GUEST 30 Jul 03 - 09:24 AM

As far as I can make out I am not defending anything - realm or otherwise.

Regarding point 1 of my previous post. You obviously chuckle easily.

There is no doubt at all that, "not ALL those who wished to be separated from the rule of Westminster, supported the Treaty of 1922."

Guest you mention, "that pesky civil war thing over the signing of the treaty", now that was a fairly low key thing compared to the "pesky civil war thing" that would have ensued if the pro-Union North had been forced into the free state.

Now your turn to make me laugh, "the robbing of the six counties by Britain (who needed the shipbuilders of the empire to stick with the union)". So Britain having just come through the Great War, with all the resultant merchant shipping losses, relied so heavily on Belfast shipbuilders. What about the massive shipbuilding capacity of mainland Britain, Guest?

Strikes me that the shipbuilders in Northern Ireland needed Britain at that time a damn sight more than Britain needed them - shipbuilding facilities in Aberdeen, Rosyth, Newcastle, Middlesborough, Hull, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Chatham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth, Appledore, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Workington and the Clyde. Oh yes, Britain really needed the Harland & Wolf yard in Belfast. As part of the Irish Free State, civil war apart - How many orders for British ships would have been placed there? - Who else were they going to build ships for?

Your contentions are a nonsense.