Would You Keep An Appointment Like This?

[sandyRoe]

The only other option would be exile.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-28439430

[boxtops]

If the alternative was that they would come and shoot you in your home.... what an awful situation.

[bookbinder]

If he hadn't turned up, the consequences might have been even worse.

[sandyRoe]

The gangsters have their communities by the throat and they won't easily let go.

[shoota]

I didn't known they were still kneecapping folk in NI.
What had he done to deserve that?

[sandyRoe]

'Anti-social behaviour', probably. That could range from housebreaking, stealing cars, to picking a fight with somebody who had 'connections'.

[bookbinder]

To answer your question, sandy: if I received a similar invitation to a late-night meeting, and I knew what to expect, I should be tempted to buy a one-way ticket to somewhere far away. But that would apply only if I were without close family. If I disappeared in a cloud of dust, they would almost certainly suffer, so I would grit my teeth and turn up for the appointment.

[ChillDoubt]

When I was serving in Ulster, 'Anti-social behaviour' as described by paramilitaries generally meant dealing drugs or kiddy fiddling.

[sandyRoe]

Drug dealers who didn't pay their 'taxes' were more likely to be 'nutted'. And then there'd be a sanctimonious statement issued by some organisation like, DAAD. (Direct action against drugs)
Child molesters who were dealt with usually didn't make the news.

[Sqad]

I would not live in Norther Ireland for all the tea in China.

[mikey4444]

I would have left the murderous and bigoted community years and gone to live somewhere safer.

[Sqad]

mikey...;-)

[mikey4444]

Controversial Sqad, I will admit but true. All my family comes from and still lives in County Down, and I fear for them every day.

Ireland...as Edna O'brien once said, a terrible beauty.

[anneasquith]

i would imagine the man had no option, easy to say '' don't turn up'' I doubt his option was as simple as that..

[mikey4444]

I am sure that he could have got a ferry to Liverpool annie...bet he wished he had now.

[anneasquith]

mikey, im sure if that had been an option, no doubt he would have done so.

[sandyRoe]

It's a stark choice, being shot or exiled. The irony is the people with the guns have probably done a lot worse than he ever did.