You're making an awful lot of conclusions and accusations. Where's your evidence the IRA isn't planning on doing at least some of those things?

Oh give me a break. For fucks sake. NI is nothing like Somalia or NK. NI has the same tax structure as the UK. Tax in NI is LESS than southern Ireland. Jeez. Where do you guys get this bullshit ?

Your view doesn't matter. What matters is the view of the people of NI. Currently, and I emphasize 'currently', the majority wish to remain a 'province' of the UK as you put it.

The people of this 'Province' have the ability to leave the UK. All they have to do is vote for it....


Clap clap clap. Democracy is not working ?

Unfortunately the world is a lot more complicated than your 'Mary Poppins' view of countries and borders.

I remember that. Those were catholic school children. Grown protestant men were throwing rocks at them. Children as young as 5 and 6 years old, if my memory serves me correctly.

Of course there would be chaos of the Brits just pulled out without a moment's notice. But that's not what reasonable people want. They want the country back, over a transitional period. There will probably be retatliation from loyalists groups, which will of course be met with further retaliation from republican groups, but eventually, once Ireland is unified, the problems will go away.

I don't think I'll ever forget those pictures. I know it was an 'isolated' incident so to speak, but those weren't humans throwing those stones. Those were animals.

I think your living in dreamland if you think Ireland being unified will solve the problem. Heh, that's why the SI government absolutely refuses to have anything to do with sovereignty even tho the population of the south want it and the UK has more or less offered it to them. The reaction would be explosive.
No.
The only way it will work is if the majority of people in NI vote to become united with the south.


Also, one point which always reminds me just how pathetic the IRA and their supporters are is that all the 'rights' and 'border laws' and 'government preferences' they have apparently been fighting so hard for........have just vanished without a murmur as they get assimilated into the EU. That's the real irony. All these things they have been fighting for have been handed away by the SI, the NI and the UK without so much as a firecracker going off. All those men, woman and children murdered by the IRA for nothing, zero, nil, nada, squat. It's so sad.

Uhh. Same thing? I agree with the constitutional changes in the Good Friday Agreement. I believe the majority of Northern Ireland should vote in favour of a unification before it goes ahead. And it will happen.

But face facts. They would never have been given the oppurtunity to even have a referendum about this if it were not for the IRA.

You think ?
On balance, your prolly right, but there has been a sea change over the last decade or two. We are in talks about shared Gibralter sovereignty with Spain. No one is bombing us for Gib. We are even in talks with Argentina about shared sovereignty over Falklands (although stalled). No one is (currently!) bombing us for the Falklands.

Even friggin Wales and Scotland get devolution. Halfway house, well, more quarterish house.

It's just the way the wind blows. In fact, you can make a pretty good argument that NI would have been independant decades ago had it not been for the 'troubles'. Who knows.

Decades ago, my dad couldn't even get a job in the area that he lived in, because he was a <i>taig</i>. So i'm gonna have to disagree with you there.

:thumbsup

The US did not decare war on "terrorists with weapons of mass destruction". The government stood up and said terrorism wasn't going to be tolerated anymore, and went to war with two countries (so far) to wipe it out.

Taken from http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/fto1999.htm

<i><B>Q: Why isn't the IRA on the list?</b>

There is a strong body of evidence documenting historic IRA involvement in terrorist activity. This evidence precedes the time, two years ago, when we first considered designating the IRA as an FTO.
At that time, the Secretary of State took note of the IRA's unequivocal cease-fire, as well as the subsequent decision by the British government that the cease-fire was "genuine in word and deed." This permitted Sinn Fein to join inclusive, all-party talks in Belfast.

The peace process in Northern Ireland continues, albeit not without obvious difficulties, and we have again determined that the IRA should not be designated at this time. We are, however, concerned over recent indications of increased terrorist activity in Northern Ireland, and we will continue to monitor closely the activities of all paramilitary groups.</i>

But maybe it also has something to do with the Irish wanting something Americans celebrate once a year, on the fourth of July.