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Why did you not join the IRA?

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  • 01-09-2022 12:27AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,195 ✭✭✭


    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.



«1345

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,038 ✭✭✭Penfailed


    What a load of unadulterated shíte.

    Gigs '24 - Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball (Gomez), The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smashing Pumpkins/Weezer, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Stendhal Festival, Forest Fest, Electric Picnic, Pixies, Ride, Therapy?, Public Service Broadcasting, IDLES, And So I Watch You From Afar

    Gigs '25 - Spiritualized, Supergrass, Stendhal Festival, Forest Fest, Queens of the Stone Age, Electric Picnic, Vantastival, Sprints, Getdown Services, And So I Watch You From Afar, The Scratch

    Gigs '26 - Deftones, Sleaford Mods, Stereolab, KNEECAP, Sugar, Clutch, Big Thief, Jon Spencer, The Cure, Forest Fest, IDLES, Electric Picnic, Public Service Broadcasting, Suede/Manic Street Preachers, Korn, Fat Dog



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,091 ✭✭✭marmurr1916


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,195 ✭✭✭mazdamiatamx5




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,242 ✭✭✭brokenangel


    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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,439 ✭✭✭corner of hells




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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,227 ✭✭✭gifted


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,867 ✭✭✭✭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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 674 ✭✭✭Meeoow


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,242 ✭✭✭brokenangel


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,038 ✭✭✭Penfailed


    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.

    Gigs '24 - Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball (Gomez), The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smashing Pumpkins/Weezer, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Stendhal Festival, Forest Fest, Electric Picnic, Pixies, Ride, Therapy?, Public Service Broadcasting, IDLES, And So I Watch You From Afar

    Gigs '25 - Spiritualized, Supergrass, Stendhal Festival, Forest Fest, Queens of the Stone Age, Electric Picnic, Vantastival, Sprints, Getdown Services, And So I Watch You From Afar, The Scratch

    Gigs '26 - Deftones, Sleaford Mods, Stereolab, KNEECAP, Sugar, Clutch, Big Thief, Jon Spencer, The Cure, Forest Fest, IDLES, Electric Picnic, Public Service Broadcasting, Suede/Manic Street Preachers, Korn, Fat Dog



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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 56,402 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


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

    ye wha?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,038 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    I am not the murdering type



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,439 ✭✭✭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.....



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,018 ✭✭✭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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 41,367 ✭✭✭✭ohnonotgmail


    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?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,819 ✭✭✭timmyntc


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,439 ✭✭✭corner of hells




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,438 ✭✭✭✭markodaly


    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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,819 ✭✭✭timmyntc


    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. 🤣



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,438 ✭✭✭✭markodaly


    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.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,819 ✭✭✭timmyntc


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

    They havent gone away you know



  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 11,254 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,360 ✭✭✭✭banie01




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 470 ✭✭rogerywalters


    I dont think most irish people ask themselves the question.



  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 11,254 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    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.



  • Posts: 2,752 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


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



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 296 ✭✭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.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,242 ✭✭✭brokenangel


    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?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,438 ✭✭✭✭markodaly




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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,439 ✭✭✭corner of hells


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



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