Well, my Dad and I take that view too (Not that the Republic is all carts and farmers in tweed jackets ) that for economic reasons we may just be better off in the UK. We sat down a while ago and discussed it over dinner. I can’t remember what we brought up, mostly the welfare state. But beleive me, if anyone would jump for the economic reasons over anything else, it would be Dad. He has family and finances enough to make hopping cross border an easier prospect than for most.
Ah, I see what you mean now. I suppose its a point of contention put like that.
The British Army was there to protect British citizens against percieved terrorist activities. So no, I don’t think it has to pay a price. But the UDA, definately.
Certainly members of the Republican movement were responsible for it, but it wasn’t the IRA who did it. It certainly doesn’t matter to the McCartney sisters, it also doesn’t matter (for different reasons) to the Unionists and the media.
feel free to explain how exactly the murder of Pat Finucane or the 13 unarmed, innocent victims of Bloody Sunday (the one in Northern Ireland, but if you want to have a go at url=“http://www.gaa.ie/page/bloody_sunday.html”]this one you’re welcome to ) were justified actions against percieved terrorist activities.
But it could be suggested that Republicans have (with or without some justification) built up an idea that Catholics should keep things within their own community and not come forward to the police. And there is a certain amount of intimidation coming from Republicans towards the McCartney sisters too.
Maybe if the IRA and Sinn Fein hadn’t so successfully contributed towards an air of lawlessness in parts of Northern Ireland, the murder wouldn’t have seemed so acceptable to some.
that’s a 4 pint conversation all by itself. It would be hard for the leadership to suddenly turn around and say “Let’s fully cooperate with the police” after so long decrying the RUC, without potentially creating more grounds for dissidence.
that said, there has been a degree of politicing by the PSNI also when it comes to this investigation, such as sending home people who wished to make a statement about the murder “to be contacteed at a more appropriate time”.
I honestly haven’t seen any indication that the murder was acceptable to anyone.
IMO, there’s a very fine line to be thread within the RM to advance the democratic options without alienating some of the grassroot support. One of the problems at the moment is that if the War was declared over, there are people who would be determined to prove it wasn’t, which would put the progress made back a considerable distance.
The British Army was there, ostensibly, to protect peaceful protestors from the violence of rioting protestors and the police. Instead, they joined the rioters and police in inflicting violence on peaceful protestors–actually killing peacefl protestors on Bloody Sunday.
No-one is suggesting that the IRA had any official involvement in what was after all a pub brawl, but the fact remains that it was their members who were involved, their member who is the chief suspect, and their name that was used to warn off the witnesses. So I think my point that the a fair proportion of the IRA membership being simply criminals stands.
And that’s before we even consider the IRA’s subsequent offer to murder those responsible.
Or the Northern Bank robbery last December. Again, perhaps not an ‘official’ IRA operation, but when IRA members are involved, what’s the difference and who’s to tell?
) that for economic reasons we may just be better off in the UK. We sat down a while ago and discussed it over dinner. I can’t remember what we brought up, mostly the welfare state. But beleive me, if anyone would jump for the economic reasons over anything else, it would be Dad. He has family and finances enough to make hopping cross border an easier prospect than for most.