Commentaire Anglais Civilisation : Belfast Riots Are The Symptom Of A Community Left Behind (document en anglais)

This article is called : Belfast Riots Are the Symptom of a Community Left Behind. It was published on the website huffingtonpost on the 9th January of 2013. The main topic is that Northen Ireland, according to the author, is a society forever divided and at a conflict stalemate. In fact, the author deals with Belfast riots caused by a democratic decision taken by the Belfast City Council to reduce the number of days witch the Union flag should fly at the city hall. First reactionaries are Unionists and Loyalists who considered that the decision has been more that irksome, moreover a direct assault on their Britishness. So they decided to take arms and make riots to express their discontent through violence. But this first reaction is a mobile to an other group of people to demonstrate their claim : a community left behind. This community is composed especially by protestant unionist working class areas. Thus, this article highlights political and economical stakes : 14 years after the signing of the peace agreement, Northen Ireland is still a divided Society.

First, the author claims that 14 years after signing of the peace agreement are a sorry sight. He regrets current events that reminds him the troubles that had divided Ireland several years ago. These events are riots. But why riots? Then he exposes the root cause of events : Belfast riots are caused by a democratic decision taken by the Belfast City Council to reduce the number of days witch the Union flag should fly at the city hall. According to him it is surprising that the authorities have taken this decision because the majority of the Irish population is loyal to Britain, he says that the reaction of unionists is "natural". But there are different types of reactions to this decision. The author mentions them.

First, a certain part of the population of Northern Ireland is outraged by this decision and considered almost as a provocation. These are the unionists who think so. They think that this is “a direct assault on their Britishness”. Therefore they trigger riots and violence in response. Unionists and nationalists divide society.

But unionists are not the only ones to show up. Another group of people for obvious reasons much deeper decided also to react. This is a community left behind: the Protestants of Northern Ireland who are economically disadvantaged. This is an indirect consequence of troubles. Robert Beckett remarks in his speech. Indeed, following the troubles many families have been broken up and children were educated without a father for example. The author claims that : “Protestant working class children grew up without proper and normal parental discipline and routine”. These indirect consequences of the troubles caused problems for the education of Protestants who have worse results at school than Catholics, the author speaks of "moral and family breakdown”, and “As a result, when the young Protestant men and women leave school they have no qualifications, poor literacy and numeracy skills and only have the capacity for low-paid menial work.” Problems caused by Troubles thus had a repercussion on the economy.

At the end, the author shade different riots: people who claims against the change in terms of exposure of the flag of Great Britain, while others are the young working class loyalist who’s been left behind. This is another type of protester which wants to be seen as relevant.

Finally all these riots and divisions within the protesters and northern ireland reflect that society is still divided. This is the biggest problem that the author points out in his article, he says, we must help the malcontents because of

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