Mick, Thankyou for the generous remarks. If I may (hopefully without stirring up too much rancour) refer to two extreme historical ironies of English involvement in Ireland twice being supported by the then pope! The first was the initial English involvement under one of the early Edwards, in either the 12th or 13th centuries to supress the activities of Dublin based pirates who were threatening the commerce of not just England and Wales, but Brittany and the Northern part of the Iberian Peninsular. The second was even more ironic, King William the Third (King Billy) had papal support for his efforts to prevent the return of the deposed James! The reason? James was supported by the French Court which, at that time, was heavily under Jesuit influence. The Jesuits being then involved in a major power struggle with the rest of the Vatican. Regarding my comments about the IRA being a cowardly band of thugs, what else to you call someone who, for whatever reason, walks up behind an unarmed person, man or woman, produces a gun and blows their brains out? Yes, I do know there are so-called Loyalsts with the same habit and feel just as much contept for them. after all, the first British Army casualty in the current campaign was a Lance-bombardier (Lance-corporal in the Royal Artillary) shot by an Orange gunman. A pox on all their houses! Bob.