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Transnational Thursday for October 23, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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What are chances of a sudden, catastrophic deterioration in the situation in Northern Ireland? I don’t have any actual reported facts to back me up, but I just get a bad insidious feeling about it.

Honestly, at this point I think a reescalation of Troubles-era hostilities is profoundly unlikely. I think it's more likely that the Catholics and Protestants set aside their differences in order to more effectively fight their common enemy: Romanian immigrants.

I think it's more likely that the Catholics and Protestants set aside their differences in order to more effectively fight their common enemy: Romanian immigrants.

I'm curious what scale response The Troubles or even 80s / early 90s style IRA / UVF / UDA attacks against those immigrants would bring. Would it bring just condemnation or would the UK government actually deploy army troops there?

Similar to the Southport Riots, I think - mass arrests, dogs, anyone who expresses any support online goes straight to jail.