Northern Ireland 2125?

Kneecap are a band.

You also need to understand what metaphors are.

The language was suppressed 'politically' so yes it has been weaponised for a long long time. It was a stock 'weapon' of colonists and not just British colonists.

Go do some research and stop soaking up and amplifying Unionist propaganda.

I never mentioned 'Kneecap' @Francis McM that was you…incessantly.

They seem to be renting space in your head along with those pesky Shinners.

The wafer thin paucity of your argument means you have to keep inventing stuff and pretend history only began a few years ago.

The 'weaponising' was done by a sectarian one party state in their zeal to supress the language. The used legislation (politicised it) and other means to do that, long before Gerry Adams or Kneecap came along.

To restore the language to the status it deserves is going to make some belligerents cry into their cornflakes but so what? The language and it's visibility is more important than some bigot's bitter tears, which is about as much damage as an inanimate road sign will do unless one of them hurts themselves with an angle grinder.

There are plenty of signs with Engligh only in Scotland and Wales. which is only natural. Anyway, when you mention fleg shaggers, I did not have to read further, the picture of this middle aged man with a flag on his head came to mind.

I never pretended history only began only a few years ago. Padraig Pearce actually weaponized the language over a century ago when he preached "Every word of Irish spoken is like another bullet being fired in the struggle for Irish Freedom".

Yes, and it was. There is now legislation here that insists road signage is bi-lingual with the first official language and the English equivalent on signage.

In Northern Ireland, English is the primary language for nearly all the population, and de facto official language.

Sure you can put up Irish language signage now, and translate Black Water Street in to Craid Uisce Dubh if you want, and go to the expense of having both on the signs even in loyalist areas, but it looks ridiculous, something only bigots that want to taunt would like.😂

Given that republicans like Morroson, Gerry Adams and Kneecap have said "every word of Irish is a bullet for Irish Freedom", I hope the signs stay up as a symbol of republican oppression and lack of respect and tolerance towards the minority. Everyone agrees the signs are expensive and are divisive.

So the Republic, Wales and Scotland are full of bigots as they have the indigenous language on public street signage? The only social basket case is the NI jurisdiction. This is a chance where it can be a normal 21st century jurisdiction with indigenous language cherished like neighbouring jurisdictions but the bigots are stuck in 17th century colonial mindset.

Or one could consider that perhaps the defensiveness around the language in the North is due to generations of attempts to suppress it.....but naw, a hundred years on from the creation of the statelet, most of it under Unionist supremacy, finally those of a Nationalist persuasion are able to push a move towards alignment with the rest of the UK with regards to the native language and they're, 'weaponising' it.

I would genuinely love to know what form supporting and protecting the cultural heritage of half the population in the North could possibly take without the Loyalist sympathisers on here having an aneurism about it somehow being, 'weaponised'.

Croppy lie down, stick to your own area is it?

Ironic that the same voices arguing against protecting Irish culture in the North are the same that vehemently insist the likes of the Orange Order should march wherever they want lest we be seen as oppressing NI Unionist culture.....

I don't believe I've ever interacted with you, let alone made any claims about your specific position. To be clearer, as perhaps I should have in my previous post, my point was referring to specific voices among the Unionist community in the North, not this thread. Jamie Bryson, Moore Holmes, DUP membership etc who publicly post on social media about such topics.

That being said, your 'feeling' that the OO would never want to march through a Nationalist area perfectly demonstrates your ignorance on the matter. Just using Drumcree as an example, while coverage has diminished over the years, the Portadown Lodge still attempt to march down the Garvaghy Road every year. We wouldn't need the Parades Commission if your feeling was in any way representative of reality.

Comical but unsurprising that you'd describe the perspective that happens to agree with you as fair and those who sit on your side of the argument as reasonable, moderate people. In the case of one specific person in question, reasonable and moderate are laughable descriptors of their at times unhinged repetition of the same point over and over again. Everyone is, 'reasonable and moderate' when they agree with you, of course.

In your defense however, I would say that I've also known a fair few Orange Order members from the border counties who I'd agree are very decent folk. A bit strange, but definitely God-fearing, law abiding folk. I don't believe there are many in my extended family involved with the OO any more, though there are quite a few involved in the bands that would parade with them; I've posted on here about the importance of protecting and supporting the less controversial elements of the OO and marching culture should Unification come to pass, at least the lodges that can manage their walk without a few bags of coke or stopping to piss on a chapel.

Now this actually reads like a pretty reasonable and fair take on things to me.

I can't see SDLP ever reclaiming the Nationalist vote though, I think there's a better chance of a totally new Nationalist party coming along and eating the SDLP's lunch before eventually carving into the SF vote.

The distrust and tactical voting in NI makes even that a difficult and slow process. I've said it before on here, often in NI people aren't voting for a party because that party best represents them, but rather to prevent the party that least represents them getting a seat.

I think there are far fewer people aligned with SF and DUP ideologies than elections suggest, but there is an element of, 'who'll blink first' that means any change will be slow rather than a big electoral upheaval overnight.

I'd personally view Unification as more likely to be the cause of the upheaval than the beneficiary of it.

A minor point, but I'd disagree that there are enough pro-Union votes going to SDLP to describe their voters as typically pro-Union or neutral Catholics. I'd imagine their voters are more likely to be middle class soft Nationalists and those with a personal or social connection to specific SDLP representatives. The Green Party, while I don't believe they're aligned as an official party position, their voters also typically break more on the soft Nationalist side.

makes Irish much more noticeable

OMG, thought and prayers with you!