The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Jet Gorgon

Grrrr. Of course it's not, But when people are struggling for their rights, they do anything. At least the IRA thought of other people.

Marmite the Dog

More likely due to them realising that their methods had no place in modern Europe and didn't want to alienate even more people than they had already.

Eliminator

The only ones teasing me about my bike being gay are the real faggots, wanna be bikers or the people that have no other defense than to say you're hiding in a closet, which are you?

Jet Gorgon

Maybe the Americans funding them told them not to kill people?

Whiteshiva

The only ones teasing me about being a gay, wanna-be biker without a defence is either metally disturbed or gay. Which are you?

Possibly both, I guess.....

__________________
Any error in tact, fact or spelling is purely due to transmissional errors...

DrB0b

Who did they alienate? The Brits? I think that was the point. In the 70's and 80's when they were murdering all across Britain they were wildly popular with the people whose support they wanted. In Ireland their support ebbed not because of any atrocities but because the normal people (only a tiny minority were ever true hard core republicans) got what they wanted, equal rights with protestants, decent housing, jobs, an acceptable quality of life, armed soldiers off their streets, the right not to hauled off to internment camps, and a police force that wasn't composed of death-squad thugs. Fairly reasonable requests and thanks to John Major, who saw that they were reasonable, they got them. Mind you, Blair took all the credit.

The IRA alienated their US funders not by blowing up pubs and kneecapping "drug dealers" but by negotiating with the British Govt and making a serious attempt to end the violence, that pissed off the plastic paddies all over the world as it meant an end to their "patriot" games.

Jet Gorgon

^ Yes. I heard Ireland has the best knee-cap surgery in the world.

DrB0b

Dear lady, you may, perhaps, be confusing the Republic of Ireland, one of the most free, wealthiest, and happiest countries in the world, a country whose people are welcome everywhere and which hasn't had a particulary bad terrorist problem for almost a century with The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, an ailing ex-power in terminal social, economic, and industrial decline, nowadays famed mostly for ubiquitous surveillance of its citizenry, its high level of violent crime, the paucity of its educational resources, the lapdog attitude of its government towards the United States, its ongoing problem with homegrown terrorism and ethnic divisions ironically produced by misguided policies of integration, and the export of drunken, ignorant, thugs to other countries where those thugs are regularly given well-deserved beatings by the good folk of the local gendarmeries.

Jet Gorgon

^ Beg your pardon. Northern Ireland, which I heard is building well economically in everything from finance to movies. I'm part Irish, so please don't berate me.

lysander

They didn't think when they blew the Tavern in The Town and the Mulberry Bush in Birmingham up. Another pint and I've been on the news.

flash

The Northern Ireland economy is fucked, there was a housing boom that has now collapsed and is still on the decline, a lot of first time home owners have now got negative equity on their properties. Building sites alone were going for 1 million a acre (sterling) in my area.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

flash

Jet exactly what nationality are you?

bkkandrew

Correct. There is a school of thought that the house price crash will give rise, once again, to sectarianism and violence. I have an ex that lives in the province that I keep in contact with, hence retaining an interest in the subject.

flash

Possibly but i would seriously have my doubts, people have too much to lose now.The quality of life has risen so much here in recent years. unemployment in this area is at 2% and 4.5% for the region which is as low as it has ever been.It is actually a nice place to live and bring up a family now compared to 15 years ago, shootings, bombings, soldiers with guns patrolling the streets is a horrible way to grow up. the sectarianism needs support from there local communities and i don't think people are prepared to give up the way of life we now all now enjoy, nobody is under the illusion that the UVF, IRA etc have gone away but peoples attitudes have changed here now

bkkandrew

^You are correct, but I wonder how much relates to the physical surroundings and the hitherto economic wellbeing. I was quite impressed by by Belfast when I visited last year, tidy, smart and affluent. Will people's attitudes change once we have mass repossessions, boarded up houses and shops, financial despair and rising unemployment?

__________________
The future of TeakDoor:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


A funny thing happened today - Ant trolls, stalks, prevokes and generally upsets approximately 15 members of the board, yet Noodles goes to jail. Perhaps it was a dream...
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Mara

[quote=lysander;729751]They did give warning calls, they were mis-interpreted/poorly delivered and actually sent people into the danger area.

Mara

The negotiating really took hold when they were very effective at destroying parts of the monetary institutions, once that had a significant effect Major/Blair had to come to the table with a reasonable stance.