What you ARE not really facing up to though Keith is that Sands and his compatriots did manage to defeat a very ruthless enemy in the shape of the Thatcher government - and really that was no mean achievement.

As Arthur Scargill will tell you, the Thatcher element really had no scruple about tearing up the democratic rulebook when it wanted to defeat an enemy. And they would lie - in an unprincipled and unprecedented manner for their own short term gain. For example I can remember Norman Tebbit coming on TV in the miners' strike and saying that not a single English miner would lose his job. And the snotty slimey voiced BBC interviewer saying, so why are you and your followers pursuing this illegal strike Mr Scargill?

At least Sinn Fein didn't go the way of the British mining industry and all the ancillary industries attached to it. In war, the first rule is that you win. And you can argue with Sands and his methods, (and I will personally say the way SF supporters have conducted this debate and abused you has been sickening) but at least SF didn't get pissed about and defeated like the NUM.

And that was an achievement.