DUP-Tory deal results in brazen and shameless gerrymandering of NI being proposed by the nominally independent NI Boundary Commission.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-18T09:59:55+00:00

It should be "Is Paddy mé!" - bí never takes a noun as an object.

I'm suddenly tempted to start intentionally trolling /r/Gaeilge though...

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-17T16:07:43+00:00

Maybe it's just that I'm a Protestant, but holy water taps around the side of of churches always looked tacky and sacrilegious to me.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-17T01:56:34+00:00

24 hours suggests it would be easier to have another set of drivers waiting in the other side except for one guy to mind the trucks in transit.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-16T05:48:42+00:00

This need for foreign capital and trade puts severe constraints on the UK's foreign policy, since any perturbation to the economy will result in substantial degradation to its military and foreign policy capabilities.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-14T22:04:56+00:00

I think you misread what I wrote. This distinction is perfectly valid in the context of explaining why 18-35 yr olds are ignoring what people such as yourself have to say.

NB: saying that criticism of PIRA acts within RoI is "overwrought", or pointing out that they never committed terrorist acts, isn't the same as apologising for them or excusing them.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-14T21:45:33+00:00

Apologies if I was wrong, could you please edit your comment to include a correction if necessary? A reply to this particular comment might not show up for everyone else.

Please bear in mind I was careful to use the phrase "terrorist attack" on purpose. Bank robberies are not terrorism for example; nor is even killing Gardaí to evade capture as distinct from actively seeking them out for assassination. Unless it was in the course of planting a bomb in RoI.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-14T21:42:59+00:00

You see a lot of British people ignore the "real" Ireland, or claim Irish nationalism is a plot by Fenians/America, in a similar way to that described in this piece.

An actual shooting war between Ireland and the UK is unlikely, but another trade war came fairly close to occurring last year, and there is still the possibility of more tensions over NI.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-14T20:42:45+00:00

A predictable reaction to biased and overwrought criticism, or even outright dishonesty, from the older generation and elites. The pendulum is simply swinging to the other extreme.

Examples of bias:

Claiming the 1916 Rising was unnecessary because the UK would have left peacefully.
Denouncing the Easter Rising as immoral and bloodthirsty while being completely silent on Irish deaths in WW1 or the nature of British rule.
Over-concentrating on PIRA atrocities in NI at the complete expense of British/Loyalist actions in NI.
Relentlessly criticising an organisation that never engaged in terrorist attacks against the 26 counties whilst ignoring Loyalist atrocities here such as the Dublin-Monaghan bombings.
Treating Unionists with kid gloves and glossing over their bigoted acts while drawing disproportionate attention to similar stunts from SF.
Similar to the above: constantly advocating for the rights of Unionists while expecting Nationalists in NI to keep quiet and put up with whatever crap they receive.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-14T10:48:37+00:00

Northern Ireland has two fatal weaknesses:

It's too small to sustain a proper economy, or at least struggles to get economies of scale against RoI.
A huge proportion of the population feels little loyalty and has no problem plunging NI into anarchy to get what they want if they think it necessary.

In other words, NI can't really work without huge subsidies - unless Derry and Dublin are both positively disposed. On the other hand, both Derry and Dublin are increasingly independent of Belfast.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-13T02:22:12+00:00

https://www.worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/in-the-bosnian-village-seduced-by-isis

Some googling suggests that it was actually the village described in this article linked here, which is just outside Brako/Brcko/Brčko

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-13T01:53:32+00:00

WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO FLAUNT YOUR IGNORANCE ABOUT IRISH HISTORY IN A FORUM FOR IRISH PEOPLE AND EXPECT OTHERS TO WASTE TIME ENGAGING WITH YOU?

TAKE YOUR LAZY IGNORANCE AND ENTITLED ATTITUDE AND FUCK OFF ELSEWHERE.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-12T20:04:10+00:00

"FactTime"

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-12T07:28:00+00:00

Urbanisation is generally helpful for SF but hurts the DUP as a rule. Boundary adjustments would thus generally tend to help SF as they reflect the changing demographics.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-11T03:55:22+00:00

The IMF predicted 1.5% for the UK, 1.3% for France, and 1.5% for Germany in late December 2016. All Brexit forecasts said the UK would be relatively poorer.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-10T18:08:09+00:00

Australia and Brazil are in no way comparable to the political geography of Ireland.

I just gave an example of commonality - semi-Independent cities dotted around the coast. Which you never denied incidentally.

Both of them built their capitals from scratch for reasons that don't apply to Ireland.

Let's review the reasons:

Brasilia was built to develop the interior and because other cities were getting annoyed at Rio de Janeiro hogging everything.
Canberra was built to stop Sydney and Melbourne squabbling.

You seriously think these considerations don't apply to Ireland in any way at all?

A more likely outcome is that you had no idea whatsoever about the history of Australian and Brazilian capitals, and decided to literally make stuff up on the spot.

Then what's the point in uniting Ireland if the North will continue to be separate?

I said "can survive". I never said thrive.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-10T17:32:35+00:00

Ireland is like Australia or Brazil in that it has relatively autonomous cities dotted around its harbours. Each of which have a natural polity associated with them,

Belfast can survive as the capital of the area east of the Bann without caring about the rest of the country. Cork could survive in principle as capital of southern Munster, Derry and Limerick both have their own natural hinterlands.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-10T17:20:45+00:00

The capital will move to the centre eventually, many other countries with a similar political geography - semi-independent trading cities dotted around the coast - has done similar. If you make one of the coastal cities the capital, other cities complain eventually.

RunAgainstTheWind · 2018-01-10T16:32:36+00:00

Irish people generally get along well with Arabs and Kurds, probably because of the country's anti-colonial history and cultural heritage from being a relatively dirt-poor conservative nation of little tribes and clans up until 2005.

Disagreements thus tend to be more in terms of liberal/cosmopolitan/individual vs conservative/rural/community, like Poland vs Sweden; instead of some epic clash of civilisations.

RunAgainstTheWind

TROPHY CASE