDLP?

BAD??? "Who are the (snip)?" - ???? Good Lord.

[capt_buzzard]

Originally Posted by Jives

Does anybody else besides me think it's ironic that movies like, "Oceans 11" and "The Italian Job" glorify robberies, but when someone does it for real, we are all incensed?

So Capt...let me get this straight, first all the Arabs are Terrorists, now all the Irish are terrorists too? And our Repblican President just banned a bunch of Republicans?!! This is geting hard to follow.

Just so I'll understand, can you explain exactly why this decision was so bad?
Who are the Nationalist Republicans (in a nutshell) and what do they stand for?
Who are the Unionists and what's their crusade?
And who are the guys with just an ancronym for a name... the SDLP?

The Nationalist Republicans are Sinn Fein IRA & their supporters. The Social Democrats & Labour Party is a branch of the Irish & British Labour party. I don't think they have an armed private army unlike the Sinn Fein IRA.As for banning the rest, well you will have to ask the White House.

[Bothwell]

Capn, one of the more amusing interviews I heard with Gerry (I dont know anyone in the IRA) Adams was regarding the guy murdered in a North Belfast pub with 70 witnesses and nobody saw anything.

Well the family in this case had the guts (and I mean real guts) to go public and call the IRA on it.

Next thing Gerry(see above) Adams is on the BBC telling us that the IRA had expelled 3 members who they thought were involved, but how did Gerry (not in the IRA)Adams know this????

What was heartening was the support from the community for this family, it is only when the people start to turn on the thugs from both sides of the divide that there will ever be a chance of peace IMO. It also appears that Bertie is getting tough with Gerry.

PS what is happening on Berties bowl.

[capt_buzzard]

Bothwell, I agree with you on the peace. Now to answer the other Q.The family had real guts to stand up to these thugs (IRA) because that's all they are.As for these guys being expelled, well that's just a whitewash. It looks good on the BBC and in the Press.But does one really believe them? The 10 or more IRA men that were involved in this murder are now out of the country (Ireland) probably resting in Northern Spain (Basque Country) do you get my drift?

And Bertie Ahern, the PM. Nobody believes Bertie. And the only bowl he has, is at breakfast.

[capt_buzzard]

Originally Posted by Jives

so let's see if I've got this right...

The Republicans (Nationalist and Sinn Fein)in your country are armed and dangerous,

But the Democrats are more moderate and peaceful, right?

Is there still a lot of Protestant vs. Catholic violence going on? I have to say that honestly when I learned about that "war" in school, I was seriously confused. Aren't they both Christians? I can understand wars between people with different religions such as Islam vs. Christianity, but the Irish war makes no sense to me.

The Northern Irish don't make much sense to us Southern Irish. Yes, the Sinn Fein IRA are a very dangerous lot. They are involved in Robbery, tax fraud, extortion, blackmail, guns for hire, counterfeiting and above all smuggling. As for being Christian. They don't know the meaning of the word.

[capt_buzzard]

Originally Posted by Jives

Fascinating. So that post implies that it's more of a "North vs. South" war, eh?

We had one of those, we called it "The Civil War". Does this impact your personal life much? Or is it one of those, "If I don't go into certain places, I'm OK" type of things? (Sort of like the way that white people don't go into Compton in Los Angeles, because of the gangs.)

We are somewhat normal and more human friendly down South. Even the Brits get along with most Southern Irish

[Bothwell]

Jives it did and still impacts your life in the most extreme way, wrong place at the wrong time could cost you your life. It is actually more difficult than compton because everyone is the same colour, it is religion that is the reason for this violence.

It is much better than it used to be but you still have to exercise caution.

[gmc]

posted by jives

Is there still a lot of Protestant vs. Catholic violence going on? I have to say that honestly when I learned about that "war" in school, I was seriously confused. Aren't they both Christians? I can understand wars between people with different religions such as Islam vs. Christianity, but the Irish war makes no sense to me.
__________________

It's a hangover from the religious wars of the past, in northern ireland there were economic reasons as well stemming from protestant settlers-mainly scots, hensce tyhe belfast scots being settled to Northern ireland and taking the best land off the catholics. It's a complex nightmare you would not believe. The most vicious wars are history are those fought over religon or caused by it depending on your point of view. sectarianism is fairly rife in scotland as well if you go to the wrong pubs in the wroing part of town especially during an old firm game. Religon is the only discrimination allowed, a non catholic can't teach at a catholic school. You still cannot have a catholic marrying in to the royal family-not that many would care.

Southern Ireland has been independent since 1921, I get the impression many americans still think the british occupy all of ireland. The country was partitioned else there would have been a bloodbath as the protestants would never accept rule by a catholic majority. to understand you would have to go back to elizabethan times even then it makes no sense today. The question then was who rules the king or the bishop of Rome? State or church. That's one of the reasons freedom of religon was so important to the writers of your constitution. Having seen the religious wars of England and europe they were quite keen to avoid similar conflict. It's an age old conflict, catholic against protestant that the rest of europe leave alone.

Your civil war was pretty vicious but you never tied captives to a stake and set them on fire to save their souls singing hymns as they did so, good caring christians did that kind of thing to those they disagreed with.

[lady cop]

Originally Posted by Jives

Whoa. You mean that Christians actually burned each other? No wonder there are still hard feelings. of course I shouldn't be surprised....We did it ourselves at Salem. (Of course those were "witches".

it's a common misconception "witches" were burned at Salem. they weren't, they were drowned. or hung. to prove you were not a witch you were put underwater in a pond. if you drowned, you were innocent! if you survived being weighted down in the pond you were clearly a witch.