Northern Ireland: Romanians flee homes after attack

[Fedayn]

why does he vote DUP?

The death of David Irvine was a massive blow for NI politics.

unfortunately working class catholics and working class protestants still see themselves as being in competition with each other.

my mum phoned me up the other day complaining that someone she knew hadn't got a job "the last three years, the post has gone to a bridget, a kieran and a dara. i'm just saying.". ARGGHHHHH!

A family 'hangover', the 'Red Sammy' vote for want of a better phrase, as he sees the likes of Wilson, not so much nowadays, as defening working-class protestants. Bit of a catch 22, whilst the sectarian parties exist he'll vote for 'his' lot, but he says he casts a 'prod and a class vote'. Not a bigot by any stretch, but still not quite made it to voting entirely on class lines.

He preferred Hutchison to Ervine, as Hutchison was a Linfioeld fan whilst Ervine a Glen man . Though he went to Ervine's funeral and like you saw it as a big loss.

 

[revol68]

Why the fuck aren't the "ordinary working-class Protestants" sorting it then? Police, republicans and churches doing it for them?

eh what dickhead?

I was up at the house on the Monday night and the police did fuck all, the people who were there were from both prod and catholic backgrounds, mostly Socialist Party and Anarchists, certainly not republicans.

Where the attacks took place are transient/student rental areas.

British Nationalist organisations certainly do have links with loyalism but to claim the protestant working class are more racist is just bollox, it's simply that racist organisations draped in British nationalism aren't exactly going to be able to work in catholic areas.

 

[ViolentPanda]

the vacuum article i linked to includes concerns about instutional racism within the police force. at the time that the article was written no convictions had been gained for racist intimidation.

afaik though quite a lot of poles have applied to join the PSNI. this has had the side effect of boosting the numbers of catholics applying

See, that'd be my idea of poetic justice; a Protestant racist getting baton-whipped by someone who's not only Catholic, but "foreign" too!

 

[pad]

I live in a loyalist part of Belfast and I often marvel at how far this place has moved forward over the past 10 years, and then something like this (and other things) happen and I realise how backward Northern Ireland still is. The daily round of shootings and bombings have ended and there's many times I have told visitors to here that things have really changed for the better. Then at work today an Indian guy I work with overheard that there was a room available in the shared house I live in and asked me about moving in. He's a mate and we need the rent money but I had to tell him he wouldn't be safe living there. It was so embarrassing saying this to him but I know he wouldn't last more than a few days before the abuse would start and fuck knows how it would end. Fair play to the local residents that tried to stand up to these scumbags.

 

[cathal marcs]

Eamonn McCann basically claims the attacks are the responce to those left behind by the GFA.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/18/northern-ireland-racist-attacks

The snarling young men who forced the Romanian families out have the additional grievance that the Protestant community's sense of itself as living in "their" state has been shattered by the developments symbolised by Sinn Féin sitting snugly in government with the DUP.

I agree with a lot of the article as the Unionist working class really are in dire straits at the minute. The political class within Unionism has basically abandoned them for cushy jobs and priviledges with the old enemy, yet they will be there to whip them up into a frenzy again come the 12th.

Along with this the traditional "safety nets" have all but gone. Theres no work in the shipyards anymore and fair employment legislation has ensured that the council jobs, the police, NIE etc are no longer the sole preserve of the common Unionist man in the street. They may still be controlled by unionists but you need an education for that type of work and there never was a great desire or should I say need for education in working class unionist areas as jobs used to be guaranteed. This has led to a situation of mass unemployment in Unionist ghettos. Worst of all is that their so called "defenders" have poisoned their areas and youths with drugs for years, so it really is a bottomless pit for some of them.

 

[JHE]

I have noticed that the media differ rather a lot in their account of who the bullied people are.

In some accounts (including the ones I hear most of, on BBC radio), the foreigners who have been driven violently from their homes are identified just as Romanians. Other accounts mention that the people are Romanian Gypsies.

Two questions for anyone who knows more about what's happened:

1. Is the fact that these people from Romania are Gypsies important to the bullies? Are they in fact being bullied for being Gypsies, rather than just for being from Romania or just for being foreign?

2. Why have some media decided not to mention that the people are Gypsies? Is it because some editors fear that there would be less sympathy?

 

[SpookyFrank]

It's fucking shameful stuff. What a bunch of morons.

Never thought I'd see a remark like this aimed at people in Northern Ireland

 

[sonny61]

A horrible attack yes.
But, just how did these people end up in Belfast?
How did they support themselves? I thought unemployment was high in Northern Ireland.
Did they just turn up in NI and go straight onto benefits?

 

[revol68]

A horrible attack yes.
But, just how did these people end up in Belfast?
How did they support themselves? I thought unemployment was high in Northern Ireland.
Did they just turn up in NI and go straight onto benefits?

You do realise they aren't entitled to benefits you daft fuck.

 

[sonny61]

You do realise they aren't entitled to benefits you daft fuck.

Are you sure.

 

[revol68]

Are you sure.

yes, what makes you imagine they are?

 

[sonny61]

yes, what makes you imagine they are?

Because if they were not, and had jobs, this needs to be made known.
Stops Daily Express type stories gaining roots, about outsiders getting benefits while the rest of us work.

 

[revol68]

Because if they were not, and had jobs, this needs to be made known.
Stops Daily Express type stories gaining roots, about outsiders getting benefits while the rest of us work.

They tend to work in grey areas, selling big issue or local papers etc.

I also asked you why you imagined they did get benefits which you haven't answered.

 

[likesfish]

depends which part of the lisburn road! the tate's avenue/city centre end is pretty rough really.

northern ireland is the most racist place in the uk by far. the UVF and there like were always associated with combat 18/NF.

to be fair either the UVF or or of its offshoots told combat 18 to do one and sent its only black gunman to do so. some say it was combat 18 was full of state touts might have been more to do with there praising adolf and the German army not likely to go down well in ulster.
that does'nt mean the uvf are anything other than scum but even drug dealing scum have standards

 

[cathal marcs]

Loyalist bomb threats now on polish and indian communities.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK..._Racists_Bomb_Threat_To_Immigrants_In_Belfast