[Shasown]

Originally Posted by setanta

But I would argue that they were political prisoners as they were fighting for a cause, rather than mere self interest, you know? They were willing to die for it. That's a bold mission statement that generated so much publicity for the movement when it was actually in disarray for awhile at the time following negotiatings falling through and things like that. And don't forget that the British had been in talks with the IRA prior to this situation.

That was the problem though, yes they were fighting for a cause, however if they had targeted only government installations or troops, they would have had a lot more respect. It was the indiscriminate nature of some of their attacks.

Crippling the centre of Belfast and Derry, again nope its simply attacking the society they live in.

Obviously the tit for tat sectarianism did neither side any good, however the british press did play down a lot of unionist atrocities. That was totally wrong. Very few reports went in depth on things like the Shankill Butchers.

Just like the Catholic Community quickly turned against the troops, reason, they were in support of the civil power, technically an aid to the police. Who were the police? The loyalists, so they were ordered to stop civil rights marches, tear down barricades that were actually needed to defend communities from loyalist attacks. Disarm the catholic communities and ignore the loyalists, for the moment. While it seemed that the loyalists were getting away with murder(well they were literally.)