Why did you not join the IRA?

mazdamiatamx5 · 01-09-2022 12:27am #1

is a question constantly levelled at the former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and others who support a 32 County Irish Republic.

I ask myself the same question, as do most Irish people. I personally hope that if I was in Derry or Belfast at that time, that I would have had the guts and balls to also have joined the IRA.

Given gerrymandering, given the corruption of the NI statelet, given the deliberate impoverishment of nationalist communities, it was, frankly, the only moral choice to take at that time for the working class people of the failed statelet who were trying to protect their communities from extreme loyalist violence, discrimination and mass murder - most if not all of it facilitated by British establishment collusion.

Penfailed · 01-09-2022 12:33am

What a load of unadulterated shíte.

marmurr1916 · 01-09-2022 12:34am

Terrible pension scheme, lousy overtime rates, no real career progression, awful work-life balance.

mazdamiatamx5 · 01-09-2022 12:35am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551812#Comment_119551812

What, in your view, was the correct response to this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankill_Butchers

brokenangel · 01-09-2022 8:11am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

Yes murdering children, women, men, washing diesel, drug dealing, punishment beating, hiding child abuse and child abuser....

Killing more nationist than anyone else, so failing to meet the primary goal

Also at the end of everything you actually end up achieving nothing except ruin thousands and thousands of lives

corner of hells · 01-09-2022 8:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

So what did " Beardy" Adams say anyway?

gifted · 01-09-2022 8:23am

Its that bloody awful accent they have in the North....jesus wept but thats not worth fighting for.....

BattleCorp · 01-09-2022 8:54am

I think if I lived in somewhere like Derry during the troubles there's a fair chance I would have joined it.

But I've a loud mouth when I'm drunk (loose lips and all that) so I'd more than likely be buried in a bog or have chronic knee pain nowadays if I did join back in the day.

Meeoow · 01-09-2022 8:57am

I can neither confirm nor deny whether I would have joined the ra.

brokenangel · 01-09-2022 8:57am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552171#Comment_119552171

I loved the northern accent!! Well some of different ones, especially in the ladies

Penfailed · 01-09-2022 8:58am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551816#Comment_119551816

The Shankill Butchers were abhorrent, as were the IRA. Two cheeks of the same arse. It's possible that the Butchers wouldn't have come about had the 'RA not been so active.

magicbastarder · 01-09-2022 9:01am

I ask myself the same question, as do most Irish people.

ye wha?

SEPT 23 1989 · 01-09-2022 9:04am

I am not the murdering type

corner of hells · 01-09-2022 9:14am

Despite being an electrician and having an interest in electronics. I wouldn't have been a good bomb maker, mainly because of not finishing what I start an.....

mikemac2 · 01-09-2022 9:20am

I prefer not to put neighborhood businesses, small shops and pubs into a protection racket and demand money for “the cause”.

Threatening the very people they claim to represent

At least HMRC are honest about taxing you and taking your money

ohnonotgmail · 01-09-2022 9:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

is a question constantly levelled at the former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and others who support a 32 County Irish Republic.

Who is constantly asking this of a former member of the IRA Army Council?

timmyntc · 01-09-2022 9:30am

Best part about being in the provos is all the business trips around the world, Colombia, Spain, Palestine...

corner of hells · 01-09-2022 9:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552456#Comment_119552456

The lads in Colombia were only bird watching.

markodaly · 01-09-2022 10:05am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551816#Comment_119551816

Well planting bombs in civilian areas (a war crime) and murdering mothers and children indiscriminately wouldn't be my response, but maybe I am different.

timmyntc · 01-09-2022 10:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552634#Comment_119552634

Yes yes, because the IRA only existed to commit war crimes and murder mothers and children. That must be why they enjoyed so much support at the time, and why their political wing "SF/IRA" are now the largest party north and south of the border. 🤣

markodaly · 01-09-2022 10:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552740#Comment_119552740

Maybe history isnt your strong suit but the PIRA and SF had minority support even among Nationalists in the North. They had very little political support and had no mandate to carry out their war crimes.

Fun Fact, they killed more nationalists than the British Security forces.

Fun Fact, they killed more civilians than the British Security forces.

They also failed in their primary objective.

timmyntc · 01-09-2022 11:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552768#Comment_119552768

And yet their political wing SF/IRA are the most popular party in Ireland...

They havent gone away you know

Jim2007 · 01-09-2022 11:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552964#Comment_119552964

But the don't represent the views of the majority, that is why the are not in power.

banie01 · 01-09-2022 11:28am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119551813#Comment_119551813

Wait! I thought the IRA was the pension scheme?

rogerywalters · 01-09-2022 11:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

I dont think most irish people ask themselves the question.

Jim2007 · 01-09-2022 11:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261287/why-did-you-not-join-the-ira

Don't worry about it, they would not let your in, you would not be grounded enough in reality for them. Had you actually been old enough at the time you'd also know that most people did not support them and indeed many in the Republic signed up to make sure these thugs and traitors did not come to power.

01-09-2022 11:32am

Blowing innocent children to pieces wouldn’t be my scene.

Ham_Sandwich · 01-09-2022 11:41am

look, yes some elements of the IRA were involved in protection rackets, smuggling, drug dealing, drug trafficking and taxing drug dealers, selling guns to drug gangs, murdering witnesses, murdering gardai, intimidating witnesses, but it was a small price to pay in the long run, once SF take over in the north and south well have a untied Ireland, with housing, education, health all provided for bins too free bins.

brokenangel · 01-09-2022 11:45am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552740#Comment_119552740

If you check any publication the PIRA didn't have the support of the majority of the people at the time.

It is easy to find.

They managed to kill more of the people they said they wanted to protect. They ran drugs and maybe still do which has had a devastating affect on society in Ireland to this day.

They never achieved anything during the troubles. The Northern is still part of the UK

At the end they are a total failure.

Sinn Fein have seemingly nothing to do with PIRA anymore according to SF supporters? So which is it?

markodaly · 01-09-2022 11:48am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552964#Comment_119552964

Who havent gone away?

corner of hells · 01-09-2022 11:50am

A friend of mine joined the IFA ,dyslexia blights his everyday life and he's not even a farmer.

Why did you not join the IRA?

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