From: jlloyd@cc.uow.edu.au (Jonathan Lloyd)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Northern Ireland and alledged British propaganda
Date: 12 Apr 92 04:18:01 GMT
Organization: University Of Wollongong

bralick@oberon.cs.psu.edu (Will Bralick) writes:


>I am an American with a close Irish-American (1st generation) 
>friend.  We sometimes discuss the situation in Northern Ireland.  
>He argues that Catholics in Northern Ireland are oppressed.  Without 
>going into the merits of that claim, per se, I suggest to him that 
>if that is the case then they should learn something from Gandhi, 
>Martin Luther King, et al.  That is, if a large proportion (80%+) 
>of the Catholics in Northern Ireland went on a general strike, what 
>could the British government do?  Let them all starve?  Put them all  
>in labor camps?  In today's world it seems that they would have to end 
>up up on the dole.  Harsh measures would not be well received by the 
>rest of the world.

>I asked why the Catholics weren't already the majority in Northern 
>Ireland.  He said that many Catholics leave Northern Ireland in search 
>of work -- I said that that is precisely the _wrong_ idea.  If they want 
>to change the situation in Northern Ireland they should go on strike en 
>masse, and proceed to _scrupulously_ follow the Catholic Church's
>teaching on contraception.  In fact, using Natural Family Planning (NFP), 
>each Irish Catholic couple could maximize their chances of conceiving 
>nearly every year.  

>If the average Catholic family would have, say, 8 kids and the average 
>protestant family would have, say, 3 kids then how many years would it 
>take before Catholics would constitute an actual majority in Northern 
>Ireland?  Why wouldn't this work except for the fact that there is no 
>identifiable leader of a non-violent Catholic civil rights movement
>in Northern Ireland?  It would be a popular leader that would tell their
>people to go on an extended holiday at British taxpayer expense and 
>while on holiday do what is necessary to be fruitful and multiply --
>and all in the name of high ideals.


>Regards,

>--
>Will                     

That's a pretty amazing concept. Bonking for a new greater Eire.
I think they will like the idea (both the church and the catholic minority).

However, I seem to recall a similar idea put forward by the white 
supremacists in South Africa. The trouble is it was more than offset by the
whites leaving.

The number of births in Catholic households is almost
certainly heaps more than the protestants already.

The fact that your friend is in the USA and not working for a better 
Ireland is a statement in itself. For as long as anyone can remember 
Ireland's biggest export has been it's brightest and best young people.

It is also their greatest loss. Surely ther is something tragicallly wrong 
with a country for their people to leave in such numbers.

You have cut right to the point. If these people really believed that
their best future lay in Ireland then they would stay there.
The nationalist extremists (with their bombs and bullets) are a direct result 
of the demographic situation which means that the North and south are 
always going to be separated. 

Your idea about bonking for a united ireland is actually just about the
ONLY peaceful solution, i.e. weight of numbers and democratic change following
a demographic tidal wave! 

BONK on Ireland!!!

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** These views are my own and do not reflect upon the policy *******
** or views of the University of Wollongong, only of a young *******
** welshman in a land down under ---Cymru am Byth ******************
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Phone +61 42 213018     Fax +61 42 213112       Email J.Lloyd@uow.edu.au
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british