There is no country on earth that doesn't have a history of violence. However, one of the nicer things about these threads is that people more or less agreed in other ones to steer clear of the contentious stuff, and not get so emotionally charged. Some people, like Guest and Ireland apparently, only see the Irish in one dimension: that of the Troubles.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if, for once, people would just be allowed to discuss things Irish without all the Troubles crap? I'm not saying don't post anything negative about the Irish. I'm just saying, check the Troubles and drunken, violent stereotypes at the door for once, and concentrate on the whole of Ireland and all of the Irish, rather than those people like Guest and Ireland choose to focus on whenever they post to threads with the "I" words in the title.

Just a thought, echoing McGrath's (I think) in another "what have the...threads".