Quote Originally Posted by jim View Post
I had an english client years back , as we're talking about traveling, i say my usual "So how do you like them french folk"? He replies, they're very nice, The Irish on the other hand, Bastards every stinkin one of them. As he says this he lifts his shirt to show me the scares from an IED / car bomb that killed one of his patrol and injured him, WOW!
The history of the IRA and the Troubles is a bit more complicated than some might think. In 1916 and even decades later, the Irish had a legitimate gripe about being occupied by what they saw as oppressive foreign colonists . . . which the Brits, at that time, were acting like. As the decades passed, British policy evolved and the IRA devolved and split into different factions . . . and anti-IRA vigilantes such as the UDF also split into factions which often targeted random civilian rather than specific IRA targets and would regularly march through Catholic neighborhoods with the intent of provoking violence. It was a major clusterfuck during the 70s and 80s, with the IRA ending up being little more than an organized crime syndicate with a gripe against England. Glad they finally disbanded.