Northern Ireland

[Gooding]

Northern Ireland is a unique place on the island of Ireland. It is part of the United Kingdom, the majority of the people are Protestant of British heritage.Many of them speak an offshoot of Lallans, or Lowland Scots, known as Ullans. The Ulster Scots of Northern Ireland are a people entrenched, united by their religion and heritage, they are firmly determined to be governed from Westminster rather than Dublin.Hundreds of them crossed the ocean to America over the last couple of centuries and their descendents form a major population bloc in both the United States and Canada.
The Loyal Orange Institution is probably one of the most solid expressions of unity for the Ulstermen at home and abroad, although many of their demonstrations are marred by rioting and fighting between the unionists and the nationalists who favor Catholicism and government from Dublin.The landscape is beautiful, but the divisions are starkly apparent in the neighborhoods of the cities. It is now 2009 and the Ulster Scots are undeniably an Irish ethnic group.So how could the situation between the Protestants and Catholics be resolved without resorting to more terrorism?

[Gooding]

BUMP.Good Heavens

[Loyalist]

It is now 2009 and the Ulster Scots are undeniably an Irish ethnic group.

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but the Ulster-Scots have nothing to do with the indigenous Irish ethnic group. They're a unique ethnicity in themselves, who merely happen to inhabit the island of Ireland. In terms of nationality, the Ulster-Scots overwhelmingly identify as British, and favour the maintenance of the Union; most feel little or no Irish connection, either ethnically or nationally.

So how could the situation between the Protestants and Catholics be resolved without resorting to more terrorism?

Protestant Unionists and Catholic Nationalists will never be able to harmoniously populate the same state, and even with terrorism removed from the equation, there is a deep-rooted hatred between the two communities. Their overall aims are entirely polarized, and neither will ever peacefully submit to the other. The Thatcher government allegedly formulated an emergency contingency plan at the height of the Troubles, whereby Catholics would be relocated by force to provinces already possessing a Nationalist majority, control of which would then be relinquished to the Irish Republic. Of course, this was scrapped after cries about human rights violations, ethnic cleansing, etc. The forced removal of the Catholic Nationalist population to the Republic does seem the most sensible solution to me.

[Gooding]

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but the Ulster-Scots have nothing to do with the indigenous Irish ethnic group. They're a unique ethnicity in themselves, who merely happen to inhabit the island of Ireland. In terms of nationality, the Ulster-Scots overwhelmingly identify as British, and favour the maintenance of the Union; most feel little or no Irish connection, either ethnically or nationally.

I'm sorry, when I said "an Irish ethnic group", I meant an ethnic group that did develop on the island of Ireland, since the Plantations of Ulster by James I. I wouldn't call them indigenous in the sense that they were in Ireland forever, but Ulster I would call their homeland because they've lived there for so long, they have a British heritage there and Ullans did develop out of the original Lallans spoken by the Lowland Scots who planted Ulster. I would dare swear that the deep religious feelings of many of the Ulster Scots developed out of their experiences there and the fact that they did have to defend their farms and homes from Catholic Irish brigands who were constantly trying to throw them out and constantly failing ( the Ulster Scots remain the majority in Ulster),so only in that sense would I refer to the British Ulster Scots as an Irish ethnic group, distinct and seperate from the indigenous Irish.

Protestant Unionists and Catholic Nationalists will never be able to harmoniously populate the same state, and even with terrorism removed from the equation, there is a deep-rooted hatred between the two communities. Their overall aims are entirely polarized, and neither will ever peacefully submit to the other. The Thatcher government allegedly formulated an emergency contingency plan at the height of the Troubles, whereby Catholics would be relocated by force to provinces already possessing a Nationalist majority, control of which would then be relinquished to the Irish Republic. Of course, this was scrapped after cries about human rights violations, ethnic cleansing, etc. The forced removal of the Catholic Nationalist population to the Republic does seem the most sensible solution to me.

I would have to agree with you, Loyalist. I find it impossible to fathom why the Nationalists, who already hold more than 3/4 of the territory of Ireland, would begrudge the Unionists the less than 1/4 of the territory of the northeast that they currently hold as Northern Ireland.The Catholic Nationalists wish to be part of the Republic of Ireland?I submit that they find property to the south and west, move to said property and let the Ulster Scots live in peace. If it takes British guns to do so, then so be it, but that necessity says more about the Nationalists than the Unionists, in my opinion.
Ulster is indeed British.Let it remain so.