[jet]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

I can see this is a very emotional topic for you and that's understandable. I do know what its like to lose a loved one to war... or not even war but a stupid revolution where people get randomly murdered and I know what its like to live in a country where you dread that knock on the door late at night.

What the IRA did was needless and undoubtedly cruel and Sinn Fein's most certainly got blood on their hands. They have however, moved on to fight for the poor mans rights in a country, or part of a country still ruled by Britain.

Parties like the DUP rely on Sinn Fein's old reputation but remember this, so long as Sinn Fein is popular, you have a party, that in part ties the hands of parties like the DUP... they keep such parties harnessed and surely that has to be a good thing?

It's not a good thing because while Sinn Fein remain popular, the DUP are guaranteed popularity to stop Sinn Fein having majority seats. So the other more moderate parties from both sides are becoming dead in the water. It's now just a Sinn Fein/DUP fight for the most power and neither party is doing N. Ireland any good at all.
For example, one sticking point to getting Stormont up and running again is Sinn Feins insistence on an Irish Language Act where they want the cost of translators in courts etc when everyone can speak perfectly good English in N. Ireland and very few can even speak the Irish Language. In other words, those that can speak it are insisting on it just because...what is the sense in that? and they want every street name put up in Irish as well as the existing English. What a waste of money better spent on essential services. Meanwhile all the parties are collecting their wages and not doing their jobs while funds are being withheld from hospitals and schools while the lot of them bicker and each side is as stubborn as the other.
It's a mess.