Are you ****** mad - generation after generation of Ireish people fighting a nationalist cause/
The buzz word throughout all the Irish struggles was "freedom" - a major part of which was religious freedom.
Anti-Catholic Britain imposed the Protestant religion on Ireland from the time of Elizabeth I.
The religion was forced underground and was forbidden to be practiced under the threat of death and a price was put on a priest's head.
Fanatical Protestant armies destroyed churches and slaughtered parishioners and clergymen.
The Penal Laws prohibited Catholics from owning land and holding public office - they were stopped from teaching it and the native language.
Right into the 20th century, laws on property ownership were a major part of national oppression.
When the country was partitioned, religion became a barrier int taking part in the running of the northern counties - much of the disturbance there was religion based - the Penal Laws were not actually repealed until 1922.
Obtaining employment, running businesses and holding political office was a matter of what religion you were - the National struggle in Ireland was inextricably linked with religious freedom - all this was a cause of on-running violence and oppression in the North, long after the establishment the 26 County Republic.
The history of British laws in Ireland forbidding Catholics to buy land meant that they were the poorest section of the population
With the setting up of the partitioned North, the laws imposing a minimum property qualification meant it was largely the Protestants who could vote
1969 RIOTS
The Troubles that began in the 60s was a continuation of what had gone before and the oppression that was being resisted by the Civil Rights Movement was as much a religious as an economic one - when religion is used to facilitate oppression, that is inevitable
You talked about "every dog in the street" knowing..." ask anybody what the Irish problem is and they will say "Catholic versus Protestant".
The violently aggressive marches that are about to take place are religion based.
Even in my own experience as an apprentice in 1960s Liverpool, my employment on the docks during times when work was slack, depended on what religion I could claim to be - if the Catholic firms had work - I worked, if the opposite was the case, I didn't - right up to forty odd years ago.
In the North of Ireland and in Cities like Glasgow and Liverpool, that remained the case until even more recently.
When it comes to religious oppression - the Muslim religion are totally new kids on the block - Christianity has a track record of religious oppression that can not hope to surpass.
If you want to see religious fanaticism at its most extreme - take a look in the mirror.
You are now into your 'Islam is the only oppressor mode' and no other religion counts - sick-sick-sick.
Jim Carroll