ik this post isn't about ireland itself but the cognitive dissonance among self-declared-left-wing protestant-raised gen z (and i assume also other generations) in ulster is genuinely unreal it's almost laughable. i do understand opposition to the ira, especially from people who don't know a lot about its origins and the british violence it was reacting to (honestly the early ira was good but the ira of the troubles does deserve a LOT of criticism), bc the wounds are so fresh, & i don't really expect people to support them

but the way they manage to justify opposition to irish republicanism in general is unbelievable

i'm from a hardcore loyalist area where people think even considering yourself irish, let alone supporting violence, is borderline terrorism, and i know socialists who say acab, are supposedly anti-racist, would never even consider supporting british colonialism elsewhere, etc., but tie themselves in knots to support the settler colonialist 'state' that is the north of ireland

i don't get it at all because it isn't even from a place of ignorance, they are aware that it is a settler state etc. and they understand that as white people they're oppressors of other races. but they seem to think that in ireland they're somehow equally oppressed. i think it's because as the first post-good friday agreement generation we were raised not to see each other as enemies, but it's contributed to this sense that the troubles developed out of nowhere and that neither side is more culpable than the other. there's also a huge #BothSides type thing that says that loyalists and republicans were Equally Bad and that we should all just forget about everything that happened and sing kumbaya together (although of course while continuing to uphold the colonial status quo!) which is very funny because the people who say this usually also (rightfully) oppose all lives matter. recently a girl i know who would (again rightfully) be outraged if somebody downplayed racism said 'literally only catholics care about sectarianism' hmmmm damn that's crazy i wonder why??? like i get it from actual right-wingers but i just can't comprehend the thought process involved in saying that but understanding the concept of oppression

also this is tangential and like i'm willing to admit i'm wrong on this but i don't really believe in the concept of mutual 'sectarianism' like a) irish republicanism has never been exclusively catholic, many of the early revolutionaries (wolfe tone, the young irelanders, etc) were presbyterian and b) none of it has never even been about religion on our side, like i'm sure there are a handful of old people who think protestants are godless heathens or whatever but 'protestant' is just a synonym for 'unionist' (bc pretty much all unionists were protestant and vice versa) and the focus on catholicism was just because almost all irish people were catholic. idk it just seems insane, like as if white settlers in south africa managed to convince everyone that their racism and a black south african opposing that racism are the same thing

sorry this ended up being very long and unorganised. tl;dr deep ulster is a hellhole