Canary Wharf etc losing a billion dollars in windows, cleanup and lost opportunity costs every few weeks was not exactly the IRA running out of steam, but as you said, that’s a quibble.
To get the Muslims out of Europe will make the Irish Troubles seem like a church picnic, once the car bombs start exploding (and they will.)
Right. Canary Wharf was big...but I guess the question becomes: what was it that actually drove the parties getting to the table to actually put into place a process of de-escalation and eventually a functioning government...or to put it differently, who won, and who lost? I don’t see how we can say that the British lost. What eventually happened is what they had proposed long before. And it is a fact that the top IRA guys still alive at the end were British agents. (Incidentally, I believe, but certainly don’t know that both Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were paid off, as well, and that they were all working together to reach the solution....I believe that Adams and McGuinness saw where things were headed, and they wanted to transition to “legitimate” life, so they cooperated and voila, look at them now. But again, I don’t know that...though I have read some speculation).
So again the question is, what “caused” the negotiations and process to actually happen?
I suppose the answer to that, as with all history, is very complex. But personally, I think from the longer view, you have to say, the IRA was defeated by the British. Not vice versa.
Interestingly....in the now rather confused, new Irish/UK/EU context...Sinn Fein may enjoy a resurgence....AND now that I think about it....and since we are doing the long view of history....I think it is only a matter of time that Ireland becomes one unit as an island. The loyalist population in the North is dying out, or simply leaving. No one really cares much about this particular question....but both in the North and in Ireland, people do care very much about their socialism, and they believe that they will be net recipients of EU benefits to be in the EU.
So....along with Brexit, I think a longer term result of all this is that Ireland in 30 or 40 years becomes one country, in the EU....which brings us back to the original question of, what becomes of the EU? Which leads back to your article....Certainly Ireland is no better equipped to deal with Islam than anywhere else in Europe.
Sigh.