Messages

[Speeding is the single biggest problem on our roads]

Cike, regardless of scientific theory on alcohol and its effects, and the effects are undoubted, any attempts to quantify how much quicker it makes people drive is based on supposition.

My argument is based on fact. Every person who drives a car over the speed limit has simultaneously increased their chances of killing another human being. Unfortunately, as every person who has car has also driven it over the speed limit, it's one of those subjects that people don't want to make taboo; it makes them feel all wrong when it's pointed out to them that they're being reckless and would have no recourse if this led to killing someone. Well I'm asking the world to wake the duck up. Speeding is the single biggest problem on our roads. It's the one that always ends lives, and 100 times out of 100, it's preventable.

Tony, you've decided to pull an emotional card when it's not yours to play. Perhaps me and you could spend the rest of our lives swapping stories found on the internet, with you raising me a drink driving story and me re-raising a speeding story? Actually let's not. We both know it's neither an enjoyable argument nor one that can be won.

I disagree.
The biggest problem on our roads are poor driving standards, both North & South of the border.


Its very easier for a Govt to make it look like they are doing something about road safety by throwing out the line that "Speed Kills" and by throwing a few speed cameras around the country.
It isn't as easy (read that as "it costs more") for the Govt to address the primary problem of driving standards. There are people on the road that simply cannot drive to an acceptable standard. The testing/ licensing system is just not thorough enough.

If both Govts were genuinely committed to reducing road deaths they would be pumping money into driver training and education from an early age.

Your absolutely right driving standards are atrocious north & south gone are the days of care courtesy & consideration, most drivers would rather cut you up  than give way.Theres very little driver awareness or hazard perception out there now.
As a part time HGV driver I have noticed drivers using mobile phones,reading documents,eating & drinking while steering with their knees, while all these are contributory factors in accidents the speed at which the vehicle is travelling usually determines life or death ( 3 points of contact rule)
Over almost 30 years I have attended hundreds of RTAs or RTCs I have lost count of the casualties and fatalities, nothing shocks me on the roads anymore. Its like a game of Russian roulette, I think its almost 60 peple have died on the roads this year already.
Until  governments tighten regulations, penalties, &  driving accessments there will be many more stories like Gillian Treacys.

Thats a very uncomfortable read and a horror story for any parent,the sad reality is, these horror stories are more common than you think. Its unbelievable how many young drivers are willing to risk DIC and even more alarming the amount of so called professional people who get behind the wheel after a few pints and think they are ok to drive home. Although over the past few years many drivers who took a taxi to the pub and home have been caught over the limit going to work the next morning by traffic branch especially in the festive season.
But thewobbler has a very valid point speed has a higher inpact in fatalities than alcohol.

[but when sung at Ibrox or Windsor terraces it was a reference to R Hamill, and most protestants who attend these matches were aware of its relevance]

I'd say it would be a fairly safe bet that if you took a cross section of a well attended GAA match in NI a fair percentage would hold Sectarian views or maybe just be partial to the odd 'Chucky' song.

Correct.

You seem to ignore that which doesn't chime with your own assumptions and preconceptions (don't worry, it's a recognised human frailty condition, psychologically, termed 'confirmation bias'). Let me remind you, however, of a post a little further back that you may have glossed over, and which is based on that which the contributor has actually experienced, recently:

Does everyone singing that song associate it with that? I wouldn't have thought so?

Food for thought. My sister who works with disadvantaged and troublesome youth from east Belfast once asked a group of lads what was the significance of this song [bouncy song] being sung on the terraces, they explained it was a reference to dancing on Roberts Hamills head, when she questioned her husband (who is from Rathcoole) he explained that the song was about for years, but when sung at Ibrox or Windsor terraces it was a reference to R Hamill, and most protestants who attend these matches were aware of its relevance but sang along for the atmosphere ,just as most catholics were aware of the significance of singing the roll of honor.

Not pleasant reading, for any of us perhaps, but let's not be afraid to confront, from wherever it arises.

Give it up man.  The statement highlighed above is absolute shite.

So you don't believe personal testimony?

I wish too it weren't true, but suck it up, and it rots.

A poster's, sister's husband who thinks that those who sing it are aware of its relevance, is not what I would call personal testimony.

Jez lad, calm down the post wasn't meant as a factual, or gospel truth, statement as I said food for thought, the subject came up in a general conversation, the guy is a NI supporter has been since the 70s just thought he might be better qualified to form an opinion considering his back ground. But hey opinions are like assholes everyone has one. I apologise if it dosen't fit in with your rosy happy families ideas of yer beloved team.

Does everyone singing that song associate it with that? I wouldn't have thought so?

Food for thought. My sister who works with disadvantaged and troublesome youth from east Belfast once asked a group of lads what was the significance of this song being sung on the terraces, they explained it was a reference to dancing on Roberts Hamills head, when she questioned her husband (who is from Rathcoole) he explained that the song was about for years, but when sung at Ibrox or Windsor terraces it was a reference to R Hamill, and most protestants who attend these matches were aware of its relevance but sang along for the atmosphere ,just as most catholics were aware of the signicance of singing the roll of honor.

what good would it be in a cupboard downstairs or in a safe in the garage...hold on there mr home invader while I run downstairs and get the gun

Yeah that's what I mean is it that dangerous. couldnt be any worse than south Derry, some of those Maghera boys were a bad crew. LOL

bedside access fingerprint locker that only opens for me or the mrs

do you not have any weapons at all mupper? a hurl in the boot of the car? a cosh? a tire knocker? most of the lads I knew around home would have something handy always close by...

Jez Ice your starting to develope an american culture, guns in a bedside locker is it that dangerous.

so lads what would really work to fix all this?
My view of Americans across the country having lived on both sides and travelled throughout the place is that there are too many guns out there for any ban to be effective (at least in the short-medium term).

there can be tighter laws on who can own guns, who can buy guns - but those won't be fully supported by local law enforcement from what I can see.  There is a long and slow road to fix this. What are the first steps?


It's sad to see.

I have guns here because I hunt and for home protection. I grew up in Armagh with guns in the house, it was just part of country life.

Stricter controls would go a long way in fixing this problem, but it really is the wild west,some states in america actually permit the carrying of an assault rifle in public.WTF does anyone need an assault rifle for.I own several guns myself,but  to do so  I needed background checks, references, a suitable storage cabinet,proof of gun club membership,and theres rules were and when I can carry and use these weapons. there's absolutely no rules in America. Northern Ireland has over 150,000 legally held weapons which really don't pose the problems we see in America.

she needs a make over first. worst hair in politics worse than donal trump

Nah,  Caral ni chuilin jez she's scary.

Armaghmaniac the Unionism which opposes everything Irish is now the minuscule TUV.

Don't forget a certain chap called Elliott  or the Archbigot Campbell .

These guys will always tolerate a few token gestures of Irish culture but they will never accept it, Foster included.
These guys had to be dragged kicking and squealing into the 21st century, and I think you'll find if it wasn't for fair employment legislation, they still would,nt give much ground.

Alot of spite on here for Mike Nesbitt. I think he has played this one brilliantly, didn't know he had the smarts to do it.

Don't get me wrong, he's a complete charlatan who doesn't give a fcuk what drug pusher or provo gets shot in Belfast but he's put a charge on the DUP and caught them broadside. I'd say he's won serious kudos from those hardliners who drifted over to the DUP in the early 2000's. Collapses an Assembly that's stagnating and no-one gives a f**k about, sticks a knife in the DUP and Sinn Fein and strengthens his hand ahead of elections in the near future. It's political black arts at it's finest. Selfish, undemocratic and morally corrupt, yes but as political maneuvering goes it's genius.

I wouldn,t get to carried away with Nesbitt's brilliance, he is a failed TV presenter, a failed property developer, and I believe he's on his way to becoming a failed politician.

Yiz do know that the only reason this thread was started is because he's a taig?

You mean an  apologist of a taig who sold his soul to the billy boys by wearing the Northern Ireland jersey.

Absolutely terrible what is going on. That picture is worse than the one that showed the little African boy sittin with the vulture waitin on him to die.
These people need help and our governments are doing sweet fcuk all. Shame on them

Considering our governments created this problem their hardly going to be part of the solution anytime soon.

Amazing how enough though it's the IRA and SF that are covering themselves in shit that a lot of this thread is directed at a unionist politician.

Is the perspective so warped in the north that ye can't see how unsettling it is to see a supposedly gone terrorist organisation settling scores with impunity, and the PSNI almost terrified to admit they're still active because it may effect the political process?

Too much 'defend my side at all costs' going on in IRA/SF circles right now. They can now choose to stick their heads in the ground ala Gerry Adams or actually root out these elements. Doing nothing or actively shielding these criminals isn't a solution.

Sorry Syferus, but this is spoken like a man who just has no clue.

Nah.

It's patently apparent some people here, and indeed it seems a relatively widespread sentiment in the north, are so attached to the old way of doing business they can't foresee a future where criminals are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I suppose the ridiculousness of the Good Friday Agreement freeing a pile of murderers has helped cement that idea into popular consciousness in the north.

Or spoken by a westbrit living in an ivory tower

No he is a bigger Cnut that the dole drawing republicans in the north. Morals are easy when you are a millionaire from the people have made you. As big a scum as the cnuts caught up in the Nama scandal....

The poppy thing I can agree with to a certain extent but this is much different. Anyone defending him Needs a good hard look at themselves. Certainly fcukers liviving in American for the last 20 years opinions are of no validity. They should mind their own business, as they contribute fcuk all but vile sectarian bile to a society in a country they abandoned.

Go on bigfella, dont be holdin back now, let the west brit out of ye.

Aye, watching some of these games you would nearly think there was a sniper in the stand.