Re my posting. and with all due respect to all. I did not mean that what happened in the past was not important, it is, but not as important as the present. I know for sure that the I.R.A. did not exist in my own area of North Belfast, and they would not have emerged but for the fact that the people needed protection and did not get it from either the police or the british army.
Ireland talks about people mixing glass with piss and making it look like tea, what a bunch of sheer rubbish and lies. In a war that depends a lot on propoganda, do you not think that something like that would have been used as a PR tool. What a load of crap. Did anyone else ever hear of such a thing. The truth is as I stated, the people welcomed the army only to have their homes invaded and wrecked. That's what turned the people against the army and nothing else, they did not fulfill their mandate and they took sides. That is what happened and I am not some Irishman who get his Irishness in a pub in Boston or New York. I got mine on the New Lodge Road in Belfast. I was born and reared there and lived there exclusively for 26 years. I am not condoning violence at all but there would have been a lot less if the catholics had been protected, they were not. and all the ramblings of obvious anti catholic bigots like Ireland will not change my opinion on that issue. I witnessed the soldiers' behaviour and know too many individuals either killed or scarred for life because of them. An example that is close to my heart concerns a half ton truck of explosives that went out of control and smashed into my parents home, trapping my father and mother inside. It could have exploded at any minute but yet my parents were told to stay inside or they would be shot. If anyone is ever around the New Lodge I'm sure lots of people will tell the same story. My father asked the soldier what would happen if the ammunition was accidently ignited and was told " that's your tough luck Paddy". My parents are both dead now but they were well into their 70's when this occurred, so please Ireland, no more bullshitting lies. The majority of soldiers acted like drunken louts. You know that and I know that so cut the crap.