From: paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Why does Eire get so much press?
Date: 7 Jan 93 14:13:19 GMT
Reply-To: paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson)
Organization: GEC-Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow, UK

In article <2935427704.0.p00168@psilink.com> p00168@psilink.com (James F. Tims) writes:

>See if I have this at all right, though, will you?
>
>I thought the people in the south wanted it all to be one Eire. The people 
>in the north wanted to remain part of the UK.  The old United Kingdom of 
>Great Britain and Ireland was replaced by UK of GB and Northern Ireland 
>when the people in the south split with their northern brethren.  The 
>people in the south are still working at unification; the people in the 
>north bash the Catholics around; the Catholics in the north throw bombs at 
>the protestants and at the British soldiers sent to maintain order in N. 
>Ireland;  the Catholics from southern and northern Ireland throw bombs at 
>the people in London so the British will pull out of N. Ireland and give 
>it back to the real Ireland which encompasses the whole island.

(The following is gleaned from UK current affairs programs.)

More or less.  The South is Catholic.  The North is about 2/3
Protestant, 1/3 Catholic.  The UK army was originally sent to NI
because the Protestants were killing & burning the homes of Catholics
in a sort of unofficial "ethnic cleansing".  However the "troops out"
movement seem to forget this.

There is a joke about a Jew who went to live in NI and was asked "are
you Protestant or Catholic?".  He relplied "I'm Jewish".  "Yes", said
his questioner, "but are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew?".
The polarisation behind this joke is very real.  Pretty much everyone
in NI votes either Unionist (extreme Protestant, led by Ian Paisly),
SDLP (moderate Catholic), or Sinn Fein (Catholic, political wing of
the IRA, banned from speaking on UK TV and radio by UK government).
The population ratio I mentioned earlier means that Catholics are
effectively disenfranchised over much of NI, although a couple of
convicted IRA terrorists were elected as MPs a few years ago.

I get the impression from the BBC news that although the Eire
offically wants NI, its pretty much a non-issue for most of the
population there.  The Eire government has extradited terrorists to
the UK, although there were allegations of foot-dragging over the
paperwork.

>Population of N. Ireland ~1.5 million
>Total murders 50 per year (~2000 since 1967 I've been informed by email)
>I get that at 3/100000 people.  The US figure is  8.6/100000 nationwide.
>[1986 World Amanac].  That's almost 3 times the murder rate in N. Ireland.

>The question remains.  It's pretty safe in Belfast relative to Detroit.
>The United States is violent, while Ireland and N. Ireland are 
>relatively less so.  Why send children from Belfast to Detroit?  Why do 
>the collective political entities of Ireland and N. Ireland have a 
>reputation for violence when the numbers put them way down the list?

Well, thats just political murders, as opposed to normal muggings etc.
However the reason for the perception of NI as a dangerous place is
simple.  Terrorist bombs and shootings head the Nine O' Clock News.
Muggings in Detroit do not.

There is also the point that any urban area in NI is going to have
armed soldiers wandering around, often with kids throwing stones at
them from a safe distance.  Anywhere you go involves check points and
searches, often at random.  If you walk down the wrong street you are
apt to have your error explained by a couple of large yobs with
knuckledusters.  If you hear screams and the whine of an electric
drill from a patch of waste ground, you ignore it.  If you run a shop
you pay the local IRA rep his protection money.  If you want a taxi,
you check the political colour of the areas he will have to drive
through.  And so on.  Although I suppose that some areas of Detroit
are as bad, I doubt that the parents would be sending their kids
there.

Paul.



-- 
Paul Johnson (paj@gec-mrc.co.uk).	    | Tel: +44 245 73331 ext 3245
--------------------------------------------+----------------------------------
These ideas and others like them can be had | GEC-Marconi Research is not
for $0.02 each from any reputable idealist. | responsible for my opinions