:ukkk:
For anyone that doesn't know, the Loyalists are the bad side that fought against the socialist and anti-imperialist IRA. Also they ended up morphing into a network of drug dealers (one of the reasons the remnant of the IRA were involved in Direct Action Against Drugs if you've ever wondered wtf the provisional IRA was so obsessed with vigilante action against drug dealers in the 90s and early 00s).
All the guns and paramilitaries are still around, lots were demobilized and a lot of good militant socialists were willing to abandon the violent struggle in the street for a parliamentary struggle in local politics. Don't know how things would go with Troubles 2.0 at this point, maybe enough resentment was subsumed into politics and culture or maybe there are enough people that actually fought and killed the other side and are willing to take the struggle in an extra-parliamentary direction again.
That's what they're saying. To what extent that means theyll start up the troubles again, I'm not sure. The modern aestheticization of political struggle is pretty strong and it's possible the GFA can last despite this but... these people were killing and fighting each other openly like 20 years ago (and some paramilitaries never stopped to like Direct Actiom against Drugs was pretty obviously the remnant provisional IRA duking it out with remnant loyalist paramilitaries). There are still peace walls in Belfast and they still shut down travel between loyalist/republican neighborhoods at night.
This has been telegraphed for like 4 years since the Brexit vote and Parliament has done fuck all to deal with it in a way that could ensure the preservation of peace in northern Ireland. Either theyd piss off the IRA side by putting up borders and restricting travel with the republic of Ireland or theyd piss off the loyalist side by putting barriers between Northern Ireland and the UK.
lmao