Time For Peace…Time To Go?
No. I’m not talking about sending the army away.
I mean, is it time to bundle the kiddies into the car, wave goodbye to the relatives and set sail for distant shores?
Why?
Well, since you asked…Things in Northern Ireland have taken a sour turn recently. This unpleasantness between Loyalists and Republicans is starting to wear me down. It’s the unrelenting hatred that is being shown. And it’s the unrelenting hatred that’s being endorsed by our politicians.
It’s all talk and no action. Every textbook condemnation. Every solemn newsbyte on UTV. Every time a politician opens his (or her) trap around here, hollow words come out. There’s no radical thought involved in condemning attacks - they’ve been condemned for decades. Rioting suited politicians for years - will of the people, oppressed underclasses - yes I’m talking about Sinn Fein and the other lot too.
They created ghettoes filled with tense, angry people. Divided communities to keep an element of fear. Elevated themselves as the protectors of these deluded neighbourhoods and ruled them with an iron fist.
Maybe back then, rioting was the only way for a community to get it’s voice heard. But today, when the IRA should be disappearing and the Loyalist gangsters slowly evaporating, this rioting seems uncontrollable. Where a new era of harmony should be emerging, old divisions are rising up instead, instilling the same illogical hatred in the same deluded underclasses.
What’s worse, the politicians have no control. The police have no control. Community representatives have no control. The people we are supposed to trust no longer have the power to contain the resentment. What we get are words. Empty statements. Hollow rhetoric. And they’re not even bothering to make it sound convincing anymore.
Back to me. Leaving. Or at least thinking about it.
This year, I tried to explain Loyalist flags to my three-year-old daughter. She still thinks someone’s having a party. How long before I have to explain something worse? How much worse? Do I have to worry that years from now, my son will forge some affiliation with balaclava afficionados?
And what about the baby, not even born yet? Can he expect to enter a Northern Ireland that is stuck in an endless cycle of violence and bored condemnation, violence and disinterested condemnation, violence and pathetic condemnation…..
Sometimes I just want to pack up and leave…..
I think many decent people (including the majority of my family) left years ago. Unfortunately that leaves us with a higher neanderthal bigots:normal people ratio and the vicious cycle continues…
Have to say Beano, I agree, I would be out of here tomorrow if my partner would tear himself away from NI. So perhaps us few hard core decent people could multipy (taking lessons of course from the Levees since they appear to have perfected the art of procreation)and we can take over from the bigots and small minded idots that make up a large percentage of this province
Yes. I only have to look at Mrs. Levee and she’s pregnant again! I’m thinking of giving lessons!
One of the main reasons I wouldn’t want to leave is because I don’t want to let the buggers win. Ordinary decent folk can’t take back this country if they leave it.
And no offence Mr Levee, but keep your lessons away from me!
Beano: OK, lessons are on the back burner for a while!
I was thinking of that breed for Ireland mantra. Except it would be breeding for peace.
Although you’d think the natural selection process would have kicked in by now and depleted some of the rioting population. Instead, they seem to breed like rabbits.
I suppose there’s nothing better to do in the break between Trisha and Jerry Springer….