My dear Seonaid: It is as wrong to say that THE Irish people hate the IRA, as to say that the BRITISH people oppress the nationalist community in occupied Ireland. Some Irish people do hate the IRA, and after the revisionist history taught in the Free State, it may be said to be a majority. However, Republicans continue to be elected from districts where the oppression of the British Government is most obvious and is felt. It was the same way in the Free State, that in places like Cork, where English forces comitted the gravest war crimes, you found the greatest support for the IRA. It is reasonable to assume, on the street in Belfast, where Carol Anne Kelly was shot point blank in the head by a British Soldier, on a quiet day, in retaliation for military actions by the IRA, there would be the kind of support for the IRA that you found among the generation that saw that same army machine gun a crowd watching a football match in Cork, and then burn the town in the early part of the twentieth century.
My question for free staters who say it is a different IRA, is, when did it become a different England? The England I saw in action in Belfast reminded me of the England that was seen in Cork in 1919.
In the context of this discussion, I would never tell you what to say, however, I would suggest that the conversation is best forwarded by spesific references.
Welcome to the table, Seonaid, Lets try and get beyond hate and get to understanding and progressive change, eh?
Larry