Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Martin McGuiness

There is a clause in the Good Friday agreement that states Northern Ireland can join the South if the people so wish. A typical Tony Blair fudge and one day we will have the Royalists fighting to remain in the Union. I agreed with Enoch Powel who stated that it must be made clear that Ireland would never be united no matter what the IRA did, thus negating the IRA's reasondetre. In my opinion there is too much forgiveness of evil in this world and the SAS should have been allowed to wipe out the IRA together with McGuiness.

Let's all hope you never achieve a position of power and influence!

Ok. So to you he was a terrorist. But I guarantee you that there are people who sincerely believe that he and his colleagues were freedom fighters.

So I stand by the remark.

He was first and foremost a murderer - the rest is semantics gentlemen .

Do you read the Daily Mail by any chance John ?

I'm pretty sure that the ONLY thing that you and I agree on is that Morgans are great cars.

There is no such thing as a purely military solution to this sort of problem. If you can't see that there is significant blame which can be laid at Britain's door for the Irish troubles, then you clearly don't know much about Irish history. Eight hundred years of oppression does have a price to pay.

May I suggest as a starting point that you read "God's Executioner", Michael O Siochrú's book about Cromwell's genocide and ethnic cleansing in Ireland, and also "The great hunger" Cecil Woodham-Smith's account of the famines. You might start to understand where the anger comes from.

Well said Giles,and yes the ANC was involved in a lot of terrorism to get their voice above the establishment.as in the streets of Dublin in 1916.you only need to attend a old firm football game in Glasgow'to feel the history.

This is the crux.
Influenced by his upbringing he chose the violence. Older and more perceptive he realised his cause was failing. He changed course. That does not excuse his atrocious activities.
Can anyone who commits premeditated murder be absolved?
No.
His political beliefs remain unchanged and his demands for IRA prisoners' clemency are one sided. Politicians agreed to his options as a way out of the problem. However it has now resulted in UK military/RUC etc being targeted for crimes that he got clemency for with IRA colleagues. One sided indeed.
It was a dirty war with no mercy in many cases from the security/secret service side too. Hypocritical in some aspects from the Republicans to be baying for blood.
It is nowhere near over either. It will take a couple more generations before it really eases provided the rhetoric does not reignite violence.
McGuiness? Only a loss due to his moderating influence to keep the violent sector of IRA in some sort of check. Otherwise good riddance.

Cup of tea chaps?

A Guiness would go down well.

Come to think about it he will be soon...

This is clearly a controversial thread so let's drop another controversial view. Not everyone thinks Mandella was a saint some do regard him as a terrorist who had little regard for the lives of innocent third parties.
Andy