I follow this thread with interest. GeorgeH, Mbo, and InOBU are relative newcomers to this forum, and I read your posts with interest. I would recommend you all read some of the earlier threads on the subject, such as "Back Home in Derry".

George, when you talk music, you are very helpful and insightful. Your discussions of Irish matters always puzzle me though. You are quick to make horseshit snide comments like the one above ("I can't help but wonder which side of the Atlantic.........")which has absolutely no relevance whatever to the discussion at hand. It is cheap and of no value. Whatever gave an Englishman any more right to comment on Irish affairs than an American? You don't live in that country any more than we do. Your heritage, perhaps? I am only in this country because the policies of the British government made it impossible for people like my grandparents who were of Republican political leanings to live in their own country? A more intimate knowledge of what the true political situation is? I doubt it. Your media actively censors all information on the North of Ireland. Always has. Americans support the IRA with no knowledge of the misery they cause? How about Brits that support the actions of the RUC and the British Army, when even Amnesty International condemns the action of both.

The point of my tirade is this. I tire of self righteous folks from that side of the Atlantic telling Yanks what they should or shouldn't have an opinion on. There is at least an argument that says the current and best hope of long term peace and disarmament would not have been possible without us Yanks. Let us leave this pious hypocritical bullshit behind and join with our cousins as they boldly march towards peace. We owe it to the children.

Big Mick