British troops officially out of N. IrelandFollow

I'm glad you agree i was right and they haven't achived thier objective.

No it wasn't and no they didn't.

1. the IRA where blowing people up in NI long before the 70's.

2. There was ALWAYS a Catholic voice in NIrish politics. They just didn't blow people up on a regular basis. Its a DEMOCRACY the majority of people just didn't agree with the policies of Sinn fien or the IRA so they turned to violence.

and guess what the majority STILL don't agree with the policies of Sinn Fien and the IRA. Thier popularity has only increased noticably since they renounced Violence as a method of uniting Ireland.

It wasn't until 2001 that they even became the majoity CATHOLIC party.

Indeed, the British had also had troops in Ireland long before 1969... I'm not prattling about Normans and Strongbow and Cromwell.... rather Black and Tans and B Specials..


The troubles that occurred after The Treaty it seems aren't too complicated...
Catholics suddenly find themselves surrounded by the borders of an essentially Protestant state when they were recently the part of the majority in a majority Catholic country..
Not that it's really a religious thing but more of a cultural thing...

And they way I see it; a good bit of Northern Irish culture(being Irish and all) is based on their dominance over the indigenous culture there(Gaelic Catholic).

When the IRA began as the IRB and there were only Sein Fenians, back when Britain had control over the whole island, I believe that they truly could have been respected as a legitimate force fighting for liberation... and they got it... except they lost Ulster (as if they ever had it) . But the British left Dublin for good. Then you have the Irish Civil War.. the All or Nothings vs. the This Is a Stepping Stoners


Then you have the North... Orange Parades and riots and people just generally going ******* on each other because of the cornucopia of excuses availible to them....
And let's face it; All people really need is a good excuse, let alone everyone imaginable in a civilized society.. religious differences, culture clashes, language barriers, generational resentment, territoriality... BOOM, all bundled neatly and tightly together in Northern Ireland. That's a lot of Joules raight thar.

So then you bring in some "foreign" troops to try to hold back the tide.... but it only inflates the situation.. thus causing self fulfilling prophecies like the Battle of Bogside.

Finally.. Oh finally.. the IRA realize that to really keep a guerrilla war going... that you have to commit suicide with bombs and not with hunger strikes....
The residual tribal savagery is finally starting to give way to greater picture that once it comes to the point where a people have lived in a place for generations... they aren't going to leave.... and that once people slowly but surely cease to be asswholes to one another.... that eventually you start realizing that there is an entire world that exists where you don't really have to hate the guy who lives in the next neighborhood..

Then again, some people are just stone cold warriors to the core.. and really don't know how to live in a world without violence and hatred.... only forced peace can weed those out.... and let them appear somewhere else in the world no doubt... maybe one day we'll all get along.... but prolly not.