I’ve just started following you, but thanks for the coverage on this today. And for whatever pressure you brought to bear in ending this sorry little episode.

But to Ciaran G…you should be ashamed of yourslf for even attempting to condone this group or the sentiments expressed. And if an admission that someone “pissed” on a romanian isn’t an actual act of violence never mind a threat of one then you have greater problems than I imagined. Total scum.

I have no dount you’ll tell me that the guy who called my wife a “black b@stard’ on Botanic Avenue or the girl who told me a joke about “Why black people’s lips are so large” when she learned who my wife was (I could go on here..) were “joking” and “no ill-intent was meant”. Try telling that to my Eritrean born, Canadian wife who will now never move back to Belfast or Northern Ireland for that matter. Or the many people she tells of her experiences (however isolated) in my home land. It’s shameful and we should all be embarassed by our insularity and xenophobia evidenced in “trivial” events like this.

At a time whe as a small island eonomy we need all the friends (tourists, investors, advocates) we can make we should never underetsimate – particularly in the age of socal media – how stories like this play out across the globe and influence perception.

There is plenty to joke about in this sad day and age without spouting “ironic” vitriol at the expense of some of our society’s most vulnerable members.

I wonder if some of the people who made their ’sarcastic’ racist comments’ would make the same comments and replace the word immigrant/Romanian/Roma with Pakistani or Chinese? Probably not… Yet the Roma are the largest ethnic minority group in Europe.

Unfortunately Roma continue to be persecuted in Central Europe today as they have been since the Holocaust called Porajmos -Devouring in Romani when perhaps half were killed on the gas chambers.

The events in Belfast this summer toward Roma were not funny nor is this group nor are the comments that now seem to have been removed ‘a joke’!. Racism and hate should be combatted in whatever form or level so well done for flagging and doing something about this and shame on the members who joined such a group.

I guess thats why people find Sarah Silverman funny, or Daragh Obrain or most modern comedians and have put Bernard manning behind them.

I did not see any real ‘threats of violence’, can you elaborate with that or provide a quote? The BBC articles does not make reference to any threats of violence in fact the article makes reference to a *separate* group on bebo who talked about how they had “physically harmed” immigrants.

Get your facts right first!

If you think this is a joke then you have a very odd sense of humour.

The group was closed down by Facebook today because it contained threats of violence. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8374708.stm