I live in Belfast. What you’re talking about is a sectarian divide, a consequence of the forced ‘plantation’ of the north of Ireland by Scots Protestant settlers. The indigenous Catholic population were pretty brutally oppressed for the next 300 years. Eventually most of the island gained independence from Britain but N Ireland was also created, which was a statelet under British administration designed to give the dominant Protestant population political control for the foreseeable future. The situation deteriorated into serious violence about 50 years ago. A lengthy and very dirty asymmetric ‘war’ ensued, between the governing British authorities and military and intelligence forces, the IRA and various paramilitary groups on the Protestant side. Eventually in 1998 a peace agreement was reached which has, by and large, held up until the present.

The reason I mention all this is because the sectarian issue in N Ireland is rooted in a complex history.

Today in Northern Ireland there’s been 20 years of peace, normality has more or less returned, there’s a flourishing population of recent immigrants attracted by the cessation of political violence, high rate of growth and opportunity and lowest living costs in the UK.

There is no comparable historic or systemic issue of racism in this country, whether in Northern Ireland or Ireland. The vast majority of people in either part of the island are more than happy to show solidarity with the idea that black lives are as valuable as any. They’re also aware that there’s no significant issue of racial division here, particularly the kind of deep, embedded historical division the US situation has. Protesters who are screaming that we’re an evil, racist society are just way off the mark - that’s not the history and context here at all, and they’re generally seen as a bit ridiculous and probably just activists desperate for a cause...