Lest we forget....
 

What a bunch of murdering scum the IRA are, it is 30 years ago today since the Enniskillen massacre, when the provos basically dropped the gable end of a building on a crowd gathered to remember the dead of two world wars.

The people of Enniskillen still gather every year in rememberance, they have not surrendered to the IRA.

That seemed like a huge fuck-up, with people from both sides of the divide killed. I don't see the sense in that.

yawn, selective outrage. Bloody Sunday, shankill butchers, Miami show band massacre, McGurks pub,
All at least as bad as Eniskillen. get over it.

Having been born and raised in a town where the IRA blew up civilians because they thought they might get a few squaddies in the process, I will not "get over it". Tell you what, why don't you go and live in a place where what basically amounts to organised crime hides behind a flag of "freedom fighter" to control all drugs, routinely hand out punishments, executes people on the flimsiest of evidence, and just to remind people how hard they are, let off bombs. Try that for a few years, then come back and tell me how fucking great your fucking high horse feels. Don't be suggesting that people have been terrorised by members of their own community should be getting over it though.

Wanker.

I read up a lot on history and wrong though these atrocities on both sides are, the root cause of all of them seems to me to be down to the invasion and occupation of Ireland by the English and the imported Protestants. Not to mention the theft of land and property and deprivation of civil rights, language, jobs and housing from Catholics.

Right. Gives the provis carte blanch to terrorise the very people they feign to defend does it? They’re just gangsters with a pretense to political struggle.

As for all the stuff you mention, perhaps they should just get over it, eh?

Over here there is a very common perception that most of the worlds troubles stem from what the British did in colonial times and later. The USA would share blame for problems after WW2, but the British are apparently masters of messing the world up.

Right, so, the massive environmental problems in China are caused by British colonialism, as are the human rights injustices there? The 100 million dead in Soviet Russia? The Nazi Holocaust? The huge genocide in South America lasting centuries? Post-British era genocide in North America? The environmental destruction in South America? The increasingly failing Eurozone and EU experiment? The Khmer Rouge, the Viet Cong, and all those other tinpot genocides in OTHER peoples former colonies? Space junk? I could go on, but it is rather, long, boring, tired, to point out to some fucking idiot on the internet all the worlds problems that weren't caused by Colonial Era Britain.

Well, the cunts are still at it. A suspect package left in Omagh has led to a Rememberance parade being evacuated.

In August 1998 29 people were murdered by an IRA bomb in Omagh.

Police have confirmed that the suspect package found in Omagh is in fact a viable pipe bomb. Classic provi murderer scumbag device.

I said most of the words troubles, not all.

This is the point when it may help if you explained exactly what tye fuck you mean.

I think my initial post on this is clear, especially this part:

"....Over here there is a very common perception that most of the worlds troubles stem from what the British did in colonial times and later. The USA would share blame for problems after WW2...."

I never suggested that the perception is that they are to blame for all the worlds problems. Just most of them.

Examples?

One example is the British renegingon a deal with the Arabs after WW1, which ultimately lead to the Arab-Israeli problems in the Middle East. I'll dig up more from my history books later, once I've checked the dates.

While we are on the Irish topic, Britain was responsible for the Irish Famine. It's stripping of land from the Irish and giving it to absentee British landlords and the Corn laws ensured the Irish lived in poverty and their main staple became the humble potato, which was easy and cheap to grow.
Britain killed the Irish language by banning the population from speaking irish and banning it's teaching in schools.
Unionist domination in the North of Ireland (backed firmly by Britain) deprived Nationalists from voting, from employment, from proper education and housing. Apartheid Northern Ireland style, which existed for half a century after partition until Nationalist protests led to some belated civil rights improvements. That and much more are the root cause of the birth of the Provisional IRA and The Troubles.

Also, briefly:
Britain put Saddam Hussein in power.
Britain deliberately interfered with Nigeria's independence elections so its allies in the North would dominate the country after independence.
Britain enslaved the globe to secure their tea supplies.
Britain invented slums and child labor.
Britain burned Joan of Arc at the stake.

In Ireland, like pretty much all of the United Kingdom, British subjects experienced some masty treatment at the hands of landowners and aristocracy.

Only the Northern Ireland paramilitaries in various incarnations saw fit to use this as justification for the terrorisation and murder of civilians, and to use criminality that took on a global aspect to fund and arm its cause. Other protest and resistant movements, however violent, have at least drawn the line at that.

Slums and child labour? You don’t get out much do you?

Tea? A Septic complaining about slavery, don’t make me fucking laugh!

I’ll come back to you on the problems in the Middle East, it is certainly more complex than you seem to realise.

It's certainly more complex than most people realize, that's why we shouldn't meddle in it as it just make things worse and is what is causing a mass exodus of people from the area into Europe.

Right, so, Middle East. A French diplomat makes certain assurances to a British soldier, and sends him off to recruit Arabs to help kick Turks out of the desert. Yeah, we probably shouldn't get involved, but then again there is rather a lot of oil in that desert and we need it. It's either that, or making friends with the Russians.

Oh look! We've got three large military powers that have been interfering in the region for centuries mentioned right along side the British! But no, apparently it is all the fault of the British. Hmmm....

Of course, it has nothing to do with the United Nations that Israel are allowed to walk all over the Palestinians, steal their land, refuse refugees permission to return, and pretty much blockade them in their own homes?

It has nothing to do with self-determination that the Salafist Wahabi sect are hell bent on eliminating any other religious rivals, such as Kurds and Shia muslims does it? No, it is all the fault of the British, because we sent a some what naïve but rather effective officer to do every bodys dirt;y work and ensure a plentiful supply of oil for generations to come.

Thing is, you've picked problems from areas of former British influence, and completely ignored that:

1. Those areas have been independent for decades, and it is up to them to get their shit together.

2. Places like the Middle East are just regional spats that we place too much significance on because of the involvement of our military, and the inevitable consequences of that to our own populations. You're completely ignoring the massive environmental catastrophes that are the real big problems in the world. Well, I suppose at a stretch, whilst you couldn't praise the British for inventing the wheel and harnessing fire, you could pour blame on them for putting the two together and inventing industry, eh?

got the right of that there Grants, might have to make you an honorable taig for a day.

Yes, make him an honorary Paddy, so we can starve him of potatoes, and drown him in shit whiskey, exploitation and self-pity. The we can send him to Liverpool, and the whole world really will despise him....

Baked potatos preferably, and Guinness instead of whiskey please. :)

Guinness. Do people actually still drink that shit?

Guiness might be a bit much for the tame English palate, real men in the rest of the world enjoy it

You mean idiots in the rest of the world?

Enniskillen was a military operation gone wrong. civilians died, they were not the target, but, dead is dead. Cold comfort for the relatives. The Miami show band massacre, McGurks pub, the Shankill butchers, not even s pretenense of a military target. There is a difference.

Yes, we keep hearing that lame excuse about Enniskillen being a "mistake". I suppose we're supposed to believe that Omagh, Guildford, and Birmingham were mistakes too? Or that the IRA exploded a bomb in Manchesters Arndale by accident. Or that the recent attempt to bomb the rememberance parade in Omagh was also a mistake? That the bomber was just looking after the pipe bomb for some one else, just put it down for a moment then forgot about it? He was going back for it, but the police found it first?

Right....

Yes, the Unionist paramilitaries targeted civilians, but that fucking high horse you're riding is looking more like a lame donkey to me.

The Omagh bombing was not the provisional, it was one of the post cease fire splinter groups. I've been clear that I don't support any of the so called dissident factions. The IRA phoned in a warning prior to the Manchester bombing, no fatalities. Had they wished to inflict civilian casualties the death toll could have been in the thousands.

I wonder if peace over there will disintegrate over the issue of a hard or soft border?

The Manchester bomb injured 212 people. I suppose they intended that did they?

There may be a bit of civil unrest if the European Union imposes border infrastructure in the event of a "no deal" Brexit. It is Ireland though, and rioters usually go home when it starts raining.

The official line is that the British government doesn't negotiate with terrorists. The IRA was being mopped up when it came to the negotiating table. The British government won't give them a second chance, and they know it.

The best bet for the IRA, Sinn Fein, and any one else that supports a united Ireland, is to wait it out until winning a referendum is feasible. The big mistake that the IRA consistently made throughout the 20th century was that it murdered working class British soldiers. Things may have been very different if they had stuck to offing local coppers and loyalist paramilitaries.

A lot to answer here. It rains in Ireland more days than not, never noticed it having much of an impact on riots.

The IRA was stretched thin at the end of the troubles, but still was well capable of sustaining an armed campaign for quite a while. The decomission authorities estimated the IRA could have fielded two fully operational infantry battalions.

They were prevented from focusing on" local coppers and loyalist paramilitaries " when Britain deployed 20000 troops plus the SAS and British intelligence.

Having said all the above, there is no chance of a return to a level of unrest seen during the troubles. The IRA, or what FR, calls it, the dissidents are not capable of any serious threat. The provos did Narrow water and Manchester, the dissidents tossed an oversized fire cracker over Gerry Adam's garden wall.

In a post 911 world, Arms smuggling is next to impossible. The American network is gone, as is Quadaffi. The only thing capable of reviving the IRA would be an incredibly ham fisted British government response to some minor dissident activity

Tom, I don't know how it works in America, but certainly on mainland Britain the pattern seems to be that we get three or four days of rioting during a sunny spell, then it rains, and every one goes home. My remark there was a sarcastic one. Of course, some students were silly enough to start rioting during a protest march one winter a few years ago. The police simply boxed them all in and left them shivering for hours.

Troops, as you well know, were originally deployed to protect catholic communities from the so called pogroms you keep crying about. Where was the IRA BEFORE troops were deployed?

You're correct, the IRA failed miserably to protect nationalist areas, I Ran Away was being painted on walls all over the north. This is what led to the split and the birth of the provovisionals. They quickly established no go areas that kept out not only Orange mobs, but the army as well.

Not much to shout about, much of urban Britain had no go areas in the 80s.

The fifth. Loyal Brits the world over will be celebrating the capture, torture and execution of Guy Fawkes tonight. :)

Events have taken place all over the British Isles to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of The Great War, including a memorial service held in Dublin by the Royal British Legion.

The President of Germany laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in what is being described as an historic act of reconciliation between the UK and Germany.

The IRA appear to have been able to refrain from killing any one so far today. Good on yah Paddy, here's your boat fare home.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Donald Trump managed to turn up on time for a commemoration to mark the Armistice, which is a vast improvement on Americas usual tardiness as far as global conflicts go. Also in attendance were such heavy weight defenders of freedom and democracy including Angela Merkel, Emmanual Macron, Jean Claud Junckers, Christine Legard, and I'm some low ranking EU loving British member of parliament or other, though nobody bothered showing them on television.

Meanwhile, back at the Cenotaph, wreaths were laid by those treacherous bastards (I'm being generous here) Theresa May and Vince Cable, as well as IRA/Hamas volunteer Trooper Corbyn.

Sky Television News are currently showing live interviews with women in hats.