Reading the below-linked report, I see all the old familiar place names; Derry, Londonderry, Ulster. The more things change, the more they stay the same. SMDH.

Londonderry: Bomb explodes in car outside courthouse

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

Thanks, Trump!

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Another reason for the Duke to give up driving

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

He prefers to be known as Prince Flip.

Derry and Londonderry are the same place.

Carry on.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

'

There are some bars you might get punched for saying that.

Be that as it may, if one news site reports that a bomb went off in Derry and another reports that a bomb went off in Londonderry on the same day... they are likely talking about the same bombing.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

No, that would be #9 Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators.

And it's Derry (not Londonderry) in circles of people I know.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

i really thought Ireland had moved on from this. Not been to the north since 1990, but whatever they have now has to be a lot better than what they had then. ......Then i watched something on TV interviewing locals on the prospect of having a hard border, and the hostility was a bit of a shock. It was like the past 20 years - peace and shared leadership in the north, and immigration, vardaker and the abortion referendum in the republic had just put a paper thin cover over the underlying issues.

i don't think it helps when there are still house-sized murals depicting the terrorists on both sides from that time as heroes, looked up to by their respective communities. Creates an environment where there will always be others wanting to join them

A lot of Ireland has moved on. (At least speaking for my generation and younger). Growing up in Northern Ireland I can say that the underlying causes of the troubles go back hundreds of years. It'll take several generations for the old prejudices to slip completely away. The best way to help that process IMO is to keep that border as minimal as possible to reduce the "us and them" mentality. The town where I grew up was so perfectly divided, you could show me a map and I can draw a line, Protestants to one side and Catholics to the other. That won't go away in a single generation.

That being said; the vast majority of people are looking to the future and getting busy making it so. They want nothing more of the bad old days. It just takes a few rotten apples but I've no idea of their actual agenda.

Belfast is a fantastic city to visit and gets more interesting every time I go back.

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Don't forget to unclip!

I went to Belfast in 2003 and traveled around the whole island for the next 10 days.

I loved it. Here in Canada an "old building" might be 150 years old, tops. I had no idea how fascinating 800 year old castles were until I saw them.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Take it up with the BBC, tosser. The article says "Derry" and "Londonderry." You tosser.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I would assume the Brexit talks reopen this wound. Didn’t it just come to light they need a hard border to satisfy EU requirements?

This starts people talking about the North joining the republic and a lot of the issues come back.

Having crossed the border quite a few times when I lived in Dublin a hard border is hard to imagine. One time we had to unload kayaks so they could search them to make sure we were not smuggling mad cow beef across the border.

I loved spending time in the North. Belfast is a fabulous city and the QUB boys always showed us a fun time. My roomie even married one.

Try Rome.... 2000 plus year old buildings

Where did you grow up?

I was in Belfast one week before the first IRA truce in 1994 and then visiting perhaps future in-laws (which didn't come about) in Raphoe, Co. Donegal. The family was later in in the news involved in the Morris Tribunal. I'd love to go back now.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I know what you mean by the bolded part (BSE concerns), but I read it the first time like it was said by Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad bragging about how much contraband they're moving, like "Hey bitch, we're smuggling mad cow beef across the border, yo." Made me laugh.

Carry on.

Nearest town was Lurgan. Pop. around 20,000 ish. 30 minutes outside Belfast. We had a family furniture business that had been targeted by car bombs and fire bombs a few times. I remember picking through the wrecked store after a car bomb in 1992 and picking out scraps of car tire for a souvenir. I thought it was cool.

You really should go back to see just HOW much Belfast has changed since then.

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Don't forget to unclip!

These guys are throw backs to a dark time when Belfast was one of the three B's in the world everybody was told to avoid. Was talking to an immigrant from there not long ago and he I was surprised how cosmopolitan and even multicultural the city has become.

hopefully it is just a warning shot to remind the Brexiteers that having a hard border isn't a practical option.....even if May is dependent on the DUP.

looking across the Atlantic, one thing that disappoints me is i thought the Brits were good at organzing and planning stuff; but Brexit is a complete mess. As you said, the problems in NI have been going on for centuries so thinking through the options for borders, or not, should have been done before there was even a referendum.

Technicality here:

I thought:
1) That the “real IRA” was some kind of mystical army. That will supposedly rise up and unify the island under a single Irish government.
2) That the “real IRA” is thus a bit like King Arthur (in this regard).
3) That the “real IRA” might not appear in the short term. That it is thus up to the “provisional IRA” to maintain the fight- until the return of the “real IRA.”.
4) It was thus the “provisional IRA” that did all the real fighting during the troubles.

Thinking off the cuff here....
Maybe “the real IRA” , in this case, means continued free trade and open borders with the Irish Republic while the rest of the UK suffers from a chaotic Brexit.

Fun factoid I just found:

Bobby Sands wrote a song called “At Home in Derry” while he was in prison.
The melody of that song was supposedly borrowed and employed in “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Playing it straight up the middle. Derry doesn't exist for the Prods, Londonderry the same for the Papists.

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Brian

Gonna buy a fast car, put on my lead boots, take a long, long drive
I may end up spending all my money, but I'll still be alive