Socrates:
The obvious thing to point out is that if the Irish are (in the words of Joey “The Lips” Fagan from The Commitments) “…shooting the arses off one another…” then they are not following the tenets of Catholicism or any branch of protestantism that I’m aware of. They are however using religious heritage as a dividing line between the “us” and the “them.”
Holding grudges for centuries-old injustices just doesn’t mesh with the teachings of any segment of Christianity as far as I know. And somehow I doubt that the fights are over theological differences.
Socrates, You clearly do not know (and I am sure you are not alone in this) why there is still sporadic fighting in Northern Ireland.
First of all, any Catholic who joine the IRA is automatically excommunicated.
That being said, the grudges are not centuries old injustices. They are recent injustices, too.
Everywhere the British went they divided to conquer. In India, and in the West Indies, particularly, they divided by color. In Ireland they could not do that, so they divided by religion.
In Northern Ireland there were ghettos where Catholics were forced to live. When a Catholic applied for a job, one of the first questions they were asked was “What is your religion?” If the answer was “Catholic” the only jobs they qualified for were menial ones. The situation there was not one man = one vote. It was one property = one vote. Most, if not all, of the Catholic ghettos were owned by Protestants, who had a vote for each house. The Catholics who were renting these houses had no vote - they didn’t own property. This was the situation in 1960.
The Catholics in Northern Ireland were downtrodden, by the Northern Irish Protestants and also by the British.
Yes, there is hatred between both sides - at least in some cases. As long as injustice continues, hatred will continue. What is the answer - I don’t know. Righting injustices, and trying to overcome prejudices will help. So will time, but, most of all - prayer.
