Shocking ignorance anti Irish racist media in Scotland

Sceala Philosopher Location: Glasgow

I recall members on these Irish forums explaining how the British state encouraged the idea of the - Irish problem.
This headline and simplification was referenced again and again - purposely ignoring the actual history. Divisions of hate and identity in Ireland were created and promoted by the British Colonial state, the simplistic and ignorant divisions in Ireland are British problems - they are distinctly one of the many problems created for purpose by the British empire.
The BBC and ITV must have had accepted the directive policy of simplifying the troubles in Ireland as both distinctly Irish and sectarian. Just Catholics and Protestants fighting over religion.

If anyone ever doubted how conditioned and ignorant the media is in Scotland - just read the following news article.
Keep in mind - that this journalist presents her self as a free thinker - above ignorance, above simple sectarianism, above being a anti Irish racist.
She might have thought she had good intentions in the article - she probably never had a specific intention to hurt anyone's feelings. The ignorance displayed, is therefore all the more disturbing.
This is the mindset of someone who thinks they are not anti Irish and not sectarian, not anti Roman Catholic.

While such attitudes are completely out of order - they only indicate the soft side of the anti Irish attitudes and problems in Scotland .
To comprehend the full extent of the problem, the wide spread ignorant anti Irish racist attitudes held by too many in Scotland - you would have to unfortunately experience it to believe it.
If you visit Scotland and are Irish - it is not a case of if- but when you will experience extremes of ignorant racism.
Anti Irish and sectarian attitudes of a type you had previously imagined only existed in parts of America a century ago- within the ranks of the Klu Klux Klan.

The Media has a responsibility not to encourage ignorance and anti Irish racist beliefs.
Shocking ignorance anti Irish racist media in Scotland
The article in full.
If you can't spot the shocking ignorance - and anti Irish attitudes - then you need to check back into reality school before ever making a comment on Ireland or the Irish again.
Remember this is one of the most popular daily news prints in Scotland - not some insignificant blog.
One comment in particular is not only sectarian and racist - it is dangerous ignorance.
The final point made by Ruth Wishart
Some Scots also drink from this poisoned well.
Would be laughable if it was not so ignorant of Scotland in reality.

Decade of progress in Belfast is at risk
Published on 13 Jul 2011

Not many people know this …today marks the start of Belfast’s Rose Festival.

Thousands of people will come to the celebrated city centre rose garden to marvel at 4500 blooms and stroll amongst new varieties. Maybe fewer than last year. Not for the first and, sadly, probably not for the last time Belfast’s many and varied civilised attractions have been pushed to the media margins by another bout of mindless sectarian violence.

It is, after all, the epicentre of the marching season; that open season for idiocy when a certain proportion of men and women cloak their internecine squabbles in a veneer of traditional “celebrations” and counter demonstrations. What is being celebrated is a battle which took place over 320 years ago; a 17th-century conflict which seems terminally lodged in the 17th-century mindset of those whose civic pride is still infested by civic but hardly civil prejudices.

Belfast is a city twinned with its other self. A vibrant European city with gleaming structures, boutique hotels, retail therapists, a fine festival and buzzing nightlife. And, at the same time, a sullen city still partially mired in its troubled past; a city whose “peace” walls bisect communities, even children’s playgrounds, creating the interface areas where trouble is no more than a stone’s throw away. A city which, with no apparent sense of irony, includes a tour of gable-end murals depicting its violent troubles as an official part of its tourist menu.

In the wake of the Good Friday peace accord, it seemed the bulk of the citizenry would sign up to the commercial and social dividend that promised. In the wake of that apparent watershed other UK taxpayers continued to throw money at the new world order in the province, including stumping up for its parliament and its members when the latter went into one of their lengthy, extended, and expensive huffs.

Gradually, painfully slowly, it seemed the city was becoming more comfortable in a 21st-century skin. Even the horror of a young Catholic policemen murdered in April by Catholic dissidents for the “crime” of joining the force, evoked a small crumb of comfort when his funeral mass brought cross-party attendance including the Protestant First Minister.

Then came the summer of 2011 where violence with no obvious trigger broke out again apparently instigated by loyalist youths. Armour-plated vehicles, riot police and young men intent on mayhem came back on to the streets.

The petrol bomb, weapon of choice for the urban cowboy, made an unwelcome re-appearance. Inevitably, sickeningly, the two tribes squared up again in tit-for-tat assaults on whatever target their logic-free reasoning deemed “the enemy”.

A few years ago Belfast put itself forward as one of 12 British candidates for the accolade of European City of Culture for 2008. As part of the judging panel, I spent some time in the city, entranced by the enthusiastic welcome, shocked by the sense of apartheid still so very evident. Somewhat bemused to be regaled by a Scottish country dance set, we were advised that the young girls in question didn’t do the Irish variety as that belonged to the other Ireland.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago and, in the finale of a European mediation conference, a local woman beside me at the closing concert talked me through which instruments belonged to which tradition. This is a city where even a joint orchestra can play to Catholic and Protestant codes.

The people who have worked so hard and so long to integrate this city now have to find a way to dismantle mental walls as high as any of the concrete variety. They can embrace a fascinating future for their city, new Titanic quarter and all, or they can let the hoodlums tear down a hard-won decade of progress.

This is not just a little local difficulty. There are idiots who sing and chant their sectarian hatred at Scottish football matches. Some Scots also drink from this poisoned well.
Original Article
heraldscotland.com/comment/ruth-wishart/decade-of-progress-in-belfast-is-at-risk-1.1111714
Ruth Wishart

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Anti Irish bigotry this is Scotlands shame.

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