Unionists to boycott St. Patrick's Day parade over flag dispute

Gee!! another ignorant fool posting on IC,how surprising. Maybe Allan is trying to be funny.

I am nearly 50 years and I have never celebrated St Paddys Day. Who wants a weed stuck on your jumper. Its sad and foolish. It looks like a bit of chewed grass. Not very smart. A orange lily is more attractive.

Shouldnt everyone speak in French as Saint Patrick was a Frenchman. In any event St Paddys Day is a waste of space. I prefer the 12th July any day. Good weather, food, music, banter and lets hope the spoil sports dont turn up to throw a few stones. I have never celebrated Paddys day and yes I am the real Northern Irish not one of those Plastic Paddys who make false claims that their Great, great grandfather was born in Ireland. What I dont understand why does the Catholics celebrate a Protestant such as St Patrick was. The proof of that is simple hes buried in the Church of Irelands graveyard in Down Patrick, Northern Ireland.

Ciara wallows in defeatism and a lack of Irishness.

Surely in a modern democracy people are free to speak any language they choose! Penal laws were overturned about 200 years ago weren't they!!

It's crossed my mind once or twice-why is'nt Dutch spoken by Ulster Unionists? It was Orange King Billy's native tongue after all!

As much as I love the Irish language, it will NEVER be the majority language on this island. For Ireland to get out of this recession, we need more Irish people to be able to speak other world languages such as the Nordic languages, Japanese, Chinese etc. There are thousands of jobs out there for people who speak these languages but we dont have people who can speak these languages which is one reason we employ from abroad.

Speaking of " this is a step backwards" DUP's Jim Wells is a complete eejit. This is the mentality we have to deal with when you try to 'Join' our two different cultures together.

Thankfully 29,999 good citizens will make up for the one loss

How idiotic is it, that the only real indigenous language of the partitioned country of Ireland, cannot be displayed or even spoken, during the celebrations of Ireland's patron saint, due to the objections of bigots who are illiterate concerning this cultural inheritance of the whole of Ireland?

Many Dáil T.D.s would probably agree with the Unionists' objections to teanga na nGael. All Northern Protestants aren't opposed to an Ghaeile. Around the mid 1990s a group of ladies in the Shankill area of Befast seriously studied the Irish language and won many prizes at feiseann south of the Border. about 10 years ago I listened to a discussion on the North on a NYC radio station. At the end the moderator told a Unionist that he had the last word. This was his response: "Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir".

I think most unionist will take no notice of these two bigots there "raison d'etre" is fading and a new dawn is coming.

Crass idiocy going on here. Don’t the Unionists of the North of Ireland know they are descendants of Celtic tribes shafted out of southern Scotland by the English under Cromwell to stop them stopping the English Crown’s pursuits to subject their families to rule from London? The southern Scots spoke Gaelic, just as the Irish of the whole of Ireland did back then. Do the Unionists of County Down ever think to ask what flag their forebears flew in the face of the English at the borders of Scotland/England and Hadrian’s Wall? It certainly didn’t have a unionist aspiration, that’s for sure! Crass idiocy still prevails in NI - that’s for sure too! The peace of St. Patrick’s love for Christ be with all in Nth Ireland and esp St. Patrick's beloved county of Down today and forever, please God.

Actually these two eejit politicians don't speak for most unionists and as usual both traditions turned out in force to enjoy the day.

Ah Yes, The Boycott ! How Democratic ~