Ballymena Region: Fill & Download for Free

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.That actually happened.My grandfather was born in a place called Ballymena in Ireland. By the time he came to Canada it was Ballymena, Northern Ireland.When the Irish Free State was formed in 1922, it became necessary to form a brand new police force in the part of Ireland that was still controlled by the United Kingdom. It was called the Royal Ulster Constabulary - Wikipedia or RUCThe new Irish Free State formed it’s own police force the Garda Síochána - WikipediaBut let’s get back to the RUC. The Garda Siochana still exists. The RUC does not.You see, the RUC had this policy - you had to be Protestant to be in the force. That was a shame because half the population of Northern Ireland was Catholic. They wanted to be citizens of what would eventually become the Republic of Ireland. However, in order to keep their homes and livelihood, they lived in a country where all the institutions (except education) were dominated by Protestants. Including the RUC.And in Northern Ireland, pretty much everyone knows if you’re a “Mick” or a “Prod” by where you live and what school you go to and what pub you drink at.So imagine a police force, made up of officers of all one religion, in a region with two, where there are historical, religious and political enmity between the two groups.With that background, we get to a dark period in history known simply asThe Troubles - WikipediaThat’s an understatement. Suffice to say the British government decided to send in the army in order to try to keep a lid on the violence in the region. It didn’t work very well. One of my second cousins was in the army. Some of my grandfather’s relatives had their shop destroyed by a car bomb. Nasty stuff.Stirring up the pot were forces led by two factions, one with clandestine supporters in the Republic of Ireland, led by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and one with clandestine supporters in the Irish Protestant community, led by the Ulster Volunteer Force.Ian Paisley, Northern Irish politician and Protestant Religious leader, the founder of Ulster Resistance, one of the lesser paramilitary groupsMartin McGuiness, Republic of Ireland politician and leader of the Provisional IRA.These two are important later.Now, part of the job of the RUC was to help gather intelligence of paramilitary movements on both sides. The RUC did a fairly good job of this. However… well, let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:Elements of the RUC colluded with loyalist paramilitaries throughout the 30-year conflict. The Special Patrol Group was formed in the late 1960s as the Police Reserve Force. The name was changed to avoid confusion with the newly formed part-time Police Reserve in 1970,[1] and was renamed "Divisional Mobile Support Unit" (DMSU) in 1980 after two of its members were convicted of kidnap and murder.[1] The two, John Weir and Billy McCaughey, implicated some of their colleagues in a range of crimes including giving weapons, information and transport to loyalist paramilitaries as well as carrying out shooting and bombing attacks of their own.[44] Weir alleged that senior officers, including Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, were aware of and approved of their activity.Yes, that’s right. RUC officers were sharing information with the Protestant side. This, of course, had the effect of lengthening and escalating the conflict.On occasion, the representatives of the paramilitary groups would come to some sort of truce. They generally didn’t last long. Why? Often because the RUC would either break the terms themselves or goad the Catholic paramilitaries into doing so.Late in its life, the RUC did allow Catholics to join. Too little, too late.Eventually, Mr. Paisley and Mr. McGuiness made nice. The Republic agreed to recognize the right of people in Northern Ireland to be British citizens. The Northern Irish recognized the right of people in Northern Ireland to want to reunite with the Republic. That was the Good Friday Agreement, and it worked well enough to withdraw the military and tear down border points so that there’s freedom of movement between the two areas. It’s worked for 22 years now but it’s future post-Brexit is uncertain.But as peace broke out, there was still concerns about the RUC. Its reputation was still shit. This led to a formal inquiry - Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland - Wikipedia. Here were their recommendationsrenaming the Royal Ulster Constabulary the Police Service of Northern Ireland; [“Ulster” had a clear Protestant connotation]a new Policing Board and District Policing Partnership Boards to ensure accountability;creation of a Police Ombudsman and a Complaints Tribunal;removal of most visible symbols of Britishness from the police service; [Again a sticking point with Catholics in Northern Ireland who identified with the Republic of Ireland]a 50-50 recruitment policy for Catholics and Protestants; [Roughly equal to their population in Northern Ireland]a new code of ethics and oath of office, including a strong emphasis on human rights;an emphasis on community policing and normalisation;proposals for training, community liaison, cooperation with other police services, and recruitment from outside Northern Ireland; andrepeal by the Gaelic Athletic Association of its Rule 21, which prohibited members of the police or Army in Northern Ireland from being members of the Association. [The GAA sanctions sports of entirely Irish origin, like hurling and Gaelic football]In 2001, the RUC was replaced by the entirely re-organized Police Service of Northern Ireland - Wikipedia

Do the people of Northern Ireland really speak like the characters in the show “Derry Girls”?Thankyou for the A2AThe people of Northern Ireland are the same as people across the UK and the world. You may be surprised to learn that people from different regions speak with different accents hence the term ‘regional accents’.The people from London speak very differently to the folks in Newcastle or Liverpool or Manchester, just like the people in Glasgow speak differently to the people in Edinburgh, Dundee or the Outer Hebrides.Now, the people in Derry/Londonderry have an accent all of their own, just like the people of Belfast and Ballymena (think Liam Neeson). The Derry accent (think Nadine Coyle) is a very strange twang compared to that of someone living in Belfast, so, in answer to your question the only people who speak like ‘Derry girls’ are thise living in Derry.

Broadly speaking Northern Irish. He's known as the Big Man from Ballymena so I'd guess he has a Ballymena accent. I wouldn't be familiar with that specific regional accent so I couldn't say if it has faded or softened over the years.