Not looking for reactions WLD, just acknowledgement of certain facts in relation to things that some posters here come out with and the positions they take.

FACT 1 - Nationalist/Republican Paramilitariers killed 6 out of every 10 throughout the 37 years of "The Troubles" (Sorry rounding up but you can't have 5.8 people)

FACT 2 - British armed forces and Security forces were responsible for around 300 deaths nowhere near the third suggested by the PIRA Apologists.

FACT 3 - The bulk of the population of Northern Ireland want it to remain within the United Kingdom. Now if they say they represent the people how come that that is not good enough for them - could it be because they as a minority want to impose their will against the wishes of the majority.

In your post 05 Nov 05 - 07:29 PM you said - "I wondered at the time about a UN force - but the reaction of most people was - well its part of our country - our soldiers should be able to come and go. It was dumb, but you couldn't get people to see otherwise"

Harold Wilson wondered about it too, in 1972 he approached the UN, the US, Canada and NATO - they all turned it down flat. The UN because it went against the articles of their charter, the US and Canada because they knew a damn sight better than to get involved, NATO no because of the neutrality of the Irish Republic. The Republic of Ireland didn't the North because it would have meant them taking on a civil war they could not afford.

Now one thing I have just been thinking about is the reason for this upsurge in threads related to Ireland and the North in particular. A whole host of posters have moved in, some like Divis who openly admit to only posting to defend the PIRA. Now taking that this forum is American based and the bulk of readers and contributers are US based (I don't know this for a fact, it is a supposition) has this upsurge got anything to do with people taking the advantage to raise and air old grievances ahead of an American fund raiser, at which a certain Mr.G. Adams is not being permitted to speak at.