GAA Under Attack??

[Shades40]

Security alerts at GAA grounds

A pipe bomb was found at a GAA club in Banbridge
Police are investigating a number of overnight security alerts at GAA grounds across Northern Ireland.
They said a suspect device found in Randalstown, County Antrim, was a hoax.

Nothing was found during searches at clubs in Coalisland, Dungannon, Armagh and every club in the Londonderry area.

It follows the discovery of a pipe bomb at a GAA club near Banbridge, County Down, on Thursday. A man had telephoned a warning that a device had been left.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7143754.stm

Wonder who they've pissed off now?

[Jim]

are you taking the piss about how we northerns say "so they did" and "so it will" after every sentence?

[Jim]

Wheres the fucking edit and quote button by the way?

your all going to see my spelling mistakes and half arsed sentences that take me about 3 or 4 edits to correct.

[Jim]

Thats not right so its not.

[Jim]

Aye I know so I do, ye know what I mean?

[Shades40]

Maybe the OO could shed some light on these incidents after coming out with this statement concerning the attacks on OO halls...........

"If it was the GAA halls being attacked the police and media would be all over it"

[Harry]

shades40 said:

Maybe the OO could shed some light on these incidents after coming out with this statement concerning the attacks on OO halls...........

"If it was the GAA halls being attacked the police and media would be all over it"

Attacks on OO halls go very much unreported and it is felt that it is deemed not very newsworthy. If GAA halls had of been attacked on the scale of the OO halls my own humble opinion is that it would of been headline news about ethnic cleansing or something equal.

[Wasp]

I know what Harry means, these attacks on OO halls usually get very little coverage just in the sameway many times when Protestant homes were attacked they did not receive the same coverage that a Catholic home being attacked normally got. For years it has usually been the case of a loyalist throwing one stone is worse than a Catholic throwing loadsa stones, Protestant homes being attacked is not as bad as a single Catholic home being attacked.

Sadly this has been all to often the norm for here.

[Jim]

Whos to blame for that?

I couldnt give a shite about the orange order OR the gaa, but theres certainly a reason why they are being attacked and its not a nice one. it doesnt matter who gets reported about more, whats important is what is happening.

[Wasp]

Jim it is not just as simple as who gets reported more, it is the fact that anything connected to Protestant community seems to be of less importance than anything connected to the Catholic/nationalist community. This is where the frustration lies.

There is no reason whatsoever to justify any of these attacks, sadly it shows the pure and utter hatred that many have for the other side.

[Jim]

I havent noticed that at all, there have been plenty of news headlines about attacks on protestants and there are plenty of websites set up to highlight them, rightly or wrongly (some are blantely ignorant). Why arent your elected representatives giving more air to this? SF and the SDLP give a lot of air to anything happening to the nationalist community and while they should do the same for your community to a certain extent, that is tribal politics for you, no one plays fair so its up to the UUP PUP and DUP to let the world know, and they dont do that.

[Wasp]

I agree with our useless politicians, they would rather pointscore amongst eachother than highlight these issues at every turn. For years members of a Church near Dunloy have had to be in the car park during Church services because of republicans damaging the cars and property. Pro-republican graffitti sprayed on cars right down to them being scratched all over. A few years back a bus load of celtic fans passing the Church shouted all sorts of sectarian abuse to people leaving the Church which included children seeing men dropping their trousers at them to calling them all the orange bastards under the sun. If memory serves it made the local newspaper a few times but that was it. Now compare that to the media attention first protest at Harryville chapel got.

I know some local politicains raised these issues many times but the media just didn't seem to be interested. But at the sametime our politicians should have and could have done alot more.

[Blue Angel]

i'd like to add once again that republican is not a word i'd use to describe the kind of people wasp is talking about in that last post - 'ignorant fuckwit' are two words i WOULD use to describe the kind of fool who goes around scratching cars and insulting people at mass and thinking he's striking a blow for Ireland by doing so.

As Jim says due to the tribal nature of politics no-one plays fair but it would help if Sinn Fein adressed this issue in a more substantive manner. Sure you see a few token words and speechs here and there about attacks on unionist areas/places of worship/education but it all comes across as looking like they know they should be saying it rather than sometimes really believing it. I except Setanta from that as I know he would have nothing but disgust for idiots like the type of peopel WASP is mentioning.

[Wasp]

As a Unionist/Protestant/loyalist sinn fein would truly have to address issues like this. A few words of condemnation and all to often the case of what more can we do? We have asked those responsible to stop etc etc. At this point any interest I have in what sinn fein are saying disappears, same old same old.

But IMO if they came out and acknowledged that in the past they were all too often silent about such attacks and all to often made a few meaningless token words etc then that would make a hell of a difference to people like me rather than sinn fein going on the defensive, which makes us feel that they are in denial or simply don't care.

Then if they with sincerity stated that they wanted all this to stop and would take every step required to help do so etc, they may be believed, even slightly. So for me sinn fein acknowledging the extent of the problem, acknowledging that they for years done nothing or very very little about it but are now genuinely trying to stop these attacks, then I would take alot more interest in what they are saying.

I know sinn fein members/workers and those from loyalist areas were provided with phones where they could contact eachother to help prevent trouble in certain areas. Strangely a number of times none from the republican community answered their phones or replied to urgent calls when trouble was about to start or had already started. These are also things which need to be addressed on the republican side of things. Much needs to be done by bothsides and trust IMO is the key.

[Harry]

I don't have any faith in any of the politicians and their input usually only comes when they have something to gain from it. Unionists have no place to call SF as they have remained silent many times when innocent Catholics were under attack. I think the actions must come from within our own communities and we need to get to a stage where sectarian attacks are frowned upon from within. Where it is frowned upon and actively discouraged, it needs to become some sort of dirty stigma and where it would bring shame on your family if you were caught in any act of sectarianism. Sadly we are a way off that stage but if you compare now with 10-15 years ago we have made steady progress and i hope in another 10-15 years we may be there.

No point relying on SF or the DUP to do anything or any other elected reps for that matter.