Past incidences of Brigade violence in Drumnakilly in Northern Ireland.

The terrible violence in Ireland in the eighties shocked me and having Irish roots always shocked and puzzled me.

The Harte brothers and Brian Mullins appeared as very ordinary decent looking guys, the type of guys you could meet in a pub and were probably quite well mannered but behind this facade were cold-blooded ruthless murderers...

The Thatcher government carried out ruthless retaliation of which I fully understood and sadly supported against a conflict of ancestry which has it's roots in Southern Ireland and not Ulster.

I have an aversion to terrorism as it is not proper and cowardly, never mind whatever cause. A curse of modern day thinking of extreme left. When bombs are placed to kill civilians (including women and children) it is a dastardly cowardly act. Wars were never like that...soldiers, artillery, warships, fighter aircraft took on battle face to face and yes has it's huge toll of innocents. None of us like war and it's extremely cruel but placing bombs to kill innocent civilians is the lowest you can go. We had bombs too in SA, placed in supermarkets, restaurants and commercial centres done by the present organisation ANC...just as the same snake today but disguised in a different skin that has changed it's habits but equally dangerous.

This is a small incident in Tyrone at Drumnakilly but it's disturbing. I was in Ireland but in the South but remember it well.

https://images.app.goo.gl/3ntuWhhN3Qfi7Dhb8

https://youtu.be/TAHekFLaNU4

The cause of the troubles are well understood at this point. Hopefully the troubles remain consigned to the past were they belong.

Not sure what you mean by the conflict having its roots in the South though, most of the violence occurred in the North.

What I mean is that Irish men and women are still Irish whether you are from the South or Ulster.

I have always favoured an independant Ireland. Having said that I was totally against the IRA, Sinn Fein and it's rotten agendas.

My take on that is that England gave independance to savage undeveloped countries like Kenya, Tanganyika , Uganda, Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and a host of others in Africa and world wide but never to a civilised Ireland. Some people might joke and say, Ireland was never civilised but it's a myriad times more civilised than any African, Asian or South American country like Guiana.

I know it's a very sensitive issue but I always felt it is hypocrisy and then they claim Falklands on the doorstep of Argentina. It's all for strategic and economic reasons and not because of altruistic reasons.

"As the rugby anthem goes: :Ireland, Ireland together, we will stand. Shoulder, Shoulder etc"

or the ditty, "if you're Irish, come into the parlour, there's a welcome there for you!"

I don't like politicians generally but there are a few exceptions. There are always good men and women amongst the snakes but they are getting rarer and rarer today.

@ sebastienchabal

Some in the North would consider themselves British only though many would consider themselves as both British and Irish.

There is two different IRA's to Irish people.

The good IRA who fought in the War of Independence and the bad IRA who where active during the troubles. They are considered two different entities though.

Sinn Fein may soon be in power in Ireland, they won the popular vote in the recent general election winning almost 25% of the vote (they don't have enough seats to govern on there own and other political parties are proving reluctant to join them, so it remains to be seen if they do get in government). As away of stopping the violence, the IRA/Sinn Fein were asked to give up their campaign of violence and become part of the political process and go about their goal of achieving a united Ireland by peaceful political means.

Many in Ireland find the though of voting for Sinn Fein extremely distasteful and there is accusations that its still controlled by shadowy figures from the Falls Road. Nevertheless the offer was made to them to join the political process and there was always going to be an ambiguous cross over phase were it transitioned from the political wing of a terrorist organisation to a normal political party. The other political parties "can't now say yeah we offered you the chance of political power, but we didn't actually think you would get it, so the deal is off". It seems after about 20-25 years the people have decided to give them a chance. They have 100 years of the two main political parties here swapping power and are looking for something different.

There is still issues in Northern Ireland, but its a damn site better than it use to be. You can also look at the positives. Regardless of what you think of them, the day Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness got together and worked out their differences for the sake of peace and actually went on to become good friends (even dubbed the Chuckle Brothers by the media) when just a few years before they where mortal enemies was a very very good day. Was like watching hell freeze over. If they could put their differences aside pretty much anyone can. 

Thanks for that, it is good answer.

I'm aware of a certain truce in Ireland now and I'm delighted by that. As far as I'm concerned in any country as long as there is relative peace and stability irrespective of your differences in all aspects of life it's fine by me. We are all different in views, that's also fine as long as there is no hidden agendas to manipulate and steal our assets and security and ownership of values that make us individuals. Socialistic ideology imho has ugly hidden motives, posing and misrepresenting false atruism in order to clone us into mass thought and activities where responsibility,initiative, creativity and individuality is not politically correct. Freedom is usurped and government lays down the law to control us into one mindless entity. Constitutions are corruptly manipulated and the rule of Judicial Courts are replaced. That's happening here in SA, just it has happened elsewhere in many other countries in Africa and South and Central Americas, Middle East and Far Eastern country like North Korea.

But Brexit seems to have given Northern Ireland’s constellation of splinter groups a new political edge, enlivening terrorist campaigns that were once considered dormant. According to a recent report from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2019, there was an increase in paramilitary violence from the previous reporting period. 

There were 67 victims of paramilitary-style assaults during that period, up from 51 the previous year. A November 2019 report from the Independent Reporting Commission reinforced those findings, saying that “although there has been a downward trend in the frequency of paramilitary-style attacks and shootings and bombings since 2009/10, the number of deaths linked to paramilitary organisations and the number of paramilitary-style attacks carried out between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2019 increased.”

When Northern Ireland voted by a slight majority for Remain in the 2016 referendum on whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union—a result largely driven by pro-EU Irish nationalists—nationalist politicians across Ireland used the result to push for a referendum on Irish unity, and there were fears that the possible construction of physical infrastructure along the border after Brexit could antagonize republican paramilitaries and rekindle their campaigns of violence.

Recent events give credence to that fear. In January 2019, the New IRA—a recent paramilitary group formed after the amalgamation of a series of smaller groups—was found responsible for detonating a car bomb outside the courthouse in Derry city, where the group is most active. That April, members of the group shot and killed the journalist Lyra McKee during a night of intense rioting in Derry. 

Although republicans expressed regret for the killing, it led to overwhelming national and international condemnation. More recently, in January 2019, the New IRA kidnapped and shot a 15-year-old boy in the Creggan area of Derry.

Well I would call it more than a truce. Its genuine peace.

Europe in general doesn't have this ingrained fear of socialism that say a significant part of the US population has. Your entitled to your opinion of course, its not one that I share though .

@sharkbok

Yes the IRA had members from both the South and the North and operated in both territories but the the troubles where caused by political issues in the North and most of the violence was in the north. They had enough support in both the North and South to operate but the majority of the Irish population did not support the IRA's campaign of violence.

It wouldn't be a massive surprise if parts or elements of significant institutions in Southern Ireland provided support to the IRA in some manner or another and at different stages. Many felt strongly about reunification and the nationalist/catholic community were effectively second class citizens in the North excluded from jobs and schools by the ruling Unionist side. The whole issue of civil rights got merged with the issue of reunification, and became very hard to separate the two.

At one stage the situation for the nationalist/catholic community in the North was so bad there was fears ethic cleansing might occur against them. As a result the Irish Government drew up a secret invasion plan for Northern Ireland which would see Irish soldiers occupy parts of Northern Ireland  around the border to open up an evacuation corridor.  The soldiers where actually called up and on standby for the order. Of course the Irish Government knew it wouldn't look good to be seen invading another country and that's its armed forces were no where near a match for the British military and its only hope would be the United States might restrain the UK from bombing its troops into the ground and push for a political settlement. But the situation in the North improved and the order was thankfully never given.

Not wanting to excuse Irish government support for a terrorist organisation, but the British security services where also have found to collaborated with Loyalist paramilitaries in the Dublin bombings. 

As for the New IRA trying to start the troubles up again, they may try but they are no where near achieving it. Northern Ireland is a very different place now to what it was during the troubles and while the Provo's have never fully gone away, many moving into organized crime they don't have the support and capabilities they once had.

The Irishman can have differences but we all understand this...it's in your blood and it never goes away thankfully.

https://youtu.be/GRyL92hgbFs

https://youtu.be/PTNPgRK0PK8