They make good points. There’s a lot of people here just eager to participate in the same kind of triumphalism they attack unionists for once unification happens. There are even frequently morons on this subreddit unironically proposing all the unionists be deported in a United Ireland.
I don’t understand what this article is on about to be honest. What do southern protestants need to speak up about? As far as I know they are Irish and feel just as Irish as anyone else. Nobody cares if someone (either Catholic or protestant) plays GAA or not.
Maybe if they spoke up they’d realise nobody cares.
Is there any basis for this if the speaker is from NI and is former security forces? I’ll understand his perception, but what is it that qualifies him to speak for Protestants here?
Protestants can say what they want here, I even grew up beside protestants here in the ROI who considered themselves British, it didn’t stop us being friends and good neighbours
I’m a southern protestant and I have zero idea what this piece is about. If it’s about former RUC crimes then that’s a NI issue and not to be applied to every protestant. To listen to these pieces you’d never believe there could be such a thing as a republic involving protestants.
As I said on the NI sub, this might be one of the dumbest, laziest, pandering pieces of waffle I’ve had the misfortune of reading. Turns out that ex-police and ex-soldiers have the same feelings and concerns as Loyalists. They have the same complete ignorance and lack of awareness about ROI as Loyalists. They have the same total lack of introspection or irony when it comes to ‘persecuted minorities’ as Loyalists. TL;DR basically ex-police and ex-soldiers are Loyalists.
>*“As a former security force member, I still feel that we are being victimszed and villainised, so with that perception it’s hard to speak openly. “Every time you lift a newspaper, it’s about what a member of the police or the armed forces has done. It’s a bit like when people say such and such a force is institutionally racist – we’re now institutionally uniformed terrorists, which is complete and utter nonsense, because what we did was our job.”*
Maybe if they had done their jobs without murdering innocent civilians, or colluding to murder innocent civilians. Maybe if the ones who weren’t murdering and colluding had investigated, arrested and prosecuted the murderers…..
>*All agree that if there has been “wrongdoing in the past, that should be investigated, but it seems to be one-sided”. Scott says:*
Why does it seem to be one sided Scott. Why. Perhaps the full machinery of the British state was brought to bear on arresting Republicans while failing to investigate Loyalist collusion within your own ranks or the British Government’s role in the mass murder of innocent Catholics by the RUC, UDR and Loyalist Paramilitaries. Why does this powerful perception whcih acknowledges that “all agree there has been wrong doing” never extend to any commentary from P.U.L. representatives that their state sanctioned sectarian marginaization of Catholics and Nationalists created the Troubles, created the IRA and directly led to thousands of deaths?
>*“So 100 years later, the only people who are still being vilified were the police officers, and everybody has been exonerated except for those poor policemen, many of whom were Catholics who were shot dead in their homes, shot dead on trains and everything else in a cowardly and horrible way,” says Scott.*
Maybe if they hadn’t formed an exclusively Protestant police force in the form of the Special Constabularies; an actual armed wing of the Orange Order which it was said at the time was impossible for Catholics to join. Perhaps if those constabularies hadn’t carried out an official policy of reprisals; the retaliatory mass murder of innocent Catholics whenever the IRA targeted security forces. Then of course when they disbanded the Specials they encouraged all ex-specials to join the UDR……maybe just maybe, if the police and security forces had actually done their actual job, at any point in the last 100 years they wouldn’t feel paranoid about a United Ireland.
>*Kenny adds: “How can they ever invite anybody to join them when they’ve said no, don’t want a new national anthem, don’t want a new flag? They’re not doing anything to attract people.”*
Trivialities like economic prosperity, equality, educational attainment, foreign investment and quality of life don’t concern Kenny….Kenny is only concerned with the big things. Fleg.
>*Scott says: “Republicanism has to realise, it’s not just taking one group of people and plonking them down South, it’s 750,000 people, a million people, you just can’t push a million people to do what they want them to do, especially with their past.”*
Jesus christ, the irony I can’t……the irony….make it stop.
The Northern Parliament was abolished in 1972, 34 years after Ireland chose Douglas Hyde, a southern Protestant, as our president.
In those 34 years, and in all the previous years, the Northern government had one Catholic minister. He lasted six months.
Every single northern prime minister was not only a Protestant, but a member of the Orange Order, and all but three ministers in the entire history of the Northern Parliament were members of the Orange Order.
95 MPs were elected to Stormont without becoming ministers. 87 of them were members of the Orange Order. With one exception, every single Unionist Senator was a member of the Orange Order.
One jurisdiction on this island built a cold house for its confessional minority after partition. It wasn’t the southern jurisdiction. We can be proud of the way our state treated southern Protestants and how their cultivation as equal citizens led to the success and prosperity we enjoy today.
The Northern state had to be abolished.
Their feelings seem like projection to me, Southern Protestants faired far better than Northern Catholics post-partition. Also claiming they’ll have no voice is nonsense I guarantee if reunification happens the likes of the DUP be the loudest shouting, most visible minority in the country crying oppression every minute.
Just the west Brit Irish times at their lark. A big story about nothing. Just negative words to fill a page, so to try and discourage the coming UI.
They’d better not speak up… the Laois labour camps and Wicklow salt mines are rightly to be feared! Bord na Mona’s famous bog railways were built on the bones of…
Ah, never mind. Some folk will take this seriously.
Terrible article, why not interview southern protestants and have a well formed “both” sides article.
As a Protestant in the republic, I have pretty much nothing in common with the Protestant community up north.
Their bullshit doesn’t exist down here, nobody gives a crap. I mean, I went to a Catholic school, played GAA (badly and briefly) & lived a very normal “Irish” life.
Being Protestant isn’t my identity like it is for people up north, I’m Irish, that’s my identity if we’re talking about grouping people.
Just because I have been baptised by a man with a wider collar, have a natural intuition for jam making and sing a mean hymn, doesn’t mean I have anything to speak up about or fear in doing so.
All in all, the Protestant community up north need to stop seeing us as some kind of ally behind enemy lines, because they can get fucked for the most part projecting their issues on us prods in the republic.
When i was growing up i had friends, theyre all still good friends and it was only in my teens that it transpired that some of my friends were protestants, did it matter? did it f**k, we’re all still great friends today, and none of that nonsense that they hold dear in NI is relevant down here.
14 comments
They make good points. There’s a lot of people here just eager to participate in the same kind of triumphalism they attack unionists for once unification happens. There are even frequently morons on this subreddit unironically proposing all the unionists be deported in a United Ireland.
I don’t understand what this article is on about to be honest. What do southern protestants need to speak up about? As far as I know they are Irish and feel just as Irish as anyone else. Nobody cares if someone (either Catholic or protestant) plays GAA or not.
Maybe if they spoke up they’d realise nobody cares.
Is there any basis for this if the speaker is from NI and is former security forces? I’ll understand his perception, but what is it that qualifies him to speak for Protestants here?
Protestants can say what they want here, I even grew up beside protestants here in the ROI who considered themselves British, it didn’t stop us being friends and good neighbours
I’m a southern protestant and I have zero idea what this piece is about. If it’s about former RUC crimes then that’s a NI issue and not to be applied to every protestant. To listen to these pieces you’d never believe there could be such a thing as a republic involving protestants.
As I said on the NI sub, this might be one of the dumbest, laziest, pandering pieces of waffle I’ve had the misfortune of reading. Turns out that ex-police and ex-soldiers have the same feelings and concerns as Loyalists. They have the same complete ignorance and lack of awareness about ROI as Loyalists. They have the same total lack of introspection or irony when it comes to ‘persecuted minorities’ as Loyalists. TL;DR basically ex-police and ex-soldiers are Loyalists.
>*“As a former security force member, I still feel that we are being victimszed and villainised, so with that perception it’s hard to speak openly. “Every time you lift a newspaper, it’s about what a member of the police or the armed forces has done. It’s a bit like when people say such and such a force is institutionally racist – we’re now institutionally uniformed terrorists, which is complete and utter nonsense, because what we did was our job.”*
Maybe if they had done their jobs without murdering innocent civilians, or colluding to murder innocent civilians. Maybe if the ones who weren’t murdering and colluding had investigated, arrested and prosecuted the murderers…..
>*All agree that if there has been “wrongdoing in the past, that should be investigated, but it seems to be one-sided”. Scott says:*
Why does it seem to be one sided Scott. Why. Perhaps the full machinery of the British state was brought to bear on arresting Republicans while failing to investigate Loyalist collusion within your own ranks or the British Government’s role in the mass murder of innocent Catholics by the RUC, UDR and Loyalist Paramilitaries. Why does this powerful perception whcih acknowledges that “all agree there has been wrong doing” never extend to any commentary from P.U.L. representatives that their state sanctioned sectarian marginaization of Catholics and Nationalists created the Troubles, created the IRA and directly led to thousands of deaths?
>*“So 100 years later, the only people who are still being vilified were the police officers, and everybody has been exonerated except for those poor policemen, many of whom were Catholics who were shot dead in their homes, shot dead on trains and everything else in a cowardly and horrible way,” says Scott.*
Maybe if they hadn’t formed an exclusively Protestant police force in the form of the Special Constabularies; an actual armed wing of the Orange Order which it was said at the time was impossible for Catholics to join. Perhaps if those constabularies hadn’t carried out an official policy of reprisals; the retaliatory mass murder of innocent Catholics whenever the IRA targeted security forces. Then of course when they disbanded the Specials they encouraged all ex-specials to join the UDR……maybe just maybe, if the police and security forces had actually done their actual job, at any point in the last 100 years they wouldn’t feel paranoid about a United Ireland.
>*Kenny adds: “How can they ever invite anybody to join them when they’ve said no, don’t want a new national anthem, don’t want a new flag? They’re not doing anything to attract people.”*
Trivialities like economic prosperity, equality, educational attainment, foreign investment and quality of life don’t concern Kenny….Kenny is only concerned with the big things. Fleg.
>*Scott says: “Republicanism has to realise, it’s not just taking one group of people and plonking them down South, it’s 750,000 people, a million people, you just can’t push a million people to do what they want them to do, especially with their past.”*
Jesus christ, the irony I can’t……the irony….make it stop.
The Northern Parliament was abolished in 1972, 34 years after Ireland chose Douglas Hyde, a southern Protestant, as our president.
In those 34 years, and in all the previous years, the Northern government had one Catholic minister. He lasted six months.
Every single northern prime minister was not only a Protestant, but a member of the Orange Order, and all but three ministers in the entire history of the Northern Parliament were members of the Orange Order.
95 MPs were elected to Stormont without becoming ministers. 87 of them were members of the Orange Order. With one exception, every single Unionist Senator was a member of the Orange Order.
One jurisdiction on this island built a cold house for its confessional minority after partition. It wasn’t the southern jurisdiction. We can be proud of the way our state treated southern Protestants and how their cultivation as equal citizens led to the success and prosperity we enjoy today.
The Northern state had to be abolished.
Their feelings seem like projection to me, Southern Protestants faired far better than Northern Catholics post-partition. Also claiming they’ll have no voice is nonsense I guarantee if reunification happens the likes of the DUP be the loudest shouting, most visible minority in the country crying oppression every minute.
Just the west Brit Irish times at their lark. A big story about nothing. Just negative words to fill a page, so to try and discourage the coming UI.
They’d better not speak up… the Laois labour camps and Wicklow salt mines are rightly to be feared! Bord na Mona’s famous bog railways were built on the bones of…
Ah, never mind. Some folk will take this seriously.
Terrible article, why not interview southern protestants and have a well formed “both” sides article.
As a Protestant in the republic, I have pretty much nothing in common with the Protestant community up north.
Their bullshit doesn’t exist down here, nobody gives a crap. I mean, I went to a Catholic school, played GAA (badly and briefly) & lived a very normal “Irish” life.
Being Protestant isn’t my identity like it is for people up north, I’m Irish, that’s my identity if we’re talking about grouping people.
Just because I have been baptised by a man with a wider collar, have a natural intuition for jam making and sing a mean hymn, doesn’t mean I have anything to speak up about or fear in doing so.
All in all, the Protestant community up north need to stop seeing us as some kind of ally behind enemy lines, because they can get fucked for the most part projecting their issues on us prods in the republic.
When i was growing up i had friends, theyre all still good friends and it was only in my teens that it transpired that some of my friends were protestants, did it matter? did it f**k, we’re all still great friends today, and none of that nonsense that they hold dear in NI is relevant down here.