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I assume this is Northern Ireland, so obviously this isn't so much a 'we love the King' mural as a 'this is a unionist area' mural.
This is probably better than a picture of a man in a mask and a UDA flag.
Growing up in the 80s and knowing the context, this doesn't seem like the worst possible time line for Northern Ireland.
Maybe we should all move to NI. Although, that's kind of how the problems started.
Prescriptions are free, we have no water bills either. The crime rates aren't really that high, the violence stuff basically only happens if you get involved. This may seem a weird thing to say but paramilitaries are generally not as bad as smaller gangs in some parts of the world, and they're easily avoidable if you don't mess with them (Although if you're English you are better living in a Unionist area, Irish people would be better in the Nationalist areas). It's actually not a bad place to live!
There are still active paramilitary groups in NI?
Varying levels of ‘active’. Planting roadside bombs and shooting at police is very rare nowadays and makes big headlines.
Low level violence (generally aimed between groups, not at the public) is semi-common, increasingly around religious holidays and marching season.
It’s dramatically better than the 80s and 90s, but taken a few steps back after Brexit & sovereignty issues compared to the 2000s/2010s
They're basically drug gangs and/or like to police their own communities nowadays
It literally has a quote on it about Northern Ireland. Although it would serve as both a "we love the King" mural as well, people here are pretty patriotic (which is a normal pattern in anywhere in the world where national identity gets threatened, like mainland UK in WWII or cold war era America)
Really depends where you are for people to be "patriotic" I live in a mixed area outside lisburn and most people around it couldn't give a fuck about the royal family or British shite, go into a nationalist area and it'll be the same. Places like sandy row or shankill obviously will have more people who are proud to be British and fans of the royal family.
In a mixed area though obviously wouldn't have it because it's mixed. Same with nationalist.
Right, so the majority of people here aren't patriotic. Recent studies/polls shows that most people here don't identify as British so that would be those that identify as Irish/Northern Irish and they're unlikely to be patriotic to Britain.
That's not what the 2021 census says. 31% identify as British only and 19% as Northern Irish only