Last year one of my very good English mates who is in his late 30's asked me (and he was being serious) "are the IRA the Catholic ones or the Protestant ones?", about two weeks later he was absolutely outraged at Celtic fans protesting against the Poppy Appeal at Celtic Park. I've found it better to not argue with people who have very strong opinions about a controversial subject, yet have put absolutely no effort into actually learning about that subject. Call me arrogant but about 75% of people in Scotland and the north of Ireland fall into this category when it comes to Irish politics. In England it's about 90%.
People generally are led by media interpretation. It is far more likely for folk to follow the zeitgeist as dictated by the mainstream media than it is to form their own opinion. That is fine in the majority of cases as there is little intellectual opposition to it. It is entirely understandable that your mate would think in such a way. It doesn't make him stupid, rather ignorant in the true sense of the word as the intellectual opposition to the poppy protest didn't come from anywhere in the media and the natural inclination is not to seek it out. I'd guesstimate the figure you have cited to be higher in england. They don't care and why should they.
When I worked abroad a lot of the English people hadn't the faintest clue about what was even going on over here, but I would say that most of the Scottish were pretty clued in and had a good idea. A lot of people in this country have no idea about politics, Irish history etc. but they are brought up brainwashed into hating the otherside. Sad but true.
I live in England and once was flying back home when reading a paper on the plane (english edition) There was a story on the film the wind that shakes the barley and it absolutely slated the acuracy of the film as a false representation of the time When i got home my father coincidentally had the same news paper but it was the irish edition - it also had a review and gave a glowing report on a film finally showing a true reflection of the brutality (from both the irish and the english) of that time The media has a massive influence on the people who read it. You could say it can brainwash people to a degree. so quiet often even those who claim to be in the know quite often are only seeing part of the story. People need to remember this. Even if they read up on a topic it doesnt always mean its right/or wrong
The lad with the multiple accounts that was gonna batter me last night. Take yourself on. As for your "I'm the Queen, look how I speak" I bet people thought it was funny maybe the 1st few posts.
I'd say I have some idea about the situation over there through friends and work colleagues and what have you (including a fair bit of reading and my history O level was 19th century British and irish Politics) but quite frankly it's not the kind of thing I'd want to discuss in depth as I still don't think I know enough and it gets a bit emotive (not without good reason i hasten to add. Sadly, there are many who love to espouse on things they know absolutely nothing about. I'm sure we all know the type - a classic example would be people who donlt work in the same industry as you but still think they know as much as you do - I'm sure we've all encountered them!
What has worshipping at the altar of Alice Cooper got to do with Northern Ireland? Sheesh some people eh?
