Summary: <br> Linda Ervine is a Unionist and Irish language rights activist from East Belfast, and is the president of the recently-formed East Belfast GAA.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> I talked to her about last year's Ashcroft polling indicating that support for a United Ireland is increasing towards a tipping point in Northern Ireland.<br> <br> <br> <br> ****<br> <br> <br> <br> I was sitting down to do an editorial piece for this podcast, and I had been particularly struck by the apparent arson attack on a house in Carnmore in Galway which, it was believed locally, was about to be allocated to a Traveller family.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> There were many comments of support for the family and condemning the attack on social media, but there was a significant strain, usually from anonymous accounts, that were clearly hostile to the family that had been slated to move in, and a subset of them were explicitly advocating and praising violence against Travellers and their property. These comments came predominantly from the type of account that has a fake profile picture and a username ending in a long random number.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> But not everyone making comments that seemed hostile to Travellers was so careful to be anonymous. Galway city Cllr Noel Larkin was <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/traveller-family-who-were-due-to-move-into-galway-house-destroyed-by-fire-devastated-39490826.html">quoted in the Irish Independent</a> as demanding that locals should be consulted before Travellers be allowed to move into the area.<br> <br> <br> <br> It's not the first time that Larkin has been in controversy for his views. He said people filmed while taking part in a fracas in Galway – white, apparently Irish people – were quote, ‘behaving like Zulus’.<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="https://blog.hereshow.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Larkin-letter.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a><br> <br> <br> <br> He said that immigrants to Ireland are guilty of ‘blatant misuse’ of the social welfare system and claimed, Enda Kenny-style that a non-national told him ‘work is hard, social welfare is easy’. He also wrote a letter saying that Traveller housing should not be ‘forced on communities’, and that settled people were due an apology from Travellers for calling them racists. <a href="https://www.bai.ie/en/media/sites/2/dlm_uploads/2017/06/201706_CCECF_Decisions_June_vFinal.pdf">Galway Bay FM have had a case taken against them to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland</a> for remarks that he made in an interview they broadcast.<br> <br> <br> <br> As I said, I was sitting down to do this editorial and I wanted to check the quotes from Noel Larkin, so I rang him up and rather than do my whole spiel, I think it’s better to just let you hear the call.<br>
