In all seriousness, do you trust your own perception as far as this topic is concerned?

Belief systems and religions have evolved too.

:joker:

Clearly some a lot more than others.

Doesn't change what I said.

Which religion are you? You seem very reluctant to intergrate. Would you say you are reflective of everyone else from your religion?

I'm not religous. I have little time for people who use religion to control and imprison people.

Integration? :joker: Weren't we discussing Ireland on another thread?...Great example of Christian integration there. :/

The problems in NI are less about religion and more about being Irish Vs being British imo

It was said in jest,sense of humour bypass much!! who said anything about curry houses being an invasion ? can't beat a decent veggie curry !!!

Hilarious as we were just saying how all religions integrate with one another.


Oh wait, nobody did.

Veggie? VEGGIE? You scrape that into the dustbin and get yourself a proper curry missy. :fist:

So the Catholic v Protestant thing is simply a cover?

I felt the tone was Christians integrate better than other religions, I don't believe they do. I was highlighting this, hope this explains my view to your satisfaction.

No need for the sarcasm Kizzy

The Irish in NI are mainly catholic because Ireland is mainly a Catholic country and the "British" in the Northern Ireland are mainly Protestant because Britain is a mainly protestant country. The catholics in NI are not trying to convert the Protestants or force their religious wills on the Protestants and vice versa so it's not a religious war imo, they were never fighting in the name of religion, it was always a nationality and civil rights issue not a religious one. It's Protestant V's catholics because like I said Irish are more often Catholics and British are more often Protestant :shrug:

The issue spills over into Scotland quite a bit and I would say, certainly here at least, that it is 90% "Tribal" and has nothing to do with the actual religion. It centers heavily around Rangers/Celtic, if anything. If you asked anyone "involved" in the ... bickering ... then they would certainly say it's about Catholics and Protestants (although they would use less polite terms) but if you dig a little deeper, most of them don't follow anything religious at all. I'd say it's often more simple than being about ANY religious or political ideology of any kind... it's simply "two sides" who have been at each other's throats for centuries and pass the inherited mutual prejudice along family lines. It's not "about" anything. They hate each other 'cos they hate each other.

+1

That's how i saw it aswell.Although i did work with an Irish lad who hated protestants.He'd call them "Dem ****'n steel rods" "Da ****'n prods".

Lovely :laugh: But even there, I'm guessing he doesn't really hate them because they follow a slightly different version of Christianity to him, it was probably more like TS said, a tribal/national thing when you get down to it

I wasn't being sarcastic, England wasn't mainly a Protestant country until the reformation, which was a very religious thing.

The reformation was in the 16th century though, Northern Ireland was only formed in 1921, I'm talking specifically about NI

Yes so am I, the ill feeling goes back that far isn't that why Orangemen are called Orangemen?

I don't think you can say its "not about anything" :umm2: many families will have had people killed by both sides during the troubles, and going back further by the the black and tans, and going back further by the English letting people literally die during the famine.. yes for some people it might be about nothing but only if they have no family history. It is time to put it aside, and move forward that said though some people are still very angry about what happened during the troubles as evidenced by the Martin McGuinness thread and are not ready to put it aside and it is easy for me to say because I didn't lose anyone in the troubles, my Grand Uncle was killed by the black and tans and is remembered on a monument in my home town and I still remember my grandmother his sister telling me stories about it. I expect by the time the generations who were involved in the troubles die out and as long as there is no repeat, then in two generations time people might be ready to move on?

We will have to wait for Niamh to expire as well she is not from the Rebel County for nothing :laugh:

Kizzy the ill feeling is because Ireland was split in two and half the people wanted a unified Ireland and the other "British" half did not. The Orange men are just a way to show how British they are. There were actually Protestants who were in the IRA so that alone blows the theory of it being a religious war out of the water