My dear Gareth: I for one, did not learn about Ireland sitting in bars in Boston, but with a camera as a journalist in Belfast in the mid seventies, then before law school, as a paralegal, I had the great honnor to work for the lawyers who served Joe Doherty, in a case which proved beyond a shaddow of doupt, the fact that the war in Ireland was not the one sided act of ungrateful terrorism which you allege in your post here. In the end, Joe was "deported" to Britain, after the courts refused extradition, when all the combined legal might of England and the USA could not convince a host of federal judges that the IRA was a terrorist organization or that Britain was protecting democratic government in the occupied northern counties. So, no, my standard is not the bar stool, but the federal courts. The fact that again and again in this post you attack the poster and not the facts, shows the historic arrogence of your government in the face of the terrible things which have been done in your name.
I hope we have a chance some time, to all get together here, have a pint (mine a cranberry and soda...) and get to know each other past the steriotypes and create some understanding, not continue the ad homminum attacks.
Cheers Larry