No doubt that Irish raids on the mainland of Britain were carried out and that captives were taken as slaves. There were also recorded instances of Barbary Pirates using ports in the South East of Ireland as bases to attack shipping, those captured were usually taken back to North Africa and sold into slavery, once in the 1600's these Pirates raided the town of Skibereen and carried a very large chunk of the population off to slavery. That an unscrupulous trader, who happened to be Irish by birth, made money from the slave trade would not surprise me, just as the fact that others who happened to be English/Scottish/fill-in-whatever-nationality-you-like by birth happened to do the same would not surprise me. That does not justify the general accusation that the Irish were slavers, or that the British were slavers, particularly during the period when it was the active policy of the British Government to eliminate the trade.

"..the greatest slavers in Africa were, and still are, the Arabs/Muslims" I will stand by that statement Dianavan because it can be easily proven to be true, it is extremely well documented and cannot be denied.

"The only one to be ashamed is Blair for having the audacity to apologize for the slave trade while heading a govt. that does very little to curb human trafficing and child labour."

Now you tell us what the UK Government isn't doing that all other Governments that have signed up for the Human Rights Charter are doing.

The thread discusses the slave trade, Britain is singled out for shame, Arabs/Muslims were introduced, to provide some sort of perspective - they were and still are the biggest players in this game - A question for you Dianavan, have you ever met any slaves? I have, in the United Arab Emirates and in Mauritania, in both instances the UK had nothing whatsoever to do with their condition in life, their Islamic Arab lords and masters however did.