No one is suggesting anything like that Safc. But it is a fact that we do negotiate with terrorists. All the time. We negotiate to prevent future strife and bloodshed, not for events that have already occurred, though part of any negotiation could include, for example, prisoner swaps. Its a truism that you negotiate with your enemies, not your friends.
Bad example because all of these faced long prison sentences as far as I know..However, I do agree that there was atrocities from all sides, although the Republican terrorists were responsible for the vast majority of deaths.. As I said in an earlier post, I did agree, but with reservations, the principles of the Good Friday agreement, and also believe it has resulted in the greater good for all, particularly for the people of Northern Ireland..
You reckon? Bliar let hundreds of prisoners out of jail who were murderers. On both sides let me ad. The killing still go's on, dinnet kid yourself lad. It's ok for some folk to sit in front of their ****ing tv screens when they haven't even been there. I knew I should have kept out of this one. Sorry.
Can't tell if that's a joke or not. I laughed when I read it though. Because of course it's us, France, Belgium, Holland, Spain running our empires that's screwed up so many countries.
As I said earlier, if I had lost family/friends I too would want revenge, but the fact remains that things are a hell of a lot better over there now than what they were, even though that some atrocities are still taking place..
It was tongue in cheek Disco, and given some of the later postings, I wish I hadn't been so glib! NI is still an open wound for many on here, like Comm and Billy, young lads thrown into a hellish situation by politicians, who to be fair, were probably just trying to do their best. The north east has always been a rich source of recruitment for the services and most of us have had family serving over there at one time or another. I just hope nothing is going to upset the delicate balance over there. Billy's right, there are still occasional killings over there, they're just not branded terrorist actions.
TBH with you, had it not been for the lack of opportunities when I left school I would probably never signed up.
Aye Billy. How many young lads didn't come back from this, and other wars, because there weren't enough opportunities to stay at home in good jobs? Too damn many!!
Really?/ it was jut something we were meant to do. we are just 2 ****ed up people on this earth....we were born to do that ****e man. no regrets..
There is a good book which is well balanced and tries to explain both the roots of the troubles and how we finally arrived at the peace process. Making Sense Of The Troubles by David McKittrick and David McVea, I got it for Xmas to help me understand more about Northern Ireland, as my daughter has just moved to Belfast with her boy friend who is from there. Some numbers to explain the scale of the violence are Total killed in the Troubles (only in Ireland can you call a civil war the Troubles!) 3739 with 1972 being the worst year with 498 deaths. Of these deaths 2096 were civilians of which 727 were Protestants and 1268 were Catholics Police/UDR/ Army deaths numbered 1016 Republican Paramilitaries 400 Unionist Paramilitaries 168 Those responsible for the deaths were Republican Paramilitaries 2167 Unionists 1115 Security Forces 362 There a number of deaths which do not fall into any category hence the breakdowns don't add up to 3739. With out a peace process and the on the runs, were a vital part of that process there would be another generation of young men and woman from all communities drawn into an endless tit for tat sectarian war with hundreds if not thousands of more deaths. Every peace process has its faults but if you end mass murder by by the process the price has to be worth paying to save lives. I could go on about the origins of the troubles, but others have mentioned them above, however there are a couple of stories which bring home how corrupt the Stromont Parliament was. Between 1945 and the early sixties there were no Catholics in any senior civil service post and only 7% in the civil service overall, some of whom had to deny being Catholic to get the job. The worst case was in the early sixties the NI PM was asked to clarify why there were four Catholics employed as porters in Parliament when there were Protestants unemployed. The reply he got was even worse than the question. The PM replied that he had looked into the matter and was pleased to put the MPs mind at rest as there were now no Catholics employed as porters, however he had found a Catholic employed as a gardener in the grounds, he was pleased to confirm that this had now been rectified. As a foot note the Catholic gardeners was an ex Para who had served in the Second World War and had received the distinguished service medal, he also had a letter of recommendation from the Duke of Edinburgh. That counted for nothing he was Catholic so he was sacked. We would never have put up with that on the mainland, how ever successive governments in London ignored the injustice in NI, as they did not really want it but had no way to get rid of it, so the loyalist community was allowed to do what they wanted with out any checks or balances. The result was the Human Rights marches in the late sixties when Catholics such as Fitt and Hulme along with Devlin were asking for the same rights as the rest of the UK, only to be beaten by the RUC led by a radical Orangeman who thought that if they blocked the route and gave the leaders a good kicking he would be a hero. However to his credit Terrence O'Neill, the Stormont PM at the time had him striped of his post, but is was to little to late. I could go on but I wont. In summary the people of NI are better off as a result of the peace process as are our troops and that has to be a good thing so lets not try to look at different elements of the peace process in isolation just be thankful that we are not having up to 500 deaths a year!
Blah blah blah.. putting into stats and figures, makes me think some folks havn't really got a ****ing clue.
Behind each number is a person and behind them is a family all of whom suffered as a result of the Troubles and my point is you do what you have to prevent it from happening again.
Yep, we can all massage figures any way we want. And to think, little old me is responsible for some of his stats.
we dont let mad jihadis off the hook, so i cant understand why we let the murdering bosses off the hook hope they all rot in hell
