Allan, I appreciate your informed, thoughtful input.
I hope you stay around.
I have always stated my opposition to ALL paramilitaries, but many contributors have been unable to accept that it is quite possible to be anti IRA but not anti Catholic.
Instead of discussing they just shout "bigot."

I did not intend to make the early 70s "rosie", but it is hard to overstate the achievemnts of NICRA.
And all in just a couple of years and without violence even when provoked and attacked.
They met violence with dignity and restraint just like their counterparts in USA.
The old order would not give up without a struggle, but the old order was rapidly fading.
The song of the times was We Shall Overcome.
If only we had Martin Luther Kings instead of Martin McGuinnesses.