Jim,
Had Easter week not happened Irish Youth would have been decimated on The Somme and Ireland

The "rising" made no difference to the Irish volunteers fighting in the war. They continued to fight and die to the end (but were not "decimated.")

Al,
Keith, some of those guys had already spent years in English jails.

Only one of them ever tried to get elected, and he lost badly.

they were in a better position to gauge the intentions and likely actions of the English establishment of the time than you are

The Irish people did not agree. They showed contempt for the gunmen throughout, even when they were being dragged off to jail.

the attempt to hold Ireland in the Union by force

Never happened. Britain did not want Ireland in the Union but it could not be done while Britain was fighting for its very survival and not winning.
An attempt was made to take the North OUT of the Union by force, against the expressed will of the majority of its people.

Jim,
It is this continued colonisation

It is not colonisation if the people demand to remain in the Union despite not being wanted by the rest of us.


It took five years of bloody guerrilla warfare to bring about independence for twenty six counties,

No it did not. They were going to get it anyway. The law had been passed. The slaughter of thousands was for nothing.