In the last year I have written very little here about N. Ireland, which is one reason I am doing this post.
I spend a lot of time imagining political arguments I might get into with people. Some of that ends up being published on this blog but some of it doesn’t. I often initially don’t put all the arguments I come up with in a post- in the past I would initially leave some stuff out, saving it for when I get into an argument and my opponent says something I expect them to say. But then I started adding that stuff to the relevant posts- about 10% of the “UPDATES” I’ve done in the posts on my blog are just arguments that I was saving. I realized that readers might read the post, think it’s flawed in some way and that I’m wrong, and move on without giving me a chance to respond to their criticism of the post.
There is a very basic argument in favor the IRA’s campaign during The Troubles that I developed about 5-10 years ago but have been saving for an argument with someone. That someone is usually (in my daydreams) a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who opposes what the IRA did in The Troubles. They say something about how the presence of a pro-British voting majority in N. Ireland means that it was wrong for the IRA to try to force the British out. But I guarantee you that these same Irish people are glad that the “Old IRA” fought during the “War of Independence” (around 1920) and gained freedom for most of the Irish population.
The thing is, until they made compromises in the negotiations after fighting in the South stopped, that IRA was fighting for ALL of Ireland to be free, not just those parts with a Catholic majority. About half of the IRA felt so strongly about this that they rejected the Treaty which contributed to the beginning of a civil war. Michael Collins, the main leader of the pro-Treaty side continued sending arms to Northern units of the IRA even after he negotiated and promoted the Treaty.
(UPDATE 5/16/22 See this where I explain how I concluded that only .3% of the IRA's operations resulted in civilian death and this where I explain Provo strategy)
Tom
