Can there be peace in Northern Ireland? Is this a religious conflict?

Question

can there be peace?

Answer 1

I beleive that things are better now precisely because the various parties are allowed to talk to each other without mind games of the Britz supporting one party or the other. If it keeps going like this the outcome should be good, but I still don't trust what some of the warmongers in London might come up with in a change of government.

I love it when questions like this bring out all the combinations of xenophobia and ignorance.

Many of the above contributors might make less fools of themselves if they bothered to read about the place first. Wikipedia is good as a start for instance - not too intellectually demanding, but it's a start.

Leah:
The Church of England are protestants; and in Ireland, they're called the Church of Ireland (same thing as Episcopalians to you).

Kavorkian:
Yes there is less political violence and yes there are some splinter groups of IRA still active. Interesting that you have ignored the loyalists (UVF, UDA UFF, Red Hand etc. ... ) who have never handed in their guns and are still the most active of the lot - they shot a policeman two weeks ago.

Katholik:
Nowhere in Ireland have I heard it called white on white crime.

Red Top
My goodness you must be real intelligent if you can work out all these things (they should just look at each other .. see no horns ... etc...) and the people here couldn't. They must be - oh yeah, stupid Irish.
What outsiders do you think cause the problem?

Andrew:
"This has nothing to do with England". Here was I thinking that it was the English who started colonising form 1172 on ... who started plantations and ethnic cleansing from the 16th Century on, resulting in the ethnic makeup we have now ... who instigated and supported the Orange Order as a way of suppressing radical republicanism from America and France ... who put their army on the streets here and supported the loyalist murder squads through covert operations as well as shooting civilians dead on the streets... but it's nothing to do with them????

People please read about the place if you really care about it. If you don't, don't misinform

Answer 2

No, it is not a religious conflict, even though the parties in conflict are split generally along religious lines.

Simplified, the Catholics are Irish, and seek to unify with the rest of Ireland. The Protestants are British descent and want to remain part of Great Britain. This makes the division political rather than religious.

There can be peace, providing peace is sought.

Answer 3

There isn't complete peace anywhere, but, as I understand it, Northern Ireland has improved substantially. There are still splinter groups of the IRA that want to keep fighting, but they're at least a lot smaller.


Religion has always been a component of the conflict, with Irish Catholics vs Protestants sympathetic to England. But, it also has a political dimension. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, while Ireland itself is independent. Many want to unify the island.

Answer 4

yes there can be peace if the people of ireland as well as the people instigating trouble from outside ireland is that they should look in a mirror see what they look like then look at the ones they think they hate and they will find no devils horns or tails just as they do not have horns or tails.and realize it is the hate mongers of the world as well as the ones making profit from wars thease are the people to fear

Answer 5

There is now too much to loose from it starting again, it's over bar the shouting, marching, and small minded descrimination.

It is cultural, political,and religious.

The Loyalists:
Ethnically - Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Largely Protestant
Consider themselves British and Parlimentarians (consider Republicans to be Nationalists/Fascists).
Democratic Majority

The Republicans
Ethnically - Irish, Scottish
Largely Catholic
Consider themselves Irish Patriots (consider Loyalists to be Colonists/Occupiers).
Democratic Minority (although claim this is fixed).

(Just as footnote, as you may have already noticed, this is not really anything to do with England, other than England is a central part of Britain).

Answer 6

Yes, it is a religious thing - Church of England vs. Protestants. And it is much more peaceful than it was about 10 years ago.

Answer 7

Yes. This is called white on white crime in Ireland. If the katholiks and the Protestants of Ireland would both accept Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. Then they would love each other instead of killing each other.

Jesus said, if you love him obey his word,