The British Army committed an atrocity on Bloody Sunday and on their hands is the blood of those civilians.

I really do think you are doing the opposite of what I am being criticised for doing, calling murders by the IRA awful but Bloody Sunday was an “accident” and trying to explain it by saying that it was a tense time!

The British Army should not be defined by the events of Bloody Sunday.

As it happens, so far, I don’t think I’ve made any excuses for the shooting of civilians during Bloody Sunday (you’ll have to check) but even you must see the fundamental difference between the British Army and the IRA. If you really believe that the aim of the British Army in Northern Ireland is to kill and maim innocent civilians then even you would have to admit that they had been rather unsuccessful given the number of troops deployed and the length of their deployment.

On the other hand you have made it abundantly clear that you condone and even applaud the murder of British soldiers by the IRA but I wonder if you realise just how offensive that is to those that do not share your viewpoint. This is especially true when the deaths of British soldiers (in an unrelated conflict) are an almost daily occurrence.

Personally I have no problem with those that strive for a united Ireland through peaceful means but I do think that the reality, should it ever happen, will disappoint those with more idealistic (and unrealistic) viewpoints. I do have a problem with anybody who resorts to terrorism and murder when they cannot achieve what they want through peaceful means.

Those that fly the imperial flag (Union Flag) on the island of Ireland!

A heinous crime! :rolleyes: If your attitude towards anybody flying a flag you don’t like is to state that ‘if they love Britain so much, move there’ then I don’t hold out much hope for your assertion that the Unionist, Loyalist and Protestant communities of a united Ireland wouldn’t be persecuted!

If you love Britain so much, move here.

Who that ‘love Britain so much’ are you saying should move there?

Yes I am aware that many civilians were killed by the IRA, my condolences to their families but you cannot hold that against the Irish Republican movement as a whole!!

If I may paraphrase: ‘Yes, I am aware that many hundreds of civilians were deliberately targeted, killed and maimed by the IRA but you cannot hold that against the Irish Republican movement as a whole!!’

Yet because the British Army while attempting to maintain peace was responsible for a relatively small number of civilian deaths you, EGPH, can hold that against the British Army as a whole??

…to achieve the ultimate aim of kicking the colonialists out of Ireland and allowing Ireland to decide its destiny alone!

Exactly who are you intending to ‘kick out’ of Ireland?

I wonder if Ireland actually wants Northern Ireland?

The answer to that has to be no, the Republic of Ireland doesn’t want Northern Ireland and all its problems, and hasn’t for at least twenty-five years.

EGPH is clearly an idealist but I wonder if he has considered the reality of a ‘united Ireland’? A Republic of Ireland population of 4,500,000 would suddenly have to welcome an additional 1,750,000 former residents of Northern Ireland of whom about 50% regard themselves as ‘British’.

Now EGPH has stated he is supportive of the ‘oppressed’ using violence to secure their ‘freedom’ but I wonder how he would feel if the oppressed ‘British’ residents of the Republic of Ireland took to the Armalite and Semtex against the armed forces (and civilians) of the Republic of Ireland? Realistically this would be inevitable to some extent; those that doubt it need only look at the activities of the Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland over the last four decades.

Could the very limited security forces of the Republic of Ireland cope with any such terrorist threat from Loyalists? Could the Republic of Ireland afford the cost of additional security measures?

I think the government of the Republic of Ireland has looked at the reality of a united Ireland and has decided against it.

Smart Car…..Mercedes-Benz engine! 😉

Man is not as good as a black box for certain specific things however he is more flexible and reliable. He is easily maintained and can be manufactured by relatively unskilled labour.

— Wing Commander H. P. Ruffell Smith, RAF, 1949

😀

…soldiers killing unarmed civilians.

Good point!

Will you condemn Finnish forces for the deaths of the one million civilian men, women and children they are responsible for?