I am Irish. I lived in Ireland during the troubles, about a mile from the border. To say that Protestants and Catholics were at war for years and years in Ireland is a wild exaggeration.
And it wasn't about religion - it was about national identity. In the Irish Rebellion of 1798, large numbers of Protestants sided with the United Irishmen.
Just as, in the same way, what is going on in Gaza today isn't about religion, and nobody who knows anything about the history of the area thinks that is about Islam. When the Muslims first conquered Palestine in the 7th century, they brought relief to the country's Jewish citizens, who had previously been barred by the Byzantines from praying on the Temple Mount.
I agree that this war that is happening in Gaza is not about religion. But some of the comments on this list do not seem to understand that, thus the occasional Islamophobic and anti Semitic comments. I also understand that in Ireland, most of the conflict was because of British colonial attitudes and the Irish wish to separate from those attitudes. But my reading about Ireland has also talked a great deal about Catholic/Protestant conflict. I cannot argue with your experience, but my reading tells me something different than what you are saying.
Several of the comments here are pretty dumb, and I tend to ignore them.
As for Ireland, there was a lot of sectarian bigotry, and British and Irish nationalism certainly infected the churches, and people talked about it being about Catholics and Protestants. But the IRA and the INLA had no real interest in Catholicism, and the UDA and the UVF had no real interest in Protestantism.
The amount of conflict in Ireland was also nothing like that of the Middle East. My family moved back to Ireland in 1975, having had to leave Lebanon because of the Lebanese Civil War. Some of the kids I was in school with in Ireland actually believed that what was happening in Belfast was comparable with what was happening in Lebanon. That was a huge joke. Belfast was a city of peace in the 1970s compared with Beirut. Over the centuries there were outbreaks of fighting, but after the failure of the 1798 rebellion, most of them were pretty minor. The Irish Civil War in 1922-23, which was between different varieties of Irish Nationalists, only killed about 1500 people. Even the Irish War of Independence against the UK (1919-1921) only killed about 2300 people. That does not compare with the carnage that we are witnessing in Gaza right now.
Thanks for the clarification. I read about 20 years ago (or maybe more)that there were children in Ireland who had never been alive when there was not a conflict happening mostly, as you say for Irish Identity. I was in Ireland at the end of the 1960's and there was no conflict that I saw at that time, but there was later, according to what I read. What you refer to as "the troubles" which happened from 1968 to 1998. I am sure the carnage did not compare to what is happening in Gaza right now, but if it is your brother, sister, father, child who gets killed in a conflict, comparisons may be heard, but they don't help much.
Interesting that you were in Ireland at the end of the 1960s!
Yes, it was "the troubles". And they were not good. People did die. A boy in my school was blown up a year after I left school. He was young enough that I didn't know him, but his sister was a friend of my sister's and losing a brother had a big effect on her. The father of a guy in my school was shot dead by terrorists while I was still at school in 1977 - about 3 miles from our house.
But the reality was that life went on as normal, and we never thought of visiting Belfast during the troubles as risky. We actually spent a few weeks there while on vacation in 1971.
When was this?
I have to assume you are joking or being sarcastic or something
I am Irish. I lived in Ireland during the troubles, about a mile from the border. To say that Protestants and Catholics were at war for years and years in Ireland is a wild exaggeration.
And it wasn't about religion - it was about national identity. In the Irish Rebellion of 1798, large numbers of Protestants sided with the United Irishmen.
Just as, in the same way, what is going on in Gaza today isn't about religion, and nobody who knows anything about the history of the area thinks that is about Islam. When the Muslims first conquered Palestine in the 7th century, they brought relief to the country's Jewish citizens, who had previously been barred by the Byzantines from praying on the Temple Mount.
I agree that this war that is happening in Gaza is not about religion. But some of the comments on this list do not seem to understand that, thus the occasional Islamophobic and anti Semitic comments. I also understand that in Ireland, most of the conflict was because of British colonial attitudes and the Irish wish to separate from those attitudes. But my reading about Ireland has also talked a great deal about Catholic/Protestant conflict. I cannot argue with your experience, but my reading tells me something different than what you are saying.
Several of the comments here are pretty dumb, and I tend to ignore them.
As for Ireland, there was a lot of sectarian bigotry, and British and Irish nationalism certainly infected the churches, and people talked about it being about Catholics and Protestants. But the IRA and the INLA had no real interest in Catholicism, and the UDA and the UVF had no real interest in Protestantism.
The amount of conflict in Ireland was also nothing like that of the Middle East. My family moved back to Ireland in 1975, having had to leave Lebanon because of the Lebanese Civil War. Some of the kids I was in school with in Ireland actually believed that what was happening in Belfast was comparable with what was happening in Lebanon. That was a huge joke. Belfast was a city of peace in the 1970s compared with Beirut. Over the centuries there were outbreaks of fighting, but after the failure of the 1798 rebellion, most of them were pretty minor. The Irish Civil War in 1922-23, which was between different varieties of Irish Nationalists, only killed about 1500 people. Even the Irish War of Independence against the UK (1919-1921) only killed about 2300 people. That does not compare with the carnage that we are witnessing in Gaza right now.
Thanks for the clarification. I read about 20 years ago (or maybe more)that there were children in Ireland who had never been alive when there was not a conflict happening mostly, as you say for Irish Identity. I was in Ireland at the end of the 1960's and there was no conflict that I saw at that time, but there was later, according to what I read. What you refer to as "the troubles" which happened from 1968 to 1998. I am sure the carnage did not compare to what is happening in Gaza right now, but if it is your brother, sister, father, child who gets killed in a conflict, comparisons may be heard, but they don't help much.
Interesting that you were in Ireland at the end of the 1960s!
Yes, it was "the troubles". And they were not good. People did die. A boy in my school was blown up a year after I left school. He was young enough that I didn't know him, but his sister was a friend of my sister's and losing a brother had a big effect on her. The father of a guy in my school was shot dead by terrorists while I was still at school in 1977 - about 3 miles from our house.
But the reality was that life went on as normal, and we never thought of visiting Belfast during the troubles as risky. We actually spent a few weeks there while on vacation in 1971.