Big Al Whittle - 27 Mar 17 - 11:49 AM

Keith and Teribus....is history really your thing?

so far we've had the caring side of first world war generals, now England's sefless struggle for Irish independence....

Well it would certainly seem to be more our thing than yours Big Al.

By any metric you wish to measure success by those who commanded the British, Commonwealth and Empire forces during the First World War did so far better than those who commanded any of the other combatant armies of 1914. As an enlisted soldier or officer you stood a far better chance on surviving the conflict as part of the British Armed Forces than you would being in either the French, German, or Russian Armies. Now if you wish to refute that then address the facts not the person telling you about them.

When in January 1919 two police officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary escorting a consignment of explosives to a quarry were deliberately murdered in cold blood by the IRA and Sinn Fein declared independence the British Government could have swamped Ireland with masses of the 5 million men it had under arms, all combat hardened veterans straight from the 100 days offensive that swept the Germans before them and ended the war - They didn't Big Al because they had already decided immediately before the war to grant Home Rule with Dominion status to Ireland. Sinn Fein and the "men of the gun" apparently so admired by the likes of yourself and Carroll completely screwed that process up and demonstrated to the political leadership of the Northern Unionists precisely what complete and utter wankers they were. There was NO glorious and bloody guerrilla war fought in the South against the Brits it didn't amount to more than sporadic skirmishes before the Republican side ran out of steam and a truce was called. The Government of Great Britain could have ignored the calls for peace talks BUT they didn't. The talks were held that resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty which became the Irish Free State Constitution Act of 1922 - the Government of Great Britain having signed off on it in December 1921 a full year before the clowns in Dublin finally ratified it (That delay Big Al was all down to the Irish who had decided that they wanted to fight and kill one another in a totally pointless civil war). No reluctance at all on the part of "England" to let Ireland go and the proof of that is there for all to see - if history WAS really your thing, but as I said at the beginning as far as you are concerned it obviously isn't.