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

I don't particularly like Sinn Fein and as a northerner myself I don't believe they have particularly helped the cause of unifying Ireland, but I likewise don't agree with the all-out vilification piled on them by a political class in the South who could comfortably preach peace and love once their own subjugation had ended and the headache of the demographics of Ulster (and the inevitably more bitter nature of that society) was somebody else's problem to handle. Easy to sit in Dublin and lambast people who grew up in a State that hated them, ostracised them and effectively allowed Loyalist mobs to engage in pogroms against them. Easy to criticise people who reacted to the situation around them, in good ways or evil ways, when you are not faced with that situation yourself. Easy to say how differently you would have acted as 17 year old working class boy in a militarised environment.

Fíanna Fáil , Fine Gael and Sinn Fein have all bathed in blood in their histories — and neither of FF/FG have disowned the blood on their hands. They have in fact clung to the legacy of those who spilled the blood of others and used terror and brutality to achieve their political aims.

So before people try to explain away the greater popularity of Sinn Fein these days by suggesting it's because young people just don't "get" the Troubles, maybe it's more so the case that young people are reacting to the failure of successive FF and FG governments to address inevitable / persistent issues in this country (and in FF's case, their slowness to take the initiative on social issues). Maybe young people today, like the young Irish people in the generations before them who were willing to accept changed times since the Civil War — and not expecting FF or FG to account for and justify one-by-one every single death they caused and whether such and such was justified — are simply willing to accept that we don't need to pick the bones of the past and forever point fingers over who-done-what back in extreme times.

Gerry Adams blog on the subject from 2014 would give you the answer to that question.

It is a real insight into what they did, and the horrific justifications that they created in their own minds. The defence of vigilante justice is nauseating. However, what is most interesting about the piece is that it has disappeared off Gerry's own blog, and it is copies that others have put up that keep it available to the public.

It is a bit like SF deleting all its press releases supporting Putin.

I'll never understand those who think young people don't know about / understand history. We do. It's the past. The absolute horsesh1t government that is eroding all possibilities for young people (once again) is present and it's enough to turn your stomach, and that is why we vote SF. If they don't make it better, I don't care - it can't get much worse, and I'm sick of the current bunch of unregistered landlords running the country into the ground with absolute impunity.

Like yeah, FFFGG are not physically killing us, but the sheer negligence of this government is indefensible and it is actively eroding the quality of life (never mind the independence) of young people, so it really is a no-brainer - we're never going to vote for them. For me, that's all there is to it.

Would you say the same for off-duty UDR, RUC, Gardai, and Prison service officers on both sides of the border? Because the PIRA targeted and killed all of them, both on duty and off duty.

I had no idea that a war was conducted solely in normal workhours.

Is this one of your stories again?

It's nice though that you don't answer the question when push comes to shove.

Because you know that if you answer truthfully, you will be found out in your web of 'whataboutism'.

Anyway, at the end of the day, the PIRA saw the Gardai and Irish Defence Forces as the enemy as well because they refused to acknowledge this state right up to the end.

What went on in Leitrim? Links, please.

I'm not the one trying to excuse the wanton murder of civilians, Gardai, Irish Defence Forces, women and children by a terrorist group who failed in their primary objective. Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade.

So you can call a spade a spade but not a war a war?

Well it wasn't really a war, it was perhaps an irregular war to be more correct.

The idea I reject calling it a traditional war is because there was no mandate given to the PIRA.

The best description would probably be an asymmetrical war between the British state and a non-state actor.