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AIBU?

To think that the rioters in East Belfast are mainly bored teenagers rather than loyalists?

30 replies

VestaCurry · 08/01/2013 08:49

All the news footage I've seen indicates they're between 12-18 years old.

Are they really rioting because of the flag or because it's something to do?

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wannabedomesticgoddess · 08/01/2013 08:50

YANBU.

Something to do.

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AllYoursBabooshka · 08/01/2013 09:23

I wish this were true, it would be less embarrassing.

Sadly there are people of all ages participating in this violent nonsense.

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VestaCurry · 08/01/2013 09:26

Admittedly lots of people partially covering their faces, but even their body movements seem like those of younger people if that makes sense. Those in the first couple of lines definitely look like kids. I've no doubt there are older people orchestrating it.

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BaresarkBunny · 08/01/2013 09:41

I agree with Vestacurry. Isn't this the way previous riots have happened. It's such a shame this is happening.

When it first started I couldn't understand how people could get so upset about a flag, however I have a number of friends on my fb from NI and this has really upset and angered them.

I wish NI could be known for what it is, a breathtakingly beautiful country.

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InsertCleverNameChangeHere · 08/01/2013 09:42

YANBU

The whole thing is ridiculous! Recreational rioting at its finest. I feel embarrassed when I see this has made the mainstream news, it's bad enough that it's happening without everyone knowing!

Agree that it's being orchestrated by older people too.

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SarahWarahWoo · 08/01/2013 10:21

I thought the same then last night on the News at Ten they interviewed people aged 50-60 from the scene.

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saycheeeeeese · 08/01/2013 10:23

Im sick of it...fed up sitting in traffic after work because they are bored little children!

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saycheeeeeese · 08/01/2013 10:24

And that includes the so called adults

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NeedlesCuties · 08/01/2013 11:06

YABU.

I live near there.

Often it is a mix of all ages, but they shove the younger ones to the front.

I might get flamed for saying that, but in my experience (of once being a youth in a disaffected Loyalist area) the young ones are dozy enough to be full of zeal and want to impress those around them.

All so fecking embarrassing. Makes me embarrassed to be a NI Protestant sometimes.

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saycheeeeeese · 08/01/2013 11:10

Needles I agree

An opportunity to 'prove themselves' to their heroes!

Its not about the flag anymore.

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GoingVerySlowlyMad · 08/01/2013 11:38

I don't live very far from all the trouble and find it quite frankly heartbreaking and embarrasing to see a small minority taking us backwards after all the work that has been put in trying to take us forwards.

Most of the people you see on TV causing the problems are youths, what you often don't see are the older men directing them. It is harder to arrest a child and if they do they just get a slap on the wrist.

I also can't believe their total lack of insight or intelligence, where do they think violence is going to get them? It's certainly not going to get the flag back up permanently, as I can't see how they could ever do that now as it will be seen as giving into violence. They are their own worst enemy, if the had kept it peaceful then maybe people would have been prepared to listen.

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Pandemoniaa · 08/01/2013 11:42

I was brought up in Belfast and my mother spent the last 30 years of her life in NI. Watching the news takes me back to the bad old days when casual bigotry was the order of the day and actually, it isn't the bored teenagers who bother me as much as the older people who clearly demonstrate that nothing under the surface has changed so far as the Loyalists are concerned.

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wannaBe · 08/01/2013 11:47

"When it first started I couldn't understand how people could get so upset about a flag, however I have a number of friends on my fb from NI and this has really upset and angered them." having friends who were upset about it wouldn't make me think it was any less ridiculous.

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Tee2072 · 08/01/2013 11:53

It's totally ridiculous. And it's pretty much understood being directed by the UVF, which is not made up of young people.

Although young people are certainly involved. But they aren't doing this on their own volition. They weren't even alive when it happened originally. Old men always send young men out to fight their battles. This is no different.

I live in South Belfast, my husband grew up here, in the NW, and lived in East Belfast during a lot of the worst of it. He is disgusted by the whole thing.

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saycheeeeeese · 08/01/2013 12:04

Attitudes like this are ingrained, im just so grateful to my parents for bringing me up without prejudice or bigotry.

I do get why people are annoyed, I dont get the violent reaction.

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Arthurfowlersallotment · 08/01/2013 12:16

It's the same caliber of trailer trash that hurled abuse and condoms at the children going to Holy Cross primary school in 2001.

They're as thick as mince.

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ginmakesitallok · 08/01/2013 12:23

YABU - there are plenty of other places in the UK with bored teenagers, who don't end up rioting. I've been out of NI for nearly 20 years thank God. What scares me is that apparently normal sensible people although saying that the rioting is terrible, still defend the purpose of rioting (if that makes sense?)

As for, "they weren't even alive when it happened originally" - that's nonsense. N Ireland (although peaceful for a while until now) remains a sectarian country, with clear protestant/catholic divides.

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FairhairedandFrustrated · 08/01/2013 12:33

Another one here from NI and I'm ashamed, angry and disgusted at the behaviour & the way it's being portrayed across the media.

Unfortunately the young people aren't on their own out there, they're simply gullible and impressionable and are having their strings pulled by people much much higher up, all with their own agenda.

I'm in a mixed marriage, I grew up in a nationalist area, my dh the opposite, he was an Orangeman - it pleased me when the peace process began and a ceasefire declared - now I'm wondering how long it will last.

The decision about the flag was the catalyst for years of pent up anger to be unleashed, it's a crying shame that some of the people behind it can see no further than the end of their own bigoted noses.

The majority of people here don't want this, don't agree with it and certainly don't endorse the behaviour of a mob of ignorant people.

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FairhairedandFrustrated · 08/01/2013 12:37

I was shopping in Belfast city centre on Saturday and although the protest was peaceful, children were being pushed in buggies, carried on shoulders all wrapped in the union flag. It's being put into them from as young as that.

It matters not that they weren't alive during the 'troubles' they will never be forgotten or indeed be forgiven by many.

I'm in Belfast today again. It really is a lovely city when you ignore what's happening in other parts.

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Tee2072 · 08/01/2013 12:49

" N Ireland (although peaceful for a while until now) remains a sectarian country, with clear protestant/catholic divides."

Not completely true. There are plenty of integrated areas/schools/etc. It's maybe 1,000 people involved in this nonsense.

And if their parents weren't pushing them towards this, these young people wouldn't be involved. They'd have no idea they are 'suppose to be upset' over it all.

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AllYoursBabooshka · 08/01/2013 13:45

children were being pushed in buggies, carried on shoulders all wrapped in the union flag. It's being put into them from as young as that.

I hated seeing that.

It would be different if they were teaching their children to be proud to be British, that's a positive thing to involve you child in, but they aren't. These types of people use the flag to perpetuate hate and divide and are hell bent on dragging NI backwards.

Thankfully it won't happen.

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Nyancat · 08/01/2013 13:54

It's so depressing, and makes me ashamed to be from Belfast with the way we are being portrayed.

There are an awful lot of dreadful postings on fb at the minute from grown men and women that are just disgusting and make me feel so sad. I have a look at an ironic page on fb which shows posts poking fun at some of the idiotic comments people are making but just read one from someone who was wishing that hitler had hated republicans as much as Jews and how he would love to see them all exterminated. It is appalling to me that some people still think like this over here.

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somedayma · 08/01/2013 13:59

I'm from there but no longer living there and some of the shit about it on fb is awful. I think yabu in thinking there's not more to it. It's orchestrated by older loyalists

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Dahlen · 08/01/2013 14:00

Most riots are not carried out by people driven by a cause. They may be triggered by a cause or a select few idealists, but it's nearly always the case that lots of disaffected people get stuck in for the ride and the whole thing morphs into something very unpleasant and often completely counterproductive to the original cause.

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Stokes · 08/01/2013 18:49

IMO it was started by the unionist politicians playing with people like puppeteers, all to get Naomi Long of the Alliance party out of her seat in Westminster. The flag vote was just the thing they chose to rouse the population, if that hadn't happened, they would have chosen something else. I like to think they didn't anticipate it kicking off the way it has, especially in East Belfast but who knows.

There is definitely something more going on out in East Belfast - while there was violence in many other parts of the city before Christmas (I was caught up in some of it when they attacked the car I was driving and was exceedingly lucky to walk away), it has died down now it seems.

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