Ah Troll
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stopbeinweird — 18 years ago(February 29, 2008 05:58 PM)
I don't know anybody today who was involved in the IRA so if you want me to apologise for something i dont, never did and never will condone then i would ask you to do it first since your country started it.
Your saying that people who suffer such injustice should forget about it and move on? Now i agree violence is in now way the answer but if people dont tell (and when i say tell i mean using their voice and nothing else) the rest of the world what has been done to them, how will the world ever change?
In the end you seem to just want the world to forget what happened so you dont have to deal with it. I know what the minority of people in my country have done because they thought it was just and i in no way defend it or say people should forget it because then nobody will ever learn.
Nobody is asking every English person to apologise, it would just be nice for your country to admit that what was done to Ireland was wrong and pain like that tends to live on even in those who dont take it to the extremes. In the same way that those affected in the retaliation were hurt and that will live on and that should be apologised for too, but at least our goverment never sanctioned it.
But to be honest i doubt you'll care because it seems your happy to ignore the past in favour of ignorance, repetition and just plain being happy not having to think about it
"You tried your best and failed miserably, the lesson is never try" -
peteandurnot — 18 years ago(May 30, 2007 03:00 AM)
What i do object to is English people failing to acknowledge their role in history and apologise for their failings in it. They brought some great things to the world they conquered however these achivements are far outweighed by the means they used to keep their victims in line<
Why should the English people of Today apologise for things that happened Hundreds of Years ago, things they had nothing to do with simply for the fact that the weren't even BORN then. I would agree that the British should acknowledge the faults of the History of their Country, thats fine, but you're going on as though it happened only a short while ago, and as though the English People of Today were totally involved. The English People of Today had no role whatsoever to do with the History between our Countries for the exact reasons I mentioned above. That they should acknowledge what happened, and that their Ancestors had many faults and did do some very nasty things is right, but for beep sake, stop trying to make the people of today apologise for it.
For more recent events like Bloody Sunday, its more understandable, but for events from Centuries ago?.
I can't believe some people still seem intent on holding on to anger over this. Its an important part of History, no question about that, but it should be used by both Countries together as a lesson, both to show how far we have come as Human Beings in the new 21st Century, to learn not to repeat mistakes of the past, and NOT to hold onto anger. Lets MOVE on people, join the rest of the developed World. -
perorewen — 18 years ago(December 13, 2007 07:12 AM)
I am using the word "colored" only as a quip against the word "white". I am doing this for two basic reasons: 1. the Irish call themselves "the blacks of Europe", and 2. they are the only "white" people treated like the rest of the world (colonized).
That being said, do you agree with the statement? I can't imagine anyone who would disagree. The Irish are the only "white" ethnic group that were colonized, that were butchered, and treated like sh*t. The British created policies so that way situations like the Famine could occur. The British often practiced colonial practices on Ireland before "outsourcing" it to the rest of the World.
I don't agree with this statement. Just look at the sami-population in Scandinavia. Was treated more than roughly.
Hugs
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mrh1000-1 — 18 years ago(March 02, 2008 12:42 PM)
What utter rubbish, modern Ireland is an extremely wealthy country with one of the highest GDP Rates in the World and it also has one of the highest rates of millionaires per capita in Europe.
Many English people are of Irish extraction, as are Scottish and Welsh.
Americans seem to think Ireland is some great distance away from the British mainland, it's not, it's a short plane ride, and many British people visit Ireland. The North Channel strait, of the Irish Sea is only 13 miles (21 km) across at its narrowest point between mainland Great Britain and Ireland.
In 2001, there were 674,786 people in England (1.4 per cent of the population) who had been born in Ireland. This is the greatest concentration of Irish-born - as distinct from persons of Irish ancestry - abroad anywhere in the world, and equivalent to 12.1% of the population of the island of Ireland (5.6 million) in 2001.
In 2001, around 55,000 people in Scotland (1.1 per cent of the Scottish population) had been born in Ireland, while people of Irish (either Protestant or Catholic) heritage make up 20% of the Scottish population. Scotland has a greater number of persons born in Northern Ireland (0.66 per cent) than in the Republic of Ireland (0.43%).
Starting in the 4th century, Irish raiders settled Wales extensively, their impact being so great that many Gaelic words were introduced into the Welsh language. In 2001 there were 20,569 people in Wales (0.7% of the population) who had been born in Ireland. St Patrick (Patron Saint of Ireland) is believed to have been Welsh, and became a missionary converting the people of Ireland to
the christian faith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Briton
An even greater percentage of English, Irish and Welsh have Irish Ancestory, but we don't tend to go on about it like the tenth generation American 'plastic paddys' who come out every St Patricks day for the craic.
Another preconception Americans have is that most Irish people support the paramilitaries, this is not true at all, many hate them and are horrified by the violence. Sadly both the Loyalist and Republican the paramilitaries have now become increasingly involved in organised crime.
It's also laughable that Hollywood potray the English as toffs with upper class accents. Whilst the vast majority of English people are working class and have string regional accents, often just as distinct as the Irish accents. -
albertflasher — 17 years ago(April 10, 2008 01:14 PM)
Oh give me a break. Comparing the white Irish to black Americans is ridiculous, especially in light of the fact that Irish are known to be INCREDIBLY RACIST towards black people. During the Civil War, the Archbishop of New York, Irishman John Hughes, was very pro-slavery. And don't forget the horrible Draft Riots, in which mobs of Irish scum TORTURED, CASTRATED and LYNCHED black men, and also killed women and children. A "colored orphanage" was burnt and were it not for the kindness of passersby, scores of children would have been killed. After the war, "Tammany Hall," the name for the New York political organization controlled by largely Irish politicians, was known for their animus toward black people. Flash forward to the seventies, and there's the race riots in "Southie" (South Boston) in the 1970's over busing that made headlines all over the world. The list goes on and on.
I'm a person of color and I wouldn't visit Ireland if you paid me, because from what I understand dark-skinned immigrants to Ireland (especially Northern Ireland) face a very hard time, too. Now why am I not surprised? -
Sheriff_Of_Nottingham — 15 years ago(July 05, 2010 09:02 PM)
The reason the English conquered the Irish during the medieval period was because the Irish were raiding England's western coast and butchering English subjects. And there were famines in Ireland long before the British.
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Krauser-san — 15 years ago(August 07, 2010 10:04 AM)
^lol, did you read that on the back of a John Bull cereal box?
It took Britain centuries to fully conquer Ireland. The Gaels were long past raiding English coasts when Cromwell came over to reconquer the lands form Irish Confederates and killed nearly have the civilian population. -
EibhlinnSavage — 15 years ago(December 21, 2010 02:50 AM)
Anyone who has done Postcolonial Studies in Ireland knows that the Irish are considered to be the only occidental postcolonial country. It's a little bit more complicated and subtle than simply being the blacks of Europe. But yeah, you've got the gist of it. The Irish were colonized, enslaved, murdered and treated as an inferior race by the British. The marks on the culture and the national psyche are very similar to that of other countries that have been colonized. One notable difference though is that the Irish have thrived as a country (at least in the South, Northern Ireland is a whole other story) since then, whereas most other postcolonial nations are still struggling with the aftermath of colonialism.
Eibhlinn Savage
[insert movie quote]
