The Breakfast Debate
- Thread starter ellandback
- Start date
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I will leave that issue to our Irish friends to address. I am sure they know their story better than I do.
So the Scots have always been happy being ruled by the English then....?
I'll leave our Irish chums to discuss that, Jonny, but as I understand it, Eire became independent of the UK fairly quickly. The 'troubles' in Northern Ireland lasted much, much longer, and was complicated by the Protestant (& by definition, Loyal to the UK) population in NI. So it really wasn't aparteid, simply the UK fighting terrorism within its borders.
It may surprise you that the Scottish Republican Army (SRA) fought & won a battle against the english in the 1950s, without any blood being spilled. In this case, it was all about Queen Elizabeth coming to the throne. All of the red postboxes were then embossed with 'ERII'. Now Elizabeth was indeed Elizabeth II in england, but back in the day when Elizabeth I reigned in england, the Scots had Queen Mary (who Elizabeth famously had beheaded). So Elizabeth was actually Elizabeth I of Scotland, and when complaints fell on deaf ears, the SRA was formed. Their tactic? Quite simple - literally blow up the post boxes, and continue to do so until the UK government gave in. They did. End of boring history lesson. LOL.
I was reallythinking about the treatment of the Irish people in London and other small cities in England.
Then that's something I cannot comment on. I actually thought the 'No Irish' signs was an urban myth. Jeez!
You would never have found that in Scotland. We have a - sorry, we had a long tradition of hospitality. It was all about the shockingly bad weather in centuries gone by. A person could come to your door & claim hospitality, which would effectively guarantee them a bed for the night, food & water. To refuse them would almost certainly kill them. The modern 'hospitality' is the more general boozing with the craic. As a side note - you may have heard of the Glencoe massacre, where english troops slaughtered the Macdonalds of Glencoe. Slaughter was not uncommon in those days, but the reason this even became notorious was that hospitality had been extended to the english troops, and the slaughter took place during this hospitality.