Consider that you are voting...

[minionofmidas]

Alliance. Unless tactical considerations entered my mind, which is more than just a wee bit likely. I'd probably have to do a seat-by-seat. I probably won't.

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, hating SF but supporting PUP isn't really a coherent opinion.

[minionofmidas]

Re: Al. Looks pretty good.

[minionofmidas]

Ah, one correction. Country Antrim was never "stolen and the land given to Protestant settlers". Although they themselves, some of them, don't like to hear it, most Presbyterians in Northern Ireland are as Irish as they come. (well, many of them do have relations in Scotland. People have been marrying to and fro across that channel since time immemorial.)

[minionofmidas]

Yes. And no. All you're saying is right. About five of these counties at least. There never was a planned settlement of Antrim County because it wasn't considered necessary, most of the population being protestant. This is not to say, of course, that no indivicual catholics were displaced etc. I bet they were.
As a result of this, though, by the early 19th century Antrim had the highest proportion of Catholic land ownership in Ireland (or maybe that was in ireland outside Connacht, don't nail me on that one) - about 25%, equalling their share of the population. While everywhere else, of course, the population was Catholic but the land was owned by absentee English protestants.
The Ui Niall / O'Neills were from Tyrone. They found their way into Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, btw.

[minionofmidas]

Oh, yeah, it's early morning in America...
Republican activity? That would mean 20th or late 19th century.
Rhodesia was done by private companies IIRC...that's actually quite a bit like what happened in Northern Ireland outside Antrim. Except here the companies (and in the case of Derry, the City of London) bought the rights to do that from the crown. If I remember correctly. Big if perhaps.

[minionofmidas]

What would Protestants gain from reunification with Ireland? They have no reason to support Sinn Fein or the IRA terrorist thugs. Protestant have as much reason to like Sinn Fein as Catholics do to like the DUP. Not to mention Gerry Adams is a dispicable piece of human trash, just like Paisley.

BRTD a little damned consistency would go a long way.  From anyone else I could accept those comments but not from someone who consistantly glorifies any leftist with an AK or tin horn leftist dictator. 

As for what the Protestants would gain, who knows?  The land was stolen and given to Protestant settlers.  I will remind you of your staggering hypocrisy when you decry the plight of the Black south Africans and called the murder of Apartheid police officers completely justified.  The Protestant community is entrenched though and I personally pray for continued peace.

actually you're making a common error that many here do quit frequently and confusing supporting someone with wanting to have sex with them. I had made my condemnation of groups like Shining Path pretty clear.

Now if Catholics were prohibited from most jobs, prohibited from living anywhere but the slumbs, were required to have a special pass to travel to many areas, were prohibited from buying alcohol and were forced to use segregated transportation that was far inferior, than it could be compared to apartheid. As for the land stealing, that might be a legitimate complaint but I doubt you'd be too fond of Native Americans demanding that you leave now and they be given the whole country back. You can't punish people now for what their ancestors did 300 years ago.

They couldn't join the police, for a long time. They still de facto can't (and Unionist opposition to police reform has been one of the largest stumbling blocks since Good Friday.) Most of Northern Ireland is utterly segregated, and yeah, most of Catholic Belfast is slum. And I mean "segregated" as in "unsafe to travel in if you're not of the same group".

[minionofmidas]

Probably not. It's not as if accents gave you away. Although first names do. So basically it's dangerous only when they know your face.

[minionofmidas]

Catholics were excluded from most jobs (um Harlann and Wolff)- Catholic unemployment was more than double that of Prods

And even that was very high, most of the time

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the local elections udes to be an utter sham, true. I'd forgotten about that. One thing (that also existed in Great Britain until I think 1918) was the Company vote, which meant you got a vote at your home address and another at your business establishment address. This very much favored Protestants.
 Another thing is that the wards themselves were grotesquely apportioned. I saw the figures for Derry once. Just three wards electing 5 or so people each, unchanged from the 20s to the 70s. One ward, half the city's population, 98% Catholic. One ward, 15% of the city (the Historic center, basically), 60-65% Protestant. One ward, 35% of the city, 60-65% Protestant.

[minionofmidas]

Lasted right until the Army moved in in the 70's, yes.

[minionofmidas]

Possibly. If there was, it was a very low one. I don't remember.