The following article was quoted in our local paper and caused a few comments to be voiced my way at work ...thing is ..the old dear is 100% correct
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7057601.stm

I pointed out to the appalled mass that the Americans had funded the IRA to the tune of millions of dollars every year ...that the IRA was a terrorist organization even if it had taken the US Government 30 years to catch on to the fact ..the IRA killed or maimed far more than those killed on 9/11 ...and that most US Presidents over the last 30 years had shook hands with the murdering bastards (that one went down well )

Still she seems a nice old girl ...

Have a look at the Youtube clip of her in TIO, she rocks!!

yeah, the IRA have been bombing the hell out of us, esp Manchester.

Some say best thing happened to Manky

But OP is right, the Yanks are ignorant and cry-babies, 9/11 was nothing compared to Belfast.

thanks for that..........

The 9/11 comment was out of order - in a single day Al Qiada killed as many people as the IRA did in 25 years.

I'm not quiet sure where to start with this...

I was a squaddie with RGJ in the late 80's who toured Ulster and saw things with my own eyes. Kids being used by the IRA as human shields etc

What I will say is the majority of Americans who donated to NORAID were doing so under the guise that NI had 25%unemployment and people were starving etc. The attrocities committed by the IRA were not being shown to the US public. As far as they were concerned it was a romantic struggle.

They were sold on lies, notice a pattern?

That was my main thought - yes, all bombings are bad. But you can hardly compare the two for scale (i.e. number of people killed, and financial damages as well).

I don't think that's the main point, this is really a dig at Bush and the Iraq war.

hmmm must have read it too early in the morning for that to sink in.

hi there

I'm from Northern Ireland and now live in Toronto. I worked in an Irish bar when I moved here. I remember a American tourist grabbing me by the hand and with such sympathy telling me how her brother was a great supported of "your cause" and how he always give money when ever he could. I was appalled by the ignorance:curse:. I really regrett that I didn't give her a earful about supporting Murderers. These people really don't have a clue.

Right .... didn't realize it was a contest.

I have parents from Northern Ireland, have visited quite a few times and my immediate family all live in Belfast for the past 15 years since I have been in the States.
Both the IRA ( Catholic Nationalists) and the UDA ( Protestant Royalists) are both gangster para-military organizations deeply involved in drugs, protection rackets, bank robbery, violence and murder hiding behind their 'causes' People running these organizations profit, the people of N.I suffered and the UK taxpayer foots the bill to subsidize an area with one of the largest disposable incomes in the UK, which produces significantly less than the home counties, while sucking up tax money.

That's about it really...........................

I think she is being (at best) disingenuous and (at worst) a well-spoken, better-connected troll.

9/11 was not eclipsed by Northern Ireland, either in numbers of people killed or in trauma. I agree that those who now claim to be living in an unprecedented age of terrorism, death and fear have a poor understanding of history, or are maybe projecting a US-centric view onto the whole world.

However, if you seek to diminish the trauma and death of 9/11, then you're making a mistake. In the worst year of the Troubles, not more than 500 people died, and in most years it was less than 100, and often 50.

On the subject of terrorist finance: it's absolutely true that many people were willfully blind or ignorant in donating to NORAID and other front groups for terrorist organizations in the past, just as many Muslims of various stripes have been neglectful and careless in donating funds to "charities" who went on to fund extremism. (I am excluding from both groups those who knew exactly what they were doing).

It's also hard to square absolutist statements in the The War Against Terrorism (isn't there an acronym for this yet?) like "We Will Not Negotiate With Terrorists" and "If You Fund Terrorists, You Are A Terrorist" with the US sponsorship of the peace process in Northern Ireland, Israel+Palestine and (going back a bit) the ANC, and the lack of inclination to investigate US politicians' support for the IRA/Sinn Fein. At the same time, the US could have done more to pressure the UK government to protect the human rights of Catholics in NI, which might have prevented the Troubles from occurring in the first place - and strengthened e.g. the UK's ability to support the US militarily in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

The irony is that the troops went into NI to protect the Catholics. The problem was that the Catholics then started attacking the Orangemen from behind that protection, and when the army said "No", they attacked the army.

Both sides took the view that "If you are not with us, you are against us."

Lucky nobody's decided to go down that stupid path again, eh?