Northern Ireland has been the scene of three nights of violence and vandalism since Belfast City Council voted to not fly the Union Jack every day. This brings Belfast in line with City Halls across the UK. They don’t need to fly a flag because they know they’re British. The flag is kept for special occasions.
Some rhetoric I’ve heard recently:
Yes, the violence, criminal damage and bodily harm was wrong but so was the removal of the flag through democratic means.
This sort of equivalency indicates the speaker has no respect for law or democracy. Anyone making this statement is inciting thugs to riot and perpetuating hate and fear in our society.
I, among others, work hard to try and make Northern Ireland a better place to live. My Tweet stream was filled, over the last three days, with the sentiment that every young person in third level education wanted to leave Northern Ireland and many who had left were glad to have done so.
Do not call up that which you cannot put down.
Those involved in the violence, including those who organised the protests yet were unable to control the crowd of hate-filled thugs, are a disgrace. You shame us all.
Speaking of moral equivalence, when are the various ‘neutral’ commentators on social media going to comment upon the naming of a kids play area after an individual involved in murder? Or does NI begin and end wherever a certain agenda defines it?
I can’t for the life of me work out how people apparently savvy in these things let themselves be swept along in the mainstream media’s narrow minded portrayal of recent events.
Where is the dissenting thought?