That’s why I’m getting to love her more and more each day.

Unemployed disaffected angry youth are a staple of failing states.

Come on, use them batons!

Four officers hurt,did they trip over their shoelaces?

Emmmmmmm!!!!! Could someone maybe tell them that there are 9 counties in ULSTER. Just goes to show their lack of basic education. Maybe if they attended school instead of staying out rioting all night theyed know that.

Good point about unemployment. If these thugs had jobs to get up early for this wouldn’t happen. Symptomatic of wider issues with austerity/recession/youth unemployment?

No one in FG would support this statement from Gilmore. The worst part of this entire protest, is that come June, July & August, the people in the North will go through it all over again when the Parades commission refuse these thugs the right to March into Irish Areas in their attempt to enforce their ‘Culture’ on the Irish who do not want it.
It really is a total joke. The flag that they are complaining about is one symbol in Belfast City Hall. When you walk in the door of the building, you are confronted by a big statue of one of the past Queens. Every room in the building is named after a past royal monarch, or Viceroy.
These Loyalists want to show the population there, that they are the ones in control and will resort to the same use of violence that was imposed on the Irish population since 1925. I watched the BBC/SKY/Euro news all report on the violence this week. Every single one of their reports state that the Flag is not allowed to be flown anymore. This is not true, and if i was sitting in France/Germany etc i would be under the impression that the ‘British’ in the North are not allowed to fly the British flag. This is media manipulation. The Flag being raised over Belfast city hall is being restricted to be flown to match all other major cities in England, Scotland & Wales.
These ‘Loyalists’ are being given public air time, when they should be arrested and imprisoned, similar to the Republican dissidents. Instead, the International media is feeding the ‘Troll’ and the Trolls will use this publicity as an excuse to punish the Irish North of the Border and people will end up being killed as a result (collateral damage as the military might say).
I fear we are going to head into one of the most dangerous marching seasons in years, as a result of the Unionist Political leadership fuelling a totally inexcusable criminal campaign. Alliance/SF/SDLP members have all received death threats as a result of the fuelling by DUP & Ulster Unionist MP’s & MLA’s. It is a total disgrace and reminiscent of the pre-1969 era.

Spot on Cal1. They are nothing but Loyalist Dissidents with an antiquated, facist agenda. Their day is gone and they know it. Needs to be said though that these thugs are a tiny minority of the Unionist population and that most Unionists, whether they agree or dissagree with the flag’s removal, do not support the riots.

Yep the british media is claiming the flag is essentially banned when it was the exception to the rule all along.One imbecile on Dailymail site said if people dont like the national flag they should move south (huh???) But that only highlights the complete and utter lack of knowledge they have hahaha.

Robert, The Indo ran a column yesterday asking what all the fuss was about in relation to the flag. They asked why should people look for the flag to be restricted to the same days as other cities in Britain, when the Irish can fly their flag as much as they want on at parades Saint Patricks Day all across the North.
This showed how much the Indo know about the the subject matter. If they did any sort of research before putting out such ignorant comments and comparisons, they would know that the Irish flag is banned from every parade on Saint Patricks Day, in case it antagonizes the British population. If any parade fly \s and Irish Flag, the parade is banned the following year.

Jesus….i wanna laugh at that but such ignorance is no laughing matter.Their parades have black and white crosses i saw it on tv last year as not to offend those who abuse and traumatise little catholic schoolkids because they walk to school along a protestant street.Im no fan of Israel but we could learn a lot from them instead of being a weak cowering disgrace.

Got to agree with you on the news media outlets dramatising the events even further, now imagine how young out of work youth from loyalist areas react when they read those headlines. The media is a part of this problem.

What have supporters of a Scottish football team got to do with this conversation??

Hail Hail !

I’ll spell it out for you. If Catholics root they are fired on with rubber/plastic bullets.
If the protestors are Protestants they are asked nicely to go home.

Root… Riot

Root was funnier. They are definitely worried about being out-bred…

We in the south need to be much firmer in our approach to issue’s in the north and should apply political pressure on England to sort out this loyalist bigotry.
Also as head of EU Edna get your finger out and highlight this to the rest of europe that it is not acceptable in a modern day europe

Tom: I lived in London for a few years and I can tell you that the vast majority of people I spoke to on the subject don’t know and/or don’t care what is happening in Northern Ireland. Westminster sees it as an inconvenience. Its up to the people of this island, OUR island to deal with OUR problems.

Isnt the most northerly part of this island part of the ‘south’ then?

Now now,its an entirely different country……lol couldnt even type that with a straight face.

They are forbidden under E.U. law from using rubber bullets. However, they can use batten rounds (plastic bullets) but they are reserved for republican protesters. Mind you they have fired a few plastic bullets into the air over the past ever fews days but that was merely for effect.

An overall island Truth and reconciliation effort supported by all partys and both governments might help address the suspicion and hurt being felt by both the Irish and British living on the island. Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu have called for it, but neither governments have any interest in trying to move the division on this island.

Ruarai – Gilmore like the rest of us is entitled to his opinion on this matter.

No he isn’t ! He’s paid good very good money to represent the people of a Free Ireland and not to sell us out to any Master from the Uk or Europe. So he better get on and give us our money’s worth

If you don’t care, don’t comment.

And FYI a lot of people in Ireland (North and South) care about what happens in other parts of the island, whatever the current jurisdictional reality.

Furthermore, in this ‘other’ jurisdiction their is an Irish population of 30-50 percentage depending on how one interprets the latest census. And 20% are Irish passport-holders.

I think even in your myopic view of the world it is appropriate for the Irish Foreign Minister to comment on sustained violence in jurisdiction with a significant Irish population, let alone one in Ireland.

Free state couldnt care less about the north,id say Enda would sell the other 3 counties to the brits if he had the chance.

Inda would sell the 32 counties down the drain to the Brits.

Bronagh, i just read about it on the BBC news web-site, but i can guarantee it will not be on TV (on any channel). As per my post above, someone is going to be killed, we know it, and yet you have the likes of the Indo writing articles suggesting that the poor ‘Loyalists’ have almost no choice at this stage, but to riot.
There is always a ‘Genuine’ excuse for Loyalists to riot, found in the media.
However, the Political leaders of the Loyalists will accept no responsibility for fuelling these fires, when someone is killed as a result of a house being petrol bombed or being refused access to medical treatment. Look at what happened in Ballymoney, when 3 young children were burned alive by these so call Loyalists, just for being Irish, and the Parades commission refused to allow a Loyalist march through that area. Stop feeding these murderers with soft stories that paint them as the innocent party. They are murderers and Hooligans. Put them in prison instead of putting them on TV. I read one comment on Journal.ie earlier and it really says it all…
One Loyalist wearing a scarf to hide his identity saying that he is rioting because he feels his identity is being taken from him. What a bloody joke they all are, except its not funny when someone dies as result of their actions and attitudes. The British now make up less than 48% of the Norths population. Accept the reality and move on. Build bridges with your fellow Northerners, instead of barriers.

Cal. The British make up 0% of the NI population. Northern Ireland is made up of two communities of Irish people. Northern Irish Republicans & Northern Irish Unionists. Both groups are made up of mainly decent, honest people who want an end to sectarianism on their streets. The rioters are criminal aggitators who use Unionism as a flag of convienience for their atctivity. Your insistance on labeling people as Irish or English feeds into this silliness and is an insult to both communities of Northern Irish people. I agree with a lot of your other points but I strongly disagree with the labels because labels and symbols have been at the root of much of the sad bloodshed in Northern Ireland since the foundation of the territory.

Sorry Dave, but 48% of people in Northern Ireland labelled themselves as British. 40% labelled themselves as British only with 8% labelling themselves as British and _______. 29% included Northern Irish as their nationality, and 28% included Irish. 25% said they were Irish only.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/protestantcatholic-gap-narrows-as-census-results-revealed-16248982.html

Ohh dear Ignoreland. did you just qoute the Belfast Telegraph a publication not exactly renowned for balanced reporting. For instance. Inciteing sectarianism. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/wakeup-call-for-unionists-is-long-overdue-16255920.html

Words really do fail me. A disgrace to humanity. Hard not to get angry :-(

Eh if you read the piece,Dave, you would see that the figures were taken from the last census. I could equally have cited from the Irish Times, the Guardian, or even the census website itself but the Telegraph was the first page that came up on Google.

One of the comments on telgraph site from a loyalist said the Republic will have to pay out billions in compensation for assisting death squads.What planet are these people on???I am staunchly against the free state for its complete INACTION yet they think its scheming against them!!Another called the tricolor over leinster hall fascist…jesus…

Dude you spelt ‘competition’ when ‘comp’ would have done and then neglected to spell ‘anyone’ and ‘bored’ foreshame!!

And to think, I had to do a spellcheck for the word competition..

Well guess what some of us have to live with the riots and have to know whats going on. I have family living on the far side of East Belfast, for instance, and if I want to visit them the bus runs straight through where a lot of these riots are occurring, the Newtownards Road to be precise (though you probably don’t care because it doesn’t directly effect you).

A lot of people work in the city centre, which has been repeating subjected to protests etc. so it’s handy for those people to remain informed in case it is potentially dangerous to get to work.

So if your not interested don’t read it, but guess what news is not primarily intended for yours or anyone elses entertainment.

Sinn Fein said remove it entirely,Alliance said no but how about we fly it on only on designated days.You need to get a dictionary.

New Alliance Party Motion for Belfast City council:

That this council resolves to implement the following changes:
That the Royal Avenue be renamed “The Avenue of the Rising”
That Windsor Park football stadium be renamed Bobby Sands Park.
That the Royal Victoria Hospital be renamed the Michael Collins Hospital.
That the Queen Elizabeth Bridge be renamed the Devalera Bridge
That all public houses within the jurisdiction of this Council bearing the name “The Crown” be renamed “The Shamrock”
That William Street ceases to exist except on designated days but excluding the 12th July.
And that this council urges upon the good and tolerant people of Belfast to strive together in harmony for the continuing reconciliation between our citizens.

Your showing your ignorance now,the Alliance COMPROMISED,they would under no circumstances implement the above,they would compromise (theres that word again) and find an amicable solution.You clearly havent the slightest clue what the Alliance party are about.