The IRA end its armed campaign.

[rpm]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
And there it is.  Like every other one of his posts, it's all about blaming the US.  Go troll somewhere else.

And there it is. A kneejerk reaction. He didn't say it was funded by the government. There always has been a sizable private fundrasing campaign in the US for the IRA.

Toad got it right.

[Holden McGroin]

Originally posted by rpm
And there it is. A kneejerk reaction. He didn't say it was funded by the government.  

Neither did Funked.

[SirLoin]

the only meaningful way to protest is peaceful resistance..great to see them change face.

maybe there is hope afterall..?

[Hangtime]

Lets say England occupied the northern US during the War of 1812. For the next 190 years, an invader is camped in our Cities.

Now, ask an Irishman how he feels about British occupation.

I'm glad the current mouthpiece for the IRA has brought armed resistance to an end.. one would hope the English will follow suit and get off their Island.

I'm NOT taking sides.. just trying to point out there's two sides to the story.

Peace.

[Furball]

Originally posted by Hangtime
Lets say England occupied the northern US during the War of 1812. For the next 190 years, an invader is camped in our Cities.

Now, ask an Irishman how he feels about British occupation.

I'm glad the current mouthpiece for the IRA has brought armed resistance to an end.. one would hope the English will follow suit and get off their Island.

I'm NOT taking sides.. just trying to point out there's two sides to the story.

Peace.

Hey!! we stole that land fair and square!!

We still own a bit of Spain our Royal Marines stole for us too

[Skydancer]

I never did say that the US govt funded the IRA though some pretty influential people did.

For those who are claiming they were fighting a war ( at least thats what you seem to infer ) try telling that to the little boy in Warrington, or the women and children of Omagh or Birmingham or London.

For those that claim there are two sides to every story try applying the same principle when discussing the decacle in Iraq
or Al Quaedas aims. There is only one valid side to a story involving terrorism against innocent people and that is the side that is right.

It is galling to sit and watch the news about Islamic terror. Watch US politicians making grand speeches, then in the next item watch other US politicians acting as apologists for a terrorist organisation.

So its wrong to blow up families and kids and innocent people if you have a brown face or are a muslim, but if you are catholic and Irish thats Ok? Come on.

I'm not trolling I'm just mad when I see that kind of stuff.

Senator Kennedy and others should be deeply ashamed and yeah they owe those families they've given money to help destroy an apology.

As for the Protestant paramillitary groups. Yes they are just as bad. Racist thugs with guns. But I don't recall them planting bombs ( could be wrong)

I'm glad the IRA have ended it. Shame it took them so long and so many lives were lost before they realised that blowing up British people won't get you anywhere. Lets hope those equaly evil Muslim extremists realise too.

[Swoop]

Originally posted by Hangtime
Now, ask an Irishman how he feels about British occupation.
 

Good idea cos no-one I've ever met who objects to the British being in Ireland ever has, to my knowledge.

In a small suburb that I don't recall the name of there is a protestant area and a few years ago (not many) the primary (elementary) school in that area was closed down, the children (some as young as 5) found that in order to get to their new school they had to walk through a catholic area.  The people in said area (not children this time) took exception to this and thought it would be a good idea to stone these children as they ran past on the way to school.

These days the British army escorts these kids.

Ask them how they feel.


We're not there as an occuping force anymore Hang, we're there to stop them killing each other because of religion and if you actually ask anyone from Northern Ireland you'll find most are quite happy with the situation.  Everyone from Northern Ireland I've ever met has been a well sorted individual who likes to take the mickey out of southside Dubliners who seem to think there's a wall.

[Wotan]

My personal guess is that the IRA would rather make up with the rest of the UK than be lumped together with a bunch of islamofascist terrorists. The IRA has a much different agenda and that agenda would be crippled if people start thinking of them as a bunch of backwards brainwashed religious freaks.

It didn't stop the IRA from taking Libyan money and weapons in the past...

[thrila]

Originally posted by Hangtime
Lets say England occupied the northern US during the War of 1812. For the next 190 years, an invader is camped in our Cities.

Now, ask an Irishman how he feels about British occupation.

I'm glad the current mouthpiece for the IRA has brought armed resistance to an end.. one would hope the English will follow suit and get off their Island.

I'm NOT taking sides.. just trying to point out there's two sides to the story.

Peace.

Hang the majority of the people in northern ireland consider themself british and wish to remain British.  Telling them to "get off their island" is like the native americans telling every US citizen to get of their island.  It aint gonna happen because they see it as theirs and it isn't ok to start blowing up civilians over it.

[Nashwan]

Lets say England occupied the northern US during the War of 1812. For the next 190 years, an invader is camped in our Cities.

We did occupy some of North America, after independence the US went on to occupy much of the rest. You're still occupying it, by your definition.

Now, ask an Irishman how he feels about British occupation.

Ask a native American how he feels about US occupation.

I'm glad the current mouthpiece for the IRA has brought armed resistance to an end.. one would hope the English will follow suit and get off their Island.

Just as soon as the majority in Northern Ireland want us to leave, we will.

Does the US apply the same principle? For example, if the majority in Hawaii wanted the US occupation to end, would it?

I'm NOT taking sides.. just trying to point out there's two sides to the story.

Oh, there certainly are two sides. There's one side that says the fuiture of Northern Ireland should be decided by the people of Northern Ireland at the ballot box, there's another that says because the majority are against them, they will murder people to get what they want.

The IRA wasn't funded by the US government.

No, but the US government allowed the funding of the IRA to continue, even after getting Noraid to declare that they were an agent of the IRA, and that's where the money went, they allowed them to keep on collecting it and sending it to fund terrorism.

[Excel1]

Originally posted by Swoop
In a small suburb that I don't recall the name of there is a protestant area and a few years ago (not many) the primary (elementary) school in that area was closed down, the children (some as young as 5) found that in order to get to their new school they had to walk through a catholic area.  The people in said area (not children this time) took exception to this and thought it would be a good idea to stone these children as they ran past on the way to school.

Either there was more than one incident of mongrels stonning school kids or you have things around the wrong way... not saying it hasn't happened but I havn't heard of catholics stonning protestant schoolgirls.

'The world is watching in disbelief.' So said Northern Ireland security minister Jane Kennedy, as the dispute in north Belfast over the route to a Catholic girls' school erupted into violence on Monday 3 September 2001.

The Holy Cross Catholic primary school is located in a Protestant-dominated area in north Belfast - and images of schoolgirls crying as their parents protected them from Protestants shouting abuse and hurling stones sent shockwaves around the world.

http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D219.htm

Excel

[Swoop]

Yep, ok, the other way around then.

[Dowding]

I think Nashwan's post is the required reading in this thread.

The romantic fantasy of balaclava clad, AK-47 toting, pub-bombing freedom fighters fighting for an oppressed majority so popular in the States pre-911 needs to be laid to rest.

[Toad]

It was the previous administration that took Sinn Fein off the "foreign terrorist organisation" list of the US State Department. This was in 1994 after the start of peace efforts in Northern Ireland, when Gerry Adams was allowed to travel to the US.

In May of 2001 the US State Department officially designated the Real IRA as a foreign terrorist organisation.

I think it's clear there's been a change in US policy.

[Toad]

Oh, as for all the rest of it, it's the old "well, it all depends on when you stole the land".

It seems everyone feels that stealing land from the indigenous population was/is a bad thing and that it shouldn't go on anymore. Seems everyone agrees to that.

The differences appear when timelines are discussed. Stealing land was "OK" when we did it but it was bad when you did it.

Thus, you should have to give the land back or make reparations while we should not have to do that.

Everyone seems to use the same argument, they just change who the "we" and "you" are.