April 16th, 2013, 7:10 am
QuoteOriginally posted by: PaulA terrible, terrible event. The Boston bombs take me back to the days of the frequent IRA bombings in the UK. The IRA was, of course, supported by many in the US. I remember being in NYC on St Patrick's day one year and watching IRA supporters marching, and I felt sick to my stomach.[...]PIs this the start of a history lesson? OKYou would not have seen the IRA on the streets of NYC if Bloody Sunday had never happened; it was a huge recruitment success. And even worse, the British goverment concealed the truth for 40 years. Luckily, enlightened politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton got the peace process going. In the 60s/70s Tory governments needed the Ulster Unionists' vote no matter what repression was meted out.Did you know what happened to the Civil Rights movement in the 60's in the 6 counties? Britain has not really learned. The last PM was Gladstone who had an inkling of how to solve the "Irish question". // For the record my families come from Belfast and South Armagh. My paternal grandfather was shot 6 times in North Belfast in 1930 (!!) (he survived) by a bunch of Orange thugs just because of his religion. To boot, he could not find work in the booming shipyards that employed 30,000 people. The family moved after the shooting. There was no one to defend him. Where was London? The late Cardinal Tom O'Fiach - whe asked to explain the situation - accurately summed it up once "there are 5% of the population who are causing problems; with one side they are against the SYSTEM, the other 5% are against Catholics". Think about it. You can solve problems if you really want to. Nelson Mandela did.
Last edited by
Cuchulainn on April 15th, 2013, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.