# Gerry Adams- Ex IRA Guman, Ex Deputy First Minister Arrested- Hoist by his own Petard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 1, 2014, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425 "2014-05-01T08:39:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/141 "2014-05-25T18:08:50Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Sure this is it. Where do you start or finish with regard to activities during the Troubles in NI? You start with 1921 and finish when the Troubles stop. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/142 "2014-05-25T18:15:03Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > My only real point is that it’s futile to start trying to debate that one sides leaders are cleaner than the other when it comes to NI. There’s shite on almost all of them. By them I mean the Loyalist and the Republicans not Nationalist and Unionists although there is considerable crossover between all of them. What are the differences, between Loyalists and Unionists, and between Nationalists and Republicans? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/143 "2014-05-25T18:52:24Z")
In each case, The Barrel of a Gun. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/144 "2014-05-25T21:37:28Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > What are the differences, between Loyalists and Unionists, and between Nationalists and Republicans? Nationalists supported more rights for Catholics/Northern Ireland united with the rest of Ireland through peaceful, democratic means. The biggest Northern Irish Nationalist party is the Social Democratic and Labour Party. Republicans supported union through any means necessary including violence and terrorism. The biggest Northern Irish Republican party is Sinn Fein and their paramilitary organization, the Provisional IRA. On the other side, Unionists support remaining united with Great Britain, but don’t support violence. Loyalists, on the other hand, support union with Britain through any means necessary including violence and terrorism, and set up paramilitary “defence organizations”, first to defend against Republican paramilitaries, and then to engage in violence and terrorism themselves against Catholic areas and assassination of Nationalist and Republican politicians. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/145 "2014-05-26T07:12:31Z")
In this context, it’s more accurate to say that republicans are a subset of nationalists and loyalists are a subset of unionists. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/146 "2014-05-26T16:16:55Z")
I don’t think identifying as republican a priori implies using “any means necessary” to achieve the goal of a united Ireland. The term “physical force republicanism” exists because there are republicans who have never had any truck with violence of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425/147 "2014-05-26T18:12:26Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You start with 1921 and finish when the Troubles stop. Why start in 1921? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerry-adams-ex-ira-guman-ex-deputy-first-minister-arrested-hoist-by-his-own-petard/687425.md?page=7)