Three shots on goal there, Purple, let's see if I can save them.
The most underestimated episode of the whole Troubles is the Arms Trial. CJH and his cronies financed and supplied the Provisional IRA at their formation. Without this support from elements in the highest echelons of a foreign state Grisly and Martin could never have launched such a "successful" and sustained terrorist campaign from a few housing estates in Belfast and Londonderry. However I agree that by 1985 Gaddaffi was probably a more significant benefactor than CJH.
Do you seriously think that the entire Cabinet didn’t know about the whole sordid affair? I agree that it was despicable and was a major contributor to the growth of the IRA but I don’t buy the idea that it was CJH and his mates acting alone.
You portray a picture of Martin as a virtuous infiltrator of the IRA. Pretending to support their campaign of murder but secretly plotting to convert them to the ways of peace. I doubt if that defense was tried at Nuremberg.
No, he started off as a murdering terrorist but bought in to the idea of constitutional politics quite early on. I’m sure there was no catharsis, no road to Damascus experience.
The catholics in particular wanted and still want to live and be educated separately. There was never any public ban on the use by catholics of public amenities etc. Invoking apartheid comparisons is of course a central feature of mopery.
The Catholic Church’s opposition to joint education was a major contributor in prolonging the conflict but when you choose to ignore the sectarian nature of the Protestant government prior to Sunningdale, the Protestant police force treating Catholics as their enemy, and the myriad of other factors which negatively impacted the lives of Catholics you weaken your argument.
There was and is no justification for the actions of the IRA but presenting the Protestant government and Protestant Statelet as if they were innocent parties is to grossly misrepresent the truth.
The Ulster Protestant Volunteers, founded by the good Reverend, stood with the UVF and the RUC while they all stoned Catholic houses during the Battle of the Bogside. The collusion between the RUC and MI5 and their SAS attack dogs was rampant and resulted in the murder of many IRA men (no harm in my book) as well as innocent civilians.
The SAS murder of 16 year old John Boyle in 1978 is particularly striking. John had found a IRA weapons cache in a graveyard beside his home. He told his father who went straight to the police. The RUC told MI5 who had the SAS wait to ambush the IRA. The next morning John went back to see if the Cache was still there and was shot numerous times in the back by the SAS. His father ran to the scene and was arrested. The SAS were never named and never convicted even though the Judge at their trial seriously questioned the truthfulness of their evidence. Adrian Weale, author and former Military intelligence officer, wrote a book about covert operations by British forces and laid out the truth of what happened. He was called into the MoD and made to edit his book before publishing it. Ed Moloney wrote about it in the Irish Times at the time.
When your State treats you as their enemy it is hard not to see them as your enemy.
