The erasure of Worst Witch is a crime.

As a child I read Groosham Grange from Anthony Horowitz, and when I first heard a description of Harry Potter, I thought that they were describing that book from Horowitz. I can't believe no one else noticed. But I also think that most people active in children's literature will have an attitude of "anything that gets a child reading, is a good thing", so they're not that upset about poor quality being popular and they'd rather keep the positive vibe going.

Even the Irish kid gets worse in the books. Apart from making things explode, his other notable character trait is repeatedly trying to turn various drinks into whiskey.

Jesus fucking Christ what? there was a character named shacklebolt???

Oh goodness, I never thought of that.

Is it true that the centaur from movie 1 had more lines than all the black characters in all 7 books?

And then modern fans get mad at black Snape in the TV show (if that gets to finish. My bets is it will patter out like the fantastic beasts movies)

Allow me to hit you with my cane. The Manchester blast was fucking loud.

To say the UK and Ireland have had explosive interactions in the past would be a bit of an understatement. There were spates of car bombings, shootings, and other forms of violence all along the border of Northern Ireland (Due to both sides believing Northern Island should be part of their nation).

Addendum: This was not a purely binary conflict. There were also those in Northern Ireland who did not align with either aggressor.

Rowling probably takes a more pro-UK stance, and therefore is comparing the Irish people to the IRA (Irish Republican Army) bombers.

The conflict(s) were part of a period known as The Troubles (Wiki page linked)

Disclaimer - I'm an American outsider with an interest in learning about history, so I may not have the most accurate summary of events from either side of the story. The Wikipedia article should summarize incidents much better.