[FuckingRotter]

If you hadn't noticed, Europe hasn't really ever been at peace. Grant seems to want a "reunited" Ireland, so sure, have it, we'll take it back thank you very much. The United Kingdom wasn't a foreign power, Ireland was a part of that power. So the government were a bit horrible to you? So what? Governments are a bit horrible to its citizens the world over. The same government that starved Paddy, hung trade unionists in Dorset, and only a few generations later put women in prison and force fed them for having the audacity to want a say in how the country was run. Conscripted men in their millions and sent them to die in muddy fields abroad.

So where we are today is we have a divided Ireland, thanks to the efforts of the republican movement. The political class there, along with Sinn Fein in the North, seem hell bent on handing the whole lot over to Brussels. It is fucking laughable!

What is going to happen when the European federalists dream of a "defence" force is realised, and Brussels comes knocking on Dublins door looking for the famous fighting Irish? Is Ireland going to be able to retain its neutrality and its place in that Federation at the same time?

And what do you think would have happened in Belfast if the British government had done as Grants suggests and handed it over to Dublin when the troubles started? Do you think the loyalist communities would have just sat down for it? Of course they fucking wouldn't! Or at least they'd take it about as much if Washington decided to hand New Mexico over to Mexico just because it has the word "Mexico" in the name, and some people who live there identify as "Mexican". Would there be "no reprisals" then?

Originally Posted by tom8517

Of course pre Norman Ireland wasn't peaceful, neither was the rest of Europe. It was the dark fucking ages. As overlords go the Normans weren't so bad, they assimilated rather quickly. Irish surnames starting with Fitz are Norman in origin. things turned to shit when the English gained ascendancy over the Normans. Cromwell, the Penal laws and all the rest.

The difference with the unionist population is that they were installed in Ireland by a foreign power. And the loyalist remaining in the south after 1921 suffered absolutely no reprisals.