InOBU, so Provisional IRA supported the goals of the ANC. So what? Who wouldn't? That's not the same as ANC supporting the goals of the IRA.

Where did I hear that they didn't? From various ANC sources, including Thabo Mbeki when he was operating out of an upstairs office opposite the Duke of York in London W1. More recently Mandela distanced himself on several occasions, to the extent that he is now derided as a licorice allsort in some Irish nationalist circles (ie black on the outside...)

And it wasn't only the ANC who were sceptical. When my wife an I met Nathaniel Shimuyarira in his office in 1982 (he was minister for information in Mugabe's first cabinet) he asked my (Irish) wife: "What are the Provos fighting for? If they would tell us that, we (Zanu PF) might respond more positively to their appeals for support."

Paddymac, you can't seriously believe that what gets into the American press is massaged by Brit spin doctors? Get real.*BG*.

And Grab, it's nice to see that "better than 90 per cent" voted for the Good Friday agreement. I wish. (You've got confused with a referendum in the Republic on the Irish constitution (the territorial claim on the north etc).