It´s painfully obvious that many of the views posted here come from people who haven´t got the fogiest idea of Irish History. As rightfully stated by Fiolar, there is no way the unionists would be sitting around a table with Catholics if it had not been for a bloody war. Granted there were many tragic deaths and terrible atrocities perpetrated I hasten to add by all sides.

Incidentally for me the word "Unionists" is really a euphemism for the term "Brits". They have the nerve to call themselves "Irish". They actually reject everything that is Irish from culture, language, religion and music. However be assured they are no more Irish than the man in the moon. Check out your history before opening your gobs and you will indeed discover that these so-called "Unionists" are 2nd and 3rd generation English descendants who came by land illegally by literally throwing out the lawful owners and claiming it for themselves. Very often they received this land as a gift from the King of England for putting down the Irish.

Having said all that, we Irish would be willing to forgive and forget, but what if you have been dominated by the Unionists who reject everything that is Irish and wield all the power in the jobs and housing sectors and keep the Irish crawling on the ground. That was the situation which started the demonstrations in 1969. My impression is that many who have posted their remarks here think that the "troubles" started in 1969. More fool you, this war has been going on for over eight hundred years.

Personally I would love to smack that guy who compared Gerry Adams to Hitler.

JB