"No Jim no-one was "bombed to the conference table"
If the British Government or the Northern Ireland administration had any intention of discussing the future of the six counties, they would have done so back in the sixties, instead of standing back and allowing the RUC and then the Loyalsts kick the shit out of the Civil Rights marchers.
'The Troubles' of the seventies and eighties so sickened the British public that they (as has been pointed out here numerous times) would have been more than happy to see the six counties ceceed from the Union.
Faced with this situation, the British Government had to do something - hence, it was bombed to the conference table.
The Northern Ireland Unionists are so secure in their majority that that majority voted their leader, Peter Robinson or of office at the General Election.
Allan (are you sure you're not me?)
Thanks for making my point for me. As you rightly point out, there are two types of nutters on the scene nowadays. Those who have re-emerged as a Republican splinter group becuse they have no confidence that the negotiations are getting anywhere (egged on, of course at this time of year when the sectarian belligerents emerge from their rat holes to scream their annual hate and abuse).
The other type are those who insisted (as a quaint tradition, of course) on displaying their superiority with aggressively threatening marches, where possible through Catholic area. This latter haven't fallen short of terrorising schoolchildren as young as 4 years old, over two years for being the wrong religion, but I understand we can't talk about that because it happened too long ago.
As far as I'm concerned, both of these lots of nutters are potentially dangerous, but it is the long term ones who have displayed their sectarian hatred on at least an annual basis, certainly well beyond my lifetime.
Jim Carroll