MovieChat Forums > Angela's Ashes (2000) Discussion > Why do they hate people from the North?

Why do they hate people from the North?


Hi,

I was wondering why people in Limmerick hated Malachy because he was from the North. What's the different between North and South since its Ireland anyway and don't they speak with the same accent??

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Read this and you'll understand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_troubles

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Ireland and Northern ireland have been at war for the better part of a century. Catholics and the Protestants. The IRA? The bombings? U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday? The Cranberries Zombie.The Devil's Own (1997) Film starring Brad Pitt & Harrison Ford. In the Name of the Father(1993) Film starring Daniel day Lewis. Etc.
War is always begotten by Politics or Religion .

"I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."

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This post cannot be serious?

Yo Must be either joking or ignorant

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REally serious... I'm from Colombia, we have our own little problems (almost 60 years of war with the guerrillas and the wealthy, so we, the middle class are trapped in the middle of THEIR conflict) so we don't really know to much about ireland and the catholic-protestant hate...

This movie was a Window to the people who just know nothing about ireland.

the " This post cannot be serious? Yo Must be either joking or ignorant " its really mean, it's like I expect you to know about the FARC or AUC (right wing death squad) or anyone else in europe. so please, respect

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Yeah, because only Americans think that way...that being said, not everyone knows about the issues in Ireland...most people nowadays are too worried about their own minor problems to care about religious struggles in other countries. If there's no benefit for us, why bother. That annoys me. Good movie, though. Very good. Wish I could see Robert Carlyle in more films...

The Masses are @sses

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they are protestant, and Republic of Ireland are catholic, its the same religious fight as it is in iraq

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Idiots you all. There are lots of catholics in the north. Who do you think made up the IRA? malachy and his family were catholics - how else do you think he taught Frank the liturgical latin ffs?
The prejudice comes from them being different and from them then being seen as having sold out to the english with being ruled by the british and living alongside 'presbyterians. Read the book where Franks says everyone always has to have a beef with someone else - like the way they don't talk to Aunt Jane because she 'has the look of a spaniard about her'. One way these people keep their pride is to find someone else to look down on and criticise.

no wonder with this class of feckin ignorance the USA didn't do feck all against funding the IRA blowing the arms and legs off of kids until Clinton.


When morning comes twice a day or not at all

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Also, going further back in Irish history, the English decided to remove the Irish from Northern Ireland and give their land to Scots and English they imported there to colonize and dilute the Irish.

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Bitter much, Kaye? Did Ireland ask for our help?(honest question, I was too young at the time) And it's not only United States citizens who're ignorant...I DEFY you, if you can find me one country COMPLETELY deviod of ignorant pee-stains. And not everybody likes to read. Calm down.

The Masses are @sses

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Jesus, Mary and Joseph does anyone ever look up and research stuff before they start posting random answers like this? The Southerners do not hate Northern Irish, its just a divide was made. Northern Ireland and the South have NEVER been at war. There are protestants and catholics living in both the North AND the South, in fact some protestants have enough wit to realise this never started off as a religeous war and were actually in the IRA fighting for a free Ireland. The religeon thing was just a spin by England which idiots started to believe. As for the comment "no wonder with this class of feckin ignorance the USA didn't do feck all against funding the IRA blowing the arms and legs off of kids until Clinton" Ireland neither asked for nor wanted outside help, as for the thing about the IRA there was plenty of things done by the other side that were just as bad....except IRA were fighting for freedom and equality, not to pander to a crown that neither wants them or gives a flying *beep* about them. I often wonder why protestants cant just be happy being Irish protestants. *beep* things happened but it was more *beep* if you were Catholic, police not exactly wanting to be bothered with Catholics etc when things were happening, but this whole circle of hatred thing is exhausting, Ireland needs to cut it the *beep* out so we can move forward...as our own country.

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To Kayekaye:

I don't see how answering a simple question someone had needs to result in you attacking an entire nation. Maybe the person is younger and is not so well versed in Ireland's history.

I don't appreciate you attacking people and calling them idiots because they ask a question. You seem to be as bad as the school teachers in the book with you chastising people because they are asking questions.

You sir are quite rude.

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why the hate, man?

how much time do the irish devote to learning about america's troubles? or ANYONE'S troubles but their own? ppl aren't born knowing everything and no offense but ireland is an itty bitty island that would tear itself apart no matter what america does or doesn't do.

the irish are blowing off the arms and legs of IRISH children and it's america's fault for not stopping them? AMERICA'S FAULT??

you ignoramus! we have bigger problems than you. fix your own country or leave it. that's what everyone else has to do.

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When all of the weapons and bombs were funded by America and even to this day America protects these terrorists, how do you expect people not to be angry and blame America?

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Oh, I don't, because everyone loves to blame America for their problems. Why not just immigrate here and embrace the "enemy"? You'll have a better life in a more tolerant society. Join all the other Irish who have come here and done well over the past 200 years, including some of my family. There is more Irish blood in America than there is in Ireland.

I am no fan of the English either. If you want to get away from them, come here. We're on your side.

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What a vile creature you are.

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The prejudice comes from them being different and from them then being seen as having sold out to the english with being ruled by the british and living alongside 'presbyterians. Read the book where Franks says everyone always has to have a beef with someone else - like the way they don't talk to Aunt Jane because she 'has the look of a spaniard about her'. One way these people keep their pride is to find someone else to look down on and criticise.


Amidst the wrangling in this thread, I think this is the best "answer" to the OP's question.

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The Irish urban working class can tend to be pretty clannish,I'm speaking from experience in Cork and I'd imagine its not too different in Limerick even more so in the past.Its not so much him being from The North just that hes an outsider and not some guy from the same tenement that they know.The attitude of the Grandmother sums this up the most.

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Why do people in the Southern United States dislike/distrust people from the North?

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Good point! Regional differences and jealousies are quite common in countries, in cases like Ireland or the U.S. where there has been armed conflict between those regions, this leaves a legacy of bitterness that can last for generations. I'm from the North of Ireland and people here do tend to look down at the Southerners who until about 15 years ago lived in a backward country with poor infrastructure. People up here often refer to Southerners as "Bloody Mexicans," (because they're from south of the border!).

"And with that sentence you've just lost the right to even talk to me, now BACK OFF!"

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[deleted]

The book and film make it clear that priests, teachers, and family members trained children to hate Northerners (protestants) and Englishmen almost from birth.

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The Irish want Ireland for themselves. The English have tried to colonise it for years (thus the 'what the English have done to us for 800 years')
The IRA was to keep Ireland for the Irish (i.e no English rule), the English dislike this obviously and fought them to take a country that doesn't belong to them. They made it into a religion thing to get the support of the English as they're mostly protestant.
Fact of the matter is, the English have England, the Irish should have Ireland to themselves but the English feel the need to take it. It has gone on for too long now anyway and many people in the north feel that they are British.

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Good lord you're stupid.

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To us, it probably sounds like the same accent, but in Ireland I'm told they can tell by someone's voice where they're from.
The animosity between Northern and Southern Irish is based mainly in religious differences, but also in the decision to support (or not support) a free Ireland. The Protesants and Catholics didn't get along, and the Irish Catholics wanted a free Ireland (free from British rule), but Protestants were afraid that if the English fell from power, a Catholic majority in Ireland could make life rough for the Protestants.

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Everything you say I've heard before and I suspect it's true.

My father's family was from the North, actually on the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland. We're all Catholic.

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