News from the North

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised at pro-IRA chants a Wolfe Tones gig of all things - some of the pro IRA content might just have been their back catalogue being played. The real issue there is whether they should have been booked for that event at all.

is this a 'hey lookit what themuns is up to' thread?

No, not much of this sort of petty nationalism gets through on official media channels like RTE here. Or if it does, it's buried in 'regional news' which passes most people by. Trying to think - last election we had 'Up The Ra' from SF TD David Cullinane on being elected and this was well reported. For my sins, I've listened in to some of SF Ard Fheiseanna and the leaders speech - complete with expressions of best wishes to suspected bombers and so on and these are noted. There's the odd flare up in the Dail with government reps and SF TDs throwing allegations and insults back & forth. These get reported.

We tend to hear more stuff reported about loyalist violence and threats to the protocol and so on. We hear a lot about DUP intransigence. I suppose the likes of RTE mainly broadcast what they think their customer base wants to see & hear.

As the next election approaches, I'd expect to hear a whole lot more about Sinn Fein and their rise from the 'ballot box in one hand and the armalite in the other' to the ''ballot box in one hand and the armalite hidden behind the back'. A lot of questions about who really pulls the strings in SF and where the centre of gravity of the party lies.

The sort of stuff the OP lists off can be found in the Republic and many forms of social media. But we don't hear about much of it up north.

I got bad news for ya downcow, nobody knows or even cares what's going down in the south arse end of Kerry either.

You forgot to mention the UVF flags also for sale.

Sorry to say this but you have no idea how boring I find Northern Ireland. Grew up listening to it, just switched off in every sense. I have absolutely no interest in the place.

Why not? I came in thinking some interesting news was breaking. They're entitled to comment on their disinterest.

Personally I think we hear enough to know the score above.

And the Para flags for sale during the Derry March.

Most people here condemn sectarianism where ever it comes from. There are just a few people who only appear here to condemn anything they see as Irish commemoration or celebration and call it 'sectarian' when it isn't.

Maybe when the OP comes on here willing to get rid of everything the Irish find offensive and the sectarian stuff we might begin to get somewhere.

Nobody I know has any issue whatsoever with Unionism celebrating it's past or it's links with the British Army as long as it isn't sectarian or taunting.