Please explain to me a little about the Celtic Tigers? Who and what are they? Why is their so much fighting going on in the Emerald Isle? It's truly sad.

The Celtic Tiger is a description of the Irish Economic boom, the Tiger is taken from the description of (formerly) booming South East Asian economies where the Tiger is at home.

There is no easy or quick answer as to why there is "so much" fighting on the Emerald Isle.

There is a problem in Northern Ireland that (in my personal opinion at least) is the legacy of colonial rule, and fits into the pattern of other post colonial conflicts around the world (India/Pakistan, Lebanon, and so on).

At the moment any fighting going on there, and which is very remote to me here in Dublin, only a hundred or so miles away falls into two categories.

1) Internal feuding between two violent loyalist (wanting to stay part of the UK) groups.

2) Terrorism by a fringe Republican group unwilling to enter into the compromise needed for a peace agreement.

Once again I would like to stress that these are my personal opinions, and that even though I live in Dublin, the conflict for me is something I read about in the paper, and am almost as remote from now as I was when I lived in Berlin, Germany.

tcarlton, please tel me your taking the piss by asking that question!

Ah, shur begorrah, and why is fighting so truly sad?. There's nothing better than a bit of a faction fight with shillelaghs and we coming out of the shebeen after a feed of black porter and rot-gut poitín on a fine Saturday night.

Dar ndóigh, níl anseo ach tuairim phearsanta.

Slán - Antóin

An ea, muis?
Ar mahith teacht taobh 'muigh dén doras chun plé a dhéanamh air? Beir leat do mhaide droighneain!

Tá ceann agamsa.

G0 raibh maith agat Aonghus for that bit of help.

Unfortunately, I don't have the proper Gaelic dictionary to understand the Gaelic. So I would like someone to explain what was said by yourself, Antóin, and Seosamh in Gaelic. I think I got the jest of Antóin's. Put it can't hurt to understand the words. I don't have a clue what Laughneach meant.

I always had heard that the fighting was religion-difference-based. Why was Ireland split into "Ireland" and "Nortern Ireland or U.K."? That seems to be similar to Germany's "East" and "West". I just thinks it's sad that everyone can't live in peace. Your country is beautiful and shouldn't be marred with anymore fighting.

Why would these two groups want to remain separate from Ireland? Are there great differences of opinions that would warrant this feuding? What is the Republican wanting that they won't allow peace in Ireland?

Thanks for answering my questions. And remember, I don't read Gaelic yet, except small basics. If anyone wants to email me this, that's fine.

Beir beannacht,
Carlton

>Unfortunately, I don't have the proper Gaelic dictionary to understand the Gaelic.
>So I would like someone to explain what was said by yourself, Antóin, and
>Seosamh in Gaelic. I think I got the jest of Antóin's. Put it can't hurt to understand
>the words. I don't have a clue what Laughneach meant.

Laigheanach didn't believe you were serious in your question, being in Ireland himself
he finds it hard to believe that soneone could mix up the terms "Celtic Tiger" and the
trouble in Northern Ireland.

The rest was just banter.


>I always had heard that the fighting was religion-difference-based. Why was
>Ireland split into "Ireland" and "Nortern Ireland or U.K."? That seems to be similar
>to Germany's "East" and "West". I just thinks it's sad that everyone can't live in
>peace. Your country is beautiful and shouldn't be marred with anymore fighting.
>Why would these two groups want to remain separate from Ireland? Are there
>great differences of opinions that would warrant this feuding? What is the
>Republican wanting that they won't allow peace in Ireland?

I won't be able to answer this in an posting. I suggest you get a good general history
of Ireland.

Beir bua
Aonghus

Oh God yes! Amen to that!

(I'm guessing tccarlton, that you though the "Celtic Tigers" were paramilitaries, because of the similarity to the name "Tamil Tigers" in Sri Lanka?)

tccarlton, Hello again, I guess misunderstandings can arise very easily on the internet. I really thought your question was tongue in cheek so my reply was not meant to be disrespectful. I was joking about misleading traditional negative stereotypes of the Irish and the other comments in the Irish language were in the same vein.

It is difficult to try and give short answers for the reasons to such a long lasting dispute, especially when people disagree so violently on the issue. Like Aonghus, I would suggest a good general history of Ireland to give some explanations to the background of the whole unfortunate mess.

Slán - Antóin