Should Libya compensate IRA victims families?

[max_tranmere]

Reggie, we all know how it all came about, and you seem to be subtely hinting there that somehow the IRA's campaign was justified. I dont think it was.

[justincyder]

I live in NI, i'm afraid none of you know what you're talking about with all due respect. As for compensation, everyone has their own view, mine is that what's the point it doesn't bring back the dead.

But if it genuinely relieves someones suffering and makes them feel a sense of justice has been done, ok fair enough i suppose.

But where do you stop, do I go after the Japanese for imprisoning my grandfather and starving him in WW2, do we sue Normandy for invading in 1066?

Oh and by the way the IRA and other factions havn't gone away, some have been bought off( the peace process), some have changed their names and simply started up other groups, and very little of any it has to do with freedom fighting, most of it has to do with extortion, having a perverse enjoyment of causing suffering to others and generally being the big man in a small community - bullying on an extreme scale if you will.

The same can be said of the prods too mind you. They're all pretty pathetic.

[Steve R]

No.

[Sarah Kelly]

I dont think people realise it hasnt gone away, for the people of N.Ireland .. its just changed and so long as the thugs in there many different guises now,stay away from the bomb, they can get on with their many other criminal activities.It stopped being about a "united Ireland" MANY years ago,being more about money,extortion and power... I say there should be compensation,if only that for some families it may provide a closure of sorts..it will never make up for losing a loved one.. Ps..This is a great post max....

[justincyder]

too true my dear too true

[max_tranmere]

Interesting comments there.

I don't think the Provisional IRA exists at all anymore. I know there is cross-border smuggling going on, this has gone on for years, but the Provisional IRA had rules on that. One prominent member of the Real IRA was kicked out of the Provisional IRA in the 1990's for his constant cross-border smuggling. A certain prominent member of the Provisional IRA's Army Council walked out in the mid-1990's, because he was totally opposed to their plans for an indefinate ceasefire, and he formed the Real IRA. This other fellow, thrown out because of the smuggling, joined forces with said person and they formed the Real IRA.

The man who was the leader of the Provisional IRA, from the mid-1990's to the mid-2000's, died last year. If the Provisonal IRA still existed, it would be led by a man who was once described as 'a pig farmer from South Armagh'. He is very very powerful in that area. British Army watchtowers used to overlook his farm, and last year he was busted by the Police in the south of Ireland for tax fraud.

Many things happened which led to the destruction of the Provisional IRA - their bomb in Warrington in 1993 which killed 2 children was the beginning of the end. This caused outrage throughout Ireland and elsewhere and Mary Robinson, the Irish President at the time, attended the funerals of the two children. Massive demonstrations took place in Dublin against the IRA following the killing of the two children and it contributed to their decision to go on a long ceasefire the following year.

It was the Real IRA who carried out the Omagh bombing in 1998 (which killed 29 people), not the Provisional IRA, but the outrage which followed that - it was condemned by everyone in Ireland, the American President Bill Clinton, and the Pope too - confirmed that people were no longer in favour of this kind of militant activity in order to achieve political ends - whoever was doing it. 9/11 put the wind up the IRA's financers and backers (as I said above) because Irish-America now knew what it felt like, and by 2005 prominent Irish-Americans were wondering why the IRA still existed, when their political wing Sinn Fein had quite a lot of political clout.

Ted Kennedy cancelled a meeting with Gerry Adams that year after the IRA carried out the Northern Bank robbery and murdered Robert McCartney in a Belfast bar. Kennedy then said at a press conference that the IRA must be immediately disbanded because "no political party can have an armed unit". The IRA broke up a few weeks later, saying in a statement that "the Army Council has today instructed its active service units to dump all their weapons and to commit themselves to exclusively peaceful means".

The Provisional IRA largely sowed the seeds of its own destruction, but September 11th had a lot to do with it aswell.

[justincyder]

Im not disagreeing with you old chap, but Slab Murphy getting busted has in no way affected the IRA's capability be they Real, Continuity or any of the other 24 current active 'terrorist' gropus in NI. As for main leaders, one of them dying hasn;t had any affect do you not realise there are dozens of wannabe's just waiting to step into the role.

Combine that with the active recruiting of youngsters at the moment by dissdents. The guy who shot the policeman not so long ago was 19 if memory serves me right. What age was he when Good Friday came into effect?? What does he know about ' the stuggle ' nothing apart from what he has been brainwashed with.

The fact that the army has just finished diffusing a 600lb bomb with an active command wire set to catch a police patrol speaks volumes about what is going on here again and what you - the public on the mainland are not being informed about.

You can only sweep so much under the carpet before it starts spilling out and this is what is happening currently.