Comrac, do you want another generation going through what you suffered? Sinn Fein are not the British puppets in power, they are in fact distrusted and disliked by the English - apart from the very unelectable left wing elements of the English system.

I suspect SF is making the deals it feels it has to make - the best it can make. Exploring the situation and, wresting as much power as the interstices of the system offer. And there many such interstices in any democratic system.

In truth, was the armed struggle doing anything except screw up peoples lives?

The first time in England we knew that SF represented more than a small outlaw element (that's what the media told us) was when Bobby Sands won that election. There was no arguing with the results of the democratic process.

Democratic process proves the point much more potently than the bomb and the bullet.

Life is a disillusioning business. I gave most of my life to trying to find some small place in English folk music. Folk music rampant is stuff that people don't watch on BBC2, BBC4, or listen to very much. Dance tunes that people don't dance to. Songs with tunes that no one in the street knows, with choruses that bore more thoroughly than the bloody boring verses.

My struggle was a failure. It cost me much more than I can ever admit - moneywise, relationship wise, family wise, every bleeding which way.... at least you seem to have a movement with members you can relate to.

If you take up arms, theres no guarantee of winning. That's where bravery comes in.