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Now these Dogan IRA pricks have started back up.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/12/uk/explo ... index.html

   

It's hard to erase memories in that area. I have family in Sligo and about fifteen years ago they were outraged when Pearse Road was rebuilt and the road crews kept coming up with the remains of people who died when the fucking Brits forced them to work on the road circa 1900-1912.

The Brits buried them in the road to literally cover up the deaths and then the Irish government did its damndest to silence the story when it came to light.

Don't get me wrong, I hold no animus for the Brits of today. But not everyone can accomplish this kind of discernment when crimes of the past are brought to light.

So it isn't childish bullshit. People do need to move on but this also requires the British to acknowledge what shits they've been in Ireland.

   

My elderly aunt who lived there used to say, “Derry/Londonderry, whatever turns you on”. The area was originally called Doire, oakwood in Irish, and London was tacked on by the new arrivals. I don’t know anybody who goes to the trouble of calling it Londonderry these days apart from DUP politicians and TV announcers.

And I don’t think either part of Ireland is ready for unification - the North remains tribally divided politically while the South would struggle to afford it - but we’ll have to see the effect of Brexit on the UK.

   

And thus the Irish need to then answer for the deaths they caused too.... To hold the British solely responsible without taking your portion of the blame is counter productive.

The Brits are responsible for quite a lot of anguish, no doubt... But Michael Collin's actions and the Easter Rising lead to a lot of Irish on Irish suffering.

Realistically, the Brits aren't even really responsible for this division.... the Fucking Dutch are. Protestant William the Orange was dutch. He forced Catholic King James and his Jacobite supporters out of power after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

   

I have a good friend who only calls it Londonderry. He gets quite cross if you refer to it any other way.

   

He would be a rare beast these days in the city. Younger Protestants can’t be bothered. Derry is shorter. The city council calls itself Derry. The county is a bit different because it has a lot of elderly Protestant farmers.

   

He was a high up member of Orange Lodge of Canada.

   

Even these uber-Orangemen call themselves the Apprentice Boys of Derry:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprent ... s_of_Derry

They never got round to tacking the London on and now it’s too late.

I don’t think we’ve any Orangemen left in my neck of the woods in NL. Nobody under 60 would know what LOL means on the childcare centre in the town which used to be the Lodge in the old days. Ironically, in a tiny outport on our south coast, the last Orangeman was left to mind the cemeteries of both Protestants and Catholics after the last Catholics left the island.

   

I've heard that fucking story a billion times. ugh. It's weird he puts the London at the start. Every time. I say londonderry because I got tired of being yelled at for saying Derry.

   

Normal politics is taking longer to emerge in NI than was expected when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. A few left-wing parties have made inroads in SF strongholds but tribalism retains a tight hold. Otherwise indistinguishable apart from the roads signs, North and South have gone in very different directions on the sectarian divide.

   

Ireland’s politics was defined for centuries by an away match for the crown of England between a mad Scotsman and a gay Dutch, em, person of challenged altitude. It’s about time we got the joke and moved on.

   

Their actions also led to Irish sovereignty.

   

"Derry" = original ancient name preferred by the Catholic community
"Londonderry" = added afterwards by the British crown, to show Protestant dominance, fallen out of common use over the last few decades

Just another sad example of the sides over there using anything they could to irritate each other in any way they can, just like that yearly idiotic Orange parade right through crowded Catholic neighbourhoods.

   

Sure, but also Irish suffering.

   

Empires are ugly, merciless things. From Belfast to Bengal, that thing about the British one being more "enlightened" than any of the other empires that existed was just another myth. Probably the only worthy lyric from John Lennon's solo career was "if you had the luck of the Irish you'd surely wish you were dead".

   

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