Posted on 03/09/2005 6:05:20 AM PST by Rogers324
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -- The United States has demanded that the IRA disband after the guerrilla group's astonishing offer to shoot the killers of a murdered Northern Ireland Catholic man. "It's time for the IRA to go out of business," U.S. special envoy Mitchell Reiss said Wednesday. For the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland's biggest Irish nationalist party, the U.S. demand was yet another blow to its democratic credentials. Reiss told BBC radio: "It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated. "You can't sign up for the rule of law a la carte." The IRA's offer -- also condemned by London and Dublin -- handed fresh ammunition to Protestant rivals who say Sinn Fein is not fit for government until the Irish Republican Army disarms and disbands. The killing of Robert McCartney by a gang including IRA members has plunged the IRA and Sinn Fein into crisis -- coming just weeks after the guerrilla group was blamed for a £26.5 million ($50 million) bank raid in central Belfast. London and Dublin say there can be no progress on restoring the British-ruled province's regional government -- set up under a 1998 peace deal to share power between divided Protestants and Catholics -- until the issue of IRA criminality is resolved. Home rule was suspended in 2002 when unionists, who support ties to Britain, said they would no longer sit in government with Sinn Fein until the IRA got rid of the weapons which sustained its three-decade campaign against British rule. "It is their declared intent to murder," said hardline Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley in response to the IRA move.
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Search Irish Genocide
http://www.eirefirst.com/unit_6.html
http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/irish/irish_pf.html
The main part of the Genocide, was during the Famine. When the brit landlords let the Irish die off by the millions. After the British Govt. gave them the authority to take over crops, and put down any laws they wanted.
There were also systematic and planned killings of Catholics.
I'll hoist a pint to that. Include the RUC on that barge and send the British Army back to the big Island while your at it and let the Irish be.
Year
% Of Population killed
1842 5.1
1843 5.2
1844 5.6
1845 6.4
1846 9.1
1847 18.5
1848 15.4
1849 17.9
1850 12.2
The number on the right is the percent of the population that year killed.
Al Qaeda has a "political wing"--Hezbollah has a "political wing"--the PLfrickinO has a "political wing".
USA should not deal with terrorist organizations.
It's that simple.
Signed, an American (whose grandparents all came over from Ireland,NOT an Irish-American) ;)
Because it would be like saying:
Leave New Jersey for Jersians and New York for Noo Yaukers.
There is a symbiotic relationship between them and New Jersey people will always work in Manhattan and Noo Yaukers will always shove cigerettes in the sand of the Jersey Shore beaches.
There are many 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Irish in England who don't particularly want to leave. Likewise, the UK depends on Ireland as both a source of labor and exports. It's become more complicated than that lately but the two countries are linked in many ways like it or not.
The EU has already made passports among member irrelivant so the exchange of labor is bound to become even greater after the UK joins the Euro.
Really?
Man, are we just gonne keep saying this line over and over to bad regimes (Iran/Syria/IRA) or are we gonna back up our words/threats?
That is incorrect.
The Economy of Ireland is BOOMING at 8 to 9% a year.
For Comparison the US hovers around 2.7% and the UK a bit lower.
There are so many jobs in Ireland that they have had one of the largest immagration jumps in europe.
I was in Dublin recently, it is becoming a very diverse city.
Ireland has broken the chains of England.
When we say leave Ireland to the Irish, we mean the Republic.
Northern Ireland is technically Britain and No longer Ireland.
:^D
Exactly.
My late husband used to travel to Belfast on business. He was often told how the cause had become less about beliefs than money.
uh, welcome to FR. (I think)
I probably could have communicated better to you had said that there are a lot of people who are ignorant of history, particluarly the Irish Potato Famine.
Bite me.
I've been to the Black Rose... nice place, for the most part.
Here in Upstate NY some of these hardliners are dead serious. The place I was at for this particular incident was my neighborhood pub, I drink there frequently. Bathroom graffiti usually includes stuff like "piss on the royals" and "up the provos"... And they're not just Yanks, either. The guy who threatened to shoot me was with 2 women and they all spoke with a northern brouge.
To be honest, I was more afraid of the women, from the looks they were giving me... neither one of them said a word; their stares did the talking!
There have been at least two referenda in Northern Ireland on the subject.The people have spoken.
In fact, The Economist magazine last month called Ireland the best country to live in. To which my relatives stated "God help us!".
No one in Ireland will give England or English credit for anything. And I will always grant you that Ireland is where the English honed their "divide and conquer" skills with particular brutality.
However, and again, no one in Ireland, well, Irish_Thatcherite, being the exception perhaps, will credit the economic policies that made the Irish economy take off since the early 90's were simply an implementation of Thatcherism. Prior to that, government economic policy was a gobbley-gook of feel good socialism that saw it's brightest and most industrious depart for the UK, USA and Australia. The other EU states, France in particular, decry Ireland's economic policies and hope to drag the country down to the EU's sub 1% growth rate.
And given your recent trip to Dublin, you most likely shopped or dined in English or American owned retail chains. The immigration into Ireland is causing them all fits and makes one wonder if Ireland will still be for the Irish in 100 years when a mosque is going up in every county.
If it wasn't for the good crack, I don't know why I'd go to Ireland since it hardly seems different from the US!
A couple of my wife's friends from Ireland were visiting Boston and speaking Donegal Irish (a version of Gaelic spoken by just a few) in the back of the taxi they were in. They remarked on the driver's teeth (or lack there of) and other distinguishing features thinking their comments were incomprehensible. Of course the two women got the shock of their life when at the end of the ride, the driver told them in no uncertain terms how rude they were... in Donegal Irish! BwaHaHaHaHaHa!!!
I have a friends whose parents come from Cork (they emigrated 35 years go) and are Irish Republican supporters. I was debating gun control with her mom (she supported it) until I asked if she supported gun control for the IRA. She changed the subject! :-)
Dublin is no different. All major cities are now just like America.
Dublin is the only Irish city like that however.
Go to Waterford, Wexford, Cork.
The Irish countryside has remained Irish.
FDNY members, pound for pound, gave the IRA more financial and emotional support than anyone else on the planet.
After 9-11-01, Gerry Adams had a choice to make. He made the wrong one.
Now, he's screwed.
Too bad, so sad.
Ah yes.... It's been a while since I've been west of Meath. Perhaps another trip to the west coast is in order... this time I'll skip Bunratty Castle however.
Point 1-correct. Commies all, and a disaster waiting to happen if they come to power.
Point 2-correct. Sinn Fein-IRA=zero.
Point 3-not really right, and the source of a lot of trouble. The Unionists did not and do not constitute a majority in Ireland. If an election were held today in Ireland, independence from the UK would win (probably). This election cannot happen, however, because the UK government in 1921 created a state out of the small part of Ireland which had a Unionist majority. This was done to prevent the election, which the Unionists would have lost. Once you accept the notion that the Kingdom was divisible, and that it was divisible by geographic minorities voting, then the act of creating "Northern Ireland" in the first place was cheating, and could fairly be called illegitimate.
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