No problem Keith. And vice versa, I might add.

I have no objection to discussing these subjects, and I'm sure that goes for a lot of the Nationalist posters here. Where the problem occurs is where uninformed statements that tend to trivialise our situation; especially in these days where News gets a few rounds in the washing machine, before it is served up to us.

I have no doubt that public opinion in Britain would have been behind the continuing Civil Rights movement, but Lord Brookeborough summed up the situation as it pertained to 'Northern Irish' public opinion, and I'm afraid, that was the day to day reality for us.

I think you know in your heart of hearts what we Irish people are like. We are honest, decent people; welcoming and friendly at the best of times.

They say that where there is hardship and deprivation, the people are more honest and open..., and that goes across the board, in working class neighborhoods, be they in Yorkshire, Lancashire, London, or Belfast.

But I could see then, and I see now, why the northern hemisphere's equivalent of the South African National Party are unwilling..., nay, adamant that the status quo should stay in place.

It is sad to admit that it took us to be pushed literally to the ground, and under it, for us to rise up and stand that ground for once and for all.

Read that link above, which I borrowed from another thread, especially the last answer Brookeborough gives.

One cannot negogiate with logic like that.
Ian Paisley, for his part (and by their silence, the vast majority of the British Public) wants us to be defenceless once again, while the people who kept this 'statelet' of ours afloat all these years hold not only all the aces, but the rest of the deck as well.

Including, I might add, a very sizeable arsenal of their own.

If the British people really want to see peace in the north, it has to get those weapons off the streets too. Yet no one has ever called for that. Not in Westminster. Not in Mudcat.

When they do (in Westminster, I mean) maybe then we can get to the stage where there is 'an acceptable level' of crime and violence, that passes for the norm in every so-called 'civilised' society.

Personally, there is no such thing, but I'm a realist also.

No problem Keith, certainly from my part. I, and I'm sure the rest of us here just want to see it all end.
But I'm not prepared to see the job half-done.

And I certainly will not stand by and take flak from all sides about what bastards we all are, while those who call us that guard some rather sinister skeletons in their own cupboards.

"John Bull he boasts and he laughs with scorn
And he says that Irish man is born
To be always discontented for at home he cannot agree
But we'll banish discord from our land
And in harmony like brothers stand
To demand the rights of Ireland let us all united be!
Our Parliament in College Green
For to assemble 'twill be seen
And happy days in Erin's isle we soon will have once more
Then dear old Ireland soon will be
A great and glorious country
And peace and blessings soon will smile all 'round the Shamrock Shore!

Tiocfaidh ar lá