I know it's a few days late (weekend, footy, beer, family - not in that order - got in the way!
) but I couldn't let this one pass with out chipping in.
The vast vast majority of Irish people do not hate or dislike the English. Most of us support English teams, have English relatives and if not having lived and worked in England, know at least a handful of people that have done so. I worked over there in 1990/91 meself.
I have English cousins, aunties, uncles and mates. My best man at my wedding was English.
Hagbard, I'm sorry you were treated like that in our fair city. But that was an exception, English tourists are treated very well here (as are all tourists) by the vast majority of locals and as my country man rebel gooner so rightly pointed out, every big city has its share of dickheads. The fact that the lovely lads of Combat 18 and the NF had recently acted the bollix over here probably provoked that gimp to spit at your car but with a mentality like that anything could have set the twat off!!
I know this is an Arsenal forum so I don't want to get into the whole politics of Ireland and Britain too much but I would like to mention my Grandfather. He was "Old IRA" back in 1916 and through the 20's. He despised the modern IRA (as do most Irish people) that targetted women, children and civillians in general.
My Grandfather fought in the the Easter rising in 1916 and the war of independence, his brother spent months in a British internment camp. One of the things that always stuck with me was what he said about those conflicts.
He wasn't fighting the British people, he said, he was fighting their government because no country should control another country. When my younger bro asked him did he still hate the British, he replied no, that he had never hated them, that hatred solves nothing. He told us that the British were just like us; they had families that they loved and that the average British soldier wasn't in Ireland because he wanted to kill Irish people, he was there because when he needed a job to support his family the army may have been the only one he could get and then he had no choice where that army sent him.
My grandfather was always very proud of the fact that two of his daughters married Englishmen and he welcomed those lads (and their children) into his home like sons.
I suppose one of the main things he (and my folks) drove into us as kids and teenagers was that racism
and intolerance are the result of ignorance.
Sorry that was so long...
