Back to The Troubles?

This is a great, great book on the "troubles".

Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder and Memory In Northern Ireland

The problems of Northern Ireland, have declined sharply since the accords of the 90's, as well explained in the book. And I find it said that this progress may be shattered because of Brexit, which in my view was just nationalistic drum beating.

 

I wonder how interconnected the global right-wing groups are with the IRA (or the other side).

 

I don’t think the Catholic side maps onto left wing-right wing politics as we understand them very well. But the Ulster Loyalists seem to be super cozy with the Torries throughout the years.

 

The other side mostly, although dixiehack correctly points out there's no direct linkage to most US lib/con issues. For instance there's bitter infighting among the supposedly staunch Catholic IRA/Sinn Fein factions over abortion.

 

Read this a few months ago. It's seriously one of the best things I've ever read.

It's really hard for people here to grasp the depth of the hostilities behind the Troubles. And while it's split along religious lines, it's not really about religion at this point. Catholics have been oppressed forever in Northern Ireland and that was the genesis of the conflict. At this stage, though, there's no reconciliation possible, only a slight hold on peace, and a great chance the Brexit will destroy everything that's been done to stop the killing.

A bit of personal history: My grandfather was from Derry and emigrated in the 20s, when a whole lot of Irish Catholic men had to get the hell out or face prison or worse. My parents and I visited Derry in 1977 when I was ten years old. That was a particularly awful time for the Troubles. (We got there in a rental car on a ferry from Scotland. When we arrived at night we were out of gas, no hotel and no way to contact family. We spent the night in the car in a gas station parking lot. Our family there was astonished we survived the night.)

I have no idea what my grandfather was involved in, but this is probably some indication: when were were there in '77 we had tea at the home of one of the leaders of the IRA, who invited us because of my grandfather... who was dead and had left 50 years earlier. There is now a football stadium named for my grandfather in the area. There's a hell of a story there, but my mom doesn't seem to know much of it -- I'm trying to learn more about him, but it's not something people talk about and his contemporaries are now gone.

Bottom line: the Republicans (the IRA/Catholic side) are never, ever backing down on the fight for independence and proper treatment from the British government. The Unionists are not going to back down, at this point largely because they refuse to cede a victory to tactics used by the IRA and its variations. They achieved a tenuous peace that lasted remarkably long, all things considered. I suspect Brexit will destroy that in the very near future.

 

I have firsthand knowledge of this from the early 1990s. Then as now, I'm highly skeptical one red cent found its way to the Emerald Isle.

 

That's historically been a serious problem there: constant funding from Irish-Americans who have somehow fetishized the violence and insist on funding it. They love the bombings as long as they're happening on another continent.

 

The roots go back 400 years.

Plantation of Ulster - Wikipedia

 

Of my 16 great-great grandparents, 14 came over from Ireland between 1840 and 1865.
Of those 14, 12 came from the provinces of Connaught (the NW corner of the Republic), and Ulster, ie Northern Ireland. Of course, they all got out of there well before 1916.
As far as I know, there was never any great sympathy for the IRA among my grandparents, but they definitely agreed that their own parents had wished the British would get the hell out.

 

It was the same thing here in Toronto from ex-pats or Irish Canadians who felt the same way. Irish pubs across the city collected money to send to the old country. My old man, a Scotsman with little use for the Irish - and I am sure it was mutual - knew a guy who worked at one of the breweries here and it was full of ex pats or those who wish they were and they collected loads of money to send over there.

 

The Good Friday Agreement is a good noble document. But the EU provided the safety valve, as well as help in pouring billions into Northern Ireland.

It's a weird situation. Many of the younger British people I know don't even realize that Northern Ireland is legally part of the United Kingdom... the same as England, Scotland and Wales.