60kg car bomb partially explodes in Belfast city centre

[harrybarracuda]

A bomb that partially exploded inside a car in Belfast city centre contained 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, police have said.

A masked gang hijacked a car at 21:30 GMT on Sunday, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.

It exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.

No-one was injured. Police have blamed dissident republicans.

Northern Ireland's chief constable Matt Baggott said there had been a "surge in dissident republican activity" recently.

Last week, a bus driver was ordered to drive to a police station in Londonderry with a bomb on board.

On Saturday night, a van driver was threatened by two masked men and told to deliver a package to the same police station.

Mr Baggott added the public would see a "significant increase in police presence" in Belfast city centre over the next few weeks.

"We need people who have changed their minds and come into the peace process to give us information," he said.

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said if the bomb had fully detonated while the driver was in the car "he would have been killed outright".

He said it was a "terrifying, shocking experience for the poor driver" adding that those behind the device were "very reckless."

More at: BBC News - 60kg car bomb partially explodes in Belfast city centre

[pompeysbroke]

Kickin off again, isn't it

[nigelandjan]

I bet Mcguiness and Adams are hoping this is all gonna blow away quickly, ,, must be quite embarrassing for them in there new cosy well paid lifestyle, , having they're old running mates stirringthe shit up again , ,,, how embarrasing

[Rural Surin]

It really never ended, did it?

[rebbu]

It really never ended, did it?

What never really ended? Occupation or terrorism?

[pompeysbroke]

He said it was a "terrifying, shocking experience for the poor driver" adding that those behind the device were "very reckless."

very reckless? how pc is that for understatement?

Seems there's a big bang coming from so many different corners these days, what with the rag-heads taking over england...who to turn the guns on first?

This could be a grand distraction and suit the purposes of the towel heads

What never really ended? Occupation or terrorism?

neither. the latter was merely hibernating for a patch

[Rural Surin]

It really never ended, did it?

What never really ended? Occupation or terrorism?

Yes.
Both emanating, historically, from London.

[Sailing into trouble]

Is it kicking off again or is it a small group of tools who need to have a sense of importance? Very amateurish. My guess is that the perpetrators are very worried men right now. The war will only kick off if the power brokers deem it in their best interests, right now it is not. What the North needs is an oil boom, then people will not have time to worry about the colour of their flags as they count the coins flowing in.

[Morden]

It's high time that Ulster was reunited with the Republic where it belongs. There's no benefit to the UK in having this area attached to it and never was. It's a drain on the taxpayer and a pain in the neck.

If the Protestants kick of about reunification, they can be offered homes in depopulated Scotland from where their ancestors came.

[Boon Mee]

It's high time that Ulster was reunited with the Republic where it belongs. There's no benefit to the UK in having this area attached to it and never was. It's a drain on the taxpayer and a pain in the neck.

Those shipyards up there don't have any work these days do they?

[Morden]

It's high time that Ulster was reunited with the Republic where it belongs. There's no benefit to the UK in having this area attached to it and never was. It's a drain on the taxpayer and a pain in the neck.

Those shipyards up there don't have any work these days do they?

Some, I believe.

The Westminster government has poured subsidies into Ulster over several decades hoping to placate both sides but much of it was syphoned off by businesses owned by terrorist organisations and did no good.

[harrybarracuda]

It's high time that Ulster was reunited with the Republic where it belongs. There's no benefit to the UK in having this area attached to it and never was. It's a drain on the taxpayer and a pain in the neck.

If the Protestants kick of about reunification, they can be offered homes in depopulated Scotland from where their ancestors came.

Good idea, and send the Tims back in the other direction.

[rebbu]

The "Tims" as you so bigotly put it are from there.

[Morden]

'Tims'? If they are Catholic and Republican Irish then they certainly belong there. So do the Protestant Irish.

Here's how the problem was first created and then compounded by later actions:

Partition of Ireland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James I dumped Scottish Protestants in the north of Ireland:

Migration to Northern Ireland

[VocalNeal]

It's high time that Ulster was reunited with the Republic where it belongs.

Perhaps the residents think differently to you?

[Chittychangchang]

Send all the new Muslim immigrants and economic refugees to Northern Ireland and let them melt it up together, a couple of generations later.....no more troubles.

CCC

[Rainfall]

'Tims'? If they are Catholic and Republican Irish then they certainly belong there. So do the Protestant Irish.

Here's how the problem was first created and then compounded by later actions:

Partition of Ireland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James I dumped Scottish Protestants in the north of Ireland:

Migration to Northern Ireland

The article indicates they moved on to America.

"The principal movement of people from the Lowlands of Scotland to the Northern Ireland Province of Ulster did not occur until the seventeenth century. This migration, estimated to include well over 100,000 Scottish Protestants, mainly took place during the 90-year period from 1607-1697."

"By about the year 1717, conditions had reached such a point that many Ulster Protestants began a new migration; this time to the American Colonies. It is estimated that more than a quarter of a million Scotch-Irish emigrated to America between the years 1717 and 1775!"

Now how did they go from 100k to 250k in such short a time? That wasn't the 20th century when populations exploded based on advances in medicine, in those days, populations stayed the same size.

[snakeeyes]

^
The British goverment paid their soldiers with Irish land which they stole from the Irish ,
The Protestants are nothing but Planters , steal the land , they all should fook off back to where they came from and the sooner the better.

Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands.
They followed smaller-scale immigration to Ireland as far back as the 12th century, which had resulted in a distinct ethnicity in Ireland known as the Old English.
The 16th century plantations were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties, but principally in the provinces of Munster and Ulster. The lands were then granted by Crown authority to colonists ("planters") from England. This process began during the reign of Henry VIII and continued under Mary I and Elizabeth I. It was accelerated under James I, Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, and in their time the planters also came from Scotland.
The early plantations in the 16th century tended to be based on small "exemplary" colonies. The later plantations were based on mass confiscations of land from Irish landowners and the subsequent importation of large numbers of settlers from England and Wales, later also from Scotland.
The final official plantations took place under the English Commonwealth and Cromwell's Protectorate during the 1650s, when thousands of Parliamentarian soldiers were settled in Ireland. Apart from the plantations, significant migration into Ireland continued well into the 18th century, from both Great Britain and continental Europe.
The plantations changed the demography of Ireland by creating large communities with a British and Protestant identity. These communities replaced the older Catholic ruling class, which shared with the general population a common Irish identity and set of political attitudes.[1] The physical and economic nature of Irish society was also changed, as new concepts of ownership, trade and credit were introduced. These changes led to the creation of a Protestant ruling class, which secured the authority of Crown government in Ireland during the 17th century.




Plantations of Ireland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[pompeysbroke]

^ They aren't going to fook off where they came from as they
are from there, born and bred, and have been there for 500 years. You could say that to their ancestors, but not the living ones...It ain't gonna happen....It's done...It's history

Something must be done about the orange banging of the drum though..it's disgustingly provoking...

The Singalese managed to wipe out the Tamils in Sri Lanka recently
which could draw comparison, but the sheer numbers and time stamp don't correlate with Ireland.

Ironically it was English interference there importing the Tamils into Ceylon on the cheap to be used as slave labour on the tea plantations...

I understand the angst but it ain't gonna happen

[wasabi]

It is the youth that have started it all up again,they see their leaders in Parliement living a cosy life with the old enemy,and to the young the leaders are old farts. Most people do not want a return to the bad old days,but a few idiots will spoil that.

[Carnwadrick]

Something must be done about the orange banging of the drum though..it's disgustingly provoking...

Aye but have you ever really listened to the flutes and drums it is very invigorating

[snakeeyes]

^
Obviously the Protestants are here to stay , but the days of them ruling the roost is long gone and the days of them having the majority is gone , they are out now banging their drums and crying about their union jack flags being banned from certain buildings , they are under pressure now and nobody cares about them and that includes the British Goverment ,
Times have changed for the better , the bad old days of Loyalist paramilitaries , British army , MI5 and the Protestant corrupt Police force terrorizing the Nationlists of Ireland is long gone .
We will have a United Ireland in the future.

Times have changed , Who's The Happy Old Lady.

[Morden]

It's high time that Ulster was reunited with the Republic where it belongs.

Perhaps the residents think differently to you?

Some think differently from me and some agree with me. Therein lies the problem in Northern Ireland.

[harrybarracuda]

On the bright side, the tims got kicked out of the Champions League last night.

[KEVIN2008]

Ah yes, here we go again, the blame game. If you are the exhausted host of a house party in either Dublin or London and you really want your guests to leave, merely mention the subject of Northern Ireland and they will flee, shrieking,out of the unopened windows of the first floor of your house. If the subject resembled Mongolian philately or Lichens of Antarctica, tiresome subjects, they would stay, but NI ....
At this stage the overwhelming majority of people would rather be operated on for piles, without anaesthetic, on live tv, than have a single intricacy of Ulster history explained to them.....
You cannot put a cat and a dog in a bag and expect them to make apple pie