Both of them!

That many? Bet you can’t list them! 😀

EGPH you are 20 years old, so can have no first hand knowledge of the “Troubles”, unless your family were involved when you were young. So the majority of your experience has been reported by others of a particular bent.

I don’t say the students cannot have opinions, of course they must, but students should also use their intellects to engage in rational argument. I see little evidence of that here and trust that your essays are less lopsided and more tinted, than your monochrome view of the Ulster problems.

Individuals with lopsided and tinted opinions and stubborn cases of tunnel vision are part of why the “Troubles” dragged on for so long. After all its easier to cling to those opinions, shout ‘NO’ loudly, then go out and blow up some civilians than actually sit down and thrash out a compromise.

EGPH.

IRA, PIRA, OIRA; all translate as ‘murdering terrorist’.

As to the question of respect, I struggle to respect convicted terrorists, just because they’ve been able to plea-bargain their way into a suit. As I suspect any reasonably normal sane human would.

As to your comment about the British Army being state sponsored terrorists- words fail me.

I was trying to do a job in Belfast re-fitting PC network electronics in an office one evening 9 years ago when your peace-loving ‘Freedom Fighter’ chums broke into the office, pointing guns at us and demanding to know who we were, who said we could be there, and what religions we all were. So maybe you see now why I treat your posts on this subject with a slightly large pinch of salt. In fact thinking about it, if they could be downloaded and spread on my garden they’d do my roses the world of good, given the manure content.

You’ll be telling us that actually, you can see Bin Laden’s point next.

Seen on a urinal-
“Who is Armitage? And what is Shanking?”

Sticker on the back diff guard of a friend’s landrover ( stuck on upside down)-
“If you can read this it’s all gone badly wrong”

On the back of an MGB owner’s pride and joy-
“I’d rather push an MG than drive a Triumph”

🙂

Whatever the merits and demerits of the case it is undeniable that the IRA set out to kill and mame protestants and the British Army attempted to bring law and order to the region. In that process they killed civilians. The difference is that they did not go there to kill civilians of any religion.

Quite a nice summary.

EGPH save spouting cobblers for your Belfast pub ‘debating sessions’ where your ‘kick the British Army’ views might recieve a more sympathetic audience.

Or alternatively just carry on; I await Kev35’s next well-placed broadside against you with anticipation…

I think our point is that ‘the authorities’ simply aren’t getting on with it. They should be booting the guy out of the country as quickly as humanly possible.

Moggy

No…quicker than that please!

Who knows but being soft on these scum bags is not the way forward.

Very true, well said

That argument is irrelevant. It doesn’t really matter, like those who argued that we supported Saddam in the Iraq/Iran wars. It is in the nature of nations’ relationships with each other that your friend will one day become your enemy and probably your friend again. And so it has been for two millenia.

The only relevant position is who are your enemies and your friends at any given time. Think Stalin and WW2 and you’ll get the picture.

Think European politics for the last few hundred years too…