Sonoftelepunk said:
I'm disinclined to believe the IRA right now. They've claimed credit for some things that they've done before but then they deny others that turn out to be their handywork. With a past like that, how can you trust them? They vowed to remove the British from Ireland. Despite almost all civilians voting for them to stay. The IRA is very alike to the Palestinian terror groups. Hamas, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Islamic Jihad, and the many others have all pledged to push all Jews in the holy land into the sea. They don't just want them removed from select areas. They want them dead. How can any group be taken seriously on peace when they've promised bloodshed?
'They've claimed credit for some things that they've done before but then they deny others that turn out to be their handiwork.'
Correct.
'They vowed to remove the British from Ireland. Despite almost all civilians voting for them to stay'
I wouldn't entirely agree with your second sentence here. In Northern Ireland/Six Counties there are four major political parties. The UUP and DUP support the retention of the Union. SDLP and SF support a 32 county republic, however the SDLP has always been committed to exclusively peaceful means.
As the nationalist population is increasing at a faster rate than the unionist population, the combined nationalist vote is now close to the combined unionist one. Having said that the nationalist vote is unlikely to exceed the unionist vote in the immediate future.
In the Republic of Ireland/26 Counties, practically all political parties, and certainly all the major ones, notionally all support a 32 County republic, but purely by peaceful means (with the possible exception of SF, although even SF now claim to be fully committed to exclusively peaceful means) Of course, notionally supporting something is one thing, using violence to achieve a demand is a different matter. The three largest political parties in the 26 Counties have never in recent history supported violent means of bringing about a 32 County republic.
Having said that, in 1998 the vast majority of the electorate voted for the Good Friday Agreement (this may be what you are thinking of) which includes a proviso that the status of Northern Ireland will not change without the consent of a majority of its electorate.
On the broader issue, overall, I would be of the opinion that the IRA's 'war' is effectively over. In fact I believe that history will show that it ended either in August 1994 - the time of the first cease fire - or in September 2001, given that in the aftermath of the atrocities in the US the IRA realised that the game was up, and that the funds from IRA supporting element of the Irish American community would pretty much dry up, and also that the international enviroment became far less sympathetic to the idea of terrorists wearing the badge of 'freedom fighters'.
They had this information on Saturday and did nothing with it grrrr idiots...
