Why did you not join the IRA?

mazdamiatamx5

is a question constantly levelled at the former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and others who support a 32 County Irish Republic.

I ask myself the same question, as do most Irish people. I personally hope that if I was in Derry or Belfast at that time, that I would have had the guts and balls to also have joined the IRA.

Given gerrymandering, given the corruption of the NI statelet, given the deliberate impoverishment of nationalist communities, it was, frankly, the only moral choice to take at that time for the working class people of the failed statelet who were trying to protect their communities from extreme loyalist violence, discrimination and mass murder - most if not all of it facilitated by British establishment collusion.

Penfailed

What a load of unadulterated shíte.

marmurr1916

Terrible pension scheme, lousy overtime rates, no real career progression, awful work-life balance.

mazdamiatamx5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551812#Comment_119551812

What, in your view, was the correct response to this:

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

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

Yes murdering children, women, men, washing diesel, drug dealing, punishment beating, hiding child abuse and child abuser....

Killing more nationist than anyone else, so failing to meet the primary goal

Also at the end of everything you actually end up achieving nothing except ruin thousands and thousands of lives

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

So what did " Beardy" Adams say anyway?

gifted

Its that bloody awful accent they have in the North....jesus wept but thats not worth fighting for.....

BattleCorp

I think if I lived in somewhere like Derry during the troubles there's a fair chance I would have joined it.

But I've a loud mouth when I'm drunk (loose lips and all that) so I'd more than likely be buried in a bog or have chronic knee pain nowadays if I did join back in the day.

Meeoow

I can neither confirm nor deny whether I would have joined the ra.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552171#Comment_119552171

I loved the northern accent!! Well some of different ones, especially in the ladies

Penfailed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551816#Comment_119551816

The Shankill Butchers were abhorrent, as were the IRA. Two cheeks of the same arse. It's possible that the Butchers wouldn't have come about had the 'RA not been so active.

magicbastarder

I ask myself the same question, as do most Irish people.

ye wha?

SEPT 23 1989

I am not the murdering type

corner of hells

Despite being an electrician and having an interest in electronics. I wouldn't have been a good bomb maker, mainly because of not finishing what I start an.....

mikemac2

I prefer not to put neighborhood businesses, small shops and pubs into a protection racket and demand money for “the cause”.

Threatening the very people they claim to represent

At least HMRC are honest about taxing you and taking your money

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

is a question constantly levelled at the former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and others who support a 32 County Irish Republic.

Who is constantly asking this of a former member of the IRA Army Council?

timmyntc

Best part about being in the provos is all the business trips around the world, Colombia, Spain, Palestine...

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552456#Comment_119552456

The lads in Colombia were only bird watching.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551816#Comment_119551816

Well planting bombs in civilian areas (a war crime) and murdering mothers and children indiscriminately wouldn't be my response, but maybe I am different.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552634#Comment_119552634

Yes yes, because the IRA only existed to commit war crimes and murder mothers and children. That must be why they enjoyed so much support at the time, and why their political wing "SF/IRA" are now the largest party north and south of the border. 🤣

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552740#Comment_119552740

Maybe history isnt your strong suit but the PIRA and SF had minority support even among Nationalists in the North. They had very little political support and had no mandate to carry out their war crimes.

Fun Fact, they killed more nationalists than the British Security forces.

Fun Fact, they killed more civilians than the British Security forces.

They also failed in their primary objective.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552768#Comment_119552768

And yet their political wing SF/IRA are the most popular party in Ireland...

They havent gone away you know

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552964#Comment_119552964

But the don't represent the views of the majority, that is why the are not in power.

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551813#Comment_119551813

Wait! I thought the IRA was the pension scheme?

rogerywalters

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

I dont think most irish people ask themselves the question.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

Don't worry about it, they would not let your in, you would not be grounded enough in reality for them. Had you actually been old enough at the time you'd also know that most people did not support them and indeed many in the Republic signed up to make sure these thugs and traitors did not come to power.

Blowing innocent children to pieces wouldn’t be my scene.

Ham_Sandwich

look, yes some elements of the IRA were involved in protection rackets, smuggling, drug dealing, drug trafficking and taxing drug dealers, selling guns to drug gangs, murdering witnesses, murdering gardai, intimidating witnesses, but it was a small price to pay in the long run, once SF take over in the north and south well have a untied Ireland, with housing, education, health all provided for bins too free bins.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552740#Comment_119552740

If you check any publication the PIRA didn't have the support of the majority of the people at the time.

It is easy to find.

They managed to kill more of the people they said they wanted to protect. They ran drugs and maybe still do which has had a devastating affect on society in Ireland to this day.

They never achieved anything during the troubles. The Northern is still part of the UK

At the end they are a total failure.

Sinn Fein have seemingly nothing to do with PIRA anymore according to SF supporters? So which is it?

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552964#Comment_119552964

Who havent gone away?

corner of hells

A friend of mine joined the IFA ,dyslexia blights his everyday life and he's not even a farmer.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553093#Comment_119553093

No party represents the views of the majority, that is why no party has an electoral majority.

Most European political parties do not represent the views of the majority, as most european democracies are built on coalitions nowadays

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553224#Comment_119553224

According to their detractors, SF was and is the political wing of the PIRA. One of the 2 groups must be right.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553242#Comment_119553242

The IRA - or whoever their successors are. People always say SF are still the political front of republican terrorists. Do you disagree with this idea?

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552740#Comment_119552740

They didn't enjoy any support at the time.

SF only got political support after they declared a ceasefire.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

The easy cowardly thing to do at the time was to join the PIRA. Get in the gang and get your rocks off showing people what a big man you were.

The brave ones were the likes of John Hume and Seamus Mallon who stood for peace. Other brave people were the likes of Jean McConville and others who refused to bow down to the local terrorist thugs and paid a price for it.

backwards_man

I am Irish, almost 50 and I have never asked myself that question. Nor have I ever read about anyone asking Gerry Adams that question - genuinely curious what was his answer? Also nobody ever asked me or suggested to me that I should join. I dont know anyone who was in the IRA.

Had I lived up north as an adult during the 60s (I wasnt alive) and 70s (i was a baby), I likely would have felt some pressure to at least make some sort of stand against what was going on, or to join. I am not sure I would have joined as I abhor violence and I dont like being a member of organisations in general, doing the bidding of people at the top. I likely would have left the north and moved somewhere else where I would not have felt that pressure.

I am indifferent to a united ireland and I think the north should break away from GB and become their own country and join the EU. They would get billions to sort themselves out and build an economy and hopefully find an identity of their own mutually acceptable to them all.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553293#Comment_119553293

This is a thread about the PIRA. You dragged PSF into the thread.

One minute people dont want to link PSF and the PIRA. Next minute they are using PSF current popularity as if that was the case during the troubles?

After the GFA then PSF started to get support.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553293#Comment_119553293

The IRA - or whoever their successors are. People always say SF are still the political front of republican terrorists. Do you disagree with this idea?

So in your opinion, the IRA is still there. Yet, SF is telling us the boys in West Belfast are gone away.

Which is it?

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553297#Comment_119553297

That must explain why they got MPs elected in 83, 87 pre ceasefire.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553329#Comment_119553329

Sure they are one in the same. Unless you dispute that SF are the political wing of the provos?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553336#Comment_119553336

I have no affliation with SF so I dont see what relevance their statements have. I asked you a question earlier and you seem to have missed it. Let me repeat so you dont miss it this time:

People always say SF are still the political front of republican terrorists. Do you disagree with this idea?

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553361#Comment_119553361

Thread is about PIRA

Not sure why you felt the need to drag in SF.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553323#Comment_119553323

I agree. Everyone telling the people of the North they should be in UK or Ireland

Let them decide.....

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551816#Comment_119551816

What should have been the response to the invention by these brave Irish volunteers of the proxy bomb - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_bomb

The attempts to rewrite history regarding NI and associated issues as we head towards a GE is certainly keeping the SF press office busy.

maccored

I would have been in the perfect demographic to join the IRA, but I was too chicken. Brokenangel's rubbish about the IRA not having support is just that - rubbish. rather then reading info about it, it would have better for brokenangel if they had been there at the time. might have gleaned at least some form of authentic angle on it

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553494#Comment_119553494

I lived in the North.

Also lived along the border in the South for years as well so seen the carry on first hand.

👍️

Dyr

Still imagine if you had signed up and then did a twenty year stretch for the glorious victory of having SF running NI for the Brits and the occasional march around a graveyard.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553566#Comment_119553566

We can only dream of that lost future where NI is still a sectarian statelet with gerrymandered voting so that catholics get less representation, and loyalists can attack who they want with the backings of the police. If only those pesky IRA volunteers hadnt ruined things.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553642#Comment_119553642

The PIRA achieved nothing. Apart from killing people in all communities in the Northern, Republic, England etc

In the end the GFA was made by politicians. Since the GFA the people of Northern Ireland have managed to prosper but are still held back by bad politicians but that is a different discussion.

Running drugs, washing diesel, punishment beatings, indiscriminate bombings etc etc, is that what you think the people of Northern Ireland wanted?

Dyr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553642#Comment_119553642

NI is still gerrymandered and the UVF still exist and are still at it,unlike the RA.

still though, equaliteee and HM gov funded jobs as community workers. Chuckee or MLA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553642#Comment_119553642

Ahh yes, because that's how things have played out elsewhere with similar colonial possessions. It's just as likely that the social/union movements of the 70s/80s would have propelled N.Ireland towards a more equitable society without all the violence brought about by the IRA and associated groups. The simple truth is that we have no idea how N.Ireland would have turned out without all the paramilitary violence. It's just as possible that those in the North might have found a common middle ground, along with a decline in the hate/contempt shown by unionists or the British themselves.

IRA supporters never want to acknowledge the environment they participated in creating, embracing the convenience of passing all responsibility over to the British. God forbid, that you recognise that the violence, in spite of all the justifications, encouraged bitterness, the narrowing of perspectives and a wide range of reprisals.

Personally, I suspect N.Ireland would have turned out much better today, if the IRA had never existed there. Between political pressure from the South, and the range of social movements from the 60s onwards, without the bullwark of a violent history, progress would have happened anyway.

----

OP, by the time I was born (70s) no amount of propaganda could hide how the IRA behaved.. so, no.. I was never tempted to join or support the IRA.

freshpopcorn

The Balaclava would have make my face itchy.

I'm a nervous/giddy/jumpy person. So, I wouldn't be the best with a gun.

I don't like parking in tight or crowded spaces. So, I'd live the car with the bomb in it miles away.

I can sometimes can over share stuff.

brokenangel

The brave people in Northern Ireland was the like of John Hume who went out to fight for justice the right way.

So the question should be

"that I would have had the guts and balls to also have joined the likes of John Hume"

Or something similar.....

end of the road

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119553297#Comment_119553297

factually incorrect on both counts.

the IRA had quite substantial support, few were going to admit to it for obvious reasons.