Ulster's unifying sounds

Hard times and strife don't necessarily foster a good music scene, but those ingredients did seem to create a memorable scene in NORTHERN IRELAND in the late 1970s.
I am enjoying a day off work listening to "GOOD VIBRATIONS: THE PUNK SINGLES COLLECTION" on iTunes.
The compilation chronicles the pioneering BELFAST independent record label that introduced the world to acts such as THE UNDERTONES, RUDI and PROTEX.
Label founder TERRI HOOLEY summed up the unifying force of the Ulster scene:
"It didn't matter what colour your hair was, or whether you were a Protestant or a Catholic, it just mattered that you were a punk -- that was a uniting force. People have said to me since that if they hadn't got involved in punk music, they would have become paramilitaries. It changed a lot of people's lives."
Great music and a few fewer paramilitary members sounds like a good combination to me.