Racist war of the loyalist street gangs

[greatauntoftriplets]

Orchestrated attacks on minorities raise fears of ethnic cleansing

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Saturday January 10, 2004
The Guardian

Not far from the red, white and blue paving stones, the Ku Klux Klan graffiti and the "Chinks out" notices scratched outside south Belfast Chinese takeaways, Hua Long Lin was at home watching television when a man burst in and smashed a brick into his face. His wife, also in the room, was eight months pregnant. The couple had moved into the terrace two weeks before.
Neighbours expressed regret but one white family told a community worker they couldn't offer a Chinese family friendship in public or they would be "bricked" too.

"It's like Nazi Germany," they explained.

Northern Ireland, which is 99% white, is fast becoming the race-hate capital of Europe. It holds the UK's record for the highest rate of racist attacks: spitting and stoning in the street, human excrement on doorsteps, swastikas on walls, pipe bombs, arson, the ransacking of houses with baseball bats and crow bars, and white supremacist leaflets nailed to front doors.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1120113,00.html

[Voltaire99]

1. Excellent article, heartbreaking read

The fruit of colonialism...

[fedsron2us]

2. Northern Ireland is a sectarian society.

Protestants and Catholics are brought up and educated apart in faith based schools where fear and hatred of the 'other' is learnt from an early age. It is hardly suprising that this antagonism to outsiders spills over onto ethnic minorities who have been unwise or unlucky enough to have set up home in Ulster. In the 1980's it was a standing joke that the biggest black community in Northern Ireland was to be found amongst the British soldiers serving in the province. Since that time more immigrants have arrived and the number of racist attacks has increased. To be fair racism is not just confined to Protestants in the North. It also endemic south of the border in the supposedly more enlightened Irish Republic.

The whole issue was discussed by the Irish writer and critic Tom Paulin in a Guardian article a couple of years ago

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,360315,00.html

Sadly Dean Swift described the situation all too aptly when he said

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another'