Anyone willing to admit that they supported the IRA at any point?

flookdgates

The PIRA had my passive support until the Enniskillen bombing. That was a low blow that was unforgivable. Never supported the CIRA or the RIRA. The Good Friday Agreement and peace process is the only way forward. Republican Sinn Fein and the 32CSM are meme-tier.

suicide_circus

Ooh ah up the 'ra

Mark Horgan

Are the IRA on Facebook or Instagram?

Pedro K

I think, at times, the IRA were a necessary evil. Sometimes, you can't get the ballot without the bullet.

McDermotX

Nice try Drew Harris.

The high horse brigade

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

_Kaiser_

Nope, never supported it or their campaign. Both sides were as bad as each other really.

What really saddens me though is the number of armchair republicans that still seem to be lurking out there spreading the old hatred and still living in those bad old days. You see it here anytime a SF/IRA or "British" thread pops up.

Then there's the whole thing of people gleefully hoping Brexit turns out to be such a disaster so that the UK will suffer from it and "we" will get a united Ireland from it.

I have no interest in either.. I am on record here as having serious issues with the way the EU has evolved over particularly the last decade and fully support those who are questioning this direction rather than blindly accepting the narrative that it's the only way for Europe, and anything else is just impossible - if the UK actually comes through it and prospers in the next few years it'll be a disaster for the EU as many other countries will start to pull out IMO (and that's also why the massive campaign of discrediting the electorate's decision has been waged. The EU simply cannot afford for Brexit to succeed).

As for Ireland... We have more than enough problems domestically as it is without taking on the significant problems that absorbing Northern Ireland would represent - economically, structurally and of course the very real possibility that it could result in significant security problems. Problems which thankfully have largely been put behind us.

I think people's expression of a desire for a united Ireland is purely superficial without any real thoughts of the consequences it would bring - put bluntly, we can barely run the country we have (housing, health, the economic divides between Dublin and the rest of the country, the political incompetence and corruption and general half-assed approaches to pretty much everything) , are busy pulling more people out of the tax system each year (imagine if people were told they'd need to pay another 150 quid of their monthly wage towards a "unification/solidarity" charge - how many would still be supportive then??), and given the largely bloated and inefficient mess that is our public sector and state services, imagine trying to integrate the systems of the North into that (assuming anyone would actually rather the HSE over the NHS for example).

The best thing that can happen is some sort of border arrangement that reasonably tries to accommodate both sides (if such a thing is even possible on an island with 2 jurisdictions that will be even further apart in some ways), but anything more is just fantasy IMO.

Taytoland

Pedro K wrote: »

I think, at times, the IRA were a necessary evil. Sometimes, you can't get the ballot without the bullet.

A well established lie from Republicans.

twinytwo

flookdgates wrote: »

The PIRA had my passive support until the Enniskillen bombing. That was a low blow that was unforgivable. Never supported the CIRA or the RIRA. The Good Friday Agreement and peace process is the only way forward. Republican Sinn Fein and the 32CSM are meme-tier.

The IRA were the necessary counter balance to the carry on of the Protestants/UK governemnt/British Army in Northern Ireland.


Do I agree with all of what the IRA did? - no, but I understand why they did what they did.

NIMAN

As Mao Zedong/Mao Tse Tung once said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".

Appears to have been correct too in the Irish situation. The IRA has made SF what they are now.

twinytwo

Taytoland wrote: »

A well established lie from Republicans.

Well, you would be hard push to find any point in history where this was not the case......

Taytoland

NIMAN wrote: »

As Mao Zedong once said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".

Appears to have been correct too in the Irish situation. The IRA has made SF what they are now.

The IRA held back Sinn Fein at the ballot box. Only when they abandoned the lunacy did you start to see them getting a substantial mandate. The SDLP was by far the biggest nationalist party during the height of the IRA and they condemned the IRA.

Pedro K

Taytoland wrote: »

A well established lie from Republicans.

Catholics were routinely discriminated against. Their marches were ignored, and in one high profile case, fired upon.

I acknowledge that the IRA did some absolutely, unforgivabley, attrocious things. I also acknowledge that life isn't always black and white, and you can only kick a populace for so long before sections of it kick back.

Dial Hard

Fuaranach... paging Fuaranach.

Assetbacked

I’m 30; too young to know (or particularly care) about them other than from history books.

Conservatory

I probably would have joined them as a teenager if somebody asked me. Found out they weren’t this shining light of greatness when I started thinking for myself.

If they tied a balloon to Northern Ireland and flew it to Russia tomorrow I couldn’t care less. I don’t identify with them people.

judeboy101

I used to buy an phoblact off a fella in Eyre square back in the 80's if that counts?

Cee-Jay-Cee

48 years on this earth living in Co Donegal less than 25km from the border with NI and the answer is No. never did and never will.

Donald Trump

the beer revolu

I never did.
But I get why people in the North did. I worked with someone whose father was imprisoned for a total of 11 years and never charged with anything. Army breaking in the door at night and taking your father away.
Why? Because a relative was in the IRA.
If I grew up in those circumstances, I fear I would have supported the IRA.

The guy I know got out of the North and has lived in the South since adulthood.

Atoms for Peace

Support for the IRA is proportional to the behaviour of UK and/or NI governments.

hatrickpatrick

Campaigns against random, innocent civilians in NI and mainland UK made them totally and utterly unforgivable, but the other things they did in terms of resisting and trying to protect communities from brutality carried out by loyalist paramilitaries, the RUC and British Army (state sponsored terrorists in both cases as far as I'm concerned) is absolutely something they should be lauded for.

Like so many things in life, assholes and headbangers at the fringe turned the IRA into a hideous monstrosity of murder. But in terms of being a bulwark for nationalists against the unbelievable evil carried out by the RUC, British Army and loyalist paramilitaries, I don't see how anyone could not praise the organisation for its actions in those days. Are people honestly forgetting that in the late 1960s, the police literally attacked and beat the sh!t out of peaceful protesters in Derry, with total backing from the establishment? The nationalists needed a way of fighting back against such violence which didn't involve just lying down and taking it, FFS.

You die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian. What the IRA became was a monstrous evil, but what it began as was a bulwark against monstrous evil, and too many people seem willing to forgive one evil while condemning the other. What the RUC and British Army did in Northern Ireland is one of the most evil chapters in a modern nation's history, and this whole "the IRA were worse" bullsh!t is ridiculous. Yes, the IRA became an evil organisation. No, they were not and never will count as being as evil as those who engaged in evil acts for the sole purpose of keeping people down.

indioblack

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Campaigns against random, innocent civilians in NI and mainland UK made them totally and utterly unforgivable, but the other things they did in terms of resisting and trying to protect communities from brutality carried out by loyalist paramilitaries, the RUC and British Army (state sponsored terrorists in both cases as far as I'm concerned) is absolutely something they should be lauded for.

Like so many things in life, assholes and headbangers at the fringe turned the IRA into a hideous monstrosity of murder. But in terms of being a bulwark for nationalists against the unbelievable evil carried out by the RUC, British Army and loyalist paramilitaries, I don't see how anyone could not praise the organisation for its actions in those days. Are people honestly forgetting that in the late 1960s, the police literally attacked and beat the sh!t out of peaceful protesters in Derry, with total backing from the establishment? The nationalists needed a way of fighting back against such violence which didn't involve just lying down and taking it, FFS.

You die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian. What the IRA became was a monstrous evil, but what it began as was a bulwark against monstrous evil, and too many people seem willing to forgive one evil while condemning the other. What the RUC and British Army did in Northern Ireland is one of the most evil chapters in a modern nation's history, and this whole "the IRA were worse" bullsh!t is ridiculous. Yes, the IRA became an evil organisation. No, they were not and never will count as being as evil as those who engaged in evil acts for the sole purpose of keeping people down.

There's a lot of evil in your post - but I'd say the IRA were less so.
The British get "unbelievable evil", while the IRA were slightly better with only "a monstrous evil."
Then this period is described as "one of the most evil chapters in a modern nation's history".
If you study the history of the world from, say, 1968 to the present day you may wish to consider that remark an exaggeration.

Sheeps

They're a bunch of pedos so no.

dd972

They had the means and organisational capacity to wipe out the likes of Johnny Adair and his state backed cronies so I don't know why they didn't go after them more stridently, that's one thing I'll never understand about the PIRA of the Troubles, why didn't they do enough to protect Catholics/Nationalists?

Taytoland

dd972 wrote: »

They had the means and organisational capacity to wipe out the likes of Johnny Adair and his state backed cronies so I don't know why they didn't go after them more stridently, that's one thing I'll never understand about the PIRA of the Troubles, why didn't they do enough to protect Catholics/Nationalists?

Look after Catholics? They murdered A LOT of them. This myth that the IRA was somehow the protector of Catholics is just that, a myth. The IRA was looking to liberate Ireland as they saw it via violent means to achieve it. Plenty of members of the IRA from that time are on record saying it was about a revolutionary overthrow of the state  to unify Ireland. It wasn't done for equality purposes as some foolishly believe today.

_Kaiser_

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Nope, never supported it or their campaign.... the number of armchair republicans that still seem to be lurking out there spreading the old hatred... You see it here anytime a SF/IRA...

Delighted to see you're immune from the "old hatreds"...

frag420

Ah jaysus a simple yes or no would have been fine...

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Nope, never supported it or their campaign. Both sides were as bad as each other really.

What really saddens me though is the number of armchair republicans that still seem to be lurking out there spreading the old hatred and still living in those bad old days. You see it here anytime a SF/IRA or "British" thread pops up.

Then there's the whole thing of people gleefully hoping Brexit turns out to be such a disaster so that the UK will suffer from it and "we" will get a united Ireland from it.

I have no interest in either.. I am on record here as having serious issues with the way the EU has evolved over particularly the last decade and fully support those who are questioning this direction rather than blindly accepting the narrative that it's the only way for Europe, and anything else is just impossible - if the UK actually comes through it and prospers in the next few years it'll be a disaster for the EU as many other countries will start to pull out IMO (and that's also why the massive campaign of discrediting the electorate's decision has been waged. The EU simply cannot afford for Brexit to succeed).

As for Ireland... We have more than enough problems domestically as it is without taking on the significant problems that absorbing Northern Ireland would represent - economically, structurally and of course the very real possibility that it could result in significant security problems. Problems which thankfully have largely been put behind us.

I think people's expression of a desire for a united Ireland is purely superficial without any real thoughts of the consequences it would bring - put bluntly, we can barely run the country we have (housing, health, the economic divides between Dublin and the rest of the country, the political incompetence and corruption and general half-assed approaches to pretty much everything) , are busy pulling more people out of the tax system each year (imagine if people were told they'd need to pay another 150 quid of their monthly wage towards a "unification/solidarity" charge - how many would still be supportive then??), and given the largely bloated and inefficient mess that is our public sector and state services, imagine trying to integrate the systems of the North into that (assuming anyone would actually rather the HSE over the NHS for example).

The best thing that can happen is some sort of border arrangement that reasonably tries to accommodate both sides (if such a thing is even possible on an island with 2 jurisdictions that will be even further apart in some ways), but anything more is just fantasy IMO.

archer22

dd972 wrote: »

They had the means and organisational capacity to wipe out the likes of Johnny Adair and his state backed cronies so I don't know why they didn't go after them more stridently, that's one thing I'll never understand about the PIRA of the Troubles, why didn't they do enough to protect Catholics/Nationalists?

You are forgetting that the Unionists and British could have wiped the IRA off the face of the earth in a few days if they wanted.
They knew every single one of them and had arrested them over and over...however they never upgraded the conflict to war status instead just keeping it to a policing matter.
They never once used their heavy weapons or air power.

The IRA were fortunate in who they were at 'war' with.
The Americans, Russians and most others would really have given them something to be singing about!!

May Contain Small Parts

Pedro K wrote: »

Catholics were routinely discriminated against. Their marches were ignored, and in one high profile case, fired upon.

I acknowledge that the IRA did some absolutely, unforgivabley, attrocious things. I also acknowledge that life isn't always black and white, and you can only kick a populace for so long before sections of it kick back.

It's not why the IRA (etc.)did what they did that people have a problem with. No doubt that people in NI (and Ireland before that) were treated as less than human.

It's a matter of whether violence was right, or productive in the long run.

uck51js9zml2yt

Thanks for joining boards to tell us you supported terrorists.

Now back to more important things in my life!

_Kaiser_

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Nope, never supported it or their campaign. Both sides were as bad as each other really.

Bull****.

The Backwards Man

Cowardly murderous bastards.

RobertKK

No, two wrongs doesn't make something right.

Donald Trump

dd972 wrote: »

They had the means and organisational capacity to wipe out the likes of Johnny Adair and his state backed cronies

Those Protestants. Up to no good as usual


:P

Wheeliebin30

Didn’t they kill the most Catholics out of all the terrorist groups?????

Some defending of the catholic community alright.

umop episdn

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

Didn’t they kill the most Catholics out of all the terrorist groups?????

Some defending of the catholic community alright.

It's only a matter of time before someone comes along and tells you that Jean McConville got what she deserved :rolleyes:

Donald Trump

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

Didn’t they kill the most Catholics out of all the terrorist groups?????

Some defending of the catholic community alright.

Depending on how you categorize the various "sides" then you can say that yes they were. But only if you categorize the stats in a particular manner



See bottom of here

Taytoland

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

Didn’t they kill the most Catholics out of all the terrorist groups?????

Some defending of the catholic community alright.

Here is how much they loved Catholics. They took a Catholic and put him on a milk float, put explosives on it and told him to drive into a barracks and murdered him. So much for defending Catholics.

Donald Trump

Taytoland wrote: »

Here is how much they loved Catholics. They took a Catholic and put him on a milk float, put explosives on it and told him to drive into a barracks and murdered him. So much for defending Catholics.

Pat Mustard was an awful bollix

thebull85

They had my support up until about 15 years ago when they decided to stop shooting heroin dealers in my area.

Wheeliebin30

Taytoland wrote: »

Here is how much they loved Catholics. They took a Catholic and put him on a milk float, put explosives on it and told him to drive into a barracks and murdered him. So much for defending Catholics.

Proxy bomb.

Utter cowards yet some laud them as heroes.

Atoms for Peace

Taytoland wrote: »

Here is how much they loved Catholics. They took a Catholic and put him on a milk float, put explosives on it and told him to drive into a barracks and murdered him. So much for defending Catholics.

I saw a documentary about that on channel 4 once. Wasn't it a moustached and disgruntled former milkman with grudge against the Catholic Church that placed the bomb on the milk float?

Donald Trump

ShooterSF

My great grandfather fought for the IRA, even got a military funeral. Obviously I didn't exist at the time but I'd probably have supported them then I'd like to think.

Donald Trump

ShooterSF wrote: »

My great grandfather fought for the IRA, even got a military funeral. Obviously I didn't exist at the time but I'd probably have supported them then I'd like to think.

apt username is apt :pac:

Yer Da sells Avon

'Support' is a strong word, but I wouldn't regard them as being worse than the British Army or the RUC. I mean, I can understand why people joined up. Unlike Gerry Adams, had I grown up in West Belfast during or before the Troubles, maybe I would have joined. I don't know.

Silent Running

Someone had to do something to defend the Catholic minority in NI.

The B Specials were running riot and even supporting youth gangs (tartan scumbags) picking Catholics off the streets and bringing them to "romper rooms" where they were savagely beaten, for no reason other that they answered the "Protestant or Catholic" question the wrong way.

When the British Army were deployed in NI, they were widely welcomed by the Catholic community, because they thought they were there to protect them from the evil that was the RUC and particularly the B Specials. When the Army turned out to be as bad, and even worse, who were the minority to turn to but their own homegrown Army? No-one else showed any willingness to stop the persecution. Not the British Government, not the Irish Government, not the international community. At least the IRA brought the international spotlight on Northern Ireland. What it illuminated was not pretty, and the world was shocked into action.

The IRA lost their way when criminals took over the higher ranking positions. From then on it was all about the money. All credibility was lost at that stage.

steddyeddy

Taytoland wrote: »

A well established lie from Republicans.

Well established but not a lie.

Unionists seem to forget that attempts had been made as early as 1973 to implement power sharing in the form of the Sunningdale agreement. Unionists seem to forget that they opposed the ballot via the bullet:

On 10 December, the day after the agreement was announced, loyalist paramilitaries formed the Ulster Army Council – a coalition of loyalist paramilitary groups, including the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, which would oppose the agreement.

It's hard to see that democracy would have worked in Northern Ireland without the troubles since loyalist paramilitaries seemed so keen to prevent it ever happening.

Yer Da sells Avon

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

You see it here anytime a SF/IRA or "British" thread pops up.

Hey, the DUP circa 1998 just called. They want their political slur back.

Junkyard Tom

Taytoland wrote: »

A well established lie from Republicans.

Go to CAIN and check out the thousands of gun battles the Provos had with the British Army and their scumbag proxy unionist terroists. Here's a good example of one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_at_Springmartin

Now tell the people reading the thread that they're a bunch of morons if they don't believe you.

Go on.