Originally Posted By Hamwich
Like many, I have pretty conflicted feelings. There's no doubt he was an enthusiastic instigator and participant in many terrorist acts that resulted in the deaths of many innocent people.

But he thought he was in the right, fighting a justified war against what he and the IRA saw as British oppression. Does that justify his actions? No, but it helps to aid our understanding of their motivations.

When he saw that the IRA had no chance of winning - the IRA had been thoroughly penetrated by British Intelligence and one of the things that brought them to the negotiating table was when the British revealed just how much they knew about the IRA's membership and activities - he then turned from war to peacemaking, and in his later years made a pretty reasonable job of it.

Does that excuse his earlier activities? Again, probably not.

The history of the British occupation of Ireland has not been a happy affair at any level, and the inevitable long-term outcome has to be a re-united Ireland. It will happen anyway as a result of demographic trends, and I think the biggest threat to peace in the region lies now with 'Loyalists' rather than the Republicans. Not to say this redeems the IRA in any way, they remain a bunch of criminal thugs who have no place in a civilised society.

I'll go with that.

Terrorism, to my mind is never justifiable. That includes terrorist bombs and government forces dropping bombs on civillian targets. I don't see any difference.

I don't believe hell exists but I often wish it did. Strangely I am in favour of the death penalty for crimes against humanity and vicious and callous murderers but I can not see any justification for the indiscriminate killing of innocent people.

Peter

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