The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #84113   Message #1822549
Posted By: Alison M
30-Aug-06 - 07:40 AM
Thread Name: BS: Are we anti-Irish?
Subject: RE: BS: Are we anti-Irish?
Hello, Guest Nick. What an interesting read about your experience of visiting England. I can remember reading a newspaper back in the 90s before the ceasefire took place in Ireland. An Irish protestant man claimed he had come over to England for a visit and he felt very uncomfortable over here because of his northern Irish accent, as his visit was just after the Manchester bombing by the IRA. The media hyped things up so much about the IRA during that time and this made all Irish people a suspect as being a member of the IRA because of their accent. I did know some people that feared the IRA especially during that time. For example, my friend had just moved house to live in Manchester and she was arrested because her new neighbours were suspicious of her accent that sounded a bit like an northern Irish person. It turned out that she was actually from West Scotland and never have been to visit Ireland in her life and none of her family came from Ireland either.