by Cal Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:06 am
Noonan McKane wrote:I'm not at all sure that the UK (at least, some parts of it) ever did, or will, 'receive' Irish immigrants. For sure, the part of it which is geographically closest to Ireland, West Scotland where I live never really has. Nowhere is the flag of the Union waved more fiercely. Around here "the Irish" are still regarded as enemies of the state. A chronic irony as prior to the 'union of the crowns' of Scotland and England in 1707 Scotland was just as angry with it's neighbour as Ireland and France were, and fought constantly against it's imperialism. Every time a Scottish army fought against an English one, there would be roughly equal amounts of Irish 'sympathisers' on both sides.
Recently, the 'troubles' (actually a civil war, fought in Ireland, by Irish people, at a convenient distance from Great Britain, which cared less and less about the outcome initially, and not at all by the end) were imbued with much of their energy and enthusiasm (not to mention a huge percentage of the weapons and people willing to use them) by the west of Scotland. Certain areas of the city of Glasgow and certain towns in Lanarkshire were, and still are, decorated and populated in such a way as to make them indistinguishable from Belfast during the evictions. There are streets in Larkhall, Airdrie and Coatbridge where it is perpetually 1969.........
Back in August, I was shocked and saddened to see Johnny 'mad dog' Adair stroll past me in my local Homebase. He's 'retired' just down the coast from me, apparently. The T shirt he wore was bearing a sickeningly familiar crest which suggested he may only be in semi-retirement. Of course it's better that folk with names like O' Neil or Kelly or Brennan can walk freely abroad the streets of Belfast now, but there are schemes in Glasgow which they would be ill advised to even go near.
Yes, even yet.
This is way over the top. Seems you are grossly exaggerating the state of the West Coast in order to sound dramatic and interesting. 99% of the bigotry here is about a football rivalry. I'm not saying hatred and violence doesn't exist, just your assertion that Irish are regarded as "enemies of the state" is ridiculous.
There's no need to talk Ayrshire down like this. It's a beautiful part of the world - albeit splashed with a bit of council scheme depression. And yes, I'm from Kilmarnock.
[quote="Noonan McKane"]I'm not at all sure that the UK (at least, some parts of it) ever did, or will, 'receive' Irish immigrants. For sure, the part of it which is geographically closest to Ireland, West Scotland where I live never really has. Nowhere is the flag of the Union waved more fiercely. Around here "the Irish" are still regarded as enemies of the state. A chronic irony as prior to the 'union of the crowns' of Scotland and England in 1707 Scotland was just as angry with it's neighbour as Ireland and France were, and fought constantly against it's imperialism. Every time a Scottish army fought against an English one, there would be roughly equal amounts of Irish 'sympathisers' on both sides.
Recently, the 'troubles' (actually a civil war, fought in Ireland, by Irish people, at a convenient distance from Great Britain, which cared less and less about the outcome initially, and not at all by the end) were imbued with much of their energy and enthusiasm (not to mention a huge percentage of the weapons and people willing to use them) by the west of Scotland. Certain areas of the city of Glasgow and certain towns in Lanarkshire were, and still are, decorated and populated in such a way as to make them indistinguishable from Belfast during the evictions. There are streets in Larkhall, Airdrie and Coatbridge where it is perpetually 1969.........
Back in August, I was shocked and saddened to see Johnny 'mad dog' Adair stroll past me in my local Homebase. He's 'retired' just down the coast from me, apparently. The T shirt he wore was bearing a sickeningly familiar crest which suggested he may only be in semi-retirement. Of course it's better that folk with names like O' Neil or Kelly or Brennan can walk freely abroad the streets of Belfast now, but there are schemes in Glasgow which they would be ill advised to even go near.
Yes, even yet.[/quote]
This is way over the top. Seems you are grossly exaggerating the state of the West Coast in order to sound dramatic and interesting. 99% of the bigotry here is about a football rivalry. I'm not saying hatred and violence doesn't exist, just your assertion that Irish are regarded as "enemies of the state" is ridiculous.
There's no need to talk Ayrshire down like this. It's a beautiful part of the world - albeit splashed with a bit of council scheme depression. And yes, I'm from Kilmarnock.
