[CptSternn]

Thats the western take on it, but far from the truth. Today, there are many prodestants who not only support Nationalism, but Republicanism as well. However back in the 60's/70's the lines were a bit more defined.

But heres the storey...

Britian took over Ireland a few hundred years ago. The first thing they did was take all the good parts of land away from the people living there and gave it to the new 'lords' and other royalty they moved in from britian. They also began systematically moving people off their land and farms and giving it to new 'settlers', who came from poor parts of britian and also many from Scotland.

So they took away the best land, gave it for free to anyone from britian who wanted to move to Ireland. At the time, you had to be a prodestant to live in britian. And of course, Ireland is all Catholic. So the lines were pretty much defined. Settlers comnig in were all prodestant, and also taking lands that belonged to people, but the british government pulled one of those 'eminant domain' tricks and basically evicted thousands of people from their homes and lands.

There has been fighting ever since.

Now in 1920's when Collins was able to negotiate a deal to return 26 of the 32 counties to the Irish government, many people were happy. Of course, many people, especially those in the last 6 counties were not.

The IRA was created by Michael Collins, and was the organisation credited with freeing Ireland and creating the current Republic. If you haven't seen the film Michael Collins, check it out. Liam Nissan and Julia Roberts just to name a few of the all star cast.

Basically, Collins started the the modern guerilla war. He started bombing military barracks, shooting public officials, and attacking all things british that had an effect on the economy. This worked, and in the 1920's the briitsh government sat down to negotiate the turn over of the counties.

However, as mentioned, the last 6 counties were still under occupation. They fought in courts, in diplomatic arguments, and everything else until the 60's, almost 50 years of trying to negotiate a peaceful hand off of the last 6 counties. When after this time had passed and the british occupation became unbearable, the IRA decided to start another all out war campaign against the british occupation.

What do I mean by unbearable? Well, it's like this. First, all the good land was owned by british persons of british descent. They also took all the resources in the counties and sent them to britian. They exploited the poor irish workers, and used them to capitalise on their own investments. They essentially had created a ruling class and lesser class. Lines were pretty much dived. The wealthy persons well all british, while the ones fighting to feed their families were all Irish. The british also imposed laws to unfairly tax the Irish as well as pass laws stating only members of the orange order could hold government positions. Since the orange order only lets in persons of british descent who are prodestant, that kept the Irish out of all government dealings, so they can't even vote to better themselves. I mean they could vote, but for the british politicians who the british put in the elections.

So the armed struggle, now know as 'The Troubles' began. Bombings, shootings, etc. This caused the british to turn Northern Ireland into the DMZ it is today. Gard towers, armoured police vehicles, and all the great things you see today that are still present in the north. In fact, the british have 5 times as many troops in N. Ireland than they do in Iraq.

So the pro-british loyalist moved into communities that were near barracks, and the Irish Catholics moved into communities away from the barracks. And lines were divided, as they are today. West Belfast is all Catholic while East Belfast is all prodestant. South Belfast is mainly other ethinic groups all mixed together, and North Belfast is the rich area, with estates (neighborhoods) which are either all prodestant or all Catholic.

Now the orange order is a group that britian invented years ago to celbreate william the orange, the man who conquered Ireland and started this whole mess. They used it to keep Irish out of politics, and keep them as second class citizens. Every year they get together, march through Nationalist (Irish Catholic) neighborhoods carrying their flags, banners, pictures, and sniging music while yelling hat filled slander at the people who live there. Why? Because it was a way to keep the Irish in place years ago. They did it because if the Irish spoke out, they could be executed for not supporting britian. To this day, every year, they have their 'marching season' in the north, and march through neighborhoods where they are not wanted, just to cause trouble. They don't want to march in their own neighborhoods, they march in Nationalist areas, and always start riots.

Even today, when marchin season starts, they bring out PSNI to stop the riots. Literally hundreds of PSNI (police) are called out to line the parade route. They make a wall with riot shields to hold back the crowds who riot. It's like nothing you have evern seen, or experienced. Thousands come out to protest the march, hundreds of marchers, going in between hundreds of riot police to parade in an event that takes about an hour, then afterwards everyone disperses, if the protestors haven't gotten through the lines, because then the fighting starts and it all goes crazy. And they do these pretty much every weekend in the summer. And the british government won't stop it, as they claim its 'freedom of speech'.

However this time, the same lads wanted to come to Dublin and try it. It would be the first time since Ireland got it's independence that orangemen paraded in Ireland. Needless to say, the people here don't want them parading through, celebrating the group that they had to fight against to get their freedom, while yelling slurs are the people who live there and carrying banners celbrating murders who had killed Irish men and women.

So thats the short version. I could go into more detail, but thats the basic gist for ye.