After all these years theres still animosity .... About 16 Royal British Legion wreaths at the memorial in the mall in Armagh city were damaged on Monday. "Those who carried out this act would do well to remember that the poppy represents men and women from both communities and both sides of the border." BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Poppy wreaths burned at memorial
The Irish are a lovely people who live in a beautiful country (well, I've only seen Eire) but, bloody hell... Or do you think this was kids?
Irish soldiers of WWI More than 35,000 of them perished - of the thousands who survived and came home - they found a country in violent upheaval - fiercely fighting its own great battle between north and south Many of the soldiers were victimized either physically or economically ! Between 1919 and 1922 .... at least 200 were murdered because they had joined the British army Maybe it was kids .... but in my opinion it probably wasn't !
We have several friends in Northern Ireland and whilst things are obviously much better than they were, and despite what is reported both here and there, there are still acts of sectarian violence. They think that the old sores are still so close to the surface that it would not take much for wider scale violence to break out again. I think these acts are perhaps symptomatic of that.
Not just the first war. J J Magennis VC (a Catholic from Northern Ireland) initially was welcomed as a hero, but after a while he had a rough time from other Catholics, and he was denied some of the honours expected from the Belfast city (unionist) leaders.
Leading Seaman Magennis was the only Ulsterman to be awarded the VC during the Second World War - and although the people of Belfast raised over £3,000 for him in his honour, a massive amount of money in the 1940's, he found it hard to settle there again and moved to England - where he passed away in 1986. A statue of him now stands in his native city; and when it was unveiled, Commander Fraser said, 'I have never met a braver man'. Magennis BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | VC winner honoured at city hall
