"Tir, I know well that most Nationalists did not take up the gun, and would not vote Sinn fein while the killing went on"

You know nothing of a sort, Keith.
The phrase: "May you never want for a string for your fiddle, while there's guts in an Englishman", was not a warcry of any movement for political change, remember.

The British never understood fully the depth of opposition.

You need to work on your Empathy, Keith, not look for obtuse common denominators by which you seek to absolve your own disgraceful history abroad over the Centuries.