"Re-Mick's question about Americans wearing IRA symbols"

I honestly think that in Britain there has never been an aversion to people displaying their political feelings and Irish Republicanism was viewed as a valid cause so I don't think republicanism itself would cause any offence to the vast majority of people. Yes the symbols of terrorist organisations (both republican and loyalist) are viewed in a different light though I suspect Scots are more attuned and sensitive to them because of the measure of sectarianism within Scottish society itself. I remember my English wife seeing the Red Flag of Ulster symbol and not knowing what it was. Personally I think most English people are pretty relaxed to the subject and sectarianism is just about history in England. As to Americans displaying IRA symbols. I suspect that most folk would simply have dismissed them as misty eyed romantasists who didn't realise that the Prov IRA were a proscribed orgainsation not only in the UK but in Ireland itself. So I don't really think that too many people would lose sleep over the symbolism. There was perhaps a bit of an anti-American mood, especially in Northern Ireland itself, because of the allegations that the terrorist campaign was at least partly funded by Irish-Americans in Boston and New York etc. However that is a different matter.