Explosion in Belfast

.jacksparrow.

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

How many members do these guys have? A few hundred activists and few thousand supporters or fellow travelers north and south of the border and few more in the States and in Britain?
What chance do they have of achieving their goal of Irish unity through armed struggle?

Relations between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom have never been better.
The overwhelming majority of the Irish people north and south vote for parties committed to peaceful democratic politics.
Young people north and south and in Britain in their teens and twenties now take it for granted that there was always peace.
They see themselves less as nationalists but rather as part of an international community connected by social media.
100 years on the Home Rule Crisis, World War I, 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War are historical events.
The Tricolor or Union Jack are just flags people wave at football matches now.
The teenagers and twentysomethings of the late 1960s and early 1970s who were in the PIRA in the 1970s and 1980s and who took part in the peace process in the 1990s and 2000s are wrinkly pensioners now.
Gerry Adams is starting to look like Rolf Harris or Santa Claus.
Sinn Féin wants to airbrush the past - Can you blame them? - and become a replacement for Fianna Fáil and Labour and they might well succeed at the next election or perhaps the election after that. In the North they have stolen the clothing of the SDLP which is why people have switched to Sinn Féin because they have been a far more effective party since they gave up the gun and the bomb.
Socialist republicanism and the solidarity with revolutionary brothers and sisters in the Third World was old hat long before the Cold War came to an end and is now seen as an embarrassment by republicans who are now part of the political mainstream.

Time has left the dissidents behind.

They are a bunch of Rip Van Winkles who have fallen asleep and woken up in a world they can't recognize and which doesn't recognize them.

They would be a total joke only they still have the capacity and the ambition to kill people.

Who are they targeting? The people of their own city going to the shops or going out for drinks or a bite to eat.

What the f*ck are they thinking or are they thinking at all?????

Good points.

Is it a Copy and paste?

IrishProd

Balaclava1991 wrote: »

Socialist republicanism and the solidarity with revolutionary brothers and sisters in the Third World was old hat long before the Cold War came to an end and is now seen as an embarrassment by republicans who are now part of the political mainstream.

Agree with most of what you said but Sinn Féin continue to adhere to their principles of socialist republicanism and international solidarity. Gerry Adams being the only white, western politician compromising the honour guard for Nelson Mandela's funeral demonstrates that they still hold those principles.

timthumbni

IrishProd wrote: »

Agree with most of what you said but Sinn Féin continue to adhere to their principles of socialist republicanism and international solidarity. Gerry Adams being the only white, western politician compromising the honour guard for Nelson Mandela's funeral demonstrates that they still hold those principles.

Bit off topic but that's the norm I suppose but is Gerry still good mates with uber USA republican (not Irish) Peter king? Or has that fallen by the wayside. That man was to the right of Adolf hitler Ffs.

Tramps Like Us

Sinn Féin do not adhere to the principles of socialist republicanism. Connolly didnt write their last budget submission, to say the least.

timthumbni

Tramps Like Us wrote: »

Sinn Féin do not adhere to the principles of socialist republicanism. Connolly didnt write their last budget submission, to say the least.

Sinn Fein adhere to the principles of their leader. No on else. Think Kim Jong il only a Northern Irish version worth a beard.

Tramps Like Us

timthumbni wrote: »

Sinn Fein adhere to the principles of their leader. No on else. Think Kim Jong il only a Northern Irish version worth a beard.

lol?

You can't be serious with this stuff. Is it possible to have decent discussion on this forum at all?

timthumbni

Tramps Like Us wrote: »

lol?

You can't be serious with this stuff. Is it possible to have decent discussion on this forum at all?

Sorry my third sentence was a bit snappy. I stand by the first 2 though.

Oakboy

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Bit hypocritical to for pira apologists to condemn a bomb set by dissidents. If it was set by republican dissidents that is. And do you know what unionist means?

Dear lord

You said "nationalists" not pira apologists initially, go on scroll back up and check. There is a hell of a difference between the two. Do you know what nationalist means? :rolleyes:

Your sarcastic 'tone' when saying 'nationalists' not 'pira apologists' would mean it would be fair to assume you are of a unionist persuasion. If you are not a nationalist you must therefore be a unionist.

Dr.Tank Adams

Is it just me or do a lot of Unionists (like Timthumbni) seem to enter these threads for the sole purpose of engaging in a bit of Nationalist bashing rather than actually contributing to the discussion topic. Slightly off-putting. If you want to get into an argument over the merits of Nationalism and Unionism and the tactics the two ideologies have used to further their aims, why not start a thread for that purpose rather than spewing it over a multitude of them.

Sand

In fairness, the thread is pretty depressing all round.

Firstly the topic - idiots trying to bomb people out shopping at Christmas. A dumb, dullwitted, cruel form of evil.

Secondly the contributions. Honourable mention to Iwasfrozen for his amusing contribution:
"Anyone know who set the bomb yet so the nationalists can know to condone or condemn it?"

All too true as later contributions demonstrated. Should be easy enough to condemn without reservation bomb attacks on shoppers. Still seems to be fairly difficult for many to do without 10 pages of disclaimers.

Thirdly, whataboutery to get as far off-topic as possible as quickly as possible. Already digging out stuff about UVF attacks in the 1960s, suspicions about the British and Omagh, arguments about terminology and so on. Anything except the topic of the thread itself.

Just another Northern Ireland "discussion".