UK, Ireland /
Poles flee N. Irleand homes after World Cup riots [70]
people were sort of forced into peace, its not wjhat they actually want
This proves (beyond all reasonable doubt) that you haven't a clue about the mindset of the people of Northern Ireland.
That quote could not be more wrong Cenowski. The people who do not support the peace process are a tiny few.
Only last weekend there was another incident in the Village/Donegall Road area of Belfast were Hungarians were forced from their homes.
As i said before in a previous post, the unprovoked attacks (against local people) by Polish hooligans has given an excuse for local racist's connected to the right wing group Combat 18 (these people have no connection to the national football team btw) to wage war on foreign nationals. Even though they are in the minority, every time they (c18) attack someone it makes the headlines & gives them the oxygen of publicity that they crave.
I condem such attacks 100% but i also know that they would not have happened if these hooligan scum had not come to our city intent on causing violence & destruction.
I hope those responsable (for attacking peoples homes) are brought before the courts very soon but i also know for a fact that those who came to Belfast that lovely Sunny day with the intention of causing trouble for Irish people ended up causing far more trouble for Polish people (& other foreign nationals) living here.
At my place of work i work alongside many Polish people and since the match day you could cut the atmosphere with a knife, i genuinely feel that many local people feel betrayed because after the hospitality shown to Polish people for so long that this is how they repay us.
I have Polish & Slovak friends in Belfast & i know they are worried about how things will develop but i constantly try to reassure them.
I have heard all the talk of what is going to happen to NI fans when they come to Poland but i really think this would be most unwise because i know from life experience that events can escalate very quickly in this country. That is my biggest fear.
Somebody made a quote earlier about it not being very clever to poke a sleeping bear with a stick , i couldn't have put it better myself because none of this needed to happen.
Let's not forget that this is a country that has just emerged from 30 years of almost civil war, deep suspicion of strangers within various community's (& mob rule) was common place for most of that time, indeed we have only just got over that phase in our history, despite this suspicion by many local's Polish people were largely welcomed into area's were they would never have been welcomed before & life was good for most Polish people, however when a few hundred idiot's decided to come to Belfast and pick a fight in a tough working class city (which is still full of some very violent men / mass murder's from the time of the troubles) i think they made a huge mistake, especially when many of your own fellow countrymen live there and will in all probability have to feel the wrath from right wing racist/paramilitary group's wanting to take revenge on the "ungratefull Poles" who trashed their city.
There has been much (totally justified) criticism (on this forum) for those people who are attacking homes in Belfast and i have no problem with that, what i do have a problem with however is the high tolerance level (by many) for the hooligan element who come on here and make threats of violence, these are clearly the type of people who came to my city that day & until hooliganism is taken seriously (by the ordinary fans) in Poland it will never end.
I post on the NI fans forum and i can assure you that anyone posting threats (no matter how veiled they are) would not be tolerated for one minute, we don't suffer fools gladly, they would be given one warning and then they would be banned, maybe the moderators need to take a look at themselves here ? Just an opinion.
