Young voters' view of the Troubles on the island of Ireland.

The sooner Unionists and their sympathisers (like Newton) realise that there is a hierarchy of blame (that they are on) for what happened, the better and the closer real reconciliation will come.

Some people felt they had no alternative to violently imposing the will of a sectarian and bigoted state and some felt they had no alternative to violently resisting it.

A tragedy for everyone. Young and old without blinkers can see that is the reason for a lot of war/conflict since the dawn of time.

They might be willing to ignore Sinn Fein's tendancy towards violence when they vote put them into power in two years time. But they will know all about it 10 years later when they try to vote to remove Sinn Fein from power. No hard-line revolutionary socialist government has ever been removed from power without first turning the guns on their people.

I‘I’ll never vote SF, both because of their economic policies and their history, but then again I’m old enough to have lived at a time when their members were killing people.

For most voters in their 20’s the troubles are a standing item on Reeling In The Years, hence they gravitate towards the SF populist solutions to all of the counties woes with no concern about the past. It just doesn't resonate with them (nor with the ‘new’ Irish). Asking these people to view SF in the context of the Troubles is akin to asking French people to break off relations with Germany due to WW2. As time passes memories of people in the republic will fade further.

I’ve no doubt SF will be in the next government and it will take a Dail term or two for their vote to settle back to its natural level as voters realise they are not the answer to all of our problems, but that remains to be seen.

100%. Best print it out as their first target will be to shut down sites like boards.

Whatever about the Republic but why should a Sinn Fein voter be any more ashamed of bombings than a Labour, Lib Dem or Tory voter who have done a lot more bombing than anyone close to Sinn Fein in the lives of a mid 20yo.

People in their 20's don't watch reeling in the years. Any I know have almost no context of the troubles or the social problems it caused, or how it was highjacked by criminals and thugs. Not quite a romantics rose tinted perspective but getting towards that.

Similarly they have no context of Ireland place in UK history or indeed British empire role in history worldwide. Its bit like what did the Romans do for us. Only far more negative. Also people in the UK, have no awareness of UK history in Ireland. Any that do have a grossly distorted perspective.

As you say it will take people a while to relearn these lessons all over again.

What we've learnt from history is that we are mostly unable to learn from history.

When you drop a bomb at someone or point a loaded gun, you aren't planning to tickle them.

A dead civilian lying underneath rubble after a bombing is the same no matter who dropped/planted the bombs

It hasn't been always recognised. This country claimed the 6 counties up until 1998 agreement.

Yeah, Britain’s war criminals dropping Agent Orange on civilians in Malaya is grand.

Odd that no British political party is ever called out for these crimes nor the British military.

It must have been of great consolation to those who had Agent Orange dropped on them to know that the ROYAL Air Force is a legal organisation. I’d say that really eased the pain. 🙄

Imagine being a supporter of a state that dropped chemical weapons on civilians who were against a foreign occupation. From another continent and also whinging about the IRA.

The stench of hypocrisy. All enabled by the biased media.

They were born in 2000....what nostalgia of the troubles?