bloody sunday report

Doctor? wrote:

I'd dispute the stat about total killings, mainly since about half those carried out by loyalists were blue on blue. In that respect they were outdone quite well, and very amusingly by the INLA who more or less exterminated each other.

Quite right Steve, but they are among the official statistics used by British and Irish Governments and the "impartial" Americans It still turns out that those claiming "Republican murders" should have a look at the Loyalist record and think twice before exposing themselves as hypocrites...

They're all murdering scum.

Linked to your response, there's an interesting INLA story about a guy mixing a fertiliser bomb-mix in a shed with a concrete base. For those who don't know, concrete mix often contains pieces of flint - flint creates a spark when hit at an angle by a metal implement...

He'd been told how to do it, but got drunk first and forgot to put down PVC sheeting underneath before mixing. A spark from his shovel while doing the job... ignited the whole lot. Reports said that bits of shed and bits of INLA fuckwit were found over 400 yards away...

Ger Boy wrote:

Shug wrote:

At the end of the day Bloody Sunday was a Civil Rights march .

Which was illegal (marches had been banned by law) ,and featured IRA members carrying guns. Hardly a peaceful gathering.

Would you say the same about the Civil Rights marches in South Africa, USA, Australia, Cuba, USSR, China, etc. and more recently, Iraq and Afghanistan, that were also denounced as illegal by the governments of the time? Many innocent people beaten and some shot for peacefully standing up for their rights? In many of the above cases, there were also some armed militants, but tarring everyone with the same brush serves absolutely no logical or proactive purpose.

Ger Boy wrote:

But £200million on a report ,and then the victims families seen celebrating with terrorists. The report is an insult to all the innocent victims of the IRA.

The families can't control who is seen celebrating alongside them or in their vicinity or making proclamations ostensibly "on their behalf" - we see politicians and other public figures highjacking events for their own ends every day.

As I attempted to point out above, there were more innocent victims of the Loyalist paramilitaries, RUC and British troops than by all Republican groups combined. That is a fact and if you really want me to, I'll dig out the figures, the references, etc. - not from Wikipedia, but from reliable, unbiased authors, historians and commentators, alongside "official" figures.

To claim "insult" and label people "terrorists" (and yes, some are/were) is to stoop to being what people should strive against - ill-informed at best, believing the myths that have been perpetuated by those with a very definite disruptive social, political and/or selfish agenda.

That is what everyone should be striving to overcome if any kind of lasting peace is to prevail.

As for McGuinness, Adams, et al, one could arguably compare them to Mandela & co. - terrorists convicted by a state that they oppose, who have since renounced violence and become a part of the political machine that is working towards peace.

To be fair, also look at Paisley and his famous, "Ulster says 'No!'" speeches. He roused and indirectly encouraged many Loyalists/Unionists to violence, but eventually had the decency, along with Trimble and friends, to sit down, put aside his bigotry, and debate together with past enemies for the good of the whole.

Surely even they have, by their participation, attempted to lay the past down as history and attempt to secure a safer community for all?

Over-emotive partisan rhetoric, repeating the same old "party lines" and the use of perjorative terms such as "Huns", "Left Footers" etc. no longer serves any purpose to anyone, regardless of their beliefs and should no longer have a place in, nor be tolerated by any decent, intelligent society.

Oh, and WIFM is still shite...