Northern Ireland 2125?

A combat is defined as "A forcible encounter between two or more persons". Most of the couple of hundred thousand people who served in the security forces in N.I. never saw actual combat that involved weapons such as bombs or guns. Many were attacked by petrol bombs / nail bombs during rioting etc, but did not return fire with live ammunition except in a handful of occasions which mainly occurred early in the conflict before rubber bullets etc were developed. So if they did not engage in combat they were not combatants.

Downcow clarified it for you, as you are clearly confused. Downcow referred to those "who wore a uniform, adhered to rules and set out each morning to protect life, with those who hid in hedges, abused children, had no rules and set out to murder people." Downcow was referring to the raison d’être of the organisation rather than rare individual rogue criminal elements within.

It is now the afternoon, have you yet come up with a list of memorials in rural towns and villages, to named loyalist convicted killers? Not even one? Compare that to those for convicted republican killers and paramilitaries.

"Do you as a democrat agree, or do you insist on one sided bans?"

One need for one sided bans because all the memorials to terrorists seem to be on one side as it is. Without there even being a U.I.

It is now the afternoon, have you yet come up with a list of memorials in rural towns and villages, to named loyalist convicted killers? Not even one? Compare that to those for convicted republican killers and paramilitaries.

Google is your friend FrancieBrady. Do try harder. What a hill for you to die on yet again.

By the way, if you propose in this dream United Ireland Utopia of yours that people from both sides will be denied the opportunity to commemorate those who died in the 2 world wars, then you are giving an awful lot of people a reason not to want a U.I., given almost 100,000 people volunteered in WW2 and 200,000 in WW1. That is an awful lot of families affected.

When? Where? Where is the list?

You were asked "have you yet come up with a list of memorials in rural towns and villages, to named loyalist convicted killers?"

And stop diverting. Of course I am a democrat. I condemned the extremists on both sides during the troubles, the loyalist as well as the republican paramilitaries, as well as all wrong doing and illegal activity by anyone else. You only condemn the extremists on one side.

Now back to the point, and see if you can come up with a list of memorials in rural towns and villages, to named loyalist convicted killers?"

Nothing to do with lillies or poppies. Anyway Lillies just include people of one political persuasion, who acted against the law at the time. Poppies are more, or should be more, above politics as they include people of all faiths and political persuasions, and nobody asked the soldiers in the trenches in WW1 if they were for or against a U.I. They just did as they wee told.

We are talking about the here and now memorials.

I think Downcow pointed out, even in his local village there are memorials in their individual names of republican killers in the middle of the town Square, on Council property? 

Can you come up with a list of memorials in rural towns and villages, to named loyalist convicted killers?

So you cannot even come up even just one memorial in a rural town or village, to a named loyalist convicted killer?

What does that tell you?

Agreed. It is quite clear what Republicans are at. And FrancieBrady has the audacity to suggest in a U.I. it would get fairer, everything would be on the table says he! I'm quite sure if republicans were in charge of the table it would be even worse than it is now. Who would trust the party whose military wing sent Patsy Gillespie to his death as a human bomb with his family held hostage, or the military wing of the party who told Jean McC's children in Belfast she had run off with a British soldier (after they abducted, tortured and murdered her)? The party who still says there was no alternative?

Who mentioned atrocities of the 2 world war but you. On one hand you seem to accept the poopy being ok if it is about the 2 world wars only. But there were atrocities during those wars, as there are to some extent during all wars.

What do you think the raison d’être of the armed forces of the Allied forces during those 2 world wars was, rather than rare individual rogue criminal elements within? Was it not similar to the raison d’être of the armed forces of the democratically elected governments of these islands during the troubles, rather than rare individual rogue criminal elements within?

So everyone who remembers the dead of the 2 world wars ( which includes people of all political opinions and faiths and none ) is "compartmentalising"? That must be the longest word in quite a while. Of course in a U.I. you would want to stop that. All the more reason not to want a U.I.

But you stand by the party most closely associated behind the hundreds of permanent granite structures with individual names of convicted republican killers.

As someone else said, this really is a one-sided problem.

Have you found any permanent granite structure with an individual name of a convicted loyalist killer yet?

No, YOU are compartmentalising so you don't have to deal with public commemorations of loyalist killers, British Army/UDR/RUC/B-Special killers.

Now when you are ready to do that, just show it by telling us how you think ALL can do it with respect to the other community each hurt.

When you are ready to discuss the reality, and not your self justification, get back to me.

lol. What do you think is the reality? That the  raison d’être of the British Army/UDR/RUC/B-Special during the troubles was to kill, and you think the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of British Army/UDR/RUC/B-Special during the troubles did kill?

Get with reality. Not your own self justification.

And while there are hundreds of permanent granite structures with the individual names of a convicted republican killers on them in N.I., come back to us when you have found a permanent granite structure with an individual name of a convicted loyalist killer yet.

Spot on, that's the way.

Its a country of its own, like Scotland and Wales but part of the UK. Its the only part of the UK where people would identify themselves as British, you wouldn't hear a Scot or Welsh person call themselves British. That's probably how it will go eventually as you said. I really don't see the appetite in the south for a united Ireland and for the people of the North, unification is still a powder keg that could go off.

Unfortunately there are no polls of young Unionists or Nationalists. But if you look at surveys by religion it is predominantly young Protestants who are choosing the Northern Irish identity over the British one.

Make of that what you will. If I were selling the 'Union' I would be very concerned by that.

Northern Ireland Young Life and Times Survey: 2023

In the under 35 polling

50% are in favour of a UI with 44% against.

Why would they 'bother' somebody who claims to be pro a UI?