"Irish republicans have engaged in violent acts in the hope of gaining independence for their country. this has gone on for several centuries without success.

This to any fair minded person would suggest a certain reluctance of England to relinquish their hold on Ireland.

not to Keith. most other people - not to Keith.

its like some people can't work the video recorder - Keith doesn't get it." - Big Al Whittle

First paragraph: Not true there has only ever been IIRC three attempts by "Irish Republicans" to gain independence for Ireland. The most constant attempts have been made, mostly peacefully, by Irish Nationalists, who did manage to instigate reforms and improvements over the years. John Redmond's Home Rule efforts had they been allowed by an extremely tiny minority of "Republicans" to proceed, then they would have resulted in the creation in 1931 of a united, independent Ireland without one drop of blood being shed.

A free, united, independent Ireland was declared and came into being on the 6th December 1922, it lasted about 24 hours as the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised it's right to opt out of a united Ireland governed from Dublin and remain as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. So Big Al it had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any reluctance on the part of "England" to relinquish it's hold on Ireland. "England", by the way Big Al, has not existed as a political or national entity since 1707.

It would appear that the only people here who do not get anything are the people who ignore the recorded and well documented history of these events from the perspectives of the three parties concerned.