Snoopcousins wrote:Yea I agree- but it's really not relatively peaceful here at the minute. The threat level is severe -with numerous attacks on police and security forces frequently foiled which regularly never makes the news.
A border change will ignite the nationalists/republicans and whatever they do will be an excuse for the loyalists to stir trouble.
They hardly need an excuse- the flag protests and Ardoyne situation case in point
Thanks both of you. As an outsider I get the impression that things may be bubbling under the surface.The UK government has escalated the threat level from Ireland to the top level.There seems to be a resurgence of violence,albeit on smaller level,but it does seem to indicate that things are not right.I'm sure we don't get the whole picture here and most 'incidents' are not reported on the mainland.Lazarus wrote:As it stands here at the minute, things are good for most people, if not good relatively peaceful. But there is still a minority on both sides who would take us back down that road. At the moment the main protagonist seem to be the hardline Republicans. Given that freedom of movement across the border has been the norm for years, any change to that will be seen as provocative. On the Loyalist side of the argument there has been a long standing belief that border checkpoints should be in place to stop the free movement of terrorists across the border. One incident of violence has the potential to reinvigorate the checkpoint argument thus stirring a hornets nest of emotions and feelings. I would bet that an out vote would play into the hands of those who want a united Ireland, they can carry out an attack abandon the car in the south and hey presto there will be calls for better security. Once that happens even on a small scale the situation as it exists now will be gradually undone. This is a very simple explanation of my point of view, the situation is way more complicated than that. Btw i grew up in a nationalist/republican area.
Would checkpoints on the border really help anyway?I was always of the impression that terrorists from both sides had ways of bypassing those? Or am I just being ignorant? I can see their potential as a symbol for both sides.