The point being Fionn - Is that Jean's eldest daughter has seen at last four of her mothers abductors and can possibly identify them.

Oh, Teribus, I do believe you're lying! That is NOT the point you were making with the phrase I questioned, and I fear you would never persuade anyone on this planet that it was.

Keith, what if oppression in the southern states did not spawn an IRA equivalent? Maybe it should have done. Or are you suggesting that the oppressed in that example got a fair result through their passivity? Northern Ireland by the late 60s was crying out for direct action, with Westminster turning a blind eye to criminal abuse of power by the ruling unionists. But for NICRA and the IRA - later PIRA - the abuses would have continued unchecked.

Oppression seldom produces a chief terrorist/freedom-fighter strong enough to fine-tune the scale of response until it is precisely proportionate to the prevailing circumstances. Neither is there any one correct, guaranteed-effective, way to respond to oppression.

What do you and Teribus say about the fact that Ronnie Flanagan, the chief constable who presided over the collusion now acknowledged at British cabinet level, has so far not been suspended from his present job as HM Chief Inspector of Police? Will you still cling to the worn-out line that he's no worse than "the lying, killing, thieving, sub-human Provos"? By the way, Ard, Ronnie did present himself to the ombudsman's inquiry. He just wasn't in a particularly helpful frame of mind.

Teribus, abandoning facts has worked wonders for your prose style, as in that wee bit I just quoted. But how about this: "...as the world knows, courage lives in the hearts of Irishwomen." Surely the high-watermark of pretentious humbug?